The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac kept 4 candidates in mind: Aqua Circlet Anima, 3-Toed Phantom Anima, Snowshoe Anima, and Spring Hare Anima.

Aqua Circlet Anima was the only defensive Anima among the 4. It was a rather strange Anima, since it would always have some kind of physical manifestation; the Anima itself was still a spirit, but it would create a blue circlet around its owner's head even when it wasn't being used. When it was actually activated, that circlet would quickly expand and transform into a blue helmet covering the user's head. This was one of its advantages; it would provide instant protection for a person's most vulnerable point. It would then continue expanding to form a thin chest plate which protected the user's torso, but this process was rather slow. If you needed to activate it to block a sneak attack or something which surprised you, it could only protect the head quickly, which was a key disadvantage. It also didn't protect the legs or arms at all, but its sheer defensive power was one of the highest among Rank 1 Anima.

Basically, it covered your vital points and made it near-impossible for a Rank 1 opponent to one-shot you. They could either slowly break down its defences, wait for you to run out of Qi, or target your legs and arms to kill you through loss of blood.

The 3-Toed Phantom Anima was an interesting Anima which originated from the 3-Toed Crane, a Rank 1 wild beast. This crane was known for its deceptiveness and ability to create basic illusions, and this Anima borrowed some of those powers; when the user started to move, this Anima would create 2 phantoms which replicated that exact movement but in different directions. For example, when Isaac started to run, this Anima would create 2 exact replicas of him which ran in different directions and lasted for about a second. When Isaac swung his sword, the Anima would create 2 replicas of his arm and sword which swung in different directions.

The phantom replicas would look exactly the same as the real thing to the human eye, and only investigative Anima would be able to tell them apart. The Anima's main weakness was that you couldn't control the direction these phantoms moved in. If Isaac swung his sword and the 2 phantoms appeared behind him, swinging away from the opponent, it would be useless. On the other hand, if both phantoms swung towards the opponent with Isaac, they would have no idea which of the 3 swords was real and which 2 were fake. Therefore, this Anima relied heavily on luck.

Isaac had already come into contact with the Snowshoe Anima once before; it was one of the Anima he'd seen in the sect's Anima storage facility when he chose his first Anima. It was a rather extreme movement Anima which was popular in Northern Tundra but wasn't used anywhere else in the world due to its reliance on snow. Essentially, it gave the user the ability to glide through snow. This meant the Anima would be entirely useless inside, in sheltered spaces, in places where it didn't snow, or even in spots where snow had melted. That was why it was usually paired with other ice or snow-style Anima which created snow. Isaac didn't have these, but it snowed very often in Northern Tundra anyway.

While its weakness was apparent, so were its strengths: its speed was very good, enough to be considered in the upper class of Rank 1 movement Anima. Its turning ability was also impressive, even more so than its straight-line speed. All in all, it was a quick and agile Anima which could be used for escaping, dodging, closing the distance to opponents and many more... so long as there was snow. Otherwise, it would be as useful as a lump of coal in battle. No, it might even be less useful – at least you could throw the lump of coal at your enemies.

Finally, the Spring Hare Anima was rather simple. It strongly enhanced the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the user's legs, giving them superhuman jumping abilities and sprint speed. Its main weakness was that even if you jumped 2.5 metres into the air, then you would have to endure a fall from 2.5 metres up. Doing this repeatedly would completely mess up your knees, so it was usually combined with a healing Anima. Other than that, it didn't have many weaknesses or strengths – it was just a good all-around movement Anima.

Isaac picked these out as the 4 most suitable and affordable Anima for him. However, he could only choose one, so he still needed to get rid of 3 of these.

He found a spot to sit down in one of the shops and continued to consider his options.

His first decision was that he couldn't use the 3-Toed Phantom Anima. It relied too heavily on luck for Isaac, who fought with skill and precision. It didn't quite match his fighting style, so it had to go.

