The three people in front of us were dressed in gear.
One was dressed in big full plate armour, a mace at his hip and a shield on his arm, he was leading the other two towards us. He was big himself, large muscles and a broad frame. He hit the descriptor of a tank.
The second was a man who looked skinnier than mister tank. He was wearing leather armour, a bow on his back and two daggers on each side of his hips. He was muscley but more slim than mister. He fit the descriptor of a Rogue or Ranger.
The final one was a woman, she looked young. She was very clearly a mage, wearing leather armour and holding a staff, a shortsword on her hip.
I was wearing some simple leather armour with a dagger on my hip, Damien had the same armour as me but he had a bastard sword on his hip.
The woman was smiling at us, the rogue looked indifferent and the tank had a slight scowl on his face.
He moved forward and gave each of us a once over as he narrowed his eyes “we’ll be going into the forest and we have to protect you two brats so i expect you to follow my orders” he said in a gruff voice.
“Sure” I said with a shrug.
Damien nodded resolutely as he looked seriously at the man. Said man looked completely caught off guard as he blinked confusedly. His brain caught up as he nodded.
“G-Good, I will quickly explain our capabilities and our roles in combat and then you’ll do the same for yourselves.
I am the Tank of the group, I am at the front keeping the attention on myself as I block and keep attacks from the rest of the group. I use QI. My name is Aeron.
This is Aegis” he gestured at the Rogue. “He is our blitzer, he either uses his bow to pick off ranged fighters or mages if there are none, he’ll help damage enemies i'm dealing with using his speed and daggers. He also uses Qi” Aegis gave each of us a nod.
“Finally is Yuuko our Mp user” Yuuko waved at us with a smile “she is our long range support and area damager, she uses her spells to deal massive damage to a single target or to a group” Aeron then gestured to us.
Damien spoke immediately “We are both the same in terms of fighting style, we’re brawlers. I’m Damien and this is my little brother Benjamin, just call him Ben” Aeron nodded in response.
I waved at the group as Aeron turned and started leading us away and into the forest.
“Don’t mind him, he’s very serious” Yuuko whispered to both of us as Damien waved her off saying it was fine.
“We’ll be doing a Dungeon run, there is one nearby that we can clear with ease, the quest said we are to allow Ben to kill monsters we have weakened and that Damien just needs combat experience correct?” Aeron asked.
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me, I then spoke “Yep that’s right, I am cultivating by absorbing monster energy and unfortunately I am not strong enough to do this myself” I said.
Damien nodded as well “yes I just need some combat experience” he said.
Aeron nodded and soon we came to a cave entrance “so this dungeon has a pack of Dire Wolves within it” I knew Dire Wolves were the creature that father killed and allowed me to absorb.
Soon we were going in, Aeron first, then Aegis, then me and Damien, Yuuko at the back.
It wasn’t long before we found our first wolf, it was much smaller than the one dad killed, it was about half the size.
It immediately howled before it charged forward, leaping at Aeron.
Aeron slapped it to the side with his shield, before slamming its mace onto its head, dazing it as he held it down.
I saw the opportunity as I dashed forward, Qi fist slamming into its skull piercing into its brain, finishing it off. I made sure to aim where Aeron had already hit it.
It gave 250 Exp getting me halfway to level 3.
We continued moving deeper into the cave, Yuukoi casting a spell that caused a ball of light to float about 5 metres in front of the group.
The next group we found was just that, about 6 in number.
Two of them dashed forward and slammed into Aeron shield, putting him on the defensive as two others ran to his sides. One was hit with a small ball of air that sent it tumbling to the ground, the second was set upon by Aegis.
The last two came for me, Damien and Yuuko.
Yuuko immediately casted a spell, a shield blocking the leap from the wolf aiming for her “i’ll deal with this one!” she shouted to us as she pushed the shield forward, sending the wolf flying backwards.
Me and Damien dogged to the side, our Qi Cloaks flaring to life as we focused on the wolf.
