Teasing

After he had chosen his techniques, Thirteen was asked to wait by those who had also finished. None of his friends were done yet, so he mimicked those around him and simply read through the new manuals as he waited. He started with the Unhindered Motion technique. He was already wary of this choice, now looking at the sheer amount of content once more.

Nevertheless, he had chosen it now and would just have to make it work. The first few pages were not on sword forms, footwork, or scenario training, but were instead the many techniques listed for improving one's ability to handle chaotic situations and to manage many factors at once.

Many of these 'techniques' were no more than extremely simple — albeit difficult — exercises to follow throughout every day. For example, always listen to the conversations around you at every waking moment and try to consciously follow two at once. If there are no conversations, take in whatever you can, for example, boots meeting the ground and the sound of metal clinking, and consider the details that would produce those noises. Is the wearer of the boots male or female? How heavy are they? Do they sound like they're in a rush? Why would they be rushing? What was the source of metal clinking? Was it nearby or far? How far? Is it continuous or did it happen as a result of a single event? What could that event be?

It seemed a totally preposterous notion, being able to focus on so many things at once, but the manual had said that you would not be able to do it concurrently at first. You would instead have to become very, very quick at switching thought processes. For an example:

'The wearer of the boots is likely male by his gait. The metal clinking is the sound of people training with swords in the courtyard. The man in boots is a heavyweight, likely physically strong. The sparring is far, too far to be of importance. The man in boots is rushing, he seems panicked.'

When one can maintain a very rapid switching and processing of two thoughts at once, they should move to three. Meanwhile, whenever meditating, there were practices that involved tracing multiple geometric shapes at once to increase one's ability to multitask mentally. It would start with simple cubes before becoming incredibly sophisticated objects that made full use of the three dimensions they inhabited. At its highest level, the writer of the technique himself no longer knew if he was switching between dozens of thought processes, or if he was truly performing them all concurrently.

Thirteen gulped. That was just one aspect of training the basic mental and physical requirements. There were many more exercises like those and then the sheer amount of combat techniques one needed to master…

'This may have been a bad idea after all.'

Closing his eyes, Thirteen decided to try and put the exercise to use. The book said he would need to do this all day every day to make any serious progress, so now was as good a time as any other.

'Pages are being turned around me and their readers are muttering. Quiet discussions are happening on the second floor's internal balcony. The former are those waiting like me and reading their new manuals. The latter are students discussing their choices.

'To my right, the girl I saw earlier is confused. She keeps going back a page to double check things and muttering to herself. A boy on the balcony is hesitant and his friends are becoming annoyed with his pestering.'

Even just these simple and straightforward thoughts were far slower than he would normally process things. It was like his mind needed a second to play catch up whenever he changed back to the other chain of thought.

'The girl is muttering that she doesn't understand. Her right leg is shaking, probably a habit when she's irritated.

'The boy's friend on the balcony is walking away, the other friend is joining him. The boy scoffed.

'There are footsteps approaching me?' Just like that his thoughts were interrupted as his eyes opened.

"Yo, what the hell is that?" Four asked in a loud voice as he crashed down onto the seat next to him.

Closing the Unhindered Motion manual with a weighty thud, Thirteen lifted the thing to show his friend.

"My next year of suffering."

"Unhindered Motion? Right, I saw that name on the index but never checked it out. Lucky I didn't I suppose."

"What about you? Found anything decent?"

"Take a look" Four said as he handed over a hard book of average width.

'Champion's Might. Another exaggerated name.'

Thirteen flipped through the book and read the basic descriptions in each chapter. It appeared to be a technique that gave real power to ones confidence. It would expose your ego to the reality of battle and nurture it's growth through victory. If one's confidence in themselves and in victory was great, there would be a real, tangible effect to their strength. But on the reverse side, if one was unconfident or even at all hesitant, their power would drop below its average standard. It was a very sharp two sided blade, but it suited Four perfectly.

Four cultivated the Unchained Warrior Art, a body cultivation art that was actually very similar to the Unhindered Motion technique, in that it focused on allowing one to maintain their momentum in every situation. But if the Unhindered Motion was an incredibly skillful technique that focused solely on this aspect, then the Unchained Warrior Art was a brute force method that cultivated the power of ones will and focused on making the practitioner an unstoppable machine of war.

The Champions Might, though extremely risky, was a good fit for both Four's attitude and his cultivation art.

He handed the book back to Four, and looked to the other three in his grasp.

