‘Oops.’

“HAA!”

“Ah! My arm!”

Was this how it felt to be one of those fake tenth dan aikido grandmasters?

All I was doing was tossing them around by grabbing their arms! When was it so easy to mess around with unresisting opponents!

‘Does no one in this world know how to fight?’

For something that was supposed to grow boring after a couple instances, it was actually edging me on harder. It was no different from flinging pillows around—both activities gave no resistance, but I found joy in it for some reason.

I could literally force someone to kneel with a crappy one-handed armbar just from bending their hand behind their back. It didn’t make any sense! Was I in an action choreographed film? Wait—am I one of those fake “traditional” martial artists who get beat up by boxers?

Nah, that can’t be.

I have the power of Chi on my side after all! Screw magic! I’ll Hadouken everyone’s ass!

“HAAHAA!”

“AHH! My hip!”

‘...I literally just swept my feet behind and tripped you…’

So everyone was basically a klutz when it came to balancing on their damn legs. If hooking my legs at the back of the knee joint was all it took to trip them, I don’t know what to say.

Anyway, onto more practical matters: I had to run up the stairs quickly. Being able to toss people around was exactly what it sounded like. It was just controlling the momentum and weight of passing objects. If I took the time to submit all of them with chokeholds, I’d just waste time and energy. Given sufficient rest, they would all get back up anyway.

I haven’t done much grappling or any hand-fighting for a long time so it was fun while it lasted. I also didn’t have a sparring partner for close-quarter combat.

One can only imagine how long they can last holding it in for a whole month. It was the same for me, except it wasn’t No Nut November, but Assault-Abstinence April.

I wanted had to beat someone up, and I should have realized sooner that this exam was the perfect place for me to do just that. I’ll dust up some old moves while I was at it.

‘Should I keep going?’

I eventually reached a floor with two openings on the walls. Both passages were skyways that connected to the other towers.

Surprisingly, the number of students on guard dimmed the further I climbed. It did make sense since there were four towers to manage so having most of them stand guard at the entrance floors was a feasible tactic. Though, I would be concerned seeing how easily I broke past them.

‘I guess I’ll keep going up.’

The couple floors after were structured the same as every other floor. Emptied and paved stone walls with pillars beside each of the four corners. The interiors were tidy with barely any hints of dirt; needless to say, vermin did not hang around.

No one was here.

Eventually, I reached the highest floor where there were no longer any stairs to climb. The ceiling over my head was also the only thing in between the sky and me. That said, it wasn’t entirely impossible to climb out the window and hide on the rooftop.

The question is whether or not I had the balls to try and whether or not Melissa would be that desperate to not be caught. From my assessment of those earlier students, I’m pretty sure she should be able to take two or three of them down. But then again, swordsmanship and barehanded combat were very different systems. I would expect people who were proficient with weapons to also know how to fight without them.

The fight dynamics were a bit different, but the core concepts in sword fighting were apparent in most martial art styles. And it made sense if you thought about it. Swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat were under the same category that was Fighting. It only made sense that certain qualities transferred over. It was the same for me.

I could see some of my footwork I’ve honed over the decades being applied in sword fighting even though I hardly mess with swords.

All in all, it was very strange that everyone in this world could fight with swords but not fight bare-handed.

*BOOM

‘Grenade?—No, artillery?’

I immediately rushed to the window and saw smoke escaping from the window of another tower. It was also from the top floor and it just so happened that I could have been there in time had I chosen to run on one of the sky bridges.

*BOOM

‘Again?’

Another breath of smoke puffed out the window to taunt me, the protagonist, for not being at the center of the plot.

And you know what happened next.

I jumped straight down the stairs without regard for the stairs themselves.

Eventually, after walking across the bridge and climbing the tower again, I came across some more students. It was basically the same layout as before with the only difference being that I wasn’t ramming into them like a bull… Wait no, if it worked before, then why shouldn’t I charge at them like a bull? What are they gonna do? Stop me?

“HAAHAA!”

“Woah!”

The four students were startled for a brief moment until I took one of them down by smashing her face on my knee. Maybe it was my brutality that helped them realize they were supposed to fight back. It’s been a while since I’ve utilized the Art of Eight Limbs without restraint.

I jabbed one straight in the chin, knocking him out effortlessly before recycling the momentum to shove a spinning back kick at another person’s liver area… Hopefully my aim wasn’t off, but seeing that the person was in pain, I assumed I struck the right spot.

“Zap!”

I didn’t know what was going on, but my body instinctively crouched, priming me up for some wrestling.

But before I could shoot for a takedown, a glimpse of white flashed before me as a sharp pain pricked one of my shoulders.

I flinched in response, but it didn’t matter because moments later, my entire right arm started burning up.

But instead of being frozen like I usually was, I could hear my heart beating inside my very ears as I got hooked on the drug that was adrenaline. The mana that circuited my body subconsciously continued its natural respiration while growing more intense as I became aware of its every movement coursing through my veins. The mana pumped across my body until reaching my damaged shoulder, all of a sudden disappearing. Like a lake with one too many rivers draining it, the mana in my body was drying up as it was all consumed by my arm.

