Author Note:
I've realized that releasing only two chapters per week isn’t enough, so I’ll be increasing it to three. Neters will be released on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 2:00 PM EST.
She took the ear, exami briefly, then said, “All good. So, how many orcs did you kill for the mission?”
“I killed 11, but the quest requires kills in groups of 5, so I want to plete it twice.” He handed his backpack to Ruby.
Ruby ted the ears, pced them in a box, and then took the mission paper and his hunter card, processing something with a mae.
A moment ter, she said, “The mission is registered as pleted, and you’ve earned 2,000 tribution points! Do you have the cores as well? If so, are you looking to sell them? They’re worth about 200 points each for orc cores.”
“Thanks, but I’ll keep the cores for now. By the way, I retake this quest?”
“Of course, but don’t you want to take a break?”
“I’ll rest. I retake the quest for tomorrow.”
Ruby found this a bit odd. Normally, after pleting a quest, hunters would either train using the resources they earned or spend time rexing at a brothel or pub.
She did something behind the ter before saying, “Sure, this mission is on your record for the week!”
“So now that I’ve got some tribution points, where I use them?”
Ruby grabbed a book and ha to him. “Check this out.”
Mikael flipped through the book and saw it was anized by rank, from F to S. Of course, the tribution points needed for an S-rank item were ridiculous and also he equivalent hunter rank.
What caught his attention were a few things: a good E-rank full-body leather armor for 500 points, an average D-rank short sword for 1,000 points, a D-rank body refining teique for 1,000 points, and a promotion to k for 5,000 points.
Mikael decided to buy the leather armor, the body refining teique, and a lower-quality D-rank short sword for 500 points and a total of 2K points for all these items.
He showed Ruby the items he wanted, and they walked to a room guarded by tw-looking men.
Ruby said a few words to the guards, the inside for a couple of minutes before ing back with the leather armor, the short sword, and a small booklet.
, he took the items ao the ging room Ruby had indicated. He was gd to take off his blood-stained clothes and quickly put on the leather armor.
Mikael looked in the mirror. "Damn, I look like I just stepped out of a medieval movie!" And he really did. The leather armor covered his body, with also reinforced clothes that felt surprisingly fortable.
“I’ll check the sword and body refining teiques ter when I’m back at my apartment.”
He said goodbye to Ruby before leaving the guild. Some hunters were still casting gnces because of the fight, but he didn’t care. , he headed to the library, where he read a book about mohat described them iail. For example, the se on orcs was like this:
***
Species: Orcs
Danger level: Individually k
Description: Orcs are humanoid monsters, approximately 2 meters tall, with muscur builds and green skin. The orcs that hunters will most often enter are the males, as they are the hunters in orc society. Male orcs are extremely strong and resilient, even pared to other k monsters. Their vitality is remarkable; they survive for a time even after their hearts are pierced. Their only major weaknesses are that they are slow and incredibly dumb, and they view the use of ons as a sign of weakness. Imagihe destru they could cause if they wielded clubs with their strength…
In parison, female orcs are much weaker, with the strength of an average D-rank monster, but they are far more intelligent. Their intelligence has beeimated to be simir to that of a 10-year-old human child.
***
Mikael felt foolish. ‘I should have e to read this book the moment I chose the orting quest! I could have avoided getting hit by that first orc if I had. Ever since I’ve been lio the Records, I’ve made a lot of stupid decisions! I o stop getting caught up ihrill of expl a fantastic world and having "superpowers" and start thinking more carefully. It starts by reading this book so I’m better prepared ime!’
He thehe hour reading the entire book before leaving the city, entering the forest, and finally returning to his apartment in his world.
Mikael took off his newly bought leather armor before taking a shoutting on his usual outfit: a white shirt and bck cargo pants. He didn’t put on his jacket, though, because he po do some training, and the jacket would get in the way. Of course, he didn’t throw away the stained clothes; instead, he washed them by hand, as his small apartment didn’t even have a kit, let alone a washing mae.
Mikael then took out his old steel sword and his new D-rank sword. The two swords were of simir length; the steel sword measured 88 cm, while the D-rank sword was slightly lo 94 cm. In appearahey were also alike, with metal bdes and wooden handguards.
Looking at the swords, Mikael thought, ‘So how do I know which sword is strohe D-rank sword should be better si es from a fantastic world, but by parison, the other one is created by Earth's more advaeology.’
He had an ‘idea’ to test the durability. Pg the steel sword on the ground, he pressed the D-rank sword down onto it, applying his weight so the two bdes collided to see if their durability was at least parable and one wouldn’t cut through the other.
g
After a few seds, he stopped and examihe state of the swords. Both bdes were chipped at the point of impact but were still iively good dition. ‘Well, at least I still have two swords, but this test retty pointless. All it did was chip my bdes…’
‘Chipped... ah, damn! I fot—you o sharpen swords, or something like that, right? I’m pretty sure I read about it somewhere.’
Sigh
‘Now I o buy a book about how to sharpen a sword and the reted items... goodbye my money.’
He then bought a book on how to care for a bde for 5 LP. After taking the time to read it, he now had a better uanding of how to maintain his swords. Most importantly, he learned how to sharpen them! Armed with this new knowledge, he bought a whetstone for another 5 LP.
