swordsman

(author Note: there will be no guns in the novel, I don't like seeing stuff like that in novels like this as well.)

"sigh, Wu He has a high backing, an inner sect disciple. I don't know how trash like him caught an inner-sect disciple, but he did. to become an Inner sect Disciple, one needs to enter the Qi refinement realm." Elder Mo said while looking at Sora who was sitting before the campfire. Wu He was forced to leave not too long ago, and with everyone knowing what happened, they became fearful of elder Mo.

but the females among the group were thankful, although some of them were jealous of Berry, they were still scared at the fact something like that could have happened to them, it took some time for them to sleep, but once they did, Sora and Elder Mo began to speak

"as you know, a person needs to temper the body in the body tempering realm, and build a Qi within their dantian. once the dantian is built, it would store energy, but it would take the form of gas. no longer would one need to gather energy from heaven and earth, as at extreme speed you could gather a huge amount of energy from your dantian," Elder Mo said as energy gathered into his palm in the form of a gas

"at the Qi refinement realm, once gather energy from the outside world, and gather that energy into their dantian. refine their energy. this would increase the amount of energy, quality, and density of their energy." He said calmly as he looked at Sora who was looking at the gas.

that gas alone was stronger than anything a level 7 body tempering realm expert could gather, at level 7 body tempering realm, a person would have formed their QI Sea. the amount of energy and density would have been like this. but the quality of this entry made it more than 5 times stronger.

"as one reaches level 1 Qi refinement means, this energy would take the form of liquid. as you progress through the Qi refinement realm, this form would become denser and denser until it's a Liquid crystal. that's when you have reached the peak of Qi refinement." He said stunning Sora at this new information,

"Wu He backing is someone in the Qi refinement realm, most likely someone who wants to form an organization, which is why he is taking in many trash disciples. so its best to destroy this organization before it grows," he said calmly, to which Sora nodded slightly

Sora sighed softly, he thought of how things could go down. he thought for some time about all of this, before shaking his head,

tonight they didn't fight or anything, Sora spent the night leveling up his other senses to level 7, by using [Multitasking] along with his other senses, he could get a huge amount of XP. upon his senses type abilities and [Multitasking] all reaching level 7, Sora went on to use all of his abilities at the same time.

he split his mind map into 5 parts, each part had its sense which overlooked it. he had to Multitask and sense each area all at the same time. he was used to only doing something like this with one sense, but using all of them to the fullest, would also increase [Multitasking] level.

So the night went by, and the next morning came and quickly passed. it was that night at Sora finally gained enough XP that he leveled up, Sora found that simply slipping his mind into 5 parts was not enough, so he overlapped each sense to cover everything around him. at the same time, he had begun reading countless books, each sense read its book all at the same time.

such a huge amount of knowledge that Sora had to process was huge, but pushing himself like this gave him more XP. allowing him to reach level 8 in not just his senses type skills, but also his [Multitasking].

with all of these abilities at level 8, his senses of course came with new abilities. ignoring the boost of range. Sora could space pockets. for example, a storage back was something he normally could see though, but now, he could sense into pocket spaces, and know what is within them.

Sora also noticed that because of his weak cultivation, his abilities have been limited. for example, in the past, each level increase his range to sense things by 10 times, but now it was barely 2 times, at most he could sense up to 900,000 Km. it was still a huge amount, but he found out that it was because he was weak.

So, this kind of proved that there was a limit to how far he could go if he doesn't cultivate. So, Sora had to put aside this for the time being. also, his mind map was always active now, since he could do over a million tasks all at once, he could easily keep the mind map on and always look at it while doing something else.

at the same time, he could gather his attention on one point, which would boost his mental capability by a lot. his thinking speed would be far higher, so fast in fact that the world would seem to stop.

So, other than stepping forward to help Elder Mo show the group of people within each city how to use the crystal, Sora kept his time deepening Berry and Elder Mo's connection to himself, while at the same time bathing within flames at night.

in a blink of an eye, it had been 2 weeks since Sora and the group had left the city, Sora sat on a log while taking apart the puppet he bought, and the old man sat at the side, watching this. he was curious if Sora could manage to learn something from the action he was doing at the moment.

