8 Training the Five Flowing Arms Again

With a start, Kaden woke up drenched in sweat. He looked around the room in a panic, breathing a sigh of relief when he realized he was back in his own room.

"Was that really a dream?" He shook his head, "No, it would be more accurate to call it a nightmare." But who where those people? He had no recollection of the man or woman, let alone the room he had been stuck in.

"To answer host's thoughts, it seems that you were reliving an old memory from your past life." The System said in its usual robotic voice.

"Past memory? Is that even possible?" Kaden asked.

"My database has no information regarding this, but it seems that your newly made connection with the worlds spirit energy has created a link with your old memory fragments."

"So… That was really me. Then who was the man, my father? And the other voice, was that my mother?" Kaden touched his hand to his chin, thinking deeply.

"I know as much about this as host does." The system gave an inconclusive answer.

"No matter, these things don't matter now." Kaden shook himself and got up, looking over at the digital clock before dressing himself in his training clothes.

"There's still two hours till breakfast, I can do a little training here first." Kaden sat down on the floor and crossed his legs.

"Before I practice the Five Flowing Arms, I need to comprehend and understand it." He calmed himself and began gradually clearing his mind, sitting in complete silence.

Once his mind was still, he started going over the technique in his head. His entire mind was focused on this technique, no other remnant thoughts left in his head.

For 30 minutes he sat calmly like that. Slowly increasing his understanding of the technique. But his mind began to grow weary and stray thoughts began to disturb his focus. It didn't take long for a frown to appear on his face as he sat there, desperately trying to calm his mind down so that he could focus on the technique.

"Arghh, I can't do this anymore." Kaden uncrossed his legs and stood up in a hurry, "I'm getting restless, I need to see what kind of progress I've made." He was an impatient person by blood, these 30 minutes alone had taken a big toll on him. He was sure he'd never worked this hard on anything before.

Getting in his stance, he went ahead and performed the technique according to the knowledge he'd gained, but was quickly disappointed in the results.

"So little difference?…" The difference between before this training and after really wasn't that noticeable. Sure he'd made some gains, but he could barely even notice the difference himself.

"System what am I doing wrong?"

"There is nothing wrong with host's training method. In fact, you've made great progress in this little time."

"Are you joking? It took me minutes to master the Gold Piercing Fist, why is this taking so long?"

"You can't compare these two techniques. The Five Flowing Arms is a complex technique with several layers of comprehension. Merely learning the first layer will let it rival the Gold Piercing Fist, even outclass it by a bit. It's hard to learn because of the future potential it has. Compared to it, the Gold Piercing Fist is merely a joke. Something people learn early on to improve their control over their bodies.

Still, even so, it's only a supreme-class technique according to this empire's classification system. It's not that great for actual combat either since it's a fist technique. There are far greater techniques out there. The only reason you are learning the Five Flowing Arms is for the fundamental benefits it can provide you. If you learn this technique while young, it's main aspect, speed, will carry over in the development of your body. Later on this will give you a tremendous advantage when learning better combat techniques and skills. It can even improve your blade skill."

"Hm, I guess I'll trust you for now." Kaden said, "But I'm too tired to continue training for now. I barely understood anything at all."

Kaden plopped back down on his bed and spread his arms wide.

"Being a kid is so fucking boring, I can't do anything at all." He whined. There was nothing for him to do in his free time. It had been the same thing every day for the past four years. Eating and sleeping, only since yesterday could he begin spending some of his enormous free time on training. Sure the servants were all open to playing with him, but that was kid stuff, something his mind had grown out of years ago.

"Hey system, don't you have some form of entertainment for me?"

"I will have to disappoint host, I'm not a game system."

"Great…" Kaden sighed and went back to staring at the ceiling.

He could go to a club if he was older. Or even that strange virtual world he'd heard so much about. But fact was that physically at least, he was too young to do any of it.

With nothing else to do he just spent the remaining hour left before breakfast in bed, bored out of his mind. Finally Sophi came and knocked on his door to call him to eat, saving him from his misery.