《Primordial Dimensions》 Chapter 1 - Primordial Dimensions [Author''s note: If you don''t like Info-dumps, skip 3/4 of the chapter <3] "Finally," Shane thought as he looked at the gigantic ck-colored ring that had hundreds of mysterious runes inscribed on it. They shone brightly in a feeble blue hue, as desire gleamed in his eyes. Within the ring, one could see a semi-translucent liquid swirling around vigorously. It was one of the few thousand [Dimension Portals] that had changed everything on the blue called Igra more than 200 years ago. One day, the whole suddenly shook with a tremendous force. This led to the emergence of several natural disasters, causing earthquakes, tsunamis, and simr catastrophes that killed millions of humans within seconds. However, this was not the most important thing that had happened. The space around the was torn apart, revealing an endless abyss. Within the torn space, these Dimension Portals descended to the ground without any warning as they activated themselves. Billions of humans watched the horror unfold with shocked and dumbfounded expressions. Many humans had feared that monsters and beasts would emerge from these Portals, as it was written within novels and fairy tales they had read, but nothing like that had happened. Few hourster, the semi-translucent liquid began to attract weak-willed humans. It forced them to follow their instincts, as they gave in to their curiosity that overwhelmed their anxiety. After the first human being had dared to step through the Dimensional Portal, an exultant and gentle female voice could be heard inside everyone''s mind. [Wee ''Humans'' from "DBASDF2245". We appreciate you joining the "Conquest". It''s an honor to witness a new race participate and we''d like each of your brethren to join us.] The unexpected voice confused everyone. They waited for something to happen while holding their breath in anxiety. Time seemed to slow down and there was a pin-drop silence enveloping the entire as everyone felt like they werepletely paralyzed, anxious for the voice to dissipate, hoping that they would wake up from a nightmarish dream. It was as if the hade to a standstill when everything had gone eerily silent. s, humanity''s feeble ray of hope was blown to smithereens when a mechanical voice was issued. [Initiate ''World protection mechanism¡ú99D:23H:59M:59S remaining.] After the mechanical voice was issued, the female voice exined an important consequence to the actions taken henceforth that changed the old world everyone once knew... [As perw, we have granted a world protection program for 100 days to this. Afterpletion of the said 100 days, this world can be conquered by all kinds of races, without any discrimination. To protect your loved ones, family, and more importantly, yourself, you have to be stronger. The only way to aplish this is to follow your brave brethren into the Primordial Dimension, where death and treasures are infinitely close and intertwined with each other.] The female voice seemed to have finished her speech and some weak-willed humans began to copse on the spot. Only a few slightly stronger-willed humans felt dizzy, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information resounding in their heads. There were only a few, rtively calm humans who could barely hold themselves together, trying toprehend what had happened. Suddenly, the exultant female voice returned. [Oh... I forgot something. Inside the Primordial world, you can achieve everything you wish for, it doesn''t matter how far-fetched your desire is, EVERYTHING is possible!!..you can even purchase an extension to the world protection program!!] After that, the voice was never heard again, and humanity began its conquest within the Primordial Dimension. More than 200 years have passed since then and humanity underwent a drastic and revolutionary change. Initially, humanity had panicked, while still doubting the female voice within their heads, treating it as an illusion. Ignoring the world protection countdown and the threats lurking within the Dimensional Portal, some humans still ventured inside the Primordial dimension to receive benefits beyond their wildest imaginations. Achieving the strength of a few tons? Easy! Manipting thews of nature? No problem! Extending one''s lifespan? Cultivate! But, the Primordial Dimension was a double-edged sword and more and more humans died at the hands of the powerful beings which they encountered within these dimensions. These casualties were still not enough for humanity to understand the severity of the threat looming over them, and 100 days passed. This eventually created the first Disaster on Igra as the world protection program dissipated into thin air. All kinds of beasts began to invade Igra, including Lizard-man, Earth dragons, Goblins, Orcs, Lamia''s, behemoths, and many more frightful existences as the world''s protections copsed. Humanity almost lost a quarter of its poption within the first few weeks. Only a bunch of humans were able to defend themselves against these existences, because they had ventured into the Primordial Dimension, thereby increasing their strength. Under the guidance of a single powerful individual, humanity established the Ste-Federation, named after their leader, John Ste. With humanity''s high poption, in addition to some powerful individuals that ventured deeper into the Primordial Dimensions, they barely managed to purchase a world protection extension in order to close the direct link between Igra and other races''s. It was almost impossible to defeat the most terrifying existences that invaded Igra, and even with humanity''s wits, cruelty and arge popce, they were barely able to fight them head-on. After 200 years, Igra was almost cleansed of the invading beasts, with a few particr exceptions. Unfortunately, this didn''t mean that there were no dangers threatening humanity. There were signs of foreign races circling the adjacent ster system, causing humanity to walk on eggshells every day. Only the existence of the Primordial Dimension seemed to be a tiny ray of hope. Mankind could break through their shackles, reaching higher realms that were previously impossible to ess. And, this was mainly because of the existence of the [System] provided by the Primordial Dimension, with its undiscriminating support to every living being. Shane, however, didn''t really care about the history of Igra and there was only a single reason for him to be thankful for the''s existence. He, Shane Suro, was a transmigrator, who had barely begun to work as a young veterinarian on earth. While on a trip to the savanna as a gift to himself, he was shot by a poacher, when he had been busy tending to the wounds of a severely injured white rhino. Shane had always had a penchant for animals and the animals seemed to reciprocate his love. His former life had been quiet and peaceful. Rather than seeing him as prey, one could say that animals used to approach him forpanionship since he had been young. He used to y with wild animals in the forest, close to his house instead of going out with other kids and began to love all kinds of animals. He learned early on that his "friends" were being hunted and injured all the time that channeled his decision to be a veterinarian. And, with that in mind, he left the forest and became a model student along with some friends that shared his interests. Advancing through sses was easy for him. His intelligence and hard work saw him be one of the youngest veterinarians at the tender age of 19 years. But what was the use of it? He had lost his life while trying to save an almost extinct animal¡­ It was a shame to have wasted his life like that and Shane¡ässt breaths were filled with regret. He would have never imagined dying like this...without having lived for long enough to enjoy his life to the fullest. But, who would have thought that he would find himself in a different world? And, as a recently born baby at that!! Was it fate or someone else''s doing that had brought him to a foreign world filled with death and chaos? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 2 - Escape It had been several years before Shane found out, due to a lucky or rather unlucky coincidence, that his mother had died while giving birth to him. His father considered him no less than a miracle sent from Heaven above. The nurses had told his father that both his son and his wife had died. Through something unknown, seen as a divine intervention, the former dead baby had suddenly started to breathe once again, moments after the doctor had dered it to be dead. With that in mind, Shane concluded that it had only been possible because he had transmigrated into the baby''s body. That could be the only reason due to which his "father" could suddenly see his dead son "alive" and kicking, crying like he was stung by a bee. His father seemed to love him dearly, and Shane felt guilty of deceiving him because he was not his father''s biological son. However, as years passed, he found himself believing the fact that he was indeed his father''s son, even though the love that he had obtained in the beginning was different than he could have ever imagined. Even If he continued to think differently, there was nothing he could change about his current situation, and several years passed until he finally made up his mind. Growing up under his father''s care, he noticed pretty early that even his father had his share of nasty ws. His father was barely at home and had an extremely bad temper. Shane felt as if his father was cold and distant towards him. Furthermore, he controlled his son''s life, micromanaging everything down to thest detail. Thus, Shane¡äs social interactions were limited to his father''s friends, and the servants of the luxurious mansion he resided in. He was imprisoned inside the mansion and wasn''t even allowed to leave the mansion without a servant tailing him. To make matters worse, he was forbidden to publicly name his father, and reveal his true identity.. As if that was not enough, his father did a poor job at parenting, and rather it was his father''s friends, who raised him more than his own father. There were no friends or other people interacting with him on a daily basis. When he transmigrated to Igra, he was horrified to find out the perils of the world he had entered. Even though Igra was approximately six timesrger than earth, this couldn''t protect him from the terrifying existences that eradicated cities and even countries. However, the worst thing that happened to him was when he was around eight years old. One day, his father returned home with a few small green hideous-looking beasts that were tied together with ropes. At this time, a premonition caused Shane to frown, as he drew his tiny eyebrows together. His father wanted him to kill the small hideous, green-skinned beasts, called Goblins. Pushing an alloy dagger into the hands of his 8-year-old child, his father had stepped back and looked at Shane who trembled violently in fear, while his father released a faint trace of mana. Shane, who couldn''t feel his father''s mana should have understood the harsh reality sooner rather thanter, but he denied his father¡äs order to kill the tied Goblins. At that time, memories of his past life flooded his mind, where he would save helpless animals and not harm them. He saw the same helplessness mirrored across the Goblins'' faces. But, Shane was unable to lift the dagger, even if he wanted to, and his little fingers curled around the hilt of the dagger with an unsteady grip. His father had waited for some time, tapping his feet on the floor impatiently. When his son wouldn''t obey, his father took matters in his own hands. He went ahead and severed the Goblins'' legs with a clean slice of his d he swung without showing any mercy. As Shane watched in horror, his father then tended to their wounds, and stepped back, apparently satisfied with his ''piece of work''. However, his cold gaze lingered on his son, and the aloofness in them caused the eight-year-old boy to shiver in fright. Having lived for more than 20 years, if one was to include his previous life, Shane knew what his father had expected from him. Yet, he was still disgusted with the thought of killing a living being. The Goblins, however, were oblivious to Shane''s predicament. One of the goblins crawled towards him with blood-red eyes, not being able to resist its inherent need for bloodlust. Looking into the bloodthirsty eyes, Shane knew that there was no hope left. The almost invisible ray of hope that he desperately clung to, was now devoured by darkness. At that time, Shane had only noticed his father''s cold gaze that had been fixated on him and he knew what needed to be done. Even though he loved animals, the being crawling towards him could hardly be considered as one. There was no room for mistakes left¡­ As his father''s eyes bore down on him, Shane clutched the alloy dagger with a firm grip to prevent his shaking hands from dropping it identally. As tiny tears streamed down his cheeks, he forced himself to thrust the dagger into the already seriously injured Goblin''s chest with all the energy he could muster up. With the dagger piercing into the Goblins'' flesh, its eyes widened involuntarily. He felt the timid goblin resist him, but the razor-sharp de sliced deep into the bloodthirsty creature''s body. The goblin''s vision blurred and the goblin uttered a painful shriek that would haunt little Shane for months. The goblin''s body slumped down as blood flowed down in rivulets. Soon, the blood was pouring on the clean and smooth ground and had painted his clean clothes deep crimson. ** It was the first time for him to kill a living being in both of his lives. His father had given him no acknowledgment or appreciation but had merely walked away from him. Shane had fallen to the floor, crying helplessly with no one to offer himfort. Clutching his stomach he had vomited a few times until only gastric fluids were left behind. To Shane''s dismay, his first time killing a beast was not thest one. His father had seen his son''s hesitation as a weakness, and a w, that could kill him in the future. Over the next few years, Shane apanied his father to hundreds of different ces. Each of those ces was infested with murderous beasts that would kill him without the slightest hesitation or remorse. His father taught Shane to kill without mercy or dy. Due to this, he slowly grew numb to the mindless ughter of living beings. In the beginning, he was still disgusted to see his de cut and hack through flesh, but slowly he adapted to his father''s mindset. Over time, his thoughts had undergone a radical change and now, were almost aligned to that of his father. The main turning point in his life, however, came in the form of a beast break-out where the beasts had brutally massacred innocent and hapless human beings. After that unfortunate day, his attitude towards beasts had changed by 360 degrees. He couldn''t see them as the same innocent animals that he had loved back on earth anymore. Now, he saw them for what they were. Life was cruel and harsh in the world he had transmigrated into, and only the strongest could survive. His father was strong and powerful, but Shane didn''t like being someone''s puppet. Even if that someone was John Ste, the president of the whole Ste-federation, governing mankind and Igra. Shane¡äs family name was different from that of his father''s surname. He had taken his deceased mother''s family name, which was the same one he had in his former life. As such, his name was still Shane Suro, son of John Ste. While some people thought that it was beneficial to belong to a formidable family in such a dangerous era, Shane couldn''t agree. He would rather face the chaos and death head-on than to sit cocooned in his father''s mansion, oblivious to everything that went on outside. He was constantly being controlled by everyone and everything. Freetime? What is that? A free-will? Can I eat that? He was forced to excel at everything, from knowledge to weaponry, even lifestyle upations, that left him with no free time. Even if he did get free time, who would he spend it with? The servants inside the manor? Furthermore, he was expected to be able to lead people, fight monstrous existences, and be a killing machine in order to protect humanity from all kinds of threats. Shane had to wait till he turned 16, to be able to enter the Primordial Dimension. Atst, the long-awaited day finally arrived. Staying under his father''s control, not having a say in any decision, and marrying someone he had never met before, wasn''t how he imagined living for the rest of his life. Shane''s desire to live his life the way he wanted ignited deep inside him. nning his escape for months, he chose to be his own ruler! He was his own king and not someone''s puppet! Nobody should control him and force him to do something he didn''t want to. With that in mind, the memory of him killing the first living being, 8 years ago, crossed his mind. Now, the day after his 16th birthday, Shane was standing in front of the Dimensional Portal anxiously. He nervously stepped forward, entering the semi-translucent liquid which changed his whole life. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 3 - Awakening Stepping through the Portal, Shane felt an overwhelming pressure piercing through his mind while the ground below him seemed to vanish for a fraction of a second. Once he took another step, Shane required a few seconds to let his brainprehend what had happened. Taking a few deep breaths, he calmed down and the pressure on his mind lessened, allowing him to open his eyes, which he instinctively closed as he stepped through the Dimensional Portal. However, there was not much for him to see and he was in a white room without any furniture or living being around. Only he and the Dimension Portal behind him were present when a mechanical voice could be heard inside his mind. With the sudden appearance of the voice, the pressurepletely vanished, relieving his mind. [New living being entered the Primary-Primordial Dimension for the first time. Race ''Human'' detected.] [Scanning initiated] [0.1%] [1%] [5%] Time passed and Shane didn''t know how long it took until the scan was finally finished when he heard. [100%.Scan finished] [No anomaly discovered, System fully integrated] [10 Gold coins have been added to host''s [Finances], please use them up before leaving the System-awakening space, otherwise, the host will lose this small fortune forever.] After a few seconds, another notification read by the mechanical voice resounded in his mind. [Information Chart also called ''Status'' by ''human'' race is now essible] Everything seemed to be normal and exactly as stated on the news as he read. With a single thought, his Status panel appeared in front of him as a blue holographic screen. _______________________ Title: [None] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-1st [Purity 0.00%] Body Refinement: [Mortal-4th] Cultivation Manual: [None] ![Artemis¡ä Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Trash-¡ï(+)| Finances: 10 gold coins _______________________ Reading through the panel, two things shocked Shane greatly. While his Cultivation rank was at the 1st rank of the Mortal stage with a mana purity of [0.00%] which was the starting point for every human, his physique had already reached the 4th rank of the Mortal stage which was the first stage on the way of a cultivator. This could be considered quite good, as Shane didn''t have a body refining technique from the System that could systematically temper his whole body with mana and a high amount of nutrition which would strengthen his physique slowly. However, this was nothing out of ordinary, as he expected this... Igra was a without a single trace of mana and as such humans couldn''t increase their mana and cultivation rank by absorbing and refining the mana in their surroundings, simply because there was nothing to absorb. Only by entering the Primordial Dimensions, humans were able to feel the mana in their surroundings, and with the right techniques, they were slowly able to absorb and refine them, tempering their life force to create a mana sea in their insides which could hold mana. With this mana, one would be able to do almost everything, as long as enough mana was provided. Reaching the 4th Mortal stage at the body refining section was already considered extremely good, without the use of the system''s manuals, and the first stage in both cultivation and body refining was considered ''Mortal'' because everyone would be able to reach these ranks without the need of entering the Primordial Dimension, even if one''s talent was extremely bad. To reach the top of the Mortal stage one didn''t have to rely on the Primordial Dimension as long as a mana source was around. * Igra was considered to be one of the worsts without even the tiniest bit of mana particles and it was already considered a miracle that earth dragons and other terrifying existences that relied on mana invaded their, which was rtively umon. Some higher authorities thought it might have been other races that demanded more living space and were testing the waters. If the rumors were true, they wanted to conquer the without even having to lift a finger. But, they could have never imagined that this decision would provide humanity with enough time to renew their World protection. This was only a theory and humanity didn''t want to figure out the truth as the signals from the adjacent Ste system were already unpleasant for them. * Both, Body refining and the cultivation of one''s mana were infinitely closely intertwined with each other. One could only refine the physique to higher stages with enough mana tempering the body by circting it as per the described ways written inside body refining manuals. With a consistent increase in the required amount of mana, one''s physique became stronger in proportion, and it was apparent that mana had to be cultivated and refined to achieve this. The same could be said for cultivating the mana pool. Without tempering the physique, the mana pool inside one''s body would grow unstable with the increase of ranks, and the physique could stabilize this. In the end, humans concluded that it was important to temper and refine both the physique and mana, while most set priorities for a certain path. This path would be decided by choosing one''s upation but Shane was still far off from reaching that point. .. Shane found his status more pleasing than he had previously thought. Continuing to read, Shane nced across two messages that pleased his eyes.. A Blessing and an Innate Skill!! Both were considered extremely rare and probably even scarcer than special physical traits that could enhance certain body parts. [Artemis'' Blessing] probably didn''t sound amazing for others, but Shane was aware of the Greek goddess from earth, and his eyes widened while reading the description. [Artemis'' Blessing: The Goddess of Hunting, Growth, Birth, and Nature has blessed your Soul. Thereupon, wild animals will be attracted to you, your capabilities to hunt evil tainted beasts will sharply increase, and your determination to grow stronger will cause your will to remain unshaken. +[Hunter''s mind] (passive) +[Mana pool strengthening] 30%] The description itself was useless for Shane, but the effects provided by the blessing were exceptional. The passive effect [Hunter''s mind] allowed him to maintain calm in most situations, and to think rationally without letting emotions disturb his mind. On the other hand, Shane was at least as astonished to see [Mana pool strengthening] as [Hunter''s mind] because increasing one''s mana pool before the cultivation journey even begun was like an extra ergement in one''s mana pool that would grow with them during the cultivation path. The most advantageous effect of the mana pool strengthening was that Shane received it so early. For instance¡úInstead of having a mana pool of 1 unit his mana pool had the size of 1.3 units. With time, Shane''s mana pool would increase more as each increase would erge his mana pool significantly whenpared to his brethren. It was said that having a blessing at the beginning of one''s journey was considered a ''blessing by Heaven''. If the mana pool erged by 10% with every rank within the Mortal stage, normal Cultivators would reach approximately 2.35 units while Shane would have approximately 3.06 units In the beginning, the gap between him and normal cultivators would be marginal, but with time it would only widen, and one would see a 16-year-old silly youthughing in apletely white room. As for his Innate Skill [Taming], Shane couldn¡ät reallyprehend what to do with it, but he knew that it was at least as important as the Blessing he had received. Innate Skills were extremely threatening because of their growth ability! Shane spotted the (+) behind his Innate ability and smiled brightly. Every Innate Skill started from the bottom rank as [Trash-¡ï] but this was unimportant. With the possibility to grow stronger, it wouldn''t matter how trashy this skill was in the beginning. With time, Shane would be able to enhance his skill to themon, umon, rare quality, and maybe even higher. It wasn''t much, but even having an extra single Skill than the others would give him a huge advantage. Nevertheless, considering his knowledge about Innate-Skills, Shane was still eager to see what the Taming skill could exactly do. Each Innate Skill was considered a limited edition, and even simr Skills couldn¡ät be purchased easily, nor could they be found within the Primordial Dimension. At least, not with the growing potential! However, while reading the skill''s description, Shane''s smile vanished and was reced by a deep frown ''Huh?'' [Taming |Trash-¡ï(+)| ¡ú Tamed [0/1] ¡ú Limit: [Low-Wild] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 4 - Emerging Shane had never read that an Innate-Skill could have so little information. However, when he gave it a second thought, he knew that the provided information might already be enough for him to conclude some things. ording to the System¡äsmon [Beast ranking], [Low-Wild] beasts were considered the weakest beasts within the Primordial Dimension, followed by Elite beasts, Awakened beasts, Myst stage beasts, and so on. With this limit, Shane thought, for the time being, he could, at the most, tame one Low-Wild beast. Considering that the Wild stage was equivalent to a Mortal stage, Shane could form a contract with a beast, equivalent to the 3rd Mortal stage, at the most. Even though that was not a huge advantage as his physique was rtively stronger, oveing threats with apanion was always better than fighting alone. As such, he was still happy about the fact when the mechanical voice spoke inside his head once more, breaking his train of thoughts. [Host¡äs time within the System-awakening room is almost used up. 9M:59S remaining.] [Utilization of 10 gold coins is rmended] ''AH!'' Shane suddenly shouted in his mind, because he had already forgotten that the time within the System awakening room was limited. He had 10 gold coins left, but there were too many things that he wanted to purchase. Fortunately, Shane had already thought about this before. There were many guides online, exining the advantages and disadvantages of every item to make the first purchase. But, why should Shane refer to their guides, when he had already made up his mind about his purchase? 10 gold coins were a vast fortune for anyone who entered the Primordial Dimension for the first time. But Shane was well aware of the fortunes one would have to spend, in order to reach higher ranks quickly. Hemanded the system to open the [Shop], and a catalog consisting of millions of items appeared in front of him on a holographic screen. There were a few columns, with weapons, armors, potions, food, cultivation manuals, body refining manuals, skill tomes, misceneous, and many more items. However, Shane ignored them all and utilized the search section instead. In five minutes t, he had already spent his entire fortune. A ring with a small ck stone, and two potions suddenly appeared in Shane''s hands. The potions vanished a momentter, and Shane smiled, looking at the ring decorating his finger. [Spatial Ring: Grade: Mortal Quality: [Common] Description: Dimension-stone embedded within a ring. Able to store all kinds of inanimate materials, and misceneous things within. Storage space: [1 cubic meter] Price: 8 Gold coins] The spatial ring that he was wearing right now was one of the most basic items which many cultivators would purchase in the future. However, it was an unusual pick for a first purchase. Shane didn''t fret about it and instead focussed his attention on the two Potions within the spatial ring. Their price was one gold per bottle, and Shane frowned looking at the prices. It was roughly more than double the market price, while the spatial ring was even more expensive. Unfortunately, Shane couldn''t take the 10 gold out of the System-awakening room that he had received as a gift for entering the Primordial Dimensions for the first time.. Nevertheless, it was still fine with him, and he left the white room by stepping through the Dimension Portal once again. After crossing the Portal, Shane had to choose his next destination. He had a rough n of where he wanted to go, but it was only now that Shane understood how vast the Primordial DImension was. Mankind alone upied more than 30 Basic-Dimensions with their shelters, and they were about to expand their territory even further. Apparently, the Primordial Dimensions were divided into four sections: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and Main Dimensions Humans could decide which sections they wanted to enter. But, the biggest problem was to find a way back home as the fees for a single trip were exorbitant for some Dimensions. Also, the beasts inhabiting the Advanced and Main Dimensions were terrifying and could kill most humans in the blink of an eye. However, the system had its own restrictions! For instance, every being below the Master stage was eligible to enter the Basic Dimension. However, one would lose ess to it once one broke into the Master- and equivalent stages other races had. This was probably a function created by the System to prevent strong races from annihting weaker ones by massacring them with their overwhelming strength. Because of that function, humanity could flourish inside the Primordial Dimension, as they were innately weak, and were forced to prosper at a slower pace. Without the presence of exceptionally terrifying entities threatening their existence, humans at least had the chance to prosper, and fight back. Shane knew that the Basic Primordial Dimension would only amodate beasts from the Wild, Elite, and Awakened stage, while Humans at the Mortal, Apprentice, and Expert stage were eligible to enter it. Intermediate Primordial Dimensions would harbor humans until they reached the 6th Stage of Human Cultivation, which was the Ruler stage. He only knew that, because his dad, the strongest human on Igra, had already surpassed this stage but even he was unaware of his father''s true potential and strength. Shane didn''t give it much importance, because it was not his own achievement, rather it was his father''s. In his opinion, showing off achievements one hadn''t aplished on their own, was embarrassing. After selecting a Basic Dimension, Shane sensed the surroundings change at a breakneck speed. Instinctively, he closed his eyes, to prevent the sickness from worsening, caused by teleporting through space. Before he knew what happened, he felt his feet touch the ground and took a deep breath. The air around him was remarkably fresh, and not even remotelyparable to the polluted air on Igra. Opening his eyes, Shane noticed that he had appeared in the center of a city. He emerged inside the Soul-Onyx-Jungle dimension where humanity established a shelter that was called ''ck soul'' shelter. In this shelter, humans were able to stay, secure from dangerous beasts that inhabit the Basic-Dimension. The constructions within the shelter were old and resembled the ancient structures of the old middle ages era. Only, there was a slight touch of advanced technology to the seemingly old manors Looking around, Shane saw that most buildings were constructed with stones, concrete, sand-lime bricks, and other materials but steel and other simr sturdy materials were noticeably absent. He was aware of the fact that nothing could be brought inside the Primordial Dimension, except items, and materials that existed within the Primordial Dimensions itself. The only exception to this rule were clothes, as long as they weren''t supposed to protect someone from beings at a higher stage than the ones eligible to enter. As such, one could bring all kinds of clothes within, as long as they didn''t provide the wearer an insurmountable advantage. This was another rule the System established¡ú The only advantage allowed to be taken inside the Primordial Dimensions was one''s innate talent. Being an interster race did not automatically make humans stronger within the Primordial Dimensions, even if they could destroy continents or even wholes with their technological expertise. This was, once again, an indirect advantage to the human race. Humanity was less developed in technology and innately weakerpared to other races they met on their journey through the Primordial Dimension. But, it seemed as if the System gave weak races, such as humanity, the opportunity to rewrite their destiny. Slowly and steadily, humans began to understand the ways of the system and reap benefits from it. Shane walked down the stairway leading to the Dimensional Portal and looked around. Not a single citizen was around which caused him to smile with relief.. Each Race would have its own small territory within which they were allowed to establish a shelter. With a certain protection period, they had to construct a defensive line in order to prevent beasts from invading the Dimensional Portal that was designated for humans. Once other beasts or races conquered the Dimensional Portal of a particr race, the defeated race would be punished. This punishment could either be executed by destroying the connection between the particr Dimension and their home or increasing the world protection fee ording to the Dimension''s rank. Having your shelter conquered meant a severe punishment. However, the Dimension Shane chose wasn¡ät prosperous enough forrgerpanies to send workers to mine or farm. Neither did many humans live here as the surrounding looked eerie and dangerous, while the air smelled oddly fresh. There were only a few items one could procure here, causing mankind to disregard the thought of abandoning this ce. One of the reasons for humanity to defend this ce was the Soul-Onyx-wood, which caused the poprity of this dimension to increase considerably, even if it was eerie and perilous. However, the soul-onyx wood wasn''t the reason for Shane to choose this dimension. He had given it a careful thought and now his n was about to be set in motion. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 5 - Systems Restriction Looking around, Shane noticed that it was dark and nighttime, exactly the same as on Igra and he smiled lightly. ''Perfect!'' Had it been daytime, he would have had to change his n and wait for a few days. This was because the day and night cycle of the Soul-Onyx Jungle Dimension consisted of 4 days of utter darkness followed by 3 days of blinding sunlight in session. One could say that Shane was rtively lucky, but it was still slightly problematic seeing that it wasn''t raining. Inwardly, he began toment his decision of purchasing the items that he now owned, in exchange of his ten gold coins. Even though there weren''t many citizens in the ckSoul shelter, Shane was currently in, there were still quite a number of guards patrolling through the empty streets and alleys, eyeing Shane with suspicion. But, Shane didn¡ät look like a beggar, rather his dark clothes stood out under the mana-operated prismarinemps, as they were made from a very rare type of silk. It had certain runes intertwined within, empowering itself through the mana inside the Primordial Dimension. The long robe he wore could even deflect rain, sand, and other small particles, while it would cleanse itself of blood, and other fluids sttering on it if the deflection wore off. Shane''s looks were also not bad either. He looked neat with his short ck hair, deep ck eyes, clean and fair skin while his athletic build was covered by the long ck robe. The runes on his robe had to be empowered, and usually, Shane would have a small mana stone inside his pockets. The mana stones that he always carried along were mostly Tier-3. While their quality was mostly trash, they were neither extremely pure in mana nor excessively expensive,pared to other, high-quality items. However, being reminded about the mana stones grade, Shane frowned and regretted his decision.. ''I''m so stupid!!'' Not only beasts with a higher stage other than the ones that the Dimension allowed were prohibited by the System, but also items at a higher grade were forbidden to enter lower Dimensions. And a Tier-3 mana stone was definitely not something one could find in a Basic Dimension. Shane deeply regretted his loss, as he wasn''t able to absorb the mana within any mana stone owing to his current limit.. With mana absorbing and refining techniques, he would have been able to absorb mana, but his current limit was most likely a Mortal-grade mana stone with higher quality. As such, his body wouldn''t be able to handle the vast, concentrated, and pure mana within a Tier-3 mana stone. Even if that was the case, Shane would still be able to absorb at least a minuscule amount of a Tier-3 mana stone. It would most likely be equivalent to a normal Mortal-grade mana stone, which was still better than nothing. There was also a function preventing excessive nurturing of youths, by restricting the support that parents, elders, and richpanies could provide to their offsprings. After the system was activated, the system waspletely synced with the soul and body of its host. As such, it would immediately detect if someone was to receive a substantial gift. It would disrupt the bnce within the Basic-Primordial Dimensions, and hence the system would adjust it if needed. There were further restrictions, but an interesting fact was that external items like weapons and so on were not under this restriction. This meant that one could use all kinds of weapons outside the Primordial Dimensions. As long as they didn''t enter the Basic-Primordial Dimension, the system wouldn''t intervene. Operating such weapons or items would be possible, as long as one could provide enough mana. However, it was different for Skills that were something simr to internal matters. They would break the bnce within Basic Dimensions once someone learned a high-tier technique while being at a low stage. For example, if Shane received a passive Tier-3 skill tome as a gift, which could normally only be used by someone at the Master stage at the earliest, its strength would be adjusted to the individual''s stage who wanted to learn the skill tome. In the end, such a skill could be upgraded only a certain amount of times until it reached the High-Tier-2 rank, which was equivalent to Peak-Expert stages. The System would deduct some of its might to prevent people from exploiting the loopholes. Some wealthy humans may purchase multiple high-tiered skills to nurture their offspring into powerhouses after they were able to upgrade their skills, which would cost additional resources and a fortune. It would still be a huge waste, and cost much more than the amount of coins spent on purchasing the skills once ready, with the exception of a few unique skills. Nevertheless, there were still quite a few ns doing that. They paid the price for a high-tiered technique, gave it to their descendants or disciples, and told them to learn the technique. Thus they received the advantage of being able to keep the proficiency with the learned skill. Other than that, It would also be an utter waste to absorb a high-graded mana stone while being at the Mortal stage, as their efficiency would naturally be adjusted to one''s body''s limits. But, right now, Shane did not own even a single bronze coin to purchase the worst mana stones, as such anything would be better than nothing. Muttering curses to himself, he reached the shelter wall that looked slightly demolished and bleak. The wall was covered with a greenyer of moss as the sky was almost always upied by silver ck rain clouds. Inside the Soul-Onyx Jungle dimension, heavy rain wasmon and Shane waited for rain in anticipation. When Shane was about to step outside, he was stopped by human guards, who checked his ID and enquired about the estimated period he wanted to spend outside. Satisfied with his answers, they let him go through without further ado. The shelter was built on a small hill, with dark green grass covering most of the opennd. It restricted the growth of all other vegetation due to the innate domination of the dark green soul grass. It was extremely aggressive towards other nts and would even devour some of them. As such, humanity liked to use them for terraforming and to prevent obstacles like trees from growing over the course of time. After walking for ten minutes, Shane felt a raindrop fall on his ck hair, and looking up, he saw grey clouds covering the whole sky. He was thankful for the rain and smiled in relief to notice that it would soon start to rain. He was roughly half a kilometer away from the jungle, so he took out the two potions he had previously bought. [Mortal(Common) Nightsight-Potion] Period: 3 hours> [Mortal (Trash) Mana concealment-Potion] Period: 3 hours> With these potions, Shane would be able to see through the darkness to a certain degree. His shallow or rather non-existent cultivation was nowpletely concealed. Taking the rain into ount, the beasts inside the Soul-Onyx-Jungle shouldn''t be able to either smell or sense him at all. The only exceptions were a few stronger beasts, who had their habitat in the center of the forest, and not on the outskirts, where Shane wanted to work. During the next three hours, he would have to gain a fortune of at least two gold in order to walk away without any losses. With that in mind, Shane started to descend into the jungle, with the alloy dagger in his hand. The alloy dagger that he now gripped firmly in his hand, was the same dagger his father had given to him when he was eight years old. Shane had it on his person, always, even when he was forced to attend dance balls and other important events. The dagger was always tucked beneath his clothes as a lucky charm and was the only gift that he had ever received from his father in his entire life. With his system, Shane could scan the alloy dagger and it proved to be far better than his initial estimation. [Tempered Shiolite Dagger-Tier-1(Rare)] Looking at the holographic screen, Shane smiled with satisfaction. Even though his father hadn''t gifted him anything except the dagger, this present alone was enough for him to feel content. Tier-1 weapons were mostly sharp enough to injure beasts at the Elite stage, and with his dagger being [Rare], it was stronger thanmon Tier-1 daggers. Maybe, it could even injure newly advanced awakened beasts or some with extremely low defenses. With that in mind, he could only smile dryly as the dagger would probably be his main weapon for the next few months until he outgrew it. He opened up a small path for him to move ahead by severing vines and small, thorny bushes in order to enter the forest. Simultaneously, he kept searching for certain distinct marks and spots all around the trees. Ten minutes had passed, yet was still unable to find anything at all. He was beginning to grow restless when his eyes suddenly spotted something. A small smile yed on his lips despite him being drenched in the rain. His hair was sticking to his temples except for his robe that was stillpletely dry. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 6 - Assassination Following the distinctive marks that faintly guided him through the jungle, 20 minutes passed. There were only [2H:30M] remaining on his potions effect and he still had to find his way back out of the jungle. Fortunately, he had a decent memory and would find the path he sliced open without much difficulty. Right now, Shane looked down into a valley withrge soul-onyx trees secluding it from the outside world. Shane could see a wide river dividing the valley into two sections, while both sides were littered with a ck, radiant color. He was still unable to sense the mana in his surroundings because he hadn''t absorbed his first mana particle yet, which was impossible to do without a mana gathering technique, however, thanks to the Nightsight-potion, he could see inside the darkness. Looking at the bottom of the valley, Shane''s eyes glimmered in joy and a trace of greed. ''Nightshade flowers¡­ YES¡­. and so many!!!'' He shouted in his mind and both sides of the valley werepletely filled with blossomed Nightshade flowers that could only be seen during nighttime. Nightshade flowers were used to brew many kinds of potions but the most important potion was the Nightsight-potion he was using right now. It was a Mortal grade herb with a trash ormon quality in most cases and its selling price ranged from 4 to 8 silver coins inside human proximity because they were rare to procure and once found it was at most a bunch of them. The System would only purchase the Nightshade flowers for 4 silver at most and that only if the quality was close to [Umon]. Because of that, it was better to sell them inside the shelter or on Igra. He was about to search for a path downwards when he remembered that magical ingredients and herbs were always sought out by beasts in order to hasten up their own cultivation because Nightshade-flower radiated faint mana transmuted by the darkness affinity. Seeing so many Nightshade flowers at once Shane was sure that some beasts had to be nearby. But he couldn''t see any, even after 30 minutes passed and he didn''t have much time left with[2H] remaining. As such Shane began to create his own path down the valley, with his guard up, as he looked around carefully. Even though his tiny speck of cultivation was concealed, Shane could still be discovered by beasts around him. On his way down, he found a few separated bunches of Nightshade flowers which caused Shane to smile happily. It was the perfect moment for him to test the knowledge he had umted over thest few strenuous years. And from the vast number of books he read one particr information was stuck in his mind that helped countless Cultivators during their journey through the Primordial Dimensions. Once herbs were plucked, they would release a certain fragrance that attracted other beasts. As such it could be considered extremely dangerous for someone to stay at the same ce after plucking a herb. When he was young he was scared that something like that might happen to him in the future, but from another book, he found out that this could be prevented if one was extremely fast and in the possession of a [Spatial Ring]. After plucking a herb there was a short timespan until it would release the fragrance that attracted the surrounding beasts If someone was able to store away the particr herb or in Shane''s case the Nightshade flower, one could prevent the fragrance from being released because amon spatial ring sealed everything from within, including the smell! Furthermore, inside a spatial ring, the effect of herbs wouldn''t decrease by much even over a longer period of time and humanity was still unsure how Spatial rings and so on really worked. With that in mind, he tried to remember the way to pluck the Nightshade flower without damaging its facile roots and Shane knelt down in front of it, preparing himself to pluck the first flower. He had to control his hands because they were jittering slightly and half a minute passed before Shane plucked the first Nightshade flower while interacting with his Spatial ring at the same time. There was not a single moment wasted and the fragrance wasn''t released, which caused Shane to shout out inwardly. With a bright smile, he began to pick up the other Nightshade flowers one after another and once he had finished his first bunch, Shane noticed that he already collected 11 Nightshade flowers. To scan them Shane would have to take them out which would release their fragrance, which was not possible at the moment. As such, their quality was still unknown. But before Shane could continue his way down to the valley, his ears jerked and he instinctively threw himself back, as he saw something ck gushing out of the loosened soil where he previously plucked the Nightshade flowers. Unsheathing his dagger with a smooth movement, Shane stood opposite a 50-centimeter long ck-scaled snake. The ck scaled snake hissed at him and it released some kind of ck hue merging slightly within the darkness. ''F**k'' Shane thought as he was barely able to evade the surprise attack. It was a Shadow-Snake which was a low/mid-Wild beast with a darkness affinity, allowing it to merge with the darkness. Fortunately, the effect was only minuscule and Shane could barely perceive the Shadow snake before it was able to bite him. A bite from a Shadow snake wasn''t poisonous but enveloped in darkness transmuted mana that would cause dizziness and other symptoms with the low dose injected into the prey. From the length of the snake, Shane estimated that it was at the peak of the low-Wild stage which was roughly equivalent to a peak-3rd Mortal stage. The shadow snake''s strength was to sneak up on its prey and surprise attacks but Shane was able to evade it, which brought him an advantage because the most dangerous threat was eliminated. Nevertheless, this didn''t mean Shane could let his guard down as Shadow snakes normally lived in small packs due to their adoration for darkness transmuted mana, which brought them together. A sudden premonition was built in Shane''s mind and he frowned before turning his attention back to the Shadow snake in front of him. ''One step after another!'' He told himself calmly as he went into thebat stance he learned from a martial arts expert. This technique didn''t use up any mana at all, which was extremely beneficial, even if it didn''t increase his strength in any way. By the System''s standard, this technique Shane used was probably only a [Mortal-(Bronze) ] technique, however, adding his high proficiency with this technique it could be considered lethal to all kinds of wild beasts. [Hunter''s Mind] was passively supporting Shane''s mind and he went slowly closer to the Shadow-snake that was roughly 2 meters away from him. Seeing that Shane wasn''t about to step back, the shadow-snake didn''t think anything at all, because it couldn''t sense any mana radiating from him, considering him as a pushover. As such the snake red at him and slithered towards Shane without caring about the razor-sharp dagger in his hand. Because the distance between both opponents was already extremely close, the first one to surprise the other by a sudden increase of speed would normally win the life or death battle inside the jungle. As such the Shadow-snake which was slowly slithering towards Shane shot upwards with a sudden increase of speed, once it crossed the distance of one meter between both of them. With its wide-open maw, it shot towards Shane, who was calmly looking at the snake with his ck eyes, before pulling the sholite dagger upwards, severing the Shadow snake with a clean cut. Dark red blood spurted out of the severed body parts like a fountain before the organs spilled out of it while Shane¡äs gaze turned towards the bottom of the valley with a bad premonition. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 7 - Shadow-snake Valley Because of the bloody smell released by the severed snake, beasts would be attracted soon. Thus, Shane decided to store the Shadow-snake carcass before anything could happen. It wasn''t worth a lot, but he wouldn''t waste the life he took by leaving the corpse on the ground. At least, he could receive some bronze coins for the carcass. Ignoring the premonition tormenting Shane¡äs mind, he still decided to descend. His [Hunter''s Mind] seemed exceptionally helpful, and he could think rationally about the advantages and disadvantages of descending the valley. Shane dreaded the huge number of shadow snakes waiting for him at the bottom of the valley, but, for once, he was d of his non-existent cultivation. They would probably underestimate him and most likely die like the first Shadow-snake, which was a reassuring thought. As long as he stayed at the outskirts of the valley''s base, only a few shadow snakes would attack him, if this valley was really the Shadow-snake''s habitat like he had estimated. On his way down the valley, he found more bunches of Nightshade flowers, but this time he wouldn''t let himself be surprised by a Shadow-snake attacking him. As expected, after he plucked all Nightshade flowers, a Shadow snake shot out of the loosened soil. But this time, Shane had predicted the oue and severed the snake¡äs head before it noticed what was going on. When the lifeless body hit the ground, Shane stored the 25 centimeters long body inside the spatial ring. He noticed another Shadow-snake, looking at him warily out of the loosened soil. It seemed as if this snake was only recently hatched because it was approximately only 10 centimeters long. Shane decided not to kill it, as long as the snake did not attack him. If his father would have seen this, he would have called him foolish and forced him to take a few more trips through Igra. He would have ensured to make his son visit the few areas where hostile beasts lived and fight them. On Igra, there were only a few such ces left and they were mostly inds. Humans allowed such unwanted beasts to stay there and categorized them ording to their varied strengths, strategically cing them at different locations. These inds would serve as a training ground for their descendants and future generations. They would practice and hone their skills, giving them a rough idea of what dangers lurked within the Primordial Dimension, where they couldn''t be protected anymore. As such, Shane had already witnessed the cruelty on both sides, be it humans or beasts. Most beasts would attack humans, once they turned their back towards them. However, Shane didn''t mind the snake in front of him, as it couldn''t even use its Darkness affinity properly. 1 hour had passed already and his potions effect would onlyst for another hour before the concealment and Nightsight effect would wear off. But it didn''t bother him as he had already plucked more than 40 Nightshade flowers and killed 8 Shadow-snakes until now. Though his hands were smeared with dirt and blood was streaked across his handsome face, his eyes radiated a tranquil calmness as he looked around carefully. Considering his gains, Shane estimated that he had enough to purchase a batch of Nightsight and concealment potions on Igra. But, leaving the Shadow-snake valley with its thousands of Nightshade flowers waiting to be plucked would be a waste of time and opportunity. Who knew if it would still be nighttime, or if only Shadow-snakes would inhabit the valley, on his next visit to the jungle in the future? Once it was daytime, other beasts that slept during the night would probablye out and stroll through the valley. Furthermore, the Nightshade flower would lose its effect once the sun rose, and only during the night, it could be plucked with the highest effect. As such, Shane took a firm decision and used a secret perk from the system, which his father had told him. He ordered the system to sell the Shadow snake corpses and the Nightshade flowers inside his Spatial ring. [42x Nightshade flowers |30xTrash/12xCommon|& 8x Shadow snake carcasses |Low-Wild| can be sold for 82 Silver and 60 bronze coins. Execute selling the stated Items?] It was a wee function to let the System do all the hard work by selling everything within the spatial ring, but the price it stated was stillparable to being conned. On Igra, Shane would most likely receive 2 gold coins for 42 Nightshade flowers, but the system wasn''t as generous and wouldn''t give him a single gold coin. But, that didn''t matter at the moment, and he epted selling the Nightshade flowers and carcasses to empty his Spatial ring that was almost filled to the brim. Even if he felt the price was low, Shane still had to ept it. There was still an hour left for him to umte 120 silver coins, in order to purchase another batch of potions from the system. As long as his plucking speed was fast enough, Shane would be able to gain a small fortune, once he returned to the shelter or rather Igra. The closer he came to the bottom of the valley, therger the clusters of Nightshade flowers grew. Within 10 minutes, he plucked another 30 Nightshade flowers that grew close to each other. Only one thing was slightly annoying and it was the number of Shadow-snakes attacking him. The more Nightshade flowers grew next to each other, the more Shadow-snakes attacked him, and luckily, only a single mid-Wild Shadow snake was among them. It also underestimated Shane¡äs strength, caused by his non-existent cultivation, in addition to having used a concealment potion that concealed even his aura. Shane gave it a quick death with a single sh from his shiolite dagger, which gleamed in a dark red color. Even if Shane¡äs speed was slower than the Mid-Wild stage shadow-snake, underestimating him wasn''t a smart choice. Nevertheless, it didn¡ät mean that the threat Shane had to face was not apparent. He had to tread carefully on the muddy ground that had now loosened due to his spree. To make matters worse, Shadow snakes also attacked him in groups at the same time which caused him to be overwhelmed. Fortunately [Hunter¡äs mind] supported him the whole time, and he was barely able to evade the Shadow-snakes attacks before they could bite him. One time, Shane tripped over a root that had loosened from the soil due to the heavy downpour in the jungle, as a pair of Shadow snakes attacked him. Luckily, the two snakes had barely entered the mid-Wild stage and he was faster than them, just by a fraction of a second. It was enough for him to roll to the side, evading the first attack and quickly get back on his feet, before the Shadow snakes continued with their attacks. Fortunately, he had a superb dagger that could even shatter the mid-Wild stage shadow-snakes fangs with enough force to kill them without any further problems. -- Walking around the outskirts of the valley, Shane continued plucking Nightshade flowers and killing the inhabiting Shadow snakes until he finally umted his required amount of 2 gold coins. There were roughly twenty to thirty minutes left for the potions¡ä effects to subside. [35 Nightshade flowers |26xTrash/9xCommon|&7xShadow snake carcasses |6xLow-Wild/1x Mid-Wild| has been sold for 67 Silver and 70 bronze Coins] ¡­. .. . [39 Nightshade flowers ||31xTrash/8xCommon|&10xShadow snake carcasses |8xLow-Wild/2xMid-Wild| has been sold for 72 Silver and 70 bronze coins] Looking at his wealth, Shane smiled lightly. _______________________ Finances: Gold[2], Silver[23], Bronze[0] _______________________ Before he made his decision to purchase another concealment and nightsight potion, Shane noticed something particr on his status screen. He hadpletely forgotten it, as his priority had been to earn gold coins. He could only shake his head and call himself stupid for his absent-mindedness. Right now, he was inside a treasure trove and only thought about the profit, but wasn''t there something else that he had obtained here? __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 8 - Shane, The Plunderer [Innate Skill]: Taming |Trash-¡ï(+)| Shane had forgotten the existence of his Innate Skill, which he obtained when he awoke his system. And it was a Taming Skill at that! He had never heard about an Innate Skill simr to his, but there were a few magicians who could summon tamed beasts. It seemed somehow simr, while regr tamers also existed. If he remembered correctly, these regr tamers could tame beasts at a lower rank than themselves without further restrictions. They could store their tamed beasts and summon them as and when required. However, theirbat prowess was weaker than their equivalent to the exact same race in most cases. As such, Shane started to wonder if the same would happen to the beasts he could tame. ording to the information provided by certain tamers, it took them a long time to tame beasts and they were extremely proud of their own feat and the tamed beasts. Would he also need a long time to tame a weak beast? If that was the case, he would have to catch a Low-Wild beast to test it out! ''A Shadow-snake wouldn''t be bad, right?'' Shane pondered. As he wasn''t sure if taming would require much time or not, he would have to be in a safe area in order to experiment with his Innate Skill, and not within the territory of the Shadow snakes. After thinking for some time, Shane decided to purchase three things. He paid 2 gold coins to purchase another Nightsight and concealment potion and another 3 silver coins were used for a [Mortal(Trash)] leather bag. It was barely able to hold out attacks by Low-Wild beasts without tearing apart, as long as nothing sharp was used. The Shadow-snake had only sharp fangs and they couldn''t be effectively utilized in order to tear apart a bag. As such, Shane would be rtively safe without wasting much of his wealth and he was still left with 20 silver coins. With 28 minutes left until the potions'' effects wore off, Shane continued with his plucking spree of Nightshade flowers. He wasn''t sure if he should venture to the main Nightshade flower field or not, because the possibility to meet a [Shadow-Python] would be much higher and its strength ranged from [Mid-Wild to Low-Elite] which was an extremely wide range. Shadow-python was the mostmonly chosen evolution path a Shadow-snake normally took when it reached its racial limit, while there were still some other rather umon paths. ording to Shane, the possibility of finding shadow pythons in the main field was higher than that of the outskirts as the darkness permeated mana was thicker inside the main field. Due to their slightly more advanced ability to conceal themselves in the darkness, Shane would have to be alert, even if he only skimmed through the outskirts. As such, he would at first, plunder the outskirts with their slightly smaller bunches of Nightshade flowers. But even then, he would make a huge profit. When the effect of his potions was almost used up with only one minute remaining, Shane gulped down the newly purchased potions, while childishly looking at his [Finances] The most time he had wasted, was to find the valley and to slowly descend without drawing too much attention to himself. Now, as he looked at his profits while standing inside the valley''s ground, he couldn''t help but feel proud of himself. The efforts he went through to evade the main field with its tens of thousand Nightshade flowers had been worth it. His wealth had increased significantly, and he had already umted a small fortune of 3 gold coins and 38 silver coins with some spare bronze coins. This could be considered a massive amount for someone who had entered the Primordial Dimension for the first time, but Shane was still not satisfied. He had roughly crafted a n for the next few months and ording to this n, more gold coins were absolutely needed. However, in Shane''s opinion there had to be a reason for the human race to avoid this valley, even though only a few adventurers visited the Soul-Onyx Jungle Dimension on their own ord. There was still the possibility that humans shunned the forest and only harvested the Soul-Onyx-Wood, but this chance was rtively small because the valley was surrounded by Soul-Onyx trees. Because of his suspicion of the main field, Shane continued to plunder the outskirts even though he had to deviate from the initial path. The heavy rain continued to pour down in a steady stream making matters worse for him. and once his potion had only [1H:30M] left, Shane decided to search his way back home. In the beginning, it was still easy to find the path he went but after five minutes everything seemed hazy and Shanemented about his stupidity. ''I knew I forgot something¡­ It was already weird that I had so many gold coins left.'' As of now, Shane had umted 13 gold coins, 52 silver coins, and 60 bronze coins. It was more than enough for Shane to continue with his n but the first thing he had to do was to search for a way out of the Valley. He knew he had forgotten something important and seeing the tracer with invisible markers inside the System¡äs shop as rmendations, soured his mood even more. Butmenting his situation wouldn''t help him at all, and he decided to follow his gut feeling. He could roughly remember the path he took and walking back would most likely work...partially. Shane retraced his footprints on his way back and knew he was right. Though, in his haste to umte the nightshade flowers he had walked all over the muddy ground so he had a tough time figuring out the right way. Thankfully, he was able to remain calm as the [Hunter''s Mind] was fully utilized. Shane took more than 10 minutes before he finally found the way to the top of the valley. Relieved, he started climbing up but he identally stepped on a smooth and slippery spot, where he stumbled a little. He scrambled to find something to hold on to, but his hands went through empty air as he lost his bnce and fell on his back. As if that wasn¡ät enough, the soil below him seemed to be loose. It gave way under his weight, taking Shane further down into the valley¡äs center, the very ce he had wanted to avoid at all costs. Cursing in his mind, Shane was about to stand up, when he noticed that he hadnded directly into the Nightshade flower field. He saw a motionless ck-scaled body with a length of more than one meter protruding out of the soggy ground. ''Ohh... please¡­.'' He thought and even though his mind was rtively calm and stable due to his fathers'' lessons, Shane could hardly contain his feelings. It was only due to the [Hunter¡äs Mind] passive support, that he didn''t shout out loud when he fell down into the main field of the Nightshade flowers. The only positive thing, Shane noticed, was that the Shadow-Python lying right next to him appeared to be either in a deep slumber or most likely in hibernation. If that was the case, he would be extremely lucky. He slowly stood up, trying to be as discreet as possible, while keeping an eye trained on the Shadow-python next to him. He didn''t forget to look around for other Shadow-snakes, but the most imminent threat was right next to him, and the rest could wait patiently for his attention. Seconds felt like an eternity as he slowly proceeded to take his first step. However, Shane noticed the Shadow-Python move a little, causing droplets of sweat to appear on his already wet face. Fortunately, nothing more happened and Shane slowly backed off, not letting the huge body out of his gaze. When he had put enough distance between himself and the snake, he turned around. Before anything could happen; Shane climbed up the same tiny slope he had fallen down from, a while ago. And [Artemis¡ä Blessing] didn¡ät betray him, as he found the path to the top of the valley that he had cut open previously, once he was able to stand firmly back on a higher ground. The shock of having survived the short adventure was still there, and Shane wanted nothing more than to rush out of the valley as soon as possible. Taking one firm step after another, Shane ensured that he wouldn¡ät slip another time, as a single adventure like before was more than enough. When his potion effect countdown reached 50 minutes, he reached the patch, where he had seen the tiny Shadow-snake previously. At least, he thought this was the ce as he looked around a bit before he spotted two yellow slits gazing at him, hidden beneath the muddy, loose soil. While Shane peered closer to take a better look, a sudden idea formed in his mind with a sly smile emerging on his face. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 9 - Kidnapping! Staring at the yellow slits that inspected him with fear and apprehension, Shane couldn''t even suppress his sly smile to havee up with a brilliant idea. The [Mortal-(Trash)] leather bag appeared in his hand, which he secured to his belt. It was still raining and even more annoying to walk over the sloppy mud than a few hours before but the young shadow snake made a big mistake which incidentally helped him a lot. The shadow snake youngling averted its gaze from him and tried to dig deeper into the mud to avoid seeing him, thinking that Shane wouldn''t notice him as well. This was definitely beneficial for him as he saw the Shadow snake''s ck scales below the soggy soil. The mud above the Shadow snake was at most 5 centimeters thick and separated it from the surface. Shane came closer while trying to prevent making any noises before he stood roughly above the spot where he thought his prey would be. With his hands already open ready to grip the shadow-snake that couldn''t sense him due to his concealment potion, Shane leaned forward, waiting for the perfect opportunity to hunt his prey. 5 minutester, the snake youngling''s tension receded a little, and Shane sensed his opportunity. His hands shot towards the ground, digging through the mud, which did not show much resistance. He felt his left hand grip a thin yet tough, moving body, while his right hand slipped past it. The shadow snake was shocked and began to thrash around, trying to free itself from Shane¡äs firm grip. But its strength was at most equivalent to a low 2nd rank of the Mortal stage and not enough to break free of Shane¡äs grasp that had the strength of a 4th Mortal stage physique With both hands, he gripped the snake¡äs head firmly, to avoid being bitten, and gently ced the ten-centimeter long Shadow-snake into the small leather bag hanging on his belt. Its efforts were futile and after the shadow snake was inside the leather bag, Shane tightened the ropes around the rim. He could only faintly hear a weird sound emitted by the Snake, causing him to tense up. ''Ohh F**k'' was the only thing he could think of, as the shadow snake youngling continued to emit the weird sound. Shane retrieved his dagger from the spatial ring before he began to ascend the valley hurriedly. Behind him, Shane could hear the hissing of multiple snakes and he frowned deeply. ''Why?'' hemented as his leather bag was tossed around on his belt, making his climb slightly more difficult. Hearing the youngling''s cry, multiple shadow snakes appeared in front of Shane and he began to curse out loud when the first few began to obstruct his path. They shot towards him and Shane could barely evade them due to the loose mud he was standing on. Had he been on firm ground, he would have fought the snakes through minute movements, which he had been taught by dozens of renowned martial artists, Cultivators, and his family in recent years. Unfortunately, the ground below him was not firm and it decreased his efficiency in evading the snakes by a huge margin. With that in mind, Shane severed multiple shadow snakes and ascended further, only to see multiple shadow pythons ranging from 80 centimeters to 1.5 meters, advancing towards him from below. Gritting his teeth, he shouted in his mind ''[System] purchase a [Mortal-(Trash)] prismarine-luminous crystal, the smallest avable [Mortal-(Trash)] mana stone, and a mana Initiator'' [Carry out the purchase worth 1 Gold? Permission required] "YES!" Shane shouted out loud when the shadow pythons were only five meters away from him. Suddenly, he saw a few items appear within his Spatial ring, which was almost filled to the brim with Nightshade flowers. These items consisted of a white crystal, a pebble-sized blue shining stone, and a small seven-centimeter-long grey machine with a single vacancy. Taking the mana initiator and the pebble-sized mana stone out, Shane was only able to remain rtively calm due to the [Hunter¡äs Mind] supporting his mind. Nevertheless, his hands couldn''t help but tremble slightly and it took him two tries before he could press the small pebble-sized mana stone inside the initiator¡äs vacancy. Shane immediately activated the Initiator, and it released a faint hue of mana, though Shane couldn¡ät see it as he didn''t have any mana. He relied on the system, hoping that the device would work as a white crystal appeared in his hand, which he pressed down on the Initiator. Holding everything together with his right hand, he raised up his arm and the prismarine-luminous crystal began to glow faintly before the intensity began to increase slowly. The shadow python tailing him was only two meters away and he increased his speed even more, which was growing difficult, as his body wasn¡ät shaped to climb a muddy slope, where snakes obviously had an advantage. ''FASTER!!'' Shane shouted in his mind. Suddenly, a radiant white glow lit up the surrounding, causing him to slow down by a small degree. He kept his eyes firmly shut against the st of light and relied on his other senses to climb further. A dry smile appeared on his face as he heard the Shadow snakes and pythons hiss in pain, as they couldn''t endure the obtrusive bright light radiating from the prismarine-luminous crystal. Without looking back, Shane ascended the slope, and a quarter of an hourter, the bright glow subsided, when he almost reached the top of the valley. The small mana stone he had utilized was alreadypletely used up, as the prismarine-luminous crystal wasn''t able to absorb all the mana released by the Initiator. Nevertheless, Shane was happy that everything had worked, and the tension around him had decreased by a marginal amount. Not wasting any time, he opened his eyes once again and charged towards the top, hoping the shadow snakes and pythons had better things to do than follow him. While the shadow snake youngling in the leather bag waspletely exhausted due to its utmost efforts to break out of the imprisonment. At the top of the valley, Shane sighed in relief but did not stop in his tracks as he searched his way out of the Soul-Onyx-Jungle. 30 minutester, he stepped out of the Jungle, when his eyesight dimmed slightly. ''Oh'' Shane thought as he noticed the potion effects dissipate. Now, he had to rely on the moonlight to find his way ahead as he walked through the dark-green grass. On a small patch, he saw the lights emitted by the shelter walls and he roughly remembered the way back to the ckSoul shelter. As such, he didn''t even think about purchasing another Nightsight potion and slowly strolled closer to the gates of the shelter. The Guards were still the same as before and they eyed Shane weirdly. They had seen him walk out of the shelter in clean and crisp clothes though now he looked shabby and unkempt, covered in dirt from head to toe, except the long ck robe which was still spotless. The robe alone signified that he belonged to an affluent and powerful family, but his mud-smeared face made the guards think otherwise. Not many wealthy descendants would readily jump in dirt and mud. They would hire someone else to do the dirty jobs, while they did something easier. Shane smiled at the guards, who smiled in return before he followed the standard protocol like showing them his name and race from the status. With that, humans could prevent races like the ''Shifters'' from infiltrating their shelter unnoticed. [Shifters] were one of the many races annoying humans, and a dozen other races due to their ability to transform into all kinds of living beings. It was said that they only needed one drop of blood to transform into apletely different being for 48 hours. During this time, they were even able to use their strength and skills to a certain degree, which shocked Shane to a great extent. Humanity had lost their first Basic shelter and Dimension Portal due to this race and they had to pay a huge price, owing to their negligence. One''s status panel couldn''t be changed and one could only purchase an alias that was directly connected to one''s name. Meanwhile, showing your status to someone else had to be admitted by the host. Shane only gave the guards permission to see his name and his race, nothing more and the guard let him through, after asking what was inside his leather bag. ''These guards are really careful'' Shane thought, and he stated that it was a Shadow-snake youngling he wanted to test out his taming skill on. He stated that with a smile lining his dirty face, confusing the guards even more. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 10 - First Taming! This information astonished the guards slightly as taming skills were extremely rare due to their exorbitant cost. Furthermore, it was not as practical as other skills due to the high requirements one had to fulfill before purchasing it. Even the lowest [Mortal-(Bronze)] Skill tome for Taming was probably 10 times more expensive thanmon ones, notwithstanding the requirements one had to fulfill, to obtain the permission to buy it. They could only nod and let Shane through as the beast inside the bag was extremely weakpared to the strength ofmon guards. Thus, if a Low-Wild Shadow-snake were to escape, it was still somewhat eptable. If something were to happen, Shane would still be held responsible and punished. The guards messaged their Captain through the system, that a shadow snake youngling had entered the shelter in addition to Shane''s name, which was requested. Looking at the message that he received through the system, the guard captain frowned lightly. ''Why would you begin testing the taming skill with a shadow snake youngling? Other beasts are much easier to tame for beginners?'' But, the captain couldn''t really understand this youth, and he decided to remember his name if something were to happen in the future. Neither the guards nor their captain found the name [Shane Suro] suspicious and they could never imagine that he could possibly be the son of their president John Ste, or even remotely rted to him. This had many reasons. One of the reasons was that not many humans knew that John had a son or Shane even existed. Only their servants and the federation''s highest authorities, in addition to some other important families, knew about him. In total, probably only a few hundred humans knew about Shane¡äs existence while his family name was still kept secret. Shane always introduced himself as Shane Ste, instead of Suro in front of his father¡äs colleagues during important events and balls, because he wanted his family name to remain his own, personal secret. Another reason for him to keep his family name a secret was due to the shelter inspections, where he had to show his name. There were only a handful of humans that could connect his family name to his father, which was exactly what he wanted. Without the servants, there was only his fiancee and his father''s friends that knew his family name, because his father had told his fiancee. As his father was touring around all the time, Shane was more curious to know how his father would react, when he would find out that his only son had vanished from home, than the possibility of getting found. He smiled at that thought while walking down the dark alley. Right now, Shane could see more humans strolling through the streets and his stomach began to grumble when he saw a few food stalls. The dirt on his face and hands was slowly washed away due to the heavy rain that poured down from the sky. Now, he didn''t look that bad anymore as he had appeared in front of the guards. As such, he was still served food without any prejudice because of his dirty looks. He bought arge but weird-looking piece of pizza that smelled extremely tasty, in addition to fried rice cakes for a total of 3 bronze coins. He then sat down on a chair, enjoying his little feast, as he ate everything with relish. Shane was never allowed to eat junk and street food, thus he was extremely happy to savor the taste, and licked his fingers clean. The woman who sold him the food looked at him with a faint smile, disregarding his dirty appearance. Upon looking closer, she had to acknowledge that this youth could be considered extremely handsome if he washed his face. After he finished his meal, Shane thanked the vendor and went further down the street, where he found the decrepit building he had been searching for. It was an Inn that required a renovation but Shane didn¡ät care about that and he purchased the cheapest room with arge bucket of warm water for 5 bronze coins. Shane had lived his whole life in luxury but he didn''t mind the shabby room he found himself in. He closed the door after he received the bucket of warm water. Before he could wash up, Shane opened the leather bag, and the Shadow-snake immediately lunged at his hand, which he immediately took back. He pped his hand lightly on its head which caused the Shadow-snake youngling to feel dizzy. It copsed on the ground where Shane seemed to hear a faint whimper sound. "Don''t attack me and I won''t hurt you...Easy, right?" Shane exined in the [Primordial Language] he had learned at the age of four. It could be said that most humans learned the Primordialnguage as their mainnguage as it was way more important than their own''snguage because every race spoke it. Due to that, everyone grew up bilingual and Shane found the primordialnguage extremely interesting, as he had never heard such a pleasingnguage before. Every being inside the Primordial Dimensions could roughly understand the primordialnguage and the snake looked at him with fear in its eyes as if it wanted to plead for mercy. Shane only shook his head with a faint smile as he began to wash up. The room waspletely sealed, and even though it looked shabby, there wasn''t much space for the shadow snake to flee. The youngling''s head hurt way too much to even think of fleeing. In addition, it was extremely exhausted due to the efforts it took to break out of the cruel leather bag, but everything seemed useless. It didn''t want to die, but the human was too strong and it¡äs will to live seemed to weaken. Shane never took his eyes off the Shadow-snake youngling and he was astonished to see its intelligence. Normally, beasts would either go berserk in such states or give their all to prevent dying, but this small fe next to him knew that its darkness enveloped fangs couldn¡ät seriously injure him. However, more important for Shane was that this shadow snake didn''t simply follow its natural instinct, which might be helpful for him. "Little fe¡­ I have a proposal for you... Do you want to be mypanion?" Shane asked and the Shadow-snake looked at him in confusion like it didn¡ät know what he meant. Pondering on how to exin it more clearly, Shane released his Innate Skill [Taming] when a small butplex white magic circle appeared on his hand, shining as if it was alive. Seeing the magic circle, the shadow snake instinctively slithered back and hissed as if the magic circle was something evil. It knew, once the magic circle bound it, its freedom would vanishpletely. Shane looked at the shadow snake and was unsure what to do. As such he continued talking, terminating his Innate Skill. "I won''t force you, but I''m confident that you''ll have a better life with me. You can receive good food, and journey with me through the dimensions. Maybe, I¡äll be able to help you be stronger and evolve into a shadow python or an even mightier existence in the future." He didn''t like forcing anyone to do something, but he really wanted to have this shadow snake as hispanion, because it seemed more intelligent than its brethren. However, the shadow snake''s progress depended on its potential and ambition, so he couldn''t really tell how far it would be able to go. Even though the Shadow snake seemed more intelligent than its brethren that didn''t mean it couldpletely understand what he meant. It had only been born a few days ago and couldn''t think of anything else other than growing. However, that was before it smelled the food Shane had eaten previously. It also wanted to eat the same thing, but that wasn''t possible at its home. As such, its hunger won over the instincts and the shadow snake slithered towards Shane. Both Shane and the shadow snake didn''t know that [Artemis'' Blessing] had yed a huge role to establish an amicable rtionship between them. The shadow snake liked Shane more than it hated him for killing its brethren, which was umon. Shane thought, with the Shadow snake slithering towards him, it had epted his proposal. He smiled while releasing his Taming Innate Skill. The white, vibrant magic circle appeared once again and Shane directed it to the ground causing the magic circle to appear on the wooden floor. Still slightly hesitant, the shadow snake entered the magic circle and a white light enveloped the snake, as a connection was slowly formed between Shane and the shadow snake. Around five minutes passed before the white light vanished and the mechanical voice echoed through his mind. [First `Taming` sessful aplished] [ Innate Skill `Taming¡ä -function has been unlocked] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 11 - Umbra When these messages appeared in his mind, Shane also sensed a connection establishing between him and the Shadow-snake, and a wave of emotions hit them. It was weird to feel the shadow snake''s emotions and if Shane was honest, it felt quite ufortable but over time, he would grow ustomed to this new feeling. At least, the shadow-snake was probably feeling the same as him, or maybe the emotions, it felt, were a tad bit stronger, because Shane was a human being. As such his range of emotions should be wider. Shane was excited about the status of his newly obtainedpanion, but at the same time, he wanted to know how to upgrade his Innate Skill. And, after pondering for a few seconds, he decided to look at the shadow snake''s status first. _______________________ Name: [?] Race:[Shadow-snake] Rank: [Peak 1st-Wild stage(Low-Wild)] Quality: [Umon] |Evolution| Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow) Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)] Loyalty: [7%] _______________________ As he looked through the status chart of his shadow snake, everything seemed interesting and Shane was astonished to see so much information at once. Not many with a taming skill would tell others about their tamed beast''s abilities or other facts, as revealing these secrets may result in a disadvantage for them in the future. As such, everything was rather secretive about the [Taming] skill in general. Due to his father, Shane had ess to a wide range of information about many skills, but even then, there wasn''t that much he got to know about the taming skill. The first thing that caught his attention was definitely the quality of the shadow snake, and it caused Shane to smile brightly. A beast''s quality had the same sections like items with Trash |Evolution| (+) Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow) Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)] Loyalty: [9%] _______________________ When he was done reading through Umbra¡äs status bar once again, Shane picked it up and caressed its ck scales, before an emotion was submitted through their connection. "Are you hungry?" Shane asked and he could only see Umbra tilting its small head. He was astonished to see that Umbra had transmitted the smell of the pizza that he ate earlier. Shane stood up as the 10-centimeter long Umbra coiled around his neck, or at least tried to, as it was too small. Shane went outside once again with an important mission! FOOD! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 12 - Upgrade-missions Shane went back to the food stall where he ate previously and the middle-aged woman¡äs eyes widened to see him walk towards her. `Whoa¡­ he looks so pretty!` was her first thought, when she suddenly realized something. `HUH? Isn''t that the dirty youth from before? Why is he here again?` but she had to maintain her cool and wouldn''t ask impolite questions to her customer. Shane noticed the woman¡äs behavior but decided to ignore it and ordered the same dishes as before. After receiving therge piece of pizza and fried rice cakes, he went to the exact same chair as before but now, he ced the pizza and the rice cakes on the table in front of him without doing anything else. The woman behind the counter was confused as she continued to cook when she noticed something moving around the youth¡äs neck. She was shocked to see a ck-scaled snake slither along the youth''s ck robe. In the end, she was even forced to cover her mouth to not shout out. After oveing the initial horror, she noticed that the ck scaled snake seemed harmless and was eating the fried rice cake greedily. ''Is he a Tamer?'' The vendor questioned herself. Looking at the young but athletic-shaped youth in front of her, the vendor began to wonder how long it had been since he had entered the Primordial Dimensions. To her, Shane looked like he was at most 16-years-old, even though his athletic physique and sharp facial features could speak for something else. Guessing the age of others was her specialty and she had never been wrong with that, which caused her to be curious about the youth in front of her. When Umbra finished eating, Shane wanted to leave but the stall woman asked him if his tamed beast wanted to eat a little bit more. She even said that it would be free of charge and Umbra transmitted that he could eat more. epting the food, Shane thanked the woman, and he received a notification from the system. [Loyalty of (Umbra) increased by 5%] `So easy?` Shane asked himself in surprise, but he would be stupid if he was displeased about Umbra¡äs loyalty increasing like that. Thinking about Umbra¡äs increase of loyalty, Shane decided to purchase some good food, to give it to him daily. Maybe, his loyalty could increase to a certain extent with that. As long as it didn¡ät decrease everything was fine. While Umbra ate, Shane talked a little bit with the vendor and ordered a few more pizzas and fried rice cakes. He stored the food in his cramped spatial ring before he said goodbye and left after Umbra finished everything. The vendor was slightly sad to see Shane walk away, but there wasn¡ät anything she could do about it, except thinking that the youth seemed nice. Maybe, he woulde back once again to eat someday and she awaited the day because Shane had lightened up her mood in such an eerie shelter. When Shane returned to his small room, Umbra was coiled around his index finger and sleeping soundly. He had ced his hand inside his pocket, to help Umbra stay warm because it was still raining. Taking off his robe, Shane did his best to prevent Umbra from waking up. Then, he slowly changed his wet set of clothes, as it was ufortable to walk and sit anywhere with wet clothes. In the beginning, he didn''t care about that but the longer he talked to the vendor woman, the more ufortable the wet clothes became. As such he had to slightly ignore Umbra, who was still sleeping soundly, while he changed into clean and dry clothes. In the end, Shane had to purchase a new set of clothes for 50 bronze coins, because he had forgotten to carry another set of clothes with him. 50 bronze coins were still eptable for Shane, but it still hurt him slightly to purchase clothes with his hard-earned money when he could have just brought a bag with clothes with him. After he wore the new set of clothes using just one hand, Shane decided to take a look at his Innate Skill¡äs [Upgrade]-function. ________________________ [Taming |Trash-¡ï|] -Upgrade-Missions! |¡ï¡ï| ¡ú Tame a beast (1/1)and increase its strength by 20%(0/20%) |¡ï¡ï¡ï| |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï | |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï| [Quality enhancement (Trash |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï|¡úCommon |¡ï|)] ________________________ It was roughly the same as Shane had predicted, at least from the outlines it looked simr to how others had described the innate skill upgrade window. Everything except the two-star mission was locked. Shane was neither confused nor enlightened upon reading the description. He had already tamed a beast which was also shown clearly, but the second part of his task was rather unclear. Does ''increasing the strength of Umbra'' mean after he reaches maturity and increasing the strength to get closer to its limit or would feeding Umbra be enough, because he was a youngling and would continue to grow quite a bit, even without evolving? Thetter was definitely easier but increasing Umbra¡äs strength by `working out` or doing something simr could be considered quite hard for a two-star [Trash] mission. Shane hoped that he could take the easier path. Now that Umbra was sleeping, Shane grew tired, but there was something important he had to do before he could sleep. Otherwise, he would waste important time, and he couldn''t afford to squander! Entering the System, Shane searched for the Primordial online tform also called PrimWeb. It was a ce where all kinds of races could post threads for their own race to read and could be essed by foreign races as well. Due to this, weird social interactions between all kinds of races began. Hostile races transformed into keyboard warriors, ying each other with words. The races who didn''t take sides found it amusing as they watched the fights from the sidelines. Humanity tried to make friends byworking and they built up a smallmunity with races like forest elves and mountain dwarves. When Shane got to know about these races, he was extremely astonished and he found their appearance to be exactly the same as described on Igra. Forest elves took care of nature and didn¡ät hunt beasts wildly. They were a beautiful race with their pointy ears being the most prominent feature. And like in fairy tales, their talent towards mana was superior to humans. Most of them were born with an inborn basic nt, wood, or even nature affinity, while their lifespan was extremely long. They were inherent alchemists and gained a huge fortune by selling potions in their shops within PrimWeb. Dwarves were also roughly the same as described in fairy tales from earth. Almost all of them are bulky and short, mostly working as cksmiths, which was their forte. They had a long lifespan and were also born with an extremely good mana aptitude. Most dwarves were born with earth affinities, with some rarer mutations having a metal affinity, while others had a mud affinity, fire, and even magma affinity. But, most natural-born dwarves with high affinities were seen as prodigies and were carefully nurtured. They could rarely be found interacting with other races on PrimWeb, and as such, they remained a legend. Shane was way too distracted while looking through the PrimWeb forum threads.. As such, he decided to enter a particr section within PrimWeb, which had the purpose to purchase and sell items through shops. [Primordial Shop] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 13 - Shop! [Primordial Shop] The Primordial shop was not only an online tform to purchase and sell items but a neutral Primordial Dimension, everyone could enter without being discriminated against or attacked. Killing or hurting each other in the Primordial shop was strictly forbidden by the system and would cause the perpetrators to be heavily punished. One could either enter the Primordial shop through the system to make a fast purchase or sale or enter it via the Dimensional portals to stroll around. It was possible to rent or purchase a shop, where one could exhibit items and products to all kinds of races. There was only a small problem. Renting a shop was extremely expensive, as rented shops would be open for all races while purchased shops were much cheaper but could only be owned by the native race. If one didn''t purchase an extension for other races, they wouldn''t be able to visit your shop. This was probably so that the System could either gain more ie or reduce the possible gains of other races. It didn''t want races to have an unfair advantage owing to their connections that could help them profit by renting or purchasing a shop. Everything had its own advantages and disadvantages and each added race would increase the price of the shop. Increasing the rank of a shop would also cause the price to increase exceptionally. The cheapest shop was a [Lowest-Basic Shop] without a single race extension and it included 3 vacancies to exhibit items, with a price of 10 gold coins. But the price was nothing whenpared to renting a shop essible by all races. It would cost at least 10,000 gold coins for the same rank. One couldn''t fathom how vast the universe was or guess the existing number of races. Thus, many humans devoted their time to research and further study the races they had found so far. There were tens of thousand races that could be found on the forums, and learning about their strength and might, was more than devastating for the prideful human race. It seemed as if they were at the bottom of the food chain despite their utmost efforts of more than 200 years to soar into higher realms. From their research, humans found out that the Dimension Portals had appeared millions of years ago on others, causing the inhabiting civilizations to either rise or fall and cease to exist. Shane frowned to think about races going extinct but a minuteter he decided to focus on his current situation instead. As such he entered the [Primordial Shop] from his System instead of the Dimensional Portal and went to the section where he could rent or purchase a shop. Selecting [Purchase] Shane chose the cheapest Shop [Lowest-Basic Shop]. After a system message appeared, asking permission to purchase the Lowest-Basic shop for 10 gold coins, he gritted his teeth and epted. [Host purchased a (Lowest-Basic) shop for 10 Gold coins. Please select a name for your shop.] The sound of the familiar mechanical voice resounded in his head as an empty shop appeared in front of him on a holographic screen with a wooden sign hanging down. From the outer appearance, it looked like amonly seen small, one-story convenience store from earth. He estimated that its size was probably 40 square meters. It had a small wooden counter in the corner where a holographic screen could be seen smiling at Shane. "Hello, Master! How may I help you today?" It felt as if he was ying a game right now and he was astonished about the graphics, causing him to smile lightly. Thinking about something was enough to order the system, hence he opened the shop''s statistics after selecting a name. He really liked it as it was some sort of motto from his old life on earth that he had carried with him to his current life. __________________ Name:[NoPainNoGain] Rank: [Lowest-Basic] Vacancies:[3] [Empty] [Empty] [Empty] Entry permission: [Human] (+) Upgrade __________________ Everything was as expected and Shane ordered the system to transfer all his Nightshade flowers to the Shop-AI, which was done within seconds. Shane had not sold all of his Nightshade flowers because the system scammed him in his opinion. Owing to therge space of 1 cubic meter inside his Spatial ring, he could store quite a lot of Nightshade flowers, as long as no shadow snake corpse wasted any of its space. [113xNightshade flowers (81xTrash/32xCommon) has been transferred] This message caused Shane to smile brightly, and he divided both flowers into two of the three shop''s vacancies before selecting a price for them. Shane knew that he could roughly receive 4 silver for Nightshade flowers with (Trash) quality and approximately 7 silver for (Common) ones. But, this didn''t matter to Shane as he selected a different price. He quoted a price of 9 silver coins each for the trash quality Nightshade flowers and 14 silver coins each for themon quality Nightshade flowers, before turning his attention elsewhere. Shane never really understood why so few people tried to gain money, the way he was doing right now. Maybe, their knowledge about the races was shallow or they simply didn''t mind losing out on a huge fortune. In the end, he didn''t really care about it and clicked on the race extension field. Before adding a race, Shane reassured himself that he wasn''t doing anything wrong as he skimmed through a few dozen threads after adding a few filters to ease his search. After being confident about his choice, he selected a race, and another name appeared on his [Entry permission] screen. His fortune was now almostpletely nil due to the costs of 2 gold coins. He had only 51 silver coins left from his entire fortune, but Shane was still extremely happy as he opened his store to the public. The race that Shane had selected was a rather unknown race from humanity''s perspective. They had shed against the [Corvi] race once or twice in a small Primordial Dimension. With their bipedal body, they resemble humans, elves, and other races but that was where the simrities ended. The [Corvi] race could be said to be a cross between humans and ravens. They had long ws instead of hands, with blue to ck plumage covering their whole body, andrge wings on their backs to help them fly through the sky. Even though they had a powerful innate darkness affinity, they had to rely on the darkness transmuted mana in their surroundings to stay alive and continue getting stronger. Without the constant support of darkness mana, theirbat prowess would decrease by a huge margin. In the absence of darkness mana, they couldn''t produce offspring! This was why Shane decided to sell his Nightshade flowers for such a high price,pared to what other humans would pay him. There were many rumors spreading throughout the System¡äs forum that the Avia race, a winged humanlike race, was repressed on a fews they inhabited. Avias didn''t like darkness mana, as such their didn¡ät have much darkness transmuted mana on it. But, why was this so important for Shane? The Corvi and Avia race had been in a war for hundreds of years and Shane believed that the Corvi race had conquered some of the Avia race''ss. To stay alive, the Corvi race was dependent on items that could transmute mana into darkness mana, and one of the cheapest ways to do that was using nts, like the Nightshade flower! It didn''t matter if the Corvi race was only besieging Avia''ss or if they wanted to inhabit itpletely. In the end, they would need his Nightshade flowers or other items that transmuted mana into darkness mana either way, and there weren''t many Primordial Dimensions that had such nts and items to transmute mana. If there was such a dimension, they were mostly either safeguarded by beasts or other races and the Corvi race had to search for a different way. The system''s price for certain herbs and magical ingredients was horrifyingly expensive. A single Nightshade flower with [Trash] quality was priced at 50 silver coins, while other items were priced more fairly. His price was neither too expensive nor too cheap. Some other races also decided to sell Nightshade flowers for 20 silver coins to the Corvi race, however, they hadn''t made a purchase until now. As such, Shane was confident in gaining some profit. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 14 - Becoming Rich Overnight After Shane finished configuring his shop, he left everything to the AI and decided to sleep, as it must already be early in the morning on Igra. He had been tense the whole night and only now could he truly rx as heid down on the shabby bed that smelled a little bit. `Ugh...Tomorrow I''ll look for another hotel..` He could onlyment as his mind entered a deep slumber with Umbra still coiled around his left hand. Hourster Shane was woken up by a sudden sense of hunger transmitted into his mind, while a faint hissing sound next to him told Shane that Umbra was hungry. He didn''t even open his eyes because he was still exhausted. He entered the spatial ring to take out some fried rice cakes which appeared inside a small container. After food appeared in front of it, Umbra simply ignored Shane, who turned around to sleep some more. However, the sodden bed reeked of a foul smell that caused Shane to jump up, all drowsiness to be driven out of his eyes. "I slept here??" Shane mumbled to himself. He felt disgusted to smell the moldy air within the small wooden room. Annoyed, Shane put on his shoes and his robes, before he grabbed Umbra who gobbled down the rice cakes. Umbra seemed displeased, but even the snake didn''t like the smell inside the room, as such, it was better to leave than to stay inside the hotel. Before Shane walked out of the hotel, he downloaded the shelter''s map on the system and searched for a better hotel nearby. He found one but thinking that it rained almost all the time inside the Soul-Onyx-Jungle Dimension, Shane only wanted to leave the dimension. There was only one important piece of information he had to know. He searched for the kind vendor woman who could still be at the same ce, resting on the bench or maybe asleep. He finally found her asleep near her food stall and walked up to her. Before Shane could even wake her up, she opened her eyes and saw him, which caused her to smile gently while she waved his hand at him. "Hello, how are you? It hasn''t been that long, right?" She asked and Shane felt a strange yet warm feeling in his heart. This woman was really nice and Shane greeted her back with a radiant smile. He ordered another batch of food, which would stay hot in his spatial ring, and get bad rather slowly. While he waited, Umbra was back to eating and it seemed like he grew slightly. This was not that difficult, considering that he was a youngling, but two things changed, causing Shane to be enlightened. The Upgrade-mission changed from 0% to 1%, which meant the growth process included maturing. "Yes!" he mumbled. Figuring out that Umbra''s growth was included in his Innate-skill upgrade mission, Shane was extremely pleased. In addition to that, Umbra¡äs loyalty had increased by another 2% during thest few hours. While eating, Shane asked the vendor how long the night was. She told him that it was nighttime for 38 hours to which he only nodded his head. This meant there were 2 and a half days left until it would be daytime and five and a half days before the next night. Maybe he woulde back in five days, but Shane was still unsure about that. Now, the most important thing for him was to leave this annoying rainy dimension. Hepletely disregarded the thought of staying there for another day as his primary goal had been achieved. There was no way he would descend the valley right after he had kidnapped Umbra and stirring the other shadow snakes and pythons was probably not the best idea. As such, Shane walked towards the Dimension Portal and selected another dimension with denser mana in its surrounding. The Primordial Dimension that Shane had selected was the Deep Mountain-river dimension which had arge mountain range and a vast river streaming through it. Shane paid two silver for the transportation fee which was double the normal amount for Basic-Dimensions. He knew that his expenses would only increase, with the increase in the number of beasts. But he was still smiling, as he saw his Finances when the two silver coins were deducted. [12 Gold coins and 25 Silver coins] This caused him to smile brightly, as he knew that all of his Nightshade flowers had been sold, but before he could look at the Shop log about the sold Nightshade flowers, he entered the Deep Mountain shelter. --- As Shane stepped through the Dimensional Portal, he was blinded by sunlight, and Umbra who was coiled around his hand hissed in fear when it noticed bright sunlight falling on its ck scales. Shadow snakes weren''t fond of sunlight, and would normally hate a sudden bright light that appeared out of nowhere. It was the case with the prismarine-luminous crystal from before when Shane was on a run after he had kidnapped Umbra. Both Shane and Umbra had to slowly adjust themselves to the feeling of bright sunlight. Shane found it rather pleasing as he had hated thest hours getting drenched in the Soul-Onyx Jungle dimension. On the other hand, Umbra had some problems, which caused it to hide inside Shane¡äs robe. Shane smiled lightly as he whispered "Just adjust yourself slowly.. You''ll have to...otherwise, the future will be troublesome for both of us." The meaning behind his words was not lost on Umbra causing him to hiss. He could sense that he would have to enter some annoying Primordial Dimension with Shane, which was frustrating. If Shane was honest, rather than strolling inside the Primordial Dimension, he wanted to return to Igra and cultivate there. Unfortunately, the federations were still gathering the resources and funds to purchase and awaken a symbiotic mana heart to fuse with Igra. Once they could awaken mana on Igra, everything would change. Even the youths below 16 could cultivate to a certain extent and learn more martial art techniques. They could refine their bodies with mana until they awoke their system and purchase, learn and use Primordial skills and technique. Shane was already an exceptional case with his physique of a 4th Mortal stage at the age of 16 without having a special trait or the usage of mana. But once Igra would awake its mana, the newer generation would be more powerful. Right now, humanity was scattered across many Primordial Dimensions and less than half of their poption lived on Igra. They had been doing everything that was possible to awaken the mana and gather more funds to keep their native safe. Additionally, the imminent threat from the nearby ster system caused humanity to feel extremely insecure about their future on Igra. On the human forums, not a single day passed without thousands of desperate humans cursing about the fact that they had to hunt, not only to keep themselves alive but also their entire race. It could be said that nobody with the slightestbat prowess was poor, because even mortal stages could earn enough from killing Wild beasts. Thus, they could earn a decent living but this didn''t mean that everyone was doing fine. The strong preyed on the weak and his father couldn''t protect everyone. Why else would there be guards patrolling through the streets of all human shelters? That wasn''t just because of the threat from the foreign races, but also to maintain harmony within the shelter. Shane was also aware of a few organizations that hated his father, saying he is a monarch suppressing humanity''s potential by doing nothing against the imminent threat from the outside. This frustrated Shane a lot because he knew that his father would give up everything for humanity, probably even his own son. But, these voices only began to emerge out of the darkness, after humanity made a treaty with the forest elves and mountain dwarves as a few unknown organizations rose to the top of humanity. They were partially supported by dark ice elves that weren''t included in the treaty which caused them contempt. Shane never understood the hate between the different elven races but apparently, the dark ice elven and some other elven races hated the forest elven. This was probably because they were neutral when the chaotic battles between the dark ice elves and the high-elves ensued. His father didn''t know about the bad blood between these races in the beginning. It had been a secret for a long time, and as such, he had dragged humanity into a perilous situation. But fortunately, the treaty was only to facilitate trade and a truce, not an agreement for supporting each other during warfares. Otherwise, Shane wouldn''t be surprised to see his father overthrown from his presidency. Ignoring these thoughts in his mind, he opened his shop''s log and was greeted with a pleasant surprise. Not only had everything been purchased within a short amount of time, but it had been a single customer to buy all the items sold by him. [113xNightshade flowers(81xTrash/32xCommon) have been purchased by [Yangdra Ugri] for 1177 silver coins +[10% Transfermission]+[15% Foreign race]] Shane¡äs eyes widened when he saw theplete message. He knew that there was a 10% transfermission but he had never heard about the 15% foreign race extra charge, which caused him to sweat slightly. In the end, Yangdra Ugri who bought the Nightshade flowers seemed to have paid almost 1450 silver coins which shocked him a little bit. But that was not everything, as there seemed to be a notification sent to his shop. [Mysterious NoPainNoGain shop owner, I''m terribly sorry to bother Sir, but my name is Yangdra Ugri and I am an esteemed merchant from the Corvi race. The Nightshade flowers from Sir¡äs shop were excellent and perfect for our purpose, but unfortunately not enough from its quantity. I hope that Sir can provide me with his contact details and we can make a deal outside the Shop regtions if more flowers are avable. Sir will definitely benefit from this trade more than trading via the Shop. Please contact my assistant |Yulgre Luor| if Sir is interested!!] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 15 - Trickster! Shane began tough out loud when he read the message while saying "What a bootlicker" when he noticed that he drew the attention of other people in the vicinity. Quieting down, he was about to message the Corvi merchant assistant, when he noticed some important facts. ''Are the Corvi really so desperate to make a deal with someone as low as me? The trade was for only slightly more than 100 Nightshade flowers. They are probably not enough to cover a field of 50 sq. meters with darkness transmuted mana...Weird!'' Shane thought about the message, but the more important matter was that he didn''t have a pseudonym until now! What if he made enemies with some human merchants or other races and they found out his true identity?? Shane didn''t want to imagine the consequences. He quickly stepped down from the Dimensional Portal when he noticed that he was blocking the pathway. Sitting down on the bench he sat before, he mulled over a good pseudonym for himself. The system charged 1 gold coin to create a pseudonym, but it was definitely worth the price, even though Shane was short of funds at the moment. After thinking for a few seconds, Shane decided to take an anagram, and [Orus] was picked as his pseudonym. After the system deduced 1 gold coin, Shane¡äs status changed slightly. _______________________ Title: [None] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-1st [Purity 0.00%] Body Refinement: [Mortal-4th] Cultivation Manual: [None] ![Artemis¡ä Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Trash-¡ï(+)| Finances: 11 Gold coins, 25 Silver coins _______________________ After looking at his status, Shane had to decide which tactic he should use to strike a deal. The most important fact was to not let the other side know that he didn''t have anything to trade at all. He had already sold all of his Nightshade flowers, and he wanted to return to the Soul-Onyx-Jungle shelter only after increasing his strength to a certain extent. However, the possibility of earning some more coins appealed to him. Thus, he wrote a message to the Corvi merchant¡äs assistant `Yulgre Luor` using his pseudonym. His Primordialnguage skill was extremely good but his writing could be better. But, there was nothing he could change about it, as of now. As such, he pressed send and closed his system to search for an Inn to stay at. Searching for amodation as soon as possible was always useful because it would be a waste of time to search in the dark at night. The DeepMountain shelter looked much better than the Soul-Onyx-Jungle. Shane looked around at the Inn''s interior hopefully. From the price alone, one could tell that it had to be much better than thest hotel he had stayed in because he had to pay 50 bronze coins for a single night. Walking inside his room, Shane immediately looked around and saw that the room was clean and devoid of odor or a foul smell. As such, he smiled and Umbra left the dark robe, looking fiercely at Shane who smiled innocently. Umbra needed some time to adjust itself, but it was good that it happened sooner thanter. Shane ignored the pain his first tamed beast had to go through, and it astonished him slightly, that Umbra¡äs loyalty didn¡ät decrease. Suddenly, he received a notification. It was a reply from the Corvi merchant''s assistant which surprised Shane, as it was extremely fast. Reading through the message, Shane was nodding at first until he nced through the attached price list. Thest sentence could be simply ignored as many races used some sort of motto and ignoring them would be better than starting a discussion. Calcting a few possible batches of Nightshade flowers through his mind, he frowned and replied with a self-made pricelist <¡úNightshade flowers(Trash)= 11 silver coins/each ¡ú Nightshade flowers(Common)=16.5 silver coins/each Take it or leave it. I''m doing business and not running a charity!