8 Mastery

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*Pang!*

*Roar*

An heavy strike landed and a sorrowful roar of Polar Bear can be heard throughout the field. Standing about seven meters tall and weighed aproximately 500 kilograms, the bear caused a huge commotion when it fell and died, it even caused the ground beneath it to cave in and dust to fly everywhere. Standing in front of the dead bear was a young boy whose whole body is littered with scars. He's panting in an erractic manner, his hair is desheveled, his eyes were somewhat bloodshot, and clothes are on tatters.

This is of course Sieg.

It's been the 29th day since his master introduced the '1000 Beast Killing array to him. His life was never been the same since then. Every single day during this month was dangerous to him, he might be able to do a 'Hit and Run' tactic during his first fight with the Lone Wolf and successfully kill it. He never expected that the next time he enter the array, the Lone Wolf would be paired with the bird of prey, a Silver Eyed Eagle.

The battle nearly took his life.

Good thing his luck spared him, which made him completely elated. He was never been lucky ever since but when he saved his master his destiny made a full turn, well, he believed that such was the case.

***

He learned to be cunning thanks to the wolf, upon mastering the 'Wolf Stance' he can figure out how take every advantage that he could and strike at wierd angles which can be fatal.

He learned to endure like a turtle, upon mastering the 'Turtle Stance' he developed insights about how to lessen an enemy's attack so it's damage would be minimized.

He learned to be fierce just like a bear, upon mastering the 'Bear Stance', his attacks are now heavier and mightier, it can even be said that if he's fighting an enemy of the same level, his attacks are unblockable, unless they have a defensive artifact.

Awareness is the trait that the eagle imparted onto him, since he mastered 'Eagle Stance', he learned how to accurately judge the force of an attack and even think of a counter-attack, be it on form of disruption or releasing the traits of other stances.

He learned about pride from the king of the jungle, the lion. Upon mastering the 'Lion Stance' he wouldn't back down especially if his pride was being stepped on. 'Ganging up to hunt me huh? Come! This Young Master isn't scared of you!'

He learned to be agile just like the monkey, mastering the 'Monkey Stance' his movements became faster and so are his attacks, pairing it with the 'Bear Stance' and god knows what will happen.

Flexibility a trait the he learned from the snake. Mastering the 'Snake Stance' made him dealier since his attacks would automatically target a vital spot, and he can also feint an attack before it lands, catching his enemies off-guard.

He learned to be cautious just like a deer, mastering the 'Deer Stance' allowed his senses to keener that what it was previously. He can sense any danger for about 15 meters around him and made necessary actions to preserve his life.

Last but definetely not the least, he learned about the patience of the vulture. Upon his mastery of the 'Vulture Stance' he can now gather and borrow momentum, waiting patiently for the right time to unleash the killing move.

***

Sieg slumped into the floor, he didn't even had the energy to lift his fingers. He was physically and mentally tired, his potential was thorougly squeezed with that last, deciding battle. He managed to sit down and looked around him…

The whole land around him is devastated. On this snowy island he fought and killed 1000 beasts. If anyone would know this they would probably vomit out blood. The number of beast he slew was practically a huge chunk of a medium sized beast horde. He's FIFTEEN! Even though he sort to smoe trickery for the majority of the battle it still can't demerit his achievement of slaying 1000 beasts! By himself!

This battle went on for five days, he danced and courted death countless of times. He squeezed out ideas from his brain to formulate strategies. His body was damaged and healed multiple times causing it to be tempered. His circulated his Ki over and over again causing it to be purer than before. He fought, escaped, planned, rested, waited, and many more things causing his personality to metamorphose. Sieg, a fifteen year old kid that developed 'Killing Intent' due to multiple battles.

He was once again covered by a blinding light, signifying that he was exiting the array. Upon regaining his vision, he was back at the 1st floor of the pagoda, he looked at the array and noticed that it was now dim, signifying that it has been cleared. He stood up and went to a corner going through his belongings.

He unfolded a container and then smelled the food he five days ago. Good thing that dried causing it to last until this day. Without any remorse, he devoured his food and drank gallons of water. He was doing his own business when suddenly a familliar voice was heard behind him.

"Hey kid!"

"Urk!!" *Cough* *Cough* *Cough* "Mas-" *Cough* "Master! W-welcome back!"

Sieg's heart was beating furiously, he was, once again, startled by his master popping out of nowhere. Wilson had such a good timing too! Sieg was practically swallowing a mouthful of dried meat and rice at the same time, he heard him when the food was already on his throat already.

"Aii~~" Wilson sighed, even though he looked a bit disappointed with Sieg, a small corner of his lips lifted into a smile. For some reason, it was very amusing for to startle his disciple. But that was not the only reason though.

Sieg didn't knew it but Wilson was watching his every movement, he watched how his disciple transformed into an expert. There were times that he was alo being affected by the situation that he nearly force Sieg out of the array but he would always stop himself.

A Master shows the path and the Disciple would walk it.

