It took Ben a few hours to digest the news surrounding his disciple, but after talking to various sources and filtering out the parts that obviously sounded fake, Ben pieced together the following information.
1)That his disciple had declared himself to be the new ruler of the East and the leader of all rebels, making him state enemy number one.
2)He was currently in the process of wiping out the current nobility of the East, with him having captured 90% of the Eastern Duchy already.
3)He was directly challenging the territorial integrity of the Empire, making himself a bigger enemy of the state than Ben in his prime, as while Ben only killed the Emperor, Leo was taking away the land that made the man holding the throne of StrongHaven Emperor.
Apart from these facts, it seemed like the Empire and their propagandist mouth pieces were actively promoting rumors that made ‘TheBoss’ seem like a heartless killer, and although Ben knew better than to believe such rumors, the reputation that his disciple was gaining was one of a tyrant and a cold conqueror.
Secretly, Ben was beyond impressed with what Leo was able to achieve in a short span of 6 months, as capturing the Eastern Duchy from a ruling Duke was no easy task.
However, while he was impressed internally, on the surface his anger bubbled like never before.
He could not understand the motivation behind Leo trying to take down the current regime, as although he was impressed by his results, Ben could not respect his motivations.
He had never set his eyes on the throne in StrongHaven, and had taught his disciple to not do so either.
Regardless of how magnificent the position of the Emperor seemed, Ben knew that every Emperor sat on a throne of lies and thorns and hence it was not a life he wanted for Leo.
Instead he wanted Leo to pursue his assassination arts to the fullest and someday become a stronger warrior than Ben, bringing glory to the Faulkner family.
However, now as he saw Leo straying away from that path, Ben could not help but feel angry, as he believed that his student had strayed away from his true calling as a warrior elite.
“Haha….So my boy, you have started down the path of foolishness….. It’s disappointing but it doesn’t matter…. read first on website:N o v e l 1 s t . c o m.When I meet you again, I will put you back in your place” Ben muttered to himself as he began cracking his knuckles in anticipation.
In his mind, he could already picture the one-sided beating that he was about to dish out to his student. Unaware that the gap between them was no longer as large as Ben remembered it to be.
**********
(Meanwhile Luke)
Following the daily practice of the Mind Meditation Manual, Luke found his gaming abilities improve by leap and bounds.
Getting rid of his inferior moveset, he replaced his moveset with (Legendary) grade or higher skills that were nearly impossible to obtain within the game world, unless you had unbelievable connections.
Thankfully, with Leo bankrolling him and his standing as the vice guild master of the DarkSky guild, Luke had the ability to purchase the skills he needed, albeit at a ridiculously high price.
Nonetheless, once he began to work on the correct path, the results came flowing for him fast.
Within a week, he managed to push the mastery of two of his new moves from (Basic) to (Intermediate), surpassing even Leo’s speed for the same.
Having practiced mind meditation, Luke found grasping concepts that previously felt complex to him, extremely easy now, as his whole perception of the world seemed to change.
Knowledge, that he only understood vaguely before, became fundamentally clear to him now, as after practicing the mind meditation manual, he started to feel like he had been seeing the world through foggy lenses all his life and the fog had just started to clear for him now.
Previously if he gave an opponent a suplex, he did not truly grasp the concept of the range of motions necessary to plant someone on their head, however, after practicing the mind meditation manual, it was like he became aware of every muscle contraction in his body.
He could feel the precise moment where his muscles tensed up now and how the flow of energy went from his feet to his hips to his arms and back, that allowed him to perform a suplex and after studying it, he understood the points where this energy was lost and managed to improve it easily.
It was an indescribable feeling for him, as he unlocked the secrets of his own body, understanding it like never before.
All his life, he had known that muscles were responsible for movement, however, he had never bothered to truly understand how until now, but after he did and began studying his own body under movement, he started to understand what to look for in opponents when they tried to attack him.
If the opponent tightened a particular muscle and Luke could see it, he could then anticipate the opponent’s attack before it even came and this was a life changing discovery.
It wasn’t any skill or skill related move, however, it was just a fundamental concept that Luke could now understand, which made him a better fighter than he was before.
It was almost like the mind meditation manual unlocked his true potential, ushering him into a zone of constant improvement that he had never felt before, as every passing week, Luke became incomparably stronger than the Luke a week before and this speed of growth was nearly terrifying.
“If I can keep this up, then I can perhaps reach the realm of a master before the next system evaluation takes place…” Luke mused, as thanks to Leo lending him the mind meditation manual, he felt like he could finally start to close down the gap between them as warriors.