'this must be the runes' Sora thought while looking at the engraving within the puppet. within this world, there were many paths a person can walk. a puppet master was one of such paths. these puppet masters can use all types of things, some didn't use runes, while others used strings, and so on.

runes can be used like programming within a game. like how one could program an A.I. to do something, runes programmed a puppet to do something. of course, this is only one way to use runes. many people used runes to right powerful engraving around an area to set up a powerful trap.

it's said that giving a runemaster time was as good as shooting one in the foot. this was because rune masters could skip a huge amount of levels and even realms given the time and resources.

some rune masters engrave weapons, or even themselves, making it so that they were extremely powerful and so on. writing runes within an area is like a programmer programming something there, unless you are more skilled or more powerful, you would be helpless.

Sora slowly studied the runes for some time, with the thoughts of books he had been reading for the past week, he could tell a thing or two about the rune here. these were of course the most common of runes, so the knowledge of these was not too rare.

{new abilities unlocked [Words]}

as Sora was slowly understanding the puppet, he suddenly saw the notification pop up in the corner of his eye. seeing this, he was confused, why was this ability called words? did he not know how to right or something? or did the words he know not to catch the system's attention until now?

thinking for some time, Sora guessed that the system needed one to reach a level of understanding of something. similar to how he got the [Martial arts], he spent months training until the system gave him the ability to buy it.

Sora went on to buy [words] for 40,000 SP, which dropped him to only 95,000 SP upon buying it, the XP started coming in as Sora studied the puppet, it didn't take long until the ability leveled up, and once it did, Sora found that it was easier for him to understand the runes before him.

'This puppet only does simple tasks, but it was made to only last a few years until it breaks down, forcing people to back to buy a new one... smart,' Sora thought as his finger glowed slightly, putting a finger over the rune which would cause it to break down, he removed the rune, after which, he went on to write new runes.

writing runes was not as simple as writing normal words, it was slow, and its movement felt as if he carried the weight of the world. as for how Sora could write runes, with him at level 2, It allowed him to understand the runes much easier.

with so many books, and many puppets within his field of senses, he could of course sense each rune and learn all of them at the same time. there was not an infinite number of runes, there were a few of them. the more simplified a rune was, the less skilled a person would be.

having the power to use all the runes and write out a clear sentence would show one skill, for example, a runemaster could write within an area that 'whoever breaths shall lose the ability to breathe.' and it would happen. but that was too simple, and it could easily be rewritten into something else.

writing something longer and more complex, filled with tricks and word games, this is how rune masters played. they were both feared and wanted all over the world, they stood among the alchemist and blacksmiths.

these 3 paths are considered the noblest of paths, those who walk these 3 paths are highly respected and feared. go ahead and enrage an alchemist, those many powers which kissed up to them would be knocking at your door.

go ahead and enrage a blacksmith, the many powers which kissed up to them would be knocking at your door.

but enrage a runemaster, you better remain on guard at all times. who knows what rune he might draw around your house when you're sleeping? Who knows if he would trap the whole city with a rune that would metal everyone from the inside out? Who knows what he would do,

'...' Elder Mo's eyes shrank while looking at Sora who was righting tunes at a high speed on the puppet. there were ranking to runemaster, and with Sora's speed he could be considered a 2-star runemaster, but did he not just start? how did he skip 1 star and jumped straight to 2 stars?

'rune is a great way put it into words, instead of a bunch of 1 and 0s, there are a bunch of letters, a total of 24 which can be put together in an infinite number of ways to have all types of effects, runes master didn't need to understand every path, they only need to know bits of it, but the more of the path they know, the more powerful their writing would be.' Sora thought while looking at the 8 words he had written.

putting the puppet down, he actived it. once he did, the puppet's eyes glowed blue as they came to life. it looked at Sora before it bowed respectfully,

"this one seems the master." the puppet said in a human-like tone, Sora looked at the puppet for a moment before falling into deep thought.

