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There is a mountain temple where a master of the unarmed combat lives. He open the temple to students to learn under him so that his school of fighting wouldn’t die with him. But he had strict standards and would only train the best, creating training from Hell on a level that only a true warrior would be able to face.

That was more than 50 years ago.

“Wait so you been waiting in this temple,” Sunset asked waving to the small temple that is more of a shack at this point, thanks to the lack of repairs done to it over the years. “For over 50 years for a student to come to you?”

“Yes and you’re the first person to make it here in years. All the others couldn’t handle the training and left,” the old master said.

“Oh I get it. This is one of those training from hell where only someone who is willing to endure the training can pass. With the added bonus that it’s in a very hard to reach place,” Sunset said shaking her head. “I’m not here to train. I was just looking around and spotted an old overgrown trail and followed it here.”

“Don’t you want to learn?” the old master asks desperate to teach someone before he dies and his knowledge is lost.

“Nope, knowing how to fight to defend yourself is one thing but seeing how there are weapons called guns around. I really don’t see the point of training for years to be unbeatable in unarmed combat and some out of shape guy pulls out a gun and shoots you in the head. Making all of those years of training useless. Not to mention what use of fighting knowledge will do for me in my life? Besides a few jobs like military and security, I can’t think of anyone who will give me a job because I know how to fight,” Sunset said. (1)

“But once you master the art, you be able to do things that you couldn’t before,” the master said.

“And what I can really do that I can’t do now? I’m still in school and I don’t want to waste my time training at the cost of my future. I don’t want to live like this in a hidden temple off the grid because I have no source of income to have the standard of life I enjoy now,” Sunset said.

“Please, I’m old. I can’t live that much longer. When I die, my school will be gone with me,” the master said.

“Then why you live out here where no one can find you?” Sunset ask. “I get it’s the only the chosen or the one driven to learn would come here, but did you really not informed people about this place? Did you expect that someone who wants to learn be able to just get here? I have been hiking here on this mountain range for weeks. There isn’t any place close to here, not since the government force the only village to relocate for the dam.”

“Dam?” the master ask.

“Yeah where the village use to be is now covered with water and most of the valley is flooded. The entire region is now a nature preserve. I came by boat to get to this mountain range to study the effects of the dam has on the native wildlife. You really didn’t know?” Sunset ask.

“I… haven’t left the temple in years,” the master said realizing that with the village gone and no one else around because of the government making the region into a preserve. No one would even know he was here. “How long?”

“About 40 years ago,” Sunset said. “I can give you a lift to the closest village or call the government to help you.”

“I… I…,” the master broke down as he realized that he has wasted his life out here. (2)

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1 - In real life knowing to fight is all but useless but for job fields that have to do in military or security. And that unlike in the rule of cool that fictions that has fighters being able to beat just about anyone just because they know how to punch good. A pencil neck, sissy with no knowledge of fighting can kill a grandmaster who spent years learning to fight, by shooting the master with a gun.

And superhero or worlds that have powers in fiction don’t count. As fighting styles in those worlds have to be on a whole other level to be able to stand up to people who can literally be naked and tank being hit by a nuke. Not to mention what happens when someone who is Superman level has the skills in fighting on Batman level.

2 - Being hard to find and out in the middle of nowhere, with no one knowing the location, is a horrible way to get people to come to you.

As for an ultimate master or something like that, what I wrote would happen to lots of them. The master waiting for years for someone to come and no one who actually wants to learn ever comes, thanks to them being out in the middle of nowhere and very hard to reach, plus relying on word of mouth for someone looking for the master to ask the right person who heard about the master to send them to them.

In real life most people like that will die of old age or for health reasons seeing how they’re the only ones around for miles. Not to mention they’re usually dirt poor and have no means of support and are stuck living off the grid because they have no job skills or support.