Fist Master

By the time Soren had packed his belongings, the mysterious caravan mistress had already departed.

He glanced at the receding figure of the mysterious woman, then crouched down and whispered, "Vivian."

"What did she say to you?"

The little girl held nothing back from him, tilting her small head as she replied, "She didn't say much, just asked how old I was this year."

"Then she asked if I could read."

"Don't worry."

"I didn't tell her I could do magic."

Soren nodded in relief upon hearing this. It was best not to let people know that Vivian was a natural-born Sorcerer, especially since she was so young. While Soren didn't have any ill will towards the mysterious caravan mistress, he couldn't exactly say he trusted her either. Wizards were all eccentric individuals, and the conflict between Thieves and Mages wasn't a recent development.

None of the native NPC Wizards were simple characters!

The caravan soon continued its journey.

Perhaps due to the conversation with the mysterious woman, the little girl suddenly developed an interest in reading. Soren also felt she should learn more characters, as not all of a Sorcerer's abilities awakened automatically. They couldn't automatically awaken Lore abilities like Dragons. Sorcerers still needed to learn languages and characters themselves, whereas Dragons automatically mastered quite a few languages and characters. Vivian had learned some characters from him before, but the number of words was less than a few hundred. The little girl was actually very smart and learned faster than Soren.

It was just that she still preferred to do things she enjoyed!

Sometimes, when faced with something with a lot of text, she would get sleepy, and soon her little face would be full of yawns.

The caravan slowed down a bit today.

The little girl still didn't like things with a lot of text. After learning a few dozen new words with Soren, she looked a bit sleepy. So she mumbled a few words softly, then smiled at Soren and said she would learn next time, before starting to play with the small trinkets others had given her. In just one day, the little girl had gained a lot of popularity in the caravan. Some of the trinkets were given to her by the caravan hands, while others were toys given to her by the mysterious woman, such as a set of exquisite tarot cards.

Vivian liked things with pictures.

Half a day passed like this. They also saw some active Gnolls and Goblins on the road, but none dared to attack a caravan of this size.

It wasn't until some commotion occurred ahead that the caravan temporarily stopped.

Soren, wanting to earn a little more Slaughter Experience, also went over to take a look, but this time there was no opportunity for him to act.

The caravan had encountered a person.

An adventurer traveling alone in the wilderness!

It was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, with a somewhat square face, thick eyebrows and large eyes, wearing very ordinary gray cloth clothes. He had a bandage wrapped around his arm and gaiters tied around his legs. His hair was very short, and his neck was much thicker than many people's. This indicated that he might have trained in a special fighting style, such as 'War Roar', a special ability somewhat similar to the Lion's Roar technique. When Soren saw him, the caravan guards were talking to him from a distance. Near him were three dead Gnolls, all killed with bare hands.

"Fist Master?!"

Soren looked at the middle-aged man with considerable surprise, then dismounted and clasped his hands together, saying, "Is the Master traveling alone?"

The middle-aged man returned the greeting steadily, bowing and clasping his hands together, looking very humble.

Seeing Soren's actions, the caravan guards' expressions relaxed slightly. The Guard Captain rode over and whispered, "Who is he?"

"Someone just saw him dealing with the Gnolls. He killed three of them quickly with his bare hands."

"The other Gnolls all ran away."

Soren nodded slightly, then explained, "This should be a Fist Master."

"A practitioner of the Monk path."

"They like to wander alone in the wilderness, seeking opportunities to temper their will and strength. This one here looks like an Ascetic."

Monk?

Ascetic?

The Guard Captain's expression relaxed slightly, as most Ascetics were not evil.

Fist Master is an advanced class of Monk. They completely abandon weapons and instead specialize in unarmed combat. The powerful Inch Punch feat can only be mastered by Fist Masters and Saint Fist Guards. Monks are among the professionals who most enjoy traveling alone in the wilderness, as they need to temper their will in the wild and simultaneously feel the power of the ethereal, the silent, and the primordial. If they choose the path of an Ascetic, they also have a special sacred ritual: donating all their wealth to the poor.

Ascetics donate the vast majority of their wealth, keeping only a small amount of material possessions, and use this to temper their willpower!

They are one of the professions with the highest Willpower attribute.

They are almost immune to most charm spells and mind-affecting spells. At the same time, by giving up material comforts, their faith becomes even stronger.

Few people advance to become Ascetics!

Because they need to make special vows, breaking them can even lead to vulnerabilities in their minds.

This is the so-called 'self-deception'.

If a powerful professional experiences such a situation, there will be obvious vulnerabilities in their mental will, and their strength will be greatly affected.

Only one in ten Monks will become an Ascetic.

Only one in ten Ascetics will advance to become an Ascetic Monk, which is the most difficult special class to advance to.

Because Ascetic Monks do not keep wealth overnight, many of them completely abandon weapons and extraordinary equipment, reaching the highest achievement of a Fist Master.

—Inch Punch [Legendary]!

They fight without using any weapons or wearing any equipment, relying solely on powerful intuition and their hands.

These people have incredibly high magic resistance and some very special abilities.