> Shane stated, proud of his reply as he left the chat. It was a gamble and if everything worked both sides would still gain something. As such, he still considered that the Corvi race could cut down their expenditure by 25%. He would receive more profit, while the Corvi race had to pay less. Only a minuteter, he received a message. That was the message in its entirety, and Shane smiled brightly. Shane replied and left the chat with the Corvi assistant for good, without looking at the several notifications he receivedter. *On arge many gxies away from Igra* "ARGHH ORUS!! HE TRICKED ME!!!" One could see a feeble Corvi with deep blue plumage and bloodshot eyes screaming out loudly. Only after stating thest pricelist, she noticed that her opponent wasn''t a new merchant like her master had told him, which caused her to be tricked. Unfortunately, they had messaged each other through the system and the price lists they had exchanged were special. Once epted, they were binding on both the parties and if she didn''t want to pay a humongous fine, they had to pay as per the price list that she sent to Orus. "ARGGGG" She continued to scream and many Corvi looked at her in bewilderment. *DeepMountain shelter* Shane was smiling when he looked at Umbra but the thought of venturing back to the shadow snake valley gave him the chills. He decided to utilize his remaining wealth in the best way to increase his strength over the next few days. But before he could do anything, he had to purchase arger Spatial ring, because his 1 cubic meter one wouldn''t berge enough to store a few hundred Nightshade flowers. Fortunately, there was a market inside the Deep Mountain shelter with more human-friendly pricespared to the system that scammed him with its price of 8 gold coins for a 1 cubic meter spatial ring. Walking out of the Inn, Shane immediately went to the market, where hundreds of stalls were selling everything one would need to either cultivate or strengthen oneself. There were even skill tomes and cultivation manuals found inside Dimension ruins. But, they couldn''t be used by many people because most of them demanded certain physiques or other special means to learn them. Primordial Dimension ruins were random and they appeared anywhere out of the blue, without giving any prior signs. Once they appeared, multiple races targeted these ruins and bloodbaths emerged from the constant ughter. Some of them were temporary and manifested a dimensional rift in order to transport someone into a different ne that was connected to the ruin, while the others were ancient remains. Everything from these ruins was said to be exceptionally rare. Items from these ruins were equally hard to procure without paying a huge fortune. Sometimes even with enough wealth, it was impossible to receive certain unique resources, items, or special rewards, which made the ruins worthwhile. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 16 - Cultivation-Start! Shane had many things to purchase but only 11 gold coins in total, which was definitely not enough. Thus, his happiness knew no bounds when he found a slightly older five cubic meter spatial ring for five gold coins. He immediately bought it, without hesitating for a single second. Now, Shane had two spatial rings and definitely enough space to gather and store a bulk of Nightshade flowers. Nevertheless, Shane also bought 5 concealment-[Mortal(Trash)] and 5 Nightsight potions[Mortal(Common)] for 2 gold coins, reducing his whole fortune to 4 gold coins and 24 silver coins. From the remaining four gold coins, he set two gold coins aside to purchase something from the system soon. With thest two gold coins, he purchased two fist-sized [Mortal-(Umon)] mana stones to increase his cultivation speed, once he would start to cultivate. Even though Shane''s heart ached, each time he bought something, he knew that he would gain much in the long run. As such, he kept forcing a smile. Once he was done, Shane went towards a gigantic stone field that stood higher than some two-story houses. There was a huge mountain casting its enormous shadow on the equally vast stone field. As he neared the field, he could see arge number of humans basking in the bright sunlight, sitting on the ground as if they were meditating. This open stone field was used for cultivators to cultivate and absorb mana, which was invisible and said to be gaseous. It was best to absorb mana on a in field without walls, trees, or anything else obstructing it. The rich mana radiating from the mountain range flowed directly into the DeepMountain shelter almost as if it weed them with an affectionate hug. Entering the stone field would cost him 10 silver coins, and the amount of time one spent there didn''t matter, as long as one would not leave the stone field. Shane paid 10 silver coins and only now did he regret having chosen to purchase a room to sleep in. He was still new to the world of cultivation and mistakes were inevitable, but Shane still didn¡ät like the fact that he made another mistake. With him paying 10 silver coins to cultivate on the stone field, it meant he would at least stay here for a few days if everything went ording to his initial n. Though he wished to spend a few days here, he was worried that Umbra might get bored there and he may have to leave the field sooner than he had expected. Even if that would be the case, starting to cultivate with the perfect preparations was important! Sitting down on the outer circles of the stone field, Shane took out some food for himself and Umbra to eat, before he would start cultivating. Hoping that Umbra would fall asleep after eating, Shane also ate a small piece of pizza to prevent taking a breakter, if he were to be hungry. While eating, Shane purchased the lowest [Mana gathering manual[Mortal-(Bronze)] and [Mana purifying technique[Mortal-(Bronze)] technique for one gold coin each. These two techniques were required to learn how to cultivate. To learn how to gather mana, one would need the mana gathering manual and to purify the mana inside the mana pool, a mana purifying technique was indispensable. Both his techniques were abysmal. Though his replenishing and purifying technique were both bronze quality, they were only at the mortal stage. This meant that the best mana purifying technique could allow him to reach the 10th rank of the Mortal stage at most. This thought caused Shane to chuckle slightly... How should he reach the 10th Mortal stage with a [Mortal (Bronze)] purifying technique? Maybe, the 4th Mortal stage was more likely... To increase his cultivation rank and stage, Shane would have to increase his mana purity to a certain degree. Once he reached a mana purity of 1%, he would have to fill his mana pool to the brim and work together with the system to breakthrough. In the end, it could be said that cultivating in the earlier stages was rather easy, and it either required a ton of wealth or enough time and determination. WIth his mortal-bronze quality mana purifying technique, Shane could at most reach a mana purity of 3%. He would have to purchase a higher manual to increase his percentageter on. But to do that, he required more funds and he wanted to make a purchase only when he had enough to purchase a Tier-1 manual. He believed that it would be enough for him to reach the apprentice stage. But their price was around 10 Gold coins for a bronze quality manual. Shane estimated that he would have to spend 20 gold coins to increase his mana gathering speed while maintaining a nice bnce, to reach the apprentice stage. Considering that it would take a long time to get a miser without any resources to speed up the mana absorbing and purifying process, Shane hadn''t even added the price for nutrition solutions, a body refining technique to increase his physique and high-quality nutrition food which was needed to bnce out everything. In the end, Shane needed more funds and the recent deal he made with the Corvi race could be considered a huge opportunity that caused him to smile lightly. He was thinking of a way to kill the shadow pythons on the main Nightshade field inside the shadow snake valley. In a worst-case scenario, Shane would just go on a rampage and use some crafty tricks that his instructors had told him. As he held the two bronze manuals in his hands, a message popped up. [[Mortal-(Bronze)] Mana gathering manual detected--Initiate learning?] [[Mortal-(Bronze)] Mana purifying manual detected--Initiate learning?] Shane epted both messages and a vast amount of information streamed into his mind, answering many questions about cultivation that he had never even thought about. But, after all the information was shared with him, a warning appeared. [Host is not allowed to spread the cultivation methods he received from the system, otherwise, he will immediately be evicted from the Primordial Dimensions. Guiding others is allowed but overstepping the line will cause the system to warn the host three times at most. This is considered generous enough. Never overstep your boundaries, my dear host!!] `Dear host...my foot!! Don''t threaten me with your nice words¡­'' but now Shane understood why his father had never shared his cultivation methods or body refining techniques with him and a knowing expression formed on his face. Apparently, there was a reason why one had to purchase techniques and skills from the system!! One had to rely on the system and it somehow felt wrong to him... `Was every race dependent on the system and the Primordial Dimensions?` Shane questioned in his mind. He was shocked to think of the answer. It was creepy and scary at the same time even more questions streamed into his mind. He was hoping to find a nice and reassuring answer....but there was nothing. ''F**k let''s just hope that the system is nice¡­.for now'' Even if the system had bad intentions, he was one of thest ones who could do anything. There was an unknown, yet an uncountable number of beings that were stronger than him and even they relied on the system. Ignoring the fear that slowly crept through his body, Shane decided to cultivate, as he had learned a few moments ago. When he activated the mana gathering technique, he could faintly see a few mana particles in his surroundings, shining brightly. As Shane closed his eyes, he could sense them. ording to the mana gathering technique, he had to enter his mana pool with his mind and form a vortex within, which would slowly attract and absorb the mana in his surroundings. When the first few particles were drawn to him, his whole body suddenly seemed to open up. It was as if the particles were floating towards him on their own. He felt as if he wasn''t doing anything to attract them, except he had already created a small vortex in his mana pool. Unbeknownst to him [Artemis'' Blessing] had activated itself. Due to the blessing of nature that he had received from [Artemis'' Blessing], his aptitude towards mana was much more favorablepared to other humans. Most [Mortal-(Bronze)] mana gathering techniques would only be strong enough to gather a few mana particles each minute after exerting the technique for the first time. However, Shane had already gathered dozens of them within a single minute and his speed elerated further, the more familiar he became with the mana particles. Rather than being something strange and unknown to him, mana felt more like an old friend to Shane. He subconsciously increased the suction force of his vortex to the limit of the [Mortal-(Bronze)] manual which most youths were only able to do after a few weeks. Only half an hour had passed yet Shane''s mana pool was almostpletely filled. It was an unimaginable speed for someone who had experienced mana for the first time and in addition, learned how to handle it less than an hour ago. The mana particles in his mana poolbined with each other. Shane noticed that his mana pool was already filled, even though only a few moments had passed, ording to his senses. When Shane opened his eyes, a gleam full of vigor could faintly be seen shimmering in his ck eyes. He activated the mana gathering technique with his opened eyes to test it on something and looked around curiously. In contrast to the initial few mana particles that he could see in the beginning, Shane could now see hundreds of them all around the stone field. But instead of pride, determination could be seen in his eyes, as he swore to himself that he would purchase a better technique soon. He longed to feel more mana around him because the sensation was marvelous and addictive. Now, however, the more difficult step had to be done...purifying his mana by fusing andpressing the particles with each other! Whilepressing, Shane had to exert the purifying technique, while assembling the ck dots and gathering them, before he would exhale the impurities through the pores on his skin. This would emit a foul smell, but the whole stone field already reeked in impurities, as such everything would be fine. Once the mana waspressed and slightly purified, Shane would have to lead the purified mana through all of his mana channels. He would then have to create arge circle topletely annex it, making it his own mana. Before the annexation, the mana inside his mana pool couldn''t be considered truly his, but after the annexation waspletely done, it could be said that this mana was his own. Exerting the Mana purification technique, Shane could sense ck dots inside his mana pools. He began to work hard to cleanse the mana inside his mana pool to get stronger and stronger, while his determination soared even higher. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 17 - [Artemis Blessing] Shane was unsure how much time had passed, but it was already evening when a bunch of notifications flooded him. [[Artemis'' Blessing] activated, host can perceive impurities better] [[Artemis'' Blessing] activated, host''spatibility with mana increased due to him being blessed by nature] [[Artemis'' Blessing] activated, aptitude towards mana increased] [[Artemis'' Blessing] activated, host established amity with mana] [[Artemis'' Blessing] activated, host entered [Zone] due to [Hunter''s mind] and host''s innate determination] [[Artemis¡ä Blessing] activated, quality of [Mortal-(Bronze)] mana gathering & purifying techniques increased due to host''s undaunting will to be stronger, amity with mana, nature''s blessing, and innate mana aptitude] Shane was bewildered to read through the influx of messages... ''What happened? Since when can blessings do something like that? And why did his blessing go on a rampage like that? At least the messages sounded pleasing without or something like that¡­'' Establishing amity with mana, increasing his aptitude andpatibility with mana, and furthermore, even increasing the quality of his manuals, which Shane thought to be impossible, was amazing. There was no description about the [Zone] and Shane didn''t remember anything about such a thing. The only thing he roughly knew was that he couldn''t remember how much time had passed since he began to greedily devour mana to gather and purify it in quick session. This kept going on, and he lost the track of time, which was a rare urrence for him. Everything seemed to y into his hands, but Shane grew more curious about the origin of his blessing. He doubted the fact that it was from the System. On Earth, he was also loved by nature and was good at sports, which caused Shane to wonder if he had been blessed by Artemis in hisst life as well. [Artemis'' Blessing] said that his soul was blessed and Shane thought it might as well be his old soul that had transmigrated into the chaotic era on Igra. ''Was it also a coincidence that I awoke the Taming skill?'' Shane wasn''t sure and thinking about it didn''t bring him any benefits. As such, he looked at the time and opened his status panel afterward, to check how he had fared in cultivation in his first try. _______________________ Title: [None] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-1st [Purity 0.03%] Body Refinement: [Mortal-4th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Mortal-(Silver)] ¡úMana gathering [Mortal-(Silver)] [Artemis¡ä Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Trash-¡ï(+)| Finances: 4 Silver, 50 Bronze _______________________ A [0.03%] increase in mana purity in one sitting, could be considered extremely good. It was his first sitting and the more proficient he would get, the easier it would be to gather mana and purify it within a shorter amount of time. The cultivation manuals that he had used were also one of the worst possible, decreasing the potential oue further. Between his arrival in the DeepMountain shelter and now, roughly 4 hours had passed and it could also be said to be a good starting point. Shane had enjoyed his time learning how to cultivate and hadn''t realized how time had flown by. He wasn''t even remotely bored but eager to continue further. When he retrieved some food from the spatial ring to eat, Umbra woke up due to the nice aroma filling the stone field that reeked of a foul smell. The smell surrounding the stone field was extremely bad. Shane swore to himself that he would search for better spots to cultivate, as soon as he was more proficient with gathering mana. He had to at least cultivate through the night before leaving, to not waste the 10 silver coins he had paid. After telling Umbra that he would cultivate throughout the night, Umbra coiled itself on Shane''s head. He had a feeling that he would not be the only one to cultivate. All kinds of beasts had the Innate ability to gather mana and Shane was d to see that Umbra hadn''t thrown a tantrum about their current situation. The only slightly disadvantageous thing was that Umbra would absorb normal mana that hadn''t been transmuted. Due to this, Shane wasn''t sure if it would be as beneficial as darkness transmuted mana, or if Umbra''s growth would just take a longer time. Nevertheless, it would still be better than doing nothing. As such, Shane exerted his newly upgraded mana gathering manual with its silver quality to see hundreds of mana particles all around him. When he created a small vortex inside his mana pool, its suction force increased by at least 30%pared to earlier when he had exerted the [Mortal-(Bronze)] to its maximum capabilities. Everything was much clearer than before and Shane once again entered the [Zone], where focus and determination were solely directed towards cultivating. Within the Zone, it was futile to keep a track of time. Shane only knew that he had exerted the mana gathering technique once, before changing into exerting the mana purifying technique. Shane''s cultivation speed could be called ''exceptional'' as he effortlessly switched between exerting both techniques a few times, even though he only used a [Mortal-(Silver)] mana gathering and purifying technique. Cleansing the impurities within the mana seemed exceptionally easy after receiving the [Artemis'' Blessing] and entering the [Zone]. --- Waking up due to dozens of thoughts transmitted into his mind, Shane was forced to stop cultivating as he opened his eyes. Though he red at Umbra, he knew that his smallpanion was hungry. While taking out the only two dishes he had in his spatial ring, Shane noticed that the sun was already up. Once Umbra was supplied with food, Shane could look at the time. 12 hours had passed? Shane was confused, because to him it seemed like it was only half an hour when he began exerting his new enhanced silver quality cultivation manuals. But, it was definitely an advantage to lose the track of time while cultivating. Cultivation was seen as the most boring thing that had struck humanity since the Dimensional Portals had appeared. Nevertheless, cultivating was important to get stronger and one had to force his way through the Cultivation realms to increase one''s lifespan and strength to stay alive. In addition to that, one would be able to gain much more wealth once one reached higher realms by defeating stronger beasts and selling their corpses. As such, almost all humans forced themselves to cultivate even though it was boring. Thankfully, that wasn''t the case for Shane and he was overjoyed to nce through his mana purity. Earlier, he required slightly less than four hours to increase his mana purity by 0.03%. But now, it seemed like he had reached 0.17%. After calcting everything through, he realized that his cultivation speed had increased by roughly 55% which was definitely arge increase. This caused Shane to be happy and looking at the two fist-sized mana stones within his spatial ring, he couldn''t help but smile. Due to them having a [umon] quality, the quantity of mana inside them was enough to reduce the time of his mana gathering manual considerably. Umbra seemed to have grown to 12 centimeters, and it wouldn''t be long until he reached the 2nd-Wild stage. Thinking about that, Shane looked at the Upgrade-mission which had increased from 1% to 4%. It would take a few days until the required enhanced strength of 20% would be achieved, but Shane wanted to increase this speed slightly, after noticing that Umbra seemed bored. It had reached a loyalty of 18% which was a good thing. Shane went out of the stone tform, without hesitating a single second. After purchasing a few special DeepMountain shelter dishes, Shane''s fortune decreased to 3 silver coins. As such, even if Umbra hadn''t been bored, he would have had to enter the Mountain to either gather herbs or kill beasts in order to earn some living expenses. With Umbra coiled around his hand, Shane left the DeepMountain shelter, not forgetting to show his status as human in addition to his tamed beast. It attracted the attention of the guards slightly, as it was rare to see a ck scaled snake around the Deep Mountain-river Primordial DImension. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 18 - Berserk [Mountain Boar] After gaining a marginal amount of mana, Shane felt much more vigorous than before. As he circted it within his body he felt extremely rxed, and the tension within his mind and body had been cleansed. Having learned many martial art techniques which could be amplified by mana, Shane tested a few sequences. His mana cirction was rather crude and enhanced his techniques only by a small margin. While it increased the difficulty of observing the overall situation while fighting. As such he had to find weaker beasts that would fight him head-on instead of running away, like amber rabbits or curved horned sheep which could be found nearby. Thinking for some time, Shane recalled two beasts that met his requirements, that were at the low-Wild stage or barely at the 4th Wild stage(Mid-Wild). These were the [Mountain Boar] at the low-Wild stage with a strength of a mid-Wild beast. It had a high speed but was arge tropical beast and low on intelligence. The strongest mountain boars could even reach the 4th-Wild stage without evolving, but finding such boars near the shelter was extremely rare. Once evolved, the boars would venture deeper into the mountain range, leaving normal mountain boars alone. The second beast that came to his mind was a [Fanged Coyote], which was a beast that was almost at the 4th-Wild stage. Most fanged coyotes with higher quality could even reach the mid-Wild stage, while the lower quality fanged coyotes would stay at the peak of the 3rd-Wild stage. They were nimble and had razor-sharp fangs, like the name already indicated, while their defense was extremely weak. After pondering for a second, Shane decided to search for mountain boars due to two reasons. First, the corpse of a mountain boar was worth a lot more than a fanged coyote''s, and second, he wanted to search for arger number of beasts at once. As such, boars were the perfect target for him to hone his skills while earning a small ie. For now, Umbra would be entirely useless with his fangs, as they couldn''t even prate the thick hide of the boars until it grew stronger. It was a sad but true fact and Shane knew that he couldn''t change it. Even if Umbra was to fight coyotes, Shane wouldn''t allow it to fight them head-on. As such, he did what he wanted to do. Shane walked towards the small forest on the outskirts of therge mountain in front of the shelter. He was eager to know what kinds of beasts he would see and how long it would take for him to meet the first group of mountain boars. Umbra had already adjusted itself to the harsh sun. It was hiding beneath the robe on Shane''s shoulder, with only its head sticking out of the cor. Like his master, Umbra also wanted to explore the outside but knew that it was too weak. As such, Umbra listened to Shane and admired the surroundings. Only a few minutes had passed since Shane circted his mana within him in order to increase his proficiency with mana control. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a small flock of mountain boars. There were three mature and two adolescent mountain boars that were slightly smallerpared to the others. From the looks of it, the matured mountain boars were all at the 3rd-Wild rank, while the adolescent mountain boars were at the 2nd-Wild rank, causing Shane to smile at the sight. Thankfully, the boars hadn''t spotted him so he tried to sneak up to them, gaining a small advantage once he would attack. On Earth, he would have never even thought of attacking or killing beasts, but thest eight years hadpletely changed his life as he had already killed thousands of cruel beasts. As such his animal-loving behavior had changed into something cruel and cold, that didn''t even differentiate between innocent and guilty, carnivore and herbivore, which shocked him sometimes. Nothing of that mattered and the only excuse Shane would ept to not kill beasts, was that he couldn''t gain anything from them or them being cubs or hatchlings. Maybe, he would also make exceptions for pregnant beasts, but for anything else, Shane would have to think about it. Sneaking up to the mountain boars that grazed on the flourishing green grass in front of them, Shane suddenly bent, lowering himself even further. He then circted mana into his lower body, and shot up, once he was at a distance of ten meters from his prey. With his physique of a 4th-Mortal stage, he could attain a shocking speed. With his high eleration, he had crossed the distance in a single moment. The mountain boars squealed in shock and roared at Shane to intimidate him, but it was already toote. He thrust out with his dagger, shing through the neck of the first matured mountain boar, causing a blood fountain to spurt out of the wound. As he withdrew the dagger out of the wound, more blood spurted out, spraying on Shane''s face. He adjusted his stance and elerated once again right at the two adolescent mountain boars that looked at the copsing matured mountain boar with shock. After recovering from their initial shock, they wanted to charge at Shane with wrath in their eyes. But their mother had already charged towards Shane, once it noticed that its partner was murdered. Shane noticed the matured mountain boar charging at him from the site, and used a small amount of mana and the tree next to him, to catapult himself slightly into the air. His sudden movement caused the mountain boar to miss him, before it crashed into the tree, causing it to shake heavily. Before it could regain its senses, and turn around, it had already heard the two adolescent mountain boars roaring out. Only a momentter, their painful squeal was thest sound that resounded throughout the forest, before their lifeless corpses copsed on the ground. Circting mana around his lower body was already difficult while fighting at a numerical disadvantage. Shane didn''t even want to imagine fighting against more powerful beings while exertingplicated techniques with his mana during fights. As expectations about his future fights soared even higher in his mind, he killed the adolescent mountain boars before he vanished within the adjacent bushes. The other mature mountain boar charged at Shane and with him vanishing within the bushes, there were only two things it could do. Either it could stop the charge and wait patiently for Shane to return or ignore the imminent threat lurking in the bushes and charge inside, without caring about the consequences. Due to the low intelligence of the mountain boar, it chose the second option and charged through the bush, without caring that Shane was hiding behind a tree that stood next to the bush. Once the mature mountain boar charged through, Shane thrust his dagger towards its hind leg. He would more likely injure himself by attacking the shoulder or more vital areas during a full charge from the peak low-Wild stage mountain boar. Thrusting his dagger towards the hind leg, Shane was once again at an advantage as the boar lost its bnce caused by the severed hind leg. It copsed on the ground and tried in vain to rise up again. The few rays of light that shone through the lush forest were obstructed by a bipedal being who looked at him with cold eyes as the shiolite dagger pierced into its neck, killing the mountain boar within seconds. Storing the dead body within his spatial ring, Shane heard a loud and enraged roaring from thest mountain boar that was still alive. The female mountain boar hadn''t seen him vanish into the bush, so Shane pushed aside a few leaves to scan the surroundings. Seeing thest mountain boar, his eyes gleamed lightly. ''It went Berserk? I am really fortunate, huh?'' Shane thought. Normally people would be extremely scared to see berserk beasts, irrespective of the race they belonged to, as it was an extremely terrifying state some beasts entered, under special circumstances. The mostmon scenarios that triggered the berserk state in a beast were when they had to face annihtion, abduction of a female beast''s cubs, or deep wrath and agony erupting from within them. In the case of the female boar, not only had Shane killed all of itspanions but also her offsprings, which was definitely enough. Due to the berserk state she was currently in, the female mountain boar lost all reasoning and its strength increased by approximately 30%. But more importantly for Shane was that one could obtain an [Title] after defeating a certain number of Berserk beasts. Shane hadn''t nned out this scenario, but he was happy about the way the situation had turned out to be. He observed the beast quietly that could only roar and run around wildly without a target to vent its anger. Seeing the dead bodies of her offsprings was even worse. Once the berserk mountain boar was near the bush that Shane had been hiding in, he used all his remaining mana to circte it within his lower body. His velocity increased to the limits while pushing himself from the ground. Hearing the rustling of leaves, the berserk mountain boar could barely see Shane''s outline, as it roared out once again before it began to charge at him. It would have n imagined that Shane would jump to the side, avoiding her charge, and at the same time thrust the shiolite dagger into her chest, bereaving her from her lifeforce, ending her wrath and agony. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 19 - Taking Advantage Of The System Sighing in relief, Shane stored the carcasses of the female mountain boar and another adolescent mountain boar, before he noticed that his spatial rings were fully crammed. ''Oh...there was this problem..'' Shanemented, as he entered his lowest-basic shop [NoPainNoGain] and threw the corpses into two of the vacancies. Laughing inwardly, Shane was happy to have heard of this loophole made by the System. Every item ced in the shop would vanish from the spatial ring and appear within the vacancy. Due to the mountain boars being two different ranks, two vacancies were used. [2x(low-Wild) adolescent [Mountain Boar] [3x(low-Wild) [Mountain Boar] were stored only a minute after the battle was finished and Shane''s spatial rings were still empty again. It was only due to the `stacking` of corpses and items within the exhibition, that Shane was able to do that. The prices hebeled the corpses at, were 1 and 2 silver respectively. It was roughly the price he would gain from the DeepMountain shelter, as the hide, tusks, and meat were useful. If someone would purchase the corpses from his shop, why not? And if nobody purchased them, Shane didn''t mind taking them outter to sell them to a butcher or at the [Beast Paradise] that bought all beasts for slightly below the average price. Unfortunately, items that were ced within the store, couldn''t be sent over a long distance through the system once again, like Shane wanted to do with the Nightshade flowers. Storing the Nightshade flowers within the store and sending themter in batches to the Corvi race was not possible, because the system set a trading ban on the items ced within the store. This was also the cause why Shane had to purchase the five cubic meters spatial ring. He had to store the Nightshade flowers within his spatial ring to send them to the Corvi race through the system without using the store. One could say that it was unfortunate but Shane had to purchase a spatial ring either way. His one cubic meter spatial ring couldn''t store beasts like the mountain boar, due to their length exceeding slightly over a meter. As such his five golds weren''t wasted and the only thing he had to reconsider was to gain a fortune due to his high investment into the spatial ring. There was still a vacancy left inside his store, but he wanted to leave it open for the possibility of encountering a mid-low mountain boar and selling its carcass. Shane decided to go further into the forest because the blood spilled by his small ughter would most likely attract a few beasts. While walking around, Shane asked himself how many `berserk` beasts he had to kill, before he would gain the title he aspired to have. It was said to be one of the easiest essible titles. There were still more than enough humans that didn''t have a single title, even after years, which was probably caused by theirziness. Titles could bring different advantages and effects, but they were useful in almost all cases. Except for a few titles, that caused humanity to see some humans in an unfavorable light. [Species-ughterer] for example was the title of someone who massacred his own race... A certain mass murderer that his father had killed, had the title which gave him a huge enhancement in strength. It caused his skill to be enveloped in a dense blood aura which increased his lethal power by arge margin. Even though his father was on a higher stage, it was said that this man could almost fight on par with him. There were still a few more reasons why that was possible, like certain skills that he could have received from a hostile race, but the main factor was the title. Since Shane found that out, he had started to research titles. The easiest achievable was apparently [Berserk-Hunter], but within the thread, there was not much helpful information. As such, Shane searched around for more mountain boars as their group always had a female boar within them. Deciding to kill the female boar, atst, made him feel cruel, but bing stronger was more important to him than being merciful. ''If dad would hear my words, would he be proud?'' Shane thought as he remembered the disgust in his father''s eyes when he had denied killing other living beings at the tender age of 8 years. Thinking about his life, Shane wasn''t sure what exactly he should do about his father... Was he loved or raised up to be a killing machine? Shane didn''t know for sure but thest ray of hope was his first life. He held onto that feeble ray of hope and decided that he wasn''t going to end up like the killing machine his father wanted him to be. With a few exceptions, he would decide what he wanted to be, without anyone manipting him. Shane would rather end everything with a treaty, to let all races end up with a win-win situation. Only if every effort is wasted without a different oue, Shane would want to fight. But considering other beasts, he didn''t see them as anything else except as a means to hone his skills and earn money. Not much time had passed until Shane had found his next prey and there was only a small group with a single family consisting of mother boar, adolescent mountain boar, and a male boar. Sneaking up to them, Shane killed the matured male without much effort. Though he had sessfully evaded the female mountain boar''s charge with nimble steps, the adolescent mountain boar also rushed at him. This was, however, much better for Shane, as he thrust his dagger into the sides of the charging adolescent mountain boar until it crashed into its mother, where it died after letting out a painful squeak. Hearing its offspring utter the horrendous squeal at its dying breath, made the mountain boar''s hair stiffen. Its eyes turned bloodshot red and were filled with deep hatred that was targeted against the being that had destroyed its whole life in an instant. The mountain boar couldn''t see Shane as it turned around, searching for him. It looked up, just in time to notice the being that had killed its offspring pounce on its back. The boar was taken aback by the surprise attack and before it could react, the dagger had shed through its neck. Shane adjusted his position immediately after he gravely injured the adolescent mountain boar. He wanted to wait until the mother boar finished her transformation into the berserk mode, but it happened faster than expected. This caused him to push himself from a nearby tree while circting some mana into his lower body. Thanks to his already high physique and the cirction of mana, he pushed himself two meters above the ground, where the boar couldn''t see him. As he thrust the dagger in its neck, the mountain boar''s life essence vanished after its whole body shook vigorously, as if it couldn''t ept its defeat. Having killed two berserk beasts, Shane began to wonder how many of them he had to enrage until he would receive the title. Throwing the additional corpses into his store, Shane noticed that not a single one had been sold. It was not that umon, as his store was way too small for anyone to notice and the quantity he provided was not enough. Without reputation, Shane would never receive anything, with the exception of desperate races like the Corvi race. They probably employed hundreds of merchants to search for all kinds of darkness transmuting items all over the Primordial Shops. Shane was probably only one of a few thousand to receive a bootlicking message from the Corvi merchant. However, Shane thought that not many had probably the same luck as he had when he tricked the merchant''s assistant. He estimated that she was rtively new to her job and not that proficient with the system''s regtions, which caused her to make such an amateur mistake. Even though the system was rather crude with its prices, he couldn''t say anything bad about it, except that one had to rely on it to grow stronger and survive. Its regtions were mostly fair and until now, Shane had never heard about an unfair treatment given to humans or other races, by the system. There may be some, but the loophole in the system yed into Shane''s hands, and as such, there was no reason for him to decline it. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 20 - Title [Berserk-Hunter] Time flew by and it was already afternoon when Shane hunted seven more berserk mountain boars. In total, Shane killed eight 2nd-Wild adolescent mountain boars and 18 3rd-Wild matured mountain boars, while not a single mid-Wild stage mountain boar had been scouted by him. Umbra was still looking around with interest, but he couldn''t really help, as his strength was way too less for even the adolescent mountain boars. There had only been one time when Umbra had helped him slightly when he manifested a thin shadow attributed needle to attack a berserk mountain boar. The needle had pierced its eyes, saving Shane from sustaining an injury. Before that, Shane hadn''t known that Umbra was able to do that. Umbra''s affinity was the lowest-basic and he was only at the peak of the 1st-Wild stage which was almost nothing. But, it had been a fortunate incident for him. After that, Shane tried to figure out a fighting style that included Umbra''s help, even though it would only help by a marginal degree. He was about to go back to the shelter when he suddenly saw arge group of more than 10 mountain boars. The pack consisted of four female mountain boars, five younglings, and two male mountain boars. Looking at thisrge group, Shane felt that it would be nice to have four berserk mountain boars, but fighting against ten opponents at the same time seemed unrealistic. Excluding the weak force of the low-2nd Wild youngling boars which he could easily massacre with his physique andbat prowess, the only problem would be fighting four berserk mountain boars at the same time. Shane also ignored the fact that two male mountain boars were present. ording to him, the only threat from the whole group were the berserk beasts. Still, Shane wanted to give it a try. He had already imprinted the behavior, intelligence andmon movement pattern mountain boars normally took once a brethren had been killed, in his mind and was fully prepared. Furthermore, he roughly knew his surroundings after spending a few hours there. He had also spotted a special ce he could use and forming a n in his mind, Shane began to smile widely. Positioning himself, Shane sneaked closer to therger group of mountain boars. He then circted the mana inside his lower body, and pushed himself from the ground with fast strides, reaching a decent speed. The mountain boars were grazing quietly, oblivious to Shane who had crept in the center of the group in slow and steady steps. He thrust out his dagger in a nimble and elegant manner before twisting his body to inflict serious injuries on the mountain boar younglings that stood in the center to protect the others. Having noticed the presence of a hostile being amongst them, the matured mountain boars roared out in rage. They noticed their offspring''s blood sttering through the air which caused their mind to go nk as they heard the painful squeals. The male mountain boars charged at Shane but they had to stop in between. Their sole opponent was surrounded by the dead bodies of their offsprings whichy on the ground with blood pooling on the ground. Smiling lightly, Shane waited for a second, before he took out the prismarine-luminous crystal and injected mana into it, causing a bright light to appear, dazzling the mountain boars around him. Before long, the prismarine-luminous-crystal shattered, while Shane''s mana waspletely used up. But, the bright shining light had given him enough time to escape out of the mountain boars'' shallow guarded center. Once the mountain boars could see again, they noticed Shane''s disappearance and the life force in their offspring dissipating, which caused them to cry out in agony. All four female mountain boars'' hair stiffened, while their eyes turned red, causing the male boars to be intimidated. Looking around in their berserk state, they noticed Shane standing far away, waving at them. His actions infuriated all six mountain boar''s and they mindlessly charged at him. If they had even the tiniest speck of intelligence in their small brain, they would have noticed that Shane had jumped across a four-meter width cliff that was difficult to see without looking carefully around. The cliff was slightly less than 15 meters deep, 50 meters long and only four meters wide. Ignoring the imminent death facing them, they only focussed on Shane, the murderer of their offsprings, and charged straight at him. Once they were five meters apart, a sane male mountain boar noticed that there was a three-meter wide cliff between them. But with their current speed, it was impossible for them toe to an abrupt halt. As such, it tried to jump across the cliff but with its short leg and heavy weight. The male mountain boar was barely able to cross a distance of two-meter before it smashed into the wall below, falling down the cliff, breaking its legs and many more bones in its body. Six loud THUMPS could be heard and Shane had to be fast as the possibility for the mountain boars to die before he arrived, couldn''t be ignored. Bones piercing through internal organs was not something to scoff at. Descending the cliff, Shane arrived at the base within a minute. He could only smile apologetically to see the berserk mountain boars struggle to stand up. Seeing him, they roared in pain and anger. But they knew everything was over when Shane stabbed at the nearest male mountain boar. They could never ept this oue, and still tried everything in their power to injure their opponent even though it was very painful. Unfortunately, most of their bones were shattered and they couldn''t even move around freely anymore. One after the other, Shane ended their life with a clean cut through their neck, dissipating their lifeforce. After killing the third berserk mountain boar within this group, the long-awaited mechanical voice resounded in his head. [Host killed 10 berserk beasts and is rewarded with the title [Berserk-Hunter(F) Grants Skill [Berserk(F)] as long as the title is selected.] But Shane had no time to celebrate, as there was still a berserk mountain boar and another male mountain boar left alive. Ending their lives, Shane stored their bodies within his store, before he climbed up the small cliff once again to store the youngling mountain boars. While climbing up the cliff, Shane looked at the message he had received, and quickly inspected the skill he had received through his newly obtained title. [Berserk(F)]: Strength, mana cirction, and mana-outburst increase by 10%, for 10 seconds. 3 uses/day Right after reading through the description, Shane was disappointed because he had dreamt about an OP skill. However, after rereading it multiple times, he thought that it could still be considered a decent ability. This skill coulde in handy when fighting against an opponent with thepletely samebat prowess. It could not only increase his strength but also his mana cirction and mana outburst. Right now, he could only use the increase in mana cirction and strength because he didn''t own an affinity or skill which required his mana outburst. Considering the 10% and 10 seconds, Shane found it sufficient for one of the easiest obtainable titles. While pondering over the things one could do in 10 seconds, he thought it might even bebeled as above average, while the 10% increase in all aspects was, at most, average. After he stored the carcasses inside his store and allocated thest spot of his store to the youngling corpses, Shane journeyed to the shelter, where he arrived an hourter. Entering the shelter, the first thing Shane did, was searching for a hotel, where he would sleep tonight! Paying 50 bronze coins, Shane went inside and locked the door to force himself not to go outside, because he had a bad feeling that he would once again sleep somewhere else. Slithering out of his robe, Umbra hissed and demanded food. Shane retrieved the food from the spatial ring, after washing his dirty hands and thepletely mud-soaked face, he noticed within the reflection of the water. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 21 - Quality Amplification Shane and Umbra ate until their bellies were filled to the brim. When Shane looked outside the window, he saw the prismarine-luminous crystal streetmps brightening up their surroundings, while they were weekly supplied with mana. When Shane used the prismarine-luminous crystals, he overclocked them with a higher than required dose of mana, causing a much brighter light to dazzle the shadow snakes and mountain boars. Unfortunately, overclocking the prismarine-luminous crystal would slowly destroy the inner structure and cause them to crumble, as it happened to his small crystal. Nevertheless, the investment was definitely worth the costs. Shane was pleased as he retrieved one of the fist-sized mana stones at the [Mortal-(Umon)] rank from his spatial ring. Mana could still faintly enter houses and other buildings through gaps or cracks. But, on exerting the mana gathering techniques, Shane noticed that,pared to the surroundings, there were at most 10% mana particles inside his room. Nevertheless, Shane wanted to absorb and purify his mana for a few hours before sleeping and even Umbra looked at the mana stone with greed. Umbra curled himself on top of the mana stone, while Shane held it in his hands, after sitting in the meditation stance to increase the efficiency of the mana gathering and purifying technique. As Shane continued to exert the mana gathering technique, before purifying the gathered mana, three hours passed. The mana stone''s light slowly dissipated, as it crumbled in his hands. There were still many mana particles floating around the room due to his weak graded mana gathering technique. Once mana was released from mana stones, they wouldn''t stop releasing it until emptying themselvespletely. Thus, if the output wasrger than one''s input, the excess mana particles would float through the air. Shane could still absorb more mana, but he looked at his mana purity instead. It had already reached [0.23%] which was not satisfying for Shane. But, he hadn''t slept for thest 40 hours and experienced more tension than he had umted in his whole new life together. As such, he could barely remember taking a nce at Umbra who looked at him pleadingly. He retrieved thest fist-sized umon quality mana stone from his spatial ring when darkness enveloped him, pushing him into a well-deserved sleep. ------ Hourster when Shane opened his eyes, it seemed as if the morning had almost passed. When he checked the time, with his half-lidded eyes it was 10 am. Shane''s eyes widened as he scrambled to get up from his bed, straightening his back. `Argh!! I didn''t want to waste time and now I''ve slept so long?` hemented when he noticed a shattered stone next to him. Looking around in confusion, Shane thought that he had already cleared the mana stone remains. But, then he recalled that he had taken out hisst mana stone for Umbra, and searched for the small fe. Not much time had passed until he found the `small` culprit. However, instead of being enraged, Shane''s brows furrowed seeing an 18-centimeter long snake with deep-ck shining scales instead of the small 12 centimeters Umbra with slightly dirty scales¡­ He was about to ask who that was, as he sensed a connection between himself and the snake, and Shane''s eyes widened. That was Umbra?? How is this small boy growing so fast? Looking at Umbra''s stats, Shane was even more confused. _______________________ Name: [Umbra¡á] Race:[Shadow-snake] Rank: [Low 2nd-Wild stage(Low-Wild)] Quality: [Umon](+) |Evolution|(+) Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow) Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)] Loyalty: [21%] _______________________ It was obvious that Umbra''s strength increased and reaching the 2nd-Wild stage was the proof for that, while the increase of its loyalty to 21% was already pleasing to see. What confused Shane however, was something else. In front of Umbra''s quality, there was a (+), which wasn''t there before, and after clicking on it another message appeared below. [Quality enhancement] Increases the quality by a minuscule degree. Shane had never seen this before and looking through his notification log, he noticed something important. [Taming|Trash|] Upgrade-Mission |¡ï¡ï| ¡ú Tame a beast and increase its strength by 20%, aplished! Reward: [Growth boost] Boost''s the growing speed of tamed beasts by a small margin] [ Upgrade-Mission |¡ï¡ï¡ï| Possess a tamed beast with [Common] quality!] [Taming|Trash|] Upgrade-Mission |¡ï¡ï¡ï|¡ú Possess a tamed beast with [Common] quality, aplished! Reward: [Quality enhancement] Increases the quality by a minuscule degree] [Upgrade-Mission |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï |¡ú Let your tamed beast fight against a stronger beast without the host''s support!] Looking at the mass of messages, Shane couldn''t help but smile widely as he let out a lightugh, which caused Umbra to look at him weirdly. It took him some time to get back to his senses when he looked at his status. _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-1st [Purity 0.23%] Body Refinement: [Mortal-4th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Mortal-(Silver)] ¡úMana gathering [Mortal-(Silver)] ![Artemis'' Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Trash-¡ï¡ï¡ï(+)| -[Growth boost] -[Quality enhancement] Finances: 70 silver _______________________ Even though Shane tried to, he couldn''t hide his smile anymore. Umbra coiled itself around Shane''s hand as he sensed Shane''s happiness and due to their deepened connection, he also felt joyous, even though he didn''t know what was going on. Shane was deep in thoughts for a while as he read through the status when he noticed that his finances were a lot more than they should have been. There could only be one answer to this and it was exactly as Shane had predicted. When he entered his store once again, there was nothing inside anymore. The whole store waspletely cleaned out and Shane smiled lightly, thinking that he should have increased the price for the boars. Eight adolescent boars were sold for one silver coin each, the 24 adult boars he hunted were worth two silver coins per corpse and the five younglings were also worth two silver coins. The price for the younglings was as expensive as their parents'' because the meat was more tender and delicious. Though they didn''t have anything else worthy, the meat and organs could definitely be described as valuable. ncing at the store log, he noticed that it was once again a single individual that had bought his entire stock. But, this time, it was a human and probably someone from a butcher shop who had gained some profits due to him. Looking once again at the time, Shane calcted that there were still slightly more than 3 days left until the Soul-Onyx-Jungle would enter another long night. As such within the next three days, he should increase his capabilities as much as possible. Thinking about the different paths he could choose to increase his strength to the most perfect way within three days, Shane noticed that he could at most increase his cultivation by one rank, if he focused solely on it, while his physique couldn''t be increased without a suitable body refining technique. Hisbat prowess was already decent and gaining funds to y around with prismarine-luminous crystals could be a way to enter the shadow-snake valley, even if it was rather crude. Furthermore, he was unsure if he would damage the Nightshade flowers with too much light or even decrease their magical effect, causing the already stated price list to lose its validity. As such, Umbra and solving more upgrade missions seemed to be the easiest way to increase his strength! Looking at Umbra, Shane noticed that he was once again hungry and the same applied to himself. Taking out a bunch of dishes, he had to remember to purchase more food henceforth. This note was even more important after he saw Umbra gobbling down the dishes as if they were snacks. Looking at Umbra, he could only sigh deeply and take out a few more dishes,menting about having tamed an insatiable fe. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 22 - Go Umbra! For his next Upgrade-Mission, Umbra had to defeat a stronger beast than himself without Shane''s help and if Shane was honest, he wasn''t exactly sure how to do that. ''What was even the exact meaning of `stronger? Was it only the rank or something else?` Shane thought but there was no definite answer so he had to find out for himself. ''If Umbra has to defeat a stronger ranked beast, it would probably have to be a 3rd-Wild beast, preferably a new advanced one, or maybe only a mid-2nd Wild beast?'' But there was also the possibility that ''stronger'' could be described differently. If one was topare canine beasts and mices on the same rank with each other, canines were innately superior and ''stronger'' due to their gic model and them being predators. There were many mid-and-high-ranked fishes that weren''t proficient in fighting, within the Primordial Dimensions. Shane was confident that Umbra''s thin shadow needles could kill them by piercing through their eyes, but would that be considered as being stronger? How far-fetched would he have to think? Assuming that it was only an upgrade-mission for a trash quality innate skill, Shane thought that he wouldn''t have to think that far, at least that was what he hoped. After they finished eating, both of them went outside once again. Shane had already sifted through his memory and the threads on PrimWeb inside the human section about all kinds of weak beasts at the 3rd-Wild beast. There were many different kinds of horned koi''s, two-tailed perches, salmons, and a thousand other fishes with a higher stage and a few of them could even be found close to the DeepMountain shelter. This caused Shane to be relieved, and searching for the river nearby the shelter, he noticed some fanged coyotes which he would normally avoid. Pondering for a second, he saw that there were only around five of them and they didn''t seem to be on guard, as they drank water. The only thing they checked was if something attacked them out of the water, which indicated that some sort of stronger beasts resided inside the river. As such, Shane immediately disregarded the thought of looking out for beasts withoutbat power in the river. Nevertheless, the fanged coyotes in front of him could be considered an opportunity as he sneaked closer to them while telling Umbra to hide in the bushes. He transmitted his n to Umbra, who looked uncertainly at Shane. Shane tried to cheer up his reptilian friend but it wasn''t helpful. While he sneaked closer from the right, Umbra activated its ability [One with the Darkness(Trash)] to merge with the shadow of the bushes and trees to some extent. Circting his mana into his lower body, he suddenly elerated towards the riverside, where the fanged coyotes were still drinking. Shane had been too far from them to reach their group unnoticed. Once he was close enough, he threw a few stones at them before he turned around to run away. The fanged coyotes were enraged and at the same time overjoyed, because a delicious prey had appeared in front of them at the perfect timing, as it was lunchtime for them. Pursuing Shane, they passed the tree Umbra was hiding, when four paper-thin needles pierced through the leaves right into the weakest and also slowest fanged coyote, prating its low mana resistant fur. Feeling dizzy, thest fanged coyote suddenly slowed down. When Umbra attacked the weakest fanged coyote, Shane turned around at the exact same time and charged straight at his four opponents with a faint smile and his unsheathed dagger. While the dizzy fanged coyote was still wondering what happened, it felt its leg numbing. When it looked down, it could only feel a sting at its lower body and a ck scaled tail before its vision blurred. After being hit by four paper-thin darkness needles and two bites enveloped with transmuted mana, the harmful effects caused by the shadow mana stacked and caused even the low-3rd Wild stage fanged coyote to be overwhelmed, even though it was still not dead. However, there was not much the fanged coyote could do anymore, except struggle for a little bit, whimpering with the slight hope of getting rescued by its brethren. This futile effort was not rewarded as Shane bent his body towards the ground and nimbly avoided the razor-sharp maws and ws of the fanged coyotes. Due to his 4th Mortal staged physique, he was still slightly faster than his opponents. He used this advantage to the fullest while circting his mana into the legs to increase his speed by a small margin. Inflicting shallow injuries onto the fanged coyotes, only three minutes passed until the pressure on Shane lessened by a considerable degree. The first one copsed on the ground leaving a puddle of blood as decoration on the ground. Time passed slowly and Shane knew that Umbra had already assassinated his opponent. Still, he yed safe, instead of risking an injury in order to help out Umbra because it was simply not needed. Three minutester Shane emerged as a winner without having sustained a single cut, while dozens of cuts filled the fanged coyotes'' bodies. Storing away all bodies within the store''s vacancy, Shane selected a price of 30 bronze coins which was roughly the same he would get at the shelter. If someone purchased it for the same amount at the shelter, why shouldn''t he sell it within his shop? There was nothing bad about that, rather it would be considered good. To unlock the upgrade section for his shop, he would have to earn 1000 gold through the shop as the first requirement, and achieving that would take some time. At least, that was Shane''s opinion and he smiled lightly, looking at the system notification that he received. [[Taming|Trash|] Upgrade-Mission |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï| ¡ú Let your tamed beast fight against a stronger beast without the host''s support, aplished! Reward:[Affinity amplification] amplifies the affinities of all tamed beasts slightly.] [[Upgrade-Mission] |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï| Increase the loyalty of one of your tamed beasts to 30%(21%)] Shane was overjoyed to look at the reward he received, but his smile immediately vanished, upon reading the next mission¡­ ''How should I be able to influence this glutton''s loyalty?'' He wondered. The only thing Shane could think of was giving him enough savory food. But rather than forcefully increasing Umbra''s loyalty, Shane decided to try it with care as he went back into the shelter to purchase a huge quantity of food, worth 3 silver coins. They ate a few dishes until their bellies were full. Shane stored the leftover food before he left the shelter once again because it was barely lunchtime. Walking outside the shelter''s protection was still rtively safe within a radius of three to five hundred meters, where he could see many couples on a pic while some youths were honing their skills. Some of them were gathering mana from their surroundings and Shane wanted to do the exact same thing. Without wasting 10 silver coins, he wanted to gather and purify mana outside the shelter. Leaning on arge tree, rtively close to the shelter, Shane sat down in a meditation stance. Umbraid down on top of his head, partially fusing with his ck hair, as he curled around himself. Somehow, curling around was the cultivation position of most snakes, and seeing that, Shane smiled as both of them seemed to have a simr ambition to get stronger. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 23 - Meaning Of High Mana Purity It was not umon to see someone cultivating outside the shelter, but it was rather rare to see a ck scaled snake curled up on someone''s head while cultivating. The unusual sight attracted some attention from the couples and other cultivators who walked past him. They remained silent, as long as they were close to him, but once they distanced themselves, they began gossiping with each other. Shane was seen as some sort of attraction by a few bored passers-by, but he himself did not notice anything in his surroundings. He only saw the magic particles surging towards him and above his head towards Umbra. Shane was still unsure what the [Zone] was, but apparently, every time he cleared his head to cultivate, he subconsciously activated it. After a few hours, Umbra stopped cultivating after a long time, when hunger awoke him. Shane, who was already ustomed to Umbra''s gluttony, subconsciously took a few dishes out of his spatial ring, without losing much focus on his main task, which was to gather the mana in his surroundings. Gathering and purifying mana one after the other was done for a long time until a notification popped up, and his mana gathering speed was forcefully slowed down. [Host overstepped the limited amount of time to cultivate. Initiating slower mana gathering & purifying process until host''s body regenerates enough to cultivate once again] Opening his eyes, Shane looked around when he noticed that the sun was still shining and a confused expression could visibly be seen on his face. Looking at Umbra who returned his gaze with hunger and a slight dejection, Shane noticed that his smallpanion grew to 21 centimeters. It almost reached the mid-2nd Wild stage, which was a terrifying growth speed owing to Umbra''s high quality and Shane''s boost from his Innate-Skill. Umbra''s loyalty had increased to 24% which was also good news. But everything seemed weird to Shane right now and looking at the time on the system''s panel, his eyes widened. ''It''s already morning??'' Shane almost shouted out, and only now did he understand the notification from the system. He had cultivated for almost 20 hours and looking at his status panel, he noticed that his mana purity had reached [0.56%] which caused a radiant smile to blossom on his face. There were still slightly more than two days left until the nighttime inside the Soul-Onyx-Jungle would begin. If he were to give his best, he might as well reach 1%, meeting the requirement to increase his rank by one, and enhance his mana pool slightly. But, this wouldn''t be everything. Once Shane reached 1%, enveloping himself with mana and circting it through his lower body would be slightly enhancedpared to before. The purer one''s mana, the stronger it was and it could only be described as extremely beneficial. Not only was mana purity required to increase one''s rank and stage but everything would be better, once one had a higher mana purity. For instance, if human A and human B fought with each other, while both were at the 3rd Apprentice rank; human A with a mana purity of 14% would have slightly weaker mana than B who had already reached a mana purity of 16%. There were also many wealthy second-generation youths with [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana gathering and purifying techniques that were good enough for them to reach a mana purity of 60% and the 10th Expert stage. These youths would most likely increase their purity rapidly without stopping at a puny 1% increase before they increased their rank by one. It was more likely that they would use mana stones and seclude themselves for two weeks. They would break through consistently, a few ranks at a time, only consolidating their mana pool before working their way up. This was definitely faster than what Shane did and if he had stayed back at the mansion, he would have most likely received the same benefits as these youths. Though, he wasn''t that sure about it, as his father was somewhat different from others. But even then, these second-generation rich brats would have a weakerbat prowess and would need an extremely long time to adjust to their newly obtained strength over a long period, while Shane could do that easily. In the past, Shane wondered why exactly one needed a mana purity of 60% to reach the 10th rank of the Expert stage. The answer was simple andplex at the same time. Reaching a purity of 60% was already enough for humans to enter the next stage, bypressing their mana and forming liquefied mana. When one reached the 4th Stage, also called Master-stage by creating liquefied mana, one''s mana pool would increase in size onest time by arge margin, while at the same time the physique would be enhanced. It was only years after humans ventured into the Primordial Dimensions, that they found out that a higher mana purity before the mana liquefaction received a grander amplification in physique and mana pool ergement. As such, mankind strived to receive better mana gathering and purifying techniques with a higher purity limit. But, the only mana gathering and purifying techniques that could be bought from the system, without any further requirements, was a Tier-2 technique with gold quality at 60% purity. If one wanted to purchase tinum or diamond quality mana gathering and purifying techniques to reach a higher mana purity, one would have to meet certain requirements. These requirements increased with the increase in the desired mana purity. While the requirements for 61%-85% were said to be capable of meeting a certainbat prowess, not manymon cultivators could either afford or meet the stated requirements from the system. ording to the system, there were only a handful of races with innate mana purity that exceeded 90% when they entered the Primordial DImensions. Some of them were already at the Master stage due to their inheritance, high amount of mana on their, and innately high physique. This shattered their chances to increase their mana purity further, without regressing everything. As such, the system increases the difficulty for all races below the Master stage to receive purifying techniques for a mana purity above 80% by a lot. But even if that was the case, humanity received an opportunity, and disregarding it would be simr to throwing away a goldmine. Many wealthy families coborated with martial art masters, trying to increase their strength and wealth, in order to meet the requirements to gain ess to the higher mana purity manuals. But even after 200 years, there has never been a recorded human with a purity above 95%, while some prodigies were able to reach slightly less than 95% after years of effort. Most individuals who achieved that were already in theirte 20s and far behind their peers in strength. But, considering that they received a higher enhancement from breaking through into the Master stage, it would only be a matter of time before they caught up, and then overtook their peers. From the PrimWeb threads and information provided by dozens of Instructors that taught him, Shane knew that a purity of 60% would enhance one''s mana pool and physique by around 50%. It was nothingpared to someone with a mana purity of 80% who received an increase of 80%. But from 80% upwards, the amplifications towards the physique and one''s ergement of mana pool size would be humongous. He had only heard from one Instructor, that a mana purity of 85% would be enough to double one''s physique and mana pool size. This was shocking, but even more, was the fact that most beasts within Intermediate-Primordial Dimensions were even more terrifying and powerful. Humans with a mana purity below 85% wouldn''t even be able to survive a single attack from beasts at the same rank and stage. A purity of 85% was somehow a threshold for humans to be barely able to fight beasts at the same rank and stage head-on, considering that they fought alone. Fighting such beasts alone would still be extremely difficult and was not rmended, except if one''sbat prowess was superior. But then a certain question urred to Shane. ''Why didn''t they just meet the requirements to increase their mana purity further, if theirbat prowess was superior to everyone else?` and this question was definitely eligible. Thinking about these stories, Shane''s determination to reach a high mana purity soared even higher than it already was. With renewed vigor, he stood up and walked towards the forest at the outskirts of the mountain range. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 24 - Mankinds advantage In order to obtain high-quality mana gathering and purifying techniques, Shane not only required an astronomical amount of wealth but also had toplete a bunch of missions allocated by the system to obtain permission to buy better manuals. Aplishing some of these missions was both tricky and demanding, owing to the strict time limit that some missions had, and the level of difficulty. It was believed that some missions involved performing tasks that were beyond most human capabilities, while others involved invading foreign Primordial Dimensions, that humanity had never entered before. Some of them were even inhabited by other races and bloodbaths couldn''t be prevented everytime. Shane remembered a case, where a human prodigy with a mana purity of 80% had ventured into a foreign Basic-Dimension, only to cause problems with other races which had almost led them to war. Fortunately, the authorities of both sides had gotten hold of their troublemakers and controlled the situation, before it had blown out of proportion. The human prodigy was allowed to aplish his mission, as long as humanity vowed to never return to that particr Dimension. Losing a foreign Dimension in order to retrieve their captured human prodigy, who had a high chance to aplish his mission, wasn''t considered a bad deal, as mankind was already conquering more than enough shelters. Having a stable position in 30 Basic-DImension was still far away from satisfying humanity, which was filled with greed and an insatiable desire to have more. As such, roughly 8 more shelters were in their construction phase as of now. 200 years ago, humanity had a poption of more than 10 billion, but with the blessing in disguise, called Primordial Dimensions, old age and disease weren''t considered a problem anymore. While beings at higher stages could reduce their fertility rate, it did not apply to anyone below the Master stage. With their increased strength, even older humans seemed to regain their youth while cultivating, while one''s fertility rate decreased which was an odd contrast. In the past, the average age of humans was 80 years and was roughly the samepared to the mortal stage. While the apprentice stage increased one''s lifespan by roughly 20 to 30 years, entering the expert stage would lead to another increase of approximately 50 years. If one lived a healthy life without sustaining serious injuries, one could grow old further and live beyond the age of 100. In fact, the age of 170 wasn''t umon for people at Expert stages. Breaking into the Master stage, one would have a lifespan of more than 300 years. This meant that arge number of humans that survived the horror unleashed by the Primordial Dimensions were still alive, provided that they had entered the Master stage, without being killed by monsters. It was also estimated that mankind had recovered from the loss of 20 billion casualties and even created a new poption record, which Shane was neither sure about nor did he really care. As long as he was left on his own, he was fine with everyone bearing as many children as they wanted. In the end, it could be considered an advantage to humanity because humans'' fertility rate was considered to be extremely highpared to a few races, if not all. Goblins, for example, were tenacious and even rabbits feared their reproduction ability. But their innate strength was much lowerpared to humans and one didn''t even need to mention their intelligence. In order to reach the intelligence of humans, they would have to evolve either into Goblin mages, Shamans, Goblin Lords, or through a series of evolutions into a Goblin King. These were only a small part of their poption, as such mankind was still in a better position than them. Shane didn''t even know if Goblins habited a somewhere in the universe, or if they only lived within the Primordial Dimensions. Umbra was still searching for a perfect position to support Shane during a battle. He was still way too small to coil around his neck, without falling down. As such, fighting together seemed still hard, even though the required will and spirit existed. Looking out of Shane''s chest pocket of his ck robe, Umbra''s head stuck out. One could consider this position as the best possible spot to support Shane with some shadow needles in order to distract the opponents. Right now, Shane could see a bunch of mid-Wild stage sparky horned goats with reinforced horns with feeble electric currents spreading out from them. Getting hit by these horns would not only be extremely painful but also shocking, as the electric currents would force their way through armors and even mid-Wild beasts. Sparky horned goats weren''t especially powerful in other aspects but their horns were definitely a threat one wouldn''t want to face. But, Shane sneaked up to a group of ten without even the slightest hint of fear in his eyes. He was ready to kill these goats, as they were rare to find, so close at the outskirts of the mountain. The sparky horns of the goats could be used to make a variety of elemental weapons at the Mortal grade, with amon quality as the worst possible oue. After injecting mana into these weapons, small sparks would envelop them, increasing their lethality by a small margin. As such, each of the 4th Wild stage beasts was worth around 7 silver coins. This wasn''tparable to the products manufactured by the sparky horns, which were worth more than 50 silver coins, but Shane didn''t mind that. His n right now was to generate money to invest it once again in his human capital. Shane was only slightly more than ten meters away from his prey. His next few steps would have rmed them so he had to be careful. An 8-meter radius was the estimated distance for most beasts to notice invaders by either smelling, hearing, or feeling them. This radius would only increase with the ranks and assassinating them would be even harder. But, right now a distance of 8 meters was more than enough for Shane to prevent his first target from evading him. Leaning forward, Shane circted mana within his lower body, and from a slow first step, he pushed himself forcefully from the ground. He reached a breathtaking speed, surprising the oblivious sparky horned goats that grazed innocently, causing their horns to release electric sparks. He crossed the distance of 8 meters within a single moment. Shane had to twist his body, as the sparky-horned goat that he targeted, surprisingly reacted much faster than he had anticipated. But it only lowered its head to fight him head-on with its horns, which wasn''t that smart. Shane''s body was exceptionally flexible owing to the strenuous exercises that his strict instructor made him do. How he hated that devil!!! Shane thought for a quarter of a second before heid his eyes on the mid-Wild stage goat in front of him. It was only 45 centimeters in height if one were to exclude its head. Shane exerted his force to jump over it, while twisting his body to thrust out the dagger, causing a deep wound, close to the neck. Unfortunately, his attack was slightly off the mark, and Shane still had to face 10 opponents at the same time. However, unbeknownst to him, Umbra shot out a paper-thin shadow needle into the deep wound he had created, decreasing thebat strength of the already injured sparky horned goat even more. Most people would feel a deep sensation of danger while fighting against 10 beasts at the same time. But, the only thing that Shane did was to smile innocently, finally having a chance to fight a real battle, exactly what he had wished for. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 25 - Slaughterers Dance As he stood in the center of a loose circle formed by the ten sparky horned goats, there was still enough space for him to move. But, rather than standing still, Shane used his speed to inflict another deep injury on the already seriously injured goat. It wouldn''t survive these injuries and Shane charged out of the circle without looking back, as he sensed a small influx of current flowing through his leg. The goat that was on its deathbed used itsst remaining force to release electric currents, hitting his leg, causing it to twitch violently. He could barely hold himself upright as he circted his mana at the spot where the goat had hit him. Shane was astonished that the sparky horned goat attacked him, causing its own death. He noticed that another two small streams of electric currents flew towards him, forcing him to evade them with a jump to the side. There were two advantages that Shane could use in this fight against the sparky horned goats. First, the electric currents couldn''t cover arge distance and with a straight line, their radius was only half a meter. And, the second advantage he had was also the best possible he could wish for. While sparky horned goats could use the electric affinity within their horns, their body wasparatively weak. They feared attacking each other with electric currents the most as their body wouldn''t be able to withstand the shock. These electric currents were only used by male goats during the mating season to fight each other in order to gain the female goat''s favor. It wasn''t rare for the defeated goat to die or be heavily injured in such ''disy of power'' battles. Shane was focusing on one goat at a time and tried to remain close to them, forcing the other goats to discard their n to attack him with a number of electric currents. Moving around smoothly, he kept thrusting and stabbing the shiolite dagger into the bodies of the oblivious sparky horned goats. Only after three of them died, did they finally disregard the safety of a single member of their flock. They charged at him with all their might, while releasing their electric currents. To Shane, it looked ridiculous because he faced all the sparky horned goats at the same time, seemingly as if they shared a single brain cell. Six electric currents were released and shot at the same time towards Shane, who exerted his force to jump back across the sparky horned goat that he was about to attack a moment ago. The goat looked angrily at Shane before it noticed that its sixpanions didn''t halt their charge. As ast resort, the desperate and injured goat released a powerful electric current in a radius of 40 centimeters around it to keep itspanions from running over itself. desperately. Shane only saw that the six charging goats killed the innocent sparky horned goat by running over it, not without sustaining injuries. They were electrocuted by the strong current their dead brethren had used to protect themselves, giving Shane the opportunity to appear within their center once again. Drawing out his dagger once again, Shane whirled around, looking as if he was dancing. He inflicted a massive number of wounds on all sparky horned goats, who were rendered defenseless against his attacks., as they were standing closer to each other than previously thought. If Shane had a second dagger his dance-like sequence would have been even more lethal. Unfortunately, he hadn''t found a suitable one, despitebing through the DeepMountain market. Otherwise, his dance would have looked even more impressive, as he would sh at the goats with not one, but two daggers, gracefully. Shane had been annoyed to learn dance at a young age in order to attend all kinds of events and balls. This had caused him to try out many things and one of them was changing a dance into some sort of martial art technique. He couldn''t have done this alone and one female battle maniac that he had as an instructor was interested to help him practice. By working together, they had created a small dance-like performance that could be used to massacre hoards of beasts under the important remark that it consumed a lot of stamina. A minuteter, Shane finished his performance with a deep breath and he could only feel two electric currents hit him at his abdomen and right elbow. It hurt, but it was nothing threatening, and circting his mana for some time would be enough to expel the numbness. But, that didn''t really matter as his opponents were all defeated and only lifeless corpses were left behind. Picking up the corpses and storing them away in his store, he quoted the price of 8 silver coins each. He was amused to notice that the five fanged coyote corpses had been sold for 50 bronze coins. Even though his store was small, Shane estimated that most merchants or butchers bought a certain extension to their system. It included the function to purchase all kinds of goods for and under a set price. Selecting a fixed item, beast, and so on for a fixed price, everything at or under the price would instantly be purchased, as long as enough funds were deposited. This function, however, was rtively expensive to purchase and only wealthy butchers, merchants, craftsmen, and so on would purchase it. This was because hiring an assistant was cheaper for normal merchants, as long as one looked at the small picture, without considering therge market. Maybe, Shane would also purchase this function sometime in the future, but there was still a long way to go. He didn''t even know if he had to rely on the store in the future, as trading outside the shop was definitely cheaper and more profitable for both sides. Shane''s wealth had increased to 69 silver and 50 bronze and with the sparky horned goats, he would additionally earn 1 gold coin and almost 50 silver. It was still early in the morning and Shane''s body had to adjust itself to gathering and purifying mana for such a long time. It was said that battling was the best way to do that. Umbra began to slowly establish his own fighting spirit and being enclosed within Shane''s pocket frustrated him to end. Having the desire to grow stronger, it curled up and ignored the heavy movements, focusing solely on increasing its strength by absorbing mana. Shane noticed that and smiled lightly because it was definitely a good sign to see Umbra being so determined. It would probably cause problems in the future, once he was either unable to evolve due to a low quality or reaching the racial limits even after extending them with his superior quality. He knew that saving money was the most important thing, right after investing in his own human capital. Umbra could be considered a safe investment, as an umon quality to start with was not bad. With a decent evolution path, maybe something great coulde out. He had read many fairy tales in his past life and the stories about western and oriental dragons were the ones he loved the most. He recalled having read stories about snakes that would evolve into horned snakes after a century. Additional 5 centuries of cultivation were required for horned snakes to evolve into flood dragons and the final tribtion to be a true dragon would take ce a millenniumter. These stories were still fresh in his mind and he dreamed about Umbra evolving into a powerful oriental dragon. There was no harm in hoping or dreaming about it. If there was no chance of his dreamsing true, Shane would try to mould Umbra into a terrifying existence on the ground, as long as his cute littlepanion was willing to. Shane''s thoughts were filled with all kinds of immature things that he hadn''t thought about for a long time as he looked out for his next target. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 26 - System, The Generous Fraudster Almost two days had passed without the urrence of a single incident. Shane felt alive and energized to spend his time hunting beasts inside the wilderness. Instead of sleeping in a room, he preferred sleeping on the open ground, leaning on a tree, close to the shelter. Fortunately, it was summer inside the Deep Mountain-river Dimension and a cool breeze could be sensed on one''s skin during the night. The weather was neither hot nor cold and Shane was having a good time cultivating. As such, he found it unreasonable to waste a single bronze coin of his already scarce fortune. During thest two days, many things had changed and the most important news was that he reached a purity of [1.09%]. It was already enough to break into the 2nd Mortal stage but there was something even more important that had happened a few hours ago. _______________________ Name: [Umbra¡á] Race:[Shadow-snake] Rank: [Peak 2nd-Wild stage(Low-Wild)] Quality: [Umon](+) |Evolution|(+) Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow)(+) Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)] Loyalty: [31%] _______________________ Umbra''s strength had almost reached the 3rd Wild stage, while he had grown to 33 centimeters, allowing him to coil around Shane''s neck which made him extremely happy. Furthermore, Umbra''s loyalty had surpassed the 30% threshold, and with this a pair of notifications appeared in Shane''s mind. [Taming|Trash|] Upgrade mission |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï|¡ú Increase the loyalty of one of your tamed beasts to 30%, aplished. Reward: Function [Quality upgrading] ] This was the message Shane had been waiting to receive for thest two days. He hoped to receive something useful for his trip to the Soul-Onyx-Jungle Dimension. In the beginning, Shane had hoped that it would be simr to the Quality-enhancement he had already received, but seeing the word `function` a question mark appeared in his mind. Looking through the description, Shane ignored the second notification inside his mind. [Quality upgrading]-Allows host to upgrade the quality of his tamed beasts. There was not much exnation provided but the message was quite clear. A smile blossomed on Shane''s face, even though the message was most likely useless for his journey to the shadow-snake valley. Not only was it difficult for normal tamers to umte enough funds to enhance the quality of their tamed beasts, but even more difficult was to figure out what ingredients were required to improve their beast''s quality. With his new function, Shane could purchase the exact amount of required ingredients and upgrade Umbra''s quality. Now, he didn''t need to put in years of effort to research the shadow-snake race and its evolution path which included knowing the different kinds of items were required to increase its quality. But even so, Umbra would most likely need a bunch of expensive materials to increase its rank from [Umon] to [Rare] and it would take a while for Shane to save for it. When he noticed the next message, Shane wasn''t sure what to think about it. But, it was definitely a bad sign for his future progress and a silent "S**T" could faintly be heard. [Upgrade-mission] [Innate-Skill upgrade (Trash |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï|¡úCommon |¡ï|)] : Enhance the quality of one tamed beast] Umbra was happily coiled around Shane''s neck. But right now, Shane only wanted to curse out loud and he didn''t even want to look at the Upgrade function with Umbra as his choice. But he calmed down after realizing that there was nothing he could change about that. He opened his Innate Skills new function [Quality-upgrading] After he selected the only possible tamed beast, Umbra, a panel popped up in front of him. [To upgrade the quality of selected beast [Shadow-snake(Umbra)] from its initial quality (Umon) to (Rare) following materials are required. ¡úDarkness Orchid[Rare](0/1) ¡úBlood of a [Elite] Snake beast (0/100ml) ¡úTier-1 Mana stone [Darkness] (0/1) [Commence quality upgrade?] [Y/N]] `Why?` Shane questioned in his mind. The emotions of being surprised and child-like glee were on his mind until he settled on a slightly amused expression."Why is it so cheap?" he mumbled to himself. But then, it was not that illogical, after Shane realized that Umbra was only a beast at the Wild stage. Once he would evolve, his quality would be reduced and Shane would have to increase it once again. Previously, Shane had only thought about beasts at higher stages with the immense costs to enhance their quality. But even then, the stated materials were not considered rare, only slightly expensive. Shane wondered why everyone despised the prices they had to pay to enhance the quality of a beast. He knew that if Umbra followed the shadow snake''s [Common] evolution path and grew into a Shadow-python, his quality would reduce by one rank. Normal shadow snakes with a [Common] quality would have their quality reduced to [Trash] after they evolved into a Shadow-python. This would eliminate any chances for them to undergo another evolution if they didn''t increase their quality by digesting magical treasures or being bound to someone who could increase their quality. It was important for Shane to increase Umbra''s potential as soon as possible. It was important for his cultivation path because he wanted his tamed beasts to have a high quality to evolve into terrifying beings. After seeing the required items, Shane could only smile. Right now, after two days of hunting, Shane had only 2 gold coins and 23 silver coins. Unfortunately, he hadn''t found another group of sparky horned goats, that he would kill and increase his wealth by selling their carcasses. Due to his desire to purchase a second dagger, he had ovee his own stinginess and purchased a [Spark Dagger [Mortal-(Umon)]] dagger made from the horn of a sparky horned goat after tempering it. The dagger itself was nothing specialpared to his shiolite dagger which was a Tier-1 dagger with rare quality. However, once he injected mana into the spark dagger, he could electrocute beasts up to the mid-Wild stage for a short amount of time. This effect could be said to be extremely useful and having two weapons was better than having one. As such, he paid 60 silver coins for it, even though it hurt his heart deeply. With 2 gold coins and 23 silver coins, Shane wouldn''t be able to purchase all required Items to increase Umbra''s quality by one rank. But, it was extremely likely that he would have more than enough funds once he finished his mission within the Soul-Onyx-Jungle Dimension. Shane estimated that Umbra''s quality upgrade would cost around 10 gold coins, or maybe a little bit more if he was impatient. The cost wasn''t too high and Shane was more than happy to spend that amount of coins on hispanion. Previously, he had researched a little about increasing the quality of wild-ranked beasts and there were many threads about them on the PrimWeb within the ''human'' section. Most threads were from unknown tamers and other upations which had nothing to do with taming beasts. Almost all of them opined that it would be extremely useless to tame beasts below the Myst stage as it was a waste of time and wealth. It cost at least 50 gold coins up to a few hundred to increase the quality of wild-ranked beasts. Some well-known tamers even exined that nurturing a wild beast would result in having an extremely strong foundation but it would cost a fortune. These well-known figures also said that it would cost at least 30 gold coins, probably even more to increase a beast''s quality, even at a lower quality, while researching and finding the correct ingredients to upgrade the quality perfectly was even more difficult. As such, most tamers tamed a beast until it was overshadowed by another one, with which they would exchange it. This would cause other tamed beasts who noticed theirpanions getting thrown away, to have a low loyalty, fleeing as soon as the tamer was in a tight spot and not able to focus on them. To conclude the information avable online, upgrading a beast''s quality was an expensive affair, as the required amount of ingredients was unknown, and figuring out the demanded items was even more difficult. But not for Shane, who could perfectly see what kind of materials were needed and the exact quantities of each. Besides, the price was more than eptable, causing Shane to like the system even more. The only disadvantage Shane saw was that he couldn''t share his knowledge with others. Either they wouldn''t believe him and get into a heated debate with him on the forums or someone would test it out and see that it worked, and share it with others, thereby increasing Shane''s reputation. But what was the point, if all Shane could only tell others was the list of required materials and items needed to enhance the quality of his own beasts and not shed some light about how they could do it for their own beast? There were no exceptions and it would only be worth sharing if Shane could use this function for all beasts, even if he wasn''t the one to tame them. But that wasn''t possible and as such Shane decided to not give it a second thought. Instead, he looked at his mana purity with a smile on his face. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 27 - Real Cultivator His mana pool waspletely filled and he had achieved the required mana purity of 1%. It was finally time for him to take his first step as a real Cultivator, achieve his first breakthrough! It was important for him to not be distracted by anything in his surroundings while breaking through outside the shelter. Hence he decided to go to an inn and rented a room for 50 bronze a day. There were always pranksters trying to troll people while breaking through, trying to damage their mana pool in return. It was illegal, but even the slightest distraction while breaking through would be enough to result in a damaged mana pool. This could either end as a temporary injury, which would heal with time, or with a permanent injury that had to be healed by buying precious items through the system. These items were more expensive than the resources most humans would use in their whole life. Shane didn''t want to take any risk and paying 50 bronze to be safe from trolls was definitely worth the price. As he sat on the top of the bed, a notification appeared in his head as he stated his purpose of breaking through to the system. [Host met the requirements to break into the [2nd-Mortal] stage] [Breakthrough will require 8 hours. Commence breakthrough?] 8 hours was a long time and this could be reduced by breaking through at a ce with more mana particles or mana stones around him. But right now, Shane wanted to be safe in an enclosed ce even if fewer mana particles were around him. Purchasing Mana stones was not necessary at this point. In the end, 8 hours were almost perfect for him, because the nighttime cycle on the Soul-Onyx-Jungle Dimension would start by then. As such one could say that everything yed into his hands. [Commence!] Shane thought and his body was slowly enveloped in a white cocoon, covering himpletely, sealing him from the outside world. Not knowing what would happen, Shane looked around, when he felt a slight pain in his abdomen, where his mana pool was. Closing his eyes and sensing his mana pool, Shane noticed that his mana pool had be unstable. Only then did he remember that one had to hold one''s mana pool together while breaking through. With the slightest distraction, the mana pool would turn into a violent storm, and be more unstable which was the reason why one had to mentally hold it together. Concentrating on the mana within the mana pool would cause the vessel that is the mana pool to be slightly more stable. The vessel itself would be tempered and grow while breaking through, like a muscle that strengthened itself by exhausting and recuperating in a repeated cycle. It wasn''t overly exhausting to hold his mana pool together and for Shane, it was rather ying around with his mana than doing anything difficult. Even the mana around him seemed to be drawn towards him. One could almost say that the annexed mana had strengthened amity with him. It was almost as if it wanted to help him be stronger by all means. He entered his mana pool with his mind while circting the mana within his mana pool perfectly, which wouldn''t be possible under normal circumstances With that, Shane could strengthen his mana pool more than fellow cultivators, like the Abytor-race that was known for their extraordinarily strong mana vessel. Even overexerting mana was possible for them and wouldn''t cause their tempered vessels to break. If Shane could do something simr, why not? Having a more resistant mana pool was always good and a huge advantage to a cultivator. As such, time went by and Shane circted the mana within his mana pool around, filling every nook and cranny, without leaving a single cell. 8 hourster, his mana pool had increased by roughly 10%, which was amon increase within the mortal stage. One could say that the difference of ranks would not matter much between the different stages of the mortal stage,, but this was only partially true. Even though the increase within the mortal stage was only 10% per rank for both body refining and cultivation itself, it was nothing to scoff at. It was possible to climb through ranks if one possessed superiorbat prowess and Shane was confident in being able to do that, owing to his title he had yet to test out. However, ying safe wouldn''t hurt in the beginning, because he didn''t even have a graded martial art technique or skill. Apparently, the techniques he had learned weren''t epted by the system for either not being strong enough to be graded or the system simply despised his techniques for being crude and wed. But that was fine with him as it wouldn''t really change anything for his current situation. Even if his mana pool increased only by 10%, it was better than that of the average human with 30% since the beginning. For instance, with his initial mana pool that had a size of 1.3 units, it was now erged to 1.43 units instead of 1.1 units with an initial mana pool size of 1 unit as everyone else without a blessing had. [Host broke sessfully into the 2nd Mortal stage. Congrattions!] A notification appeared in his mind and Shane could only smile lightly. He wasn''t sure if he should love or hate the system. But in the end, Shane liked it more than he hated it, because it made him stronger, even if he felt as if he was being monitored all the time. Looking at his status a faint smile appeared on Shane''s face. _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-2nd [Purity 1.09%] Body Refinement: [Mortal-4th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Mortal-(Silver)] ¡úMana gathering [Mortal-(Silver)] ![Artemis'' Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Trash-¡ï¡ï ¡ï¡ï¡ï (+)| Finances: 2 gold 23 silver _______________________ He ced his hand on the innate skill row to hide it from his view. ording to him, it destroyed the beauty of the panel in front of him. Looking at the time, Shane decided to leave the Deep Mountain-river shelter, after making a trip to the market. Even though he hated giving out his funds, surviving was more important. Having purchased a tracker and a translucent marker for 50 silver, he also purchased five marble-sized prismarine-luminous crystals for 1 gold coin. With the remaining 73 silver, Shane bought another concealment and nightsight potion, increasing his stock to 6 concealment and nightsight potions. He still had 13 silver left, but he required 2 silver to enter the Soul-Onyx-jungle dimension. That left him with 11 silver to purchase something. Thinking about what he needed next, he remembered running around with wet clothes and shoes. As such, he bought a few sets of clothes, a raincoat, and two pairs of shoes, leaving him with a total of 4 silver from his initial fortune of 2 gold and 23 silver. After their short shopping spree, a hungry Umbra pestered Shane by transmitting pictures of food. Thus, with his remaining two silver coins, they ate their fill, while Shane stored another few dishes within his spatial ring. Walking towards the Dimension Portal with filled bellies, Shane and Umbra were ready tomence their mission and earn a mountain of gold in order to increase their cultivation, quality, andbat prowess by leaps and bounds. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 28 - Home Sweet Home! Shane was ready to step into the rainy dimension once again. He wore the raincoat he purchased earlier before stepping through the Dimensional Portal which he activated by paying two silver coins. After selecting the Soul-Onyx-Jungle, both Shane and Umbra appeared in the ckSoul shelter only a secondter. Seeing that it was raining heavily, Shane sighed. But, it was still advantageous to cover his scent even though he didn''t like the rain soaking his shoes. Fortunately, it wasn''t cold but rather warm inside the Soul-Onyx-Jungle. Looking around, Shane couldn''t see many people. The only people walking around were either guards or hunters in theirte 20s. It was considered ate start for someone inside the Basic Primordial Dimensions, at least, if they aspired to reach higher realms. . If these young people in theirte 20s had an above-averagebat prowess and were still taking missions to meet the requirement to receive higher graded, mana purification manuals, Shane wasn''t sure what they were doing here except wasting their time. Normally, one would advance to the Master stage before the age of 25 years because staying inside the basic dimensions for any longer would be a waste of time. As such, older Cultivators were either unable to aplish the system''s missions to receive higher cultivation manuals or they just didn''t want to enter the higher Primordial Dimensions because it was extremely dangerous. Once they advanced in age, they would break into the Master stage in order to stay young and increase their lifespan by 150 years. It would be somewhat difficult to improve one''s cultivation stage further without entering the Intermediate Dimensions. But it was still possible, even if it would take 100 years or longer. It was slightly astonishing to see that the Soul-Onyx-Jungle Dimension was still so sparsely inhabited despite the Corvi race buying various darkness mana transmutation devices and herbs to alter the mana on the others during their conquest. Shane was under the impression that a vast number of humans would search for Nightshade flowers and simr herbs to gain a fortune. Thus, he was surprised to see so few of them. Maybe they wouldeter, or human merchants tried to lessen the publicity of this news in order to gain more by purchasing transmuting objects and herbs for a cheaper price, before selling them to the Corvi race once again. But even if that was the case, Shane wouldn''t know either way and it was definitely a good sign that he had the Shadow-snake valley for himself. This meant Shane had more Nightshade flowers and even shadow-snake corpses for himself. Since he had already bought a shop, he wouldn''t waste his spatial storage by using it to store corpses. Instead, the shop''s vacancies would store everything for him. As the sun disappeared below the horizon, Shane walked out of the shelter, leaving a nearly dark dimension with beautiful radiating moonlight alone. It wasn''tpletely dark yet, but before Shane left the safe radius of the ckSoul shelter, he gulped down his first concealment and nightsight potion. With his stockpiled potions, he would be able to conceal himself for 18 hours while the same applied for his nightsight. These 18 hours would have to be more than enough for him to gather a vast amount of Nightshade flowers and Shane was excited to see how he would fare in his second visit to the valley. Entering the forest roughly at the same spot he had set foot in more than five days ago, Shane was forced to open a way through the thick bushes and lush grass. This was because the surrounding mana allowed nts topletely regrow within a few days. Shane racked his brain to search for the Shadow-snake valley which was quite difficult because the Soul-Onyx-Jungle didn''t have many distinct features. It still took him 30 minutes to reach the top of the valley as the weather maintained its steady downpour. A faint smile emerged on his face, as he took a nce at his sheathed weapons before Umbra transmitted him a weird thought. ''He wants to kill a certain Shadow-python? Why?'' Shane was taken aback because he believed that Umbra would hate to kill his brethren but apparently, that wasn''t the case. Rather than that, Umbra seemed to hate and loathe his brethren to no end. His loyalty to Shane was much morepared to the loyalty Umbra had to his own race. After that, a picture was transmitted into his mind and Shane could roughly understand the situation. Apparently, Umbra''s parents were killed because they had entered the main Nightshade field in order to pluck two Nightshade flowers. They had hoped to generate enough darkness mana for Umbra after his birth, to strengthen and nourish their offspring. This seemed to be amon urrence and the Shadow-pythons and snakes within the main field seemed to ughter their own brethren because of that. Leaving the small shadow-snake hatchling to fend for itself, another shadow-snake began to upy their burrow and Umbra couldn''t do anything to drive it away. It was only when Shane had finally arrived and killed the intruder shadow-snake that upied its burrow, taking Umbra along with him, that Umbra''s agony had lessened slightly. When he was finally back inside the Shadow-valley, Umbra wanted to avenge his parents and Shane would support him with that, if possible. Due to the amplified affinity, Umbra could barely fight 3rd Wild stage beasts in addition to his quality. Shane was confident that Umbra would easily overwhelm 3rd Wild Shadow-snakes. Adding his ownbat prowess to Umbra''s strength, left the Shadow-pythons below the peak-Wild and Elite stage no chance against them. Even if they were faster than them, Shane had five prismarine-luminous crystals at his disposal. The slightest light was harmful to them and activating the prismarine-luminous crystal with a decent amount of mana, without overclocking would be enough to distract them for a short moment. Descending slowly into the Shadow-snake valley, Shane looked around carefully. His steps were much firmerpared to five days ago. As such, they reached the base of the valley within 20 minutes. There were still [2h:10m] left before the effects of his first potion would wear off, causing Shane to smile brightly. He still hadn''t seen any Shadow-snakes but Umbra notified him that there were already a few of them ahead. He could tell from distinct marks left on the mud, while Shane only saw the first Nightshade flowers protrude out of the mud. Over thest five days, Shane''sbat strength hadn''t increased much. However, he could both control mana better and use arger quantity of mana without going off bnce while his realbat experience increased by a lot too. As such hisbat prowess was much higher than before and Shane was already resolute in killing beasts which he would have never thought in his past life. Comparing his new life with the old life on earth, there was much more tension and ughter in his new life, but if he was honest, the Primordial Dimensions had awoken some kind of adventurer spirit within him along with the desire to get stronger. His death on earth had been a shame but it had brought him to Igra at the correct time. Shane couldn''tin much about it even though his father was still aplex subject for him. ''Is he searching for me? Enraged? Worried? Or does he even know that I escaped?'' Shane couldn''t answer it. But, when hepared this situation to his old life, where he was adopted by an abusive family, not much had changed considering that his childhood hadn''t been the best on earth either. On Igra his father was rich but he still forced Shane to do things that he didn''t want to. His father had already decided who his son would get engaged to at the age of 16. Had he been at the mansion, he would have met his fiancee by now. However, Shane wanted to live his own life, doing as he pleased and not what others expected him to do. Being stronger would be much easier with his father''s help but what price would he have to pay in exchange for his support? Shane would rather endure some hardship instead of following the path his father hadid in front of him. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 29 - Nightshade Flower Field, The Goldmine Walking towards the first bunch of Nightshade flowers, Shane exerted his mana gathering technique to see small dark mana particles swirling around. This helped him spot the Nightshade flowers more easily making him want to exert the mana gathering technique more often. However, in the end, he noticed that he was forced to focus too much on the mana gathering technique, causing him to lose some of his concentration on the overall situation. As such, he would only exert it sometimes in order to look where exactly Nightshade flowers were. Compared to five days ago, Shane wasn''t even tensed up while walking around the outskirts, plucking the Nightshade flowers. 