Martial arts are a unique form of combat developed over three centuries ago. The first of which was called Systema, created by Viktor, last name unknown. His past is shrouded in mystery, and many have theorized him to be an otherworlder although the lack of information makes it hard to verify. Viktor opened a dojo in a small village where he taught self-defense, gaining popularity and fame for its effectiveness which even worked against armed opponents. Despite his relatively low level, Viktor managed to defend the village against a cult of murderous terrorists along with several disciples, but lost his life in the process. His reputation spread far and wide, and his lineage continues to live on as the pioneer of martial arts. Other styles continued to appear such as Krav Maga, Muay Thai, and Jeet Kune Do. Although armed combat is still seen as generally superior, there are instances when those who completely devote themselves to martial arts are several times stronger than expected. Many martial artists claim that their willpower, persistence, and determination are rewarded by the System, granting them greater abilities which equal or even surpass those who wield weapons. Many famous officers, knights, and mercenaries frequently train in dojos, citing that their mindset, discipline, and general combat skills are further enhanced when learning martial arts.

~ The Heart of a Warrior, by Tai Shan

The farmhouse was a humble abode. Lily’s father had explained their situation to the curious vampire and the uninterested criminal. Meanwhile, the daughter was being tended to by her mother in another room.

“I’ve tried my best to warn my children not to get involved with the Idil soldiers, but Lily has always been foolhardy.”

Lily was responsible for provoking the guard. She confessed guiltily to her father when she had come home. After throwing a stone at one of them, the soldier had apparently taken her to a hidden alley and beaten her like a dog. Chester wondered why these kids were so stupid.

‘I’ve no idea how kids survive without a self-preservation instinct. Really?’

The father couldn't muster up any true anger at his daughter, and only sighed sadly upon hearing it. Damien knew that children could be foolish sometimes, but he surmised that there was a reason.

"But why would she do such a thing?"

“The constant battles have taken a toll on our village. Not only that, we’ve been forced to evacuate the mines due to monster sightings. It’s inevitable that she would blame the soldiers for our continued misfortune.”

“Wouldn’t it be a simple case of hiring adventurers to act as guards while mining?” Damien asked, politely declining the food Lily's mother offered. He didn't want to overstep his boundaries, especially when these people were going through hard times.

The whole family looked weathered and tired. Both adults had gaunt faces, but Lily seemed to be in greater shape than them. It was likely they were forgoing food in order to feed their children. The thought made Damien’s heart wrench.

“Ah, but adventurers have been avoiding this place like the plague. We haven’t seen an adventurer cross this village in months. No-one wants to get dragged into the large-scale battles taking place. The Church of Pernatia is the only reason our village hasn’t died from famine.”

Chester’s eyes glanced at the two other children peeking from the doorway. He returned his attention to the discussion before finally growing impatient.

“Come on Damien, let’s go. We’ve already dropped the kid off.”

He wasn’t keen on listening to the tragic backstory of some peasants. Chester cared little for the plight of others, being raised in an environment that allowed little in terms of generosity or kindheartedness. The man knew that they'd likely ask them for help once their sob story was finished.

“Wait!” The father said. “Please, can you listen to my request?”

'See?'

“The way I see it. We don’t have an obligation to. From the way I see it, getting ourselves involved would only bring the soldiers down on our heads!” Chester growled out. To him, he had no further obligation to these villagers. He believed that they actually owed him, but seeing their pitiful state he knew there was no point squeezing out any sort of reward from them.

He knelt down on the floor, pressing his head down onto the floor. The man’s haggard figure and the tattered clothing made for a pitiful sight.

“Let’s hear them out, Chester. Can’t you indulge me just this once?” Damien asked softly. He genuinely didn’t understand why the man was acting like this.

The vampire didn’t understand why he was so adamant on not caring for those in such a wretched situation. For as long as he’s known, basic kindness came as natural as breathing. Whether it was a stranger or a friend, he always lent his support to those who needed it.

Chester looked at the boy with no small amount of irritation. The man didn’t want to get involved with Idil. He had no qualms with helping people, but putting himself at risk for others was a foreign concept.

The closest he’d gotten to that was when he almost leapt into the arena to save Damien. But that was because he had developed camaraderie towards the boy, and felt partially responsible for pressuring him into making money. But he wasn't swayed by a tragic backstory. What moved him was money and loot.

“Fine. Go ahead, say the rest of your sob story.” The man said grouchily.

“I used to be one of the people who worked in the mines. But I can gather the rest of the physically able townspeople to help. But we need someone to help protect us from the beasts infesting them. We can’t rely on those Idil soldiers. Please, if you have any mercy, we need your support.” The man's face looked hopeful. "You're the only adventurers that have come here in a long time."

