3 Chapter 3 - Touch her and I'll wreck you!

Meanwhile, Casino Riot was currently experiencing a marvelous dream. In this dream he was watching the illusion a young alien scholar around 18 or 19 years old perform martial arts in a completely white space. The only other thing in this space was himself. It wasn't that this scholar looked very strange. Far from it, he actually had an appearance around 80% similar to Casino himself. His skin was a smooth chocolate brown tone and he was rather tall, about 6 foot 5 inches. The scholar was currently practicing under words made of golden hieroglyphics. Casino had no idea what was written.

"Ah, so it's another technique. It looks a lot more impressive then regular martial skills. Could these be the so called profound arts? If only I could read hieroglyphics like the scholars..." Casino thought out loud.

However, he was certain it should be the name of this technique! He decided to temporarily name it the golden symbol technique since he didn't know its name. This technique had seven different kickboxing styles and the man would just continuously practice the various moves incorporated within. After watching this a few hundred times, Casino was incredibly bored.

How long must he study this?

Martial techniques were very strong attacking methods. They could thoroughly display a warriors strength! The were even higher level profound techniques that could make warriors gain powers that exceeded the body's natural limits. The comprehension of martial techniques was measured in levels. These levels in ascending order were the rudimentary, basic, advanced, and perfected levels.

This made martial techniques valuable and profound techniques that much more precious. Even the mayor's family only had a martial arts legacy, not profound arts! That was the reason everyone sent their kids off to different schools for cultivation. They would usually only return home once a year.

In the schools there were many different martial skills and even a couple of profound skills. Of course, one had to reach the advanced level classes to access something so good. Casino had, of course, never even come close to these items.

However, he had the Sacred Blessing Wall!

In spite of being currently bored to tears.

With nothing else to do, he begin to mimic the actions of the illusory man. If felt like he had spent months on end repeating these actions. Before Casino noticed, the blazing hieroglyphics in in the sky above the illusory man begin to fall into his body. Afterwards the illusory man actually begin to slowly fade away, until the only thing in the white space was Casino alone practicing this new technique.

After what seemed like an impossibly long time, he finally stopped and glanced around. He was shocked to discover there was nothing here but white emptiness! Casino was speechless. Why was he even here at this point? At the same time he realized this fact, the scene exploded like shattered glass and Casino slowly opened his eyes.

Divine Dragon Tactics: Primary Book!

This was the name that appeared in Casino's mind after he woke up. This must have been what those mysterious blazing hieroglyphic symbols said!

"How mysterious..." Casino was so amazed at how this wall would grant them blessing every year. It had been years since they first arrived here. The first year both Capital and Casino had received a blessing! Capital's talent underwent earth shaking changes! He charged straight up to the most talented in the class! The second year Maggie and Tony had received blessings, and Maggie learned how to cast healing spells! This news shook the whole city! An eight year old who could cast spells? Even if the spells were pathetic in strength, it was still the rarest occurrence. After all, how young was she? Gold covered in mud was still gold.

Tony, on the other hand, was propelled to the next level. An eight year old at the second level of the Hard Body realm was nearly unheard of in Nibiru City! Only two other children in the city could be compared, the mayor's daughter Samantha Reynolds and the Patriarch of the Sinatra clan's son, Jake Sinatra. To be compared with these two young geniuses of noble birth was Tony's greatest achievement. Ultimately it was short lived as Tony's cultivation speed fell far behind the other two in a short year, and eventually his friends caught up with and surpassed him as well. Well, all of them except for Casino Riot. However, Tony simply didn't feel Casino was worthy of his continued association, if Maggie wasn't so insistent he would never lower himself to converse with such trash.

Of course, no one knew that Tony thought this way or the reasons behind it.

The third year's blessings went to Casino alone! Both walls gifted him a blessing. His spirit power improved greatly! He went from only being able to maintain the perceptive force state for a few minutes, to being able to maintain it for 2 hours! Unfortunately he didn't know what to do about this new talent. At least, that's what he would have said if he hadn't also learned a technique called profound scanning from the wall's Sacred Blessings. With this technique he was able to read the cultivation level of anyone in the same realm as himself with his spirit power.

This was the first ability he had gained with his spirit power, and he used it nonstop, all the time, every single time a person walked past him. Using it so much not only raised Casino's proficiency in the technique, it also slowly improved his spirit power. This only encouraged him to do it even more.

The next year was a repeat of the first year! Casino's spirit power improved again and he could maintain the perceptive force state for four hours before running out of spirit power.

However, Capital seemed to only learn a set of fist techniques. They feared the wall had been bled dry, but they realized that they had greatly underestimated this fist technique set once Capital begin to challenge upperclassmen and win.

That was when he debuted the first style of his Water God Fist Arts: Collapsing Waves Fist!

The fifth year a blessing went to both Bravo and Capital. Last year Casino received both blessings again despite everyone coming together. He had learned a profound movement technique called Divine Serpent Surfing the Skies.

This movement technique had five styles. Even though he had only practiced to the rudimentary level of the first style: Surfing Killer Moccasin, this alone was enough to make him so fast and flexible that not even those two levels above him could keep up!

He couldn't wait to practice the first style of the Divine Dragon Tactics: Primary Book!

"Touch her and I'll wreck you!"

