...…

When they were at the shore of the lake, Shin couldn't help but voiced out. "Tch! This brings back some not so pleasant memories. What a place to choose, Golden Boy~."

"Ugh~! Why did you need to bring back such an unpleasant memory?" groaned Arthur as he also recalled some memories of the past.

And when Shin and Arthur recalled those memories, the two of them couldn't help but feel a sudden chill that ran through their spines.

"Tsk! Know that I think about it, Big Sis' strength is really strong since young," said Arthur while shaking his head.

Shin shrugged his shoulder on the other hand and said. "Well, Grandpa said that her talent is greater than Uncle Nathan. And she is way stronger than him when uncle was her age. So, what do you expect?"

"Heh! Good thing that I now have the talent to catch up on her," sneered Arthur before turning his head at Shin.

Shin raised one of his eyebrows and thought to himself. 'Hmm? This guy really might got something really amazing from that training.'

Then he watched Arthur walk a few meters away from him, before taking his battle stance once again. But this time, instead of using the basic horse stance, he took a variation of the forward stance with slightly squatted hips while having his leg in front.

He was facing Shin sideways while his left arm was raised at almost shoulder level with the fist pointed at the latter. His other fist, on the other hand, was lowered on the right side of his waist in an upside-down position.

'Huh?' Shin had gotten surprised at that sight. It was not because there was something special about the stance that Arthur had taken; in fact, that was just one of the basic fighting stances of old age.

What really surprised him on that sight was this stance was meant for defending and counter-attacking, which was not Arthur's natural style of fighting.

With the first fist facing an opponent, it could act as a shield to keep that opponent at bay while the other fist was like a hidden spear that was waiting for a perfect opportunity to strike.

This was actually a decent stance, but it was not suited for Arthur's style of fighting. Or rather, for his precious battle style, which was to 'always take the initiative to strike and control the rhythm of the battle.

'Looks like, he really matured at battle this time. I guess, I need to deal with a little trouble this time,' thought Shin to himself before taking his battle stance. And just like Arthur, he took a slightly different stance than earlier.

This time, he took a forward stance just like Arthur with his left foot pointing forward and the other pointing slightly to the side. He raised both of his hands at chest level and with a relaxed manner while having left in front of the other.

Both of them were opened and pointing in the sky with slightly inclined positions while also having their backs facing Arthur and palms facing his chest.

Then he took a deep breath, regulating his breathing and entering the 'Deep Meditation' calming technique.

Seeing Shin took his fighting stance, Arthur couldn't help but recall what his master had told him.

...

"Hey, strange uncle! Why do I have to keep on fighting these monster beasts?" asked Arthur as he looked at the man lazily lying on the bamboo bed.

The man opened one of his eyes slightly before replying with a lazy tone. "That is to make you stronger of course."

Arthur became annoyed at that reply and started pestering the lazy man. "D*mn! Of course, I know that! What I want to know is the other meaning. Or to be more exact, I want to know its exact purpose! I am not a smartass unlike my brother. I may be strong at battle, but I admit that I am not good at figuring things out."

"I know that continuously fighting against them can help me improve myself in battle. But I can barely notice the chances in my skills. Sure, there are some slight improvements here and there, but all their rates are too minuscule! I don't think that I can improve much at this rate."

Pak!

Arthur was smacked in the head as the man was not in a sitting position unknowingly. The man looked at the kid in front of him and said. "Brat, listen carefully."

"During training, the trainer and trainee have their own jobs that need to be done for the training to become a success. While the training itself has two different types, the training specialized for beating someone and the training for improving the trainee themselves. So, I asked you. What is your target between the two?"

Arthur suddenly turned silent after hearing the man's words. And even if he didn't give his reply, the man already knew the answer so he continued. "For the latter type, the trainer can give some instructions and training methods but it couldn't exceed that."

"Because if he gives more than that, the purpose of the training is going to be meaningless since it was the trainee's job to explore the rest and find the purpose of those training for himself."

Then he paused for a moment to observe Arthur's face before continuing. "Because if it is an answer that you discover on your own, you won't forget about it for the rest of your life, no matter what it is."

Though Arthur couldn't completely understand what those words really meant, he still got the gist of it. He then fell into a deep thought trying to figure out the purpose of battling those monster beasts.

Seeing him in deep thinking, the man pursed his lips a little before saying. "Since you bluntly admitted that you a so dumb, then let me give you a little piece of a hint. Why do you think that you are always too short at beating your brother in a hand-to-hand battle but always have a feeling that you can beat him with your weapon?"

'Talent?' was the first word that entered Arthur's head but he rejected the idea almost immediately. 'No, that's not it. Grandpa and Professor Plum always said that I have a greater talent than Shin in terms of Martial-Arts even if it is a fist fight or with weapons. So, what exactly is it?'

