Staggered Dance

Luck and Elder continued to spar until Elder was finally satisfied with the progress he had made, but by that time it was already late into the night and while Elder looked perfectly fine, Luck was completely exhausted.

'Is the party still on?'

Luck wondered as he sat down on the floor taking in large volumes of air. The moment they finally stopped sparing and he allowed himself to rest, the fatigue hit him all at once making it difficult for him to stand up straight.

Elder handed him a bottle of water that Luck did not know the origins of but at that point he didn't care, he greedily took large gulps until the bottle was completely empty then he slowly got up.

His body felt like it weighed a ton, he visibly struggled to get up only to fall back down on his butt.

Elder watched as Luck struggled and sighed, he sounded slightly disappointed, not at Luck's performance but disappointed at the fact that they could not go further…

And sadly they were out of time.

"Don't try to force it, rest a little before you go."

Elder turned to leave but Luck using the last bits of his strength rose to his feet.

"W-Wait!" He took a long breath. "You said you will teach me the staggered dance!"

Elder paused.

"You can't even learn the basics in this state."

He watched as Luck barely managed to keep himself upright.

"But I did say I would teach you."

He then dipped his hand into his shirt and ruffled it around until he finally brought out a scroll and a pen.

Seeing a scroll was rather surprising to Luck since books were already in use, why he went for a more archaic choice Luck did not know but over the next couple of minutes Elder began to scribble down on both sides of the scroll until he was satisfied with what he had written.

"This is a step to step guide on how to learn the 'Staggered dance,' it would be far harder to learn since you won't have a teacher but since you at least have a guide you're better off than me."

"When I created the technique I had nothing to go by but the results I wanted… It was brutal."

Luck stared at the scroll, a deep grimace appearing on his face.

"I don't want a damn guide, you promised to teach me the technique."

Luck complained but he knew it was all for nothing, there was no way he could learn anything in this state.

Elder took a step, but just as his leg touched the ground the air seemed to still and a slight tremor spread through the earth.

Something unusual happened.

He was gone, his body a blur as he moved in countless zigzags around Luck scattering around the forest leaves.

Luck tried to follow his path but he was having a headache by just trying to keep up with him. Maybe it was because he was wary or maybe Elder was just too fast he did not know but that didn't change the fact that the technique was nothing short of breathtaking.

When the movements finally settled Elder was standing behind an awestruck Luck. He tossed the scroll from behind him and Luck caught it in the air.

"We will meet again, try to stay alive till then."

"And if you are going to sneak around…

Wear a mask."

And then he was gone.

***

Luck ended up sleeping till around 11AM, he had already missed breakfast, and lunch was already getting close.

Even though he had slept for a long time, when he finally woke up his body still felt weak. Just getting up from bed was a struggle, but he eventually did.

The room was completely silent save for the ruffling sound of the bed sheets as Luck got up. At the edge of the room, the chair Chari regularly sat to read was empty and a short search showed that he was not in the room.

'He's probably out training again.'

Since the advent of the psychopath Chari had been rather rough on himself, he was constantly pushing to continually improve as fast as he could without much regard for his own well-being. But that was not Luck's main concern because right now…

Gruuuhhhhh!

A frightening sound came from his belly.

He wasted no time immediately heading to the kitchen to sate his ravenous hunger. When he got there he simply told the chef what he wanted to eat and sat there waiting for her to have it prepared.

The woman was pretty nice and while he waited for her to finish she entertained him with small talk that mostly revolved around food.

After some time the food was ready, he thanked her and retreated into his room, a steaming tray of fried eggs, toasted bread and a cup of cocoa in his hands.

He took his time to savor the delicious meal and when he was done he realized that he had not taken his bath all day.

Instead of a regular shower, Luck opted for a hot bath, something similar to what they had at hot springs. The bath tubs they had in the clan were rather unique because they had their own temperature regulators, you could easily set the temperature you wanted and the water would remain at that temperature till the end of your bath.

'Pretty handy.'

Luck lowered himself into the hot embrace of the water and let his muscles relax.

The meeting of the clans was officially over and most people had already left, the few people that were still around were already packing their bags preparing to leave as well.

Unlike the way he initially thought the meeting of clans would unfold he was rather satisfied with the outcome.

He had not only gained connections that would no doubt serve him in the future, he had managed to even advance his techniques.

The meeting was a great win for him.

That did not mean there were no problems, the identity of the man who kidnapped Diana was still a mystery.

The only thing he knew about the man was how he looked and his unique golden eyes. In a place as saturated as the meeting of clans he could have been from any one of the multiple clans.

He sighed at the thought of it.

'System.'

Luck mentally willed the system forward.

Name: Luck Moon]

[Class: No Class]

[Rank: None]

[Title: Young Master]

[Enigma: [Seven Spirit Technique], [Soul Sight]]

Once again he checked more information about the first enigma.

[Seven Spirit Technique]

[Description: Cannot Access]

[First Spirit Technique: LOCKED]

[Second Spirit Technique: LOCKED]

[Third Spirit Technique: LOCKED]

[Fourth Spirit Technique: LOCKED]

[Fifth Spirit Technique: LOCKED]

He sighed, although he could tell that he had made progress the system still hadn't shown much changes.

The only time the system had mentioned anything about an improvement was when he completed the quest to save Diana. Intercession quests seemed to be the easiest method to improve, the only issue with that was…

'I can't force quests, all I can do is wait until the system issues one.'

Since Diana's kidnapping he had not received any new quests which was disheartening.

'I guess I'll just keep waiting.'

His eyes then fell to a particular tab on the system and a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

"Second spirit technique, I am coming for you."