After his shower Lin went out to the dining room and sat in front of a plated meal. Soon his family gathered at the table and they began eating. While eating, him and his family had idle talk, laughing and complaining about various things.
Lin smiled, feeling unbelievably happy with his kind family and fulfilling life. He's only been here for two days and he's already looking forward to the future.
After dinner he went through his night routine and then lay in bed. He opened his inventory to start absorbing the orbs he earned last night. The system understood his intentions and a notification popped up.
'How many black orbs would you like to absorb?'
"10." Lin replied. Suddenly, a large rush of qi entered his dantian and he immediately started cultivating. After around 45 minutes of cultivating he combined the particles with the already formed black blob. He noticed that the more he cultivated, the easier it was to move the qi particles. Lin kept on absorbing and cultivating the orbs until all of them were absorbed.
"Try compressing the large black blob as if you want to make it so compact it's solid." Bai suggested.
Lin did as Bai said and tried pressing the blob from all sides. He struggled immensly but he perservered until his progress was evident, giving him motivation. He continued compressing the blob until he had an unexplainable feeling like passing a threshold.
He opened his eyes, breathing heavily and his brain foggy from the mental stress.
'500/500 foundation reached!
Level 5 —> level 6
+5 to all stats
+10 BAP'
...
1,400/1,400 foundation reached
Level 14 —> level 15
+14 to all stats
+10 BAP'
'Threshold reached!
+20 to all stats
+30 BAP
Skill earned! Choose 1 skill out of available options:
-Sword Aura
-Appraisal
-Memory storage
-God zone
-Enhanced Luck'
Lin looked over the skills, information popping up when he focused on one. When he focused on God Zone, he was amazed by the skill's ability.
'God Zone: Have control similar to a god in the limited zone of your ability. Ability gets better after each level up. Zone surrounds you as the center and follows you wherever you go. You start with the ability to enhance concentration and comprehension. After leveling up enough times you'll be able to fly, heal any injury, block entry like a barrier, and anything else you can think of.
NOTE: Leveling up this skill is extremely difficult!'
Lin bubbled with anticipation and he immediately chose God Zone.
His fatigue started to hit him so he decided to go to sleep after that and turned in for the night.
He declined going into the mental world for a bit as he just wanted to enjoy his dreams for one night.
***
Soon enough a week and a half had passed and cultivation classes started. The unlucky students had to go to the regular course with a low head and the lucky students proceeded to go to the classes they preferred.
Lin headed towards his 'weapon qi enforcement' class. He entered the room and instead of the messy desks like before, orderly workstations that could seat 2 students were lined throughout the large room.
Lin walked up to one of the tables and sat behind it. Students filed in and chatter filled the room. They chose their seats until all the seats were full. Lin's desk mate was an average girl with red hair pulled into a ponytail. Freckles dotted her face and her blue eyes shined with excitement. She greeted Lin with a kind smile.
"Hello, I'm Mei Lan." The girl whispered to Lin.
"I'm Hao Lin." He whispered back.
Then the teacher walked into the room. It was Shui Aang, the teacher that supervised the qi perception class.
"Welcome to the weapon qi enhancement class! I'm Shui Aang and I'll be your teacher for this year. Let me introduce you to qi enhancement first.
"Famous weapons and equipment are very strong, hence their fame. But what makes them strong? The extraordinary craftsmanship is what might come to mind, the quality of the weapon plays a big role in it's performance, enhancing its functionality and sharpness. Without a quality weapon, it will never have the same potential as other weapons. But what makes the weapon strong is its enhancement from qi. Take the frost sword for example." Shui Aang said as a picture of a thin, pale blue sword with a glossy sheen popped up above his hand, projecting the said frost sword.
"The thin but durable blade and sheer sharpness of its edge is essential to make it strong but what makes it strong itself is it's power. The famous enhancer Chen Lan gave this beautiful sword its ability to frost anything its blade touches along with its ice blade function to slice anything with a frosty and sharp blade made from the wind of its swings. That would be unachievable with just craftsmanship and without the enhancement it's just an abnormally thin and sharp sword." The teacher explained.
Lin nodded as he understood the importance of qi enhancement .
"Since most of you are unable to enhance weapons right now, we'll just read the textbooks for today." Shui Aang said as he pointed at a few stacks of textbooks at the front of the room, gesturing the students to grab one.
Lin proceeded to grab a textbook for himself and went to the page the teacher mentioned before. He started reading the contents of the page, but soon noticed that he could barely concentrate as his mind raced with random thoughts. His ADHD just had to kick in at that exact time.
'This is a great opportunity to use God Zone!' Lin thought with excitement. He didn't know how to activate it though so he just tried a random word. 'Activate God Zone!' He thought. Suddenly, a golden circle extended a few meters around his body. He then tried thinking 'Enhance concentration and comprehension.' And like magic, his mind cleared and he could process the words easily. 'This is so convenient!!' He thought happily. He started reading the textbook contentedly.
