Chapter 35: A Closed Loop

“The Adventurer’s Association?!”

The half-elf’s response caught Xia Nan completely off guard.

“How is that possible? I’ve been to the Riverdale branch a few times and walked through nearly the entire hall. I didn’t see anyone selling skill books anywhere.”

“Could it be…”

“Exactly.” Haian nodded, tilting his index finger toward the ceiling. “On the second floor.”

Hearing this, Xia Nan grew even more bewildered. He thought back to his conversation with the alchemy shop owner a few days ago when he went to hand in a previous quest.

“Isn’t the second floor of the Association restricted? I thought you could only go up if you were already a professional.”

“That’s right.”

“But if I don’t have combat techniques, how am I supposed to become a professional in the first place?”

In Xia Nan’s eyes, the half-elf’s answers were completely contradictory, forming a frustrating closed loop. To become a professional, you need combat techniques. You buy combat techniques on the second floor of the Association. But to get to the second floor, you already have to be a professional.

To this, Wood—sitting beside the half-elf in his black leather armor—offered a reply layered with subtext:

“This world needs adventurers, but it doesn’t need that many.”

Xia Nan turned the phrase over in his mind, countless implications flashing through his thoughts. Seeing that the youth looked as though he were about to overthink himself into a dead end, Haian quickly chimed back in to clarify.

“Of course, acquiring combat techniques isn’t limited to just that one avenue.”

According to the half-elf, there were a few primary methods to obtain combat techniques within the Kingdom of Servia:

Routes to Learning Combat Techniques

Large-Scale Organizations: Whether it was holy temples, church orders, guild alliances, or the kingdom’s standing military corps, they all possessed their own highly structured and clear advancement systems. They stocked not only the basic combat techniques required for initial initiation, but also vast reserves for advanced classes necessary to cross into the “Extraordinary” realm. The cost, however, was your absolute loyalty and faith.

Private Hiring: Recruiting a fully initiated “Professional” to personally mentor you. This required a staggering sum of gold coins or an equivalent fortune in rare resources. This was the traditional path favored by the vast majority of the kingdom’s nobility.

The Street Lottery: This was the most widespread, volatile, and common method for ordinary civilians who lacked both family fortunes and background connections.

It was exactly like how Xia Nan’s predecessor—a simple farming family with zero combat capability—had managed to “wrest” a ripped page of a skill book from a traveling bard in exchange for lodging fees.

Across the vast lands of the Servia Kingdom, countless “combat recipes” circulated. You could walk up to any old man at a village entrance, and he might claim his family housed ancestral “Knight Training Secrets.” He would charge you a couple of copper coins, making you feel as though you had swindled him, before enthusiastically boasting about his great-grandfather’s glorious days.

Ninety-nine point nine percent of these ubiquitous “techniques” were utterly worthless fakes leaked from unknown origins. Even if one practiced them for years, they would yields zero progress, squandering massive amounts of time while potentially ruining one’s body due to improper physical form and distribution of force.

Only a tiny fraction of lucky individuals, having struck gold by obtaining a genuine, effective skill book, could put in years of grueling and monotonous training to finally unlock a true combat technique—taking that monumental first step toward becoming a professional.

Beyond these three mainstream paths, there were other gatekept methods like traditional master-disciple relationships, aristocratic patronage, wilderness treasure hunting, and auction house trading (which carried a slightly higher credibility rate than roadside stalls). This ensured that within the “adventurer” demographic—a group that regularly dealt with magical beasts and maintained decent channels and income—combat techniques weren’t completely unheard of.

Hearing all this, Xia Nan finally understood why both Wood and Haian had reacted with such shock upon hearing his predecessor’s backstory.

It appeared his predecessor hadn’t just possessed incredible latent talent; his luck had been absolutely phenomenal. To pick up a random, torn half-page of a skill book and actually manage to manifest the technique was practically a miracle.

At the same time, a definitive direction for his own future path began to take shape.

“Right,” Haian said, as if suddenly remembering something after finishing his explanation on class advancement. “I didn’t bring it up earlier because I assumed you had a mentor guiding you. But since things stand like this…”

The half-elf quieted his voice, casting a cautious glance at the Beheading Longsword by Xia Nan’s side. Fearing he might offend his teammate, he asked speculatively:

“That move you used earlier… it should fall under the [Fighter] archetype, right?”

Xia Nan himself wasn’t entirely certain which class [Sweeping Slash] belonged to. However, comparing it against the defining characteristics of various classes Haian had just detailed, he offered a slow, somewhat hesitant answer:

“Probably? The torn half-page of the book didn’t explicitly state the technique’s class origin.”

Haian wasn’t surprised by the answer. He nodded, shifting his gaze toward Wood.

“Wood is a professional, but a Rogue’s combat techniques don’t mesh with the style you displayed earlier. Unless you’re willing to start from scratch and discard everything you’ve built up so far, Wood won’t be able to offer much help. Though… to be completely honest, that would be far too wasteful.”

The half-elf’s eyes drifted across the iron-grey blade of the longsword.

“Judging by your performance in battle, even if that technique hasn’t reached the ‘Expert’ tier yet, it’s not far from it. It would be a massive pity to give it up now.”

He paused slightly, his silver-grey eyes meeting Xia Nan’s.

“You saved my life in battle, so it is only right that I offer a proper reward in return. Please do not refuse.”

“Even though it’s highly likely I won’t be able to leave the estate for a short while once I return to Newm… over the years, I’ve still managed to save a substantial amount of money.”

“If you are willing, I can leverage my family’s connections to hire a reliable professional to help train you in a [Fighter] type combat technique. While there’s no guarantee it will bear fruit immediately, still…”

Faced with the half-elf’s proposal, Xia Nan couldn’t help but feel a surge of genuine excitement.

He hadn’t stepped in to bail Haian out during the fight for the sake of a reward, but now that the other party was offering such a substantial return, it would be entirely unrealistic to turn it down out of false modesty.

After a brief moment of deliberation, he gave a firm, resolute nod and expressed his heartfelt gratitude:

“Then I will leave it in your hands. Thank you very much!”

Hearing this, the half-elf visibly let out a sigh of relief, a smile gracing his features. “Excellent! Give me your address, and once the mission is over and I return to Newm, I’ll send you a letter.”

“But you might need to wait a few days. I’ll have some family matters to settle upon my return, and it will also take some time to track down a suitable instructor.”

“No rush,” Xia Nan replied seriously. “Handle your own affairs first.”

“You can find me in Riverdale.”

(End of Chapter)