"Why didn't you get the church involved? I'm sure they'd be able to help you with something like this." Chester asked. He knew that the priest he conversed with wasn't weak by any means. Even with his mediocre mana sensing abilities, he detected a great amount of magical reserves beneath his benevolent visage. One that perhaps even surpassed his.

"The clerics aren't the same as adventurers. They don't have the same abilities necessary to protect a whole group of us down in the mines. Not to mention we'd incur further debt towards them."

“Of course we’ll help. Right, Chester?” He gave the man a pointed look. The vampire’s eyes seemed to convey a message, even though the illusionist remained unconvinced.

If I have to put up with you, you have to put up with me.

“We’re not doing this for free. Unlike the church, we’re not a charity.” Chester said. He wanted to be compensated for this, as the longer he stayed the more he feared that the soldiers would recognize him as a wanted man. His appearance had changed little, and it was already too late to establish a new identity in such a small town.

Before Damien could kick the man in the shins, the father didn’t hesitate to add an additional reward.

“We’ll give you a cut of our profit. Cold iron is especially prevalent in our mines, and it’s one of the main reasons the kingdoms fought for control of this location. I trust that will be enough?”

Chester whispered in the vampire’s ear and asked how expensive cold iron was.

“Maybe the same as mithril? It’s really good for weapons, some of my relatives got weapons made of cold iron. Something about boosting dark element powers.”

“Deal!” The illusionist said. Although he wasn’t sure how mining worked, he knew how profitable the industry was in his past life. If he could sell cold iron in Welton, that'd give them additional funds to secure a nice, shiny set of dwarven armor for Chester.

They quickly negotiated the offer. Chester was feisty, and knew that he had all the leverage in the world. The father stood no chance as the criminal employed the most cutthroat mental tactics to secure a massive portion of the profits. The father's attempts at appealing to his sense of empathy was quickly shut down upon witnessing the man's lack thereof.

“Well if you’re not willing to give us a fifty-fifty split, we can call this whole thing off. Actually-no, an eighty-twenty split! Wouldn't want little Lily to go hungry, huh?”

"That's too far, asshole!"

Damien slapped him across the back of the head when things got out of hand, and Chester was forced to dial it back down and accept a tenth of the profits that the miners had gained during their excursion.

The illusionist had requested for the material instead of money. His reasoning for this was so that any attempts at shortchanging the adventurers couldn't be done. After all, they didn't know the market value for the metal. The second reason was because he wanted to craft some weapons forged from cold iron as well. He also considered the idea of lining Damien’s equipment with the cold iron to amplify his dark powers.

Requesting that the adventurers meet them back on the farm tomorrow noon, they left the house at midnight.

As they traveled back to the inn, Chester could see and hear the group of soldiers they passed prior in the evening. The men had serious looks on their faces, and Chester had an inkling of what transpired while they were gone.

“Damien, I need you to shut the fuck up and just go with what I say.”

Before the boy could ask anything, he jogged over towards the soldiers, waving his hand.

“Oi! I thought you cleaned this place out of those Ailach bastards!” Chester's face was twisted up in anger and irritation.

They almost drew their swords upon seeing the illusionist go towards them, but grew confused upon hearing what he said.

“What? Ailach soldiers?”

Chester’s face twisted up in mock anger. “Yeah! I saw a bastard skulking around on the outskirts. I thought you guys drove them out.”

His head snapped towards an alleyway behind them, and pointed at the figure skulking about. “Over there!”

A figure could be seen stepping into the shadows, but due to the darkness it was difficult to assume their features. They cursed upon being detected. Footsteps could be heard as they shuffled away into the night.

The soldiers yelled and ran towards the alley, but found nothing. The mysterious person had vanished like a mirage.

The illusionist dragged Damien with him, approaching the armed guards. “I can’t believe this. We’ve already dealt with so much shit from Ailach, and you guys can’t even protect this measly little town?! What's the matter with you guys?!”

“Sir, I understand your anger.” Most of their suspicion had cleared upon seeing the man’s outrage. But they were still wary. “But we’re currently dealing with a possible murder of one of our soldiers. I advise you to steer clear while we investigate Ailach’s resurgence. Would you happen to know anything about them?”

“What, you think we’d be part of them? We fucking hate those bastards! Don’t you dare associate us with Ailach! Right, Damien?”

The vampire nodded dumbly, unable to keep up with the man's sudden change in personality. He made a fuss for a few more minutes before departing, taking the vampire with him. Chester thanked his lucky stars that it was dark outside. The illusion he created was enough to fool the guards into thinking the vestiges of enemy resistance remained.

