Winter Style and Flash Step

"System show me my skills."

[Lv.1 Flash Step] (Spatial Movement)

B+ Class

Allows extremely fast movement to instantly move to a location in sight. The skill you have gained is a variant and uses spatial movement instead of extreme speed.

Cooldown: 10 minutes

[Lv.1 Secret of the Four Seasons: Winter Style] (Secret Skill)

D++ Class

The fourth part of the Four Seasons Ancient Inheritance. Created 10,000 years ago it was the last section of the four-part inheritance to be completed. Only one person may inherit the skill and is marked with a 'snowflake' to show they are the successor of the Winter Style.

The skill combines the use of natural energy and physical training to gain transcendent abilities. The Winter Style, based on winter, signifies coldness and death. Out of the four parts, Winter Style was made for killing your opponent swiftly and painlessly as possible.

Currently has been trained to 'Intermediate Proficiency'.

Active Skill: [Cold Mind]

Enter a state of Emotionless and focus. The mind loses all extra thoughts and increases the body's combat strength to a maximum. Movements have a faster reaction time. The perception of time is slowed by 4 times.

Noah got up and walked to the tree in the backyard. he stood in front and gave the tree a strong punch. The tree shook and leaves fell, each twisting or swinging in the air as they fell.

In the rain of leaves, Noah closed his eyes and immediately opened them. The world had slowed down the falling leaves moved in slow motion as if they were moving through a viscous fluid. He reached out his hands comfortably caught all of them.

This was something he had done before on earth. The skill 'Secret of the Four Seasons: Winter Style' wasn't something he had gained in the Eternal Battlefield rather it was a martial art he had trained in since he was 10 years old.

It wasn't called skill on earth, instead, it was called secret martial art. It was a special training technique he had inherited from Alice's father.

Father-in-law was from an Ancient family that had the 'Secret of the For Seasons' pass down from generation to generation. The 'Secret of Four Seasons' had four sections: Summer Style, Autumn Style, Spring Style and Winter Style. He had inherited the winter of the four.

Alice's father himself inherited Summer Style from his father. It was this skill that allowed him to break through human limits and made him unkillable. This was why he had so much faith that no one else could kill him.

Noah analysed the change in the skill.

"It seems like the effect has gotten stronger, I could only slow time by 3 times on earth. The duration of use has increased by a lot. My body is easily able to handle the maximum amount I could use on earth. I still feel like I could use it three more times."

Noah punched this time with much more force and activated 'Cold Mind' again. More leaves fell this time, catching them was much harder and took longer, so he kept it activated for as long as he could. It was only after he felt his heart tire that he stopped.

"So I can keep it active for 15 seconds in one go, and use it up to a maximum of 30 seconds before my body needs to rest. That's much longer than the 5 seconds on earth." Noah sat on the ground against the tree heavily breathing. The skill would greatly pressure the brain and heart.

Even with his years of training, healthy eating, and medication he was only able to use it for 5 seconds. Now over here his body was stronger, his brain had gotten especially strong. His heart however hadn't caught up as much. It limited the time.

At the moment Noah felt great and a little lost, he had spent 8 years of consistent training just to reach a maximum of 5 seconds of use for the skill. Now he had it extended to 30 seconds in a day. Such an exponential increase felt great but also didn't feel like he had earned it.

"I should just forget about it and move on to the next skill, 'Flash Step'."

With that Noah got up. The skill allowed instantaneous movement through space, which in itself sounded like nonsense to him.

He marked the area with his shoes, leaving an indent in the grass. he then concentrated on himself and took a step forward. While doing this he concentrated on moving further than the actual step. His foot landed on the ground and he looked around. He had a few meters forward much further than his single step.

With the movement, he also felt something empty inside of him. Before using the skill he didn't even know he had such a thing inside his body but now that it was gone he could easily feel it.

"So this is mana. How is it supposed to work?" Being able to teleport his human body so seamlessly, had greatly shocked him. Mana was a lot more special than he had initially thought. He had read about it and what could be done with it but experiencing it had brought his reverence to another level.

Noah sat down and started to meditate. He only had one point in his mana attribute and it had run out from one use of 'Flash Step'. To recover mana he had to mediate and open his body to let the mana flow in from the surrounding.

Noah sat for around 30 minutes but couldn't absorb mana. He could feel it but could barely influence it. After a constant effort, he had the mana move towards him and into his body. This slow and gruelling process took an hour. It was like filling a bucket with a test tube.

He stood up again. Already experienced he used it proficiently and blinked forward. He then sat down again and started recovering mana.

Noah constantly used 'Flash Step' then sat to recover his mana. In one of his attempts, he had been able to teleport across the tree, confirming that he could move through objects.

By his tenth attempt, he had grown used to the feeling of mana and had a more grasp over it. He was able to recover his mana in only ten minutes. This worked perfectly with what the system said was the cooldown of 'Flash Step'.

Through his continuous use, he had learned that he had to take a complete step forward to teleport successfully. He had to put his foot onto a solid surface or the skill wouldn't work. Other than that he could move in any direction he wanted from the step, as long as nothing was blocking the place he was supposed to appear. This meant he was able to take a step forward on the ground and appear on a tree branch. Also if he took a step forward he could appear a few meters back.

The skill worked great with 'Spatial Sense', when he activated 'Spatial Sense' he was able to move around a lot more accurately, even being able to teleport onto a fist wide rock without having it in his line of sight.

Before he knew it, the sun was rising, the sky had changed to a lighter blue as the orange glowing ball of warmth started appearing.

"I forgot about the time, I got too engrossed in using 'Flash Step'." He still had other questions and things he wanted to know from the system. He decided he would just do it later. As he walked back into the house he asked the last question.

"What is level and how do you increase it?"

[Level is a measurement for your strength of existence, there is no fixed way to increase it. As you gain fighting experience, grow stronger and breakthrough from your previous self, it will increase.]

"Strength of existence? That's an interesting way to put it."

"So my combat strength would mainly stem from my talents and skills it seems." Since he now knew what to expect from each talent and skill he was getting excited about the future.

It was like the system had brought out all the potential he had out in front of him making his weaknesses and strengths obvious. He was already used to training himself so he already had numerous ideas of how to train in the future.

"I need to get stronger if I want to be able to protect Alice."

He already decided that he needed to be stronger than he already was, he wanted to be stronger for himself and for Alice. The Eternal Battlefield, you could tell from its name that it wasn't a peaceful place, the world was going to hell and entering this medieval time of technology, with no proper law enforcement outside of towns and cities. he would only have himself to rely on.

Noah went back in and checked on Alice. After seeing her sleep peacefully he washed up and started to prepare breakfast.