TECHNIQUES

-Ping!! Ping!!

Alex's skin crawler rang. It was the Alarm he had set on it since the day he started using it. He opened his eyes and the alarm stopped ringing.

"5:31, the nostalgia." He got up from the bed and stretched. After stretching he started to exercise, trying to resume his old routine. He brought out one of the twilight twin blades.

-Vzzzzt!

He unsheathed it. "If I had laser guns I would have gone for target practice. But this would do." He slashed the sword in the air, continuously. An hour and 30 minutes later he stopped, his whole body was covered in sweat

"Time to shower." He removed his skin crawler and dropped it on his bed.

…

Alex had finished taking his bath and he had put his orange uniform on. He stood in front of the mirror and watched as the oversized uniform shrinks into a fitted cloth for him.

['I tell you, you look like a prisoner in this. We need to find out if there are legal courts in this world. This designer and school need to be sued for such bland taste in fashion'] Al complained.

"I still see nothing wrong with the uniform."

['It's a miracle you even see at all'] Al said. Alex smiled at his insult. He left his room with his mask on. Walking into the living area he saw Camron, in his brown-colored uniform, eating at the dining.

"You are up. I was about to come to wake you up." Camron said as soon as he noticed his presence.

"I've been up for about an hour or two."

"Room service came in earlier to serve breakfast and to know when to come and clean the suite. But said that I would like to speak to about it before deciding on a time. Come join me."

"Alright." Alex agreed as he was feeling famished. He took steps that brought him closer to where Camron was.

It took a few seconds before Camron noticed an abnormality in the way Alex walked. 'I can see him walking why can't hear any footsteps.' He looked down at Alex's feet to check if he was wearing any shoes. 'He has those boots on, why can't I hear anything? I have I suddenly gone deaf?' He frowned as he wondered.

Camron dropped the bread he had been munching on and heard it as it made contact with his plate. 'Huh? I'm not deaf.' He confirmed once more as he used his teaspoon to hit the side of his cup.

-Chink! Chink!

He heard the sound. He raised his attention back to Alex with an expression of awe on his face.

"What's wrong with your facial muscles, why are you looking at me like that?" He asked and sat down opposite Camron.

"I couldn't hear your footsteps, so for a while there I thought I had gone deaf."

"You couldn't hear my footsteps?" Alex thought he was messing with him. "Yes, I couldn't. Get up and walk around the dining table, you wouldn't be able to hear your footsteps." Alex did as he said and stood up, he walked around the dining.

With each step he took, he couldn't hear the sound of his legs hit the ground clearly, he could feel it but not hear it very well.

['The ghost-step technique that I learned in Death's Doors.'] He thought.

This is the ghost-step technique that the assassins in the organization were required to perfect before they could be given missions to complete, it is a light body movement technique where the mass and pull of gravity of each step taken; is reduced and resisted to its bare possible minimum. This was the technique that Alex was using.

Going back to his former routine for the first time in 13 days, it was normal for him to move around always using the technique. It had become a habit of his, but since he came to this world he broke that habit.

['But it's not meant to be this silent. I can vaguely even hear my legs hit the ground']

['I think with the presence of QI in your body and the fact that you have cultivated it to a certain extent, the control over your muscle and microenvironment has changed. '] Xander explained.

['If it is as you say it is, then wouldn't that mean that some of the techniques I learned would have also advanced. The art of deception, the invisibility of light. Wouldn't these two have some kind of advancement too?']

The art of deception is a technique that teaches its student how to control the human's elements of psychological security, make them see, and believe what you want them to, a staggering form of hypnosis. While the invisibility of light has to do with masking or erasing your presence in any given situation, be it day or night.

['Yes, if my thesis is accurate then they should also have some form of advancement.']

Alex suddenly had a wicked grin plastered on his face as he looked at Camron.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something wrong with my clothing?" He looked down at himself and checked for anything on his that would warrant such weirdness from Alex.

"There's nothing on me." He concluded after thoroughly checking himself. He raised his gaze and set them back upon Alex. Now he noticed another abnormality, he could see Alex but he couldn't feel his presence. An eerie feeling crawled up his spine.

Alex decided to walk over to where Camron was seated. He moved at the normal speed a person would use when walking, but he left life-like after images in his wake.

With no sound or presence and with the smart manipulation of light and human psyche, Alex had successfully executed three of those techniques at a go. To Camron, it was like gazing upon a moving picture – he didn't even notice when Alex had reached his side.

'This… this looks like the martial skill I showed Alex that day, did he learn it just from seeing me use it once? But this is different, there's no sound, no ripples in the air. This is more like an illusion, yet so real.'

While he was still looking at the life-like after images that Alex left in his wake, he felt the weight of a hand on his shoulder. Camron flinched and jumped off his chair, landing bottom first on the floor.

"Hahaha, why do you look like you just saw a ghost." Alex had scared Camron this time.

"Why do I feel like you get scarier every single day?" He whispered as he placed a hand on his chest to feel his heart beating fast.

"How did you do what you did? Was that a martial skill? No. I have full confidence you didn't know what martial skills were till I showed you one. Unless you lied, a very convincing lie." He quickly bombarded Alex with questions as soon as he calmed down.

"I didn't lie to you, I still don't know any kind of martial skill. What I just displayed was a combination of several complex techniques." Alex sat down, placed a few slices of bread on his plate, and started eating. He poured himself a cup of tea.

"Combination of several complex techniques? Those are just techniques? What you did should be at least a tier-6 martial skill. How can they just be techniques!?" Camron found it hard to believe what he said.

['There are nine tiers of martial skills. How can these measly techniques created by normal humans be a martial skill of the sixth-tier, that's too much, only 3 tiers away from the highest tier.']

['These skills were indeed created by normal humans, but with meticulous study and help of ground-breaking technology they were able to create them. Incorporating these techniques with QI might as well made them martial skills already.'] Xander expressed his opinions.

['That's true,'] Alex agreed.

"I didn't lie to you Camron." He said and took a bite out of the bread in his hands.

"Okay, I'll pretend to believe that you didn't lie to me." He stood up and went back to his seat with a frown on his face. They sat in silence as they enjoyed their breakfast.

"Can you teach these techniques to me?" Camron asked out of the blue when he finished his breakfast. "Or are they martial skills from the Royal library in your palace and outsiders are forbidden from learning it?" He added.

Alex cocked his head and placed his left hand under his chin.

['Well they are secret techniques of an assassin organization, it is part of the rules to not teach outsiders these techniques.'] Lex said.

['I don't care about the organization's rules, they can go ahead and f*ck themselves over. I'm just wondering if I should waste my time and teach it to him.']

['Yes, teach it to him for a price. He can pay with merits or energy crystals or even gold. Gold should be the least that we stoop.'] Al showcased his miserly thoughts.

['Why do you still give me advises when you know that I wouldn't take them from you Al?']