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

boy, chose my beast protector, I refused the owl right away. There seemed no obvious reason to take it; it gives nothing that will help in the first battle! So I thought… I had always had enough spirit to achieve victory over any opponent… in Jiri. The first time I got to Darant, I entered the Arena battles. Vanity is the yoke of the young, and young I was. After easily defeating my first opponent, I met a paladin. Our duel dragged out. None of my attacks dealt the damage I needed, and my opponent kept healing himself with prayers… Once I’d exhausted all my spirit, even what I recovered by mantra, the battle ended. I had no way to withstand the plate-covered paladin’s sharp blade. And so… A wise choice, my apprentice!”

“Thank you, master.”

“Now it is time to choose your patron element. Then I will teach you several moves, after which our lessons for the day will be over. I can hear them making dinner in the village. Don’t believe anyone who tells you to eat it like a pauper. Nobody who says that has ever gone to sleep with an empty belly!”

This important maxim given, my teacher fell silent, leaving me alone with a system window:

Supreme Grand Master Oyama invites you to choose a patron element from the following: air, fire, lightning, water, earth.

 

The patron element will influence your style of Unarmed Combat.

 

Attention! You cannot change your patron element!

 

Cost: 10 training points.

 

Unfortunately, the system gave me no explanations. Did I have to pick an unknown quantity again, and for ten points this time? Oyama was silent too, but, reading the silent question in my eyes, he answered:

“You can refuse to select a patron element.”

“I don’t want to refuse, master, but I don’t understand how to make the choice.”

“Choose with your heart,” he advised.

Easily said. What if I didn’t want to choose without thinking? Seeing my doubts, Oyama murmured:

“Look.”

My teacher suddenly disappeared, replaced by a whirlwind the height of a man. I was pulled right into it, the world turned upside down and flickered, and I came round a hundred paces from the tree. Oyama landed soundlessly on his feet next to me.

“That was the Lashing Wind technique. Long before I became Supreme Grand Master, I could fight an entire army using only Hurricane Ferocity. In a century past, I met a warrior who chose lightning. His Thunder Fists could put down a whole army too.”

“Impressive…” I could find no other words.

“Any element can be deadly, student. If you cannot make your choice, then let them make it for you.”

Oyama moved his index finger, drawing some strange symbols in the air. One by one, the symbols flashed around me: one of burning fire, another flowing like water, a stone rune of earth, another like glass with howling wind sealed within, and the last as if made of crackling lightning itself. They hung in the air for five or six seconds, as if taking time to look at me, then began to move.

The lightning rune bolted into the sky. The stone symbol crashed to the ground, melting into it. The mark of fire spat sparks and blazed toward the sun. The water glyph dripped down into dew on the withered grass. The invisible walls holding back the wind within the air rune disappeared and a gust of wind tousled my hair, slid across my neck, stroked my cheeks and punched me in the chest. I reeled back.

The element of air is now your patron.

 

Combat abilities that rely on the element of air are far more deadly when you use them.

 

You allowed the elements to make their own choice! Accept the gratitude of the element of air!

 

Reward: Clarity ability.

 

Clarity

 

A special state within which your speed increases many times, and you can foresee the movements of enemies. Damage dealt with air techniques while in the state of Clarity is doubled.

 

Cost to use: 100 to activate and an additional 100 spirit for every second spent in Clarity.

 

Oyama seemed happily surprised that I’d received the same patron element that he once chose, and was suddenly having nostalgic memories.

A single thought echoed in my head: Clarity is imba! And I definitely had to raise my spirit cap — right now I only had enough to activate the skill, after which Clarity would deactivate right away without more spirit.

“Well, apprentice, the time has come to teach you some effective moves,” Oyama interrupted my thoughts, his tone now changed. “But first I will ask you — do you wish to improve what you have?”

Oyama was asking if I wanted to upgrade Stunning Kick and Combo. I couldn’t level up even one of them to the maximum; I only had seven training points left, but it would cost me at least ten for two upgrades to improve anything.

“Can I decide later, master?” I asked.

“As you wish. Then I will show you several moves that work well with your patron element of air. Watch carefully!”

Oyama stepped back and loudly declared:

“Hammerknee! Not a very useful skill for one walking the Path of Spirit, but it is not for me to choose for the student.”

Level 1 Hammerknee

 

Jumping up high, you drop down on your enemy’s head, striking with your knee. Deals 350% of standard damage. Has a 75% chance to stun the enemy for 3 seconds.

 

Cost: 1 training point.

 

Oyama demonstrated the move, crashing knee-first into the ground with such power that he was buried up to his waist in the earth. After climbing out, he moved on to the next technique.

The demonstration of moves took at least an hour. Spirit Flight, Spirit Shock, Gust of Wind, Rising Fist Strike, Lion’s Paw, the already familiar Dragon’s Tail from Sagda’s