Chapter 21: Skills
Chapter 21: Skills
After not being able to catch a single shinhueh and losing the match, both Endorsi and Anaak payed up their respective sums; leading to Winston's total profits reaching 7600.
"Man! That was exhausting!" Amon huffed as he sat down on one of the chairs of Winston's
room.
Winston smiled at him.
Zarhan sat cross legged on his bed, greedily eating every fruit he could spot in the room.
"The Scout teacher is a weird man." He lamented.
"Why?" Winston asked, intrigued.
"How should I say this... he's too... petty?" Amon scratched his chin. "He doesn't like losing. Even on the first day, he didn't hold back at all!"
Winston chuckled.
"What about you Zarhan?" Winston spoke.
Zarhan gazed at him from the corner of his eyes, chewing on an apple.
"We didn't do too much today. They taught us to use the spear. Something I already know since childhood." He said off-handedly.
"But what's the teacher like?" Amon asked with interest.
"He's alright I guess." Zarhan didn't show any enthusiasm.
Amon turned his eyes towards Winston.
"What about you Mr. Winston? What did you do today?"
"We practised how to use the reel inventory today."
Winston adorned a toothy grin.
They talked some more inside his room, discussing various topics related to the teachers, the skills that would be taught to the different positions and so on and so forth.
Without realizing it, dinner time arrived quite quickly.
Amon followed by Winston and Zarhan opened the gates to the cafeteria. As they stepped into the hall, Winston immediately noticed all the regulars having been seated, with the exception of a few.
Turning his head, Winston noticed Khun, Rak and Endorsi standing in the line to the counter, with Endorsi at the last spot right after Khun.
Without further ado, they also joined the line to get their food.
Feeling especially happy today, Winston had decided to eat well and enjoy his bumper harvest.
Another thing that Winston had to mention was the fact that his swindler potion was somewhat stimulated upon getting the points into his pocket. Which, for him, came as a surprise.
The deal he had made was a genuine match with stakes on each side. It was devoid of any deception on his side, yet it still somehow stimulated the potion digestion to a small degree.
Well, if I actually used deception, then the potion might have digested further. Winston clicked his tongue, feeling a bit regretful at the mixed opportunity.
After getting their plates, they sat down onto the table. His own seat, as Winston noticed was quite close to where Endorsi had been sitting.
Winston looked at his extremely lavish plate of food, worth a whole 600 points.
He could feel Endorsi's slightly annoyed glare at the side of his head, along with both Amon and Zarhan's tantalized eyes.
Winston rolled an eye at their antics and invited them for eating.
Shortly after they sat down, Shibisu and his team came to the cafeteria.
Shibisu and Hatz were also in the same class as Amon, while Anaak quietly choose to glare at him; eventually resulting in them sitting all very close to each other and talking along about various random subjects, including but not limited to: the scenery around the mothership, the unfair pricing on higher grade pockets, wanting to go sight seeing, etc.
Anaak glared at both Winston and Endorsi who was seated some distance from them for the entire time.
After having eaten his fill, Winston returned to his room to sleep for the night.
The next day, Winston again stood amid the giant stone pillars of the fisherman training field. "Today, we will be learning about Body Strengthening!" Hex exclaimed, overlooking all the regulars.
Winston smiled in anticipation. He had managed to figure out body strengthening and flow control by his own accord one night prior. However, it was still mostly unrefined and lacking finesse.
Winston looked forward to further observing the skill behind body strengthening and integrating it to his own skill set.
"Body strengthening is another crucial ability to have for any fisherman. Save for rankers and higher rank regulars, whose physical capabilities have been enhanced through the shinsu pressures of the upper floors of the tower, the natural physical ability of the people can't be used to fight extensively." The ranker continued.
"Shinsu body strengthening can allow your bodies to transcend their current limits, allowing you to jump extreme distances, pierce through stone and endure crushing blows." As Winston calmly observed the ranker with his spirit vision, he felt her shinsu fasten up inside her body, a direct application of Flow control.
Without any wait, she immediately descended from the sky to land on the middle pillar.
As she landed, she spoke up again.
"Body strengthening is performed through applications of Flow control. Shinsu flows through every being in the tower. If that Flow inside of your body or even specific parts of your body can be strengthened and made quicker, it bolsters your body through it." She held up her fist and punched down onto the ground.
Baaam!
Cracks spread like spider webs from the place of impact, diverging from her fist that was embedded into the pillar.
"This right here is me using just a tiny bit of shinsu strengthening. With complete strengthening, I could take apart this entire testing zone in just 2 minutes." She exclaimed.
Winston looked on with unconcealed interest, intently looking at the way the shinsu was flowing through her.
