Chapter 8

[[ 484 Damage > Dummy ]]

[[ Gained 10 xp. 310 till next level. ]]

“Mom, Look!” Ene shouted. “Brother has a weird smile.”

“Kazu, is there anything wrong?” Sene forced a smile, looking at him while he laughed at the dummy.

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m just thinking, this training started to become fun.”

They looked at Kazu with question marks above their heads. On the other hand, Kazu’s sly smile turned into a face of satisfaction at his new found discovery.

“Ene, let’s go. Don’t disturb your brother while he’s training.”

“Muu… I want to play too-” Ene answered.

“That’s not playing, that’s training.” Sene interjected.

“Same thing!” With a pout on her face, she dragged along the empty basket behind her while following Sene into the woods.

“Ah, that’s right.” Before going into the woods, Sene turned her head to look at Kazu. “Brett won’t be back for 3 days. Until then, do your best training by yourself.”

“Alright.” Kazu waved as Sene and Ene disappeared into the woods.

“Thousand Winds Style Skill Tree.”

Thousand WindsRising Wind (Active)Class. CLv 1. (2%)Forward Gale (Active)Class. BLv 0.Gale’s Return (Passive)Class. CLv 0.Tenth Slice (Passive)Class. DLv 0.Shockwave (Active)Class. DLv 0.Fool’s Wind (Active)Class. ALv 0.Reach Lv 10 in Fool’s Wind to unlock intermediate set.

There’s only one Class A? He sighed. I guess it’s just the beginner set. A lot of C and D class though... He scratched his head as he came closer to the dummy. There he saw the scar from his attack on the dummy looking like it was closing by itself.

Kazu touched where he hit the dummy and felt a bit of warmth coming from the scar. It was slow, but the warmth was enclosing the scar on the wooden dummy.

“Scan.”

StatusNameMagic DummyTypeNoneHP5000MP10RarityUncommonAttack Rating0-0AttackNoneDescription: A dummy that heals itself. Useful for training.

“That makes sense…”

He turned his head towards the sword Brett gave him. He didn’t know whether the value of the damage was consistent or not if it strikes the same place. So, with the almost indestructible dummy, he would test it, he thought.

Taking a few steps back, Kazu once again readies his sword. He set his eyes on where the scar disappeared and then rhythmed his breathing just like before.

>

Kazu’s body moved automatically following the command. His body, low in altitude dragging the sword with both hands, jumped at the dummy at an amazing velocity. As soon as the dummy was in striking range, his whole body stopped, transferring all the momentum into the sword already on its way upwards to slice at the dummy.

A large amount of wind gusted everywhere with no sense of direction. The dust cloud covered the entire backyard—it was the only place where grass wasn’t prominent.

On the corner of his eyes, he saw the damage indication.

[[ 477 Damage > Dummy ]]

[[ Gained 10 xp. 300 till next level. ]]

The damage was consistent, he concluded. Satisfied with his answer, he brought up the skill tree again. With his eyes, he clicked each one skill to see what they do. All of them used 2 stamina each, except shockwave using 50 mana. However, they were grayed out meaning they couldn’t be activated—Fool’s Wind wasn’t even clickable.

Their descriptions, however, gave a hint to Kazu at how they are unlocked. The first one Forward Gale describes a diagonal slash while standing up straight and “Thrusting the wind forwards.”

Kazu scratched the back of his head in utter confusion at the description, but he tried it anyways. He straightened his back, then positioned his sword in front of him. Again, he rhythmed his breathing before doing anything.

Then, in a sudden burst of strength, he made a diagonal slash—it hit the dummy with an impact that echoed through the trees. However, nothing happened. There wasn’t even a prompt for the amount of damage the dummy received.

Maybe this is a ranged attack… it does say “Thrust the wind forwards”.

Stepping back a couple of meters. Kazu again put his sword in front of him and rhythmed his breathing. He set his eyes on the shoulders of the dummy, then stroked his sword diagonally with all of his strength.

Again, nothing happened—not even a gust of wind. That was all fine, however, Kazu wasn’t someone who would quit after 2 tries with no results. Readying his sword again, he tried over and over without stop.

He gained 10 xp with each hit. After a few hours, he had swung over five hundred times—earning himself a couple of levels. Kazu was now lvl 12.

He thrusted his sword again and felt bit of wind gusting forward. Did he do it? He asked himself. The wind continued gusting forward without any of his movements, so he looked back and saw all of Austere placed on the hill. It was the wind coming down from the hill that Austere sat on. Kazu scratched his head in irritation.