These are abilities gradually comprehended during long periods of cultivation. Many are honed through their strong willpower in harsh environments, ultimately directly interfering with the elemental energy of the material world.

Many Ascetics give up in the end, because not everyone can resist the temptation of material things!

Once the cultivation is abandoned.

The Ascetic becomes an ordinary Monk, and may never have the courage to try again in their lifetime.

The caravan quickly gained a fellow traveler.

The Fist Master was very taciturn, rarely speaking to others voluntarily. This wasn't very strange; some Ascetics would even pretend to be mute and not speak a word for several years.

At noon.

He would beg for food from the others in the caravan, just some water and simple food, refusing most meat and only eating coarse Black Bread.

Ascetics don't necessarily not eat meat.

However, when they begin a period of cultivation (travel), unless it's a special circumstance, they only eat the simplest and coarsest food.

This kind of cultivation can last for several years, and often completing one will result in a significant improvement in strength.

Many people tried to cultivate back then.

Unfortunately, they all failed in the end. Players simply couldn't endure that kind of life. They preferred to challenge powerful monsters and directly use Slaughter Experience to level up.

Monks weren't uncommon in this world!

Their cultivation methods had been accepted by more and more people, even integrating some of the training methods of Sword Saints, eventually giving rise to the current Weapon Master profession.

The only difference was the shift from unarmed combat to specializing in a certain weapon!

These guys had very strong wills.

Some Clerics would also try to train in a similar way to them to strengthen their power of faith.

This Fist Master had a very low sense of presence.

He hadn't spoken a single word to anyone until evening, just silently following the caravan.

He didn't ride a horse, even refusing the horses offered by kind people. He had walked the entire way, but his walking speed was very fast, and his stamina was far superior to ordinary people. He could be said to be 'walking like flying', easily keeping up with them. When they set up camp in the evening, he didn't need a tent to rest, nor did he even need to get close to the bonfire. He just found a stone and sat cross-legged.

Then he remained motionless.

The journey on the second day was very peaceful. Apart from the appearance of this Fist Master, they encountered almost no trouble on the road.

When Soren woke up on the third day.

The Fist Master was still sitting on the stone. Some caravan guards were pointing at him, with obvious surprise and shock on their faces. Clearly, the warrior training they had received, although very arduous, had not reached such an extreme level. Only the Guard Captain had a thoughtful expression on his face, because his Northland Barbarian training was also very extreme, requiring the entire person to be immersed in ice water below zero degrees to suppress the Berserk power. That had almost cost him half his life.

He hadn't moved all night. On the second day, the Fist Master was even covered in dew, and there was a faint white frost on his eyebrows due to the cold weather.

At this time.

Others finally understood why Soren had a hint of respect for him.

This was indeed a training method that ordinary people couldn't endure.

In fact, normal Monk training wasn't much different from warrior training, but the Ascetic, this advanced profession, was special. Their training methods were also more extreme, completely using the most arduous methods to tap into their potential.

There was a Succubus Queen in the Abyss.

Even many gods couldn't resist her charm spells, but Legendary Monks could directly ignore them.

One could imagine how exaggerated the willpower of these guys was!

This Fist Master left on the afternoon of the third day.

Because Soren and the others were already close to a small town, which was almost within the range of White Horse City, only two days away at most.

Ascetics didn't like to be near crowded places when cultivating, preferring to temper themselves in desolate areas.

He planned to go to a large waterfall in the northwest, where he would cultivate for a year to find an opportunity to comprehend the Ethereal Body and seek the chance to become a Legendary Monk, ultimately mastering the legendary Transcendent Saint.

Until he left.

No one knew his name, as if he was just a passerby encountered during the journey.

However.

For some reason, he actually gave Vivian a scroll.

It wasn't some martial arts manual.

There was no such thing as martial arts manuals in this world. It was merely a scroll titled "Mastery of Unarmed Skills and Inch Punch," similar to a warrior's "Advanced Slashing Techniques and Finding Enemy Weaknesses," a wizard's "On Enhancing Evocation Spells and Flexible Use," a cleric's "On the Influence of Faith Intensity on Divine Magic," a paladin's "The Divine Power Brought by Faith," and so on.

These were all insights and experiences written down by many people. If one trained according to the methods described, they could acquire some extra feats.

For example, a thief's "Special Techniques for Using and Lockpicking." If one seriously read this book, they could improve their Lockpicking skill a little, and with good luck, they might even train the [Lockpicking Expert] feat.

The book given by the Fist Master, if one trained according to the methods described and met the training requirements, one could obtain the 'Unarmed Attack [Mastery]' feat, thus meeting the requirements to become a Monk, and finally attempt to train and master the [Inch Punch] feat using the methods in the book.

But.

How could Soren possibly let Vivian advance into a miserable profession like 'Monk'?

The training methods for this profession were too arduous.

So he directly kept it for himself and threw it into his Dimensional Bag. Vivian should just quietly remain a 'rich and beautiful' Sorcerer among the Mages.

Moreover, he couldn't possibly feel at ease letting the little girl cultivate alone in the wilderness.

He also couldn't bear to let her suffer.