Having those thoughts running inside his head, Arthur resumed his daily training routine before going back to battling some monster beast at the forest below the mountain.

And while he was battling a single monster boss, his thoughts were a little distracted, which made him less aggressive at dealing with it than what he usually did. He was now quite calm and a little cautious in this battle.

And before he knew it, the monster beast was already lying in the ground; he beat it up without him completely knowing. 'Huh? Done already?'

He was taken by surprise with that sight as he looked at the corpse of the monster beast below his feet. Then a sudden thought entered his mind. 'Ah! Could it be?'

After that, he hunted more monster beasts to battle and beat them one by one. And in those battles, Arthur finally understood what that man meant with his words. "D*mn it! Such a simple thing yet it took me time to realize it!"

Then he stopped hunting those monster beasts for a moment before going up the mountain to talk with the lazy man once again. And as usual, he saw him lying lazily on his bamboo bed. "Hey, strange uncle! I finally know it! I finally know the answer!"

Even though he was ignored by the man, Arthur still continued at talking. "It's my impatience! That is the reason why I will never be able to beat Shin! That guy is always calm and composed during our battles and I am always impatient! And he is always using it against me! Just like how to beat a stronger monster beast easily!"

The man suddenly smirked the moment he heard that and sneered without opening his eyes. "Heh! What are you so excited about? It took you so long just to figure out such a simple flaw. And this is my first time seeing someone too excited after comparing himself with a monster beast."

Cough!

Arthur suddenly choked with some words that he wanted to say the moment he heard that. His face then turned weird as he didn't know what to say.

The man suddenly started chuckling before asking a question. "Heh! Now that we are already it. How about you tell me another reason why you couldn't win against him in hand-to-hand battle? What you have given me is just one of the reasons, there is still another one."

Hearing that, Arthur immediately replied without having any hesitation. "Experience. He has more battle experience than me. And life-and-death experiences on top of that. So, even if I am known for having more martial-art talent than him, I am still unable to win against him since I am lacking with those kind experiences before."

"Even if we also go to some special missions assigned by the military, I still fall too short in these terms compared to him. That is why you asked me to hunt and battle more monster beasts to accumulate more life-and-death experiences so that I can lessen that gap between the two of us even for a little."

The lips of the man couldn't help but curve upwards when he heard Arthur's long, detailed and exact answers. After that, he said to the cheeky kid. "So, why are you still standing there if you already understand the intention of your actions? Stop lazing around, go back at hunting those monsters."

...

Recalling those memories, Arthur couldn't help but form a smile with his lips as he closed his eyes while mumbling to himself. "Even though I can't seem to remember almost everything about that strange uncle, his teachings are still vivid in my mind. Now, let's see if everything that he thought was really effective."

And he reopened his eyes once again, his golden pupils seemed to enlarge in size and almost covered all of the white parts of his eyes. His irises, one the other hand, suddenly turned into vertical slits and made his eyes look like a pair of dragon's eyes.

'Peak Talent: Foresight'

At the same time, he also released his Golden Internal Qi and covered his entire body with it. And it was quite noticeable that his current Internal Qi was much different from before. And there were some bright specks of lights dancing around his body; they also seemed to be swimming along with the Golden Internal Qi that he was releasing.

Seeing those simultaneous changes at Arthur, Shin also released his Silver Internal Qi and enfolded it on his body. And even though his Internal Qi was quite denser than before, it was still obvious that it was a little weaker compared to the current Internal Qi that Arthur had.

Fortunately, the incomplete version of his 'Reinforce Iron Bones' skills were reacting with his Internal Qi and stimulated them to become activated. With that, the runes on both of his arms and legs were now shining brightly and gave him more strength and powers.

And without further ado, Shin quickly took he first strike once again. He kicked the ground below him to push himself forward and appeared in front of Arthur with just a blink of an eye.

But no matter how fast Shin was, Arthur's eyes were still able to keep up with him and moved his left-hand fist to follow Shin's movements while also trying to block the sight of the latter.

When Shin saw Arthur's actions, he quickly understood the intention of the latter. So, he immediately leaned his body a little forward and swiftly used the back of his right hand to redirect Arthur's fist.

At the same time, all of the Internal Qi around Shin's body were suddenly sucked at by his left-hand fist, making it to shine with a blinding silver light. And immediately after that, he quickly threw a powerful punch at Arthur.

Arthur would naturally not let himself get hit by that attack without doing anything. So, he quickly gathered his Internal Qi towards his right-hand fist, turning it into a golden fist that was releasing a very intense glow. Then he swiftly thrust that first forward to greet the incoming fist from Shin.

Boom!

...…