48 Techniques

One year after Thirteen's mission to hunt Lukas Junill. Within a large empty hall of the Clarke Estate's primary mansion, the eight generation, now a few members shorter than the preceding year, were engaged in learning to dance.

This was one of many new subjects that supposedly every noble child learnt, along with table manners, singing, playing music, literacy, hunting, and for the women, housekeeping and needlework.

The children weren't required to become experts in these traditional subjects, after all their primary purpose was to act as tools and weapons of the kingdom, not to simply imitate nobility. But they were required to have a basic passing grade in each of these subjects in case they ever needed to blend in among those crowds.

Some among the eighth generation had proven themselves quite talented at these studies and had been taken in by the related instructors to be privately tutored, allowing them to develop those skills to a higher level.

Thirteen was not one of those people. While he could adapt to these things and learn them given time, he had little desire to improve the skills. He couldn't help but find it a waste of his time.

But nevertheless, he made the effort to learn what was taught, and had proven himself competent at learning most of them, though not particularly skilled.

Dancing was perhaps an exception, as Thirteen found it actually enjoyable. It had a sort of flow to it that he liked. The same way he enjoyed combat when he could zone out and let it happen.

Not all of his friends were the same in this regard though. Nine and Forty-five had proven themselves quite competent in all the traditional studies, even being skilled in a few. On the other hand, Ten really enjoyed singing and dancing but was quite bad at the latter, and Four… well to call him a wreck would be putting it mildly. His heavy feet thumped on the ground as he moved, as if all his skill and control exhibited in battle vanished the moment the music started.

"Care to help me up?" A voice interrupted Thirteen's thoughts as he watched Four struggling in the distance.

"Aha, sorry. Come here." He helped Ten, who had fallen, back to her feet.

Thirteen had definitely put effort into learning to dance. After all, what would Ten do without someone to help her? Besides, dance class was always more enjoyable than the others.

The two continued to dance, Ten showing steady improvement as they did. He couldn't blame her, they were required to wear 'proper' clothes as they danced, and Ten's dress, beautiful though it may be, looked so impractical it made Thirteen claustrophobic just thinking about it.

When the class finally came to an end, and those playing the instruments stopped, the students were led out of the great hall and told to go to the library.

Thirteen knew what was coming. They all did. Nicholas had informed them that the second level of the library that had always remained locked off to them would soon open, and they would all be given the chance to choose new techniques.

These weren't cultivation arts like his Grand Life Tome, that included methods of cultivation and dependent techniques that relied on that method, but were instead individual, standalone techniques that anyone could learn so long as they met the requirements.

And they would get to choose for themselves. Thirteen could barely contain his excitement.

When they had all made their way into the library, Head Instructor Nicholas, as well as Instructor Diores were both waiting for them. They let the students quiet down before Nicholas spoke.

"In a minute, you will be exposed to hundreds of copies of combat and utility techniques. From among them, I want each of you to choose no more than four. I want you to consider the following before making your choice. Are you able to reliably learn it? Will it synergize with your primary cultivation art? Will it see regular use? And is it something you are lacking in your current capabilities? You will have other chances to expand your arsenal, so I recommend you focus on making the smarter choices today, and leave experimentation for the future, understood?"

He looked over the class one by one before continuing

"Instructor Diores and myself will review every technique you choose and judge you accordingly. Show me your self control."

When he finished, Instructor diores stepped aside to make way for the children before dismissing them.

"Go on then."

Immediately the class made their way for the stairs, walking just fast enough to not be considered a jog.

Thirteen was swept away in the crowd and quickly lost track of his friends.

'Oh well, I'll find them when it all calms down.' he thought as he turned his excited gaze back to the front.

The second story of the library had the center of its floor cut out to become a balcony that overlooked the central lounge of the first floor. Yet despite that, there was still an incredible amount of bookshelves to be found, every one among them filled with books of varying size.

Thirteen approached one at random to look and realized that there were a great many copies of the same techniques, likely in case some of them wanted the same technique.

Thirteen moved away from the section he was in currently as it appeared to be solely qi techniques. He moved around the second floor reading the signs to find out where each type of technique could be found. They were broken into three primary categories: Body Cultivation, Qi Cultivation, and Other. Within each of those could be found sub-categories such as Swordplay, Footwork, Movement, Hand-to-hand, Spearmanship, Mystic Arts, Elemental Arts, and so on. There was truly an incredible amount of techniques, and Thirteen immediately understood why aside from dance class there would be no others today. This would take a while.

