Chapter 77

Jaeha had felt many things while fighting Hein. Of course, Hein had pressed him hard using psychokinesis, and it was true that Jaeha had struggled somewhat being caught up in it. That said, it wasn’t as if Jaeha’s spear techniques were lacking.

The reason Jaeha was deliberating over whether to obtain better spear techniques was that the rank of his martial arts was slightly lower compared to his other abilities.

A lower martial arts rank meant the skill’s fundamental capability was somewhat deficient.

And above all, Jaeha had nothing to do these days, so he’d decided to learn and master some martial arts.

‘Hmm. What would be good?’

Jaeha, scanning through the video list, found a suitable one.

‘[One Versus a Thousand, Lord Guan]. Should I go with this one?’

The video Jaeha selected was a documentary summarizing the life of Guan Yu from the Three Kingdoms. It was a long one at thirty minutes. And when the video ended, a skill appeared as expected.

[Azure Dragon Crescent Blade]

[Rank: Ancient]

[A martial art with enough power to fell the moon]

[Mechanism: Total Ability × 10000]

[Proficiency: 80%]

‘Proficiency is 80%. Doesn’t seem to have any synergy either.’

Jaeha waited quietly in case there might be some synergy, but when no such skill came to mind, he muttered.

“I don’t need to fill it to 100% anyway.”

Then Jaeha got up from his seat and headed down to the sparring ground.

* * *

When Jaeha came down to the sparring ground, Gersia was talking with the Beasts. Seeing that, Jaeha considered kicking them out but decided against it since that would seem too petty.

Then, going to a place away from the others, Jaeha took out his newly made spear and began trying out the spear technique.

And when Jaeha used the skill once and came to his senses, not only the Beasts but Gersia as well had come to his side and were watching him.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you teach me that spear technique?”

“Because I didn’t have it back then.”

“Hmm.”

“Besides, you were a complete novice when it came to martial arts. Do you think it’d be good to learn something like this while you’re still at the level of a beginner?”

“……That does make sense.”

“So, is the arm you promised ready?”

“It is.”

“Oh ho. Really? What is it?”

At Jaeha’s words, Gersia looked at Hein beside them, and Hein opened their mouth.

“If you teach us martial arts, we will give you this.”

Saying that, Hein handed Jaeha an orb.

“What is this?”

“This is…… something called a fox orb. Think of it as an inner core that a nine-tailed fox creates by pouring its energy into it over a lifetime.”

“Hmm. What effect does it have? I already have plenty of mana, and if I need more, I have ways to get it.”

“It has no effect on us if we eat it. According to records, after humans consume it, they gain talent for the first thing they see.”

“Talent?”

“Yes……. Actually, we’re not sure if it’s true. Creating a single fox orb takes at least several hundred years, and unless it’s a nine-tailed fox’s orb, it’s not very useful. On top of that, the number of nine-tailed foxes itself is extremely small.”

“But what exactly are nine-tailed foxes…….”

“They refer to those among the Beasts who possess the power of the nine-tailed fox.”

“I see.”

“Only a handful of nine-tailed foxes, with full determination and a lifetime of cultivation, can create a fox orb.”

“So after eating this, whatever I see first, I gain talent for it?”

“That is correct.”

At that, Jaeha pondered.

‘If the effect is real, it’s not a bad deal. There’s a high chance a new trait will be created.’

Talent for something is gained. In other words, if you eat the fox orb and look at magic, you gain talent for magic.

Since the fox orb isn’t affected by the system, he couldn’t be certain, but the likelihood was high.

However, the reason Jaeha was hesitating was simple. He was deliberating because he couldn’t think of what trait he needed right away.

‘Magic is covered by Bayonet Art anyway. I can just enchant and use it, so that’s out……. For handling weapons, I already have the Knight trait, so I don’t really need that either.’

As Jaeha pondered what other traits there might be besides those, his eyes widened.

‘Right. If it’s for the future anyway, it wouldn’t hurt to think bigger.’

Jaeha nodded and spoke while looking at the Beasts.

“The effect is certain?”

“I can’t swear to it, but yes.”

“Fine. But in exchange.”

“……Yes.”

“I’ll take that fox orb and teach you martial arts—or whatever kind of martial arts you want. But no contracts. Deal?”

“Yes!”

As if they had expected that much, they nodded.

“Good. And don’t bother me too much. I’ll teach you martial arts, but I don’t plan on doing anything else for you.”

“Understood. That’s more than enough.”

“Good. Then that’s settled. Rest today, and we’ll start tomorrow. By tomorrow, organize what martial arts you want to learn and let me know.”

“Understood.”

“Good. Then I’m off.”

With that, Jaeha left the sparring ground. Exiting the sparring ground and entering his room, he lay down on the bed and sank into thought for a moment.

