LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 17: Martial arts
4 months later
Lorien stood face to face with a 30 years old looking man Inside the dojo, from their looks it appears that they've been battling for a while now
Both had their guards up and were ready for combat, each waiting for their opponent to make a mistake
Suddenly the man standing in front of Lorien called Chojun Miyagi attacked with a punch which Lorien quickly parried to his left and took the opportunity to attack
Chojun wasn't surprised as he moved his body to the right taking advantage of the momentum of his own punch while also striking with his left knee
But Lorien easily blocked it raising his left leg to defend while also restoring his upper guard to defend from possible counterattacks
With their legs clashing both stepped back distancing themselves from their opponent as they waited for their next opportunity
Soon after, Lorien took the initiative as he attacked with a punch which Choju parried and easily counterattacked
Seeing a punch coming his way Lorien pretended as if he was going to parry it
Looking at Lorien's movements Chojun adjusted his body getting ready to defend, but just as he thought his punch was going to get parried as usual Lorien's movements changed last second
Instead of palming the punch coming his way in another direction, he clamped Chojun's wrist taking advantage of his momentum he gave Chojun his back and did a quick back throw causing Chojun to lose balance and fly in the air
This happened too fast causing Chojun to be unable to react as he soon fell to the ground with a loud crashing noise declaring the end of the battle
"huuufff,hufff, Indeed a genius, as I've heard from the rumors, you are really a monster!"
Said Chojun in between heavy breaths his voice full of envy, awe, and many other complex emotions
Hearing this Lorien shook his head, and instead, he sincerely thanked Chojun while extending a hand towards him to help him up
"Thank you for teaching me those couple of days..."
Holding the hand extended to him Chojun pulled himself up as he curiously asked
"So, Lorien will keep looking for more Martial artist masters after this?"
Hearing this question Lorien paused for a second as if thinking about it before refusing
"No this is the last one, even if I learned more I most likely won't gain anything new..."
"Indeed all martial arts have a lot in common"
Chojun was quick to affirm, before continuing again
"I have already taught you all I know, even though it only took a couple of days it was quite the eye-opener"
Hearing this Lorien knew that this was the end of another mentorship relationship so he quickly walked with Chojun to the door of the estate to send him off
After doing this at least 9-10 times Lorien was used to it so there wasn't much regret or other emotions, not to mention that they only knew each other for a couple of days
Chojun is the last martial arts master he will practice with, he is a very talented man and the creator of the Goju-ryu martial arts which he taught to Lorien
Looking at Chojun's fading back Lorien couldn't help but think of what happened in the past 4 Months
After perfecting his swordsmanship he turned his attention to martial arts, The first martial art he learned was Aikido because it was a bit famous even though it wasn't its peak period yet (1960-1970), so a mentor was easy to find
It took him 2 weeks to learn it, much faster than it did for swordsmanship, that was mostly thanks to his higher Source Energy reserve which greatly increased alongside his physical prowess in that month of training
But Lorien knew that other mentors weren't so easy to find, as most of them were in totally different cities or towns
If he wanted to learn many martial arts he would have to move from one town to another each time which would be a huge waste of time
Lorien knew this even when he had just begun practicing Aikido, so he made a plan based on the psychology of those 'masters', and in his own words
'If I can't go look for them, let them come look for me!'
And so, like that rumors began spreading widely about some very rich guy formally challenging all martial arts masters, the challenge was a 2 step one
The first step, he'd battle any challenger and as long as they can win him he'd pay them a huge sum of money
The second step is that if they were willing to teach him their styles and he couldn't learn them in 2 weeks he'd pay them another sum of money
The rumors took a while to propagate even with Lorien paying people to spread the word, but apparently, it was effective enough as Lorien quickly faced his first challenger
This mentor was also attracted by the rumors, and after making sure the deal is true, they started fighting without further do
In this battle, Lorien actually lost, well... he lost on purpose as he needed someone to earn something to make the challenge credible and not just some random baseless rumor
Lorien doesn't care much about money as his ability makes him a money-printing machine
The reason he made this challenge a 2 step one is to make sure that the one coming to challenge him is a true master of his art and not just some random guy wanting to earn some easy money
So after making sure that this is a real master, Lorien made an intentional mistake and lost
Following the battle, Lorien gave the man what he promised, and then he made another deal with him to teach him his style which the man quickly agreed to
This time it took Lorien 9 days or so to completely master the style, more than half a week shorter than the time it took him to learn Aikido
This is because of the overlap between martial arts and the fact that Lorien's energy reserves keep increasing daily which means Lorien can burn more energy causing him to learn faster
And from there the same Scenario basically repeated with some martial artists coming from time to time, especially after the rumors got 'updated' with information saying that someone already got paid and that the rich guy is actually a genius wanting to master all styles
The last one was because Lorien knew that even though money was very useful in most cases, some people were very eccentric and the rumors of a genius may attract them more than money
And indeed that was the case as the last mentor Chojun was actually attracted by it and has even refused to get paid
Of course, there were a lot of people who came just to earn some quick cash and tried to fake their way through but ended up getting a good beating and getting thrown away
But then, everything has its advantage and disadvantages, as because of the increase in the number of people, Lorien now had plenty of options to choose from different masters and styles
Actually, this rumor thing was a last resort as Lorien himself doesn't like to be in the limelight, especially in this different world as fame in most cases equals danger
But knowing the Demons Slayer world he didnt worry much as first of all this world isn't that dangerous for him, not to mention that he had been absorbing dreams every single day causing his physical strength to increase wildly, the physical strength of those demons may not be as high as his
So after weighing his options, he judged that the gains are more than the losses and the fame may help him later in getting the breathing techniques
And so like that, the practice of the following martial arts didnt take long as the more he practiced them the shorter the time needed became because of the overlap between them, as seen in the last one with Chojun it only took him a couple of days to learn even though it was a new style
And as stated earlier today is the last day in his martial arts practice journey, all he has to do now is use his ability to do the same thing he did with swordsmanship, merge and optimize them and create a new personal style for himself
So with this plan in mind, Lorien walked back to the inside of the estate to execute his plan