I stared at the vast sky above in a daze as I tried to process the new information I just received.

It was actually another world… or at least another dimension which have the connection with the world I was in. and that connection, is the Void Dimension. Should I consider that Void Dimensions are gateways for us earth residents to reach this plane? But then how does people of this plane reach earth then?

Ugh…. It seems sooner or later I will have to research about this. But, this gave me one advantage.

If shiori were to found Asya’s body and she had yet to reach me even after all this time, that means she had not figured out that I would be drifted in this place.

 This give me the sufficient opportunity and time to gather enough strength to contend with her.

But, even after everything that happened, I can’t help but think that everyone’s battle prowess I had seen are not their all-out attacks.

After all, the enemies had made it so that it would be a swift decisive battle, one where both sides cannot drag the battle any longer than necessary. Since that is so, there was no need to use each combatant’s strongest attack.

Just use the most effective moves to accomplish the operation and then retreat as fast as possible.

Well, pondering about this won’t help except the fact that I will have to renew the value I hold in judging Shiori’s strength.

Hm…. If that is so, I should also count about the possibilities that she might bring another group of insanely strong people aiding her the next time I see her.

The road in front is still a long way.

If that is the case, I have a grave need to seek strength more than before.

Hm….. Nice idea.

“Miss Annie?”

“Annie is fine.”

“Annie, can I trouble you to take me into that martial arts academy you spoke of?”

She frowned.

“You want to enter the academy?”

“Is it impossible?”

“It’s not that it’s impossible, but not only the entrance exam is 6 months away, the exam itself was difficult. Although your battle instinct was not bad judging from how you fight, we martial artist have a certain degree of standard in measuring our strength as we train in the way of martial path. And, it doesn’t seem like you had any experiences in it at all. I don’t mean to pour cold water on top of your head, but honestly….. It’s already a good thing should you live on with your body intact if you participate in the entrance exam.” Annie said as her brows joined into a monobrow, showing her difficult assent.

But….. hm, 6 months……

I scan the wilderness. The sky. The ground below.

The wilderness is full of unknown things.

The sky… doesn’t seem like it will give me a hellish life for at least these three months.

The ground below……. Fertile enough.

It means should I wander, eventually I will find a suitable place to rest and gather rations.

Alright. With this conditions, I should have the sufficient time to gather all the life-saving tools I would need, and the sufficient strength to enter the academy should I participate in the exam.

“Alright. I will prepare myself for when that time comes.” I shortly replied to express my readiness.

“Are you seriously out of your mind? Listen. The prerequisites a person must have in order to participate the entrance exam is at least the sixth layer of altered body! Usually people who wanted to reach this stage train themselves hard from the early age of 12 to their late months when they reach the age of 18! And that pace is already considered a rare genius which had been supplemented with various elixirs to push their growth to its utmost limit!”

“Although you are indeed a bit taller than most people, from your face, I can clearly determine that you are 15 years old at present, and at that age you only barely broke through the first layer of altered body in the middle of your fight with those wolves! Even if you train all day long….. I cannot guarantee your safety.”

“I understand your point.” I nodded my head as I accepted her explanation. “But Annie, I am not an ungrateful person, so at least before I pay your favor back and some more things other than that, I plan to reassure my life and treasure this life you saved. And more importantly, I didn’t decide to seek strength without a certain goal. So whether you would be willing to introduce me to the academy or not, I will still make some efforts to do so.”

Hearing my answer, her eyebrows frowned yet again, and then sighed helplessly. “Who am I kidding with. After all, you and I know barely know each other so it is normal that my words have no weight on your mind. If you really want to do it that way, then have it your way. Don’t rant to me the next time we meet because I haven’t warned you okay.”

“Annie doesn’t need to worry about this; how could I rant about not being warned by such a kind and cute girl like you? If that really happened, not only would I be disgracing your concern, even I would hold myself in contempt.” I said in a flat tone, conveying the certainty I emphasize in my words.

“Hmph. Glib tongued.” Responded Annie as she turned her face away.

I wonder if I said something wrong? I don’t think that I am that glib tongued of a person.

Ah well.

“If you really intend to pave your way on martial path, then you should at least have a cultivation technique. In this world, the most important of all is cultivation techniques! Because it is the only thing that will bring you to a broader road of martial path.”

“With enough cultivation, you will be able to cultivate various kinds of martial arts, the various profound laws scattered in this vast world. With that said, here. Try your best to comprehend what is the content inside this profound array tablet. Depending on your talent, the comprehension you attain will determine the depth and speed of your training.”

My eyes grew wide at the offer. “Is it really fine? I troubled you too much.” I frowned in hesitation whether to accept or not.

