Let’s become monks!

"You're really good…"

"That endurance of yours isn't too bad."

"Thanks, it's one of my redeeming qualities."

Standing to one side, Suki was looking at Genji with a mildly sweaty face. On the other hand, Genji was sweating a bit more and he felt very happy right now.

Just an hour of sparring with Suki and his <Martial Arts> was already at level 15. Although it's leveling speed was slower than the time he was hitting Aang, it was still a quick way to level up his skills.

Suki blocked and parried every attack of his, making it difficult for any of his attacks to land a hit. Just attempting an attack on someone of a higher level still made his skill levels rise.

If the attack landed, he'd be even more ecstatic.

"It seems like you also have some talent in Martial arts," said Suki as she shook her hands a little, finally feeling a little pain from blocking and redirecting Genji's attacks. "Looks like your endurance isn't the only good thing."

Genji smiled and said, "Gee, thanks!"

Rolling her eyes, Suki said, "Don't get too full of yourself."

"No way! I can barely handle seeing my handsome self in my reflections," said Genji, smiling and nodding his head with closed eyes.

Pa!

Punching Genji in the stomach, Suki giggled, "Stop joking around."

Rubbing his stomach in pain, Genji looked at Suki, feeling wronged.

'Damn… am I in a toxic relationship?'

"Okay, let's stop here for now," said Suki, feeling a little tired from standing around and sparring with Genji.

"What are we going to do now?"

Stretching his body a little, Genji turned to Suki and wondered what she had planned now.

Suki pondered for a second, "I originally planned to have us meditate for a few minutes, but the sun is already heading down and I need to return to the girls to instruct them for a while."

Genji nodded, "So, why were we going to meditate?"

"Hm? What do you mean why?" Suki looked at Genji with a confused look on her face before looking at Genji with a skeptical look on her face. "You mean you've never meditated?"

Shaking his head, Genji wondered why he would need to meditate.

It's not like there's anything special to meditation besides just sitting in place and doing nothing, right?

"Mediating has a lot of perks," Suki said, a little astonished that Genji didn't know that.

"Perks?"

As a skill, maybe.

No matter how Genji saw it, he felt like Meditation was nothing more but a waste of time.

Shaking her head, Suki felt a little disappointed.

"Well whatever, one day you'll understand."

Turning around, Suki went over to the group of Kyoshi Warriors standing straight and in groups as they waited for Suki's command.

"I'll talk to you later," said Suki with a small wave of her hand before focusing on the group of Kyoshi Warriors.

Genji sighed and scratched his neck a little before sitting down on the ground.

'Meditation, huh?'

Thinking about it, Genji decided that he might as well check what type of benefits the Meditation skill could grant him.

Whether they would end up being good or trash effects, he should see what they were before continuing to talk about it.

Sitting down on the floor, Genji closed his eyes and began to 'meditate'.

He didn't know much about it, what he believed was the main thing was to clear his mind. With that goal in mind, Genji tried to calm himself down and tried to envision a blank mind.

Whilst calming himself down, Genji felt his skill <Rest> activate and aid in helping him calm down and relax his body.

…

"Let's get ready for our afternoon patrol," said Suki as she strapped her weaponized fans to her waist.

Gathering the Kyoshi Warriors after they prepare themselves, Suki nodded and had them exit the Training Hall one by one.

"Hm?"

Whilst making sure ask the Kyoshi Warriors were well equipped and ready to patrol, Suki noticed a figure at the corner of her eyes.

Looking over curiously, she noticed that it was Genji who was attempting to meditate. She saw him furrow his eyebrows and giggled a little.

"What's the matter, leader?"

Suki heard a teasing voice behind her and blushed. She turned around with a nervous expression and looked at the vice-leader, "Come on, let's go already."

"Okay~!"

The Vice Leader chuckled and followed behind Suki with a smile before closing the doors of the Training Hall.

"Will he be alrighty alone in there?" asked the Vice Leader as she gazed over at Suki who was walking quickly.

Suki paused and faced the Vice Leader, "He will be fine. He's just going to be meditating. Even if he does do something, we can take him punish him for it."

"Hmm…. Alrighty!"

The Vice Leader finally gave in and stood next to Suki with a bright smile on her face.

"How did the morning patrol go today, Hana?" Suki questioned the Vice Leader.

"Pretty normal. Everything went smooth and we inspected the boat of the man you've been accompanying all this while."

Hana put a finger to her chin and responded shortly after.

"So, what do you think?"

Hana put on a serious expression and said, "It's a smash boat from the Fire Nation. It was made using the technique of the Fire Nation."

Nodding, Suki didn't seem that surprised, "Genji told me that the Fire Nation uses a technique that only they could pull off with their firebending."

"Aren't we're going to question him?" asked Hana, feeling suspicious of Genji.

Suki shook her head, and said, "I already questioned him earlier and he told me that he had taken the boat from the Fire Nation."

"Did he tell you how?"

Suki nodded.

"He told me that he was being forced to work for them like most people from the Earth Nation. He and the Earth Nation people had riled up together to escape the ship and take some boats to flee."

Hana had a skeptical look on her face but decided to believe Suki since she is better at recognizing someone lying.

It didn't always work, but it was better than anything since it sometimes helped when pirates would try to attack them. Occasionally pirates would try to raid some nearby villages for some food, but thanks to the Kyoshi Warriors, they would fail most of the times.

"That's surprising, so what happened?" asked Hana after deciding to believe what Suki said.

"They managed to take over the boat and take the Fire Nation Soldiers as prisoners. Genji told me that he wanted to go separate from the Earth Nation since he's a wanderer at heart. Leaving the ship with enough food, Genji took the boat to the nearest land," said Suki before revealing a look of pity on her face.