The girl next to him, Mei Lan, felt a noticeable change in her focus and was amazed by the abrupt shift. After the amazement passed she read the information with more vigor and motivation, absorbing every word on the page. She wanted to take advantage of this beneficial change.
Soon the class ended and Lin walked to his 'basic cultivation' class. He walked into the gymnasium like room that had rows upon rows of cushions. He went and sat at one of the cushions, waiting for the class to start.
The bell rang and class started shortly after. The teacher introduced himself as Xu Feng and went over the basics of cultivation. He then left the students alone to practice some qi exercises he provided. Lin began doing every exercise given, repeating one until full mastery and doing the same for the next. When he got through 4 out of 13 exercises the bell rang.
The next class, 'short-reach blade training' started soon after, as a large group of students, including Lin, stood in a wide field.
The instructor for this class stood in front of the mass of teens and introduced herself as Wei Xiang. Her sleek black hair waved in the wind and her sharp grey eyes scanned the students before her.
"Grab a weapon." She said after a moment, pointing at a huge weapon rack to her right. An assortment of daggers, swords, and gauntlets glinted in the bright sunlight. Students rushed towards the rack. Lin approached the rack and picked up two daggers. He swung them, finding them surprisingly comfortable in his hands. He decided to learn swordsmanship at the Galaxy Gym and daggers at school, giving him flexibility in his weapon technique.
He walked back to the grass and stood patiently.
"People who chose the sword stand here, daggers here, and gauntlets here." Wei Xiang said, pointing to three different areas. She then called over two other people who seemed to also be instructors. They both headed to their weapon specialty, one to the sword group and one to the gauntlet group. Wei Xiang then stood in front of the small group of teens that chose daggers.
"Watch me and copy." She instructed, seemingly a woman of very few words. She shifted her position and held an offensive stance. The students tried copying her and she walked through the group, fixing each individual's mistakes. She then stood in front of Lin and looked him up and down.
"You're body seems used to weapon wielding. That's very important no matter which weapon you wield as you always need fluidity. Move your foot slightly inwards, straighten your back a little. Good." She said nodding in approval.
Lin gave a half smile and continued memorizing every detail of his current stance.
After Wei Xiang corrected every student she then instructed them to stand normally and then get back into the stance a few times to get used to the immediate shift in position.
They all obeyed and shifted between stances. Lin got used to the stance relatively quickly and became more fluid with each shift.
Then Wei Xiang showed them each type of swing and movement multiple times. Then the students copied. It was essentially a game of copycat.
Lin started getting into the routine swinging the daggers constantly and getting used to the movements. The teacher pointed out how he could improve and Lin listened intently. He practiced and practiced until the actions were engraved into his mind.
The class continued in this manner until the bell rang. Lin headed towards the individual practice field. He stood before a metal puppet with daggers in hand. He attacked the puppet and it defended flawlessly. He continued attacking the defense puppet, getting used to fighting with the daggers. He got used to the puppets patterns and started to get through its defenses with a bit of struggle. Then he started looking for openings in the puppet, eventually developing a habit for analyzing the enemy.
All of this happened in one hour, showing Lin's incredible growth speed and adaptability. Soon the day ended and his mother came to pick him up.
He was driven home, ate dinner, prepared for bed, and finally fell asleep under the bed sheets.
'Use 'Dream cultivating' ability?
[yes] or [no]'
He selected yes and was sent to a swampy lake in a slightly open area with thick shrubbery surrounding the swamp. Lin stood in a defensive stance as he kept all his senses open for any movement.
He felt a presence behind him, causing him to instinctively whip around. A large humanoid figure that resembled an alligator stared at him with murderous intent in its eyes. Lin gave it no chance to attack as he swung his sword at the figure. The figure dodged and swung its sharp claws at his side. Lin reacted quickly despite his surprise at its speed. The sharp sword sliced the monster's claw right off. The creature howled in pain as it's arm spurted blood where its hand was a second ago.
Lin grimaced at the sight but perservered, swinging his weapon at the creature's eyes, blinding it. He then proceeded to stab the sword into the creatures heart, the tip piercing through its back.
The monster fell to the ground, its lifeless body turning into pixels and leaving behind a red orb. Lin touched the orb and then continued to wait for more creatures, killing everything in sight. Brown and red orbs were collected one after the other. Soon it was 6:00 am and he awoke.
He started absorbing the orbs, leveling up once in a while as he cultivated.
'2,300/2,300 foundation reached!
Level 23 —> level 24
+23 to all stats
+15 BAP'
After his morning routine was finished, Wen drove him to school like she did everyday.
***
Just like that, a month had passed. The black blob in his dantian turned into a red blob and it's size was massive. His stats were also very impressive.
————————————————————-
Name: Hao Lin
Age: 14
Race: Human-panzela mix
Level: 63
Vitality: 2,034
Stamina: 2,032
Agility: 2,036
Strength: 2,031
BAP: 765
Foundation: 700/6,300
Perception: MAX
Titles: NONE
Skills:
- [God Zone] —> level 1
- [Sword Aura] —> level 0 (requires enlightenment)
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