Where normal cultivation involved circulating mana through his body efficiently to allow as much mana to enter his body and enhance his skills as possible, Body Strengthening was a far slower process. In return, it provided a permanent boost, so long as you reach a certain point.
Cultivation would also integrate the essence of fallen enemies into one's foundation and pathways.
Body Strengthening focused on the physical, while Cultivation focused on the spiritual, in a sense.
The Karphan Stella Body Method would infuse his body with spatial energies, strengthening him immensely, though Mark didn’t know how much. It involved enhancing his cells with mana through a specific method and infusing every cell with Cosmic Energy; If he did it right, his body would gain an increased density. Every part of his physical form would be improved.
According to the Method, it should take him years to reach the peak, but the moment he started the process, something in his core reacted.
A surge of energy rushed from the spot behind his navel, the same spot he felt the energy from Andur’s crystal settle.
The energy surged through his body and seemed to increase the Method's speed. Mark screamed in pain as he lost control of the Method, but it had gained a life of its own. All he could do was hang on and endure.
It took hours, but when the process was done, Mark knew he had skipped ahead to the end. His body felt incredible like he had been filled with untold power, and he knew he only had to repeat the Method to maintain it.
He stood up and started jumping around, testing his new body before checking his status. Every movement felt smooth, and even if he felt like he’d gained hundreds of kilos worth of weight, all movements felt effortless.
A grin split his face as he opened his status, but it faded when he saw no changes.
It took a few minutes before he figured it out, but eventually, he learned that rather than improve his stats directly, the Method passively boosted them. He couldn’t tell how much, but it was significant.
Once again, he felt that strange sensation of things being far too easy, but he shook his head and cleared his thoughts.
He was going to seize every advantage he could get.
Mark remembered the guide telling him not to forget his Insights and felt he knew what the elf meant.
His understanding was starting to feel fragile and hollow, and Mark decided to spend some time consolidating and expanding his Insights.
He still had to take on a mission daily, leaving him with hours of pondering time.
***
The next mission sent Mark to a large plateau, facing an ogre.
The monster stood almost three meters tall and two meters wide. It wielded a massive wooden club and charged at Mark the moment he appeared.
He’d noticed how expensive it was to use spatial magic over a distance, which he found strange, but figured it had to do with how far he had to stretch his mana or something. He decided to work on his Chakram Mastery while using blink to avoid. He could also cover himself with a layer of strengthened space or isolate himself. By strengthening space, he could effectively turn the air around him solid, but it took a lot of mana, depending on the force behind whatever hit him. Isolating, or phasing, himself was more static in mana cost, but it didn’t really defend him against magical attacks; magic still hit him.
Fortunately, the ogre didn’t use magic, so he didn’t have to test his strength against the massive creature.
Mark quickly learned how huge an impact the body-strengthening method had. His movements were graceful and fast, and his coordination was near perfect as he blinked and danced around his enemy while the chakram cut the beast to ribbons.
The ogre’s skin was surprisingly tough, and Mark found he couldn’t cut straight through, but every pass left a bleeding cut, and Mark soon learned to target specific parts.
He targeted the legs and hamstrung the beast and its arms to stop it from swinging its club, and finally, he managed to cut through the ogre’s throat.
A geyser of blood spurted from the wound, and the ogre finally slumped to the ground.
Even though Mark had a distinct advantage and hadn’t felt like he was in danger, he was breathing heavily and sweating profusely. This was among the hardest of all his fights, but he didn’t feel disparaged by it. He felt exhilarated.
This time, he’d only used the chakram while avoiding, but he knew he had the mana to also create some tears. That would significantly improve his damage output, and Mark felt he would need that in the future.
If this fight were representative of the difficulty going forward, he’d need to work faster.
***
“So, you’ve given up your humanity?” a voice sounded a moment after he reappeared in the square.
Mark turned around and saw a group of people. The one who spoke was one of the biggest bullies of this Tutorial and had been a constant annoyance to Mark. He always had some comment about how Mark was weak, worthless, and pathetic, but he couldn’t do anything about it. There was no violence in Tutorial Town, and Mark wouldn’t stoop to his level.
“Pathetic,” the man sneered. “What did you do? Make some deal with a devil or something?”
Mark said nothing but activated one of his new skills, Cosmic Eye. He’d wondered what it did and soon found out.
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The world lit up in colors, but it was focused on the people. He could see the energy flow within their bodies, swirling around the nodes, and Mark noticed something. The nodes were barely open, the flow into them scarcely a trickle compared to his own flood. That was proof that he’d done the right thing in waiting, and this man had rushed ahead, damaging his foundations.
Mark shook his head, snorted, and walked away, ignoring the angry shouts and insults behind him.
***
Mark settled on his cultivation mat, drawing the spatial energies around him, and started circulating.
He took his time, thinking about what he had learned from the last fight.
He’d finally managed to keep his cultivation method going during the entire fight, but he hadn’t gained any levels as expected. He’d gained levels immediately after gaining his class, but maybe another reason existed.
