Seph remembered that the skill will require certain targets to be met to level up, and he focused inward again. On his left eye, the information screen showed up in his brain, the same way that the skill identifies items.
Quest Eye of the Appraise level 2: Identify 25 unique items. Progress: 4/25
“Oh, that’s easy! Wait, is it? It feels reachable, but we're stuck in this maze without many items to identify. I guess it’s worth it to identify all the items in this room!”
Appraising... Name: Vitality Grass. Type: Basic Alchemy material. Location: Found in most places rich with Yin Energy, especially on different levels during a mountain climb, is the most common. It’s fortunate that the most used basic herb is also the most present in the world. While also being the most popular among mortals, with how it can help cure many diseases, energize old people. It also heals minor injuries at a much faster pace.
Seph read this last description, only to find his monkey glaring at him angrily. His arms crossed on his little chest, and one leg tapped the ground!
“Are you getting restless? I am very sorry; I know I am taking too much time to try out this new skill. We'll be done soon, okay?”
The monkey, with a harrumph, stopped the little angry act and held up his wooden staff for Seph to identify!
“Oh, that’s a good idea! I almost forgot about your staff!”
Appraising... Name: Wooden Oak Staff. Type: Staff. Quality: Basic. Durability: 90%. Magical ability: None.
“Looks like you and I need better weapons!”
Seph looked at the monkey apologetically. He hasn't been sure yet how rare things were now that he's an immortal.
The monkey stepped towards him and patted him on the back!
“You are a very smart little guy, aren’t you? I am really lucky to have you as a friend here. We need to get you something tasty to eat soon. You must be tired of eating those vines.”
The monkey barked happily and approvingly at that.
"Now, why don’t we go check what our last opponent had on him, if anything?”
Seph moved towards the now-dead martial artist and reached out to the sack he had on his waist. He untied it and tried to reach inside with his hand, but some kind of force blocked him!
“Hmm, weird! This sack is something special that I have no idea about. I should check it out first with the eye.”
Appraising... Name: Spatial Sack. Type: Magical Storage. Quality: Rare. Magical Ability: After infusing it with your unique energy once, it will be accessible to store various items. It can hold up to 100 unique items, stacks of 100 of each item. With limited space, some items count for more if they are spacious.
“Woah! We made a fortune, Sun! I won’t have to drag that stupid bucket around anymore. I had never seen a main character in any play that did that, anyway. Now I can be as fancy as the best of them. Also, I would have chosen something else entirely to look like a refined immortal. Shit! Look at me being snobbish and picky 10 seconds after owning a spatial sack! This won't end well if I don’t become a little humble in the future."
The monkey kept following the conversation while turning his head from left to right, before breaking down in laughter.
There was something unusual about this monkey, for sure. They're smart creatures, but not that smart!
Seph infused the sack with his energy, and a picture appeared in his brain of the space inside. There was an old book lying there. He took it out of the sack and checked it with his eye.
Appraising... Name: One Thousand Arms of the Undead Buddha I Type: Martial Arts Manual. Quality: Legendary/Mysterious. A one-of-a-kind Yin martial art style, it can only be passed along after its current owner dies. It’s one of the most coveted martial arts in the world, but only one person throughout history could complete it. All nine parts have always been present in the world, but sometimes they have already been learned by martial artists, and can only become available again if said martial artist dies.
“Wow! This manual sounds too good to be true! I feel that there is a catch here. This doesn’t feel right. Should we've gotten something like this, this early? Or is the trial ending soon? I need to open this manual and see what's there to learn!”
Seph stopped briefly, and then said.
“Sun, can you practice cultivation? Try meditating and see if it’s working for you. Using this manual may take a while."
The monkey just nodded and sat in a lotus position, like he was adept at doing so.
Seph followed suit and opened his manual. All the pages were empty, except for the first page only, which had one line visible.
Shattered into a thousand pieces, his arms are overreaching.
Give thanks to Buddha 1,000 times while reciting this mantra for 10 days.
Seph thought it over in his mind for a second, then started by raising both arms high above his head, placing the palms together, fingertips pointing upwards, then bringing them slowly in front of his chest, bowing towards the palms, “Shattered to a thousand pieces, his arms are overreaching.”
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There was something perverse about this mantra, Seph felt that, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.
He then recited the mantra, and repeated the motion, over and over for the rest of the day, never sitting down, only resting after finishing the mantra, before repeating the cycle the next day.
This went on for ten days. Seph felt something changing in his hands, but he wasn’t sure what it was.
He decided to inspect the progress of the eye of the appraiser.
Quest Eye of the Appraise level 2: Identify 25 unique items. Progress: 8/25
“It’s a long way from being done, but we're not about to give up now, I'm feeling very good about my chances to finish this; the new martial arts manual is exhausting, it takes so long to finish just one task."
Seph called his monkey companion over, and they headed towards the door.
*****
image [https://imgur.com/XfBSXXC.jpg]
“That last manual you found wasn’t even part of my trials. I am not sure how it works. Maybe it manifests in a place with the most Yin cultivators after its former owner dies. I missed it because the martial artist didn’t bother to use or read it. After all, I left behind only a sliver of my soul, not enough to keep watch over whatever mysterious items you all find. I’m envious of you. This Manual is a mystery item, that’s why your eye didn’t give you much info about it, and it being legendary could only mean, you will use it forever, the one thousand arms of the undead Buddha, a name that gives you chills… But the potential is unprecedented, I doubt any other item in these trials is as good. Maybe my life’s story, which is a little arrogant of me I know, but the only way to get them is from the trials. You can’t find it anywhere else! Next up is the fourth room, a little mining detour, but prepare yourself mentally anyway, because every fifth room is a great trial and a substantial reward. You became the dark horse of this race, and my soul sliver is going to give you much more attention from now on. You are what the sect needs.”
