Path of Spirit (Disgardium Book #6): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the reader ebook .TXT] 📗

Path, that meant he’d walked it himself, and I’d already seen in the desert how powerful the old man was in battle. It must have been some hidden option for advancing the skill, maybe unlocked by the fact that I’d saved up over twenty training points. This had to be rare, otherwise players would be queuing up to train with the teacher as soon as they hit rank one.

“Your decision, apprentice? Know that if you refuse, you may never rediscover this Path.”

“I accept. I’m willing to accept the Path that closes off the chance to master the other schools.”

“Very well,” Oyama said, a barely perceptible smile flashing across his face. The window with the choice of Paths of Unarmed Combat disappeared. The old man declared: “Take your first step on the Path of Spirit, apprentice!”

You have chosen the Path of Spirit! You cannot alter this choice!

 

Path of Spirit

 

The master of Unarmed Combat who walks this Path willingly refuses all the others he has not yet traversed. In exchange, he gains unlimited growth, for the sentient spirit knows no bounds!

Not entirely sure what Oyama wanted from me — I saw no buttons for accepting the Path, it seemed to be chosen automatically, — I did the only thing that seemed unlikely to invite new beatings from the old man. I bowed.

Oyama repeated the description of the Path, then ordered me to sit, cast my gaze to the sky and listen to myself, look within. I did just that. Just before I closed my eyelids, I saw a leaf falling from a branch.

“Feel the hidden flows of energy circulating through your body. Those are the channels of your spirit. A master is duty-bound to ever reinforce and expand them. Within them hides true strength. You saw this when you could not defeat the boy Bakhiro.”

At first I heard only the rustle of leaves in the wind, the slither of a snake in the grass…

“Breathe!”

…then the sound of my breath joining them. The heat of the sun ran in burning waves across my skin. I breathed in a lungful of air laden with the scent of prairie grass, listened to the blood pulsing in my ears.

“Breathe!” Oyama’s voice drifted in from far, far away.

The spectrum of background noises widened, and the more I heard, the louder I submitted to the even heartbeat ringing in my ears. Soon the external noises dimmed and fell silent and I was as if in the great nothing. Thud-thud! Boom-boom! Doom-doom! my heart beat like a booming underwater bell, heavy and eternal, getting ever faster, picking up speed like train wheels.

Time lost all meaning and the interface disappeared, leaving only me and the sensation of my body. Suddenly it hit me that I could control not only my body, but everything within it. I willed my heart to slow and it began to thud so slowly that I could have forgotten it existed between its beats. I sent reserves of energy to my legs and felt that I could jump to the clouds, if only the desert had any in its sky.

With my inner eye I saw: apart from blood vessels, there was something else in my body. From a tiny ball beneath my heart woven of blue light, fine lines spread out like pale blue spider webs all along my skeleton. The orb pulsed, burning from bright blue to almost white and sending short streams of light along the lines. Were these the channels of my spirit?

A window popped up and confirmed my guess:

New stat unlocked: Spirit.

 

This resource represents the totality of the sentient’s spirit, will and divine essence. Spirit can be used to perform Unarmed Combat moves. Known special attacks that previously used mana will now use spirit.

 

Spirit strikes require no physical contact with the target, but they cost more spirit at range.

 

Total: 100.

 

“Enough!” Oyama’s voice whipped my ears, breaking my state of inner concentration.

I opened my eyes. The leaf from the tree fell by me, stroking my face as it passed. Oyama stood before me. A smile hid in his gray whiskers.

“You did it. My apprentice, you stand on the true Path of Spirit.” The old man took a few steps back. “Rise… Now hit me, imagining that I stand but an arm’s length away.”

He was six yards away at least. There was no way I could reach him no matter how much I wanted it — I wasn’t Mister Fantastic. But I struck, knowing in advance what would happen.

From the outside it might have looked like I was striking the air. Oyama didn’t move a muscle. But he didn’t block my strike either, so I saw his kimono flatten in the spot where my Hammerfist hit the target. I opened the skill description and saw that it had actually changed:

Spirit Crushing Hammerfist of Justice level 100

 

Deals 6100% of standard damage.

 

Ignores armor: 100%.

 

Cost to use: 20 spirit to activate and an additional 10 spirit for each yard of distance to the target.

 

“Not bad,” the old man nodded, walking away even further. “Now a series.”

I activated Combo… and nothing happened.

Target too far away! Not enough spirit to successfully execute move!

 

“Your spirit is weak,” Oyama declared. “But with each step along the Path, it will strengthen. Your center will learn to store and maintain strength, and your internal channels will expand, filling with spirit energy and lending more power to your strikes. The possibilities of one who walks the Path of Spirit are endless. Remember that, my apprentice. There is no limit to perfection!”

“How much spirit do you have, teacher?”

“A thousand times more than you,” he said in humble tones.

“How do I advance my skill, except by fighting with strong enemies?” I asked, remembering that Oyama had spent years