Starlight Necromancer

Chapter 115 - More And More Techniques

The group somewhat quietly left the martial alliance's building, and made their way through the bottom layer of the city until they reached a more calm part of town, where they were able to speak properly.

"Really... you even know old argian? You seriously are full of surprises." Kyla pointed out with a chuckle, and Foster looked at her, leaning against one of the walls while pulling out one of the books, "I guess so. I didn't realize it was such a weird thing." He pointed out, starting to flip through the book. And just as he thought, he was able to read everything without the slightest issue.. Having the language comprehension of someone that old really was useful.

"Ah, there it is! Weapon combat! There's the... Bo staff, Straight-Sword... Spear... and Bow?" Foster read out loud, and Lynol quickly walked over, surprised, "Really, it even holds bow-arts? Interesting."

"Right? In here, it seems like it's just the basic combat with these weapons. Don't martial arts have some specific flashy techniques or something?" Foster asked, somewhat sad that he couldn't find anything like that in here right now, and Lynol quickly shrugged.

"Sure, but those are more advanced things to learn. Right now, you simply have to study the basics, and build up a steady base. You need to ingrain the movements into your body before you can even think about being able to use those sorts of techniques properly. You're still struggling with just the basic kicks, so those techniques don't seem like a good idea yet." Lynol pointed out, but Foster couldn't help himself but click his tongue annoyed. He wanted to be able to do those sorts of flashy things, though.

But for now, that didn't matter as much, "Alright, so... now I have one book about basic punches and kicks, one book about silent step, one book completely about chaining techniques together smoothly, another one that's all about how to use martial skills and spells, and then now one book about basic weapon techniques... I sort of wish the books were a bit thicker." Foster sighed, as he flipped open the next book, surprised to see the description of the content when he started to read the text, "Huh? Hold on, this- finally something fun! It seems like this book is about combining the basic spells that I'm learning with the... martial skills?"

"Wait, what?" Lynol let out surprised, looking at the page and the sketches, "Is it really speaking of the combination of those?"

"Yeah... here, this one, look." Foster said, showing the page to Lynol, Octer and Kyla. There was a sketch that showed one of the basic punches that he already learned, copied four times. In the top left corner, it showed the punch without any change, but in the top right, it showed some sort of waving, mist-like energy surrounding the fist. In the bottom left, it showed a sort of visualized explosion in the middle of the air in front of it. And in the bottom right, it showed what practically seemed to be an explosion of that mist-like energy, as if the two others were combined into this single image. Foster didn't even know that this was possible, but this certainly made him feel rather excited. However, reading through it, Foster saw that it relied on some terms that he hadn't heard before that he apparently needed for context.

Quickly, he opened the other books up, trying to see if either of them explained more context. While one of the two leftover books spoke about something boring like meditation and breathing techniques, the other one was about defensive techniques based around blocking or deflecting attacks. Nowhere was Foster able to find the terms on concepts that the technique of combining magic spells and martial skills was based off.

While Foster had done something similar before, that was just him using both at the same time. He used the Chilling Touch spell at the same time as the Single Strike martial skill, but that was inherently differnet to combining them. That seemed to be at a whole other level, especially seeing the surprise of the others when Foster mentioned what the book was about.

"But... I guess that's really proof that Thiodrus wrote the books, huh?" Octer pointed out, "If it actively mentions necromancy and shows a specific punch that Foster already learned... there'd be no other way, right?" 

"Huh? Oh, yeah... Well, that's true!" Foster replied, only now realizing that. He had sort of accepted the idea that Thiodrus wrote these books as a fact, at least internally, so he hadn't even considered this aspect of it. Even if this book was able to tell him just about that, acting as definite proof that he was right, then that was worth it in and of itself, even if Foster would have a tougher time figuring out how to do the things in this book without further context about those energy-combining techniques.

"We can still figure things out. These books probably aren't the only ones that he left scattered around, anyway. But for now, I think it's obvious what we will do." He said bluntly, and Foster turned his head somewhat confused, "Huh? Is it?"

"Of course. We will get you a bo staff, a straight sword, a spear, as well as a bow so that you can practice with them as soon as the artifact allows you to." Lynol said immediately, "It doesn't mean they have to be special or anything. Just something good enough to practice with privately, as well as in the dungeon."

"Wait, we're gonna use the dungeon for practice?" Foster asked surprised. He was feeling somewhat annoyed that he was going to need to buy more stuff just for practice, although he never really liked using weapons in any form anyway. But well, having them around might be useful, just in case, so he agreed that he should practice those techniques.

Kyla immediately replied in Lynol's stead, "Of course! The dungeon's first five floors are perfect for that! Easy to kill, really weak monsters. They're small and many, so even though there's a lot of people in the first five floors, there's going to be enough of us to train with." She explained, before realizing, "Oh! Wait! If Foster's style has bow techniques, then we could take on the floors after the fifth!"

Foster looked back with a wry smile, "I'm not really the... shooting kind."

"You just bought two dozen throwing knives." Octer pointed out, and Foster scratched the back of his head. He did have a point. Foster had a steady hand and great aim. And it wasn't like he was bad at shooting guns, rather, he was amongst one of the more skilled of those that he knew. He simply didn't like the idea of guns.

"Fine, I guess so." Foster sighed, accepting that he had little choice in the matter anymore. Octer looked like he would simply make the bowstring snap every time he tried to pull it back, Kyla was playing music during the largest portion of a battle, and Lynol had no interest in anything beside swordsmanship. So in the end, he was the only one that could take on this role.