“Apprentice?”
“Spirits of the ancestors, why do you punish me?” Supreme Grand Master of Unarmed Combat asked the heavens. “Deaf as well as ugly!”
Chapter 24. Pain Is Just Weakness Screaming
A WISE GRAY OLD MAN watching me train, his eyes closed, occasionally sipping from a cup of permanently hot tea and dropping a comment here and there. That’s roughly how I imagined my tuition with Oyama would go. I was sorely mistaken.
“Oof… Ugh!” I wasn’t making noises deliberately, but with each of the master’s strikes, the air was knocked from my lungs. “Arrrgh!”
I figured out in the first hour of training: it wasn’t going to be easy. This was no ‘Supreme Grand Master of Unarmed Combat Oyama invites you to choose one of the following new moves,’ no simple window with pop-up descriptions of new skills. The old man demanded full concentration and silence. No talking! he snapped, cutting off my questions.
We trained in the shade of the tree rescued from the Caressing Creeper. Oyama attacked as soon as he declared me his apprentice. Of course, he wasn’t hitting me at full strength or using his special moves, but at the same time he wanted me to not hold back, to show him everything I was capable of.
Which was not much, it soon became clear. The old man just dodged my Combos, I couldn’t quite see how. He jumped over Stunning Kick, met my Hammerfists with a solid block that broke my fingers with a crunch. Piercing pain shot through my nerves and my health bar fell sharply. As for what was going on and what this so-called training battle, which seemed more like a child beating, was for, I had stopped asking. All I got in response to my questions was a broken jaw and ribs.
“Does that hurt?” Oyama asked when he heard my suppressed moan, his voice dripping with fake sympathy.
“I’m… used… to it…” I popped my jaw back in, spat out a thick stream of saliva mixed with blood, then gulped from my Bottomless Healing Potion. “I don’t fear pain.”
“Correct. Pain is weakness screaming as it leaves the body!”
Blood and sweat poured from my brow. My certainty that I’d made the right choice had long collapsed before the recognition of one simple fact: from the game’s perspective, my character had made no progress at all. My unarmed combat skill was frozen at the ceiling it reached back in the battle with Ervigot, at level 100 of rank one. For a couple of hours I’d hoped that new skills would appear if I tried to repeat after Oyama, but I got nothing but laughter from the old man. It was a very strange fight. I lost health points, my teacher didn’t. Reflection had no effect on him, and my Resilience seemed to have given up. Maybe because the duel was a training fight and Oyama a friendly character, I didn’t go into combat, but my health still dropped for real.
The sun had dropped past its zenith. Oyama allowed short pauses — a few seconds, no more — only for me to recover my health.
Long after midday, an unfamiliar boy of around ten, dirty, with skinned knees, brought a jug of goat’s milk and some flatbread and bowed respectfully to the master. I stared hungrily, but Oyama didn’t bat an eyelid. Leaving a copy of himself to continue beating me up, he sat down under the tree and began his meal. The boy climbed up onto a tree branch to watch the fight and started dripping mocking commentary:
“Where’d this rookie come from? He fights worse than a training dummy! Why’d you take this scarecrow on, grandpa?”
The old man chuckled into his mustache. Once done eating, he called to the boy, who jumped down from the tree and landed easily on his feet. The copy of the master disappeared. I immediately took advantage of the unexpected pause, dropped my knees and bent forward, struggling to get my breath back.
“Apprentice, prove to young Bakhiro that you can fight better than a dummy,” Oyama instructed lazily.
The boy stood before me and bowed.
“Fight!”
The master’s command and Bakhiro’s attack took me by surprise as I bowed in response. The boy moved so fast that his figure seemed to blur. The painful strikes rained down as if from nowhere — I couldn’t even see them, let alone fight them off. Reflection didn’t work here either — it seemed the game had activated some special training mode. Bakhiro moved like a shadow, always behind my back, and I couldn’t keep up. You can’t dodge what you can’t see. The short and embarrassing duel, similar to my fight with invisible Hiros, lasted less than a minute. Battered and bruised by the small and thin boy, by the end I couldn’t stay on my feet.
“Enough!” Oyama ordered. “Bakhiro, take back the jug and give my gratitude to your mother.”
“I will, grandpa.” The boy’s grubby face lit up with a smile. He bowed to me, his hands together at his chest. “Forgive me, traveler, I was wrong about you. You fight even worse than I thought, heh-heh…”
Oyama made a light sweeping motion with his foot from where he stood at least ten yards away. The earth disappeared from beneath the boy’s feet and he fell on his ass on the stone.
“Twenty-thousand paces around the village, young Bakhiro, who has forgotten how easily pride and overconfidence turn into defeat.”
“With a log?” the boy asked, rubbing his sore behind.
“With two. Hop to it!”
