William gritted his teeth as he stood on two wooden poles in the horse stance position while supporting a log in his hands. He had been in this position for five hours, and sweat was oozing out of his body.
At first, he thought that this training was going to be easy, but facts showed that it was harder than he thought it would be.
Dwayne was seated not far away from him drinking alcohol out of a wooden bowl. A spear protruded on the ground and was aimed at William's "little brother". The moment he broke his stance, or lowered his body, Little William was going to get pierced by the spear and the red-headed boy had no intention of becoming a eunuch.
Because of this, he gritted his teeth and focused his concentration on his balance. With each day that passed, the weight of the log increased. Tears streamed down William's face as he endured each day of his training. He still wanted to have a girlfriend, so losing Little William here was not an option!
After three weeks, Dwayne thought that it was about time to move to the next phase of his training.
The red-headed boy thought that his torture was over, but another round took its place. The monk ordered William to crawl twenty laps around the lake while he sat on his back. After yet another week, Dwayne changed his training routine again. This time he was told to do splits.
William thought that he would just be doing splits on the ground, but Dwayne said that what he was thinking was for girls. The monk dragged William to the familiar wooden poles and asked him to do a split using the poles as support.
"T-Third Master, c-can you remove the spear?" Cold sweat dripped from William's forehead as Dwayne placed the spear under his little brother. "Must we do it like this?"
"It's fine," Dwayne assured him. "Don't worry. If your little brother gets stabbed, I will take you and run to Lont to have Owen take a look. Everything will be fine… probably."
'%$%#&$!' William cursed the bald monk internally. If Little William was injured and was unable to recover, he was prepared to fight Dwayne to his dying breath.
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Two months of training passed and William felt his body became more flexible with each passing day. Today, he was told to do ten laps around the lake while doing back flips. After he finished doing the flips, Dwayne told him to do 1 lap doing head flips.
William looked at his Master with the "Are you kidding me?" and the latter gave him the "Do I look like I'm kidding you?" stare.
Dwayne asked him to do it with his palms pressed together while crouching. William had never thought that there would be a day in his life where he would literally use his head to travel.
The monk chuckled as he watched his new disciple do head flips while leaning against a tree.
More days passed as William suffered incredible torture under the hands of the Monk.
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Four months after he accepted Dwayne as his Master, William found himself staring at a steel barrel that was usually used to store wine.
His Third Master explained that the steel barrel was an artifact that could produce ice-cold water. William thought that his Master was going to ask him to go inside the tub to do some endurance training, but Dwayne's next order made him look at the barrel seriously.
"I want you to punch the water ten thousand times," Dwayne ordered. "You will not eat, drink, or sleep until you finish your quota. You can start now."
William felt a bit more confident with this training because it was just throwing a punch. However, it didn't take him long to realize that Dwayne would never ask him to do anything simple.
As he continued to punch the ice cold water, he could feel his hands going numb. Half a day later, he could no longer feel his hands, but a searing pain was starting to replace the numbness.
When William finished his quota, Dwayne observed his hands with an indifferent expression. The next day, the same training took place, this continued for four consecutive days before Dwayne changed the training routine once again.
Instead of punching water, William was asked to punch the ground ten thousand times.
William punched, and punched, and punched, until he could punch no more.
Just like the boy expected, the day ended with him having bloody hands. He didn't complain even though he could tell that some of his fingers had broken.
"Mmm, I thought you'd quit half way," Dwayne said as he looked at his temporary disciple's bloody hands. He then took out a red potion from his storage ring and sprinkled half of it on William's hands. "Drink the rest then eat dinner. We will resume your training tomorrow."
This training continued for a week before the monk took William out of the forest. The monk and the boy headed to the nearest mountain in Lont, the locals called this place Woodlow Mountain.
The rocky mountains were filled with giant boulders. The two walked casually until they came upon a boulder that was over five meters tall.
Just like Williame expected, Dwayne asked him to punch the boulder. This time, he didn't give him a quota. Instead, the monk told him to punch the boulder until sunset.
William obeyed and punched the boulder using the monk strikes that Dwayne had imparted to him when he started his punching training.
< Gained Exp: 5 >
< Gained Exp: 5 >
< Gained Exp: 5 >
< Gained Exp: 5 >
The reason why William endured punching the ground, and punching the boulder was because he realized that he could gain experience points while doing these training exercises if he used the appropriate Job Class for it.
The one who gave him this advice was the system, and William became more motivated with each punch he delivered. He no longer cared if he bled, or broke his bones, because he knew that Dwayne wouldn't allow him to become crippled.
Besides, his fists were now stronger compared to when he started his training. William was sure that he would gain a lot of experience points before they passed their breaking point.
The first few experience points he gained were all allocated to the skill Unarmed Mastery.
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< Unarmed Mastery 10 / 10 >
-- You are skilled at fighting while unarmed.
-- Adds +20 Enhancement Bonus to Strength
-- Increase Unarmed damage by 20%
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Of course, as William gained more experience points, his list of passive abilities for the monk class also increased.
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< Stunning Fist 10 / 10 >
-- Adds +10 Enhancement Bonus to Dexterity
-- Each unarmed strike has a 5% chance to stun your opponent.
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< Crane Stance Mastery 5 / 5 >
-- While using this style you gain +10 Enhancement Bonus on Vitality.
-- You mimic the stance of a crane. Holding your arms in an imitation of a crane's wings and using flowing, defensive motions that are perfect for counter-attacking your enemy.
-- Allows you to move fluidly within three square meters from where you stood.
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< Deflect Range Attacks 5 / 5 >
-- Gives you a 30% chance to deflect projectile attacks aimed at you.
-- The chances of deflection lowers by 1% for each projectile aimed at you.
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< Diamond Fist >
(Needs 10 Skill Points to unlock)
-- Makes your fists as hard as diamonds when doing Unarmed Strike.
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< Overwhelming Strike >
(Needs 5 Skill Points to unlock)
-- Once a day you can deliver one full-powered unarmed strike that contains all of your strength.
-- Damage dealt is equivalent to your Strength Stat multiplied by 20.
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Even though it was painful, William endured and kept on pummeling the boulder as if his life depended on it. He was using the Crane Stance in order to allow his body to adapt to the fighting style.
Just like the System said, warriors grew strong through repetition. With every perfect punch he delivered, William's technique was slowly being refined. Even Dwayne, who was observing from a distance, couldn't believe that William managed to get this far only after a few months of training.