Ch 4 Learning Martial Arts from One Place

After leaving Greg, Jock decided to not work in the mine at the moment, it was better to use that time to train.

First though, he had to make use of the money he got from mining to get enough food to sustain himself.

As Jock walked through the marketplace, he decided that the best place to get food would be at the shadier area of the marketplace because he doesn't have much money.

Normally, the price of jerky is 10 copper coins per pound, and the price of bread is 8 copper coins per pound.

But by going through the shadier area, he noticed that the prices dropped 2 copper coins overall, as the quality couldn't be verified. So, the price changed to 8 copper coins per pound of jerky and 6 copper coins per pound of bread. Although, Jock did notice that the bread was less brown and blacker, so it seemed that the reason it was sold cheaper is due to the quality of the bread being a notch worse.

Jock eventually found a shop called 'Colson's Shady Wares'. The person who Jock assumed to be Colson, was completely covered by a black coat, making it hard to see his face.

Jock noticed that the jerky he sold was different from the others. This jerky tempted him, while the others were just seen as regular food. Clearly, it the meat was something special to him. While it was suspicious that the meat was being sold as regular jerky, Jock couldn't be bothered to care. Also, the bread that Colson was selling also looked just as good as any bread sold in the main square.

Jock approached Colson's stand.

"Hey man, I'll take 4 pounds of jerky." Jock said to Colson as he started to take out the copper coins he earned from working in the mine. Although the total came out to be 32 copper coins, and Jock only earned 30 copper coins from working in the mine; Jock picked up two copper coins around the street on his way here. He couldn't miss this chance to get that interesting meat that attracted him. There may be only one chance.

Meanwhile, Colson himself was surprised.

'Ok? I thought this meat was garbage meat. Honestly, I was ready to negotiate lower because the meat has to be treated by a tedious process because of the poison that is trapped in the meat. Who knew there would be this chump.' Colson thought he got a great deal.

"Sure, let me go get the jerky." Colson walked to the back of the shop and packed 4 pounds of jerky for Jock and delivered it to him. Although he didn't have much hope, he added on the regular store jingle.

"Please come again." Colson said, giving a smile to Jock.

Jock was ecstatic that the meat wasn't just a one-time thing. He happily said he would come again and left the stand.

Carrying the bundle of jerky back to his home at the edge of the village Jock was content. He was going to devote all his energy to practicing the six marine powers that was from a book in his previous life.

The first two he would learn were rather surprising. Most people would learn Shave or Iron Body first, but he wanted to learn Paper Arts first. Of course, Shave would be next since it's so overpowered, and Moon Walk would have to be obtained naturally by running a ton as it's hard to figure out how that works, or at least, it was impossible to do with his current body.

Jock didn't think that learning these abilities would be easy since he had no one to guide him on how it worked, but as long as he got close enough, he figured he would be able to figure it out.

To learn Paper Arts Jock's first thought is that inhumane flexibility is needed, so Jock is going to train like a contortionist. A person who can twist their body in an inhumane matter.

Unfortunately, Jock knows nothing about how a contortionist trains, so he'll just be doing 'extreme yoga'. As Jock isn't too worried about tearing any muscle tissue or breaking any bones, he can, from the start, move his body in extremely uncomfortable positions.

Luckily Jock is 11, so from his knowledge his body is still more flexible than an adult at this point. This gives him a chance to train his body to adapt to being moved inhumanely at a fast pace.

'Wait…' Jock suddenly realized something, and a sacrificial spirit manifested in his eyes.

Jock was ready. With a reluctant look in his eyes after realizing the truth, he started to try and learn the Paper Arts.

He was only going further on the masochistic path….