Chapter 157 Learning Battle Arts
Alex was training in the basics of sword and battle every day for two hours, and he believed he had polished his existing skills by quite a lot in the last month.
So after the Rank promotion, he wanted to test his improvement against a real master and to get comfortable with his newly improved strength.
Alex had just completed his seventy-sixth test battle of the day with Elder Darrien, and the best he did was survive for thirteen seconds against three blood spears that moved way slower than his ability to see and react to them.
In the start, Alex believed that dodging the blood spears he could see would be easy after he properly adapted to his new stats, but after seventy tries, he realized that only brute strength and speed were useless.
"Domain Ruler, You did great." Lady Margaret said, encouraging Alex like the last time as she casted a healing spell.
"It's time for you to start practicing Battle Arts because they would greatly help you properly use your strength which would increase your overall strength significantly."
"So, If you want to train in any particular field, tell me, so I can give you a few corresponding battle arts to select." Elder Darrien said, seeing Alex sitting on the floor, not asking for another try.
'I was planning to get me some good battle Arts.' Alex thought, hearing the suggestion.
"I want to learn Sword and a Movement Art, and I do have a sword art named the [Formless Sword Style] that I want to learn," Alex said after thinking for a moment.
"You are talking about the Sword Art made by the Sword Sage Rimez?." Elder Darrien said, looking a little surprised.
"I don't know who made it, but the Sword Art I am talking about is available for purchase at the adventurer guild, and it also has a nickname called the [Dead Man Dream]," Alex replied with what he knew.
Alex was intrigued to know what was so special about the sword art for it to gain such a reaction from Elder Darrien.
"The Formless Sword Style is created by an Elemental Ruler, and it is quite a good legendary Rank sword Art, but it is an incomplete Art and couldn't be mastered to perfection." Elder Darrien said.
'If the Sword Art is incomplete, then that explains why no one could master it to perfection.' Alex thought, slightly disappointed by the new information.
Alex was really looking forward to learning the Formless Sword Style as he had great memories of the player who had mastered it to a respectable level but knowing he could never reach its true potential made him reconsider his choice.
If Alex hadn't become the Ruler of Malefis Domain, he would have chosen the Formless Sword Style even after knowing the truth because he didn't know of any better sword art, but now he knew he had better options available to him, so choosing it didn't make any sense.
All Battle Arts are very hard to master and require a lot of time and practice, so every warrior selects their battle art very carefully, knowing they can't drop it on a whim.
"The Formless Sword Style is incomplete because it was created based on an incomplete Gradeless Battle Art." Elder Darrien said, seeing Alex's disappointed look.
'The Formless Sword Style is a replica of an incomplete Art, which is a Gradeless Art?' Alex thought, bewildered by the new information.
"The Gradeless Battle Art doesn't have any given name, but the people who know its origin call it [Amorphous Battle Art] naming it after its creator, Imorgus Djinn Amorphous [The Blade Monarch]." Elder Darrien said, like knowing what Alex's next question would be.
'A Monarch of Blade?' Alex felt shocked once again.
Alex was shocked because the Worldly Law gave the title of Monarch to the strongest person in a particular field, so being the Monarch of the sword was amazing, but being the Monarch of Blade was downright Mythical.
A person being the Monarch of Blade meant that he was the strongest Monarch of all aspects of blades in his era, which automatically makes him one of the strongest Monarchs of his era.
"Elder, Do you have this Amorphous Battle Art?" Alex asked while holding his breath.
"Yes, it is available in the Royal Palace Library."
"The Amorphous Battle Art is also the best one available but also the hardest to learn and master." Elder Darrien said.
'It might be incomplete, but will I even have the potential to reach a level in sword higher than its creator, the literal Monarch of Blade.' Alex thought, making his decision.
"I would learn Amorphous Battle Art," Alex replied in a heartbeat.
"You can learn the Amorphous Battle Art, but if you can't make any progress in it in one year, I want you to drop it and pick something more suitable."
"As for the Movement Arts, you can decide between the Mystic Cloud Art and the Endless Void Art." Elder Darrien said, not saying anything to break Alex's excitement.
Alex asked a few more questions about the Battle Arts, specifically about the Amorphous Battle Art and its creator, but other than old myths, he didn't receive any concrete information.
After spending two hours in the chamber doing sword practice in high gravity to get used to his strength, Alex left the training chamber and went to the palace library to get the Battle Arts.
----------------
'The Endless Void Movement Art should be easier to learn as it is directly linked to the Darkness and Space element while the Mystic Cloud Art is linked to the Wind and Space element.' Alex thought after checking the information on the two books lying in front of him.
'Let's quickly learn them and see what differentiates a Rare and legendary grade battle art.' Alex thought as he picked up the heavy book with a pitch-black cover.
[System Notification]
[Do you want to learn the "Endless Void Movement Art"]
[Yes/No]
Alex clicked yes, and after getting his brain inserted with foreign knowledge about space and mana and things that felt hazy, he got a notification congratulating him for successfully learning the movement art.
Alex closed his eyes and started organizing the foreign information he had just acquired, and after twenty minutes, he opened his eyes with a smile.
[Mana Sense] (Learned)
'In my previous life, It took me three months of constant practice after reaching the third Rank to learn the mana sense on the very basic level.' Alex thought, hearing the system notification.
Alex quickly acquired the Mana sense because of his past life experience, but he also gained much more valuable knowledge that broadened his horizon on sensory ability.
'There is much more information, but I will organize it later.' Alex thought, knowing it would take a lot of time to learn something foreign with the detailed information in his head.
'Let's check its status.' Alex thought as he opened the battle Art section.
??????????
Name: Endless Void
Skill Type: Battle Art
Grade: Legendary
One With Void: Mastery (0.0001%/100%)
?━━━━━━?
Stages:
??-[Void Sense]: Mastery (1%/100%]
(Reach the Intermediate Stage of the Mana Sense to unlock high-grade information.)
??-[Void Walk]: Mastery (0%/100%]
(Learn the Mana Step to the basic level to unlock high-grade information.)
??-[?????]: LOCKED
?━━━━━━?
?Description: A Battle Art created by the First Warrior King Rayfield Braxton (The Void Walker).
??????????
'If the legendary grade Battle Art is this good, I wonder what the Gradeless Battle Art would be like.' Alex thought as he picked up the thin book made from gray crystal-like material.
[System Notification]
[Do you want to learn the "Nameless Battle Art"]
[Yes/No]
Alex confirmed his choice, and after experiencing a slight headache, he received the system notification, and without any delay, he opened the battle Art stats.
??????????
Name: Nameless
Skill Type: Battle Art
Grade: Gradeless
Unknown: Mastery (0%/100%)
?━━━━━━?
Stage:
[One With Blade]: (0%/100%)
(Learn Any Blade Intent to the perfection to unlock high-grade information.)
?━━━━━━?
?Description: A Battle Art created by Amorgus Djinn Amorphous [The Blade Monarch] holds all his knowledge and understanding of blade until the day he ??? ??? ???.
??????????
'The very first requirement is this challenging, so I can only wonder what the following requirements would look like.' Alex thought with a wary smile.
Let's check what guidance the great Monarch left for the future generations on learning the Blade intent.' Alex thought as he closed his eyes and started organizing all the foreign knowledge on the blade to the best of his ability.
Alex spent the next hour just reviewing the vast knowledge of blade intent, and after that, he felt like he could keep going for a few more hours.
'I should just focus on the sword intent and leave everything for the future.' Alex thought, feeling mentally exhausted.