Picking up the paper, Victor sat down again and turned to the third page. However, the first thing he saw wasn't what he expected.
"Hm?" Squinting his eyes, Victor's eye moved to the middle and lowest parts of the page. There, he could clearly see images of what seemed to be a shadow figure. This shadowy figure was standing in a weird fighting stance.
There were several depictions of this shadow, and each depiction showed the shadow doing a different move. Victor could easily recognize that these were moves similar to martial arts. However, the biggest difference was the result of these movements.
The boy noticed that the output of each attack was what seemed to be some kind of ripple in the air. Whether it was a punch or a kick, the result was the same. Victor was immediately interested.
Then, he read the title of the page. "... "Ripple Runic Technique I"… So it is a fighting technique as I expected. The movement feels similar to a mix of multiple martial arts… Except, the result of each move seems different."
Inspecting the images again, Victor noticed that with each image, there was a single rune written underneath each depiction. Since these were written in the same language as the core formation runes, Victor could read them even though he couldn't understand what they were trying to say.
'So this is his second surprise. A fighting technique? Well, that's much appreciated.' Victor thought to himself.
"But, didn't he say that I can't really manipulate the Runic Energy to use abilities till I reach the green stage? I'm still in the dark phase of the colorless stage. It shouldn't be possible. No, wait…" That was when Victor realized something. "That doesn't look like an ability. It's more like…"
The boy quickly realized something. 'Could it be that this isn't an ability and more of a way of using the Runic Energy as a tool for battle?'
Purely from the name of this technique, Victor could tell that it probably had nothing to do with abilities, elements, or anything else. 'The God had said that I can manipulate Runic Energy now. But, since there is no actual knowledge of how to implement this power in fights, this is perhaps the way. Or at least close to that.'
It was the most logical theory Victor could come up with purely from the bits and pieces of information he gathered so far. The only way he can confirm this is by actually trying these moves.
That naturally brought him to the second question.
"How do I learn this?" He muttered as he slowly read the paper again. Due to their foreign nature, Victor assumed that there could be some kind of gimmick or a trick required to unlock these techniques. However, he had no idea if his assumptions were even close to being correct or not.
After a few minutes of thinking, he came to the only conclusion possible.
"Since each image carries a rune with it. I think the God is trying to tell me that I need to utter the rune written after doing said action." He muttered to himself. Rubbing his chin, Victor stood up again.
"Let's see…" He then carefully replicated the first shadow's stance in the paper. Since Victor mastered almost all forms of martial arts when he was still a hitman, he didn't find a hard time actually doing the same move which consisted of simply a fighting stance with his hands fully open.
Then, he would have to palm-strike forward, and the ripple should appear. So, he put the paper aside and focused on his position. He made sure to stand the same way. Then, he looked ahead of him before sucking a deep breath.
"Hng!"
With a swift move, he launched a palm strike as fast as he could. Due to his weak body, however, it didn't come out as fast as he wanted it to. Still, he thought that it was more than enough. As his arm moved forward, he whispered the rune of the first move.
Yet… Nothing happened. There was no ripple that came out from the other side. But, that didn't surprise Victor as he simply retracted his arm and looked at it. He went completely silent, seemingly deep in thought.
Then, he took the same stance and tried again. Yet, nothing changed. So, he decided to pick up the paper again and see where he went wrong.
'There is no other information that could help. It must be some kind of glaring mistake I'm doing. But, what is it?'
Victor was certain that he was doing the move 100% correctly. After all, this was a simple palm strike, which was something he knew how to do very well. That left other things that could be the reason for the failure.
"Wait…" Victor suddenly frowned. "I'm really stupid, aren't I?"
Rubbing his temples, he exhaled a long breath and then took position again. Then, he focused again, and in a second, he launched a palm strike.
*BAM*
This time, something completely different happened. The moment his arm fully extended, the air around the palm of his hand suddenly rippled and shifted, almost twisting in a way the eye could see. The hit generated a loud booming noise, echoing across the vast plain.
Victor saw that and slowly retracted his arm before he clicked his tongue. "All I had to do was channel my Runic Energy. That is obvious enough, how would this work without energy?!"
Feeling stupid for a second, he shook his head. There was no point in lamenting over this. He was still new to all of this stuff so he decided to spare himself a room for stupidity here and there.
'Though, there is a problem… The impact wasn't as strong as I expected.' He thought to himself. From the picture, the impact should've been at least half his body size.
Yet, what he received was simply not even a few inches wide. 'I guess I cannot expect to fully learn this after doing it a few times. To get the full result, I need to practice every single one of these moves.'
He didn't know whether it was his lack of understanding of this technique or the fact that he was still a complete novice when it came to Runic Energy. In both cases, Victor was required to work on his Runic Core, absorbing and channeling the energy to obtain a deeper understanding of it.
'I think the first thing I need to start with, however… Is this body.' He thought to himself. 'Those palm strikes were too weak. I don't know if I can even harm anyone with this level of strength.'
In fact, Victor was shocked by how weak his body was even though he already had low expectations. He knew that he had to start training it as soon as possible and by as soon as possible he meant.
'Now, I need to start training now. Or I will end up too late for whatever surprise the God wanted me to see. A month won't be enough. But I can at least improve my physical and Runic powers before that…'
As he was thinking about his next move, Victor suddenly heard a sound.
*GRRRR*
The sound was that of low grumbling. For a moment, he flinched as he looked around him, expecting some kind of beast. However, when he saw there was nothing else, his eyes looked down.
*GRRR*
"... I'm hungry." He muttered. After spending a few hours forming his core, it seemed his body had used a lot of energy. Looking around him, Victor noticed that the trees around him had many weird fruits on them.
They were red in color and a weird mix between apples and peaches in apperance. However, their shiny exterior and the small droplets of water trickling down their outer layers made them look… Inviting.
Curiously, Victor climbed one of the trees and grabbed one of these fruits. 'Is this safe to eat?' He asked himself.
From what he can see, the fruit looked normal… If he knew what normal was. However, he knew better than to trust a fruit simply by its appearance. These could be poisonous as far as he was concerned.
The question then was: Should he test his luck?
A//N: Support the book with PS, boys!