Martial Arts Encyclopedia - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Goals for the future (4)

We both stare at each other, internally counting down to ten as we match each other's breathing pattern.

Five, four, three, two, one…

Whack

“Oof!”

Once again, I’m on the ground, but this time I’m still awake. I try to roll away, but she kicks my face without remorse, and I had to quickly block the attack with my arms while tightly clenching my muscles to form the Indestructible, but that barely saves my face as I’m launched further away from the starting point. As my back hits the ground I twist and use the remaining momentum to stand up once more.

Despite feeling fine, my knees hit the ground and Artoria stops two steps away from me. Considering her speed, some people might think she would have stopped the fist much closer to my face, but the truth is that her Mana Burst makes her strikes dangerous from further away than normal.

I tried to stand up once more, but the effort only made me dizzier and nauseous.

“Here,” she says while sitting on the ground, “rest your head a little,” she taps her tights once to emphasize the offer.

I gratefully take the offer, but the only thing I can do is to force the contents of my stomach inside. At least I have a good direction to train the Water Kata and Xiaoli, since I need to accelerate the speed to switch between “relaxed” and “contracted.”

At least getting my ass kicked by my goddess serves a greater purpose since, while my increases in the Utility stats enhances my perception and bodily control, my increases in Strength, Durability, and Agility eases the burden on myself and that makes building up my natural body harder.

“I think I’m better now.” I say while hiding my regret, “let’s try again.”

“Don’t be disheartened,” she tries to cheer me up, “if you keep improving at this pace, we can properly spar in seven days.”

I only answer with an awkward smile.

…

The worst part of the dungeon experience is going back to The Guild and having to wait in line to exchange my magic stones for cash. The lines are so slow that I can even train the Hercules Method mental disciplines during the wait, but eventually I’m face-to-face with the receptionist and I give her my bag of stones for exchange.

“Andrew, if you would, please?”

I look at my side and see my Guild Advisor, a Werewolf called Cornell, calling out to me for a private talk. After taking my money I follow him to one of the private rooms instead of the desks separated by a screen usually favored by the advisors.

“Please, take a seat.”

I sit down without saying anything and relax my muscles as my advisor sits down and sets a manilla folder on the coffee table in front of us.

“Do you want something to drink? Coffee, tea?”

“I accept some coffee, thanks.”

The city imports coffee due to the land requirements to cultivate the fruits, making it as expensive as tea leaves. Coffee and Tea are the two main privileges of the Guild employees and one of the cheaper bribes for adventurers.

I take a sip from my coffee before setting it down and getting down to business.

“So, how can I help the Guild today?”

He didn’t respond right away, instead he sized me up for a while first. “We had reports that someone matching your description is engaging in Vulture Behavior.”

According to the rulebook available at the Guild, “Vulture Behavior” is the act of stealing from weakened adventurers that are returning from their daily expedition, with the thief only snatching their magic stones even if the adventurer is carrying cash or drop items in their person. I’m not sure if Vulture is the right bird for this analogy, but who am I to question how slangs form?

“Well, unless you have proof, the accusations will end the same way my previous report of being a victim of a Pass Parade went.”

He nods, accepting the point. “If you don’t mind, we can ask for a neutral third party to clear up this issue.”

“I do mind it, Mr. Cornell. I won’t accept your organization treating me like a criminal because the Guild does follow the principle of ‘innocent until proven otherwise,’ if only because trying to enforce the contrary would start a war in Orario.”

The werewolf sighs and starts rubbing between his brows to alleviate stress. “Why do I always take troublesome cases?”

“Is there anything else?”

With another tired sigh he continues. “Tell me about your progress in the dungeon.”

“I already mentally mapped the first two floors of the dungeon, and I’m halfway to the third.”

“You have already reached the third floor, in a month.”

“I reached the fourth floor,” I corrected him, “but since it was similar to the third, I decided to turn back until I cleared the third floor.”

“… fine. If you want to throw your life away, go ahead. I will tell the other staff to give you access to information up to the tenth floor. If you want to know about something deeper, come and ask me later. Just remember that the Guild changes the Familia tax bracket based on their member’s highest leveled adventurer.”

We both stand and I pat the man on the back. “I knew I liked you for a reason!”

“Just leave, you troublesome brat. Try not to kill yourself down there.”

An advisor that doesn’t try to stick their nose where they don’t belong, and don’t actively try to hold back the adventurers assigned to them? What kind of bizarro world I landed?

After a brief trip to the market for today’s dinner I’m back at the temple where Artoria is waiting. Today I’m in the mood for some Japanese, or rather, “Far Eastern” food so I brought a small bag of rice.

I take out eggs, leftover bread, several pork cutlets, onions, shoyu, mirin, and a few other ingredients to make Katsu-don for the two of us. After washing the rice and putting it to slowly cook I cut down the onions, score and season the meat, the beaten eggs, and the bread, frying on a pan with reserved oil for such occasions.

My goddess eyes light up at the food offering and eat it with dignified greediness, enjoying the “fast-food” I served her. Maybe I should focus more on traditional Japanese meals, since they’re mostly like this yet they were still considered “fast-food” in that country, if YouTube didn’t lie to me.

After our meal we sat on the couch to digest the food and I looked at the Martial Arts Encyclopedia again. It didn’t update the Karma available, however a few items in the Blue Book highlighted recently, and while most of them are expensive, they’re also incredibly useful.

The Mentat discipline should help both inside and outside combat, and the Prana-Bindu ability to control your nerves should help me develop certain skills earlier in my career. As for techniques there is Nine Lives and Tsubame Gaeshi, which while expensive, they should become immediately useful once I get them. 

For Inner Energy Cultivation, there is the “Heavenly Severing Scripture”, a local adaptation of the Art of the Cut that while interesting in the Kill Six Billion Demons story, it isn’t particularly noteworthy in the realm of Xianxia stories (the more impressive thing about the story is the care to art and the writing, instead of the butchering that certain long standing series get when they’re translated from web novel to manhwa, the sheer disrespect of official translations being little better than machine translations, or the utter abomination that is both at the same time).

More techniques developed by Sasaki Kojiro from the world of Artoria also appeared, such as Vitrification, and Knowledge of Sowa, though the latter changed to become compatible with the Grand Clear direct lineage from the History Strongest Senior Brother heavenly scriptures. Other than that, there are a few things that might be interesting.

“Artoria, would you be willing to learn the Breathing and Walking Method from your world? It should be compatible with your mana.”

She pokes me on the side as I say that.

“You should focus on yourself first. I’m at the point where I don’t need extra power for myself, and it would take far too long anyway. Once you’re stronger we can revisit that, but otherwise forget about it.”

I raise my hands in a placating gesture, and she asks her questions in turn. “What’s this about you being accused of stealing from other adventurers?”

“If I were to guess, someone is trying to set me up.” My goddess eyes harden but I wave it off. “The same rules that made the Pass Parading bastards walk away also protects me in this case. They know it, I know, the Guild knows it. It’s just petty revenge for having the audacity of surviving their ambush.”

Her hands clench with incredible force, and I gently put my hand over hers, making her take a deep breath to calm herself. “I promised that I wouldn’t fail you, didn’t I? Have a bit of faith in your chosen one, alright?”

“Isn’t it the role of chosen ones to have faith in their deities?” She asks with an exasperated tone, but her smile betrays her true feelings.

“People have been relying on you for far too long, this time you’re the one that’s going to rely on me, that’s a promise!”

“Then you wouldn’t have a problem with increasing the intensity of the training, right?”

“… yes, ma’am.”