Martial Online.

A beautiful, red-eyed young woman moved across the floor, trying to use strange, dizzying footwork. 

However, she was rather clumsy and almost collapsed on several occasions.

"Whoo..." Bella breathed heavily, sweat trickling down her fair-looking skin as she was focusing entirely on her feet and how they moved across the floor.

She had been trying to mimic the footwork in the style scroll for nearly an hour already and hadn't even reached 1 percent yet in completion.

At that moment, a firm-looking arm wrapped around her stomach and pulled her into a powerful embrace. She turned around and shyly smiled.

"You back?"

"Mm." Ambrose nodded with a slight smile and used his foot to move Bella's right foot slightly forward. "You were nearly getting the footwork. However, your feet move far too apart from each other."

"Mm, I see..." Bella whispered and gently whispered. "Can you show it to me?"

"Watch closely." Ambrose left the embrace and slowly showed the footwork to her. His feet moved in perfect sync, not too apart from each other and not too close.

Even though he moved almost at snail's pace, his footwork still started to look dizzying and impossible to keep up with.

Bella's eyes tried to keep up, but she soon felt overwhelmed and wryly smiled. "I think I get it..."

"You only need to reach 1 percentage." Ambrose stopped moving and caressed her cheek gently. "That might be your limit for now, but you'll get there. Once you have reached that, we can more comfortably go to Crow Forest."

"Mm." Bella nodded with a smile and then heard a ding in her ear. She saw that she had received a message from Emma.

"Emma is asking where I am." She said.

"Mm, you should return there." Ambrose picked up the style scroll from the ground and placed it back inside his inventory. "You can return training there at a later time. You still have the store to run."

"Mm, I'll be learning it tonight; you will see." Bella said with a giggle and sent a message to Emma that she would return soon.

"Will you be visiting us tonight?" She then asked after sending the message.

"Maybe once Emma had logged off." Ambrose said.

"Why then..?" Bella asked before realizing, and she immediately covered her chest with a deep blush. "W-what are you planning?"

"Haha, nothing like that." Ambrose chuckled and touched his earring. "Just talking. We had kissed and all that, but I am not really sure what we are yet. I'd like to just talk."

"Mm, sounds good." Bella hugged him shortly, then grabbed her purse and walked away while smiling, anticipating the night.

Ambrose leaned against the arc-shaped entrance, watching as she left the premise. He was then about to return indoors, but then he caught a silhouette crouching behind the roof of a building on the opposite side of the street.

'The hell?'

...

'Hmm, that was the lady from Whispering Pages?' A masked figure thought while peeking sneakily from behind the roof, staring at the ongoing of Immortal Dojo.

'I visited that place with Prince once, and it's impossible to forget her face. Did I see her hugging that guy just now? He also seemed to be quite an important figure, as I saw that sturdy guy protecting him.

'He must be the new dojo master. However, I don't recall his face either.'

The masked figure frowned. 'I should report back to Prince. Maybe he can get her to tell more about him.'

At that moment, a wooden blade touched the side of his neck, and he felt immediate pressure, sinking his shoulders down as if gravity had increased tenfold.

"Who the hell are you?" Ambrose asked venomously, standing behind the masked figure with a cold look on his face.

'How the fuck did he sneak on me?!' The masked figure asked in shock. 'He was in the dojo just a second ago! I turned my gaze away only for a second!'

"Who sent you?" Ambrose asked coldly.

"Hah, just kill me. I will not answer." The masked figure said, ready to give up an item and half of his XP. He had stored his silver safely in his real-life bank account, so he didn't mind dying.

Ambrose's hand turned transparent, and he then stabbed through the masked figure's chest, then pinched his slumbering soul.

"Aaar—"

Before his agonizing screams could frighten the pedestrians below on the street, Ambrose covered his mouth and coldly whispered into his ear.

"Tell me, or you'll face much worse pain." Ambrose's voice was as cold as a freezing river. "I don't like being spied on."

He then slowly removed his hand from the masked figure's mouth.

"W-w-what the hell..." The masked figure breathed roughly, still feeling the worst pain he had ever felt before in his life. "H-h-how did you do that? W-what the fuck did you do?!"

"Answer my question, or you'll feel it again." Ambrose whispered coldly. "I am not playing around."

"F-fine, stop for fuck sake!" The masked figure shouted in panic. "Prince from Saturn Dojo. I am their scout; just calm down!"

"What does he want?" Ambrose asked. 'Prince. I do remember him. He seemed like a nice guy.'

"Just seeking out the new competition!" The masked figure shouted. "We knew that Reverse Tiger Blade was no more, so we were just curious. That's all!"

"Aight." Ambrose believed it and said, "Tell Prince to come visit me personally. I don't mind revealing my identity. What else did you see?"

"N-nothing, I swear!" He panicked and shouted.

"You are lying." Ambrose whispered and traced his transparent finger across his slumbering soul's spine.

The masked figure flinched and felt like there was something burning on his back. 

"A-all right, jesus!" He screamed and said, "I saw the lady from Whispering Pages, that's all!"

"You know her?" Ambrose asked with a frown.

"Y-yes, I visited that place with Prince once!"

"Prince visits that place?" Ambrose asked curiously.

"Y-yes!" The masked figure screamed.

"Hmm..." Ambrose removed his transparent hand from his body and deactivated his Self-Possession. "Tell Prince that I am inviting him for dinner."

"W-what are you planning?" The masked figure asked.

Even though he felt agonizing pain, he wasn't planning to let Prince, whom he respected plenty, suffer the same fate. However, he felt like Prince would be able to defeat this guy; he didn't want to take a risk.

"A talk." Ambrose said. "I don't want to be a brute and just storm into Saturn Dojo. I really don't want to do that, but I will if he doesn't come tomorrow."

"I-I'll tell him!" The masked figure said.

"Good, now go." Ambrose pushed the masked figure down from the roof.

"Aaaargh!" The masked figure crashed into the street below and died from the impact.

The pedestrians screamed and scurried away as suddenly a figure dropped off from the roof, now lying dead on the sidewalk.

Ambrose quickly used Formlessness to sneakily fly out of the roof and enter his office in the dojo through the window.

He got seated on the chair and tapped his finger impatiently against the desk.

'I should ask Emma about him. She should know about everyone who has visited the store.' Ambrose opened his friend list and pressed 'Add Friend.'

'What was her in-game name...' Ambrose wondered. 'Ah right, it was RedRabbit, wasn't it?'

He typed the name and sent the friend request.

It didn't take long for 'RedRabbit' to accept his friend request.