‘Only 10 LP? I’ve gotteo being broke after each purchase, but this time I still have…
[Life Points (LP): (+390) 530]
530 LP left, so I’m doing pretty well.’
‘Now that I’ve checked my armor and my new sword, let’s save the best for st: the body refining teiques!’ he thought, taking the small booklet in his hands.
He started reading, and the text began like this: "Body refining is a plex art created by the Light Goddess Daana to help her beloved creations fight the Night Goddess Ghnimera and her evil spawn—the monsters. These teiques were ter modified by talented individuals from the light races (humans, elves, demi-humans)
‘The tent is pretty iing if you ighe obvious propaganda against the Night Goddess and the monsters.’
Mikael didn’t care about the good and evil sides discussed in the book. What mattered to him was what could be him. He had lear a young age that morality is just a matter of perspective, and he always chose what served him best. In the real world, good and bad bels are irrelevant—only the strong survive. Oh, wealth gave power, but now, real strength is what ts!
The text tinued like this: These teiques have varying efficy depending on multiple factors. First of all, the only perma factor is your talent. Your talent will determine how quickly you use a body-refining teique and how much progress you make. Sadly, talents are fixed at birth and are ungeable. But even if your talent is weak, don’t lose hope; there are other factors that you ge!
The sed factor is the rank of the body refining teiques. It’s logical that an A-rank teique will be more effit than a k ohe third factor is the material you use for your body refi. If you don’t use a material, your progress will be extremely slow or even ent. However, if you use, for example, a B-rank monster's core, your progress will be faster. Finally, the st factor—ohat allows evealentless but determiress—is the pain factor.
Yes, body refining is painful. Body refining is divided into 10 levels, and each level is more painful than the previous one, but also much more effit. So even if your talent is weak, if you work hard, you make rapid progress.
What we’ve discussed so far is the history of body refining and how tress quickly with it. But now, we’ll talk about the different types of body refining. Indeed, body refining is divided into two categories. The first type is quantitative body refining, which sists of increasing your raw strength. For example, if your strength is represented by a number—let’s say 10—quantitative refining would aim to raise that o 11 her.
The sed type is qualitative body refining, which focuses on improving the quality of your strength without ging the number. Using the same example, someone who trains in qualitative body refining might still have a strength value of 10 but be signifitly strohan someone else with the same number.
To bee truly strong, you’ll o train using a bination of both methods, with a heavier focus on quantitative body refining for optimal time ma. If you want to begin your body refining, you will o sit ius position while taking deep breaths, following these instrus: Close your eyes and slowly t 1-2-3-4 as you ihrough your hen exhale for four seds. You’ll also o recite this mantra in your mind: I am refining my body. I am my body, and my body is me. I train my body for myself and only for myself. I choose to brave the pain to bee stronger. My goal is a (quantitative for quantitative body refining/qualitative for qualitative body refining) upgrade. I choose the level (between 1 and 10 depending on the chosen pain level) of body refining.
Take the time to read and memorize these instrus because you’ll o know them by heart to start your body refining. Good? I’m going to assume you’re ready. The st thing you o know is that when you are perf body refining, you o have the necessary materials near you—ideally, if it’s a core, it should be between your hands. Never fet: if these instrus are followed properly, your progress will be fast, but if you make mistakes, your progress will slow down. You now have everything you o knoy body refining!
Mikael finished reading. ‘This booklet has some really iing information, especially about body refining, which is surprisingly simple. You just o know how to breathe ae the mantra from the book, so there’s no reason not to try.’
, he sat ius position, holding an orc core between his hands, and begahing acc to the book’s instrus. After 15 minutes, he got into the rhythm and started silently reg the mantra.
‘I am refining my body.’
‘I am my body, and my body is me.’
‘I train my body for myself and only for myself.’
‘I choose to brave the pain to bee stronger.’
‘My goal is a qualitative upgrade.’
‘I choose level 1 of body refining.’
The moment he fihe mantra, his body began to itch all over, but it wasn’t painful. The sensation sted for about two minutes before it stopped.
‘That’s it? It’s already over, and it wasn’t painful at all! Maybe it ended because you o keep reg the mantra, and the ck of pain is probably because I chose the least painful level of body refining.’
He was about tain when he received a notification.
[Your knowledge of the body refining teique of the Aedris world has reached the required level.]
[You have learhe skill: Body Refining Teique]
[Body Refining Teique: Tier 0, Level 3 Skill
Description: This is the D-rank body refining teique of the Aedris world. By using this skill you refine your body using the quantitative body refining or the qualitative body refining. The efficy is affected by the multiple factors spoken in the book about this teique. This skill affects all the physical stats (STR, AGI, END, VIT, PER) but doesn’t affect the spiritual stats.
Current Progress: Quantitave +0 stats
Qualitative Stats value: 1.00
Warning!!: Your current progress is extremely slow because of the ck of the Training System, and the extremely low physical potential of the Humah) race.]
‘Nice, I o spend my LP again for an upgrade... Seriously, I always need more money for something!’ he thought, annoyed.
Sigh
‘Anyways, let's review the level-up ditions.’
[Body Refining Teique: Tier 0, Level 3 Skill: this skill reach the level if the following ditions are met.
Find a way to upgrade the body refining teiques.]
‘Hmm, so this time it’s different there isn’t a progress bar and it doesn’t cost LP so that's already a plus. To upgrade the body refining teiques the easiest way I think is to get the k version from the Aedris world.’
