Chapter 628 Source of Combat Techniques

After all, more than a year had passed since their last meeting, and Xia Nan had changed drastically.

Forgan's power level and experienced eye might have allowed him to clearly judge Xia Nan's combat system and habits from just a brief battle scene.

But he was no Spellcaster prophet; seeing completely through Xia Nan at a single glance was no simple matter.

From Xia Nan's own perspective, however, the bottleneck he currently faced was crystal clear.

Using an advanced class like [Meteor Blade Hunter] as the starting point of his adventurer path had vastly increased his combat prowess, consolidating his foundation to an almost exaggerated degree. At the same time, however, it meant losing out on the expansive combat technique libraries of Basic Classes like [Warrior] and [Ranger].

Finding a combat technique that fit his class system was incredibly difficult.

This was evident from the fact that Xia Nan hadn't found a single suitable option among the combat technique lists at both the Rivervale Town and Barracuda Bay branches of the Adventurers' Association.

Furthermore, unlike a Basic Class that could be leveled straight to Level 10—the boundary of the Transcendent Tier—an advanced class like [Meteor Blade Hunter] capped out at Level 5. Needing to find a secondary class to break past that limit was another of its restrictions.

Right now, what Xia Nan needed most was a combat technique that balanced "quality grade and potential limit," "synergy with his own combat style," "belonging to the [Meteor Blade Hunter] class system," and "ease of acquiring proficiency." Ideally, it also needed to blend perfectly into his [Hunting Arc] battle posture.

Truthfully, satisfying all of those conditions was a tall order.

To Xia Nan, a technique would be acceptable as long as it met at least two of those criteria simultaneously.

For example, [Ember Echoes], which possessed an "extremely high quality grade" and an "explosive Stage 2 special effect."

Or [Heavy Tide], which offered "rapid proficiency gains" and served as an "inherent combat technique of the [Meteor Blade Hunter]."

After his explanation, combined with his actual performance in the recent battle, the Barbarian Forgan now had a somewhat clear understanding of Xia Nan's current bottleneck.

"The battle posture you mentioned before—that should be the rhythmic shift technique you used just now when fighting that elite hobgoblin, right?"

"Right!" Xia Nan nodded. "It's more obvious when combining [Spinning Slash] and [Fang Hunt], but I can also integrate the relevant techniques into standard combat."

Hearing this, the look in Forgan's eyes as he stared at the black-haired young adventurer grew a bit more complex.

Given Xia Nan's current age and Class Level, comprehending "battle posture" alone was enough to place him at the very top of the power pyramid among Class Holders of the same level.

And "extracting the special techniques from a battle posture to integrate them into standard combat" signified a deep understanding of those two combat techniques, as well as an extraordinary talent far surpassing ordinary people.

Over the course of a year, Xia Nan's growth rate had far exceeded Forgan's expectations, rendering almost all the preparations he had made for this scheduled meeting completely useless.

Fortunately, in terms of his Class Level, Xia Nan was still a long way from the Transcendent Tier.

Moreover, limited by the short time since he had joined the profession, his understanding of his career path's direction remained rather shallow.

After carefully listening to the dilemma Xia Nan was currently facing, Forgan gave his answer.

"In terms of combat techniques, I do have a few here I could teach you."

"However—I don't think they suit your current combat style and class system."

His preparations had been made under the assumption that Xia Nan had yet to step onto the path of a Class Holder, or had only just obtained a Class Level.

Compared to Xia Nan's current power level and already-formed combat style, having him learn those types of combat techniques would undoubtedly lead him astray.

Forgan had actually mastered combat techniques of even higher quality grades, some even on the same tier as [Fang Hunt].

But based on the young man's performance in the earlier battle, they were completely incompatible. Forcing himself to learn them would only disrupt his current combat system and drag down his growth rate.

Hearing this, Xia Nan felt a wave of disappointment.

Yet he wasn't overly discouraged.

He had already considered this worst-case scenario.

'Hmm—if there's really no other way, I'll just slow down my advancement a bit and hunt for a secret realm to accumulate energy for the [Dream Weaving Corridor].'

He could forget about [Gravity Control], and no matter how slow [Ember Echoes] was to improve, it was already Level 3 regardless. With enough effort, training it to max-level Mastery wasn't impossible.

