Seed Of Speed

Thanks to his small fortune, Diego decided to spend the next day at the Martial Institute building. It was across the road from the Seminary, where he took his magic classes, that was where he split off his clones to attend the days' worth of magic classes while he headed into the martial building. Since he had never had to pay for classes before, he was not completely sure what he needed to do, but thankfully, there was a reception desk in the entry hall of the building.

"May I help you, Shaman Apprentice?" the man in a crimson uniform asked when Diego walked up.

"Yes, I'm still pretty new here and I wanted to see what classes I can sign up for," Diego replied.

The young man nodded and handed him a handwritten chart. There were various levels of classes for each of the most common weapons: Sword, Dagger, Axe, Spear, Halberd, Staff, and Mace. What caught his attention though was a small note at the bottom explaining that there were also private classes in which the instructor could help the student to learn the various skills offered by the sect.

"How do I go about requesting a personal instructor?" Diego asked, handing the chart back.

"Tell me the skill you would like to practice, and I will set up the hour-long session for you," the man replied.

"I have five," Diego chuckled, "[Dazzling Dance], [Flash Step], [Lightning Rush], [Electric Arc Hop], and [Shimmering Steps]."

The young man gave Diego a strange look, but did not elaborate further and asked, "Would you like an adapt or an elder for instruction? The adapt will cost a hundred pellets while the elder will cost two hundred."

Diego shrugged, "I've got the money, so why not the elder teacher?"

"That will be a thousand pellets, apprentice," the man said, holding out a token much like the one the elder had used to collect their fee to enter the Catacombs yesterday.

Diego pulled out his jade-green token and the man swiped his token across it.

"Head to the underground training room designated B29. You first instructor will meet you there shortly."

"Thanks," Diego said, slipping his token back in his robe pocket.

The attendant nodded his head and returned to his paperwork. Diego his way to the back of the entry hall where a set of stairs lead down to the underground facility. It was not too hard to find his room with every door marked and he walked in.

The empty, magi-light lit chamber was ten by ten meters, so there was plenty of room to move around in freely. Diego moved to the center of the room as he stretched his body. He had not had the chance to practice any of the evasion techniques, so after he warmed up his body, he pulled out the copies of the five skill scrolls he had. He had read through them once before, so their contents were stored away within the great library of the system, but he still felt there was something to be gained by reading the scroll itself.

It did not take too much more time before an elder entered the room. She was a stunning beauty with long, blood-red hair and a fit, toned body, but Diego could only glance at her before he broke out in a cold sweat from the bloodthirsty aura she gave off.

"You are the apprentice looking to learn [Dazzling Dance]?" she asked, clearly not thinking Diego had the right room.

"Yes, elder," Diego said with a bow, keeping his eyes on the ground since her aura would flare the moment his eyes began to wander upwards.

"You do know this is a skill preferred by women, right?" she asked.

"Does elder mean to say I am unable or unqualified to learn the technique?"

She let out a sigh, and the weight from her aura vanished instantly nearly causing Diego to stumble from the sudden lack of force, then said, "No, you have the ability to learn the skill, just be prepared to be mocked if others recognize the technique. Although it is ranked fairly high for an apprentice skill, stigmas are hard to remove."

"I have little fear of being mocked, elder, but I thank you for the warning," Diego said, finally looking upon the woman.

She nodded and crossed her arms, "Show me what you can do as of now."

"Please forgive the crude display as this will be my first time trying to use the skill," Diego said with another bow before he stored away all of his scrolls.

He took in a deep breath as he recalled the method described in the scroll to manage his chi while he made the steps. He started off slow, barely able to channel his chi into his legs using the proper method, but he slowly picked up his speed as he continued. A step forward, two steps right, four left, and two back. His feet moved faster and faster, but as he added in the more complex steps, he could not help, but trip over his own feet and went sprawling on the ground from his momentum.

"That's enough for now. Your biggest problem is with controlling your chi through your body. Without proper control, you can not add in the extra steps. Watch me," the elder said.

The elder began to make the same simple steps, but after she completed her first set, her chi flared. Although he did not have the ability to see the movement of chi as he could with mana thanks to his [Mana-Sight], he could still sense power it contained and how she moved it through her body. The second set of simple movements were now accompanied by with a flash of light originating from her feet that completely obscured the vision of them. Then she added in the complex steps with the third set and now, the flash of light became brighter as she seemed to move around whilst she appeared to be standing completely still, her movements completely hidden by the flashes of light.

When she finally stopped moving, the elder's eyes locked onto Diego and she said, "Now, try again and only use the simple steps while focusing on your chi control."

For the next hour, the elder instructed Diego on how to move his chi through his body and legs to execute the skill. Although he was still lacking the ability to add in the complex steps, so he technically still had not learned the skill, by the end of their time, he was able to produce a minor flash of light to obscure his feet.

The next four hours passed much the same as the first with Diego managing to achieve minor success with the other four skills, but not enough to trigger the alert from the system telling him that he had learned the skill. Afterwards, he purchased the room for the rest of the day to keep practicing. With the constant drain on his chi, he was forced to split a [Speed Clone] off, so that the other him could use {War Song} to sustain his true body. And like that, he fell into something almost like a trance as he practiced three sets of each of the techniques before starting the process over again. It was when he started playing a familiar song that an alert appeared.

::{Training Montage} created::

"Risin' up, back on the street

Did my time, took my chances

Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet

Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast

You trade your passion for glory

Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past

You must fight just to keep them alive

It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight

Risin' up to the challenge of our rival

And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night

And he's watchin' us all with the eye of the tiger…"

Survivor's, "Eye of the Tiger"… Although Diego was a little surprised by the alert, his true body was still fully focused on practicing the skills. Within his true body, his chi suddenly became as tamed as a trained dog and followed his commands with a shocking amount of ease. Suddenly, his main body flickered as it released a blinding light and he was now standing three meters from where he had been.

::[Flash Step] skill learned. 5 mastery points awarded::

Thankfully, his true body was still focused on his training under the empowerment of the music, so he executed another one of the skills. His body gave off a violet glow as he charged forward with incredible speed and the sound of thunder accompanied his run forward.

::[Lightning Rush] skill learned. 5 mastery points awarded::

With his back against one of the walls, Diego charged at the other one, but this time, his body almost seemed translucent as he weaved from side to side at a speed that could rival the [Lightning Charge].

::[Shimmering Steps] skill learned. 5 mastery points awarded::

Diego focused his energy and threw it forward, creating an anchor point. When he activated the second stage of the skill, his body moved uncontrollably forward to the anchor point at a speed that he could not see clearly through the [Speed Clone]'s eyes.

::[Electric Arc Hop] skill learned. 5 mastery points awarded::

Now standing next to his clone, Diego danced around the clone while a flash of light obscured his movements.

::[Dazzling Dance] skill learned. 5 mastery points awarded::

==================================================

Mission Complete!

-Requirements: Learn five evasion techniques!

-Awarded: 50 skill points and [White Lightning Array] skill

==================================================

The moment the final alert sounded in his ears, Diego's main body collapsed onto the ground, drenched in sweat. Once again, he was reminded of the fact that {War Song} only helped him recover energy like mana and chi, but it could not do anything for the mental strain that would build up, and his new ability, {Training Montage}, only exasperated the problem. His head felt like it was about to split, but he still managed to grin as he called up the effects of the new skill.