You see these wolves were Knight Tier 3. Damien was now Knight Tier 1 so he could never beat a Knight Tier 3 by himself. But I was here to help and we didn’t need to beat it.
The wolf recognised me as the weaker one, too fast for me to track so I just threw myself in a direction, the wolf missing its bite by inches as I took advantage of its airtime, to launch a Qi Kick at its unprotected side.
It slammed into it causing it to have an unsteady landing, something that Damien took advantage of as he stabbed his sword into the side of the creature.
Now usually a simple iron sword wouldn’t be able to even scratch a Knight Tier 3 creature but our weapons were enchanted by our mother. Whilst her specialty was Wards, she was still knowledgeable about other types of magic.
The wolf switched its attention to Damien as he let go of his sword and jumped back in order to avoid an attack he guessed was coming. The wolf had swiped at where Damien was but he was already gone.
The wolf was smart, it made sure to keep the side of its body where the sword wawa sticking out from pointed away from us since it knew that the sword was keeping most of its blood in.
I saw at this point that Aegis and Aeron were almost done with their fights so we would be helped soon.
Damien charged forward as I followed behind. Damien used Qi Step to dash to the side of the creature as he dodged an attack he saw coming with Qi Sight.
I moved forward, Qi step propelling me forward, Qi sight active as I hit it with another Qi Kick, as it turned to attack me back, Damien hit it with a Qi Fist.
We both retreated back after our attacks. As we got ready to go back in we were surprised when the earth at its feet shot upwards and grabbed onto the creature's legs.
Yuuko smiled at us as her staff lit up with brown energy. I smiled and Damien ripped his sword from its side after Qi stepping forward before he cut it twice more then kicked it toward me.
The little bit of momentum helped my Qi Fist pierce deep into its body. I don’t know what I hit but it must have been something important because it died from the attack soon after.
I got another 250 exp from it.
We soon moved on, encountering another group of 4, which I was able to get the finishing blow on two of.
Now I only needed one more kill to level up.
Aeron stopped us as he turned and looked seriously at us “I am surprised, you two are better than I thought you’d be, the next room is the Alpha’s room. The Alpha is much stronger than the others” he said.
“So you two will protect Yuuko, she will cast a big spell to kill most of the regular wolves whilst me and Aegis distract the alpha, got it?” he asked and we nodded.
Soon we came to a massive domed cave. In the centre biting at a carcass was a wolf that looked exactly like the wolf father let me kill.
It was just as terrifying as the first one but this time it was surrounded by loads of the regular wolves, a quick count gave me about 20.
That is when Aegis and Aeron activated their Qi Cloaks and charged forward much faster than before. Aegis took the attention as Aeron pushed away the regular wolves towards us.
Me and Damien stood in front of Yuuko as she prepared a spell. She focused and waited as the large group of wolves charged towards us three seeing us as easy prey.
Damien and I were getting restless as Yuuko held the spell. When the wolves were about 5 metres from us she shouted for us to duck, which we did before she swiped her staff across the air.
A massive blade of wind about a metre thick and about 7 metres long flew into the group of wolves, slicing through them.
“There will still be some left, go around and finish them off and then we’ll go and help Aeron and Aegis” she then pointed to the wolves that were on the ground whining in pain “Ben finish them off whilst me and Damien go deal with the ones that dodged”. I nodded.
Damien and Yuuko went to go and finish off about 4 of them.
I managed to find about 4 of them that survived, it didn’t feel very nice to finish them off but I convinced myself it was fine since they would do the same to me without a second thought.
I got a thousand exp for that, levelling up in the process. I was now Peasant Tier which was a massive increase in Qi amount from Tier 1 but still nowhere near enough to use Haki or the Sharingan for any good amount of time.
I then went to help Yuuklo and Damien finish off the others, killing one in the process before we moved to help the other fight the Alpha.
Aeron and Aegis had already done a decent amount of damage to the Alpha.
