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Chapter 346

I woke up disoriented. Everything hurt me, and I couldn\'t move a muscle. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I noticed that I was inside some sort of house. "Where am I?", I asked myself. A voice answered my question "You got beaten up pretty badly boy". The voice belonged to an older man. I snorted, and asked "So what now, you are going to torture me?".

He replied "Do you really think, that the Royals would let you live? Wake up boy, I\'m not your enemy". I moved my head to the source of the voice, but there was no one there. The voice came from a different direction "You are promising, that is the only reason I saved you". I asked confused "What do you mean?".

He appeared in my view, and said "We are the same boy". My eyes almost left the sockets. "You are also…", but before I could finish, he replied "I\'m. Now rest, we can talk when you feel better". I said "My bag, there are medicines in my bag". He replied "I know, I already gave you some". I looked at him for a while, and said "It\'s not nice to search through someone\'s possessions, without their consent". He snorted, and replied "You can thank me later". He then left, and I couldn\'t feel his presence anymore.

\'To think that a practitioner of the Arts, would save my ass\' I thought. I was alive. In a bad state, but alive. \'I don\'t know his reason for saving me, but I guess I will find out soon\' I thought, and closed my eyes. My recovery was most important now.

When I woke up again, I was in a much better state. \'I\'m hungry\', was the first though I had. My bags laid next to me, so I grabbed one, and fished out some food. \'Good thing I always have some provisions with me\' I thought, as I ate whatever I had. With my hunger taken care of, I took a detailed look at the house. It looked a bit shabby, as if built by someone unprofessional. The house was rather simple. There were no rooms, only one big open space. The house had very little furnishing as well. There was the bed I laid in, table and one chair. \'He must\'ve built that house himself. This suggests, he lives somewhere rural\' I thought. When I stood up, I took a look at my body. \'I\'m again full of scars. The worst ones should be on my back, and on my chest\' I thought.

Then I heard the voice of that old man. "You finally woke up. It took you awhile to recover. I guess your state was even worse, than you looked". I couldn\'t see him, even after scouring the house thoroughly. With no results, I asked into the open "Why did you save my ass?". The old man replied, "I told you, because I saw potential in you. It would be a shame to let you die like that". I asked another question "You practice the Art of Stealth, right?". He laughed, and replied "Practice? I\'m one of the three masters left alive. I\'m the master of the Art of Stealth. The other two are a bit more crazy than me".

I nodded my head, and asked "So, what do you want from me? You didn\'t save my ass for free, did you?". The old man laughed, and revealed himself in front of me. He said "You are not too far away from reaching a certain stage in the Art of Stealth. You are also naturally gifted, just like I am. No one becomes a master, if they are not gifted, the other masters are similar. What bothers me, is that I saw some copied stuff in your skills. Care to explain?".

I thought about it, and replied "Well, I guess I owe you that much right?". I then continued "You are right. I learned the Arts from someone, but I also developed my own Arts. You can say, I\'m a sort of hybrid. No doubt you saw the battle I fought, right? The movements you saw, that was my own skill in the Art of Stealth. The dagger skill was the same".

He nodded while replying "That is true. The movement and dagger techniques, are something I haven\'t seen before. No doubt they are original. Your basic skills seemed copied, but that is not a problem. Being able to develop those skills, proves that you are a natural".

I recalled something, and asked urgently "Did you kill them? Did you kill that woman?". He replied "No". I asked disappointed "Why? If you are this good, and call yourself a master, why not kill them? They hunted me precisely because of Arts". He replied "Because I\'m not an idiot. There were others waiting to provide backup. I didn\'t need a large scale battle, just to save your sorry ass. I grant you one thing though. Being able to kill that soldier, in such setting… Not bad at all".

I asked "There were others?". He nodded, and replied "Did you think, they would let that princess walk around without Royal Guards? Especially chase after someone with your skills? The soldier you killed was a Royal Guard, but there were three more of them waiting. When you killed that guy, they were ready to move out, and take you out".

I asked "How were they able to hide from me?". He snorted, and said "You think too highly of yourself. There are loads of people much stronger than you. That Royal Guard you killed? Bottom feeder at best. Besides, you killed him by surprise alone. If not for that thing in your hand, you wouldn\'t even kill that guy".

This was true, if not for that surprise, I would have a real hard time finishing him off. The old man continued, "Your arm… It\'s different. Care to explain?". I replied "Do I have to?". He shook his head, and replied "No, I was just curious. You are obviously Human, but that arm doesn\'t belong on Human. I was wondering why you have it". I said "Partly because of that woman. That is all you will get from me". He smiled, and said "Interesting".

I asked "So is that all? I\'m free to go?". He smiled and replied "Of course. Besides, I want my bed back". I grabbed my bags, and walked towards the door. I stopped suddenly, and said "Thank you. I would be dead by now, if not for you. If I can, I will return that favour in the future".

The old man laughed, and replied "Actually, there is something". I turned around, and asked "What do you need?". He replied, "Your abilities... It\'s something I\'ve been looking for a long time". I smiled, and replied "I can\'t give you my abilities. Besides, you are a master right? Shouldn\'t you be much better than me?".

He replied with a laugh, "That\'s not it. I want to see another master grow up. I told you, there are only three of us left. There was always at least one master of each Art. Usually, there were more than one, but in this day and age? We are the last masters, with no one to replace us". I was confused, and asked "What do you mean? Everyone has to develop the Arts by themselves, right? If there are no people who reach the mastery, there will be some in the future". He shook his head, and said "It\'s no longer that simple boy. I told you, in this day and age, this is much more difficult than you think".

I asked "Why?". He replied "Because they are hunted down. For about twenty years now, the Royals made an extra effort, to exterminate all the practitioners of our Arts. This means, there are fewer and fewer people, who will learn those Arts". I said "Wait a minute. The Art of Stealth should be fine, right? After all, loads of people rely on stealth. There are even Formations, which allow for that".

He looked at me, as if looking at an idiot and asked. "Boy, do you even know what Arts are? Stealth? You want to compare some stupid stealth to the Art of Stealth?". I replied "Well, the Art of Stealth is more advanced. The use of one\'s Aura or Formation, is not an Art of Stealth. Ultimately though, everything goes down to hiding or movement".

He snorted and replied "The person who taught you, was an idiot in that case. My guess is, he learned all of that from someone else. His teacher probably learned all of that from someone else, and so on. Don\'t be fooled boy, all Arts were created with a single purpose. In other words, Arts are the ultimate killing techniques. All of them are dangerous, even the Art of Stealth". I thought about it, and said "Well yea. If you can avoid the light and hide in plain sight, then whatever weapon you use, you can kill your opponent".

He shook his head, and said "Avoid the light? Hide to kill? You still don\'t understand me. I\'m not saying that Art of Stealth is deadly, because I can hide. It\'s deadly, even if I don\'t hide myself. You clearly don\'t know what the Art of Stealth is about. But, you are young. Finding out what it really is about, is not easy. That is what separates people from being masters, and those who can only copy stuff".