Stupid hill! Stop giving me hope!

He swung the sword up and down on the ground in irritation. Then, he felt a slight sense of wind gusting around him as his body stumbled forward from his imbalance. The feeling of the wind felt like the wind in the end of Rising Wind strike.

What…? He shook his head in disbelief. I was just swinging randomly- wait, let me try something.

Kazu again took the same stance and calmed his breathing. His eyes set again on the shoulder of the wooden dummy. When his sword steadied itself in front of him, he instantly swung in a diagonal motion and his right foot thrusted forward to give it more power.

A burst of visible violent gusts came rushing towards the dummy. It was as if the wind was sweeping through the area like a violent condensed typhoon. The dummy was cut multiple times, absorbing all of the gust’s violent tendencies.

[[ 855 Damage > Dummy ]]

[[ 9 hits, Gained 10 xp ]]

Forward Gale now available.

Forward Gale (active) Lv. 1 (0%)

Description: The body and the sword thrusts the wind into a motion to create a violent gusts with the power of decimating everything in front of the master of this technique.

Maximum of (9) hits. Applies 0.5x damage multiplier.

Tenth Slice (Passive) Unlocked.

Tenth Slice (Passive) Lv. 1 (0%)

Description: Adds (1) more hit to multi-hit skills.

Gale’s Return (Passive) Unlocked.

Gale’s Return (Passive) Lv. 1 (0%)

Description: Adds a suction effect to all wind skills to keep target in place.

Seeing the dialogue of leveling up sure feels good! It’s like the feeling of starting a new game and seeing yourself level up numerous times. Satisfied with his progress, his lips twisted itself into a sly smile.

“Ah… brother is at it again.” Ene sneaks in a comment. Kazu didn’t notice them arrive. Reading over the dialogue boxes gave him too much satisfaction.

“Ah, ha.. hahaha! No, its not like that.” Kazu tried to hide his smile, but unknown to him, it still showed.

“Did something good happen Kazu?” Sene tilted her head after asking.

“Well…” Kazu glanced over at where the dummy was. “It’s that over there.” He pointed at the dummy, looking all worn down with multiple scars.

“Aah, Mr. Dummy.” Sene rushes over to it. “Poor thing… did you really do this much damage to it?”

“...haha, I’ve been recovering my memories and I remembered the style I used to fight in.” Kazu said.

“I see.” Sene tried to lift up the fallen down dummy with no success. Ene tried to help her, yet all they did was look cute trying to lift up the heavy object with futility.

“I’m sorry Mr. Dummy…” Sene sobbed. “I can’t help you stand up.”

“Mr. Dummy!” Ene shouted.

Sene wiped her tears away and then stood up like nothing happened at all. “Don’t hurt yourself too much Kazu. Dinner will be ready soon.” Her sincere caring smile appeared once again as if she forgot about “Mr. Dummy”. She went inside the house while Ene was still looking at the dummy with curious eyes.

Ene looked all over the dummy like she was looking for something. Her curious eyes wandered everywhere along the dummy’s body and her hands moved swiftly trying to find something.

“Ah! I found it hehehe…” Ene said with a mischievous tone.

Her hand was inside the head of the dummy. Then a ripping sound came following it as she pulled her hand back. The green glow on the dummy that recovered the damage disappeared. In the next moment, the dummy fell apart from each limb.

“AHhhh!” Kazu yelled. “Ene noooo!”

Ene still had her innocent, yet mischievous eyes looking at the paper she ripped. Kazu grabbed her away from the paper with the inked on runic inscriptions.

“Muuuuu!” Ene groaned.

Footsteps from behind them came running in. It was Sene with a hand on her mouth.

“Mr. Dummy… is dead…” Her feet collapsed and now she was kneeling on the ground wiping away her imaginary tears. “With that said, could you get another self-restore scroll from the combat training center, Kazu?” She recovered in an instant after getting up and patting herself off of the dirt.

“u-Un…”

“I killed Mr. Dummy hahaha!” Ene, without knowing what shes done, laughed in her usual innocent tone.

“Kazu, I’m sorry about Ene.” She tilted her head again, a signature of her air headed motherly nature habit. “She has a grudge on that dummy. Brett and I don’t really know why…”

“Its fine. I’ll get another.” Kazu forced a smile. It was a small thing. Almost laughable because he didn’t expect it, he thought.