Me and Damien stayed mostly back, the creature was moving way too fast for either of us to track and because of that we had no chance of helping.
I also hadn’t gotten used to the increase in strength that my increased tier gave.
Yuuko helped by tossing spells at the beast. Earth and Air related spells flew from her staff and hit the beast's side. Soon it was down, laying on the floor blood spurting from many wounds.
Aeron and Aegis were tired and Yuuko seemed tired as well.
Aeron gestured for me to finish it and I did. It gave 1200 exp and so it was stronger than the one father found. I was 800 exp off my next level.
After a bit of rest we left the dungeon. After about an hour the dungeon would’ve refilled the dungeon with monsters. So we got out of there after a few minutes of rest.
The Hunters escorted us back to our home, telling us they would be here again in 3 days at the same time.
Damien and I quickly set about cleaning ourselves of the blood and gore that had littered our forms. After cleaning ourselves we went and joined our family for dinner. They had started preparing it when we arrived back.
Soon I found myself laid on my bed, I opened my menu and then opened my notifications.
Achievements unlocked:
Kill 10 Monsters Completed
Rewards: 500 EXP
Kill a Boss Monster Completed
Rewards: One Gacha Token
Clear a Dungeon for the first time Completed
Rewards: One Gacha Token
Qi Cloak Level 60 Completed
Rewards: 50 Exp
I nodded with a smile, as I looked at my inventory.
Inventory
5 Upgrade Cards
2 Gacha Tokens
Oh… I forgot I had those.
Unarmed Combat said it could evolve so I took one out of my inventory and tried to use it Unarmed combat.
Nothing happened so I inspected the card. It was a white card about the size of a playing but it was harder. Then I noticed something, the middle of the card was different, a line was going across it.
I had an idea what I had to do so I thought about unarmed combat and then snapped the card in half.
Unarmed Combat Evolution (1/5) Upgrade Cards.
I nodded before i shrugged and used all five on the skill
Unarmed Combat Evolution (5/5) Upgrade Cards.
Error!
Skill not at max level.
Stolen novel; please report.
I sighed, of course it wasn’t that simple.
Unarmed Combat had levelled up a bit in that one dungeon run
Unarmed Combat - Rare (Lvl 5):
The user is more proficient in unarmed combat.
Damage Increase: 5%
Speed Increase: 5%
Levels increase damage dealt with unarmed attacks.
Levels increased speed whilst in unarmed combat.
Can be evolved to higher tiers.
[5/5 Upgrade Cards Used]
And it also showed the amount of cards put into it. I had no idea what the max level was but I could guess that rare skills had a lower max level than higher ranked skills, that just made sense.
These Dungeon runs would help a lot, I mean I have already made a lot of progress.
Status
Name: Benjamin Avernus
Level: 3 (2750/3000) (Peasant Tier 3)
I learned a bit today as well, you see, usually when you increase your cultivation closer to the next tier, you would slowly increase in strength as you pull more Qi into your body.
Until you reached the breakthrough to the next tier, your Qi amount limit would increase by a large amount compared to the steady increase you had, it would take a bit to get used to.
But the system does it differently, as I gain xp there is no steady increase in power until I reach a breakthrough, there is only the breakthrough, the power increase I get seems to be the same as anyone else it just works differently.
There is a bigger adjustment period, breaking through to the next tier increases your physical capabilities and your Qi amount. It works differently for mp but that means that I have to adjust to my new physical strength and my Qi amount.
It means once I get to higher levels and the increase in power is exponentially bigger then it could be very dangerous to level up in battle, a power jump that big could completely throw me off which means I need to watch my xp and be mindful about it.
With those thoughts in my mind, I fell asleep.
The Next day continued much like the past 3 years have, morning training, cleaning myself and then dinner.
Only this dinner was different, father had an announcement.
“So Damien and Benjamin, you two will continue to go on hunts with those hunters every Wednesday and Friday, so you’ll be going again on Friday.
