Weapon Of Choice

"Secondary what?" Mateus tilted his head subconsciously.

"You know, like, Alchemists, Array Masters, Talisman Inscribers, Beast Tamers, Spiritual Cooks… Secondary Occupations, you follow?" Monte asked.

"Sounds to me like all those jobs would be pretty important in and of themselves." Mateus grumbled, "Why would they be called Secondary Occupations?"

"You're kidding, right?" Monte was so aghast, his pose broke down. "Obviously, as Cultivators, no matter who you are, your Primary Occupation will always be Cultivation. After all, you can't exactly progress in any of the Secondary Occupations without constantly increasing your Cultivation Base..."

"I see," Mateus nodded understandingly. "But… Do I really have to take on a Secondary Occupation? I can understand the need to learn Martial Art and become a better fighter, but wouldn't having to divide my time between cultivation, martial training, and developing a Secondary Occupation be too inefficient? As things stand, I'd rather just focus on Cultivation and Martial Arts and just look for resources for others to make useful for me."

"Hmm, I guess I could arrange for you to avoid having to take up a Secondary Occupation," Monte said, much to Mateus' joy. "However, I still want you to take the final Assessment seriously and see if you have any talent for the various Secondary Occupations."

Seeing Mateus' expression rapidly darken in distaste, Monte added, "Cheer up, kid. Neither the Sect nor I will force you to do anything you don't want to do. The whole Secondary Occupation business is mostly to the benefit of those with explicit talent. After all, if you're good enough at any one Secondary Occupation, you can forget the whole lecture I gave with regard to fighting over resources."

"If anything," Monte smirked, "others will be lining up to give you countless spiritual treasures and favors if you're talented enough in one of the various cultivation crafts to make it worth their time."

"Very interesting," Mateus said evenly. "Guess we'll just have to see if my 'talent' can hold up," he added as he began to walk towards the door.

"Hopefully," Monte suddenly spoke causing Mateus to stop, "You'll be like me and favor using flags as weapons."

With an exaggerated twitch, Mateus said, "R-right."

As he finally left the room and was out of Monte's sight, he internally asked himself, 'How the fuck do you use a flag as a weapon? Are there Flag Martial Arts? Monte calls himself the Sect Guardian, so he should be pretty powerful, but… Flags? Really?'

Finding himself teleported to another room, Mateus pinched his nose as he muttered, "You have got to be kidding." Across the room, he could see weapons of every kind affixed to the wall.

There were close combat weapons littered with blades, short as knives, long as swords, affixed to staff like spears… There were dense and heavy blunt-damage dealing weapons like maces, flails, and war hammers. There were even miscellaneous combination weapons, like mornigstars and chain-sickles.

But then, right next to the normal weapons… There were completely absurd "weapons" that Mateus couldn't even fathom what must have crossed their creator's minds at the time of their conception.

"There really is a fucking flag… There are several in fact," Mateus walked over to the other side of the room and picked up what looked like an oversized, meter-long awl that had a flag attached to its non-pointed end.

"This is called a Safety Pin? What?" He was half tempted to just throw the thing like the joke he perceived it to be, but refrained from doing so to not incur the wrath of the "Safety Pin's" owner.

Serendipitously, Mateus turned to see a certain scroll had begun to roll from the pile of presumed Martial Arts techniques atop the table below the weapons. Eyes narrowed, he picked up the scroll and—

"Oi, don't knock it till you try it..." Monte's voice whispered as if it were right next to Mateus' ear.

"Motherfuck!" Mateus jumped once again, but was considerably less annoyed and more frightened to find that there was nor evidence that Monte had ever even stepped foot in the room with him.

'Fucking high level Cultivators and their bullshit abilities,' he groaned internally before consuming the scroll.

[!Status!

…

Skills:

Name: Martial Art: Foundational Flag Art

Grade: Mortal

Level: 0

Type: Major Flag, Minor Spear

Description: The most basic of all instruction guides for operating Flag-type artifacts. Comes with additional information on how to use a spear when not operating a Flag artifact's abilities.

Current Effect: No effect at level 0]

"Oh? Oh… Oh! Holy fucking shit, Flags are low-key overpowered," Mateus jaw dropped as he digested the information present in the Foundational Flag Art.

Apparently, Flags were one of the primary weapons of choice for those with talents in the field of either Inscribing or Formations. The Flags themselves were more of a canvas which could hold talisman or array effects either permanently, or, if the Flag users were capable of it, reconfigurable for on the fly effect changes.

For example, in the Foundational Flag Art, there were recorded instances of people being able to load up their flags with additional weapons, supercharged prepared energy attacks, and even inscribed effects that could empower the user, not unlike a buffing spell.

"Of course, for it to be overpowered, I'd need to invest time learning either Talisman Inscription or Array Formations," Mateus mumbled as he shook his head and began to haphazardly consume Martial Arts scrolls left and right.

"Hmm..." After consuming all the scrolls, Mateus was at a loss.

'All of these weapons, even the ones that initially seemed like a joke, have their own benefits,' he thought. His initial preconceived notions from having come from Earth were all void in this new magically enhanced world, where even a thumb tack could atomize a planet if used in powerful enough hands.

'This all boils down to, once again… What kind of Cultivator do I want to fight as? Is it better to slice and dice shit up with swords and shit, or maybe flatten all my obstacles into pancakes with a mace? Is traditional better than unorthodox? Hmm...'

Mateus thought for all of ten seconds before he opened his eyes that shined with clarity as he went over to pick his weapon of choice.