Sequential Breakthroughs
After getting up, the first thing that Alex did was to look for food. Hunger was getting on his nerves so much that he was even failing to bear with it. After all, he had been fighting for long hours and he had spent too much energy during the fights and thus he needed to recharge his body.
After gobbling up three plates of rice and pieces of meat, Alex tapped his bloated stomach and sighed in satisfaction. When he was eating, he didn't have the time to enjoy the taste of the food and all that was in his mind at that time was to fill his empty stomach up. All the rest would be thought about after his pit is filled to the brim.
Taking an hour break, he waited for the food to get digested before he began his breakthrough. Since he mostly relies on physical fighting compared to magical fights, he decided to maximize on it before dealing with his mage path. The reason was simple, he was not yet adept at controlling mana and thus his mage path was still a mess and it required time to be fixed and time is what he didn't have.
Sitting in lotus position, he took out all the cores that he had gained in the tower. He needed to fill his percentage to a hundred percent before he can have a breakthrough after controlling his qi. Taking the late stage monster core, he chose to use it for cultivation in the warrior path. After taking five late stage monster cores, he got a system notification.
[You have reached the cap of mid stage rank 1 warrior power level....To breakthrough to the next stage, you need to absorb external qi....]
On getting this, Alex didn't waste time and he began trying to absorb as much qi as possible from the surroundings. It was hard as usual but since he had already done this before, he was capable of doing it faster than last time. Furthermore, he had also tried absorbing mana and he had found a particular way that he could make the absorption easier.
Like that, two hours went by and Alex felt the wall that was holding him from reaching the next stage crumble to dust. Like that, he broke through to the late stages of warrior path. He was currently sure that he could finally handle those peak stage monsters in the tower. He could feal that the density of his bones and flesh had increased drastically and thus his increase in strength.
He spent another thirty minutes stabilizing his power. He didn't want to lose control of himself after improving in strength. Taking a deep breath, he took ten late stage cores and immediately began absorbing the essence in the to improve his strength. He was not worried about his foundation being unstable because he wasn't using the essence present in the cores for breakthroughs but the external qi which aids in cementing the foundation.
After thirty minutes, the ten cores had been fully absorbed.
[You have reached the cap of late stage rank 1 warrior power level....To breakthrough to the next stage, you need to absorb external qi....]
Again, Alex began absorbing the external qi to aid him in his breakthrough. Since he was beginning to get used to absorbing the qi, his proficiency was increasing thus increasing the amount of qi that he was taking in as time goes. This time, it only took him up to an hour and a half before he broke through to the peak of rank 1.
Just like the previous breakthroughs, he was capable of feeling the increase on his strength. Now, he felt that those peak stage monsters in the Tower would be child's play not to mention those found in the dungeon. He couldn't say much about those rank 2 martial monsters but he was pretty sure that he could easily hold his own, at least. 'System, show my status,' Alex said in his mind.
[Name; Alex Faxel
Age; 15
Job; Adventurer
HP; 250
Power level; Warrior Rank 1 (peak stage)
Mage Rank 1 (initial stage)
Next level; Warrior; 0/100%
Mage; 90.2/100%
Affinity; Lightning
Strength;35
Stamina;35
Agility; 35
Vitality;50
Mental strength;30
Mana; 300/300
Coins; 15
Ability points;20
Cultivation techniques : Golden Pillar body
Golden Magic Creation
Skills; Light steps rank 0 (initial grade)
Swirling winds rank 0 (mid grade)
Steel hands rank 1 (mid grade)
Looking at his improved stats, Alex couldn't help but feel excited. His strength had more than doubled. And now, he even had twenty skill points that could be distributed to any part that he might be lacking. Now, all his stats are balanced but once he starts using the ability points, he was sure that the balance would be broken. That was a fact that couldn't be denied.
Now that he had gotten to the peak stage in the warrior path, it was time to get to the peak in the magic path. He was still stuck in the initial stages but that was going to change. Even though he only needed 9.8% to have a breakthrough, he didn't have much time as the night had already come in. Now that he had gotten to the peak of rank 1, he could finally stay up to two days without sleep or food. That's just the difference.
He took out the initial stage monster core and used the essence present to fill the required percentage. Since he had 0.2 extra essence left, the essence dissipated in the air. This was what he didn't want, wasting hard earned essence. Had he used a mid stage core for breakthrough, he would have wasted over ten percent of the energy required for breakthrough from initial to mid stage.
[You have reached the cap of initial stage rank 1 mage power level....To breakthrough to the next stage, you need to absorb external mana....]
A prompt just like the one that he got when breaking through in his warrior path appeared before him. Wasting no time, he began feeling the mana surrounding him before he began absorbing it. His proficiency in absorbing external essences was improving in that even though he wasn't that fast, he was sure that he was good.
Furthermore, he was using the cultivation techniques from the system and things from the system weren't to be taken lightly as they were of a high quality. One hour later, he had finished the breakthrough and he had gotten to mid stages of rank 1. He could feel something growing in the navel region but he wasn't sure about it. According to the flow of things, he was sure that as long as he got used to these essences, he would be capable of breaking through in just a few minutes or even seconds, maybe even instantly.
He didn't stop there, he took five of the late stage cores and began absorbing the essence in them. When it came the time to breakthrough, he immediately activated the golden magic cultivation technique and began absorbing mana. This time, it only took him thirty minutes to breakthrough and he once again felt the size of whatever was in his navel region increase.
