Back to my cell, I look at the mess. Some boxes are spilling out into the corridor, which is soon pointed out by Jenna. "Jack!! Clean that shit up! I can't walk in this mess!" I shout back, focused on which to open first. "Just move them! They shouldn't be fragile!"

So...

This one?

With a mental shrug I make my way to a distant golden box, which is rather large. Can I return all this stuff afterward? Even on its side I can tell this to be taller than I am. What did he buy? Is that... was that the five thousand one? I can smell bankruptcy from the box, I can already feel my frozen bank account growing into the negatives just by standing close to it. What incredible power! I most likely had yet to even mine two thousand, so this wasn't really an exaggeration.

Along a dramatic slice of my perfect weapon, the pickaxe, I accurately sever the tape and well decorated cardboard. Inside stands a large metallic box, which rustled with metal when I moved it earlier. Damn, not even a scratch. Since when was I this good with the pickaxe? Almost hitting myself with the pickaxe by trying to scratch the back of my head, I search for the opening. It's underneath, isn't it?

Some grunting and a good workout later, I manage to slowly lift the metallic box, which is taller than me. But I soon hear loud thumps followed by louder clangs. "What?" After disposing of the strangely lighter box, I witness the very reason it lightened up. "Of course, the opening wasn't closed properly." So now I have a bunch of metallic parts poured everywhere. "Five grand, and you can't put the bits and pieces into separate bags? Fucking hell..."

The following hours are similar, putting together a bunch of stuff, organizing and putting most of it away, as I remain as lazy as the day I was born. 'I'll do it tomorrow!' is what I'll say tomorrow.

In any case, the building process is over for some, and I'm more than ready to test them.

"Let's go with... this one!" Holding a large handgrip dynamometer with a big mat, blueish dodecahedron at the end, I'm excited. "Looks fancy, don't know why the small box had a price tag this large though! Thank you Jeremy my good friend! You really picked the best huh?! I really love it when the decimal point is so far back! I really do!"

"Alright, anyway." Gripping hard, I see the dodecahedron shine a little bit. Don't tell me I have to charge this at some point... I let this thought stay at the back, to be forgotten in the next ten minutes, as the screen changes. I'm ready to see how strong I am according to this device, only to see the startup screen show up. "Come on bitch! Start already!" Annoyed with how long it takes, I let go of it, only for it to finally be done.

"I-Rank... You fucking piece of scrap metal! You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" This time I try again without letting go of it, finally showing a proper number. "Alright, I don't have anything to write it on though..." With a sigh, I memorize the readings and go ask Jeremy for paper and a pen.

Back to it, I officially start measuring my grip. "First test, no skill... it was... 215, G-Rank."

"That's... expected? I went hard at it though, is my maximum really 215? A bit disappointing, anyway. Test number dos. With that fake Mana used for level three. Should put me at F-Rank."

I focus on the skill and manually activate it. Selecting my hand, forearm and the output, I feel something change, my MP sapped away on the status screen, before gripping the device as tight as I possibly can. "Holy!" I feel stronger somehow, but can't really see it due to the device actually being pretty resilient. My money wasn't dried for nothing I suppose.

With a whistle, I relax and take the pen. "So, the result is 300 F-Rank. That's actually pretty good! Only took- holy fuck! Four?! I lost 4.5 MP from that? I held it for two seconds, really?" Despite my crappy memory swearing I held it for an instant, I try again, this time selecting the highest possible output within F-Rank. "Ok, this time I didn't choke and really did it for a second." Grunting a little, my power is even stronger, taking the pen next. "Test number four, 999, F-Rank. That's nuts! And this time I actually let it go before two seconds. I lost... I'll just round it up to seven and a half. Not counting those decimals."

"Now, for the big leagues. Let's try a big one!" Clear from my testing, the input required in MP varies depending on the surface area. The skill mentions basically a hundred per second for the last one. But it only counted seven and some more. After waiting for half an hour, I recovered my MP and tried again.

"Let's just open the first panel real quick, alright. Then here I go. Forearm, hand input maxed out. And~ clench! Urrh! Come on!" I relax a second later, excited by the blinding light on the dynamometer.

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"Readings, test number five, results are~"

"Damn! 28 600, B-Rank! Though after a second I'm left with... not much. The status didn't change, probably because it's not my entire body?" No matter, the result was astounding despite being aware of it. I was left with half a point of Mana. "More than two hundred and fourteen... for one, singular, pitiful second. And that wasn't even maximum B-Rank, not even close. No shit I was being played by that fucker last time. He can throw that kind of power level around, if not more, without a care. Well, in case he isn't a low B-Rank."