As for his Class Level, he would spend a few more months at Level 4 at most. One way or another, he would eventually reach Level 5 and use that to initiate the secondary class ceremony.

Unaware of what the young adventurer in front of him was thinking, Forgan clearly sensed his slight dip in mood. Having just explained that he had no suitable combat techniques to teach him, the Barbarian suddenly changed his tune.

"Actually, sometimes, overthinking things isn't necessarily a good thing," he said.

"If you want a combat technique that fits your combat style and class system, while also possessing a respectable quality grade and meshing perfectly with your battle posture like it was tailor-made for you—"

"Why not try—creating a technique like that yourself?"

His time since transmigrating had been short, and he lacked sufficient background. He'd even had to crash-course his Transcendent Tier knowledge regarding adventurers through the Association and local taverns.

Xia Nan's understanding of this industry was ultimately still a bit too shallow.

He was completely in the dark regarding advanced concepts like "battle posture" and "secondary classes." More often than not, he only learned such things existed after stumbling into the relevant domains himself, and only then would he delve deeper to study them.

This also made it easy for him to get stuck in dead ends due to the limits of his own knowledge.

While his soul from a modern past life granted him a unique perspective, it also made him prone to preconceived notions about the affairs of the Aifala Continent, leading to cognitive biases.

Based on the various works of fiction he had read in his past life, Xia Nan assumed that "creating a combat technique" was a realm only accessible to master-level figures who had walked far down their class paths and possessed a profound understanding of combat techniques themselves.

In reality, however, "creating a combat technique" was nowhere near as high-end as Xia Nan imagined.

Thinking about it carefully, this was indeed the case.

After all, the various combat techniques in this world outnumbered the stars in the sky. The collection housed in just a single Adventurers' Association branch was enough to fill an entire warehouse.

Moreover, the quality of these techniques varied wildly. Only a minority could reach the level of [Fang Hunt], and the vast majority couldn't even compare to [Spinning Slash].

If all these techniques were created by experts of the Transcendent Tier or even the Legendary rank, they would seem far too shoddy.

That was the premise.

Since "creating a combat technique" lacked strictly harsh prerequisites, and Xia Nan had extremely high demands for the techniques he learned—needing them to suit him perfectly across all aspects—trying to develop a suitable one himself actually seemed viable.

From the Barbarian Forgan's perspective, the fact that Xia Nan had raised his Class Level to Level 4 in just over a year, and had even mastered combat techniques of considerable quality, proved his talent in the relevant fields. He absolutely had the potential to create his own combat technique!

"There's no need to rush; just take it slow. You're still so young. If you keep moving forward, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future."

Compared to his usual reticence, the Barbarian Forgan was offering a rare moment of encouragement.

"If you don't have anything urgent going on recently, you can stick by my side."

"While I can't guarantee you'll create a suitable combat technique, if you run into any difficulties along the way, asking questions will at least deepen your understanding of the process."

"Besides, regarding combat techniques, barring any accidents, Bloodcast Keep should have an inventory rivaling that of an Adventurers' Association branch."

"You might just find something useful there."

Naturally, Xia Nan had no reason to refuse Forgan's invitation.

Being able to study alongside a Transcendent Tier expert with immensely rich adventuring experience and a Class Level nearing the Legendary rank was a precious opportunity most people couldn't buy with any amount of money.

Even if he ultimately fell short in acquiring a new combat technique, the experience and Transcendent Tier knowledge he would gain from the man made investing a vast amount of time and energy completely worthwhile.

They didn't linger any longer in the valley.

The only reason Forgan had temporarily changed his route was because he'd noticed the anomaly with this goblin force.

And using the many days before Xia Nan caught up, he had long since investigated their background, discovering that they hailed from beyond the kingdom's borders.

As such, these goblins had lost their usefulness and were handed over to Xia Nan to handle, serving as a way to demonstrate his current strength.

After that, the two returned to their original route, continuing their advance toward Bloodcast Keep.

—

Along the way, likely out of consideration for Xia Nan, Forgan clearly wasn't traveling at top speed.

Often, they would only travel for a stint in the morning and rest directly in the afternoon, yielding the time to Xia Nan.