Now that he had done it several times, he had found out that it wasn't that his proficiency in absorbing external essence was increasing, rather, it was his proficiency in utilizing the cultivation techniques that was increasing. The more he utilizes them, the better he gets at using them. He couldn't help but wonder just what level these two techniques were at. For him to be able to absorb essence this easily, this meant that these were godlike techniques that people would kill to get their hands on them.
He again took out ten late stage monster cores and began absorbing them. He wanted to get over with this as soon as possible so that he could get some rest before going back to the tower. He wanted to utilize this time to get as many cores as possible so that he could get his revenge and start wondering around for adventure.
[You have reached the cap of late stage rank 1 mage power level....To breakthrough to the next stage, you need to absorb external mana....]
He closed his eyes and began absorbing mana. He could feel that everytime he utilizes the technique, the time required to breakthrough halves. This showed that his proficiency was growing and he would even be capable of breaking through without using cores just as fast.
[These techniques are the best the system can provide you with....They are not ranked because they can't be found in this world grading system....Where you are, the essence in air is too much impure and if you get somewhere that has pure essence, you can breakthrough in minutes at your current power level...That also depends on how well you can utilize the techniques....]
The system that was quite for a while spoke out. When Alex heard that he could breakthrough in a matter of minutes from just absorbing essences in the air. This was a cheat and he didn't think that there was anyone who had such a cultivation technique as far as he knew as people take ages just to breakthrough a single stage.
Fifteen minutes and he had broken through to the peak of rank 1 in the mage path. Now, it was time to see how his stats were currently.
[Name; Alex Faxel
Age; 15
Job; Adventurer
HP; 300
Power level; Warrior Rank 1 (peak stage)
Mage Rank 1 (peak stage)
Next level; Warrior; 0/100%
Mage; 0/100%
Affinity; Lightning
Strength;40
Stamina;40
Agility; 40
Vitality;60
Mental strength;60
Mana; 600/600
Coins; 15
Ability points;35
Cultivation techniques : Golden Pillar body
Golden Magic Creation
Skills; Light steps rank 0 (initial grade)
Swirling winds rank 0 (mid grade)
Steel hands rank 1 (mid grade)
He now took note of the difference between mages and warriors. Mage's physical strength improves only when moving into late stages or after a major breakthrough. He wasn't that sure about it but that is what he was able to guess. And, from the way things were looking, it seems that he would be stronger than normal cultivators and thus he could fight a stage or maybe even a rank above him.
He couldn't hide his exhilaration any longer and stood up. He really wanted to test his strength. Only after standing up did he notice that he had spent the entire night leveling up. Even he himself was surprised. After checking how many cores were left from the original eighty five cores, he had fifty four late stage monster cores left.
Since he didn't have any good techniques, he decided to convert all of them into coins. A single one equals twenty thus he got up to one thousand and eighty coins to spend. He could have utilized forty for a breakthrough but he decided against it. He wanted to make full use of the remaining twenty gold coins which equals two days in the tower.
He wasn't sure that he could fight rank 2 monsters yet so he wanted to test out the strength of those at the peak stage. In total, he currently had 1095 coins. Now, it was time to enter the store and check what he could get. But before that, he had a question that needed an answer.
'System, can I sell items bought in the system store?'
[Yes, you can....Only those gotten as a reward can't be utilized by someone else....]
Currently, Alex was thinking of a way to avoid visiting the dungeon this early, not before he was strong enough to take care of himself in there. The second floor of the dungeon had an open layout and thus it was easy to meet people who might cause him troubles which he didn't want.
He needed to utilize the tower as it was his source of progress currently and to access it, he needed money. Now, he was wondering if he could sell whatever he gets from the store and gain some coins but after thinking it through, he thought it was a loss. All the weapons in the store were rank 1 and above and the price was in hundreds. The cheapest being a hundred and fifty coins which is equivalent to six late and one mid stage cores.
The cores from the tower were not a small issue at all. The monsters were stronger than ordinary ones found in the dungeon thus he thought this would be a waste. He decided that he would just head to the dungeon and get as many cores as possible so that he could get coins that could last him long enough for him to advance to the peak of rank 2.
For that, he'll have to fight group wars and to do that, he needed the best techniques available so that he could manage the crowd of monsters. Now, he had good weapons, techniques would be required and the dungeon is where he was going to increase his proficiency at.
Sighing, Alex accessed the system store and went to the tab where he could find techniques. Since he had lightning affinity, he decided to look for something that he could use in that area as he didn't want it to be decorations that he was going to spend a lot on but still not use it. After scrolling, he found one that he could afford. Everything found in the store was just good. It was a movement technique that required lightning essence.
Lightning steps; rank 1 (initial grade) Lightning essence is directed towards the legs where they enable one to move at a speed of lightning. Price: 200
Alex didn't hesitate to purchase it. Although it was only rank 1 in the initial stage, Alex didn't doubt its efficiency, after all, it's from the system. Now with the movement technique out of the way, he decided to look for a defensive and large scale offensive technique.
Shield bearer; rank 1 (initial grade) A force field is formed in form of a shield from one's qi essence. Price: 250
Blaster: rank 1 (mid grade) Qi essence is utilized to detonate an area of five meters with the user as the center. Price: 600
Just like that, Alex had utilized 1050 coins. He only remained with a pitiful forty five coins. Since he was about to wreck havoc in the dungeon, he decided to purchase a mask so that he cannot be recognized by anyone. Thus, he went to the accessory tab and searched for one.
Shade: (Accessory) Can hide one's power level from anyone below rank 3. Price: 45
Although the price was high, he didn't hesitate in purchasing it. Since he had broken through very fast, he needed to hide his progress from the eyes of his enemies. Now with these, he was sure that things were going to get better.
Author's Note :
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