"Flow control through one's own body is largely easier than controlling it outside, as such, most regulars pick it up within 2 weeks of practice." She said.
Winston smiled hearing her words. Since he had already displayed qualities of being able to generate a baang without too much trouble, he had no reason to hide his speed of learning here. He could openly showcase his talent and learn body strengthening at his own pace. He locked his hand and stretched them above his head.
I do think I'll enjoy learning the applications of shinsu... he thought, a curious glint in his eyes.
A large valley stretched out between the mountains, the abyss like drop shadowed by mist and fog. The sun shone down, its light deflecting and scattering into a glorious rainbow somewhere down the valley.
The shadows of the mountains stretched out across the valley, overshadowing a cliffside into
a bit of shade.
Many people stood atop the cliff, creatures of various sizes and shapes, some gigantic while others appearing more normal.
The only similarity between all of them were the spears each of them held, blood red in
colour.
It was the training ground for the Spear Bearers!
All the regulars looked on towards a lone man seated atop a large stone. The man wore a white
lab coat with black pants. He had a dark complexion with light hair, somewhat yellowish in
colour.
It was the spear bearers teacher, Bok Dol Yu!
"The first day I taught you how to contract." He chimed. "The second day I taught you how to use spears. I'm a simple man, so let's put an end to the basics." He said.
Hearing his words, the regulars grew restless.
Zarhan smiled, eager to practice with his spear.
"Today, let's try something more fun." He smirked.
Jumping off the rock, he walked to the edge of the cliff.
"And that fun thing will be... to hit a really close target." As he walked to the edge, he pointed
out with his hand.
There, floating in the air about 300 meters from the cliff was a circular target board,
appearing wooden in nature.
"Regulars. Do you see that target?" He asked. The regulars looked on, one squinting his eyes
to find the target.
"Close... you say?" The regular said.
"Now each and every one of you will come forward to try and hit the target. Sound fun right?
Oh, and one more thing." The ranker broke out with a devious grin.
"Anyone that can hit that target within the next 4 days will pass without any other
questions." He declared.
A wave of shock travelled through every regulars present.
"That jerk... he's doing this on purpose." One of the regulars, green in colour said in
annoyance.
"He clearly hasn't taught us enough for us to do that!" The regulars beside him nodded in
agreement.
"Finally!" Suddenly, a boisterous voice came crashing down into everyone's ears.
Then, a crocodilian creature stepped forward.
"A genius like me should pass the test before everyone..." Rak declared egoistically.
"What?! Are you saying you can pass the test?!" The green skinned regular, Paracule by name
spoke, enraged.
Rak huffed, ignoring them.
Then, he walked to the cliff and threw his spear with all he could muster.
"Raaaaahhhhhhhh!" He yelled.Nôv(el)B\\jnn
The spear flew like a rocket, travelling 150 meters without trouble, and then cascaded down
towards the abyss.
Rak's eyes widened as he heard the laughing voices of the other regulars, Paracule in
particular.
"T-this can't be..." He said.
"Hah! You're obviously not cut out for the task, you crocodile." Zarhan chimed from the side,
rolling his eyes at the gigantic crocodile.
"Huh?!" Rak screamed. Without saying anything, Zarhan walked towards the edge and fired his spear. "Orraaaaaaaaaaa!" He yelled. The spear travelled for 130 meters without issue and cascaded
down into the abyss.
Silence~
There was silence in the training ground for a moment, before the boisterous laughter of Rak
rang out.
"Buahahahahahaha! Look at you! Hahaha ha! Acting all high and stuff!" Rak laughed in a
great voice.
"You're just a turtle! Hahaha haha!" Zarhan gnashed his teeth in annoyance.
"What? Ye wanna fight me? You croc!" He yelled, balling his fists.
"Hoh? Are you sure?" Rak exclaimed too.
Just then, something passed right over their heads like a bullet.
Swoooooosh!
They looked towards the source, seeing a spear going right through the target, breaking it
apart like glass.
Both of their eyes widened in surprise. They turned almost mechanically towards the one that
had thrown the spear.
There, was a towering behemoth covered in a dark brown robe, his face too veiled by a
demonic mask with horrifying teeth.
It was the regular that came along with the team from the other testing site, going only by the
name, Ghost! Rak and Zahan's eyes narrowed with competitive spirit, standing upright towards the behemoth like figure that towered over even Rak by three whole heads' worth of height. A smile blossomed on Zarhan and Rak's faces.
A/N: I'm going to have to take a small break from writing webnovels. My ocular health is not looking too good, as I have irritation in my eyes frequently now. I figured I should take some time off from novel writing as that takes the massive chunk of my screen time. I apologize for the people waiting for the novel, but I suppose I will be back to uploading in a week or two's
worth of time.
Anyway, leave a review.