"Fear not the man who has practiced 10.000 techniques once, fear the man who has practiced one technique 10.000 times."

  - How to fight (Luce Bree, TE 115)

  °-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°-°

  *Bingbong*

  Cultivation feels nice and comforting. Inner peace feels...peaceful. No worries out here in the void. Helps to keep the insanity at bay.

  Anyway, I need a little change of pace. I kind of want to try out this technique.. but how do I activate it?

  Let's try some other quests until I figure this out.

  "Quests"

  Hmm, I received weapons from my first quest, but I never got anything to use as crafting ingredients to make my own. Maybe fighting quests give crafting ingredients?

  So I would first have to cultivate to be strong enough to fight, in order to get resources to craft with? Is that how it is? Or am i really fishing for connections here?

  "Select quest"

  I do feel bad about beating babies but with a name like Nightmare, I don't feel quite as bad.

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  "Accept Quest"

  *Bop*

  Oh God that is hideous. That is absolutely disgusting. I will be having nightmares about this - Oh, that's where the name comes from.

  Aaand it noticed me. Those claws do look very sharp...

  Wait a second.

  Which weapon should I use?

  I didn't get any shields, maybe a sword? A Jian? Is that a sword? Both hands? No that feels cramped, one hand.

  AH, IT'S COMING!

  The baby Nightmare is sprinting towards me on all fours. Although it doesn't seem to have any actual legs. Its body morphs around, creating limbs as it goes. It slashes towards me with a freshly spawned set of claws, which I block just in time.

  Or should I call that a parry?

  *Cling*

  That wasn't too bad actually, I guess babies aren't very strong.

  Let's keep it simple and get this over with.

  I block another one of its attacks and launch one of my own. One slash was enough to tear its entire body in half. Whether the creature is weak, or I am simply super strong, I do not know. Maybe it's just that my weapon is of incredibly high quality.

  The downed creature quickly started to dissipate.

  *Bingbong*

  Alright! My second technique already! And this one is actually offensive, that'll come in handy.

  Let's craft something with those claws first, maybe a spear? There is that tree in front of my house, surely it wouldn't mind me taking a branch.

  ...

  *Bingbong*

  *Bingbong*

  *Upgrade possibility dectected*

  *Merging Eye of the Appraiser with Eye of the Vulture*

  *Technique gained: Eye of the Wise Vulture*

  Don't disrespect my wooden stick with a claw... Whatever, I made it myself and I am still proud of it.

  Now, how do I use this new technique.

  "Eye of the wise vulture"

  ...

  Nothing.

  Do I just focus on it?

  ...

  Hmm what's this? Looks like a 3D map of a racetrack. Is that how I have to move my qi perhaps?

  As I follow the circuit, I feel my qi burning inside of me, ever so slightly, until something clicks.

  Huh, I guess it is.

  *Bingbong*

  Anger in adult Nightmares? Maybe I won't use this spear for my first fight against them then.

  Let's see the next fighting quest. 3 baby Nightmares? From 1 to 3 opponents, sounds challenging.

  Maybe I'll properly learn this Tiger Slash first. I could also train with some of the other weapons I received earlier.

  Let's see, there's the jian I just used, my new spear, another spear, a club, a scythe, a set of tonfas and ... a meteor hammer? Huh, maybe I will.

  *Crash* *Clang* *Doof*

  Ok, maybe I won't.