Martial Manuals

## Overview

Martial manuals are manuals that were developed since the beginning of the second cataclysm and consisted of martial techniques, sword arts,... that existed since ancient times. With the addition of mana, ancient martial techniques which were long forgotten were restructured and remodeled to take into account the mana that lingered in the atmosphere, and shockingly enough the techniques that were once deemed as useless transformed into some of the most powerful moves that could be performed by a human.

Since the discovery of the adaptability that martial techniques had regarding the control and use of mana, martial manuals suddenly became extremely coveted and as a result, they slowly started disappearing from the public view due to government and powerful individuals intervention. The government primarily did it to prevent the manuals from landing in the wrong hands, but with regards to the powerful individuals, it was more of a power move to monopolize the manuals to themselves.

When choosing a manual, the most important thing was not the grade but whether the manual was compatible with you. If you had a talent for swordsmanship but practiced a spear-related manual, chances were that regardless of how high the grade of the manual was, you would never be able to fully unleash the full potential of the manual.

## Grades

Martial manuals were separated into five grades, 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, and finally 5 stars, with 1 star being the lowest grade and 5 stars being the highest grade possible.

Each grade was determined by how powerful the art became upon mastery, and the difference between each grade was fairly substantial, just like the difference between a person's rank.

## Mastery

When learning a martial art there are four level of mastery: the minor realm of mastery, the great realm of mastery, the essence realm of mastery, and lastly the perfected realm of mastery.

Each realm signified a percentage of understanding. The minor realm of mastery required 25% understanding. The greater realm of mastery required 50% understanding, the essence realm required 75% understanding, and lastly the perfected realm, the pinnacle of art mastery, required 100% understanding.

## Manuals

### **[★★★★★ Keiki Style]**

* *Creator:* Grandmaster Toshimoto Keiki.
* *User:* Toshimoto Keiki, Ren Dover.
* *Description:* Sword art created by Grandmaster Toshimoto Keiki. A five-star module that focused primarily on reaching the apex of swordsmanship and speed. Upon mastery, the sword art becomes so fast that before an opponent could even think about their next move, their heads would already be rolling on the ground.

This art consists of mainly 5 forms. Each movement was like a piece of a 5 piece puzzle that would later combine and create the true [Keiki Style]. For example, the first movement [Quick Slash] was only a single one-dimensional slash forward, while on the other hand, the second movement was a [Horizontal Slash]. A horizon splitting slash. If the two movements were to be combined together, the range of movement when attacking an enemy would drastically increase.

Each movement was designed to add synergy to the other. Once one mastered the [Keiki Style], they would be able to attack wherever they wanted at an unrivaled speed. You could say that the reason why the [Keiki Style] was split into 5 forms was because one needed to learn the foundation before practicing the true art.

1. **[1st Form: Quick Flash]:** A one-dimensional slash that could only hit forward with an overwhelming speed that could not be seen by the naked eye.
2. **[2nd Form: Horizontal Slash]**
3. **[3rd Form: Void Step]**
4. **[4th Form: World Splitter]**
5. **[5th Form: Space Splitter]**

### **[★★★★★ Levisha Style]**

* *Creator:* Grandmaster Levisha.
* *User:* Levisha, Kevin Voss.
* *Description:* Sword art created by Grandmaster Levisha. It was a much more beautiful sword art. When writing the novel I remembered describing it as a sword's art that would mesmerize anyone who caught sight of the art. Though it was an extremely beautiful sword art, you should by no means underestimate it, as it was just as deadly as it was beautiful.

### **[★★★★★ Gravar Style]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* None
* *Description:* An infamous swords art. To call it a sword art was a compliment. No fancy swing, no fancy move, It relied just purely on raw physical strength that overwhelmed every opponent that came across it. It was a series of random swings with no foundation behind them, whoever practiced this swords art would find themselves suffering unbearable pain. In order for one to train the [Gravar style], the requirement was to reforge the human body by restructuring the flesh and bones within the human body to better suit the art style. It was a gruesome and painful procedure that could mentally break down anyone who tried practicing it. If one managed to master it successfully, he will be guaranteed inhuman strength that would make anyone fear you.