Improved Minor Illusion (Level 2)

You can create an illusion that can affect sight and hearing. Size of the illusion is restricted to a maximum of 2 cubic meters. -100 MP to cast.

The man used Minor Illusion to a ludicrous degree during their travels. Whether it was to prank Damien or as a support in battle. It had leveled up and doubled the size of the illusions he could create. His illusions grew more lifelike with every passing day. One aspect of which that he learned to control was the sound. It was a completely different concept from physical illusions. He began utilizing it in order to make more varied and unique illusions.

“Alright Damien, remember. Deflect all blame, refuse to answer questions, be unreasonable, and ask for your attorney.”

“What’s an attorney?”

“Never mind that. Just don’t trust those soldiers and pretend you’re just a clueless little kid.”

They returned to their inn with no incident afterward. Both of them agreed that using their instant cube here likely wasn't safe when in close proximity to the soldiers. Chester went to go downstairs and get cleaned up while Damien honed his mana skills. He meditated quietly on the floor, summoning a ball of mana and doing various exercises to improve his control; condensing the mana concentration and forming it into different shapes was a challenge that took most of his focus. The illusionist came back up after thirty minutes, and saw the boy training. He decided not to interrupt and dressed himself up for bed.

The tattoo on his shoulder and back was covered by clean clothing. The man appreciated how it even smelled good. He folded a blanket neatly on the floor and used his bag as a pillow. With that, he fell asleep. Unbeknownst to Damien, the man was doing some training of his own.

The magic he was taught by Cerebella was massively complicated. It had a lot of parts. First, he had to establish a mind link with the target; which was himself.

Her directions were listed, and said something about creating a tendril of mana that connected the target to the user. He did this by attaching a tendril to himself. The second step was to use that to direct illusion into the mind; as the mind was one of the greatest locations to target for illusion magic.

As he understood it, there were completely different methods when it came to deceiving someone’s senses. Tricking one’s sight meant constructing an image that they could see. Deceiving one’s hearing was possible by targeting their ears by mimicking sounds.

Tricking the mind meant that he could trick almost all the senses with limited success. Making their mind believe that they saw an apparition or hear a ghastly scream. The only problem with this was that it only worked on one person instead of multiple. But it proved to be much more effective and could even affect the other senses to an extent. But he was still learning the full extent of his powers.

She was absolutely right with the idea that his Illusion Mastery was far too low to comprehend the instructions. Reaching Advanced Illusion Mastery had implanted a certain instinctual knowledge regarding the branch of magic, and it led him to finally using the Dream spell after some time of practice.

Dream (Level 1)

- Control the subconscious to conjure powerful imagery. Targets experience a slower perception of time under the spell's radius and are subject to the laws and rules imposed by the user, but cannot be physically harmed. Being touched in the physical plane will interrupt the spell. Those with mental fortitude (MNT = (END+INT)/2) surpassing the user's can resist the spell.

- Maximum time elapsed in spell: 12 hours

- Activation: 30 seconds, -250 MP.

Upon taking the time to cast the spell, he opened his eyes to an endless expanse of white.

“What should I work on today?”

For the past two nights, he had been using the Dream spell to envision potential uses for his Minor Illusion spell. It was the main reason why it had leveled up so fast in such a short span of time.

He looked through his active skill list; the fact that the system could be used even in his dreams was a boon.

Change Self Level 4

Assume a different form. You can change body and facial features. Illusion cannot be applied if vastly different to base shape. -5 MP/min, No cooldown. Sustaining 50 points of damage will dispel the illusion.

Darkness Level 1

A radius around your target within 5 meters will be covered in darkness, obscuring vision. Radius of spell: 3 metres. -50 MP to cast.

Invisibility Level 3

A target becomes invisible upon use. Being attacked or casting a spell will make the illusion vanish. -50 MP to cast.

Improved Minor Illusion Level 2

You can create an illusion that can affect sight and hearing. Size of the illusion is restricted to a maximum of 2 cubic meters. -100 MP to cast.

Mana Blast Level 2

Unleashes a non-elemental magic projectile upon target, dealing 50% of your total INT stat as damage. -100 MP. 1 second activation, 5 second cooldown.

Mana Infusion Level 4

Infuse your body with magical energy. Boost stats by 5% while activated. -100 MP/min

Hypnotic Pattern Level 2

Unleash a visual illusion that disorients your foes. There is a small chance of immobilizing the target for one second. -50 MP to cast.

“Hmm, I’ve been kind of lagging behind on my mana-based skills. Let’s do that.”

