“These colours are amazing!” Amelia said, her head spinning around as she looked at all the fungus. “I can’t believe how much better everything looks.”

They were all tired from the day’s hunting, but after Amelia ignited her lifeline and advanced to the first stage of the Body Tempering Realm, everyone refused to go back. Their logic was that if she advanced today, they would likely be close to follow.

After killing two more rats, that didn’t seem to be the case. They soon decided to call it quits and head back since it was already a long day. Tomorrow would be spent on recovery and training, Amelia and Logan both trying to learn their new techniques.

Walking beside Amelia as they travelled back to the cavern, Logan wondered what she meant. “Your vision has improved?”

“Yours hasn’t?”

Logan shook his head. He couldn’t tell if anything other than his general health had changed since he began to cultivate. His eyesight and hearing were about the same as he remembered, too.

Perhaps Amelia had some vision problems that were fixed? He asked her a few questions, but her eyesight seemed normal. She didn’t have any genetic conditions or health problems either, not that he demanded the information from her.

After thinking about it for a bit longer, Logan realised that she likely had a minor case of colour blindness. It made sense that her colour vision was a little worse than the average person’s. She hadn’t noticed because it didn’t cause her any problems, meaning she only now realised the truth that her eyes were fixed.

“By the way, did you earn any credits from your previous kills?”

“Yeah, I have 1400 right now. It says I earned a hundred credits per stage, and since I killed seven Ore Rats at the second step, I earned 1,400 credits total.”

Logan nodded, his own earnings matching up with hers. He was still gaining credits for every kill. The amount was pitiful compared to what he was used to, but that was just how these things worked.

“It’s a shame that you have to fight such powerful monsters for so little rewards.”

“While it isn’t working right now, we can sell the bodies to the System.”

“True. People will also eventually figure out how to use monster materials to make items, driving up the prices.”

“It’s still nice that we get some free credits, though.”

It was, but Logan felt it was too little for the amount of danger. The credits were more or less a bonus for fighting rather than a reward. For his latest kills, those Ore Rats only gave him ten credits per stage. He got ten credits per kill since they were only at the second stage. The fight was pretty easy, but it was still dangerous and time-consuming.

Then again, he would rather play it safe than fight a monster as powerful as the Giant Ore Rat. Logan barely suppressed a shudder, his mind flicking back to the feeling of icy cold claws buried in his guts. He would try to make sure that never happened again. His mind was strong enough to not get PTSD from such a horrifying event, but that didn’t mean he was free of nightmares or anxiety.

“By the way,” Logan said, not wishing to continue that train of thought, “have you looked through the Library yet?”

“Yeah, I did when we took a break. I know you already told us about it, but seeing it for myself is much more shocking. Some of the techniques in there are borderline magic.”

“I couldn’t really do it justice. The fact that there are video demonstrations of the techniques makes that all but impossible anyway.”

“To be honest,” Amelia said, looking pensive. “I half didn’t believe the System was real until I saw it myself. That’s not to say I find you untrustworthy! I just have a history with people trying to manipulate me.”

Logan nodded. “Don’t worry about it. I almost didn’t believe it myself when I first started getting messages. Anyway, have you put any thought into the techniques you want to learn?”

The tension faded away as Amelia brightened up. “I’ve been thinking about buying two manuals for one technique. It’s called Heavy Blow, and I think it’s perfect for me.”

Logan only knew a little about the ability, but he had looked over the purchasing page in the Shop. Some techniques were universal. Heavy Blow was a method of smashing something really hard, making it applicable to almost any object with a blunt surface. That also meant there were several manuals on how to do the same thing, just with different mediums.

“So I assume you want to learn the shield and spear versions of Heavy Blow?”

“That’s right. I only have enough credits for those two, but after reading a bit more, I might also get the general manual. Being able to use Heavy Blow with any part of my body would make me much more deadly, not to mention that it should help me increase my control over my body.”

“I expect it will be easy to learn all three versions since they are virtually the same, but you might run into trouble when attempting to master the underlying concept since they are all similar.”

“Well, that’s what I thought. If it’s an issue, I won’t buy the general version and get a movement technique instead.”

The rest of the journey back was uneventful. They returned to the cavern without issue and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Logan thought about attempting the Nine-Step Spear again, but his life force was still drained and sluggish. He didn’t want to injure himself so he spent the rest of the night training with the others.

