That evening, Logan practised his spearwork. He tried to find time every day to train, but random events often distracted him. Maybe he was close to a breakthrough with his techniques, driving him to master it immediately.

Or perhaps someone died.

That was always a distraction. Fortunately, success and tragedy seemed to go hand in hand. Logan had been trying to learn an intermediate technique for a long time, and now that he had reached that goal, he needed to start the process of learning another.

Logan completed a light warm-up before he sat down and went through the Shop. He could learn many different techniques, but he decided to keep things simple and pick up Piercing Thrust like he had planned. With a few amateur techniques to his name, it was easier to upgrade them than trying to learn a new technique.

With one concept approaching the halfway mark and two more ready to be fused, Logan could always be proactive and pick up a fourth. He would have to split up his focus and reduce his training speed to that. At the same time, it might speed up his comprehension by giving him more ideas with which to compare and contrast.

At the same time, dividing his attention was unwise at this point in their journey.

Logan took a few minutes to decide on the best course of action. He would continue learning intermediate techniques until he mastered the three concepts he knew, allowing him to purchase master-level techniques that could guide him in merging three concepts into one. It was a relatively simple plan, but it was the fastest way of gaining strength.

Logan opened up his Status and gave it a look.

Status

Name: Logan Gates

Race: Human [Mortal]

Age: 21

Cultivation

Realm: Body Tempering - Middle (4/12)

Visualisation Technique: Long Night [Flower Field (3/9)]

Concepts: Rotation (43%), Vibration (38%), Elasticity (19%).

Martial Techniques

Amateur: Piercing Thrust, Flash Step, Shattering Strike, Shadow Thrust, Parry, Sweep, Celerity.

Intermediate: Seed of Demise.

After spending so much time underground, Logan had stopped calculating the dates in his head. He didn't want to suddenly remember one day and realise he was thirty years old. It was kind of pointless to include in his Status, but it made him feel grounded for some reason, helping to remind him that it's only been two months and not two years.

He had also added a section for intermediate techniques. It would help keep track of things and, when he fused two amateur ones together, he could remove them and reduce the clutter. Logan could still use them, but why would he need to when the upgraded versions were superior in every way? And if he could learn 8 techniques in 50 days, how many would he pick up in 50 years?

Only a few, actually. There was no point in learning ten different methods of thrusting a spear. All he really needed was one technique of each type, such as a heavy blow to break through armour or a fast one to catch enemies off guard.

At the end of the night, Logan practised his life force manual. Now that he was approaching the peak of the Fifth Step, his training speed was beginning to slow down tremendously. The Fourth Step was designed to temper the first two stages of Body Tempering, and the Fifth Step was intended to condition those at the third and fourth stages.

As Logan was at the fourth stage of Body Tempering, he was no longer playing catch up and was instead pushing himself beyond his means. It was inevitable that his training would slow down. Still, his speed was anything but slow. Thanks to his ability to attempt the dance three times, drink life force medicines like water, and take medicinal baths to cleanse and strengthen his flesh, he was progressing more than twice as fast as he should've been.

The only issue was his expenditure. The resources were expensive, but Logan was also rich. It was more than enough to support their group of seven until they reached the peak of Body Tempering.

Instead, it was the egg that posed an issue. After drawing on the golden power of the egg to heal himself, Logan realised he had run out of saved-up energy. He pulled out a vial of Revival potion and downed it. That should support his training for more than a few months, but with all the fighting he had been doing lately, it was no wonder that he ran out so soon.

Sighing, Logan pulled out the remaining four vials and wondered if he could survive the rest of his journey on three. Saving the last was becoming more and more of a pipe dream. And yet, he had to do it no matter what. Janet and Betty were done in by the fact that their souls were devoured, which meant that there was still a chance, no matter how small, that he could revive his father.

Before heading off to bed, Logan hopped into a medicinal bath and sunk into his mind to practise his visualisation technique. The Long Night appeared in all its glory. Once he was done cleansing his flesh of impurities, he hopped out, got into his pyjamas, and went to bed.

