[Body Tempering: The first step of cultivation for all Enlightened. In order to progress through it, a person must refine the quality of their life essence until it undergoes a transformation. This can be done through exercise, life force training, or the slaughter of monsters. All Enlightened will have to refine their life force twelve times before reaching the next major realm, allowing them to absorb spiritual energy from the universe.]
Logan nodded as he read through the text. He had loosely figured out most of the details already, but some were new to him. For instance, there was another cultivation realm after Body Tempering, and it even granted access to magical energy. If he was guessing correctly, people would eventually be able to shoot lightning bolts and fireballs.
Logan could scarcely imagine what a cultivator society would look like. Thankfully, that seemed to be a difficult point to reach. He had to kill several monsters just to awaken, so how many life-or-death battles would the average person have to face to reach the peak of Body Tempering? Maybe less than a million people could reach that point, and if they did, it wouldn't be very different to wielding a gun or throwing a molotov.
So the world would be about the same as now, just with magic rather than conventional weapons.
Logan wondered if he could learn more about something in the already expanded text. Focusing on a phrase to check, a new prompt appeared the moment he did so.
[Life essence: The primary energy of life. Just as blood fills the body, life essence fills the lifeline, which is a cord that runs parallel to the spine and is the root of a person's life force. If it runs out, the individual will die of old age. Conversely, thickening of the lifeline will extend a person's lifespan. Warning: Each racial grade is limited by the Heavenly Laws. Mortals can only live for two hundred standard years at most.]
Logan's eyes widened at the mention of extending lifespan. His flippant use of the egg had shrunk his lifeline by quite a bit. It was a little thicker than before, but it still wasn't in its peak state. That was concerning for a number of reasons, but he was still in his early twenties. Having sixty years of life remaining wasn't much different to forty.
Especially not while trapped in a temple full of monsters that might be his undoing before the week was over.
The Heavenly Laws also caught his eye. He read about them next, learning that they were related to physics. Certain rules defined the operation of the universe. Whether it be the fundamental forces or states of matter, they all behaved in quantifiable ways. Of course, there was no such thing as an age force. People should've been able to live forever if gene therapies improved to a certain point, but that was apparently wrong for some reason.
Logan continued reading about the different phrases, going over everything he could before reaching a limit. There was nothing else he could learn since it eventually became common sense or looped on itself. Closing his Status to go to sleep, a new notification appeared before he could even yawn and close his eyes.
[Congratulations! You were #8,743 to enter into the Body Tempering realm in your home world. As such, you have been rewarded for your effort by raising your System privilege, which grants you access to new features and increased access to confidential knowledge.]
[Privilege: Level 0 -> 1]
[Estimated time until terraforming: 3 months, 29 days, and 2 hours.]
[Your home world is undergoing a metamorphosis. The flora, fauna, and land will all be transformed by an influx of spiritual energy. This will generate natural disasters and other phenomena that are extremely dangerous. You are advised to escape to the nearest population centre before the estimated countdown has ended. If you fail to do so, your death will be guaranteed.]
Logan stared at the notification. They were planning on walking back up to the city anyway, but now that he knew that they were going to die after four months, he would make sure to get home before then. Still, returning alive may be difficult when he could barely fight a rat.
There were some weapons he could practice with, but that could only do so much in a short time. He needed techniques and other special abilities like the egg. There was also the problem of luck. Stumbling back up to the surface, there was a decent chance that Logan would come across a peak-stage monster. Fighting it wouldn't be an option because they would simply be slaughtered.
Logan expected the extra information about the terraforming to be the only benefit, but a second set of notifications appeared, making him sit up in shock. Thankfully, no one woke up because of him.
[Basic System Shop is now available.]
[Current System Credits: 7,600.]
[Feat achieved! As an unawakened mortal, you have slain a beast at the fourth step of the Body Tempering Realm, which is also the threshold of the middle stages. +4,000 credits.]
[Current System Credits: 11,600.]
Logan was glad to have some spending money. He did the math and came to a simple conclusion: he had received a thousand credits for every stage the Giant Ore Rat had on him. As for the initial sum, it looked like he had received a hundred credits for every stage the skeleton had on him, making him wonder if it was because they were in the early stages.
Hopefully it would be enough to feed them over their journey. The rat had been tough to kill. Without the cheat powers granted by the egg, he would have never survived. For a moment, Logan wished they had guns instead of the egg, but perhaps even a high-powered rifle couldn't take such a monster down.
[If you wish to earn credits, two methods are available to everyone.]
[The first is to achieve that which you shouldn't be able to. This can include slaughtering powerful enemies, inventing an item in your field of expertise, or even rapidly progressing your cultivation. The System will reward those who excel.]
[Second, you can sell the beasts you kill and the treasures you find to the System.]
Logan blinked. He could sell stuff? Quietly sneaking out of bed, he left their room and found Ron and Betty rolling strips of meat in the salt flakes he had made earlier. The old man just nodded at him while Betty gave him a warm smile.
It took Logan a second to find the pelt. The couple had placed it in a big basin full of salty water. That must've been an essential step to processing the thing, or maybe they had just put it in there to stop it from smelling. Logan had no idea, so he didn't think about it, grabbing the pelt and opening his interface.
[Giant Ore Rat Pelt]
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
[Analysis: After feasting on spiritual crystals, these rats have become more intelligent than usual. Capable of communicating telepathically and even following complex orders from higher-ranking members of the pack, they are deadly in groups and have valuable pelts made of refined spiritual crystals. Useful for many different purposes.]