'the world is put together with 24 letters, each path is only 24 letters, runemaster is able to pretty much hack the world to gain across to program something. but there are some things that are hard to hack and gain the power to program. this is a unique way of seeing it, but with the XP I just got from realizing this, I should be on the right track' Sora thought seeing how he jumped from level 2, to level 4 with that thought,

but before he could think, even more, Elder Mo suddenly flashed in front of him, he looked at Sora as if he was looking at a treasure he wanted to still and throw into his basement. Sora felt chills looking at that look, he was only 13 years old

"Great, you're a genius. you didn't only break through to level 2 body tempering, you can understand such things..." he said with bright eyes before he thought of something,

"you're perfect for the way of the sword," he said as he disappeared and returned with a tree branch. his energy gathered at his fingertip, and with a wave, the tree branch was cut many times until it looked like a sword.

he threw the sword at Sora, who caught it. he looked at Sora with bright eyes, so far he had been training with Sora in martial arts... well, it was more of Sora training him. he had improved his martial arts skills to a whole new stage because of Sora.

it's not like he was trying to use Sora to improve his swordsmanship or anything... no, not at all, that would be too low of him... he just wanted to train Sora. the only true path in this world is the sword.

Sora was speechless slightly while holding the sword. but his speechlessness slowly disappeared as disgust towards the sword slowly grew within his mind. Sora was confused, but he felt as if using something other than his fist in battle was an act for cowards.

Sora thought for a moment, before he went through the 6 Arm Azure cultivation art, after a moment he understood what happened. the Azure disdained weapons, the only weapon they needed was their fist. their fist alone shall slaughter all things under the heavens,

Sora's arm shook slightly while holding the sword, he thought for some time before he smiled, if he master the sword would it now help him cover up the fact he was not an azure? suppressing the feeling deep down within his heart, Sora closed his eyes slightly.

'let's see... what have I learned in the way of the sword from anime?' Sora thought, Sora realized that taking a skill and trying to turn it into something he easily understood would give him more XP, since he was a huge anime fan back on earth, shouldn't he try and do something like that

Sora thought for some time before he slowly opened his eyes, the old man seeing Sora holding his sword, stepped forward, and his sword swung towards Sora, who quickly jumped backward,

the old man had a metal sword, while he had a wooden sword. did the old man feel no shame? but Sora snorted and shot forward, his eyes were sharp as he listened to the wooden sword in his hands, and dodging the old man's sword wings, Sora swung his sword towards the old man,

but Sora had no skills in the way of the sword, he was just swinging the sword, the old man also noticed this, of course, even Sora knew this. so he was forcing the old man's movement, trying to learn something from him

seconds later, the old man's eyes widened as Sora's movement began to be more refined. his footwork changed, as the same foot works with martial arts couldn't be used with the sword, at the same time, he began to hold the sword better.

Sora pretty much reflected the old man, the only thinking lacking the deep knowledge within the sword the old man held. but even so, Sora didn't look like a normal human, he was like someone who had trained in the way of the sword for a long time at this moment,

minutes went by, and Sora slowly began to have that knowledge of the sword engraved into him, although he was copying the old man, he was also comprehending the old man's movement, but he was only copying.

[new abilities [Swordsman] has been unlocked]

Sora seeing this new ability quickly bought it for 50,000 SP, upon getting this, the XP quickly started coming in. Sora easily leveled this up to level 2.

for those who are considering how it's so easy to do this, once the growth rate leveled up to level 2, it increased the number of XP Sora gained by 10 times, so it was easy for Sora to quickly level things up. it also lowered the number of sub-skills each ability had

upon reaching level two, the old man's eyes shrank slightly, Sora was no longer copying him but began to walk a new and more profound path.