“Then here’s 5 gold coins.” Sene handed him some money. Kazu’s eyes sparkled at the sight of it.

She continued, “They can also teach you skills there, so its actually a good thing. But come back soon, Dinner will be ready in an hour.”

“Un. I’ll be back soon.” Kazu patted Ene’s head.

***

Before he left to the combat center, Sene gave Kazu a piece of paper to point him the direction of the combat center. It was a map drawn like a child made it. Even Kazu’s drawings were better, he thought.

Kazu scanned the map and it now appears to him in a dialogue box just at the top corner of his eyes.

In the middle of the map, what appears to be Brett and Mizz talking with the subtitle saying “Adventurer’s guild.” Mizz’s image was distorted and she was breathing out fire. She had a tail, although Kazu didn’t know what that symbolized. While Brett’s on the other hand was drawn quite well—although exaggerated amounts of armour could only mean knight in shining armour.

Two buildings north of the adventurer’s guild, a building with a lion stick figure sat. The lion figure was on a leash tied to a nearby pole. The subtitle described “Combat Center.”

There were other unnecessary parts on the map like a winged girl 4 buildings east of the adventurer’s guild. The building was described as a Tavern by the amount of beer cups centering around the building.

Ene and Sene was just outside of the South Gate drawn as a queen and princess with crown and wings behind their backs.

Kazu facepalmed at the sight of this childish map.

Soon enough, he arrived 2 buildings north of the adventurer’s guild. There were numerous dummies on the field meaning and a sign above the entrance of the space.

Kazu scanned it and it detailed, “Austere Guard Department”

He wondered if this was the right one, but the map definitely pointed him towards this direction. Kazu decided to walk back for now since Sene’s house isn’t that far so he could ask. But as he was about to walk away, he was stopped by a man with armour that gave off an image of a lion.

“Oh? If it isn’t Kazu Tomoe.” The man walked up to him, catching Kazu before he could walk away. “What brings you here?”

Kazu looked at the man, checking out his armour. The man felt familiar—

“Don’t you remember me in the prison?” The man said.

“Oh, you’re Philip Ne...mean?” Kazu muttered with no confidence.

“That’s right.” His bright eyes didn’t waver any sign of moving away from Kazu’s eye contact. “So, what brings you here?”

“Ah.” Kazu opened his inventory and took the ripped restore-scroll. “I’m here to replace this.”

“Hoo, is that your magic?” To Philip, it looked like Kazu took something out from thin air. He had no idea of Kazu’s abilities. It made him want to train Kazu under his guidance, but Sage’s orders were absolute. Philip shook his head, and then said, “Alright. That’ll be 5 gold. Go to that storage over there and find it yourself. It should be labeled. Oh and make sure to not open the big red box.”

Philip looked in Kazu’s eyes with firm resolution implying that he was serious about that last line.

“Y-yeah… ok.” Kazu started heading to the direction Philip pointed him at.

A guard comes up to Philip and says, “Sir, maybe he wouldn’t have noticed the red box if you didn’t pointed it out.”

“Tch, stop being such a smart ass. That was my plan.” Philip rebuted.

“Sir, you mean you wanted him to open it?”

“Stop asking the obvious. Go back and hit those dummies a thousand more times.”

“Sir… but that book in that red box, I heard its impossible to learn”

“Ha, let’s just hope he learns it then.”

***

Dust floated in the air and the red light dawning light from the sun passed through the small windows and crevices of the storage house. Kazu was in the middle aisle of the storage house. He dusted off the labels and scanned them one by one to look for the scrolls he needed.

The first thing that caught his attention was the “Combat Style Books.” He opened the cupboard with the label and saw three different coloured books. He picked up the first book, it was red. There were no sign of damage on the book or any book rot at all considering the amount of dust in the room.

The moment he put it up to his face, a dialogue comes up.

Hell’s Demon Sect Manual

Information Storage available for later use (Uses one inventory slot): Y/N?

With his eyes, he clicked yes, then a ding sounded in his head. Upon opening his inventory, an icon that looks exactly like the book appeared. He tried to take it out, but it only prompted him a dialogue.

Absorb information now: Y/N?

His eyes widen, Don’t tell me, I don’t have to read it to learn the information? Once again, he clicked yes and hundreds of images flashed across his retina. Another dialogue box prompted him saying “Hell’s Demon Sect Manual Learned.”