Secondly, in about a month we will be having some visitors, an old friend of mine and his family will be travelling here and staying for a few days. I will tell you more about it when we get closer to the date.” He said.
We all nodded in understanding, obviously I had the thought that one of them could be from my old life but I doubted I'd get this lucky.
Even with that thought, I was still excited, I hadn’t met too many people in my 8 years of life and so I was excited to meet more.
Damien and I glanced at each other with a smirk on our faces, we both seemingly had the same thought ‘wonder if they’re strong’.
-{Break}-
Friday came quickly and my brother and I found ourselves back in that familiar cave.
The group advanced slowly, soon a group of 6 dire wolves charged towards us, this time Aeron had got the attention of three of them, Aegis helping him kill them as three charged towards us.
The fight went much the same as last time although Yuuko dispatched of hers a lot faster than last time.
As we arrived at the bosses room, I had gotten 6 Kills. 1500 xp and had levelled up to Peasant Tier 4.
I had gotten used to the Tier 3 strength increase over the past few days so the tier 4 increase wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.
We used the same strategy as before, Aegis and Aeron distracted the alpha as me, Damien and Yuuko dealt with the regular dire wolves.
I got 3 kills from them, 750 exp gained. I was halfway to tier 5 now.
I saw an opportunity to get a strike on the boss so I shrugged, Qi stepping forward, Armament Haki layering over my hand, the invisible energy confusing me for a second before Qi Fist layered over that as I punched a hole into the creature's side.
Qi cloak’s level, Qi Fist and Armament Haki allowing my arm to sink all the way to my shoulder, the creature dying soon after.
I was surprised as I pulled my arm from its stomach, cancelling all my skills as I blinked in confusion.
It seemed only Yuuko had seen what I did as she had a confused expression too.
I smiled at her and simply followed along with the others as we started leaving the cave, the Hunters escorted us back, Damien and I cleaned ourselves up and then joined our family for dinner.
The next 3 weeks continued much the same, I gained about 3500 xp each run and we did 6 so I gained a lot of experience.
Something I did find out was when I advanced to Knight Tier 1 the xp need increased by 2000 instead of 1000, so I needed 7000 xp to get to level 7 instead of 6000.
I managed to get to Knight Tier 2 in those 6 runs, I was 200 exp off of tier 3.
Status
Name: Benjamin Avernus
Level: 7 (8800/9000) (Knight Tier 2)
I had also levelled Qi Cloak to 71 so I got 50 exp from that and I managed to get WSRSF to level 50
Qi Cloak (Lvl 71):
A basic use of Qi, you simply push your Qi out and cover your entire body with it.
Abilities:
Increases Physical Capabilities
Can protect against attacks at the cost of your Qi.
Gives a Regeneration Factor whilst active.
Can sense Qi in an area around you.
Techniques:
Qi Fist - You focus Qi on your fist and forearm in a specific way causing an increase in piercing power and strength. You then expel a large amount of Qi from your fist to cause internal damage within your target.
Qi Kick - You focus your Qi much like Qi Fist only instead of splitting between piercing and explosive power Qi Kick focuses completely on power, by expelling a large amount of Qi with the kick.
Qi Block - You focus your Qi to a particular part of your body. You gather a large amount and condense it together to form a more solid barrier of Qi than the passive blocking of damage that Qi Cloak does.
Qi Sight - You focus your Qi to your eyes and brain, giving you an enhanced perception and processing speed.
Qi Step - You focus your Qi to your legs and feet, to use this technique the user must focus their entire cloak into their legs thus meaning you don’t gain the passive benefits of QI Cloak. This technique can be used in combination with Qi Sight.
Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist - Epic (Lvl 50):
This style involves understanding and re-creating within one’s body the flows of torrential and undulating forces, putting this into the user’s fists.
This style is the perfect blend of offence and defence.
Level increases understanding and mastery of the style and can unlock techniques created by User’s at higher levels.