The next five days were more of the same. Logan managed to upgrade Piercing Thrust to the intermediate level before attempting to upgrade Flash Step by combining it with Rebound. In the category of movement techniques, he currently possessed three. Flash Step used rotation, Celerity used elasticity, and Rebound used vibration. The last wasn't really a movement technique. It was more of a defensive one that happened to translate and discharge the energy into movement, but that was neither here nor there.

It could be combined with other movement techniques, so he considered it one.

In the meantime, Logan continued to explore the forest surrounding their camp. The wind was blowing almost perpetually from the north, so that was the main direction he travelled in. Of course, that didn't stop them from exploring their direct surroundings.

They had found several caves in the first few days, but they all sloped down and drew wind into them. That could only mean they went further down and were not connected to the surface. There was no reason to explore them, so Logan and the rest of the group continued heading deeper into the jungle to try and better understand the place.

The last thing they wanted was to stumble into a group of monsters or get trapped in magical quicksand. That was why Logan had purchased several climbing tools and used himself as a forward scout. If he fell into a pit, he would definitely survive. And since he and everyone else had tools, they could throw him down a ladder or some rope.

Thankfully, Logan only encountered some minor issues. He didn't fall down an endlessly deep hole or wander into a mystical pocket world that could instantly kill a man. Hell, there wasn't even a Common monster in the area! While they were being cautious and had barely explored a square kilometre of what constituted the outskirts of the jungle, there simply wasn't anything other than animals around.

Snakes, rats, birds, worms, and many other creatures were living on the border of the dense jungle, but all of them were regular animals in the early stages of Body Tempering. The most dangerous creature Logan had encountered so far was a poisonous snake at the peak of early Body Tempering.

He didn't even have to pull out his spear, his arm snapping up to grab it out of the air and toss it aside.

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Things were unusually calm until the sixth day. Everyone was out in full force as they explored farther north than ever before, Logan and Amelia at the front to scout things out. They set out in the morning and were preparing to find a place to set up camp now that the sun was beginning to set. After spending nearly a week in the biodome, they became familiar with the day and night cycles.

Logan had already found a good spot to set up camp days before. It was a small crater in the earth, and while it was a tight fit with all of their tents, it was more than deep enough to deter any animals from climbing down. Without a ladder from the Shop, no regular human would be able to get out of it either, making it quite the safe place thanks to their protective formations.

As Logan rounded a small hill and found the crater, he sighed in relief. Night was upon them now. The shadows were leeching into each other, becoming a haze of figures dancing in his peripheral vision. The transparent ceiling was like a dying night light above them.

They had made it just in time.

Logan waved his companions forward and began to walk down the hill when he heard a crunch to his right. Glancing over, he noticed that behind a nearby tree was a gorilla foraging for berries.

They locked eyes.

Logan took a cautious step back to signal that he wasn't a threat. The gorilla stared at him for a moment before its face suddenly contorted. Before Logan could react, it dropped the handful of berries it was about to eat and got down on all fours. He thought it would make a threatening display to try and scare him off, but it charged straight for him instead.

As it flattened everything in its path, Logan could only wonder if he had committed some grievous sin in a past life. After nearly a week of travelling through the jungle, all they had come across were random animals he could find anywhere in the world. Now that they were ready to move their camp and travel north, not only did they encounter their first ranked monster right next to where they wanted to settle for the night, it was virtually guaranteed to be Rare.

After all, rats were typically quite agile creatures. They could scale walls, scurry through tiny gaps, and even use their tails as counter-weights. A gorilla could do none of those things, and yet the one currently charging at Logan was even a little faster than the Rat King. There was no way it was anything other than a Rare monster.

Then again, maybe it was even higher.

Logan jumped back with Flash Step, but the gorilla didn't seem to notice at all. It merely continued charging through the underbrush. Logan gave himself an extra second at most, allowing him to pull out his spear before the beast was upon him.

Only it didn't charge into him like he expected. Instead, it raised its massive arms and prepared to slam them down onto Logan's head. With no way to dodge, he took the hit in exchange for doing some damage of his own.

The egg kicked in as Logan used the intermediate version of Piercing Thrust. His skin burst into flames and his strength rose to the seventh stage of the body-tempering realm. The gorilla was obviously very powerful and fast, but with the increased speed of Piercing Thrust, Logan's attack landed first.