“You don’t have to think too much of it. Saving you was already troublesome, tending your wounds for seven days was also troublesome, so troubling myself with just this is nothing troublesome.” Said Annie as she closed her eyes midway.

 “Wait, what is this about seven days tending my wounds?”

“You were unconscious for seven days straight. It was lucky of me to bring some profound energy restoring pellet and some low grade healing potions beforehand, so it was easier of me to maintain your failing metabolism and other bodily system, while gradually closing all your wounds.”

“I have sinned…..”

“Hmph, sure you do! I have troubled myself for someone I don’t even know, but then the first thing you do was showing your caution towards me!”

“Ah, there’s nothing I can do about it. I understand that my behavior before offended you, but it was all done for my survival. Please understand.”

“Hmph, I know already! Will you take this tablet or not?”

If she has said that much already, there is no way I can refuse.

“Then, with pleasure.”

I reached out my hand and firmly grabbed the tablet she offered.

The corners of my mouth twitched into a faint smile as I sensed the information contained inside this tablet.

I see…. People of this plane doesn’t use seele from seele cores but instead they trained their prana to unsurmountable heights nothing can threaten them? That is a nice way of thinking.

“Annie, what do you plan to do from now on?”

“Hm, let’s see….. I was originally on an expedition to look for things in this wilderness, but my progress was halted since I decided to take care of you so I want to continue my expedition. Ah, you can’t follow me okay. It’s a delicate yet dangerous thing.”

“Is that so? What a pity. In that case, I wish Annie good luck. Um, can I use the shack you built for my residence? I have nowhere to rest after all.”

“Suit yourself.”

After bidding farewell, she immediately leaped deep into the vast wilderness, leaving me with nothing but the wind. Ah well, it’s not like she didn’t really leave me here with nothing after all.

I rushed back to the shack in my fastest speed while dragging the corpses of the wolves I just killed and then sit inside as I tried to comprehend the information contained in this tablet.

“Hmm…? Wait, this is!”

Gaaaah! She left me with a tablet containing knowledge about cultivation techniques.

But she didn’t mention it was written here in the native language of this plane! I can’t comprehend it now can I!

Wait.

From the beginning, I already took the initiative to talk to her, and I used my native language to talk to her from beginning to end.

Has she already figured out that I am not a person of this plane?

If that is so, how did she figure it out?

And then how is she able to comprehend my spoken language?

“…….. Interesting, Annie.”

Looks like, I have so many things to ask her the next time we meet.

But that is that, and this is this!

Ugh……

Looks like I will have to try to learn this on my own. In that case, sooner or later I must go to the gathering of humans in this plane.

Of course, if the dominant intelligent life form in this plane is humans.

Rain poured this wilderness as I looked up to see the sky out of melancholy. Ah, tears of the sky….

I felt like tears were about to appear in my own eyes as well.

Hm….

After silently pondering for a bit, I decided that it can be put off for a little time. Right now, I should refine the prana inside these wolves and gather the meat so that I can have rations!

Nuohohoho, the simple life in the wilds!

The survival of the fittest!

viva la vida senorita!

Here I come!

…..

The hell, who am I kidding with?

Am I so lonely that I began to joke by myself?

Probably yeah.

Yes I am.

Ah, whatever.

I laid my hand on top of a corpse and then focused my mind as I injected my prana. I carefully controlled my prana as it undulated inside the corpse, wriggling all the way to its prana source.

Success. Although it is a bit disturbing that I cannot use negative mudra for now, it seems that I can still use it to absorb prana that belongs to other beings.

I then directed it to the prana source point of the corpse, and then integrate my prana with it. Moments later, I retracted the prana I injected, along with all the prana stored inside its source.

My body feels reinvigorated as I feel the power flow into my body. Hm?

“!!!!”

I feel my body burns in intense purgatory as I gasped for breath while rolling on the ground. My hand flail all over the place it can reach as I try to relieve myself of the burning feeling inside my body.

This energy actually gives such a heavy burden to my body!!

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I can feel it burns my flesh…. No, accurately, it’s burning the prana veins inside my body!

Theoretically speaking, prana flows from the source to every single inches of the body through the veins scattered all over the body.

The limbs, the head, neck, torso, it was practically scattered everywhere, making an infrastructure that supports prana based motions like mudra and the like.

Put in simpler terms, just imagine it like the body is a robot, while the prana veins is the cable that distributes the power to move it.

It works more complicatedly when one tries to cast mudra but generally, skipping the process when one cast mudra, that is how it is.

But just because I can understand this much, it doesn’t relieve me of this pain!

Gaaaaaaahh!!!!!!!

