Wang Changle touched the blood seeping from his brow and slumped to the ground.
He had expected to lose, but he hadn't expected to lose so quickly—or so badly!
He'd used all three of the Life Apostle's abilities, yet he'd still been defeated in a single exchange.
"Your fundamentals are worse than I expected. Your attacks have no form, your body mechanics are off, and you don't even have a basic understanding of your weapon. That's the first problem."
"Your perception is pretty good, and your timing when casting Ninjutsu was decent. But you don't have enough control over it. That's the second problem."
As Kakashi spoke, he put his Kunai back in his pouch, leaped onto a branch, and lay down.
"So what should I do? Work on my fundamentals? Or learn more skills?"
He quickly came to terms with his crushing defeat. There was no shame in it. After all, only those who understood their own shortcomings could improve.
"That's something you have to figure out for yourself: what kind of fighting style suits you best. Everyone has their own path. If you can't even work that out, I don't think I have anything to teach you."
Kakashi slowly placed Icha Icha Paradise over his face, looking every bit like he was saying, I'm taking a nap. Don't bother me.
"But I have a question. How were you able to dodge my guaranteed-hit skill?"
"Guaranteed hit? No Ninjutsu is guaranteed to hit. Even Dojutsu can be dodged."
"Every Ninjutsu has conditions that must be met to activate it, along with an energy trajectory. Ninjutsu is just a tool to aid you in battle. Whether you can fight well depends on how well you understand it."
Hearing Kakashi's words, Wang Changle fell into thought. His peripheral vision drifted toward the battle axe lying nearby, then to the skills listed on his status panel.
The choice before him was simple: should he focus on combat techniques or spells?
As time passed, he came to a decision. He also gained a clear understanding of his next goal. He chose spells!
He didn't have particularly strong combat instincts, nor did he have a natural affinity for most weapons. He lacked the battle experience of someone like Ye Zhongming, or the martial arts foundation of Mo Ye.
Kakashi hadn't said so outright, but he clearly had some advantages when it came to spells—things like perception and timing.
The fight just now, along with Kakashi's words, had given Wang Changle some new insights and ideas. If skills were more than just skills, couldn't they work the same way as Ninjutsu?
Both the flow of energy and the control of spells required Mental Power.
So perhaps he could use Mental Power to influence and control his skills!
With his decision made and his ideas taking shape, Wang Changle felt his mind clear.
His skill had finished cooling down. With his imagination and thoughts unleashed, he felt as though he had discovered an entirely new world. Now he needed to test his theory!
"Root Entanglement."
Vines descended from thin air, reaching for Kakashi. Kakashi suddenly sidestepped, but the descending vines abruptly accelerated, converging on him from different directions.
Kakashi's eyes lit up. He dodged with the Body Flicker Technique, reappearing on the ground.
Four or five vines suddenly transformed into serpents and dove sharply downward, only to vanish an instant later.
Wang Changle groaned and dropped to his knees. Though the spell had consumed only 25 points of magic, his brain felt starved of oxygen. He gasped for breath.
"You're a quick learner. Now we can continue the lesson."
Kakashi put away Icha Icha Paradise and began seriously teaching Wang Changle how to use and control energy, explaining how to direct Mental Power.
Wang Changle was like a sponge, eagerly absorbing all kinds of theoretical knowledge. He kept asking Kakashi about his theories on spells.
An hour later, Kakashi disappeared among the trees, but Wang Changle remained seated on the ground, still digesting everything he'd just learned.
When he stood, he didn't summon Kakashi again. Instead, he immediately returned to his personal space.
From returning from the Derivative World, to enhancing his attributes, to training with Kakashi, he hadn't had a proper rest. Nearly an hour of learning to control energy had left him utterly exhausted.
Physically and mentally drained, he could no longer focus, and he wouldn't be able to learn effectively.
He sprawled on the floor, and the comfortable environment of his personal space soon lulled him to sleep.
He slept for more than ten hours. When he woke, Wang Changle felt refreshed and full of energy!
He still had two days left in Cycle Paradise. Wang Changle took out his Class Advancement Scroll.
He decisively chose to unlock a new ability. Now that he had gained new insights into skills, his understanding of them had also changed.