It didn't take long before Isaac decided against the Spring Hare Anima as well. Most people saw its ability to do everything quite well as its strongest aspect, but Isaac didn't think that way. He wasn't just trying to be 'quite good'; he wanted to be excellent. That meant he couldn't choose an Anima which didn't excel at anything.

That left the Aqua Circlet Anima and the Snowshoe Anima. Both were Anima with glaring weaknesses but top-quality strengths. So long as Isaac fought in a way which minimised their weaknesses, either could be an incredibly useful tool for him in battle.

Indeed, there wasn't much to separate these 2 in terms of how good they were and how well they suited Isaac. That was why he chose the Snowshoe Anima.

Before coming to the market, Isaac had already identified what he needed most, and that was a movement Anima. He would only have chosen a defensive Anima if it was clearly better than any of the movement Anima he could find, but the Snowshoe Anima and the Aqua Circlet Anima were of similar quality. Therefore, the Snowshoe Anima was an easy choice since it fit his needs best.

It was also cheaper than the Aqua Circlet Anima. Isaac had only brought 45 reward points with him from his locker, but he could still afford it.

Seeing its price written on the wall of the store he was in, Isaac walked up to the store counter and addressed the man behind it,

"Excuse me, do you have any Snowshoe Anima left in stock?"

The man smiled widely at his potential customer. Compared to the capable alchemy disciple running 'Herbal Fumes', this shopkeeper was not worth mentioning. He was stuck in Rank 1 middle stage even at the age of 26; his cultivation journey had practically flamed out and he just worked at the store as a normal employee. He had no status and Isaac didn't have to respect him. In fact, the man's tone was slightly servile,

"Yes sir, we have quite a few. The price is 42 reward points; I believe you won't find them cheaper anywhere else!"

Technically, the man's words were correct. Most of the shops on this street sold their goods at the same prices. If they began decreasing the prices of their Anima to compete with one another, it wouldn't be good for any of them. Therefore, they'd made a mutual agreement not to start a price war and only compete through advertising, customer service, variety of choice and so on.

Isaac didn't care about any of those things. Since the Anima he wanted was available, and he couldn't buy it cheaper anywhere else, he would buy it here. He silently passed the shopkeeper 4 leather pouches full of tokens and 2 tokens by themselves.

The shopkeeper counted 10 tokens in each bag, then poured them all into a securely locked drawer which actually used an Anima as the key. Then he passed the empty bags back to Isaac and thanked him for his business,

"Thank you for your purchase sir. Please wait for a moment while I retrieve your item."

The man disappeared into the back room while Isaac waited patiently at the counter. When the man returned, he held a glass box containing a spirit in the shape of an unnaturally white pile of snow. It was shaking and quivering, obviously being suppressed by the box made of ferin glass. The man put the box on the counter, then slowly opened the lid to let Isaac's will enter it.

Isaac focused hard as he poured more and more of his will into the box, overwhelming the Snowshoe Anima. This Anima was much more feisty and harder to suppress than his Spirit Sword Anima had been – or maybe this ferin glass was low quality so it didn't fully suppress the Snowshoe Anima. Whichever one it was, Isaac had to exert all his willpower just to control the Anima and hold it still. When it was mostly subdued, he began pushing harder with his will, trying to invade the Anima and make it his own.

It took a long, hard battle before he fully replaced the Anima's natural instincts with his own will. He controlled the Anima to fly into the sole of his left foot, and it settled down there. Fortunately, the Snowshoe Anima would affect both feet and Isaac wouldn't need to buy a second Anima for his other foot.

Isaac did a brief check to make sure nothing was wrong, then he thanked the shopkeeper and left. He was rather exhausted from the battle of wills, so he headed straight home. Just as he left the market, he passed somebody on the street. To him, the woman was just another passer-by. But to the woman...

Her eyes lit up. She called to the 5 people inside a nearby store and they began following Isaac from a distance.