Child of Destiny

...…

It was already afternoon when Shin was finally able to move his body without having much pain while moving. And the pain didn't come from his bones, but from his veins, muscles and tendons.

"D*mn! It is f*cking hurts," cursed Shin as he tried to stand up for his bed and stretched his body.

Then he added a little later. "I know that it is going to be like this since it was mentioned in the manual of the 'Reinforce Iron Bones', but I didn't say that it is going to be this way. What's worst, it is also written that this is going to last for four days."

While he was complaining, an aged voice suddenly interrupted him (once again). "That is because your body is adjusting to your new set of bones. With that, your bone marrow was producing a new set of your blood; and with strengthened blood cells at that."

"And together with it, your body was adjusting to receive this new set of bloods which is causing the intense pain that you are currently suffering."

'Why am I being interrupted every time I'm about to do a monologue?' thought Shin as he turned his head at the source of the voice, he saw Grandmaster Benn entering the room from the glass door.

Shin knitted his brow as he saw the Old Fatty entered his room without asking for any permission. 'And what is this old fatty doing here?'

Seeing Shin looking at him like that, Grandmaster Benn clicked his tongue and said. "Tsk! What's with that look, kid? I am still your teacher for Mentalism."

"Hoh~! So, you are here to finally teach me?" said Shin with a sarcastic look and tone.

The corner of Old Benn's mouth suddenly twitched after hearing that before saying. "I now know why that Old Monster kept saying those demoralizing words to you."

Then he took a seat before saying. "Anyway, I originally planned to properly teach you when your special training starts. But from what I heard from Old Plum, you are using your talent in Mentalism incorrectly. No, you are using your Mentalism Technique very wrongly. Given that, I have the duty to knock some sense on you before proceeding to your real training."

Shin was taken aback and became confused at the same time the moment he heard what Grandmaster Benn had said. 'What the? Being scolded from the get-go? Can you at least first ask me how my progress is?'

As if he was able to read what was running in Shin's head, Old Benn suddenly said. "Of course, I am going to scold you. You are disgracing my name for not properly using my Greatest Masterpiece."

"My Mentalism Technique is one of the best; even if you ask any Mentalist all around the world, they will surely envy you for having this technique. Yet you only use it as some sort of Martial-Art Skills? You are such a disgrace for doing that on my 'Four Symbol Scripture'."

Shin's face suddenly turned weird when he heard that. 'What? Am I using my Mentalism Techniques in a wrong way? But I am just doing what's written in the manual of 'Four Symbol Scripture.'

And just like earlier, Grandmaster Benn seemed to be able to read what was in Shin's mind and said. "Tsk! That is where you are wrong, kid. You are just looking at the manual one-sidedly. If you take a look at it a little differently, then you are going to get some little surprise."

At this point, Shin lost some of his patience and said. "D*mn, Old Fatty. Can you just go straight to the point? And stop beating around the bush?"

"Tsk! What a boring kid. You somehow got influenced by that senile master of yours," Old Benn clicked his tongue when he heard about that and added. "Anyway, what I want to point out is you are using your Mentalism Techniques in a wrong way."

"Well, I can't blame you for keeping using the melee and shockwave techniques as some sort of Martial-Arts Skills since you are too used to that battle style. But to think that you are not using any other skills aside from those? You are more of a 'Fighting Mentalist' than a 'Kaleidoscope' one."

Then Old Benn slapped his forehead and sighed helplessly. "You are not even using any of the utility and auxiliary skills on your arsenal."

"If you at least use the Mentalism Techniques under your sleeves properly, then you shouldn't have lost miserably on your last match against Arthur; or you may even barely win that fight if only you are properly studying these techniques."

Hearing these, Shin stared at the old fatty with a blank face while waiting for him to continue; he was not in the mood to ask anything for now, but he felt that there was something amazing behind those words since Grandmaster Benn seemed confident while saying that.

After releasing another helpless sigh, Old Benn continued. "Like I said earlier, you are only using your Mentalism Technique as some sort of Martial-Art Skill which is killing off the advantage that you have as a Special Dual Practitioner. Shuffling your skill set between Yin-Yang Arts and Four Symbol Scripture might be a good idea, but that has a lot of limited use in battle."

"You have some access to using quite a number of utility and auxiliary techniques but you didn't take advantage of it, which is a great waste. I thought that you are a bright child who can figure out what's behind my Technique, but It seems I am completely wrong about that."

Then Old Benn trailed off his words before asking Shin "Now, kid. Tell me what is the difference between a 'Psychic Mentalist' and a 'Fighting Mentalist."

Shin was taken aback by the sudden question before thinking for a moment to get the answer. "There are some little differences in them, a 'Psychic Mentalist' is more adept at using range attacks while a 'Fighting Mentalist' is more of a Martial-Artist with a different source of energy. And-…"

He was still in the middle of talking when he took a sudden pause as he realized something. "Ah!"

Seeing that reaction, Grandmaster Benn suddenly grinned widely as he knew that Shin finally realized his mistake. Then he leaned on the sofa and softly patted his round belly out of habit before saying to Shin. "That is right kid. In most of your fight, you are only utilizing your techniques for attacking and defending."

"Your first mistake was not using any of your techniques other than those. But in fact, you could have used some Telekinetic Skills to harass an opponent in a distance, or distract them by using some Mental Attacks such as Illusions, Mental Suppression and Mind Control."

"Doing these are too easy for you in the first place since you have a monstrous willpower which is pretty much perfect for doing Mental Attacks; you can easily overpower your opponents with that powerful willpower alone."

"And doing all of those is pretty much easy for you since you already mastered the control over your Aura Manifestation. So, mastering the techniques under this style is just going to be a walk in the park for you."