Seph heard this last message from Scorn before everything became visible again after the darkness of each pitch-black tunnel between the rooms, and he found himself in a cave.
He looked around, with Sun on his shoulder, and he saw multiple veins of ore, visible from the surrounding walls. This was going to be a good exercise for his arms. Seph noticed a pickaxe leaning on a wall; his mind made up, he went to pick it up and start mining.
One hour later, he got done with the iron ore, having gotten ten chunks of iron ore; next up was the copper vein that he started working on immediately, It's taken considerable effort to get each nugget out, he had to avoid flying little rocks from hitting his face over and over, he thought “am I doing it wrong, or is it supposed to be this hard?”
Dust continued to gather around him as well, making it much harder to breathe, but then he realized he didn’t need to breathe, anyway.
One more hour later, he got done with the copper ore again, gaining 10 pieces of ore, and he moved on to a silver ore vein next to it. The room felt like a chill reward rather than a challenge; he wished there were instructions to make him a better miner or something.
Regardless, he moved on to the next vein which was silver that also gave him ten more ore, and the last vein after that was gold Real fucking gold! I am rich! I can give one of these to my mom. She will live a great life without having to work after that! Seph thought to himself, going into a frenzy to get the gold as fast as he could. He again got 10 pieces. These veins sure felt unnatural, being equal to each other like that.
He turned to look behind him only to find Sun doing something to the wall behind him, there was a protruding stone of sorts, that Sun tried over and over to remove from its impeded place in the stone wall, with a shake in the entire cave, the wall that Sun was messing with started moving, after the initial falling dust, sand, and debris, it became clear that what came out of the wall was an Earth Golem; it was 8 inches taller than Seph and it looked pissed!
Seph took out the sword from his Spatial Sack and tried hitting the Golem with it, ending up chipping only a small piece of it with his attack, realizing that the slashing weapon wouldn’t work on the Golem; he threw it away, raised his palms like he was some kind of Kung Fu master, he repeated in his brain “Shattered to a thousand pieces, His arms are overreaching!”
And attacked the Golem with an open palm attack, to its stomach; he wasn’t as close as he thought, his attack didn’t reach the golem, but what happened next freaked him out: a ghostly palm reverberated from his own palm, and he continued to hit the golem in its stead!
“Wait, is that what all those prayers did? Give me phantom palms? This is creepy, did I even see this for real?" Seph wondered. But Sun answered him by freaking out and screeching while jumping up and down, holding his head at one point, and pointing where the ghostly palm had been, proving he saw it too!
Where the palm landed, chips of stone fell from the golem, and cracks appeared all over the affected area.
Seph composed himself and was about to launch another attack, but the golem attacked him first, by removing a rock from the cave wall and launching it at his face.
Oh no, I won't die this way again! Seph thought, and jumped away to the side, before composing himself again and launching seven palm attacks back to back at the midsection of the golem, each one he tried to infuse with as much power as possible, launching them out with as much force as he could, at the same time remaining a safe distance away from the golem, ghostly palms continued the missing distance that his palms didn’t reach, and slammed the golem over and over, chipping stones from its midsection, sending them flying, forming a deep recess in its midsection, a much deeper cracked area. Once the last palm attack had reached the golem, it fell completely apart, its midsection unable to carry its heavy upper body anymore.
Sun was the first to celebrate, screaming while holding his little arms up, and Seph followed, “Wooohooo, we're strong, Sun! We've beaten a freaking Golem!”
They moved their victory dance on top of the stones from the falling golem, Seph’s dancing legs making the rocks fall over to the side, till it was revealed that there was a blue gemstone buried under the rocks.
Seph used the eye on it.
Appraising... Name: Sapphire. Type: Gemstone. Quality: Rare. Location: Rarely found in deep caves, a common loot from killing Earth Golems. A rare gemstone, very popular among mortals, it's used for crafting, accessories, and has various other uses.
“I never even saw a real gem in my life before now. Even the richest men in my village don’t own something like this, and the women of the richest men at most have gold accessories. I am starting to feel that this is too easy. Or the cultivation road is so long and costly that even a sapphire isn’t much?” Seph thought to himself, then decided to use the eye on the pickaxe too.
Appraising... Name: Iron Pickaxe. Type: Mining Tool. Quality: Basic. Durability: 60%
“Okay looks like this pickaxe won’t last us very long; we will need a new one in the future if we want to mine more, maybe I should not be a fighting immortal, and work as a miner now that I can’t get sick from the mine’s dust."
Sun laughed at him, making Seph laugh as well. They both knew that Seph wouldn’t take an easy path at all, especially with the powerful martial art he had gained.
At this point, Seph noticed that his spatial sack had been glowing. He inspected it only to find that the source was the One Thousand Arms of the undead Buddha manual. He checked it out and found a new mantra inside.
Shattered into a thousand pieces, his arms are overbearing.
Perform 10,000 palm strikes while reciting the mantra each day for ten consecutive days.
"Good grief, ten thousand? This is going to take a long time. Also, what triggered the manual to show me this new mantra, anyway? Was it the fight with the golem? This manual, being a mystery item, will keep me in the dark for a while, till I can upgrade my eye of the appraiser skill, Sun. you should try to cultivate again. We're going to be here for a while."
Sun nodded in acknowledgment, and Seph started training; he tried to do the same as he did against the Golem, with powerful palm strikes, that had purpose and strength, not rushing, making each palm strike take its full path from close to his chest to its intended target, before retracting and launching the other palm, and so on.