But the mana wasn’t leaking in any way like a popped balloon. Rather, it was all congregating in that area. It was just that my shoulder was too numb to detect it.

The initial shock seemed to have been chased out of my body.

“Zap!”

Knowing full well what was going to happen again if I remained a retard, I did not hesitate to roll to the side like all my Dark Souls predecessors.

Another white flash lashed out from nowhere, not enough to blind my eyes. But this time, I swore I saw something like a miniature lightning bolt traveling horizontally out from a… What the heck was that?

Was he holding something in his hand? No, they were empty, but both his palms were opened and facing me. His thumbs and pointer fingers aligned to form a rectangle.

“Zap!”

With my eyes alerted to his gestures, I knew it was impossible for me to see wrong… But seriously? Are you shitting with me? Wasn’t that a magic circle straight out from some Dungeons and Dragons thing?—though, it looked a bit different since it was just a grey six-point star with two similarly glowing grey circles around it. One formed intersections with the points of the stars while the other encompassed the entire illustration. All in all, it was half the size of the caster’s body.

‘Roll god dammit!’

The same old freezing nostalgia overcame my body, unrelenting to my pleas.

‘Fuckin—’

I chomped on my lips and peeled some skin off, letting the pain wake my body up. But it didn’t work. My mouth couldn’t bite hard enough. I was struggling even to wriggle my tongue.

At the moment of imminent danger, the white glare stared down my pupils with my own stupidity.

In the back of my mind was the same loud thumping of my heart beating faster and faster.

And it was at that moment when the room was painted white.

[Draconic Sense (Epic) has reached level 1 of proficiency.]

[Received: 100 Merit Points.]

[Dragon Hearted (Epic) resonates with Draconic Sense (Epic - Lvl.1).]

[Unnoticed Potential (Legendary) tightens its grasp on your heart.]

Time seemed to have slowed as the streak of lightning became visible, emerging from that person’s hands from the depths of the magic circle.

It inched closer and closer to my eye, forking out into separate bolts that threatened to pierce every pore of my body.

And to my amazement, the bolt never struck me.

It couldn’t even graze the ends of my hair.

But my heart clenched harder and harder every second.

And when I moved, every part of my body strained just to meet the physical demands of standing, not to mention running.

I just barely avoided the stream of electricity by bending my spine backward like in a game of Hawaiian Limbo. The only difference was that there was a current above me instead of a stick, and I had no need to move forward.

Even though it seemed so easy, this single act alone felt like I was balancing on a thin wire held between the top of two skyscrapers.

And not only that, my right arm continued to throb as it pulsed along with my beating heart. It was the aftershock from being struck before.

I don’t know how long it took, but when the current had passed, the faint throbbing in my arm had turned into a painful bulge, prepared to explode.

But there was something about it that felt natural. It was conveying to me a sense of security rather than danger. If I was balancing on a tightrope, the pulsing of my arm was my balancing pole. I knew I could rely on it. It wasn’t damaged at all. That’s what it was trying to tell me.

‘Kek.’

Indeed, electricity is a trivial matter. Zeus has no dirt on me.

My right arm continued convulsing, enlightening me of an idea that I should have found much earlier. The idea was stupidly simple such that I would gladly take on the title of an idiot for not realizing it before.

But simplicity was never a defect. That was the sole appeal of this grand thesis. It was simple. It was so simple that it could make all the great fighters to have ever existed slap their foreheads in shame and say, “I’m so stupid.”

What was I talking about? Have I officially gone crazy? No.

It was that so-called religious power that was chi, qi, or ki fabled in so many fictitious stories. Many took the idea as entertainment on the big screen instead of an actual concept, and those who believed did not know half as much as they should.

It makes one wonder if it was a well-kept secret of the gods all along, not supposed to be accessed by any mere mortal. But in that case…

I figured it out.

“ORA!”

The thrusting alone sent ripples through the air as my fingers snapped into a position practiced more times than I could count. Even though I was nowhere near the opponent, I knew something was coming. And I have faith in it to finish the job.

Whether it was faith in the supernatural beings in the sky, or myself; as long as my goal was fulfilled, it didn’t matter.

[Sweeping (Transcendent) has reached level 3 of proficiency.]

[Received: 1,000 Merit Points.]

‘You’re already dead.’

What came as a calm spring breeze last time came back as a typhoon this time. Before, I was but a wee little infant with a diaper wrapped around my waist. But now, I have become a grown man with a long flowing beard.

The cutting wind flowed along with the alignment of my fist, not scarring my arms at all. But it didn’t take a moron to know it was dangerous.

And it was exactly because I was aware of the dangers that I misaimed on purpose.

*Psst

The burst of wind just barely grazed his face leaving dozens of scars while half of his hairline disappeared.

The boy had no words to say to the man who had gained enlightenment in the midst of battle. His pink eyes were void of any light.

He dropped to his knees before flopping down to plant his face into the ground. Gravity did its work.

'So this is the power of mana...'

“EEK!”

My attention was instantly drawn to the mouse in the corner.

And as if recognizing my gaze, it dropped down to the floor all the same, no longer accepting the role of a lone survivor.

Satisfying yet at the same time hilarious, I went on my way.

Plot waits for no one.