Majid was so excited. It's already been 5 days since he was in this world, but it felt so long like an entire year had passed. He couldn't even sleep like a human being. He spent his nights outdoors, like a bird flying from tree to tree, birds at least has nests. He finally found a home, where he can settle down. He was finally in a stable situation where he could train to his heart's content. He can now look at his progress, look ahead, and stride forward.
'System shows me those numbers.' He was smiling like a kid, you won't say there an old man inside.
[Fire Lizard Steps] Level 2, low-stage 7% [Fire Snake Fist ] Level 1, perfect-stage 97% [Fire Snake Sword ] level 2, late-stage 47% [Recovery Meditation Technique] 20% [Soul Meditation Technique] 0.1%
The moment he saw the sword technique though, his gallbladder spat in his stomach. He lamented the loss of his sword. The fight would have been a whole different story with it.
He looked away to the other techniques, as he didn't want to ruin the mood. It wasn't the 97% Fire-Snake Fist that warmed his heart though, it was his 0.1% Soul Meditation technique instead. 'So I'm close, heh! those nights weren't for nothing.' The significance of that small number was great, his theories about soul meditation were close, he was on the right path. 'But how this system knows about all this. It must have access rights higher than myself on my own body'.
After that he checked his states again, he can never feel bored looking at those numbers. They looked so beautiful, no curve can ever hold a candle to them.
STATUS
Name: Majid Age: 10 and 4 months Strength: 7 (+20%) Agility: 8 (+10%) Stamina: 10 (+1%) Qi: 7 (+30%) Soul: 10 (+10%)
Elements Affinities:
Lightning: 10 (+50%) Fire: 6 (+70%) [+]
Seeing as his stamina increased, he couldn't help but Thrust dance a dozen times, before he felt satisfied. 'Hardship pays off in the end.' not only that, even his strength and agility increased so much in just 2 days. It seems there's still a lot of potential in this body, the boy wasn't able to harness. His Fire affinity was a piece of good news as well, if he worked on it a little more, it could catch up to lightning. 'No, I don't think so!' looking at the progress of lightning, with just a short training, it rose by 50%, seems like it was eager to do some work, after years of slackness. He couldn't help but swear at the royal sect.
Then he noticed something for the first time, a plus sign sat silently under his status. He could guess it was hiding something but what was it 'System what does that plus sign mean?'
[User affinities number is high, but their level is low, the system hid them for convinience]
'Holy shit! how did I miss that!' He nearly stood from his place.
'Show me all the affinities'
Elements Affinity:
Lightning:10
Fire: 6
Water:0.9
Magnetism:0.9
.
.
Gravity: 0.8
.
.
.
.
Light:0.5
.
.
Earth:0.4
.
.
.
.
He was left speechless at the endless list. Excitement soared in his heart, as he started to fantasize about the possibilities of his affinities. But all shattered in the end, it was a devil in disguise. Indeed it's tempting to be a jack of all trade it was a good deal, but the price was master of none, it was a high and non-negotiable price. Diversity is powerful indeed, like how a weak earth barrier could easily neutralize powerful lighting. That might be the reason why The Nine Boulders Kingdom dominated the Thunder Gods Kingdom in the first place. But if you could overcome the weakness of your main affinity, then no amount of weak varieties can make a difference. Still, maybe he could improve them a little bit, by using them in menial daily life tasks, if it works, he would have some supporting elements as his trump card.
'But how come he gained so many affinities by his knowledge?'
According to the boy's memories, affinity is a gift you acquire at birth, you can't acquire it. 'Well, considering those low numbers, it has some truth to it.' After all, it was already hard to find your birth affinity, unless your soul is powerful to some extent, then you can find it by instinct. Otherwise, you have to find it manually trying out elements manuals. 'Thank goodness' He was relieved, if there was some sensing tool, he would have given up altogether on school. Though it might be OK for one to have a lightning affinity, but not with his hight affinity. His family couldn't find a better pretext to get rid of him.
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Most people have affinities around the five elements, so it was easy to find out in most cases. Other than that, it was you and your luck, it could manifest while one is in danger, under some emotional states, or pressure of training. Affinity is a talent that only 1 in 100 cultivators has, so those with affinities are considered talented individuals.
Once you know your gift, then it could be developed by deepening one's knowledge, contacting the phenomena or using it. But the piece of information that picked intention was that affinity is highly related to the soul. Most people who have powerful affinities have powerful souls. Connecting the dots, an image formed in his mind.
'So indeed the soul has something to do with knowledge?' His knowledge granted him many affinities, and that made his soul powerful.
Satisfied with his findings, he was done with his status exploration. Majid has gathered a lot of complaints, he started to negotiate with the system. He took in his consideration the system logic, to see what more benefits he can exhort from it.
'System, I hope I don't have to tell you, for you to offer me a quest, can't you do it according to the situation. There's shouldn't be anything against this in your rules manual right!'
