The Pinnacle of Martial Skill

I had sworn a pretty low level revenge, the kind where I would live a happy life and make that spiteful god regret everything. But it was not like I could do anything about it right now.

Telling myself that rest was important too, I casually swung my hand with a quick swish. It was not solid enough to be called a real thrust, more like I just threw out a punch-like motion without thinking.

With nothing to do, I ended up doing a bit of shadowboxing. Like anyone who has practiced martial arts, my hand just moved on its own.

I waved my hand absentmindedly, but a strong sense of wrongness hit me. What was that? What was that feeling just now? I tried swinging my hand again.

Nothing felt strange. Was it because I was paying attention this time? I tried to empty my mind as much as possible and moved my hand while spacing out.

But the instant you think “I will try not to think about anything”, it never goes well.

What was that? Was it just my imagination? After that, I didn’t feel anything strange. Maybe it was just a misunderstanding. I thought so, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling.

Well, I had time to kill anyway. With that in mind, I threw a few random punches. Still nothing strange. Stubborn now, I tried all sorts of situations.

I closed my eyes or made weird twisting motions while punching. But nothing changed.

I felt a little hollow. Finally, I held my breath and waved my hand. Still, there was no discomfort. After a while, I was running out of breath.

I exhaled deeply, taking in fresh oxygen. My body, deprived of air, began to gasp for breath.

I tried to keep my breathing steady, forcing myself to stay calm despite the discomfort.

Breathing? That’s it, breathing! I realized what was going on, and intentionally altered my breathing pattern.

Then, still breathing differently, I waved my hand again.

This time, there was discomfort. This was it! My movements had definitely slowed down. Even though I had waved my hand casually, my punch lacked its usual sharpness.

In that instant, it felt like lightning struck my head. My body’s movements were sluggish. My physical ability had been affected.

The thing that influences physical ability is base stats, level bonuses, and… skill bonuses.

It was when I was chatting with Al. I had once asked him what kind of physical ability bonus the swordsmanship skill provided.

He said that when you unsheathe your sword to attack, your physical abilities improve. By the way, he mentioned that just holding the sword’s hilt without drawing it wouldn’t trigger the effect.

He also said that if you’re not used to it, the difference from your normal state could be dangerous. My skill, Karate, doesn’t trigger based on weapon use. Karate is a hand-to-hand fighting style.

So, I assumed that the skill bonuses activated when I delivered attacks like thrusts or punches. Honestly, I hadn’t really felt any of those skill bonuses.

Since I had only just arrived in this world, I thought my low skill level was preventing me from feeling the effects.

But what if I was wrong? What if the reason I couldn’t feel the activation was because it was constantly active? My breathing was different from the average person’s.

I used to consciously control it, but after years of practice, it had become automatic. This too was a technique of Karate.

When humans switch their breathing, they become defenseless. The moment they exhale completely and inhale, it becomes difficult to defend themselves if they are attacked.

Humans do many things unconsciously.

Although we don’t consciously think about it, when the brain gives the command to “switch your breathing,” even under unconscious control, our attention is drawn to the process of breathing. At the moment of switching, there’s a brief gap in our awareness.

In hand-to-hand combat, fights occur at close range, and even the slightest opening can be deadly.

Why is it the moment of inhalation? Wouldn’t it work if it were the exhalation? You might think that, but there is actually a reason.

When boxers throw a jab, they exhale sharply in short bursts. When training with heavy weights, they hold their breath. No one attacks or lifts heavy weights while inhaling.

When humans inhale, they can’t fully perform physically. In order to create an opening between consciousness and the body, the moment of inhalation becomes the opportunity for an attack.

That’s why it’s necessary to prevent your breathing from being predictable.

If you breathe in a way that makes your chest expand, your rhythm becomes readable. If you make your breathing loud, it can also give away your rhythm.

There’s a technique called abdominal breathing, where you minimize the sound of your breathing. Without realizing it, I had been using Karate techniques all along.

It’s not just breathing. It’s also how you direct your gaze, your way of walking, and shifting your center of gravity. All of it is ingrained Karate technique in my body.

The trigger for activating my Karate skill is to use Karate techniques. When I realized this, I was struck with a great shock.

The moment I was reincarnated and my consciousness awakened, the skill was already active. Perhaps that’s why I was able to survive even at level 1.

Since coming to this world, I’ve never let my guard down. I’ve always been on alert and paid attention to how I direct my gaze.

Now, having completely let my guard down, lying in bed alone in my room, with no need for attention to my gaze or center of gravity, I was able to notice when my breathing became irregular.

Even the breathing method activates as a Karate skill. The range of the skill’s effects is broader than I imagined.

Is this a cheat given to me? Or is it because Karate, an irregular technique in this world, was turned into a skill?

Maybe the people in this world just can’t fully utilize their skills. I don’t know the reason. But realizing how wide the skill’s effect range is, is huge.

The skills in this world are incredible. In a sense, they represent the pinnacle of martial arts.

Let me give an example with the swordsmanship skill.