Though he must've been really bored to let me strike him so many times. Maybe his speed, never mind. I couldn't just forget the triple strike I still had yet to visualize to this day. What about that A-Rank guy, how strong is he? Technically, one could be above S-Rank without combat oriented stats. So the A-Ranker might have been weaker. But since I couldn't see his stats either, I would've lost anyway.

"Mana takes so long to regenerate..."

I spend some more time testing, this time with Qi, before concluding both to act the same way. Since it only took a few back and forth and some mere minutes to build a couple more purchases, thankful to the screwdrivers and such I 'borrowed', I read random messages in the history tab, scrolling everywhere. "I have~ oh come on! It's been an hour I swear." Exasperated by the long recharge time, my time is well spent thinking.

The Administrator seems pretty open, or maybe the system is restricting it? Who's stronger, the system or the admin? Logically... I don't know. Depends what kind of admin. Like, creator admin or just appointed admin?

Can I check the Martial Boost Pill again? No? Wanted to check the rank... Can't be below E-Rank, so that's that.

Qi Refining Realm... pretty far judging from my progress. The other puppet was eight times- well now four to five times my stats. I think? And it's in the Qi Sensing Realm still. Does it have anything to do with it? I mean the Stone King's Shadow is considered first rate now, but the titles mention the Draconic Realm. It says it was... it was almost a Martial God? So is the Draconic Realm right below? Or basically there already? Says it touched the threshold. Whatever I guess.

Will it stay here forever too? Seems unbalanced to be honest... I can tell it's legendary, and from multiple reasons at that. First one is this bitch beating the shit out of me every time. All puppets are legendary I swear, it just won't admit it. But if it's so, then is the Stone King mega ultra extra legendary?

This whole thing's a mess man...

Why me? Oh was it the thing? Let me check... ah yeah, it was the core. But that monster was E... let me see, a mixed bag. Strength at F+, speed at E+ damn, and endurance at E. Judging by the Stone King's wisdom stat, that werewolf thingy was probably around the same level. So then, I'm pretty sure Eternal Berserk was above D. Or maybe it was like D+ or something. Don't really know how big the difference is between each rank.

If I'm not wrong, and it actually follows this logic, E+ should equal to S+. In that sense, D- is already busted. I take another look at the second status and sigh. It goes to A and then has one more. Which is most likely S. So E+... nah I can't do the math here. Too lazy!

The second challenge's status showed 'Foundation Establishment Realm' and F+. HP and DT were both at fifty something. So, now I know that there is Qi Sensing, Qi Refining, and Foundation Establishment. I don't think there is anything in between these, especially with the guys I killed, Qi Refining Realm ninth something at forty-nine. But I feel like I should remember something else...

Scratching my neck a few times, I look up to the uneven dirt ceiling. Taking a peek at my DT, it's full again. Mana and DT are indeed the same. So let's use Mana for now, I don't need to know about the other panel. It was more useful to have a rank approximation based on the current superhuman system. It was also more satisfying.

"I still need to figure out how to return all this crap."

.

.

.

After only using a low amount of everything bought by the bitch Jeremy, I organized the unopened packages on one side and decided to keep most of the ones I opened. The other results were for endurance and reaction time. Using Qi Manifestation on a body part made it just as durable as it should be. This specific test was done with pressuring devices. They would squeeze the targeted area and tighten the vice until the security pin broke. The item came with a bag full of them, all of difference resilience. There was another made with Mana sensors, capable of, with proper calibration, to see through my skin and muscles, identifying when the pressure was too high.

Compared with x-rays and other similar means, Mana sensors don't inflict any kind of damage. At least not on awakened.

For speed, it was a simple reaction time test with a game that came along with it. Well, 'game' is an overstatement. It was a configurable blink on a screen. You press the button when the customizable color changed and that was it. My reaction time was pretty slow unfortunately, even with Mana all over my head, with my record standing pitifully at 2.5 milliseconds, B-Rank. My normal reaction time with the crystal boost was expectedly at eighty something milliseconds, F-Rank.

For reference, a normal human stands at around two hundred and fifty on average, at H-Rank. Some people have worse, I-Rank. But in general it stays there. The best H-Rank reaction time was a hundred and twenty-five if I remembered correctly. Relatively it's kind of monstrous. But compared to actual monsters, this just isn't cutting it.

This is also a reason why I can't believe what the system tells me. Those puppets had, supposedly, only martial arts. But their reaction time was too good.

"Well, well, well... Tests are done, the skill works. Works too well actually. Now I need more MP and DT. Only one way I know to get that."

"It's training time!"