The system has no problem with this request.
'System, when I finish a quest I would like to hear you congratulate me for finishing it and receiving a reward'
[Understood]
Thinking about all the useless rewards he received before, considering the timing. It was like a thorn in his throat. He has come up with some solutions, so he started new negotiations.
'System I hope you can give multiple rewards to choose from some times, it's unhelpful to give me a useless, timing-wise!' It went without a hitch. 'This system is lovely.'
He took his time to articulate his request, it was an important matter.
'System, I would like if you give me an open choice[1] for a reward!'
[request is unauthorized]
'Shit!' everything was going good so far, this rejection ruined all his fun. He took some breaths before he continued, he wasn't ready to give up yet.
'System I'm not asking that for every reward, just a few times, for difficult quests...' after some back and forth, the system promised to add it to the rewards' options.
'Phew!' he smiled and brushed the sweat off his forehead.
Finally, comes the last subject of his negotiation, he felt ashamed to bring it up, he even covered his face, some titers escaping his mouth. 'System can't you give me some adults based contents as a reward.' Now that he felt a bit safe, his mind started to miss his collection. He brought with him only his old soul and left his habits behind in the ashes of his body. But with this young body's vitality, it started to poke his sour side. Before the system says anything though he added. 'For some easy quests of course'. He didn't want to have to work so hard for something like that, he was used to getting it for free after all.
[Request is unauthorized]
"The F***, but why!" After forcing himself to talk, he didn't see that coming.
[The system deems the request unhelpful for the user]
"What about my biological needs, heh!"
[Find yourself a partner!]
"At this age, are you kidding me!"
[So you know you're not in the age to be doing this]
'Since when this system becomes like this' this was the first time the system played with words with him. But he wasn't gonna back off either, this matter was no joke.
"That's based on someone's opinion, considering a child intelligence this doesn't apply to me, and I can give birth on this age!"
He didn't think it would be hard to make this proposal get through, it took him the longest to scrape something out. It accepted to give a consumable adult content, so he needs to work his ass off to get another one, so he won't engross himself on watching them 'this system think so lowly of me'. He felt offended, but at least he made it clear that the quest should be something easy. He closed the system interface and decided to sleep it off. It was the first sleep he could take after a long time, after the fight, he built some trust to turn his back to the foxes.
No amount of meditation could recompose for sleep, the next morning his body felt new, he was ready to take whatever might come. He goes outside, made a second check. He removed any traces of the fight, blood, or footprints remaining. He filled the void left by the boulders he carried last night by dirt, puts some leaves to hide the difference, and made some last tweaks to seem natural. He looked at his wall, the vines did a great job at hidden the discontinuous texture of it, making it blend nicely with the remaining surface of the hill. An inconspicuous hole was left hidden behind a boulder to get in and out. After filling the dark gaps that reveal the cave behind, he finally felt it was enough from his photographer's location. So decided to go inside, now he can start his training.
He found himself a comfortable spot inside the cave, he sat preparing his training plan 'So cultivation is my priority' cultivation was his ultimate move, it was well-rounded. It will strengthen his soul, his senses, increase his power, and of course his chances to enter the school. It was good that those useless rewards would start to come in handy, he had received the Body Tempering Manual as his first reward, it would save him a lot of trouble going through the boy's memories.
'System, show me that tempering manual'
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Teemao was outside of the Alchemist Pavilion of the clan waiting for his turn, he was going to exchange his contribution points for some herbs he needed, he worked so hard to raise his contribution, to get those ingredients to concoct medicine for his cultivation. He gathered most of them from the forest, but the others can only found outside the safe zone, he wasn't in a level where he could wander there yet. This was one of the main reasons he joined this clan, some of the ingredients can't be acquired other than through the clans. They use this method and other ways of monopoly to force people to join them, despite their low terms.
"...Xiaode…" Teemao perked his ears at the mention of Xiaode, he was interested in this boy, after their encounter. A group of 3 outer disciples was talking with a low voice to each other. He closed on them without raising attention.
"....Young Master Xiaode is stronger…." He was sure they were talking about the young master. He agreed with the speaker, somehow he started to admire the him. He was the first higher disciple that treated him nicely, most treat him like air or worse like he was a servant.
"Heh, forget about Xiaode, Young Master Lee Xugao took care of him, he's a goner". Said a chubby boy about 16 years, raising his head.
"What do you mean?" another boy asked.
A scrawny disciple next the chubby boy pulled him to the side 'Shuuuu'
"Why do... Elder Xugi .... next patriarch ..."
"...ruin ... young... reputation" the chubby boy's body perspired. Teemao wasn't able to make out what they whispered with each other, but he already heard enough to make some connection.
'So it was young master Lee Xugao, who hired someone to attack him' Teamao already started to feel he's on Xiaode's side, he even promised to help him. 'I must tell him about this!' The boy abandoned his plans and rushed away from the clan territory.