[Would you like to sell this item for 72,000 credits? Yes/ No.]
Logan clicked yes, but nothing happened as an error message popped up.
[User is not within the vicinity of a designated trading zone. If you wish to sell an item to the System Shop, please move closer to an outpost or raise your privilege level.]
That did not bode well. Feeling anxious, Logan opened the Shop and went into the Supplies section to see if food could be purchased. A sub-menu opened up. Within it, he could buy camping gear, clothing, and much more.
It took Logan a moment to locate the food tab. When he clicked on it, a shockingly massive list of options appeared. He could buy seafood, raw meat, cooked meals, and even fast food. But as expected, an error message popped up when he attempted to purchase something.
[User is not within the vicinity of a designated trading zone. If you wish to purchase an item from the System Shop, please move closer to an outpost or raise your privilege level.]
Logan stared at the word 'outpost'. An explanation appeared that made him frown. Earlier, he thought it was strange that the error message hadn't called the trading zone a population centre or city, meaning it was likely something else. He was unfortunately correct. An outpost was a System reward that was only granted to exceptional cultivators, allowing them to set up a base of operations that had supernatural functions.
The System Shop, training grounds, and barriers that could defend an area were listed as some of the few benefits, but the prompt didn't explain the conditions to get an Outpost. After some thinking, Logan realised that it wasn't available yet. Suppose the entire planet was going to be terraformed after four months, why would the System help people set up bases that were just going to be destroyed?
For now, that option seemed impossible to achieve. That left Logan with upgrading his privilege as the only option for getting food and water. He didn't know how else to raise it. There was always the option of defeating a more powerful monster, but that probably wouldn't go well.
With nothing to do, Logan quickly skimmed over the Shop as he walked back to his room. That was when he came across the Library. Being able to access the Shop and not buy anything was stupid and pointless. But as he expected, you could buy something.
Virtual copies of books.
There were two options attached to each text, and the prices were exorbitantly different. At a minimum, the virtual copy was a hundred times cheaper than getting a physical copy teleported over, which was only possible once he raised his privilege level.
Logan stopped walking and perused through the different sections. There were standard textbooks on maths and other useful fields of study, but that was pushed to the back of his mind when he encountered some mystical tomes. They were much more expensive than the textbooks for one very good reason: they could increase a cultivator's strength.
Running down to the vault, Logan found what he was looking for. Within a prison cell near the end of the hallway were some peculiar items. Target dummies made of crystalline hairs rather than straw, a whetstone, and multiple weapon racks full of different tools. Pickaxes were the most common, the items scratched and worn from extended use, while the rest of the space was dominated by weapons.
Logan was tempted to buy a few different manuals. There was a dagger technique that allowed the user to move silently, making it perfect for assassinations. Sword techniques for making a blade lighter or move faster. And there was even a spear technique that could pierce through stone like it was made of butter. He wanted them all, but that didn't mean he could afford to pay the price.
The second issue was that Logan could only use one or two at most. The thought of carrying a spear on his back, a dagger in his robes, and a sword on his belt made him feel weighed down. Not to mention that he couldn't wield them all simultaneously.
The smartest thing to do now was research his options before committing to anything. Different weapons were designed with specific purposes in mind, and Logan didn't really know what any of them were. Thankfully, the System had made primers that would help cover that gap in his knowledge.
There was also abusing the analysis function. Both the circlet and the canvas from which the painting came could be checked, and Logan did just that. With the blank canvas in one hand and the circlet in the other, he read through the prompts detailing what they were.
The circlet was a mind treasure with two abilities. The first was an indiscriminate wave of mental force that blanketed the user's surroundings, weighing down and suppressing the thoughts of everyone in the vicinity.
The second was a targeted mind attack. By effectively overwhelming the enemy's mind with the user's own mental energy, they could turn them into an eternal slave or even directly extinguish their consciousness. The only problem was that the more intelligent the victim, the less effective the attack. It also became much more challenging to hold them as a slave rather than outright murder.
For example, the Skeleton Lord could have twenty knights under his direct control at any one time. That also explained why Logan had found skeletons in the side rooms. The Skeleton Lord couldn't control them all, so he simply locked them up between uses to ensure they didn't wander away.
As for a human being? It was no wonder that the mental attack had barely worked despite the Skeleton Lord's overwhelming mental abilities. With Logan's enhanced mind, it would probably be easier to take control of three morons than him.
But that also raised the question of what the Skeleton Lord intended if it never had a chance to enslave him. All it did was seize control of his body, not usurp his mind as was described in the prompt. Was Logan really nothing more than an incubator?
Shaking his head, Logan held the circlet up to the light. It was an incredible tool that could pressure the minds of everyone in an area or directly assault an enemy. Sadly, the analysis didn't give an easy explanation of how to use the circlet. The only thing he gathered was that it required mental energy, which was about as straightforward as it sounded.
Logan had some experience with mental energy due to being attacked by the circlet in question, but it would still take some time to figure things out. His resistance to the Skeleton Lord's attack had been instinctual rather than purposeful, making him wonder if using mental energy while in the Body Tempering realm was possible.
The good news was that it had great potential. Recruiting a set of eternally loyal slaves would be incredibly handy in the future. They were more or less organic tanks that could heal, grow stronger, and use magic. If a person collected a few different creatures with abilities that complimented each other, they would become a one-man army.
Of course, that was only possible if they possessed an item like the painting of the Goddess.