He didn't want Sieg to be deeply reliant on him, that would limit his growth. He needs to bear the aftermaths of his decisions. Wilson would not always be there for him, it is a cruel fact but they have to face it.

"Here…" Wilson rubbed his spatial ring and produced food which he quickly placed in front of Sieg.

Upon seeing the food Sieg's eyes brightened up, he didn't stand on ceremony and grabbed the food swallowed it. When the meat reached his throat, Sieg felt that it was dissolved and turned into a pure Ki Energy which then filled his entire body with warmth and vigor. The Ki Energy in the meat was so dense that Sieg's cultivation base is rising constantly.

"Master! This-this meat is too precious…" Sieg sighed, he never expected that his master would give something like this to him. Based on the jade slips he read before, foods that contain Ki Energy with them are actually very expensive, the price is even higher the denser the Ki Energy within it.

"I gave it to you so it's yours. Let's just say that , that food is your price for beating the array one day earlier than the deadline. How does that sound?"

"Then I shall follow Master's arrangements, many thanks Master!" Sieg felt immediately better upon hearing Wilson's arrangements. Then he went ahead finished the whole meat his master gave him. Since the meat was filled with dense Ki Energy, Sieg decided to might as well push his cultivation up by processing the energies he consumed.

Once finished, his cultivation base settled and consolidated at peak 7th step of awakening. Strangely, Sieg's way of cultivation slightly differs from others. Unlike Sieg, others have to activate only a part of thier system each breakthrough, those are skin, muscles, organs, blood, bones, marrows, meridians, dantian and spiritual sea, with Skin Activation for the 1st step to Spritual Sea Activation for the 9th step.

Sieg however activated everything except his Spritual Sea, and everytime he breakthrough, every single one of the parts he had activated was strengthening at the same time. Sieg didn't paid much attention to this, it was not like this type situation is harmful for him so he just let it happen.

"Master! My cultivation base had a breakthrough! I'm now at the peak of 7th step!" Sieg happily reported to Wilson.

"Hmm very good! But you gotta be careful, don't rush it. Staying at awakening realm for quite sometime isn't harmful, having your foundations unstable is. Instead of aiding the circulation of you Ki to breakthrough you should just let it happen on it's own. That way your foundations is as solid as it can get."

"I will remember Master's words by heart. I thank Master for giving me guidance."

"Very good, follow me then…" Wilson nodded and walked with Sieg following behind him.

Minutes passed and soon they reached the 2nd floor. Despite being inside the same pagoda, the second floor seemed much bigger than the first floor even though they technically have them same size. The room was lit up by white colored lanterns that's line up neatly at the west and east side of the room. In front, there were countless of stone tablets floating on top of Green Jade platforms.

The stone tablet emits some profound and ancient aura in them, Sieg can faintly feel a pressure coming from those stone tablets yet he wasn't that close to them. Further into the room, Sieg also saw a huge White Jade platforms however, instead of having a stone tablet, Sieg saw weapons of different types floating in there.

Wilson walked forward after letting Sieg adjust his vision, as he was following him, he noticed that they were by passing the stone tablets and walking forward towards the platform with weapons. Sieg has a vague idea of what's going to happen, he immediately felt excitement.

"I guess you could guess why you're here. Yes, it's time for you to choose a weapon. I'm not rushing you to pick a weapon immediately since your first choice of weapon would greatly impact your life as a warrior. Remember this kid, weapons are an extention of your limbs. Pick whatever you think is suited for you…"

"Yes Master!"

"Good! Just call me whenever you're ready to pick." After saying that Wilson disappeared once again, and once again Sieg can only smile wryly. He then shook his head and turned his gaze towards the weapons in front of him.

He saw a sword, broad sword, great sword, sabre, blade, dagger, polearm, spear, halberd, axe, great axe, bow, crossbow, great bow, chakram, zither, club, buddhist beads, and hidden weapons. There were even some unsual weapons like a schythe, saw, whip, shovel, cane, hammer, totem and many more. Sieg was a bit overwhelmed by the sight.

The weapons in front of him were not 'Artifacts' which were made from special materials and enhanced by some Inscriptions. The one that's in front of are common ones, which were used by non-cultivating humans. Nevertheless, Sieg never really held a proper weapon on his hands before. He only wielded a wooden branch to shoo away some snakes before. Seeing all these weapons sparked a deep ecitement within him but he's also stuck in a dillema…

'What should I pick then?'

His head hurts ever so slightly. Well, majority of the Martial Artist also felt the same dillema like Sieg, there were only a handful of Martial Artists that made a decision quickly when it comes to choosing weapons. One reason might be because of their clan. Some clans are well know because of their inheritance of Sword Arts, others might have a hefty amount of Spear Arts, while others specializes on using hidden weapons. Another reason might be because of their life instances, most of the trained assassins preferred using daggers, while knights prefer swords or spears.

As for Sieg, he was a pacifist just a month ago, how is he suppose to choose?