Bakhiro raced back to the village, leaving a trail of rising dust behind. A couple of seconds later he came back, bowed to Oyama, picked up the forgotten jug and ran off again.
The master beckoned me over with a finger. I approached and lowered my eyes. As it turned out, only those equal in status to the master could look him in the eye, and there weren’t many of those in the world. None within a thousand miles or so.
“Today, you have confirmed your status as Master of Unarmed Combat,” Oyama said.
Master was rank one. I’d wasted half a day just on that? Holding back my frustration, I said nothing.
“To gain the status of Great Master, you must fight with another Great Master and remain standing…”
Oyama paused, but I already knew the rules of this game: stay quiet unless asked a direct question.
“…You have done so. Bakhiro is a Great Master.”
“Bakhiro?” I asked, unable to hold back my surprise. “That ten-year-old kid is a Great Master?”
Now it was finally clear why the other inhabitants of the desert paled at the mere mention of Jiri — this was a village of great warriors for whom fighting was a lifestyle.
Bam! The old man twitched a finger and I was thrown from my feet, launched back-first into a tree. Nether! Master Sagda’s teaching methods had been far more merciful than sadist Oyama’s lessons!
I rose, gritting my teeth and resisting the urge to rub my bruised back, then silently returned to my place. Head low, breath even, accepting. Oyama waited, but heard no comments from me.
“I, Supreme Grand Master Oyama, confirm your Unarmed Combat status, apprentice Scyth. From now on, you are a Great Master.”
Bowing low, I froze, studying the pop-up notification:
Unarmed Combat rank II reached!
Select a progression path. Keep in mind that your choice is final and cannot be changed. You can select an additional development path after you reach your next skill rank.
Path of Elements
Depending on your chosen element, your unarmed combat moves will hit at range, freeze enemies, deal bonus damage or ignore armor. In addition, you will be able to instantly move across short distances, slow time in battle and summon a Star Ally.
Path of Trickery
Your unarmed combat moves have a chance of maiming, immobilizing, blinding or even instantly killing the enemy.
Path of Solitude
One who travels the Path of Solitude may resist hordes of enemies, hitting all enemies nearby with every strike.
Path of Defense
You can block and reflect enemy attacks, returning damage in part or even in full depending on your skill level and luck.
26 training points available. Talk to Supreme Grand Master Oyama to learn new moves!
The
first thing I noticed was that there was no new path to replace Path of Justice, as happened with Resilience. Remembering Sagda’s lessons, I didn’t rush to make my final choice, taking a chance that Oyama would offer something else. It paid off.
My teacher, seeing that I was in no hurry to choose, spoke himself:
“Your first teacher Sagda was here yesterday. He and I talked. You’re lucky. Replace him with another and you would have known ten effective moves by now, but none would have become Crushing. In addition, few active or retired masters learn continuous strike combos before becoming a Great Master. Sagda is one of them. By learning Combo, you have unlocked a new Path that doesn’t depend solely on brute force or agility, or on the elements or luck. A Path that closes off your chance to master the other schools, but one with limitless opportunity for progress. I need your agreement, apprentice, before I can even tell you this Path’s name.”
How could I translate Oyama’s words into something clear? I was expected to buy a mystery, not knowing even the name of the skill, but conscious that the decision would cut off all my other options. The advantages were clear: my skill wouldn’t stop at level one hundred, and the same went for my moves. If Oyama was willing to teach me this Path, that meant he’d walked it himself, and I’d already seen in the desert how powerful the old man was in battle. It must have been some hidden option for advancing the skill, maybe unlocked by the fact that I’d saved up over twenty training points. This had to be rare, otherwise players would be queuing up to train with the teacher as soon as they hit rank one.
“Your decision, apprentice? Know that if you refuse, you may never rediscover this Path.”
“I accept. I’m willing to accept the Path that closes off the chance to master the other schools.”
“Very well,” Oyama said, a barely perceptible smile flashing across his face. The window with the choice of Paths of Unarmed Combat disappeared. The old man declared: “Take your first step on the Path of Spirit, apprentice!”
You have chosen the Path of Spirit! You cannot alter this choice!
Path of Spirit
The master of Unarmed Combat who walks this Path willingly refuses all the others he has not yet traversed. In exchange, he gains unlimited growth, for the sentient spirit knows no bounds!
Not entirely sure what Oyama wanted from me — I saw no buttons for accepting the Path, it seemed to be chosen automatically, — I did the only thing that seemed unlikely to invite new beatings from the old man. I bowed.
Oyama repeated the description of the Path, then ordered me to sit, cast my gaze to the sky and listen to myself, look within. I did just that. Just before I closed my eyelids, I saw a leaf falling from a branch.
“Feel the hidden flows of energy circulating through your body. Those are the channels of your spirit. A master is duty-bound to ever reinforce and expand them. Within them hides true strength. You saw this when you could not defeat the boy Bakhiro.”