The swordsmanship skill can perform 9 types of attacks toward any point. These are up, down, left, right, diagonals, and thrusts. The user can perform the best possible movement based on their current state.

The user can attack with the most efficient and perfect sword strokes. This is amazing.

Martial arts, simply put, is the technique of killing people efficiently. It’s about taking the shortest route, using the least amount of time and energy to take someone’s life. If you pursue it to the limit, you’ll reach this point.

An attack using a skill has no waste. The body moves efficiently, and with maximum efficiency, the user performs the attack they desire at the desired place and in the desired form.

And that’s not all.

The skill allows the user to perform attacks with the optimal sword stroke, regardless of their state. Even if the user’s concentration is broken by the tension of battle or pain, they can still fight as if they were in perfect form.

If one arm is severed, you can still deliver the best possible attack with the remaining arm. If a leg is broken, you can still deliver the best attack in that state.

This is an incredible threat.

It could be said to be the “pinnacle of martial arts” that everyone strives for. An obvious supernatural power, a terrifying force that is enough for people to believe in the existence of gods.

In order to counter monsters, the gods’ mercy is bestowed upon humans. The church seems to define skills in this way.

I don’t know if it’s true, but that’s not the important part.

What matters is that there is an ability called “skills” that didn’t exist on Earth, and the range of effects of my Karate skill was beyond my expectations.

That was what mattered.

Just as sword attacks have only nine types, I had also applied the skills to the Karate techniques I could use.

Skills hold infinite possibilities. I couldn’t sit still anymore, so I decided to get moving and test it out.

Activating my stealth skill, I slipped past the noisy Gonz and his group. Everyone was distracted by their loud ruckus.

Without anyone noticing, I was able to exit through the back yard of the Adventurers’ Guild.

This area had a vegetable garden, and it was fairly spacious. I walked toward the corner of the garden where nothing was planted. It was already night, but fortunately, the moon was bright. I could still manage to walk without a light.

At dawn, just before everyone else woke up, I would usually practice the fundamentals of Karate in the corner of the garden. It was a secluded place where the risk of being seen was low.

Even if someone saw me, they wouldn’t understand what I was doing. But I still wanted to keep my Karate techniques as hidden as possible.

Guided by the moonlight, I made my way to my usual practice spot. When I arrived, I took a deep breath to calm my pounding heart, preparing to focus on Karate.

In my mind, I envisioned a technique performed by a famous Karate master during a demonstration.

The skill activated, and my body moved. By subtly bending my knee, my center of gravity lowered. Returning the knee at just the right moment allowed the energy from the lowered center of gravity to accumulate in my knee.

I used the spring in my knee to transfer that energy through my hips and into my upper body. The energy was then channeled into my fist, and I rotated my wrist, adding a 180-degree spin as I thrust forward.

Aside from the slight dip in my stance, it looked like an ordinary punch.

But in reality, it was different. By converting the energy from lowering my center of gravity into a lateral direction, I was able to add the weight of my body to my strength.

A proper Karate punch requires complex body movements. You kick with the back leg and apply the brake with the front leg to shift your center of gravity.

In sync with that shift, you use your strength, adding energy at each joint, causing the fist to reach its maximum speed.

At the moment the shift of weight and the acceleration at each joint perfectly align, the fist strikes the target. That is the ideal.

Controlling both the shift in weight and the acceleration at the joints simultaneously, you channel the force from your legs to your fist, the part farthest from your body. When those two forces perfectly align, that’s when the punch lands.

That is the ideal, but achieving it is incredibly complex and difficult… Adding the weight of your own body as energy and transferring it to the fist is an even more challenging task.

The famous Karate master who demonstrated this technique only called it “nuki,” a term meaning to withdraw or pull.

I was amazed when I tried it myself. There was a strange sensation as if all my body weight had been added to my fist. Is this the world of true masters…?

I thrust my fist forward, trembling with emotion.

If it were me, would I be able to master this through a lifetime of training and perform it in a demonstration? It was such a complex series of body movements. But with the skill, I could use techniques of this level in real combat.

Riding the high, I started trying out all kinds of techniques.

They were techniques I had seen in demonstrations, in old manuals, even in manga. I tried them one after another. I did not know the exact criteria, but while a few techniques did not activate, most of them did.

After experimenting with all these so-called secret techniques, my understanding of karate became far deeper than anything I had before. Even a simple straight punch felt like an entirely different move.

Skills optimize your actions, but I realized that if your own knowledge is shallow, then the skill only optimizes within that shallow understanding.

I began to understand proper weight shifting in karate, as well as how to use the joints and the small stabilizing muscles.

I also learned the exact mechanics of tightening my core at the moment of impact by locking my arm joint and clenching my fist at precisely the right instant.

With everything aligned, a straight punch became something else entirely.

I felt ashamed that I had never truly understood the martial art of karate, yet at the same time I was thrilled by the depth of the discipline I thought I knew.

Unable to contain my excitement, I unleashed technique after technique. In a quiet corner of the field where no one would see me, I kept refining myself.

The moonlight shone quietly on me as I repeated my forms again and again like a madman.