Clarence stayed in the training ground for another two hours before he got the hang of the technique. By the time he was done, he was sweating and aching all over.
When the technique normally halts your momentum, it does so without making you feel even an ounce of pain. But when your speed is over the limit of what technique can handle, it feels like you are being halted due to running into a wall.
Even that halt is partial and not complete so basically the technique is only good if you aren't testing its limits.
He exited the array he was training in after switching it off and slowly walked back to his tent as he was tired.
Along the way he met Everett who just wished him luck. Everett knew that every minute counted, so he didn't want to waste Clarence's time even one bit as he could also see that he had just gone through some intense training, so he might need some treatment soon.
Clarence took out a barrel and poured medicinal water in it. He then took out his clothes and jumped into the barrel. While he was soaking himself in the medicinal bath, he started thinking of his last training phase.
The system had already transferred all the information about the spell to his brain. He first came across this spell after the battle with the short red haired girl.
In the previous match, there was that unusual boy with the big secret, he was searching for spells with an effect on mind but was interrupted midway because of the next match. But he didn't give up and continued searching after the match and found this spell.
It was the only spell with an effect on the opponent's thoughts one could find which the lower ranks could learn, but even then it mostly only worked on people with a rank lower than you or if there is a big difference in the spiritual power.
It was named Ghoul's walk. It was weird he knew, but it was because the spell was named after Ghoul. They were one of the soul type creatures who had no physical body at all.
They usually control their enemy's thoughts when they walk towards them. By the time they have reached their enemy, he or she is fully enamored by them or whatever thought they planted in their mind.
Now that Clarence remembered, that boy was walking towards him slowly as well with a slight smile on his face and that's when his thoughts had started drifting about.
Clarence shook his head hard and thought,
'I shouldn't jump to conclusions, it might be that the boy was simply imitating a ghoul's movement because he thought it would have an effect on his spell.
It can also be that he was practicing some inheritance art which won't be listed in the system. Inheritance arts are passed down from brain to brain which meant, the person directly shared memories of the art with the next.
No text existed for these kinds of arts. So it would make sense for the system to not have this.'
After he felt that his body cooled down and stopped aching. He got down from the barrel and put it back into his spatial ring.
He then put some clothes on and started practicing the technique. This time he had no idea how to practice as this would probably need a partner. He also couldn't use a mirror as it would be dangerous if he did something wrong and affected himself.
With no ideas popping up, Clarence just decided to keep executing the technique until he got tired. Whenever he ran out of mana, he would sit down and meditate then go back to training. It also helped him both strengthen his foundation and increase mana quantity.
After nearly two hours of practicing, he was mentally tired, so he laid down on his mattress and went to his mindspace.
He called out to the system and a display appeared in front of him as he was in mindspace.
[Welcome back to the System Of Order host.]
[ 1. Stats ]
[ 2. Shop/exchange list ]
[ 3. Simulation]
He clicked on his stats to see what might have changed.
Mentally choosing for the stats option, the words changed once again
[ Name: Clarence Verity ]
[ Race: Demon]
[ Notable Positions: Heir of the Verity family — The Royal family of the demonic empire, cadet at the allied academy]
[ Titles: None ]
[ Cultivation scripture: True demon sutra ]
[ Cultivation rank: Rank two ]
[ Techniques practiced : Feather step - leg technique, Illusory arms - arm technique, dagger technique, Twist - full body technique, Momentary push - full body technique, Mighty arms - arm technique, instant halt - full body technique ]
[Spells learnt : incapacitate - rank one, Agile needle - rank one, Illusory arts - rank two, Ghoul's walk - rank two ]
[ Spare energy value : 0 ]
[ Authority rank: 2 ]
Seeing the spare energy value as 0 again, he was confused. The first time when he saw his stats, he was just a rankless demon. So he guessed that it showed 0 because he had no mana in his body.
But now that he was seeing the same thing again, he decided to ask the system. He mentally conveyed the message,
"What does the spare energy value mean?"
[Not authorized to know]
"Goddammit! Why do you even show such things then?"
[It's important]
".... I lose, I surrender, I don't wanna talk"
Clarence chose to ignore what the system said just now and went through his stats. He felt a bit satisfied that he had unknowingly learned so many techniques and skills.
While he was focusing on them, the name tab of one technique in particular suddenly expanded wide with more letters and numbers displayed on it.
[Feather step - leg technique]
[Rank - 1]
[Progress - 90%]
He was taken aback when the tab widened, and when he saw what was written, he felt a little surprised. He then immediately started thinking how he could make use of this to his benefit.
He felt good knowing that the system could even track his progress. It would help him allocate his time much more accurately.