I am already 6 years old.

I started practicing real dagger techniques.

Basically, the primary training is to swing the knife in a backhand or forehand motion.

Examples include practicing the form and striking the wooden dummies in the courtyard or having Eriel as the opponent while learning footwork and shifting my body weight properly.

It is a pleasant feeling to start from the basics.

In this world, dagger techniques are highly viewed within the circles of Assassin guilds..

Though not as much as popular as the heroes wielding swords found mostly in books, there are various famous people who used knives as their main weapon.

An example of this is the current king of Grand Duchy of Mnenoa.

If you become an expert, you can pierce even the strongest armor with a thrust of the knife and even cutting the enemy's throat in a flash step.

In fact, Eriel can smash boulder rocks with just a kitchen knife.

I continued to praise her constantly to try and understand how the logic works, letting her demonstrate repeatedly. Eriel looked delighted when her young male disciple is happily applauding and praising her.

Except no matter the times I saw it, I couldn't understand the logic behind it.

The way she used her katars are different from what I learned in handling knives in combat back on Earth.

It's like she's a female version of a musclehead.

Not to mention that the way she swings her katars are comparable to swinging a broadsword.

Based on my conjecture, her techniques contain Mana.

Something that I'm unable to do and replicate at the moment even with 70% proficiency in Dynamokinesis.

With that in mind, I used my Psychic Energy to fill the roles that Mana should be playing.

--

In this World, there are 2 basic styles of dagger techniques.

The first one is the Single Edge Stance.

The dagger stance that ignores enemy's defense and put emphasis on evasion.

A style that focuses on hitting the target with 3 swift strikes in a matter of seconds.

It is the style that relies more in offense.

The other one is the Double Cut Stance.

This style is more about the balanced relationship between offense and defense.

Though not as powerful as the Single Edge Stance, this style of knife handling is more popular among the Assassin-class.

There are other dagger stances but one must first master the basics before advancing to the Veteran and Expert Level Stances.

Also within each stances are skill sets that are only accessible by specializing on a certain Styles.

There are also Styles/Stances that are rare or only exclusive to some people. This can be achieved by combining different stances from 2 different Disciplines thus creating a Hybrid Stance.

Eriel is one of this people.

Her style, Dagger Elemental, is a unique stance that both comprises of several Dagger Stances from the Discipline of War and several Elementalist and Thaumaturgy Stances from the Discipline of Magic.

Basically she can be labeled as a Magic Assassin.

Also the Stances that both make up her unique style contains almost Expert Level Stances.

That information alone send some shiver to my spine.

After some lessons, Eriel started teaching me on both dagger techniques.

"But why I have to learn also the Single Edge Stance?"

I asked since focusing on the Double Cut Stance is more preferable and logical to train.

"It's because the skills are only limited to the stance that you are using."

"So..."

"So if you only master the Double Cut Stance and in a fight you lose one of your knives, pretty much you'll be dead meat."

Ah, I see.

She has a point there.

It's like backing up your weak point in case of emergency.

Well, it's better to be prepared than be sorry.

"But what if you lose your only knife in a battle?"

"Then you're incompetent."

"What if you forgot to bring one?"

"Then you're careless. Enough yapping and let's start. Attack me."

"Yes."

We started clashing with our wooden knives at hand.

As I immersed myself in Assassin training, I couldn't help but think a certain question.

Can I use a gun and rifle instead?

--

As I began familiarizing myself with the dagger techniques, my magic lessons progressed like I expected it to be.

Even if I still can't manipulate Mana, I can still cast some Magic spells using my large amount of Magical Energy.

Like the dagger techniques, there are also different stances within the Discipline of Magic.

However, learning the two Magic stances aren't worth for me.

This is because these stances are made with the foundation of Mana embedded to it.

So basically I can't use this World's magic.

Such a letdown.

Instead of sulking in the corner and blaming my inability to manipulate Mana (at the moment), I went to my storage of information within my head.

Accessing the vast number of archives, I picked several valuables that contains Magic related stuff from literary works, video games and other research materials.

If I can't learn this World's mystical arts, then my only option is to learn the fictional mystical arts of Earth.

Which is good for me by the way.

So I started with the basics like Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth magic. In order to do that, I have to create stances for this styles.

Fortunately since there was a Korean online game in the 21st century that have the same mechanics with this world, it was easy for me to create the preferred stances for my own magic using them as preferences.

It also includes several skills exclusively for that magic stances.

I admit its quite taxing and tiresome, but at the same time its fun.

As for my Psionic training, I am now almost an Expert.

Like magic, I also created several Stances for my Psionic Abilities.

My current Stance on Psionic is the Phoenix Force Stance, a stance I solely created for Psychokinesis and inspired from X-Men's Jean Grey.

By doing this I became the creator of a new discipline; the Discipline of Mind.

I remembered Eriel's reaction when I showed my progress to her.

"Won't you slow down a little bit?"

"Can't do. I need to get stronger so I can surpass you."

I got a knuckle on the head for saying such thing though the latter part was only a joke.

But that smack on my skull showed Eriel's emotions towards my monstrous progress.

Joy, pride, envy, concern, and sadness.

I understand her. She wants me to take things slowly and step by step.

As I continue my learning, I created several draft of stances in my mindscape.

Literally, I would assign Ghost Eye for this task but the A.I. is still busy researching and developing nanomachines that could help me attune my soul with Mana.

Most of the draft are Hybrid Stances.

An example of this is a combination of martial art techniques with mystical techniques inspired from the 21st Century animation Avatar.

The Martial Arts Stance is something I created.

I recently learned that there are no people who focused on fighting with fists and kicks alone in this World.

When I asked Eriel about this, her only response was,

"Don't be silly. I never heard such profession."

Oh, well. At least I became the creator of a new stance.

But first I need to master my own magic stance in a considerate levels.

Once that is done, I would be able to train in a Stance (that I created) that fused Psychic and Magic together with the Dagger Stances.

A Psionic Mage Assassin.

With backing of technological devices, of course.

Yes, that's a nice profession.