“But then, who WOULD be my master?”

Jebsa looked at Alvin with amusement, excited by the enthusiasm and curiosity displayed.

“Most likely the Hall Master that corresponds to the Path you choose, with some help from me in regards to how to use aspects of your Affinity's alignment in your techniques,” Jebsa replied lazily. He noticed Alvin perked up significantly, and added “I won’t be teaching you often, maybe once every other week, maybe once a month. I’ve got responsibilities of my own, and if you aren’t my disciple, I’m not going to be teaching you constantly.”

Alvin deflated, but picked himself up after thinking about what Jebsa said.

“So I will still get some instruction from you, as well as from my master, who will likely be a Hall Master? That’s great, with powerful and experienced people training me, I’ll have higher chances of winning the retainer tournament! Thank you!” Alvin smiled earnestly, the exaggerated movement the slight physical crookedness more pronounced. Jebsa smiled slightly in return, and shook his head, before his eyebrows shot up and he pursed his lips.

“I almost forgot. I’m supposed to help you advance after you choose a technique, both of which will take a while, so we best get going,” Jebsa explained, as he moved around the table. When he reached Alvin, Jebsa stretched out his arm, but stopped just short of placing his hand on Alvin’s shoulder. “Oh, and the time restriction means you won’t be able to ask too many more questions. The elders would very much prefer you back at training tomorrow, bright and early, so only ask questions vital to the task at hand, yes?”

And without waiting for confirmation, or any other type of response from Alvin, Jebsa moved them both to the vault which contained the Sect’s Paths for those with a high tier ocean Affinity. The vault was grand, but plainly so, like a masterwork of a blade, practical and deadly, unsheathed and held aloft. The roof was 5 meters above the floor, both constructed of polished wood engraved with a simple wave pattern, that neither glowed nor moved. The walls were nearly 10 meters apart, smooth gray stone broken up by 4 sections of solid mahogany shelves, one at each cardinal direction. The shelves had a pane of glass protecting the contents, subtly glowing in the telltale signs of enchantment, and behind the glass stood many books. The books ranged in color from the clear turquoise of the Caribbean, to the near black of the darkest trenches. The books had small groupings, denoted by panels in the glass, and the designs that crawled across the spines of the books in a group. Underneath the glass, small plaques were affixed to the shelving, naming each Path and which Hall it fell under.

Alvin was stunned, the rapid transition was a bit disorienting, but the simple majesty of the vault was breathtaking. It didn’t hurt that he was a sucker for well made wooden furniture, and partial to mahogany in particular, but the vault wasn’t gaudy like some of the important Sect buildings were.

Jebsa was, naturally, unimpressed with the vault, but took pride in Alvin’s awestruck reaction to it. Very few people had ever set foot in this vault, and that response was always worth the long periods of time that it sat unused, nearly forgotten

“Each section of shelving contains techniques that work with the teachings of each Hall, and there are Paths for every combination of centers of power. Choose wisely, and once you have made your choice, I will give you a copy on the manual.” Jebsa’s voice filled the room, but broke and dissipated against the walls like waves against the shore, despite the vault being almost perfect for a small echo. Alvin figured that the room was probably stuffed to the brim with enchantments, but most were likely hidden, given that he couldn't see any of the luminescent patterns anywhere other than the glass on the shelves.

Alvin looked at the four sections of shelves as he thought back to when the Hall Masters gave the basic overview of their respective Hall to the recruits. As interesting as some of the crafting Paths seemed, and as awesome as blacksmiths always sounded in stories, nothing else about the Auxiliary Hall drew his attention, and Alvin did not have the patience to seriously pursue smithing.

The Hall of War felt like the basic, everyman option, like the hometown university that half of his high school went to. It would be a solid fallback, but while Alvin had no qualms about fighting back, he didn’t feel comfortable following a Path that would doubtless necessitate him becoming the aggressor. So, the Hall of War is a viable option, but one that he would prefer remain secondary.

The Hall of Guides intrigued Alvin. It sounded like the stereotypical RPG rogue playstyles would gather, and it sounded like many of the Paths became more specialized versions, such as rangers, assassins, or thieves. All of them seemed to have a reliance on some form of stealth, and high requirements for fine motor control, which is not Alvin’s forte.

That left the Hall of Guardians. The Paths under this umbrella largely focused on protection, but varied wildly in their means. All of the Halls had overlap, but it seemed that many of the Paths in the Hall of Guardians could have been in other Halls as well. Except for some of the specialty Paths, ones completely dedicated to guarding, like the numerous variations of bodyguard. Holy hell, Alvin felt he could have built a house with all of the bodyguard variations, from the basic, plain one to overly specific and bizarre ones. Who needs a bodyguard specifically for taking a bath? Couldn’t normal bodyguards handle that?