3rd-Wild stage shadow-snakes that shot out of the mud were either severed by Shane''s dagger or pricked by Umbra''s shadow needles and the two of them didn''t waste time after killing them. The only thing that Shane did with the corpses was putting them up for sale in his store and setting the price for 25 bronze coins which was slightly higher than what he would receive from the system. Nevertheless, Shane did that to increase the sales in his shop in order to reach the required amount of gold coins that was needed to unlock the upgrade section sooner. The Shadow-snakes were almost immediately purchased, as their organs could be used to manufacture medicines, while one could also fashion an armor with the scales, even though it would only be a [Mortal (Common)] one at most. Some poor households without any adventurers that hunted beasts to gain funds still purchased it for a few silver coins in order to give their children at least some kind of protection on their path of cultivation. The scales could also be used to brew potions but they were trash quality and not that rare. Hence, Shane''s quoted price of 25 bronze coins was definitely fine, considering that these Shadow-snakes were even smaller than Umbra with a size of 30 centimeters at most. Shadow-snakes were also called mini-snakes by some humans but that didn''t make them less lethal. Umbra was not even a 3rd rank wild beast but he was alreadyrger than the other shadow-snakes due to his quality. One could say that Umbra was also stronger due to the slight enhancement in affinity he had received due to Shane''s innate skill. As he walked around the valley''s outskirts, Shane wanted to clear it before entering the more dangerous base of the valley. He wanted to prevent any shadow snakes from attacking his back while he focused on the main Nightshade flower field. His first set of potions was already used up though Shane was not even halfway through the outskirts. His finances had already increased by 13 silver coins due to therge number of shadow snakes he killed. But, that was not his main purpose and Shane''s clothes werepletely soaked due to the rain and mud. The raincoat he wore had already been ripped apart and Shane felt that it was useless to purchase a new one, now that he was already wet He looked like a beggar right now but he was the least bothered about his appearance.. Increasing his ie was much more important right now! Two hourster, Shane had plucked 200 Nightshade flowers. He was amazed at his own speed which was much faster than on his earlier visit. Had his speed increased remarkably or had he just been extremely slow five days ago? Shane didn''t know, but before he did anything else, he requested the system to send the first batch of Nightshade flowers to the Corvi race. This package would have to be epted by the Corvi assistant he made the contract with. If the package wouldn''t be epted within a period of 3 hours, it would be sent back, leading to a setback in Shane''s n. But he was confident that the Corvi merchants had instructed the system to ept the packages in exchange for the prices from the list which they had previously agreed upon. Until the Corvi race epted the package, the Nightshade flowers would stay in his spatial ring, which was the most important reason for him to purchase a second,rger spatial ring. Shane estimated that his package would be epted maximum in an hour. Thus, he would have more than enough space in his spatial rings to hoard more Nightshade flowers. With that in mind, he continued his trip through the outskirts of the lower part of the valley. An hourter, a notification popped in his head but he decided to ignore it. He couldn''t afford to be distracted when fighting a Shadow-python at the 5th rank of the Wild stage with Umbra''s help. The python wasn''t as fast as Shane but on the sloppy ground, it was definitely more difficult to evade a one-meter-long python''s attack which was additionally enveloped in shadow mana. Umbra distracted the Shadow-python by attacking it with shadow needles aiming at its eyes. Shane bent down, almost touching the ground before he pushed himself towards his opponent, shing out with his tempered shiolite dagger, and severed the shadow python''s head. One could say that Umbra was Shane''s hidden weapon because one could barely notice the small snake coiled around Shane''s neck. Attacking with shadow needles in the darkness was also slightly evil. Even though the Shadow-snakes and -pythons had an exceptional sight in the darkness, it was still slightly difficult to notice the paper-thin needles if the focus was set on a 1.8m tall human. However, what made him wonder more, was that Umbra was the only Shadow-snake he ever saw manifesting long-range attacks from all kinds of wild staged beasts he faced until now. Maybe this was because of Umbra''s higher quality or the desire to help Shane out, even if he was weak... But he did not receive a satisfactory answer, even after questioning Umbra. Nevertheless, it was still an advantage Shane and Umbra would use in order to defeat the Shadow-pythons and it was fortunately not that difficult. Shane wasn''t sure if peak-Wild shadow-pythons or even Shadow-pythons at the Elite stage were currently around him. But he was certain that he would only meet them in the center of the main Nightshade field. There were still more than enough Nightshade flowers for him to collect until he would meet opponents at this rank. If everything went downhill, Shane could still use prismarine-luminous crystals while overclocking them to escape, even though this meant Shane had to forget about the main Nightshade field. For now, survival was more important. Another two hours had passed which was indicated by the countdown of his second set of potions running out. In thest three hours, Shane had hunted more than 50x shadow snakes, 5x mid-wild shadow pythons, and collected slightly more than 300 Nightshade flowers. The second batch of Nightshade flowers was already sent to the Corvi race, but Shane avoided looking at the notification, showing the number of gold coins he had received. Additionally, Shane also decided to ignore his finances, as everything else could be seen there as well. Inside his shop, the corpses were hot selling products that vanished faster than he could refill them, and even the shadow-python corpses he set at a price of 1 silver coin were immediately purchased. From the sales of his shop alone, Shane would have amassed a small fund of 30 silver coins. However,pared to the estimated price for the Nightshade flowers, it was considered a drop in the ocean. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 30 - Eerie Center Shane was starting to dislike the taste but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it so he gulped down the third set of potions. There were still three sets of potions left for him to use and in total 12 hours left before Shane had to leave the Soul-Onyx-Jungle, after which, he wouldn''t be able to see anything at all within the jungle. He hadn''tbed through the outskirts of the valley''s lower part yet. He estimated that it would take another one or two hours before he would be done. Shane expected to enter the main field sooner as more Nightshade flowers could be plucked within a shorter amount of time, even though there would be more Shadow-pythons to kill. It was a high-risk opportunity but he wanted to take the chance. Thus, he collected all the Nightshade flowers from the lower outer circle of the valley in 90 minutes. The bottom of the valley was full of Nightshade flowers and only a few spots were not upied by the flowers. The abundance of the flowers caused Shane''s eyes to brighten up, when he slowly descended to the valley ground, without letting his guard down. Looking around, Shane noticed that the main field was divided into different sections. The outer field had a few dozen Nightshade flowers growing extremely close to each other and most likely a few Shadow-snakes and pythons hiding underneath them. From his shallow experience that he umted over thest few hours, Shane knew that the more Nightshade flowers upied a small space, the higher was the number and strength of the beasts hiding below. As such, Shane used this experience to pluck the smaller Nightshade flower field in order to extinguish the smaller threats first. But even so, the `smaller` bunches of 30 Nightshade flowers already inhabited two mid-Wild stage shadow-pythons. Shane fought them with a slight time disparity, as Umbra distracted theter shadow-python with his shadow needles. This gave Shane enough time to use his tempered shiolite dagger to deflect the first shadow python''s fangs that were about to pierce into his flesh. Heshed out with his spark dagger, piercing through the scales with a slight resistance, killing it. Feeling the resistance, Shane knew that the spark dagger could only be used for mid wild stage pythons with their tough scales, and piercing through the endurable scales with his [Mortal-(Umon)] dagger was not possible. As such Shane would have to use his shiolite dagger to kill the slightly stronger beasts, otherwise his spark dagger would either be damaged or breakpletely. That would put him in a risky situation and it was not something he wanted to happen. There were more and more beasts, Shane had to kill and it took him slightly more time toe out victorious than before but even then, the number of Nightshade flowers he plucked within a few minutes, exceeded his previous gains by arge margin. Shane felt weirdly ufortable as he circled around the Center with its hundreds of Nightshade flowers, He decided to ignore the feeling for the time being and avoided nearing the center. Time passed in a blur and he had already consumed the fourth set of potions while he sent out multiple packages to the Corvi race, making his heart leap in joy. Even if the packages with the Nightshade flowers were all at the trash quality, he would gain slightly more than 20 gold per Who would hate something like that? He hadn''t left a single flower in the outer parts of the valley ground. Shane came across a high-Wild stage Shadow-python that was more than 2 meters long, causing him to gulp nervously. However, with the help of a surprise attack of the bright shining light caused by the prismarine-luminous crystals, he could kill it rather easily. What astonished Shane was that the high-Wild Shadow-python was located far away from thergest field of the Nightshade flowers where hundreds of flowers were situated. But even more confusing for Shane was that not a single beast could be seen close to the main field and he had a bad feeling about it. The closer they came to the center, the more ufortable both Shane and Umbra became, and an eerie sensation overcame them. Fortunately, there were more than enough small fields that were still upied by a bunch of mid-Wild shadow-pythons and, far away from the eerie center. When Shane gulped down hisst set of potions, he almost vomited, as the taste turned even more disgusting. He swore that he would not drink these potions for the time being, if he didn''t have to. As he carefully singled out the areas with fewer Nightshade flowers, Shane noticed that there were only areas with at least bunches of 100 flowers left. This told him that he had earned a huge fortune. However, if he wanted to continue, he had to face not only high-Wild Shadow-snakes alone but probably even multiple of them at the same time. Tightening his grip around the shiolite dagger, Shane wanted to give it at least a try. He had already taken out a prismarine-luminous crystal to y it safe when he got closer to the smallest of therge Nightshade fields. As long as he wouldn''te closer to thergest, extremely terrifying Nightshade flower field, everything would be fine. Before plucking out the Nightshade flowers to enrage the beasts below, Shane carefully walked around, looking out for ck scales sticking out of the soil. Unfortunately, there was nothing indicating a beast hiding below the flowers. This meant that he couldn''t assassinate the Shadow- pythons hiding underneath the flowers and now it was Umbra''s time to shine. Umbra emitted the same sound he had used, when Shane had kidnapped him Shane could notice obvious movements from below the mud. It was interesting to see the desire of Shadow-pythons to protect offsprings of other beasts of the same kind, even if they killed each other from time to time. Goosebumps erupted all over his body when Shane noticed threerge bodies with a size of more than 1.5 meters. When their heads emerged from the ground, they looked around to search for the culprit. Seeing Shane, they hissed in wrath, and only due to him possessing the [Hunter''s Mind] passive skill, he could barely hold himself together. He immediately overclocked the prismarine-luminous crystal two times, causing it to shine in an even brighter light than it had ever been before. Shane threw himself to the ground with closed eyes, before he exerted the mana gathering technique He barely sensed a bunch of dark mana particles enveloping threerge silhouettes that stuck out of the ground. Over thest few hours, he found out that he could barely feel other beings with his closed eyes, once he exerted the mana gathering technique. Using this advantage, he striked with his dagger at the first silhouette. Shane felt the tough resistance from the ck scales of a high-wild stage beast before he pierced through it. Blood sttered on Shane but he had no time to rx. He threw the already overclocked prismarine-luminous crystal in the air after which it scattered, releasing another bright shining light. With this, another prismarine-luminous crystal appeared within his hand. However, before using it, Shane appeared in front of a painful hissing silhouette, and he shed at it without any hesitation. He met some resistance even though his dagger was Tier-1 but that wasn''t the main problem that caused Shane to be unable to sever the snakes with a single sh. His shiolite dagger was sharp enough to do so, only his own physique hindered him in exerting enough strength, causing his rough movement. When the light around Shane dimmed slightly, he overclocked his second prismarine luminous-crystal. A painful hiss was emitted by thest alive silhouette around him. Thest Shadow-python threw around its body in vain and a momentter, Shane''s dagger had cut a deep gash through the snake''s scales, finally killing it. Once everything was over, the light diminished and Shane could open his eyes once again. Without further ado, Shane stored the corpses inside his store and he began to pluck the Nightshade flowers, unbothered by everything. Suddenly a loud roar filled the whole shadow-snake valley. Shane could see hand-sized ck scales protruding out of the soil as the mud shifted in the center of the valley where the thousands of Nightshade flowers were situated. Two Football-sized yellowish slits could be seen sticking out of the mud, the eyes bore into Shane''s while they released a dense bloodlust with the distinct desire to tear him apart, causing cold sweat to run down his back. Only now did Shane understand that the Lord of the Shadow-snake valley had revealed itself and its interest was none other than he, himself. ''F**K'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 31 - Lord Of The Valley ''F**k'' was the only thing Shane could think of and Umbra who was coiled around his neck shivered in fright. The only fortunate thing was that the snake''s gaze hadn''t killed them on the spot. Being woken up from its deep slumber the Lord of the valley was still drowsy, but the surrounding noises and bright shining lights that had pierced through the mud enraged it, causing the current situation Shane was in. There was only one kind of snake that came into Shane''s mind when he saw the football-sized yellow slits. It was the [Colossus Darkness-python] and it was an existence in the midter ranks of the Awakened stage, which was the highest possible stage that would be allowed to stay within the Basic primordial dimensions. It seemed as if the colossus darkness-python was woken up by him and Shane didn''t even think of staying at the same spot as he immediately activated his title''s skill [Berserk(F)] for the first time. The skill enhanced his strength and mana cirction by 10% for the next ten seconds. Turning around without looking back, Shane circted mana in his lower body and enveloped his feet by a manayer in order to not slip on the muddy ground. Sprinting straight towards the invisible marker he had set up before descending into the valley, he crossed the distance of more than 15 meters in two seconds. But this was not fast enough as Shane could faintly feel death approaching him from behind, as he looked back only to see a body with a length of more than 30 meters sticking out of the mud. `You gotta be kidding me!` Shane shouted in his mind and he didn''t even want to imagine how fast this snake could be. His dagger was already sheathed in order to use his arms more freely and another second passed before the colossus darkness python''s body waspletely revealed. Shane was already frustrated and nervous to see the humongous snake with its head the size of a freezer, a forty meters long ck scaled body, and yellowish slits, boring into his back. Shane was also in a valley surrounded by mud, and climbing it up was already extremely difficult with a few peak-wild staged beasts hot on his heels slightly less than a week ago. And now he should do the same while being chased by a gigantic monster? ''THANKS?!'' Shane shouted to himself and with a loud BANG, the colossus darkness-pythonnded firmly on the mud sshing it away. Once it started its pursuit, Shane knew that he had no chance. The colossus darkness python was more than three times faster on the muddy ground, even though Shane was giving his best. Taking out two prismarine-luminous crystals at the same time, he overclocked one and threw it in the back while trying to maintain a 45-degree angle. The dazzling light momentarily blinded the colossus darkness-python, and it tried to find the intruder with closed eyes. Oddly enough, it couldn''t find Shane at all, forcing it to open the still faintly dazed eyes. Fortunately, Shane had used his concealment potion, in order to cover his shallow cultivation, and not even the slightest trace of mana radiated from him. This also included the mana he used to envelop his boots, which was fortunate, otherwise he would have slowed down. Sensing that the colossus darkness-python slowed down, Shane sighed in relief. He would just continue purchasing and using a bunch of prismarine-luminous crystals if he had to, until he reached the ckSoul shelter, where reinforcement would support his survival. The main problem however was, that Shane didn''t have enough mana to envelop his boots, even after overclocking the prismarine-luminous crystals. He would throw them away once filled and circte a set amount of mana within his lower body. He could purchase mana stones to lighten up the prismarine-luminous crystals with his initiator but the mana fluctuations would be detected by the colossus darkness-python even with its eyes closed. In the end, this meant he wouldn''t be able to use mana stones and had to rely on his own mana pool for the time being. Shane had still one more prismarine-luminous crystal stored in his spatial ring and one in his hand. If they worked as good as the first prismarine-luminous crystal did, Shane would definitely reach the valley''s hillside and put a decent distance between him and the colossus darkness-python. nfortunately, beasts at the awakened stage weren''t that dumb and he ordered the system to purchase three additional prismarine-luminous crystals for one gold coin. With his remaining mana pool, purchasing more was a waste and even if he wanted to, he wouldn''t be able to overclock more than the three additional prismarine-luminous crystals he purchased. There were only three seconds until the time limit of his [Berserk(F)] skill would end as he threw another overclocked prismarine-luminous crystal in the back. Weirdly enough, it was perfectly timed and exactly when the colossus darkness-python opened its eyes, the overclocked crystal released its bright light dazzling the python once again. This enraged it and the colossus darkness-python barely noted where Shane was by quickly taking a peek. It charged roughly towards the direction it thought Shane to be at, with its eyes still closed. Right as Shane''s berserk state was over, he noticed that the colossus darkness-python charged past him. Seeing therge snake brush past him shocked him and nearly gave him a heart attack, as goosebumps covered his whole body. The colossus darkness python charged straight into the hillside, as its head burrowed below the mud. Shane used all his remaining courage to run past it, while he activated his [Berserk(F)] skill for the second time. There was only one usage left for the whole day and Shane felt exhausted after the skill''s effect dissipated for the first time. Shane wasn''t sure if he would ovee the excessive exhaustion if he activated the berserk skill three times in a row and he didn''t want to test it out, if possible. Running past the colossus darkness-python, Shane overclocked another prismarine-luminous crystal, before he threw it high in the air, adjusting the angle for it to fall in the way of the charging monster. Sticking its head out of the mud, the colossus darkness-python looked around, trying to find where Shane was right now when another bright shining light filled its vision. Crying out in pain due to the constant bright dazzling lights, Shane suddenly felt a terrifying sensation squirming through his body. He reacted subconsciously, throwing himself to the side with Umbra coiling around his neck in a deathly grip. Shane''s neck turned faintly red due to Umbra strangling him but he didn''t even notice that, as he saw a one-meter deep hole with a diameter of twenty centimeters to his left. Forcing himself to stand up, Shane could see that to his right, where he stood a moment ago, another simr hole with a depth of a meter and a diameter of twenty centimeters had appeared. The colossus darkness python manifested hundreds ofrge darkness needles and shot them towards the hillside, almost piercing Shane. This caused a trace of fear to emerge within Shane, even though he had the [Hunter''s Mind] passive effect. Cold sweat poured down his back and with 7 seconds left of his berserk state, Shane sprinted upwards, looking desperately at the direction the invisible marker was at. He still had three primarine-luminous crystals left, but his gut feeling told him that right now was thest time they could be used for good. He overclocked all of them at once, throwing one with a high angle towards the right, another one to the left, while thest one was thrown upwards. With this, Shane wanted the colossus darkness-python to be dazzled onest time as he rushed towards the valley''s top. The hillside was slightly harder to ascend, but Shane was fortunately still alone thanks to the three star-like lights illuminating the darkness enveloped valley. Opening the system''s shop, Shane had to think of a solution as fast as possible!!! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 32 - Escaping Death By A Hairs Breadth A sudden idea popped into his mind when he remembered that he was still under the effect of the concealment potion. Abandoning the system''s shop and entering the Primordial shop''s human section, Shane bought items worth 10 gold coins with the additional 10% transfer fee, not minding anything at all. The highest priority for Shane and Umbra was to survive and everything else couldeter. Seeing the items Shane wasn''t sure if he should be happy or not. He purchased six items in total. Taking out the first two items, which was a cylindrical-shaped empty grenade, Shane pressed the second item inside the vacancy of the empty grenade. The second item was a vial with dark green smoke inside and once the vial was inserted into the empty grenade, a faint *click* could be heard. After that was done, Shane could already feel the presence of the colossus darkness-python behind him. He quickly summoned the remaining two out of the four items that he had purchased, from his spatial ring. In one hand were now two grenades, one was the empty grenade he filled with the dark green smoke and the other grenade was a [Mortal-(Umon)] tear gas grenade. Even though it was at the mortal rank, a tear gas grenade could cover a range of dozens of meters. The tear gas was a lot denser and more effective than normal tear grenades. It might not be enough to scare off the colossus darkness-python, but that was not what he aimed to achieve with the tear grenade. The second item he took out from his spatial ring was a pitch-ck gas mask with two horns sticking out of the top. It looked somehow like one would describe a devil on earth, but Shane couldn''t care less at the moment, as he instantly wore it on his head. Two more two tear gas grenades at the [Mortal-(Umon] rank appeared in his now free hand, and Shane immediately pulled out the safety pin. He threw the tear grenades towards the hillside''s top, where they released a dense white fog, slowly enveloping the hillside. Shane tried his best to stay calm as he sensed the colossus darkness python slowly inch towards him. He pulled out the safety pin from thest grenade in his hand with the dark green smoke within. But rather than releasing the dark green smoke slowly, the grenade exploded and Shane''s sight was covered within a second. Running right into the dark green smoke which was additionally enveloped with white tear gas, Shane was happy to have bought a [Mortal-(Rare)] gas mask. Sensing the presence of the colossus darkness-python still behind him, Shane was still scared but not as much as he was before he entered the dark green smoke. He adjusted his direction to the right before he continued sprinting upwards towards the valley''s top. Shane thought that the dark green smoke wall was enough to prevent the colossus darkness-python from pursuing him. This was because the dark green smoke was a dissolved scent nd from a [Terrifying stench Skunk] which was a low-awakened beast with weak defenses but terrifying farts, leading even peak-elite beasts to faint within seconds. Snakes have an amazing sense of smell and they use their tongues to pick up scents in the air. In Shane''s opinion, it was only logical for the snake to stop pursuing him in order to evade the reeking stench that spread throughout the dark green smoke. But, when a gust of air almost knocked him over, he noticed the colossus darkness-python body rush past him with an almost negligible distance. His heart skipped a beast and the only advantageous thing Shane noticed was that the snake had its eyes and mouth closed, preventing bright lights and the reeking stench from invading any possible way. This however meant that the Colossus darkness snake relied on its hearing senses to locate Shane. Shane wouldn''t be in a position to think logically, if not for the [Hunter''s Mind] skill he obtained from [Artemis` Blessing]. With this, Shane told himself that he had to thank her somehow, even if it was only through a little prayer. This came however with an important condition, wherein he would have to survive first. Right now he was still notpletely out of the valley, even though he had almost reached the top. But his current situation was definitely betterpared to before and the colossus darkness-snake would most likely listen carefully to the sounds it perceived. As such, Shane purchased a normal fist-sized stone for a single bronze coin, before he threw it to the left top side of the valley. Throwing it towards the valley ground was stupid as an awakened stage beast could understand trickery to a certain extent. The colossus darkness-python waited for additional noises before it charged to the left side. Suddenly, Shane feltpletely exhausted and he noticed that the berserk state ended for the second time. Silently approaching the top of the valley, Shane tried to prevent making any sounds, as the tear gas and the skunk smoke began to envelop him once again. Before the gush of air pushed away from the smoke the colossus darkness-python hadn''t opened its eyes, fortunately, otherwise, Shane would have been dead by now. Reaching the top of the valley after additional two minutes, Shane could hear the colossus darkness snake roaring out in wrath. He sighed in relief as it meant that the Lord of the valley had lost all traces of him. At least for the moment, was what Shane thought and he continued his silent escape towards the shelter. Time seemed to have slowed down and each noise scared Shane, causing his heart to skip a beat. If he had been an old man, Shane would have definitely died due to a heart attack but fortunately, he was still a young brat with a strong heart. Even though he had a living experience of 35 years in total, he had never really entered the world of adults. But now Shane fully understood how dangerous the Primordial Dimensions were. Having survived today was the biggest achievement Shane had ever aplished and the second one could be said to be the gains he made over thest hours. Nevertheless, today''s escape also showed Shane how weak he waspared to the top of the food chain within Basic primordial dimensions. There wasn''t even the need topare himself to beasts of Intermediate or Advanced dimensions, as the threat from awakened staged beasts was already apparent enough. When Shane saw the lights of the ckSoul shelter, he almost began to cry in joy and he used his remaining strength to drag himself towards it. However, before he could even enter the shelter, the guards ordered him to stop as they unsheathed their weapons. `Huh?` Shane wasn''t sure what happened but it was not amon urrence for the guards to see a pitch-ck masked individual appearing in front of them during their night duty. A reeking smell spread towards the guards and they could barely keep themselves together. If their discipline and cultivation were any lower, they would have already vomited on the ground, causing them to turn even more hostile towards the ck-masked humanlike individual in front of them. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 33 - Filthy And Rich Shane just wanted to enter the shelter to take a bath, rx and sleep soundly but now he had to stand in front of the shelter gate because he wore a mask? Wasn''t that a little bit too much? He thought and Shane was about to take his mask off when he saw the guards holding their noses. ''Ohh, my dear lord??'' Shane thought as he remembered that he had bathed in the skunk mist for a few moments. His whole skin and all clothes reeked of the horrendous stench. The biggest problem right now was that he had to find a way to get inside but he didn''t want to smell like a skunk''s stench... Looking firmly at the guards, Shane took his robe off with a dry smile on his face. He would have to wash this robe a few times..even the automatic cleaning of this robe wouldn''t be able to expel the skunk''s odorpletely. After Shane stored away his robe he took a deep breath and took off his mask, showing his face to the guards. Seeing that it was a human behind the devil''s mask, the guards turned more cid but that didn''t mean they liked the stench they had to endure. "Please change your clothes if you want toe inside the shelter. Otherwise, we can''t let you in! You should know the rules. If you don''t have any other clothes we can lend you a rag!" The younger guard amongst them spoke, earning bonus points for his first impression and remembering the shelter rules, and Shane could only nod. Even he himself wasn''t sure if this stench could be harmful to his low cultivation body as it came from the concentrated scent nd of a terrifying stench skunk. Everything that could hurt others openly without anyone''s notice was forbidden within the shelter. It could only be regted marginally as one could easily purchase these dissolved scent nds inside the system shop and release them inside. However, mankind felt safer, knowing that such rules existed. ''If you feel safe and secure, you won''t be rebellious'' was something his dad always said but it was ironic that his own son left him because he didn''t feel safe and secure. Remembering his father''s words, Shane felt weird. It only took him a short time to regain his senses and there was nothing he could do for the moment. Until he was frisked and searched thoroughly and identified as a human, he had to take off the ck gas mask. Taking a deep breath, Shane changed his clothes in front of the guards, not minding their gazes, before he took off the mask. With fast strides, he appeared in front of the guards that held their noses. Completing his identification as fast as possible, they also noted down his tamed beast before they released him. cing the gas mask back on his face, Shane could finally breathe once again. Walking away from the gate, he only heard "What a disgusting filthy bastard!" before he entered one of the shabbier hotels. Shane didn''t mind the guards calling him filthy but he wasn''t fond of the word ''bastard''. If he had been strong enough, he would have beaten this guard into a pulp before vanishing within the Primordial Dimension. But right now it was more important to cleanse his body because everyone looked at him with disgust. Even though the owner of the shabby hotel wasn''t happy that Shane had chosen his hotel, he couldn''t really decline any customers because he was short on money. As such, Shane just paid a little bit more than the normal price to barely elevate the hotel owner''s mood. Entering his room, Shane didn''t care about anything else, as he took off all his clothes and stored them away. The only thing he still wore was the pitch-ck mask which prevented the disgusting stench from invading his nostrils. In the corner of the small room, Shane saw a basin with a piece of soap lying on top of the wooden frame. Stepping into the wooden basin, Shane finally took off the gas mask, causing him to be immediately attacked by a terrifying stench. Diving under, Shane scrubbed his body but only doing this much seemed useless. Sticking his head once again out of the water, he took the solid soap andthered, scrubbing himself feverishly. Time went by slowly and Shane felt even more exhausted after he had bathed in the basin for more than an hour. The disgusting stench finally receded and he decided that it was enough for now. He could barely keep his eyes open in order to not fall asleep while washing himself. As such he stepped out of the basin, dried himself with a towel, and put on afortable set of clothes before he fell on the bed, falling into a deep slumber. Umbra also went into the basin, when Shane was inside, but it still continued to bathe, as the disgusting stench still invaded its smelling senses. ** Despite resting for several hours, Shane was still exhausted. However, he was instantly awoken after the stench hit his nose yet again. A groan escaped Shane''s lips and he changed his clothes again before going outside with Umbra, who hadid on his chest when they were asleep. He wasn''t sure if the room itself smelled that bad because of him or if it was his own body that still reeked of the skunk. That question was answered the moment he stepped outside the room. Shane could still smell the horrible stench meaning that the faint smell wasing off of his own body and not the room. This was fine with him and he left the shabby hotel to find a stall to eat something because both he and Umbra were ravenous. Eating a few dishes would be a cakewalk for him right now. He spotted the same food stall he had previously eaten at when he had entered the ckSoul shelter for the first time. Upon seeing a customer hastily arrive and order food instantly, the old woman was about to prepare the ordered dishes, when she saw the familiar face. "Oh! Is that you, young man?" She asked and Shane smiled brightly, greeting her with a sincere "Hello" Shane wasn''t sure if it was the only stall in the street he subconsciously went to or if it was just luck, but every single time he searched for a food stall, he found the same vendor which could be said to be amazing and creepy at the same time. They talked for some time before Shane''s dishes were ready. Seeing Shane drool, the vendor thought he might not have eaten for some time and a sad smile appeared on her face. She handed him an additional dish that confused him for a moment. The vendor quickly added that it was free of cost and smiled at him, which touched Shane more than he expected, and he sincerely thanked her. Shane sat down on the chair in front of the food stall, which was fortunately covered. Otherwise, he would have to search for another ce to eat his dishes, as it was raining heavily. While eating, Shane was deep in thought, and only now did he look at the notifications that he had previously ignored. But there was nothing special within them and he could skip them, as they only informed him about the transaction of the packages with the Corvi race. However, the final result caused him to smile brightly, even though he had paid 12 gold coins to flee from the colossus darkness python. In total, Shane had sent 8 packages to the Corvi race with 200 Nightshade flowers per package. While 215 Nightshade flowers had the [Common] quality, the other 1385 were of the [Trash] quality. In the end, Shane had earned 17,875 silver coins solely from the Nightshade flower packages. He still had more than 50 in his spatial ring with a few of them even at the [Umon] quality. In addition to the funds he had received from the Nightshade flowers, Shane had also earned 194 silver coins solely from the store, where he sold the shadow snakes and shadow pythons'' carcasses. In the end, the whole trip through the valley had helped Shane earn 180 gold coins and 69 silver coins. After deducting 11 gold coins for his survival and his expenses for the dishes he had ordered and a hotel night, Shane had now 169 gold coins and 67 silver coins in addition to a few Nightshade flowers left, causing a broad smile to emerge on Shane''s face. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 34 - Do I Really Have To? Fortunately, the scent nd of a terrifying stench skunk was rtively cheappared to its effect. It couldn''t be used as an ingredient for many potions and the potions that were brewed with it weren''t that powerful and even less popr owing to the disgusting stench. But Shane was still d that he purchased the dissolved scent nd for a cheap price. While the system had set it at a price of 50 gold coins, he had only paid 7 gold coins to purchase it through the Primordial Shop. While he continued to eat, Shane was deep in thought, pondering what he should do with his small fortune and how to manage the funds. He wanted to purchase better mana gathering and purification manuals and a body refining technique to increase hisbat prowess over a longer period. Considering that he had 169 gold coins, he began to wonder if he should just purchase three Tier-1 manuals. But in the end, it wouldn''t help him that much, even though his strength would eventually increase. Right now, Shane relied on his physique and fast reflexes during a fight, rather than on his mana. He didn''t even have any skill to release his mana and strengthening his body by a small margin was the most he could do. Searching through the system shop, he found a few martial art techniques in addition to skills, but even the worst was too expensive for him. Frowning deeply, Shane pondered if he had to go with ''n B'' in order to receive a bunch of skills and martial art techniques¡­ ''I don''t want to go to an academy!!'' Shanemented in his mind, but it seemed as if there was no way around it. Since the Dimensional Portal had appeared, education took a backseat for humanity anymore, because survival had taken the top priority. Only when humanity had found out a certain system function, had they started to prosper once again. There were many reasons why that happened but the most important one was a certain fact. Martial art manuals and skill tomes would normally dissipate once learned, but there was a certain chamber that allowed them to be stored intact. It was extremely expensive but these [Dimension-spheres] were able to defy the dissipation of certain martial art manuals and skill tomes. Hundreds could learn the same techniques and skills, but this came with a slight disadvantage. Learning skills without the dimension-spheres, one would immediately receive the whole knowledge imnted in one''s mind, but this was not the case with the dimension-spheres. Rather than imnting everything in one''s mind, one would have to learn the skills slowly over time byprehending everything. The dimensions-sphere was a small chamber that could store skills. Once a certain manual was inserted in the sphere, a virtual instructor would appear in most cases, teaching one everything needed. With a higherprehension ability, one would be able to learn skills and techniques faster. As soon as a certain threshold was crossed, the skill or technique would appear within the system panel, while theplete knowledge would be imnted within the mind. Until now, humanity could only purchase roughly 100 tier-1 and 15 tier-2 dimension-spheres. This indicated that only tier one and tier two techniques could be learned within the dimension-spheres at most, while only a single individual could enter the chamber at a time. With a poption of more than 30 billion, this was nothing and as such, the federation decided to establish academies in order to strengthen the future generations. Academies would allow certain students to learn martial art techniques and skills as rewards for aplishing missions and staying on top of the theoretical and practical subjects. On Igra, there were five big academies, and 20 tier-1 and 3 tier-2 dimension-spheres had been distributed amongst them. There were also two tier-3 dimension spheres but they were hidden from the public, in order to let the most talented students learn tier-3 skills after they reached the Master stage. Hiding the tier-3 dimension spheres was important to prevent their most prodigious students from wasting their precious time on less important things and let them have more time in the chambers. It was the most efficient way in the federation''s opinion and was epted by themittee unanimously. Shane only knew about it because he had eavesdropped on his dad, which in return had caused him to receive a beating. Even if academies were useful, most excessively rich and powerful individuals wouldn''t send their descendants to them, as they had enough funds to purchase usable skills, without having to waste time to learn them over a longer period. With that in mind, a select few above-average families andmoners had the chance to ovee poverty by working hard in order to reach higher realms. Previously, Shane didn''t want to enter the academies because he wanted to stay lowkey without attracting any attention. But, then he would only obstruct his cultivation path by not attending the Shirai academy. Furthermore, there shouldn''t be much of a problem, as long as nobody he knew attended an academy which was extremely unlikely. Everyone Shane knew was powerful and already too strong to bother about Tier-1 or Tier-2 techniques and skills. The only problem would be the descendants of these powerful authorities which included his mysterious fianc¨¦. There were a few youths roughly his age who knew how he looked. But, Shane didn''t think any of them would attend an academy as their wealth was enough to not waste any time with school. With enough funds, wasting time on learning a skill or technique slowly was stupid, and not using one''s background to grow stronger would be even dumber. If Shane''s dad would not have restricted his future and forced him to be a puppet without his own will, he would have also used his father''s financial support in order to be stronger as soon as possible. But instead of receiving his dad''s support, he wanted to be free without any restrictions. Pondering about the advantages of the academies, Shane could only sigh. If a student was strong and talented, he or she would receive many resources, tutoring, and the chance to learn skills, techniques, and much more. Thepetition was high but the pressure caused by thepetitive way all students thought would fuel their potential and spirit to be stronger, which was also an advantage. On earth, he had advanced through sses due to his intelligence but in the end, everything had backfired. Shane was bullied by his ssmates who were more than four years older than he was. Not being able to fight back, he could only endure everything and follow his dream to get a veterinarian. In the end, it had been useless but there was still a small trauma in Shane''s mind tormenting him. `Do I really have to?` Shane questioned himself and he thought about it for a long time before he found a satisfying answer. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 35 - Unexpected Fair Shane decided to apply to an academy, even though he felt slightly ufortable about it. Nevertheless, the support one could receive from an academy was too tempting for Shane to disregard. Furthermore, Shane was of the opinion that he had changedpletely and it shouldn''t be much of a problem to get epted at an academy. Until the new semester would start, there was still slightly more than one month left. Shane would have to meet certain requirements in order to be even able to apply to an academy. Because the system awakening started at the age of 16, everyone had a different starting point, ranging from a gap of a few days to months, causing a wide disparity in strength, notwithstanding one''s background and other factors. Reading through the standard requirements stated, Shane nodded to himself in approval. They adjusted their demands ording to the time one had awoken the system, in order to find talented students amongst average households. ___________________________ Cultivation & Body refining stage: Mortal-3+2 ranks*month Wealth earned without anyone''s support: 30 Gold coins+30 gold coins*month Reduced requirements for - Special body traits, Innate Skills, and blessings ___________________________ One could say that the academies favored younger students instead of older ones. It was much more difficult for someone who activated the system 8 months ago, to enter an academypared to Shane, who had awoken his system only a few days ago. Nevertheless, he was astonished that the government was impartial and it was the first time he would agree with his father''s decision. The government searched for the cream of the crop and as long as someone was able to meet the requirements, they would be epted into the first semester. After reaching the requirements and applying, it was said that the real selection would begin. While the strong would receive lots of resources, the weaker students would only receive the leftovers or leave school to heighten their cultivation rank without the academies'' support. Apparently, the requirements were not that difficult to aplish for Shane, but the second requirement had a hidden meaning. If one was incapable of earning a certain amount of wealth on their own, they were useless to be trained and nurtured into strongerbatants. Academies didn''t want to waste their resources and if one could earn gold coins by themselves in a short period of time, it indicated that theirbat experience was either high, or they had already learned a lifestyle-upation such as a cksmith, alchemist, runemaster, magic-technician, weaver and so on. Earning wealth to a certain degree without anyone''s support meant that one defeated a beast single-handedly or the system would allocate a percentage of the beast''s selling price to the ''self-earned''-record, ording to thebat participation. Due to this, one could easily calcte their earnings over the course of time. In one month, Shane would have awoken his system for slightly more than a month. As such, he was still in his first month because the system countedpleted months. His cultivation and body refining had to reach the 5th Mortal stage, while he only had to earn 60 gold coins which he had long since aplished. Shane wouldn''t shout out to the world that he not only had an innate skill but also a blessing, because it was not needed. Some people might find it out, but there was no need to reveal it. As such, he applied to all academies mentioning the recent data about his earned wealth, cultivation, and body refining stage through the system. The system would update his cultivation and body refining stage for the next month, while his earned wealth was already ticked as aplished. It was extremely easy to apply for the academies and without further ado, Shane closed the PrimWeb human section. ''Well, I won''t stay long in school either way'' He thought, before opening the store. His store was once againpletely empty and Shane retrieved the Nightshade flowers he had still left, to ce them within the vacancies. Labeling them with a price, Shane now had 35 [trash] Nightshade flowers exhibited for 9 silver, 12 [Common] quality Nightshade flowers for 14 silver, and 6 [Umon] quality Nightshade flowers for 20 silver. If everything would be sold at thebeled price, Shane would earn an additional 6 gold coins and he smiled faintly. Now, however, it was time for Shane to purchase a body refining manual in addition to better mana gathering and purifying techniques in order to take his cultivation speed up a notch. With 169 gold coins, Shane had enough funds to purchase three [Tier-1-(Bronze)] manuals, but that wasn''t what he wanted right now. Shane only wanted to increase his mana gathering speed by a small margin, while his body refining and the purification process needed to be faster. Furthermore, he was also unsure if he would be able to increase his techniques'' quality once again due to the [Artemis'' Blessing] or if it was a one-time thing and a mere coincidence. Could he increase his techniques'' quality once again because of his determination to be stronger, his amity with mana, and nature''s blessing? Shane didn''t know for sure, but his desire to get stronger was more distinct than ever. Currently, it took Shane almost 2 hours to fill his mana pool with mana, while purifying it took more than 5 hours. He was fine with his mana gathering speed as long as he only had to supply the purification manual with enough mana, but the purifying period was just too long. Meanwhile, Shane didn''t know how much mana a body refining technique required. As such, his mana-gathering speed would need a slight boost. In the end, Shane was convinced that he had to purchase a [Tier-1 (Bronze)] purifying technique with 16% mana purity as its limit. Compared to a mana gathering technique at the same tier and quality, Shane only had to pay 35 gold coins for the purifying technique. It was a horrifying expenditure for people without any kind of financial support from their families. Everyone was busy gathering funds for themselves. Even parents from above-average families wouldn''t readily hand resources to their children in order for them to not be spoiled. What was the use if they gave their children everything? Their cultivation would progress rapidly, but their mind wouldn''t be able to adjust to the fast progression. Also, thebat experience and progress of such children would be shallow. Even so, 35 gold coins for someone that could defeat beasts within an Intermediate-dimension was nothing. Shane however, didn''t fret over other people''s wealth. He continued his search for a mana gathering manual before he would take a look at the body refining manual. He still had more than 130 gold coins left. As such, he decided to buy a [Mortal-(Gold)] mana gathering manual for 10 gold coins. Its quality was only one rank higher than the mana gathering manual he owned, but it would still amplify his mana gathering speed by a lot. Furthermore, Shane wanted to try out enhancing his techniques with [Artemis'' Blessing] once again, because the possibility that he might be able to do it was still there. Shane was overwhelmed to look through the body refining manuals. There were just too many of the manuals to choose from. Some of them set priorities in enhancing one''s agility, toughness, or internal organs, while techniques that refined everything together were the most expensive. Shane wouldn''t use all of the remaining 120 gold coins, because he had to purchase the items needed by Umbra to enhance his quality. Furthermore, there was still a slim chance that Shane could enhance Umbra''s quality once again before they would figure out the path for his evolution. As such, Shane went with a [Tier-1 (Bronze)] body refining technique, which could further enhance his agility to a higher degree for the price of 60 gold coins. After purchasing the [Tier-1 (Bronze)] body refining and mana purifying technique, in addition to the [Mortal-(Gold)] mana gathering technique, Shane purchased one [Darkness Orchid (Rare)] for 5 gold coins. He also bought one baby-fist sized peak tier-1 mana stone with darkness mana stored within for 6 gold coins and 100 ml concentrated blood of an elite staged snake for 4 gold coins. This left him with a bnce of 45 gold. Satisfied with his purchases he closed his status panel for now. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 36 - Darkness Cocoon Compared to a few moments ago, Shane''s fortune had decreased by arge amount but instead of feeling sad or frustrated, he was proud and overjoyed. Finally, he had decent manuals to help him cultivate! Even though these techniques weren''t good enough for him to reach the peak of the Expert stage, it was more than enough for the beginning. With time, Shane was confident in saving up enough funds to purchase the Tier-2 techniques he longed for. Nevertheless, investing in his human capital which included the quality upgrade of Umbra, was more important for now. As long as Umbra''sbat prowess and evolution paths received a boost, Shane would also obtain much more funds from their increased hunting speed. With two powerful fighters instead of one, Shane''sbat prowess and hunting speed would increase by a huge margin, changing his ie by a lot. This thought caused Shane''s lips to curl up. Because he didn''t want anyone to notice Umbra''s quality upgrade, he once again rented a room though it was a different inn than before. Shane wasn''t sure if the previous hotel owner would try to kill him, because the room he had stayed in reeked of a foul and horrible stench. As such, a different hotel was the best choice he could make for now. cing the saturated Umbra on the single bed, Shane gazed at him intently, before taking out the required ingredients for his quality upgrade. Ordering the system to open the quality upgrade panel, the same sheet he had previously seen appeared in front of him, with slight changes in it. [To upgrade the quality of the selected beast [Shadow-snake(Umbra)] from his initial quality (Umon) to (Rare) following materials are required. _______________________________ Darkness Orchid[Rare](1/1) Blood of an [Elite] Snake beast (100ml/100ml) Peak Tier-1 Mana stone [Darkness] (1/1) [Commence quality upgrade] [Y/N] _______________________________ Everything he needed to upgrade Umbra''s quality from [Umon] to [Rare] was ready and Shane ordered the system to continue the upgrade. Suddenly the ingredients in Shane''s hand ascended into the air, where they dissolved before theypressed and fused with each other, slowly forming a single small marble that shone in a dark light, glimmering with dense mana. Without wasting any time, the pellet neared Umbra''s mouth which he opened widely to wee the ck marble. Sensing that it was something positive and advantageous for him, Umbra couldn''t be more impatient and he was almost about to jump towards the pellet that entered its mouth. Waiting for a few minutes, Shane inspected Umbra in anticipation, but nothing happened which caused him to frown deeply. Even Umbra felt weird that nothing happened, when suddenly, a violent surge of mana spread through his whole body, releasing dense mana fluctuations. Shane''s eyes widened as he watched the scene unfold before him. Umbra was slowly embraced by dark shining mana, shrouding him in cocoon-shaped mana, enveloping himpletely. A few more minutes passed without anything happening when Shane received a surprising notification from the system. [Quality-upgrade of [Shadow-snake(Umbra)] from (Umon) to (Rare) will take 12 hours. Host is rmended to ensure the safety of his tamed beast by all means!] The first thing Shane did was jump in joy because the quality upgrade had really worked. Smiling brightly, he noted that it would take 12 hours. It was a long time, but it was nothingpared to the gains Shane would receive in the future. He wasn''t sure what the system meant with ensuring safety, but it was probably only a warning that Umbra''s mana fluctuation could attract terrifying existences or something simr. Within Basic Primordial dimensions, protecting Umbra within the shelter couldn''t be considered a problem. Shane thought this warning would hold true within the Intermediate-dimensions and even more so in the advanced dimensions, because of the terrifying beasts within. Shane had to note that he would have to go back to Igra for the following quality enhancements, once he reached the Master stage. He shouldn''t exert undue pressure on the shelters within the intermediate dimension. Mankind couldn''t defeat all beings there and some monstrous beings were just left alone or had retreated owing to the sheer manpower. Umbra''s quality enhancement would most likely need some mana supply, but this could easily be solved by purchasing a few mana stones. Right now, however, Shane wasn''t sure how to help Umbra, as all mana particles that could enter his room were greedily absorbed by the ck shroud around Umbra. Shane''s mana pool was filled and he could test out his body refining manual for a few minutes, but that was probably it. Even so, Shane decided to worry about thatter. Turning his attention to the manuals within his spatial ring, he learned them all in a row before a vast amount of information was imnted in his mind. The information was extremely detailed and Shane immediately understood what he had to do to practice the body refining manual. However, to ensure the perfect refining of his body, he would need to bathe in a nutrition solution that would provide him with all kinds of nutrition in addition to enough mana toplete the whole process. His mana pool size wasrge enough. It could bepared to someone at the 5th Mortal stage than to [Artemis'' Blessing] which erged his mana core by 30% The only problem was that he didn''t have a nutrition solution, and purchasing one from the system would be too expensive. Furthermore, Shane didn''t want to buy a nutrition solution from the Primordial shop or rather the human section. They were expensive and the nutritional effect wouldst for multiple hours. This was in contrast to the mana within him that could only supply the whole body refining process for roughly an hour. This meant he would waste a lot of the nutrition effect. As such, Shane decided to do something else for the next 8 hours. First, he had to adjust his n in order to incorporate the academy into it, leaving enough time for everything else. But if Shane was honest, in thest few days, he had to adjust his n way too often and it seemed a bit useless to make a new long-term n because he was already far ahead than he had hoped to be in the beginning. And this was due to a few different facts. These facts included his possession of an extremely useful Innate skill, a powerful blessing, and the perfect timing for the Corvi race to conquer or seize a world without innate darkness transmuted mana. Everything yed perfectly together and due to him earning enough funds to purchase two Tier-1 manuals, Shane''s n progressed further than previously expected. But, this speed was still too slow ording to him, and he wanted to progress even faster. To elerate everything, Shane was required to have more connections, and even more important was a wider variety of information. Being able to collect highly demanded items, Shane would be able to sell them for a much higher price, further increasing his profit. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 37 - Gathering Intel As such, Shane was determined to start gathering information on PrimWeb''s interracial section. Billions of threads could be seen and a few hundred new ones popped up within seconds, causing Shane''s head to ache. As such, he narrowed his search to find threads from races that were innately powerful enough to start their cultivation journey inside advanced primordial dimensions instead of the basic dimensions. What use were items he could collect for such races? Sell mortal-grade items to them? Good Joke! These items would not even satisfy their newborn descendants, let alone matured beings. Shane knew what he was doing, at least partially, and the threads decreased by a huge margin, but he still frowned. `There are so many powerful races?` He began to wonder. This information alone was enough for him to feel a deep sense of pressure as a big question tormented his mind. `What if the race outside our ster system is one of the stronger races with a starting point at the intermediate dimensions or a much higher foundation than ours?` Shane asked himself while frowning. Mankind didn''t even know if the beings outside the ster system were friendly or hostile, or if they had ess to the primordial dimensions. But considering the worst-case scenario was the best thing one could do in such situations. Mankind prepared themselves to be invaded every day, while they armed themselves. After the stronger races were finallypletely sorted out, Shane continued to filter multiple other races which would have a higher starting point. Some races would start at the mid or peak of the intermediate dimensions, allowing them to reign everywhere they went without a need to cultivate for years. Thus, it was better for Shane to sort them out. It took him roughly half an hour and when he was finally done Shane saved everything within a pre-loadable section. With that, he could always switch between the whole interracial forum threads and search through his small section that he needed to gather information for his next ingredient hunt. As he started his research the first thread that caught his interest was about a race humanity had a treaty with. Elves, or rather the most basic race. Their starting point within the Primordial Dimension was the Intermediate-Dimension with a mana purity of roughly 70%. It wasparable to humans that had entered the Master stage with a mana purity of 70% to be on par with the mostmon average Elven youth. Elven with an above-average mana aptitude and prodigies of their race would have a higher mana purity. Some threads said that their prodigies could at most have a mana purity of 90%, but Shane somehow doubted that. ''Who revealed this information, if not the elves themselves? Would they really give out such precious information?'' The elven race had gone through multiple mutations over the course of millions of years since they had firste into existence, which caused them to split into two main sections. Elves, Forest-elves, High-elves, Divine-elves, and so on, on one side, with Shadow-elves, Dark Ice-elves, Magma elves, and Blood elves on the other side. Humans liked to call them good and holy or bad and evil but Shane didn''t like these prejudices because he hadn''t known any of these races personally. Without concrete information or undeniable facts, Shane wouldn''t make a baseless assumption. Nevertheless, these races interested him and he read the long thread that popped up in front of him without any hesitation. A frown slowly formed on Shane''s handsome face which deepened, the more he read. `Ohh S**T` Shane could only shout in his mind when heprehended what had happened. Apparently, the two split fractions of the elven races finally decided to meet in order to form a truce after an unknown, yet, extremely long number of years. However, before the meeting could happen, the where the authorities hade together for the truce, was attacked byal destruction weapons. The massive attack obliterated billions of lives on the neutral within a single moment. Oddly enough, all the ''authorities'' from the elven races sent to the neutral were only dummies, as if the real authoritarian figures had known something bad would happen. As such, instead of forming a truce, tension between the two races escted further..Eventually, small disputes grew over time and war began to fill their part of the universe once again. Thest cold war fought between the two races had been thousands of years ago. Shane concluded that the main problem was that mankind, who had formed a treaty with the elves and forest elves was now most likely on the radar of the other `bad` elven races. Humanity was already facing problems with the Dark-Ice elves. They secretly supported some malicious human organizations after mankind epted the treaty of their arch enemies- the elves and forest elves. `What would happen if they provided even more support or other elven races decided to help the hostile human organizations as well?` Shane began to wonder and his head began to hurt even more. He didn''t even want to imagine something like that, as it would be too devastating. But Shane was one of thest humans that could do anything at the moment. As such, he decided to continue with his research, which would help his future goal. Nevertheless, he still wrote down some notes and decided to look out for more information about the disputes between the different elven races for future reference. Reading through the threads, Shane got to know about several races he had never heard of before. However, most threads were eitherplete garbage or messages about useless stuff. Only a few were about skirmishes, the control over certain Primordial dimensions, wars outside the primordial dimension, news about trade agreements, truces, alliances, and so on. Noting down the important information, he also wrote down the area they were living in. Maybe he could find a pattern and predict something out of it, or get to know what resources were in high demand. Overall, many races had flourished but the weaker ones had perished faster than one could expect. A certain race caught his attention. They were exactly like humans with their starting point at the Basic dimensions. Well, that was at least for the moremon individuals of this particr race! It was important for this race to enhance their lower beings'' strength that had the highest quantity instead of their strongest individuals. As such, Shane found his target, the Elementals'' race also called Elus. They were manifestations of the elements, shaped into all kinds of forms, either beastlike, bipedal, or formless. Theirmoners were [Lesser-elementals] while their elite didn''tbel themselves with the `lesser` prefix. It was also said that the nobles were known as Greater elementals and their cream of the crop was the royalty that went by the name, Mystic elementals. Increasing their poption by creating an elemental seed within their cores took dozens of years, even with the help of a partner. Meanwhile, the growing process was also said to be arduous and even dangerous! Even though lesser elementals themselves were considered strong within the Basic dimension, whenpared with other powerful races, they still had to look for ways to be stronger. The biggest problem for them was that it took a longer period to increase their poptionpared to other races. This made it more difficult for them to increase the number of Primordial DImensions that they reigned in. The most problematic fact for them, however, was that they required a high amount of elemental transmuted mana stones in order to elerate the strengthening process. With such elemental transmuted mana stones, they could increase theirbat prowess and amplify the whole race''s strength with a long-term investment. Shane was not sure if many merchants knew about this but a few definitely knew it. These few merchants searched for elemental affinity mana stones, causing their price to increase by arge margin. The same could be said for Shane''s darkness transmuted mana stone. Its price had almost increased by one gold coin, even if it was very small in size. But, there was something that these merchants probably missed out on. Afterbining the information avable on the multiple threads together and arge amount of luck, Shane finally figured out a n which he could use to be wealthy once again!! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 38 - Evolution-path Shane''s n was simple, to find¡ú [Elemental crystals] crystals infused withpressed transmuted mana. While normal mana crystals were rare and sought out by many races, elemental crystals were rarer, and weirdly enough, the timing was perfect. The most recent news from humanity''s forum informed Shane and all humans that one of the newly upied Basic primordial dimensions was a mountain range. It was said to have even more resources than the Deep Mountain-river dimension. Because of that, humans tried to take hold of the ruling position of the mountain range, but the Dimension was too vast. This enabled the inhabitant beasts to use the advantage of theirndscapes to prevent humans from invading the mountain range to a certain degree. Humanity came across a few other races that tried to take over the mountain range as well. But, they maintained cordial rtions with each other, without causingrge-scale massacres, which was definitely a good oue. A rather unknown and quickly deleted thread had posted pictures of crystals found within a cave of the mountain range. These crystals were going to be Shane''s next target. But, there was still something that had to be done before. First, mankind had to take a firm stance on the shelter and erge it, before Shane would dare to go there. He needed at least one secured position somewhere, otherwise, he would be lost in an unknown region which was definitely not something anyone wanted. Outlining a rough n, Shane decided that there was more than enough time for him to increase his strength until he wanted to enter the [Radiant mountain ring] dimension, where his targeted ingredient was situated. Time passed slowly and Shane was focused on noting down publicly known information about all types of elemental crystals, how to harvest them, what details he had to pay attention to. The most important factor in his research would be to have a fair idea of what kind of dangers humans had found around the radiant mountain range until now. From the name of the dimension, the mountain range seemed to be a gigantic ring, which was a rare phenomenon. ''The valley within the mountain ring must be gorgeous, not like the shadow-snake valley that was eerie, muddy, and slightly dangerous.'' Shane daydreamed before he focused on his task once again. It was still night outside and the sun wasn''t going to rise until the next few hours. Looking at the timer, Shane noticed that only a few minutes from Umbra''s quality enhancement were left. He waited in anticipation to find out what changes his tamed beast had undergone. Even if Umbra didn''t evolve right now but only received a quality upgrade, Shane was sure that Umbra would look more refined and powerful. Gazing at the countdown, which slowly approached 0, Shane closed the screen and turned to observe Umbra''s dark cocoon, when he heard a notification. [(Umbra''s) quality has sessfully been upgraded from (Umon) to (Rare)] Without wasting any time, the darkness enshrouding him began to dissipate slowly. But, Shane was impatient and opened Umbra''s status panel to take a look. _______________________ Name: [Umbra¡á] Race:[Shadow-snake] Rank: [Low 3rd-Wild stage(Low-Wild)] Quality: [Rare](+) |Evolution|(+) Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow)(+) Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)] Loyalty: [39%] _______________________ Umbra''s rank had increased slightly, but other than that, nothing major had changed except the quality, which was obvious. His loyalty had increased to 39% which was a joyous factor. But somehow, Shane was still disappointed because he had expected more when he was suddenly bombarded with notifications. [A new evolution path [Rare] has been discovered.] [Innate-Skill upgrade (Trash |¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï|¡úCommon |¡ï|)] : Enhance the quality of one tamed beast, has been aplished. Reward: [Cultivation-link] has been added to the host''s Innate skill''s abilities.] [[Cultivation-link] Host''s Innate skill and Cultivation will be linked to each other. The higher the host''s cultivation, the more and stronger beasts he can tame.] [Upgrade-mission Common |¡ï¡ï|¡úIncrease the loyalty of one of your tamed beast to 50%(39%)] "WHAT?" Shane shouted, not knowing what was going on, as he was just shocked about the news. There were four messages in total and out of the four, discovering a new evolution path for Umbra was the easiest for him to understand within a few seconds. Looking at the first notification, Shane anticipated the new evolution path, even though the |Evolution| section itself was still locked. Nevertheless, Shane found out that he could look at Umbra''s evolutions which made him curious as another panel appeared in front of him. _______________________ Possible evolutions [Shadow-snake (Rare)] 1) [Common] Shadow-python 2) [Umon] Darkness-python 3) [Rare] Colossus Darkness-python 4) [Extraordinary] _______________________ Reading through the few possibilities, Shane''s jaw dropped to the ground. But this wasn''t because of the first two evolution paths, as he had already been aware of them. It was the third one that astonished him. `Colossus Darkness-python??? Just like that?` Shane was more than a little taken aback. The colossus darkness python he knew was a mid-awakened beast and a terrifying existence within the Basic Primordial dimension. His little cute Umbra would be able to evolve into something like that after he unlocked its evolution function?? Shane couldn''t believe it and it seemed way too unrealistic that 15 gold coins allowed his beast to be able to evolve into an awakened beast. Thinking for a bit, Shane understood that if Umbra were to evolve into a colossus darkness-python, that his quality would be degraded to [Trash], causing its strength to be among the weakest colossus darkness python''s out there. Additionally, he would be unable to evolve until his quality was upgraded once again. Normally one would not tame a Shadow-snake and increase its quality to such a degree as Shane did. But even if one did, finding out the right ingredients to upgrade it with the same amount of funds he used was almost impossible without the guidance of the Innate Skill he had received. Nevertheless, everything seemed unreal for him. A small investment of 15 gold coins gave Umbra the chance to evolve into an awakened beast? With a single evolution at that!! This seemed just too illogical, but the system wouldn''t lie to him. This however meant that his Innate skill [Taming] was more than a little overpowered. Previously, he thought his taming skill was just like everyone else''s just with a few additional features. ''Or were other''s Innate Skills simrly magnificent??'' He wondered. He was shocked because the possibility of them hiding their most powerful abilities didn''t sound illogical. When Shane had unlocked the quality-upgrade function, he hadn''t thought much about it. But now that he understood the real importance of a beast''s quality for its evolution, goosebumps covered his whole body. However, instead of ncing too long at the [Rare] evolution path, what really attracted Shane''s attention was the [Extraordinary] evolution path that seemed to be the highest possible path Umbra could take. Shane started to wonder what exactly thest evolution could be, as he noticed the second notification in addition to the third one. His lips curled and Shane could only shout out in joy as a radiant smile stered his face. Not only had his Innate skill been upgraded to the [Common] quality, but the reward he received was at least as baffling as the news about Umbra''s rare evolution. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 39 - Difference [[Cultivation-link] Host''s Innate skill and Cultivation will be linked to each other. The higher the host''s cultivation, the more and stronger beasts the host can tame.] His newly obtained skill allowed his cultivation and Innate skill to build a link, connecting each other. ording to its description, Shane would be able to increase the number of beasts he could tame by increasing his cultivation while the same applied to the strength of the beasts that he wanted to tame. He didn''t know the exact form to calcte the limitations behind his newly obtained ability but it was entirely different whenpared to the normal Taming skill. Every normal skill and technique was divided into the grading Mortal¡úTier 1-3¡úBlessed 1-3 and so on, while further segmented into their qualities that ranged from Bronze to Mythic. Both the grade and quality were important to determine how many beasts one could tame and how strong they could be at most. With a [Mortal-(Bronze)] Taming skill one could barely tame a single Low-Wild beast while a higher quality meant one would be able to tame stronger beasts. Possessing a higher graded skill, one was more likely to be able to tame two beasts. But this was not possible with [bronze] quality, and one required at least a [gold] quality taming skill. Not only were the requirements for higher-grade taming skills more difficult to aplish but it was also said that taming two beasts below the Master stage was the most one would be able to do. Shane didn''t know how many beasts someone at a higher stage could tame. But, he was sure of the fact that a Tier-3 skill wouldn''t be enough to tame 3 beasts while their strength had to be weaker than the skill-wielder. With the [Tamer] upation everything would change slightly, but for Shane, it seemed like his Innate Skill was more powerful. These limiting strength factors also included beasts that evolved, even though there were some slight differences. If a beast was stronger than the capacity of one''s skill, the bond between the tamed beast and the tamer would either be severed or one would receive heavy setbacks. Loyalty was very important in this case. If a tamed beast loved its tamer and didn''t want to leave him/her, it would restrict its strength, giving the tamer some time to adjust their capabilities so as to fit each other. Such tamed beasts wouldn''t follow every instruction because they would have regained full control over themselves. However, if their loyalty was extremely high, they would even sacrifice themselves for their tamer. In the beginning, Shane thought that his Innate Skill would be roughly the same, with the sole difference that he would receive a higher boost in terms of tameable beasts and strength with every quality rank his skill rose up. Receiving additional effects like the [Growth boost], [Quality enhancement], [Affinity amplification], and even unlocking the [Quality-Upgrading], was extremely beneficial. To top it all now he even obtained the [Cultivation-link], which heightened his future potential even more. Comparing himself with normal tamers without the corresponding upations, Shane was already miles apart from them. Even someone with the 0-Star upation [Apprentice Tamer] or 1-Star upation [Tamer], wouldn''t receive as many benefits as he had already obtained without having a 0-Star upation, even if one disregarded the quality of the upation. upations were ranked from 0-Star to 5-Star and each enhancement in rank would upgrade the upation''s amplification and inherited skills by arge margin, while the quality described how strong the upation is on the same star rating. The qualities were further divided into bronze, silver, gold, tinum, diamond, and mythic. Once an upation had been picked it couldn''t be changed easily. As such, it was important to pick an upation with high quality because the quality of an upation couldn''t be changedter, at least humanity had never seen such a case in thest two centuries. Increasing the star rating of upation was not particrly difficult at the first two stars because one only had to fulfill the requirements and acquire certain items. Most humans that fought against beasts had at least a silver quality upation, while other humans picked upations that helped them earn more ie like lifestyle upations. Some tried to figure out ways to fulfill hidden requirements in order to obtain upations of a higher quality. There were too many benefits one could gain with a high-quality upation but wasting too much time on fulfilling unknown requirements would result in wasted cultivation talent, which would slow down the older one became without reaching a higher stage, and degrade other aspects of their overall strengthpared to their peers. One had to get the perfect timing or end up weakerpared to others. Artisans, for example, were also highly demanded, and having a bronze upation like cksmith, alchemist and so on would increase the chances to produce better products. In the end, even farmer upations were highly sought out, because the crops they grew and looked after were highly nutritious and more filling than normal nts. As such, almost everyone picked an upation suitable to their tastes. In the end, mankind worked together to act as a single individual, like many other races, in order to prosper and be stronger. ck sheep could be found everywhere but most humans worked together to receive more benefits through the Primordial dimension. They used the systems'' support in order to survive and fulfill their desire to aplish something great. Shane could be said to belong to a simr category but because of his transmigration from earth, where he had always heard from all kinds of fairy tales about heroes, he always dreamed to be someone great even though it was only a fantasy. This universe was far more dangerous than earth, and a single mistake within the Primordial Dimension could mean his death. Being stronger than your opponent was the most important trait. Shane didn''t want to end up like he did on earth, shot to death by a poacher, without being able to do anything at all. The ck shroud around Umbra finally dissipated and Shane could take a nce at his tamed beast. It seemed as if Umbra''s size had increased to around 44 centimeters in length while the width of his body was slightly more than 3 centimeters in diameter. His scales seemed tougher and they gleamed faintly. Umbra looked at Shane happily and hissed joyously at him. Shane noticed that his tamed beast''s fangs seemed to have been reinforced because they looked sharper. Staring at Umbra, Shane could also feel that his little shadow snake''s gaze had turned sharper, it was more like a predator''s gaze instead of a cute pet''s. Overall Shane concluded that Umbra was already stronger than most matured Shadow-snakes, even those at the peak of the 3rd Wild stage due to the high-quality Umbra possessed. Smiling brightly, Shane decided to take a look at the upgrade function to figure out how much funds he had to umte to upgrade Umbra''s quality into [Extraordinary]. This would help him select the most perfect path for his tamed beast to evolve in the future. But what he saw was rather confusing, which made his jaw drop to the ground where it would remain for the time being. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 40 - Path Out Of Misery [To upgrade the quality of selected beast [Shadow-snake(Umbra)] from its initial quality (Rare) to (Extraordinary) following materials are required. Tier-2 Mana stone [Darkness] (0/5) Daylight peony(Common) (0/4) Blood of a Dragon (0/1 Drop) [Commence quality upgrade] [Y/N]] Shane would have almost copsed to the ground if Umbra hadn''t been looking at him with high expectations. "What bulls**t is that?" Shane mumbled, not being able to control himself. ''How can there be such a vast difference between a [Rare] and [Extraordinary] upgrade? It''s not like I want Umbra to evolve directly into a full-fledged Dragon!!!!!'' Shane cursed in his mind before he researched the price of a Daylight peony which, he foundter, was the cheapest amongst all the other listed items He found only a few shops on the Primordial Shop human section and furrowed his brows deeply. Seeing the price for a single Daylight peony with a mon) quality didn''t make him happy. On the contrary, it was far worse than his estimation and turned hisst ray of hope into a pathway to hell. [Daylight peony(Common)] only 25 gold coins/each!!100 `F**K this `ONLY`!!` Looking at the price for small-sized Tier-2 mana stones with a (Trash) quality and a darkness transmutation wasn''t helpful either, further ruining his mood. [Tier-2 Mana stone(Trash) [Darkness]] only 20 gold coins/each. Fulfilling two out of three requirements to upgrade Umbra''s quality from rare to extraordinary was already priced at a minimum of 200 gold coins excluding the 10% transfer fee These two requirements alone were almost an additional charge of 15 times the initial amount of 15 gold coins that he had paid for Umbra to reach his current rare quality. Now, he had to pay more than 220 gold coins to reach ? of the requirements for Umbra''s quality upgrade to extraordinary. This could already be considered a problem but there was something else that was far moreplicated. ''How the hell can I acquire dragon blood with my funds? Even if it''s only a single drop...the price is way too high for me to afford¡­ Why does Umbra need a drop of an existence that is at least at the 5th stage¡­ Isn''t that too much SYSTEM??'' Shane cursed andmented, but the system didn''t reply and he gazed at Umbra with a sour expression. There was nothing Shane could do about it. umting more than 200 gold for the other two requirements was still feasible and barely eptable but the dragon-blood drop was not something he would be able to acquire without anyone''s help. Umbra could sense Shane''s chaotic feelings and he knew that it was his fault or rather that his quality enhancement was extremely expensive. Umbra wasn''t sure how much something was worth, but he began to slowly understand that they had plucked the Nightshade flowers and risked their lives in order to help him increase his quality. As such, Umbra knew that Shane wanted to help him be stronger, even if it was for Shane''s own good. Shane gazed at his finances as he noticed that they had increased from 45 gold coins to 51 with a few additional silver. It seemed like the surplus Nightshade flowers had been sold, which was the only favorable fact Shane found in this whole situation. Thinking about ways to solve his problem, Shane didn''t even care about the 220 gold coins he had to umte for the peonies and the transmuted mana stones. Before he would think about collecting gold coins, he had to find a way to procure dragon blood, otherwise, he would only waste his time. ''The system doesn''t think I can obtain dragon blood by myself, right?'' Shane thought when he read through the panel with Umbra''s quality upgrade requirements on it once again. ''[Blood of a Dragon]...What kind of dragon? A true dragon, western, oriental, flood dragon, halfling or is an earth dragon with an extremely low purity already enough?'' He asked himself and his mind rattled in order to search for all kinds of ways to obtain the blood of a dragon when he remembered something. ''What about wyvern and wyrms? If they can be added to the list, maybe I can get the blood of one of these two?'' Shane saw a tiny ray of hope but it was still extremely feeble and only barely visible. However this tiny ray of hope widened, and Shane seemed more inspired than before. His dad''s best friend was a tamer who had a magical staged Wyvern as his tamed beast, hence Shane knew quite a bit about wyverns. More important than the knowledge of wyverns was his knowledge about the beast rankings and their counterpart, the human rankings. For the basic dimensions, Wild, Elite, and Awakened stage beasts were allowed while humans at the Mortal, Apprentice, and Expert stage would still be able to enter it. As for the intermediate dimension, the beast at the Myst, Laer, and Duke stage inhabited them while humans at the Master, Squire, and Ruler stage could enter them without facing too many problems. But Shane was unsure how it went on with the advanced dimensions. The only thing he knew was that the next human rank was the Exalted stage, while beasts at the Overlord stage began to appear inside advanced dimensions. Within the intermediate and advanced dimensions, the beasts with a lower rank were always roaming around, while the intermediate only allowed beasts at the Duke stage at most into their dimension, Shane was unsure about the advanced dimensions limit. Thinking about Wyverns, Shane began to smile lightly because they were moremonly found than dragons and essentially weaker. If a dragon at the Laer stage with a low bloodline were to fight a Laer staged wyvern, the dragon would win almost every time, except if there was an extreme affinity disadvantage from the dragon''s side. As such hunting wyverns and procuring their blood was much easier and it was extremely cheappared to the blood of a real dragon. Besides, it was extremely rare to find dragons at the Laer stage, because they would have an extremely low number of offsprings. It was moremon for dragons to appear in the advanced dimension, even though humans hadn''t seen many of them upon closer inspection. Nevertheless, the system considered both of them as dragons, and Shane became even more determined to purchase a drop of wyvern blood with enough funds. But looking at the price, Shane''s mood instantly plummeted once again. Wyvern blood was considered a [Blessed-1] grade ingredient regardless of its quality. Shane knew it would be expensive, but figuring out the price was more devastating than he had thought. For a single blood drop of a wyvern with a trash quality, Shane would have to pay more than 1 tinum coin, due to its scarcitypared to other races. For an ingredient, it was extremely expensive, considering that it was a single drop and only [trash] quality. Shane could only cry in misery. 1 tinum coin was worth 1000 gold coins, but to convert gold coins into tinum coins, one had to activate the conversion function within the system. This happened naturally once one reached the Master stage by liquefying a drop of mana or by paying the system. Paying the system was not possible for him, because it was way too expensive, as such Shane would have to pay a much higher price than 1000 gold coins or 1 tinum coin. Umbra looked at Shane carefully and he could also barely follow his train of thoughts through their connection. He sent Shane a picture of the wyvern, which Shane had imagined when he had thought about his dad''s best friend. "What!?" Shane angrily shouted at Umbra who he felt had distracted him from finding a way out of the misery. Umbra was taken aback but he still sent the picture of the tamed wyvern to Shane once again. !!! "Howe I couldn''t think of that!!! Umbra you''re a genius!!" Shane shouted out as he lifted the shadow snake into the air. As the snake hissed joyfully, Shane opened the system and searched for an ount name, before he wrote a message. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 41 - He Is Searching For You! "Hey Uncle Max, Shane here, can you spare some time for your nephew?" ''Maybe it will work?'' Shane thought with slight hesitation before he attached a picture of himself to the message in order to prove that it was really him. He was still slightly dirty, within a shabby room, and looked tired but it was evident that he was Shane Suro, or for his father''s friends, Little Shane or Shane Ste. It was not that his father''s friend was really his uncle, but Max Brier, one of the most respected tamers on Igra wanted to be called Uncle Max by Shane. As such, he could only obey, and to be honest, there wasn''t any harm in doing so. A few minutes had passed but he hadn''t received a reply from his uncle. Shane decided to leave the Soul-Onyx-Jungle dimension because he wanted to escape the heavy rain. With Umbra coiled around his neck, he went out of the Inn and walked towards the dimension portal, as he received a notification. Standing on the open street, while the rain poured down on him, Shane decided to leave for another dimension before anything else. Only five minutester, Shane entered the dimension portal to visit the Deep Mountain-river dimension after paying two silver coins for their teleportation fee. Entering the DeepMountain shelter, Shane and Umbra were greeted by the bright light shining onto them. It took them a few moments until their eyes adjusted to the bright afternoon sun illuminating the shelter. Without wasting much time, Shane left the shelter and sat down outside the shelter walls, leaning on a tree before he opened his uncle''s message. "Shane, is that really you? Where are you? How are you doing? Is everything okay? We were all worried about you! You look dirty and tired...WHY did you run away from home?" Shane was taken aback to receive the message that bombarded him with several questions at once. It seemed weird, but warmth filled his heart. "Yeah, it''s me, uncle. I''m doing fine and thest few days were full of action. Strolling through the Primordial dimension is really something one shouldn''t miss out on..haha¡­Furthermore, you should know why I didn''t want to stay with dad, does he really think he can control me for his whole life and order me around like I''m his puppet?" Shane wasn''t sure what else to write and he didn''t want toin too much about his father to one of his friends, even if he had much more to say. As such, Shane decided to focus on his reason for writing to uncle Max, with slight hesitation. "It might be out of line to ask you that, but can you give me a drop of Tiamir''s blood? I need it for something and the prices on the Primordial shops are too expensive for me to handle right now." Shane felt embarrassed to ask for this favor, but he would repay it sometime in the future. In the beginning, Shane also wanted to ask Max to lend him some money, but with this, he would feel like he still had to rely on his father''s connections. Asking for a drop of Tamir''s, i.e. Max''s strongest tamed beast''s blood was already the highest favor he wanted to receive for now. At least, until the dispute with his father was solved. Shane received a reply to his request in less than a minute. Shane felt conflicted as he read through the message. By ''we'' his Uncle probably meant the close circle of friends around John that had mostly raised him. All of them were like a part of their family but Shane had been suppressed for his whole life, even if he was overwhelmed with their love and care about him. He wasn''t even allowed to go to a normal school and make friends. It was as if he was a princess locked within a castle, only able to look out of the barred windows, waiting for a prince to rescue her. Shane didn''t want to wait for anyone to rescue him, as such he decided to rescue himself by entering the Primordial Dimensions. It definitely felt good that his dad was searching for him, but that didn''t change their internal dispute. Pondering for a moment, Shane decided that he would write his dad a short messageter and inform him that he was doing fine. In addition, he wanted to clearly exin his reasons for not wanting to stay with his dad, at least until his dad changed his controlling behavior. But if Shane was honest, he didn''t think that his dad would do much about the current situation, because there was too much he had to do right now. Humanity had spread further in the primordial dimensions while his dad prepared to venture into a new advanced dimension to lead the construction of the shelter there. It was important and his dad wouldn''t have much time to think about his son. Before Shane could even click on his dad''s private ount number Uncle Max had sent him, he received yet another message from him. Reading thest message, Shane smiled and began tough as he could imagine his dad demolishing the whole mansion in his bad temper... Umbra saw Shaneugh and felt as ted as his master, transmitting a lot of happiness and joy. Both felt happy and it took them a while before they calmed down, when Shane finished reading the message. Frowning deeply, Shane mumbled "What cold feet? I''ll live a long life and marriage can be der...I''m only 16 years old...Furthermore, I''ll decide who I want to marry!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 42 - Heirloom Shane sent another message to Uncle Max and thanked him for his help. He then clicked on the profile within their chat, leading him to the private ount of his father. Pondering on what to write, he just decided to send him the same photo that he already showed to Uncle Max and sent a small message attached to it. Shane wasn''t sure if he should send the message word for word, but his temper wasn''t something to joke with. As such, he just sent it before he closed the system''s messenger. He and his dad had always been at war but until now Shane had been helpless to do anything against it. This message was the second time he had done what he wanted in front of his dad, even though the message was rude. Only after turning 16, he was able to flee from his dad''s firm grip. He would rather suffer a little but reim his freedom instead of being spoiled and locked up. Shane didn''t expect to receive an answer soon and thanks to Uncle Max he would receive a drop of wyvern blood, with a trace of low purity dragon blood. As such, he had found a solution to an important problem of upgrading Umbra''s quality much more easily than he had expected, which made him happy. Furthermore, messaging Max had somehow released the guilt gnawing at him for running away without informing anyone. Now, Shane felt at ease and he waspletely free. What he had to do now, was gather around 200 more gold coins, in order to upgrade Umbrapletely. In Shane''s opinion, his own strength and Umbra''s evolution would both receive arge boost with this. With Umbra''s current quality, Shane thought it would be able to reach the mid-Wild stage but that was it. It was said that beasts could evolve once they reached maturity, which means for a normal Shadow-snake it was the peak of the 3rd-Wild stage. Shane wondered if the evolution section of Umbra would be unlocked then, and not only the evolution paths. As of now, Shane would have to purchase a few things, so he went inside the shelter once again. There were multiple items he needed for his cultivation and body refining to work out. For his body refining, Shane required nutrition solutions, while for both body refining and cultivation, mana stones would help his progress extremely. Shane wanted to increase hisbat prowess as much as possible in order to venture deeper into the mountain range, three weeks from now. With his 51 gold coins, there were more than enough funds to elevate his strength to an eptable degree. Considering that four weeks from now the academies would ept or reject students, Shane would have to show some progress because the requirements these academies had were the bare minimum. While descendants of the rich and powerful families wouldn''t enroll in these academies except for socializing, Shane knew that they wouldn''t use dimensional-spheres because they won''t bother wasting time to learn skills and techniques slowly. Instead, they would receive enough funds from their families in order to purchase their skills and have all information directly imnted into their minds. As such, Shane''s only opponents for the dimension-spheres were mostly youths from average households in addition to irregrs that enrolled in the school due to special circumstances like he did. Another set of irregrs were children from poor families with special body traits, innate skills, or blessings. Awakening any of these special features with the system''s help indicated that they wouldn''t stay at the bottom of the food pyramid and soar higher. This was, at least when one considered individuals within the human race, as long as they wouldn''t die early before they were nurtured. From Shane''s point of view, the children from average families could only be considered as the smaller fish, while simr youths to him in addition to poor youths with any special feature were his majorpetitors. He had special features and went through an arduous childhood with years of knowledge imprinted into his mind in addition to, etiquette,bat techniques, tactics, and so on. One could say Shane was the ultimate irregr and he knew that. As long as he worked hard enough, it shouldn''t be a problem for him to gain a spot for the Tier-1 dimension-sphere for a start. Learning a skill or martial art technique at the mortal grade was ridiculous because one would at most stay at the mortal stage for one or two months with a little bit of effort. Reaching a purity of 10% couldn''t be considered a problem and even Tier-1 skills were not that useful for a longer progression. Nevertheless, it was important to learn Tier-1 skills as they build upon one''s foundation and enhance it with the addition of a higher requirement for mana cirction. Walking through the market, Shane noticed many stalls selling cultivation and body refining resources. Finding valuable items for a cheap price wasn''t easy and Shane tested out his negotiating skills, pushing down the cost of his purchases by a lot. This was mainly because Shane bought mana stones and nutrition solutions in bulk and his handsome face had bewitched the young female attendant. Nevertheless, he had received a huge discount, which was what he had wanted. In the end, Shane had used 31 gold coins to purchase [10x nutrition solution (Common), 7x nutrition solution(Umon), 30x fist-sized mana stones (Common), 10xfist sized mana stones(Umon] While the umon materials were all priced at 1 gold each, themon nutrition solution cost 50 silver coins and the fist-sized mana stones 30 silver coins. Average households would never make such a purchase. Shane had to increase his strength at a rapid pace and couldn''t waste much time gathering mana over a long time. Furthermore, body refining techniques demanded a lot of nutrition and the nutrition baths could onlyst 12 hours at most. During the first four hours, the effects were the most effective, while the nutrition effect would slowly decrease over time. Even if he were to use one nutrition solution each day, Shane had bought solutions that wouldst for 17 days only. Also, he wasn''t exactly sure how long the mana stone stock would hold with both him and Umbra using it. Only increasing one''s cultivation and physical strength was also wrong, hence Shane wanted to go out every day in order to train for a few hours. Thus, he decided to sleep only for the shortest required period for a cultivator at his stage. When he was about to search for an Inn to use his first nutrition solution, Shane received another message from Uncle Max. His package had arrived but Shane noticed that it said two items were sent to him, which was confusing. After epting the package, a bottle with a single gleaming red drop of blood appeared within one of his spatial rings, while a familiar ring appeared in his empty hand. Looking at the ring, Shane immediately knew it was a spatial ring because it was impossible for mortal graded spatial rings to store other spatial rings. Gazing at the pure-white spatial ring, Shane could see a ck dragon head with golden pupils gazing at him and a shocked expression could be seen on his face. ''Isn''t that mom''s?'' Shane thought, as his legs almost gave in. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 43 - [Ancient Ring Of The Susurro] Shane had never met his mother, but he had seen many pictures of her. The pure-white ring on her hand was the most distinct thing he could remember because the magnificent pitch-ck dragon head with golden eyes looked majestic. He had asked his father about the ring, but Shane never received a reply. Or rather, Shane never heard his dad telling him anything about his mother, so he just imagined a gentle, beautiful woman whom he would have loved to meet. Now with the ring in front of him, Shane couldn''t help but wonder, when he looked at the message from Uncle Max. ''That ring is considered as the heirloom of the Suro''s?'' Shane asked in his mind, when he took off the two mortal ranked spatial rings, to put his mother''s spatial ring on his ring finger. Suddenly, the pitch-ck inanimate dragonhead began to move, turning into a miniature oriental dragon manifestation. It released an intimidating aura that caused Shane to not only be shocked but also unable to move a muscle. Fortunately, he was in an empty alley where nobody could see him. The pitch-ck dragon manifestation didn''t waste any time as it bit into his finger, and sucked a few drops of blood. After a moment, that felt like an eternity, the dragon manifestation dissipated before it re-appeared on his spatial ring. The pitch-ck dragon head with golden eyes could be seen glimmering on the ring once again. He was still shocked about what had happened when a notification appeared in his head. [Direct descendant of ''Sarah Suro'' has been identified] [Ancient Ring of the Susurro [Soul-2 (Extraordinary)] has been bound to host (Shane Suro)] [Ancient ring of the Susurro regted its status to host''s. Innate skill and blessing detected. Status upgraded] Shane was still standing in the empty alley, but his eyes had widened in shock. `Soul-2 grade? What?` he couldn''tprehend what had happened at the moment. He was stunned by the oriental dragon''s appearance. He decided to go elsewhere when he noticed someone entering the empty alley. He wanted to avoid attracting attention to his weird behavior. Searching for an Inn, he selected one and paid 50 bronze coins. Shane ignored the cost as he went into his room without wasting a single second to small-talk with the owner. Inside the small room, Shane looked at his mother''s ring before he opened its status panel, with high expectations. __________________ [Ancient ring of the Susurro [Mortal(Soul) - (Extraordinary)] Spatial storage: [10,000(1M)cubic meter] -Innate skill''s effects strengthened by 10%- -Blessing enhanced by 10%- -Small amplification in mana cirction and mana output- _________________ ''Hmmm?'' Shane''s eyes widened and he wasn''t able to think straight anymore as he saw his mother''s ring. Not only was the ring an extremelyrge spatial ring but it had additional effects for Shane''s individual unique features like his Innate Skill and blessing. As if that was not enough, he also received a boost in his mana cirction and Mana output. This would help Shane in his cultivation andbat prowess as soon as he learned a skill or technique that required his mana output. Shane''s body began to twitch and he felt his mana pool increasing. It seemed as if that was not solely the case for Shane but also for Umbra who shuddered violently, almost falling to the ground. Due to the enhancement of Shane''s Innate skill, Umbra''s quality, growth speed, and affinity had received a small amplification. This shocked Shane extremely. Precisely, at the same moment, his mana pool also stopped increasing in size, exactly at 3%, due to the ring''s effects. It was truly shocking for Shane to find out that his mother had obtained a [Soul-2 (Extraordinary)] item from an ancient ruin within an advanced dimension. These were extremely dangerous and Shane could only praise his quasi family''s strength. Because the ancient ring was bound to his mother for whatever reason, only someone in the same bloodline could use this ring. This was probably the reason why he received it instead of his dad or someone around him. Bound items would adjust their strength to the wielder and have certain amplification towards the wielder''s special features. Shane was overjoyed to receive such a treasure as a bted birthday present. He asked himself if his dad had sent it to him through Uncle Max. He had been under the impression that his father had used the ring as a form of ckmail. Considering his father''s temper, he thought that his mother''s precious heirloom had been sent in order to lure him back home. But apparently, he had simply received it without any conditions. It seemed like his father had read his message but instead of writing back, he sent his mother''s ring to Max, in order to transfer it to him. Shane wasn''t sure what to think about his father right now because he acted differently than his usual self. Instead of throwing a fit and cursing at him, his dad had remained silent without replying to him at all. Was that a new tactic? Shane didn''t know but he was sure that his father was more than a little enraged. Fortunately, his dad wasn''t around, otherwise, he would have been beaten to a pulp. As such, he just epted the ring and looked at Umbra''s quality upgrade panel, only to see that the (0/1drop) for dragon blood changed into (1/1drop). This meant Max''s wyvern counted as a weaker sub-race of the dragon race, causing Shane''s lips to curl into a big smile. Furthermore, owing to therge spatial storage of the new ring, he wouldn''t need his other spatial rings anymore. He would be able to sell the two rings for around 6 gold coins in total which would increase his funds once again. With his humongousrge spatial storage, he wouldn''t have to rely on his store to sell the beast corpses that he found in a variety. Now, Shane didn''t need to limit himself to target only a certain category of beasts and avoid the rest. He didn''t have to rely on storing many corpses inside his small spatial rings in addition to the three item vacancies inside his shop. Now he could store everything inside just one enormous ring and filling 10,000 cubic meters would take a long time. Furthermore, by adjusting its capabilities to Shane''s strength, the spatial ring''s storage size and amplifications would increase subsequently. This was exceptionally good news and Shane was even more determined in reaching higher cultivation stages in order to receive more benefits from his mother''s heirloom. Looking at Umbra, Shane smiled, before his gaze turned towards therge empty bathtub. Filling it with hot water, Shane poured one of themon quality nutrition solutions inside, while he surrounded the basin with three fist-sizedmon mana stones. He took off his clothes and descended into the basin, immersing himself in the solution. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 44 - [Perfect] Body Refining? A faint herbal aroma filled the whole room, while Shane sat inside the nutrition solution which opened his pores. As Shane''s body absorbed the nutrition solution, Shane felt energy seep in through the pores invigorating him. He controlled the mana radiating from the mana stones in addition to the high energy supply within his body and directed it towards the different segments in order to refine them. Body refining consisted of refining one''s internal organs, bones, skin, tendons, blood, cranium, and so on. There were millions of refinement techniques and the higher the grade of a body refining technique was, the more concentrated the body refining would be. Shane''s physique had already reached the 4th Mortal stage but he would have to refine his entire body once again in order to receive a better result... This was the case with every technique with a few exceptions that would continue the body refining on top of the older foundation. If Shane''s physique were to reach the 3rd Apprentice stage he would have to change his body refining technique to a higher grade. Additionally, he would also have to refine his entire body once again to remove the small ws that the lower grad technique innately had. This Re-refining would require fewer resources or time than the first refinings, but Shane''s uncles and aunts told him that he should purchase [Perfect] body refining techniques instead. This was because the time and resources one had to utilize in the higher body refining stages would only increase substantially. Purchasing a [perfect] body refining technique would be Shane''s final goal but the costs and requirements were too high for him to handle at the moment. All [perfect] body refining techniques were at the [Mythic]-quality. The requirements were not only pricey but the missions one had to aplish would also be extremely difficult and dangerous. Manuals, Techniques, and skills above the tinum rank always required the one who wanted to purchase them to aplish missions. Sometimes these missions were even harder than upgrade missions required to increase the star rating of upations. The main problem with perfect techniques was that one had to purchase these techniques while being at the same stage as the equivalent grade. This meant that Shane could only purchase a [Mortal-(Mythic)] body refining technique as long as his physique and cultivation didn''t exceed the 10th Mortal stage. Shane had already skimmed through the requirements for the [perfect] mortal body refining technique and one requirement was that he had to umte 1000 gold coins on his own to be able to purchase it. Everything that Shane gathered, plucked, and killed was automatically calcted ording to the selling price, as long as the system detected that it was a proper business and not fraud or a sly trick. As such, he had already umted more than 200 gold on his own but he initially wanted to break through fast, instead of wasting time on a perfect body refining. However, he was doubtful about this decision when he recalled his uncle and aunt advising him to give it a try. Furthermore, Shane would be stuck in the basic dimension for quite some time in order to achieve the goal in his mind. As such he was pondering over what to do...when he remembered that he was sitting within a nutrition solution whose effect would slowly diminish. Shaking his head, Shane tried to clear his mind and he focused on his body refining once again. Body refining focused mostly on tempering and cleansing one''s body, while the mana refined all body parts from inside out, in addition to the high amount of nutrition flooding his cells. Umbra looked at him from outside the basin and coiled himself next to a fist-sizedmon quality mana stone to absorb it. Meanwhile, Shane operated the mana gathering technique before his mana pool waspletely filled. With the mana inside his body and the nutrition seeping in every cell in his body, Shane started practicing the body refining technique to remove the ws of his first four ranks at the mortal stage. Time passed slowly and Shane''s pores excreted a ck and terribly reeking liquid which were the impurities within his body. Not only would cultivation itself cleanse a cultivator''s body but body refining would do the same. However, while cultivating the mana pool, would only cleanse one''s mana channels, mana pool, and everything that belonged to mana innately; body refining would cleanse the impurities within his veins, skin, organs, and so on. Both cleansings were important for the body and would cause one to have a longer lifespan. The surrounding mana in addition to the innate mana was able to renew older cells within the body. As Shane had already achieved a physique of the 4th mortal stage, he refined his physique, before he continued to absorb the mana in his surroundings. The mana particles around him had already decreased by a noticeable amount, and he continued to refine his physique once again. Apparently, he would have to use three to four fist-sized mon) mana stones for a single sitting while body refining. Shane would probably have to purchase a few more of them in order to be prepared for the next three weeks of strengthening himself. Six hourster, the mana stones werepletely dried up and crumpled as Shane had absorbed all the mana utilizing them. This amount of time was enough for him to re-refine his existing body constitution. The ck reeking liquid floated on top of the water, piercing his nostrils as he smelled the stench. Drying his wet body, Shane noticed his physique and could only nod his head in admiration. When hepared his old body constitution on earth to his current physique, there was not even the need to think over which of the two was more enticing and admirable. His muscles were taut and distinct, while his skin could be considered fair and smooth. One might think that everyone with a high physique would have a nicely shaped body but that was not the case because working out was still important. If one had a high physique but a bad body constitution, one couldn''t use the refined physique perfectly without working out and training the body consistently. As such, Shane had learned to workout and stay fit from a young age in a short amount of time, and keep everything fully upied in order to not waste even 0.001% of hisbat prowess. This was definitely something Shane was thankful for because otherwise he probably wouldn''t work out as much in his freetime as he did now. Dumping away the umted impurities into a special bin, the water was discarded into the pipe connected to the mana water treatment nt. Shane shifted his gaze toward Umbra who looked at him with the desire for more mana stones. As he took out a bunch of two fist-sized mon) mana stones, he ensured to not make the same mistake as before and waste two fist-sized(umon) mana stones. While Umbra coiled around one mana stone, Shane took the other one in his hand and he closed his eyes. With the desire to get stronger, he began gathering the mana particles within the mana stones. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 45 - Arduous Schedule After extracting the mana from the mana stones he channelized it towards his mana pool and circted it throughout his mana channels in order to annex it. Shane felt ted as the desire to be stronger and powerful ignited within him once again. Subconsciously, Shane took twomon quality fist-sized mana stones out of his spatial ring which he held in his other hand, as he entered the familiar zone. His fervor to annex more and more mana coupled with his determination to purify the mana at an even faster rate. Shane had lost track of time and he wasn''t even sure howte it was when he woke up out of the zone state. He had received multiple notifications but they mostly informed him that his additional one and five cubic meter spatial rings had been sold for 6 gold coins. But a certain message piqued Shane''s interest and a smile blossomed on his face as he read through the message carefully. [[Artemis'' Blessing] activated. Quality of [Mortal-(Gold)] mana gathering technique increased due to the host''s desire to absorb more mana, deep amity with mana, and amplified nature''s blessing.] Shane was still unsure how his blessing worked but apparently increasing the quality of Tier-1 techniques was too much for it. Maybe Shane''s low cultivation or something else was the reason for the mortal graded technique to have a quality enhancement instead of his tier-1 manuals. However, more important was his quality that had upgraded due to the mana gathering technique. The message said that the quality of his gold mana gathering technique had increased which would mean it had now reached the tinum quality. Normally, one would obtain the tinum quality after aplishing a system mission. He began to wonder about the ways in which a tinum mana gathering technique was better whenpared to a [Tier-1 (Bronze)] mana gathering technique. Exerting the tinum quality mortal stage mana gathering technique, Shane immediately sensed a vast difference. Now, he had the answer to his question. He knew what the difference between a [Mortal-(tinum)] and [Tier-1 (Bronze)] mana gathering was, without the need to own a Tier-1 bronze quality mana gathering technique. The difference between these two techniques was obviously the quality of the mana particles. Afterparing the mana particles before the quality upgrade urred to the current mana particles, Shane could faintly tell which mana particle had fewer impurities. The mana particles were floating all around him and the ones with higher impurities shone with a dull glow as opposed to the ones with fewer impurities that shone brighter. Previously, Shane couldn''t fathom why manuals with a tinum quality were as expensive as other manuals that were a rank higher with a bronze quality, but now he could roughly understand the reason for such a high price. One technique focused more on the purity of the mana particles with less traceable mana particles while the other technique relied on the number of traceable mana particles. Shane wasn''t sure how vast the difference of traceable mana particles was from one grade to another but the gap was probably huge. Shane''s uncle and aunt had never specifically asked him to buy a tinum quality mana gathering manual because it was said to be a waste of precious funds. This could be true and Shane would probably purchase a higher-ranked mana gathering manual instead of a higher quality manual. But, this didn''t matter right now as his blessing had increased the quality of his manual once again. Shane had been positively shocked at first but now, he was curious about the requirements he had to meet in order to increase a technique''s quality. Was his amity with mana too low, his determination too feeble or the cause was something else? Shane didn''t know and the system wouldn''t tell him. As such, he nced at his status panel in order to figure out how high his mana purity was. _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-2nd [Purity 1.71%] Body Refinement: [Mortal-4th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Tier-1 (Bronze)] ¡úMana gathering [Mortal-(tinum)] Body refining manual: [Tier-1 (Bronze)] ![Artemis'' Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Common-¡ï (+)| Finances: 27 gold 25 silver _______________________ Compared to earlier, his mana purity had increased by almost 0.6% which was extremely good, considering the fact that only a little over six hours had passed. Shane smiled at his purity and he calcted something in his mind. If his proficiency with the mana purifying technique would increase, he would be able to purify 0.1% mana within a single hour. Looking at hand, Shane noticed that he was holding the remains of three fist-sizedmon quality mana stones. A single fist-sized mana stone would be enough to supply him with enough mana to practice mana gathering and purifying techniques for two hours. This was feasible only if he locked himself inside a room without the natural mana around him, which was far more abundant and purerpared to the mana within mana stones. That left him with his previous calction of being able to purify 0.1% of his mana pool''s mana in a single hour. As such, ten hours would be sufficient for him to increase his purity by 1%. Without mana stones, this speed would be considerably lower but only absorbing and purifyingpressed mana from mana stones was bad for the body and could harm one permanently, slowing down the cultivation process. As such, absorbing natural mana was also essential to cultivate properly. Nevertheless, an increase of 0.1% in mana purity within a single hour was considered top-notch. Shane doubted that he could increase it much, probably he could try it by decreasing the overall time he required to gather mana, but that was it. Even if he could gather more mana, Shane wasn''t sure if his body would be able to take the toll. that an increase of more than 0.1% in mana purity would bring him within an hour. Considering that he couldn''t cultivate for days on end with his low physique, Shane decided to schedule his time in order to think of a way to properly hone his skills by hunting, stay fit by working out, cultivate his mana pool and refine his body properly. He was still left with 31 gold coins to invest, but he refrained from doing anything with it as of now and decided to set it aside for urgent times. Shane tried to do everything to stay healthy and not to injure himself by overworking. A decent amount of sleep would lessen his stress by a lot, though he was not in need of immediate rest. Nheless, he decided to allot five hours for sleep. He knew for sure that he would most likely sleepless but the will was present and that was everything Shane could do. With the remaining 18 hours, Shane wanted to increase hisbat experience, hone his skill and adjust to his consistently enhancing physique and mana pool by hunting beasts for at least 6 hours. With this, both he and Umbra would be able to adjust their body slowly to the increase of mana pool and physique for the next few weeks. 12 hours were more than enough for Shane to cultivate and refine his body for 5 hours each. With the remaining two hours Shane would eat, work out, and research more about all kinds of beasts, habitats, dimensions, foreign races, and possible money pits he could make use of. Following this schedule, he wouldn''t have any time to break into a new rank for his cultivation, while his physique would increase as long as it was tempered enough. Because of the possible breakthrough every third day, Shane decided to adjust the schedule for every third day by decreasing the time for cultivation, body refining, and hunting to 4 hours in order to break through smoothly. In addition, Shane purchased 7 fist-sized (umon) mana stones in order to speed up the breakthrough process if required. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 46 - Progress One week had passed since Shane had adopted a new schedule and many things had changed since then. The afternoon sun shone on the shelter as he walked towards the shelter gate with blood sttered on his face. His physique entered the 5th-Mortal stage easily, and Shane faintly sensed that he was almost at the peak of the 5th rank. Unfortunately, he had already used up allmon quality mana stones that he had stockpiled in order to utilize them for both body refining and his cultivation. As for the umon fist-sized mana stones, there were still four left, because Shane had used only two for each breakthrough that he underwent in thest seven days. This was only for him to speed up the breakthrough process in order to prevent wasting too much of his precious time as he had many more things to do. Fortunately, everything was worthwhile as Shane entered the 5th Mortal stage in his cultivation smoothly with a mana purity of [4.31%]. As he leaned on a tree, he couldn''t help but think about the time he had spent gathering and purifying mana. It had been extremely rxing and thest seven days had been the most beautiful time Shane had experienced in his whole life on Igra. His stock on mana stones was almost used up and there were only 4xmon) and 5(umon) nutrition solutions left. While this worried him a lot, he had also hunted many beasts in thest week with Umbra''s help which had increased his funds from the initial 20 gold coins to more than 30 gold coins. Because he didn''t have to avoid other beasts anymore and could store all of them in his humongous spatial ring, Shane hunted everything below high-Wild stage beasts inrge groups. Beasts at the mid-Wild stage could be sold for 1 to 3 silver with rarer ones at an even higher price. Unfortunately, Shane couldn''t find an exceptionally rare beast race but that was not important as his hunting speed with Umbra could only be considered as extremely fast. Umbra absorbed a lot of mana when Shane cultivated and refined his physique. As such his strength increased exceptionally, while his length had reached a size of more than 65 centimeters. _______________________ Name: [Umbra¡á] Race:[Shadow-snake] Rank: [Peak 3rd-Wild stage(Low-Wild)] Quality: [Rare](+) |Evolution|(+) Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow)(+) Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)] Loyalty: [49%] _______________________ Not only had Umbra reached the peak of the 3rd-Wild stage which was the limit of most shadow snakes with a [trash] or mon] quality, surprisingly, he had even unlocked his evolution section, allowing him to evolve as soon as he gathered enough mana after maturing. Furthermore, Umbra was only 1% away from reaching a loyalty of 50%. This would aplish Shane''s upgrade mission to receive the second star on his [Common] quality innate skill. After Shane would breakthrough in his cultivation many times, his taming skill would also enhance due to the [Cultivation-link] Shane received after aplishing the quality enhancement of his innate skill. He was still unable to tame a second beast, but that wasn''t important as the strength limit would only increase for him to be able to control a low 7th-Wild stage beast. Considering that Umbra would evolve in the future, it was possible that his tamed beasts would be stronger than he himself, As such, it was definitely advantageous that his Innate skill''s limit cap was higher than his cultivation rank. Being able to hunt 6th Wild stage beasts was already good for someone who had entered the Primordial dimension barely three weeks ago without receiving substantial funds from his family. Shane had already crossed the minimum requirements to get epted into an academy. But, he was also aware of the fact that the bare minimum was a bad joke because nobody that barely crossed the requirement would be epted as too many stronger individuals would apply to the academies. Humanity was bing stronger with each day, month, and year passing, while one could only apply to the academies once a year. Considering that, Shane thought that maybe some fortunate youths were able to enter the Apprentice or Expert stage despite hailing from a poor family before they entered the Primordial Dimensions. The Primordial Dimensions could change one''s fatepletely and it was as easy to gain a fortune overnight as dying within a second. There were still around two weeks left before he would enter the radiant mountain-ring dimension and receive safety provided by the constructed shelter walls. Shane had to purchase more resources in order to increase his cultivation and body refining. Purchasing 30mon) mana stones, 10(umon) mana stones, 6mon) nutrition solutions, and 10(umon) nutrition solutions in addition to a tempered mining pickaxe with a mon) quality, Shane had used his entire umted wealth with the exception of a small reserved amount of silver coins for food and a room to sleep. It was evening already when a surprising notification popped up. [[Taming|Common|] Upgrade-Mission |¡ï¡ï|¡úIncrease the loyalty of one of your tamed beasts to 50%, aplished. Reward: [Growth boost] has been enhanced slightly] [ Upgrade-Mission |¡ï¡ï¡ï| Tame a second beast] Shane was extremely happy to note that Umbra''s loyalty had reached 50%. But, the reward was more than a little bit disappointing while the next upgrade mission soured his moodpletely. He couldn''t tame a second beast right now and if Shane was honest, he would rather wait to find a beast with a rare ability, affinity, or extremely high quality, before he would even consider taming a second beast. Umbra alone was already a glutton, bleeding him out who hardly left with any funds to spend on anything else. Umbra ate more than Shane and the expenditure to feed him was high enough without considering the costs of increasing his quality to extraordinary. With his current funds, Shane could barely sustain Umbra''s living expenses and he was more of a quality over quantity fan. Maybe he would just tame a second beast as soon as it was possible before he would immediately dissolve the connection between them. Shane couldn''t tame a second beast right now, as such thinking about it was useless. With his meagre funds, Shane left the market before he went to an Inn to rent a room. Pouring hot water into the basin, he put twomon quality nutrition solutions within. He then took fivemon quality mana stones, cing them around the basin before he stepped inside. A singlemon nutrition solution wasn''t too less for him to see improvements, but he felt that there was enough space within his body to absorb twomon quality solutions at a time. Hence, he gave it a try with enough mana stones supplying him with mana. With the vast amount of high-quality nutrition seeping into his body, Shane''s eyes gleamed in a vigorous light as his confidence heightened. Hours passed as he concentrated on circting the energy and mana within his body into the correct segments. Another day psed as Shane reached the physique of a 6th Mortal stage. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 47 - Perfect Foundation Shane was surprised to read through a forum thread from humanity''s government, stating that the RadiantRing shelter within the radiant mountain ring dimension had established their wall and defensive measures. The government was now officially allowing all civilians to enter the shelter. This meant the shelter could be defended against the more powerful beasts in closer proximity and would in turn allow Shane to enter the radiant mountain ring immediately. ''That news came sooner than I expected...'' Shane thought with a frown. Initially, it was nned that the construction would take at least another week which was a rtively short duration whenpared to the time taken to build an average shelter. Looking at Umbra''s almost one-meter-long body, Shane could only sigh deeply before he picked him up. Umbra was toorge to coil himself around Shane''s neck, so hey on his shoulders, radiating a cold and calming aura. This decreased Shane''s tension slightly as he smiled foolishly at Umbra. His reptilian friend had already reached the highest capacities of his quality, which was the peak of the 4th Wild stage, a whole rank higher than his racial limit. It was only when Umbra reached his quality limit, that a change in his evolution section could be seen. _______________________ Possible evolutions [Shadow-snake (Rare)] 1) [Common] Shadow-python (5%/100%) 2) [Umon] Darkness-python (0.6%/100%) 3) [Rare] Colossus Darkness-python (0.001%/100%) 4) [Extraordinary] _______________________ Apletion rate appeared in front of the possible evolutions, indicating how much mana Umbra had umted and stored to evolve. After looking at the percentages, it was quite obvious as to which evolution path was more powerful. The evolution path that required the most mana would have to initiate the strongest evolution! If Shane was honest, this change further cemented his decision to patiently wait until Umbra reached the [Extraordinary] quality. He could then see the difference between the Colossus Darkness-python evolution and his [extraordinary] evolution to figure out if the former was worthwhile for the future of his other tamed beasts and Umbra''s future evolutions. The extraordinary evolution must be very powerful, but was it really useful to upgrade his tamed beast''s quality with a huge fortune in order to have a 5% stronger beast? And the answer was extremely simple: Yes! For beasts within the basic primordial dimensions, 5% might be a small number that one could easily overwhelm with a few subordinates, andscape advantage, or maybe even some strategy. However once beasts reached a certain realm, a difference of 5% in one''sbat prowess would be like the difference between heaven and earth, unimaginable and Shane liked thinking of a long-term investment. Roughly one week had passed since Shane''s physique had broken into the 6th Mortal stage and not much had happened, except that his desire of growing stronger was now turning into an obsession.. In this single week, Shane and Umbra had hunted beasts worth slightly more than 20 gold coins. His cultivation and body refining had also undergone minor changes. _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race: [Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-8th [Purity 7.18%] Body Refinement: [Mortal-7th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Tier-1 (Bronze)] ¡úMana gathering [Mortal-(tinum)] Body refining manual: [Tier-1 (Bronze)] ![Artemis'' Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Common-¡ï¡ï (+)| Finances: 20 gold coins, 85 silver coins, 69 bronze coins _______________________ After Shane broke into the 7th Mortal stage with his body refining, themon nutrition solutions were inadequate and couldn''t provide enough nutrition. Using fourmon nutrition solutions at a time was roughly equivalent to using a single umon nutrition solution. A singlemon solution was priced at 50 silver coins while an umon nutrition solution was priced at 1 gold coin. Using fourmon solutions instead of a single umon nutrition solution was a waste of his wealth but he had to utilize his stock in order to switch to the umon nutrition solution. He was still left with 10 [Umon] nutrition solutions in addition to 4 [Umon] fist-sized mana stones. Not only would his body refining process slow down but also the purification speed within his mana pool decrease, as its size increased by 10% every time he broke through. Additionally, Shane''s mana pool was 30%rgerpared to his peers'' mana pool since the beginning of his journey. Adding the 10% increase to [Artemis'' blessing] the Ancient ring of the Susurro, Shane''s mana pool was roughly 2.9 units in size whenpared to the size of 1.9 units which humans without a blessing had. As such, it was only normal for his cultivation progress to slow down because his mana gathering and purifying manuals weren''t the best. But Shane didn''t consider that as a problem because his thought process had drastically changed. Previously his n was simple: Be as strong as possible in a short period of time in order to live freely without his father or someone else intercepting any of his decisions but that had changed somehow. After Shane noticed how many resources he would have to umte throughout his cultivation journey, he sensed that a perfect foundation was important if it was not the most crucial aspect of being a cultivator. If the foundation was shabby, unstable, and full of ws, the building that he constructed above would be demolished faster than one could count down from three to zero. Shane didn''t want to do anything half-heartedly and if he had to do something that didn''t give him freedom from his dad''s clutches, could you really call it freedom? Having thought about that for the past few days, Shane came to a decision. He wanted to build a perfect foundation if possible and in order to aplish that, Shane had to do two important things. First, obtain a [Perfect-(Mythic)] body refining technique on every cultivation stage in order to have a wless body and for the second requirement, Shane had to get his hands on a [Tier-2 (Mythic)] mana purification manual. With this purifying manual, Shane would be able to achieve a mana purification of 100% which was a perfect purified mana pool. Each of the two requirements was extremely difficult to achieve and until now, nobody had been capable of aplishing any of the two requirements for a perfect foundation. This was because the resources and time required to re-refine the first three stages were iparable to the following stages. As such, it was seen as a futile effort by most humans to waste their precious time within the basic dimension for a long period. And if Shane was honest, there was no need for him to struggle in order to receive a mythic perfect body refining manual. He believed the system wouldn''t neglect hard work. As for the 100% purifying manual, an unknown number of humans had tried to fulfill the requirements and solve the missions in order to obtain the purifying manual but it had been futile. Nobody had achieved it and only the most powerful beings belonging to renowned martial art families, special body traits, wealth, and support from outside were barely able to achieve a mana purity of 90%. While only a handful of humans had been able to solve a mission that gave out a mana purification manual for 95%. In the end, Shane would be more confident in solving the mission to obtain the [Tier-2 (Mythic)] mana purification manual, if he had a wless perfect physique. He was still young and only 16 years old and living for a few hundred years wouldn''t be a problem. What problem was there for him to use a few years of his youth in order to obtain massive benefits? Obviously, Shane wasn''t aware of the exact benefits that he would obtain after liquefying his mana with 100% purity, but he could imagine an overwhelming ergement in his mana pool size with arge physique amplification. As for a perfect physique foundation, he just didn''t want to waste some time in the future, and if he could prevent that while slowly building up hisbat prowess to solve the [Mythic] purification manual mission, that would be even better. Furthermore, he doubted that a perfect physique wouldn''t give him any benefits in terms of strength. Because Shane was still in the Mortal stage range, he could already ept the [Mythic] mission for his mortal stage perfect body refining manual, where one requirement was for him to gather 1000 gold coins on his own. There was something essentially ironic with the [Mythic] missions. The mission was different for everyone and nobody knew what it could be before one would ept it. Failing the mission would immediately shatter one''s dream to obtain the wanted [Mythic] manual and the chance for Shane to construct a perfect foundation. As such, he would have to aplish all missions without fail in the first shot that left him no room for error. Shane was confident in his own strength and determination. As he gazed at the nk sign of the [Mortal-(Mythic)] body refining technique he had cked out for a second, subconsciously lifting his finger and clicking on the [Request mission] button. He pulled his hand back, shocked that he had moved without realizing it early enough. ''F**K! I''m so stupid!!'' Shane wanted to reach the 10th Mortal stage in both cultivation and body refining before he would dare to descend into Hell, but now his n was shattered. A message appeared within the nk sign, and Shane read it reluctantly. A smile blossomed on his face as he shouted out in joy "YAAA¡­...W-WHAT? 48 hours???!!". If one were to see Shane, nobody would believe he was still alive, because his face had visibly turned ashen-pale as all the blood had temporarily drained of it. Shane gazed at the notification with lifeless eyes before he regained his senses as the countdown was initiated. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 48 - Riskying Everything [[Mortal-(Mythic)] mission has been requested. Random mission allocated.] [Mythic-Mission has been activated] [Wealthy Merchant] Gather 1000 gold coins with your own strength! Assigned time [48 hours]. The countdown will start immediately. Good luck!] [47H:59M:59S] Startled to see the countdown begin, Shane took a second to understand what was going on. He rushed out of the Inn with Umbra around his shoulders towards the market. ''What the actual f**k!!'' Cursing in his mind, Shane read the message once again, without halting in his tracks. Gathering 1000 gold coins on his own wasn''t really that difficult but doing so in 48 hours was impossible with just hunting while being at the Mortal stage. It could almost be said that the system was a fraud to force a Mortal stage cultivator to gather 1000 gold coins in 48 hours. But Shane was helpless against the mission and he had to ept it even if he was frustrated. Previously, Shane thought he would have to gather 1000 gold coins before he could request a mission because it was one of the requirements to purchase the [Mortal-(Mythic)] body refining technique but apparently that wasn''t the case. ''48 hours!'' Shane shouted in his mind, while frustration spread through his whole body. He had to do it, there was no turning back now. Otherwise, his n to establish a perfect foundation would end before it even began, which was not eptable to him. Arriving at the DeepMountain shelter market, Shane had calmed down a little owing to his passive [Hunter''s Mind]. He used his twenty gold coins to purchase a few usable items. Turning around, he disappeared in the dim-lit alley as he walked towards the dimensional portal. As he stood in front of the dimensional portal, he felt an enormous pressure building upon his mind and body because of the allocated mission. He quickly nced at the timer that looked no less than a time bomb to him [47H:29M:37S] 30 minutes had passed already and Shane hadn''t even left the Deep Mountain-river shelter, a fact, which he changed immediately. Selecting the [Radiant mountain ring] dimension, he paid 2 silver coins as the transportation fee before the space twisted around him, teleporting the two of them into a different dimension. Entering the radiant mountain ring dimension, Shane looked around and found that there were only a few stone and concrete houses for the construction workers, while the whole shelter resembled a construction site. Shane would have thought that he had selected the wrong shelter if not for the enormous mountain range right in front of him. He stared at the mountain range for a while, seemingly lost in thought when he recalled the reason for being there in the first ce. Shaking his head, Shane sprinted through the half-constructed alleys, evading guards and construction workers while searching for the shelter gate which would lead him outside. After spending more than five minutes looking for the gate on his own, Shane decided to ask a guard for guidance. He followed the directions given by the guard and finally reached the gate of the RadiantRing shelter. Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, Shane left the shelter and stared in fascination at the sheer size of the mountain with its surrounding forest, forcing him to gulp his saliva. Shane couldn''t waste any more time because he had to search for one of the special caves before he would even be able to mine the mana and elemental crystals. He had seen the crystals in one of the pictures which were identally uploaded by one of the scouts that had ventured into the mountain area. Shane knew the picture was identally uploaded because it was quickly deleted a few minutes after it was posted. There were only a few views on the picture and Shane was one of the lucky ones. At least, now he knew what to look for specifically, which enabled him to think clearly, even though he was in an overwhelming situation. The passive [Hunter''s Mind], coupled with the knowledge of the crystals helped him feel calm enough, as he ran towards the mountain range. He didn''t have much information about the radiant mountain ring dimension and only a few beasts were officially posted online but they weren''t anything special. Shane wouldn''t doubt that the government had already killed a rare beast if it hade anywhere near the shelter. As of now, it wasn''t really important and he entered the unfamiliar forest with brisk steps. The beasts within the forest hadn''te across many humans and thus instinctively treated them as their prey. As such, Shane had to endure attacks from quite a few wild stage beasts, which he easily annihted with hisbat prowess in addition to his shiolite dagger and Umbra''s support. Most beasts at the wild stage couldn''t be considered a threat to Shane anymore as his cultivation had reached the 8th Mortal stage while his physique was at the 7th Mortal stage. Two hours had passed before Shane reached the outskirts of the mountain, however, he could now see some caves higher up on the mountain, which relieved him a bit. On his way towards the outskirts of the mountain, Shane killed quite a few beast groups but the most annoying group of beasts were six fiery scaled lizards that spewed mes, giving him a tough time. With their long-range mes, they hindered Shane''s path and he once again understood that he should master archery or another long-range weapon in order to kill opponents like the fiery scaled lizards with it. But it was not the time toment about his incapability to hunt the fiery scaled lizards, and Shane risked everything in order to forcefully advance through the me-spewing beast group. Barely evading most of the spewed fire, Shane enveloped himself with a thick mana membrane protecting the area where the remaining mes struck him. The extremely hot mes made Shane shriek in pain as he thrusted his shiolite dagger. The dagger stabbed into one of the fiery scaled lizard''s necks, killing it mercilessly. Shane could have forcefully walked out of the loose circle formed by the lizards, but now that he was surrounded by them, he didn''t want to let them stay alive as they burned his skin, further annoying him. He was about to activate his [Berserk(F)] skill but Shane stopped himself because he wasn''t sure if he would need to use the berserk skillter. Fortunately, the fiery scaled lizards could only spit mes for five seconds at once, allowing him to massacre the remaining shocked lizards once their mes dissipated. The fiery scaled lizards would have never imagined ofing face to face with a being who was dumb enough to charge into their mes without caring for his life, only to get ughtered by him. They were the strongest beings habitating the outer part of the forest but were being ughtered like a pig? It was hard for the enraged fiery scaled lizards to believe that as they let out a roar in anguish before they tried to attack Shane with their ws and serrated teeth. This was howeverpletely useless because the fiery scaled lizards'' exceptionally strong characteristic was their affinity and the high amount of mana which they required to supply the mes they spit out. Their physical strength was roughly at the 7th Wild stage, while their speed was even slower. Shane''s body refining was focused on agility and his physique had already reached the 7th Mortal stage. This allowed him to overrun the remaining five fiery scaled lizards as if they were mid-Wild stage beasts. Looking at his burned skin, Shane frowned as he circted mana around the area and enveloped his arm to cool it down and heal it. He stored the six corpses within his humongous-sized spatial storage and his speed elerated once again to finally be able to continue his journey towards the mountain. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 49 - Nest Shane thanked histe mother in his mind while ncing at the Ancient ring of the Susurro with its excessivelyrge spatial storage. Even though his n was to earn a lot of funds, it would have been impossible for him to aplish the [Mythic] mission without his mother''s heirloom. The three vacancies of his store were barely enough to store different kinds of elemental crystals in addition to all their qualities. With that in mind, Shane even reluctantly decided to thank his dad with a short message through the system, even if he didn''t really want to. Nevertheless, Shane said to himself that it was a way to respect his mother and messaged a simple to his dad. He sent it while running through the forest and not without dangers, but Shane did it on impulse because he knew that he would only hesitate, and in the end, he would find other excuses to not message him. Looking up the mountainside from the outskirts, Shane saw many caves at higher positions, but there was a small problem. There were a few flying beasts around the caves and from their looks, Shane thought all of them had a crystalline, elemental mutation or evolution. From theirrge size, which Shane could barely assume from the distance, he concluded that these beasts were at least at the elite stage if not at the lower awakened stages. With this thought in mind, he furrowed his brows as he searched the outskirts of the mountain to find a cavern with weaker beasts. It wasmon knowledge that high-graded materials were always protected by stronger beasts, while mortal-grade materials or ingredients were only useful for wild stage beasts and weaker beasts at the elite stage. Elemental crystals would slowly temper a beast''s affinity, increasing its chance to mutate or open a variation evolution path, like Shane had seen higher on the mountainside. Mankind couldn''t be considered knowledgeable about the Primordial Dimensions and variation evolutions were mysterious grounds for tamers that they didn''t dare venture into. It was difficult enough to upgrade a beast''s quality with their capabilities alone. Shane had never heard of a human who had opened a variation evolution for a tamed beast, but not everything was made public, so even he wouldn''t know for sure. Maybe there were some beasts with a variation evolution but Shane was unaware of the fact. Nevertheless, it was more important for him to find a cave at the lower parts of the mountain hopefully with mortal-grade crystals inside. He would be able to procure smaller crystals much easily It was easy for him to fight the Wild stage beasts protecting them in order to temper themselves at the same time. But Shane still knew he couldn''t neglect any possibility, as the threat of the colossus darkness python within the shadow-snake valley was still fresh in his mind. Shane had only seen the mortal grade Nightshade flowers within the valley but there was a high chance that a mid-awakened beast was lurking within the mountain range. The quantity most likely overshadowed the quality of higher grade treasures, herbs, and materials around. The same could apply for mortal grade crystals even though it was unlikely because the effect of elemental crystals would only work until a beast strengthened its affinity to a certain degree. As such, only non-elemental mana crystals would be useful to strengthen higher staged beasts, giving Shane enough confidence to search for caverns with much more motivation than before. [44H:24M:15S] More than 3 hours had already passed since Shane had foolishly epted the [Mythic] mission. The amount of gold he had umted was still at [0/1000] because the corpses within his spatial ring had yet to be sold before he would see an increase there. But these 30 or so corpses within his spatial ring could only be seen as a drop in the ocean. Shane searched more vigorously for a cavern entrance when he suddenly remembered the fiery scaled lizards. Their elemental affinity could be considered top-notch for wild stage beasts and an idea suddenly struck him as he gave up searching around the mountain outskirts. Running back to the ce where he had killed the fiery scaled lizards, Shane surprisingly spotted a small group of three scaled lizards. Oddly enough, only two of them were fiery scaled lizards, while another one was an aqueous scaled lizard with a water affinity that attracted his attention. From the information he had gathered about the RadiantRing shelter, Shane knew that arge number of fiery scaled lizards inhabited the area, rtively close to the mountains. They were considered the most threatening Wild stage beasts due to their high affinity but Shane hadn''t heard about aqueous scaled lizards. As such it had to be an elemental mutation caused by an environmental change or an extremely high amount of transmuted mana that was absorbed by the aqueous scaled lizard. It had probably ripped it off its fire affinity, slowly transforming it into the transmuted mana''s affinity. Without knowing if it was true, Shane came to the conclusion that there had to be a low-grade elemental crystal cave nearby their nest. Deciding to wait for them to return to their nest, Shane thought this would be the best way to find a rtively weakly protected cavern. If the fiery scaled lizards were the most threatening problem within the elemental cave, Shane was confident in eradicating them. Thinking about this, he rubbed his itchy skin that was slowly healing from the burn caused by the fiery scaled lizards he had previously fought. Without further ado, Shane crouched down and waited for the scaled lizards to move back to their nest. Unfortunately, that didn''t happen and they kept searching for prey in order to satiate themselves, before they took multiple corpses with them, as they turned around. These wild stage, scaled lizards were only around 1.5 meters long and 30 centimeters tall. They were rtively short but this didn''t mean that their power was essentially weak. The scaled lizards were multiple ranks higher than Umbra while their length was only around 50%rger than Umbra. Shane knew that Umbra couldn''t support him to the fullest. This discouraged Umbra a lot, turning him into a cultivation freak, as he knew that evolving into a stronger being would make him much more helpful to Shane. Nevertheless, at the moment Umbra was useless, and not even his shadow needles could be used againstte-Wild beasts without aiming at the eyes. Following the three oblivious scaled lizards with a distance of over 30 meters, Shane could barely see them through the bushes. Unfortunately, he couldn''t inch any closer to them because a single noise would reveal his pursuit which was not something that Shane wanted to happen. It was almost afternoon when he suddenly lost the scaled lizards, startling him, as he noticed that they descended into a cavern which gleamed faintly in several colors. After activating his mana gathering technique, Shane could see all kinds of element transmuted mana particles, turning his sour mood into a delighted one within a single second. There were only [39H:58M:51S] left on his counter, but that didn''t matter because the elemental cave in front of him was at the same location as the nest of the scaled lizards. With a sly smile on his face, Shane took out a certain item he bought previously as he followed the scaled lizards with slow steps. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 50 - Within Danger And Wealth One of the items Shane had bought before was a [Umon] concealment potion with a longsting effect of 16 hours that was priced at 7 gold coins. The potion wouldpletely conceal his mana for the next 16 hours, making it difficult for wild stage beasts to notice him. Once he was noticed, it was likely that Shane would be underestimated due to his abysmally low mana fluctuations. As such, Shane was confident in himself and he consumed the potion. With slightly less than 40 hours left, Shane had many things to take care of in order to harvest the elemental crystals that he saw shining brightly in front of him. Mining them right now would be a death sentence because the sound would attract the attention of the other beasts inhabiting the cave. Before he could mine, Shane would have to clear the cave as thoroughly as possible. The size of the cave mattered in this scenario. If the cave was extremelyrge, he would only clear the upperyer and start mining while observing everything around him. But if the cave was not that big, he would just clear everything inside out and mer, before he would contact an Elus merchant of the Elementals race. There was also the possibility of him being unable to reach a merchant but if that was the case, he would just sell the elemental crystals to other races. There were always potential buyers who required the crystals to help their descendants increase their innate elemental affinity, even if the price would reduce drastically. It was not like he had to rely on the Elementals race''s merchants but they would most likely give him the most profit. They were nning to expand their territory within their ster system and the Primordial Dimensions and thus they would be one big customer for Shane. Nevertheless, the amount of elemental and mana crystals Shane could see at the cavern entrance were much more than he could have ever imagined. though, they were not even remotelyparable to the number of the Nightshade flowers. He could most likely receive 30 silver coins for a fist-sized mon] elemental crystal with basic elements from foreign intelligent races. He thus felt extremely satisfied because the quality mattered more than the quantity in this scenario. Furthermore, the crystals he saw were roughly the height of a small youth, which would mean, he could receive dozens or even one hundred fist-sized crystals from a single source. Elemental crystals were high in demand and humanity had only begun their construction of the RadiantRing shelter a month ago. Mankind didn''t dare to venture too deep in order to prevent other intelligent races from noticing them. At least, until their own shelter had the capabilities to defend itself against a beast tide and an invasion of hostile foreign races. Nevertheless, due to the high demand for elemental crystals, Shane was confident in achieving his [Mythic] mission. His main mission now was to eradicate the scaled lizards. Estimating that a few elite stage beasts could be within the cave, Shane was d that he had used up his fund of 20 gold coins in the market. Descending into the cavern, Shane noticed that the interior was bright because of the crystals and his steps slowed down the deeper he went. Looking around, he noticed dozens of wide tunnels leading in different directions. This caused Shane to frown deeply as his previous estimation of the number of beasts lurking within the cave was immediately shaken. He couldn''t fathom the number of beasts hiding in each of the tunnels and he shivered at the thought. Recalcting everything in his mind, Shane predicted the worst-case scenarios with awakened stage beasts habituated areas further down the cave. As such, he pondered if he should look through the upperyers before he would start his hunt in addition to mining the elemental crystals. With close to 40 hours left on his [Mythic] mission, Shane had more than enough time to aplish it if nothing major happened within the cave. Investigating the highestyer of the crystal cave with careful and slow steps, Shane figured out that 14 wide tunnels and 7 smaller ones were leading further down. Shane predicted that the wider tunnels would lead him even further than the smaller tunnels. He believed that therger evolved beasts would venture towards the higher graded elemental crystals which were most likely within the cave''s deeperyers. With this in mind, he roughly sketched the cave''syout in his mind. Nevertheless, this information was only useful for Shane in order to figure out how powerful the beasts that stepped through the different tunnels would be. This was important in order to prepare for any kind of possible scenario. His n, however, was pretty simple. First, he had to clear the first cavern room and its surroundings from all kinds of threats before starting to mine the elemental crystals at the cavern entrance. After that, he would contact a few Elus merchants to negotiate the best prices. After selling his mined elemental crystals, Shane could use a part of his fortune to protect himself with misceneous items or umte a small fortune. Nevertheless, to do that, he had to eradicate all the threats first. While venturing through the cave''s upperyer he went through multiple rooms and saw many scaled lizards. Most of them werete Wild stage Fiery scaled lizards. But other than that, there were also quite a few aqueous scaled lizards in addition to breezy and earthy scaled lizards as basic elemental mutated scaled lizards. Around the whole cavern''s upperyer, Shane could see small mana crystals. Basic elemental crystals consisted of wind, water, fire, and earth. Intermediate crystals could contain the elements such as magma, metal, ice, and thunder. The most advanced and exceptionally rare elemental crystals were darkness, light, nature, spatial, and even blood elemental crystals. There were many additional elements like poison, shadow, holy and other variations. Their price was irregr and Shane only knew that holy and shadow elemental crystals were as valuable as advanced elemental crystals while the holy elemental crystal could be sold for even more. Looking at the basic elemental and Mana crystals all around him, Shane smiled as he drew out his shiolite dagger. He then crouched down to sneak up to a small group of 5 fiery scaled lizards that werepletely unaware of the imminent threat advancing towards them. Knowing that at least several dozente-Wild stage scaled beasts were within the upperyer, Shane looked at the time he had left to aplish the [Mythic] mission. He was beginning to feel the pressure weighing down on him. [37H:17M:54S] Sneaking up to the five fiery scaled lizards, he adopted the stealth of a cat. His mana circted within his body slowly, calming him down with an additionalyer to his passive [Hunter''s mind]. When Shane was about to cross the distance of 15 meters the oblivious fiery scaled lizards twitched slightly and all of them turned around to look at the intruder. After noticing Shane with his weak mana fluctuations they didn''t hesitate to spew out fireballs instead of mes, throwing them towards him, who was taken by surprise. ''Are they super sensitive? And why do they throw fireballs now instead of spewing mes like before?` Shanemented as he jumped to the side to evade the attack. He rolled a bit and got on his feet without wasting any time. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 51 - Memorable View Shane was caught off guard but his mind was still rtively calm because of his passive [Hunter''s Mind] that helped him to evade the fireballs with ease. Standing up smoothly after a perfect roll, Shane exerted his mana within his body to the body''s maximum capabilities before he turned into the direction of the five fiery scaled lizards. Pushing himself from the ground, Shane crossed the distance of 15 meters quickly as his 7th Mortal physique was strengthened by a thinyer of mana. The increase was only marginal but enough to overwhelm the fiery scaled lizards. His speed made the lizards change their tactics and switch to emitting mes instead of their long rage fireball attack in order to prevent him froming closer. Instead of charging straight through the mes, this time he decided to avoid them. He jumped back three steps from his earlier position where the mes would have hit him, had he been still standing there. Adjusting his direction to the left, he maintained a distance of more than four meters which the mes couldn''t even remotely reach. He was baiting them to use up all the mana and consequently weaken them before he could charge at them again. Counting the seconds in his mind, Shane figured out that they could at most sustain spitting mes for five seconds which was important to know for future battles. Right as the mes diminished, Shane could be seen charging at the closest fiery scaled lizard. With his body leaning forward, his shiolite dagger was ready to feast on his opponents'' blood. Umbra''s lower end of the body was coiled around Shane''s neck, while the rest of his bodyy upon his shoulder in order to not be thrown off. Umbra was doing his best in helping Shane by attacking the lizards with shadow needles. Shane''s role in his life and his abrupt movements had taken a toll on Umbra, but he had grown ustomed to it. Over thest 20+ days, he had fought in hundreds of battles alongside Shane. While Shane stabbed out with his dagger at the closest fiery scaled lizard, Umbra tried to distract the remaining four opponents with the shadow needles aimed at their eyes, giving Shane the required opportunity to pierce through his opponent''s neck with ease. Not wasting a single second to assure himself if the fiery scaled lizard was really dead, he twisted his body. and jumped into the air. He narrowly avoided one of the fiery scaled lizards'' maws that were about to bite his leg. Kicking out, his foot smashed into the fiery scaled lizard''s head, and Shane used its head to jump above which was meant to enter the remaining scaled lizard''s center. Shane wasn''t even sure how much cooling time the fiery scaled lizards required before they would spew out mes once again. As such, eradicating his threat sooner thanter was the best option. Thrusting his bloody dagger towards the closest fiery scaled lizard, he rammed it in the thickyer of scales on its back. He then pulled the dagger back, not forgetting to twist it within the wound, ripping out a thickyer of flesh. Blood sttered on his face and clothes while the fiery scaled lizard in front of him shrieked in pain. The remaining lizards noticed that they had underestimated their opponent, however, the realization had cost them the death of two of their brethren. Hate, agony, and wrath surged through their bodies, and they lost all reasoning as they charged at Shane with mana enhancing their physique and speed. Even though they were at thete-Wild stage, they couldn''t keep up with Shane''s speed which was his specialty, while theplete opposite was the case for the fiery scaled lizards. Inflicting serious injuries on all three remaining fiery scaled lizards within a few seconds, Shane ended the battle with a lethal attack on their vital spots. After the fight ended, Shane looked around to see if another group of scaled lizards had been attracted by their noisy battle. But he was d to not hear any steps or other sounds indicating that a group of beasts was approaching him. Picking up the fiery scaled lizard corpses, Shane looked around once again. He had used up quite a bit of his mana, but the surrounding was filled with dense and distinct mana particles. Shane was even able to exert the mana gathering technique while walking around and replenish his mana pool to some extent. The suction force was weakened while walking around but it was still more than enough for him to replenish his mana within a rtively short time. Shane had noticed this feature during his daily hunts over thest two weeks because halting his hunt to exert the mana gathering technique and replenish his mana was time-consuming. In the samerge cave hall that Shane was already in, he could see another few fiery scaled lizards with an aqueous scaled lizard. Shane saw something he would never forget in his whole life. The scaled lizards in front of him were copting and Shane didn''t even want to get closer to them, letting them enjoy themselves for thest time in their lives as he nced at the timer. There was not enough time left, to let them enjoy each other. Shane charged forward, surprising the small group of copting scaled lizards causing them to turn angry. Unfortunately, they had noticed Shane way toote and their necks were already pierced by his dagger as they roared out. As they slumped into an eternal sleep, thest thing they had done was copte and Shane thought that one could have died in a worse situation. At least they had some fun just before dying, right? Picking up the corpses, he decided to sell the fiery scaled lizards at his shop, because it was useless to let them remain within his spatial ring. While fighting the fiery scaled lizards, Shane noticed that they didn''t injure each other with the mes they spit. That indicated a decent fire resistance which would fetch him a higher price than he had previously estimated, even though they were only at the peak of the Wild stage. Clothes and essories produced out of Elemental beasts were extremely rare and even more expensive because of their additional elemental resistance traits. As such, Shane decided to sell the fiery scaled lizards for 7 silver each, which was extremely highpared to other wild-stage corpses. However, it wouldn''t be considered a fraud and many artisans were always on the lookout for new materials, hence he hoped that everything would work out. At least, that was what Shane thought while he looked at the scales of the aqueous scaled lizard. It''s scales were neither thick nor solid, they seemed to be in a liquefied form as if water bubbles were underneath the scales. He tried popping them with his fingers but couldn''t burst them open, which was weird. He then pierced into the scales with his dagger and the bubbles burst open, sshing his face with the liquid. It released a mild fragrance that surprised him. `Huh? What is that?` Shane started to wonder as a nice smell entered his nostrils. Shane wasn''t sure what it was, but he felt fully awake as if he had consumed a few energy drinks in a row. As such, he ripped out a few additional scales and stored the remaining corpses away, without cing them into the spatial ring. Trying to forget what he had seen moments ago, Shane looked around for other scaled lizards that might have heard him massacring their brethren but there was not a single one. Turning around, Shane continued on his path, as he noticed a mixed group of earthy and breezy scaled lizards he hadn''t seen before. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 52 - Warm-up Is Over A group of four slim, breezy scaled lizards and two bulkier earthy scaled lizards stood ring at him with bloodlust in their eyes. Circting mana within his lower body, Shane reached a breathtaking speed with his first stride towards the group of six scaled lizards. Shane estimated he was around forty meters away from the lizards, which would take no time for him to charge through if there were no obstacles. From his estimation, Shane thought that the slim, breezy scaled lizards would be faster than the fiery scaled lizards, as their affinity was the wind affinity in addition to their slim body. Thus, he concluded that the breezy scaled lizards were faster, yet probably weaker in strength, while their wind affinity was most likely capable of manifesting wind des. As for the earthy scaled lizards, Shane predicted that they were strongerpared to the fiery scaled lizards but slower. They could most likely use their earth affinity to make the soil jut out of the ground in long and sharp spikes, simr to stgmites, or erect a wall made up of soil and rocks, which were the mostmon attacks used by elemental beasts at the basic dimension. This information wasn''t confirmed yet, but it was better to be safe than sorry and Shane decided to be careful around unknown opponents. Most beasts with higher affinities liked to use them in an exaggerated manner as they looked glorious, elegant, and beautiful in their eyes. This was probably because lizards liked treasure the same way that dragons belonging to fairy tales he had heard back on earth did, without exception. Wasting no time Shane used feints to make it seem as If he was about to charge straight at them with his high velocity, only to stop midway and change his direction. A moment after he had adjusted his directions, Shane noticed multiple earth spikes and wind des crashing into the area he was a second ago. From the velocity and might, the elemental attacks utilized, Shane figured out that the breezy scaled lizards most likely used less mana than the earthy scaled lizard. This could be easily calcted as dozens of wind des were shot out at the same time while only four earth spikes were targeted at his previous spot. The wind des were much weaker in strength but extremely fast while the earth spikes were both fast and mighty. Nevertheless, shooting elemental long-range attacks for a long interval would rapidly exhaust wild stage beasts with their small mana pool. Shane nned to capitalize on the opportunity as he decided to wear them out. With Shane''s fighting experience that he had gained over thest weeks and the years before, he could predict where the long-range attacks wouldnd. He kept his eyes trained on the scaled lizards observing their movements carefully. It was straining for him to do so but he felt alive and the pressure of the countdown provided him with the adrenaline rush, making him feel ecstatic. While Shane tried his best to evade the onught of wind des and earth spikes, some of them did hit him. There were shallow cuts on his skin from the attacks. Slowly, he adjusted to the high-velocity wind des in addition to the mighty earth spikes that were shot towards him. Not even a full minute had passed but Shane could already tell that the breezy scaled lizards were exhausted and drained of their mana, while therger earthy scaled lizards took a few deep breaths. If the scaled lizards worked together, they would most likely be able to exhaust Shane and kill him in the end, but that wasn''t possible anymore. He still felt energetic, because he had restricted himself from using up too much mana and made only the necessary movements required to avoid the elemental attacks. Circting his mana within the lower body to enhance his speed by a fraction, he appeared in front of the first breezy scaled lizard. As he thrust his dagger out, he felt arge surge of mana fluctuations around him. He stepped back a little and a one-meter tall earthyer wall erected out of the ground in front of the breezy scaled lizard. Shane didn''t allow himself to be distracted as he immediately switched his target to the two earthy scaled lizards near the breezy scaled lizard. His charge towards his opponents continued, without anyone hindering him. He walked in between both earthy scaled lizards, and his high velocity caused his two opponents to be overwhelmed. He sensed another surge of mana fluctuations below him and looked around. The earthy scaled lizards were slightlyrgerpared to the fiery scaled lizards with a height of roughly forty centimeters. However, it wasn''t difficult for Shane to jump over the earthy scaled lizard as he thrust his dagger in its back while twisting his body into an ufortable position. While he jumped up in the air, he yanked the dagger forcefully. The flesh around the light wound tore apart, turning it into a rather serious wound, enough to kill it in a few minutes. It had been long since he was forced to attack someone while observing everything around him carefully This caused a slight trace of joy to emerge within him. Umbra couldn''t understand his joy, because most of the time he was thrown around. He was barely able to stay with Shane, without being of much help to him. Stumbling to the ground, he felt it tremble. He pushed himself upwards before a breezy scaled lizard appeared below him. Even though Shane was ecstatic, this fight was really annoying, frustrating him to an unbearable degree. Wanting to rid himself of the opponents as soon as possible, he kicked hard with his leg at the breezy scaled lizard below him. Oddly enough, the breezy scaled lizard was thrown almost three meters away which shocked Shane slightly. He noticed that the lizard''s body was very light weighted as it should have taken double or triple the force for him to throw it away that far. He made a mental note to think about it after the battle. He had the same feeling against the fiery scaled lizards, but each kind of the scaled lizards was extremely weak while their affinity was a stark contrast to its essential high degree. Now that two earth walls decorated the battleground around him, Shane noticed that the earthy scaled lizards couldn''t shoot earth spikes at him anymore. They were gasping for air, while the injured one looked as if it would die any moment. The breezy scaled lizards were fast but weak in all other aspects while Shane was still faster than them by a marginal degree. As such, he appeared in front of the closest breezy scaled lizards before he thrusted out his shiolite dagger. The breezy scaled lizard in front of him was either brave or naive as it tried to deflect Shane''s tier-1 shiolite dagger. The lizard bit into the dagger with its maw, only to notice that this move was more than a little bit foolish. Piercing through the breezy lizard''s mouth, the shiolite dagger didn''t stop halfway and prated the neck, where it stuck out. Shane yanked at his dagger with brute force, and the breezy scaled lizards copsed on the ground. Shane turned around with his ice-cold ck eyes piercing straight into the remaining opponents. With an emotionless voice, he spoke "Warm-up is over you bastards!" He exerted the remaining mana within him through his mana veins to strengthen hisplete body and charged at the five opponents in front of him with killing intent filling his eyes while a faint smile covered his face. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 53 - Shane, The Miner One could see a ck-clothed youth with a crimson blood gleaming dagger firmly in his hands as he thrust the dagger towards the exhausted earthy scaled lizard, mercilessly eradicating its life force. Shaken by the death of two of their brethren, the remaining exhausted scaled lizards lost almost all of their fighting spirit and were killed within half a minute. Cleaning the dagger, Shane sighed deeply because he was beginning to feel slightly exhausted. [36H:43M:31S] Previously, Shane thought the time for his [Mythic] mission was not enough but with a good n and a highly demanded resource, he understood that it was more than feasible to manage this mission. One could say that he was extremely fortunate that mankind had found the [Radiant Mountain ring]-dimension in addition to him being one of the first cultivators who entered it. The shelter was still under construction and not a desirable ce for most cultivating youths. Furthermore, without his research and arge amount of luck, he could have only tried his best in a depressed manner to aplish his mission as a Mortal stage. Demanding a Mortal stage being to umte 1000 gold coins within 48 hours all by himself, was more than harsh but Shane''s luck had helped him a lot. As such, he collected the scaled lizard corpses before he took out a few aqueous scales that he had already harvested from the aqueous scaled lizard to test something out. The liquid within them was extremely refreshing and Shane used it to stay fully energized as he gulped down the content. A few drops fell on shallow cuts on his hand and they surprisingly stopped bleeding. As he smeared the unknown liquid on his remaining cuts, all of them stopped bleeding. They had even begun to heal faster when he circted his mana around the area he was cut. Figuring this out was extremely beneficial and Shane questioned how much these scales were worth. A single scale had roughly the same amount of liquid a potion had while its effect was a mix between, healing, calming, and energizing potion. Because the aqueous scale was from a peak wild aqueous scaled lizard, it might even be a [Common] quality ingredient probably even [Umon] if transformed into a potion. There were at least one hundred scales on an aqueous scaled lizard, probably even more and each scale was most likely worth a silver coin based on the effect it provided. As such, the aqueous scaled lizard could be seen as a treasure trove. Shane was even more motivated to hunt all scaled lizards within the cave if possible. Shane thought the other scaled beasts had also certain effects and he wanted to take out the fiery scaled beasts of his shop. He wished to know if they had any additional qualities apart from fire resistance effect. However, to his surprise, they were already sold out. He received 1 gold coin for the beast corpses but in his mind, heined about his decision to sell the corpses in the shop. Maybe he would have been able to receive more from the fiery scaled lizards because their value was unknown yet. In addition to all the elemental mutated scaled lizards, Shane knew he had found a treasure trove. This treasure-trove wouldn''t remain unnoticed for long. Other humans that teleported to the RadiantRing shelter in order to gain a fortune by searching for rare materials would learn about it soon. One could say that the [Mythic] mission he epted identally, was a blessing in disguise. Knowing he didn''t have much time left, Shane went through the surrounding rooms to eradicate copting, eating, and sleeping scaled lizards with all kinds of basic elemental affinities. Except for a few cuts and burns, Shane was still alive and kicking when he walked back to the cave entrance with a broad, radiant smile on his face. Even the calmest person would turn around to run away from Shane at the moment. His radiant and broad smile was a big contrast to his soiled clothes that were almostpletely drenched with blood in addition to the shiolite dagger in his hands that shone brightly. As if that was not enough, even though Shane was smiling, his eyes were cold and merciless, indicating his ability to kill everything that hindered his path. There were exactly [33H] left on his mission timer when he was once again inside the cavern''s entrance. Shane looked around outside the cave but he couldn''t spot a single beast which was most likely caused by the dominance of the scaled lizards'' existence. Shane was d to have purchased a ck shining pickaxe some time ago, which he now held in his firm grip. Its quality was only mon] and he didn''t doubt that he would turn it into a scrub in the next few hours. However, more important would be the profit that he would make by utilizing the pickaxe to mine elemental crystals. He was still hesitating to make his first swing with the pickaxe as he stood in front of the first elemental crystal at the cavern''s entrance. It was only a small fire crystal source and most likely [trash] quality. It would be simr to most of the crystals he would mine for the next few hours but their worth wasn''t something to scoff at. Even hand-sized trash quality elemental crystals were worth 10 silver coins at the Primordial shops. And these shops were only visible to humans without adding other races in their race selection. In Shane''s opinion, it could have easily increased their profits which was hardly a problem and foolish to not do. In the end, these humans wasted some of their profit, by limiting their connections to their own race. But who was Shane to judge other people''s actions? He decided to stop thinking about it. Maybe, if he umted enough funds he could purchaserge stocks of low price crystals from human shops and sell them to other races for a higher price like many more intelligent human merchants did. There were some races scourging through all kinds of shops searching for items and products that were useless for some races. They would purchase them inrge bulk, only to sell them to a different race that was in a dire need of such items and gain a huge profit. This was smart but one required to have connections to do something like that on arger scale. Additionally, one would also require a mountain of funds to purchase the goods, and even more important was the time to search for possible shops and items. Focusing on his main mission, Shane decided to start mining when he pulled back themon quality pickaxe before he swung it down in an arch. *ng* Hearing the sound of his steel pickaxe hitting the crystals, Shane frowned. He hadn''t exerted his full strength but the hole Shane had created by his first swing was ridiculously small. Pulling out the pickaxe with force, Shane raised it in the air once again. He circted his mana inside the arms and exerted all his strength in his arm, shoulders, and back in order to smash the pickaxe into the elemental crystal in front of him. *CLANG* Seeing cracks spreading on the basic elemental crystal, Shane''s smile stiffened. He struggled to pull the pickaxe out of the hole that he had created into the crystal. ''F**K... How will I survive the next hour??'' He asked in his mind as multiple curses left his mouth. The sound of metal hitting on a crystalline surface echoed throughout the whole cave''s upperyer. Thick lumps of elemental crystals were dug out of therge urrence of elemental crystals. More than 2 hours had already passed and there were slightly less than 31 hours left as Shane massaged his sore arms. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 54 - Approach Shane had already used up a few of his remaining aqueous scales to soothe the swellings all over his arms. But he knew that it was only partially helpful if he were to continue ignoring that he had to rest. Throughout thest two hours, there had been a few elemental scale lizardsing back from their hunt outside the cave only to see him digging out their elemental crystals, which enraged them noticeably. Well...who would like it if someone demolished their dear home? Fortunately, not a single one of them was at the elite stage, otherwise, he would have encountered a small problem. With his current capabilities, Shane wasn''t confident in fighting against Elite stage beasts inside the cave head-on as their extremely high elemental affinity was a huge threat to him. As such, he would rather avoid them for the time being, if it was possible. One hour passed and it was alreadyte at night, while Shane still continued to mine. He didn''t have to worry about mining in the dark as the cave was illuminated by the surrounding elemental crystals. After a while, he decided to take a look into his spatial ring. There were still close to [30H] left on his countdown and Shane couldn''t help but grin, looking at the contents within his spatial ring. As for the scaled lizard corpses, there were more than 40 within his spatial ring, with slightly more than 10 breezy scaled lizards, around 8 earthy scaled lizards, and 6 aqueous scaled lizards. The rest were fiery scaled lizards that were the mostmon scaled lizards inside the elemental crystal cave. Even though Shane could sell the corpses for a small fortune, he wasn''t exactly sure about their true worth as the scales of every elemental lizard seemed to be extremely valuable. As such, he decided to wait for some time until he figured out their effects before selling the corpses. If he was short on a few gold coins to finish his [Mythic] mission, he would sell the corpses without any hesitation. However, seeing the content inside his spatial ring, Shane doubted that it was required with a radiant smile blossoming on his face. Mining for three hours caused hismon quality pickaxe to bepletely deformed. Nevertheless, the profit was much higher than his expenditure so he didn''t need to worry. Shane just bought anothermon quality pickaxe from the system to continue his harvest as soon as he messaged an Elus merchant. He would have to prepare a rough price list for the different elemental crystals in order to start discussing the price for everything. Right now, Shane only had five different crystals in his spatial ring. One of them was the normal mana crystals with the majority being at the [Trash] quality while some crystals were even at the [Common] quality. As for the other crystals, all of them were basic elemental crystals with wind, fire, water, and earth transmuted manapressed into them. Their quality was the same as the mana crystals with most of them being [trash] and a shallow amount of transmuted mana inside. While some mon] quality elemental crystals had a much denser quantity of transmuted mana swirling within them. Making up his mind, Shane decided that he wouldn''t sell the mana crystals if it was not mandatory because he might need these crystals for himself and Umbra. They were worse than mana stones due to their lower mana quality and quantity, but Umbra could still absorb them all day round and increase his evolution rate without wasting his own resources. The elemental crystals, however, were a different case. With them being basic elemental crystals in addition to having [trash] and mon] quality, Shane could roughly estimate their price. He merely had to add around 10%-20% to the prices humans sold them at inside the Primordial shop. If Shane''s information wasn''t wrong, the Elus race had never wanted to do anything with mankind. This could be said to be his fortune as the Elus race would have already bought every elemental crystal from humans'' shops, informing them about the high demand. This would in return increase the poprity of dimensions with vast mountains like the Radiant Mountain ring dimension. Shane wouldn''t be alone within the cave anymore and most likely would even be chased away by stronger cultivators as everyone would want everything for themselves. Looking at the prices, Shane pondered for a moment before he decided to follow a rough price list that he had written down in the system''s notes. Once he was done, Shane entered the neutral PrimWeb forum. Filtering out all races except the Elus race, Shane could easily find a few higher authorities of their race. But before he wrote a message to any of them, he also searched for contact details of their race''s merchants. Unfortunately, there weren''t many which was not really important for now. As such, Shane decided to message all authorities whose contact details he could find within the forum threads. After thinking for some time, he decided to make it simple and provide a few basic details to generate their curiosity even though he had to exaggerate and lie a bit. Otherwise, nobody would care about him as the Corvi race''s desperation was most likely a one-time urrence. The message he wrote to all authorities and a handful of merchants that he had found was roughly the same. Shane couldn''t do much more than writing a sincere message, even though he had exaggerated much more than he initially wanted to. His `huge` stock of [Mortal] basic elemental crystals were roughly 700 fist-sized crystals with most of them having a fire affinity. Amongst these 700 fist-sized elemental crystals there were less than 80 with amon quality. However, with his current mining speed, Shane was confident in umting 1000 gold coins, because he had still close to 30 hours left. [29H:38M:15S] From roughly 700 crystals, Shane could receive a fortune of 100 gold coins and he was mining in a slow manner. As such, he was able to earn roughly 30 gold coins in one hour with his current speed. During thest three hours, he also hunted 40+ scaled lizards that would give him an additional boost to his funds. Shane estimated that his hourly profit would roughly be 35 gold coins. Thus he was left with the exact required amount of time he needed to finish his mission that was 29 hours And this was only if Shane couldn''t increase the price of his elemental crystals more than the prices human shops put up. Shane changed his strategy as he continued mining the elemental crystals within therge cave entrance. He decided to elerate his mining speed to the highest capabilities because mining 29 hours would definitely draw some attention to him, which he wanted to avoid. A minuteter, several notifications popped up. However, Shane ignored them for two more hours., He didn''t want to look desperate in front of the Elus race for their trading agreement and decided to y hard to get. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 55 - Shooing Everyone Away With Honesty Shane couldn''t allow himself to look like a desperate and needy individual who was in a dire situation in order to receive their support. Because of that, he decided to ignore the replies for a few hours until his countdown reached exactly. [27H:00M:00S] He estimated that the Elus race was trying the same but they needed resources in order to build up a strongbat force to expand their power and exert dominance over other shelters. This would increase the resources they could obtain, to sell or barter for more elemental crystals or other items required to increase their strength further. It wasn''t like they were desperately trying to receive certain items like it was the case with the Corvi race. It would still take some time for them to strengthen the newborn elementals for a new, stronger generation to appear, which Shane knew. His words weren''t detailed and a huge or small stock could mean a lot while the tag [Mortal] he added to the message indicated that Shane knew about their ns more than the others. In the end, newborn elementals couldn''t directly strengthen their affinity from 0 to 100 and they had to do it in small steps which made it mandatory for them to absorb Mortal grade elemental crystals. They had never heard of a merchant called Orus but thinking that he had some connections to their race, a certain degree of curiosity was ignited within them. At the same time their desire for his mortal staged elemental crystals increased as a new generation of elementals were on the way to awaken. Shane couldn''t know for sure that the Elus race wanted to expand their business on arger scale but it was obvious that purchasing resources had a certain meaning. Furthermore, he was lucky to have lied to the Elus race with his connections to an Elus citizen which granted him the minimum amount of trust the race gave everyone who was connected to their brethren. It was some kind of tradition, Shane didn''t know about. This tradition wasn''t a secret but not many knew of it and Shane could be said to be lucky. He had only written an Elus ''citizen'' and not something like a merchant, royal, or elite as they would have most likely cross-checked the facts before approaching him with more sincerity. They would have most likely asked him for the Elus noble/merchant/elite''s name, unmasking his lie, thereby severing the possibility of a trade agreement immediately. Fortunately, Shane had been mindful about the possibility and only wrote ''Elus citizen.'' The trust he had received was only minuscule, and not worth asking the name of the citizen as hundreds of millions existed, as opposed to aparatively low number belonging to the higher sses. Opening the system, Shane was taken aback because he had received more than ten messages. The authorities hadn''t replied to him but unknown merchants wrote to him and they were most likely ordered to make a deal with him. Most messages asked about the number of elemental crystals he was able to provide in a short amount of time which Shane could only answer honestly with a small predicted number added to his calction. There wasn''t any point in lying and though 10,000 basic elemental crystals seemed to be a huge figure but in all honesty, it was nothing,pared to the vast number of descendants that the Elus race had to nurture with the elemental crystals. With 10,000 elemental crystals probably only 500 or so newly awoken Elus could be nurtured to a certain degree, more likely only around half of it. In addition to the disappointing message, Shane only received a single reply from a merchant. This caused him to feel as if he was rejected by a beautiful girl only to notice that someone he didn''t like had confessed to him. But even so, the message he received was rather pleasing, providing him with a nice price list that was split into a long-term trading agreement and a periodic trading agreement. While the long-term agreement was more pleasing to his eyes, Shane had to provide the merchant with a certain amount of elemental crystals each month, which wasn''t his purpose, even though the price would be higherpared to the periodic trading agreement. Both trading agreements would deal with the 200 item package system that he already knew from the previous trade of Nightshade flowers. Each package consisted of 200 items and the price one had to pay for the transfer fee was a single gold coin. Furthermore, the merchant''s message was solely business-rted and to the point. ¡ú[Mortal] Basic (fire/wind/earth) elemental crystal [Trash] 13 silver coins [Common] 40 silver coins [Umon] 1 gold coin 10 silver ¡ú[Mortal] Basic (water) elemental crystal [Trash] 14 silver coins [Common] 45 silver coins [Umon] 1 gold coin 20 silver ¡ú[Mortal] Intermediate (magma/metal) elemental crystal [Trash] 28 silver coins [Common] 80 silver coins [Umon] 2 gold coins 70 silver coins ¡ú[Mortal] Intermediate (ice/thunder) elemental crystal [Trash] 33 silver coins [Common] 1 gold coin [Umon] 3 gold coins Message back as soon as possible, Firug Gr[Rank-1 Elus Merchant]> The message caused Shane to let out a whoop as he looked at the prices he had received. Right now, he had mined around 1800 basic elemental crystals. The aqueous scales had provided him with energy to continue the arduous task without getting overly exhausted. As he had received only a formal message from the Elus merchant, Shane sent a short and professional message as well. Without wasting any time, he sent out 9 parcels with a small-time variance to the Elus merchant. Shane hoped he would receive his first ie soon because he needed some funds to purchase a new, better pickaxe in order to harvest the elemental crystals all around him. As he looked around, the entrance seemed to be almostpletely cleared of crystals, while the sunrise could be seen from within. Gazing outside, the scenery looked magnificent but Shane had no time left as he had an important mission to aplish within the next 27 hours. Shane wasn''t excessively tired as he had received nourishment from the aqueous scales liquid. But that could change any moment he turned his guard down, so he had to remain fully observant and focused for now. He continued mining elemental crystals for a while before the second pickaxe broke as well and he could only wait until the first payment arrived. It was frustrating, but there was nothing he could change as of now. Shane decided to venture through the cave''s upperyer once more in order to eradicate the threats that may havee up from the tunnels. He would have done it sooner but his desire to mine crystals was much greater than he had expected in the beginning and his arms ached like hell. Shane knew that he would have the pain and soreness for a long time after everything finished. As he looked around, he noticed a bunch of scaled lizards crawling up a small tunnel. Right next to the tunnel was a pair of lizards copting and Shane cursed in his mind, seeing these ghastly pictures in front of him. Oddly enough, the bunch of scaled lizards gazed at the copting pair of scaled lizards and approached them. Shane didn''t know what would happen but goosebumps could be seen spreading all over his body. He unsheathed his shiolite dagger and crouched down. Sneaking up to the scaled lizards, Shane began to wonder if their hearing senses were just dull or if their urge to copte was just too strong, causing them to not even hear the mining sounds in the cavern''s entrance. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 56 - Lust! This information was important to him as the former would ease up a lot of his umted tension while thetter would be odd to figure out if he was honest to himself. Going with the flow, the newly emerged scaled lizards approached the copting pair that didn''t notice them and Shane did the same with his dagger unsheathed. It wasn''t like he had anything against beasts producing offspring but seeing them doing it wasn''t something Shane wanted to see ever again. As such he would end it quickly and oddly enough, the newly emerged group of scaled lizards suddenly attacked the male scaled lizard that copted with the female scaled lizard in front of them. Taken by surprise the scaled lizard could only build up a small membrane of mana. The wind des and water jets hit it directly, piercing through its scales into the flesh, as blood sttered out of the small holes the attacks created. Roaring out in pain and fully enraged, the male copting earthy scaled lizard manifested multiple earth spikes. Aiming them at the intruders, it shot the spikes towards the six scaled lizards in front of it, even though it knew that it was at a huge disadvantage. Shane was already near the bunch of the fighting scaled lizards, wondering if urrences like that were something thatmonly happened among the scaled lizard race. Were they jealous or did they just hate this particr earthy scaled lizard? In the end, it wouldn''t matter to him. As such he waited for the perfect moment to throw in a surprise attack on the scaled lizards and it didn''t take long before the awaited moment arrived. The female aqueous scaled lizard was enraged about how he quickly finished the ''date'' and decided to attack the six scaled lizards with water jets. The jets pierced through the opposite wind des as if they were nothing before they hit two slim breezy scaled lizards, sting them a few meters away. These breezy scaled lizards were sted into his direction as if it was nned. Shane circted his mana within the lower body to push himself from the ground to elerate his speed within a moment. The fighting scaled lizards didn''t notice anything amiss while the two breezy scaled lizards that were sted away fell on the ground, slightly injured due to the impact. Suddenly they sensed something was wrong and before they could even turn around in order to do anything, they felt something cold piercing their neck. They slumped on the ground and were left with no energy to stand up once again. The life force within them diminished within a short moment. After killing the two breezy scaled lizards almost at the same time, thrusting both daggers in their neck, Shane set off. The male earthy scaled lizard was heavily injured and about to die while the female aqueous scaled lizard was about to give up when the remaining four slightly injured scaled lizards looked at the female with lust. While Shane charged at them with his tremendous speed he started to wonder if there was a scarcity of female scaled lizards or else he couldn''tprehend the situation in front of him. Nevertheless, without letting himself be too distracted, he charged at the group of four scaled lizards that hadn''t noticed his presence until he crossed the range of ten meters. However, being under the influence of their lust, their reaction speed was essentially slow. It gave Shane enough time to appear behind the first scaled lizard, even before it had noticed him. Stabbing out with the shiolite dagger, Shane ended its life quickly. His 7th Mortal stage physique allowed him to appear close to the earthy scaled lizard, that only stood three meters apart from the scaled lizard, he killed a moment ago, almost immediately. Sensingrge mana fluctuations on the ground between both of them, Shane changed his direction to the left, as a thick earth wall shot out of the ground. Unfortunately for the earthy scaled lizard, Shane hadn''t changed his target. He turned to it once again immediately, after taking a few steps to the right, advancing straight towards the earthy scaled lizard. Shane pierced his dagger through its skull, as brain mass sttered on his face when he pulled the dagger out again. But there wasn''t enough time for Shane to spare to be disgusted by the brain mass on his face. He jumped behind the earth wall, just in time, before a handful of wind des pierced into the ground he previously stood at. Thest remaining opponents were an almost dead earthy scaled lizard and an exhausted aqueous scaled lizard in addition to two slightly injured breezy scaled lizards. Exerting all of his strength, Shane decided to change his target as he charged straight towards the heavily injured earthy scaled lizard next to the aqueous scaled lizard that was around ten meters away from his current position. This distance couldn''t be considered much with his physique in addition to mana enhancing his physique by a minuscule margin, as his velocity reached his physical limit. Immediately after he left the secure position behind the earth wall, wind des began to shoot at him. Umbra transmitted to him the position the wind des would hit, which helped Shane evade them rather easily, as he appeared in front of the earthy scaled lizard. Umbra felt extremely useless the whole time and helping Shane by notifying him about the wind de''s position, was the bare minimum it did. Nevertheless, he felt overjoyed and told himself that he would be Shane''s eyes at the back for the time being, as he could do nothing else right now. Shane was thankful that Umbra was considerate as he stood in front of the earthy scaled beast. But rather than stopping his charge and stabbing the seriously injured beast with his dagger at, Shane used his speed and kicked out, after he enveloped his leg with a thick mana membrane. sting away the heavily injured earthy scaled lizard, Shane''s foot hurt slightly but it was worth the effort. He noticed that the earthy scaled lizard in front of him was dead, as he smoothly turned towards the exhausted aqueous scaled lizard, and finished it off without showing any mercy. Immediately after the aqueous scaled lizard was pierced by his dagger, Shane gripped the body, using it as a shield to block the wind des that pierced into the scaled lizard corpse. Fortunately, he had Umbra as his back eyes, otherwise, Shane would have most likely thrown himself to one side. There were wind des pierced in the soil on either side and Shane was unscathed because of Umbra''s help. Using the aqueous scaled lizard as his shield, Shane rushed forward, before he threw the body towards one of the breezy scaled lizards, shocking it. While throwing the body, Shane retrieved the dagger which was still stuck in the aqueous scaled lizard''s back. He leaned forward, in order to stab the breezy scaled lizard with the blue shining lizard corpse on top of it. Blood and internal organs spilled out of the long wound that Shane had inflicted on the side of the breezy scaled lizard. Shane left the dying lizard on its own without a backward nce as he turned towards thest remaining opponent that was scared. It looked around as worry, and sheer terror filled its eyes, regretting its decision to have fooled around before. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 57 - Mining-expert Shane finished the small fight without any further issues and collected the corpses that littered the ground. Normally he would now continue mining the elemental and mana crystals close to the cave entrance, but unfortunately, he wasn''t left with any funds to purchase a pickaxe. As such, he could only kill the new scaled lizards that appeared from the small tunnels in order to go hunting or to do something else. Shane asked himself if he was at the wrong ce or why so many lizards were copting at the higheryers of the cave but it would most likely remain a secret for eternity. Furthermore, he couldn''t reallyin about the situation because killing copting beasts was much easier than beasts that were on guard against him. Even if Shane felt slightly bad, there was nothing for him to do against it. As such, he decided to not mind it after a while and a whole hour passed before a notification appeared on his system. [200x [Mortal-(Trash)](Fire) elemental crystals have been sent to Firug Gr in exchange for 26 gold coins] Shane smiled at the message as the [Mythic] mission progress bar increased from 0 to [26/1000] but there was a small problem. He only had 26 hours left and Shane figured out that he would have to increase his mining speed by arge margin. Shane was not satisfied with the offers even after searching through the system shop for a while., Thus, he switched to the Primordial Shops in order to find some pickaxes with better quality. He had 26 gold coins and pickaxes couldn''t be considered rare, as a meagre amount of ores were required to make them and their price wasn''t high either. Thus, Shane purchased a few [Common] quality pickaxes. After five minutes, another 30 gold coins appeared within his finances. With 56 gold coins, Shane immediately changed his trajectory towards better pickaxes when he picked a certain red shining one instantly. [Ambrulite-pickaxe [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] Price: 42 gold coins] additional passive effect [Turbulent Impact(passive)] Shane bought the Ambrulite-pickaxe because of its passive [Turbulent Impact] which would ease his mining experience considerably, as long as he supplied it with enough mana. Items with a [extraordinary] quality or above had the chance to have certain special effects and [Turbulent Impact] was one of them, causing their price to skyrocketpared to [Rare] quality items. Using a mana crystal to utilize the passive effect of his newly acquired pickaxe was perfect and more than enough for several hours. Shane didn''t want to use his own mana and he wanted to preserve it for when he might need it in dire situations. With around 10 gold coins left, Shane bought an umon concealment potion for 16 hours with 8 gold coins, even though he had to grit his teeth. Compared to shelter stalls, the primordial shop was always more expensive, and additionally, there would be a transaction fee of 10% increasing the price even more. As such, his whole fortune decreased to 1 gold coin again, while his current position was much better than before. Gulping down the umon concealment potion without looking at the remaining time left, Shane started his journey once again. By now, Shane had figured out that the lizards had a bad hearing because he saw no other reason why he could mine mana and elemental crystals unhindered even though the thunderous sounds reverberated throughout the cavern''s upperyer. Shane stood in front of arge brown elemental crystal, taking deep breaths, as the passive effect of his newly purchased pickaxe activated. A small red hue began to envelop the already red shining pickaxe when Shane pulled it back before he used all his force to smash it into the crystals in front of him. Oblivious to the pickaxe''s strength, Shane swung it once and hit the crystal but what followed made his jaw drop. The pickaxe had pierced through multipleyers and torn apart a small part of the crystal in a single strike. Previously he was forced to smash his mining pickaxe multiple times into a crystal to obtain some small pieces of the elemental crystals. However, now the difficulty seemed to decrease by arge margin, making it much easier for him to mine the trash andmon quality crystals. Time passed slowly and Shane received additional 7 notifications about the packages he had sent to the Elus merchant. There were still 23 hours left on his [Mythic] mission and his finances had reached 246 gold coins, while the progression bar on his increased screen had increased to [302/1000]. With a radiant smile on his face, Shane knew that this small fortune was solely earned by the 1800 elemental crystals he had sold a few hours ago. But now his spatial ring was once again filled with even more crystals, thanks to the investment into the Ambrulite-pickaxe with its special passive effect. Even though Shane had mined two hours lesspared to his first mining spree, the elemental crystals within his spatial ring told a different story. More than 2200 elemental crystals were spread in his spatial ring, while around 100 scaled lizard corpses could be seen. This spoke volumes about the efficiency of good tools and Shane was proud to have thought of purchasing an extraordinary quality pickaxe with such a fitting effect, instead of a pickaxe without any effect. Packaging the elemental crystals into parcels of 200 pieces, Shane sent them to the Elus merchant with satisfaction. Umbra sensed Shane''s joy and was equally overjoyed. As such, one could see a foolishly smiling youth with a one-meter ck snake on his shoulder sharing and spreading their joy through the cave, which was filled with soil, crystal shards, and dried blood. He decided to take another tour through the cave''s upperyer in order to be safe from any threats once he continued mining, which took him another hour. Now he had 22 hours left toplete his mission. Hearing the beautiful sound the system notification made, Shane couldn''t help but smile every time he saw his finances increasing. 613 gold coins!! Shane''s eyes widened as he saw his finances while the progression bar for his mission had reached [669/1000] He only had to hunt for another four hours in order for him to clear his mission and there was more than enough time left. However, the only downside was that Shane was growing extremely tired. Dispelling the tiredness by gulping down the liquid within one aqueous scale, Shane felt energized once again. Shane''s arms were almostpletely numb and it was growing difficult to raise them. In the end, he had to endure this hardship in order to aplish the mission he had received, causing him to grit his teeth. If a little bit of hardship could allow him to reach his new goal, why shouldn''t he do so? In Shane''s opinion, he would even face a mountain of hardship if it allowed him to live his dream of freedom, achieve more strength, and help him venture through the dimensions to explore them. Three hours had passed without anything special happening. Shane was about to sell everything he had umted to finish the [Mythic] mission as his vision blurred. The cave trembled as two deep roars reverberated through the cave. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 58 - Conquest Shane was already feeling weak and had little energy left. And now, when he was on the verge ofpleting his mission, the elemental crystal cave he was about to venture deeper in, was going to be demolished by some roars? Wasn''t that a bad joke? But Shane had a much bigger problem at the moment. The two roars he had heard seemed toe from a powerful lizard and another beast from a different race, which Shane presumed to be a powerful wolf. He wasn''t exactly sure about the kind of beasts or their ranks, but the roars alone could tell him that they were nothing Shane could handle. He was definitely d to be on the upperyers. Right now his spatial ring was once again filled with elemental crystals and there seemed to be over 1600 of them. Shane felt distracted by the two powerful beings that continued to voice out their roars and shook the cave violently. But he forced himself to calm down in addition to [Hunter''s Mind], as he sent 8 parcels with 1600 elemental crystals to the Elus merchant. His estimation told him that the average price range of the elemental crystal parcels was between 28 and 35 gold coins. Thus, the [Mythic] mission progression bar would break into thest segment with a requirement of less than 100 gold. With slightly less than 19 hours left, Shane was confident in dealing with thest phase of his mission. However, curiosity overwhelmed him and he inched closer to the tunnels to get a good look at the two hostile beasts that were deeper in the cave. Were they fighting? If that''s the case, why exactly were they fighting each other within the cave? Was it a territorial fight to im the rights of this cave or is there some other reason? But more important was a question that formed in Shane''s mind. ''Was there more than one entrance to the cave and howrge did this cave have to be for two powerful existences within the basic Primordial Dimensions to fight against each other?'' The ground below him shook, loosening some stones and crystals which fell from the ceiling as Shane looked around carefully. But before he could leave the safety of the cave''s highestyer in order to satisfy his curiosity, Shane had to ensure that his mission would be aplished without any problem. Gulping down the liquid of a few aqueous scales, Shane noticed that the effect had lessened by a noticeable degree. In the end, his stingy heart overwhelmed his other senses and he disregarded the opportunity to purchase vitality potions. For the moment, he had to be satisfied with the aqueous scale liquid. A whole hour of uncertainty had passed and a consistent number of wild stage lizards kept rushing out of the tunnels in order to flee from the elemental crystal cave which astonished Shane greatly. Fortunately, they didn''t pay any heed to his concealed existence due to the distinct fear that overcame them, otherwise, Shane would have been in a tough situation. Once he had farmed 600 elemental crystals, Shane immediately sent them to the Elus merchant, before he took a nce at his finances and mission progression. While his finances had reached a whopping number of 856 gold coins, the progression bar had reached [912/1000] and thest three parcels that he had sent out had to be enough for now. If there were a few gold coins amiss, Shane would just sell a few magic crystals he had mined or corpses from the scaled lizards he had hunted. Even though Shane felt exhausted beyond his limit, he was still curious to know what kind of beast was trying to annex the territory of habitant lizards here. With around 18 hours left, Shane took a nce down at the widest tunnel, before he docked a few items at his belt to feel more secure. Before Shane went outside the DeepMountain shelter, he purchased a few goods. It included an empty grenade with a terrifying stench skunk dissolved scent nd within, in addition to a few smoke grenades and prismarine-luminous crystals. In the worst-case situation, Shane was still confident in being able to flee, even if he would reek in a disgusting stench for a few days once again. And it was only because he bought these items, that he was confident in venturing down in the direction where the terrifying existences most likely fought each other. Shane had never seen a territorial fight and was excited to know what could happen, as he noticed something far ahead of him at the second-highest cavernyer. Immediately below the highestyer, Shane had mined the mana and elemental crystals for thest several hours, where hundreds of wild stage scaled lizards in addition to their stronger brethren, which were most likely their evolutions At the secondyer, Shane saw a few dozen elite stages, scaled lizards with a height of almost one meter in addition to a length of more than four meters, shocking him. Due to his recently increased knowledge about evolutions, he knew there were multiple evolution paths for all kinds of beasts ording to the quality they attained. However, based on the number ofrge-scaled lizards in front of him, Shane could only conclude that this evolution path was the one provided at themon quality, which was shocking. The scaled lizards'' length increased by more than four meters while their height almost tripled and Shane looked at Umbra doubtfully. `What should I do with Umbra if his size increases like that?` Until now he hadn''t really wasted any time thinking about Umbra''s possible size after he evolved. But, his face darkened when he recalled that he could evolve into a colossus darkness python. `Ugh¡­` He was unsure what to think or do about that, but he had to figure out a wayter. Now, he had more important things to do. Shane not only noticed wild and elite stage lizards at this cave''syer but also purple furred wolf packs charging out of the tunnel. The purple furred wolves pounced on the scaled lizards, turning the secondyer into a battlefield. Based on the looks of the purple furred wolf packs, he estimated their strength to be at the peak wild stage at the worst, while they had more than a dozen more elite stage wolves. This caused the scaled lizards to be at a numerical disadvantage for each stage, but this did not mean the disadvantage was too bothersome. They were not physically stronger and fewer in number, but there was something in particr that they excelled in... their strengthened elemental affinity! Shooting out lightning strikes, The purple furred wolves seemed to have a weak lightning affinity and were able to shock the scaled lizards for a short moment with their lightning strikes. The lizards retaliated with devastating, one-meter-long wind des, thick spiked earth walls, fireballs, and water jets shooting towards the purple-furred wolves. From the looks of it, the wolves were at an advantage both in numbers and their ranks. However, the elemental affinity of the beasts yed a huge role in calcting thebat prowess of beasts. This was the first thing Shane noticed as he studied the two beasts and tried to assess their might. The lightning strikes seemed to barely shatter therge wind des and water jets, while the wild stage elemental attacks were destroyed rather easily. Nevertheless, the lightning strikes weren''t able to hit many scaled lizards. The only thing the weakened lightning strikes could do was paralyze their opponent for a quarter of a second. Hundreds of purple-furred wolves charged at the scaled lizards with their high speed, evading earth spikes, fireballs, and other elemental attacks with as little movement as possible. The wolves had now entered in close proximity to their enemies in order to fight with their physical strength instead of elemental attacks. Shane was shocked to see the battlefield in front of him and it made him wonder which group would win the small skirmish. The ground shook more violently once again, indicating that the loweryer battles were even more devastating. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 59 - Joining The Fray Shane was astonished to see such arge territorial fight so close to their RadiantRing shelter, which shouldn''t be happening in the first ce. Normally, the system provided a certain degree of safety to the newly constructed shelter during the first month of their construction. This was suspicious and Shane began to wonder if there was something wrong with the shelter or if the cave was far enough from the Shelter to not receive the system''s naturally provided "safety" The shelter could also be older than what the government told the public. However, in this case, he wondered why the elemental crystal cave in front of him was still untouched. Everyone needed funds and arge number of elemental crystals was worth a huge fortune that would be enough to reach greater realms! With his current funds, he would be able to reach the expert rank without any problem. That was if he relied on a 60% mana purification technique in addition to a wed body refining technique. Inparison, there were some weaker races that had entered the intermediate Primordial dimension without going through the arduous efforts to build up their foundation. Such races had an extremely low mana purity of 60% which was indicative of a weak race''s foundation! This was a bad sign for the race, even though they could directly enter the intermediate Primordial dimensions without being torn to shreds. As such, one could say that it was extremely unfair for the system to provide many weak races with resources to build up a foundation while it neglected `stronger` races with their weak foundation. It was only a few days ago that Shane had found out that such races could shatter their foundation by paying with valuable items and ingredients! Shattering their foundation would also weaken their physique to a certain degree. It was apparently amodated by terrifying pain that they had to endure until their strength was adjusted to the capabilities of the basic primordial dimension. Doing so would reset their mana pool cultivation to zero and one would need to begin the cultivation path from scratch again. Meanwhile, their physique would remain at a certain prowess ording to the quality of ingredients and materials they had used to shatter their quality. It would definitely be interesting to encounter foreign races like this and Shane was already expectant! While thinking about all of that, he observed the small skirmish between the two races carefully. It seemed like they had reached a stalemate with dead corpses decorating the whole room. Shane would have never called himself greedy because he had lived in luxury on Igra. Somehow since he had entered the primordial dimension, his desire to earn more to reach new realms had ignited and unbeknownst to himself, he became extremely greedy. It was not an obsession, turning him into someone who would kill other humans for it. He had gotten used to seeing corpses so much that now he would see them as a number of bodies instead of creatures who used to once live and breathe like him. This shocked him extremely, as he questioned his own mindset. But in his opinion, it would be even worse to let a carcass rot somewhere and waste its death. Shane decided to continue waiting for the stalemate in front of him to end. Time passed slowly and even after five minutes, he saw no chances of the stalemate ending. These five minutes felt like an eternity to Shane who was bored to death as he had expected some action. Since he had entered the primordial dimension, thest five minutes had been the most boring ones stretching as if they were multiple days. When Shane thought it was finally over, a somewhat pained howling coursed through the whole cave. The purple furred wolf''s ears pricked up as they heard the howling that shook the cave slightly. And only a momentter an odd roar could be heard vibrating through the cavern rooms, which was equally painful, making Shane wonder what was going on. Now both the scaled lizards and purple furred wolves seemed to grow impatient as they charged at each other, breaking the stalemate without hesitating for a single moment. Shane wanted to walk further down the cave and observe a battle between two awakened beasts. He had never seen a life and death battle between such beasts, but he was still held up with dozens of wild and elite stage beasts, frustrating him. It wasn''t that the battle in front of him was boring, rather it was extremely exciting to witness a fight with dozens of beasts trying to overwhelm each other. Each race used its strengths to the maximum while trying to figure out the ws of its opponents without sustaining too many injuries. Wild and Elite stage beasts couldn''t be considered extremely intelligent but their instincts were what made them strong. Additionally, their subconscious tactical agreement with their own brethren shocked Shane every time he fought beasts. There were always exceptions but the pack of purple furred wolves fought together as one entity, which was a satisfying sight in Shane''s opinion. Nevertheless, the affinity advantage of the scaled lizards was just too huge. It seemed as if the purple furred wolves were about to lose as barely more than ten of them were left alive. Their morale plummeted and they were about to retreat when Shane suddenly appeared behind the scaled lizard group of slightly more than 15 lizards. Due to their tactical agreement, the injured scaled lizards supported the less injured scaled lizards from the back. Meanwhile, Shane calcted his chances as a cultivator at the 8th Mortal stage with a 7th Mortal physique, and his lips curled up. He got an adrenaline rush and he wanted to join the fight, as he didn''t want to be a bystander anymore. It wasn''t thatte-Wild stage scaled lizards or other beasts were too weak. But Shane''s highbat experience that he had umted since he was eight in addition to [Artemis'' Blessing] passive inherited skill [Hunter''s Mind] allowed him to think calmly. Furthermore, [Artemis'' Blessing] had erged his mana pool from the time his journey began, elevating his mana pool size from that of a normal 8th Mortal stage cultivator. In the end, he pondered if he should join the fray or not, but almost all of the remaining scaled lizards and purple furred wolves were injured. Theirbat prowess had decreased by arge margin, and Shane hade to a decision. Shane''s presence was barely noticed by a heavily injured elite stage breezy scaled lizard as he sneaked up behind it and slit the beast''s throat. A huge fountain of blood sttered on his face and the tier-1 shiolite dagger turned crimson red, as the breezy scaled lizard''s lifeless body copsed on the ground with a rather dull *thump* Shane knew that the assassination would be noticed so he circted mana within his lower body in order to elerate again. He was ready when the next seriously injured scaled beast roared at him. Noticing that they still had a chance and the arrival of a mysterious newbatant who helped them, the purple furred wolves decided to charge towards the scaled lizards once again. This was theirst try to change the tides once again and the distraction caused by the bipedal being behind their arch-enemies had benefited them. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 60 - The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Enemy Shane shed at the roaring breezy scaled lizard in front of him, as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Jumping on the peak wild stage breezy scaled lizard with his dagger thrusted forward, Shane barely avoided the earth spikes and fireballs targeting his previous location by a hair''s breadth. The dagger pierced into the breezy scaled lizard, drenching in its blood, and killed the scaled lizard without further ado, as Shanended on the ground. He struggled to jump up from his position while pulling his dagger out of the breezy scaled lizard''s chest forcefully when another bunch of elemental attacks was shot towards him. Umbra was barely able to hold onto Shane who kept jumping and moving around to evade as well as to attack. He rolled to the side with a firm grip on his dagger, before it was almost ttened to the ground. Umbra hated these battles and was visibly frustrated but Shane couldn''t care less about Umbra''s emotions because for now, he had to survive. Jumping up after evading the elemental attacks with a few jumps and rolls, Shane noticed the arrival of the purple-furred wolves that attacked the distracted bunch of scaled lizards. Initially, he didn''t want to help the purple-furred wolves, but if he wanted to achieve his goal, it was the only way forward. As such, the distraction he had created should have been enough to turn the tide to a certain degree, as the ratio between wolves and lizards seemed to be bnced. Each beast seemed to have sustained at least multiple minor injuries with a few serious ones, causing Shane to smile brightly as he backed off from the fighting beasts once again. Right now, he would only have to wait for the battle to end in order to finish off the glorious survivors of therge skirmish in front of him. Some would say it was cruel, but Shane knew that these beasts would most likely attack him too once they noticed him solely because of their wild instincts. Life was cruel and mankind had suffered many times after showing mercy to `cute` and `defenseless` beasts they had spared, only to be attacked by themter. Learning about the level of cruelty that could be exhibited by humans and beasts alike from a young age, Shane knew what to do. In the end, Shane decided he would only trust himself, his tamed beasts, and maybe his family to a certain degree, with the exception of his dad. Shane was more than a little bit suspicious of the system as well and trusting it was not something he would ever do. However, unfortunately, the only thing Shane could do right now was to rely on the system, as every being did, which he would rather not do. Since the day Shane had transmigrated from earth, he would always ask himself why nobody questioned the system. But, he found out why, only when he awakened the system.. Everyone had to rely on it and it helped everyone be stronger. Until now, there was no news about the system itself eradicating or manipting races or something simr. The only "bad" thing it had caused was the disaster on Igra. But, in a way humanity itself had brought it down upon them, due to their negligence of the world protection program. Due to mankind''s negligence, they had been careless about the world protection extension and ignored everything that could have strengthened them. In the end, the system wasn''t per se at fault and human curiosity had made them join the "conquest". Nobody knew what exactly the Primordial Dimensions were or where they came from. More important, however, was the question of who had created these Dimensions which hundreds of thousands of races used and exploited for their benefits. Maybe Shane was thinking too much about the system, but the minuscule white strand in his mind, representing the system, was the only thing that he truly feared since he had transmigrated. Not even his father had been capable of igniting such fear within him. Could it control him or was there a more important usage? Did everyone have such a minuscule white strand in their mind and were some races controlled by it? Was Shane even himself or was he already manipted by the system? Each of these thoughts scared him and he could only hope that some of his theories were wrong. He told himself that he shouldn''t ce hisplete trust in anyone out there, because he wasn''t sure if anyone was trustworthy. Shaking his head, Shane saw that only three scaled lizards were left alive while five seriously injured purple furred wolves stood in front of them. Crouching down, Shane tried to find a good opening spot in the battlefield to backstab the purple-furred wolves. One of the elite stage fiery scaled lizards used the remaining mana within it to generate a head-sized fireball with a searing heat to throw it at the bunch of wolves that stood close to each other. The outer purple furred wolves tried to evade the iing fireball by jumping to the side, but thest two remaining earthy scaled lizards had also released theirst mana reserves in order to create two earth walls on either side of the purple furred wolves, effectively trapping them. Shane was astonished to see the scene unfold in front of him. He could have never imagined that the remaining three scaled lizards were able to use such crude yet efficient tactics. The head-sized fireball exploded in between the two earth walls right in the middle of the purple furred wolves that tried to weaken the fireball with lightning currents. Unfortunately, their efforts were futile and the fireball exploded with a loud crack, burning the purple furred wolves, killing two in an instant. The remaining three injured wolves were the furthest from the explosion but even they had to endure the searing heat that burned their fur and skin. With that in mind, Shane''s gaze returned back to the scaled lizards/ His assumptions had been correct because the lizards had copsed to the ground after overusing their mana. Furthermore, adding the serious injuries to their exhaustion made it clear that it was only a matter of time until they would die. With three seriously injured purple furred wolves left behind, Shane''s opportunity had finally arrived. He had still more than half of his mana left. After circting it through his whole body he exerted his full physical strength of a 7th Mortal stage before his steps elerated. The distance between him and the three injured purple furred wolves was more than forty meters and he would need some time to reach them, but this was less of a problem. Knowing he would be noticed before, Shane made himself ready to fight the two heavily injured elite stage beasts in addition to a peak wild stage purple furred wolf that had sustained equally heavy injuries. Ignoring the wild stage wolf, Shane focused on the Elite stage wolves. He estimated that theirbat prowess was most likely reduced to theter wild stage or the peak wild stage at the most. Umbra was extremely frustrated and shot multiple small shadow needles, trying to attack the injured wild stage purple furred wolf as its only feasible target. Crossing the distance between them, Shane ignored the injured wild stage wolf before thrusting his dagger at the closest elite stage wolf. The purple-furred wolf tried to bite Shane in an attempt to tear out his flesh. He noticed that the purple furred wolf was still slightly faster than him which caused him to abandon his straightforward attack, as he leaned even further forward in order to avoid a w ripping open his chest. Shane''s body was extremely close to the ground and the two elite stage beasts were faster than him, even though it was only by a marginal amount. Shane took out his [Mortal-(Umon)] sparky dagger that he hadn''t used for a long time and threw it straight towards the furthest purple furred elite wolf that charged towards him and itsrade. As he shed out with the shiolite dagger, Shane noticed that his reflexes were slightly better than the purple-furred wolves. Once again, he used a feint with another straight dagger thrust and jumped to the side. The dagger pierced into the wolf''s abdomen, tearing apart the skin and flesh. Blood and organs spilled out of the wolf''s body as it slumped down to the ground. Shane was sure that the fight would be over soon when a bad premonition spread through his whole body. He activated his [Berserk] skill instinctively as he jumped over the heavily injured purple furred wolf. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 61 - Beast-war Shane''s premonition saved his life as he noticed the wild stage purple furred wolf attack him from behind with a rather exhausted pounce. By jumping above the dying elite stage wolf, Shane arrived straight in front of the second elite stage wolf. He wasn''t able to evade the second purple-furred wolf''s wspletely. But he narrowly avoided the ws from piercing into his flesh by deflecting them with his dagger. The only problem was that Shane was now in a bad situation or rather at a disadvantage. The elite stage purple furred wolf was still physically stronger than him, even though the [Berserk] skill had enhanced his strength by 10% Fortunately, Umbra came to his help as he shot multiple shadow needles in a row straight at the wolf''s eyes. Two of the needles pierced through its eyes before it could even close them to deflect the remaining shadow needles. With that, faint dizziness overcame the elite stage wolf while its eyeball had been pierced and it stumbled to the ground. Right then, Shane used the moment of distraction to adjust his dagger''s angle in order to deflect the w and push it away. He pierced his shiolite dagger straight into the elite stage purple furred wolf''s chest. Now, Shane didn''t dare to ignore the existence of the wild stage wild purple furred wolf behind him as he predicted another pounce on his back. Pulling the dagger out of the dead elite stage beast corpse hurriedly, Shane leaned backward. He held his dagger straight in the direction that the wolf woulde pouncing at him. Shane''s prediction was on point and the wolf pounced straight towards his dagger, causing his arm to bend due to the wolf''s heavyweight falling straight on it. Shane pushed it away with all his might and noticed that he was even more exhausted than the time when he had mined for dozens of hours. The concentration, observance, and tension that he had to utilize and go through in this short battle were released in an instance and Shane''s head ached painfully as if a heavy hammer weighing tons was hitting his head. Shane retrieved a few aqueous scales and gulped down their content, which was only partially useful for him anymore. He had consumed the liquid inrge quantities within thest few hours without giving his body time to regenerate energy on its own. Shane had only stimted himself without caring about anything except solving his [Mythic] mission. Only now with the exhaustion overwhelming him, Shane noticed that it was naive and stupid to venture into the lion''s den only to observe two awakened beasts fighting for the ownership of the elemental crystal cave. As such, Shane decided to change his ns, and looking around, he began to notice how vast the cave was. The secondyer was already a few timesrger than the firstyer that Shane had not cleared yet. If he had to make an estimate, Shane thought that he had most likely mined less than 10% elemental crystals of the firstyer. Shane wanted to have all of it for himself but it was hardly possible. Soon enough, humans would begin to venture through the Radiant Mountain-ring dimension. It would most likely only take a week before more inns were built within the shelter to amodate more hunters and adventurers. He wanted to create a n to obtain even more wealth from the elemental crystal cave which was a godsend for him, but Shane couldn''t think straight anymore. The only thing he could think of right now was a soft bed that was still more than four hours away from his current location. He longed to fall asleep on thefortable bed but the elemental crystal cave was rather secluded and difficult to reach without knowing where exactly to go. As such, Shane decided to do two things, while he disregarded his previous idea of observing the fight between two awakened stage beings. First, Shane wanted to gather all the corpses within the cave''s second floor. The second point was that he wanted to figure out the fastest way back to the shelter because he was facing difficulty in keeping his eyes open due to fatigue. Fortunately for the exhausted Shane not a single wolf or lizard ventured into the secondyer while he was picking up the corpses. There were more beast corpses than he had expected and in the end, Shane''s spatial storage had received an increase of more than 300 corpses, which had shocked him a little bit. Unfortunately, it took him more than an hour to collect all the corpses. Meanwhile, three notifications popped up on his system, indicating that thest three parcels had been bought by the Elus merchant. But oddly enough the [Mythic] mission was still not done. Even though Shane was extremely tired, he took a nce at the mission progress only to see a number that annoyed him extremely. [999/1000] There were still 17 hours left, but Shane didn''t want to wait even for a second longer, as he would just copse on his bed once he entered the shelter. As such, he ced a bunch of mana crystals within his shop at a lower pricepared to other shops. The price, however, was still higherpared to the price Shane would receive from the system because it would have given him a handful of silver at the most. After he finished cing some mana crystals within his shop, he immediately closed it, not minding the system anymore. Shane was barely able to take a step after another when he reached the cave entrance once again and Umbra looked at him worriedly. Though Shane had worked hard to mine mana and elemental crystals while Umbra only observed the surroundings while shooting a few shadow needles, he was exhausted as well. Shane''s mind was almost nk and he could barely hold himself together, as he staggered back to the shelter. Fortunately, he was on the right path. Shane still had to feed himself with an aqueous scale in order to prevent himself from copsing on the ground within the lush forest that was filled with all kinds of beasts. Weirdly enough, Shane, who was drenched in scaled lizard and purple furred wolf blood, did not meet a single beast at the outskirts of the forest. Had his mind not been nk and working at its finest, he would have probably asked himself as to why that was the case. How could Shane know that the purple furred wolves and the scaled lizards were two overlords of the outer part of the forest he ventured through, while they fought each other for the cave''s control? Had Shane known that the territorial fight for the elemental crystal cave was just a small yground of these two beast races, he would definitely have been scared. He wasn''t aware of the more devastating battles that took ce in other caves and even on the surface. Had he known all of that, he wouldn''t have been able to walk around without caring about anything like he did right now. Once a purple furred wolf or scaled lizard smelled their own brethren''s blood in addition to the disgusting stench of their arch-enemies, they would immediately search for his location and attack him, without caring about anything else. It was as if the two races were ying a kingdom-building game and Shane had entered their board game as the third yer without any troops, only to kill all lower stagedrades. And it was not only he who had joined this game, but it was also mankind that would most likely surprise these beasts in their small war between purple furred wolves against the scaled lizards, creating a three-sided battlefield. Finally, after hours, Shane could see the outline of the shelter walls. A weak smile blossomed on his face that was smeared with dirt and blood. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 62 - [Mythic]-mission Accomlished Dragging himself towards the shelter, Shane noticed that not only was he exhausted, but also Umbra seemed to have lost the vigorous luster of his eyes. Shane felt apologetic thinking about the ferocious fight he had been in. He had been rolling over the ground as if he was a pig in a mud field, and Umbra was tossed and turned with him as well all along. Sadly, there was nothing he could do about it. As such, he decided to give Umbra some nice food after getting a good sleep in order to gain some energy. He was bombarded with multiple notifications as he neared the shelter entrance but he was too exhausted to even look at them. His mind could notprehend anything anymore. The guards around the shelter gates gazed oddly at Shane who was smeared with dirt and blood and walked towards them with dead-tired eyes. His arms were full of small cuts and sore burst open blisters from mining way too long. The guards wondered about what exactly the youth in front of them had gone through to look like this. Shane looked bedraggled and it took him every ounce of his energy to keep cing one foot after the other. Noticing that the young man in front of them could barely stand, they went closer to him to offer him help. They also noticed a one-meter-long ck scaled snake on his shoulder, looking equally tired. They immediately thought that Umbra was a tamed beast because wild beasts would have normally attacked them. It could have also been a mind-controlling beast, but the guards looked extremely young and were most likely new guards, unaware of the Primordial Dimension''s dangers!. Beasts that could control humans such as parasites or mind-controlling beasts were rare and even more so within the basic primordial dimensions. However, that didn''t mean they didn''t exist there! The Radiant mountain ring was a new dimension and the young guards should have been more careful, which they weren''t. At the moment, they were more concerned about Shane''s health and the worst-case scenario to them would have been the marginal possibility of Umbra being a hostile beast instead of a tamed beast. This was a rare trait exhibited by some humans that could also backfire. They could probably meet their deaths if they were to help the wrong humans or maybe even foolishly trust other races. They hadn''t even considered that Umbra could have been anything else other than a tamed beast. Pitying him, they helped Shane get inside the gate after he barely managed to show them his race by ordering the system. That was everything Shane could do as exhaustion took over him, forcing his eyes to fall shut as he was carried inside the shelter by the guards. ---- An unknown amount of time had passed when he unwillingly opened his eyes, as multiple emotions and thoughts were transmitted into his head. Straightening his body, Shane willed himself to not give in to his body''s need for more sleep. He ignored his body''s cries for more rest and instead began to wonder how he had reached the bed in the first ce. His sleepiness was immediately washed away and Shane jumped up when he noticed that he was in a small room. It looked like themon Inn rooms he had stayed in earlier within the DeepMountain shelter. Sighing in relief, Shane tried to move a little, only to notice that his knees were slightly sluggish while his arms ached extremely with each tiny movement. ''Maybe I shouldn''t overwork myself next time?'' Shane thought while smiling weirdly. He still wore the same clothes as before and had dirtied the whole bed during his sleep. The room reeked of dirt and blood and Shane knew that it was his smell, as he turned towards the basin that stood in the corner of the room. There was already cold water inside and Shane saw his reflection, shocking him only slightly. His handsome face waspletely smeared with blood and dirt, making him look even worse than a roadside beggar in the current era. He decided to wash his face, ignoring the transmitted thoughts in his mind. Umbra was hungry and nagging at him for food. He slithered around Shane in protest trying to get his attention. When all his attempts failed, he climbed over Shane''s leg. Putting Umbra back on the ground, Shane took off his clothes in order to change into a new set after bathing. Washing up, he tried to recall how he had entered the Inn. But try as he might, he only remembered the moment when the young guards had walked towards him. Everything else was blurry and though he racked his brains he couldn''t remember anymore, which had never happened to him ever before. Thinking that the guards had brought him to the inn, Shane decided to return the favor he owed them, as he put on his second set of clothes. The cold and clear water within the basin was now full of dirt, while Shane''s distinct facial features could be seen once again. Umbra seemed to be clean and he put him back on his shoulder, as Umbra sulked in his mind. Somehow Umbra seemed to behave like a 6-year-old girl, trying to attract his attention by crying and annoyingly voicing out her babbling and unclear opinion. Noting that, Shane who had never really thought about having his own family, decided that he would disregard such a thought for a long time because Umbra alone was enough work for him. If Umbra was already a huge piece of work, how would this work with multiple tamed beasts in addition to having an own family?? Shane couldn''t even imagine something like that and starting a family was thest thing on his to-do list. Currently, there were many other things that needed his attention and time because too many things were more important in his opinion. After he washed up and changed into a new set of clothes, Shane took out a few dishes that he had already purchased a few days ago and ced them in front of him on the table. Jumping down from his shoulder once again, Umbra devoured these dishes like they were nothing. Shane was forced to take out another batch of dishes before he himself began to eat slowly when he heard his belly rumbling. Both he and Umbra hadn''t eaten for quite some time and it was only logical for them to be hungry. Shane wasn''t sure how long he had slept for. He opened the system in order to figure out the date in order to roughly estimate his sleeping time. Seeing the date, Shane was slightly shocked as he seemed to have slept for roughly 24 hours. Without caring about the dish in front of him, Shane immediately looked at his notifications. He was eager to check the status of the [Mythic] mission that he had hopefully aplished as he read through the system notification. [Host aplished [Mythic-Mission] . Reward: ess to purchase [Mortal-(Mythic)]Body refining manual.] Jumping up in joy, Shane finally remembered that he had sold some of the mana crystals that he had mined and calmed down. Had he failed the mission only because he was tired, it would have been embarrassing and extremely wasteful. However, he had sessfullypleted the mission that allowed him to purchase his first [Mythic] manual, as soon as he had enough funds. Shane wasn''t exactly sure how expensive the [Mortal-(Mythic] Body refining manual would be but it wouldn''t surprise him if it was even more expensive than a Tier-2 (Gold) mana purifying technique due to its value. Thinking about funds, Shane began to wonder how much wealth he had umted until now, as he took a nce at his finances. His eyes widened involuntarily while a broad radiant smile blossomed on his face. ________________________ Finances: 963 Gold coins 57 silver coins ________________________ __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 63 - From Riches To Rags The finances Shane could see on the holographic screen were much more than he had initially nned to umte in his first month within the Primordial Dimension. He couldn''t even control his eyes, as he salivated at the prospect of seeing more money. He gulped down his saliva and looked at the screen again to ensure that he wasn''t dreaming. Shane couldn''t think straight and he imagined wonderful times ahead for him with some rxed cultivation and body refining. His daydreaming was interrupted when he heard some noises. Umbra had wreaked havoc on the table and demanded more food, even though his one-meter-long body looked like it would explode any moment. Handing out more dishes, Shane thought he would have to purchase arge stock of food in the future if Umbra''s gluttony would continue to increase. In the worst-case scenario, he would tell Umbra to eat the beasts they hunted instead of the dishes he purchased with their hard-earned wealth. A whole minute passed as Shane tried to regain his senses, as he had difficulty controlling his emotions. Full of expectations, he immediately took a look at the price of the [Mortal-(Mythic)] Body refining manual. With more than 900 gold coins, he was confident in purchasing the [Mythic] body refining manual as it was only at the mortal stage, which was the lowest possible stage. Even so, Shane was shocked to see that the perfect body refining manual for the Mortal physique was priced at 500 gold coins. If he added the price for Umbra''s quality upgrade to the expenditure, Shane would have to pay around 730 gold coins. This would be solely for his body refining technique and the 5xtier-2 mana stones with darknesspressed within in addition to four Daylight peonies. His mood immediately soured looking at the total coins he would have to shell out that he had earned through strenuous hard work. In the end, this meant Shane could at most use 230 gold coins for himself, which would most likely be sufficient for three higher-tiered manuals for his mana gathering, purifying, and a higher body wed body refining. Shane would have to use it before he would be able toplete the mission for a [Apprentice-(Mythic)] perfect body refining technique. Calcting the additional price for cultivation resources, nutrition solutions, and so on, Shane could only frown deeply. His efforts worth of two days had vanished almost immediately, without leaving him with any funds to purchase even a single skill. It felt as if his fortune had never existed as he disgruntledly purchased the [Mortal-(Mythic)] body refining manual for 500 gold coins. Somehow Shane felt more sad than happy to have purchased the Mythic body refining technique, which should not have been the case. Nevertheless, the feelings of a young man with big dreams were always different from that of themoners. Shane could be considered a special case among them because his way of thinking was extremelyplicated and sometimes a bit reckless. The [Mythic] manual was directly bound to him, like every skill and technique that could only be obtained after fulfilling certain individual requirements and missions. It included every manual at and above the tinum quality in addition to special skills like the Taming skill, which had certain requirements one had to fulfill before one could learn them. Passing on these manuals and techniques to others was impossible, because of this binding. Shane learned the manual without celebrating anything at all, as a notification popped in his head. [Host learned [Mortal-(Mythic)] Body refining manual. Congrattions!!] Even the system was more hyped than Shane was but he merely read through it once and brushed it aside. He then focussed on his search of the materials required to upgrade Umbra''s quality and browsed through the Primordial Shop. Fortunately, he had received wyvern blood from Uncle Max, otherwise, he wouldn''t know how to fulfill the requirement for [Blood of a Dragon]. Shane could only thank the system that it epted wyvern blood as dragon blood, even though the bloodline was most likely extremely thin. Nevertheless, he still had to purchase five tier-2 mana stones [Darkness] that were somewhat simr to Darkness attributed crystals, and four daylight peonies. The Shop he had found earlier was still there, but Shane wanted to find something cheaper as he didn''t want to pay 220 gold coins for Umbra''s upgrade. Unfortunately, even the shops of other races were rather unsatisfying with their offer, as the race surcharge proved to be the biggest hurdle. In the end, Shane bought four daylight peonies for 25 gold coins each with a transfer fee of 10 gold coins, while the tier-2 mana stones [darkness] were priced at 20 gold coins each. Paying 220 gold coins, caused Shane''s already bad mood to be even worse. With 243 gold coins left in his pockets, he would have to be mindful of purchases for his future progress. There were still 11 days left until the academies would either approve his application or reject, thetter being highly unlikely. However, he still had to modify his application slightly. He wanted to reach the 10th Mortal stage for his mana pool cultivation, but his physiquegged behind due to the need for a perfect tempering. In the end, Shane decided to edit his application via the system in order to show his umted wealth in addition to his two cultivation stats. While he allowed the system to update his cultivation, he turned off the same function for his umted wealth. Restricting the updates showing his wealth to 1200 gold coins should be more than enough to make the examiners curious about his strategy and strength. As he browsed through the system shop, he tried to select an item to purchase out of the many options avable. Shane felt hungry and was about to eat when he noticed that his dishes were licked clean. Umbra looked like he had eaten a whole pig as his one-meter-long body had swelled to triple its original size. Shane shook his head and cast a disappointed look at Umbra. Meanwhile, Umbra looked at Shane innocently not knowing why his master was dissatisfied with him, as he wanted to climb on Shane''s shoulder. Unfortunately, he couldn''t even leave the table after eating to his heart''s content. He would more likely fall to the ground like a walrus instead ofnding gracefully on Shane''s shoulder. As such he coiled up and began to cultivate in order to avoid any embarrassing situations. Seeing that, Shane took out a few of the mana crystals he had mined to support Umbra in addition to his mana gathering to speed up the process. It would take a long time for Umbra to gather enough mana to evolve into the strongest possible evolution path. Shane wanted to help him, by all means, possible in order to receive a strongpanion. Taking out two dishes for himself out of his spatial ring, Shane continued his research as he wanted to use the remaining funds cautiously without wasting them. There were two paths he could walk on right now. The first path was to purchase three top tier-1 techniques which included a wed body refining technique that Shane had to use after he finished building up a wless Mortal stage physique in addition to a 28% mana purification manual and mana gathering technique. While the second path would allow Shane to think about his future growth. This would allow him to purchase a single 60% mana purifying technique with a silver tier-1 mana gathering technique without considering his physique. The second path allowed him to purchase a 60% purity manual without the need of renewing his manuals frequently. However, it would neglect his body refining, as the highest grade he had was the tier-1 bronze technique, which allowed him to reach the 3rd Apprentice stage at most. Shane was unsatisfied with both the paths and he wanted to find a way to satisfy all his needs. As he kept thinking about a way to achieve that, he remembered a somewhat stupid but also smart path he could take. With a smile appearing on his face, Shane began to continue his research with renewed motivation as he had finally found what he needed. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 64 - Armed To The Teeth There was a third path, Shane could choose, But he hadn''t been sure earlier if he should choose it. But reconsidering the other possibilities, Shane thought that it might be the best path to pick in order to improve faster. He could consider it as a short-term investment. One could consider it as an investment that would give him maximum returns within a short time. Though Shane wouldn''t be able to hold it for a long time, because it would turn useless with time. After the efficiency of his ''investment'' would decrease, he would be able to sell it once again. Shane wasn''t a merchant and didn''t want to be one. It was too time-consuming and less productive for the overall future growth that he imagined for himself. He was neither good nor bad in business and would let others take on such upations. Instead, Shane liked to be a hunter and a cultivator, striving for power and adventures. Through hisst fight with the purple-furred wolves, Shane had understood that his weapon was too bad. He would have to improve it sooner orter because the only slightly stronger weapon he used was the shiolite dagger from his dad. Considering that it was a [Tier-1 (Rare)] Dagger, Shane could use it to kill peak elite stage beasts, but that was it. Even so, it was still an extremely good weapon that he could use for another few months. After that, he would have to change his weapon evidently, due to its incapability to pierce through higher staged beast hide. Shane knew of this fact and he pondered if he should directly purchase a Tier-2 weapon with low quality. However, that wouldn''t really increase hisbat prowess to arge extent, while his shiolite dagger was enough for his current opponents. With 11 days left until the academy would roughly start, it was even more important for him to decide what he should pick because he knew that the first day was crucial to differentiate the hunter from the prey.. Shane wanted to be the hunter that annihted his foes and instilled fear within them. His new aim now was to secure a spot to learn some lower quality skills through the dimension-spheres. These skills would increase hisbat prowess once again. Shane wanted to reign supreme in the academy to earn a spot for one of the tier-3 dimensional spheres, to see if their efficiency would outweigh the effort he had to put in. Tier-1 and -2 skills were already expensive to purchase and obtain, but Tier-3 skills were even rarer. Without being at the Master stage, Shane would be unable to learn the tier-3 skill. But, it didn''t matter as long as he could learn the knowledge within the dimensional sphere. Once he entered the Master stage, he would immediately learn the Tier-3 skill bybining the information in his mind with the knowledge acquired through the sphere. As such, obtaining a starting skill while entering the intermediate primordial dimensions would definitely be helpful. He still wasn''t too keen on studying at an academy, but now he was with peers instead of older ssmates as he was in his past life and he wouldn''t let anyone bully him, without returning the favor hundredfold. Even after searching through the Primordial Shops, Shane couldn''t find many items that he was looking for within the human section. The only thing he had found were Tier-1 [Trash] mana stones for 5 gold coins. Their price was five times higher than Mortal-[Umon] mana stones, but Shane was sure that he could use them well. The mana required for his [Mythic] body refining seemed to be extremely vast if the information imprinted in his mind was correct. Shane estimated that body refining until the 7th Mortal stage would be rtively fastpared to thest three stages. Hence, he purchased 5 Tier-1 [Trash] mana stones for the beginning. Considering that he alone would use them and not Umbra, Shane was sure that five fist-sized mana stones were enough for the beginning. Umbra could absorb the mana crystals that he had mined from the elemental crystal cave and there were more than enough for the time being. In the end, they could help Umbra fill his evolution progress rate multiple times. Due to the transfer fee, Shane had to pay 27 gold coins and 50 silver for his first purchase. Unfortunately, the mana stones were the only items he had found useful for his current cultivation as Tier-1 nutrition solutions were rather harmful to a normal Mortal stage physique. As such, Shane was forced to use the shops of other races with their horrifying surcharge of 15%, making him sulk once again. This surcharge decreased his possible purchases by a lot and Shane had to be judicious and spend his fortune of 210+ gold coins wisely. There was definitely a need for nutrition solutions but the requirements from his [Mythic] body refining only allowed nutrition solutions with a [rare] or [extraordinary] quality, causing him to frown deeply. There was not a single rare or extraordinary quality nutrition solution within human shops. He even had to search within the Elves primordial shop section, which he found to be extremely stupid. ''Why did we even form a trading agreement with the elves, if we don''t even trade such basic body refining resources?'' He was extremely annoyed to see that the [rare] nutrition solutions were priced at three gold coins while [extraordinary] nutrition solutions were priced at 7 gold coins. One would think that price was cheaper if the price of a rare nutrition solution was just thrice that of an umon solution. However, this price was exclusive of the transfer and racial surcharge. In the end, Shane forced himself to purchase four [rare] nutrition solutions and one [extraordinary] nutrition solution for 23 gold coins and 75 silver. During thest few days, he had been extremely dissatisfied with the injuries he had sustained while fighting and they were hindering his movements due to the constant pain. As such, Shane wanted to purchase a leather armor that could adjust its size ording to that of the wearer. The magical circle inscribed into the hide alone would increase the price and it wasn''t worth it for him to purchase a Mortal stage leather armor at the moment. In the end, Shane purchased a Tier-1 (Common) leather armor for 30 gold coins from a human shop, which surprised him. The Tier-1(Common) quality leather armor could protect him from most elite stage beasts with a few dreadful existences along with certain kinds of razor-sharp ws, talons, and fangs as exceptions. Due to the transfer fee, Shane only had to pay 33 gold and it was even cheaper than the extraordinary quality Ambrulite-pickaxe he had purchased before in the elemental crystal cave. But that was mainly due to the effect that the extraordinary items provided. It was only normal for weapons and tools with highly potent effects to cost more than normal weapons in Shane''s opinion. As such, he didn''t mind the price of the leather armor that he had purchased. On the contrary, he was satisfied with his current purchase. Now, Shane had slightly more than 150 gold coins left, as he began his research for a satisfying weapon. Even though he already owned a dagger, one of his hands was still empty. In Shane''s opinion, an unused hand could also be considered a waste. As such, he wanted to purchase another dagger for his empty hand, when he recalled his most apparent weakness during the fights against the scaled lizards with their elemental attacks. `Even though I was fast enough to evade their long-range attacks, my advance was hindered multiple times, causing me to jump into the lion''s den which was extremely dangerous, Shane concluded as an idea popped into his mind. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 65 - Beneficial Past With 159 gold coins, Shane''s choice was somewhat restricted but it was still more than enough for him to purchase everything needed. The most important investment of 110 gold coins went into a bow called [Horiou-wood bow Tier-1 (Rare)] With its grade at Tier-1 and its rare quality, it could generate a force to prate the hides of all kinds of Elite beasts and even awakened beasts with a weaker defense, as long as the projectiles it shot were sturdy and sharp enough. Shane was sure that his current physique couldn''t help him utilize the bow to its fullest potential. But even so, it would definitely be more than enough to kill wild stage beasts without much difficulty, which satisfied him. Fortunately, he had found the bow within a human shop and only had to pay a transfer fee of 10%. WIthout arrows, the Horiou-wood bow would be entirely useless hence Shane searched through a few arrow shops in order to find the best quality ones for a decent price. In the end, Shane found a decent shop and purchased a little over 50 umon tier-1 arrows for 20 gold coins in addition to 14 rare tier-1 arrows for 14 gold coins and a single. Due to the transfer fee, Shane''s entire wealth was used up which frustrated him. He had been looking forward to purchasing an extraordinary quality arrow with special runes inscribed on them. However, their price was just too high for the purpose they would serve. As such, the only thing he could do was ept the current situation. He nced at his spatial ring to find that all his purchases had been stored neatly inside it. Overall, Shane was satisfied with his purchase, even though it hurt him a bit. There had been many things that he had wanted to spend his hard-earned funds on but he wasn''t left with enough coins to do that. With his remaining four umon mortal mana stones, he was confident in refining his physique to a certain degree, which would increase hisbat prowess. Shane doubted that a perfect refined physique would be as strong as a normal wed refined physique. He was keen to figure out what a real perfect mortal physique would be capable of. Looking at the bow within his spatial ring, Shane smiled lightly, as he remembered his aunt who had taught him archery for some time. Somehow, everything that he had learned from his family was useful for him right now. He had trained to fight using almost all kinds of weapons from a young age in order to be prepared for every scenario. Being reminded of his aunts and uncles, Shane felt slightly bad to have not messaged them for long. He was sure, however, that once he did that he would want to meet them which would lead him to leave the Primordial Dimension. As much as he was missing them, he didn''t want to leave, not immediately, at least. The only reason for him to leave the Primordial Dimension would be to attend one of the academies as long as his application would be epted. But even then, the academies provided their students much freedom with optional courses without the obligation to attend a specific lecture or study a particr subject. The detailed information pertaining to each and every course was avable in the academy''s servers. It could be downloaded by the students through the system as long as one received the permission. There were certain guidelines to be followed within an academy and they were pretty simple. First, be present during the exam period and reach a certain threshold. Second, don''t be toote for a ss and grade challenge, otherwise, you''re disqualified from learning through the dimensional-spheres until the next challenge starts. Third, umte a certain amount of merit points by fulfilling school missions within the primordial dimensions. As long as Shane fulfilled all requirements, he was free to do whatever he wanted to, which was much better than on earth. On earth, Shane advanced through sses and entered university early as everything seemed pale and boring to his intelligent mind. Sadly, even going to university had failed to retain his interest and he had gone through the motions until he had finallye across something which made him curious. Animals! Unfortunately, that was not the only cause of his death back on earth. Even after transmigrating to Igra, Shane''s love and curiosity for animals had tortured him as he had vehemently disregarded his dad''s order to kill living beings. Even though Shane''s mind had already surpassed the age of 20 years during that time, his outer appearance was that of an 8-year-old kid. He had hated his father for a long time for making him be a cold-hearted person like himself. The divide between them had only widened that told something different. It was probably during that time that Shane began to question his father''s orders and attempts to force him into something he wasn''t sure of. Unable to retaliate, Shane could only obey while he was still young. He did what his father wanted him to do until one fine day he escaped his father''s clutches. After entering the Primordial Dimension, Shane was finally free from his father''s terror reign. Only now, after multiple weeks of arduous struggle did Shane understand that the things his father had forced him to do weren''t necessarily bad. His memory was still as good as it was on Earth and Shane''s mind was brimming with information about almost everything that one could read without awakening the system. In addition to that, his strategic, political, economical thinking was distinct while his proficiency in all kinds of weapons was good. Thinking about his childhood and what he had experienced on Igra, Shane felt somewhat guilty towards his dad. Shane was thankful for the guidance and education he had received, but in the end, the fact still remained that his father could force him into a marriage. Furthermore, he wouldn''t ept his dad manipting him as well as treating him like one of his marites. Shane could live by himself and work hard to achieve everything HE wanted instead of things his father had nned for him. Both of them had different ideologies and beliefs that widened the gap between them further. Disliking his father also stemmed from one of the many things that his dad did to him. Deep within, Shane knew that his father loved him, but in his opinion love didn''t justify violence, or give his father authority to force anything he wanted on him, and treat him like a puppet. In the beginning, Shane had believed that his father wouldn''t be able to shoulder the burden of an entire race all by himself given the grief of losing his mother. However, even with time, the situation didn''t change for the better or worse, which told him one thing for certain. His father was just aplicated type of human. Not everybody could form a connection with him but it seemed as if birds of a feather flock together, as Shane''s entire family was filled with humanity''s heroes. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 66 - Reason Trying to remove the thought of his family and father from his mind, Shane decided to look at his newly purchased bow. Not only was the bow made out of rare, durable wood, but also the string was manufactured from a mid tote elite stage beast''s tendon. As such, Shane couldn''t help but smile proudly as he looked at the bow in his spatial ring. With his newly purchased equipment, he would be able to increase hisbat prowess in addition to his already umtedbat experience. To top it all, Shane would be able to sell his equipment for more than 50% of its original price, as long as it was not excessively damaged after losing the required efficiency. This meant, as long as he reached the peak apprentice or low expert stage, Shane would be able to earn back some of his investments. In the end, he wouldn''t lose everything he had purchased today and regain some of it which made Shane feel extremely satisfied. Somehow, Shane was extremely stingy, even though he had grown up in a luxurious mansion. He hadn''t experienced the plights of poverty, like other youths around his age, had to endure. There were only a few reasons why Shane decided to take the third path for his journey through the Basic Primordial dimensions. These reasons were rtively easy to decipher. Shane required a high amount of funds in the future in order to purchase the Apprentice and Expert [Mythic] body refining technique in addition to the multiple purification techniques. He knew it would be an arduous adventure but Shane was sure that the benefits would easily outweigh the torture and challenges he had to face. In the end, everyone was given a fair chance and an equal opportunity, but most humans thought it was impossible without even trying, while some tried, only to give up midway. There hadn''t been a single human who had achieved anything extraordinary within the Primordial Dimensions, except a few ones who boasted about their achievements, as they seemed to have cleared an advanced primordial dimension ruin. Others were full of themselves because of their extraordinary skills, like some tamers who thought of their tamed beasts as if they were superior to humans at the [Ruler] stage. This might be possible but even so, most tamed beasts would be weaker than humans at the same stage and boasting about that only indicated that the tamer had low self-esteem. Even Uncle Max had told him the same and Shane had never heard him boast about his wyvern. It had unexpectedly made him proud because he thought of his uncles and aunts more than his father. With his newly purchased bow and other necessities, Shane went outside as the sun began to rise slowly, shining brightly on his clean face. Umbra was coiled around his shoulder as usual and Shane wanted to upgrade his quality as soon as possible. However, his curiosity to test his archery skill was more important to Shane right now as the ingredients for Umbra''s quality enhancement weren''t going anywhere. There wouldn''t be much of a change either way and he was sure that the upgrade from the rare quality to extraordinary would take much longer. With his previous quality upgrade taking 8 hours, Shane estimated the time to be at least three times longer and he wanted to refine his physique in the meantime. As such, Shane wanted to test his newly acquired bow and arrows before he would have to take a day off to upgrade Umbra''s physique. Walking out of the inn, he paid an additional silver as his clothes had soiled the bedding the night. He then proceeded to walk towards the shelter gates where he saw familiar faces. He faintly remembered the kind guards who had probably brought him to the inn where he had slept through the day before. They didn''t seem to notice him as he walked towards them. Shane bent down before them in order to thank them sincerely. Taken off guard, the young guards couldn''t understand what had made a youth suddenly bow to them. Shane exined who he was polite as they kept looking at him with surprise. They couldn''t believe that Shane was the beggar-like figure they had brought into the inn the day before. Understanding their confusion, Shane could only smile lightly, as he was well aware of his outer appearance over thest weeks. His childhood etiquette lessons had taught him to behave nicely and politely with the added requirement of appearing presentable and tidy all day round. However, over thest two weeks, his appearance had been more than a little shabby for the majority of the time. He himself didn''t mind that and he would be fine with it, as long as anybat style or something simr wasn''t hindered because of it. With his bow wrapped around him and multiple tier-1mon quality arrows within the quiver that was attached to his belt, Shane left the RadiantRing shelter once again. He was confident in his Archery mastery as it had only been over a month since he had trained with a bow at a distance of 100 meters. Even though his target was inanimate, the distance of 100 meters was still huge. His physique had been at the 3rd Mortal stage at that time, while his mana pool was still empty. Now his cultivation was at the 8th Mortal stage, while his physique was at the 7th mortal stage. With this, he was confident to hit an inanimate being 100 meters away, even if he hadn''t practiced his archery skills for a month. He might as well improve his capabilities as long as he got the hang of his past archery skills once again. Entering the forest attached to the outer area of the radiant mountain ring, Shane nocked an umon tier-1 arrow at his bow, as he tested the pulling force a few times. `Heavy¡­` Shanemented after two pulls up to his chin, as he was forced to slowly pull back the string to its original position due to the heavy force weighing on his arms. After a few tests, he concluded that he was only capable of pulling back the bow three times in a row. Pulling it back more often than that would strain his muscles, leading to a temporary or even a permanent injury if he were to overexert his muscles too much. At the most, Shane could activate his [Berserk] skill in order to pull back the Tier-1 bow more often than previously stated. This could be advantageous and even a single arrow might change the oue in a fight against multiple opponents. Shane had been happy to figure out his limit when a group of peak wild beasts came into his view. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 67 - Rusty Skills The majority of beasts within the radiant mountain ring dimension were unknown to mankind, but the group of beasts in front of Shane weren''t. But even so, what he saw astonished him a lot, as a group of 6 sparky-horned goats were grazing more than fifty meters away from him. He was lucky to have spotted the rtively meek group of beasts to test his archery skills on instead of the other stronger ones he had already encountered. It was somewhat umon for the same race to exist in multiple dimensions, even though it was possible. Smiling cruelly at the mid- wild stage sparky-horned goats that were unaware of their doom, Shane sneaked up closer to them in order to pursue his prey, if he were to use up all his possible shots. With an arrow already nocked on the bowstring, he pulled it back, once he reached a certain range before he adjusted his angle. As he released the arrow with a smooth movement, a *woosh* could be hearding from it. The arrow pierced through one of the obliviously grazing sparky-horned goat''s abdomen, as it felt a searing pain throughout its body. The injured sparky-horned goat was still unaware of the encroaching death as everything seemed to be heavier while its legs gave in. Meanwhile, the surrounding sparky-horned goats noticed theirrade being shot by something with an extremely high velocity, as another arrow flew towards them. It hit another mid-wild stage goat on its back, going all the way inside the body, crushing the bones before it pierced out of the back as if nothing happened. Shane wasn''t really satisfied with his two shots, so he stored the second arrow before two daggers appeared within his hands. The shiolite dagger with its rare quality was still his strongest closebat weapon while he had purchased another tier-1 dagger with amon quality in order to enhance his efficiency. Two sparky-horned goats were already fighting for their lives, while Shane rushed towards the remaining four mid wild stage beasts. They seemed to do nothing, as they barely noticed his sudden approach. Their range of emotion was extremely difficult to decipher as they were full of wrath and fear at the same time. They gazed at Shane intently, not knowing whether to flee or to fight. In the end, two out of the four remaining uninjured sparky-horned goats couldn''t abandon theirrades as they charged at Shane. He swiftly swirled around, only to thrust his daggers into their necks in order to kill them without causing them too much pain. Shane found the two sparky-horned goats'' actions marvelous as they had sacrificed their lives in order to protect theirrades, which not many beasts and races would do. Unfortunately, their efforts were futile because Shane would kill all of them either way because the sparky horns were worth a small fortune. Thanks to their elemental affinity and ability to be grinded into weapons, their worth was 5 silver for each horn which Shane wouldn''t waste. Thest two sparky-horned goats ran away and Shane followed them after swiftly storing the four dead goat corpses away. There was still blood dripping from their dead bodies, but they were dead for sure. Shane was only worried about the arrows that had pierced through the two bodies as he had to find them once again when he saw something extremely weird in front of him. "What the actual f*ck?" Slipped subconsciously out of his mouth as he gazed at the two-meter-tall goat that revealed itself after its brethren had been killed. `Is that the sparky-horned goat''s evolution?` Shane suddenly began to wonder as he gazed at the slightly purple horns. They were curled at the top and their size was more than 50 centimeters. Thick lightning enveloped the horns and he seemed to be bewitched by them, as Umbra bit into his neck to get him out of the trance. `What was that?` Shane asked himself as he was able to control himself again. It was weird for him to lose control over his body and Shane asked himself why that was the case. His daggers disappeared once again from his hands, with his bow and an arrow manifested in his hands. From his first two shots, Shane noticed that his proficiency had decreased by a noticeable degree, even though he had used a foreign bow for the first time. Its strength had been too much for him to handle. In normal cases, everyone would think hitting the designated target was an achievement with such hindrances. But Shane was a different case who couldn''t ept his inability to kill them instantly. It somehow tortured his mind and the tall `lightning-horned goat` in front of him seemed to be his perfect target. Shane wasn''t sure of its official name or what stage it was, but he estimated it to be at the elite stage. Its aura was mightier than the peak-wild stage purple-furred wolves and scaled lizards that he had met before. As such, he nocked the arrow in his hands on the bowstring, when Shane noticed the lightning-horned goat roaring out in rage. It charged towards him with the two small sparky-horned goats behind it. It was as if the two sparky-horned goats were followers of the lightning-horned goat as they roared immediately after it. However, Shane didn''t care about their existence even the slightest, as he gazed at the only threatening being in front of him that could kill him. Activating the [Berserk(F)] skill, Shane pulled the bowstring back with all his might, causing his muscles to strain as the string reached his chin. Due to the lightning-horned goat''s wrath over the death of its brethren, it charged straight towards Shane without any detour. This, however, was extremely advantageous for Shane as he could calmly aim at the massive target in front of him. As the lightning goat charged at him like a bull, he released the rare quality arrow with its terrifying force behind it. Soaring through the air in a smooth curve, the arrows pierced right into the lightning-horned goat''s skull, crushing it as the arrowhead bent slightly. Noting that his aim was on point, Shane smiled lightly before the two daggers appeared within his hands once again. The lightning-horned goat copsed on the ground, shocking its two followers as Shane appeared between them. He stabbed his two daggers without wasting a single moment for unnecessary moves, killing the two remaining opponents mercilessly. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 68 - Worth Of High-quality Noticing that his archery skill was still eptable, Shane nodded his head. While he collected the remaining carcasses, he noticed something important. ''If I miss a target, my arrows will be lost forever, huh?'' and a slightlyplicated expression appeared on his face, after figuring out that he would have to hit every target if possible. Shane kept searching for the arrow that pierced through the sparky-horned goat''s back, but he couldn''t find it. He wasn''t thinking about the danger encroaching on him when he missed his target but rather the loss of a single arrow that was worth nothingpared to his life. This was what a stingy person was made of and Shane was slightly embarrassed after noticing it himself. `At least my aim is still good` He thought with some pride, as he turned around to search for his new prey. Shane was feeling slightly exhausted but that was solely because he had used his [Berserk] skill. As such, everything should be fine for normal fights, as long as he wouldn''t exert his remaining two [Berserk]-skill usages in session. Furthermore, he was still rtively close to the RadiantRing shelter which was different from his previous journey to the elemental crystal cave. Strolling through the forest carefully, Shane noticed that his energy replenished quickly, as he tried to gather mana with his [Mortal-(tinum)] mana gathering technique while walking. It was not that difficult to exert the technique while walking around, only his efficiency was rather bad. Nevertheless, Shane''s mana replenished at a rapid pace, helping with the recovery of his energy thanks to his filled mana pool. As such, he was confident in shooting multiple times with his bow, which would increase hisbat prowess by quite a lot. Thanks to his tier-1 bow, Shane was confident in fighting more openly against all kinds of peak-Wild stage beasts. He even felt he could take on some groups with one or two low-Elite stage beasts without much of a problem. It wasn''t long until he found the next group of beasts that he was capable of fighting. Furthermore, the race he had found was simr to the sparky-horned goats and Shane was familiar with them. Purple-furred wolves! Seven at that. But more important for Shane was that he had spotted them near the shelter. They were just a kilometer or two away, which was definitely too close. He knew that the purple furred wolves were led by at least one awakened beast. With that in mind, Shane had a premonition in his mind with multiple theories supporting it at the same time. At the same time, multiple questions popped in his mind, but everything had to wait for a moment until he would have finished the small wolf-pack that had one low-elite wolf as their leader. This could be considered fortunate for Shane, as his bow manifested in front of him, with a rare quality tier-1 arrow. Nocking the arrow on the bowstring, Shane estimated the distance before he adjusted the angle to the current wind velocity. Releasing the arrow, he instantly felt that his shot would hit his designated target. He then proceeded to store the bow back into the spatial storage in order to make room for the two daggers that appeared in his hands. Rushing towards the seven purple furred wolves, Shane circted his mana within the lower body to elerate even more, as his eyes followed the arrow''s trajectory. The distance between him and the wolf pack was only 70 meters and could be crossed within a short amount of time. However, Shane doubted that he would arrive in front of them unnoticed, which caused him to use his current tactic. Straightforward attack! With a resounding *thump* that filled the air, Shane knew that his arrow had hit the target, as the wolf had not even got a chance to utter a painful roar. Taking a nce at the elite stage purple furred wolf, Shane saw that the arrow had pierced through its throat right into the chest, which looked somewhat painful. Nevertheless, Shane immediately knew his tier-1 rare bow and arrow hadpleted their task, causing him to be alone with six shocked purple-furred wolves that looked at him with multiple emotions. Their leader had died and they were clueless as to what they should do. Suddenly, one of the braver wild stage purple furred wolves charged right at him in fury, without caring about anything else. The other wolves followed suit and Shane smiled only lightly, before he used the qualitative advantage of owning two tier-1 daggers. He deflected the first pouncing wolf with one dagger, only to sever its paw with his other dagger before twisting his body while bending down in order to thrust his freed dagger into the wolf''s chest. Not wasting a single moment on the death of the dying wolf, Shane changed his target to the remaining five purple-furred wolves that were once again shocked by his cruelty. The distance between them was only 10 meters and he charged at them, forcing the group of wolves to take action, as small electricity currents enveloped their bodies. Trying to surround Shane was one of their mostmonly used tactics, however, they forgot to calcte their opponent''s strength. Shane just charged through them in order to pick one of the wolves after another as his sole target. As such, he was able to fight one versus one instead of him fighting against all at the same time. Cleaving through their limbs, Shane used the advantage of high-tiered equipment and he smiled slightly at the dead corpses in front of him. It looked extremely cruel, as his face was sttered with crimson-colored blood. In the end, the whole fight was rather boring for Shane. The wolfpack had used stupid tactics that would normally work for theirmon preys that were only slightly stronger, without much intelligence. However, due to their tactic, Shane could figure out something crucial. There wasn''t a simr intelligent race near the purple furred wolf''s territory and he could notify the guards about his finding as soon as he had umted enough information because his gut feeling told him that something was off. Right now, the only thing Shane could tell for sure was that there was a purple furred wolf race close to them. The additional information that the same race existed around 4 hours away from their shelter, could have been useful in many ways. One interpretation was that the dimensional portal had brought them right into arge territory with awakened beasts ruling it, while another interpretation could be that there were just multiple factions of the same race. In the end, there was also the possibility of a single race conquering the entire territory but Shane sincerely hoped that this interpretation would be wrong. However, belonging to the same race wouldn''t immediately indicate that all of them were friendly with each other or even that they worked together. Even Shane couldn''t be sure of this, but the premonition he had in addition to his gut feeling told him that mankind''s situation within the Radiant Mountain-ring dimension was about to be ratherplicated. In the end, Shane didn''t want to see humanity suffer a lot, which brought him to the decisions that he was about to take. Looking at Umbra, Shane felt excited and worried at the same time as he announced uncertainly "Let''s search for the Wolf den!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 69 - Wolf Den Shane felt excited, as he strolled through the forest, carefully searching for purple furred wolves, even though he wasn''t sure if there was a den nearby. His gut feeling, however, told him that he should be careful which he listened to. As such, his bow was already in one hand, while the other hand had nocked a rare quality tier-1 arrow at the bowstring. He held it carefully, pulling it back a little, without straining his muscles. Instead of purple-furred wolves, Shane found many other groups, which he killed because he wouldn''t waste a source of ie. Several hours had passed and he was an hour trip away from the shelter when he found another small pack of purple furred wolves with two elite stage wolves leading them. His body went on a high alert as he became extra conscious of his surroundings. Shane was ready to follow them, which would be quite hard, considering that their senses were most likely much strongerpared to the senses of lizards. Unfortunately, Shane hadn''t thought of purchasing a cultivation concealment potion nor an istion potion to prevent them from catching his scent. Fortunately, he had found a small mud puddle, and jumped right in to cover his scent, even though it felt disgusting. As such, Shane could follow the wolves rather easily while maintaining a distance of more than 100 meters between them to ensure his and Umbra''s safety. Right now, Umbra was of no particr use and Shane asked his tamed beast if he would like to stay at an Inn instead of apanying him in order to progress further on the evolution bar. This proposal was immediately rejected by Umbra, who wanted to stay with him, even though he was growing aware of his feeblebat prowess with time. With Shane''s capabilities, Umbra could already reach much higher ranks. His taming skill allowed Umbra to reach the mid-elite stage, which was aplete stage above his current strength. But there was nothing Shane could do about Umbra''s stubbornness because Umbra cultivated when he did. Furthermore, Umbra would get his second quality upgrade soon, which would unlock thest evolution path for him. Shane was extremely eager to see this, as he continued to follow the small pack of wolves. The sun was about to set when Shane noticed the purple furred wolves walk through a small cavern entrance. Shane had a sudden urge to follow them but he decided against it after giving it some thought. Estimating the distance between the cavern entrance and the shelter, Shane came to the decision that it would at most take 90 minutes to walk back, without any detour. This did not include him sprinting with all his might or a wolf running towards the shelter. As such, the distance could be crossed in a quarter of his estimated time if he wanted. It could be considered nothingpared to the vastness of each Primordial Dimension. Mankind was unsure how vast each dimension was and how many races a dimension could inhabit. A few adventurous humans had even tried to figure out if the Primordial Dimension were just arge disc-like ne or a. Sadly they had neither found an endless cliff somewhere separating the Primordial Dimension from each other nor something simr. These adventurers had ventured through certain Primordial DImensions for months, only to see new and previously unknown races, without finding a single clue to the vastness of the dimension. With this in mind, Shane was sure that mankind would have issues with the Wolf den so close to their shelter. Though, he wasn''t sure if the den was home to multiple awakened purple furred wolves. Shane wanted to investigate the Wolf den in order to see if there was arge wolf''s pack. He also had to know if there was just one awakened purple-furred wolf leading the pack or if there were more of them. As such, he was simply wasting his time by just pondering over the possible oues while being unable to decide on a suitable course of action. Venturing inside would kill him, as he wouldn''t be able to conceal his mana fluctuations without a skill or potion, which was too expensive for him anyways, with his current funds. For now, Shane could only wait outside and hide somewhere far from the Wolf den, hoping that some awakened wolf would enter or leave the den without discovering him. He could only be a silent observer and try to find out as much as he could and pass on the information to the Shelter''s captain. Shane wasn''t responsible for anyone, but he would feel guilty to not inform the others and save their lives if he could. He was selfish but there was a thin line that he didn''t want to cross. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be sitting on a treetop ten meters above the ground, waiting for some wolf to leave or enter the Wolf den. Umbra had already fallen asleep on his shoulder and he was beginning to get restless when he noticed some movements in the darkness. However, what he saw shocked him to the core. Several gigantic purple-furred wolves entered the cave with dozens of elite and hundreds of wild staged purple-furred wolves following them silently. Therge wolves were around six meters long and their heights towered above two meters. Shane could only see them due to the moonlight shining through the trees right on the cavern entrance. What was even more shocking to him was not the sheer number of the tall and mighty looking purple furred wolves which were most likely at the awakened stage, but rather the fact that most wolves had sustained mild to serious injuries. This indicated that they had been a massive battle and Shane immediately remembered the incident within the elemental crystal cave that had urred less than two days ago. Shane''s thoughts were running wild and he couldn''tprehend everything he imagined right now, as his premonition worsened even more. His gut feeling told him that he was infinitely close to figuring out the devastating truth. There weren''t many clues provided to figure out something for sure, but Shane knew that the wolf''s den that was only a cat''s jump away from the shelter, inhabited several awakened purple furred wolves at the bare minimum, probably many more. He saw six to eight wolves in one group, but there could have been many more outside and inside the wolf''s den, that Shane didn''t know about. What Shane knew for sure, was the fact that arge-scale battle took ce with many casualties, ording to the injuries he could see. It should have been a rather close victory, if not a tie, which Shane could only specte. ''Which beast race did they fight? Scaled lizards once again or are they in a war with multiple beast-races? Will they attack us? How many of them are really within the wolf''s den?'' Too many questions were brimming in his mind and Shane couldn''t answer even a single one satisfactorily. He was d that he had waited for a few hours in order to understand what was going on and report his findings to the RadiantRing shelter''s captain. To prove his words, he took a few photos with the system''s help However, Shane wasn''t sure if the pictures were clear enough as it was pitch-ck, except the faint light cast by the moon. He waited for a good opportunity to climb down the tree and return to the shelter unnoticed by the wolves. He was eager to share his findings of the Wolf den with the captain. A certain saying from earth suddenly appeared in his mind and his lips formed a mncholy smile. [The early bird catches the worm] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 70 - Stubborn Shelter Captain It was long past midnight when Shane reached the shelter with his dirty and muddied appearance, which attracted the guards'' attention. Oddly enough, the same two young guards were on patrol, like a few days ago when Shane had barely managed to reach the shelter gate. They were astonished to see a young shabby boy approach the gate and they couldn''t distinguish him from some foreign bipedal races. Only when they looked at the one-meter-long snake on the boy''s shoulder did they feel that he was familiar and looked at him with surprise. Still being true to their duty, they ordered him from quite a distance away "Stop there! If you''re a human, please store away your weapon ande closer with your hands on the back of your head!" Even though they estimated that the muddy bipedal being they saw was Shane, who they had taken to an Inn less than two days ago, it was better to be safe than sorry. Shane followed their instructions, as it was easier to cooperate than argue needlessly. Also, the young guards looked familiar to him. "Oh! Are both of you the guards who took me to the inn?" Shane asked. When he saw the expressions on the guards'' faces while walking towards them with his hands positioned as ordered, he immediately knew that he was right. He was relieved and decided to talk to them for a few minutes, once he showed them his ID from the system, with his human race written over it. These guards were at most 20 years old and at the Expert stage with a mana purity of over 60%. They were most likely umting funds to purchase higher manuals or use the upational benefits as guards, as they protected humanity. This alone would mean that they had received resources to cultivate and forbat training, which benefited many poor youths, luring them into bing shelter guards. Both youths were nice and kind to talk to, but unfortunately, they rejected his proposal of epting a small token of appreciation from him for their help the other day. Shane had nned to return the favor after umting a small fortune but their denial left him somewhat dejected. But even so, he shared the information about a possible beast war near the shelter, between the purple furred wolves, and most likely, the scaled lizards. However, thetter was rather unofficial and he didn''t have any proof to support his theory. This shocked the two young guards, and they wanted to report it to the shelter captain immediately. Shane however, held them back, while he thought `These two are really kind!` "I`m going to report everything I saw to the shelter captain. You guys are still on duty!" He chuckled lightly to save the two young guards from embarrassment before he added "Everything will be fine, just message the shelter captain that a muddied youth is searching for him." With hisst sentence, Shane tried to neutralize the awkward tension of the two guards in front of him, which partially worked, as the two guards seemed to rx slightly. In their excitement to report to the captain, they had momentarily forgotten that they were still on duty. Leaving their position while on duty would have led to serious repercussions had Shane not warned them beforehand. Thanking Shane for the short lesson, they felt slightly embarrassed, as he seemed to have thought it through. Shane tried to remember their names as he bid them farewell, as he wouldn''t forget their kindness which was a rare sight. Everyone could be superficial on the outside, but he knew that the two guards were genuinely kind from their hearts. Shane didn''t want to be responsible for their deaths as a beast war could devastate a recently established shelter without much effort. The biggest difference between a recently constructed shelter and a shelter that has been built for years was simple yet it made a big difference inbat prowess. Recently constructed shelters had the same innatebat prowess as older shelters. All the shelters had the same defensive mechanisms due to amon construction n, as long as they were constructed on a tndscape and roughly had the same number of guards positioned. However, the RadiantRing shelter for example didn''t have many inns yet, a market, and other important buildings, provided by the old shelter in order to attract hunters from all kinds of stages. Without a flourishing marketce and crowds of merchants, hunters, and other humans living in the shelter, the RadiantRing shelter''sbat prowess was never at par with other old shelters. Approximately more than 200+ Expert guards resided within each Shelter. This number was only for neutral or cid dimensions and the most dangerous or unknown dimension led to a much higher number of guards! There were hundreds of Apprentices that joined as new guards recing the older ones that wanted to ascend to the Intermediate Primordial Dimensions. Thus, Radiant Shelter had only these guards to defend them. Older Shelters had more hunters than guards, who would additionally defend the shelter if a beast tide were to ur in front of them. The rewards provided by the government were extremely generous in such times to the guards who would fight for the shelter''s safety. As such, Shane waspletely aware of RadiantRing''s current situation which didn''t look that good. Sprinting towards the central area, where arge shelter hall was situated, Shane hoped to meet the shelter captain. The captain was one of the select few with enough authority to gear up the shelter defenses in a short period. Even asking for reinforcement wouldn''t be bad and Shane hoped that the Shelter captain would listen to him. He had heard more than enough stories about the captain calling out for reinforcement, only to have received no response. This would still be better than disregarding a possible threat only to be overwhelmed by a beast horde. In the end, Shane could only sincerely hope, as he entered the shelter hall after he persuaded the guard in letting him enter, even if he currently looked like a beggar. Washing his face was simr to a miracle and the guards let him through only because of that, which astonished him a little bit. Nevertheless, Shane couldn''t care less at the moment, as he convinced the secretary to let him in the captain''s office. The secretary was hesitant initially but noting the seriousness in Shane''s voice, he caved in, and let him walk inside the shelter captain''s office. A beast war near the shelter was nothing to joke about. Even the slightest suspicious act of beasts would be enough to let him through towards the shelter captain in order to let him decide what to do. The Shelter captain would assess his evidence and give out orders on what they were supposed to do against the iing threat. Opening therge office door, Shane''s eyes immediately fell on the shelter captain who was already looking at him as if he was in an extremely bad mood. Seeing a dirty-clothed youth entering his clean office visibly annoyed him as he asked in a deep voice. "Brat, what do you want from me at such a time, and how did you evene through the guards and my secretary??" The captain''s brazen question made him frown deeply. Shane couldn''t understand how the blonde-haired man in front of him had be the captain of a newly constructed shelter. He saw a bottle of wine standing on his desk, while a small beer belly could be seen bulging out of the guard''s tight leather garment. Shane almost cursed as he immediately figured out what type of human was standing in front of him. [Stubborn and unteachable] Clearing his throat, he decided to try his best, because he could understand that a shelter captain would have to release his tension somehow. Also, it was already past midnight, which wasn''t the normal working hours. Shane had only spoken a few words, "I wanted to report¡­.." when the stubborn shelter captain interrupted his attempt to speak without caring about any politeness. "If you have nothing important to say, please leave me alone¡­ I have too many important things to do right now." Holding a ss of wine in his hand, he downed it within a second, as if he wanted to mock Shane, and red at him with a sly smile. "F*cking moron!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 71 - The Might Of Connections "F**king moron!" Shane said unconsciously, as an eerie silence filled the room. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" The shelter captain shouted out, as he exploded immediately. `Why am I so stupid???` Shanemented about his blunt behavior as he activated his [Berserk] skill. He turned around while circting mana within his lower body in order to escape the shelter captain. He wasn''t sure what the shelter captain would do, but within the shelter, he was almost like a king and the strongest guard with the highest mana purity. The shelter captain was too astonished about being cursed at. Nobody had spoken to him like that so he had been taken aback and simply watched the dirty youth flee. He even forgot to pursue and lecture him due to his insult to the highest authority. It wasn''t included in thews but most shelter captains felt like kings within their shelter. Being insulted by a mortal stage, dirty-clothed youth wasn''t certain what one could get away with. They would beat up anyone who went against their ways, even if that meant killing them. These shelter captains would be reced as soon as the news would be out, but sometimes it took a while, because they suppressed the citizens, forcing them to stay put within the shelter. Lifting a single finger for such an individual would be a disgrace to them, and they would just hire someone to teach the youth a lesson, once he figured out his name. The ck-scaled snake on his shoulder should be the most apparent characteristic of the youth, decreasing the difficulty to find him by a huge margin. Shane astonished the secretary as she could only hear the captain''s enraged voice when he charged out of the room. She peered inside to look after the shelter captain, only to see him drinking his wine once again, with red cheeks, which frustrated her. She would have never thought that a shelter captain could be so negligent and useless like the one in front of her, which caused her toment the decision she took a while ago. `Why did I ept this job offer?` She truly regretted taking the job offer and wished to travel back in time and reject the job proposal which she had received a month ago. With such a shelter captain it was nearly impossible to build up a flourishing shelter in a few years, which had been her initial n. But today seemed to be different than ever before. She had never seen the Shelter-captain so enraged about a dirty-clothed youth because he wouldn''t bother about theirints normally. * Though Shanemented his choice of words, he couldn''t change anything about the current decision anymore. He began to ask himself what exactly he should do as he pondered over a solution. `Should I tell other guards about what I saw and hope that the idiotic shelter captain will call out for help and reinforce the shelter''s defenses?... No, that would be a waste of time. This shelter captain is just too much of a disgrace for the whole government¡­ What else can I do??` Thinking for a few minutes, while hiding within an Inn, Shane figured out the best option he could take. Sighing deeply, he made a firm decision! He was going to send a few messages to his uncles and aunts! In the end, Shane found this idea the most suitable for his current situation. Each of them possessed the highest authority within the Ste-federations because every one of them was either a high-ranked lifestyle professional, researcher, hunter adventurer, marshall within the army, and so on. He wasn''t sure if any of them had enough time to read someone''s message. However, as long as he found their private contact details like it was the case with Uncle Max, everything should be fine. Fortunately, Uncle Max''s insights were spot-on. He had messaged all private contact details of his remaining family with the attached message, that he should write to all of them once he had time. Shane felt embarrassed as he read the message once again because he hadn''t written to any of them until now. The message he was about to send wouldn''t be a private one and rather something for business in order to secure a shelter. Beast tides were a rathermon urrence and Shane was sure that the army was already prepared to send out troops once something happened. However, by the time they figured out something, everything could already be over with RadiantRing''s sloppy shelter captain. As such, Shane took matters into his own hands. He pondered on how to write the message to his family, without sounding too formal and at the same time provide enough information. The first thing he did was to attach the video clip he had recorded to the message in addition to a picture of himself in order to prove his identity. Then he began to write.. "Hello, Aunts and Uncles...This is somewhat weird to write and I''m sorry that I only write to all of you after so long. If you''re still not aware who I am, It''s me Shane [^-^] It probably sounds weird and surprising, but the newly established RadiantRing shelter within the Basic Primordial Dimension might have some problems with a beast war soon. The first file I attached is my picture to prove my identity. While the second attached file is a video clip about the habitat of one of the beasts that I found a 40-minute jog away from the shelter. I observed a small skirmish between a scaled lizard race with the purple furred wolf race that is already visible in the attached file. In my opinion, we are most likely about to witness war in order to figure out who the true sovereign of the territory is. I have a premonition that the newly established shelter is in the worst possible position. I might be wrong, but it''s always better to observe dangerous situations and prepare for the worst-case scenario instead of doing nothing, right...Aunt Kia?.. I hope someone will read this message and send reinforcement because this f**king shelter''s captain is a drunken, arrogant and useless piece of garbage!! Who the hell hired him? Was it you, Uncle Lars?? Ahh never mind that, but please send some reinforcement¡­. And message me back!! Everyone who doesn''t message me will regret this decision because I won''t look after your children!!!!! That''s just a joke..but I hope that everyone is safe and sound and not trying to kill each other...Yes Aunt Lory I mean you!! Stay alive and send some reinforcement, okay? :D Bye, see ya" Shane was sure that the message he wrote was not the best or a piece of art, but he somehow wanted to inform everyone first, before revealing himself. As such, he had leaked certain things that only someone close to them could know while maintaining his real self in front of his family. In the end, he sent the message with two attached files to eight individuals. Oddly enough, they were perfectly divided into four females and four males, which Shane had never noticed until now. Initially, his father''s circle of friends was made up of 11 excluding his mother. However, Shane deducted 3 of them because he knew that they didn''t have even remotely anything to do with the Ste-Federation. They lived a free life without letting anyone hinder them in any way. The only exception was brute strength and John, his father, who subdued them with his strength, causing them to follow his lead, which was everything important for Shane to know. Sending the message, he felt a little mncholic, as he remembered the time he had learned many things from either of his uncles and aunts. Whether it was Aunt Gabi with her archery lessons, Aunt Kia who taught him tactics and ways to avoid stupid deaths, or Aunt Loris, the alchemist in their group with her herbal lessons. Meanwhile, Aunt Lory was a battle maniac who had beaten him up too many times for him to count. It was still traumatizing, and even thinking about it was already scary. Uncle Max was a tamer, who had taught him a lot of stuff about tamer skills, beasts, and taming, as he found it interesting, while Lars was a marshal in the military. Uncle Kai was the best cksmith and rune/mana circle master Shane knew. He could forge and inscribe the most mysterious things, Shane could have never imagined in his past life. Unfortunately, none of his uncles or aunts were proficient in other lifestyle upations like weaving or unique upations like mana fracturing. But there was still more than enough for him to learn from his uncles and aunts. However, while Aunt Lory was a battle maniac, there was also Uncle Cheng, the weapons specialist within his dad''s circle of friends. Shane had learned all kinds of weapon styles from him throughout the years, which helped him a lot to figure out what weapon he would choose in the future. Sighing deeply, Shane hoped that at least one of his Aunt''s and Uncles would message him back soon, as he thought about his stupid word slip that had urred in front of the shelter captain. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 72 - Obsessive Group Chat It was already long past midnight and Shane doubted that anyone would message him back within the next few hours. As such, Shane decided to take a look at the basin inside the room in order to wash up that he had hidden from the slightly drunk shelter captain. There had been a possibility of him being pursued, but now that he thought about it he felt that it was highly unlikely. Shane knew many simr humans like the shelter captain and most of them were losers. They tried to show off with their weakbat prowess because they had stayed longer than necessary at lower dimensions in order to push up their ego. This was unnecessary and most of such individuals would never reach the position of a shelter captain which began to wonder Shane even more. If he was correct, Uncle Lars, who was in the military, had told him more than enough about their rankings and themon situations in every shelter, what precautions to take and which people to avoid. Under normal circumstances, such a ring error of promoting an irresponsible drinker to the position of a shelter captain would be more than reckless. After Shane sent all the messages, he waited for a few minutes in the hope that someone would see his message. But, hey down on the bed in disappointment, as not a single notification was issued by the system. It was exactly as he had predicted and Shane had already changed into a different set of clothes after washing up. Only now did he finally notice how tired he was, as he decided to sleep for a few hours, before doing anything else. As hey on his back, Umbra coiled around his body. Shane decided to take out a few mana crystals from his spatial storage in order to allow Umbra to cultivate in his sleep, which was possible for all kinds of beasts. Even humans absorbed mana while sleeping, though it was just extremely slow and useless for Shane right now. He didn''t need to absorb mana, but purify it, which was exactly the opposite for Umbra, as he had to gather a vast amount of mana in order to increase his evolution progress rate. Even if the progression bar would only increase by a marginal amount throughout the night, it would be better than wasting this time. As such, Shaneid out several small mana crystals around him, without moving them around too much. The mana crystals would start to release mana once they were shattered, which had happened when he had crushed them with his extraordinary quality pickaxe. Only his spatial ring prevented them from leaking mana. Inside the spatial ring, it was as time ceased to exist. Looking at the released mana and activating his mana gathering technique, Shane noticed that the mana inside the crystals that he had thrown out was extremely thin. It could most likely be the reason for them to be worth so less thanmonly seen mana stones. Closing his eyes, he barely slept for a few hours, before he was woken up due to Umbra''s insatiable hunger transmitted straight to him... Looking at Umbra with a slightly annoyed expression, Shane noticed that the small snake was helpless against his hunger. The maturing process was still notplete, which surprised both of them. ording to Umbra''s quality, he should have matured by now and shouldn''t grow in strength anymore. But upon looking closely, Shane noticed that its size was still increasing. `Is that due to my Innate-Skill''s abilities?` Shane began to think and this was most likely the case as he couldn''t figure out another reason for it. Shane thought of purchasing a small spatial ring, or bracelet for Umbra, but then he realized that his tamed beast would lose it and sighed in regret. `Is there no way to satisfy Umbra''s hunger?`... Feeding Umbra multiple dishes, Shane looked at the system messenger, only to turn relieved and happy at the same time. Somehow all uncles and aunts had messaged him back not forgetting toment about his copy-pasted message sent to everyone. They questioned him about his well-being, while Lars, whom Shane had hoped to inquire more about the RadiantRing shelter, merelyined about what he wrote in the message. It seemed like his family had messaged each other and Lars was supposed to do his job, while the others were supposed to squeeze information out of him. Not a single one of them had doubted his identity, which made him happy. Shane decided to create a group chat with the 9 of them to make things easier. It seemed like a few noticed the group chat immediately, as they were either doing business within the system, purchasing something, or reading through the PrimWeb''s forum. Lars was also present and messaged him back almost immediately after he wrote everything he knew about the RadiantRing shelter. "What the hell are these idiots doing within the Basic-Dimensions?? Can''t they even hire a normal shelter captain??.... Sorry, Shane, I''ll send someone else to take care of everything. But, it will take a few hours at least. Right now, everything is a bit chaotic due to the advanced dimension we are supposed to enter in order to establish a shelter there. Even your father is nervous because the dimension is said to be infested with many dreadful existences and high-ranked races, due to the high number of natural resources. But even so, reinforcement wille soon and help you guys out. Please try to avoid the shelter captain for now, until the others arrive, okay? I don''t want anything to happen to you because your strength is not even remotelyparable to an Expert shelter captain, or am I wrong? Ha...About your escape from John¡­.Let me tell you something in secret... I''m proud and at the same time disappointed in both you and John. John''s way to raise you up was garbage to put it simply, but running away like a spoiled child isn''t the way to handle disputes like that. On the other hand, John would never ept your way of thinking, at least for now...Just keep increasing your strength and do your best to make humanity proud...In the end, John only wants you to keep bing stronger in order to defend yourself and the ones you love. Please understand that and don''t hate your dad or any of us, because we also prevented you from experiencing a normal childhood. We only want the best for you!" He never knew that Lars could be that serious and thoughtful. It astonished him, causing Shane to stop eating for a moment. Understanding why he had to endure such arduous training for years in addition to the teaching was not that difficult for someone who lived his second life. But his father''s way to raise him was what caused him mental and physical pain which he simply couldn''t forget just like that. Shane didn''t want to continue thinking about his father, which caused him to divert his attention back to the newly established chat group. Everyone was still inquiring about his health, almost as if they were obsessed with him. Chatting with them for an hour made him feel like he was with them once again. He then closed the messenger as everyone had to focus on their work. Now, he was curious to know when exactly the reinforcement would arrive in order for them to start gearing up the shelter''s defensive mechanism. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 73 - Umbras Quality Shane was aware that he had offended the RadiantRing''s shelter captain, but he didn''t worry about it, as the captain would be taken care of soon enough. As for someone assassinating him or beating him into a pulp,it could only be seen as a bad joke. Nobody had seen him enter the room he was currently in, except the owner of the inn. And even the owner couldn''t see his face, because he wore his gas mask in addition to a clean robe, which he had taken out from his spatial ring to cover Umbrapletely. In the end, the only thing that the inn owner could pin him to was his devil-shaped mask, and nothing else. Shane didn''t worry about the shelter-captain, because there were too many things for him to do right now, which didn''t leave him any room for such a dumb character in his mind. As for the things he had to do; figuring out the worth of his hundreds of beast corpses had a high priority on his to-do list, right after Umbra''s quality enhancement, which was Shane''s highest priority. Afterpleting the two top priority tasks, Shane would have to increase his strength during the next 10 days to the highest possible. He would have to show his dominance once the academy would ept his application. Once he was epted, there would only be a short span of time for him to return to Igra in order to enter the academy. This wouldn''t take long, as he could simply teleport to the specific dimensional portal with the personal permission code Shane would receive. As such, there would be slightly more than 10 days for him to increase his strength, which other youths most likely used to pack their stuff, bid farewell to their family, and so on. Comparatively, Shane had more than enough time to increase his strength, as he didn''t have to do any preparations. Everything that he possessed was stored within the Ancient ring of the Susurro. While establishing a perfect mortal physical foundation, he could simultaneously increase his mana pool cultivation towards the Apprentice stage, if he wanted. But rather than focusing too much on his mana pool cultivation, Shane wanted to increase everything consistently, while umting some more funds to hasten up his future progress. He was relieved that the federation army would be sending reinforcements soon enough and also curious to know if they would eradicate the possible threat or if they would only defend the shelter and its inhabitants. Shane would be fine with both choices but he preferred the first solution because it would end up in arge-scale battlefield with all beasts gathered in one ce. Once all the beasts would gather near the shelter, Shane wanted to sneak into the hidden elemental-crystal cave. He wanted to mine the remaining mana and elemental crystals for himself without worrying about any obstructing beasts lurking in the huge cave. Unfortunately, there was a big downside to this solution. The Federation''s Basic-Dimension Army would lose brave men and women, which Shane didn''t really want. But even if the initial thought about the first solution was solely based on his selfish needs, it was better to attack than to defend, in his opinion. Shane''s reasoning was simple. The beasts within the basic dimension were normally not that intelligent, except foreign intelligent races, like humans. Arge hideout of one of the beast races that were in war had already been found. In his opinion, assassinating them with an army of Assassins and hunters would reduce human casualties, instead of waiting for the purple furred wolves to gather and prepare arge-scale attack. Maybe they would even ally with the other races they had been in a war with, due to the bigger threat they would have to face, i.e, the humans. All of this had already happened before and Shane thought that the army would most likely pick the first solution. It was the best way to protect the newly established shelter as well as possible, without endangering the innocent construction workers that were still unaware of the threat looming over them. Because Shane had hoped that the army would choose to fight, he had already sent Uncle Lars a detailed map of sorts with step-by-step instructions that would guide them straight towards n the Wolf den. It was the shortest way and Shane was sure that the military scouts would be able to find it rather easily if they didn''t fall on their heads. As such, he decided to not worry about the RadiantRing shelter for now, and wait until the military arrived. After that, he would observe their actions and adjust his n ording to their decisions. In the end, Shane estimated that it would take at least half a day before the federation would send their troops through the dimensional portal and another for everyone to appear through the dimension. In order to arrive at a decision, everything would have to be scouted thoroughly to find out what races existed near the shelter and howrge their poption was. After considering everything, Shane was sure that at least three to four days would have to pass before the military would set off to eradicate the threat, which was neither fast nor slow. Had the RadiantRing shelter been under a hazardous threat and on the brink of a copse due to a beast tide or a foreign intelligence race siege, the federation military would have already sent their troops over. But since nothing major had happened so far, Shane knew they would take some time. As such, Shane diverted his attention towards Umbra, who looked at him patiently with hopeful eyes. "It''s your turn once again, little One" he said,ughing lightly. He assessed the [Quality-Upgrading] function of his skill, as a holographic screen popped up in front of him. _______________________________ [To upgrade the quality of selected beast [Shadow-snake(Umbra)] from its initial quality (Rare) to (Extraordinary) following materials are required. Tier-2 Mana stone [Darkness] (5/5) Blood of a Dragon (1/1 Drop) Daylight peony(Common) (4/4) [Commence quality upgrade] [Y/N] _______________________________ Every required ingredient was avable inside his spatial ring, so he initiated the quality upgrade, with a simple thought [Yes!] Immediately after hemenced the quality upgrade, the required items emerged out of his spatial ring. The daylight peony and darkness transmuted mana stones slowly began to dissolve, revealing a terrifying amount of mana, as the cork on the vial with the wyvern blood burst out. Floating towards the ck mana fog, the wyvern-blood acted as if it was a vortex. A powerful suction force was issued from it, forcefully taking over the ck mana fog that seemed to resist for a moment before epting its designated fate. The mana fogpressed within the wyvern blood, coloring the crimson blood with ck patterns. It slowly approached Umbra, who looked with excitement at the floating drop of blood in front of him. Umbra immediately sensed the terrifying, vigorous, yetfortable energy spreading throughout his body when the drop of blood entered his open mouth. Shane was very tense when he heard a notification right at the moment as Umbra began to exert a terrifying pressure, which shocked him extremely. [Quality-upgrade of [Shadow-snake(Umbra)] from (Rare) to (Extraordinary) will take 72 hours. Host is rmended to ensure the safety of his tamed beast under all means!] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 74 - System Evaluation The pressure exerted by Umbra was already astonishing but it was nothingpared to the thick ck mana cocoon that formed around it. Shane was a bit shocked, as all mana particles within the room were absorbed by it. After taking more than a hundred mana crystals out of his spatial ring, Shane noticed the mana within them being drawn out in a single second, as another batch consisting of several hundred mana crystals had been thrown out of his spatial ring that fell on the ground. The suction speed of the ck cocoon slowed down and Shane sighed in relief, as he decided to dedicate himself to the system shop. The first thing he did was purchase a few hundred ss vials to store the liquid obtained from the aqueous scales of the scaled lizards. After filling the first vial with the liquid, Shane utilized another function of the System, which allowed him to evaluate the stage and quality of the product. [(Aqueous scaled lizard) liquid will be analyzed...1%...9%...45%....76%...100%] [Evaluationpleted¡ú Energizing/Soothing characteristics detected. Analyzed liquid can be used as [Mortal-(Common+)] potion! ¡úAqueous fragrant potion] Reading through the two messages, Shane''s eagerness turned into tion as he jumped up with joy. `Ohhh my!!!` Shane wanted to share his happiness with everyone, but that was not possible as he had nobody to flex his wealth in front of and he couldn''t leave Umbra alone. As he researched the Aqueous fragrant potion, Shane figured out that humanity didn''t have a high number of such potions. It indicated that they hadn''t found a race like the aqueous scaled lizard that he had. The price for a single potion was rtively high, with 30 Silver for a single potion and Shane immediately felt like he had hit the Jackpot. In hisstrge venture into the elemental cave, he had picked up hundreds of corpses after the small skirmish between purple furred wolves and scaled lizards. Shane roughly had 40 aqueous scaled lizard carcasses, though not a single one of them was at the elite stage. Even if that was slightly unfortunate, Shane estimated that a single scaled lizard had roughly 100 scales on it which meant he could fill 4000 vials. Setting the price at 30 Silver would immediately reward him with 1,200 gold coins, without the need to sell the remaining hundreds of corpses inside his spatial ring. A radiant smile blossomed on his face, as he purchased as many vials as possible with his remaining funds. He wished to quickly start to decant the liquid from the aqueous scales into the vials. Once a vial was filled, he immediately exhibited them within his store and set the price at 30 silver coins each. More than six hours passed before Shane finished the whole procedure. He felt as if he was going to die, as the whole process bored him to death and he couldn''t wait for it to get over. During thest six hours, Shane wasn''t sure how many times he had almost fallen asleep. Fortunately, he had managed to keep himself awake reminding himself that he had more than enough to do. While exhibiting the potions, Shane decided to add the purple furred wolves carcasses into the remaining vacancies. He set the price of 4 silver coins for the peak-Wild stage wolves, while he set it at 20 silver coins for the Elite stage ones. The price was not too high, because of the high electrical conductivity provided by the wolves'' fur The ws and fangs could be used as arrowheads, as long as they were grinded slightly. Selling the wolves'' fetched him around 15 gold coins. Once another vacancy was free, Shane immediately ced the first batch of scaled lizards within it, as each mutated scaled lizard would need its own vacancy. Two hourster, Shane had gained a fortune of roughly 34 gold coins from the scaled lizards and other beasts that he had hunted the day before. The potions had been sold faster than he had expected, adding 1200 gold coins to his fortune that now totaled to 1249 gold coins, without him doing anything significant. The wealth that he had amassed in a short time made him realize the importance and worth of the Radiant Mountain-ring dimension. He believed that humanity would also find this hidden treasure, once they figured out more about the mana-infused elemental crystals in addition to the mutated beasts with their perks. If even Wild stage beasts could be worth 30 gold coins, the shelter would prosper more than any other, as long as the demand for the potion and other items would stay high. Shane was one of the first ones to hunt these beasts and mine elemental and mana crystals. He was the most fortunate one, which was noticeable if one were to see his finances. Once everybody got wind of the aqueous scaled lizards they would hunt for them inrge quantities and oversaturate the market with potions. This would, in turn, lead to a decrease in the potion''s value to arge extent. It was only now that he really had to think hard about the items he should purchase with his newly obtained finances, as he had everything that he needed, for now. More mana stones were probably the only items he could really need right now. The five tier-1 trash quality mana stones would not be sufficient for him to reach a perfect Mortal physique while purifying the mana within his mana pool. As such, he decided to purchase additional 10 tier-1 trash quality mana stones for 50 gold coins and paid the additional transfer fee, which reduced his finances to 1194. Right now, he didn''t really want to purchase any extra nutrition solutions, because he wanted to test out their potency first. After finishing all of them Shane wanted to test out a trash tier-1 nutrition solution to figure out if his body could handle it because a trash tier-1 nutrition solution would be better than the mortal stage nutrition solutions, as long as he didn''t purchase an extraordinary one with an additional effect. He already owned one [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] nutrition solution, but it didn''t have any additional effect and was only there for him to test the waters. The prices for such nutrition solutions were too high. Shane would rather purchase a tier-1 trash solution rather than a lower graded one with an additional effect, as long as his body could absorb all the nutrition within the solution. It was already afternoon when Shane finished everything within the Shop. He noticed a notification that he had missed because of the whole purchase log that had filled his system. [Primordial Shop''s "Upgrade-function" has been Items worth 1000 gold coins have been sold. Congrattions!! Reward: +1 Vacancy] Shane wasn''t sure what to think of the notification, because the shop wasn''t that important for him anymore. He had no ns of bing a full-time merchant. However, on the other side, he had witnessed the annoying side of having only a few vacancies a few hours ago, which had irked him. As such, Shane was still somewhat happy to have unlocked his Shop''s upgrade function. Having the option to do something, instead of working towards it painstakingly was definitely a pleasing feeling. He wouldn''t have to bother in the future about unlocking the upgrade function once he needed it. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 75 - Difficulty Of Being Perfect It was still afternoon, but Shane decided to take a look outside because he wanted to figure out how far the Military had progressed. There was not much he could see from his window, but it was obvious that there were more than the usual number of guards patrolling the shelter. Some of them had even rushed towards the central area. Shane believed that the military had already arrived and that they took the lead of the shelter. ording to Uncle Lars, they would let the shelter captain step back `voluntarily`, which was as good as getting thrown out ording to Shane''s understanding of his Uncle''s words. As such, Shane thought that everything would either work out or that the shelter captain would link him to the military''s sudden appearance, which might cause him a slight disadvantage. Either the former captain would be free to go on his own or the military would take him into custody. If he were to be free, he would probably find Shane and hurt him in an attempt to soothe his anger. If he were taken into custody, he would likely be punished for neglecting his duties, being drunk during duty, and disregarding a possible shelter-annihting threat that could lead to thousands of deaths and the loss of a shelter. Either reason was enough to severely punish the shelter captain, but thetter reason was the most dangerous one. It would not only destroy a shelter but also cause the price for a world-protection extension to soar higher, as an additional Dimension portal would be upied by a foreign race, paving one more path towards Igra. This would be the most terrifying because even a slight increase in the world-protection extension price would throw mankind into an economic problem. With the system''s existence, it was extremely difficult to take care of taxes, as nobody could supervise transactions, umted wealth, and a month''s earnings. As such, everything within the shelters had to pay taxes, which included the inns, restaurants, markets, and so on, while plots purchased by humans to construct such buildings were also expensive. Only through this, humanity could barely afford the world-protection extension every month or rather a year, as it gave a small discount. Even if a single shelter was annihted and the Dimension Portal upied, it would be devastating for humanity as everything would be chaotic. However, such cases had happened a few times already and there were always individuals that had to add their private funds in order to secure humanity, which was initially not nned. These individuals were mostly his father, uncles, and aunts which made Shane proud. In the end, it was obvious because his family consisted of some of the strongest individuals on Igra, Shane knew. Furthermore, it was useless for someone at the basic or intermediate dimensions to pay for something like that. His father and friends would have to hunt a single time together in order to earn the same amount in half an hour that others umted in a day. Shane disregarded this though, as he didn''t want to think about the possibility that the RadiantRing shelter could be annihted and destroyed. With the arrival of the military, he also didn''t doubt that everything would be taken care of, sooner orter. The only thing Shane had to pay attention to was if the military had decided to take offensive measures or act defensively for the time being. With this in mind, he estimated that it would end in a defensive act until the scouts found out everything necessary. It was more than illogical that the purple-furred wolf race fought each other or against small tribes in order to sustain serious injuries like Shane showed Uncle Lars. As such, three or more days would most likely be enough to make their own research while holding up their defense. After that, they would start crafting a battle strategy in order to provide enough protection to the shelter while annihting the shelter''s threat. Shane had only hoped that the scouts would either not find the elemental crystal cave he had visited earlier or that they wouldn''t mind it. He hoped that they wouldbel it as an extremely small habitat of scaled lizards if they were still the dominant race of the elemental cave which Shane wasn''t sure about. Umbra was still evolving and there were more than 60 hours left on the countdown. Thus, Shane decided to try out his newly acquired perfect [Mythic] body refining technique. He paid a few bronze coins for a basin with warm water to the inn''s owner for it, before he took out a [Mortal-(rare)] nutrition solution from his spatial ring, with two tier-1 trash mana stones. Thinking they might be enough in addition to the rare nutrition solution, Shane ced the mana stones to the left and the right of the basin, before he dissolved the nutrition solution within the warm water. Diving into the water, Shane almost immediately sensed the difference between umon and rare quality nutrition solutions, as his pores automatically. He released the mana fluctuations from the mana stones in order to ept the mana from within. Shane was eager to figure out how much of a difference a [Mythic] body refining technique would be,pared to his lower quality one. Thus he took a few deep breaths and stepped inside the basin. Within the high nutrition water, he began exerting the perfect body refining technique. However, he noticed that his whole body began to ache painfully, as the surrounding mana and nutrition within the water were drawn to him like he was a ck hole. He pondered for a moment if he should take out multiple more mana stones and a nutrition solution but then decided against it. He had to find out how useful his current resources were in order to adjust everything in the following season. Time seemed to pass slowly and his whole body ached the whole time. The two tier-1 mana stones in addition to the [Mortal-(Rare)] nutrition solution seemed to be already used up after a single hour. This caused him to frown deeply, as he took out four tier-1 trash quality mana stones with his remaining four umon mortal stage mana stones. He then ced them around the basin and poured two rare nutrition solutions into the lukewarm water . The solution had seeped in his body, invigorating it, while the mana in his surroundings floated towards him as if he was an old acquaintance. Overwhelmed by the sudden influx of mana and nutrition, Shane tried to regain his senses in order to exert his [Mythic] body refining technique. Three more hours passed as thest mana particles were absorbed, making his eyes shine brightly. Curiosity got the better of him and Shane quickly opened his status panel to notice a rather astonishing fact. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 76 - Might Of The [Perfect] _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-8th [Purity 7.18%] Body Refinement: ¡ú[Perfect Physique¡úMortal-2nd]-[Mortal-7th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Tier-1 (Bronze)] ¡úMana gathering [Mortal-(tinum)] Body refining manual: ¡ú[Mortal-(Mythic)]-[Tier-1 (Bronze)] ![Artemis'' Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Common-¡ï¡ï (+)| Finances: 1194 gold coins. _______________________ ''I barely finished re-refining the first Mortal stage?'' Shane was baffled by what he saw. Estimating the costs for everything required to re-refine the first rank of his Mortal stage physique, he came to the conclusion that he had roughly paid 43 gold coins. The most expensive item was the tier-1 trash mana stones Shane had used, as each of them was priced at 5 gold coins. Unfortunately, Shane required such a high amount of mana in order to temper and refine his body perfectly. On the other hand, the nutrition solution seemed to be way cheaper in contrast to its effect, which was more than enough for their current purpose. Even though it was highly expensive, Shane felt extremely vigorous right now, as his whole body felt lighter. He clenched and unclenched his fist, jumped up and down, kicking his feet in the air trying to assess how the nutritions had affected his body. Shane couldn''t believe what he had noticed. "How is that possible?? It''s only a single rank...Is that the real power of a Mortal stage physique?" he mumbled, seemingly astonished about his capabilities. If his current strength was not an illusion, Shane immediately knew that once hepleted his perfect physique, not a single Wild stage beast would be able to defeat him. He could defeat the beasts just by using brute force without the need of using a single drop of mana as an enhancement. Not even the strongest, fastest and toughest wild beasts would be able to defeat him. At least Shane felt so, as his physical strength increased by a few percent only by re-refining the first mortal rank of his physique. It was also the rank rewarding the lowest amplification for the body. Under normal circumstances, it was suggested to avoid fighting beasts at the exact same rank once one would enter the Intermediate-Dimensions. However currently, he was sure that his future would be interesting if were to obtain all perfect [Mythic] body refining techniques. Humans had always been rather passive in their actions against Intermediate and Advanced races. Their starting point had been higher than such races, even for the weakest individual. Intermediate races would start at the Intermediate-Dimension, and so was the case with advanced races thus giving them the names based on the dimensions they inhabited. Humanity had only dared to fight against Basic races like themselves. Though with time their desire and greed for more had increased substantially and the same could be said for Shane. He wanted to be stronger than his father, uncles, and aunts that had ascended to their Master rank long ago. They had achievedpressing their mana slowly until the first liquid drop was formed with an extremely high mana purity at that time. However, if Shane knew correctly, not a single individual had been able to obtain all three [Mythic] body refining techniques so far. Out of the three, the [Mortal-(Mythic)]-mission wasbeled to be the most difficult to obtain. Shane wasn''t sure how difficult the others would be, but he was most likely fortunate with his merchant mission, as everything yed into his hands. But right now, it would be useless to think about the next [Mythic] mission. He still had to refine a perfect mortal physique before he would build a wed apprentice physique and continue his path towards a wless physique. It would take a long time for Shane until he would do the next [Mythic] mission. He wanted to be better prepared this time because he had almost died through his negligence. Even if he wouldn''t have died, failing a single mission would have ended his n to build a perfect foundation. To construct such a foundation, Shane had to clear four [Mythic]-missions, preferably five, if possible. The four mandatory missions were divided into three [Mythic]-body refining techniques and one [Mythic] 100% mana purity technique that was required to build a wless foundation. While the [Tier-2-(Mythic)] mana gathering technique could be described as a little perk, Shane would try to obtain it, once the timees. When Shane thought about his current problem, he noticed that the required mana during his re-refining was much higher than he had expected, as he nced at the mana crystals within his spatial ring. `Will they also work?` Shane asked himself, thinking that saving some funds for the moment might be better. However, he disregarded this idea after thinking for some time. Umbra was in need of this mountain of mana crystals for his evolution progress and it was far more important than saving funds. As such, Shane decided to purchase 7 [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] nutrition solutions priced at 7 gold coins each and 30 [Tier-1-(Trash)] fist-sized mana stones for 5 gold coins each. With the transfer fee, he paid 218 gold coins and 90 silver coins, which stung his fragile heart. His finances decreased, as the purchased goods simultaneously appeared within his spatial ring. There were still 975 gold coins left, but Shane wasn''t sure if he would have to purchase something suddenly in order to protect his life. He had been through a simr situation in the shadow-snake valley, which had saved his life, because of the funds that he had earned before. Furthermore, there were so many things he required that Shane decided to take it one step after another. He decided to avoid purchasing too much for long-term ns, as it felt like they would be discarded either way. Until now, both, nothing and everything had worked ording to his ns, which was somehow ridiculous. Every day that he spent within the Primordial dimensions was full of action, and filled with new challenges. Changing the water within the basin, Shane dived into the warm water once again after dissolving thest rare quality and one extraordinary quality nutrition into it. With nine Tier-1 trash quality mana stones ced around the basin, Shane''s body was already crying out in greed His body had opened up every single pore in order to devour everything in its surrounding. Shane felt subconsciously that his ambition and greed had increased when he exerted the [Mythic] body refining technique which seemed to be overclocked. The whole refining process ached more than before, even though the refining speed increased proportionately with his pain. Enduring the pain, he smiled, as he felt his body being tempered, while the impurities within were expelled with small ck liquid oozing out of his pores. At the same time, as the impurities were expelled, Shane felt his refining speed elerate, as his body devoured the nutrition that streamed within him at an even faster rate. One could almost think that Shane''s body was Beelzebub, the demon of gluttony itself, as his body turned slightly red, due to the high amount of nutrition flooding him. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 77 - Defensive Measures It took Shane a full day to finish another season of body refining, as he finally reached the perfect physique of a 4th Mortal stage. Over thest day, Shane had also absorbed and purified his mana, which caused him to use up more tier-1 mana stones than he initially thought would be required. With 15 tier-1 trash quality mana stones and 6 [Mortal-(extraordinary)] nutrition solutions left, Shanemented about the scarcity of resources. But even so, Shane''s mana purity had increased a little over 0.6% and reached 7.8%. There was only 0.2% left before he could break into the 9th Mortal stage. He had also nced through the window every once in a while and the sight had surprised him. He had noticed bloodied guards running around frantically with the military soldiers apanying them... `Was the shelter already under attack?` Shane asked himself worriedly, as he hurried out of his room, to inquire about the current situation with the Inn-owner. "It seems like there will be arge-scale battle soon. During thest two days, more and more purple-furred wolf groups have surrounded us, almost as if they want to find out about our numbers and strength. One of the guards told me that the military came because of this and we think that they will initiate their attack soon enough, once they secure the shelter from any kinds of assassinations of other beast races." Right as Shane was about to turn around because he thought that the inn-owner had finished, he heard him mumble "Weirdly enough, the shelter captain has been forced out of his position and he was even arrested at such a dangerous time...Not like it would make a difference with or without him..." Hearing thest sentence, Shane smiled lightly thinking that the shelter captain''s punishment was well deserved. Fortunately, he was even detained and Shane didn''t have to be careful within the shelter anymore. As such, he went outside to take a closer look at the current situation. Shane spotted many youths and young men wearing themon federation''s military clothes with its silver constetion emblem on it. The emblem was not extraordinary, just a piece of silver with a fews and stars on it. The uniform for basic soldiers was made out of peak apprentice cobwebs and weaved together. Additionally, they received leather armor ording to their contribution. Thus everyone within the military was well protected which was the most important factor for them to choose such a dangerous job, even though it was already well paid. There was no mandate to join the military, but the benefits one could receive there were astronomical because the range of cultivation resources, lifestyle upations, and so on were vast and more easily obtainedpared to the Primordial Shops. The prices for most products were cheaper in the military and there was no transfer fee, which was a relief. Having to pay a transfer fee for every single item bought was one of the most hated functions of the system. After obtaining their basic cultivation resource set, the military would award merits ording to an individual''s hard work. This made it a coveted position which was why most young men and women were eager to get epted into the military. Furthermore, the military provided enough resources, training, and nourishment to all kinds of brave youths and older folks who dared to fight against beasts head-on, even though it could mean their death. The military was unbiased and did not differentiate between the rich and the poor. It simply rewarded everyone that gave their best for humanity. This was one feature Shane was proud of, as his family had built a structure that supported every human, which he couldn''t really remember on earth. It was not that dangerous on earth, but humanity wasn''t united. Back on earth, humans mostly wouldn''t help each other out as they valued wealth over human lives. As such, he was extremely proud to live in such a society now. Shane, who otherwise hated his father, couldn''t help but agree that his father had done a good job of enforcing such an idealistic way in addition to the military rules without discrimination. Unfortunately, that didn''t mean that each human was important to the federation, as terror acts from some humans were pursued until the end. The terrorists who got nabbed by the government wouldn''t be subjected to any puny punishment. In fact, the terrorists would be considered fortunate if they were beheaded straight away without being tortured for more information. A singlerge terrorist act could immediately destroy the unity of humans and his father had used unorthodox ways to destroy his enemies without the slightest bit of hesitation. The federation was built upon a democracy but the strong reigned above all. It indicated at the end that the most powerful human would lead humanity. In Igra''s case, it seemed to be John Ste because he was voted by arge majority. Even if this annoyed Shane quite often, he had to ept that fact. Walking around the shelter, he could see all kinds of new high constructions on the shelter walls that were most likely ballistae, towers, or something simr that was about to be constructed. From what he saw, more than ten additional ballistae were constructed on each wall, while the edges were reinforced withrge towers. With enough archers, ballistae, crossbows, searing hot oil, and other tricks, Shane was confident that it would be extremely difficult for beasts to overwhelm the shelter. There were still many unpredictable factors that the beasts could surprise humans with, like flying, moving under the ground, in addition to extremely physically enhanced- and spatial elemental beasts. From their recently acquired knowledge, there were only a few dangerous flying beasts, while the other unpredictable factors had not been ounted for. Even so, the defensive measures included all possible factors, as a mana fluctuation long-range radar was installed inside the shelter hall, which covered a radius of 100 kilometers. This was extremely expensive to operate and only used for cases where the shelter''s survival was on the line. Everyrge beast group and beasts at the awakened stage that was detected by the radar would cause it to immediately notify its operator which was extremely helpful in order to act without any dy. Seeing how busy the military was, Shane started to wonder how much pressure his uncle or their subordinates put on the basic military force in order to act without a second''s dy. ''Or is this speed normal?'' He asked himself, as it seemed somewhat disciplined yet chaotic, confusing Shane quite a bit. Continuing to walk around, he estimated that abined beast tide of tworge beast races would most likely be useless against the newly constructed defensive measures. Additionally, the shelter was fortified with a high number of expert stage soldiers with a higher mana purity than most shelter captains had. As long as everyone worked diligently without cking off, everything should be fine. Feeling relieved, he decided to go back to his inn-room. Umbra was supposedly still upgrading its quality which would require more than 30 hours. After doing some quick calctions, Shane believed that he could enter the next stage with his perfect physique in the next 30 hours after re-refining it. It might even be enough time for him to reach an 8% mana purity which would allow him to break into the 9th Mortal stage. Entering the room, Shane immediately sensed Umbra''s well-being in addition to his joy. He could even sense his tamed beast''s increased strength with his quality upgrade, even though it had not finished yet. Weirdly enough, a certain window that he had kept open almost for the whole day seemed to change with Umbra''s evolution. _______________________ Possible evolutions [Shadow-snake (Rare/Extraordinary)] 1) [Common] Shadow-python (24.3%/100%) 2) [Umon] Darkness-python (3.5%/100%) 3) [Rare] Colossus Darkness-python (0.006%/100%) 4) [Extraordinary] _______________________ If he hadn''t gone insane during thest few hours, why did the whole evolution progression bar seem to bepletely off? Shane was sure that Umbra had alreadypletely filled the first [Common] Shadow-python evolution path that was now less than a quarter filled. Even though it was not a pleasant sight to see the progression bar decrease with each moment, Shane sensed Umbra''s strength increase simultaneously, which was not something to be frustrated about. Smiling at the darkness transmuted mana cocoon in front of him, Shane took out a few mana stones. He then turned towards the basin, ready to continue re-refining his physique in order to get to know what real perfection felt like. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 78 - Bloodlust Another day had passed and there were only a few hours left until Umbra''s quality would finally be upgraded. Shane was woken up from his trance when he heard thunderous roars reverberating throughout the shelter. Opening his eyes, he took a sideways nce at his status, before he dried himself in order to put on some clothes. _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-9th [Purity 8.43%] Body Refinement: ¡ú[Perfect Physique¡úMortal-5th]-[Mortal-7th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Tier-1 (Bronze)] ¡úMana gathering [Mortal-(tinum)] Body refining manual: ¡ú[Mortal-(Mythic)]-[Tier-1 (Bronze)] ![Artemis'' Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Common-¡ï¡ï (+)| Finances: 975 gold coins 3 silver coins _______________________ Having used up all Tier-1 trash quality mana stones, Shane was able to enter the 9th Mortal stage of his mana pool with a mana purity of [8.43%]. His perfect physique had reached the 5th Mortal stage, increasing hisbat prowess by arge margin. With two extraordinary quality nutrition solutions left, he would have to purchase another batch of mana stones sooner orter, but for now, the thunderous roaring seemed more important. It seemed as if the purple furred wolves, whose name was apparently Lesser-thunder Wolf, had attacked the shelter. Shane saw the ten ballistae at the northern wall shooting out their huge bolts in retaliation. The northern wall was only a few hundred meters away from his current position and Shane wanted to see what was going on, on the other side of the wall as his curiosity was piqued. Without trying to hinder the military''s archer who rushed towards the wall, Shane jumped on a house. He climbed further on the three-story-tall inn''s roof, where he could finally see something. The green and lush grass field that Shane could see on the other side of the shelter wall was filled with small Lesser-thunder wolves and their evolutions, namely, the Thunder wolves and Lightning-elemental wolves that were both at the Elite stage. A rough estimate told him that there were a few hundred Wild and close to 100 Elite-stage beasts. This was no threat to the shelter''s massive existence. He was sure that this small group of wolves was the cannon-fodder used by their enemy to test the waters, which was a cruel yet efficient tactic. Far behind the WIld and Elite stage beasts, Shane could barely see arge wolf whose bloodlust could be sensed over a few hundred meters. It shocked him greatly, to see the bloodlust try to infiltrate his body. He was unsure if this was an innate characteristic of this beast, as such he decided to call it [Bloodlust thunder wolf]. The bloodlust he felt couldn''t be considered strong or extremely distinct. He was very far from the thunder wolf and could only see an extremely faint and feeble red hue around the wolf from this distance. ''Is that a manifestation?'' He began to wonder as his eyes widened subconsciously. If Shane were to stand right in front of the wolf, he didn''t doubt that he would be killed faster than he could blink his eye. Considering that he was only at the Mortal stage, he started to wonder if someone at the Apprentice or even Expert-stage would be able to move freely under such thick bloodlust. The only thing he could hope for humanity was that the bloodlust thunder wolf in front of them was a rare variant, mutation, or maybe even their leader. If the bloodlust thunder wolf was the mostmon evolution path of their race, it would end up in a disaster. Every single wolf would most likely be able to fight a dozen expert stage humans at the same time under the assumption that the bloodlust restricted theirbat prowess. But that was only Shane''s estimation and it could be wrong. But, he held onto the hope within him, as the other possibilities looked rather dark and less fortunate. The whole skirmish was pretty boring as a few hundred dead wolf-corpsesid on the ground after a few minutes. The bloodlust thunder wolf left the scene without a backwards nce, seemingly unaffected by the death of its brethren. Shane couldn''t help but shiver at this sight, as he questioned the existence of such a wolf in his mind. He wasn''t the only one who had noticed the bloodlust thunder wolf observing the small massacre without caring about its dead brethren one tiny bit, while the bloodlust infiltrated every being around it. It didn''t hinder their actions, but they also asked themselves what exactly would happen to them, if they were to directly face the bloodlust thunder wolf. It caused them to shiver slightly before they regained theirposure once again when their superior arrived at the shelter wall. When Shane saw that the soldier''s superior arrived at the shelter wall in order to talk to his subordinates, he quickly climbed down the inn''s roof, before he walked into it once again. He was still shocked by the awakened stage wolf''s bloodlust as he started to wonder about how the military would react to this new information. ''Would the military immediately initiate an attack or gather more information in order to figure out if the bloodlust thunder wolf was the mostmon evolution path?'' Shane was interested to know but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn''t simply intercept the military actions, even if his strategic knowledge and way of thinking could be helpful in this situation. There was a weird feeling creeping up his mind, which told him that the bloodlust thunder wolf''s behavior was well thought of. This was extremely odd because there was not a single sign that would tell or prove something about it. However, even if that was the case, he began to wonder why the bloodlust was released to such a degree. The distance between him and the wolf had been a few hundred meters, maybe even more than a kilometer which was obviously not a short distance. identally releasing such a bloodlust was definitely not possible for anyone within the Basic Primordial Dimension and everything seemed extremely illogical to him. `Did the bloodlust thunder wolf try to test us, if we would be influenced by the bloodlust within such arge range? As if it wanted to make sure of the efficiency of the bloodlust without a debuff?` Shane asked himself as another idea popped into his mind. `What if it wanted to stall for time with the small skirmish and the revtion of its bloodlust? Did itpare us to normal beasts that would be mentally affected by the thought of fighting an enemy that wielded a high degree of bloodlust?` He couldn''t be sure about either of his ideas and another few theories formed in his mind. From `stalling time`, ''ying mind games'' to `Testing out the bloodlust effect`, everything was apparently evident. But Shane was sure that the military must also have thought of the exact same theories as more than enough clever minds were nurtured by the military as strategists. While the possibility of the bloodlust thunder wolf being amon evolution path was extremely low, it was not 0%. In the end, one had to consider every possibility in a war in order to prevent any surprises. As such, the military had to send out another batch of scouts in order to figure out the final strength of their opponents. They seemed to be smarter than previously predicted, even though they had sacrificed a few weaker staged beasts. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 79 - Limit Breaker Shane was pacing in his room restlessly due to the bloodlust that he had felt before. His thoughts were too clouded which prevented him from cultivating, even if he had more than enough mana stones as a supply. Not knowing what to do until Umbra finished his quality upgrade that was only a few hours away, he decided to enter the PrimWeb in order to read through a few threads from the human race. But it was rather disappointing as the most interesting things had happened within the RadiantRing shelter, while news about the advanced dimension his father had most likely already entered was hidden from the public. This was only because the government didn''t want some hostile humans to read through these threads and pass it to their allies. Making everything public wasparable to shooting in one''s own foot. It was both disadvantageous and avoidable. Because of the scarcity of interesting threads within the human section, Shane thought of switching to other races, humanity had connections with. He wished to figure out if he could earn more money in any way, as he remembered the elemental crystal cave. Shane knew that it wouldn''t be long until the elemental crystal caves would be noticed. Once the imminent threat from the nearby wolf packs and scaled lizard groups was nullified, humans would flood to the cave and the possibility made him sigh deeply. Even if he would rather take everything for himself, the shelter''s survival was much more important. He obviously rated his life above his greed for more wealth. One had to be alive to use money!! Thinking about this, Shane remembered something he hadn''t thought about since he had entered the Shelter. It was almost as important as increasing hisbat prowess, obtaining skills, upgrading Umbra''s quality, and everythingparable. His knowledge was vast due to his uncles and aunts who had tormented him with all kinds of stories. They had left him with no need to read or purchase even a single book from the system. The system had its own library with all kinds of books, covering every possible topic. Though Shane wasn''t even sure how vast it was, as he had never essed it. ording to his family, even his aunt Kia, who was the most knowledgeable person he knew, was shocked about the sheer number of books with the vast information contained within. If his mind didn''t wasn''t ying any tricks, aunt Kia had asked him to purchase a few foundational books about everything, as the most basic knowledge was the groundwork he would have to expandter. If the foundation was weak and full of cracks, even the strongest and sturdiest building would crumble down. As such, Shane decided to purchase the most basic books from the system''s library section for 30 gold coins in total. Suddenly, with a metallic noise, a new section appeared within his system called [Library]. All the books he had purchased had been transferred inside it. [Library: Primordial Dimensions I] was the first book he could see, as he decided to open it. In the beginning, Shane only began to read the first book within the library because he was bored. However, this boredom changed into curiosity and evolved into interest, as he sat up straight with a bright expression. "Huh?? It was like that?....Woah!" There were too many things Shane hadn''t known earlier. Only now did he understand how shallow his knowledge had been, even though he thought it was already vast and iparable with his peers. This might have been true before he had awakened the system, but after this phenomenon had urred, Shane wasn''t so sure about it anymore. With his newly acquired interest, he continued to read for hours,pletely immersing himself in the information provided by the books. It was only when he felt something coil around him, that he noticed his surroundings again. Noticing Umbra, coiling himself around his waist, Shane smiled brightly, as their shared emotion amplified each other''s happiness. [[Shadow Snake(Umbra)] finished its quality-upgrade to the [extraordinary] quality sessfully! Congrattions!] [New evolution-path has been ] Smiling at the two notifications, Shane felt overjoyed. He noticed that Umbra''s ck scales shimmered more brightly, while his piercing gaze seemed to be more threatening. His length had now increased to more than 1.5 meters causing a headache to him, as he had to take the little glutton with him everywhere. Based on the strength Umbra had used to coil around him, Shane knew that the quality-upgrade was not the only change, as he opened the status panel. _______________________ Name: [Umbra¡á] Title: [Limit breaker] Race:[Shadow-snake] Rank: [Low 6th-Wild stage(Mid-Wild)] Quality: [Extraordinary](+) |Evolution|(+) Affinity: Lowest Basic-Darkness(Shadow)(+) Ability: [One with the Darkness(Trash)] Loyalty: [71%] _______________________ In the beginning, he was confused and then happy to see Umbra reach such a high loyalty. However what confused Shane, was the new [Limit breaker] statistic, which he had never seen before. Thinking about it, a rough cluster of information popped up in front of him. [Limit breaker] Every individual with this effect, has broken through its racial limit. Strengthening +10%, Mana cirction +10% , Mana consumption -10% , Intelligence +10% `Huh?` Shane was shocked to read that and he couldn''t understand what exactly Umbra did to break through its racial limit¡­ `The racial limit of a Shadow-snake can''t be at the rare quality, because there was an [extraordinary] evolution path for it¡­ Is it because of the rank it reached? Is it impossible for Shadow-snakes to reach the 6th Wild rank under normal circumstances? But more shocking was that Umbra had received it as a title. This meant that beasts could obtain titles like humans and other intelligent races did. Even after raking his mind for a long time, Shane could only estimate that Umbra had broken through its limit due to his innate skill which gave every tamed beast a quality enhancement. `Wouldn''t that mean there can''t be a Shadow-snake with a [Legendary] quality?` he asked in his mind. He essed the Upgrade function, only to see a grayed shadow-snake that resembled Umbra. `Is Umbra the most powerful Shadow-snake then? An extraordinary quality Shadow-snake with a quality enhancement due to my innate skill¡­` Shane suddenlyughed out aloud because the limit breaker effects were truly great and extremely beneficial for both him and Umbra. Seeing him acting so happy, Umbra also felt overjoyed as it used the short moment their gaze had met to transmit his hunger to Shane. Somehow both were already ustomed to this scenario as Shane took out dozens of dishes which Umbra ate within a few minutes. Meanwhile, he continued with his train of thoughts, asking in his mind if it was possible for every beast of his to receive the [Limit Breaker] title. Would it suffice if he increased their quality to the highest possible in addition to his innate skill''s quality enhancement which every tamed beast of his would receive passively? With this thought, Shane smiled brightly, as he decided to take a look at Umbra''s new unlocked evolution path. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 80 - Miniature World& Beast Sealing Card There wasn''t much that had changed within Umbra''s possible evolution panel, except the 4th evolution path. _______________________ Possible evolutions [Shadow-snake (Extraordinary)] 1) [Common] Shadow-python (0.00%/100%) 2) [Umon] Darkness-python (0.00%/100%) 3) [Rare] Colossus Darkness-python (0.00%/100%) 4) [Extraordinary] Horned Darkness-Snake (0.00%/100%) _______________________ Shane was still unsure what to think about the Limit breaker title, but what he knew for sure was that a [Horned Darkness-Snake] sounded weaker than a Colossus Darkness-python¡­ At least that was what he thought and the only thing both evolution paths had inmon was their "Darkness" tag which indicated their affinity. However, this was the only thing they had inmon and a small ray of hope emerged within him. `Will Umbra stay smaller if I evolve him into a [Horned Darkness-Snake]pared to the Colossus Darkness-python?` This was extremely important to know because he couldn''t let Umbra slither through the shelter if he were to continue to grow into a forty-meter-long snake. Others didn''t have such a problem with their tamed beasts. They either had the [Tamer] upation or they had purchased a special beast sealing card or bag in order to store their beasts inside. A tamer''s specific space was within one''s body andfortable for both master and his tamed beast. These tamed beasts that were stored within their master could even absorb a part of their master''s mana if they received permission to do it. At the same time, they were also able to see through their master''s eyes. Meanwhile, a sealing card or bag was rather ufortable for beasts, because they were squeezed into a cramped space without many joyous things that they could do within. Even if Umbra would berger if he were to grow longer with the [Extraordinary] evolution pathpared to the [Rare] evolution path, this wouldn''t change Shane''s decision to pick the former one. For him, it was important that hispanion would be stronger by taking the best path. Shane was still unsure if his thought about potential was wrong, but the theory about beasts'' potential slowly established in his mind, after Umbra broke through his limit. There had to be a racial limit that prevented beasts from reaching higher realms. It looked like the peak-5th Wild stage and a [extraordinary] quality was the highest possible a normal Shadow-snake could ever achieve. Umbra was a special case and Shane was still unsure if it was solely because of his Innate skill''s quality enhancement. As such, he had to gather more information and figure out more about himself, his capabilities, and Umbra. Nevertheless, the only thing Umbra was able to do for now would be absorbing nature''s mana and mana crystals in order to fill the evolution bar. There was only one main issue that Shane noticed. Not only was there an increase in Umbra''s length but also his width. He was now more than 1.5 meters long while he was also as wide as his forearm. With this, it would be quite hard for Umbra to coil around Shane without obstructing his movements, which worsened their good mood to arge degree. Umbra could now understand Shane''s thoughts better after his quality had upgraded to [extraordinary] in addition to the intelligence boost that he had received from the [Limit breaker] title. He knew that obstructing his master in any way would be extremely bad and there was nothing much they could do. It might even be harmful to both the master and their tamed beasts to be too far apart from each other for a long period of time. This was solely because the bond between a master and a tamed beast would weaken over time while the loyalty might also waver. Both of these factors were extremely bad, but Shane didn''t know any way of learning some type of [Taming] rted beast storage skill. The only thing he could think of was purchasing a beast sealing card or sealing bag, but he didn''t want to. It was as if he would torture his tamed beast with that because Umbra would bepletely secluded from everything and this was thest thing he would ever want to do. Pondering over what to do, Shane just decided to share his worry with all of his uncles and aunts. They were the strongest and most knowledgeable humans he knew and if they didn''t know what to do, Shane would have to either find a different path to solve this issue, ask other races or figure out a way to take Umbra with him. However, fighting with a 1.5+ meter and forearm wide snake coiled around him could be quite dangerous for both of them. Thus he sent a message in the chat group he had created earlier and waited for someone to reply. While waiting for a message to pop up, Shane continued to think about a possible solution for his current problem but there wasn''t much he could think of. The best he could think of was purchasing an extremely expensive [Miniature world] that wasparable to a minuscule dimension where all kinds of living beings could live inside. A miniature world was just a normal world, only that its size was minuscule, and space within was also definite depending on the price one paid. However, even a cubic meter space was said to cost hundreds of gold coins. Shane could purchase such a one cubic meter miniature world, but this wouldn''t really make Umbra much happier. It wouldn''t be any different than being stored inside a sealing card or bag, with a few mana stones or the remaining mana crystals next to him. Another idea that popped into his mind was that Umbra could enter a long hibernation which had been the case with the Colossus Darkness-python back at the shadow-snake valley. Even though Umbra didn''t love this option it seemed as if it was the best thing they could do, as a notification from his family chat group appeared in front of Shane''s eyes. It was Uncle Max but Shane was not really hopeful to receive some mind-blowing advice as he read through the few options he had. 1) Purchase a normal [Mortal-(Common)] beast sealing card/bag. This way, your tamed beast can go into hibernation. Through itsmon quality, you can store some mana stones or mana crystals within it and your beast can umte mana in order to fill its evolution bar slowly.(Cheapest way) 2) Purchase a miniature world and store your beast there while doing the same steps as before until the evolution bar ispletely filled. (Medium expensive) 3) Enter the apprentice rank as soon as possible and take the Tamer upation without caring about its quality (least rmended) 4)Purchase a [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] beast sealing card with a [Soul connection] or simr effect. This effect will be bound to you and isparable to a fake [Taming] beast storage skill, without the ability to absorb the master''s mana. (Thest is the most expensive of all stated solutions, but also the most efficient.) If you need funds, just message me, I will make sure that you receive enough!> Shane was already aware of the first two solutions as he read through the message. However, implementing either solution 1 or 2 would feel like he was torturing Umbra which he didn''t want to do. As for the third solution, he didn''t even need to consider it for a second, because Shane would never just pick any upation. Furthermore, he didn''t want to be a tamer, per se as he would rather select abat upation in order to fight along with his tamed beasts. Thest solution immediately caught his attention. But, considering that everything with an extra effect and a [extraordinary] quality was extremely expensive, Shane could only hope that his current funds were enough to relieve him of his worry. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 81 - Moving Out! A few hours had passed and it was evening when Shane''s sour mood brightened up. "Finally!" he eximed as he purchased a particr beast sealing card. The price was already considered cheap for its rarity. It only cost him 750 gold coins for a 50 cubic meter beast sealing card with an [extraordinary] quality that had the [soul connection] ability. However, this was only due to a certain reason. The [Mortal-(extraordinary)] Beast sealing card that he had purchased was worth nothing for the race he bought the card from. At most, it was considered a training material for their younger generation. The beast sealing card that he was holding in his hands was purchased from the high-elven race that had begun their journey in the Intermediate Primordial Dimensions. Considering their extremely sensitive control over mana, they still had to practice inscribingplex runes in order to be runemasters. Due to this, High-elves were known for making "low" quality beast sealing cards, gaining them a huge profit from a young age. For Shane, these 750 gold coins were everything he had left, because he had to pay the transfer fee of 10% in addition to the surcharge of 15% for belonging to a different race i.e human. In the end, he was almostpletely ripped off of his wealth, due to the final payable amount totaling 937 gold coins and 50 silver coins. He was barely left with 6 gold coins and a few dozen silver coins, which shocked him more than it should have. Gritting his teeth, he pierced his dagger into his thumb as a drop of blood fell onto his newly obtained beast sealing card with the soul-connection ability. As a few notifications popped up, he knew that everything had worked. [Host''s blood has been detected. Binding [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] beast sealing card to host''s soul. ] [!Remark: Beast sealing cards can be inserted and extracted from the soul whenever the host wants to.] [!!Re-Remark: Once the beast sealing card is shattered or damaged, every living being within might sustain heavy injuries or even die!] Reading through the messages, Shane was shocked to know that the beast sealing card could be destroyed and thest remark was equally frightening. With this in mind, he had to try out multiple things in order to figure out the working mechanism of the beast sealing card. Otherwise, he could inadvertently cause something unfavorable to happen. As such, Shane tinkered with the soulbond card for a few minutes to figure out its usage without storing Umbra in. Absorbing the card into his body itched only a little while extracting it felt exactly the same. Reassuring himself that it was easy, Shane looked at Umbra, who immediately knew what was going on. He slithered towards the small beast sealing card which lit up withplex runes. The beast sealing card expanded in size until it was perfectly adjusted to Umbra''s height and width. The snake gathered all of his courage to enter the ck-colored card with golden shining runes on it. Only a momentter, Umbra slithered inside the card and vanished. Shane immediately tried to feel their bond, and he sensed two connections at the same time, which was somewhat odd. Even if it felt weird, Shane was d to notice that everything seemed to work. He inserted the card into his soul, to carefully experiment if it was possible to store and release Umbra while the card was still within his soul. Unfortunately, exactly as he had predicted, Shane figured out that it was not possible to summon or store Umbra within the beast sealing card without releasing the card from his body. Thus, he was forced to extract it every time he wanted to store or release something. This increased the dangers by arge margin, as the process of extracting the beast sealing card and releasing Umbra and vice versa took roughly ten seconds in total. `It''s even inferior to a bronze tamer''s beast storage skill..` Shane sighed deeply, but it was quite obvious. Otherwise, everyone with a taming skill would do the same as him, purchasing a beast sealing card, while picking a different upation. "Well, It should work for the moment" Shane mumbled, as he released Umbra in order to exin his current n to him. Considering it a n could be a joke, as he inly said "Umbra, I''ll provide you with enough mana crystals and mana stones, while you fill your evolution bar, alright? Going into a hibernation might as well work. If you''re bored just try to see through my eyes. Otherwise, I can release you for a few days... However, both you and I know that increasing your evolution rate will increase our overallbat prowess by a hundred-fold if not more, right?" In the end, he tried topliment and motivate Umbra, but the small shadow-snake was more than aware of his use to Shane. Rather than being useful, he was a hindrance to his master, which annoyed Umbra a lot. Over thest few days, his use had been more than apparent. The only time he had been really able to help Shane was within the elemental crystal mine when he had served as his eyes on the back. Considering that Shane''s strength would only increase with time, Umbra didn''t want to fall too far behind. He nodded his head vigorously, epting everything Shane said, as he slithered back into the beast sealing card while transmitting a certain thought to him. Receiving this particr thought, Shane smiled, as he mumbled "Glutton". Umbra wanted to have a bunch of dishes within the beast sealing card, causing Shane to smile lightly. ''Preservable food will also work..right?'' He thought while asking himself what to purchase for Umbra. There was also a possibility that the small snake would hibernate or sleep for days on end. But before he would purchase anything, Shane pulled out arge chunk of mana crystals from his spatial ring and stored them within the beast sealing card. A spatial ring and a beast sealing card were innately the same because both could store items within them. But, the most important difference between them was that a spatial ring could only store dead or inanimate things. In addition to that, the time within a spatial ring woulde to a standstill, while a beast sealing card could store animate and inanimate objects without having a slower time course. Shane also knew that such rings, bags, and bracelets existed, but his need for them was minuscule. They would most likely have the same disadvantage as the beast sealing card had. Once they would be destroyed, everything within would be destroyed as well¡­ In the end, it was too much of a risk to store his tamed beast in an external essory that was at the risk of getting destroyed all the time by a mere slip of his finger. His blood-bound ancient susurro ring was different, as it sat firmly on his finger. There was no need for him to release it like the beast sealing card. Having finished doing everything he needed, he was about to walk out to purchase some preservable food for Umbra, when he noticed the Inn owner''s worried expression. "What is going on?" He asked and only now did he notice that it was already dark outside. The Inn owner saw Shane walking towards him and replied "It''s best if you don''t go out for the next few days, kid. The military has begun setting up counter-offensive measures because of the bloodlust thunder wolf''s existence. They went out with more than half of their troops, while only a small number remained within the shelter." Shane frowned as he listened to the Inn owner, It seemed to him that the military was being impatient, without considering certain kinds of problems, as the inn owner added "Weirdly enough, the stationed soldier said something about the radar being broken...." as he continued to mumble to himself "Was it ovepping fluctuations? Well, it doesn''t matter.." Hearing this, Shane recalled what Uncle Lars had exined to him about the radar when he was young. A frown appeared on his face as he thought `Are these soldiers even learning anything in their military training?? It''s not broken, but multiple races have gathered together!!` "F**K!" he eximed, as he circted a quarter of his mana within the lower body in order to elerate his speed. He then pushed himself up from the ground, as he rushed towards the shelter hall. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 82 - Betraying Rushing through the alleys, Shane passed through many guards that looked at him doubtfully, but he didn''t even give them a second look. `Please!!` He shouted in his mind, hoping that his feet might carry him faster towards the shelter hall that swam into his view. Shane was still unsure how the military had failed to detect something as easy as this. The only reason that they might have missed it was maybe that the individuals who had the highest military ranks had left the shelter, leaving a few lower ranked and younger youths behind. These soldiers had most likely reached the Expert stage with a slightly higher mana purity. He felt that their minds were not as sharp as those with a higher authority while their way of thinking might as well be naive. He knew much more about the military than most peers and for him, the radar''s function was obvious, while it might look like a malfunction to others. Charging into the shelter hall he ran past two tired guards that noticed him toote, as he walked in the entrance hall where the radar was situated. Shane immediately saw more than ten youths in a military outfit, while only four of them seemed to have reached the age of 20, causing him to frown. "Who are you? What are you doing here? Don''t you know that disturbing the military is considered a sin?" A blonde-haired youth with handsome features said in an annoyed voice when he saw Shane. After realizing that Shane was far more good-looking than him, the blond-haired youth had a sudden urge to show off his military rank. "I don''t care a shit about the garbage you''re saying! What the f**k are you guys even doing here, instead of preparing for a beast tide?" Shane shouted in an enraged voice. The ten or so military youths were caught off-guard at his sudden outburst and stared at him with a dumbfounded expression. `What the hell is this idiot saying?` most of them thought as a bulkier brown-haired man in his 20''s calmly exined. "Civilian, you might have just learned of the current situation, but ourbat force is already out and about to annihte the thunder wolf''s threat. After fixing the radar, everything will be fine, okay? Just go back and let us do our job." Shane felt relieved to see that the military soldier had responded calmly to a civilian instead of beating him into a pulp. But, this would have been only great to see if they were doing what they were supposed to. Without minding them, Shane walked closer to the radar, with a shocked expression appearing on his face. "If you guys had been good at your work, each of you would have known that an ovepping radar frequency indicated two different kinds of beasts gathering together. Furthermore, because the frequency on the radar is stable, they don''t seem to attack each other¡­ Can''t you guys see that arge group of dots ising straight towards us¡­ ohh my f**king lord¡­.How many awakened beasts are that??" Shane was shocked, as he looked at the brown-haired guy, signaling him toe closer, which the perplexed young man did subconsciously. Somehow Shane, who stood in front of him emitted an aura and confidence that was usually associated with the highest authorities in the military. This caused him to subdue and be more disciplined as he learned over thest few months. Upon looking at the radar''s holographic screen, his eyes widened, as he told the others who looked at Shane disapprovingly with doubtful eyes, toe over. Hearing the seriousness in their fellowrade''s voice, they sensed that something was wrong, as they came closer. A look of utter terror was mirrored across all of their faces as they saw arge swarm of dots with different frequenciesing straight towards their position. Even if they had doubted Shane before, how could they stand within the shelter-hall as if all was well, while arge-scale beast tide might hit them any moment? "How d-didn''t we notice that before?" The blond-haired youth who had been overconfident a moment before shuddered violently. He took out a purple crystal with a ck shining rune inscribed on it, as he injected mana into it. The ck rune manifested above the purple crystal and they could suddenly hear voices through the runes after a few moments. "What is wrong, Leo? Don''t you know we are about to attack the Wolf den? If this is nothing important again, I''ll beat you up into a pulp." A young but powerful voice said and Shane immediately knew that it had to be their superior. `They haven''t attacked yet? YES` he almost shouted, as he heard Leo''s trembling voice "S..Si.Sir... We ha...ve..a problem¡­.W--Wee...WHAT" Leo''s trembling voice was interrupted with Shane rushing towards him, taking over the purple crystal as he said. "Sir, we have a problem within the shelter, due to your subordinate''s wonderful work... They couldn''t detect a Two-race beast tide. The number of awakened beasts ranges from 500 to several thousand, while even more elite and wild stage beasts are charging towards us... Our information is limited and I can only assume that one of the two races is the scaled lizards¡­ The shelter defenses are still notpletely set up and it will at most take 10 minutes for the first beasts to reach our walls." Shane finished, before he pushed back the purple messenger crystal towards Leo, not without ring at him in disgust. Stepping back, he could only hear the superior shouting "WHAT?? YOU GODDAMN B**CHES¡­..Immediately set up the shelter''s defenses and stall time until we arrive¡­. I''ll kill you all even if a single soldier dies, UNDERSTOOD?" Hearing this, everyone''s face paled. Shane wanted to slink out of the shelter hall unnoticed, unfortunately, his n didn''t work out. "The young man who reported to me was not someone from your unit, is that correct?" Shane overheard a question, causing him to halt in his tracks. `Don''t you have something better to do right now?` Shane thought as he turned around, only to see the ten soldiers ring at him because he had betrayed them indirectly. "He is only a civilian," Leo answered honestly after he calmed down a bit. "Oh...interesting¡­ Tell him that I want to speak with him once everything is over¡­ Now prepare your defenses!!" The young man said as he ended the call. `Can''t they let me in peace?` Shanemented in his mind. However, noticing the res from his surroundings, Shane decided to run off. Even the brown-haired guy seemed to be annoyed because of his report., while saying "I understood your superior, bye...good luck surviving!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 83 - Ground&Aerial Rushing out of the shelter hall, Shane smiled lightly when he heard the young soldiers trying to catch up to him. Pursuing him was useless because they had more important things to do as a beast tide of two different beast races was about to ur. Shane wasn''t sure if he could help in any way, but he would do everything in his power in order to support the military. He was still unsure if he would really have to talk with the superior who was supposed to take care of everything within the RadiantRing shelter, but he could decideter. After thinking about what he could do, Shane decided to calm down the citizens and help everyone outside to search for refuge within the finished houses and Inns. Shane was confident that if the streets were to be emptied of all civilians and construction workers, the soldiers would have a much easier time moving around while rushing from one ce to another. Not much time had passed and he met a bunch of vendors, who were clueless about what exactly was going on. Shane ordered them to move away, but they disregarded his words,beling him as a fraud. Most vendors and stall owners at the Basic-Primordial Dimensions didn''t want to fight and usually preferred to live a rather rxed and quiet life. They had never ventured out of a shelter hence they were not even remotely aware of the dangers lurking outside. These vendors would umte funds and wait until they reached the age to ascend to the Intermediate-Dimensions with a mana purity of exactly 60%. After that most vendors would just continue to live a rather rxed life while selling their food, items, or equipment in order to reach higher ranks. However, theirbat prowess was almost nil, while their will was extremely weak. As such, Shane used something he didn''t use until now. Circting his mana, he unsheathed his daggers, before his eyes turned murderously cold. He manifested the killing intent that he had umted since he had killed his first beast. Shane seemed to grow many folds, as the vendors and stall owners stepped back involuntarily, staring at him with shocked expressions. They knew that the youth in front of them was at ater stage of the Mortal stage and nothing they should be afraid of. However, they couldn''t help but retreat due to the murderous aura radiating from him. ''What the hell is he? Is he a beast??'' The citizens asked themself before they decided to follow Shane''s orders without disregarding his authority anymore. It was possible that Shane was from the military, even though he didn''t wear their clothes or even worse...from a prestigious family. In the end, the youth in front of them radiated a certain charisma and his overbearing attitude caused them to ept everything he said. Time seemed to have slowed down as Shane cleared the streets with his best effort. He suddenly heard a familiar roar far away from the shelter walls, which reminded him immediately of the scaled lizard, while a loud screeching could be heard that echoed through the dark night. ''Is that some kind of a sick joke?'' Shane cursed in his mind when he remembered the crystal feathered eagles at the hillside far away from their shelter¡­. ''Do we have to face a ground and aerial attack at the same time?` He started to wonder as he heard multiple crossbows and bow shots swishing through the air as it drowned the screeching within the sky. The most unfortunate fact was that it was currently nearing midnight. Only the faint moonlight would provide any illumination to the vastndscape that was soon going to turn into a battlefield. Only the shelter itself was brightly lit up while Shane hoped that the military was at least smart enough to construct countermeasures against such a simple issue. Shane had been confident in humanity''s military due to Uncle Lars'' teachings. However, this confidence began to waver when he noticed that their soldiers couldn''t even read a simple mana fluctuation in the long-range radar. What annoyed him more was that the radar had been a simple one as opposed to the ones with several upgrades and modifications installed to enhance its efficiency. However, his opinions about the military improved slightly, when he noticed that arge white-yellowish mana circle spread out from the shelter''s center. It radiated a shining bright light as if it was emitting sunrays, brightening up the radius of the surrounding 1 kilometer like a clear sunny day. Even though he wouldn''t approve the usage of the [Radiating Sun Magic-circle] in such a scenario, because of the excessive mana consumption, it was definitely better than fighting without being able to see anything. The [Radiating Sun Magic-circle] was an expensive high-quality parchment with a magic circle inscribed on it. It was a one-time usage item, only used in perilous situations if a shelter''s existence was on the line. Based on what Shane saw on the long-distance radar, this was not required. This was because the number of awakened beasts that he had seen on it was lower than that of the expert soldiers within the shelter. At least, if the Inn owner''s intel was not wrong. If they stalled enough, even the massive number of Wild and Elite-stage beasts would bepletely useless. But in the end, it was not his decision and he should rather be grateful that the soldiers in charge had decided to splurge instead of being stingy, which he would most likely be. Once the alleys were cleared, the air was filled with the screams of beasts and humans alike, crying out in pain and agony. Meanwhile, the guards on the top and the shelter wall itself, continued to get assaulted with all kinds of elemental attributed projectiles. The guards retaliated the scaled lizards'' elemental attacks by raining arrows with their crossbows, bows, and ballistae, killing one low stage beast after another. Unfortunately, the long-range weapons used by the guards were only effective against the majority of Wild and Elite-stage beasts while the awakened stage scaled lizards were able to protect themselves. As such the main threat was still on their way towards the wall, while the crystal feathered eagles dived down from the sky in order to pick out guards that were about to reload their weapons. To Shane, it seemed like the scaled lizards and crystal feathered eagles were able to work in sync even though they should have been enemies ording to what he thought. In order to receive resources, beasts, humans, and all other races were always at a war against each other. Apparently, both the scaled lizards and crystal feathered eagles had obviously used the same source in order to strengthen themselves or forcefully mutate their affinity. As such the need of both races for elemental crystal caves should be extremely high, causing many shes over their interest and most likely even a war¡­ This caused a simple question to form in Shane''s mind. ''Why?'' ''Why are they attacking us humans, who barely entered the lesser thunder wolves territory? They are not even aware of our realbat prowess¡­ What are they scared of?'' Shane wasn''t sure what exactly was going on, but it seemed like the guards had everything under control for the moment. Thus, he decided to climb over the rooftop of one of thergest Inn that was well above the height of the walls in order to observe the situation. After climbing up, he readied himself with his bow in one hand, while a Tier-1 rare quality arrow already nocked at the bowstring. The top of the roof provided him aplete aerial view of the battleground below giving him a way to assess the situation clearly. ''Most awakened beasts are further behind?? And why does the ratio between scaled lizard and crystal feathered eagles seem to be wrong? There are many more scaled lizards while I haven''t seen an awakened crystalized eagle attacking our defenses¡­'' There was only one possibility Shane could think of which caused him to feel helpless as a premonition began to form within him. ''Please let me be wrong!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 84 - Beasts Wisdom Because of Umbra, Shane was aware of the intelligence beasts with higher quality could achieve even at lower stages, causing him to feel extremely ufortable at the moment. Inmon cases, beasts at the awakened stage would possess the intelligence of a 6-year-old human child, but these were already considered exceptions! If he was not wrong, Umbra with an [Extraordinary] quality was already capable of thinking like a 3 to a 4-year-old child, even though he was at the Wild stage. ''What if there is an awakened beast with a high intelligence due to a higher quality?'' This thought made Shane feel extremely ufortable. Generally, humans didn''t take Basic-Primordial Dimensions'' beast tides as seriously as tides within the Intermediate or even Advanced dimension. While humans in the Intermediate or Advanced dimensions relied more on tactics, teamwork, and misceneous items in order to oppose beast tides, beast tides within basic dimensions were seen as pushovers. These could be easily solved with arge number of high purity expert stages. But was that really the case? Shane had never heard of a beast with an extremely high intelligence within a basic dimension, mankind had a shelter in, but that didn''t mean that something like this couldn''t exist. Even though the number of beasts attacking them was vast and not to be underestimated, the ratio and the way both the scaled lizards and crystal feathered eagles behaved was extremely unusual for a beast tide, which was in most cases crude and a simple massacre. He had already been worried to find out that they were attacked at the perfect time when the military main force was the farthest from them¡­ and now the odd behavior of the two races'' behavior made him feel even worse. ''F**k this!'' He eximed in his mind, as he jumped down from the Inn''s roof in order to search for one of the authorities who were currently in charge. Even if hisbat prowess waspletely useless to change the tide, he could still try to convince higher-ups within the shelter to request more reinforcement. The shelter was in dire need of more soldiers even if his prediction was only partially true. While running towards the stairs at the shelter''s wall, he opened the system messenger, where he wrote a single message in the only group he was in, not caring about the attitude he was showing to his family. [Anyone who reads this, immediately send reinforcement to the Radiant mountain ring dimension!! Otherwise, it will most likely end in bloodshed! Uncle Lars¡­.CALL ME!!!!!"] By the time the message was sent, Shane had reached the wall''s stairs. He was about to close his system panel when a sudden idea popped into his head. "System, resend myst message every five seconds in the same group until someone answers!" [Host''s request recorded...1 gold coin will be deducted, once approved¡­ Executing Yes/No?] He had the urge to bash the system''s mechanical voice, as he gritted his teeth while thinking [Execute..YES!] Rushing up the stairs, Shane found more than one hundred guards shooting at the scaled lizards and crystal feathered eagles without any coordination. Seeing this, his brows furrowed and he was about to shout out ''Have you kids practiced with your weapons for merely a week? What the hell is this?'' when he saw their eyes gleaming in fear, which caused him to immediately understand the situation. ''They''re rookies¡­What bad luck!'' Shane thought. He knew that the soldiers in front of him were too scared to think clearly about any kind of discipline they might have learned during their military training. ''Where is their idiotic leader?'' He asked himself, as he heard someone shouting multiple orders at once, confusing the already anxious soldiers even more. The young man who was shouting instructions was clearly at the peak of the Expert stage with a mana purity of at least 60%. But being able to lead someone did not necessarily rely on the cultivation stage. The young man immediately noticed Shane who rushed towards him in brisk steps, rming him due to his sudden approach. "What are you doing here! Don''t get in my way, otherwise, you will disturb me and my soldiers!!" This caused Shane to tilt his head, while his eyes grew colder. He spoke bluntly as his killing intent manifested. "Immediately call for reinforcement and get a grip on your soldiers if you don''t want to be the main reason for the RadiantRing shelter''s destruction!" The young man that was about to ignore the ck-haired youth in front of him turned back when he heard Shane''s tirade which astonished him. Turning back towards Shane, with a slightly annoyed expression, he saw his serious, yet ice-cold eyes piercing into him. It caused goosebumps to spread all over the young man''s skin. It was the first time for him to act as a leader that was unnerving enough. On top of it, Shane seemed to act extremely overbearing which caused his pride to be immediately hurt. He was about to order some of his soldiers to whisk Shane away, as the youth in front of him received a call. Shane epted the call from Uncle Lars immediately, without giving the idiotic young man a second nce. Even though Lars was his uncle, Shane couldn''t hold back anymore. He had thought better of his Uncle than sending rookies to a newly established shelter''s beast tide which was extremely dangerous to ovee without the help of native citizens. The young man in front of Shane was astonished but a mocking smile appeared on his face, as he said " ''Your'' soldiers? Hahaha. Nice try, idiot!! If you don''t want to be thrown down the shelter wall, F**K OFF!" The young man yelled at Shane as he uttered thest two words, attracting a smallmotion from the soldiers around who were giving their best to take care of the beast tide. Meanwhile, their leader was arguing with a kid? ¡­.Ridiculous! Until now Uncle Lars hadn''t said a word and the first thing he did was to activate the system''s video transmission function. Shane could suddenly see his Uncle appear in front of him as a holographic image. He was about to say something as Lars turned his gaze to the young man who had shouted at Shane with a grim face. Uncle Lars seemed to be in a bad mood, and the young man paled visibly when he saw Lars Kriez, their Marshall in person¡­ The soldiers who had been attracted by themotion caused by their leader were shocked to see their Marshal appear in front of them, even if it was through a holographic transmission. As they looked from the young ck-haired youth to the marshal, several weird thoughts crossed their mind. Their minds came up with multiple answers to the question of why the young man next to them appeared to be so close to the marshal, who hadn''t been as close to his subordinates. The only thing the young man could do, was to gulp down his saliva, as he nodded his head. He began to tremble involuntarily as Lars turned back to Shane who looked at him with scorn. Hemented, causing his Uncle tough out Lars stated before he added quietly __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 85 - Taking Over... Shane was about toin to Uncle Lars but his uncle merely wished him good luck before he abruptly ended the call. ''YOU!!!'' he wanted to punch his uncle, even though it wouldn''t hurt him, as he red at the young man next to him. "You heard your Marshall, right??" Seeing the ck-haired youth in front of him, the young man''s eyes trembled in fear, as he involuntarily stepped back. ''Why did I have to meet such a big-shot on my first beast-tide as a troop-leader? How can someone be as unlucky as I am?'' However, even though heined inwardly, he hesitantly answered. "Yes, I heard Marshall Kriez¡­ " before he announced with a loud voice, supported with a little bit of mana. "The young man next to me will take charge of the whole unit. Everyone who disregards his order will have to face severe military punishment!" While the young man next to him said so, Shane decided to take a step forward and push his chest out a little to exude confidence. "Hello everyone, my name is Shane and I''m the person in charge now! If you guys follow my instructions, almost everyone will survive, UNDERSTOOD??" He announced in a crystal clear voice with mana amplifying it so that it echoed throughout the shelter wall. The soldiers nearby were astonished to hear the voice bouncing off the walls. They had been busy shooting their opponents with their long-range weapons when they noticed a teenager in a very fine and elegant ck robe standing next to their prior leader in charge. But based on the first few words spoken by this ck-haired teenager, most soldiers immediately noticed that Shane wasn''t an ordinary youth. To them, he appeared to either be a descendant of someone in the military, a noble, or something simr. Shane radiated a thick aura thatmanded respect as if it was normal for him to lead others. The other possibility was that Shane was merely acting as if he was a bigshot. However, it would be a ridiculous conclusion because they felt the pressure around them immediately increase when Shane spoke. They had felt such pressure only when they were around some of the highest authorities which made them take the teenager in front of them seriously. As if on cue, a few soldiers shouted out "UNDERSTOOD!" without knowing that they did. Shane smiled lightly, as he took a deep breath in order to calm down his excitement, as he instructed in a loud andmanding voice. "For my first instruction, I want everyone to calm the F**K down!? What the hell do you guys think you''re doing? If you want to die, just jump down the wall and fall on your head! Don''t obstruct yourrades and focus on your uracy instead!" Hearing him, some soldiers immediately assumed the ''at attention'' stance and Shane smiled, thinking that it was rtively easy to overwhelm inexperienced soldiers with the harsh truth. There were still quite a few nervous soldiers, but they would have to adapt themselves with time. Focusing on the issues at hand, he spoke again. "Right now, we have to face two beast-tides at the same time but the crystal feathered eagles are the most problematic issue for us archers! Apprentice stage archers and crossbowmen focus on the flock of Wild-stage crystal feathered eagles for the moment. Expert Archers-take care of the Elite-stage eagles. The remaining crossbowmen fire at the Elite earth and fiery scaled lizards first! Everyone at the ballistae takes care of the awakened scaled lizards except the aqueous scaled lizard. The damage they cause to the wall is almost negligible." Hearing him, everyone nodded their heads in unison, while they began to follow Shane''s instructions. The young man who had been in charge before Shane took over, hadn''t given them specific instructions on what their target areas should be. They had been clueless and without a strategy to battle their opponents which was almost like a self-inflicted death sentence. However, after hearing Shane''s battle strategy, the soldiers felt more secure and even a little hopeful. The whole process, per se, wasn''t anything special, but with Shane''s aura, it was much easier to force everyone into following him. A few minutes passed and his presence and continued instructions eased the soldiers. His words and hismanding voice seemed to infuse them with confidence as they were able to rid themselves of the tension. Slowly but steadily, the horde of beasts began to diminish slightly. After he gave out his first orders, he also instructed the young man next to him to search for Leo, because he required the messenger crystal. The young man spotted Leo ascending the stairs, who was astonished to see Shane. Leo was about to shout at him when he noticed Shane issue detailed instructions to the soldiers to help them refine their hunting process. "What?!" He mumbled, as the prior leader in charge answered with a sigh "Just let it be... Give him the messenger crystal¡­" Hesitating a bit, Leo did as his superior said. He approached Shane, who spoke to him in amanding voice. "Are you a snail or a sloth? Be quick, if you don''t want yourrades to die!" He shouted, causing Leo to think ''How did his attitude change so fast?'' But Leo followed the instruction nheless, handing the messenger crystal to Shane before stepping back. "Now go to the dimensional portal and tell the new Archers and Crossbowmen toe up to the northern wall. The closebat regiment should gather at the northern gate and prepare themselves to charge out of the shelter when I say so! Immediately notify me if any of the new soldiers have a tamer or special upation." Shane ordered before he turned back to the prior leader, and said "Common closebat units don''t use wind rider horses, right?... If a troop with wind rider horses appears, notify me! I hope you are familiar with their emblem. Their horses are stored within beast sealing cards and you can''t instantly perceive them!" When he had finished giving out the order to the two baffled young men, Shane channeled mana into the messenger stone. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the two men were still staring at him. "Are your feet rooted into the ground? GO!" Somehow Shane felt good to order everyone around, even though it was only because of his ties to the Marshall. ''Somehow it''s a hassle, but I like it, huh?'' He thought, smiling lightly. Nevertheless, he had to help, because it seemed like the higher-ranked militaries had left the shelter in order to clear the Wolf den. In the end, they had made a huge mistake by underestimating their opponents'' wits, even though it was hard to tell if his prediction about the bloodlust thunder wolf''s intelligence was spot-on. The shelter wall seemed to fend off all crystal feathered eagles extremely well, considering that their whole order seemed to be a mess but that was mainly because not a single awakened-stage eagle had shown up yet. There were lots of casualties that could have been prevented, but Shane couldn''t help but think that his leadership might be able to help out with that! Meanwhile, the wall itself bore multiple holes, causing wind des and other attacks to go straight past the wall and demolish the buildings standing behind the massive shelter wall. The situation seemed to be under control for now. Considering the fact that Shane''s small unit had only begun to work properly over thest few minutes, their efficiency had increased to arge degree. It was still not good enough in his opinion, but he had to ept it for the moment. At the moment, briefing the main soldier unit outside the shelter was far more important. He saw other soldiers rushing towards him and his new soldiers unit, while a few Warriors and other closebat upationists began to gather at the northern gate. ''Wall! You have to endure a few more minutes, okay? You''re not allowed to copse!'' Shane repeated in his mind, trying not to say it out loud because it would distract the soldiers. The messenger crystal finally connected to its counterpart and he was subjected to the deafening sounds emanating from the other messenger crystal It was a giant melee of voices that were hard to distinguish from one another. He immediately heard loud roars, sounds of thunder shing on metal, and the horrible shrieks of humans and beasts that cried in pain. Before he could speak, an angry voice asked him, "WHAT NOW?! If there is nothing important I''ll hang up!! The thunder wolf initiated a surprise attack while we retreated!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 86 - Counteroffensive! Hearing that their main force was fighting against the thunder wolves was not a good sign and Shane decided to report the situation in brief. "The two-race beast tide has started, but we have already called for reinforcements and the shelter should be able to hold out. The main issue is that they stalled while the awakened crystal feathered eagles and the majority of awakened scaled lizards haven''t attacked us yet. There is an extremely intelligent awakened beast among the three races! Survive and return without too many casualties!!" The other party disconnected the call abruptly after hearing Shane causing him to frown. But then he couldn''t be upset as he wasn''t aware of how the military was faring against their opponents. He was about to imagine the worst-case scenario when an Elite-stage crystal feathered eagle dived down towards him. Luckily the crystal feathered eagle was shot by one of the Archers next to him. Thanking him, Shane decided that he had more important things to take care of. He gave more instructions, while he assigned a few Expert stage archers and crossbowmen to focus more on the awakened stage beasts with the top priority being the crystalized eagles. Even though their morale had increased by arge margin, some Archers couldn''t evade wind des and crystal feathered eagles. It was a gruesome sight for the surrounding soldiers to see theirrades getting severed and torn apart. However, Shane gave his best to boost everyone''s morale together while trying to simultaneously eliminate the most dangerous threats for the soldiers and citizens with a few instructions. A few minutester he saw a soldier unit with green leather armors and long spears in their hands rushing towards the northern gate as he noticed the emblem on their chest. His mood lifted and Shane was immediately overjoyed. Fortunately, he remembered his current responsibility and calmed down. He asked the Archers to continue with their attack stating that he would return shortly. As Shane rushed down the stairs, a particr young green-haired young man who seemed to be 20 years old stood out from the crowd. Shane approached him and said "Are you the Cavalry captain? If that''s the case, prepare yourself. We have to open up the northern gate soon, otherwise, the whole northern wall will fall!" The green-haired young man was astonished about his behavior, wondering who this teenager was. He then suddenly recalled the words of his superior telling him that a young ck-haired man was in charge and that he would immediately know if he was the right one. His superior had asked him to listen to everything Shane told him. Thus, the green-haired man saluted Shane, before replying "Understood, Sir!" causing the surrounding soldiers to look at their captain in astonishment. Turning around, the green-haired young man ordered "Prepare to move out!". Meanwhile, Shane decided to rush towards the closebat unit in order to guide and instruct them further. Shane noticed that everyone obeyed his orders and realized that his cover was almost blown. It was a rather disappointing but negligible fact. ''At least only the RadiantRing shelter and a few soldiers will remember me and my face'' Shane tried to console himself. In the end, it was only fortunate that nobody knew about his real identity or his full name. As such everything was still fine. After he gave his orders, Shane rushed back up the stairs in order to assess the current situation. He waited another 30 seconds before ordering a bunch of soldiers to open the northern gate. Several scaled lizards had gathered near the front of the gate and Shane ordered his archers to take care of them before he sensed arge number of mana fluctuations behind him. Suddenly around 300 wind rider horses appeared on the shelter''s main street out of nowhere. They were ready to charge at the shelter oncemanded, as the cavalry riders sat on their back holding their spears. Once the gate was open, Shane couldn''t help but shout excitedly "CHARGE!" with mana amplifying his voice. Hearing hismand, a unit with three hundred cavalry riders charged out of the gate followed by hundreds of Warriors, Berserkers, Assassins, and all kinds of branch upations. Shane smiled lightly, on seeing the scaled lizards being overwhelmed by the sudden opening of the gate, as hundreds of Wild and Elite-stage beasts were massacred within seconds. ''It''s not an Elite unit without reason, huh?'' Shane apuded them in his mind. He saw ten smaller units disperse in order to overwhelm the scaled lizards. The lizards attacked with fireballs, earth spikes, water jets, wind des, and so on, but their attacks proved futile as they witnessed real speed. Wind rider horses weren''t called like this for naught and with their stage being at the peak of the elite stage, they were able to defend themselves against a few scaled lizards by themselves. However, fighting was not something they were capable of, while a kick was the only thing allowing them to flee from predators. The core strength of the wind rider horses was their speed and agility notbat. They more than made up for theirck of fighting skills by moving almost at a dizzying speed. They were even faster than most normal awakened stage beasts like scaled lizards. Only beasts like crystalized eagles would be faster but with the current situation on the ground, Shane noticed that the scaled lizards werepletely overwhelmed. He suddenly saw a lot of crystal feathered and crystalized eagles appear outside the radiant-sun magic circle, causing him to frown lightly. Given the current situation on the ground, he could order all of his Archers and Crossbowmen to change their focus towards the sky. With the cavalry and the closebat units clearing the ground, the Archers and Crossbowmen could easily take care of the flying beasts, which caused the whole perilous situation to end up in a massacre. However, what astonished Shane the most was the extremely short amount of time the cavalry had required to prepare themselves to enter the RadiantRing shelter. In his opinion, such a discipline should bemon for every unit, as he looked at the cavalry in amazement. Shane let out his breath, sighing in relief thinking that the whole situation would be over soon. However, his relief was short-lived as he spotted another bunch of evolved scaled lizards withrge horns far away from them. They were almost asrge as trucks and Shane immediately furrowed his brows, wondering if this was the scaled lizards'' main force... ''There are still more?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 87 - Struggle Looking at the gigantic, horned lizards, Shane couldn''t help but gulp involuntarily. Using their elemental attacks, the closebat unit charged at them. However, they were almost immediately burned, pierced, or split in two, changing the tides of the whole battle in a blink of an eye. "WHAT?" Shane couldn''t help but exim in shock. Trying to calm down, he instructed loudly, while trying to sound confident. "Ballistae on the left-load anti-mana bolts while the ballistae on the right side use armor-piercing bolts! I don''t care about the costs, but these gigantic horned lizards have to die!!" The soldiers operating the ballistae were still dumbfounded. It was only Shane''s order that brought them back to their senses as they subconsciously followed his orders. The young soldiers shivered in fright on witnessing the scene in front of them. Not even their wildest dreams would they have imagined participating in a huge battle on their first shelter protection mission. "Focus on the red-scaled gigantic, horned lizards!! They killed most of ourrades down there!! TAKE REVENGE!!" Shane was gutted as well as proud to see so many loyal soldiers die in order to protect the shelter, due to his request for reinforcement. However, he was sure that the shelter would have been annihted by now. Humanity, as it is, couldn''t bear another increase in costs for the world-protection extension at the moment. The only fortunate fact was that almost all Wild and Elite stage-scaled lizards had been annihted, while the crystal feathered eagles seemed to be less of a problem. In total, there were only slightly more than 3000 Wild, 500 Elite, and at most 50 Awakened beasts left on the battlefield which was probably a tenth of the initial beast tide. In the end, Wild and Elite beasts were cannon-fodder for all the soldiers here. The only beasts killing theirrades were awakened stage crystalized eagles, which seemed to be the simplest evolution of crystal feathered eagles, or awakened scaled lizards and the newly appeared gigantic, horned lizards. ''Who the hell controls them? Their whole tactic is stupid but these evolved gigantic, horned lizards should reign over a small area with the strength they showcase¡­.'' Shane waspletely clueless as he tried to think of a way to fight the new threat. The first ballistae shots distracted him, as they pierced through the thick scales covering the evolved gigantic, horned lizards. Shane''s smile brightened upon seeing the beasts roar in pain. The cavalry units had gained enough time to approach the first gigantic, horned lizards. Without wasting a single moment, all of themshed out with their spears that were enveloped with dense mana, right before thick earth walls, wind des andpressed water appeared right in front of them. With wide eyes, Shane could only stare at two cavalry units being blown apart, severed, or thrown high into the sky due to the erected wall. However, what truly shocked him was the fact that the gigantic, horned lizards attacked, killed their own brethren mercilessly. ''What is this massacre?'' He asked himself in astonishment. There was nothing left for him to understand anymore and the only thing that held him together was the fact that the attacking gigantic, horned lizards were assaulted by their own brethren. They were mercilessly stabbed, shed, and chopped as well by the surviving cavalry and closebat units. "RELOAD!" Shane shouted as he tried to block the voices of the soldiers from his mind. They were crying in anguish and in their cries he heard their desperation and will to live, even though most knew that their will alone might not be enough. Seeing halved, burned, and perforated bodies, Shane almost vomited in front of the soldiers he was in charge of. Suppressing the urge to vomit, he tried to reassure everyone around him that everything would be over soon, once the remaining beasts had been killed. Looking around, Shane also noticed a small issue. The crossbow bolts and arrows seemed to diminish, and only a few hundred were left, causing him to frown. His eyes fell on one of the soldiers whose legs gave in at the sight of the bloody battlefield. "YOU!" Shane shouted, causing the young man to look at him with quivering eyes scared that he would die any moment. Sighing, Shane ordered calmly "Take the reserved crossbow bolts, arrows, and ballistae bolts from the barracks...NOW!!" Getting hold of himself, the young man rushed down the stairs, only to fall on his face, causing Shane to helplessly shake his head. Even though his body was only 16-years-old and he had still been a child when he had lived on earth, Shane was familiar with the cruelty of this world. He had been educated by his father about the cold hard truths of Igra that made him more knowledgeable than most of his peers. Due to this, Shane was sure that humanity would face a hard time if all the soldiers would be as frightened as the ones he was in charge of. ''Well...it''s their first time..'' Shane tried to console himself. He noticed that almost not a single Wild and Elite stage beast was left as thest hundreds were ughtered. Within the sky, the number of beasts also diminished with thest few crystalized eagles seemingly scared to approach the shelter''s range, knowing they would die if they tried. The newly emerged gigantic, horned lizards turned serious, seeing all of their brethren die. The Cavalry still consisted of more than one hundred members after sustaining arge number of casualties. Right as the awakened beasts were about to flee from the siege, a dense, terrifying, yet familiar bloodlust permeated the whole shelter. Shane had no issues guessing exactly who the culprit was. When he connected all the dots with each other, his assumption proved to be correct. ''The bloodlust thunder wolf is the high-intelligent beast! But...what is it doing here and why is it not in the Wolf den, fighting against the main force¡­?'' Shane tensed up because of the bloodlust, while the same happened with the beasts and humans on the battlefield, causing them to instinctively halt their fight. ''The bloodlust thunder wolf became even stronger?'' He thought and it felt like the bloodlust around him became even more distinct. Shivering, Shane sensed fear enveloping him slowly, trying to pierce into his mind. As he fought against the fear he saw the youths next to him copse on the ground while the same happened with the Soldiers and beasts on the battlefield. Not a single being could control their body anymore, while he heard someone behind him eximing in an astonished voice. "High-grade ability!! Not bad!" Barely able to turn around, Shane noticed a young woman with white shining hair and eyes, long white eyshes, and a perfectly shaped figure standing behind him with a straight back. Seeing Shane turn towards her, she smiled brightly, saying "You did a good job, Marshall Kriez will be proud of you! ....You did enough, I''ll take care of everything!" She then turned back to walk down the stairs, as Shane noticed a unit of approximately 100 armored women riding on white horses. Not knowing what kind of unit this was he could only stare at them. Based on the pressure these women and their horses had endured without sweating a tiny bit, Shane could say for sure, that their mana purity had to be higher than 80%. But what astonished him, even more, was that he knew the white-haired woman from somewhere, even though he was not sure where¡­ ''Who is she?'' Seeing her summon a white horse with a horn on the forehead while shouting "Let''s go Valkyries! We have to defeat a thunder wolf cub!!". He suddenly recalled the special cavalry unit he had seen earlier, while the name of the young white-haired woman reemerged in his mind. "Aisha Hael and the Valkyries!" he quietly mumbled. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 88 - Holy Being If his memories weren''t deceiving him, Aisha Hael was a 20-year-old woman with mana purity of at least 90%. It was said that she had the tinum upation called Holy Knight which enhanced all attacks with a holy light, but nobody knew for sure. As such, she was at the top of humanity''s Expert stages within the Basic Primordial dimensions. The Valkyries were her personal special cavalry unit, which Uncle Lars had given to her in order to take charge of perilous situations within Basic dimensions. Shane knew that Aisha was Lars'' disciple but he had only met her once at a military event. Apparently, her parents had been good friends of his Uncle. Thus he had raised her as one of his own after her parents had lost their lives in a beast tide in the intermediate dimensions. Aisha''s strength was unrivaled, her leadership style exceptional while her determination was nothing to joke about. The Valkyries she trained could be said to be her team with which she went out on hunting and training trips within the dimensions, causing all of them to have a mana purity of at least 80%. She only epted ambitious and hard-working women into her unit, causing thebat prowess of the team to soar higher. Their close knit rtionship was also one reason for their superior teamwork. The only drawback was that the team members were nearly irreceable so if one of the Valkyries were to die, it not only altered the group dynamics but also an emotional loss. Right now, all humans and awakened beasts were suppressed by the thick bloodlust radiating from the bloodlust thunder wolf. Suddenly everyone saw a thunderstorm emerge from the direction the bloodlust came from. The darkness dissipated, opening the path to a six-meter-tall and more than ten-meter long wolf. Two horns protruded out of its forehead, while thick electric currents swirled around the horns vigorously as if they were live wires. Its eyes turned red with the bloodlust increasing another notch, as dozens of lightning spears manifested next to the bloodlust thunder wolf, which it released without any hesitation. Shane''s eyes widened when he saw that the lightning spears didn''t pierce through human soldiers but rather through the gigantic, horned lizards and other awakened beasts all around them. The spears killed them by piercing their skulls, and chests, cutting them open like a knife slicing through butter as they gushed out of their bodies. ''Why?!'' He asked himself and the soldiers around him and on the battlefield asked themselves the same question. The bloodlust thunder wolf''s purple fur began to turn slightly red, while the bloodlust around it began to shimmer with a red hue. "WHAT?!" Shane shouted in shock, not knowing what was going on... It could have been the effect of the bloodlust thunder wolf''s ability, but then why would it attack one of its own instead of killing humans? On the other hand, it could have been a procedure to unseal an evolution restriction. No matter what the case, Shane could only look in shock at the sole surviving wolf standing against the whole shelter. The Shelter tide seemed to be over because a single beast possibly couldn''t have the ability to fight thousands of enemies at the same time. Additionally, the reinforcement was still streaming through the dimensional portal. If the bloodlust thunder wolf would be stronger with each kill it made, the whole situation would reverse. He saw Aisha and her Valkyries charging fearlessly towards the wolf on top of their Radiant-Hignd horses. The Valkyries rode on radiant hignd horses, which were horses at the awakened rank, without anybat abilities. Aisha rode on a variant horned holy radiant hignd horse that amplified her holy energy even further. The speed of the wind rider horses and Radiant-Hignd horses couldn''t bepared with each other due to the vast gap in speed. Aisha rode in front of the Valkyries, with her holy mana radiating spear in her hands. The bloodlust thunder wolf roared in rage, manifesting purple lightning spears with a tiny amount of a red color mixed within it. Shooting them towards the Valkyries, Aisha suddenly released a terrifying amount of mana. It led to the emergence of a gigantic illusionary being that looked like a goddess with holy light enveloping it. Shane didn''t know if it was really a goddess or not, but if there was a god or deity, it would definitely look like the manifested being Aisha had summoned. An unimaginable amount of holy light radiated from her, making it difficult for him to even see her face. The only thing he saw was white hair fluttering in the darkness. As the goddess raised her arms, Shane felt a terrifying suction force trying to envelop him hundred of meters away. The lighting spears that were shot towards Aisha and the Valkyries forcefully averted their trajectory. Instead of attacking the humans, the spears dissipated inside the holy being above Aisha that in turn dissipated into thin air, as if it had never existed. Everyone''s jaw dropped to the ground, including Shane who was baffled by what he saw. ''What the hell is that? A skill or maybe an ability?'' He assumed it to be either of the two. He felt that even if he would ask Aishater, she would most likely ignore his question, or do something worse. He was also not keen to tell anyone about his blessing or innate skill, leading him to the assumption that Aisha would most likely hate it too. Even if that was the case, Shane couldn''t help but think of all kinds of possibilities that could summon such a terrifying, yet beautiful existence. ''It''s either a limited upational skill, an extremely rare and hard to obtain unique skill, an Innate skill, a skill obtained from a limited title¡­ maybe even a blessing?... What if it is an Inherited ability?'' Shane''s knowledge about the Primordial Dimension was vast, but that wouldn''t help him in figuring out more about Aisha''s mysterious skill. It could have been either of the formerly named skills, while an Inherited ability was the least likely. This was because to obtain an Inherited ability, her birth would have had to manifest a conspicuous phenomenon. With the appearance of a holy being or a fiend, she would have been either blessed or cursed at birth. Shane hadn''t heard of something like that happen over thest twenty years. An Inherited ability wouldn''t have to be advantageous because it could also be harmful. But, if it had a positive effect it was definitely worth as much as a blessing or innate skill, maybe even both together. Shane had admired the being Aisha had summoned and he felt as if it looked simr to Aisha, with her white hair twirling in the air while only the holy light was a bit different. Shaking his head, he disregarded the thought about Aisha''s weird, yet powerful ability. As such, he focused more on the sh that was about to happen at any moment. Shocked by the sudden appearance of the holy being that devoured its lightning spears, the bloodlust thunder wolf couldn''t help but shiver in fright before it roared in rage. Enveloped with electric currents and pushing itself from the ground, the bloodlust thunder wolf reached a breathtaking speed, as it charged towards the left side of the spearhead formation of Aisha and her Valkyries. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 89 - Retreat! With electric currents enveloping its body, the bloodlust thunder wolf was as fast as the Radiant Hignd horses, while Aisha''s horned holy radiant hignd horse was barely faster than it. There were only two issues about the bloodlust thunder wolf which made it extremely hard for the Valkyries and Aisha to pierce it with their spears. The terrific electric currents coupled with its lean and flexible body allowed the bloodlust thunder wolf to roam freely around the Valkyrie group without sustaining any injury. It kept hovering around the group trying to intimidate them by changing its directions at breakneck speed in order to instill fear and create chaos. However, it had failed to calcte the Valkyries'' discipline into its n, along with the will to sacrifice their own life in order to protect their sworn sisters. The horned holy radiant hignd horse approached the bloodlust thunder wolf while trying to predict the future path it would run in order to reach it. Simultaneously, all of the hundred Valkyries released their [Lesser Holy] mana in order to create and shoot holy-light spears to hinder its advance. Meanwhile, Aisha gathered her remaining mana and channelized it into her spear. It glowed brightly as the sound of a bell rang throughout the battlefield, violently shaking all the soldiers on the ground. The spear erged while Aisha pulled her arm back and swiftly turned the spear in a smooth move. She readied it, perfecting her aim to throw it at the bloodlust thunder wolf, as the horned holy radiant hignd horse began to radiate in white light. Shane was shocked to see the erged holy-white glowing spear leave Aisha''s hand and zoom in the direction of its target. "Am I watching a high-fantasy movie or what? Is the CG so good?" before he realized that he was not on earth anymore. The spear''s speed seemed to put the speed of lightning to shame as Shane kept watching in awe. Sensing the perilous threat of death approaching it, the bloodlust thunder wolf hurriedly summoned a ten-meter-long lightning spear with all of its remaining mana. Not even a millisecondter the holy-white spear pierced into the gigantic lightning spear, shattering it without further ado. The spear continued with its trajectory, and pierced through the bloodlust thunder wolf''s back, tearing out a huge chunk of flesh while it caused a fountain of blood to spurt out of the serious injury it had sustained. The bloodlust thunder wolf roared in pain, as it watched the woman who had attacked it in seething rage. Though it didn''t have any mana left, it wanted to approach the equally mana drained woman and kill her even if it were to die in the process. While taking a small step forward, it noticed a hundred white armored humans on top of white horses approaching it. The lesser holy spears pierced into its purple fur, barely injuring it. However, a few lesser holy spears pierced into the open wound making it wince., A fresh wave of pain circted through its whole body, forcing the bloodlust thunder wolf to step back. The wolf pondered over its next course of action for a while before its gut feeling and the umted intelligence overwhelmed the wild instincts. It turned around to flee without wasting any time, as a loud howl reverberated through the dark night, where it vanished into thin air. Somehow, to Shane this howl felt like a warning "I''ll be back" but there was no way to ensure this fact. After the bloodlust thunder wolf vanished, he averted his gaze to Aisha who could barely hold herself on her mount, as she ordered. "Let''s pursue the bloodlust thunder wolf!! We can''t let it stay alive!!!" As she gave her mount the signal to follow behind the wolf into the darkness. All of the 101 riders took out two to three potions that were used to increase the mana replenishing speed, heal shallow cuts, and to activate a night vision effect in order to see in the darkness. After consuming the potions, the Valkyries vanished within the darkness with Aisha in the front. Their horses had to drink a special night vision potion as well.. Shane was still shocked to see that every Valkyrie used the same magic with the exact same affinity, which was odd because the holy light affinity was said to be extremely rare. ''Maybe the holy-light affinity is not that rare? But even Aunty Kia said so¡­.Does it have anything to do with Aisha? Her holy light mana was much stronger¡­. Maybe they all have the same upation...Have all of them unlocked the same requirement? Is that some kind of a ritual in order to enter the Valkyrie unit??'' He wasn''t aware of the specific criteria that one had to meet to enter a special unit, but he knew quite a lot of unique units that only allowed special upations or rather youths with a certain affinity to enter their military unit. There was the [zing-Dragon] legion, for example, that only allowed humans with a fire affinity to apply to their unit. Shane had never aspired to join the military in the first ce. He found such units dumb, and even though their tactics could work inrger groups, ording to him, theycked versatility. Weirdly enough, with the escape of thest threat the shelter had to face, everything went awkwardly silent. The soldiers who had copsed on the battlefield regained some strength and used it to stand up not without shaking slightly. Hearing amotion behind him, he turned around to see unit after unit of soldiers approaching the northern gate with a handsome and proud-looking young man in front of them. ''Why are such guys always toote?'' Shane sighed and thought of giving the proud young man a hearing when he remembered that he was barely at theter Mortal stage. Thinking about this also suddenly reminded him of his current financial problem. His funds had tanked after purchasing the beast sealing card with the soul connection ability. ''Maybe I was too rash?'' He thought, but after that, he immediately disregarded this thought. Traveling around with Umbra was too dangerous with his current strength and it was more of a hindrance. Gold coins could always be earned but if Umbra were to die, everything would be over, which both of them didn''t want. As the battle came to an end, Shane''s tension was immediately relieved while the emergency signal within the shelter was deactivated, which Shane hadn''t even noticed before. Without further ado, he congratted the rookie soldiers to have ovee their first, yet extremely dangerous beast tide, which was not something everyone could say about themselves. In the end, it was Shane''s first time to lead others and he was somewhat proud of himself. He decided to walk down the stairs attached to the copsed shelter wall. Maybe it was wrong for him to abruptly leave his unit, but he didn''t want to be bothered by others about his origin and identity, because he would either have to lie or ignore them. After reaching the alley Shane passed by the proud young man, who seemed to be obsessed with praises, being showered all around him. Shane however did not care about him a tiny bit, which caused the newly arrived soldiers to look at him with anger, as they wanted their captain to be praised by everyone which was solely to suck up even more. Passing them he subconsciously mumbled, "Don''t trip on the slime trails you guys leave behind." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 90 - Time Is Gold! "Don''t trip on the slime trails you guys leave behind" After saying so, Shane sprinted into a dark alley, before the surrounding soldiers could react. Even though the beast tide hadsted for only a few hours with Shane taking for less than two hours, he felt extremely tired and only wanted to sleep. Fortunately, the inn he had rented a room in, was still intact without any elemental attacks damaging the building. It was quite fortunate, considering the proximity of the inn to the northern wall. Hundreds of gaping holes decorated the wall through which the elemental attacks had entered the shelter and demolished a few newly built houses. Seeing him, the Inn owner eyed him weirdly, as if he was insane because he had left the Inn in haste a few hours ago.. After greeting the owner, Shane went inside his room, only to throw himself on the bed without any energy to change his clothes. ** Waking up a few hourster, he straightened his back, did a small workout, washed up, and changed into a fresh set of clothes, before he walked out of the inn hurriedly. His next steps had to be careful because they were extremely important. If the rumors were true, the Wolf den''s threat should have beenpletely taken care of, though it had resulted in the death of hundreds of expert stage soldiers, which upset Shane almost immediately. He wasn''t aware of the number of casualties faced by humanity in thest few hours. It had to be in the thousands if not tens of thousands, and almost all of them had been seasoned soldiers. It was a painful loss to the military''s strength, even though they had more than 10,000,000 soldiers in total. The military was segmented into three main sections and their names were exactly the same as the dimensions. Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. 10 million soldiers might sound like a lot, but they were distributed amongst more than 35 Basic dimensions, 10+ intermediate dimensions, and few advanced dimensions, with humanity''s shelter established on each of them. In the end, the 10 million soldiers weren''t supposed to work all the time. They required a lot of time and resources to increase their strength in order to strengthen humanity''s defense, without sacrificing their personal life. They were allowed to take leaves up to three months in a year, which they could distribute however they wanted, as long as nothing major happened. These 10 million soldiers were barely enough to protect Igra, all shelters, and their defenses because each shelter in the intermediate dimension required a shocking number of soldiers each day. If humanity wanted to establish even more shelters they would have to increase the number of soldiers and nurture them well. In Shane''s opinion, the Radiant mountain-ring shelter was the best way to improve humanity''s economic situation for the Basic primordial dimensions. The Intermediate and Advanced shelters could take care of themselves without the need to fund all Basic shelters, as long as everything went smoothly. Shane knew that the military only worked due to the resources provided by his family in the beginning. The otherrge ns had to do the same in order to secure the weaker sses, which was fundamental to survive the threat of foreign beasts. Protecting each other was something Shane''s family was used to and proud of, which caused him to be equally proud of his family. Every member of his extended family contributed to a rather peaceful life, even though it was hard sometimes. Walking through the market that had opened up, even though a beast tide had urred barely a few hours ago, Shane saw many stalls with all kinds of misceneous items he was interested in. However, his funds were almost negligible and he had more important things to purchase for the next step of his n. Less than half an hour passed as Shane left the market with a mountain of preservable food, scent dissolving potions, concealment potions, and nightsight potions. He had received a discount owing to his bulk purchase and he transferred a small part of the preservable food into the beast sealing card that he extracted out of himself. The food would stay fresh for an unknown, yet long time in his spatial ring, while it would go bad in the beast sealing card. This was the reason for him to divide the preservable food mountain into several parts. Walking out of the shelter, Shane decided to wear the devil gas mask in order to move uninterruptedly as a thick iron stench permeated the air prating even through the low-quality gas mask''s filter. The wholendscape around the shelter was demolished and filled with holes, debris of shattered buildings,rge blood puddles, and remains of beasts, while no human bodies were littered around anymore. Shane wasn''t sure when the funeral of the fallen soldiers would be held but he noticed that not a single human part was left behind as the soldiers had ensured that theirrades get a respectful death, which made him weirdly proud. ''What''s wrong with me?'' He asked himself, as he saw a few crystalized feathers and lizard scales lying in his surroundings. ''With more time left, I would gather everything here for a small pocket money'' Shane told himself. He circted the mana within him before he began to jog towards a particr direction. Less than two hourster he was standing next to a familiarke in front of an ordinary cavern entrance. It seemed to have contained elemental crystals before someone had mined them. It was the elemental crystal cave that Shane had used to aplish his [Mythic] mission, only a few days ago. Somehow this realization shocked him quite a bit because a lot had happened over thest few days. Upon entering the elemental crystal cave, Shane immediately noticed an eerie emptiness inside the whole cave as if it had been abandoned for good. However, the most important thing and the reason for him to return to the elemental crystal cave was still there. The mana and elemental crystals were still there!! "My dear treasure trove" Shane eximed, as he slowly inspected every nook and cranny of the first threeyers of the elemental crystal cave. His assumption had just been proved right as he let out a joyous shout. "YES!!" Jumping around like a small and excited child, Shane felt like he could let loose for a few minutes. However, he regained hisposure by telling himself the harsh truth. "Shane!! Time is money and you don''t know when other beasts will start to invade this territory¡­" Only then, a weird thought crossed his mind. "The three sovereigns of this area should be dead or at least driven away, right? Will the surrounding races and sovereigns annex it in the next few days? How much time do I have left?" Thinking about the unknown amount of time he had left, Shane felt nervous and scared about the treasures he might have to leave behind if something were to happen. This fear caused him to take out his [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] Ambrulite-pickaxe. In the end, Shane had returned to the elemental crystal cave that he had been forced to leave because of the thunder wolves intruding the cave, trying to fight for the right of it. However, neither the thunder wolves nor the scaled lizards would have ever imagined that a lone human might overshadow the two races, allowing him to annex everything for himself. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 91 - Blessed Loneliness Taking a deep breath, he returned to the first floor. Shane wanted to clear one floor after another in order to collect everything without losing out on single mana or elemental-crystal. Traces of greed could be seen within his eyes but it was hardly possible to contain it with the current situation around him. With the Ambrulite-pickaxe in his hand, he approached the first batch of elemental crystals nearby. He raised his hand and pulled back the pickaxe in order to release it with an impactful swing. Shane''s efficiency increased as hepletely focused on the task at hand, while his perfect physique at the 5th Mortal stage amplified his wed 7th Mortal physique. To him, it felt as if his energy was inexhaustible despite mining for several hours, while his pickaxe''s passive effect [Turbulent Impact] unveiled its true power. He was not really in a dire need of funds right now but he had more than enough space which led him to collect and store everything inside his spatial ring. He also had more than enough time to mine. His efficiency was iparable to before because he didn''t have to observe his surroundings as diligently as before. The cave waspletely devoid of living beings except him and not even a single beast could be found. Though, this didn''t mean that he would take his guard down. He focused more on his mining task than anything else, leading him to gather almost 5000 crystals in 8 hours which was only possible thanks to the surrounding mana energizing him. Never having done such aborious task except for a few days ago, Shane felt overwhelmed by his own diligence, as he slumped on the ground while his gaze remained on his blistered hands. Smiling, Shane decided to message the Elus-merchant from earlier in order to send him crystal packages once again. Their contract was still valid and he didn''t have to contact the merchant. But it was better to inform him in advance of sending arger amount of crystals in the next few days, to ensure that everything would run ording to his n. It was already afternoon but there were no sun rays in sight because he was already deeper within the elemental crystal cave to see any. Though the surrounding crystals lit up the entire cave, providing enough illumination for him to continue mining. After sending over the crystals, Shane didn''t wait to receive his first ie, instead, he decided to venture deeper into the cave to do something else. He added a few of the mined mana crystals to the beast sealing card with Umbra inside. Umbra, meanwhile, didn''t even notice that more mana crystals had entered its space as it was in some sort of cultivating hibernation, where it could barely sense anything except mana. However, the mana he sensed was much easier to control in this state, allowing him to absorb it faster which was what both he and Shane desired. Shane didn''t know anything about Umbra''s effort but he predicted that his tamed beast wouldn''t bezy as Umbra had realized his uselessness early on. Entering the deeperyers, Shane looked through his spatial ring in order to see how many cultivation resources he was left with. Unfortunately, it was more shocking than he had initially thought because there was simply nothing left except for two [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] nutrition solutions. These solutions were useless to him at the moment as he couldn''t even use them without an abundant mana supply from either mana crystals or mana stones. He wouldn''t extract the mana crystals from his beast sealing card, because Umbra needed them. He didn''t have any gold coins left to purchase mana stones, preventing him from refining his physique. But that could wait because there was something else he wanted to improve right away. As he had already imed everything he had wanted within the Mortal stage, like the perfect body refining technique, Shane could already increase his mana purity to 10% or higher. If his mana purity had crossed the threshold of 10% without himpleting the [Mortal-(Mythic)]-mission for the perfect body refining technique, Shane would have been disqualified from epting the mission. That means one would have to be at the Mortal stage in both physique and mana pool cultivation, without any trait above the threshold. It could be a 10th Mortal physique and cultivation, wherein the mana purity yed a big role. Mostly, the required mana purity had to be at 9.99% in order to meet the requirements for any [Mortal-(Mythic)] mission. In the end, the same applied to the Apprentice perfect body refining technique, which disqualified everyone with a mana purity over 30%, while Shane was unsure about the Expert perfect body refining technique. With the [Expert-(Mythic)] perfect body refining technique, it might be possible for him to have a higher mana purity than 60% in order to meet the requirements. However, until now, he hadn''t asked his uncles or aunts, how exactly it would work with a perfect body refining technique. Naively enquiring on the forum threads could also be a double-edged sword, because more than enough trolls and jealous beings existed all over the universe. As such, Shane would have to aplish the expert mission for the perfect body refining technique, before increasing his mana purity above 60%. It could also increase the difficulty for him if he was allowed to reach a higher mana purity. But it was still better to get assigned a harder mission than none at all. While thinking about that, Shane sat down on the ground exactly at the spot where he presumed the highest mana flow would be. His [Mortal-(tinum)] mana gathering technique roughly told him the same. Even the purity at the spot he was seated in seemed to be essential high, causing him to smile brightly He utilized the mana gathering technique as a vortex slowly manifested inside his mana pool, creating a high suction force. Feeling the mana particles around him, Shane turned serious as he sensed the mana particles, getting attracted towards him. The particles flooded him, as Shane opened his pores to ept even the tiniest mana particle. While circting them within his mana, he smoothly switched to his [Tier-1(Bronze)] mana purifying technique. He slowly entered a trance-like state where he could only perceive the mana particles around him in addition to the processes the two cultivation techniques aplished. His eyes flickered vigorously when he gently tried to open his eyes, as he immediately took a nce at the time which shocked him slightly. ''So long?'' He hadn''t realized that roughly half a day had passed by. It was the next morning already, while he felt as if he slept for dozens of days in session. However, there was something he began to wonder about. He recalled the system''s message that his body couldn''t handle a mana gathering and purifying session in his current form, deeming it as dangerous. ''Did the system forget to alert me?'' Shane assumed when he thought of the changes he had gone through from earlier to now. ''Or is it my improved physique?'' He couldn''t be sure, but it was the most likely theory he could name for now and he decided to take a closer look next time. Standing up, he directed his attention to his mana purity, and seeing the number disyed next to his cultivation rank, Shane couldn''t help but smile. [Purity: 9.39%] Within a single, yet extremely long sitting, Shane''s mana purity had increased by almost 1% which caused him to feel overjoyed. Pondering on what to do next, he opened the forum section within the system. He began searching through humanity''s news when he was suddenly flooded by dozens of messages. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 92 - Praise&Lecture There were two sources of the messages received by Shane. One was his family''s group chat, where even his father was invited to when Shane hadn''t been around. While the other source was the Elus-merchant from whom he received notifications telling him that the crystal packaged had been received. The notifications about the elemental crystal packages were useless to him. He could also look at his finances in order to estimate his earnings. As such, Shane was more interested in the group chat. He hoped that Uncle Lars would share some information about the RadiantRing beast tide, once he received the report. Additionally, it was likely that Uncle Lars would start to brag about Aisha because he had raised her after her parents'' death. Lars thought of himself as her real father, even if he wasn''t. Unsurprisingly, the chat group was filled with many questions about his well-being causing him to smile, as he slowly scrolled through the chat so as to miss nothing. The messages caused a rollercoaster of emotion within Shane, as good and bad messages mainly written by Lars flooded him one after another. <..> <.> Even if Shane wanted to read everything, digesting the information was much worse than he had initially expected. He couldn''t help but feel a heavy weight falling on his shoulders, as he saw a particr message within the group chat. [John Ste] Seeing this message, Shane felt conflicted not knowing what exactly to think, when he saw Uncle Lars reply below the message. ''Is he trying to lecture me?'' Shane thought while reading the message that sounded somewhat childish..''Is he more than 150 years old or am I?'' he began to wonder as he replied in an annoyed tone. His temper was nothing someone should provoke and his family was very well acquaintanced with such a character, because of their friend, John Ste. After venting his anger, Shane dropped his keyboard warrior mode and decided to calmly answer his other Uncle''s and Aunt''s messages within the group-chat, by sparsely telling them that he waspletely fine. His father didn''t ask about his health or what he was up to, while his two words seemed to rattle him more than he had expected. ''What is wrong with me?'' he asked himself, as he felt extremely ufortable. ''Why can''t I handle my dad?'' was another thought churning in his mind, before he closed the system messenger in order to look at his finances. He couldn''t waste too much time messaging as earning more gold coins was much more important. With the unknown amount of time that he could spend within the cave, time seemed to run out even faster! Taking a good look at his finances Shane wasn''t sure how to feel, but it was definitely pleasant. [Finances: 955 gold coins 69 silver coins] By mining for 8 hours straight, he had obtained almost 956 gold coins which was an extremely pleasant sight. If he could maintain the same routine for a few days, his fortune would increase even more. Smiling brightly, Shane retrieved the contact details of the merchant he had already purchased the [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] nutrition solution from and wrote him a short message. Sending the message almost made him feel like he had purchased something online as he did on earth, the only difference being the existence of magic, monsters, and the system. In the end, he paid the price of 346 gold coins with 14 gold coins as extra. If he were to purchase the same goods within the system he would have to pay 346 gold coins with a 10% transfer fee which would end up with him having to pay 20 gold coins more. As such, his current situation was quite favorable. Tier-1 (Trash) nutrition solutions were barely 2 gold coins more expensive. Shane was eager to know how high their efficiency would be because he felt that his perfect body might demand lots of nutrition and a high mana supply. In the end, nobody except him had to pay such a heavy price within the Mortal stage. He already despised the fact that he still had to reach a perfect apprentice and expert physique, which would increase his expenses even further. With the 360 gold coins, he paid to increase his mana purity and finallyplete a perfect mortal body. Most normal cultivators would already enter the Expert rank, as long as they possessed the required mana purifying manual. Thinking about that, Shane searched through the system shop in order to look for better mana purifying, mana gathering, and body refining manual to see how much funds he had to gather in order to reach the peak of the apprentice stage. ''Huh? Why is everything so...cheap?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 93 - Realisation Searching through the system''s shop he found many cultivation manuals and body refining techniques, but he was astonished to see that all of them were very cheap. ''Why are mana stones and so on so expensivepared to these manuals? Is it really only to shorten the time to cultivate?'' Shane was extremely confused and this was mainly because the [Tier-1 (Gold)] techniques he wanted to purchase were cheap,pared to the resources he had to umte to create a wless physique. With his 596 gold coins, he initially thought that he could at most purchase one [Tier-1 (Gold)] manual. But he hadpletely forgotten that he had only paid 35-60 gold coins for his [TIer-1 (Bronze)] techniques. Now that he thought about it, he clearly remembered the price for all cultivation resources and the [Mortal-(Mythic)] perfect body refining manual to be 500 gold coins. The [Tier-1 (Gold)] mana purifying manual to reach a purity of 30% was priced at 120 gold coins. However, Shane didn''t want to reach a mana purity of 30% for now as it could disqualify him from aplishing or even requesting the [Apprentice-(Mythic)] mission. As such, he purchased a mana purifying manual with a mana purity of 28% for 100 gold coins while the [Tier-1 (Gold)] mana gathering technique was also priced at 100 gold coins. The only more expensive manual was the [Tier-1(Gold)] body refining manual for 150 gold coins. He purchased all of them at once, for which he had to shell out 350 gold coins. It was a huge sum for everybody else, except Shane. Though, that didn''t make him feel any better because he was a close-fisted youth. "WHAT?" He eximed furiously, as he saw the manuals appear within his spatial ring. "Why is being perfect so expensive?!!?" He mumbled to himself, and his voice echoed through the cave, bouncing off the walls before it died away. He took out the three manuals gloomily in order to learn them. As he began learning the three manuals, they slowly dissipated while a vast stream of information appeared in his memory. It would have normally motivated him, but not today. ''While others can enter the expert rank with the same amount of gold coins, I have to use them to establish a perfect Mortal Physique. What could others aplish with the funds I need to construct a wless foundation?'' He began to estimate, with a crestfallen face, as he picked up his pickaxe. He shook his head in disappointment when he reached a figure and had a sudden urge to check the price of the [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana purifying technique with a purity of 60% within the system''s shop. In the end, a [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana purifying technique was the best technique one could obtain withoutpleting missions or meeting other requirements. This was the reason for most parents to purchase it for their children as the first thing when they entered the Primordial Dimensions. Shane didn''t have this support, but that was not a problem. umting funds was the least of his worries. He knew he was stalling but Shane gave in to the impulse and checked the price for the 60% mana purity technique. [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana purifying technique [60%]=1000 gold coins ''Should I cry now or be happy about this?'' Even the price for the [Mortal-(Extraordinary] Beast sealing card with the [soul connection] effect was almost as expensive as the costliest mana purifying technique without any other requirement, leading Shane to feel more depressed. Sighing deeply, Shane decided that he would purchase the [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana purifying technique soon. After that, he might have some peace for some time, without anything reminding him of the unfairness he had been subjected to by paying astronomical prices for almost everything¡­ Facing reality was not easy for Shane. Instead of waiting for the merchant to message him back, he would rather mine more crystals in order to increase his fortune further, only for the gold coins to vanish once again when new cultivation resources would be required. Sighing deeply, he cursed himself for researching the prices for his future cultivation resources, which hurt his heart, soul, and entire being more than expected. "F**k this bulls**t!! If a wless body is not essentially stronger than a wed physique I want a refund!!!" Shane kept mumbling and he felt like he was about to go insane, as he swung his pickaxe at the crystals, simultaneously releasing his anger. Hours passed until his anger subsided and Shane smiled faintly to see a mountain of resources within his spatial ring that seemed even higher than the previous one. Hepletely lost track of time and didn''t even nce at the system''s clock, while something else attracted his attention. The merchant he had messaged about the goods he required, sent him the cultivation resources and Shane had to ponder with what he should begin now. ''In the end, everythinges back to my physique! Once I reach a perfect mortal physique, I can rush through the Apprentice stage!!'' Creating a wless physique took the longest and it was the most reasonable thing to do for the next few days. Thus, he decided to do the same while mining mana and elemental crystals in order to supply Umbra with more and earn more funds. He was confident that hisst purchase would be enough for the first step he had to aplish. The rest of the steps could easily be rushed with a high mana purity, while a wed physique could barely bebeled as a problem. For now, he didn''t seem to have any financial issues, because he had gained quite a lot of funds in the past few hours. Shane was confident to reach a high mana purity soon enough, once his physique was wless. ''I can''t think too negatively!! My wless physique will bring me many benefits and even with a perfect 5th Mortal physique I already feel much strongerpared to before! THINK POSITIVE YOU IDIOT!!'' Shane cursed himself in order to increase his rapidly declining motivation, as he took a basin out of his spatial ring, which he filled with water. After that, he dissolved two [Mortal-(Extraordinary)] solutions inside the water, before he ced a few [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones around it. Taking off his clothes, Shane slowly descended into the water, before he activated his [Mortal-(Mythic)] body refining technique. It greedily absorbed the nutrition inside the water and the mana around him, without caring about its origin. He shuddered as the technique took its effect and he wasn''t sure if his body could handle everything right now. Despite the pain, Shane decided to face it at once, without trying to slow down the entire process like before. With his pores widened and ck blood oozing out of them, Shane looked like the reincarnation of a devil, as his eyes turned bloodshot. Without knowing why, a few words suddenly appeared in his mind, as he said "Just wait everyone!! Even If I take longer to ascend, trash will remain trash, while a diamond has to be polished in order to show its true value!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 94 - Hard-working! Mining mana and elemental crystals for days on end was a boring affair. Though, he had learned something extremely beneficial on the third day, while he experimented a little with his newly obtained mana gathering technique. Shane pondered for a long time, wondering what he should do with the fortune he had earned through mining crystals. In the end, he decided to invest everything for himself, while leaving enough for Umbra''s next quality upgrade. Compared to others, he had earned a fortune and by the third day, he had already purchased all the necessary manuals to reach a 60% mana purity, with a good mana gathering technique. He had even gone ahead and purchased a [Tier-2 (Gold)] body refining technique. Now he had nearly everything needed to improve his cultivation and body refining and with his multiple manuals. He also had to think of ways in order to protect himself in a better way, because his equipment mainly consisted of Tier-1 items. This led Shane to umte funds in order to procure better equipment, with which he would be able to kill or at least injure all kinds of beasts within the Basic Dimensions. Because his goal was set, Shane''s mining speed increased further as a steady influx of gold coins motivated him to work harder. The Elus-merchant hundreds of thousand gxies awayughed heartily in his incorporeal form because Shane who was seen as a small fry, sent him tens of thousand crystals, bringing him a fortune and a good reputation among the Elus nobles. While mining, Shane also practiced his newly acquired [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana gathering technique in order to aplish several tasks at the same time. As his focus was unstable, he could only gather a small number of mana particles at a time. But due to his amity with mana, coupled with [Artemis'' Blessing], it was still enough to fill his mana pool. After the mana gathering process was done, Shane switched to his [Tier-1 (Gold)] mana purifying technique instead of the [Tier-2 (Gold)] one, because he didn''t want to bother about mixing the two techniques. He couldn''t let his mana purity cross 28% before he acquired the [Apprentice-(Mythic)] body refining technique. Some might call him stupid or naive, but a simple mistake could lead to him identally practice the wrong technique. As such, Shane sealed the technique with the help of his system which could be unsealed only when he ordered the system to do so or once he achieved his set goal. Cultivating while doing something else was extremely difficult. If he were to be honest it was a negligible amount one would achieve within a few hours in focused cultivation, but Shane was still happy with his achievement after another three days. Six days passed and it was midnight when Shane remembered something important that happened four days prior. 2 days after his emotional outburst on the family group chat, he had received a few notifications, while Aunt Kia had messaged him privately. The notifications were from the academies telling him that he was epted. It was not really something noteworthy in his opinion because his cultivation and body refining rank were already quite goodpared to average peers. Owing to his high consumption of the [Mortal-(Mythic)] body refining technique, Shane was slower than others. But, his funds bnced this out, allowing him to stay at the same rank or even above peers from average households. Because he knew that most higher households and nobles didn''t bother about academies, Shane never doubted that he would be rejected by any academy, but Aunt Kia''s message was still something he didn''t expect. ''Huh? Aunt Kia became the principal of the [Shirai] academy? Since when..'' Curious about his Aunt''s decision, Shane continued to read the message when he read something particr. Sighing, Shane realized that he was in a tricky position. ''If I don''t have to attend lessons and only sit the exams plus if the ranking system determines who''ll enter the dimension-spheres, it will be much easier for me to learn other stuff within the primordial dimension and more importantly Aunty won''t be sad¡­ BUT why does it have to be the [Shirai] academy? Isn''t that one of the worst? ¡­. Well..even if it''s the worst, does it affect my n??... Come to think of it, it doesn''t even matter which academy I join, as long as they have a dimension-sphere with a few decent skill tomes and martial art manuals.'' In the end, Shane sent a simple message to his Aunty Kia, while being reminded about her childish, yet somewhat formal personality. Somehow, since Shane had escaped his father''s grasp, he hadn''t liked to be controlled anymore. It was also the reason for him to bother about the tiny strand in his mind, which was the implemented system. It was neither ufortable nor had it harmed him to date, but he couldn''te to terms with the sensation of being supervised all the time. While continuing to mine crystals multiple hours a day and passively cultivating, Shane didn''t ck off and worked extremely hard. He gave his best and used some of his spare time in order to break into the 10th Mortal stage, while his perfect physique also improved significantly. Having used up all of the previously purchased cultivation resources, Shane was shocked to notice that the demand for a perfect physique was still higher than he had expected. In the end, he would have to make anotherrge purchase costing him 500 gold coins which included 75 [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones and 12 [Tier-1 (Trash)] nutrition solutions. Because he was already shopping at that time, Shane decided to purchase a better leather armor and new daggers. He purchased a [Tier-2 (rare)] leather armor with protection runes inscribed in it for 380 gold coins with a dagger set costing him 370 gold coins. Both daggers were [Tier-2 (Umon)] Tempered Railore-iron Daggers; one of them was curved with a length of 28 centimeters, while the other one was straight with a length of 30 centimeters. In order to protect his face, he also purchased a [Tier-2 (Common)] pitch-ck mask with two horns protruding out of the forehead for 25 gold coins. Adding everything together, Shane had purchased goods worth more than 4000 gold coins in a single week, which shocked him greatly. But this didn''t mean he had nothing left. He quickly checked his status panel and smiled lightly. _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race: [Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-10th [Purity 10.59%] Body Refinement: [Perfect Physique¡úMortal-8th] Cultivation Manual: ¡úMana purifying [Tier-1&2-(Gold)] ¡úMana gathering [Tier-2 (Gold)] Body refining manual: ¡ú[Mortal-(Mythic)]-[Tier-1&2 (Gold)] ![Artemis¡ä Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Common-¡ï¡ï (+)| Finances: 1336 gold coins 45 silver coins _______________________ Every aspect of his status panel seemed to increase slowly yet steadily and Shane couldn''t help but be astonished about the fact that he had barely entered the Primordial Dimensions 40 days ago. So much had changed in such a short time, that it almost felt like an eternity, when a sudden memory re-emerged. ''Sh*t...I almost forgot the academy!! Howte is it?!....'' Gasping, Shane noticed that it was already midnight. He had to attend the first day of the academy, even if he didn''t want to bother about it. Even if he didn''t necessarily need to learn skills or martial art techniques from the dimension-spheres, it was excessively cheaper. He wouldn''t have to pay thousands of gold coins for it, which was the reason for him to enter any academy in the first ce. Not wasting funds!! As such, Shane charged out of the elemental crystal cave, as he passed a few weak Wild stage beasts that slowly began to inhabit the area around it. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 95 - What Is Fun? Without wasting too much time, Shane journeyed back to the shelter and reached it a little over two hourster. Knowing that school would begin at 8 am, he took a nce at the system''s time. It was barely 2:30 am, which left him with more than five hours of time to do other things. Over thest 40 days, since Shane had entered the Primordial Dimensions, he never had time to rx or do something else. All he had done was fighting, cultivating, researching information to earn more funds or other tasks that focused on increasing his strength. As such, he wanted to do something else for the next few hours, before focusing on the academy or rather gathering intel about his ssmates, or so-calledpetitors. In the end, Shane only wanted to enter an academy because of the dimension-sphere. It would allow him to save some funds, while it was also beneficial for him to get to know his peers'' strengths. Even if he were to study at the Shirai academy, which wasbeled as one of the weakest, Shane was sure that at least youths that had entered the Primordial dimension a few months before he would be as strong as him, if not stronger. It was not really difficult for parents within the intermediate dimension to procure funds for their children. Many descendants of wealthy families would receive enough resources to reach the 10th Expert stage with a mana purity of 60%, while the main issue was theirbat prowess. If one couldn''t use their physique or mana pool to the fullest extent, it was pointless to even cultivate at all, Even someone at the Apprentice stage with a highbat prowess might be able to defeatbat rookies, also called bat-cripples'' within a short amount of time. Shane estimated that most students should have already reached the Apprentice rank, with many older youths that might have already broken into the Expert rank. ''It''s probably like Aunty Kia said, huh? Cultivation really starts at the Master rank or rather within the Intermediate Dimension. Not even the financial situation of most parents is enough to procure resources...even for themselves.'' Shaking his head, he could only disapprove of the decision of most of the parents. They failed to understand that they were spoiling their children with goodwill and resources only for them to have a hard time within the intermediate dimension. ''This was probably another reason for the government to construct many academies, huh?'' Without bothering about this further, he had to think of a way to defeat such enemies in order to receive more opportunities to enter a dimension-sphere. Shane doubted that he would be able topletelyprehend a technique or skill within a single sitting. As such, there was much for him to consider but this was something that could bother himter¡­ Now, he wanted to have some fun, which was not one of Shane''s privileges. Walking towards the Dimensional Portal, he pondered what to do, as he noticed something¡­ ''What is fun?'' On earth, he was happy to y around with all kinds of wild animals. But seeing them being injured or dying was traumatizing for Shane, which led him to be a veterinarian, only to be shotter. And thinking about his childhood on Igra, Shane could only frown, because fun was thest thing he had ever received. The only thing which made him slightly happy, was the time with his aunts and uncles because they treated him well. It was always interesting to listen to their stories because his father never told him anything about his past at all. ''Should I just read something?'' Shane pondered as he stepped through the DImensional Portal in order to arrive at Igra, where he hadn''t been for a long time. Once he entered Igra, an ufortable feeling enveloped him and he immediately realized the emptiness around and within him. ''Comparing Igra without a single trace of mana with the Primordial Dimensions is really sad¡­'' Sighing deeply, Shane wanted to go back into the Dimensional Portal to leave Igra, as he forced himself to stay. There was still a trace of hope left as he thought ''I hope they have a mana generator within the academy¡­.Otherwise, I''m not going to waste my time on Igra, except for the intervals when I can receive the chance to enter a dimension-sphere¡­'' Without amiable mana particles around him, Shane felt demotivated while the remaining mana within him was slowly circted through his veins in order to annex it and purify it. Looking around, he noticed that it was stillpletely dark. He was teleported to Lira, which was the Ste-federation''s capital, with a poption of approximately 250 million citizens. Shane had lived there for his entire second life but he had never seen many citizens. He had been confined to the walls of a mansion that was surrounded by a huge forest and arge fence. Furthermore, it was additionally protected by arge number of guardians at the Squire stage or even higher, indicating the importance John Ste gave to his own son. Or was it the opposite? Without him being able to do what he wanted, the mansion felt more like a prison while the humans protecting his life felt more like prison guards. It was only because Shane was lucky that one particr guard had cked off and slept during his duty, that he had escaped from the prison-like mansion. Maybe he had helped out a little bit, but who would ever figure this out? Smiling lightly at the sight of Lira-city, he could see many citizens walking around, even though it was almost 3 am. ''The mana high-velocity(MHV) train should arrive soon, right?'' Shane thought, as he took a look at the clock and the time of the train''s arrival stamped on the ticket he had purchased a few days ago. Since the Dimensional Portals descended, one could use the system for almost everything and Shane did so to purchase an MHV-train ticket. Opening Lira''s map, Shane rushed towards the direction where he presumed the train station would be. Only a few minutester he saw a gigantic skyline train station, shocking him. It would be unsuitable for an extremely fast train to race through a narrow and crowded city, which was the reason for a skyline train station to be built. With this, the MHV-train could immediately elerate to its top speed without wasting much time. Shane was extremely fortunate, as he noticed that only three minutes were left until his train would arrive. Hurrying up the stairs, he searched for his tform and waited for the train to arrive. Meanwhile, his mind was still unable to answer the question of what exactly fun is. Shane could only think of it as being happy around other people or animals because he didn''t know what else it might be otherwise. Suddenly he heard a few voices next to him, attracting his attention. "Hey Aimy, are you also on your way to the Shirai academy? Me too, hehehe!!" Turning around, he saw two young girls around his age talking to each other. Based on their clothes, expression, and released aura, Shane perceived something, as he faintly smiled. ''It might be more interesting than I thought if everyone is at their level'' "Olivia, please don''t behave as if it was a coincidence!! Wasn''t it obvious which academy I would apply to?!" Still smiling, Shane decided to ignore the two girls behind him, as he turned back to mind his own business, waiting for the train to arrive. ''What can I do to have fun inside the train?'' He asked himself when he was bothered by what the girl who was apparently called Olivia said. "Can you see the beggar in front of us? Why does he look so dirty? Isn''t it weird for someone at the MHV-train tform to look like this?" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 96 - Game "Can you see the beggar in front of us? Why does he look so dirty? Isn''t it weird for someone at the MHV-train tform to look like this?" Bothered by what the girl called Olivia said, Shane looked down at his clothes. Unfortunately, he had to acknowledge that his clothes were rather rags than normal clothes as he had stored his expensive robe within the spatial ring in order to not attract attention. ''Maybe it was the wrong way?'' He thought as he turned around in order to re at Olivia. She was shocked to see a clean and handsome face behind the rags, causing her to step back, as she noticed his cold eyes piercing into hers. "Hot!" was the only thing she barely eximed, causing Aimy to look at her in embarrassment, as she looked at Shane with curiosity. ''He is our age, huh?'' She asked herself. Suddenly the rag around Shane vanished, reced with a ck leather armor covered in small runes, while two red daggers were sheathed on his belt. Tugging at Olivia who was still shocked, Aimy asked "Now he doesn''t look like a beggar anymore, huh?" with a smile on her face¡­ Even if she didn''t care about someone''s appearance, she had to acknowledge that the youth in front of her had an athletic build and was extremely handsome. After the rags vanished, Shane took out the expensive ck robe from his spatial storage in order to cover his armor and weapons. Even if he was within a human city, he would never lower his guard or go anywhere without his weapons. Storing them within his spatial ring was also possible, but there was still a small gap between taking them out of a storage ring and unsheathing them. It could mean all the difference between life and death. If nobody saw his weapons, it was even better. Initially, he didn''t bother about changing his torn robe to the good one he had for years. But it seemed like he attracted more attention by remaining lowkey, which was also not beneficial for him. As such, Shane decided to change his robe. Fortunately, the girls couldn''t gossip anymore as the MHV-train arrived exactly on time. Shane entered it, with gleaming eyes inspecting everything with curiosity. He had never seen the interior of an MHV-train and Shane immediately felt slight mana fluctuations radiating from it, with the source at the front. ''Obviously, it is empowered by mana'' He thought, as he searched for his designated seat. Sitting down a minuteter, he noticed that the girls were seated rtively close to him, as he heard Olivia gossip. "Is he trying to fool us? Was this a roley? Why did he change from rags to riches in a second?" After that, Shane could only hear a light tap, as Aimy said "Don''t be ridiculous... He probably left the shelter only some time ago and forgot to change his clothes. It would be great if you were as strong as your imagination!" "HEY!!! I''m strong! Do you want to fight me?!" Olivia said, taking the bait as she replied. "We have more than enough time to fight, let''s y some games! Do you have [Ceroa''s rise]?" ''Games?'' In the beginning, Shane didn''t want to bother about the girls, but hearing that they were going to y a game, piqued his curiosity. Neither on earth nor on Igra, had Shane ever yed any console game. they were deemed as useless, except for a few VR applications that werepatible to improve one''s martial art techniques. But Shane wasn''t even allowed to y such a game and hearing Aimy, who sat three seats behind her talking about a game, made him feel interested. Shane tried to distract himself by reading forum threads on PrimWeb, but when he heard Aimy and Oliviaugh while ying a game, he was involuntarily drawn to them. He didn''t even realize when he had gotten up from his seat and walked up to Aimy who was looking at the holographic screen where a warrior was fighting against a demon. Only now did Shane take a proper look at Aimy and Olivia who sat opposite Aimy. Aimy looked rather feeble with her small physique, while her long brown hair and eyshes highlighted herrge eyes. Shane thought she was pretty because her facial features stood out. Olivia meanwhile, was simrly short, but she couldn''t be called feeble because one could see her toned body, while her eyshes weren''t any special. Her hair was short and blond in color while Shane would describe her facial features asmon or average. Whileparing both of them, Shane thought that Aimy was rather modest, quiet, pretty, and thoughtful, whereas Olivia was straightforward and blunt. He remained quiet in order to not annoy the two girls that yed their game ambitiously while his eyes gleamed in interest. Time slowly passed and neither of them noticed something odd, as the two girls continued to y. Suddenly they heard a faint "go to the right", causing them to suddenly stop ying. "To the right..why are you stopping?" Shane said, not noticing that something was off, as Olivia eximed. "The handsome beggar!!" which caused Shane to frown lightly as he stared straight into Olivia''s eyes. "Maybe not a beggar, but you''re definitely handsome!" She said, without caring that Shane observed their game, while Aimy, who was a bit farther from him, looked up at him with widened eyes. ''I didn''t notice him at all!'' She was astonished to notice Shane and she sized him up from head to toe. Clearing her throat, she spoke while Shane continued to watch them y. "How long have you been watching us?" She added a little bit of anger in her voice, trying to hide her uncertainty. Looking at the system''s time, Shane answered honestly "Probably half an hour?" Oliviaughed out and said slyly. "Oh! Did you stalk us for half an hour? You bad boy!", while Aimy said "Don''t you know that it''s rude to sneak on two unsuspecting girls?" Shane thought for a moment before he realized that he had indeed quietly approached them in order to have a better view of the game. With an "Oh!!" Shane fumbled to form a response. "Please don''t misunderstand, I didn''t mean to stalk either one of you... I was only interested in the game you two yed!" After saying this, he heard Oliviaughing out, while Aimy''s mouth twitched. "That''s the spirit!! Handsome boy!! I like you... My name is Olivia Berg...Are you also a student of the Shirai academy? Howe you don''t know [Ceroa''s rise]?! It recently went viral on Igra !! You can even use a VR appliance with it and improve your martial art technique andbat experience!" Olivia ignored Aimy''s weird expressionpletely because she didn''t care about such a minor thing. Shane sighed in relief, that she hadn''t misunderstood him and Olivia''s words made him curious. "Yes, your guess was correct. I''m also a student at the Shirai academy. My name is Shane Suro and I don''t know this Ceroa''s rise¡­ I''ve never yed any games at all which was the reason why I was so interested in it. Sorry again." Shane was a little embarrassed because he hadn''t thought about his actions and how they would affect the girls. With his aunts and uncles around, he didn''t have to think much about what he was doing because he could write, say and behave like he wanted, with a few small restrictions, but that was it. Approaching strangers as he did was creepy and realizing his own wrong behavior made him feel ufortable. Aimy slowly calmed down and hearing that Shane had never yed a game felt weird to her. Everyone she knew had at least yed one or two games in their life even if it was only for them to increase theirbat prowess "You don''t improve your martial art techniques by ying games? What else are you doing in your free time with your friends?" Suddenly, both Olivia and Aimy noticed Shane frowning lightly, and his mouth twitched. He wasn''t sure how to answer this question but he tried to answer without exposing anything that shouldn''t be revealed, as he shrugged his shoulders. "I never really had any free time and there were no friends to y with." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 97 - Getting To Know Each Other "I never really had any free time and there were no friends to y with" Hearing this, Aimy and Olivia were taken aback. They looked at him with a confused expression, before a trace of pity reced their confusion. Olivia was rather blunt and straightforwardly blurted out "How can that be?! Having no friends is still understandable for some youths, but how can you have no free time? You are our age or at most a few months older?! What did you do before your System awakening?!" Olivia''s blunt personality was somewhat refreshing but Shane''s lips still twitched, because the question was rather personal, which included his childhood. Pondering if or what he should answer, Shane thought about it for some time while Aimy decided to interrupt Olivia''s bombardment of questions, and reprimanded her. "Olivia! Don''t ask just anyone about their personal life! How often do I have to tell you that?!" Averting her attention to Shane who was still standing next to her she said. "I''m sorry about my friend, her personality is rather straightforward and she doesn''t know when to stop!" He had already realized this so he nodded his head, he already got to know this, as he said with a small smile. "That''s no problem, and I don''t think it''s a bad trait, because she will at least remain honest, right?" "Can you see this Aimy!! My bluntness is not a bad trait!! Hahaha!" Olivia eximed in an exaggerated manner, as Shane started to chuckle lightly. "To answer your question, I only want to say that I didn''t really have any freedom because I was upied with other things. That''s why I was so interested in the game you yed. [Ceroa''s rise] was it? If it''s not ufortable for the two of you, can I stay here and watch the game?" Shane felt ufortable to ask them, but over thest month, there hadn''t been a single day, when he was truly able to recuperate from his exhaustion. The few hours he slept every day were nothing praiseworthy because he was ustomed to sleeping only a few hours, even before he entered the Primordial Dimensions. He wanted to watch the game that looked extremely interesting. Furthermore, it was the first time for him to get to know other youths his age without them trying to sugarcoat their words. He had only been outside the mansion at certain important events held by the nobles and the military. Without having to bother about their background, Shane felt overlyfortable around the two girls. They found him to be honest, hence Olivia immediately epted his request, though Aimy didn''t say anything. In the end, Aimy felt that Shane seemed to be different than every youth she had ever known, but she was unsure if it was a good or a bad sign. Nevertheless, Olivia moved one seat further to make some space for Shane, who thanked her before sitting down. While Aimy was still eying him, Olivia started to continue ying her character, who seemed to be a closebat fighter who fought with gloves. "Is that a pugilist?" He asked, not minding Aimy at all, as Olivia proudly announced "Yes, you noticed that? This is the character I normally use to practice mybat techniques. I''m a pugilist you know!" Shane only nodded his head in response. He wasn''t sure how intelligent it was to tell aplete stranger what one''s upation was, causing him to smile weirdly, as Aimy shook her head. Looking at Aimy, he chuckled lightly, because he could perfectly understand how she felt. He had barely met Olivia a few minutes ago. Her honesty was a little bit over the top. Apparently, Aimy didn''t want to y games anymore. Shane thought that it might be because he sat in front of her making her ufortable when she suddenly asked. "Shane was your name, right? How old are you?" Normally, such a question was used in order to get to know each other slightly better on a personal basis. However, the question had gotten a new undertone to it since the appearance of the Primordial Dimensions which included the system. Asking someone how old they were was now more used in order to figure out the opposite party''s background, talent, the period they had spent within the Primordial Dimension, rough strength, and so on. This was even more so, for youths aged 16 to 25. If one was still in the Basic Dimension at the age of 25, they were eitherbeled as trash. If their goal was to increase their purity to an essentially high percentage, they might even bebeled as average prodigies. Meanwhile, someone entering the Intermediate Dimension at the age of 20 with a high mana purity was considered an above-average prodigy. However, for most youths, the first year within the Primordial Dimension was the most important factor to figure out the opposite determination, strength, background, and so on. If one had spent barely 6 months within the Primordial DImension with a mana purity of above 40%, he/she was already considered as someone with an above-average background, rtively high diligence, and high strength, even if that was not necessarily the whole truth. With Aimy asking him how old he was, she wanted to passively dig into his background. However, Shane didn''t have to hide anything at all, as he said "I''m 16 years old and entered the Primordial Dimension roughly 40 days ago, which is most likely what you want to know, am I right?" Chuckling lightly, he added "You already scanned my mana fluctuations, and should know that my cultivation stage is merely the 10th Mortal stage, while my physique is barely at the 8th Mortal stage." Instead of hiding anything, he revealed everything in one go in order to earn Aimy''s trust to a certain degree. But as he looked at her expression she still seemed to be suspicious about him, as she said. "You''re younger than I expected, but your equipment is pretty good, considering that you are only at the Mortal stage." Hearing this, Shane continued to smile, as he leaned forward, approaching Aimy, as he said teasingly. "Are you interrogating me? How about you tell me something about yourself?" He put on his most beautiful smile, as taught by his etiquette teacher when he was young. Aimy suddenly blushed and put some distance between herself and Shane, not knowing what to say. Satisfied with her reaction, he leaned back once again, only to hear Olivia chuckling next to him. "Hehe Sis Aimy, he got you!! If you won''t tell him something I will...and you know that I can hardly hold back once I start speaking...maybe I''l identally reveal your three sizes...hehehe" Olivia stopped ying on the holographic screen, teasingly looking at Aimy, as she began tough out. "YOU!!!" Aimy eximed and she was about to manifest an icicle in order to throw it at Olivia when she noticed that they were still on the train. Sighing, she had to calm down, as she involuntarily started an introduction with a sigh "Aimy Ash, 16 years and 5 months old...Expert stage in both cultivation and physique." It was a short introduction but roughly exined her background and strength, even if she didn''t explicitly share her rank within the Expert stage. Aimy had barely finished her introduction when Olivia suddenly shouted out "Olivia Berg, 16 years and 7 months old Mana purity of 44%, 5th rank Expert cultivation and 7th Expert physique!! 0-Star Pugilist apprentice!" Hearing Olivia''s introduction, Shane didn''t know whether he should be astonished about her background, naivety, or honesty. She had shared everything important to figure out who exactly she was without hiding anything at all. Aimy facepalmed herself, not knowing what to do with her best friend, as Shane smiled lightly at her, and mumbled. "At least she didn''t tell me what quality her upation has." She was still suspicious about Shane, even more so after figuring out that he was only at the Mortal stage, after having spent more than a month in the Primordial Dimension. His equipment was probably worth much more than all the cultivation resources required to enter the 1st Expert rank. However, seeing him be friendly and casual for the remaining several minutes, she slowly let her guard down. "Yeah, you''re right," She said, smiling faintly. "Olivia, let''s continue ying!" Aimy said, subconsciously ncing at Shane who directed his gaze back to Olivia''s holographic screen. In the game, her pugilist character had now appeared on barrennd. Hours passed slowly and the two girls continued to y their game, while Shane watched them, only for him to grow tired, as his eyes involuntarily closed. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 98 - Shirai-Academy The train arrived at the station which led them to the Shirai academy. The two girls stopped ying when they noticed that Shane was sleeping, as Olivia eximed. "Woah, he looks even better while sleeping...how is that possible?!" Saying so, she poked his cheek. Shane instantly opened his eyes, as one of his hands instinctively unsheathed his dagger. Meanwhile, he used his other hand in order to push away Olivia''s finger, and grab her neck, firmly gripping her throat. Without wasting a second, the unsheathed dagger advanced towards Olivia''s neck, as Shane released hisplete killing intent. He had been half asleep but he finally shook his head and noticed that he was about to kill someone. Retracing his killing intent, he immediately sheathed his dagger and loosened his firm grip around Olivia''s throat before he apologized multiple times. Aimy could only stare in shock at what had happened in front of her when she finally realized that her friend had almost been killed. Pushing Shane away, she neared Olivia to check if she was fine, only for her to see a red print on her neck, as she looked into her eyes. However, what she saw there shocked her even more because Olivia''s eyes were gleaming brightly, as she eximed. "He is the real deal!!" Seeing the gleam in Olivia''s eyes confused Aimy. But more than that, she was also scared because she hadn''t been able to help her best friend out, even though Shane was barely at the Mortal stage. ''Who is he?'' She started to wonder, as she turned her full attention towards Shane, who looked extremely apologetic. His expressions told her that it was only his instinctive reflex that had made him hurt Olivia inadvertently, even if she was still frightened. Realizing that made her feel even more conflicted, and she could roughly understand what Olivia meant. However, before anyone could respond an announcement told them that the doors would be closed in 30 seconds. Hearing this they forgot their little scuffle, as the three of them rushed out of the train. They had arrived in Milur, the city where the Shirai academy was located. Shane was still shocked to have almost killed Olivia, but even more so, that he had fallen asleep with two people he barely knew next to him. It was weird because he never let his guard down around strangers... He apologized to Olivia once again, who approached him with fast strides, holding his hands, as she eximed excitedly with gleaming eyes. "How can you act like this instinctively?! Where did you gain your killing intent from? It can''t be true that you manifested a killing intent in just a month since you entered the Primordial Dimension? Let me in on your secret¡­.please!!!" Both Aimy and Shane were astonished by Olivia''s behavior. Aimy dragged her away from him because the position they were in was extremely awkward. Shane was d that Olvia and apparently also Aimy had epted his apology without holding a grudge against him. As such Shane tried to answer her question as a means to say sorry. "There is no secret to manifest a killing intent, it just takes time and many deaths at your hands...It took me years and it''s not really something to feel good about." Hearing this, Olivia''s heightened expectations almost immediately plummeted, but hearing that it takes years was something both Aimy and her hadn''t expected. It meant that Shane had traveled to the Beast zones on Igra, which not many parents would do with their children because it was extremely dangerous. The two of them realized that Shane was more mysterious than they had initially thought. Olivia had already forgotten that she was almost killed, and was clearly mesmerized by him. Instinctively, she blurted out. "Let''s go to the Shirai Academy!! Let''s have some fun...I want to fight!!" Smiling, Shane nodded his head as he also wanted to get to know his opponents. He recalled Olivia and Aimy''s strength or rather cultivation and body refining stage, causing him to ponder for a moment, as he mumbled. ''They will divide thebat rankings into stages, right?'' The thought gave him a slight headache and he hoped that his estimation was correct. Otherwise, he would have a small issue obtaining a seat for the Dimension-sphere in thebat ranking. Calling for a shuttle, the three of them waited together and Olivia chit-chatted a lot, causing their surroundings to be noisy, as she spoke about all kinds of things. Apparently, both Olivia and Aimy came from a slightly above average household. They had been gifted with a [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana gathering, a [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana purifying (60%), and a [Tier-2 (Gold)] body refining manual with a weapon of their choice at their birthdays. However, that was everything they had received, which was a good decision taken by their parents in Shane''s opinion. This meant that the two girls would have to earnbat experience in order to earn funds to purchase cultivation resources and other things. Shane didn''t know this, but it was already seen as normal and a tradition for parents to gift their children a weapon of their choice at the age of 16, and the set of three [Tier-2 (Gold)] manuals. This was extremely well thought of in Shane''s opinion. It would ease the youth''s time to be stronger while creating enough pressure to leave the safe shelter walls, be stronger and earn funds. He definitely approved of such a tradition. Shane smiled gently and listened carefully as Olivia shared her life story and past experiences, without holding anything back. While sitting inside the self-driving shuttle, even Aimy''s initial hesitation seemed to melt slowly, because Shane seemed innocent to her as he listened to them talk in fascination. The shuttle arrived at the gigantic-sized fenced plot of the Shirai academy one hourter. Shane paid with the Primordial Dimension''s currency, which was epted everywhere before he got out of the shuttle. Looking around, Shane could only praise the vast area the Shirai Academy imed, as they approached therge gate, with two guards standing in front of them. Somehow, he found these guards shabby, but only if hepared them to the guards that protected the Ste mansion. However, considering that all of the guards around the mansion he previously lived in were at the peak of the Intermediate Dimension, there were not many who were not shabbypared to them. The three students approached the guards, who requested their IDs, as a small holographic screen with several thousand names appeared in front of them. Shane was the first to go in, and he only showed his full name [Shane Suro] and his race, which was clearly [100% Human], for him to be let through after the guards ensured that he had been epted into the academy. After his name was ticked on their long list, it was Aimy and Olivia''s turn to go through the same procedure. Nothing major happened and the two of them were let through, as multiple floating busses with several dozen if not hundreds of presumed students arrived in front of the school gate. It was barely 7 am, and the three of them were already early at school. However, after seeing the size of the Academy and the sheer number of students on the guards'' list, Shane was unsure how many new students would start attending the Shirai academy. The excitement that he had suppressed for some time, suddenly resurfaced after knowing that he would have thousands ofpetitors for just a few Dimension-spheres __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 99 - Against The Imagined With a radiant smile, Shane walked around the Academy grounds. Aimy and Olivia followed him, as they didn''t know what exactly they should do for now. Olivia was still talking non-stop, rxing the atmosphere around them because Aimy seemed to be nervous, the further they walked. The three of them saw many grand buildings and it seemed like Shane had underestimated the sheer number of students that had enrolled in the Shirai Academy. There were several dozen dorms in front of him, and six to ten-floor tall buildings with all kinds of emblems on them, indicating some sort of club or name, Shane wasn''t aware of. Each dorm looked magnificent from its appearance and even the materials they were constructed of appeared different to him. But, Shane didn''t really care about any of them, because they didn''t release the vigorous aura like the mansion he had lived in, indicating a big contrast between his childhood and his current life. However, if he were to furtherpare the dorms with the Inns inside the shelter he had lived in for thest few weeks, Shane could only chuckle lightly. The Inns within the Primordial Dimension were not some magnificent building, at least the ones he was inside. Scanning everything with his mana gathering technique in order to find mana generators or simr devices, Shane''s cheerful mood plummeted slightly. The mana generators that he perceived within the dorms, could be counted by one hand and were most likely used to supply mana to the academy. This meant that it was not possible to cultivate inside the dorm without using cultivation resources. It was extremely disappointing, but when Shane saw three imposing structures in the center of the Academy, surrounding arge colosseum, his mood immediately heightened. His smile returned almost immediately and he perceived dense mana fluctuation radiating from the three humongous structures, and the colosseum. It would enable someone to cultivate there unhindered, without the mandatory utilization of cultivation resources. ''Perfect!'' He shouted inwardly, and the density of mana only intensified, the closer he got to the colosseum. Whenpared to the Primordial Dimension, the amount of mana was still slightlycking, but this was only considered a small issue. The possibility alone was already splendid and Shane was d to have at least the opportunity to cultivate inside the Shirai Academy, even if he was unsure if he would use it. This was however solely the case because the Shirai academy was constructed around a Dimensional Portal, which most students used in order to absorb the natural mana inside the Primordial Dimensions. As such, the mana generators were mostly used by students, who sparred against each other inside the colosseum. In the end, it would be a hassle to enter the Primordial Dimension every single time, because one had to replenish the used up mana. This situation was however prevented due to the academy purchasing mana generators. Shane was not exactly sure how they worked, but he knew that one had to supply them with high-quality mana stones. Because it was their first day, students were asked to gather inside the colosseum. Shane had failed to understand why exactly this was necessary but realizedter that it was thergest building and also the only one that could inhabit soo many students. ''Wait?! There are only five big academies, right? Even if there are still smaller academies, they don''t have Dimension-spheres and are only used to improve the students'' knowledge andbat experience, and prowess¡­But even more important...has Humanity already reached the poption of 30 billion?!'' Shane racked his brain, trying to estimate how many students would most likely attend the Shirai-academy... ''If our poption has reached 30 billion...There are most likely around 300 to 400 million children born each year, or probably more. While nobody could be considered extremely poor; with high hygiene and medical knowledge, deaths during child-birth or at a young age were rare. Many of the diseases are almost eradicated thanks to the Primordial Dimensions potions and healing ingredients¡­ Even if I can already deduct most children from below-average families and the slightly richer families, the big academies will only ept hard-working youths. The number will still be in millions who most likely applied...so how many students will the Shirai academy have?! '' Shane was astonished to arrive at the astronomical number of possible students. He asked himself if it was really a wise move to attend an Academy in order to receive the opportunity to enter the Dimension-sphere instead of earning funds to purchase these techniques. However, in the end, Shane told himself that he also had to socialize, at least a little, in order to achieve something. Alone, he would never be able to construct a shelter for example, which was also something Shane wanted to witness...building something from scrap and seeing the whole process! Furthermore, getting to know Aimy and Olivia also didn''t feel bad, and he understood that meeting youths of the same age was important for his progress. Even if he had spent only a few hours with the two girls, it released his tension which he had umted over thest month. Shane was now sure of the fact that free time could actually help him loosen up and he shouldn''t pressurize himself too much! The closer they walked towards the Academy''s center, the more shocked the three of them became, because nobody would have expected the tall structures and colosseum to be so gigantic. When they finally entered the gigantic colosseum, Shane noticed a sign, with all kinds of information about it. The sign was a holographic screen which also had a detailed floor n which detailed resources avable on each floor with the different ways to utilize them. Based on what he saw right now, the colosseum seemed to have a few floors on the surface, while the majority of floors were underground, causing Shane to frown lightly ''Am I still underestimating the Academy''s size?'' After entering the interior of the Colosseum, they were approached by a woman in her twenties, telling the three of them where to go, to which they only nodded. Suddenly, Shane heard Olivia next to him eximing in hushed whispers. "This is sooo big!!! I''ll have many opponents to fight. YEAH!!" She was obviously overjoyed and Shane was already aware that Olivia was a battle-maniac. He was conscious about their behavior because he had known two battle-maniacs and had even experienced their craziness first-hand. Being reminded about his Aunt Lory and Uncle Cheng, Shane trembled lightly, before they went to the upper floors. Arriving at the highest floor, the three of them noticed that it was already crammed with students sitting on chairs, as Aimy mumbled. "Weren''t the seats on the lower floorspletely filled with students as well?" And Shane could only nod, thinking the same, as he sighed. "Let''s just sit down, I think it will still take some time until everyone arrives and settles down.." There was still more than enough time left for the first-year students to arrive. Shane couldn''t help but feel weird, as he sensed everyone''s mana fluctuations. ''Is there even a single student at the Mortal stage except me?'' Thinking that a smile escaped Shane''s lips. Sitting down in the back rows that were still rtively freepared to the seats in the front that werepletely crammed with students, the three of them waited patiently, until the seats around them were filled. It was exactly 8:00 am, when arge holographic image emerged in the front, with a young woman seemingly in herte twenties. She had been smiling foolishly when a male voice behind her whispered quietly that the video transmission had already started. Her eyes widened and Shane could clearly see her being overwhelmed with the situation. Seeing the familiar face of Aunt Kia caused him to smile lightly, as she gathered her senses, and turned serious. Clearing her throat she announced. "Hello, dear students. As you may know, my name is [Kia Mel] and I''m your cute principal!" Chuckling lightly, she continued, while Shane could only shake his head "I hope everyone arrived at the Shirai academy without any disturbances or any other issues. Some may be confused to see that I appear inside a holographic transmission instead of standing in front of all of you, but this is hardly possible because we have more than 200,000 students this year! This is a shocking number, don''t you all agree? And, I can imagine why some of you may have chosen one of the big academies to enroll in. Not only do the big academies have the bestbat instructors, mana mastery sses, knowledgeable teachers, and a beautiful principal aka me, but each of the big academies has 20 grade-1 Dimension-spheres and 3 grade-2 Dimension spheres. Everyone should be aware that purchasing skills and martial art techniques from the system are an extremely expensive procedure, which is probably why most students from average households applied to the big academies. However, please bear in mind that everyone around you is yourpetitor with the same goal and we won''t grant everyone enough time to enter the Dimension-spheres without any contribution!! Competition is good and ignites one''s potential, but only to a certain degree!! idents inside the colosseum may happen, but whoever deliberately hurts someone causing long-term injuries or even permanent injuries, will immediately be expelled from the Academy!! The same goes for cheaters during theoretical exams...what I hate the most are students trying to receive something that doesn''t belong to them or what they don''t deserve in the first ce. With enough effort, you will progress and the Shirai academy will not remain silent and only observe everyone, but we shall be your support pir." __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 100 - Rankings Listening to Aunt Kia''s speech, Shane was slightly taken aback. He had never seen her being so serious, except when she taught him, while she was quite foolish on every other asion. As she continued speaking, Shane listened to her carefully. "As the students support pir, we have many tasks, but we will only be of use if we are utilized correctly. Everyone should be aware that neither theoretical nor practical lessons are mandatory. Sitting for the final exams is your only responsibility within the Shirai academy. As such, everyone can do whatever they please. I have already spoken for so long and haven''t even started talking about the most important information¡­ If someone is curious about what dorm or ss they are in, just ess your student information on the system. It should exin everything necessary about this, which includes the choice to take whatever lesson each of you wants to attend until next week. As for this week, we will start with what most students are most likely here for...The first monthly rankings which include the first opportunity to earn several hours ess to the Dimension-spheres!!" Suddenly the students around Shane began to jump up, shouting in joy and started to p loudly, causing him to feel extremely ufortable. ''Are you guys insane...you haven''t even finished the exams or obtained ess to the dimension-spheres!!'' He thought, bewildered, as he inwardly added. ''Am I the only sane person here?'' As he looked at Olivia who was also over the top, eximing loudly, while Aimy only shook her head in denial. Suddenly a loud snap amplified by mana resounded throughout the whole floor. It caused everyone to sit down on their seats immediately, as they were shaken by the massive pressure intertwined into the snap. Shane was also taken by surprise, as he looked at the unsuspicious middle-aged man with short dark blue hair. He had one arm raised in the air as if he wanted to snap another time if the hubbub didn''t die down soon. ''Not bad!'' Shane thought as he continued to observe the middle-aged, blue-haired man until his Aunt continued with her speech. "Everyone should have calmed down by now, huh? As for the rankings...we thought about this for a long time and decided to utilize the first week to establish the first rankings. Today, everyone may rx and familiarize themselves with the entire academy grounds and how everything works. But tomorrow, we will immediately start by testing everyone''s theoretical knowledge, excluding any primordial dimension knowledge that is only avable within the Primordial library! This is to ensure fairness to the students who have barely entered the Primordial Dimensions because they simply had no time to read such books. However, this benefit is only for this month''s knowledge exam and we won''t be so nice from next month onwards. Because the first exam only asks rather basic questions and is as such rather easy, we will reward everyone 100% with 2 hours ess to the Tier-1 Dimension-sphere. As for the next ranking we have, it may be ratherplicated but we call it [Stage-to-Age] ranking. This is a rather new ranking and shows the progress of every student who applied for this ranking, ording to their age and stage they have reached. For example, if we have two students at the exact same stage in both cultivation and body refining, the younger student is ranked higher than the older. To calcte the exact ranking based on the given stage and age is rather difficult, but the higher someone''s rank ispared to their age, the better is their ranking in this column. In two days, we will test everyone''s martial art proficiency and grade it. Many students don''t have a martial art technique acknowledged by the system, but this is not an issue. We grade indiscriminately, even though more difficult techniques will be higher ranked, which is only logical. There are two other rankings that don''t need any exams and the students only have to share their ess to two of their system functions. These rankings are called [Wealth] ranking and [Lifestyle-upation] ranking. The wealth ranking should be rather obvious...the more funds you umte, the higher your ranking is. However, the lifestyle upation counts how many products someone has manufactured and their rough grade. Mortal grade items are awarded 1 to 3 points, while Tier-1 items are awarded anywhere between 5-20 points. Tier-2 items can already im 30 to 100 points. The higher the coins, the better the ranking, sounds good, right? As for thest ranking that will be held the day after the martial art proficiency exam, we have thebat rankings. Students at the same stage will fight each other and the winners will receive more hours of ess to the Dimension-spheres. While the Mortal stagebat ranking will only have one individual that can im the reward, the Apprenticebat ranking will have three winners. The Expert stages have five winners and they will additionally have an extended period of ess to the Dimension-spheres. As such, we have 8 rankings in total and there should be something for everyone, right? Not everyone is the same and we know that, but to enter the academy, at least one of this ranking should be suitable for any student." Sighing deeply, Principal Kia revealed a bright smile as she announced cheerfully. "I sincerely hope that everyone will have a splendid time at the Academy. You guys should remember that not only is everyone here still young, but life is long! Socializing and rxing once in a while is important to have a bnced lifestyle! Am I right, Little One?! Hehehe...Now that I have said everything, let me see everyone blossom into beautiful flowers! Have a nice week!" Ending her speech, her holographic transmission ended with her hologram dissipating. Shane could only sweat lightly when she said "Little One" which was obviously directed at him. After Aunt Kia finished her speech, Shane was about to stand up, when he noticed that everyone jumped up in order to rush out of the colosseum, which created pure chaos. As such, Shane and the two girls remained seated with all of them essing their student information in order to figure out which ss and dorm they were in. Olivia was the first to shout out "ss 52, Dorm nr. 100 [Ster]...YAY The Ster Dorm!! What about you Aimy??" Hearing Olivia saying the name of her dorm, Shane immediately frowned, as he thought ''Oh please not...Aunty... if you did that¡­.'' as he searched for his own name. Aimy was the next to answer, as she said joyously "I''m also in ss 52 and the Ster-Dorm!" Shane''s frown deepened, as he found his student information. When he didn''t answer Olivia who asked him about his ss, she leaned forward to take a look at his holographic screen, only to squeak out in joy "You''re also in the Ster-Dorm!!! YEY...and also in ss 100, the Ster-ss...How can you be so lucky?!" Olivia was extremely envious of Shane''s ss, while his frown only deepened. ''Why aunty?! I thought you liked me¡­.'' Sighing, Aimy noticed that Shane was suddenly in a bad mood, causing her to wonder what was going on. On the other side, Olivia maintained her good, yet envious mood. When the student crowd had left the colosseum, Aimy and Olivia stood up, only to see that Shane was still deep in thoughts. Olivia punched his shoulder to bring him back to reality. Looking around, he noticed that the whole floor was already empty with only the remaining, as he looked at the two girls waiting for him. Suddenly Aimy smiled slightly at him, saying "Let''s go to our dorm!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 101 - Pigsty Dorm Room Shane was still displeased with the name of his ss and Dorm, but even if heined, it was unlikely that someone would care. As such he had to ept the fact, even if he didn''t want to. Standing up to walk out of the colosseum towards the dorms'' direction, Shane continued to study the student information trying to gather more intel on his ssmates.. What he was curious about was how exactly the rankings [Wealth] and [Lifestyle upation] would work. There were many different ways the Shirai academy could approach it, but Shane found out that they looked for one of the easiest. Apparently, the two rankings were also monthly based, like the theoretical and allbat that involved exams. While the only ranking out of the ordinary ones was the stage to age ranking, which would start from day one. It would only end when a student decided to take away the academy''s permission to enter the required system function. However, the most important thing he figured out was that the umted gold coins and points from the lifestyle upations'' manufactured products would be reset every month, in order to ensure a certain amount of fairness to everyone. There were always students with extremely fortunate months and also bad months. As such, one could enter the rankings one month, and be on thest spot the following month. At the end of the month, the rewards would be given out ording to everyone''s ranking in the exams and other rankings. The only exception was the first week in the first semester. In this week, the rankings would consider the efforts put in the prior months to establish the [Wealth] and [Lifestyle upation] ranking. Meanwhile, the [Stage-to-age] ranking would also give away a reward to the students who cultivated the fastest at the end of the week, while the other exams would do the same. In the end, Shane estimated that giving out rewards in the first week was a trap, used to exhibit the efficiency of the Dimension-sphere to select students in order to motivate them. Once others figured out the efficiency of the Dimension-spheres, they would be even more motivated and determined to earn ess to the Dimension-spheres in order to achieve their first martial art technique or skill. Shane and probably all the other students were aware that Tier-1 skills werecking,pared to their cultivation rank. It was the case for the majority of students at the Expert stage, but one had to consider that most students didn''t have a single skill or technique until now. Comparing his own martial art techniques to the provided techniques the system sold, Shane could only acknowledge the system''s superiority. Seeing his aunts and uncles using all kinds of techniques and skills,pared to the wed techniques he learned, Shane was always envious. When the time was ripe, he would also be stronger with supreme techniques, allowing him to ascend the higher realms. As for now, Shane was still at the bottom and he could only be satisfied that he was not seen as an ant by others when they walked past him. Without a concealment technique, one could easily decipher what stage others were at. For someone stronger, it was even easier and they could even figure out what rank the opposite party was if one wanted to. Almost every student was interested in gauging the rough strength of theirpetitors, but after perceiving Shane''s strength, they were more interested in Aimy and Olivia. If he were, to be honest, he would probably act the same, because his current strength was just too weak,pared to others, even if he had only been inside the Primordial Dimensions for slightly more than a month. Searching for their dorm took extremely long and when they found it, Shane finally discarded his train of thoughts, about what exact ranking he should focus on, and which one he should neglect. He wouldpletely disregard the existence of the stage-to-age ranking because he wished to pursue the path of a perfect foundation. It would take a long time,pared to others charging through the realms as if they were in a short sprint, but he didn''t mind. As for the other rankings, Shane wanted to try entering all other rankings, except lifestyle upation. He couldn''t simply bother wasting time to forge, concoct or inscribe runes, even if the necessary basic knowledge was memorized. Knowledge was what had Shane the most and he was confident in his memory''s ability which was superior in his opinion. He had a sharp memory and could remember everything after reading through anything two to three times at most. Because his n was to enter the Apprentice rank after perfectly refining his physique, he would be able to enter thebat ranking for the mortal stage. Shane was confident in his strength, due to multiple reasons, which included his perfect physique and [Artemis'' Blessing] that erged his mana pool by 30%. Having learned martial art techniques since he was a child, Shane was also confident in reaching a satisfying rank for the martial art proficiency ranking. Only a minority of students could every their hands on a martial art technique while reaching a high proficiency was even more unlikely. With a high enough proficiency, he would be able to even overshadow system-graded martial art techniques, as long as these students had a shallow proficiency. Revealing the whole fortune that he had umted over thest month might be over the top, but why should he care about others right now? He wanted to receive the rewards, as such making enemies was unavoidable. Entering the dorm, Shane looked out for his room number, which was also 100, like the Dorm''s number and his ss. Labeling it a coincidence was not something he would do, as hemented Aunty Kia''s decision to tease him. When he entered the room, a pillow shot towards him. Ducking, Shane evaded the pillow, which hit the wall behind him, as it slumped to the ground. He entered his dorm room with three youths creating a mess, as they cursed at each other. Apparently, they were about to start a fistfight for whatever reason, with the smallest, blond-haired youth ring daggers at the tall brown-haired youth. Meanwhile, thest, green-haired youth stood on top of one of the two bunk beds, cheerfully encouraging the two youths to fight, when he finally noticed Shane standing in the door frame. Signaling him toe closer, Shane decided to do what the youth said, after scanning the radiating mana fluctuations in order to figure out everyone''s rough strength. The green-haired youth was definitely the oldest and the strongest, but he encouraged the two youths to fight inside their room, which was weird. However, Shane didn''t mind that, because he found it also quite entertaining, and if they could figure out whatever they were quarreling about, why not? Ascending the bunk bed, Shane greeted his roommates with a bright smile, shocking the green-haired youth, as he introduced himself. "Hello, I''m Shane Suro, 10th Mortal stage, what''s your name?" He briefly introduced himself telling the green-haired youth his cultivation stage and rank, without showing any signs of weakness or frustration immediately. The youth realized that Shane was either extremely young and had only been within the Primordial Dimension for a short period, or that he simply didn''t care about his stage, which was unlikely because he was able to enter the Shirai academy. As such it had to be the first reason, as the green-haired youth smiled lightly and replied. "Hey Shane, I''m Uir Yeng, a 2nd rank Expert and the two quarreling youths are Paul r and Lars Mer. The small blondie is Lars and the giant-like youth is Paul. Don''t mind them, they''re only fighting with each other to figure out who should get the other upper bed of the bunk bed." Looking at the strength both youths used, they were obviously at the Apprentice stage, but that they utilized their wholebat prowess and finesse in order to obtain their desired sleeping ce?! Shane couldn''t help but chuckle, as he asked Uir "I''ll take the bed below you, alright?" before he descended the bunk bed to sit in his new bed after taking his shoes off. Watching the two Apprentice stages fight, Shane couldn''t help but carefully grade their physical strength, their minute movements, and how they handled the mana within them. ''That''s disappointing'' He thought with a sigh before heid down on his bed to think about his next few goals. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 102 - Coincidence? After a while, watching the youths fight turned extremely boring for Shane. If he didn''t know better, he would have joined their fight just for the adrenaline kick. Having observed them for thest few minutes, he could confidently say that he was stronger than them. However, even if he was stronger, showing off hisbat prowess on the first day he met them wasn''t a good idea. This could lead them to be humiliated and he knew that it would be the wrong way to establish a firm rtionship. As such, he remained quiet while thinking of his future path and what exactly he should do, once all exams were over. Excluding the mandatory subjects, Shane wanted to take a look at thebat lessons and how efficient they would bepared to the lessons he had received from his family. ''First, I shouldplete my perfect Mortal physique and enter the Apprentice stage...My funds should be more than enough, but if the threads on Primweb are not wrong, the Radiant mountain ring dimension is slowly gaining poprity because of the expensive beast carcasses¡­'' However, even though the poprity of the Radiant mountain ring dimension began to slowly rise, the destruction and deaths caused by the bloodlust thunder wolf seemed to suppress the interest of many merchants. News of the gruesome battle that had urred in the Radiant mountain ring dimension had spread like wildfire. They feared the destruction of the shelter and the loss of goods, which would be worse than having fewer profits, but what worried them most was the fact that the bloodlust thunderwolf was still alive. The merchants were greedy but they loved their lives above everything else. This caused the RadiantRing shelter''s poption to rise only slowly, with many hurdles. Contrary to the reaction of most merchants and adventurers, Shane predicted that the government would act rashly because they would have most likely already figured out the sheer number of elemental crystals all over the mountain range. Shane doubted that the government hadn''t already hired hundreds of workers to mine multiple caves while guarding them with Elite military units. If they couldn''t even ensure normalborers'' safety against the bloodlust thunder wolf, the authorities in charge should just resign and let others take care of such matters. ''My cave is well hidden and looks extremely small from outside, most likely not even like an elemental crystal cave, since I started mining there...maybe...there will only be a few beasts inhabiting the cave, instead of humans excavating the whole cave?'' Without a credible source of news to support his theory, Shane could only rely on the fact that he had barely found the scaled lizard elemental crystal cave himself. It was only because of the mission awarded by the system that he had been able to locate the cave which was very well hidden from the surroundings. It had taken him an excruciatingly long amount of time when he had been to the same cave for the second time. There were no directions from the system to guide him the second time but fortunately, he had a good memory that helped him remember the majority of the way to the cave. This led him to assume that humans might not have found the cave yet. As such, Shane was in a rather good mood, when he noticed that the two apprentice stage youths had finished their "intense" fight. Standing up, he greeted the two youths, while revealing his stage, causing the other youths to smile weirdly, as they proudly Introduced themselves. With this, Shane found out that both of them had a boastful character, without any backings. They were barely at the 3rd & 4th Apprentice stage, which was not something to brag about. Apparently, the two youths had known each other since they were young and liked to talk a lot. Shane could only ept the fact, as he nodded his head, frowning inwardly ''Why are there so many chit-chatters? Olivia is still fine but these two are just annoying¡­'' Not wanting to endure their onught of words, Shane decided to take a walk outside the dorm in order to get to know the Shirai academy. He walked around aimlessly for a while, appreciating the scenery. The academy was built on a vast expanse ofnd and the huge academy grounds were filled with blooming flowers andrge trees. Further, in the distance, Shane even noticed arge forest that he approached curiously. He wasn''t sure why, but he felt attracted to the tranquility radiating from the forest, as he instinctively activated his mana gathering technique. ''Huh? Does the forest radiate faint traces of mana? And the density seems to increase the deeper I venture inside the forest!!'' As he looked at the different kinds of trees, Shane also recalled that they had different qualities, which was hardly helpful in normal cases. However, since Shane had purchased the beast sealing card with its [extraordinary] quality and the [soul connection] ability, his train of thought changed slightly. ''Are these trees from the Primordial Dimension? Maybe even at the extraordinary quality? If that''s the case, can they produce faint traces of mana through a simr process as the photosynthesis?'' Right when he was about to enter the forest, he noticed a notification pop up in front of him. [Host is about to enter a special zone, which the [Shirai Academy] has imed. If the host doesn''t want to infiltrate the [Tranquil forest] unlicensed, causing an rm, the host has to pay 1 gold coin, in order to receive one-time ess permission(no time limit).] Shane was astonished to read this notification ''You can even im a zone/territory through the system? That''s amazing!! It should also be extremely expensive...but this price is cheap. Is Aunt Kia now a fraud?'' With his train of thoughts changing from one possibility to another, each turned out to be more unlikely and stupider than the prior, and calling his Aunt fraud was the weirdest thought he ever had. This couldn''t be the answer, as he began to change his train of thought to figure out the real reason. Curiosity overwhelmed him, and he paid one gold coin in order to enter the forest, without causing an rm, as he entered the forest''s outskirts. ''It''s not even that much of a difference if I were topare it to the shelter....maybe the core area has an even higher mana particle density?!'' This shocked Shane greatly because it was a big difference if he were to enter the Shelter to cultivate or if he could have his peace on Igra. But this was only the case, if nobody else, or only a few serious students were to enter the forest in order to cultivate or breakthrough. Previously, Shane didn''t dare to break through outside the shelter wall with the sole exception when he was alone inside the depths of the elemental crystal cave. However, in this case, he was alone without a single living being nearby or even remotely close to him, which was the reason for Shane to take a chance. If he could breakthrough in Igra, without anyone hindering him, it could even be considered beneficial for his n, which might change ording to Shirai Academy''s variety ofbat teachers. Furthermore, the biggest contrast the forest demonstrated was the tranquil aura, easing even the slightest tension Shane''s body showed. ''With a light heart and body, cultivating should be much faster here¡­'' A bright smile appeared on his face as hepletely exerted his mana gathering technique and walked for over ten minutes. Shane couldn''t help but smile brightly, as he noticed that cultivating inside the [Tranquil forest] was extremely pleasing and he pondered if he should just stay inside the forest for a few weeks after the first exam and ranking period was over. Suddenly, Shane noticed that the trees around him thinned, as he spotted arge crystal clear nestled amongst the greeneryke underlining the tranquil scenario. It was extremely beautiful and looked magnificent. His eyes traveled through theke as he tried to gauge its vastness when his eyes fell on someone. He saw a fair-skinned, beautiful white-haired woman, leaning on arge tree trunk next to theke. However, Shane was rather confused to see such a familiar figure here, as he mumbled "Aisha Hael?!", which woke up the sleeping beauty from her dreamless sleep. Looking up, she immediately noticed that she was not the only one overwhelmed by the scenario theke presented, causing her to smile faintly at Shane. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 103 - Peaceful Mind Shane was mesmerized by Aisha''s smile. She seemed to look even more beautiful, as her hair fluttered in the light breeze that blew through the crystal clearke, causing Shane to be stupefied. ''What is she doing here? Shouldn''t Aisha be somewhere with her Valkyrie troupe?'' As Aisha walked towards him, he saw her for the first time without wearing her silver armor. Shane couldn''t help but acknowledge the fact that she had a slim figure thatplimented her fair skin and white shining hair. Shaking his head, he asked himself if Aisha knew who he was, as he heard her saying. "Hello, Shane Ste, what a ''coincidence'' to meet you here!" Sighing, Shane immediately knew that his n to stay lowkey was on the brink of copse, as he thought. ''Of course, she knows who I am...Did Uncle Lars tell her, or did I introduce myself as Ste at the military event?!'' Shane didn''t know, but in the end, it didn''t matter and he immediately disregarded her beautiful appearance, as he said "My name is Shane Suro...please don''t create any misunderstandings by calling me Ste." Hearing this, Aisha halted in her steps, as she sized him up once again from head to toe. "Aren''t you John Ste''s son? If I remember correctly, you should be?" Normally, he would just ignore such useless chit-chat, but inside the forest, he felt rxed. He didn''t mind exining to Aisha what was going on, at least to a certain degree. She was someone unrted to him, with the only connection being Uncle Lars. As such, she didn''t need to know his personal reasons. "My father is John Ste, but I''m still Shane Suro. I want to have my peace inside the Shirai academy, without others bothering me about my father. I hope you can refrain from telling others about my existence or at least who my father is. You wouldn''t like to be bothered by others because of insincere reasons, whatever they may be, or am I wrong?" Nodding her head, she felt that it might be bothersome for Shane, if she were to tell others about his true identity, which she didn''t want to do in the first ce. Looking into his eyes, she noticed his firm resolve and a strong will, which she expected from the descendant of humanity''s leader. However, the independence he showcased was something she hadn''t expected. Shane didn''t seem to bother about his background even a tiny bit, which was umon among wealthy families. Furthermore, ording to the mana fluctuations she perceived from him, it was clear that Shane was at the 10th Mortal stage. It wasughable whenpared to the stage he could have already reached if he were to fully utilize his family''s resources. He had his doubts of thinking of the meeting with Aisha Hael in the Shirai academy to just be a weird coincidence. It felt as if his whole family wanted to tease him, causing him to frown lightly, as he asked her straightforwardly. "Did Uncle Lars send you to the Shirai academy? If that''s the case, I doubt that you''re neither here as a student, normal knowledge teacher nor amonbat teacher, right?" It was only a hunch, but when he saw Aisha inside the Basic-Dimension he would have never thought that she would leave her Valkyrie Unit. It just didn''t add up which made everything he perceived here only weirder. ''He didn''t fall on his head, huh?'' Smiling at Shane''s observation andprehension ability, she couldn''t help but acknowledge his train of thought, as she nodded her head, saying. "You''re right, Uncle Lars sent me here and it''s also true that I''m neither an ordinary teacher nor somemonbat teacher..Shirai academy has more than enough of them. They have already ascended into the Intermediate Dimension, while theirbat experience is of several dozen years since they entered the Primordial DImensions long ago." Taking a deep breath, she revealed "I''m a new type of teacher, also called [In-fieldbat teacher]. In mybat ss, I''ll enter the Primordial Dimension for a period between one to three weeks in order to broaden everyone''s horizon,bat prowess, and experience. One could also call it an expedition." She was still smiling, but to Shane, it felt like this smile had suddenly turned evil. It caused him to notice that Aisha was not only a beautiful flower to look at, but that there was also a crafty and fierce tigress hidden beneath those attractive looks. However, this ''expedition'' type of lesson sounded interesting to him. Shane was sure that many students would learn how to survive in the wilderness through that, while theirbat prowess and battle awareness would soar. But the most important point of such an expedition was that the students would learn that they were not invincible inside the Primordial Dimension. It would serve as a reality check for them because even if they thought that a high Expert stage was enough, it wasn''t. There were still more than enough beasts that were even stronger than peak Expert stages with a mana purity of 80%. They were rare, but they existed, with a more threatening existence being the bloodlust thunder wolf. In Shane''s opinion, the bloodlust thunder wolf might even be able to kill Aisha, if they were to fight against each other head-on, without the Valkyrie unit behind her. She was said to have a mana purity of 90% and thinking that the bloodlust thunder wolf may be stronger than that, Shane couldn''t help but feel slightly terrified. Aisha and Shane talked for several minutes to each other, before Aisha walked out of the forest, leaving him alone. Looking over the wholeke, Shane felt the desire to cultivate. He went to the exact same spot Aisha had previously been seated on, because it was the spot with the densest mana flow, due to ovepping mana streams. Sitting down, he decided to cultivate for the remaining day, because he had nothing better to do, either way. Utilizing the mana gathering technique, Shane felt extremely calm. He slowly umted the amiable mana particles from his surroundings, before he slowly switched to exert the mana purifying technique. As hours passed, a true sense of calmness enveloped his entire being. He didn''t perceive any disturbances from his surroundings, as he opened his eyes slowly. Taking a deep breath, he exhaled slowly. Shane wasn''t even sure how often he had switched between the mana gathering and purifying technique, but looking towards the sky, he began to wonder. ''Is it morning already?'' ncing at the system''s clock, Shane smiled dryly, as a familiar notification popped up. [Host entered the [Zone] thanks to the surroundings'' tranquility, host''s determination, amity to mana, and mana aptitude] He really liked the Zone-state, even if he was still notpletely sure what it was. In the end, he didn''t even notice how much time passed and was shocked to notice that he had been in the forest for20 hours. Even more important, however, was that the Zone increased the efficiency of his whole cultivation process, without him having to use mana stones. Looking at his status panel, he saw that his mana purity had increased to [11.79%] which was an increase of around 1.2%. He had achieved this progress without the use of mana stones and in barely 20 hours, while only utilizing a [Tier-1 (Gold)] mana purifying technique. Thus, Shane couldn''t be helped but feel satisfied. If he continued like this he would only need 15 days in order to reach a mana purity of 28%. At least, if he were to cultivate throughout two full weeks, which he sadly couldn''t do. This was solely because he wouldn''t be able to increase his physique in the meantime. His current physique was too weak to sustain his health without eating or sleeping for such a long period. If he were able to circte more mana in his body, Shane was confident in being able to cultivate for such a long period. However, his physique and mana veins were still too feeble to achieve such a feat. In the end, by increasing his physique, he would be able to increase the shell, holding the mana within his body. Because it was already sote, Shane had to hurry up in order to write his first knowledge exam. Dashing forward, he left the forest behind, and ran towards one of the threerge buildingplexes, surrounding the colosseum. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 104 - Displeased Entering the education buildingplex for first-years, Shane searched for his ss. He noticed a somewhat familiar middle-aged man entering his ssroom. Shane rushed past him into his ss, not bothering to see the weird nces shot at him as he grabbed the first unupied chair he could find. The students around him gave him curious looks before they looked in the front to see their teacher arrive. Shane finally figured out why the teacher in front of him looked so familiar. It was the middle-aged man with short dark blue hair, who had amplified his snapping the day before, during Principal Kia''s speech in order to calm everyone down. Taking a deep breath, he awaited his teacher''s speech, only to be disappointed as he said in a monotonous voice "Hello ''dear'' students, my name is Leo Larka; Mr.Larka for you and I will be your ss-teacher or professor, however, you want to put it. Just so that everyone knows...I hate unnecessary questions... As such, I hope that everyone is able to think before asking dumb questions!. Our schedule for today is the knowledge exam, but everyone should already be aware of that, while the rest of the week is also already scheduled. Because of that, I''ll only share the more important information as of now. The knowledge exam today and the martial art proficiency exam tomorrow will be the easiest way to receive ess to the Dimensional-spheres. Everyone who passes the requirement will be rewarded with a few hours of ess. This, however, can be seen as a one-time reward, for everyone who diligently studied and practiced during the period prior to the system awakening. After that, the Rankings, certain missions, and the school merit system will determine the period one can spend inside the Dimension-spheres. Is there any question up till now? If not, we''ll start without wasting more time!" After Mr. Larka ended his short speech, nobody raised their voice or hand, even if some students were rather confused about certain things. Shane wanted to figure out something because there was something fundamentally wrong that bothered him. Thus, he raised his hand, and everyone''s attention turned towards him. Mr. Larka opened a holographic screen that disyed a picture of every student. His gaze fell upon the raised hand as he asked "Yes, Shane Suro. What is it that you want to know?" Even if the words used by Mr.Larka seemed nice and courteous, the tone of his voice was rather impatient and annoyed, causing Shane to look at his teacher weirdly. ''Freak'' He thought before he asked "Mr.Larka, this is not a question about the knowledge exam, but that was not asked here, right? As such, I''ll just ask what I''m curious about the Shirai academy. If one were to enter the Master rank, ascending into the Intermediate Dimensions, before graduation, what exactly would be the use of the Academy? There are only Tier-1 and Tier-2 Dimension-spheres which allows us to learn Tier-2 techniques and skills at most. Are Tier-2 techniques in this case still valuable enough for students to spend their time in the Dimension-spheres or would this be considered a waste of time?" Shane asked this question because of some specific reasons. First; he wanted to figure out how much his teacher knew, second; Shane wanted to know more about the academy''s benefits and the third reason was that he wanted topare his own answer to his teachers''. Mr. Larka continued to stare at Shane for a few seconds, without taking his eyes off him before he finally answered. "Mr. Suro, or can I say Shane? Either way...the answer to your question is definitely important for everyone to know. There are thousands of second-year students that break into the Master rank each year, with even more third-year students doing the same. Their majority however remains at the Expert rank in order to improve their mana purity further. In my opinion, breaking into the Master stage, by liquefying one''s mana before the age of 20 isparable to wasting effort. Every single time I see someone breaking into the master stage with a mana purity of 60%, I ask myself, why would they do something like this? It''s a waste of potential and considering that they are still teenagers or young men and women, with hundreds of years ahead of them. I doubt that someone who broke through with a mana purity of 60% will survive within the Intermediate Dimensions for a long time. At least, if they venture outside to earn funds. In order to fight beasts head-on, humans would have to break into the master rank with a mana purity of 80% at the bare minimum. Completing either [Tier-2] [tinum] or [Diamond] missions before the age of 18 or 20 to obtain such high mana purifying techniques, is extremely good. Also, the purification process tends to slow down with a subsequent increase in mana purity. As such, ascending before graduation, without wasting potential, is extremely difficult." Looking around the ss, Mr.Larka noticed that he had received everyone''s attention because he felt that he had exined some crucial facts. However, seeing Shane look at him as if he had heard this hundred of times, Mr. Larka''s face fell a bit. He continued, not without being a little disgruntled. "Now, back to your question. What benefits can students obtain from the academy in case they decide to break into the Master stage before reaching a mana purity of 80%? And, the same for the case of someone breaking through with a mana purity of more than 80% before graduation. As for the first case, the techniques provided by the Dimension-spheres are still useful and valuable enough to learn and practice, even though they are only Tier-2 techniques. Until someone with a low mana purity breakthrough standard learns a Tier-3 technique, a lot of time passes. They are simply unable to hunt beasts alone, even if we are only talking about the weakest beast. The only beasts they can hunt are Wild, Elite, and Awakened beasts within the Intermediate Dimensions and they are worth much lesspared to beasts at the Myst stage. Meanwhile, for someone with a higher mana purity breakthrough standard, these students won''t necessarily require the Dimension-spheres. If they wanted to learn Tier-2 techniques, they could gather funds in a short period by hunting Myst stage beasts in order to purchase Tier-2 techniques, and directly learn them. As such, the efficiency of the Dimension-spheres diminishes. What the academy provides, which is still efficient, arerge connections to all merchants, cksmiths, alchemists, and rune inscribers, allowing the students to receive materials, ingredients, weapons, and other necessities for a much cheaper price. Furthermore, Shirai Academy has many highly rmendedbat teachers, knowledgeable professors, and most importantly, even Basic lifestyle sses. At the academy, students with enough merit points are eligible to learn forging, brewing/concocting, or inscribing from a high-ranked Master. If this is not enough to satisfy your question Shane, there is also the possibility for students to team up in order to solve system missions together, as long as the stated mission doesn''t require the mission to be solved alone. Aplishing missions with others is much easier than doing it alone. Obtaining high-quality body refining techniques in order to strengthen your physique or manapressing manuals in order to cultivate with higher efficiency is important." Ending his speech, he looked around, to see everyone gasp. Mr. Larka averted his gaze to Shane while showing a proud expression, only to see that his student looked extremely dissatisfied, almost as if he was sad about the benefits. ''Is that all?'' Shane asked himself when his attention went back to the table in front of him, which projected a holographic screen, simr to the system. "Mr. Larka, can we start now?" He asked innocently, causing everyone to look at him as if he was someone from a different. ''Can''t you let us digest the massive amount of information?!?!'' ''Who the hell do you think you are? Our president''s son?!'' ''Cutie!! Even if your hot, don''t overdo it'' However none of them stated theirints out loud, and they remained quiet. Mr.Larka took a deep breath before he said "Yes¡­.let''s not waste more time.." He felt extremely disappointed with this student''s behavior, but it was not that what he said was wrong. ''Why am I even expecting to be praised or overwhelmed with curious students?! It should be considered extremely good that he remained calm while digesting important information...as long as he understood what I said!'' Hearing that they were allowed to start to write the exam, Shane immediately essed the holographic screen with his student ID, as a catalog with hundreds of questions flooded him. They were divided into different main topics, from [Primordial Dimension] to [Mankind], [Allied/Neutral/Hostile race], [Politics], [Military], [Warfare], [upations], [Basic''s Cultivation/Body refining], [Beasts on Igra], [Cataclysm], [Important Individuals], [Primordialnguage], [Etiquette with unknown races], [Finances] and a few more. While others seemed to frown deeply by the sheer number of questions, Shane couldn''t help but smile lightly. ''Did Aunt Kia create this? This format looks simr to the weekly test papers she always prepared!?'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 105 - Enemy Number 1 Shane couldn''t help but feel that the knowledge exam was a bad joke. The questions barely asked about the basic information for each subject, even if there were several dozen for each topic. ''Is that some sort of present for all first-year students?'' Shane began to wonder. He didn''t doubt that many students would be able to reach 100% for this exam, as long as they had studied at least a little in their childhood. Considering that the 200,000 students epted as first-year students had to be at least a little bit ambitious and determined in order to be even eligible to join an academy, Shane estimated that 5,000 students would pass the exam. This would mean that the academy will give out 10,000 hours of ess to the Dimensional spheres, which astonished him. ''They''re generous huh? Or does the academy just want us to taste blood in order to be addicted?'' Shane didn''t know, but with time, he noticed that the knowledge test was not as simple as it seemed, with a few slightly moreplex questions. Three hourster Shane finished the exam. His score was disyed in a bright shining color, causing him to smile lightly. Standing up, Mr. Larka noticed him and was about to stop Shane in his tracks when he received a notification. Shane''s exam result was immediately sent to him, and the same went for the ranking. With him being the first to finish answering all the questions, he was the first in the knowledge exam ranking. A golden [1] was written in front of his name followed by the time in which he had finished the exam. Mr.Larka was astonished to see his result. He rubbed his eyes to check if it was an illusion because he had assumed that Shane had given up on the exam as he had submitted the answers barely within three hours. But, what surprised him more was that Shane had scored a 100% in half of the assigned time, which was 6 hours. Shane noticed Mr.Larka''s confused expression and smiled slightly at him. He walked past him and spoke in a polite whisper "See you tomorrow, teacher!" Not knowing what to think, Mr.Larka just followed Shane with his gaze, as he thought ''Calm, knowledgeable and he knows how to behave...at least he acts as if he does! Furthermore, he doesn''t seem to be scared of the Shirai academy''s teacher...or is it just me?...Is he from an influential family?'' Thinking about this, the headteacher didn''t even notice the other several hundred students in the lecture hall, staring daggers at Shane and his presumptuous behavior, pressuring all of them to the extreme. If their ssmate was able to receive 100%, with half the time, how could they do less? Every student epted in one of the big academies was proud of their feat and some were even arrogant, causing them to hate feeling inferior to others, which happened right now. Shane was oblivious to the hate he received, as he rushed towards the tranquil forest, once again, without celebrating or even bothering about his result. It would be embarrassing for him if he couldn''t even answer such simple questions. If he had failed in the test, his aunt Kia would either beat him up or tell his other aunts and uncles. Then, they woulde over and beat him up or even worse¡­.drag him back to his father''s mansion¡­ Shuddering at this thought, Shane shook his head. He decided to focus on satiating his curiosity about something when he finally arrived in front of the tranquil forest. Paying one gold coin, he couldn''t help butment about the price. Apparently, the system would give him a discount, if he were to purchase a monthly ticket for 20 gold coins or a ticket for the whole year which would ''only'' cost him 150 gold coins. However, Shane neither knew how often he would enter the tranquil forest nor how often he would be forced to leave, once inside. In the end, it would be useless for him to pay either a monthly or annual ticket, and Shane continued his run towards theke inside the forest''s core. Arriving at theke, he took out a basin and filled it with warm water, which he purchased directly from the system for two bronze coins a liter. Then he pulled out a [Tier-1 (Trash)] nutrition solution from his spatial ring, which he dissolved within the warm water, with five fist-sized [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones surrounding the basin. Not only was Shane impatient to finally achieve a perfect mortal physique, but he also wanted to know if the peace in his mind caused by the tranquil forest was able to increase his body refining process. Maybe he could even reach the [Zone], at least that was what Shane hoped, as he took off his clothes within the forest, only to dive into the warm nutrition bath. If his assumption was even barely correct, the price of one gold coin in order to enter the tranquil forest was definitely worth it. Even if Shane was one of the stingiest humans he knew, his curiosity and desire to be stronger were much more terrifying inparison. Exerting his perfect mortal body refining technique, Shane felt a humongous surge of nutrition flooding into his body, while the mana inside the mana stones and his surroundings gushed towards him. He felt a little overwhelmed but his passive [Hunter''s mind] helped him to stay calm, while the tranquil aura in his surroundings seemed to help out too, as he circted the mana inside him with ease. There was not a single problem, and to Shane, it felt as if he was ying with the mana inside him, instead of practicing a [Mythic] quality refining technique. Smiling lightly, it was as if Shane was at peace and four hours passed in a breeze when the nutrition and mana stones were finally used up. Noticing theck of mandatory resources to refine his body, Shane was astonished, as he praised the forest and whoever built it inwardly. Stepping out of the basin, he took out ten [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones and two [Tier-1 (Trash)] nutrition solutions, as he mumbled "It''s time to reach the next rank!" Shane was eager to reach a perfect mortal physique in order to break into the Apprentice stage, even if he could have already done so ording to his mana purity. Somehow, he wanted to do one step after another, with his priority being his physique, at least for now. Dissolving the two Tier-1 trash quality nutrition solutions in the already cooled down water, Shane dived in it yet again. This time, he was infiltrated by a ravaging storm of nutrition, instead of a flood. But his body epted everything, as if it was an endless pit, while Shane subconsciously loosened faint threads out of the mana within the mana stones in order to absorb it. With an astronomical amount of nutrition and mana within him, Shane was unable to y around with the mana inside his body like he did before. Thus, he was forced to take the whole body refining process seriously and stop fooling around. More than eight hours passed and it was already midnight when he finally opened his eyes. His eyes fell upon the huge mass of ck, reeking impurities swimming on the water surface. Moving out of the basin, he stored the basin away, while the water within and purities within were just thrown into the system, selling it for a total of a few bronze coins. Shane didn''t know what use impurities or dirty water could have, but apparently, the system required it for something. Maybe the system recycled the water by throwing it into a sewage nt, or something simr, but Shane couldn''t care less. Standing naked in front of theke, he opened and closed his fist, jumped a few times, and charged from one tree to another in order to check his current strength. ''I should be able to fight my roommates at the apprentice stage, if I utilize my mana and wholebat experience, huh?'' Smiling lightly, this also meant that he was able to fight Elite stage beasts head-on, without having to retort to measly tricks, which caused him to smile brightly. Looking at the time, Shane figured out that there was still more than enough left in order to adjust to his newly acquired strength. As such, he cleansed himself, by jumping into theke, after carefully reading through the rules provided by the ''kind'' system. In the end, the tranquil forest was imed by someone else, and he couldn''t do whatever he wanted to. Shane had to follow the set rules or he would rm others, which he didn''t want to do. ''Maybe I shouldn''t have run around naked?'' He thought while reading through the rules, still naked. In the end, there was no rule prohibiting him from bathing in theke, which he did. Shane still wanted to work out and hone his martial art techniques in order to put on a magnificent show. However, in order to do the first two, Shane had to be cleansed. The stench from impurities was just too distracting to him. As such, Shane cleansed himself, before working out and honing his martial art techniques, before he jumped a second time into theke before he was finally done. With a clean set of clothes, he left the tranquil forest, without knowing that someone had been watching him, since the moment he took off his clothes for the first time. ording to the rules the system provided, he wouldn''t cause an rm, if he were to be naked. However, what he didn''t know was that the system informed the individual that imed the forest, about such things, because they could be seen as profanity by some races. How should he know that Aunt Kia had sent Aisha to the tranquil forest, only for her to see everything Shane did, over thest few hours? She didn''t move a single inch and had imprinted everything into her mind, not knowing what or why exactly she did so. Only when Shane finally left theke, she could move again, with her fair cheeks turning beet-red, as she blushed. ''What am I even thinking about?!'' She started to wonder and was shocked about herself. She then opened the system to tell the principal that it was only a student, practicing his body refining technique. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 106 - Superior Mastery Rushing to the colosseum, Shane was still adjusting his body to the new breakthrough to the 9th Mortal stage with a perfect physique. The difference he feltpared to the 8th Mortal stage was at least an increase of 20%. It was roughly what Shane had expected from a perfect physique. If he were topare his strength to that of a wed physique, a perfect 9th Mortal physique was most likely at par with the 1st Apprentice stage, if it didn''t reach it already. Smiling brightly while running, he entered the colosseum where thousands of students were already waiting to be assessed. Fortunately, the whole assessment was simplified and the academy used the system in order to test the student''s martial art proficiency. Shane didn''t really understand why he had to enter the colosseum for this. He told himself that the teachers just wanted to see how their students fared inbat. There was still a difference in personally seeing someone''s proficiencypared to what the system told ording to its standards. Furthermore, by figuring out the mostmon ws, each teacher would make a rough n in order to fix the problems, from coarse to smaller mistakes. In the end, Shane found this to be useless for him because he had already perfected thebat techniques he currently knew. It would be a wonder if his mastery would be less than perfect. In order to grade a martial art technique''s mastery, techniques were divided into six different masteries. The first and most shallow mastery was the basic mastery, followed by familiar mastery, experienced, profound, and then perfect. With perfect mastery, one could learn the technique''s whole capabilities, without wasting a single percentage. However, this didn''t mean that perfect mastery was the highest possible mastery. The Superior mastery was one step above the perfect mastery. If one were to reach such a high mastery, it would mean that the utilizerbines different sequences and techniques together in order to achieve a better result. If Shane''s battle maniac uncle and aunt didn''t lie to him, he should have already reached such a mastery two years ago, which caused him to be so full of himself. He wouldn''t hold back a tiny bit in order to achieve what he desired! Looking out for his teacher, he looked for the information provided at the entrance, only to see Olivia and Aimy standing in front of the elevator. Approaching them, he noticed that Aimy was bothered by a few students, which seemed to worry her. Olivia pushed the guys back and was almost about to pounce at the youths in order to beat them into a pulp when she suddenly saw Shane. "Shane!!! How dare you ignore us?! We searched for you yesterday and the day before, but your roommates had no idea where you went! We even heard that you hadn''t returned for thest two nights...Don''t tell me you already spent your night somewhere else..hehehe." Olivia switched between being angry and teasing without taking a breath, causing Shane to smile lightly, while Aimy looked at him weirdly. "Long time no see...I didn''t sleep during thest two days and spent my time in the forest inside the academy." Hearing this, not only Aimy and Olivia eyed him weirdly, but also the youths who Olivia had pushed over. Who the hell would spend their time in a forest, instead of sleeping in afortable bed? Ignoring the youths on the ground, Shane continued. "I can take you two to the forest next time if you haven''t found it yet. It''s quite beneficial there!" He smiled at the two girls, who couldn''t help but feel confused, and the three continued to talk when the elevator arrived. Confirming the number of the floor he had to go to, Shane also entered the elevator. Heter realized that both Aimy and Olivia had their assessment on the same floor as him. This caused the two girls to be enlightened, as Aimy suddenly said. "Shane...did you learn during your whole childhood or what? How could you finish the knowledge exam in just over three hours? With full marks at that?! The exam was not that difficult per se, but there were some tricky questions that required long and detailed exnations!" Looking at Aimy, Shane was unsure what to say, as he tilted his head slightly, and tried to answer "I''m just good at studying...probably?" Olivia, who had been listening to the two of them suddenly yelled in frustration. "How can you say something like that¡­.I also thought I''m good at learning and I barely got 75%...." Smiling, he couldn''t help but think that Olivia''s angered expression was slightly cute. He changed the topic when the elevator arrived at the floor for their assessment. "Are you two confident in reaching a high-mastery with your martial arts techniques?" Holding her head high, Olivia proudly announced. "Aimy and I already purchased a [Mortal-(Silver)] martial art technique and both of us achieved a profound mastery a few days ago!!" Both of the girls seemed to be proud of their achievements. In most cases, a profound mastery after barely learning new techniques for two or three months would probably be considered good. However, it was barely a Mortal grade technique with a silver quality, which was nothing Shane would ever set his eyes on. The two girls in front of him had probably practiced such a technique because they didn''t have the wide variety of techniques he had. In the end, Shane was an extremely rare case, because he had learned all foundational techniques for closebat, weapons, and even long-range weapons, which included knife and javelin throw. He couldn''t help but smile at Olivia''s reaction, which Aimy was also proud of. She hesitantly asked him "Are you confident in your martial art technique''s mastery?" Entering the floor where they would be assessed, Shane turned around to the two girls, as he simply said "I think so." Leaving Aimy and Olivia alone, he approached the segment for his ss, which consisted of hundreds of students, causing him to look around in astonishment. ''Were there so many students in my ss yesterday?!'' Shane hadn''t bothered about his ssmates the day before, but now, he had to, because it could determine how long he had to wait for his turn. Seeing his teacher, he approached Mr.Larka in order to inquire about the queue. However, he announced, even before Shane was able to ask. "Now that everyone is here, we can finally start. The order for the assessment is ording to the first letter in your family name. However, in order to let everything run smoothly, without someone hindering the whole process, one student should demonstrate the whole procedure." Looking around, Mr.Laika searched for a student that wanted to start, but everyone seemed to behave somewhat hesitant, after perceiving their ssmates'' strength. Other students, meanwhile, seemed rxed and didn''t bother about the whole procedure. They wanted to wait for their turn in order to show their true potential, which they couldn''t the day before due to Shane, who stole their show. Nobody wanted to be the first one, and just when the first brave students were about to raise their hand, they could see Shane''s hand far ahead in front of them. He shouted out loud, for everyone to hear "I want to start!!" With hundreds of students scanning his mana pool rank at once, Shane felt slightly ufortable. But he didn''t bother about that when he heard a fewughs behind him with others gossiping about his rank. "Yeah, Nr.1, show us how amazing your martial art techniques are.. Maybe you can even reach the basic mastery for your gradeless technique!!" "Oiii! Don''t underestimate our Nr.1...He will at least reach a familiar mastery!!" "..." ".." The majority of students behaved like donkeys, uttering bullsh*t. They had no idea how long it had been since Shane entered the primordial dimension, or if he practiced martial art techniques for months or even years. [Shane] "...." ''Did I kill their loved pets? Why are they behaving like monkeys? ''Maybe they are degenerates?'' Thinking about this, Shane smiled lightly because he could roughly understand why the students behaved like this. They were jealous of his knowledge exam result! Not bothering about such idiots would be the simplest measure Shane could take. He exactly did the same, which enraged several dozen ssmates further. Meanwhile, the calmer students found him interesting. Thus when Shane entered thebat arena in front of all students, these calm students nodded their heads, praising his calmness inwardly. Activating the recording and assessing the function of his system, he took two deep breaths, before he took out his Tier-2 dagger set from his spatial ring. Immediately entering abat stance, Shane decided to demonstrate a martial art sequencebination. It consisted of multiple techniques that werepatible with the usage of mana, as he began to move around slowly. Using the wholebat arena as his home ground, he began to move around slowly, before his velocity increased consistently, with no signs of slowing down. Several seconds passed and it looked like he was still bing faster, as his thrusts, and stabs seemed to turn more lethal, with Shane releasing a faint trace of killing intent in his attacks. This caused the students in the first few rows to back off a few steps before they calmed down. A minuteter, Shane stopped his demonstration after slowing down.. A notification popped up in front of Shane, and he smiled lightly. He sent the result to his teacher, who immediately erged the result, in order to show it to everyone. [Host''s [Mortal-(-1)-(Gold)]bined martial art technique reached a [Superior+] mastery] Looking at his teacher, Shane quietly inquired. "Can I leave?" However, because the whole area used for ss 100 had gone eerily silent, everyone had heard him, causing the students to almost copse on the ground. ''Can''t we just beat him up, PLEASE?'' ''What audacity!!'' ¡­ .. ''Interesting!'' __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 107 - Refining Capsule Seeing Shane''s result and his calm demeanor, Mr.Larka was convinced that Shane belonged to an influential family. He sized the student in front of him from head to toe once again. Noticing his teacher''s behavior, he felt weird, as he once again asked his teacher. "Teacher! Can I leave?" This seemed to pull his teacher out of his train of thoughts, as he looked into Shane''s eyes before he nodded. "Yes, you can go...be punctual tomorrow onwards!" Nodding his head, Shane ignored the several hundred pairs of ring eyes that wished him to either copse on the ground, break his leg, or something like that, as he walked past them. It was barely 8:30 am and there were almost 24 hours left for him to spend his time however he wanted. Thus, he decided to take a look at Aimy and Olivia''s martial art proficiency exam before leaving. Fortunately, he didn''t have to wait long for Aimy to start with her demonstration, because her family name was Ash. It wouldn''t be long before Olivia''s turn either, whose family name was Berg, to start her exam as well. The professor of ss 52 noticed Shane looking at her students'' exams, which caused her to feel astonished. It was unlikely that many students had already finished their exams. Furthermore, leaving the ss just like that afterpleting the assessment spoke a thousand words about his sympathy for a working-ssmunity. Slightly annoyed, she decided to rationally observe the youth who approached them. checked his [Martial art proficiency] ranking which would update immediately after one submitted their assessment to their teacher. There were roughly more than ten students who had finished their exams. Seeing the ck-haired youth''s demeanor, she subconsciously looked at the first ce, before she clicked on the result in order to see the connected student''s profile. Widening her eyes, she could barely get her act together in order to look like a professional in front of her students, as Aimy finished her assessment. Seeing Shane approaching them, she remembered that his name was Suro. It meant that his turn waster, causing her to look at him in confusion. Lightly bowing to the teacher, as learned in his etiquette lessons to greet someone quietly without causing a disturbance, he approached Aimy. She went to the back of ss 52''s corner of the colosseum floor, where Olivia was. He greeted them, and Olivia was astonished to see him, while Aimy only asked herself if this was even okay. But after looking at her teacher, who returned the gaze nonchntly, it seemed to be okay, as long as nobody interrupted anything. Whispering, she asked, "How did you do?" to which Shane answered, "It was okay, you?" "Well, as expected," Aimy said, not showing much emotion, because she felt suspicious about Shane. However, she didn''t dare to check the ranking, in fear that she might shout out. Twenty minutes had passed until it was Olivia''s turn. After she returned with the expected result, Shane and the two girls decided to make way for the other students, leaving the colosseum for the day. They talked to each other for some time, before Shane stated his wish to enter the Primordial Dimension in order to refine his body further. Hearing him, Aimy suddenly said. "Why don''t you use the refining capsules the academy has? Renting a basic one for a whole day costs 30 silver coins and you only have to provide your own nutrition solutions and mana stones. These refining capsules will refill the nutrition, once they''re below a certain threshold, while the same applies to mana stones. However, the best thing about the refining capsules is that you don''t really feel how much time has passed." Hearing her suggestion made him quickly check the academy''s map, and Aimy exined to him where everything was. Olivia enthusiastically added. "Aimy let''s go too! We can''t neglect our physique!" Frowning, Aimy knew that if she disagreed with her best friend now, she would most likely sulk for days. As such, she reluctantly nodded her head, which Olivia noticed happily, as she dragged Shane and Aimy towards their school building. Entering the elevator in order to reach the underground floors took only five minutes before they reached their final destination. There were several rows of hundreds of refining capsules and Shane couldn''t help but praise the academy''s funds. The refining capsules seemed nothing special, and one couldpare them to metal coffins with a ss window in front, while a mask hung from the upper end. There was a box divided into two segments for the nutrition solutions and the mana stones. Shane assumed that the whole capsule would be filled with water after he entered it and wore the mask. Shane couldn''t help but feel that technology was really advanced on Igra, even if it underwent a huge change through the existence of mana. Turning to Olivia who behaved as if she was at home here, he asked, "Do I have to change into trunks?" This question would have been weird to ask Aimy. But he didn''t feel embarrassed or awkward when he asked Olivia, because she was a battle maniac, which he was already familiar with. "Dunno, just enter it with your boxers" Hearing this, Aimy''s eyes widened, as Shane took his clothes off, without minding the two girls next to him. Standing in front of the two, only wearing boxers, he noticed Aimy blush. Meanwhile, Olivia eximed "Nice body!!", before he turned around in order to ess the refining capsule right next to him. Finishing the whole process, he pondered for a moment, before taking out 25 [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones and four [Tier-1 (Trash)] nutrition solutions, which heid adequately into the box. Noticing this, both Olivia and Aimy were astonished, before Olivia minded her own business. She turned to the refining capsule next to Shane''s, while Aimy continued to stare at his body. Entering the capsule, he put on the oxygen mask, before he locked the ss door. Pressing on the green button that was directly above the red one, nutrition, mana, and warm water slowly filled the capsule, until it waspletely filled. Taking a deep breath through the oxygen mask, he immediately calmed down. His passive [Hunter''s mind] skill helped him rx before he adjusted his breathing. After everything was done, Shane began to exert his [Mortal-(Mythic)] body refining technique, as his body began to absorb the mana and the nutrition surrounding him greedily. The flow was extremely smooth and Shane, who used to suppress the full capacities of his technique before, removed his restriction in order to test the waters. It caused his body to be filled with mana and nutrition almost immediately. With his eyes closed, he calmly circted the mana throughout his body ording to the described paths, tempering his physique consistently. More than ten hours passed until Aimy and Oliviapleted their body refining season. Drying their bodies and changing into clean and dry clothes, they suddenly remembered that Shane had apanied them. ''Did he leave already?'' Aimy asked herself when she heard Olivia eximing "He is still inside! Shane is so determined...WOAH!!" Nodding her head, the desire to go back cultivating or do another body refining session ignited within Aimy as she gazed at Shane. Olivia felt exactly the same, but unfortunately, they had used up most of their funds. It forced them to ration their cultivation resources until they would enter the Primordial Dimensions once again. Sighing deeply, Aima dragged Olivia back to their dorm, leaving Shane alone. ** After Shane sensed the scarcity of nutrition and mana around him he opened his eyes., He stopped the refining capsules, and the warm water around him went down the drain below him. Taking off the mask, he opened the ss door before he left the capsule. He looked around, but Aimy and Olivia were nowhere to be seen. Shane had somehow predicted this already and looking at the time, he could only smile lightly. ''The refining capsule is worsepared to the session within the tranquil forest, however, it definitely is better for a longer period. I didn''t notice that so much time had passed...not bad, indeed!'' Feeling the strength within his body, Shane couldn''t help but feel happy, as he quietly murmured. "One long session and I''m finally done!!" Drying his body, he walked towards the changing room in order to put on dry underwear, before he took out a drybat suit for the Combat ranking. "Let''s go! I have to meet some fellow Mortal states!!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 108 - Illusion There was still some time left before the tournament for each rank would start. Hence, Shane didn''t bother to rush towards the colosseum but took his time to reach the elevator. Since Shane was already close to his final destination, he took only five minutes to enter the colosseum, before he quickly nced at the floor number where he was supposed to go to fight against fellow Mortal states. In the end, he waspletely aware that the mortal stage was only a handful of all students. It would already be a wonder if there were more than 500 mortal states for the nextbat ranking. ording to the provided information, the majority of students were at the Expert stage, roughly 130,000, while more than a quarter of all first-year students of the Shirai academy were at the Apprentice stage with a total of 55,000 students. The remaining 5,000 students were at the mortal stage, and only consisted of the students that were either extremely poor and had spent merely two months within the Primordial Dimension or someone like him, who had entered the Primordial Dimension barely a month ago. He would also break into the Apprentice stage soon enough, and his firstbat ranking in the mortal stage would be hisst, which was nothing to be sad about. There would only be a single winner, and the first ce''s rewards were only several hours inside the Dimension-sphere, while the rewards for the Apprentice and Expertbat rankings were much higher. However, it was fair, because the number ofpetitors at the Mortal stage was much smallerpared to the other two rankings, which was the reason for therge difference in rewards. Shane was confident in his own strength and he doubted that anyone else at the Mortal stage had the same level ofbat experience which he possessed. As such, he was extremely rxed when he entered the floor he was supposed to reach, with hundreds of students waiting for everybody else to arrive. The seemingly quietbat floor went haywire when the other students saw him walk in through the entrance. Most of the students started gossiping amongst each other, with arge number of students ring at him with anger. The sudden change in the students'' behavior caused Shane to feel awkward for a moment. ''Am I famous or what?'' He started to wonder, when he thought about his achievements in thest two exams, that made him nod his head in understanding ''Well, if they already hate me because of the first two rankings, what will they think of me, upon seeing the [Wealth] rank, once I reveal my fortune?'' With that thought in mind, Shane chuckled lightly/ This only added fuel to the me making most of the students re at him with a mix of jealousy and hatred. They imagined that he wasughing at them. However, in the end, Shane didn''t mind them ring at him, because he would fight them either way. If they were stronger than him, they could beat him up, while vice versa was also equally true.. Shane was more interested in seeing their skills rather than the empty threats received through their unwee bodynguage, angry res hardly affected him. Meanwhile, students continued to enter the floor and the whole colosseum floor was filled with 5,000 students in no time. While most of the students sat down on the bench, a few notorious ones decided to stand up as if they were some glorified heroes, looking down on everybody else with contempt Shane decided to sit down, but the other students avoided him. He found this to be extremely childish, as everyone was seated close to each other, except himself. ''I''m already an outsider, huh?'' He asked himself, smiling, as if it didn''t have something to do with him. His train of thought was interrupted by the arrival of some teachers he wasn''t acquainted with. After introducing themselves and dering the rules, the teachers retreated back to the benches, causing Shane to lose interest in them, as thoughts about the rules took priority in his mind. ording to the rules, the first round consisted of 10 fights. Every student who won 5 rounds was eligible to enter the K.O rounds. After the K.O rounds, there were the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. Shane began to wonder about the time until the whole tournament would be finally over. Counting thebat arenas, Shane suddenly frowned deeply. He thought to himself, ''There are only 50 small arenas..If everyone fights one single time, It will take 50 turns until a single round is over¡­.'' Sighing deeply, he mumbled "Will this take the whole day or what?" His brain furiously calcted the time required yet again. Even if each fight only took two minutes, the first round alone would take 500 turns, or otherwise calcted, roughly 17 hours¡­. Shane''s mood was about to turn gloomy when he received the notification about his scheduled fights. Jumping up, he suddenly shouted out loud "YES!!", which enraged most of the students who noticed that they had to fight against Shane. Somehow, Shane shouting out felt like an insult to them, because it seemed as if he was overjoyed to have met lesspetent opponents. The students'' anger red up when they misinterpreted Shane''s joyous shout However, Shane was thrilled due to a single reason. His first six fights were rtively close to each other, without much of a time gap, while the remaining four were distributed all over the day, which didn''t bother him in the slightest. ''I''ll simply not attend these fights...In the end I''m still eligible to enter the second round with five wins!!'' Deciding to participate in the six fights that were closely timed, Shane''s mood brightened, and even more so, after he noticed that he would have time to further refine his physique, three hourster. Shane was turning impatient with every passing minute. He wanted to waste no more time in achieving a perfect physique. It was a feat which not many humans had aplished yet. ''Was there even a single person from the human race, who hadpleted the [Mortal-(Mythic)] mission?'' He suddenly asked himself, because he had never heard anyone brag about this aplishment. ''Maybe nobody bothered about a perfect mortal physique? It''s only a small boost after all and costs a fortune for everyone at the mortal stage...Furthermore, it was extremely difficult, and I was only lucky at that time¡­'' Shane tried really hard to think of the right answer but it was in vain. There was a possibility that someone had solved a [Mortal (Mythic)]without achieving a perfect mortal physique In the end, it wouldn''t matter, and he decided to focus on his main task instead, which was to win the next five fights, with one additional as a small reward. Shane released his fighting spirit unknowingly, which was felt by the students in his vicinity, causing them to eye him weirdly. When it was finally his turn, Shane entered thebat arena calmly, where he saw a feeble youth with a shortsword in his hand. Smiling lightly, Shane took out his Tier-2 dagger set, which he enveloped with a thin mana membrane in order to dull them, as he instantly changed in his fighting stance. His opponent was careful, and went into a defensive stance, after noticing that Shane used two daggers, while he couldn''t help but smile, which may have seemed arrogant from others'' perspective. Hearing the starting signal, Shane immediately circted his mana into his lower body, in order to amplify his speed, before he pushed himself from the ground, with his body leaning forward. His speed astonished the shortsword wielder, and he needed a moment to gather his wits before he carefully observed Shane''s movement and behavior. Seeing his smile widen was unpleasant for the youth, but even more so was the fact that Shane charged straight towards him, seemingly unbothered to y any tricks. When they were only three meters apart from each other, Shane suddenly stopped midway for a millisecond, changing his direction slightly to the right before he continued to charge again. Noticing this minute detail, the youth holding the shortsword was rmed but managed to maintain his calm, as Shane shed out with his curved dagger, which was deflected by the youth. However, the impact caused by the small dagger forced the shortsword wielder to take a step back , which made him reach the peak of the Mortal stage because his physique was already at the 10th Mortal stage. His eyes widened, and Shane felt sure that the youth was thinking of ''Apprentice physique''. However, that was not the case, otherwise he wouldn''t be able to apply for the Mortal ranking causing his already broad smile to widen as he used a trick he learned from Uncle Cheng who trained him in all types of weapons and techniques. Creating a minute illusion, by distracting the short sword wielder from his main action, Shane was able to thrust his straight dagger into the unguarded youth, ''killing'' him. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 109 - Entertaining Shane''s first fight merelysted for 10 seconds, an interval that most students would require, to only carefully approach their opponent. However, Shane wasn''t one to take it slow. He preferred to sh head-on with his opponent without wasting any time. This resulted in the fight ending in the blink of an eye. After Shane and his opponent left the arena, the next pair was immediately called up, while a bunch of students that observed his battle looked at him in a mix of awe and newfound respect. ''What did he do?! Was his opponent not a peak Mortal stage...how could he have been pushed back just like that?'' Even if several questions tormented their mind, Shane wouldn''t answer them.It wasn''t worth his effort or time. The answer to all their doubts was rather a simple-his physique was stronger! Additionally, he liked to y mind games with his opponents by distracting their focus and turning it on something less important, before he would approach them in a different way in order to win. This could only be perceived by his opponent directly. The other students monitoring his fight, merely saw him stab out with his straight dagger as if nothing out of ordinary happened. Closing his eyes after he sat down on the empty seat, Shane immediately exerted his mana gathering technique to replenish the marginal amount of mana he used up before his next fight would begin. In the end, Shane doubted if it was necessary, but it was better to be careful than think about all Mortal stages as pushovers. When Shane entered the arena for his second fight, he noticed that his opponent was a girl who looked rather shy. She took out arge battle axe, causing the students around them to murmur. Even Shane''s eyes widened seeing the shy-looking girl hold a ridiculously gigantic battle axe in her hands, as the AI initiated the start of their battle. As with the previous fight, Shane charged straight towards the girl, however, he was surprised to see her wield the battle axe with ease. He was already impressed with the girl by the time he appeared in front of her. Shane circted mana within his lower body and instantly felt his steps be light. The battle axe came crashing down on him as he leaned further down, but he quickly twisted his body and escaped the blow. The girl he thought to be shy was turning aggressive with her attacks and she effortlessly jumped back, before initiating a second attack on Shane. Annoyed that she used the same attack twice in a row, he believed that his opponent would change something if he were to evade it again. However, was that really necessary? Breaking off his charge towards her, he immediately halted in his tracks, which caused his ankles to hurt quite a bit, even if he enveloped them into a thick mana membrane, only for the girl''s attack to miss him yet again. However, instead of letting her escape this time, he kicked out towards the heavy battle axe with all his might, in addition to a thick enveloped mana membrane around his foot. The battle axe flung away, torn out of the shy, yet strong girl''s hands, as he initiated his charge, ''killing'' the girl by thrusting his dagger into her throat. In the end, the second fight was more interesting than the first, yet it was still not enough to give him an adrenaline rush. In the next two hours, he won another three fights, and thest battle he wanted to attend, started with a bulky youth standing in front of him. ''He worked out really hard, huh?'' Shane thought It was quite obvious, which path the youth in front of him wanted to choose, once he epted his upation. With the youth''s sturdy physique, he was perfectly suited to be a warrior, guardian, pdin or simr closebat upations. Such people were proficient in being a human shield, protecting their team by shielding them with their own body if necessary. Seeing that the bulky youth in front of him didn''t take out a weapon, Shane did the same, because he wanted to figure out how far he could go with his physique, and his eyes began to gleam vibrantly. WIth the start signal of the AI, both began to charge at each other, without any weapon. Nearly every student imagined that Shane was about to be beaten up into a pulp if the five previous fights hadn''t already been shocking enough to look at. Shane overwhelmed everyone and somehow, the students and even the teachers felt sorry for the bulky youth, when Shane twisted his body, in order to evade the first punch, only tond a solid punch straight in his opponent''s sr plexus. Before the bulky youth couldn''t even react to the first punch, Shane gave his opponent a clean uppercut with his second fist. Unintentionally spitting out his saliva, the bulky youth couldn''t believe what was going on. He could already hardly move around, andid on the ground, twitching a bit. However, the AI hadn''t determined the winner yet, causing Shane to frown. e He pounced on the bulky youth whoy on the ground, only to throw him around, twisting his shoulder by firmly locking his arm with his legs, before he finally pulled the bulky youth''s arms towards him. The youth shrieked, uttering a painful cry that caused Shane to stop almost immediately. In the heat of the moment, Shane had almost forgotten that the fights were supposed to be a friendly spar, even if it was to determine the ranking. He heard the AI analyze the battle and clearly announce the winner. Loosening his legs, he rolled back, while pushing himself from the ground in order to stand up. Helping up the bulky youth from the ground, he muttered a short apology. He then slowly walked towards the teachers supervising the whole Mortal statebat ranking and spoke nonchntly. "I''ve already won 6 matches. I''ll go now!" Turning away from the teachers without waiting for an answer, he left the colosseum straight for the refining capsules that seemed to await him. Meanwhile, the students and teacher who noticed Shane''s behavior were speechless, as they witnessed the youth''s strength either first hand or perceived it by his seemingly simple ways to defeat his opponents. Even if the teachers Shane spoke to were dissatisfied, in the end, he would just lose the fights he didn''t participate in, without any punishment. Not knowing what to say, most students decided to disregard the problem, called Shane, as they turned their attention to the next pair entering thebat arena. Meanwhile, Shane had already left the elevator in order to enter one of therge academy buildings, surrounding the colosseum. He took the next elevator to finally arrive at the floor with the refining capsule ced in the big hall. Taking off hisbat suit in the changing room, he decided to wear trunks, instead of normal boxers in order to feel morefortable, as he assessed the closest refining capsule next to him, by paying 30 silver coins. Putting 20 [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones and three of his remaining [Tier-1 (Trash)] nutrition solutions into the box attached to the refining capsule, Shane entered it without any dy.. Closing the ss door, he started the whole refining procedure by pressing the green button. With the nutrition solution dissolving into the warm water and mana filling the capsule, Shane immediately started exerting his [Mythic] body refining technique, without wasting any time. It was 2 am, when Shane finally opened his eyes, before stopping the refining capsule. With the water draining out of it, he dried his wet body, before he changed into dry and clean clothes. ''The remaining 15 mana stones and 2 nutrition solutions should be enough...if I only had a few more hours time, I could have finished my perfect mortal physique, before the final rounds of the mortal ranking'' However, considering his opponents the day before and what he witnessed from the other mortal states, Shane felt disappointed beyond measure and he was only expectant of thest two rounds, where he hoped to sh with more powerful opponents. ''Well, my physique is now definitelyparable to an Apprentice physique, while my mana pool is even slightlyrger than a normal 1st Apprentice¡­'' Smiling, Shane couldn''t help but feel proud of himself. Reaching the Mortal stage, with a physique and mana poolparable to a stage above him, caused him to chuckle lightly, as he left the hall where all the capsules were situated. There were still approximately six hours left until the Combat rankings would continue and Shane decided to continue his journey through the Academy grounds, which were obstructed because of the tranquil forest. Now with enough time left, Shane thought he might as well jog while searching for other hidden treasures. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 110 - Waste Of... Several hours had passed, when Shane returned to the Academy''s center, only to see the colosseum crowded with several hundred students. ''What a nuisance'' he thought, worrying about the time he had to wait for until it was his turn to enter the colosseum. Sighing, Shane thought that thest few hours were somewhat a waste of time, because he could have entered the colosseum before instead of jogging around to see the Academy grounds. Even if he was curious about the academy grounds, in the end, they were no hidden treasures like the [tranquil forest] he found on his first day. At least Shane was unable to find them during thest hours. Even if he would have found something, he doubted that many things on Igra were as unique as hidden treasures within the Primordial Dimensions, solely from the fact that Igra was a without mana,pared to the Primordial Dimension with innate mana. This difference alone was enough to tell Shane that it was unlikely to find something unique. He knew that he should already be satisfied with the tranquil forest that was extremely beneficialpared to his current progress. Until now, humanity didn''t upy a particr Primordial Dimension that was solely used for cultivation, because there was a fiercepetition for these Dimensions. They were filled with all kinds of Basic races massacring each other in order to receive more benefits without the need to charge them with other races that may hunt themter. Everything was possible, and most races didn''t dare to act without reason, but this didn''t change the fact that greed was an overwhelming emotion, which caused rational thinking to dissipate into thin air. Looking at the crowd in front of the colosseum, he checked the time, before he opened the system in order to enter PrimWeb to take a look at all kinds of threads. Humanity''s PrimWeb threads were rather boring without much useful information entertaining him. Most of them bragged about special herbs or ores they found, their luck to attain the right to receive a high-quality upation. Some evenined about their bad luck to have encountered strong beasts they couldn''t beat and other unfortunate idents. Meanwhile, the government didn''t post much about the several shelters they were currently constructing, while the RadiantRing shelter seemed to be avoided as a topic of discussion, causing Shane''s lips to curl up lightly. ''The bloodlust thunder wolf is more problematic than they thought, huh?'' The government would most likely advertise the RadiantRing shelter much more if the bloodlust thunder wolf was killed, but this was obviously not the case. Shane began to wonder if there was someone who could kill it, without sacrificing too many courageous soldiers. ''Maybe, if Aisha and some other top Top-tier Expert state with an extremely high mana purity worked together...Her attack with the Valkyries also seemed to work fine..'' Thinking about this, Shane was unsure if he should enter the RadiantRing shelter in order to approach the elemental crystal cave once again or not. On one side he had enough funds for the moment, while on the other side, gaining more funds was definitely not bad, because he needed them either way. ''This is so annoying'' he thought when it was finally his turn to enter the colosseum. Fifteen minutester, he finally stood inside thebat arena, wearing thebat suit, everyone had received from the academy when they were epted long ago. Looking at the mortal ranking, which had the old schedule attached, Shane figured out that roughly 3600 students reached the K.O rounds, and estimating the length of each battle with the number of rounds, he couldn''t help, but feel confused once again. ''Why does it take so long¡­.'' Shane was impatient to establish his perfect Mortal physique more than ever before and expressed his annoyance about the long waiting time inwardly. With a total of approximately 70 rounds, it would roughly take the whole day in order to figure out the final winner of the mortal ranking. Shane could only ept this fact resentfully. When the teachers arrived, they immediately reminded everyone about the rules, which included not killing, permanently injuring, or doing anything in order to seriously harm others intentionally. Other than that, the AI created a schedule, before the first pairs were called to thebat arenas. Looking at the schedule, Shane suddenly started to wonder how the Apprentice and Expert rankings would look like, if theirs was already so annoying, and took an entire day. ''Was their first round more difficult? Maybe they had to win more rounds?'' It was highly likely that his thoughts were right, and it was weird for him that the first round of the mortal rankings only required him to win five matches in order to be qualified for the next round Without the desire to monitor his peers'' battles, Shane continued to search through all kinds of forum threads in order to increase his knowledge, before he began reading the books provided by the Shirai academy. When it was finally his turn, he entered thebat arena nonchntly. His opponent looked timid and Shane could only shake his head, when he charged at the youth in front of him, that was already defeated before the fight even began. ''They''re already scared after barely seeing me fight like six times? Is that some sort of a bad joke?'' Disappointed with the mentality of his peers, Shane could only feel frustrated, before his attention was once again focused on the books that he continued to read. Hours passed and Shane took out something to eat, while he switched the preservable food for Umbra with new food. causing everyone around him to cast weird nces at him. Furthermore, he not only took out the beast sealing card which was pitch-ck with vivid runes engraved on it, but they also noticed Shane take out arge amount of preservable food from both his spatial ring and the beast sealing card. Not minding any onlookers, Shane finished everything, before he stored the beast sealing card back in his body, which itched slightly though it didn''t make him feel ufortable. The interval between his fights visibly decreased after the fourth round, which, however, didn''t mean that the fights, per se, became more interesting. In the end, Shane was forced to exert more of his strength and wits in order to win theter fights. He found some of his opponents oddly interesting, due to their unique way of fighting. Based on his initial observations of several youths, he could also roughly predict their likely choices once they were able to choose their upation. It was a single leap away from them, as one only had to break into the Apprentice stage in order to unlock upations. This didn''t mean one had to choose an upation directly, but if there was an interesting and powerful one with a high quality to choose from, most youths would immediately pick it, without hesitation or even wondering if the upation was useful and desired by one. It was already afternoon, almost evening when he finally decided to close the system in order to take a look at the fights because it was already time for the quarter-finals! From the remaining 8 youths that were left, not a single one seemed to be below the 10th Mortal stage in both cultivation and body refining, with the sole exception being Shane, who possessed a perfect 9th Mortal stage physique. As such, everyone was equally strong, solely from the two stated facts, if one was to consider Shane as an exception, and now it was important to figure out whosebat prowess was higher, which included martial art technique proficiency, tactics, and how to utilize their strength and maybe even start scheming! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 111 - Mortal Ranking There were only three rounds remaining in order to conclude the winner of the Mortalbat rankings as Shane walked towards thebat arena, where a busty girl was already waiting for him. He could already perceive the girl''s fighting techniques based on the information he had read in a book. Shane only smiled lightly andbeled her as unimportant, with a rather weakbat prowess, because she had to use tricks in order to reach the quarter-finals. Unsheathing one dagger, he kept his other hand empty. As the AI initiated the start of their battle, Shane charged towards his opponent, who began to smile slyly. Noticing this, Shane could barely hold his own smile, because the busty girl''s behavior was way too obvious, as her hands disappeared behind her back in order to pull out something from her spatial ring. With her hands half-closed, she enveloped them with a faint mana membrane, before she used a smooth movement in order to flick her hands towards him, releasing the six tiny needles within, that were about to pierce into Shane''s skin. However, Shane, who was already aware of what was about to happen, opened his empty hand, and arge ck robe appeared within. He swung the robe upwards while lifting his hand in order to block the needles effortlessly. The busty girl used a petty trick by using poisoned needles with lethal, yet harmless paralyzing poison, which caused Shane to eye the teachers weirdly. However, in the end, a simple robe was enough to block the needles. The girl had aimed to fight Shane head-on after poisoning him with her petty trick but throwing the robe towards the girl, was more than enough to handle the whole situation. Astonished by the sudden appearance of arge ck robe, she barely noticed Shane lean extremely close towards the ground. He firmly grasped her leg with his vacant hand in order to forcefully pull her to the ground. By the time she could react, he pounced on her and his dagger pierced through her heart.. Laying on top of her, and his dagger thrust ''killing the busty girl, the AI announced his victory. Coming down from the girl, he stood up and murmured "Useless petty trick", before he went back to his seat,pletely ignoring the busty girl on the ground, who could only re at him as if he did something worse than defeating her in thebat ranking. With only two fights left until the winner was determined, Shane looked at the remaining fights that were still urring, and he was pretty excited about his next opponent. There was one peer he wanted to test his strength on, while another one moved extremely fast and nimble. Only five minutes left until the quarter-finals were finally done but there was still half an hour break in order to let the students recuperate from the prior fight which included replenishing the used-up mana. Not wasting his time, Shane thought of a way to fight his next opponent, but after pondering about it for a moment, he came to the conclusion that it didn''t even matter that much. In the end, he already faintly memorized his opponents''bat styles, if one could even call it like this. Once the break was over, everyone entered the designated arena, with Shane standing opposite a tall, muscr youth with tworge battle axes in his hands. Normally, one would think that battle axe users were extremely slowpared to others, but the youth in front of Shane was still nimble enough to take on the dual dagger wielder he fought before, overwhelming the dagger wielder with his heavy impact. Seeing that Shane also used a set of daggers, the muscr youth smiled, but after recalling his opponent''s fights, he couldn''t help but act carefully, which was noticed by Shane. The AI issued the start of the semifinals and Shane circted mana into his lower body in order to enhance his velocity, as he pushed himself from the ground, with his body leaning forward. The muscr youth in front of him was likely to take the path of a Berserker as his upation, who were wild warriors that relied on their strength in order to defeat their opponents. This aroused Shane''s curiosity because he wanted to figure out his opponent''s brute force. Also, charging at Shane, the dual battle axe wielder pulled his axes back in order to attack his opponents from different angles. Noticing this, Shane praised the youth inwardly, as he twisted his body in order to evade the battle axe that was about to reach him first. He quickly jumped to the side with his still twisted body in order to evade the second battle axe. While jumping to the side, he used his fist in order to push himself from the ground and further distance himself from the opponent that struck at him for the third time, before Shane couldnd his first blow.. Shane, who used light daggers, was unable to attack even once, while the heavy battle axes were able to reach him three times due to their longer range. However, Shane felt disappointed to see the muscr youth take heavy breaths, and looked seemingly exhausted. due to the several fights, he must have participated in during the entire day. Sighing, Shane stood firmly on the ground as he charged once again towards his opponent, without holding back any of his strength. Enveloping himselfpletely with mana, while circting it within his body, he reached his highest speed, as he noticed the battle axes rushing at him once again. However, this time instead of evading both of them, he only evaded the first one by a hair''s breadth before he shed at the second cleaving battle axe with both daggers. Normally this was a fatal mistake that could either cost Shane his life or his daggers'', but this was not the case, thanks to the fact that all weapons were dulled. Additionally, his daggers were a graded Tier-2 set, made out of extremely durable ores. As such, Shane used his full force to fend off the second battle axe which was pushed away from the youth. He lost his bnce for a second and waspletely overwhelmed by the unforeseen action. Falling on the ground, the muscr youth was immediately stabbed by Shane''s daggers, causing the AI to announce the winner. Though Shane was momentarily relieved to have won the fight, he felt the sudden need to purchase other weapons. Shane found it extremely annoying toe close enough to the double battle axe wielder, who was as agile as himself. In the end, Shane could have fought differently and more patiently, but he just didn''t feel like it. Looking at the other arena, he saw that the previous fight had already ended. He entered the final round with a girl using a red spear as his opponent. With the usage of her martial art technique that probably hailed from the system, she was able to wield her spear swiftly, while Shane waspletely aware of his own shorings. Fighting opponents that used weapons with an extended range was extremely difficult with daggers that relied on closebat, and without an affinity, it would be somewhat hard to manage a proper fight. Without a mutation that established an affinity seed within the mana pool, it was almost impossible to acquire an elemental affinity before learning an upation, which was only possible once he entered the Apprentice stage. Affinities could even allow closebat fighters to attack their opponents via a long-range attack, but without that, Shane had to rely on his daggers, in order to fight a spear wielder that could fight him from a safe distance. In the end, Shane had to break through the range created by the spear in order to win the ranking, which caused him a great headache. After the short break, the two had used in order to recuperate from the semifinals, they entered thebat arena to start the finals, which was initiated by the AI. The onlooking youths were carefully observing the match, even if they were still disgruntled about losing their own fights. Monitoring the final would teach them a lot of their shorings, as the start signal resounded through the Arena. Both Shane and the girl charged at each other with their highest speed, circting arge amount of mana within their body, as the girl lunged with her spear, only to retract it at thest moment.. This was repeated multiple times in session and Shane tried to analyze her attack pattern, while carefully avoiding and deflecting her red gleaming spear that seemed to thirst after blood. Several seconds passed and the two had shed dozens of times already. Shane used a defensive stance and retreated back often as the girl seemed to overwhelm him extremely. However, Shane''s calm analysis led the girl to be proud of her achievement. She had learned the [Mortal-(Gold)] martial art technique from her parents, within a single month to the familiar mastery. Increasing his speed, Shane began to sweat lightly, as his movement speed seemed to increase consistently with the girl''s spear thrusts. In the end, he didn''t really have to evade the attacks because deflecting them with his dagger was more than enough, but even if the spear was dulled, it would damage his daggers over a longer period. As such, Shane continued to evade the high-velocity spear thrusts calmly, with sweat pouring down his temples, as he increased his mana consumption he circted within his body by a small margin, amplifying his speed by another notch. Several minutes passed and his mana reserves were almost used up, while the same applied for the girl who had already decreased the speed of her spear thrusts. This helped Shane noticing a tiny w, and he immediately used it to his advantage Letting go of his dagger in his left hand, the dagger vanished in his spatial ring, while his hand flung out towards the spear, only for Shane to take a tiny step to the right. The spear flew towards his left arm and he gripped the spear firmly before the girl was able to retract it. Using his remaining mana andplete physical strength in order to pull the spear towards him, Shane forcefully yanked the spear out of the girl''s hand. This caused the girl to get pulled towards him thanks to her resisting with her fullest capabilities when he pulled the spear. Smiling lightly, Shane lunged with the dagger in his right hand, only for the girl to fall right towards him, before the dagger ''killed'' her by stabbing into her back. With the AI announcing the winner, the mortalbat ranking was concluded. However, instead of people cheering, the arena had gone eerily silent, as Shane looked down at the girl, and muttered. "Sorry for the inconvenience", when he noticed that their current position might look weird from the monitoring perspective. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 112 - Perfect Physique Right now, the girl he fought a moment ago, was pulled in his arm, with Shane stabbing into her back. However, from the outside, it practically looked like he was embracing her firmly, even if he didn''t do so. Sheathing his dagger, he carefully pushed her away from his embrace, before returning her red gleaming spear back, which he had ripped out of her hand before. It was only now that he was truly looking at her, taking in her appearance which he had disregarded before because it was something entirely unnecessary for their fight. This was something he learned from his Aunt to prevent any kind of distraction. The girl in front of him was tall for her age with a height of over 1.7 meters. She had a slender figure, pretty facial features and brown hair and eyes, with an extremely faint purple tinge, that looked like a vibrant electric current. In the end, this was Shane''s longest fight. He had to acknowledge that the girl would have probably won, if she had been more proficient in fighting against humans or others in a life and death battle, because of her weapon advantage. However, Shane''s highbat experience and change towards a defensive tactic caused him to win, which was everything that counted for now. Turning around, he was about to go back, when he heard a quiet, feminine, yet somewhat angered voice behind him ask. "Hey! What''s your name?" Halting his steps, he tilted his head, before he turned around, saying "Shouldn''t you introduce yourself first?" Shane waited patiently for her to reply, as the girl in front of him gritted her teeth "Mnie Neal!... Now it''s your turn!!" Smiling lightly, he replied "Shane Suro", before he walked out of thebat arena they were still in, towards the teachers in order to check if he could leave. Hepletely disregarded the weird gazes everyone threw towards him and at the same time ignored Mnie''s existence as if nothing that happened a moment ago had anything to do with him. Suddenly, Shane noticed the teachers rushing towards him, as they began to introduce themselves while praising hisbat prowess to the extreme, which was ufortable and a bit awkward for him. However, they continued and he was not even able to ask if he was allowed to leave. Sighing, the two teachers that monitored the whole mortal ranking seemed to start quarreling amongst each other, fighting for his attention. They both asked in unison if he was interested to attend theirbat lecture sses. ''So they just wanted to lure me over?'' Shane had to suppress a chuckle because he couldn''t really understand the reason for them trying to impress him with big praises, only that he might enter theirbat lectures. If he remembered correctly there was no apparent reason to do so, but looking at the desperate gazes of the two teachers in front of him, he seemed to miss some facts. "I''m sorry Sirs, but I have to decline your offers for now. I have yet to figure out what lectures I want to attend" Bowing slightly in order to show the teachers his respect, he excused himself, as it was alreadyte, and he felt extremely tired because he hadn''t slept well over thest few days, even if the long duration within the refining capsules felt as if only half an hour passed. Considering that he refined his body while being in a hibernating state, Shane could only praise whoever purchased the refining capsules as they were worth every single bronze coin. At least that was his opinion, and after declining his teachers'' offer politely, he pondered if he should just enter the refining capsules in order to achieve his perfect physique when a feeling of sudden exhaustion and tiredness overwhelmed him. ''I''m still not at the stage where I can neglect my sleep for too long¡­.Well, five days was already a pretty long duration to survive without showing any signs of a deficit, even after arduous refinement of my body and absorbing mana!'' Entering the dorm, he saw Aimy and Olivia. Both of them seemed to have sustained a few bruises. Comparing himself to the two girls, Shane knew that hisbat prowess was much higher at his current stage because he didn''t even have to use his killing intent in order to win against Mnie. If he would have used his killing intent at the final fight, he was sure that the whole fight would have ended in a dull match, because releasing his killing intent suddenly would be simr to a surprise mental attack, which would indulge fear and other emotions, causing his opponents to mentally falter. However, it would be weird for someone who entered the Primordial Dimensions to have such a thick andplex killing intent, which was the reason for him to not use it, as he wanted to y fair and just for the firstbat ranking. It would be something different, if there was a student simr to him at the mortal stage, who was as proficient in hisbat techniques as Shane, owing to either a better education received at school, at home or maybe even a high ambition. He spoke to the two girls briefly but didn''t reveal his victory in his mortal ranking, because they hadn''t asked him yet, while they updated that their tournament at the Expert stage was still ongoing. Apparently, both had won their first round, only to be thrown out by Experts with a higher mana purity in thetter K.O rounds, which was bound to happen. It would be weird if someone at the peak of the Expert stage in both body refining and cultivation with a mana purity of at least 60% would lose to someone at the 5th Expert stage with a mana purity of around 45%. Even if it was possible, considering everyone''s average strength, Shane still didn''t find any prodigies. The reason for this was most likely because he simply didn''t search for any, but Mnie and the muscr youth with double battle axes were already interesting opponents in his eyes. Inside his dorm room, he noticed that the other three were already sleeping, and seeing their bruises, Shane could conclude that they were hardly beaten up. Exhausted, he could barely take off his shoes andbat suit, before he fell on his soft bed. He fell in a deep slumber, oblivious to the loud snoring of his roommates, who were all now blissfully asleep. ** Shane felt as if he had slept for an eternity, as he opened his weary eyes, only to nce at the timer on the system''s holographic screen he summoned. Still drowsy, he thought ''It''s already sote, huh?'', before he slowly gathered his energy, in order to get out of the bed. Standing up, he noticed that Lars, the small blond-haired youth was still sleeping, while Uir and Paul were talking to each other. Noticing that Shane was up, they immediately approached him with a sly smile and deceitful eyes, causing goosebumps to erupt all over his body.. "Hey buddy, where have you been during thest few nights? Did you have multiple meetings back to back?" Uir asked before Paul added "Or did you check out multiple girls in order to figure out who''s the best?" Hearing this, Shane frowned deeply, and stepped back, only to bump into the bunk bed, as he said "I was just in the tranquil forest and refining capsules¡­." Before he burst out "Why are you two even immediately concluding that I''m a yboy or something like that?!?" To this, Uir just murmured "We know your rankings, and there are more than enough rumors about you flirting with girls all the time¡­." Paul, the tall brown-haired youth who had been eavesdropping, suddenly summoned the system in order to project a picture that showed Shane holding Mnie in his arms. "And what is that?!" The picture made it look like he was embracing Mnie, and he could only apologize to her inwardly because their tightbat suits were less helpful to clear the misunderstanding. Shane tried his best to clear the misunderstanding by telling his roommates what had actually happened, but they were still suspicious. It was not like he hadmitted a murder, so why should he bother if they believed him or not? That thought seemed to pacify him, at least for now! Walking out of the dorm room, he headed towards themon bathroom, brushed his teeth, and washed up, before changing into a loose set of clothes. It was unnecessary to put on a nice set of clothes, and he was already wearing trunks. It was now his time to shine andplete his perfect mortal physique. While walking towards the education buildingplexes where the refining capsules were situated, Shane took a look at all concluded rankings, with a radiant smile, as he mumbled ''Will this be enough for a whole day?'' Not knowing the exact rewards for everything, Shane could only shake his head, as he took a look at the [Wealth] ranking. He saw a few students with several hundred gold coins that had applied for the ranking, though none of them possessed more than 1000 gold coins. This told him that some students were still holding back because it was unlikely that nobody out of 200,000 students was able to earn more than 1000 gold coins during thest month. Ignoring the students around him, he applied to the [Wealth] ranking with his whole fortune that he had earned over thest month. His name was immediately ranked on the number 1 spot, with a big golden hue that enveloped his name and the number behind his name [7857 gold coins!] caused him to smile lightly. The fortune of 7857 gold coins included his earnings from the elemental crystal cave and sale of Aqueous potions, causing his smile to widen, as he finally entered the room holding the refining capsules. He didn''t waste any time, and immediately took off his clothes,, and inserted thest 15 [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones and 2 [Tier-1 (Trash)] nutrition solutions into the refining capsule next to him, before entering it. The whole process was activated after Shane paid 30 silver coins, and he closed his eyes to prepare for his final breakthrough. ** Five hourster, he opened his eyes, because the supplied nutrition waspletely used up, but a vibrant smile blossomed on his face. A pleasing notification rang in his mind, with a faint, almost invisible white aura, subconsciously radiating from his body. [Host attained a perfect Mortal physique! Congrattions!] [Due to this great aplishment, host will be rewarded with¡ú2x[Supreme ticket(s)](1+100% for being the first ''human'' to attain a perfect Mortal physique!)] __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 113 - Supreme Tickets&Hidden Shop Shane was unsure what exactly this [Supreme ticket] was, but this didn''t matter right now, as he stopped the refining capsule in order to leave it, and he noticed a faint, yet radiant aura emanating from him. However, instead of staying around him, the radiant aura unfortunately dissipated, as Shane decided to read through the two notifications that he had received earlier, once again. The first one was obvious, because it only congratted him for achieving a perfect mortal physique, causing him to ignore it entirely, while the second message seemed more important. Not only did he receive two Supreme tickets, but apparently he was also the first human to attain a perfect Mortal physique. This proved that his assumption of nobody having aplished a [Mortal (Mythic)] mission, before him was true. However, Shane wondered why one received a reward by aplishing a perfect mortal physique.. ''Are these Supreme tickets not worth the effort to solve the Mythic mission at the mortal stage or were their missions just too difficultpared to mine?.... Well, I was extremely fortunate...and saying otherwise would be a lie.'' Shane acknowledged his luck, but he found that being fortunate was also an aspect of one''s strength, even if it was better not to rely on it. However, in the end, Shane finally attained his perfect Mortal physique, allowing him to take the next step towards bing stronger. His eyes gleamed brightly and initially, he wanted to enter the Apprentice stage immediately. Shane''s gaze fell on the Supreme tickets and it even looked like his status was updated, as he received a notification about it. _______________________ Title: [Berserk-Hunter(F)] upation: [None] Name: Shane Suro (Orus) Race:[Human 100%] Cultivation Level: Mortal-10th [Purity 11,89%] Body Refinement: [Perfect mortal physique-¡ï] Cultivation Manuals: ¡úMana purifying [Tier-1&2-(Gold)] ¡úMana gathering [Tier-2 (Gold)] Body refining manual: ¡ú [Mortal-(Mythic)]-[Tier-1&2 (Gold)] ![Artemis¡ä Blessing]+ [Innate Skill]: Taming |Common-¡ï¡ï (+)| Finances: 1333 gold coins 71 silver coins [Supreme tickets] <2> _______________________ His physique changed from the 9th Mortal stage to "Perfect mortal physique-¡ï" while another section called [Supreme tickets] appeared below Finances with the number ''2'' behind, indicating the number of Supreme tickets he possessed. The more he looked at the supreme tickets, the further he got confused.. ''What are these tickets and why did nobody tell me anything about them?'' Not even his uncles and aunts told him anything about the existence of supreme tickets. They had only told him that he should try to achieve a perfect physique by aplishing Mythic missions, without providing any further exnation¡­ Soon, another notification popped up, that cleared Shane''s doubt immediately, as his worry changed into relief. [Spreading any information about the existence of [Supreme tickets] and associated information is forbidden and wrongdoers will be heavily punished!!!] Reading this, Shane figured out that it was impossible for his family to tell him anything more than they already did about the rewarded supreme tickets, in order to not be punished. He was thankful that they had given him whatever little information they could and fortunately he figured out everything else before it was toote. Now, however, Shane was intrigued about the worth and benefits of the supreme tickets, if even the system prohibited anyone to reveal the existence of them. ''They should be quite powerful, right?'' He thought as he tried to figure out a way to use the tickets. Shane tried to click on them, but nothing happened. He was forced to open the system in order to look if something changed because he had misread the system notification earlier. Apparently not only his system panel had changed, but his whole system had undergone a massive upgrade, causing Shane to look through all kinds of possible system functions. He struggled to familiarise himself with the new system, checking all the new updates until he found a whole new column next to the Primordial Shop section, called [Hidden Shop], with a red exmation mark next to it, telling him that it was something new. ''I searched so long, only to be teased by the system like this?!'' Suddenly, Shane was wondering about the Hidden shop, pondering about its purpose and the items it sold. When he essed the Hidden shop, a catalog with hundreds of bright shining items in all kinds of colors appeared, while even body parts were shown, which astonished Shane, as he read the name of a few items. [Hell devouring Sythe (Legendary |¡ï|)] [God yer (Mythic |¡ï¡ï|)] [World-protection extension (Decade)] [Unique (Soul) Skill] Bloodmoon crescent] [Body constitution(Forbidden |¡ï¡ï¡ï|)]¡ú||Supreme God of Thunder|| Each of the names he read sounded extremely powerful, but the required supreme tickets required for each of them were far higher than the measly 2 tickets that he owned. However, he found the columns to be extremely interesting and reading thebels on them, his eyes widened unintentionally in shock. He let out a frustrated cry while he was standing motionless in his wet trunks right in front of the refining capsules. Each column seemed more shocking than the next, with [Unique/Special skills] as first, followed by [Weapons/Armor] that included even quality works ranging from Legendary to Forbidden, causing goosebumps to appear all over his body. After that, there was a [Misceneous items] section in which he saw familiar items like the World protection extension, which was less shocking, than the next section [Growth skills], which seemed to allow one to acquire a skill that would grow with an increase in the host''s strength or maybe even with the reached proficiency. As if that was not enough, there were three more sections, with [Limited] items being the less shocking out of the three. However there was still a One-time ticket, Shane could purchase, allowing him to acquire a second upation. This was shocking, and he began to ask himself if he could just take twobat upations when he read below the ticket that only one of the upations could be used forbat, while the other would have to be a lifestyle upation. Even so, it was still extremely powerful, because even lifestyle upations received certain amplifications towards their required traits. As such, a cksmith received a boost in his strength, endurance, and weak fire resistance. This meant he would be able to ovep two upation boosts, increasing his strength further. Unfortunately, the required Supreme tickets were too high for him, and he could only dream about receiving such a marvelous opportunity. The remaining two sections were the most shocking with the possibility of receiving a [Blessing] or even a [Body trait] of his choice, which was insanely powerful. Each of the purchasable goods within the twost columns wasbeled ording to themon grading the system did with [Trash] being the worst and [Forbidden] being the strongest. Gulping down his saliva, Shane couldn''t help but shiver lightly, as he read through all kinds of possible body traits, which included the body constitution ||Supreme God of Thunder|| he already saw before, but also ||Spirit Eyes||, ||Wings of an Archangel/Primordial Demon||, a ||Heart of an Ancient Titan||, and much more, shocking him extremely, while he almost choked, when he read || Greater Dimension Dragon''s genital|| Imagining the size of a dragon and his thing down below, Shane was unable toprehend how a normal human should be able to even walk around with such a thing, as he shook his head, trying toe back to the important facts. With his two Supreme tickets, he couldn''t purchase anything useful at all, except body traits like [Improved Eyes (Trash)] which might even be enough for someone to regain their eyesight. However, in the end, Shane couldn''t be sure of such a thing and he remained silent, still standing in front of the refining capsule motionless. There was nothing that the two Supreme tickets he received brought him at the moment, but the fact that he received them, was already more than enough for him to figure out that it was possible to gain more. Now, however, the question was "How?" and the simplest answer was obviously attaining a perfect physique for the Apprentice and Expert stage¡­ Thinking about the notification which said "great aplishment", Shane imagined that other extremely difficult feats might also reward supreme tickets. Even if it was only a theory, it helped him to clear his mind slightly, as he noticed that he was standing with his trunks in the middle of the hall, with a few onlookers staring nkly at him, confused about his behavior. Shaking his head once again, he turned towards the changing room, and put on a neat and loose set of clothes, because he had something else to do right now! ''Let''s break into the Apprentice stage, before looking out for a suitable upation. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 114 - Occupation?! Without being able to hide his smile even the slightest, Shane rushed out of the changing cabin towards the elevator. Leaving therge buildingplex, Shane figured out that it was barely afternoon with just enough time left to break into the Apprentice stage, which was a relief for him. As such, he decided to test his rough strength with a perfect physique by running towards the tranquil forest which was his next goal. If rumors were to be considered true, the tranquil forest was not really popr amongst many students under normal circumstances, mainly because of the high entrance price of one gold coin. However, the tranquility and mana density around it allowed everyone to break through without using mana stones while maintaining a calm state of mind, decreasing the possibility of a mistake during the breakthrough, which made the price of a single gold coin worthwhile. Spending a single gold coin in order to breakthrough in a secluded ce inside the tranquil forest, was obviously a smart choice because the rules, made by the person who imed the tranquil forest as its territory, forbid students to obstruct others who broke through. If one were to break this rule, being expelled from school would be one of the lighter punishments. Shane even heard that someone had been stupid enough to break this rule, causing the victim to receive a permanent injury that was time-consuming to heal and the treatment was extremely expensive as well. As such, the perpetrator had the choice to either be crippled by having his mana poolpletely shattered or bing the victim''s ve under a Primordial contract until the sustained injury waspletely healed. Both punishments were extremely harsh, yet fair enough in Shane''s opinion because the perpetrator could have destroyed the victim''s whole future. If someone were to do this to him, his father would most likely heal him by every means possible and torture the person who did this to him, before killing him as cruelly as possible. Thinking about this, Shane could only tremble, as he continued to run towards the forest. Feeling the pure strength within him, he estimated that his current strength was roughly at the 2nd Apprentice stage, which was roughly 50%-60% stronger than a normal 10th Mortal physique. This was extremely shocking though Shane estimated that a perfect Apprentice physique on top of his perfect mortal physique would most likely result in a wed 2nd or even 3rd Expert stage physique if he were to continue this game. After that, he couldn''t even imagine how strong his physique would be if he were to have aplete perfect physique, because of the amplification everyone attained once they liquefied their purified mana in order to break into the Master stage. After entering the tranquil forest with the payment of one gold coin, Shane focused on his new task, letting go of all his previous thoughts. Breaking into the Apprentice stage! Fifteen minutester, he reached the center of the forest and looked around in order to see if he would disturb someone unknowingly if he were to be too loud. But there was nobody nearby, though he could make out a few outlines further away. As long as nobody disturbed him, he could ignore them and focus on the task at hand. Sitting on the ground at a spot with thick ovepping mana streams, he smiled, as he thought about breaking through, and simultaneously a notification popped up. [Host has reached the requirement: Mana purity of [10%] and has gathered enough mana in order to break into the [1st Apprentice] stage.] [Breakthrough is estimated to take 10 hours. Initiate breakthrough?] Without hesitating a single second, Shane immediately initiated the breakthrough, as arge suction force emanated from his body, absorbing the mana surrounding him greedily, enveloping him in a white cocoon. As Shane closed his eyes, he was already fully aware of what he had to do because he had to hold his mana pool together, which would increase by 25% in size approximately. It was as if his mana pool was the vessel that would break and recuperate while increasing in size and Shane had to hold everything mentally together while enduring the paining from breaking and at the same time recuperating his mana pool. However, fortunately enough, the mana he absorbed wasn''t hostile towards him; rather it was theplete opposite. It was as if the mana circted carefully throughout his body before he annexed it in order to be a part of him by merging with his mana pool, which caused it to recuperate. Even if he had to grit his teeth in pain, he couldn''t help but feel overjoyed with his amity with the mana particles, as ten hours passed slowly, yet steadily without anything obstructing him. With the white cocoon around him dissipating, he opened his eyes, only to see a notification appear in front of him. [Congrattions for breaking into the [1st Apprentice] stage, host! Individual upation catalog has been unlocked.] Seeing the message, he stood up slowly, only to smell a reeking stenching off his body, as he saw the ck thick liquid all over his arms and under his clothes, almost causing him to vomit. Taking off the clothes, he immediately jumped into theke, disregarding the presence of any onlookers, before he washed up and left theke once again, putting on a clean set of clothes. Estimating that mana students would breakthrough inside the tranquil forest, Shane started to wonder about the number of people who would wash up inside theke, as he smelled a nice fragranceing from theke. His eyes widened slightly, and the only thing he could think of were mutated purity slimes. His best guess was that the academy most likely purchased their liquid in order to create a high ratio with mana and the purity slime was addedter in order to help theke cleanse itself periodically. Other than his theory, Shane couldn''t think of any other way that theke could be so clean and uncontaminated despite hundreds of students breaking through in a week, as per a rough estimate. Instead of spending his time focusing on theke, Shane reminded himself of his achievement of breaking into the Apprentice stage, which allowed him to choose an upation. essing his status panel, there appeared a ''+'' behind his non-existent upation. and with a single thought, a catalog with several dozen upations appeared. Most of them were at the [Bronze] quality, and reading through the possible upations there, Shane couldn''t help but smile, because there were all basic upations, like [Warrior], [Guardian], [Assassin], [Archer], [cksmith],[Alchemist] and several dozens more. However, the bronze quality upations werepletely disregarded by Shane, because they could most likely be unlocked by him after attaining a certain degree of knowledge and fulfilling the requirements to learn these upations. Other than that, there were also over a dozen [Silver] quality upations, like a [Fiery Warrior], [Lesser light Guardian], [Shadow Assassin], [Wind Archer], and [Tamer]. These would give him an affinity, except the Tamer upation, however, the affinities wouldn''t be strong enough to cope up with [Gold] quality upations, of which he had three in his catalog. There was a [Orcan Archer], [Ferocious Berserker] and [Wise Tamer], which he received most likely from his Blessing because it improved his hunting ability by arge margin, his title, which was perfectly suited for a Berserker, and his innate skill [Taming] which spoke volumes about his prowess.. In the end, most youths would most likely pick either of these upations, at random, only because they didn''t believe that they were able to obtain a better upation if they were to wait any longer. However, there was something rather peculiar about his upation catalog! He already had the possibility to choose a single [tinum] upation! __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 115 - Rejecting Shane was overjoyed to see that he was already able to pick a [tinum] quality upation, and he was immediately curious to take a look. However, when he did look at the catalog, he sewed his mouth shut in order to prevent himself from eximing loudly. "Thousand dimension¡­.merchant?!? What is this bullshit!!!" Seeing the [Thousand dimension Merchant (tinum)], Shane was rendered speechless for a moment, but it was obvious that the tinum upation in front of him was not abat-oriented upation. Even if it would most likely benefit him a lot, like amplifying his memory capacity or other aspects that were important for a merchant, it wouldn''t really amplify his strength orbat prowess per se. The only thing that might work is that a tinum-quality merchant upation might even amplify his intelligence by refining his brain, but it was still unclear. Other than that, the [Thousand dimension] didn''t tell him anything, with the sole exception that he hoped to receive certain skills that would help him trade with other races. Maybe his shop would even receive a boost, but what was the use of it, if he wanted to have abat upation? Without the one-time ticket which gave him the opportunity to choose a second upation, it would be entirely useless for him to pick any tinum quality lifestyle upation. Shane would most likely even reject a [Diamond] quality merchant upation because it simply didn''t meet his expectations. Pondering over the reason behind receiving a high-quality merchant upation, he could only think that it was most likely because he umted more than 7,000 gold coins while being at the mortal stage, or maybe it was due to him umting a lot of gold coins in a certain period. In the end, the requirements for all kinds of upations were different and only the requirements of a few gold quality upations were figured out by mankind after gathering the information of thousands of people who picked the same upation whileparing themon traits.. If Shane wanted to, he could just search for a particr upation that was best suited for him and fulfill the requirements in order to obtain the opportunity to choose it as his final upation, but was that really what he wanted? Looking at the three [Gold] quality upations [Orcan Archer], [Ferocious Berserker], and [Wise Tamer] in front of him, he couldn''t bring himself to choose any of them, even if it would boost hisbat prowess almost immediately. Clenching his fist and opening it in session, he felt his physical strength surge through him. ''Why am I even establishing a perfect foundation, if I can''t even wait for a better upation to appear?..... Even if affinities and an amplification in my physical strength and ergement in my mana pool size are important, is that really more important than my future goal?'' Considering that he might not even be able to obtain enough supreme tickets to purchase the second upation ticket, Shane would have only one single chance to pick an upation. It was a once-in-a-lifetime choice and impatiently picking an upation would only fill him with regret the more time passed, as the gap of strength with each rank he attained towards higher quality upations would only widen. Making up his mind, Shane decided to reject all upations he could currently choose, and he told himself that he would wait as long as possible to choose an upation, even if he would have already established a perfect foundation at that time. There were only two scenarios where he saw himself choose an upation too early, without using his fullest potential. One was the possibility of him dying due to any unforeseen incident, like him being surrounded by hostile foreign races, which were much stronger and in high numbers, without him being able to find a single way out of their clutches. After trying everything possible, he would pick an upation to heighten hisbat prowess, as hisst means to survive. Meanwhile, the second excuse he could ept was the possibility of him receiving an ''impossible'' mission once he requested the [Tier-2 (Mythic)] Mana purifying technique (100%). In his opinion, the amplification he would receive, after ascending into the Master stage with a mana purity of 100%, instead of 95% for example, had to be poles apart! Shane was unsure how much of a difference it was, but he imagined it to be more important than his upation-a single quality rank which was worse than what he initially wanted. Thetter excuse was still something, he was unsure of, but even after epting a [Gold] quality upation, it would be unlikely for him to suddenly aplish an ''impossible'' mission. In his opinion, aplishing an ''impossible'' mission, had to be either the perfectly suited [tinum] quality upation or an [Diamond] upation. As such, he wouldn''t really lose out, even if the perfect solution would be picking an [Mythic] upation. However, It was unlikely for him to even find a Diamond quality upation to find in a short amount of time, and an [Mythic] upation even less. In the end, Shane would even be satisfied with a [tinum] quality upation, as long as it suited him perfectly, and if he was able to pick the second upation ticket, even more so. Only time would tell if he would ever find such an upation. ncing at the time on his system, Shane noticed that it was already Sunday and early in the morning at that, which meant he had already spent the entire night outside the dorm, causing a deep furrow to appear in between his brows. He sighed, thinking about the taunts andments from his roommates about the possible meetings he might have been in, throughout the night. Shane shook his head in frustration. He wanted to start cultivating in order to consolidate his advancement into the 1st Apprentice stage when a sudden thought emerged in his mind. Shane felt Umbra use the [soul conjunction] ability to figure out what was the change that it could feel within him. Noticing this he felt a little strange because Umbra shouldn''t have noticed a change when he transmitted the thought of him bing a stronger one again. At the same time, the evolution progress bar that was almost filled, regressed slightly, telling him that the same incident that had already urred before, repeated itself. Apparently, something advanced Umbra''s quality once again, and Shane stood there asking himself, what the change could be. There were multiple answers because his breakthrough into the Apprentice stage had changed a few things previously, that he hadpletely forgotten! Not only, did he have an Innate Skill, with the ability called [Cultivation-link], which allowed his innate skill to break through its limits by allowing him to tame stronger and more beasts than amon tamer, but he also had his mothers heirloom, that was bound to him and sealed in order to adjust itself to his strength. Shane couldn''t help but feel enlightened when he recalled the two changes he hadpletely forgotten, as he had only been focused on his upation. He opened his status panel in order to take a look at the upgrade to his taming skill. [Taming |Common-¡ï¡ï (+)| ¡ú Beasts tamed [1/2] ¡ú Limit: [High-Elite] Thest time he took a look at the limits his tamed beast was allowed to reach, and the number of possible tamed beasts, was when he barely reached the 8th Mortal stage. At that time, his limit was at the Mid-Elite stage, which didn''t seem to have progressed further, but the most important factor that changed was that he was able to tame his second beast! Seeing this, he was obviously overjoyed, but in the end, he couldn''t afford to nurture a second beast right now. Shane had still more than 1300 gold coins left, but this fortune would vanish faster than he could take a look, because he wanted to reach the peak Apprentice stage in both cultivation and body refining soon, in order to request a [Tier-1 (Mythic)] mission to receive his second perfect body refining manual. As such, 1300 gold coins were nothing and he couldn''t afford to bring a weak beast he nurtured into the wilderness, as he did it with Umbra, simply because Shane had learned a lesson from his extremely stupid and dangerous mistake. Fortunately, they only entered rtively secure ces without many elite and awakened beasts, but this would change now because he was able to fight Elite beasts head-on without any problems! Thinking about this, the only possible solutions would be, either to not tame a second beast altogether or tame a second beast and purchase another beast sealing card with a soul connection or even an extension to his current beast sealing card, that would allow both beasts to stay within the same space. Shane had no idea of the space required by Umbra once it would fully mature into a Horned Darkness-Snake so he could only pray to Artemis that the 50 cubic meter space would be enough for the moment. That was at least until he was able to afford a more expensive beast sealing card or even a miniature world which he could erge with enough resources if required. In the end, a taming upation would be the best choice, but he wanted to enhance hisbat strength with his upation and not only his taming abilities. He never heard about an upation thatbined taming andbat, and it was a difficult choice Shane would have to make in the future. Shaking his head, Shane decided to be patient and take his time, and tackle one issue at a time. After looking through the updates that his Taming skill had received, with the increase of his possible tamed beasts being the most interesting, Shane figured out that his mother''s heirloom, the [Ancient ring of the Susurro], was most likely the reason for Umbra to have a sudden amplification in its quality once again. Taking a look at the ring''s statistics, he couldn''t help but read it multiple times, before he whistled quietly, and mumbled to himself "Not bad!" __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 116 - Proposal __________________ [Ancient ring of the Susurro [Tier-1(Soul) - (Extraordinary)] Spatial storage: [10,000(1M)cubic meter]¡ú50,000! -Innate skill''s effects strengthened by 10%¡ú15%! -Blessing enhanced by 10%¡ú15%! -Small amplification in mana cirction and mana output ¡úLow amplification! _________________ Looking at his ring''s statistics, Shane immediately figured out the cause of Umbra''s weird feeling, which included the regression of the progress of his evolution bar. His spatial storage was already gigantic enough, and he couldn''t even imagine a five-fold increase, while another increase of 5% to his blessing, and innate skill''s effects led him to be extremely pleased. Considering that he might receive a 5% increase for every additional stage, Shane couldn''t help but smile brightly. He was already awaiting Umbra''s evolution, even if he was slightly apprehensive about the increased costs to feed Umbra afterward, while his quality would also decrease from [Extraordinary] to [Trash]. What frustrated him the most was that he had to find a way to walk around with Umbra, once he finished his evolution, as he couldn''t just slither through the Shelter as easily as before if he were to grow too much in size. In the end, it was not unlikely that Umbra would be a gigantic existence and his current beast sealing card was a joke with its space of 50 cubic meters. Even 500 cubic meters might not be enough for Umbra if Shane didn''t want his tamed beast to feel imprisoned. As such, he had to search for a different way, even if it would be expensive. A miniature world was seen as the perfect choice for this because he would erge it with resources, even if it was expensive. Furthermore, even Tamers with enough wealth decided to purchase a miniature world because it was even morefortable for beasts to reside in the miniature world with its own mini-ecosystem than in the taming skills or in Shane''s case, the beast sealing card. It was just an emergency solution because being too far apart from each other would affect their fortified bond, which was not something either could have wanted. As such, he purchased the beast sealing card, which was now used for Umbra to increase his evolution progress bar. Afterwards, he would remain within the beast sealing card in order to evolve, and then, Shane had to look for a better solution. Sighing, Shane decided that he had to increase his funds sooner orter. In order to do this, he would have to enter the Primordial Dimensions, and if he wanted to reap the most benefits, entering the Radiant mountain ring would be the best choice, even if the bloodlust thunder wolf was roaming in the territories around the shelter. The bloodlust thunder wolf was extremely powerful, and even if it was injured, it could still crush Shane like an ant, if he was foolish enough to fight the beast head-on. Shane mulled over the problem, thinking about a possible solution, though he couldn''t decide on the first step. It was barely Sunday morning, but Shane''s brain was working at a full speed in order to find the best solution to his current issues if they could bebeled as issues, to begin with... He didn''t have any cultivation resources left but had enough funds toplete a wed apprentice physique and a mana purity of 28%. However, in the end, it was unknown if he required funds for his next [Mythic] mission in order to obtain the [Tier-1 (Mythic)] body refining technique. There was the possibility that funds were mandatory for his next mission because these missions could demand anything. The best example was his first mission, which forced him to earn 1000 gold coins in 48 hours, without any help or guidance whatsoever. If he hadn''t found a way to earn a fortune identally, Shane wouldn''t have aplished the mission at all. As such, he had to be prepared better this time, with multiple strategies, if the system were to give him a mission with a time limit once again. While thinking of a way to earn easy money, he immediately thought of his family, but disregarded the thought of asking them for funds, because it didn''t feel right to him. Furthermore, he was not in a dire enough situation to do something like that as of now. Maybe if he were in a real dilemma, Shane would ask for help, but not now, as he was still able to easily handle the situation. But thinking about his family, brought him to Aisha, who was raised up by his uncle, Lars, as he remembered her talking about being an "In-field" teacher or something simr. ''Did she already n an Expedition? If not, I might be able to convince her to venture through the radiant mountain ring dimension, even if the bloodlust thunder wolf might roam around there...With enough preparations, nothing should happen, and the bounty within this dimension should even entice enough students to apply for the expedition!'' Shane was aware of the dangers, but he was confident that Aisha could fight the bloodlust thunder wolf at least to a certain degree. He was also hopeful that the injury sustained by the wolf might have not healed if Aisha''s skill had an additional bleeding or hampering effect. After searching for her contact details in the school forum, he messaged her a long text, with all kinds of reasons to enter the radiant mountain ring dimension, and even revealed the presence of a hidden cave that he had entered, while attaching his [Wealth] ranking in the message to prove how valuable the elemental crystal cave was. To further entice her, he underlined his statement that he hadn''t excavated the secondyer of the elemental crystal cavepletely. Shane was confident that his message would at least make her think about his idea. Thanks to theplex position of the hidden elemental crystal cave, it was also unlikely that a terrifying existence like the bloodlust thunder wolf would enter a low-graded cave as he found and he could only hope for the best. Even if Aisha rejected his proposal, he could just leave alone, though it would be extremely dangerous and risky to venture to the cave on his own. It was highly likely that the elemental crystal cave had been inhabited by another race that might be harder to deal with than the lustful scaled lizards. After he sent Aisha the message, he closed his system, before deciding to utilize his time within the tranquil forest to increase his mana purity. Without the desire to purchase any cultivation resources for the day, Shane spent the whole Sunday and even the early hours of Monday morning within the tranquil forest, greedily absorbing mana with his [Tier-2 (Gold)] mana gathering technique, before purifying it, by expelling the impurities out of his mana pool by exerting the [Tier-1 (Gold)] mana purifying technique with its limit at a mana purity of 28%. Shane was sure that the tranquil forest was the best ce to purify his mana when he noticed the message informing him that he had entered the [Zone] once again, The only downside was that his body and clothes reeked of the same horrible stench once again. Pondering for a moment, he took off his clothes, before jumping into theke, with the dirtied clothes in his hand. Washing up, he noticed that even his clothes were cleansed from dirt and impurities, which caused him to be even more certain that theke was special. Taking off all of his dirtied clothes, he washed them inside the cleansing water, which would have been eyed weirdly by others, if they were to see him washing his clothes naked in theke, with only his upper body visible on the water surface. Once he was finally done, Shane decided to take a look at his mana purity. [Cultivation Level: Apprentice-1st [Purity 13%]} Seeing that his mana purity increased by roughly 1.1% in just over 24 hours, he couldn''t help but feel satisfied because he hadn''t used a single mana stone in order to increase his cultivation speed. ''If only, I could stay within the tranquil forest for the next three weeks, without anyone obstructing me...I would definitely reach a mana purity of 28% and break through a few ranks.'' Unfortunately, he still had a few other things to take care of, like receiving the rewards of the first Rankings, entering the Dimension-sphere, practicing the acquired knowledge once every key-point was understood in order to acquire the skill if possible, without wasting much time. Meanwhile, Shane couldn''t neglect his body refining and if Aisha were to ept his proposal, he would enter the Primordial Dimensions with her expedition team, otherwise, he would just venture in alone, once his strength increased slightly. Time was of the essence and even more so, because of the increasing poprity of the RadiantRing shelter. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 117 - Rewards Even if he didn''t have to go to school in order to either apply for certain lectures or receive the ranking rewards, Shane still wanted to attend the first theoretical lesson in order to figure out if his teacher had something important to say. Afterwards, he would receive his reward which was most likely, ess to the Dimension-spheres and he could immediately request to enter it. Shane was not sure about the number of hours that he would receive, but it had to be several hours. Having crossed the threshold for the martial arts and knowledge exam for the first ranking, Shane knew that he would receive at least four hours from these two rankings, while the mortalbat ranking would most likely reward him with two additional hours. Other than that, there was only the [Wealth] ranking for him, because the [Stage-to-age] ranking was nothing he would fret over, which included the [Lifestyle upation] ranking. Doubtful of receiving more than six hours from the [Wealth] ranking, he told himself to be satisfied with 10 hours ess for the Dimension-spheres as his first reward. Changing into a dry set of clothes, instead of wearing the wet, but cleansed uniform after drying his wet body, He rushed towards the education building and barely made it to the ssroom in time. As he opened the door of his ssroom, he immediately felt several hundred pairs of eyes ring at him, causing him to furrow his brows. ''Why is everybody ring at me as if I murdered their entire family?'' He asked himself, astonished by their gazes, before he sat down on an empty seat, and waited for their teacher to arrive. Sharp at 8 am, Mr.Larka entered the room, causing the gossiping youths to quiet down almost immediately. Mr Larka raised his eyebrows in amusement when he noticed Shane sitting in one of the first rows while being eyed by everyone with anger, jealousy and even greed gleaming in their eyes before he started the lesson with the standardized greeting. Afterwards, he began to talk about all kinds of experiences over thest few weeks, whileparing their ss with the previous batch of first-years. Apparently, this first-year seemed to be slightly above-averagepared to the prior students which caused a few youths to exim loudly, which was immediately intercepted by Mr. Larka, who didn''t like to be disturbed. Once he was done with providing the students with a general overview of the ss, he asked everyone to look at their ranking, and check the additional rewards which were sent to their inbox. "After everyone is done with looking through their inbox, I''ll analyze a few students'' results, while picking out their strengths and weaknesses, with the provided information from all rankings and the teachers'' observations who monitored everything Other than the students I choose, if any other student is interested in having me look through their profile and help them understand their ws; they are more than wee to raise their hands." Saying this, Mr. Larka muttered "good example" as he looked through the system before he cast a fleeting nce at Shane. This made Shane frown as he could sense what was in store for him. Sighing, he opened his system''s inbox, only to see multiple notifications about his ranking. <[Martial art proficiency] rank=1697, threshold reached. Reward: Permission to enter the Dimension-sphere for 2 hours> The first message was as expected because there were already tens of thousand students at the Expert stage with a martial art technique. With his gradeless martial art technique, at the Superior grade, he was at mostparable to someone with a [Tier-1 (Bronze)] martial art technique at the profound proficiency, which was already difficult for anyone below the age of 17 to reach. Considering that he was still in the top 2000, there didn''t seem to be many students with a [Tier-1] or even [Tier-2] martial art technique, while their proficiency was at most average,pared to his gradeless superior ranking. Smiling lightly, Shane knew that he wouldn''t be able to receive any rewards at the next martial art proficiency ranking because the first one was the only time the Shirai academy set up a threshold to reach in order to be rewarded. After figuring out the martial art proficiency degree of his peers, he took a look at the knowledge exam reward, which caused him to smile a little. <[Knowledge] rank=1, threshold reached, requirements exceeded. Reward: Permission to enter the Dimension-sphere for 4 hours.> He was not sure if Aunt Kia had a hand in the distribution of the rewards, but either way, it was a good method to motivate others in order to show them that hard-working students would be rewarded. Furthermore, it was only the first knowledge ranking, with many, more difficult in line, which would consistently increase the rewards with the difficulty of the exams. <[Mortalbat] ranking=1, Victory!!, Reward: Permission to enter the Dimension-sphere for 4 hours.> After reading the fourth message, Shane was satisfied with the reward, even if it was not muchpared to the time he invested. However, by fighting against his peers, he figured out their strength, even if they were only opponents at the Mortal stage. As such, he gained a lot of experience. Thest notification about the [Wealth] ranking was also exactly as he expected, even if there were a few students who astonished him with their wealth, as they earned between 3,000 to 5,000 gold coins during thest month. This caused him to wonder if they had a simr beneficial encounter like he had or if the reason for their umted fortune was something else. However, in the end, he was ranked first, which was everything that mattered to him at the moment. <[Wealth] rank=1, Victory! Reward: Permission to enter the Dimension-sphere for 14 hours.> His eyes widened lightly, as he read the time he was allowed to enter the Dimension-sphere, but after thinking about it for some time, Shane could only nod his head in admiration. ''Was it Aunt Kia who decided this? She is really sly!'' he thought, and it was mostly because everyone could see the rewards received by others. With the [Wealth] ranking rewarding the most hours to ess the Dimension-spheres, Shane could only regard this reward as a means to motivate all students to earn more gold coins by themselves. This would cause students to either be more interested in merchants and their way to barter and trade with other races, venturing into the Primordial DImension to kill beasts in order to sell them, or search for expensive treasures. Another way to earn funds would also be to learn an upation that would allow these students to be cksmiths, alchemists, or choose any other type of lifestyle upation that earned fortune once they made a name for themselves. In the end, the rewards he received were merely a bait for other students to strive for more and be motivated, even if it would make him the most hated person in school as he received the most benefits from the first rankings. Not many cared about the prices that students at the second and third ce from the [Wealth] ranking received, or even the number of hours of ess to the Dimension-spheres the winners from the otherbat rankings at the Apprentice and Expert stage received, as Shane''s name was stered everywhere. He couldn''t help but feel extremely ufortable with everyone gazing at him with jealousy and a tinge of hatred. It was not his fault that his ranking was better than theirs. Mr.Larka chuckled before he shrugged his shoulders, clearly amused at Shane''s predicament, causing him to frown a bit. In the end, even he himself found it quite ridiculous, causing him to smile lightly, as Mr.Larka started analyzing all kinds of rankings. __________________________________ W E B N O V E L= https://bit.ly/3xrU5Yx [If you like the novel, please support the Author with your powerstones] __________________________________ Chapter 118 - They Have To Come Too? Shane felt that his teacher was quite knowledgeable as he heard Mr.Larka''s exnations. He picked out the most crucial points while analyzing several students who were particrly good or bad at something. This helped almost every studentprehend something, whether it was helpful or not. While listening to his teacher, even Shane could tell his peers problems, with the biggest being their lowbat prowess and experience which he could make out from their bad martial art proficiency and an even worsebat ranking. Other than that, everyone''s knowledge about the most basic things seemed to be quite high with an average of around 80%, while only 2,000 students achieved 100%. Considering that the Shirai academy only epted the best of the best, this was a small number, but Shane had already expected something like this, and it was not surprising to him. However, what amazed him slightly, was how low most students'' [Wealth] ranking was, as they barely umted between 100 to 300 gold coins throughout the whole month. This meant that their average earning was less than 10 gold coins per day. Comparing their Stage with the wealth they umted, Shane was sure that two hunting sprees in a month at their current stage would be more than enough to help them earn the same fortune. Maybe that was exactly what they were doing, but that was not something he bothered to think about. Shaking his head, he could only think that many students were rich spoiled brats who were backed by their parents to reach a high stage which allowed them to enter the Shirai academy. The only thing preventing sloths and overly inexperienced youths from entering the Shirai academy was the fact that one had to umte a certain amount of gold to even apply to any academy. As such, theziest students who had been epted into the Shirai academy were slightly hard-working and had undertaken one or two hunting trips during the whole month which was better than doing nothing. However, after the first rewards were given out, students soon realized that they would have to work harder in order to receive benefits from the academy when they saw that the lower ranks didn''t even receive a single bronze coin. Rather than that, they were beaten up and humiliated during thebat rankings, which hurt their pride. On the other side, this was also seen as a means to lecture theziest students in order to tell them that they should either give their best or stop using up the academy''s resources, which millions of youths desired to obtain. A whole hour passed with Mr.Larka analyzing and exining everything when Shane noticed his teacher looking at him, and he could sigh deeply, as he heard. "The best example and role model I can show everyone is Shane Suro! Hisbat prowess and experience is not only extremely high but so is his knowledge. If that were everything, I wouldn''t praise him like this, but other than hisbat prowess and knowledge, he is also hard-working, which everyone can easily understand by simply looking at his [Wealth] ranking. I know that some of you are jealous of the rewards he obtained and I can fully understand this, but Shane received them because of his determination and hard work. When I was younger, I had a peaceful and carefree childhood, until the day I turned 16, when I entered the Primordial DImensions for the first time. It was horrifying and I was scared, and I''m sure that the majority of students thought the same when they awoke their system. In the end, it seems like Shane Suro was rxed and did not spend his time worrying but worked hard to build a great foundation, as indicated by his martial art proficiency! Being jealous is nothing to be ashamed of if you use this jealousy to fuel your motivation instead of doing something else with ill intentions, because this won''t help anyone, and will instead backfire! Humanity has to work together and we should motivate each other instead of pushing others down, alright?!" Initially, Shane had been ufortable to hear Mr.Larka speak, but his speech was better than he expected. Thus, when the other students started to p and cheer, Shane joined them, as he smiled lightly. His peers who initially loathed him beyond measure began to size him up once again. The mature aura surrounding Shane spoke volumes about his prowess and the other students noticed that it was high achievement for someone who had barely entered the Primordial Dimension one or two months ago. This was the period they estimated Shane to have entered the Primordial Dimensions ording to his stage and rank. Now, they saw Shane in a new light as they couldn''t help but change their opinion about him to a certain extent. In the end, they had to acknowledge the facts their teacher stated and ept that there was no other way for Shane to be so strong, without giving his best. His determination to earn more than 7000 gold coins while he was still at the Mortal stage, was beyond their wildest imaginations.. Once their teacher calmed down everyone, the ss came to an end. Shane decided to follow him in order to escape everyone''s clutches because he was eyed differently than before, making him feel even more ufortable than the previous hostile gazes. Rushing out of the wholerge buildingplex, he searched for arge tree to lean on, as he sat down to take a deep breath before he opened the system in order to look at the messages he received from Aisha. Reading the message, Shane oscited between being happy and displeased, because he didn''t like the fact that a whole unitprising of 100 Valkyries would join them which would not only slightly decrease the funds he could mine in the elemental crystal cave if they were to enter it, but his profit would dwindle by an extremelyrge margin. Sighing deeply, he could only ept this, because his life was worth more than excessively high benefits as he started to read the next message