‘Still, maybe I should look around a bit more.’

Hoping there might be some rare class out there, Jaeha began searching for rare classes in the world.

‘Illusionist, thief, sniper……. There’s all sorts of stuff.’

As he skimmed through various rare classes, Jaeha managed to find a truly peculiar one.

‘Holy, Evil. So these traits exist too. Let me read the description.’

Reading the text slowly, Jaeha came to understand them. Traits were essentially a fragmentary display of one’s talent.

A fragmentary display of talent often meant having aptitude in a skill or a certain field, but occasionally, it wasn’t that kind at all—it was aptitude in one’s very disposition itself.

‘Looking at the examples, I think I get it.’

It also showed who had possessed these traits in the past—most of them were infamous mass murderers and psychopaths who held the Evil trait.

And those called sage kings, who left behind achievements great enough to be recorded in history, possessed the Holy trait.

“Fascinating. So these exist too.”

There was far more information than he’d expected. With that in mind, Jaeha kept searching through one thing after another, just in case.
Chapter 23

After that, he looked through quite a bit more information, but nothing really caught his heart. So Jaeha turned off the computer and got up from his seat.

And as Jaeha stepped out of the room, Hein, who seemed to have been waiting in front of the door, handed something to Jaeha.

“What is it?”

“Well, you asked us to decide what we wanted.”

“Ah, right. Got it.”

With that, Jaeha looked at what they had handed him. As expected, Hein wanted spear techniques, the female Beast wanted swordsmanship, and finally, Jin wanted a martial art that could be used with both hands.

‘Hmm. A martial art for both hands. I can just teach them hand-to-hand combat.’

Saying that, Jaeha opened his status window and looked at it.

[Na Jaeha]

[Traits: Ranged Dealer, Knight]

[LV: 69]

[Total Ability: 909]

[Skills: MuTube, Grant Me Power; Half Recovery; Divine Physician Hua Tuo’s Secret Art; Bow Mastery; Mana Shot; Marksmanship; Breath Control; Shadow Walk; Stealth; Shadow Eye; Metallurgy; Rapid Fire; Triple Shot; High-Speed Rapid Fire; Clone Technique; Indestructible Vajra Body; Five Elements Art; Throwing Technique; Enchant; Mana Conduction; Magic (Circles 1–9); Spirit Arts; Alchemy; Taiji Divine Art; Dragon Blood; Taiji Sword; Skill Conduction; Corpse Puppet Technique; Michael’s Blessing; Hand-to-Hand Combat; Taming; Bayonet Technique; Hundred Poisons Art; Heavenly Code; Lightning Divine Art; Blue Dragon Crescent Blade]

“I guess it’s about time I leveled up a bit.”

Just counting the skills he’d gained after reaching level 60, it seemed like there were over ten. And looking at his status window, Jaeha felt it was too cluttered, so he began removing useless skills.

‘Mana Shot—I can load mana onto arrows anyway now, so that’s out. Marksmanship and Breath Control… well, my accuracy is already at a point where I don’t need to rely on skills. Stealth—I don’t really have a use for it. I can get it again later if I need it. And Rapid Fire, Triple Shot—I haven’t used them in ages, so removing them won’t matter much.’

If he ever needed them, he could just relearn them then. Having organized everything, Jaeha closed his status window and headed down to the sparring ground.

At the sparring ground, the Corpse Puppets and Beasts were gathered, chatting about this and that, and when Jaeha appeared, they approached him.

“First, what’s your name?”

As he asked while looking at the female Beast, she opened her mouth.

“My name is Ria.”

“I see. So Ria, you want swordsmanship?”

“Yes.”

“Hein wants spear techniques?”

“That is correct.”

“And Jin wants martial arts that can be used with both hands?”

“That is correct.”

“Does it have to be a weapon art?”

“Not necessarily. I’m a physical-type anyway. My body is already quite tough, so using my body directly doesn’t matter much to me.”

“Alright. Then I’ll teach you hand-to-hand combat.”

“Hand-to-hand combat, you say?”

“Yeah.”

At that, he looked somewhat disappointed, and Chen, who was standing beside him, spoke up.

“The master’s hand-to-hand combat is nothing like the brawling you’re imagining. I can’t speak for the seniors, but the three of us would lose without even putting up a proper fight if the master used only hand-to-hand techniques.”

“Is that true?”

“The hand-to-hand combat I have is in no way inferior to weapon arts. If you don’t want that, well, I could teach you twin swordsmanship or something like that. There’s some randomness since you’d have to acquire it anew—it could be good or bad. If that’s what you want, I’ll do that. I did promise to teach you, after all.”

“No, that’s more than enough.”

“Really? Well, alright. Then I’ll teach you. One at a time.”

With that, Jaeha began teaching each of them the martial arts slowly, one by one.