Departure

Staring at the endless stars penetrating the darkness of the cosmos, Daniel Wondered, will he have to live on as Rodin, as someone who is and isn't him, how many years, decades, maybe centuries will have to pass until he is his true self, once again.

Being interrupted from his thoughts by a nearby sound Daniel stood up from his desk and approached his door, opening it he was greeted with Johan and the small maid he bumped into a few times, knowing full well what was gonna happen he greeted them and let them in, in an instant both of them got to work and prepared everything for the trip.

A suffocating silence spread throughout the room as the night was an unwelcome one, due to the rare sounds of wails penetrating the starry sky, clenching his fist, Daniel's determination for power grew by the second, not going unnoticed by the old butler who let out a small yet true smile of happiness, 10 minutes passed and both the maid and butler finished, Daniel was gone by the time they look towards the door and knew he must be waiting for them in the disguised carriage.

At the Carriage his father, Roland, was waiting for him with a sad smile of his own, he knew all well that he wont see his son for a very long time, hopefully everything goes as planned and the empire will be saved from corruption, or so he hopes.

"Dad, wish me the best, I will make you proud, trust me." Roland let out a small tear as he nodded his head and embraced Daniel who froze for a second, slowly his hand unconsciously climbed upwards and grabbed Roland's back and started patting it, closing his eyes Daniel just enjoyed the warmth that his father was emanating, after some time his the both of them let go.

"Son, I already am proud." With this said he gave Daniel a goodbye gift, a small and very simple bronze ring, it had nothing special about its appearance, just round and a bit rusty.

"This is a spatial ring that has around 100 cubic meters of space, I already put in the necessary amount of money and clothing inside for you to be safe in any circumstance, and also your Favorite costume." With the last sentence his Father winked and bumped his shoulder, Confused he took the ring and examined it, unfortunately his System was still updating so now the only thing he could do was look at his father with confusion written on his face.

"Ohh, my dear, I forgot you don't know how to use them yet, let me show you." Roland took the bracelet and let Daniel look at the demonstration, at first nothing happened but out of nowhere a piece of clothing appeared in his Father's hand, scratching his head Daniel was even more confused, at this Roland sighed and stated.

"Just think of either these three things when you deal with the ring, Open and Close, Import, and Export, Open will let your consciousness enter the space and look at the objects inside, Close will let you leave, Import will let you put in any item that's currently near you, and Export will take out any item you have seen in the space." Roland Explained and Daniel nodded, seeing his son understand the underlying principle which is quite simple, he gave the ring back and Daniel intended to open the ring space, all of a sudden he was engulfed in darkness before he opened his eyes and saw a ton of gold, clothes and some weapons before him, all ranging from spears to bows and throwing weapons, feeling giddy he left by intending to close the space, and suddenly he felt his other senses return.

"This is pretty neat, thanks !" Daniel gave his father a thumbs up and suddenly a spear appeared in his hand, swinging it around a bit, excitement appeared on his face at the opportunities this feature of his could give him in certain circumstances.

As Daniel and his father were conversing Johan and the Small Maid appeared with the luggage, looking at their figure Roland let out a sigh of sadness before patting his son on the shoulder and giving him a thumbs up.

"Remember, Whenever things go bad just come home, I will always be here for you." Roland said and with those parting words Daniel got up on the Carriage and looked at the waving Roland and Johan, gulping, he felt a tremendous amount of guilt on accumulate on his shoulders, slowly he let out a sigh and mustering up a smile waved back at them.

As the distance kept getting bigger and bigger Daniel felt anxious, for the first time in his life, he entered a world he felt uncertain about, his knowledge was lacking and his experience was even more so, his only security had to abandon him due to unknown circumstances, and now he had to do by with some gold and a maid he has met less than ten times.

"Well, no better time to meditate than now." He mumbled, letting out a sigh of anxious uncertainty, Daniel entered the depths of his mind and drifted away from reality, appearing in his Mind Scape once more, but this time he was met with a different place, a serene lake in front of him, with autumn leaves falling and a small bench halfway occupied by an old and rugged looking old man in a military outfit, donned with scars all over his body and a ponytail to give him an even more weird aesthetic.

"So, are you ready to learn, kid." the coarse voice that boomed with a vitality impossible of the person his age, Daniel nodded and sat next to him on the bench, a serene silence enveloped the both of them, slowly the old man got up in a grunt and signaled for Daniel to do the same with a simple nod of his head, confused he got up and walked with the old man towards the front of the lake.

"So, since your body is now strong enough, I will impart to you the knowledge for the Basic Technique of my martial arts, after you mastered that, I will impart you a higher grade knowledge to increase your understanding of the martial arts." Hunhou stated as he looked towards Daniel who nodded in confirmation.

"Great, since every martial arts has a focus on a certain limb, I will tell you mine is mixed, it focuses on every front so that you can use it in every situation you need it, I call it Basis, since it basically has everything I need when it comes to defeating an opponent be it armed or unarmed." Looking at Daniel who was still focused he nodded and continued on.

"Basis technique has 4 very important aspects, the first and most important aspect for a beginner is the aspect of Precise Agility, you don't have to be strong, you have to attack the weakest point in a foe to disable or critically injure them, and that's where precision and speed come into play, every attack has to be precise and fast, without hesitation, without second thoughts, or your head will be rolling." Hunhou got in front of Daniel and with a quick jab which Daniel couldn't even glimpse at the attack as it was already next to his chin.

"So, what if I meet a foe that has no weaknesses ?" Daniel asked and that's when the Mentor held up two fingers.

"There is no such thing as no weakness, but if there ever was a foe who outclassed you in power and sturdiness in an unimaginable way, then the second aspect comes into play, The aspect of Internal Destruction, this is an aspect we will talk about when you managed to master the principle behind Precise Agility." After that Hunhou gave Daniel a book to read, of course it wasn't a book he could bring outside, but it was a mental one with the memories and understanding of his mentor when he started out and created the Martial arts, after a few hours of reading through the book he got the gist the technique down.

The Basis Technique didn't rely on teaching people predetermined moves, it was a technique which taught people how to move in the most efficient yet powerful way, increasing the understanding of the human anatomy was needed for someone to understand the whole book and the concepts behind it, so Daniel went back to Hunhou and ask for a book about the human anatomy it but he refused saying.

"You have a skill for such a thing, don't waste its potential for easy knowledge, also, I'm not your biology teacher." He said and kicked him Daniel out of the mindscape.

"Young Master-" Opening his eyes Daniel was met with a dark ceiling above him and his maid tied up in dozens of chains while calling out to him in a coarse voice, in an instant his mind went into a blank daze and tried to figure out what the fuck happened.