Logan mainly worked on Flash step, but he also helped Amelia decipher some of the stranger parts in her manuals. It got pretty esoteric at points, which was part of why it took a day or two just to understand the basics.

He also spent a lot of the night practising his visualisation technique. The second set of flowers was coming along nicely, so he was pushing hard to attain another burst of enlightenment. It was also relaxing to meditate and calm his mind. Without proper food, clothing, or water, life was generally miserable.

The next day was more of the same. Logan still didn’t manage to learn Flash Step, but he was very close. He was again in the same position as he had been with Piercing Thrust. He should’ve been able to pull the technique off, but there was some barrier that was keeping the various steps and pieces from combining into a cohesive technique.

It was frustrating to make no progress. To get a bit of dopamine, Logan opened up his Status sheet and admired the changes he had made.

Status

Name: Logan Gates

Race: Human [Mortal]

Cultivation

Realm: Body Tempering - Early (1/12)

Visualisation Technique: Long Night [Flower Field (1/9)]

Concepts: Rotation (6%)

Martial Techniques

Piercing Thrust (Amateur)

By demonstrating a technique infused with the relevant concepts, the System could determine his progress in mastering it. There were a few other metrics that could be tracked, but they just depressed Logan. According to the System, he had barely touched the surface of mastering Piercing Thrust or the spear. By his estimates, it would take years for the former and decades for the latter.

And that was if he had the talent to reach those heights.

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Logan shook his head and got back to work. His lifeline had recovered, allowing him to train with the manual again. He quickly completed the First Step of the Nine-Step spear, his body directly flowing into the second. The entire dance appeared in his mind, the Second Step completely memorised by this point.

After his blood surged to its utmost limits, his muscles bulging and veins ready to burst, Logan’s breathing changed as his movements became more reserved. The blood in his muscles began to turn cold, the fluid draining back into his circulatory system. It was as if his muscles had sprung a leak. Logan only managed to get 20% of the way through before he lost control, his blood rushing back to his veins and quickly reaching an equilibrium again.

The backlash was small due to him being only part of the way through, but the results were much greater than before. His life force was like a piece of dough, his blood kneading it into shape. It became thinner with each passing second, the impurities squeezed out as his lifeline grew more solid and condensed.

Then he did it again, barely managing to reach the end of the First Step before he collapsed in agony. Blood erupted from his arms and legs like a fountain. Still, that didn’t deter him from attempting a third time, the impurities becoming much darker and more difficult to dislodge.

The next day, Logan’s lifeline was wrung out again. It wasn’t as bad today so he would try again that night, his body adapting to the strain. That left him to get ready for today’s hunt. They returned to the usual tunnel, spending nearly twenty minutes getting to the previous spot they had found.

They soon came across another Ore Rat about half an hour later, but even when they let James, Stephanie, and Tom handle it alone, none of them managed to ignite their lifeline. That lowered the morale, especially considering it was their third group kill without Logan and Amelia.

Were they really so far behind, or was there some other reason?

Logan chatted with Amelia about random things, coming up with a few different ideas as to why the others were struggling to ignite their lifelines. They didn’t come up with much. The closest they got was that some people had lower-quality lifelines and thus needed more life force to trigger an advancement.

They continued chatting but soon got distracted by their environment.

“What is the deal with this fungus?”

Logan and Amelia stopped, signalling the others who were behind to wait. He crouched down and looked at the bed of glowing blue fungus they were standing on. The ground nearby was strange, creating a weird lip in the rock before an oval bed of fungus almost sprouted out from under the floor.

“Why is it soft and squishy?” Amelia said, pushing down on a spot with her foot. “It’s almost like we’re standing on flesh rather than fungi.”

Logan’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth to tell everyone to run. He even turned around and took a step, but Amelia didn’t see what he was doing, her spear jabbing into the fungus. That was the worst mistake they could’ve made.

A heinous screech echoed throughout the cavern, the fungus undulating as the creature beneath moved. It threw Amelia off its body and into the wall, Logan barely avoiding the same fast as he stepped off the beast. Still, it launched him a few metres away, his legs barely withstanding the impact.

It was only through luck that he didn’t fall over.

