"Art of Sun and Moon."
"Yes, the Art of Sun and Moon is a mid Rare grade martial technique that maximises the potential of your inner yin and yang. Once you master this technique, improving your physical strength for short bursts or being able to bend the bones in your body in unnatural ways to dodge an attack will make you an unpredictable opponent."
"I see." Vasari nodded, he liked the sound of this technique and added to his already unorthodox fighting style would make him a lot harder to fight against. "Ok on to the next one."
"Seven-form Moon Worshiper."
"This is a Heaven grade technique but only the first two moves are in this memory jade to make it fair for all students. This is an ancient palm martial technique that is rumoured to be created by a group of mysterious Moon God cultists. Although powerful, a weak-minded cultivator could have their minds corrupted and drive them insane."
"Oh...cool."
"Hehe try not to go crazy."
"I'll do my best. The last technique is...
Savage Shadowless Steps. A movement technique?" Vasari asks Miss Covington standing next to him.
"Well, it's both a movement technique and a martial technique in one. There are only 2 moves in this technique but they are both amazing for a rare grade cultivation technique. The motto of this technique is 'Ferocious like a tiger and nimble like an eagle'."
"Sounds cool. Thank you for this, Miss Covington. I appreciate it." Vasari bowed slightly as he thanked Miss Covington who gently lifted his head.
"There is no need for thanks. I am your teacher so this is my job."
"Still, I can't imagine any other teacher going so far for a blind student. Is it maybe because Miss Covington has a crush on m-OOF!!"
"Hmph don't think so highly of yourself." Miss Covington huffed before walking away.
Vasari smiled while wiping the little bit of blood escaping his lips. As usual, he was thrown against the wall of the school gym but this time Miss Covington added a little extra into the punch.
While the other students were still choosing what techniques they wanted to learn, Vasari sat down comfortably against the wall and started going through all the information in the memory jades.
5 hours quickly passed as Vasari immersed himself in comprehending the 3 techniques given to him by Miss Covington. He had to admit that the more he learnt about the techniques the more he liked it. It seemed to suit his fighting style which was another reason to be grateful for Miss Covington.
"Vasari, how's the progress coming along?" Talia, who was similarly comprehending cultivation techniques that she picked from Miss Covington's bookshelf, asked him.
"Not bad I guess, I'm just struggling with one of the techniques but I think I'll get it soon."
The technique he was struggling to grasp was the Seven-form Moon Worshiper. Maybe it's because he had a slight mental aversion towards the technique after the earlier warning from Miss Covington or if it was something else entirely but he was not someone to give up something once they started so he pushed on.
"What about you? How are finding your new technique?"
The corners of her lips lifted slightly after Vasari asked her a question. What girl didn't like it when the boy they had a crush on, paid attention to them?
"I only took a movement technique since I already have good martial techniques. I haven't tried using the movement technique yet but Miss Covington did say it was pretty good."
"That's nice, as long you feel comfortable then it should feel good."
Talia nodded with a smile before moving away from Vasari to practice her new technique.
Vasari got back to comprehending the Seven-form Moon Worshiper after Talia left.
–––––
"Okay, your six hours are up! Everybody form a line in front of the spatial portal."
The students who were either practising their new techniques or still comprehending them immediately stopped what they were doing and formed a line near Miss Covington.
Vasari was barely able to comprehend the first of the 2 forms from Seven-form Moon Worshiper. The form was called 'Gist of the Waning Moon' which deliberately shows your opponent your weak points to lure them in while hiding your true power.
It was a risky technique but if it works then the risk would be well worth it in Vasari's opinion.
"To record your kills I'll be giving you a spatial ring in which you must store the heads of the beasts you kill."
One by one the students were handed a spatial ring prior to walking through the spatial portal.
Vasari bid farewell to Witney with a short kiss on the lips. It was unlikely for them to find each other this time around so Witney was especially bummed about potentially not seeing him for 3 days.
Vasari didn't forget to say goodbye to Talia with a short head pat.
–––––
*Doof*
'Huh? Rain?'
Drops of water splashed on Vasari's face as soon as his feet touched the ground on the planet Acrilles.
