“Um, who are you?” Roy asked intelligently.
The man raised an eyebrow, and Roy quickly realized that he was being rude. He got to his feet, dusting himself off as best he could and bowed at the waist.
“Excuse my rudeness, please,” he apologized, not sure what else to say.
What did one say to an old man who fell from the sky?
The old man nodded, tucking the staff behind his back and inclining his head ever so slightly.
“I am Tonde Irusaru, of the Tonde School, here in The Crater. I’ve been keeping an eye on you, boy, and you’ve got some potential. Why don’t you come with me?”
Roy stared, his mind trying to process what the old man had just said. Had he really just offered to take a random stranger into his school, and what had he said about keeping an eye on him?
Before he could say anything else, there was a loud roar, and the mountain lion pounced towards the old man. Roy staggered back, not sure if the old man could take the massive Beast or not. He couldn’t feel a thing from him and couldn’t see his Belt, so he had no idea how strong he was.
Calmly, as though this wasn’t a life or death situation, the old man turned and made a gesture with his hand. For a moment, Roy wondered if the old man was senile, as the cat continued sailing through the air towards him. Then, in a single brilliant flash, the cat’s body was sent into a thousand pieces. Blood and gore painted the stone in all directions, practically raining down from the sky. Not a drop landed on the old man, who plucked a glowing gold core from the air and tucked it into his robe. He turned back to a shocked Roy as though nothing had happened.
“Well?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Well…what?” Roy asked, still in a state of shock.
The old man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I do wonder at the younger generation’s lack of intelligence, at times,” he muttered under his breath. Then, he looked up at Roy once again. “Are you coming with me, or not?”
“Geon, a little help here,” Roy said, staring at the old man.
“I’d say to just go along with him. We were looking for a school, after all, and if he’s offering, why say no?”
“I can think of about a hundred reasons, the first of which is that we have no idea who this man is.”
“He did just save us from being eaten, so…” Geon trailed off, and Roy felt his shoulders slump.
The Dungeon core had a valid point. Straightening his back, he looked the old man in the eye and nodded.
“Excellent. Follow me then. My village is just a day’s walk from here.”
He turned his back on him, then vanished into thin air.
Roy’s eyes widened once again as the short man disappeared. He looked over to Ferry, who was only just getting to her feet. Her wounds had scabbed over, but she still looked exhausted from her run. The run-in with that massive cat couldn’t have done her any good either. Against a monster like that, she was just as helpless as he.
A gust of wind ruffled Roy’s hair as the old man appeared before him once again.
“My apologies. I’ve been traveling so long on my own that I’ve forgotten how slow you are at the lower Belts.”
Roy couldn’t decide if he was insulted or not, but decided not to say anything. He had so many questions that he could hardly contain them, and if this mysterious old man could give him some answers, he could take a few insults.
After all, he’d been taking them his entire life.
24
“Why can’t I sense your core or see the color of your Belt?” Roy asked as he walked beside the older man.
He’d decided to let Ferry rest and not ride her for the remainder of their journey, which Irusaru had said would take two and a half days at their current speed.
“You can’t sense my core for two reasons. One, I’m suppressing my energy and two, because you haven’t advanced enough to convert your Essence to Qi. As for why you can’t see my Belt… Well, it’s because I don’t want you to,” the old man answered tersely.
“Can you show me how to do that? To hide my Belt and suppress my energy, and to use Qi. Whatever that is.”
Irusaru let out a snort at that.
“Hiding your Belt is only useful for those at higher advancement levels. If, for example, someone stronger than me were to look, they would clearly see it. For someone at your level, the only ones you’ll be hiding the belt from are other White-Belts at the Base level. As for using Qi, I’m afraid that’s impossible until you’ve advanced past Base Green. The suppression of your core is something that I can, and will, teach you.
“With your weak core, you should have easily been able to hide from all the wild Beasts, but instead, you drew them in like a magnet. I really do have to thank you for attracting that Crater-cat for me, though. Made it really easy to get its core, and a high grade one, at that- 2nd Dan Green. Since you helped in the retrieval of the core, we’ll call it your tuition for the year. Something like that would easily fetch you a hundred Kinka in The Crater, so it’s only fair.”
Roy gaped at the amount of money the core was worth. Even more than that, he was shocked at how powerful the Beast had been. Yet, the old man had killed it with a single gesture. Just how powerful was he?
“I’m curious,” Roy said. “Why choose me to join your school? I’m weak for my age, and I’m sure you can find stronger Martial Artists willing to learn from you…” he trailed off.
He wasn’t actually sure about that. He didn’t even know how large this school was. But judging by the old man, he had to assume that The Crater was full of monsters just like him.
“Simple. You are a Martial Artist on the Path of Power.”
“So?” Roy asked. “I know it’s rare, but in a place this rich with Power Essence you must have dozens of them.”
“One in two-hundred and seventy-eight,” Irusaru said.
“What?”
“That is how many people are compatible with Power Essence. Out of that number, only every one in twelve chooses that Path. The numbers for Weakness Essence are about the same. So, my young Martial Artist, aside from me, you will be the only Power user in the entire school.”
“You’re on the Path of Power too?” Roy asked, remembering how easily he’d obliterated the giant cat.
Would he be able to do something like that one day?
“Obviously,” the old man said, shaking his head once more.
They walked on in silence for a few minutes, Roy digesting all the new information. He noticed the old man walking with his hands folded behind his back, posture straight and eyes forward. He’d never seen anyone walk like that before. It left all his vitals wide open. Even if he wasn’t expecting an attack, it was still risky.
“How do the trials work for other people? I know that some Martial Artists have a choice of a few different Paths, so how exactly does it work when they find a compatible one? I know that no one can use two different Essence types, so how do they choose?”
“The same way as you did, I imagine,” the old man replied. “By passing through all the trials without selecting an Essence type, then choosing after their last Trial. Most will forgo that option, as they already know which Essence type they want before going in.”
“But I never got the option,” Roy said, looking up toward the stormy sky. “No Essence worked for me, up until I got to the Power trial. Then the Essence practically forced its way into my core.”
Irusaru looked up sharply at that, his keen eyes watching Roy’s face for any sign of deceit. When he saw none, he just shook his head and turned his attention back to the road ahead.