"Anything else important?"

"Just normal stuff. Trying to round out what I can do. You?"

"Same, though one is a bit interesting." He paused for a moment. "But I'll let you know when we spar next."

Four grinned. "Oh? And when will that be?"

Returning a toothy smile, Thirteen thought for a moment on the absolute shortest time he would need to become competent at the basics of his two simpler techniques. But just as he was about to reply, Four interrupted.

"Wait, lets do this properly." he said. "One year. We'll fight for number one."

"Perfect. In one year, I will be number one" Thirteen deliberately said it as if speaking to himself.

Four just grinned "I'm sure, just you wait."

It had become an unofficial fact that Four and Thirteen were placed first and second among the combatants of their generation, with Nine at third and Ten at fourth place. At fifth was both Forty-five and Eleven, though which one was unknown.

Eleven had become a lot quieter and looked somewhat grim these days. He devoted an incredible amount of effort into training and was truly very talented with a sword. The problem was that he lacked that most intuitive battle sense that Four and Thirteen had in spades. They enjoyed combat, they could embrace it wholly and that came with a certain proficiency you couldn't exhibit if you only enjoyed practicing sword forms in solitude.

"What's got the two of you so happy?" Nine asked as he approached, four books of his own in hand.

"Nothing much, are the others almost done?" Thirteen asked.

"Forty-five's done, she's just helping Ten narrow down her choices to no more than four."

"Right. I could have sworn my heart broke when I limited myself to three."

"They're just techniques. Nicholas said we can get more in the future." Four said.

"Thank you, someone else who understands," Nine added. "Everyone is so worked up by the books, but it's not like the techniques make one a good fighter."

"What did you grab then?" Thirteen asked.

"Yeah, spill." Four added

"A-ah. No, I don't think we have much time left. Almost everyone's done by now."

Thirteen and Four both exchanged a suspicious glance with each other before standing slowly. The two were truly quite tall in comparison to Nine and his grim expression in defense would make an onlooker think they were bullying him.

"Come on now" Four said as he took a step forward, reaching out a hand. "Just a quick look."

"No. I don't need to show you guys anyth–"

Nine's pupils contracted as he avoided Four's grab before it was even made, only to bump into a table behind him and be caught nonetheless.

Swiftly, Thirteen stretched out his hands and with a tap of withering to Nine's unsuspecting wrist, he snatched the books from his friends now relaxed grip and moved backwards completely.

"Come on, this is stupid" Nine said.

Thirteen looked at the books in his hand and immediately realised why Nine had been embarrassed.

"Divine Technique of the Speed God.

"Serpent Spear of the Underworld.

"Will of the Lord of Storms

"Nine Lotus of Divine Resuscitation"

Thirteen remained silent for a while after reading the names aloud. Four too said nothing, while Nine's normally stoic face grew beat red.

With a sigh, Thirteen walked to Nine and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You're right Nine. The technique does not make the fighter"

"Bffhaha, Divi– Divine technique!" Four laughed, placing a hand of his own on Nine's shoulder.

Nine shook slightly before defending himself "I didn't grab them for their names okay? Really! I was just interested in the techniques. Look, the Will of the Lord of Storm–

"Lord of Storms! Hahaha" Thirteen interrupted as he and Four laughed for a solid few seconds.

"Quiet" A bland voice spoke through their laughter.

It died down immediately, though Four and Thirteen could not help the smile that remained.

"Apologies, Head Instructor.

Come on" He led Nine to the seats.

"So? You're looking to switch focus to the spear?" he asked, trying to redirect their conversation and cut his friend some slack.

"Sigh… Yes. With how my abilities have panned out, a spear would better help me take advantage of opportunities I perceive in fate. And the distance a spear affords me will grant me that fraction of a second longer to respond to threats when I need to move."

"Makes sense," Four said.

"And the… *cough* Storm Lord's will? Is that your transitionary technique?"

Qi cultivators were expected to learn a transitionary technique, something that taught them how to shift their combat to less direct means. This was because, as a daoist, they would later be capable of acting through the world around them, rather than using their own body. Not that all daoists did this, but they all had to know how. That was where the transitionary technique came in.

"Yeah. It synergizes with the spear well. And the last one, the… Lotus art. It's to protect my life in case of the worst."

Now that did interest them. But before Thirteen or Four could ask to flip through the Lotus art, Ten and Forty-five returned with the last of the children, and their stay here in the library had ended.