Chapter 165: [165] The Cardinal Points Of Combat

Ark and Soo-jin stood at opposite sides of the stage. He had tested out the skill he got from Hisako’s artifact, and it worked out perfectly well, switching him back to his skeleton form.

Soo-jin did not seem surprised in the slightest, which only confirmed his earlier suspicion. She knew.

He was wearing the black robes Olivia and Thalia had gotten him.

The cloak was now beaten up with a number of patches here and there. It was still mostly intact, but Ark made a mental note to have it repaired when next he visited Eden.

Soo-jin on the other hand was in a traditional sword fighting uniform. It consisted of a baggy shirt with large, airy sleeves, and a long pleated skirt that went down to her ankles.

She had taken off her shoes, wearing only socks, and had taken her stance.

Since the uniform was in her inventory, all she had to do was call upon it and it magically replaced the clothes she had been wearing.

"I watched your fight..." Soo-jin said calmly. The tension from earlier almost completely disappeared from her voice. "You have learned it, haven’t you, the Seeing Eyes..."

"Seeing Eyes?" Ark raised a brow. He knew that she was likely talking about the thing he did when he fought, the way he concentrated, trying to notice every piece of information. But...

"I didn’t know it had a name. It wasn’t mentioned in the academy."

"Knowledge about awakeners is expensive, the academy only gave us the basics. When it comes to combat, there is a lot more than what the academy has to offer."

Soo-jin took a step forward and Ark noticed that her feet were nearly noiseless. Was that why she chose to lose her shoes?

"You managed to learn one of the four cardinal points of combat on your own." She smiled. "I’m impressed."

"The four cardinal points of combat? That means there are more?"

Soo-jin took another step forward, and this time, Ark thought he heard something. Maybe it was his imagination?

"The Seeing Eyes." She pointed at her eyes.

"The Patient Ear." Her ears twitched.

Soo-jin brought her hand to her nose and cocked her head to the side. "The Stench Of Death."

She placed her hand at the center of her head, drawing a circle around it. "And finally, the Mind’s Eye."

She smiled. "You are meant to be a mage, so normally, this would not concern you. But since you have chosen to take sword fighting seriously, you will need to master each one of them in order."

"This is the only way you can rise to the very peak of your swordsmanship."

Ark took a moment to digest everything she had said. What Soo-jin was telling him was likely information that was not readily handed out to the public, and yet just like how she often spilled her family secrets, she had told him free of charge.

He could understand some of them just from their names alone. The Seeing Eyes meant he had to open his eyes to notice things he would have otherwise ignored.

The Patient Ear definitely had to do with sound. But as for the other two...

"The Stench Of Death and the Mind’s Eye. Those two are a little too ambiguous, don’t you think?"

"Eh, they make sense once you understand what they mean." Soo-jin stopped moving about fifteen feet away from him.

She opened her mouth, and Ark thought she was about to explain when she suddenly smiled.

"But all in due time. Today, your lesson will be on the Patient Ear."

Soo-jin suddenly reached out into the air, and the air seemed to distort slightly. She grasped at it, and then held the invisible item like a blade.

She smiled as she stared into his eyes.

It was a little too psychotic for Ark’s liking. Why did she look like she was about to do something nasty?

Ark raised a brow, defensively drawing a foot back.

"What did you just do?"

Soo-jin ran a finger through the air, but it looked as if her hands were touching a solid mass.

’Don’t tell me...’

"I summoned my weapon."

She stared at the ’weapon’ and rotated it around her body, before pointing it at him. It looked rather odd, if Ark did not know it was an invisible weapon, then he would have assumed she had too much to drink.

’It’s just like I suspected.’ Ark thought. Invisible weapons had been used throughout history. Well, they were not exactly invisible in reality, but in practice they were.

Arrows painted black so that they could blend with the night, making them untraceable by the human eyes, or spears painted green for use in dense foliage.

But this was the first time Ark was seeing one that was completely imperceivable.

"You see... This weapon is actually a musical instrument." She explained. "The Patient Ear requires you to be able to pick out even the most infinitesimal sounds."

"The sound of your enemy’s heart, pounding in your own ears. The sound of their faint breathing, even the blood rushing through their veins... if possible."

"At a point, you will be able to draw out sword strikes barely by their sounds."

"A little further and you will be able to predict the attacks before the blade moves."

Soo-jin smiled. "But today we will be doing something different, and much easier..."

She suddenly vanished, appearing in front of him, her hand moving forward.

Ark immediately leaned back, just as the sword likely slashed right above his head. Likely, because there was absolutely no way to perceive their weapon!

"When you can hear the tune of the blade, then you would have finally begun to master the Patient Ear."

She sliced down and Ark swung his sword upward.

Clang!

Sparks fizzled out as the weapons made contact, his sword vibrating in his grip. Ark had almost not believed there was a weapon there until he felt it...

"Musical instrument my ass!" The weapon was quieter than an owl at night, it didn’t even release any wind when it struck!

"You have gotten a lot stronger." Soo-jin’s face tightened with disbelief. "Just how high is your strength stat?"

It was seventy three.

Yes, 73. Although leveling up from level 12 to 20 had only given him fifty-six stats which he spent on his mana, Ark had absorbed a shit ton of stats from the monsters he killed.

But Soo-jin didn’t need to know that.

He jumped back, then he swung his blade right at Soo-jin’s pretty face. She dodged, even before the blade could even move.

Two steps back, her feet nearly as noiseless as the blade, and then she swung upwards in a flawless Ark.

Ark struck toward the blade with full force, only to strike plain air, losing his balance.

"What the?"

Soo-jin smiled. All she had to do was flick the sword narrowly to the side to completely dodge his strike!

"You’re not very good at this, are you?" She chuckled, just before she swung her blade right at his skull.