Like an angel plumtting down from heaven, my body sank back into the water, landing on my right foot.
Then, pushing myself back into the air, I placed down my left foot and lunged forward, holding the hilt of my sheathed sword with both my hands.
The dance had to tell a story.
About a being that once was atop the world, a god or creator, falling to reality and eting his own creations.
I began ceaselessly dancing on the unmarked rocks, marking my footprints with blood, for minutes...perhaps hours.
All concept of ti had been lost at this point.
Drawing my sword and stepping forward, I stabbed it forward and crouched down, my head now completely subrged under the water.
Pausing, I glanced back, a joyful smile appearing on my face.
Blood outlines of my footprints, which, when combined, would make my dance, now lay on the previously unmarked rocks.
I had done it.
I had created a dance.
At that mont, as I rose back up from the water, the pyramid wall before suddenly began shining a jade-green.
In the next mont, I saw it.
A small tablet.
The green tablet levitated in the air before , waiting to be grabbed.
I lazily reached my right arm forward and touched it; however, instantly, a bout of drowsiness attacked my mind.
Images of thousands of different footprints and movents invaded my mind and planted themselves there, alongside videos of figures dancing with swords.
My previously calm and tranquil mind was now overco with so much information that it felt like it might explode.
Before , the jade-green tablet slowly disintegrated into pieces and dropped into the water, vanishing on the blood-stained lake floor.
Finally, after two minutes, the ordeal was over.
Or...so I thought.
As I turned around, the wall of water was still there...waiting to be crossed.
...
...
...
Collapsing on vibrant-green grass surrounding the lake, my clothes torn to shreds, and scars all over my body, I silently gazed at my own body.
The bottom of my feet were in shambles, the bones sticking out, preventing from moving.
At that mont, as my gaze shifted upward, a purple holographic nu suddenly appeared above .
---Stats---
[User: Athen Dee]
[Rank: G]
---> [Strength: G-]
---> [Stamina: F-]
---> [Speed: G ]
---> [Perception: G ]
---> [Vitality: G-]
---> [Magic Power: G]
---> [Luck: E / S]
---> [Intelligence: E]
---> [Perseverance: C-]
Gift: [Swordsmanship] / [Novice] [Level 1] [EXP 0%]
Innate Ability: [Calm Tide]
Innate Ability Description: [Your eyes possess a serene vision that can read the rhythm of all motion. You can read and predict the trajectory, speed, and endpoint of any object in motion. The calr your mind, the clearer and more precise your foresight becos.]
Gifted Ability: [N/A]
Martial Arts:
---> ***** [Dance of Ten Thousand Stream] (1/5)
Rooted in ancient Taoist philosophy, this art transforms combat into a flowing dance, where every step evades danger and turns defense into seamless counterattack. With movents as fluid and unpredictable as water, the user seems untouchable.
-----------
Scanning the asly stat nu, all I could do was sigh and move on.
If soone like the protagonist or even a side character with high potential had gone through that sa ordeal as I did, their stat increases would have been much higher, probably up to even F- rank.
Glancing downward at my new martial art, I tried to recall the countless images and videos that had flown through my brain a mont ago.
Yet...only one video appeared.
A man, with a long white beard and a head full of white hair, simply danced without a sword, his matching white robe flowing through the air.
After a mont, a na instantly appeared in my mind.
Torrent Step.
The first movent of the "Dance of Ten Thousand Streams" allowed the user to..pletely vanish from their opponent’s point of view for a single mont.
After successfully evading an attack, I could disappear from sight and draw my sword, performing an unbeatable counter.
Of course, an enemy could still predict my movents or block their entire body, but I would be on the offensive.
From the dance I had created a mont ago, I felt that...I could perhaps perform the movent, albeit terribly.
My figure would likely not disappear entirely from the enemy’s sight, but perhaps just flicker and throw them off.
If I wanted to master Torrent Step and move onto the next movent fully, I would have to perfectly replicate the white-robed man’s dance, which was implanted in my mind.
However, just from obtaining the art, I passively felt a multitude of attack styles flood my brain.
While I couldn’t use them, I could examine them from the outside...and dissect them, discovering their weaknesses and creating dances to evade them.
The common jab? Simple side-step, duck to avoid a side-swipe, and counter-jab.
That, combined with my innate ability, which allows to predict movents of swords and other weapons, made confident.
If given enough ti, I could create a movent to counter any battle style perfectly.
At this mont, I could no longer be considered a magic user...but a martial artist.
With my asly stats and potential, it was ti to abandon the idea of magic.
From now on, I would be the only person in the world to carry and use the Taoist art.
As the artificial sun within the pyramid, a ball infused with light magic, shone down on my broken figure, my ocean-blue pupils dazzing under the light, I suddenly recalled sothing.
What ti was it?
It had to have been at least a day, right?
Glancing at my broken tablet in the water, I sighed and slowly pushed myself backward, eventually finding and leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree.
I had to go to the academy on ti.
If sothing were to go off the storyline I had created, as with the elves in the fortress, I had to be there.
Of course, though, I had no intention of making connections or befriending the characters I had created.
That, in itself, would be going off the storyline and could cause a multitude of other problems later on.
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