Turning around, Logan watched in horror as the biggest rat he had ever seen pushed itself out of a divot in the cavern floor. It was easily the size of a small car and was even bigger than the corpse of the metal rat that they had come across the day before. Only this time, it was alive and somehow different from the other.

Half of its body was covered in metallic black fur while the other side was made of crystal. It looked like some kind of mutation between the two variants of Ore Rats, but there was obviously more to it than that.

Sadly, Logan had no time to think about it as the beast went crazy. It lunged straight for him and bit onto his left arm. Using the egg took less than a second, but the rat was even faster, its head thrashing him from side to side before it ripped his entire left arm off.

Everything became a blur as Logan flew through the air. When he crashed into the tunnel wall, many things cracked at once. His head slapping into solid rock was the loudest, followed by a bone in his shoulder snapping.

Strangely enough, his broken ribs were the most painful. They commanded all of Logan’s attention. Having his arm ripped off also sent a lance of pain up his spine, but the shock and adrenaline numbed that first, leaving him to lay on the floor as he reeled from it all.

Logan still felt pain and fear, but his mind simply shut down. He lay on the ground and didn’t think as the egg responded to his frantic mental state. It sent the largest surge of golden mist that he had ever experienced before, almost as if it was responding to his intense emotions.

His injuries immediately began to heal. Logan’s skull was the first to be repaired, suddenly bringing everything back into frame as his mind focused on what was happening around him. The rat didn’t attack anyone else as it screeched in pain. As everyone ran away, it dropped his arm and cried out in agony before charging at a patch of blue fungus on the wall. It began to furiously claw the growths, tearing out huge chunks of luminescent mushrooms.

Logan pushed himself off the ground and stumbled over to his arm. The rat stopped attacking the wall and clawed at its face, the crystal blades raking across its skin. It tore away the crystals growing on its fur, screeching as much louder than before. That gave Logan the chance to grab the torn-off appendage before he bled to death.

Running past the beast, Logan pushed the mangled limb against the stump. It immediately began to reconnect. That made him sigh in relief, his body moving faster as he went to Amelia’s side. Her spear had been thrown a few metres away and she appeared to be in bad shape.

Luckily, she was just unconscious and wasn’t dead. Her head was also cracked open, a small puddle of blood forming beneath her. Logan diverted a stream of golden energy to the girl, his arm mostly reconnected by this point. He aimed to finish healing her at the same time that he would recover.

Logan silently waited for the seconds to tick by. The beast continued to go crazy, shaking its head as it tried to scrape the crystals off its body by dragging itself against the wall. Logan barely paid any attention, his own injuries so painful that he was struggling to remain conscious. He would’ve been dead already if not for the egg.

Once Amelia woke up, Logan pulled his hand away and focused on healing himself. The pain disappeared a few seconds later. He squeezed his hand to check if his severed arm had any problems, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. There wasn’t even a scar left over.

Logan and Amelia both stood up and faced the rat. It was still charging into walls, its body rubbing against any outcroppings it could find to get the crystals off its metallic fur. They could easily run away while it was distracted, but even if they survived this battle, he was only prolonging the inevitable. They only had so much water, and no one could survive for long eating nothing but raw meat.

They either had to risk their life now or gradually starve to death later, and Logan knew which path he would follow.

“Ready?” Logan said, earning a nod from Amelia. “We’ll attack it from behind.”

Following his signal, they did just that. When the rat charged at another wall, slamming its head into the solid rock and outright cracking it, Logan and Amelia chased after it at their top speed. The beast was faster than them despite being larger than a brown bear. It took a few seconds to catch up, but since it was concussed from slamming its head into solid rock, they had more than enough time to reach it and prepare themselves.

Logan used Piercing Thrust on the tendon in its back leg while Amelia tried to stab its soft underbelly. His spear managed to break through the crystal hide and damage the tendon, but it wasn’t severed. It was no more vulnerable than a steel cord the size of an arm. Even using his full strength, Logan’s spear only sliced through a fraction of the tendon. He would have to damage it again, or even twice to snap it completely.

As for Amelia, her spear didn’t even injure the rat. The tip of her spear skittered over the underside of its belly and didn’t leave a scratch, making her eyes widen in shock. All of the rats they had encountered before were vulnerable there. As for this beast, it had a thin layer of crystalline hairs on its belly that repelled her weapon.

This was going to be a tough fight.