"Then, he recounted how he must have lost way in the sea because he never managed to find land. Wandering in the sea until he ran out of food and water, Genji was left stranded in the middle of the boundless ocean…"

Hana felt frustrated after hearing Suki recount Genji's fake story, "The Earth Nation people must have tricked him!"

"…"

Suki stayed quiet and thought about Genji and how he is.

"No. He's sharp, he wouldn't be tricked that easily. Genji was most likely pulled into a current and lost his way. A small boat like the one he was on wouldn't have been strong enough to break through that current," mentioned Suki, presenting Hana her evidence as to why Genji wasn't fooled.

"Then he's just one sharp fool," said Hana with a light smile.

Suki shook her head and said with a joking smile, "You wouldn't do any better either."

Both women continued to talk together as they walked through the their designated area, making sure nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Everyone halt!"

Suddenly, everyone turned quiet and tense as they kept their distance from the sound of nearby footsteps. Nodding at each other, the Kyoshi Warriors quickly dived to the side and hid behind trees and bushes.

Some skilled tree climbers went up some trees and remained perched up there.

Da… da… da…

Some, a couple passed by holding hands and laughing together.

"Relax, it's just the lovebirds from the neighboring village," said Hana as she jumped off a tree with ease.

Looking at the passing couple, Suki felt a little jealousy. She gazed at them for a couple seconds and then just turned around.

"Ooo~ Suki is envious of the couple ~," teased the Vice Leader Hana in a loud voice, letting the other Kyoshi Warriors hear her. "I'm sure you can capture that new guy's heart."

Suki rolled her eyes with a smile on her face and said, "Enough, let's focus back on the patrol."

The women giggled and followed Suki to continue their patrolling. Along the way the women continued to tease and talk to Suki.

"Soo~, you've been spending a lot of time with that new guy…"

"Yeah yeah! Tell us about him!"

"He's so hot! Maybe you can introduce me to him!"

Suki smiled, "Maybe I should increase the intensity of the training instead. Who knows, Genji might notice you girls when you're sweating and panting hard."

The girls shivered and quickly got quiet, instead of feeling scared however, they just continued smiling and giggling.

Suki didn't mind and just continued to lead the patrol long squad around.

"Hm… nothing out of the ordinary today. Let's go back girls. This marks another successful patrol," said Suki as she led the girls back to the Training Hall.

After doing a full round of patrolling, Suki arrived right when the next patrol squad headed out.

Nodding at them, Suki took her small group of five, including her, to the Training Hall.

Sliding the door open, Suki was surprised to see Genji still meditating.

'It's been three hours already,' thought Suki in surprise.

Watching Genji from afar, Suki was amazed to see him so diligent.

'I wonder if he knows what meditating is for…'

…

<Ding! Learned new skill!>

An hour into meditating and Genji finally received a skill after meditating for so long!

Looking at the new skill in his head, Genji smiled happily.

[<Meditation > (Lvl. 1)]

Nodding at the new skill, Genji mentally clicked on the skill to see its abilities and effects.

With an expectant gaze, Genji's eyes began to shine.

[Effects are mediocre and will instead hinder sleep.]

Fu-!

Just as Genji was about to start cussing and cursing his luck he saw two more system prompts appear.

[System is joking around!]

[Active Skill

Effects: Slow down metabolism, not needing to eat or drink water for long periods of time whilst meditating. Feel closer to Nature and enhance Spirituality.

<Martial Arts> levels up once every 5 hours in accumulated meditation. Levels up once per week.

Any skill related to the mind, soul, or spirit will randomly level up every hour of continuous meditation. Only two levels every week.

Speeds up energy recovery. Relieves mental fatigue and can substitute for sleep.

Random skill will increase by one level every 5 hours, accumulated, once per day.

Gain +1 Spirit every 24 hours of accumulated meditation.]

Genji's eyes almost rolled back when he looked at the long description of <Meditation>.

'Shit! Since when is <Meditation> so ridiculously strong?!'

Reading the description, Genji began to feel great about having tried to begin meditating. If he had this skill when he first arrived, his skills might have been of a higher level by now.

Once he read the last part of the effects of the <Meditation > skill, Genji felt a little surprised.

'There was another start besides the only three?'

As if to answer his question, Genji saw his data panel appear before his eyes.

[Name: Genji

Level: 0 (2 / 5)

Power: 7

Vitality: 6

Energy: 2

Spirit: 1 (Average Human 0)

Stat Points: 0 (+4 per Level)

Experience Storage: 0 (Can increase Character Level or Skill Level.)

Class Skills-

<Adept Poleman> (Lvl. 20)

<Adept Firebender> (Lvl. 34)

<Novice Martial Artist> (Lvl. 15)

Passive Skills-

<Acting> (Lvl. 13)

<Danger Sense> (Lvl. 19)

<Navigation> (Lvl. 25)

<Resting> (Lvl. 20)

Storage: (Common) Airbender Staff/Glider x1]

Looking at the Spirit stat skeptically, Genji mentally clicked on the stat to reveal its information.

[Related to the mind, soul, and spirit.

The higher the spirit stat, the stronger the mind, soul, and spirit. Helps maintain a calm mind, strengthen resistance to attacks to the mind, soul, and spirit and can instead reflect the attacks. Can help see the supernatural and helps connect to Nature and the Spirituality.

Speeds up energy recovery. Resistance to possession. Some skills can make use of the spirit stat to attack the mind, soul, and spirit.]

Holy shit…