Chapter 6 : Grinding is hard, boy.

It's me, Hibiki Kuze again. You might be wondering what I'm doing right now. Well it's simple. I'm training so I can get those wondeful rewards Tatsu would give if I completed his quest. That happened last week. And those books grasped my attention, y'see ?

That's why, now, at 5:24 AM, I decided to get a morning routine in. And I started by practicing my <Beginner Tier : Brawling> and <Intermediate Tier : Footwork>. I have a special type of martial art in mind, and I won't get out of it.

I, now, stand infront of a practice dummy.

Practicing combos with both my arms and legs is the first step to even grasp it.

So I did a specific mouvement routine. First I punched it with a direct from my right, then a direct from my left. After that, I tried a right hook from my right, but I put to much strength into it, and I felt my waist getting stiffer at the same time.

"Yep, that hurt more that expected." I said as I felt pain coming into my body. And it definitely meant that I did something wrong. I went back into position after a short break, but I noticed Mummy Akira, standing there menacingly. I fell on my butt.

"What are you doing here ?" I asked, wondering why he was in the training room.

"I finally got my neck healed, I just have to avoid using my arm. So for now, I have a permanent leg day." He said, happy to be free from the bandage.

"Anyway, I never thought you would be here so soon this morning. Finally got your objective set ?" He asked with curious gaze.

"Well, I know nothing about this world, so I thought it would be good to explore it. But I need strength for that. So training early is good." I said with determination.

"That's a good objective, and you got resolve too." He said with a smile on his face, but he suddenly became serious and said: "But the way you punch and kick is wrong."

"What do you mean ? It is that easy, right ?" I said.

"No, far from it ! Look, can you look at me practicing on this punching bag." I just shrugged and sat down on a nearby place.

Akira started a kick. But I could see that the stiffness I felt earlier, he felt it too. Then he kicked again, but the shock was so powerful it almost blew off the punching bag out of it's hinges.

"Holy-" I was shocked to see this muchc power from a kick.

"See ? Now tell me, what did I do ?" He then stared at me curiously.

"Well...I noticed that your hips moved a lot more and you 'folded' your back a bit. Maybe it as something to do with it ?" I stated, thinkful about my own word and scratching my chin.

"That's right." He said, visibly satified by my answer. "Although you didn't use the right term, what I did is basically using the very basis of all martial arts : Rotation." He then pulled a mini writing board marker from a nearby desk and started to sketch an human body doing a martial art pose on the board.

"Rotation is the thing you MUST learn to use as a combattant. Then there is other things but for now this is enough." He then placed the marker back on the desk and widened his eyes as if he just remebered something.

"That I think about it, do you know if you have a pre-registered Class or not ?" I answered no since it's obvious to me that if I don't know even the term, it means I probably don't.

"Well let's check that so we know if you are a Combattant, Mage, Support or Special." He said to me while he guided me to another room. I looked at him with a questioning stare.

He started explaning his point the best he could with a thinking fate. "Let's see, to explain it accurately...Combattants are those who usually fight in close combat with magic, and Mages are those who usually fight with spells and magic glyphs in long range combat. Support are those who are specialized in things like healing, giving buffs, debuffs, or overall help with the survival chances of a team."

"Then there is Special..." He paused for a moment then went back to talking : "Special are those who don't belong to the three first categories. The problem is that is that the definition for that term is as clear as the definition for a continent : Not at all."

He took a more serious face and said : "But if you are in the Special Category, it often means that you have a Unique Skills"

"Unique Skills ?" I said questioningly at the unknown term.

"Before that, you need to know that Skill are spread in different catrgories themselves." He stated. However, I didn't notice that he stared at me, definitely confused at something. "First, you have :

Active Skill. It's those skill you have to activate. Simple.

Then you have Spell Skill. It's a skill only using magic, and always in the offensive side of the specter .

Then Support Skill. Those are skill means to help yourself or bother your enemy. Those skill are a bit rare, just a bit.

Healing Skill. Ah yes, the skill that automaticaly makes you a 'Pseudo Noble'. That's because you either use the Healing Element, a rare one, or are affiliated with the Holy Principality, which is...Protective to say the least.

Binding / Trap / Sealing Skill are a fucking hindrance, even more to a Combattant like me. I think those are pretty self explanatory.

Technique Skills. A skill you earned by mastering a martial art or a family dojo training rigurously. Maybe the most honest way to earn a skill.

Passive Skill. Skill that are always active, and, most of the time, unable to be disactivated.

Hereditary Skill. A skill you can have if you belong to a specific bloodline.

Unique Skill. A skill that is unique to an individual. I doubt there is a way to copy them. Oh, and it can belong to any of the previously quoted categories."

We finally arrived to the room he wanted to show me. He first taped a code on a leyboard on the wall, a code Fenrir pressed me to learn at heart as it could be important later on. When I entered, I wasn't surprised to meet with a room full of state of art tech. Hell, it even had a holographic screen.

"Now that I think about it, a reunion between the members will take place during evening. Do you want to listen to it ?" He said. Me, not seeing any reason to miss it, answered : "Sure, I just hope it won't be disappointing." with a smirk. "Oh, I'm sure you won't be." He answered with a smirk.