His spear jabbed into the gorilla's neck like a bullet. He imagined the tip slicing through its spine, but it suddenly stopped when it was halfway in. Logan pulled it out and found almost no blood on his weapon, the tip of his spear having been stopped by its thick muscles.

That alone was shocking, but Logan had no time to process this fact when its fists slammed him into the ground. All he heard were cracks from his ribs and shoulder before everything became a blur. It was so forceful that he also smacked the back of his head on a rock. The world began to spin after that, forcing him to close his eyes so that he didn't throw up.

A few seconds later, he watched the gorilla reach down and try to grab him. It either wanted to rip him in half or slam him into a tree. Logan didn't know which was worse, and he thankfully didn't have to find out when an arrow thunked into the gorilla's shoulder.

It cried out in pain and stumbled back in shock. The gorilla ripped it out and examined it with confusion, obviously having never seen one before. Logan also stared at the arrow, finding that only its point had a bloody smudge on it. The monster had such a powerful body that seemingly nothing could injure it. As Ron could only use amateur techniques and had an uncommon bow, the damage he did was far less than Logan's spear.

Despite being apparent, Logan's spear thrust was the equivalent of being poked with a knife. It hurt, and the injury might get infected and make the gorilla sick, but did that mean it was a powerful attack? Absolutely not. All it did was enrage the beast, and that was to say nothing of the arrow. If Logan's attack was like being accidentally poked with a knife, Ron's arrow was only a bit more dangerous than being poked with a needle.

The gorilla roared and stood up on its hind legs. Logan thought it was just letting its frustrations out, but it was actually growing stronger from its rage. A red haze began to leak out of its skin as the ape beat its chest, the faint aura of blood leaving a coppery taste in Logan's mouth. A few seconds later, it charged at Ron, moving even faster than before.

Amelia barely managed to intercept the beast with her shield. The ape swung its fist in a wild punch, yet the power and speed behind its blow more than made up for the lack of finesse. It slammed into Amelia's shield like a hammer. She was thrown back and almost lost her footing, her shoes ripping up the grass as she slid backwards more than a few metres.

The beast pounced at Amelia before she could gather herself. It hammered down onto her shield as it landed right in front of her, its strength so great that it should've slammed her into the ground and severely injured her. Instead, a golden barrier appeared in front of her shield, the glass-like substance taking the shape of a tower shield that covered the front half of her body.

This fragile-looking shield of glass held despite the gorilla's tremendous strength. However, this only enraged it more. The bloody haze wafting from its skin grew thicker, and as it punched and even tried to bite the shield, its fists began to tremble more and more. After minutes of battle, the trembling grew so much that he could hear the air buzzing around its fists.

Suddenly, the gorilla slammed down on the golden shield, but its attack wasn't stopped this time. The golden tower shield cracked at the point of impact. Amelia blinked in surprise, and Logan stopped watching from the sidelines. The gorilla swung two more times before Logan arrived, each blow creating a new crack in her shield.

As it was about to land the final blow, Logan Flash Stepped to its side and thrust his spear into its back. The gorilla immediately spun around and back-handed Logan, throwing him across the forest floor. However, a Seed of Demise was already planted, and the gorilla's back soon erupted in a shower of gore.

Logan recovered and quickly stood up. He leapt back into battle, but when he approached the monster, he saw that his intermediate attack could only leave a golf ball-sized hole in its corded muscles. Still, that was better than not being able to injure it at all.

From there, Ron continued to lob arrows at the beast. They didn't do much damage, only distracting the gorilla. That allowed Logan to come in and use Seed of Demise to cause some real damage. Thankfully, its vibrating fists required some time to build up power.

Amelia could only use the active ability on her shield once before needing to charge it up with sunlight, which meant she couldn't dispel her damaged tower shield and summon an undamaged one. That forced her to be more careful, which made it harder for the others to sneak in and attack. They couldn't do much damage, but if all of them rushed in at once, they would at least be able to distract the gorilla for a moment.

Aiming for its eyes and other weak points allowed them to harass it better until it finally died. Logan was glad the battle was over, especially since they had been fighting in the light of the moon for nearly half of the battle. Then the kill notification appeared, dousing his enthusiasm like water over a fire.

[You have slain an Uncommon Mortal at the Sixth Step, Mountain Gorilla.]