Techniques:
Instant Movement – By using some fancy footwork, the user can elegantly and quickly move towards his opponent like he is flowing, using a swift feint, followed by a fast-piercing attack, the user targets the enemy's weak points from places they cannot predict.
Water Stream Encampment – The User creates an area where his fists destroy anything that enters, protecting those inside.
So I gained 3 rare+ gacha tokens and 500 exp which is why I'm 200 off. I also got Armament Haki to level 3 and Unarmed Combat to 11, I had thought 10 might be the max but it wasn’t.
Today was the day the Zeroth Family would arrive at our home, Helmen Zeroth was the Lord of House Zeroth, a prominent house in the Iciya Kingdom, very strong, they helped a lot in the war.
Helmen Zeroth also happened to be my father’s best friend and closest ally.
We were all dressed in our fanciest clothes and standing outside the doors of our home, awaiting the Zeroth Family. Soon a fancy looking carriage made its way towards us, stopping short.
Soon after a family of five stepped from the carriage, two adults and three kids. The two adults were Helmen and Chole Zeroth, the Lord and Lady respectively of House Zeroth.
The three children from oldest to youngest were Sigrid Zeroth (Age 13), Arthur Zeroth (Age 12), and finally Anthony Zeroth (Age 11).
Arthur was the heir to House Zeroth and father had warned us that Helmen may try to push Damien and Sigrid together. Damien had looked annoyed about that, dad obviously promptly laughed at him.
My father and Zeroth both quickly moved closer to each and clasped hands as they pulled each other into a hug, it was very clear they were good friends. My mother greeted Chole Zeroth with a small bow as they both smiled at each other ‘seems they are on good terms as well’ I thought.
Next were the children, Sigrid was inspecting Damien, attempting to be subtle, I wasn’t sure if Damien couldn’t tell what she was doing or if he was ignoring it, either way I found it funny.
Anthony had a haughty look on his face as he glanced at us, he made sure not to give any of us a disrespectful look.
The interesting one however was Arthur. He had given everyone a once over but his eyes stopped on me and narrowed slightly, I met his eyes and gave a nod. He smiled slightly before nodding back as he moved his attention to his father.
“It is good to see you again George!” Helmen Zeroth said with a grin. He was a large man, massive muscles, he stood at a solid 6ft 7. He had a large bushy beard and long brown hair.
“You too Helmen,” Father said.
“Anyway these are my children, Sigrid my eldest, Arthur my heir and Anthony my youngest”. Each kid gave their own small greeting as they were introduced.
Father nodded then gestured to us “In order of age from eldest to youngest we have “Damien, my heir, then the twins Sofia and Floria, then Tuck, followed by Andrew and then finally we have Benjamin my youngest”.
Damein gave a small nod, stoic as ever. Floria and Sofia both gave an enthusiastic wave. Tuck gave a nod and Andrewn gave a shy wave.
I smiled and gave a small and regal bow, I had practised. I had only done so to see Damien and Father’s reaction and I have to say it was worth it. Dad was shocked as he saw me act like a noble's son, Damien looked at me like he had no clue who I was. I grinned at both of them.
They soon realised I was messing with them and the greetings continued, soon we were all gathered in the dining room as we ate and chatted. Damien was being engaged in conversation with Sigrid.
I had happened to be seated next to Arthur. Father had given me a grin when I glared at him, It was obvious he had seen Arthur’s interest in me.
At some point in the meal, Arthur looked over at me as he spoke “you’re an Instinctual Qi user correct?” he asked with a straight face.
I raised an eyebrow before I nodded “I am” I said.
He grinned as he nodded, seemingly pleased with himself “do you enjoy sparing?” he asked and I nodded at the loaded question.
“I do, Damien and I spar almost everyday, it's a tradition for us at this point” I admitted with a smile.
“Father told me of the amazing training room you have here, I hope it's not too much to ask but I’d love to spar with you and Damien at some point” Arthur asked.