For the next several hours, he practiced endlessly. He created his flail, and used Mana Infusion to practice some potential moves. Chester had placed a set of rules in his dream world, allowing him to maintain a sense of realism of what he was capable of.

‘Being omnipotent gets kind of tiring.’

At first he had used the Dream spell to fulfill his raunchiest sexual desires. He conjured up the most beautiful celebrities and went wild in his lucid state. Chester also conjured up images of Polkins, Cerebella, and even the female knight who almost killed him.

He refused to explain to Damien when he had tossed out his underwear the day afterward.

Some time later, he used it to conjure infinite power, pretending to be a variety of heroes. With complete control, he could harness anything his imagination willed. It was similar to lucid dreaming powered up by a magnitude. Destroying planets, kicking people into the moon, and fighting alongside superheroes from the comic books he read as a child.

It quickly became dull, and he decided to be productive like he initially wanted to be.

Without any books, he was unable to study further on other elemental magic. He had contemplated the idea of being taught dark magic by Damien, as he wanted to expand his arsenal. Chester actually wanted to learn earth magic but hadn't gotten the chance to collect a book on it during his travels, and forgot to look for one during his time in the Tower of Magic.

He summoned training dummies, simulating a fight against multiple opponents. They weren’t much of a fight, as Chester had to tell them where to go and how to act.

He used it to go through the motions, smashing one target with his flail before ducking to avoid a swing from another. As he rolled over to dodge, he sent a Mana Blast careening towards the straw dummy.

It was as powerful as real life, and dealt seventy points of pure damage. The blast explosion split it into two, and he continued his training session with no urgency in his movement. Even if he didn't move, he knew that the spell wouldn't hurt unless he willed it to. And he wasn't that devoted to his training regimen that he'd allow himself to feel pain.

Not to mention the sheer boredom. Repeating the same movements with little variation was dull. He had frequent breaks to entertain himself with figments of his imagination, like fantasizing about what his armor would look like.

Out of the twelve hours, he devoted about eight towards training and better figuring out ways to use his Mana Blast. Which was hard, since it was a simple spell. There wasn't much he could do with it unlike Minor Illusion.

For the rest of the time he was fiddling with a potential armor design. He scrapped the original design, having been inspired by the power armor from the first Iron Man movie.

He deemed it too unwieldy, and upon testing was unable to lift the armor even when he constructed it out of mithril. Moving a limb that weighed tons without any mechanical support was basically impossible even with his enhanced strength.

The second design, more serious than before, was plated armor that covered his chest, shoulders, and neck. It came with a pair of gauntlets and boots, emphasizing mobility over protection. Similar to Damien's but a size larger and entirely made of mithril.

Although he desired an entire set of adamantium similar to the knight he had fought, he knew that it would likely take thousands of gold to acquire. Mithril was a good substitute that sacrificed hardiness for greater enchantability while still being lightweight.

Chester tried it on, testing just how viable the armor was in battle situations. He wanted a set that he could keep on at all times, preferably.

He noticed that the initial armor design was too stiff, and he couldn’t bend his wrist, toes, or torso. He turned it into scale armor, making the design into overlapping pieces that allowed for his joints to bend. It improved flexibility and comfort. Chester wanted to keep a strong visual image of his armor so that he could make it into an illusion in real life. Hopefully that would be enough for the blacksmiths to understand what sort of armor he's looking for.

“That should be good.”

Deciding that was enough, he created a bed and decided to sleep while he had the chance.

As it changed his perception of time, he controlled it for the remainder of the period to last just a bit longer. Chester’s white space transformed into a cozy, comfortable bedroom.

Morning came, and the duo had food to start their day. Without much option they returned to the shop that offered meat and vegetable stew. There were some more soldiers patrolling the area due to the rumors of hostile presence lurking in the outskirts. Chester and Damien were doing their best to lay low.

“So,” He said in between spoonful's of soup. “We’re even now, right?”

“In what way?” Damien asked, confused as to what he was talking about.

“I mean, I owed you for the whole robbery. Now I put up with your savior complex.”

The boy’s mouth hung open in astonishment. “You’re comparing a crime to helping a village? This is no way similar to each other! Why would that cancel each other out?”

“Hey, hey, hey, I didn’t know there was a morality measure that I had to factor in! All that matters is you can’t veto out the next time I plan on doing something. Especially in Welton. I'm holding this over your head. Deal with it.” The bearded man stuck his tongue out in a mocking manner.

Damien shook his head. “You’re a madman.”

The boy proceeded to ignore his rambling, continuing until they reached Lily’s house in preparation for their bodyguard detail.