Vasari paid special attention to the thick grass he was standing on and the smell of salty rain meaning that he was near an ocean or large body of salt water.
To survive in an area predominantly occupied by beasts, it's a good idea to set up a base of some sort, a safe haven.
To do that he had to scout his surroundings but that would take Vasari a long time considering his inability to see. His hearing and smell were also currently ineffective due to the rain so Vasari was in a perilous situation.
"Well, nothing good is going to come from standing around. I'll just walk until I find a beast and hopefully, they have a den of some sort."
Although not really a plan, Vasari set out in a westerly direction as that was the direction the salty smell was coming from.
Walking less than 400m Vasari felt the thick grass gradually being replaced by cold, wet sand. His feet hardly left any imprints on the sand and it disappeared soon after due to the heavy falling rain.
ROAR!!!!
Not far away from Vasari, a battle between beasts was heating up. From the roar alone, Vasari guessed one of the beasts to be a type of bear.
'Savage shadowless steps: Eagle soaring river and sea'
Vasari use his new movement technique for the first time and shot off towards where all the action was.
'So it's a bear and a group of hyenas.' Vasari did not get too close to the fight and based on the sounds the beasts made it was easy for him to identify the type of beast it was.
The bear was an adult-stage beast. The hyenas were adolescent stage beasts but they made up for the gap in strength with numbers. They used their 8 to 1 numerical advantage to good use as they played a game of attrition with the bear. They constantly scratched or bit the bear and then retreated before the bear could land a hit.
One hit from this mighty 5m tall (standing on hind legs) bear was all it took to end the lives of these scrawny hyenas.
Although it may seem that the bear was on the losing end, not far away from the battle, a few hyena corpses were sprawled on the ground.
Vasari guessed that it wouldn't be long until the bear emerged victorious and he was right. One by one the bear slaughtered any hyena that was caught lacking.
The bear won the fight but its injuries were not light and if another beast wanted to take advantage, it would be all too easy to kill it.
Heavily limping and slowly bleeding out, the bear slowly trudged through the wet sand until it reached a natural cave formed on the side of a large hill.
The bear grunted in relief when it entered the cave unaware of the apex predator lurking behind it.
"Sorry mate, you fought well so rest for a bit."
*splurt*
The massive head of the bear separated from its body and before the bear could understand what had happened, it died.
Vasari stored the bear head inside the spatial ring Miss Covington gave and sheathed his spirit-grade sword.
"Although not that big, this cave will do for now. Let's explore it a little."
Vasari was glad to get out of the rain and have his feet on solid ground again.
The cave ceiling was 6m from the ground and was wide enough for that 5m tall bear to move freely so Vasari had no problem living in this cave for 3 days. He noticed that besides a few half-chewed bones there wasn't anything else in the cave. He was kinda hoping that the bear was protecting an amazing treasure but that was not the case, unfortunately.
'First things first, let's get rid of the bear's corpse. I don't want any uninvited guests showing up at my front door.'
He decided against eating the bear meat because its body was heavily mutilated and he didn't know if those hyenas had any diseases that they may have passed on to the bear. The possibility was low but he didn't need to take that risk now.
He dragged the bear corpse weighing over 2 tons to the previous battlefield and dumped it alongside the hyena corpses, or at least that was the plan until he found that all the corpses had vanished.
'What the…let's head back to the cave. I suddenly have a bad feeling about this place.'
Vasari felt safer in the cave mainly because his hearing was not as impeded by the rain as it is now.
Just as Vasari was going to turn back and run to the cave, quick footsteps that sounded awfully similar to rain patter could be heard by Vasari. If his senses were not on overdrive like it currently was, he would not have been able to differentiate the two sounds.
'Art of Sun and Moon '
Vasari's body twisted unnaturally, barely reacting in time to dodge the claw of the beast behind him.
Before the beast could attack again, Vasari used all the power his legs could generate and kicked himself from the ground, landing 25m away from the beast.
'An adult stage blue night leopard.'
Vasari's ever-present confident smile vanished as a serious expression replaced it.
He instinctively knew that this was not going to be a 'walk in the park' type of fight.