Chapter 8: Choosing Martial Arts!
The only question was whether or not they had suitable martial arts for him. The mid-grade martial arts that could be found on the first floor in the martial arts hall were not necessarily worse than those on the second floor, they just had their own little quirks. In many people's eyes, they could even be considered defective, as some of these martial arts were borderline impossible to learn without a special constitution or such.
Luckily for Damien, these mid-grade martial arts were pretty easy to find, as the bookshelf they stood on was a bit peculiar. It was the only bookshelf that had a small warning sign next to it, explaining that these martial arts were very hard to learn, and to choose wisely. Compared to the vast amounts of low-grade martial arts that could be found on the first floor, there were only a paltry 23 mid-grade martial arts on the shelf.
Even though it was a rather small amount, Damien was very excited. As long as a single one of these fit his needs, he would be satisfied. As he started browsing the books, he got a few weird looks from other clan members in the vicinity, but no one bothered to warn him. Skimming through majority of the books, Damien understood why some people considered them defective, as some pages were missing, and some just outright needed a special constitution to be practised.
With that said, he had actually managed to find 5 of them which he thought he could actually practice. The only problem now was whether or not they were any good for him. Out of the 5, 3 of them were offensive martial arts, one was a movement art and one was a supportive martial art. Out of the three offensive arts, one was a palm art, one was a leg art, whilst the last was a sword art. Out of the three, Damien was a little conflicted at first about which one to choose, but after thinking it through, he made a decision rather quickly.
If he wanted to level up his martial spirit, he was going to need body-tempering pills, and to get body-tempering pills, he needed to earn money. To earn money, the easiest way at the moment was to hunt wild animals and sell their materials. If he was going to hunt animals, he didn't believe a palm or leg art was going to be sufficient to kill them easily until he had progressed further into his cultivation.
Since that was the case, he decided to choose the sword art, Tempest Sword. Although the name sounded grand, in the beginning, it was nothing more than an ordinary sword art. It wasn't until the later stages where it actually started becoming powerful. The reason this sword art was considered a mid-grade sword art was that it wasn't complete. Funnily enough, the clan actually had the rest of the sword art, it was just that there was a slight problem with it.
This part of the sword art didn't have a lot of moves, but even if it was considered abnormally hard to practice, it was still somewhat possible, just not advised, the second part, however, was an entirely different story. The second part of the sword art was something even the elders of the clan couldn't practice, and they had, therefore, labelled it as a useless martial art. What was the point if no one could learn it? It was such a pity though since the Tempest Sword could be considered a top-grade human-step martial art.
Even though he could only learn half of it for now, Damien still thought that this martial art was his best choice. The complete sword art was one of the best in the entire clan, and the attributes it held also seemed to resonate with Damien. The Tempest Sword was a wind and ice martial art. Damien didn't really know why, but compared to gentle water or raging fire, swift wind and freezing ice had a different appeal to Damien.
If the sword art was practised to perfection, every swing of the sword would give rise to freezing wind. It was a swift sword art that also restricted his opponents' movements, something Damien thought seemed very powerful. After picking out his offensive martial art, Damien started going over the movement art. After just reading it for a while, Damien felt like he was truly lucky! The movement art that he had found was called Wind-Chasing Steps.
The best part about this martial art was definitely its attributes. If you compared it to other mid-grade martial arts, it wasn't the worst but it wasn't the best either. The problem once again was the difficulty. With hard difficulty and mediocre strength compared to its peers, the martial art had quickly been forgotten on the second floor. Since no one wanted to use it, the elders just tossed it into the first floor, maybe some lower disciple would be able to get some use out of it.
Compared to others who looked down on the martial art, Damien seemed to see something different in it. Although its speed could only be described as average among mid-grade martial arts, this movement art greatly increased your agility. Having greater control over his body was something that Damien valued highly since it could definitely save his life a number of times. The element of the martial art was obviously wind, and since it was the same as the sword art, Damien thought that they were probably a good match.
A swift sword along with swift movements, to Damien, it sounded really awesome! With his martial arts selected, he decided to head back to the overseer to confirm his choice of martial arts. When he walked back out of the first-floor entrance, he noticed that it was almost completely empty, except for the overseer and the guards, there were only 2 other youths there. When the overseer saw him walking towards him, he peered at the two books Damien was carrying.
As Damien came closer, he seemingly recognised the two books, and he had an amused look on his face.
"Are these two books your selection?" He asked, his tone a little different than before.
Seeing Damien nodding, the old man let out a sigh. Kids these days...
"Just so you know, once you've made your selection, there's no room for regrets, even if you can't practice them."
Damien would be dumb if he didn't understand the meaning behind the overseer's words, but he wasn't offended or anything. It was totally reasonable for the overseer to advice him to pick a martial art that he could actually practice. However, he was still going to practice them.
"Yeah I know, thank you for the advice."
"Oh well, it's not like I can tell you not to practice them, but I hope you know what you're doing." The old man seemed to be a little disappointed in him, but Damien figured he would just prove him wrong with results.
"I take it that you already know the rules of the martial hall?"
Damien nodded, he had asked about the rules before coming here, and they were quite simple; he only had a week to memorise the martial arts before he had to return them.
"Well, I'll tell you anyways, the first rule is-"
Like so, Damien was lectured about the rules of the martial hall for a few minutes, before he was finally able to leave.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Tyrone_Bedoire
Tyrone_Bedoire Kind of forgot this existed.
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