Then Old Benn paused for a moment to take a look at Shin before saying. "And if you utilized this skill properly, then beating your opponents is also going to be much easier."

"And even if it is somewhat ineffective against Arthur who possessed the 'Foresight' Talent, it is still more than enough for you to distract his thoughts a little and buy you enough time to prepare a good skill or technique that you can use."

Reaching this topic, Old Benn stopped talking to observe Shin a little and wait for him to digest the things that he had said.

After a few minutes, Shin looked at the old fatty and asked. "Then how can I utilize these techniques?"

And Old Benn gave him a reply almost instantly. "That is where your next mistake comes in. You are using your Mentalism Techniques in a wrong way. Mentalism is an art of utilizing your Mental Energy in different ways, which are the things that you should already know, but also not using at all."

"Meanwhile, the 'Four Symbol Scripture' is supposedly a Mentalism Technique that can utilize the Mental Energy with four different ways; the Saint Tiger, Holy Dragon, Heavenly Turtle and Celestial Phoenix methods."

"The Saint Tiger methods are for range attacks and movement techniques while the Holy Dragon methods are meant for melee attacks and strengthening your body. And these two sets of techniques are the things that you are actually using."

"At the same time, the Turtle General methods specialized for defense, illusions, and other mental attacks while the Celestial Phoenix methods are meant for healing and other telekinetic skills."

Shin suddenly cut in and asked with a confused expression on his face. "But the Heavenly Turtle and Celestial Phoenix also have their own melee attacks."

Grandmaster Benn suddenly smirked the moment he heard that and said. "Heh! You aren't listening to me, are you? Didn't I say that Mentalism is the way of controlling Mental Energy?"

"You are only able to use the latter two methods for melee attacks because you utilized your Mental Energy according to what's written on their methods, which is quite good but it is not the best way to utilize them."

Then Old Benn stood up slowly while saying. "Let me give you a glimpse on how to properly use each one of those methods."

After that, Shin suddenly felt that the world turned upside-down and on the next moment, he discovered that he was in the middle of the forest while Grandmaster Benn was currently standing not far from him.

Old Benn didn't wait for Shin to digest what had happened and said. "This is the one of the movement techniques of Saint Tiger methods which is called the 'Dimensional Traveling'. With your current strength, this technique can teleport you to any place that you desire in 1-kilometer radius away from your previous location."

And just like earlier, he immediately proceeded on the next technique without regarding Shin's thoughts.

First, he released some of his Mental Energy and let them silently revolve around him. Then he gathered those Mental Energies towards his left arm before controlling them to revolve around that arm.

On the next moment, Grandmaster Benn threw a straight punch to the side while releasing the revolving Mental Energy on his arm.

Boom!

Then the Mental Energy that he released suddenly formed a coiling dragon the moment it left his arm; it was as if those Mental Energies were planning to strangle whoever was their target standing on that place.

"This one is called the 'Ouroboros Fist' of the 'Holy Dragon' methods," said Grandmaster Benn. Then waited for the Mental Energy to settle down before saying. "You pretty much know about these skills since you're a Martial-Artist. So, it is easy for you to understand the essence of these techniques."

Then he paused for a moment before saying. "But the techniques under the other two methods were pretty much tricky."

Shin knitted his brows and just waited for Old Benn to continue.

The corner of Grandmaster Benn's mouth suddenly twitched the moment he saw that look on Shin's face. With that, the old fatty proceeded to the next method. But this time, he explained some things while executing the move. "Like what I said earlier, the Heavenly Turtle Techniques are originally focused defensive skills and the others."

After that, he summoned a wall of Mental Energy before saying. "Look at this wall of Mental Energy; it is just an ordinary defensive wall if you leave it like that. But-…"

Then he trailed his words for a little to throw a palm strike on that wall of Mental Energy using the Mentalism Technique called 'Turtle General's Pounding', which was also one of the techniques that Shin was most familiar with.

Bang!

When Old Benn's palm landed at the wall of Mental Energy in front of him, it sent some ripples on that wall; and since that technique was sending a successive Mental Energy, the ripples in the Mental Energy Wall overlapped with each other.

A moment later, that plain and ordinary wall of Mental Energy suddenly transformed into a multi-layered wall with a design that was similar to a turtle's shell.

Shin was surprised at that sight, especially when he felt that this wall had a very strong and tough defense even if he was just looking at it.

Grandmaster Benn didn't explain more of it as he knew that Shin was able to pick up what he wanted to say. All he did was to proceed on the next move while saying. "And this one is under the 'Celestial Phoenix' method."

After saying those worlds, the wall of Mental Energy in front of Grandmaster Benn suddenly collapsed with just a wave of his hand.

Then he gathered all of those scattered Mental Energy, before controlling then to create a sphere of golden energy around Shin. And when that sphere was done materializing, Shin felt that his entire body was starting to get better as the pain that he was suffering was also beginning to subdue.

"You can have a lot of variations of techniques if you just manipulate your Mental Energy properly. What you just saw and experienced are only one from each method," said Old Benn while watching Shin inside the sphere that he made.

Then he quickly added before Shin could even say something. "You can also have some special variations if you combine some of each method to another, which will give you a lot of surprises."

"And since you are forbidden to practice any Martial-Arts, I want you to re-study what you have learned from my 'Four Symbol Scripture' while meditating. Make sure that you are going to learn it properly this time as I am going to test you on your special training after a few days."

This time, Shin didn't reply to Grandmaster Benn not because of his previous reason from earlier, but due to him contemplating about the things that he had learned this time.

When the energy of the golden sphere was finally exhausted, Grandmaster Benn observed Shin for a few more moments before waving one of his hands to send Shin back to his room.

After that, he raised his head to look at the sky before muttering to himself. "Let's see if you can do it right this time. If you are really her son, then you better show me some brightness similar to hers."

...