"their many paths a sword can take... Precise, block, cut, counter, Deflection, Slash.. a perfect sword shouldn't limit you in any of these." Sora said softly while looking at the wooden sword, this sword could do all of this, the basic outline for a sword, yet it was perfect. it was no trying to show off or look cool,

Sora smiled slightly, this would be his sword, holding it tightly, Sora shot towards the old man who quickly stepped forward to clash with Sora. Sora no longer feared a clash of the sword, he knew smoothly deflected the force from the old man's sword, while moving in to attack,

the old man was forced backward for some time, his eyes glowing slightly in excitement, this brat was a genius... no, saying he was a genius was looking down upon him. he stopped holding back and used his swordsmanship to the fullest, and so the two began trading blows.

but a few seconds later, Sora leveled up to level 3, and his swordsmanship reached a new level once more, Sora easily saw the old man's weaknesses and began to target them all. forcing the old man back none stop. but the old man learned as the fight went on, removing these weaknesses and slowly regaining his footing.

soon, Sora reached level 4, once this level was gained, a unique sword aura covered Sora's sword. the old man's eyes shank slightly. Excitement filled his eyes, he just saw the birth of sword intent before his eyes.

what was the sword's intent? sword intent was something that the truly gifted swordsman have, with this, they can cut steel like butter. their sword would cut what they wish, and their sword would remain.

'sword intent? I see, with this even the uncuttable can be cut. but it's not used to only sharpen the sword, it can strengthen the body, the sword, and many other things.' Sora thought as he looked at the sword in his hands for some time, he could hear the sword, it will become a true sword.

at the same time, he could hear the sword within the old man, wanting to bath within his sword intent, if it could bath within it, then it could grow and become with a will of its own.

"..." the old man looked at Sora for some time before he smiled slightly, he looked at the sky for a moment before he pulled out a scroll and threw it towards Sora.

"don't let people see that technique too much, it's the reason why I was badly injured. use it only if you have no other choice." He said seriously, Sora looked at the scroll and looked to see what was within it.

a sword technique was within, but only the first part, it was called the Sword King art, before this art all swords would bow before one as if they saw their king. this art would allow one to face all swordsmen without fear, as all swords under the heaven would bow before them, and even turn on their master.

"I was pretty much crippled and couldn't cultivate it, since I recovered... I couldn't cultivate this," he said with a smile, Sora was stunned for a moment.

if he remembers correctly, there was a legendary being in the past known as the Sword King, from the legends told and knowledge he gained from reading the books, this person was the number one swordsman to have ever appeared. he opened up a new path in way fo the sword.

a path so high that to this day, no one could reach it. he was so far above the current era, that it left everyone having a deep respect for him. at the name of the sword King, swordsmen all over the world would go crazy

'This allows one to cultivate sword intent? it says that letter down the road, it grows pointless, but what if that was changed? what is sword will? what is sword heart?" Sora stretched his head slightly while looking at the information in the scroll, it talked about the sword will, and the sword heart, but it didn't go into deep detail about this.

the first part was all about strengthening one sword's intent, forming a perfect foundation for one sword. the Sword King art speaks of walking this path as if one was creating a sword, the sword's intent was the layout the sword would take, so it should be perfect.

Sora looked at this and was hit with enlightenment, Sora's sword intent went chaotic, and the old man jumped backward slightly as he watched on in shock as the ground around Sora turned to dust. Sora's clothing along with his mask was also turned to dust, leaving the old man stunned, as Sora stood there butt naked.

'When did he get so handsome?' The old man thought before shaking his head and looking away, why was he looking at a guy like that?

'level 6 just from understanding this?' Sora thought as he looked at his palm, his sword intent had reached a new level. with a look, Sora could shoot it from his eyes, and with a swing of the finger, he could kill someone miles away, he was in shock at this and also happy that he had a long-range attack

Sora's intent could now gather and take the form of a sword, or simply cover the sword allowing the sword to reach new heights.

[swordsman] gave Sora a unique ability as well, within his hands everything was a sword. be it a leaf, or stick. of course, he would not be able to use his skills to the fullest, as he would need the perfect sword to do this. and the wooden stick in his hands was perfect for that.