Huff. Huff. Huff.

  Anthony lowered his sword, a film of liquid gleaming on his forearm after he wiped it across his sweaty brow. The training dummy before him bore a multitude of fresh scars from the past twenty minutes of training.

  Attempting to utilize his key once again, Anthony watched as the glowing orb of light in his mind suddenly began to dim. At the same time a wave of weakness flooded through his body, while the sword in his hand flickered briefly before the glow of power faded completely

  Pausing for a few seconds to stare at the weapon while deep breaths filled his lungs, he realized he was at his limit and shoved the sword back into its sheath. Anthony leaned forward onto the training dummy with both arms, relaxing his shoulders as he slowly caught his breath. A minute later, he straightened his back and pulled a towel off a nearby bench, wiping down his sweaty body as he glanced back at the damaged dummy.

  “Guess that’s my limit for now. Was it thirty attacks? Might’ve been twenty-five. Damn. I need to keep a better count next time.”

  It felt like a lot, but Anthony didn’t forget that that number of attacks was what he could manage while using the weakest nexus key he would ever have—one that drew only a small amount of power from his nexus. If he could create stronger nexus keys, his enhanced attacks would drain his energy reserves much faster.

  Fortunately, the power reserves in his nexus would also continue to grow as he cultivated. Each time he completed a circulation of power during training, his body and mind became a bit stronger, capable of storing slightly more energy.

  Anthony’s nexus would also constantly fill with power on its own, while normal cultivators would need to manually draw in energy from the environment. Meaning that he was at an advantage during drawn out fights where there was no time to stop and absorb energy.

  Slow clapping echoed from the doorway as the figure of a person could be seen stepping into the room. It was a familiar man that Anthony had seen once before in the meeting hall. He was short but stocky, with a bright green mohawk standing tall atop his head. Dark gray skin and rippling muscles filled the length of the man's bare arms, which protruded from either side of his leather vest.

  “I wouldn’t believe you just started cultivating if I hadn’t already heard your story from Edgar.”

  The man stepped up to Anthony, offering him a thickly calloused hand while turning his head slightly to inspect the damaged dummy. Anthony accepted the handshake, his gaze drifting to the dangerous-looking hammer at the short man's hip. The head of the hammer was a dull silver, but it gave Anthony an intense feeling of oppression.

  “You didn’t introduce yourself earlier in the meeting hall. Are you part of Leona’s team?” Anthony questioned the visitor.

  “Ha! No, that little kitten isn’t strong enough to be my leader. You can call me Brannok. I work alone. Well… Once in a great while, I do join Edgar’s team for particularly dangerous missions.”

  Brannok gestured toward the dummy as he released Anthony’s hand.

  “The amount of power you’re putting out nonstop is impressive, but you’re wasting more energy than most trainee realm cultivators have by attacking so crudely. Flooding your sword with power increases its cutting ability, sure, but there are much more efficient ways to do that. Don’t you have any sword skills or sword arts to train?”

  Anthony scratched the back of his head, glancing down at his sword.

  “Not yet… Edgar promised to help me find a sword art that suits my cultivation method, but we have to wait until the next martial auction.”

  Brannok nodded in realization as he heard Anthony’s explanation.

  “I see… What about defensive techniques or movement skills? You got any of those?”

  Anthony slowly shook his head, pressing his lips together in slight embarrassment as he returned the grey skinned man's gaze.

  “Hmm…” Brannok rubbed his smooth chin, eyeing Anthony up and down for a few seconds. “Edgar is great at big-picture stuff, but he always neglects the details. Come on, the troop has a collection of low-level skill journals you can look through.”

  Anthony’s brow rose slightly as he watched Brannok’s thickly muscled back turn and disappear through the doorway. Blinking rapidly for a second before he quickly stepped forward and followed after the senior mercenary.

  Brannok led Anthony to a smaller room situated between the training areas. An ornate wooden desk stood in the middle, various parchments stacked in one corner, while bookshelves lined the walls around it. The gray-skinned man gestured toward a small section of books on the right side.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  “The novice manuals are in this section. This is Edgar’s office, so don’t touch anything that isn’t on this shelf. Take your time and pick some skills you think might work for you.”

