Child of Destiny

Real World, Soaring Continent

Eastern Sea Region, Ace City

Swoosh!

Inside the independent dorm within the Magic Ace Academy, a pair of gaming cabins opened almost at the same time. One of them was Simone Bartolomeo while the other was Thomas Brooks, who just finished playing the game.

Right after they stepped out of their respective gaming cabins, they suddenly turned their heads toward the door of the room almost at the same time.

They saw Jean Camus leaning on the door jamb with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Oh! You are back? How is it?” asked Thomas in a nonchalant matter.

Jean shrugged his shoulders as he replied. “Not that much. Those guys are already done with the preparations, all we need to do is wait.”

“I see,” said Thomas as he stretched his arms and waist while adding. “I guess we also have to make our move.”

“About that-… There are some changes in the plan. We have to pull out from the operation and leave the rest to others. We are tasked to stay here even if everything fails,” said Jean.

Hearing that, both Simone and Thomas turned at him with a questioning gaze.

Jean stood straight and spread his hands. “Don’t look at me like that. It is what my master has arranged. I don’t know the reason either, so all we can do is comply.”

The two were still confused. But since the great leader issued it, they did not have the right to question it.

Jean was about to turn around and leave when he suddenly remembered something. He turned at the two and asked. “Ah! One more thing. How about the task that I have said?”

Thomas quickly turned in his direction after hearing that and answered complainingly. “Oh! About that. It has been settled. But the others are quite unsatisfied with it. They are asking why you suddenly want to take back your orders when everything is already set in motion.”

“They said that our most elite people are already about to set out when you suddenly want to wait a little longer.”

Jean thought for a moment before explaining. “It is also not my order. If I am the one to decide, then I will order the quick elimination of the target as soon as possible. It is even better to capture them and hand them over to the higher-ups of the church.”

“But what can I do when Master has ordered it? He said that we can’t touch the kid for at least a month, but don’t give me any reason, which is also why I ask you to come up with a random excuse to delay them,” he added with a complaint of his own.

“The great leader has asked you to do that. I thought that he would leave everything about the game to you and would not interfere,” asked Simone with a confused look on his face.

“My thoughts exactly! But how can I defy my master? He said that I can’t ask about it, so I can only keep my thoughts to myself,” Jean shrugged his shoulders with a helpless sigh.

Thomas thought for a moment before asking the main point. “But how can the great leader know about that ‘variable’?”

Jean paused for a moment before shaking his head. “How can I know what Master is thinking? Just do what you are tasked with.”

“I will join you with the meeting later this night, so they can ask me directly if they want,” he added before leaving.

***

Magic Ace Academy, Research Department

Shin just finished another round of training and sat in a corner to rest. As for his progress for today, he was also quite surprised himself as he had already learned half of the sword principles that he needed to learn, and the ones that were left behind were those complex ones that could not easily be learned such as Mysterious Sword, Profound Sword, Transformation Sword, and others.

Clank!

Almost at the same time as he sat on the ground, the door of his private training room suddenly opened followed by Old Ryong entering the room.

Seeing the old man, Shin suddenly felt excited and quickly ran toward Old Ryong. “Instructor Ryong!”

Due to the number of his teachers, Shin addressed them differently so that others would not be confused when he was looking for them or talking about them. It was also a reminder for himself so that he would not be confused as well.

Old Plum was his Martial Arts Master, who was also his first true master, so he called him Master. Old Benn, on the other hand, was his Mentalism Teacher, whom he called Teacher. Old Henry was his main instructor within the academy, so he had called him Professor. Meanwhile, Old Ryong was his sword instructor, thus he called the old man, Instructor.

Old Ryong suddenly squinted his eyes when his gaze fell on his student. He knew that Shin was quite talented when it came to Mentalism, particularly in Mentalism Swordsmanship, and used katana as the main weapon. Read the latest on

He expected Shin to finish mastering all the basic to advanced sword principles in a month or two including those complex sword principles and the combination application. But from what he was seeing, Shin had already mastered all the basic and intermediate sword principles while mastering the majority of the advanced ones.

He could also feel that Shin was capable of combining most of them given the sharp aura that the kid was emitting. It might not be enough to compare to the true swordsmen, who were making the true path of swordsmanship, but it was enough for a Mentalist Swordsman, or even better.

What was even more surprising about this was Shin training this technique for barely a week, which far surpassed the old man’s assessment.

Old Ryong gave Shin a deep look before nodding in satisfaction. “I am expecting you to master just a decent number of sword principles before your special mission in the upcoming days, before teaching you the next step, but you surprise me with your results.”

Shin halted his tracks when he heard the sudden compliment before awkwardly scratching his head. “I-… I did not do that much, Instructor. It is just your teaching method greatly suits me.”

“I also can’t deny that,” said the old man with a chuckle, acknowledging his greatness.

He then looked at Shin with meaningful eyes before continuing. “I was originally planning to check on your progress and see if you can finally start the next step, but it seems like you have given me a great surprise.”

“This works well for me as well. Since I can’t visit you that much due to my injury, your fast progress will save me a lot of time,” he added before looking for a corner to sit before instructing Shin. “Since you have mastered quite a lot of sword principles already, show me your progress.”

“Don’t hold back. You can even show me your progress in combining them if you want so that I can have a good look at your progress,” he added, indicating that he was already aware of Shin’s achievements.

Hearing that, the expression on Shin’s face suddenly turned serious before giving Old Ryong a respectful bow. “As you wish, Instructor.”

After that, Shin walked toward the center of the room before standing there with closed eyes. He took a deep breath to regulate his breathing and focused his mind.