As Alvin roamed back and forth between the shelves, Jebsa seemed to pick up on his indecision and offered some advice.

“Pick a Path that suits your personality.”

Alvin nearly rolled his eyes at the obvious advice, but stopped himself between respect/fear of the World Serpent and the realization that it was genuine advice. So he stopped, and considered himself, and the various Paths. Auxiliary was too reliant on other people, and his ability to interact with them, and he lacked the creativity and cunning needed for the Hall of Guides. Alvin’s cleverness was more mechanical, direct, but he disliked being the one to start a fight, verbal or otherwise, because it clashed with his personal sense of honor and morality. Which left him with the Hall of Guardians. Alvin considered himself a protective person, and serving as a protector fit well with his personal morals.

Having made part of the choice, Alvin made his way over to the section of Guardian Paths. Jebsa quirked an eyebrow, then shook his head and sighed. Alvin ignored the World Serpent, it wasn’t the beast’s Path to choose, it was his.

Alvin browsed through the Paths, and was surprised to see that most of them strengthened all 3 centers of power, and that there were none that focused on just one. He thought about it, and concluded that a guardian with weak defenses is a poor one indeed. Still, he vaguely remembered that Elder Song said something about how it got more difficult to progress the more centers of power one trained. After he considered it for a few minutes, Alvin turned to ask Jebsa.

“Elder Song told us that training more centers of power takes longer, and that most people can’t get passed the first couple realms, but most of these Paths strengthen all 3. Wouldn’t I advance too slowly if I took any of these Paths?”

“That’s why the Sect Founder put a tier minimum of 8 in the requirements for access to these Paths. Your Affinity is just strong enough to almost completely offset the disadvantages of the more intensive Paths. Someone with a tier 10 Affinity would even Cultivate faster than normal people would with a Path that only trained 1 center of power.” Jebsa’s lazy reply reassured Alvin, who resolutely resumed his browsing, occasionally stopping to take another look at a Path. Each Path had a label with its name, which created a pop-up in the System with information about the Path when focused on.

After thoroughly looking through the various Paths available to him, Alvin narrowed it down to 2 that really caught his eye. Both were bodyguard Paths, but with different methodology. The first was called the Eye of the Storm, which was a very straightforward technique created especially for chaotic situations like a battlefield, in which the user creates a ring of clear space around a target point or person. The other Path was that of the Flowing Wave, which focused on protection by redirecting the enemies strikes with minimal effort, then fluidly countering.

Path

Principle

Focus

Description

Requirements

The Eye of the Storm

Hard

Area control

A bodyguard Path that focuses on clearing an area with overwhelming power, meeting incoming strikes head on and blowing them away. Like a hurricane, the safest area is surrounded by the deadliest.

Tempering realm, physical stats E, mental E-

The Flowing Wave

Soft to hard to soft

Counter attacks

A bodyguard Path that focuses on redirecting incoming attacks with the attacks own power, and borrowing from this power to launch powerful counters. Like the waves, become impossible to damage and strike back with the force of a tsunami

Tempering realm, Dexterity and Wisdom E, other stats E-

Alvin did not know much, really anything, about martial arts, but the Eye of the Storm had higher physical requirements, and sounded like a very energy intensive Path. Flowing Wave, on the other hand, sounded like it was very energy efficient, but much more technical and precise. Both sounded powerful, but he was leaning towards the Flowing Wave, primarily because the idea of borrowing the opponent's strength intrigued him, but also because it was much more viable in single combat. Alvin mulled it over, but made his decision, and turned to ask the World Serpent for the Path.

“I would like to practice the Path of the Flowing Wave, please,” Alvin asked resolutely. Jebsa looked up from where he was sitting on the floor, nodded, and stretched out his hand. Space seemed to bend around his arm, and he reached across the room from the floor. Alvin blinked, and suddenly Jebsa was standing beside him with a dark blue leather bound book. The book was handed to him, but before he could thank Jebsa, the World Serpent laid a hand on his shoulder and their surroundings warped, becoming the bathroom in Alvin’s apartment.

“Now that you have your Path, I’ll help you advance. Fair warning, it is horribly messy and foul. Oh, and it will probably hurt like hell, but anyways, here we go!” And before Alvin could protest, he was swamped in a cloud of Jebsa’s Qi, so thick and potent that even his barely developed Qi Sense could feel it. The Qi swirled around him like a whirlpool, before it zeroed in on a spot on his sternum, and dove it.

Jebsa had underestimated the pain. Alvin felt like he was trapped in the hands of a giant, one that was intent on slowly ripping him in half. Before the pain overloaded his mind and darkness settled in, he heard Jebsa say something.

“Ah, oops.”