  Brannok began to leave the room as Anthony stared at the wall of books with hesitation. But before stepping out, the mercenary paused in the doorway and turned back to offer another piece of advice.

  “One last thing! Try to remember—it’s not the skill itself that’s good or bad, it’s the combination of the skill and its user that determines the outcome. Don’t worry about trying to find the best skill. Focus on finding something you can make the most of.”

  That advice seemed to enlighten Anthony, as the uncertainty faded from his face. He nodded with confidence, waving toward the departing Brannok before turning his attention back to the shelves.

  Anthony scanned the titles, trying to decipher how the books were organized. At first, it seemed random, but he soon realized the books were separated into defensive, movement, and attack-related skills.

  Hmm. Edgar is going to get me a sword art, so I should focus on defense and movement. Even if the sword art includes some defensive or movement techniques, I’m probably better off sticking with those for now.

  As the thought passed through his mind, Anthony began reading the skill names. There were techniques like Butterfly Step for movement and Iron Skin for defense. He also noticed skills like Concealment listed under the defensive section.

  Brannok’s advice seemed useful, but how do I determine which skills are best suited to me?

  Anthony narrowed his selection to a few skills that sounded promising, then read through their descriptions to get a better sense of their suitability. After half an hour of reading through various skill books, he opened a defensive skill manual titled Fortify and began to read.

  Fortify is a method used by body cultivators. It involves creating unique energy circulation paths during meditation. The use of this skill will not slow down your overall cultivation, but it will ensure that the empowerment of your outer skin and muscles is prioritized, creating a fortified defensive shell around your vital organs. Over time, compared to normal cultivation circulations, this method can greatly increase your body’s physical strength through empowering your muscles, and ability to endure damage through strengthening the skin.

  After reading the description, Anthony flipped forward to the page that displayed a diagram of the human body as well as an intricate energy circulation pattern illustrating how to utilize the Fortify method properly. His eyes widened slightly as he took in the image, a small grin spreading across his lips as he realized how perfect this technique was for him.

  That’s one!

  Stuffing the manual under his arm, Anthony continued searching the bookcase, eagerly flipping through skill books for anything else that might suit him. He eventually pulled out a manual titled Perilous Burst, which appeared clean and unblemished, as if it hadn’t seen much use. Flipping it open, one eyebrow drifted high as he read the description.

  Perilous Burst is a skill developed by the royal cultivation instructor Aldous Rigsby. Rigsby attempted to create a defensive technique for novice cultivators—a last line of defense to save its user from a fatal blow when all else failed. The skill works by creating channels in the body capable of releasing a pulse of pressurized energy, inducing a knockback effect on the opponent and their weapon. The skill functions impressively well for its intended purpose. Unfortunately, the amount of energy required to activate the technique makes it impractical in most combat situations, where energy must be carefully conserved.

  Anthony considered the skill for a few moments, mumbling his thoughts aloud to the empty room.

  “High energy costs might not be a problem for me… I’ll give this one a try as well.”

  He gave the bookshelf one last glance before shaking his head slightly as he turned away.

  “That’s enough for now. I’ll come back for a movement technique after I’ve learned both of these.”

  As Anthony stepped up to the door to leave, it swung open hard just as he was reaching for the handle, smacking him on the fingers with a loud thunk.

  “Ow…”

  Elara rushed through the open doorway, quickly halting to avoid crashing into him.

  “Oh! There you are, sorry!”

  As Elara stared at Anthony, her fierce yellow eyes slowly drifted toward the books held under his arm as a smile spread across her face.

  “Good! Brannok said you were in here. Looks like you’ve chosen some new skills.”

  She extended her palm toward him, prompting Anthony to hand over his new skillbooks. Flipping open each book after reading the titles out loud, she briefly scanned through the descriptions to get an idea about the skills' purpose before closing the books and returning them to Anthony.

  “Defensive skills are probably the best choice for now. Once you have your sword art, you’ll be better informed about what gaps you need to fill in your skillset. That’s why I didn’t show you to the library right away, but if you want to start training those now that’s fine too. Worst case scenario you will have to abandon them if they aren’t suitable later on.”

  Turning toward the way she came, Elara led Anthony out of the room and pointed toward the stairs that led up to the bedrooms as she spoke with an excited tone.

  “Anyway, go put those books in your room. It’s time to head into the city!”