When he opened his eyes once again, there was a sharp glint that surprised even Old Ryong, who was watching from a corner.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

In the next moment, Shin unsheathed his sword before executing a series of sword movements that carried different sword principles.

Sharp Sword, Straight Sword, Sturdy Sword, Heavy Sword, Swift Sword, Destructive Sword, Unsettling Sword, Illusion Sword, and many others were performed one after another. Shin even performed a few strikes for every sword principle to make sure that Old Ryong would have a deeper understanding of his progress before moving to the next sword principle.

He danced around the training room while swinging his sword for quite a while before mixing each sword movement that carried different sword principles. He even showcased his achievements by combining a few of them to produce a different type of sword principle or to achieve the same level of profoundness as those advanced ones.

From a different perspective, he seemed to be swinging a different type of weapon instead of a katana in each move that he performed.

Old Ryong, who was watching from the side, could not be more satisfied with Shin’s performance. With this level of understanding of sword principles, Shin was more than qualified to move on to the next stage.

“It is a pity that he can’t be a true swordsman because of his talent. But this is more than enough to put him on the same level as those ‘candidates’,” he mumbled with a sigh.

Swoosh!

It did not take that long for Shin to finish everything and sheathed the sword once again. He then walked over to Old Ryong and waited for the assessment of his instructor in silence.

It took quite a while before Old Ryong nodded his head and complimented him. “It is good. You did well. You have already gained a deep understanding of the sword principles in just a short amount of time. You indeed have such a good talent.”

“But don’t rejoice just yet. You may be good, but there are still people out there, who can do the same.”

“You can’t slack off in this training. Even if you have already mastered most of the sword principles, you can still realize a few things by continuing to train them.”

“You still have to swing those weapons at least a hundred times every day even if you have already mastered the sword principle that they represent. And you have to continue writing those ‘words’ done whenever you are done swing them,” he added with a strict tone.

“I understand, Instructor,” nodded his head in full seriousness.

“Regardless, you are more than qualified to proceed to the next step,” said Old Ryong before saying in a serious tone. “I will be teaching you three things.”

“First is poetry, the second painting, and the third is how to integrate those sword principles in your sword-drawing and ever-changing styles.”

“Eh!?” Shin was slightly taken aback after hearing those words, particularly the first two parts. “Poetry? Painting?”

Seeing Shin’s reaction, Old Ryong smirked. “What? Unsatisfied with it?”

Shin raised his head and saw the meaningful eyes of the old man, so he shook his head. “Of course not, Instructor. I am just a little surprised.”

Old Ryong chuckled as he explained. “Remember what I have said in our first lesson? I have said that the mind, particularly the willpower, of an individual, plays a big role in any disciple one.”

“They are used in a lot of ways, but for me, the most important thing is ‘visualization’,” he added as he gave Shin a mystifying smile.

“Visualization?” mumbled Shin.

“That is right. Visualization,” repeated Old Ryong as he continued. “Do you know why monks, Taoists, and other branches of disciplines chant long poems or mantras? It has something to do with visualization.”

“It is some sort of self-hypnotism or mind conditioning to achieve the ideal state that they wanted before doing anything.”

“It is the same for the ultimate techniques and martial movements of the current era as most of them came from visualizations. Even the Domains of a Domain Realm Martial Artist, the Authority of a Venerable Realm Mentalist, or the Sword Fields of a Sword Saint have something to do with visualizations.”

“In a sense, it is a combination of their powerful willpower that could affect the world and their visualizations.”

“They visualize a certain outcome and project it into the physical realm with their overwhelming powerful willpower,” as the old man was talking about this, he the air within the room suddenly changed.

Then Shin suddenly noticed an odd feeling stabbing his skin. After that, he subconsciously turned his head toward the direction where that feeling was coming from. “Ah!”

That was when he saw a massive apparition of a demon with thousands of arms standing in front of him. Its towering size could reach the sky, making it much larger than all the giants that Shin had encountered even within the game.

It had an overwhelming pressure that could kill anyone with just its presence alone. Shin felt like he was drowning as he stared at this giant demon.

Swoosh!

It only lasted for a brief second, but Shin was already kneeling on the ground and supporting himself with both of his hands. Sweat was dripping nonstop from his face while his entire body was soaked with sweat. He was also gasping hard as he felt like the air had left his lungs for a very long time.

“I am quite different from most of the experts out there as I don’t possess a Domain despite being at the pinnacle of Domain Realm?” Old Ryong continued as if not had happened. “But my Battle Spirit was way stronger than anyone, which can even destroy the most powerful domain out there.”

“It is not even suitable to call it a Battle Spirit given its might, so I changed its name to Spiritual Avatar instead,” he added with a pause.

He waited for Shin to recover before continuing. “As for the technique that I am about to bestow you will help you in a lot of ways.”

Shin nodded his head solemnly as he understood that he was about to learn yet another unorthodox technique just like Professor Plum’s Yin-Yang Arts, particularly the dual-core within him, which was one of its byproducts; or Grandmaster Benn’s Four Symbol Scripture, especially the Spirit Pagoda within him which was a different Niwan Palace compared to most of the Mentalists.

But there was still another thing that made Shin curious. “But Instructor Ryong. What does it have to do with my swordsmanship?”

Old Ryong chucked when he heard that before explaining. “Didn’t I mention earlier that willpower and visualization have something to do with each other?”

“Once you learn this technique, you will be able to achieve the ideal Mentalism Swordsmanship that you have.”

“Especially when this method is perfect for your Mentalism Technique and Swordsmanship,” he added while imagining what kind of achievements Shin would have reached in his path.

…