Martial Elf

As Kyle and I entered the inn, the dining area immediately visible was almost empty, with only a few people quietly sipping drinks, perhaps due to the nighttime.

“Where are Rudolf and Duberv?”

“Rudolf is in the stable, and that little one is in my room for now.”

“Is Rudolf in the stable? Is he being obedient?”

“Of course, it caused quite a stir. I had to clear out space around Rudolf’s area before he could settle in.”

“That must have cost some money.”

“No, it’s unnecessary. I can organize it myself.”

As I was about to pull out a pouch from my pocket, Kyle waved his hand in refusal.

“Um. Is that so? I appreciate the gesture. Then, may I visit your room for a moment?”

“Huh? My room? Right now?”

With a flushed face, he rolled his eyes as if thinking of something, then spoke with a slight look of disappointment.

“Oh, Duberv.”

“It’s because it’s an important matter.”

Kyle guided me to his room while asking.

“But is that okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean martial arts. Can you really teach it to just anyone?”

“Ah… it’s true that martial arts shouldn’t be taught carelessly. When an unqualified person gains power, the results are usually not good.”

“…Then shouldn’t you teach it even less? To be honest, it seems like you’ve been hanging around some bad company.”

“‘Then why do it anyway?’ A merchant should think this way, don’t you think?”

“Um…”

“Well, in this case, it would be hard to understand even if you thought about it.”

Kyle seemed a bit offended by that remark, pouting his lips.

As we bantered, we arrived at the door of the room, and when Kyle opened it, I saw Duberv awkwardly standing up from the bed as if having heard the approaching noise from outside.

I hung my hat on a coat rack and approached Duberv.

The closer I got, the more I sensed the tension rising.

“You didn’t run away then.”

“…Well, I did see that scene right in front of my eyes.”

Duberv’s swollen face from being beaten by Adreel and their subordinates still looked terrible, but the focus in their eyes had not disappeared, only showing slight signs of tension.

“Sit cross-legged.”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, try sitting like this.”

Kyle didn’t find the cross-legged position strange due to what he’d shown during the journey, but Duberv looked puzzled and awkwardly began to imitate it.

I moved behind Duberv, placing my right hand on the acupoint at the back of their neck and spoke.

“Don’t talk, or you might end up as an idiot.”

“What does that mean…?”

“Shh.”

Shocked at the possibility of becoming an idiot, Duberv closed their mouth as my demeanor shifted.

Even so, they were clearly anxious and flustered.

Regardless, I began to channel my energy to observe Duberv’s body.

Duberv trembled, perhaps due to the strange energy swirling inside them, but after finishing my examination of their entire internal structure, I pulled my hand away from the acupoint.

“Um… is it over?”

“Yes.”

As my hand was removed, Duberv asked with a slightly scared voice.

Ignoring Duberv’s voice asking if they could move, I fell into thought based on the knowledge I had just gained from my observation.

‘The anatomy isn’t much different from the human body in my previous life.’

What I found while observing Duberv’s body didn’t seem significantly different from that of a Central Plains person.

While there were some differences in details, those would have varied among Central Plains individuals due to inheritance.

It was unexpected, but in truth, that wasn’t the important part.

‘There’s true energy within the body.’

Though Duberv hadn’t established a Dantian, energies sufficient for forming one were present throughout their body, including energies apart from their innate ones.

Particularly, the energy pathways and flows in their arms were well-developed.

I found it a bit strange.

A body that hadn’t developed fully due to a lack of nutrition in a resource-scarce environment.

No matter how fast someone might be, sustaining a speed that creates afterimages outpacing everyone’s gaze in the marketplace for an extended duration shouldn’t even be possible from a merely physical standpoint.

‘Just in case, I brought Duberv here, and that was the right call. Now that I’ve confirmed this, what to do next…’

Typically, the phenomenon of accumulating true energy without learning a martial arts mental method isn’t unusual.

On reflection, it made sense; martial arts aren’t something one is born with.

Nor is it something an otherworldly being bestows upon humans.

In a time before documented history—even before the concept of martial arts existed, when not even mental techniques were known—some talented human must have felt, realized, and begun accumulating and utilizing the knowledge of energy, leading that understanding to gradually spread.

Martial arts in the Central Plains must have initially been primitive, lacking proper mental techniques.

If so, it might not be undue to view Duberv and others, whom I haven’t met, as individuals beginning to enter such a stage.

I’m unsure whether their method of managing energy will evolve into a system like that of the Central Plains, but given time, there would certainly be a system developing based on the premise of accumulating and utilizing energy in this region as well.

‘To be honest, considering the characteristics of the long-lived elves, I don’t expect humans to compete…’

While there are many masters in the Central Plains, ultimately they are still human, and even the greatest of them will ultimately die.

However, the lifespan of elves is likely much longer than that of humans, which means that, on average, the realms that elves who learn martial arts can attain in their lifetimes will likely far surpass those of humans.