"Huh?" Casino was woken up from his thoughts by this sudden outburst. He was shocked to see that Capital and Tony were beaten and bruised on the ground! Meanwhile, Bravo Frenzy was fighting three boys his size like a madman. He looked like a wild beast as he landed crisp strikes and kicks on the other three boys, ignoring the damage he received in return.

Casino's first reaction to this was to observe the fierceness of his friend. However, he very soon realized the crucial issue! That voice from before was clearly Bravo's! His other two male friends had been trashed, so the other person who received a blessing could only be one person! Casino focused his sight behind Bravo and he saw a little head full of blond hair. Maggie was there, and she wasn't conscious yet!

Without hesitating, he joined the fray in seconds! Casino was impressed with himself, he was able to casually move at the speed of a car! This should normally be impossible at the second level of the Hard Body Realm. However, Casino was able to enter the perceptive force state for up to five hours before his spirit power depleted.

When he had his perceptive force state active he was able to resonate with the natural essence of the world! This made his reactive and comprehensive speeds increase dramatically! Practicing martial arts became increasingly easier. He had even learned the first style of the Water God Fist Arts, the Collapsing Waves fist, from Capital without much trouble. However, it wasn't that Capital saw fit to teach his friend. Casino learned by merely watching him practice! To Capital's shock during their spars, Casino was never even half a step behind his own understanding of the technique. If anything, their post spar conversations would greatly benefit Capital in improving his martial arts.

He may not have the talent for cultivating, but so what? He could learn high level techniques, master them, and then jump levels to win. Did he have to have the best talent? As long as he cultivated diligently he believed he could reach the tenth level of the Hard Body realm one day like the peak warriors.

Casino jumped up and sped over using his Surfing Killer Moccasin Style, and covered the 25 meters of distance in mere seconds, appearing directly behind Bravo as he was knocked back a few feet by two fierce kicks! Casino shifted his weight and and compressed his muscles before revolving his mystic strength into billowing layers flowing through his arm, and launching out an aggressive left straight!

Collapsing Wave Fist!

"Ah!!"

Bam! Two of the boys collided with Casino's fist and their noses shattered as they fell tumbling backwards.

"What the hell man!" The third young man was frightened and tripped over his own feet as he scrambled over to his friends.

"What's going on here?" Casino Riot turned to Bravo and asked.

"Ugh..." Bravo Frenzy was a bit frustrated. He was already at the fourth level of the Hard Body realm and he could barely hold his own against these three third level classmates that came here and set their eyes on his sister, how embarrassing. It was bad enough he had been stuck at a bottle neck for the last few months, but now Casino had randomly woken up and pounded two of his enemies. Even if he caught them off guard, it was still damn impressive. "These punks popped up out of no where, and then when they recognized Maggie they got some idea. Anyway, I wasn't going to let them touch a hair on her head. Luckily the guy who beat up Capp ran off or we would be done for."

"Wait..." Looking around Casino was shocked to realize they were no longer in that alley! Rather ,they were in the alley of the middle district. The one that could lead them to the other alley through the wormhole in the dumpster. "How did we get all the way back here?"

"This..." Bravo had a complicated look on his face. "Let's talk after this, all right?"

At that moment several more delinquents ran into the alleyway.

"Where did this little punk come from!"

"Who beat up Tido and Johnny?"

"It was him! The little forgotten wastrel!"

"Eh?"

"Him?"

"How?"

"This is bad..." said Bravo Frenzy looking at the 12 boys that surrounded them.

A muscular young man with red hair and deep dark eyes stepped forward and spoke imperiously, "Listen little punks, under the premise of us being former classmates I'll show some mercy. Hand over the girl and no one else gets hurt. Otherwise, we'll beat you and take the girl! Please make us do otherwise."

This youth was handsome and proud, he wore stylish blue garments made of luxury materials. He looked at least 18 years old. He was clearly some official's child, born into wealth. The sneer on this youth's face was pissing Casino off, but he didn't dare to move rashly. These idiots wanted to mess with Maggie! However, Casino recognized this person!

Frankie Baldez!

They had been classmates a couple of times.

A classmate dared to threaten Maggie? They would have to do it over his mangled corpse, then!

"Who the hell do you fuck boys think you are? You can't just kidnap someone's daughter with no consequence! The Twelve will arrest and lock you away, why throw away your life like that?

"There's...there's something you don't know, Luck. You and Maggie have both been experiencing the enlightenment of your sacred blessing, so you wouldn't know. The street gang Silver Mercury attacked the Mayor's mansion and governmental building. They've taken over the city!

"WHAT!?" Casino Riot was completely dumbstruck.

"Pfft."

The 12 goons burst out laughing and pointing at Casino's face. The Frankie lad was laughing the hardest before he spoke with difficulty, "Heh..ah man...ahehehe...whew! Look I've heard of ignorance being bliss, but don't you think you've stretched it? The twelve are long dead! Who is there for us, Silver Mercury, to fear in Nibiru City?"

"No one!" The eleven other goons yelled in unison.

"Exactly. You're options are few. I'll give you seven breaths to decide." Frankie said indifferently.

"Bravo...if all this happened while we were asleep...how long has it been since we went to the Sacred Blessing Wall?"

"....It was...one year ago today." Bravo Frenzy's face was solemn.

Casino Riot's mind went blank.