It was the dead of night, and Luke was butt booty naked whilst robbing a storage compartment of human clothes from the Monkeys.
It had been a day since his clothes were covered in that sticky black muck, and despite washing them multiple times in the river, the smell never seemed to wash away.
Perhaps to another unhygienic fool, they might've said it is what it is but to Luke it was disastrous.
He didn't mind getting dirty and grimy but that didn't mean he was okay with smelling like shit.
For one he hated smelling like shit and second, it would jeopardize his scouting missions.
So that's why he found himself sneaking into the monkey's storage compartments in the middle of the night.
Luckily, there wasn't anyone guarding the shed since who'd steal some slave's clothes? Finding some clothes and getting out was an easy 10-minute job.
The only thing that really mattered was not getting caught, and that was near impossible due to his passive spiritual sense.
Now having become accustomed to it for nearly a month he was able to increase his passive range from 1 meter to 5.
Wearing his new dapper outfit, he knew nothing about the unknown figure walking up behind him.
"Luke is that you?" the figure asked.
Luke turned around in an instant, unaware of how someone had gotten so close without his spiritual sense picking up on it.
He lunged towards the person, fists clenched to kill whoever had caught him so easily.
Had Luke's eyes not been modified with the celestial metalloid he would've undoubtedly carried through with something he would have regretted.
A cold sweat ran down Leo's back when he realized his friend's fist was mere inches away from his face.
Despite not having been hit he fell to the ground, in shock from just how close he was to dying.
"What are you doing up this late? I nearly…" Luke complained.
Seeing his friend still on the ground he extended his hand to help him up. Though a bit hesitant Leo accepted his offer.
The two stood in silence for a few good moments, unaware of how to proceed with themselves.
"You been doing good?" Leo asked, breaking the silence.
"As good as I can be, yeah," Luke answered truthfully.
"So what are you doing back here? Not just picking up clothes I hope." He joked.
"That's only one reason. I've got bigger plans." Luke smiled slightly.
"If you're thinking about freeing us, you're gonna need more than just yourself." Leo frowned.
"How'd you know that's what I was planning?" Luke looked confused.
Leo rolled his eyes in annoyance, "I've got a good read on people. From the moment you actually escaped I knew you'd make something of yourself."
"Thanks, but I haven't done anything yet." Luke dismissed.
"Sure you haven't. It's not like you achieved something that was deemed impossible for generations." Leo frowned.
"Not in the grand scheme of things I haven't. Not yet." Luke said seriously.
"If you're confident I can try and ensue some chaos. Light a fire or two. Try and get the guys to cause a scene." Leo offered.
"That'd work yeah. I should be ready in a month or so." Luke nodded.
"Alright. I'll try and see what I can do." Leo smiled.
It wasn't long after that the pair's conversation began to drift into less serious topics. Ones about rumors, gossip, and the latest news.
Though unnecessary, talking with someone other than himself helped relieve the loneliness and stress of solitude.
Humans in the end were social creatures, something overlooked by a majority of much more powerful cultivators.
***
With a fresh new set of clothes and a new day ahead of him, Luke was looking forward to testing his latest thought experiment.
When he was talking to Leo last night, he mentioned starting a fire to ensue chaos. While he could achieve that effect by manually creating a fire, he had something he wanted to try out first.
Luke didn't know much about cultivation. He didn't know that to create elements from spiritual energy alone a person needed to have a special affinity or constitution with that element.
Whilst the celestial metalloid had changed his body to allow him to cultivate it gave him no affinity to any element.
Luke's body was purely attuned to spiritual energy something only a genius could fully make use of.
Without the necessary affinity, he would need to rely on something much more raw, something that meshed itself deeper.
So despite his constant efforts to manipulate his spiritual energy into what he visualized he never got close.
At the end of the day, Luke decided to give up on his idea of summoning fireballs or conjuring ice.
Instead, he'd stick with what he was good at poking and stabbing things with his makeshift spear.
And for the next few weeks, that's how Luke best spent his time.
1,000 push-ups, 1,000 sit-ups, 1,000 pull-ups, 1,000 squats, and a 50-mile run.
Once he was done with his physical training he'd follow it up with 5,000 stabs, 5,000 thrusts, 5,000 slashes, and 5,000 swings.
Lastly, at night he'd focus on meditation and experimenting with the effects of spiritual energy.
After the final 3 weeks, he felt his body, mind, and soul in top-tier shape. Just like his cultivation, he'd reached a bottleneck in all his physical aspects.
Now that his training had concluded it was time he started the final stage of his preparation phase.
Through his previous scouting, he knew the location of the warehouse which stored the majority of the village's spiritual stone.
Now it was only a matter of sneaking in without getting caught.
But with his spiritual sense, he was more than certain of his stealth capabilities.
It was time to finally break through!