Chapter 3 3: Twin Fist Martal Arts

The next section of the exam was the awaited literature portion and to Yoze's relief, it wasn't as hard as he imagined. With all his studying and with his grade 3 literature comprehension talent he was confident he could do well.

"Times Up! Pens Down!"

Once the next break was announced, Yoze ran over to the martial artist and gave him his water pouch.

Waiting for him to drink some water, Yoze asked him numerous questions about the world of martial arts. By the end of the break period, he had a much deeper understanding of martial artists and the martial arts world.

For instance, Yoze had a heavily basic understanding of martial arts. They had their power system. Martial artists were divided into three groups, first is the Martial artist, then the Blood Masters, and lastly were the Martial Grandmasters.

Martial Artists have five levels and are considered the foundation of becoming a strong martial artist. Blood Masters had four levels and Martial Grandmasters had 6 levels.

Yoze was told that Martial Grandmasters were people who have reached the limits of what was possible for mortals. They could even compete with some of the weaker Immortals and demons.

"Immortals?" Yoze gulped as he was interested in Immortals.

"Can they truly not be killed?"

The martial artist shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't know.

"Just like demons, Immortals are mysterious only people that have the potential to become Immortals can take a peek into their mysteries."

Yoze wasn't yet satisfied with asking the martial artist questions but he reluctantly had to return and take the next portion of the exam.

When the next section was completed, Yoze immediately ran to ask questions. In the dead of the afternoon heat, Yoze was having a snack with the martial artist as he learned more.

He learned that there were sects that martial artist's dreamed of joining. However, unless one was strong and had a good reputation or had high potential it was next to impossible to join these sects.

That was when the martial artist reached into his pouch, took out an ordinary-looking book, and handed it to Yoze.

"Here kid, I can see that you aren't going to give up on becoming a martial artist. And since you have been doing me a favor I give you this martial arts book."

"Twin Fist Martial Arts. Thank you, sir!" Yoze felt deep gratitude towards this stranger for giving him a martial arts book. He learned every martial arts book was precious and it was difficult for ordinary people to acquire one.

The martial artist accepted Yoze's gratitude with a nod and said, "This book is called Twin Fists. It is one of the most basic martial arts books and is available to be bought as long as you have money. It teaches you how to punch and fight. It can help start you on your martial arts journey but doesn't hold up past becoming a second-tier martial artist."

Talking a bit more, Yoze felt his drive to become a martial artist soar as he now had a great chance to start his journey in the martial arts world.

However, during the last section of the exam, Yoze ran into a problem. This section was about comprehending paintings. Though Yoze was prepared for almost anything he found this section particularly difficult.

He was struggling with whether he should use his only talent mark to grab the talent of someone doing better than him. Or he could take the risk and use it on the martial artist.

"I need to make a choice now." His indecision was harming his chances of passing the exam as he couldn't think about the test without his mind wandering.

Feeling the book in his pouch, Yoze made a decision and didn't use his talent mark to help get him over this hurl. While it was mostly based on his intuition, Yoze felt that trying to find someone with talent related to art was riskier. There were so many people he could choose from but if he chose wrong he would not only not get any benefits but would also lose the chance of getting some martial art talent.

This would be even worse now that he had a way to practice martial arts. If he found out that he was terrible at learning martial arts and lost the chance to give himself some talent, Yoze would truly be depressed.

"Come on, I have practice for this day. With my results from the past sections I have a good chance to still pass."

After making his decision, Yoze tossed all unnecessary thoughts away and focused on doing his best to get through the exam.

"Times Up! Pens Down!"

With the final section of the exam completed, Yoze heard a collective sigh of relief and despair.

"I hope that I never have to do this again," Yoze mumbled to himself before leaving Evi and visiting the Unnamed martial artist one last time.

This time Yoze didn't make it outside when he saw the martial artist walking inside. After giving Yoze a nod, he continued walking past him as if nothing had happened.

Knowing that their charade of exchanging information for some water and snacks was over. Yoze simply made a note to himself that if they ever met in the future he would buy him a meal.

[Name: Grave Jungle]

[Age: 47]

[Talents: Martial Arts Comprehension (Grade 3)]

"As expected he has some talent related to martial arts. Even though it's lower than I thought, it's still good to have a Grade 2 talent." Yoze thought to himself as he copied the talent.

[Name: Yoze]

[Age: 21 years]

[Talents: Literature Comprehension(Grade 3), Martial Arts Comprehension (Grade 2) ]

[Talent Mark: 0 (24 hours remaining) ]

Yoze felt a shiver run down his back as he felt that he had a bit more control over his body compared to before. With the Scholar exam finished and not having another opportunity to ask a martial artist more questions, Yoze went home to attend to his sick father and practice his new martial art book.

When Yoze arrived home he saw that his father's fever had reduced slightly. After feeding him some vegetable porridge, Yoze went outside.