The affected person starts to lose their morale as their body becomes heavy. They would feel as if their opponent is a giant untouchable person. As if they can be crushed with a single stomp. It seems the Intimidation gaze and aura also need certain requirements to work, which are knowledge, experience, and intelligence. It means animals, unintelligent monsters, Demonic Beasts, and Magical Beasts that haven't matured enough to comprehend emotions can only use Murderous intent to survive. The type Vincent and Lupa had to master to survive. Unintelligent beings can only taint the mana using their bloodlust and killing intent to inflict fear instead of controlling it to subdue their opponent. Killing felt easier than subjugation to animals, Magical Beasts, Demonic Beasts, and unintelligent monsters since it won't fill their bellies. Vincent, Ester, and Lupa could now understand how they got used to Murderous intent and gained enough resistance to act. It seemed the more one experiences the tainted mana, the more resistance they build against it. At least to the point of not cowering in fear. Koss noticed Vincent's and Lupa's Murderous intent when the three new recruits were planning to do something unspeakable. The aura surrounding their bodies was steadily building, but it wasn't enough to show their intent. Only an experienced person like Koss could notice the two weren't sleeping but baiting to retaliate instead. Thus, Koss wanted to see how much Vincent could withstand his Intimidation gaze. He was happy with the results and decided to teach him personally. Koss explained how one needs an intent to fight against an intent. To use your own emotional influence to attack, defend, or resist. Only similar intent can reduce or negate each other, meaning to use Murderous intent to protect against Intimidation intent wouldn't be as effective as using Intimidation intent. Vincent learned this fact first hand as he felt suppresses without knowing why he only used his Murderous intent. Next, Koss started talking about what a gaze and an aura filled with intent was. It seems gaze can only target a certain number of living targets in the user's sight. On the other hand, aura affects living targets within a certain small range depending on the user's powerful intent. Vincent then asked with a puzzled frown, "I get the gist of these two kinds of intent mana tainting causes, but what does it have to do with close combat quarters?" Koss then started to explain how CQC training can greatly help people without mana fight against these two emotional influences and bend the mana around them to the user's will. Murderous or Intimidation intent is considered an active skill to reduce and negate when used to fight back. It can only protect to a certain degree against an intent after activation. However, using an intent to resist isn't the best solution since the user gets tired, depending on the intensity of the intent they fight against. "That's when the third method comes to play. CQC can help manaless people build a strong body by helping in acquiring a specific Trait. " Koss said with a chuckle. People in this world can strengthen their bodies similar to cultivation stories Vincent read a couple of times. They can temper the body and possess a permanent passive resistance. Tempering the body with mana will produce a Trait called Mana Tempered Body, and blood tempering will produce a Trait called Blood Tempered Body. Koss explained what a Trait was as he witnessed a puzzled expression on Vincent, Ester, Lupa, and obviously his daughter. A Trait is similar to a genetic ability, yet not at the same time. People can be born with Traits. However, Traits can also be awakened through certain conditions as well. Koss mentioned how Vampires are born with the Trait to shapeshift into bats without the Shapeshifter class. How Lizardmen are born with a passive Trait to have hard scales. How many Elves are born with a special Trait called Mana Body. It seems classes are the same for everyone, but Traits and Bloodlines are the only two forces to change a person's class. A Berserker class is the cause of this effect. Koss mentioned how he trained a division a few years ago, a new recruit possessing mana and a unique elemental blessing Trait learned the basics under him. Koss felt proud after the new recruit awakened a class and received a promotion soon after. Both became friends after that, and the soldier treated Koss as a teacher, even if he only taught him the basics for three months. "We'll have a drink with Russo when we arrive in Lusterfall City. Damm brat got demoted recently and is now a vice guard captain of the northern gate." Koss displayed how much of a friend and the bond between them was. Koss then mentioned how the soldiers and E Rank adventurers have information regarding these Traits. Anyone can awaken the Mana Tempered Body and Blood Tempered Body Traits. Vincent and Kazumi became surprised by how Koss's explanation started sounding like a game. As if he suffered from a beta testing tutorial with nonexistent difficulty and now met with the first NPC that explains how the game works. Koss finally started talking about why the army teaches the Murderous and Intimidation intent to the new