At first I heard only the rustle of leaves in the wind, the slither of a snake in the grass…
“Breathe!”
…then the sound of my breath joining them. The heat of the sun ran in burning waves across my skin. I breathed in a lungful of air laden with the scent of prairie grass, listened to the blood pulsing in my ears.
“Breathe!” Oyama’s voice drifted in from far, far away.
The spectrum of background noises widened, and the more I heard, the louder I submitted to the even heartbeat ringing in my ears. Soon the external noises dimmed and fell silent and I was as if in the great nothing. Thud-thud! Boom-boom! Doom-doom! my heart beat like a booming underwater bell, heavy and eternal, getting ever faster, picking up speed like train wheels.
Time lost all meaning and the interface disappeared, leaving only me and the sensation of my body. Suddenly it hit me that I could control not only my body, but everything within it. I willed my heart to slow and it began to thud so slowly that I could have forgotten it existed between its beats. I sent reserves of energy to my legs and felt that I could jump to the clouds, if only the desert had any in its sky.
With my inner eye I saw: apart from blood vessels, there was something else in my body. From a tiny ball beneath my heart woven of blue light, fine lines spread out like pale blue spider webs all along my skeleton. The orb pulsed, burning from bright blue to almost white and sending short streams of light along the lines. Were these the channels of my spirit?
A window popped up and confirmed my guess:
New stat unlocked: Spirit.
This resource represents the totality of the sentient’s spirit, will and divine essence. Spirit can be used to perform Unarmed Combat moves. Known special attacks that previously used mana will now use spirit.
Spirit strikes require no physical contact with the target, but they cost more spirit at range.
Total: 100.
“Enough!” Oyama’s voice whipped my ears, breaking my state of inner concentration.
I opened my eyes. The leaf from the tree fell by me, stroking my face as it passed. Oyama stood before me. A smile hid in his gray whiskers.
“You did it. My apprentice, you stand on the true Path of Spirit.” The old man took a few steps back. “Rise… Now hit me, imagining that I stand but an arm’s length away.”
He was six yards away at least. There was no way I could reach him no matter how much I wanted it — I wasn’t Mister Fantastic. But I struck, knowing in advance what would happen.
From the outside it might have looked like I was striking the air. Oyama didn’t move a muscle. But he didn’t block my strike either, so I saw his kimono flatten in the spot where my Hammerfist hit the target. I opened the skill description and saw that it had actually changed:
Spirit Crushing Hammerfist of Justice level 100
Deals 6100% of standard damage.
Ignores armor: 100%.
Cost to use: 20 spirit to activate and an additional 10 spirit for each yard of distance to the target.
“Not bad,” the old man nodded, walking away even further. “Now a series.”
I activated Combo… and nothing happened.
Target too far away! Not enough spirit to successfully execute move!
“Your spirit is weak,” Oyama declared. “But with each step along the Path, it will strengthen. Your center will learn to store and maintain strength, and your internal channels will expand, filling with spirit energy and lending more power to your strikes. The possibilities of one who walks the Path of Spirit are endless. Remember that, my apprentice. There is no limit to perfection!”
“How much spirit do you have, teacher?”
“A thousand times more than you,” he said in humble tones.
“How do I advance my skill, except by fighting with strong enemies?” I asked, remembering that Oyama had spent years meditating and traveling the astral plane. There must have been a reason for spending so many years there. “Meditation?”
“Meditation, mantras…” The old man sighed. “But there is nothing better than duels, apprentice. Duels with strong opponents, naturally. But when there is nobody stronger than you left… Then you meditate. That said, it wouldn’t hurt you to learn meditation and a few mantras. Your spent resources will recover fairly quickly, but in a fast-paced battle, it is easy to spend all your spirit and find yourself in difficult circumstances.”
Supreme Grand Master Oyama invites you to learn the skill of meditation.
Cost: 1 training point.
I accepted right away.
Meditation level 1
By meditating, you speed up your spirit restoration by 10%. Long hours of meditation lead to strengthening your spirit.
Perfect your skill by practicing as often as you can!
Supreme Grand Master Oyama invites you to learn mantras — sacred spells used in combat to recover and strengthen yourself or weaken your opponent.
Attention! You cannot use a single mantra more than once per battle. Mantras cannot be used more than once per minute. You
can have no more than one mantra per rank of Unarmed Combat.
Restoration Mantra restores your spirit by 30% for 3 seconds.
Curse Mantra lowers enemy damage by 30% for 3 seconds.
Healing Mantra restores your health by 30% for 3 seconds.
Retribution Mantra returns 30% of damage you take to the enemy for 3 seconds.
Judgment Mantra increases your damage by 30% for 3 seconds.
Speed Mantra speeds up your attacks by 30% for 3 seconds.
Dodge Mantra increases your dodge chance by 30% for 3 seconds.
Cost: 1 training point per mantra.
Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series Page 23
