Chapter 262: Learning How To Scan Your Surroundings

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Clair kept running and avoiding the incoming attacks however she could, but she could not quite manage it. Her back was repeatedly stabbed by the small, sharp weapons that flew at her from every direction.

"Aaaggh! So much pain! Someone save me...! I don’t want to do this anymore...!"

However, nobody came to her help. She had to fend for herself or die.

This was the harsh reality of the world — a world she had been living in while sheltered under her parents’ protection, and even now under the privileges of her rich friends.

But now that she had come face to face with such brutal reality, she started to think that the world... was really fucking shit.

"Damn it...! Fucking shit...! Shit fucking... motherfucker!"

She roared angrily, tearing the weapons out of her body one by one while glaring at Hinata, who blurred from place to place with effortless speed.

Then another kunai came flying straight at her face.

"Ugh!"

As it approached and was about to land in her eye, she forced herself to move to the left and barely avoided it.

In the exact moment she did so, another three kunai came streaking toward her from behind.

"Ahhh!"

She leaped forward desperately and fell headfirst into the thick mud, but she managed to avoid them.

Then more bushes rustled nearby. Two shuriken rushed toward her thighs with deadly precision.

There was only one and a half seconds of time to react.

"Gyaaah!"

Clair screamed and jumped high, scrambling up a tree right beside her with clumsy but desperate strength.

From above, a long wooden spear was suddenly lunged toward her chest.

"You serious?!"

The constant pain fueled her senses as they continued to flare to life. The stats she had gained all this time had mostly remained dormant because she had never pushed her body to the limits enough to properly exercise them.

But now her senses expanded further and further. The more she avoided the weapons, the more agile she became.

"Haaa...! Haaa...!"

Slowly, her own brain started mapping a rough three-dimensional image of the surroundings. She began using that mental map to move to safer positions without even needing to see them clearly.

Her senses slowly began to converge into something bigger — like a small, instinctive aura that warned her of danger a fraction of a second earlier than before.

"Not bad."

After that brief moment of growth, Hinata appeared behind her, moving fast and agile enough that Clair still could not detect her even after her small improvement.

A precise palm strike struck Clair’s back and left her completely paralyzed on the muddy ground.

"H-How?" Clair asked, her voice trembling. "How did you do that?" she asked again, unable to move a single muscle.

"Ah, that?" Hinata wondered aloud, standing in front of her and kneeling down calmly. "I struck what’s called a pressure point. They deal with the flow of Ki around your body! And even Mana! If you strike one with a precise blow, you can paralyze that certain area of the body... it can even work against very muscular foes... though not against true monsters like Kagehisa-sama or Riven-sama."

"Huh..."

"It’s a way for us people with smaller constitutions and little muscle to strike a foe more fatally!" Hinata explained with a patient smile. "Although I specialize in Summoning Ninjutsu, I still had to learn hand-to-hand combat and secret weapon mastery."

"Wow..."

"Clair, wanna learn them with me? Even someone small and weak like you could paralyze someone if you aim your arrows at their pressure points. If the arrow is imbued with your own Ki, then the damage multiplies exponentially as well."

"I want to learn it... yesh... please... ugh... please help me, I can’t move."

"Oh! Hahaha, okay, here."

Hinata chuckled softly and poured a recovery potion over Clair’s body, helping her recover from the paralysis so she could finally stand back up on shaky legs.

"Alright, let’s begin then!" said Hinata with a gentle but firm tone. "Please pay attention. I won’t repeat myself, understood?"

"Y-Yeah! Please teach me anything... I’m tired of being a weak bitch!" Clair begged, her voice still rough from pain and exhaustion.

"Y-You don’t have to reduce yourself so much. I understand," Hinata chuckled gently. She was a girl with a surprising amount of patience. "Alright, so..."

While Philip and Clair struggled against their respective trainers, Emma and Ren were sparring with a much more balanced exchange of strengths.

"I have to admit, you’re probably the better one among your friends," Ren recognized, blurring from one place to another as his shadow threads flew toward her like living black snakes.

"Well, thank you...!" Emma groaned, swinging her twin swords and cutting through as many of the threads as she could. Even so, one of them managed to wrap around her leg and lift her high into a nearby tree. "Agh!"

Despite her great agility, clean movement, and refined combat style, Emma was still constantly falling into traps. Her awareness of the wider surroundings was not yet sharp enough.

Ren decided to teach her various hard lessons while they continued to fight.

"Your footwork is clean. Your sword paths are sharp. But you’re still fighting like the ground is safe," Ren said calmly, his voice carrying clearly even as he vanished into a swirl of shadows. "In a real dungeon, the ground is never safe. Traps, sudden pits, ambushes from below... the moment you stop scanning every direction, you die."

Emma gritted her teeth and twisted her body mid-air, slicing through the remaining threads so she could land back on the forest floor. Mud splashed around her boots as she immediately resumed her stance, blades raised and eyes scanning left and right more carefully than before.

"I know that...!" she muttered, breathing hard. "I’ve been in Gates before. I just... I get focused on the opponent in front of me too easily."

"That focus is both your strength and your weakness," Ren replied, already circling her again. Shadow threads rose from the ground like grasping hands. "Against a single strong enemy it can win you the fight. Against a group, or against an opponent who sets traps, it will get you killed. Learn to keep part of your mind watching everything else while the rest of you fights."

Emma nodded sharply and forced herself to widen her perception. She stepped lightly, deliberately testing the ground with each movement, cutting threads the moment they appeared while also listening for the soft rustle of leaves and the distant sounds of the other spars.

Across the clearing, Clair was already beginning her first clumsy attempts at locating pressure points under Hinata’s patient guidance, while Philip continued trading brutal blows with Goki, both of them refusing to back down.

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