Moreover, the innate sensitivity to energy felt by elves is also significantly greater than that of humans, which will further widen the gap.

Once a martial artist begins to approach a certain level, the disparities between stages start to become quite pronounced.

Additionally, a new issue arises from the brevity of human lifespan.

While martial arts can evolve over generations, it’s common for the insights and breakthroughs of predecessors to be poorly understood, leading to degeneration.

Due to their short lifespans, humans inevitably must leave successors to ensure that their true martial arts endure beyond their generation, but for elves, their long lifespans allow them ample time to cultivate and preserve their martial arts.

‘Someday, considering the lifespan of elves, it might be possible to create an extreme martial arts form intended solely for them based on their slow maturation.’

However, separate from that, I was aware of the risks to humans due to the weaknesses of elves and the memories of my past life.

The population of elves is unlikely to increase dramatically even over a long time, perhaps due to constraints tied to their species.

On the other hand, in my previous life, humans reached nearly a billion in the Central Plains alone.

Of course, this world’s natural environment is much harsher than the other one, so it might be harder to flourish to that extent, but conversely, because of that very challenge, it’s also possible that humans, having overcome it, could prosper much more robustly.

‘Thus, some degree of restrictions is necessary.’

It would be absurd to eradicate a species on account of an uncertain future.

Even apart from the question of whether humans can even be extinguished, the repercussions of such a species disappearing would likely be considerable.

However, among humans are those like Duberv who accumulate true energy, whether consciously or unconsciously.

At some point, someone will likely begin to germinate a system.

Given this, I felt the need to intervene to some extent with humans.

In order for the elves, who were only ten years old, to grow strong enough that they would not be looked down upon, I needed to impose limits on human growth.

‘The Solitude Drink.’

Rejected.

In the first place, the number of entities that can be controlled is too limited.

There is no entity exerting overwhelming influence over the human world like the Son of Heaven in the Central Plains.

‘Ideological corruption within martial arts.’

This would be the way to go if I had to think about it.

Martial arts fundamentally involve drawing upon the energy of nature rather than one’s innate power.

The larger one’s internal energy, the more suitable methodologies needed for handling that energy.

The causes of deviation—known as “running fire into the devil”—are varied, and one common cause is when someone attempts to operate using new methods for a new realm, but in a wrong direction.

Historically, in the Central Plains, there were instances where martial techniques were lost through the machinations of demonic sects, causing bloodbaths; the issue at hand was that those who first acquired these martial techniques initially faced no issues, but at some point later, they fell into deviation and madness, leading to secondary damage.

‘For now, I don’t have any intention of being that malicious.’

Moreover, while such glaring distortions could fool ordinary people, anyone with some understanding of principles could easily detect such anomalies.

‘Still, the righteous path has similar methods as well.’

I intended to use the same principles in a similar way.

“Secular disciples.”

This term refers to disciples who establish their roots outside of their main clan.

In the long history of the Central Plains, cases of secular disciples standing out have been exceedingly rare.

While there are certainly talented disciples within the main clan, not all of those secular disciples were devoid of talent.

Even so, why couldn’t secular disciples make a name for themselves?

The reason is that the martial arts learned by secular disciples ultimately belonged to the category of derivative martial arts.

The martial arts of prestigious families are diverse and formulated in ways that go from basic foundational techniques to advanced techniques in a gradual and long-lasting manner.

In contrast, martial arts learned by secular disciples can reach a certain stage rather easily but are quickly completed, forced to finalize insights and inspirations early on.

The frustrating part is that while these secular styles might be shallow and quick to completion, each is still logically consistent.

Being a secular disciple means wielding the authority of their clan, so the quality of their martial arts isn’t bad.

However, as they become accustomed to this secular approach and prejudices regarding martial arts begin to settle in, further growth will demand tremendous effort.

When considering that martial arts are a study meant for endless contemplation and training without finality, it is effectively a death sentence for someone aspiring to be a martial artist.

This situation arose from their need to prevent leaking knowledge externally and the ensuring that the martial arts they produce aren’t subpar.

There are even instances in which secular disciples are perceived as illegitimate children.

Thanks to this, while they can rely on the reputation of their main clan, the discrimination between main clan disciples and secular disciples is often a topic of discussion within the martial world.

‘Even if, somehow, a person with exceptional talent manages to break past that wall, it wouldn’t matter.’

Given the times, it is an era ruled not by virtue and wisdom but by strength and brutality.

Power reigns, and there is no way to share the vision of enhancing that power with others.

The human martial arts system will likely wander without overcoming this limitation for quite some time.

I concluded my thoughts and gazed down at Duberv, who appeared anxious and was looking up with a makeshift cross-legged pose.

If the elves’ homeland is their main clan, Duberv might become the first secular disciple of the human world outside of their own.

In this barbaric era, where nothing is firmly established, it serves as one of the bindings with which to contaminate and constrain the ideologies and inspirations of the human martial arts system in the world until the elves can safely and sufficiently grow their strength.

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