### **[Soul division]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *Known Users:* Toshimoto Keiki, Levisha
* *Description:* Once an expert reached a certain rank, they could learn this ancient Chinese technique. Its main purpose was to split a soul and attach it to an object, allowing a person to for a short moment of time interact with the initiator of the technique. To better summarize the technique, it was basically a live recording that you could interact with. It had no attack power, and apart from inheriting the memories of the initiator, had no other feature.

### **[★★★★ {?}]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Donna Longbern
* *Description:* An extremely rare 4-star enchantress art, which caused the user to become extremely seductive for anyone regardless of gender or race.

### **[★★★ Ring of vindication]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Ren Dover.
* *Description:* Highly advanced sword art that creates a perfect ring of defense around the user. Upon mastery, the ring can create a three-dimensional sphere that protects the user from all sides. Because of the lack of offensive capabilities, the manual was graded three-stars.

### **[★★★★ Everlasting sunset]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Kevin Voss.
* *Description:* Sword art primarily focused on creating faints and hiding true sword intent. By creating multiple illusions of sword art, the enemy will find it harder to defend as the true attack will always be masked under multiple faints.

### **[★★★ Sky steps]**

* *Creator: Unknown.*
* *User:* Kevin Voss.
* *Description:* Movement art that considerably increases user agility. Upon reaching a certain level of mastery, stepping on the air is possible.

### **[★★★★ Shadow harvester]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Jin Horton,
* *Description:* Dagger art primarily focused on lightning-fast attacks that slice through the air at astonishing speeds. The greater the mastery, the faster each swing becomes making each attack harder to defend against.

### **[★★★★ Void link]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Jin Horton.
* *Description:* Movement art that enables user to momentarily move between shadows. The greater the mastery, the longer the user can travel between shadows. Speed of user inside of shadow is tripled, and when exiting the shadow, user speed will be considerably boosted for a couple of seconds.

### **[★★★★★ Cry of the fallen]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Jin Horton.
* *Description:* An eighteen-stroke dagger art that becomes progressively faster and stronger with each strike. Upon completion of the eighteenth stroke, the attack magnifies by a factor of 18.

### **[★★★ Drifting steps]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Ren Dover.
* *Description:* Movement art that progresses with each step. With every step taken, user speed will increase. Unless user stops, speed will continuously increase until the user either runs out of mana or due to injury.

### **[★★★✰ Quick-slash style]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Ren Dover.
* *Description:* A sword art fully focused on speed. With one quick draw, the user gains the ability to kill an opponent without them noticing anything had happened. Created to replicate the Keiki style. After years of research, this sword art was the result.

### **[★★★ Iron Body]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Hein Kraaijenschot.
* *Description:* A martial manual that focuses on reinforcing the bones and muscles of the user. There is nothing exceptional about this art, except that it trains the body to the utmost limit. The user will have the hardest and most durable muscles upon mastering this technique.

### **[★★★ Full-body martial arts]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Monolith, Ren Dover.
* *Description:* Hand-to-Hand combat technique dedicated to utilizing every single part of the body to incapacitate the enemy. It may be a 3-star art, but upon mastery, it can be used to complement other forms of martial art.

### **[★★★★✰ Martial Body]**

* *Creator:* Unknown.
* *User:* Han clan, Han Yufei
* *Description:*

### **[★★★★ Iron Style]**

* *Description:* Through a series of different techniques, the user can harden his body and acquire great offensive power.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 3
2. ↑ Chapter 8
3. ↑ The Author's POV - Chapter 3
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Author's POV - Chapter 8
5. ↑ The Author's POV - Chapter 584
6. ↑ The Author's POV - Chapter 6
7. ↑ The Author's POV - Chapter 7
8. ↑ The Author's POV - Chapter 535