17 Chapter 16

Anais and I flew to the sacred land of Korin as I was told that was the location of the tower, while it would seem obvious enough that the tower would be there but on most maps the location is not recorded as it is a small village as basically self sufficient and only few merchants that are willing to go the extra mile know about the location.

We arrived at the base of the tower and had a look around, I felt the presence of many of the natives of the village but I wasn't here to meet new people, just to improve my martial arts with the help of Korin, while I am sure my fighting is incredible I doubt it is anything great as I fought Anais I could feel many flaws, flaws that she got from me and I can't allow that to continue, while I can tell the flaws I don't know how to fix it since I have not had any formal training in actual martial arts before, our talents can only get us so far with what we have.

Tatsumaki: "We will be climbing the tower"

Anais: "Why do we have to climb it? We can literally fly"

Tatsumaki: "We are going to Korin to learn to how to fight properly and fix our flaws, he has been alive for over 500 years and has been teaching those that climb the tower, it would be disrespectful to disregard the requirement of the challenge just because we can"

Anais: "I thought it was our right to have privilege because we are powerful and deserve it?"

This girl… it's a good thing we can have this discussion while she is still in her preteens or she would have developed another bad habit along with her sadism, the arrogance she has been developing is worse than I thought, I will not have her become like some third-rate cultivation villain.

Tatsumaki: "Anais, while its true that we should have certain privileges due to being strong we should also have a conscience and show due respect to others, if I started taking things from people just because I am stronger than them how am I different from the time I used to bully you when I was younger"

I decided to use the past as an example, but I didn't expect her to have some sort of traumatic reaction to being reminded about me bullying her when we were kids, her emotions are all over the place, fear, shock, anger, and surprisingly excitement, most likely from the masochism she developed

Tatsumaki: "I was only giving you an example you don't need to be worried I won't bully you, unless you ask for it"

She started to settle down and no longer showed any agitation, the emotions I felt changed to relief, embarrassment and… disappointment? If I wasn't sure before well now I am, I can only hope that her masochism doesn't evolve to the level of darkness from konosuba, while I don't mind some occasional plays when we become adults, I don't want to deal with someone that constantly runs into dangerous attacks to deal with their unsatiable lust.

Anais: "Okay, sorry for overreacting. What did you mean by if I ask for it? I don't see myself asking to be bullied"

Tatsumaki: "We will talk about it when you are older, you're too young to understand"

I proceeded to climb the tower quickly to get away from the conversation

Anais: "Older? But we are the same age!! Why are you running? We aren't done with this conversation!"

We proceeded to climb the tower, it was 25,000 feet tall while it is too tall for humans with lack of training to climb it was no issue for me at all it was like training with weights when I was weaker, the lack of air barely affected me, I couldn't say the same for Anais she was slowing down a bit but I could only blame myself for that, I never let her fly too high up since I taught her to fly so she isn't used to recovering with lack of air.

I waited a bit for her to catch up to me before giving her the chance to take a break before we resumed the climb, it took a few hours after repeating the actions of climbing and taking breaks, but we finally managed to make it into Korin's tower.

Tatsumaki: "We are here, are you okay?"

Anais: "I am *pant* fine *pant* how are *pant* you *pant* fine?"

Tatsumaki: "I am used to using the minimum required oxygen and I've flown much higher to test my limits and train my body, I've also used the pressure from the bottom of the sea, anything to get results after all I should have included that into your training, but I held back because you are a girl, but it seems I need to reconsider your training"

???: "It has been a long time since anyone climbed the tower, but it seems I have 2 guests and one seems to take his training quite seriously"

Anais: "A *pant* talking cat?"

Tatsumaki: "You must be Korin, it's a pleasure to meet you I am Tatsumaki, and she is Anais"

???: "ho-ho, you seem so sure that I am Korin why is that?"

Tatsumaki: "You are the only one on this floor from what I can sense with my Ki and there is no other way to get to the presences I can sense above us unless we can fly so it would only make sense that you must be Korin or at least someone that can help us reach him however normal people won't be able to sense the presences above us and from what I am sensing from the amount of Ki you have you are much too strong to just be a guide"

Korin: "ha-ha that is an interesting thought pattern you have; well you are right I am Korin and this is my tower, what can I help you with from what I can tell you are much too strong to be interested in the sacred water I have, maybe the girl over there but not you I have been able to sense the occasional release of Ki from you all the way from my tower and I can tell you don't need my help getting any stronger"

Tatsumaki: "We have had no formal martial arts training only self-made combat techniques and I was hoping you could help us get rid of the flaws in our techniques and hopefully learn some new ones from you, I believe that learning doesn't stop no matter how strong you are, only the dead are unable to learn or those that suffer from Alzheimer's "

Korin: "I can't say I'm not impressed by your reason for coming here but now I will ask you, what is your reason for gaining strength? from what I can tell you are the type that barely takes breaks and is mostly training, from your friend I can see desire all over her face its clear she wants to achieve something and she feels she needs strength to do it but I can't see that same desire on you so I hope you can enlighten me"

Tatsumaki: "Something similar was brought up and I thought long about it and I don't have any grand reason as far as I can tell, I just find it fun to break through my limits each time I hope to see how strong I can get and defeat any obstacle stopping me from achieving my goals"

Korin: "Okay, then I will begin teaching you both separately. I will start with you while your girlfriend recovers"

Tatsumaki: "she's not my girlfriend, at least not yet. Were you satisfied with my answer?"

I noticed the change in Anais' emotions, but I decided to ignore it as I focused on Korin as this is one of the most important steps, I need to take to accomplish my goal

Korin: "I have no idea why you humans have such complicated mating rituals, there is no right answer, everyone has their own reasons for trying to attain power all that matters is that you know what it is, if you aren't clear about your reason eventually you will start to question yourself down the line and I don't want to train someone that will put my reputation to shame. Let's begin in a few minutes"