His mind was full of theories and ideas about skill control, infusing skills with Mental Power, and linking them with energy.
Whether these ideas could become reality remained to be seen. He would have to test them.
But he needed skills as a medium for his experiments. One of his skills had a nine-hour cooldown, and the other a twenty-seven-minute cooldown. There was no way he could conduct all those tests within an hour.
To test his ideas faster, he needed more skills, preferably with shorter cooldowns. The scroll he held could unlock a new class skill for him.
[You have obtained the skill Life Force] Life Force. Level 1, active skill Requirements: Consume 100 points of Life Force. (100/100) Skill Effect: Empower your next life-type skill, increasing its effect by 100% and reducing its cooldown by 50%. When casting a class skill, it will be empowered a second time. No cooldown. Tip: Life Force cannot regenerate automatically. Absorb items containing Life Origin to restore it. (Inside Paradise, you can spend 5,000 Paradise Coins to replenish 100 points of Life Force.)
There was no doubt that this was an explosive skill—a tremendously powerful one.
Most importantly, it had no cooldown. As long as he had enough Life Force, he could keep unleashing it.
With enough Life Force, this would definitely be a core burst skill!
But when he saw that replenishing 100 points of Life Force cost 5,000 Paradise Coins, Wang Changle realized that, for now, he could only keep this ability as a trump card.
Although he'd gained a powerful burst skill, it couldn't be used regularly, nor would it help him meaningfully test his theories.
To test them, he needed a skill with a low cost and a short cooldown. And it had to be nature-type.
With that in mind, Wang Changle pushed open his door again. The noisy calls of vendors immediately filled his ears.
"Latest One Piece intel and guides for sale! Message me if you're interested!"
"Boss, can you lower the price? I'll give you 500. Deal?"
"Get lost! Where'd you come from, you lousy beggar? Quit getting in the way of my business!"
Wang Changle weaved through the crowd. The contractors hawking their wares at stalls all around him made him feel like he'd wandered into Panjiayuan.
After looking around curiously, he headed toward the trading plaza. There were more people there, mostly Staff Members, and the prices were fair.
After passing through a large cluster of buildings, Wang Changle arrived at the trading plaza.
The place was packed with people as far as the eye could see. Someone sat behind every stall, and countless transactions were being completed.
Some stalls had no one sitting behind them. Instead, a number of options floated above the merchandise.
This was an unmanned sales feature provided by Paradise. Paradise automatically deducted a 5% transaction fee from the sale price of any items sold this way.
Although there was a 5% fee, contractors could only stay in Paradise for three days.
So, to increase their chances of selling their goods, many contractors returning to the real world still chose this method. After all, it made better use of their time.
After wandering around for more than an hour, Wang Changle had looked through nearly a thousand stalls.
Because he was a Life Apostle, he could only learn nature-type spells within the spellcasting system. Most nature-type spells specialized in healing or control.
Finding a nature-type spell that wasn't focused on control and also suited his needs was even harder.
Some abilities were too useless, others had prerequisite requirements, and some were simply too expensive!
Or rather, all mage skills were expensive. Everyone knew how terrifying mages could be in Paradise, so demand outstripped supply, driving prices up.
There was one skill he really liked: Call of Nature. But the seller had set the price at 30,000 Paradise Coins.
The item was listed through the unmanned sales system, so he didn't even have a chance to haggle.
It was worth noting that in Paradise, pure summoning spells were still categorized as caster skills, but they were classified under the summoner category. That was why they were so cheap!
He had only 6,040 Paradise Coins left in his space, and he needed to set aside at least 2,000 to summon Kakashi. That meant he was short by at least 26,000.
So he decided to sell everything he could. He had a Summoning Horn and a Steel-hardened Battle Axe.
He'd already chosen spells. The battle axe was useful, but it was no longer of much use to him. He might as well turn it into Paradise Coins.
He went up to a stall and paid the 10-coin usage fee, then began setting his prices.
The battle axe was only a White Grade weapon, but its stats were excellent, comparable to those of some Green Grade equipment.
So he priced the Summoning Horn at 30,000 Paradise Coins and the Steel-hardened Battle Axe at 5,000.
He also gave his little stall a name: "Blue-Grade, Top-Quality, Rare."
Before you continue