Blademaster Ascension

5- Third Eclipse

Rowan sighed as he lay down on his own bed; its familiar warmth and texture giving him the mental strength which every person craves for.
Getting an early release from the hospital hadn't been an easy feat. The doctors tried their best to convince him to give them the permission to poke his left eye with a scalpel. Just as myriad thoughts were running through his consciousness in hyper-speed and dreams started peeking in a corner of his mind, a particular thought jolted him up.

He sat up quickly and tumbled down from his bed with unsteady feet; his head spinning faster than the planet itself and half-crawled half-jumped his way to the corner of the small room.

Flipping over a pile of large books, he dug out a small, old, diary from there and lit a candle with his eyes still half closed. The crimson light revealed the diary to be damaged and yellowed, as if it was a century old antique.

Rowan flipped through the pages with care and a few moments later he stilled.

The particular page had many small drawings on it. From a first glance, they looked like miniature stick-man drawings made by a toddler. However, if one looked closely they would notice the sharp and exquisite lines which could make a critic tear up with appreciation.

There were side notes beside each drawing. Rowan had to squat close to the surface to properly distinguish the words under the weak light. The drawings depicted a man holding a sword in various poses and the notes described the details of each pose.

At the end of the page, a sentence was written with particular style:
Thus, one can achieve the skill to bend the force behind his strike and hit critical spots of his enemy's body with ease. Even armored enemy is no longer safe from your strike.

Rowan silently reread the line before clearing his voice.
"Chip, can you analyze this and tell me why I can't do what it says?"

[ yes, but analyzing unknown fighting styles such as this will take time. Host is advised to wait patiently for the results.
Scanning...complete
Processing data...matching data...
Completion: 0.1% ]

The interface turned into a dull gray progress bar and after waiting for some time, it increased to 0.35% .

"How long is this going to take?"

[Eight hours maximum.]

Rowan nodded to himself and feeling happiness bubbling up from within, he almost danced towards his bed.

............ ........... ............ ...........

Rowan was having a pleasant dream about killing some doctors with their scalpels when his consciousness vibrated in a familiar manner.
Groggy and disoriented, he mumbled something about an eyeball and woke up from his sweet bloody dream of vengeance.

[ progress bar: 100%
Analyzing data...
WARNING: due to some obscure words in the page, a portion of the technique is not clear and might be unsafe for practice.

WARNING: host must learn the complimentary breathing exercise and use specially designed swords to achieve intended result.

Presenting data...
This is an obscure sword technique which could produce unnatural force by using highly practiced muscle movement as well as exceptional strength. The technique itself relies on multiple complimentary techniques to fulfil the quota to achieve intended results. The technique can be divided into four stages. The requirements to reach the first stage is 1.5 strength and 1.5 speed value. ]

Rowan read the report and reached for the diary under his pillow. There was no breathing exercise in it which he could practice. As for trying to practice the sword moves, he gave up on that after reading the requirements. Yawning with an ugly expression, he started doing his daily chores.
After having a small breakfast, Rowan pulled out a box from under his bed. All his savings were inside. Four years ago, when his parents disappeared, they left him some money to survive through his teens. By now, his savings had hit rock bottom. He had to find some way to earn money.
Of course, the most widespread way of earning money was to hunt monsters or take up town council's missions, neither of which he had the guts or strength to do.