However, with the knowledge he gained, it also warned him of something. Since he started with the wind attribute, his affinity with Earth became lower meaning it will be hard to learn Earth based skills. If he does learn it, his attacks will be weaker than the regular power.

Huh… I don’t it really matters. Kazu shrugged off the warning without a care. He doesn’t have to learn it if its going to be useless anyways, he thought.

On the cupboard again, he picked up the blue book. The dialogue prompted him of the name of the book, “Infinite Rings Sect Manual.”

He saved it in his inventory. Then, picking up the brown book, “Core’s Grasp Sect Manual”, saving that too in his inventory.

He put back the books in the cupboard with care to not tear or leave any clues about his snooping around.

That was when he remembered what Philip said. He needed to find the big red box. In the first place, if Philip didn’t mention it, he wouldn’t have gotten curious. It’s his fault for telling me, Kazu thought.

He turned his head around deeper into the storage room. And as if the dawning light from the sun was guiding him, it displayed the big red box in full view. Kazu’s lips twisted into a sly smile and his eyes also turned into a mischievous gaze.

His steps creeped towards the big red box shining like a holy grail. The lid creaked as Kazu lifted up the lid of the red box. There, he saw a thin dusty gray book.

Wanderer

That was the name of the book. It had no indication or whatever of what it meant. Kazu picked it up like the other books and it prompted him a different dialogue.

One of three paths of Thousand Winds Style: Wanderer. Choose path to Wanderer: Y/N?

Warning: Cannot be reverted.

Kazu had a dilemma. He didn’t know what it was about nor did he know what it will do to his skill. However, he did know one thing—he couldn’t store this book. It meant one thing: this book was beyond precious.

With that said, Kazu chose yes.

Wanderer’s Thousand Winds, path chose.

Wanderer’s Wind now available.

Wanderer’s Wind (Passive) Lv. 1 (0%)

Description: Giant Sword affinity. Increases strength of gusts, gales, or wind when using a Giant Sword. Normal attacks with Giant sword creates violent gusts that deal 0.6x of weapon damage in 3 meter aoe cone.

15% Increase in base damage.

15% Increase Phys. R

Kazu’s stare turned into contempt. Giant swords? Where would he get that, he thought. He complained about how those weren’t useable at all. They weren’t practical in fights at all. It didn’t give enough mobility and it was just heavy.

However, he was still satisfied that he got the other 3 styles. So now he looked for the self-restore scroll. It was in the front of the storage house which was on the opposite end of the big red box. His eyes widen as he closed the lid of the red box.

—The book was gone. It was nowhere to be seen inside the box. The empty blackness of the box made Kazu’s heart skip a beat. The red box had intricate golden gildings designed in ancient nordic like patterns. It meant the book was extremely valueable.

Kazu didn’t notice it but the book disintegrated into dust after he used it. Under where he read the book, a pile of dust could be seen and a piece of the cover page still remained.

Consumable book… What the hell?!

He swept the dust under the box so no one could see it. He sneaked back his steps to the front of the storage to pick up the self restore scroll and left right away after getting it.

“Got what you were looking for?” Philip came in from behind causing a jitter in Kazu’s steps.

“Y-y-yes. I did.” He put his hands on his mouth to stop it from stuttering. If Philip finds out that the book in the red box is gone, he might kill him, Kazu thought. However, Kazu’s worries were dispelled in an instant as Philip winked at him.

Don’t tell me, he planned this...? But does he know the book is gone?

“Alright, good night Kazu Tomoe. May we meet again.”

Kazu left before Philip could find out about the book. Behind Philip, the guard from before walked up to him and said, “Sir… the book is in the red box is gone.”

“Sorry my junior, I couldn’t quite hear what you said.” Philip turned his head towards his subordinate in a slow motion as if he couldn’t believe him.

“The book in the red box is gone.”

“WHAT?!” Philip ran towards the the storage room, immediately opening the red box’s lid. It was empty. There was no sign of the book at all.

Philip closed his eyes turning his head down in disappointment and contemplated whether Kazu took it with him with his weird magic. Upon opening his eyes, he saw a trail of dust leading into box’s bottom.

He lifted up the box and saw a pile of dust with the a piece of paper. The paper was from the book, it was a piece of the cover.

In this case, it was much worse. The book was destroyed, but he didn’t know why. Why was the book destroyed?

“Sir, what exactly was that book?”

“That book was one of the legendary styles in the ancient era of Austere…” Philip sighed. “I’ll take the blame for this, Sage did warn me not to help him.”