Naturally, Xia Nan was more than happy to take it easy.

He certainly wasn't going to waste this precious opportunity to travel alongside a Transcendent Tier expert. Excluding the rest necessary to recover his stamina, he poured all of his free time into daily training and developing his combat technique.

"Crackle."

The campfire flickered, the burning firewood letting out the occasional crisp pop.

Set against the dense twilight sky, in a clearing among the trees near the camp...

Swish—

A sharp gleam of a sword flashed fleetingly, slicing a falling leaf in the air ahead into two perfectly clean halves.

Xia Nan stood rooted to the spot, both hands gripping the [Ember Fall] straight sword tightly, maintaining his post-swing posture.

His eyes were cast downward, as if he were savoring the feeling of the strike.

Judging by his slightly furrowed brow, it was obvious he wasn't satisfied with the results of his training.

If someone were standing nearby observing closely, they would discover that the muddy ground he stood on was noticeably more sunken than the surrounding area.

The depth of the depression was absolutely not something Xia Nan's current body weight could achieve, even if he were clad in heavy armor.

"Whoosh—"

A light breeze brushed through the woods, blowing the severed half of the leaf—which had been fluttering erratically in the wake of the sword wind—toward Xia Nan's body.

Bizarrely, the moment the leaf, which had just been drifting as lightly as a butterfly in the air, touched the surface of Xia Nan's body, it was as if it had plunged straight from the air into the deep sea.

Accompanied by an extremely faint hiss, it instantly twisted and shattered, crumbling into countless shapeless specks of leaf dust that clung tightly to the surface of his clothes in a manner that almost seemed to meld into the fabric.

The subtle movement on the surface of his body jolted Xia Nan from his deep thoughts.

With a thought, the shattered leaf fragments clinging to his clothes returned to their originally weightless state and fell from his body.

Pulling his mud-stained leather boots out of the sunken pits in the ground, his chest heaving, Xia Nan let out a long breath.

The reason the falling leaf had shattered and clung to his body just now, and why his body seemed to have suddenly grown so heavy that it stamped pits into the ground, was due to a special training method he had newly developed.

He was using [Gravity Control] to multiply his own gravity, thereby achieving the effect of weight-bearing training.

The inspiration came from the anime and novels he had consumed in his past life. Even right after transmigrating and acquiring [Gravity Control], he had already had similar ideas.

It was just that back then, [Gravity Control] was only Level 1. Its output was limited, rendering it incapable of placing enough of a burden on his body's muscles to achieve any real training effect.

But after his trip to Barracuda Bay, Xia Nan, who had upgraded [Gravity Control] to Level 2, was finally able to turn this training method—which had originally existed solely in his imagination—into reality.

All things considered, the training effect was actually quite good.

But truth be told, it still fell short of what he had imagined.

On one hand, although [Gravity Control] had reached Level 2, Xia Nan's physical constitution had also experienced a massive leap compared to when he first acquired the combat technique.

There was definitely a training effect, but even when used at full power, it couldn't reach his envisioned level of making his limbs feel like they were pumped full of lead. The impact on his current body was limited.

On the other hand, the sole shortcoming among Xia Nan's current six core attributes—"Intelligence"—resulted in a severe deficiency in his mental energy reserves.

When he first started using [Gravity Control] for weight-bearing training, his mental energy drained far faster than his physical stamina.

Often, his body wouldn't even feel a thing, yet his mind would already be dizzy and spinning, displaying all the signs of overexertion.

It wasn't until later, when he gradually learned to reasonably allocate his mental energy consumption and flexibly combine [Gravity Control] according to his actual training regimen—rather than bearing weight the entire time—that the situation eased.

"Awoo—"

Seeing Xia Nan finish his training, the Winter Wolf Fanny—who had been obediently standing guard and waiting quietly to the side—immediately whined and bounded forward.

Usually aloof and icy, she was now wagging her long tail like a propeller, rubbing her head passionately against Xia Nan's palm.

Responding to the little wolf's enthusiasm, he gave her fluffy head a vigorous rub.

However, a myriad of complex thoughts flashed through Xia Nan's pitch-black eyes as he recalled his recent attempts at "creating a combat technique."