recruits. They will remain a trainee and unable to join in a war if they don't possess one of the two, between a Trait or a Class. Trainees can only work in certain jobs with the least chance of losing their lives, but with the safe job also comes less pay, enticing the new recruits or veteran trainees to gain the requirements to obtain promotions and receive more pay. Vincent and Kazumi could understand why such rules were in place. If such suppressing or terrorizing influences clashed on the battlefield, many untrained soldiers would lose their lives without the chance of swinging their swords. People make a Kingdom strong, and sending untrained and easy to get killed soldiers will enviably reduce the population to none. It seemed this was probably the Kingdoms thinking, which Vincent and Kazumi agreed with. It caused Vincent to think about what Koss said regarding the Murderous gaze and aura. He is the Soul Hero, and the mutation seemed to have affected the class as well. For the Demonic Beast to inflict devastating terror in his soul appeared to have a reduced effect as he experienced and later scared the monstrous ape along with Lupa in the end. It was as if something much frighting hid in the depths of his soul. Koss then started explaining how body tempering works. Surprisingly there were stages similar to what Overheat and Soul Dimensional Storage possessed. Koss didn't explain much about Mana Tempered Body since he didn't have any magic. He mentioned how only after reaching a certain amount of mana could one awaken Mana Tempered Body Trait. They would start to feel and circulate mana better, faster, and also have permanent passive resistance to harmful mana influences to a certain degree. The more stages, the more resilience. Blood Tempered Body Trait, however, could only be awakened through hard and intense strenuous training. Only after understanding could they start on the path to master Blood Tempered Body at stage zero. Koss abruptly stopped in the middle of the explanation and approached a tree. His hand seemed covered by an invisible force. His palm gently touched the tree, but nothing happened. "This is what you can do at stage one using Energy Flow. It's called Force Shock. The first form of CQC Energy Flow combat moves." Koss said while mana bent to his will and Force Shock activated. *CRACK!* Multiple loud echoing sounds of wood cracking from the devastating force his palm dished out. The tree's trunk became riddled with multiple deep large cracks, causing the wide thick tree to fall. *THUD!* The audience, apart from the three new recruits, stared in awe and in disbelieve. But this raised a question Vincent had the urge to ask. "I didn't see your twin brother Kass use a powerful skill like this. " Vincent asked. "I should be close to Blood Tempered Body stage two while my brother found it hard to reach stage one because of his Berserker ability, heh..." "It became challenging to temper his body after the first time he used Upper Zerk Mode. The ability makes the blood boil and rage inside his body. The possibility to control the blood becomes impossible after that. He found it too difficult and stopped trying one day." "Ahh... you're puzzled about what Energy Flow is. Let me explain." Koss then started explaining how Energy Flow worked. It seems Energy Flow can control the tempered blood inside the body. People refer to the newly created pure and untainted blood by mana as Blood Purity. They believe a person will gain a pure untainted body if they reach stage ten. But it seems no one up to this day has attained the perfect state of Blood Tempered Body. However, it isn't the case with Mana Tempered Body. Koss grunted that there are many close to reaching a perfect body blessed by mana, but it seems the last person to attain a perfect Mana Tempered Body was an elf many centuries ago. "Damm mana blessed basterds. They only need to sit and increase their mana. The more mana, the more stages they gain while we bust our balls..." Koss snorted in anger. Shortly, he quickly realized his daughter was in front of him. She also possessed a young mind. "Ahem... Blood Tempered Body is for real men, and Mana Tempered Body is for girls." Koss uttered, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Not fair. I don't have magic, and I like blood! I want Blood Tempered Body!" Lupa exclaimed with a frown. "Don't worry, Lupa. He means Blood Tempered Body is to train the body with courage and fill it with will power. You aren't included since you are my brave wolf." Vincent tried to defuse the situation by praising Lupa. Lupa giggled when she heard, "you are my brave wolf." She crossed her arms and stared at Koss with a proud smirk. [Nice safe. Koss doesn't know how to hold back, it seems.] "Ahem... it's something like that. Now, where was I. Ahh, yes... Force Shock." Koss cleared his throat and continued the explanation. Koss explained how he first used Energy Flow to control the tempered blood in his body. Then he used the tempered blood to filter the faint natural mana from entering his hand, rejecting the mana in the air from entering his body. As the denied mana started collecting, he used his Energy Flow to influence and control it. Thus the ability called Force Shock is born.