“The sage did?!” The subordinate stepped back a few steps. “Don’t you know the rumors sir? Everything she says will come true… She even threatened us by telling us how we’re gonna die!”

“What?” Philip looked on to his subordinate with unbelieving eyes. “You actually believe her?”

“Of course we do! She can tell what we ate a few months ago. Its really scary.”

“Don’t lump me in with your nonsense. We all know fortune telling is a hoax.”

***

Kazu ran back to the house and was greeted with a sweet aroma of cooked food. He opened the door to see Ene already setting up the table for 3.

“I’m home.”

“Welcome back.” Sene responded.

After setting up the table, Ene ran down towards Kazu. “Brother, welcome back.”

Kazu patted her on the head and said, “I’m back Ene.”

Ene ran towards the gem bathing in moonlight.

“Dinner will be ready soon. How was the trip to the combat center?” Sene asked.

“It was an interesting experience…”

“My.” Sene turned towards Kazu, tilting her head. “Did something happen?”

“No, I just a met a friendly lion.” Kazu joked.

“That’s good to hear. So Mr. Lion is still fine…” Sene looked down to the side. “Tch.”

“Huh?” Kazu eyes widen.

“No, its nothing.” Sene’s eyes were on fire while gazing past Kazu. “Just a story of my youth. Come, dinner’s ready.” She held up the pot with oven mitts and places it in the middle of the table where the cork sat.

Ene and Kazu gathered around the table, each one sitting in their own designated family seat.

“Mr. Lion used to adventure with us. It was Me, Brett, Raym, Krey, Mr. Lion, and Mizz.” Sene started the conversation during dinner. “I was always worried about Brett being the front line. So Mr. Lion kept teasing me behind Brett.” Her voice turned rough like anger seeped into her tone. She also squeezed her as soon as Mr. Lion was mentioned by her.

Kazu responded with a dumbfounded expression. So Sene also has a side like this…

“Kazu, *sob* are you not interested in my stories” Somehow, Kazu imagined tears running down her cheeks as she looked at him with eyes filled with sadness.

“No no no, not at all.” Kazu shook his head. “Please, continue.”

“Ah, I’m glad it doesn’t bother you.” She wiped away her imaginary tears. “Brett back then was really dense you know.”

Before continuing on, Sene sighed and looked at Ene focused on eating. “One day, he slipped up and was wounded in a fight. After healing him, I couldn’t help but confess right there. We were all B★ back then and he wanted to climb higher, but I told him I wanted to settle down.” Sene blushed a pink red.

“Muuu, Moom! You’re embarrassing…” Ene covered her eyes, peeking through her fingers looking at her mom.

“One day, you’re going to like someone too.” Sene said while pinching Ene’s cheek. “The group disbanded after that. Everyone went different ways I guess, but we’re all still here. Krey stayed an adventurer, the 2 girls found a job and Mr. Lion went back to his family.”

“Did Phil-”

“Call him Mr. Lion.” Sene interrupted.

“Ok… Did Mr. Lion continue advancing his rank?” Kazu asked.

“I don’t know. It seems probably since he’s from a royal family.”

“Heeh.”

At this point, everyone had their plates finished.

Suddenly, splashes of water from the bowl bathing in moonlight could be heard. Everyone halted their dinner and ran up to the bowl. The gem was wiggling around like an egg hatching from its shell.

After a few minutes of watching the gem jump around the bowl of water, the first crack appeared. With each movement, the crack became bigger and bigger. Then for a moment, it stopped with the cracks covering the whole gem.

In a brief instant after a minute, the gem shatters and a large vortex of water spun around the room, soaking the near side of the sofa and the surroundings.

Kazu looked at Sene. She smiled in return as if to tell him she didn’t mind.

The vortex spun in a violent manner just like the time Kazu met the water goddess of the pond. Then, the vortex stopped in a splash revealing what was inside it. A girl made of water and the height of Ene appeared. She was transparent, and the moonlight refracted behind her as she floated down the table onto the wooden floor of Sene’s home.

A bright vivid sparkling ruby gem was inside her where the heart should be. Kazu scanned her in the spur of the moment.

StatusNameWater Spirit BabyTypeWaterHP1500MP3500Attack Rating???AttackWater SpellsDescription: A baby water spirit. How cute!

#############

Thanks for reading.

If you think the wording or the way things are described could become better, please tell me. Criticism is important!

Also, summer semester started for me. T_T Kuhuhu