'Head Instructor said to make smart choices. Let's think about what I don't need first. I don't need healing or sustainability, I have that in spades. I don't need any more energy enhancements to my combat; Withering and Lifebringer's flames are plenty, and any more would just complicate things. I shouldn't need any perceptive abilities, lifesight improves with every step of cultivation.'

He continued to pace through the rows of shelves as he thought.

'What do I have going for me? My attributes are all physical with Healing, Strength, Agility, and Control. I can move quickly and fiercely, and my control over my own body is impeccable, so a technique that makes the most of those would be beneficial. Control especially should do wonders if I can find something complimentary.

'I also have a lot of lifeforce if I can find anything to make the most of that.

'Then what am I lacking? My footwork is great, but it lacks variability and can be predictable if an opponent tries to target it. I lack ranged capabilities, and ways to close the distance to my enemies, though my enhanced agility can make up for the latter somewhat.'

Thirteen started exploring the Body Cultivation category. He found a lot of techniques that focused on making one's body a replacement for traditional weaponry and couldn't help but think back to his broken longsword and un-retrievable greatsword.

Among these were the Golden Sun Physique and the Indomitable Martial Body, and others of the sort.

'Most of these require cultivating external forces though' He noted as he flipped through them. While there was nothing wrong with that, one had to be careful about cultivating too many forces, lest there be an incompatibility they're unaware of. There was also the issue that a body could only absorb so much external energies in a day. This was why one could not cultivate endlessly. So if he tried to cultivate another external energy, it would cut into the amount of lifeforce he could absorb each day.

Putting the book back on the shelf he continued to look around.

In the end, he found a book with a more mundane name. Most of the techniques here had audacious, exaggerated names like those two he had flipped through before, but according to what he knew, it was a beginners trap to be lured in by a name.

Any technique could be cultivated to the point of being "absolute" or "indomitable", but it depended on the cultivator rather than the technique, and certainly had nothing to do with its name.

The book he held now was called the Steel Body technique. Flipping through it, Thirteen found that it did not require the refinement of external energies, but it was a technique for training the body through grueling and painful exercise. The diagrams showed a man bashing parts of his body against trees, followed by stones and then steel. The technique promised that if trained arduously it could condition one's body to the point that they could withstand blades and arrows as if made of steel. It also allowed one's hands to be refined as natural weapons, capable of shredding through armor.

It seemed one had to follow a peculiar breathing technique that would activate their body in such a way that it became receptive to the harsh conditioning of the technique and would reinforce itself with each injury.

Thirteen kept this book with him as he continued to explore.

After many hours of searching, with sore eyes and an exhausted mind, Thirteen finally made his choice. He had to abandon many desired techniques as he lacked the time to train them all, and eventually reduced the number to three.

They were the Steel Body, Sanguine Control, and Unhindered Motion techniques.

The first was for strengthening his defense and forging his body into a weapon. While the Grand Life Tome would improve his every physical aspect with each stage he cultivated, a more specialized technique like the Steel Body would only improve on that foundation.

The Sanguine Control technique was a mystical one made solely for augmenters. It allowed one to bond their will with their own blood to gain increasing control over it to perform all manner of strange techniques. The art required one to have refined their blood in the fundamental realm and would further benefit from those whose blood contained power.

Thirteen took this technique because it would synergize well with his healing attribute and his Grand Life Tome, especially when he reached the next stage of his cultivation.

Finally was the Unhindered Motion technique. Unlike the others, this book was, in a word, massive. It was as wide as a grown man's forearm was long, and as thick as a fist. Stranger still, despite its massive amount of content, the book held no mystical arts or supernatural powers to learn, it was simply a massive collection of fighting forms, footwork, and maneuvers that make up the 'Unhindered Motion fighting style'.

The style was all about perceiving everything around you in combat and using all things to your advantage to move freely with inhibited momentum through a battle regardless of whether you face one foe or a hundred. The book was filled with scenarios and examples, and collected everything beneficial to the fighting style. It also included a variety of physical and mental exercises to improve one's agility, dexterity, multitasking, perception, battle intuition, and more in order to properly control your surroundings and make the most of every opportunity.

Thirteen considered it a massive 'how to' guide on being a one man army, and doubted he would be able to digest everything it had to say in a lifetime. But nonetheless, it truly appealed to him. Rather than the mystical control of blood or the withering of a foe's lifeforce, the thought of dominating his surroundings in battle through pure skill and martial control left him fascinated.

When he presented these three books to Nicholas, the man nodded at the first two, and stopped at the third. He looked up to lock eyes with Thirteen, where he stared for a while before opening his mouth.

"I'll give you a year. If you cannot achieve anything with this technique after that long I will remove it from you."

Breathing in deeply, Thirteen nodded. "Thank you sir."