13 The Beginning of the Beginning 1 (2/2)

Garen resumed his normal routine in the academy, travelling between the antique store and the dojo day in and day out. His Potential steadily increased past 100%, allowing him to allocate new Attribute Points again.

It's just that he hadn't decided on what to add the points to. Originally, he meant to raise his grades in a few subjects, but unfortunately, not all skills could be enhanced with Attribute Points.

Only a few special skills allowed such enhancements, and not others; for example, National Studies and Foreign Languages. The high-grade learning materials for these subjects weren't even distributed, and Garen had no relevant memory of them, so naturally, he couldn't understand any of it.

It dawned on him that his Attribute point enhancements could only work on skills and subjects already within his field of knowledge.

Simply put, if he was taught a level of the White Cloud Secret Method but had no clue about its further levels, he would need follow-up training before he could enhance it. So, under such circumstances, he wouldn't be able to compel an Attribute point enhancement since his memory bank didn't have the blueprint for further enhancements.

Attribute Points and his Unique Skills, as Garen concluded, were more like means with which to substantially develop, mine and utilize his potential, expressed in the form of skills and levels. They were not like skill points in a videogame that allowed him to learn new things instantly.

Therefore, to enhance a skill, one would have to have a comprehensive understanding of the content of the next skill level. Leave something out, and the skill couldn't be upgraded.

Putting aside his own development, his relationship with his sister Ying Er seemed to have changed. Ever since that odd session of playful slapstick the other day, Ying Er would be in a hurry and wouldn’t say much every time they interacted. What happened? Garen wasn't sure what was going on with Ying Er. He just felt that things had become more awkward than before. After meals, she would clear the dishes quickly, then dash back to hide in her room, not speaking to Garen anywhere near as much as she used to.

In the blink of an eye, midterms were approaching fast. Confederate schools had three semesters in a year, so each semester was quite short. Ying Er's archery tournament was about to begin too.

Garen did some light reviewing. Only the exams in third year of high school were important anyway, so he didn't really bother about the other semesters. It's not as if university was the only option. Moreover, Mathematics and Physics here were effortlessly simple. It took him a mere ten days to boost his mastery of both subjects to the advanced level. He even managed to attain elementary level for both National Studies and Foreign Languages through rote memorization.

After enhancing his intelligence, his memory and comprehension had improved as well. Pairing that with his adult consciousness and mind, this made his results far better than that of the previous Garen. If not for the fact that his focus wasn't on studies, he would probably be on par with the top students.

****************

The afternoon sun shone on Pennington Street at an angle which cast long silhouettes on the street. Both sides of the street were deserted, and only a few pedestrians passed by, all with thick windbreaker jackets on.

Two black cars were parked by the side of the road. The polished surface of the car bodies reflected a pale yellow glow. In one of the cars, the driver could be seen sleeping soundly at the wheel.

On the right side of the street, a purple-haired boy with burgundy eyes was rubbing his hands together and striding along in a hurry. His hair was slightly long, extending from his temples to his chin. His purple hair wrapped around his face, occasionally being blown backwards by the wind. He was wearing a light gray sweater and trousers, which accentuated his porcelain white skin.

The boy looked up at the advertisement banner on a distant building.

The red banner read: From 21st to 25th of September, Elizabeth Jewelries Autumn Bargain, Discounts ranging from 50 - 90 %.

”It's already September? Time sure flies…” Garen quickened his pace. He was on his way to the antiques store. It was already a few days past the time limit that the old man had mentioned. Because he had only just been freshly selected as a disciple at the dojo, he could only participate in the internal tryouts in the next quarter; there was no way he could make any money from tournaments for now.

He didn't have the money, but the other buyer that Old Man Gregor mentioned hadn't appeared either. Garen felt at ease and justified to continue making one to two hours of contact with the emblem every day to absorb more Potential.

”Enhancing skills with Attribute Points still isn't as worthwhile as using it on my own Attributes,” Garen carefully analyzed, ”Skills can be improved through mastery. Unless it's a difficult skill to improve, using Attribute Points on my own body would be better. Improvements like these are long-term enhancements. If I used a few Attribute Points on Physics or Mathematics just to make it easier for myself to attain an advanced level, it would have been a waste. The most that would have achieved was saving me some time. It would be more worthwhile if I used it on the difficult-to-improve White Cloud Secret Method…”

Garen glanced at the Attribute Pane in his lower field of vision.

Strength, enhanced by two points, was now at 0.52. Potential was at 124%.

”I obtained the improvements in strength by training in the White Cloud Secret Method, and partly through daily strength exercises. Moreover, since gaining Attribute Points seems to have the effect of fortifying and maintaining the body, my strength won't decrease from lack of training.”

He glanced at the Skills Pane.

White Cloud Secret Method: Intermediate. Fundamental Combat Skills: Elementary. Explosive Fist Arts: Uninitiated.

”Explosive Fist Arts, the fighting technique that only Formal Disciples can learn upon initiation, as well as the intermediate level White Cloud Secret Method - I could use Attribute Points to enhance these.” Garen hesitated. ”Explosive Fist Arts can raise the strength of the whole body to its highest limit, and the strength of the fists can be increased by threefold; it is the upgraded version of Fundamental Combat Skills. Generally, it takes two years to master the basics, at which point the skin would harden and hitting a sandbag with gloveless bare hands wouldn't cause any injury, whereas the White Cloud Secret Method is the basis of all fundamentals, capable of producing exceptional results if accumulated throughout a long period of time. It has been said that it takes more than 10 years to reach the advanced level, and one would have to possess extraordinary talent…” /

Garen was particularly interested in the martial arts of this world now. It was very similar to the national martial arts on Earth in his previous life, but was much more commonplace than the latter. Even though both were difficult to train in and apply, this wasn't a problem for him because he had his special ability.

He had wanted to learn martial arts to strengthen himself in his past life, but he lacked the conditions to. Now that all the conditions were met, naturally, his interest has piqued; it was almost as if he had become obsessed with them..

”Fortunately, I have the emblem, which allows me to accrue Attribute Points. Following this progression for enhancements, I'll enhance the White Cloud Secret Method first, then boost my Explosive Fist Arts to the most advanced level. By then, I'll be able to reach the upper tier of the entire dojo! Even the Dojo Master of the White Cloud Dojo himself had merely attain the third tier in his Explosive Fist Arts and advanced his White Cloud Secret Method by another level, although it wasn't a full mastery.”

”As long as I keep using the emblem to aid my enhancements, I can boost my martial art skills to a level similar to that of the Dojo Master with just five Attribute Points!”

Snapping out of his excitement, Garen had reached the corner of Pennington. Unusually, the entrance of Dolphin Antiques seemed a bit messy today.

He quickened his pace and walked into the store. He was greeted with a shock.

It was chaos inside: antiques and broken debris were strewn all over the floor, it was all a mess.

A man and a woman, both clad in windbreakers, stood at the store entrance while interrogating the old man.