Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 165

Chapter 175: Cheerful
Hans got a lift from Preston back to the association where he immediately headed towards the training hall.

Even if he was early, Master Henry was already waiting for him.

“You’re here”

Said the old man.

“Of course, did you think I would give up?”

Replied Hans.

“No, but you looked like someone who slept till late”

“What would that even mean?”

“It’s nothing…

Let’s begin.”

Hans picked up the wooden sword he had used the previous day before saying:

“Here I come”

But to his surprise, Master Henry stopped him before he could begin his movement.

“Hold up young man”

“Is something wrong?”

Asked Hans.

“No, today we won’t be sparring all the time.

I will teach you about the two stages you should perfect in order to advance through the awakened ranks.

I like to divide them like this, but for the best awakened, these two different types of training and battle convert.

The first step you need to take in order to improve your abilities is to perfect the body’s movement.

Like a martial artist, you need to shape your body in a way that it will move when you need it to.

And after that, is another step that many underestimate, but in my eyes, it’s one of the most important.

I call it Adaptation, and as the name suggests, it is the action of adapting your skills to your body movements.

I don’t only mean skills like aura and special strikes or slashes, but all the skills.

Hearing, sight, or even something as subtle as touch, if heightened, could completely change the outcome of a fight.

Yesterday, I haven’t seen you use a single skill, why is that?”

“Well, I came here to learn how to wield a weapon, so I thought it would be disrespectful to use skills”

“Brat, I don’t think you’ve understood.

Just because it’s written at the entrance that we teach people to wield weapons it doesn’t mean that it’s true, join any random dojo if you would like to do that.

What we want to teach people is how to fight with weapons, so that they can survive, whether it is for work or for personal interest, everyone has the right to defend their life, don’t you think so?”

“I never thought about it that way, but I guess you are right”

“Mh, then… do you have any skills you could use to aid you in a battle?

If you want to share them with me I could be able to give you a hand and tell you which abilities are worth using and which will just take up your energy”

“Alright then…”

Said Hans, scrolling through his status window.

His eyes scouted the {skills} section, as he searched for something worth talking about:

{strong mind}(passive)

{mana barrier}(tier-7)

{telekinesis}(tier-7)

{lotus meditation}(tier-6)(passive)

{medium body restoration}(C-rank)(passive)

{ghostification}(D-rank)

{sword mastery}(G-rank)

{strenghten}(tier-1)

{dragons’ nemesis}(C-rank)

{Shadow steps}(B-rank)(passive)

{shadow senses}(tier-4)

{stealth}(tier-4)

Apart from the magic spells, and the passive skills, Hans only had two options left:

{ghostification} and {strengthen}.

“I have two that might be worth using”

“One is called {strenghten} and it allows me to increase my strength by 5% for thirty minutes”

That was actually a spell, but since when cast on himself it had the same effect as a buff he decided to include it.

“And then I have a (D-rank) skill called {ghostification}

It allows me to let any blade attack pass through my body without hurting me at the cost of my stamina.

Though it might not work if I don’t have enough stamina left, or if the opponent is at the same level as me or higher.”

“That is nice, this one is extremely good, if it wasn’t so low in rank it could’ve been your signature skill.

How much can you hold if someone were to insert their blade in your body?

Or how many slashes can you take?

Can you even let a blade imbued in aura pass through your body?”

Master’s Henry curiosity was shown in the face of this brand-new skill he had never even heard of before.

But Hans couldn’t even answer one of his questions since:

“… uh… to tell you the truth, I have never tried it out”

“What?!

Did you only obtain it recently?”

“No, that’s not it, I was simply hoping there would never be a chance for me to try it out”

“That’s quite a stupid thing to say, especially if you fight with your body, meaning you have a high chance of getting hurt against melee weapons”

‘But I don’t usually fight with my body’

Thought Hans, but he didn’t say anything and just nodded instead.

“Does that mean I should try it”

“Yes, try it right here, and then go raid a low-rank gate while I train the others, take it as some kind of homework”

“Others?”

“What? You didn’t think you were the only one to come and train here, did you? I am quite old but my skills are still sought after”

Two guys entered the training hall.

“Good morning Master” they said, greeting him with a radiant smile.

“You brats! I can’t believe you have the courage to go and take a swim before even coming to the training hall, you should all learn from this boy right here.

Or you could’ve at least invited me”

“No way master, you know we can’t surf with you around, you always go on about how our form is incorrect even while surfing”

One of the guys said in a friendly manner.

“You brats are still ten years early to be called surfers”

“Haha, alright alright, I’m sure in ten years we’ll still be five years early from your view”

“Hehe, that’s true”

Replied the old man.

“Now go and change your clothes before I have to swing my sword at you”

Hearing this, the two guys hurried toward the locker room.

“These are the brats that I teach daily, they aren’t half bad, but they’ve all awakened pretty recently, so they wouldn’t be able to hold a candle against your stats.

Maybe they could beat you if you were at their same level though”

Before Hans could even show any reaction, a cheerful voice came from behind the door.

“I didn’t know you could use sweet words master.

To say that we aren’t half-bad… did you get sick?”

The door was once again opened as four girls entered.

Speaking was the one at the front.

The four of them were all pretty.

“Oh, here are the others, they’re also my students, as for why they’re so late…

“It is because women take an awful lot of time to change clothes”

Said the blonde guy, who had already changed to a training fit.

“Uh?! What do you mean? It’s because you guys suddenly left without telling us anything, one second you were just beside us and the second later we turned around and you disappeared.”

“No no, we clearly shouted we were going to leave in five minutes, maybe if someone wasn’t so caught up in her music she would’ve heard me”

“Wh-what? Y-you clearly didn’t shout anything like that.

Right?”

Said the girl embarrassed, turning her face toward her friends and asking for a reply.

But they just avoided her gaze, making her understand that she was in the wrong this time.

“Ugh! Well last time it was your fault”

“Uh? What does last time have to do with this?!”

The young man asked.

They then went on for a couple of seconds, before another one of the girls could step in and separate them.

“Alright alright, you’ve put up this fighting for quite a lot already, how about we stop it now, we all know you are two love birds when you’re alone”

“What?!”

Both of them replied in unison.

“… I was saying, we have a guest, keep it low please, go and fight your love battles somewhere else”

The two couldn’t even reply, as the blonde woman who had interrupted their discussion walked right between them, raising her hand to introduce herself to Hans.

It’s a pleasure to meet you, I am Christina.

My main weapon is the spear, but I also know how to wield longswords.

Hans introduced himself with his name, before saying he was only a beginner, but his specialization was the sword.

‘Oh, he’s just a beginner, so that’s why his hands are so clean of calluses’

Thought Christina, who had just shaken his hand.

After her, the others also introduced themselves.

One after the other, Hans analyzed them all with his {mystic insight}, apart from Christina and the two that seemed to be lovers, who were C-ranks, the others were all D-rank, though their weapon’s proficiencies were high enough to rival normal C-ranks.

The last person to stand in front of Hans after all the others had already introduced themselves was a girl, who had been timidly hiding behind her friends’ back for all this time.

“N-nice to meet you, I’m Clara.

Uhm… I’m sorry for the sudden question but… are you perhaps…

Hans Ri-