"Shall we find your compatibility, even though I already have a idea of the answer." He said as he invited me to put my hand on a machine.

Calm but still a bit nervous, I slowly placed my hand on the panel in front of me. It lit up in blue and I was suprised when I noticed it slowly taking my mana. I looked at Akira, but he showed me a face that made me think that there was nothing to worry about. After a few seconds, the machine glowed now in green.

"It's a Capabilities Mesuring Machine, or called CMM. It can mesure many things. Magic Power, Categories...of even all of your stats if you need to." He affirmed.

"But why use those when we have our panels ?" I said, confused at why we would make such a complicated machine.

"That's a pretty good remark coming from you...You remind me I shouldn't under estimate you..." I couldn't help but puff my chest with pride, but... "And step up your training a little bit.😀"

My face went 😑 at him and he couldn't help but laugh at me. He calmed himself down a bit, and answered the question bugging me since earlier.

"Well, there is a lot of different reasons I could think of. First of them is skills like [Conceal] or [Panel Manipulation], or any skill that allows you to manipulate the truth about you is ineffective aganist this machine. Humanoids can be fooled, but Machines cannot."

I was interested. Then I finally noticed the other this bugging me. This way, he could verify info about me. And I didn't want him to find out about Tatsu. Tatsu didn't want that either.

He fucking slowed down the flow of time around us for a minute for us to find a solution. Then we both remembered that he set it up so it would only mesure my Category as a Elementalist. I breathed out in relief. It seems like nothing wrong will happen.

When the flow of time went back to normal, Akira continued on his lesson like nothing happened.

"And the second big reason I can think of is the Holy Principality." Damn, those guy really want to bother or slaugher  everything alive. "And even then, it as two lower reasons. First one is the fact that before technological progress, the only way to mesure your Affinities or Categories was to go to the church and hope to get what you wanted. As soon as another way was found out, the Pope tried to bring it down, but nobody except fanatics to be happy with this. The Pope gave up, but not without saying 'The world is doomed ! You are all going to hell.'...Say the man who was executed a few days later by woman he abused sexually." I almost laughed at the irony.

"The other one, is basically that the Holy Principality is fetching, a lot less now, anyone with a affinity with the Holy Element or a strong one with the Light. And since everyone can see your statut for the first and last time when you're 5, it's easy to take you away.

And they got what they wanted no matter what, from paying a large sum to killing the parents. Thank god they at least let them away from the Popes. A few of them were...Clingy to the childrens to say the least." I had to think for a bit about what he said, and when I realised what he meant, I slowly got even more disgusted of the Gods.

"But if they are under the Gods, shouldn't they at least WATCH over their 'minions' ?" I said, pissed at their negligence.

"Bold of you to assume they even have the time to care about such problem. In the world, there are things more dangerous than a man with strange fetiches...Even thought they did deal with him. Gods don't act that soon, but when they do, people can't go aganist them." He said while growling and scratching his hair in frustration.

"Anyway," he said with a sigh, "we finally have the results." He said, pushing the button 'End' on the screen. He took a tablet, sat down on the table and invited me to sit on his side by patting a nearby chair with a overly innocent smile. I sweatdropped at this and sat on the chair with a awkward smile.

"Now let's see what you have to offer to this place." He said as he pressed the button 'Analysis Results'. A four-way graphic with the four Categories showed on the tablet. The bars slowly made their way to the symbols representing the four Categories. I didn't care but I secretly wished for a Special and Combattant apparition.

'Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. COME ON.' That was the only thought going through my head.

Finally they all stopped growing and we can now see the results.

Combattant : 100%

Mage : 92%

Support : 78%

Special : 20%

'Ah, I see...' I was disappointed by the results and it showed on my face.

I turned around to see Akira's face and I was surprised. He wasn't disappointed by any means. Even better, he smiled with delight.

"This is good, Hibiki. Seems like training very different styles won't be a problem to you." He said. "What do you mean ?" I said as I asked for a clarification. "Well, what I mean is that I can see that your future problem will be probably being a Jack of all trades.

But you have pretty high compatibility with all categories, even the Special one. With means you could be a Master of All Trades. A ace for us. As for the Special Category, do not be disappointed. Usually this stat appears as 0% or 100%. Whenever you have access to it or not. But if it appears anywhere between those two percentages, it means that it still needs to develop or needs a trigger to appear." I smiled when he told me the good news. I jumped around in excitement while screaming : "LET'S GO !"

Akira smiled sadly, but came back to reality and said : "Guess you will have to train harder." I paused immediatly and looked back at him. His devilish smile appeared on his face again.

I tried to run away to the door, and actually managed to, but after a few meters, I got caught on the legs and tripped. I looked down on my legs and saw a black rope. I looked back up and saw the rope coming out of Akira's forearm.

"Come here !" He said has he dragged me back. But I held my ground by grabbing the ground and holding on it the best I could. Having enough of it, he yanked the rope making me let go of the ground. Realising what is happening, I cried crocodile tears in anticipation. When I got close enough to him, he grabbed me.