It almost felt like the essence he drew was incapable of giving him levels, but that made no sense.
His cultivation method didn’t say anything, but the books he’d bought and the information from the guides had told him that it should aid him in leveling up. So, why didn’t it?
He had improved leaps and bounds in his fighting potential, and using the chakram while creating tears was almost instinctive by now, and yet, he hadn’t gained a single level in the week since his class-up.
The only reason he could think of was that his class wasn’t a combat class. Which meant he had to figure out the purpose of his class.
It was apparent to Mark that the class had immense combat potential, but if that wasn’t what it was meant for, then he had to figure out what. Apparently, he could only gain levels if he acted according to his class, which was strange. Nothing he had learned so far indicated that, and most others should be leveling up simply by cultivating and drawing energy. He felt himself getting closer to leveling by doing that, but it was slow.
He had to figure out what was going on as the fights kept getting harder and harder. Eventually, he wouldn’t have the stats to keep up, no matter how strong he felt then.
He sat in silent meditation for hours, thinking about what to do, before he realized.
I’m such a dumbass!
His class description held the key. It said he could draw on the insights of the Cosmos to empower his path. The second he realized, he started actively focusing on his Insights and Concepts, and an immense rush of energy filled him. The flood of energy dragged the lingering essence along with it and poured into his nodes. From there, the internal paths of power distributed the energy through his soul, empowering his physical body.
He felt a slight resistance and figured it was time to start on the next stage of his cultivation, but not before he checked the results.
Name: Mark Johnson
Race: Karphan Human(F)
Class: Child of Cosmos
Level: 4
Stats:
Strength: 70
Dexterity: 132
Endurance: 102
Intelligence: 330
Wisdom: 144
Free Points: 0
Truths:
* Cosmos
* Space
* Void: +15 Dexterity, +25 Endurance, +20 Intelligence. +5% Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence.
* Movement
* Distance
* Fabric: +25 Intelligence, +20 Wisdom, +15 Dexterity. +5% Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity
* Tear
* Sharpness
* Phase: +25 Intelligence, +20 Dexterity, +15 Wisdom, +5% Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity
* Isolation
* Shift
* Star
* Radiation: +25 Intelligence, +20 Wisdom, +15 Dexterity, +5% Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity
* Heat
* Light
* Matter
* Gravity: +25 Strength, +20 Endurance, +15 Intelligence, +5% Strength, Endurance, Intelligence
* Mass
* Density
Skills:
Cosmic Manipulation
Blink
Cosmic Eye
Chakram Mastery
Spatial Sense
His stats exploded after he got his class. While all stats, apparently 15 points per level except the first, had been put into Intelligence, he could feel that he would have to perform the body-strengthening method to push his physical stats up.
As to the issue of resistance, he’d noticed the energy didn’t flow naturally through his body; it simply flooded through him, leaving clouds of energy behind. His cultivation method had the solution to that issue, though, and Mark immediately started circulating.
So far, he’d just been pushing, restricting, and guiding the energy around his body and to his core node, but now he had to form actual pathways.
The pathways would follow the pattern he had used, but it would significantly improve the energy flow and ease the burden on his mind.
The process was painful to the extreme, and Mark realized it was a mistake to do this after he used the body-strengthening method, as his body resisted the process. It still would if his body was weaker, but it wouldn’t be as bad.
He had to condense his mana, and ambient energy, into incredibly thin veins that carved through his body.
The main pathways, or arteries, were made inside his blood veins, following the same structure, which made the process easier, but still very painful. The worst part was the paths that went outside of his normal veins.
He had to create a mesh that would integrate into his body and allow far better channeling, but it was torturous.
He messed up several times, which required him to grind away the faulty pathway and redraw it, and after six hours, Mark was covered in blood and wounds. The blood mingled with the pouring sweat and burned in the cuts that covered his body, yet he was not done.
For the first time in weeks, Mark took out a healing potion. He was woozy from the blood loss, and his mind was fraying at the edges, but he couldn’t stop. If he did, the pathways would settle in an incomplete configuration, and remaking them was far worse than making them right the first time.
It took another three hours to finish, and Mark felt his consciousness slipping when he was done. He barely felt the rush of energy flowing through his body unimpeded before his vision faded to black.
Mark woke up feeling groggy, hungry, and dirty but decided to remain prone on the floor for a bit as he settled his mind.
“Urrgh, why did I wait? Why did I think it was a good idea to wait?”
Mark grumbled as he took out a canteen of water and slaked his thirst.
“Fucking dumbass…”
Mark got to his feet ten minutes later and headed into his house. He’d stocked the pantry with food, just so he didn’t have to go to the square every day, which let him avoid the annoying people around him. So, Mark sat by a table and started shoving food into his mouth while combating a profound lethargy. He had never been so hungry before but knew it was the result of his injuries.
Health potions were miraculous, but they took a toll on the body. The basic ones would drastically increase the body’s regenerative ability, but they didn’t create matter from nothing. The healing cost nutrients and energy, which the potion took from his body, leaving him ravenous.