Chapter 35 - Thousand

"Let me guess, you want to try the first option right?" Jun asked which Julius replied back to which an enthusiastic nod. Seeing this made Jun sigh but nevertheless, he agreed.

"Before you go trying to learn a secret art using this method, I should explain something to you. There are different tiers to the scrolls. Depending on what tier a scroll is, a different beast will come to speak to you when you wrap the scroll around your arm. In total there are 5 tiers. The beasts you greet are the monkey, tiger, lion, dragon and a shadow monster in that respective order from weakest to strongest. The stronger the beast it, the more brain damage you'll suffer," said Jun as he tried to scare Julius out of learning a secret art through this method.

"What beast is behind the secret art which allows you to control those swords that you used against Mary and what beast is behind the secret art which allows you to summon your jade dragon?" Julius asked out of curiosity.

"They're both dragon tier secret arts so we shouldn't start off with them. How about we start off with a tiger scroll since you're already above a monkey scroll," said Jun as he tried to make the activity exciting.

"Aww, I really wanted to learn the secret art that you use but still, you're probably right. So how do I even activate the scroll?" Julius asked.

"I'm glad you're learning to respect my judgment. And for your question, you can activate the scrolls by just closing your eyes and just saying 'activate', it's pretty simple," said Jun as he took a tiger tier school out of the wooden box he brought out.

"Wait master Jun, would it be okay for me to look at the dragon tier scroll which gave you the power to control those many blades just so I can calm myself down. I'm pretty scared to jump into a tiger tier scroll and if I have something to look forward to, I think I'll be able to relax myself," said Julius with his innocent eyes. Hearing his words Jun sighed.

"Okay fine, but please be careful. These things are very valuable," Jun said as he gave Julius the dragon tier scroll. Just as Jun prepared to lay the tiger tier scroll on Julius' forearm, Julius quickly leaped back and wrapped the dragon tier scroll around his art and yelled "activate!".

…

"ARE YOU INSANE?! YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!" Jun yelled out however Julius couldn't hear him as when he had activated the scroll, his eyes had closed shut and he had passed out.

"I guess it's too late. Damn you, you're not going to survive this Julius. Even if you do, you'll be mentally scarred forever," said Jun in a regretful tone as he has honestly believed that he'd lost his most gifted student.

…

As for Julius, he was in a dark space at which he could see nothing until a gust of wind blew him away. When he looked closer Julius realized that he was face to face with a giant dragon whose face alone seemed to be infinitely large. The gust of wind which blew Julius away was only the dragon exhaling from his nose.

"So you seek to learn the thousand swords secret art? Someone as weak as you truly believes that it's possible for them to learn such a powerful thing?" the dragon asked in a menacing tone which that alone made it so that Julius couldn't say a word.

…

However right as Julius was about to answer, he was sent flying back so far by a random force that the giant dragon just seemed like a tiny toy.

Julius watched as a glowing hand, much bigger than the dragon picked it up with its palm and put it inside the mouth of a glowing figure and ate it.

…

Moments later, Julius woke up to Jun who was crying in disappointment in himself. Although he felt bad for surprising him, Julius didn't understand why Jun looked so sad. Of course, Julius at this time didn't understand how much pain a dragon scroll would've caused to the average beginner so Julius decided to mess with his master.

Julius got up from the group with a straight face and walked straight before making himself fall. Once again, Julius got up from the ground and repeated this process to more times before staying down in the ground so as to make it seem like his brain was damaged. To Jun, all what Julius did was real. He thought that activating the dragon scroll caused him to go insane.

Accepting his fate, Jun unwrapped the dragon scroll from Julius' arm before placing it back inside the wooden box and heading inside to return the scrolls as he swore to himself to never take another student in his life ever again.

"How am I even going to explain this to Henry. He's going to kill me," Jun said as he began to walk outside so as to bring Julius back inside. Through Jun look frail, he was much stronger than expected and managed to bring Julius inside his home before going outside one more to cook something with the little ingredients he had.

As he continued to cook, he sensed a familiar presence. At first he assumed that it was Julius but he scratched that idea as Julius was already brain dead and he wouldn't be able to walk for a while.

"Damn it all. I feel like killing whoever is behind me. I've got to take this anger out on someone and if it has to be the person who decided to surprise attack me today of all day, then so be it," said Jun as he prepared for the perfect moment to strike.

<<Secret Art: Sun Spear>>

A spear with a blade which looked to be made of magma suddenly appeared in Jun's hand which he turned around and threw. However right as he threw it at the person behind him, he realized it was Julius who was smiling as if he had just played a prank on him. That was when everything came together but it was too late as Julius would die by his own teacher's hands.

However before the spear could land on Julius, his facial expression suddenly changed to be much more serious.

<<Secret Art: Thousand Blades>>