“I’ll have to ask father but I don’t see any reason he would refuse to let us use the training room, Damien would happily do so” as I glanced at father, I saw that he was already looking at me as he nodded with a grin before giving me a thumbs up.
Damien was not very good in social situations and right now he was completely off guard. Sigrid had taken to doing her best to flirt with him. She was leaning forward towards Damien slightly as she gav him a sweet smile. It was clear that Damien was uncomfortable, I couldn't hear what they were talking about.
Father or Mother wouldn't do anything about it, they would just find it funny to be hoenst. Poor Damien getting attention from a girl. Oh the struggles of life.
Arthur chuckled lightly as he saw my dad give me a thumbs up “shall we go after dinner, we can grab your brother after as well?” Arthur asked and I nodded.
After dinner me, Damien and Arthur were walking towards the training room.
“I am sorry about my sister, our parents tend to spoil us, she hasn’t heard the word no for awhile” Arthur said to the frustrated Damien.
“No joke” he said in response with a sigh, Sigrid had attempted to get Damien to give her a tour of the mansion, of course he refused since he would rather spar with us.
“I do have a question” I said to Arthur who turned his attention to me “why exactly did you want to spar with us?” I asked.
“Simple, I enjoy fighting. Father loves it as well and he has said great things about your father, I hoped his children were just as enthusiastic and then when I learned one of them was an IQU, well I just had to ask” he answered with a grin.
I nodded in understanding, and we soon arrived at the training room. We entered quickly and started stretching “Damien you want to go first?” I asked as he nodded.
Arthur and Damien moved forward onto the arena as Damien spoke “Training Room: One versus One Spar” he said out loud.
The edges of the arena lit up with blue light as a shield of blue light erected up connecting to the ceiling.
A monotone feminine voice sounded out “Fighters Ready?”.
Damien spoke “just say ready. Ready!” Damien told Arthur.
-{POV Change}-
“Just say ready… Ready!” Damien said to me as I nodded in understanding before opening my mouth “Ready!” I said.
The monotone voice sounded out again “Fight Start!”.
Immediately Damine charged towards me a fist flying towards me, our Qi Cloaks flaring to life as Qi met Qi.
I blocked the attack countering with a kick as he jumped away before he rushed back, two quick punches flying towards me. The first was dodged by pivoting my body to the right.
The second was blocked as I retaliated with a punch to Damien’s stomach. His Qi blocked the strike but it pushed him away, allowing me to capitalise on his short time airborne as I followed up the strike.
I dashed forward, a Qi Kick being sent at his face, his arms came up as his Qi strengthened in his arms, the attack connected.
My kick sent him flying backwards and into the shield at the edge of the arena. It stopped him in his tracks as he slammed against it. Immediately I shot forward.
Qi coalesced around my fist as I went to slam a punch into Damien’s face as he attempted to recover. I was stopped as a blue shield appeared in front of my fist, it easily took the hit blocking it completely.
I hadn’t realised Damien had given up but luckily the arena stopped me. “Good show son!” I also hadn’t realised George Avernus and my father were watching.
The shields dropped and Damien stood up and chuckled “you’re strong Arthur” he said with a smile as we shook hands.
I wasn’t surprised I won, I was Knight Tier 5 and he was Knight Tier 4.
I had an advantage in power, our skill was around the same. Of course I had a few tricks up my sleeve but I didn’t need to use them.
I then looked over at Benjamin who had a smile on his face as he slowly stepped into the arena “kick his arse Benji!” George Avernus said.
Benjamin smirked, “Can I call you Ben?” I asked as we both grinned at each other.
“Of course you can,” he said with a chuckle.
“Training Room: One Versus One Spar!” Benjamin said.
“Fighters Ready?” the monotone voice spoke as the shields raised.
“Ready!” I said as I dropped into the Zeroth Family style.
Ben smirked as he dropped into a weird looking stance, reminding me of a praying mantis as he spoke “ready”.
“Fight Start!”.