I continued to roll on the dirty ground, writhing in agony as I tried to endure the burning torture this foreign prana pressed onto me.

But, as I writhe in agony on the ground, I feel a surge of warm energy coming from my chest. Accurately, from the heart. It undulated like heartbeat in my chest, and then slowly but comfortably circled around my prana veins.

The foreign prana I received from the absorption was finally subdued by this strange energy coming from my heart, and then it gradually seeped deep into my marrows, enforcing my veins.

“Ah, so that is how it is.” I lightly muttered as I comprehended the happening in my body just now as I try to calm my breathing.

Using a mathematics analogy, if a human’s prana is symbolized with the variable X, and the body Y, and the soul Z, a void creature’s prana is P while its body is Q and its soul R.

A totally different entity between the two sides.

Even so, there is still harmony between X and Y and Z, and between P and Q and R. of course, it is because the two resides in the same shell from birth. Depending on the quality and stability of equilibrium of harmony between the three variables will the result of one’s talent in prana usage differs.

Although there are rare cases like mine where the equilibrium of harmony between the three variables is distorted, it can be roughly generalized that way.

In my case, although the harmony between my prana and my body with my soul is nil, it seems my soul had no distinctive reaction I can spot as my prana and body merges with this foreign prana which is not suitable for me in the first place.

That is the reason why I was writhing in agony just now. Because in the infrastructure where the equilibrium of harmony between X, Y, and Z, a foreign variable that is P which has no harmony with the three or maybe two variables (excluding my soul since there is no reaction whatsoever) entered and tried to merge, which incites the reaction.

However, what about that warm energy surging from Asya’s heart?

I wonder if Asya’s heart had a certain mystery in it.

Or rather, does it relate with Shiori’s objective?

If that is so, then I will guard it with all I have.

Even if I were to die, I will make sure to destroy my heart in my last breath.

Stop. In this delighting moment, I think I shouldn’t stain it with thoughts of wariness, hatred and revenge towards Shiori.

As I breathe the fresh air around me, I focused myself to throw away this thought and concentrated again towards the reality in front of me.

I proceeded to absorb all the prana residing inside the remaining corpse as my heart was dancing in happiness.

Although it didn’t increase my overall prana quantity, it strengthens my prana veins and parts of my body as it seeped deep into my marrows.

No. maybe it’s not strengthening my body, it helps my body build the ability to adapt with this foreign prana.

Although it is indeed painful in the process, the sensation I feel when it’s done was…… heavenly.

Well, how much improvement I gained will eventually be shown when I fight with void creatures again.

Hmm….

From this experiment, I can conclude one thing.

If you were to absorb prana from human corpses, you will only get prana and nothing more. Since their mudras, and their battle prowess are not linked to the prana they have.

But void creatures are different.

They are capable of using peculiar moves and tricks that belongs only to them because their unique prana had been processed in such a way by their body somehow, which then creates a certain phenomenon they then use in combat or other situations.

For example, the wolves just now.

Although with my body that time, I was able to cope with their encirclement, it doesn’t mean they are not fast. Rather, for an animal that big, it was actually amazing that an animal can have that much stamina to move their body that agile.

And not only that, from the way they move, it can be concluded they have, one way or the other, a method of communication.

It can stem from their adaptability in hunting in packs, or they might have things like telepathy.

But both possibilities are not my concern right now so it is fine not to think about it too much.

This much, i can conclude from absorbing their raw prana directly. The next is eating their flesh.

I reached out the meat I front of me and take a bite to see how my body reacted.

“Uuuuu!”

Freaking hard, this meat!!!

After struggling to have one mouthful, I finally chewed crazily on the meat in my mouth.

Ugh, how nasty…..

My palm tightly clenched the meat as I try to forcibly chew and swallow this raw meat smearing with blood.

I gritted my teeth as I try to forcibly suppress the urge to vomit swelling in my gut. After having swallowed the first bite, I continued to chew another mouthful of meat, still smearing with blood. The blood odor sharply stings my enhanced olfactory senses, but I ignored that disgusting sensation as I proceed to eat.

After a few mouthful, I feel the sensation that my gut is full of meat and blood. I stopped eating after swallowing the last mouthful inside my mouth, and rested easy while I let my stomach digest the food.

………

“!!!!!!!”

As expected. It hurts!

I once again writhe in agony as I roll on the ground, enduring the sensation of my insides being devoured by something. The devouring sensation spreads from my gut, slowly but surely as my body corrodes from the inside bit by bit till it reached every corners of my body.

Even I cannot withstand the pain of every inches of my insides being corroded to this extent. However, I still tried to cling hard onto my last wisp of consciousness as I lay limply on the ground, staying still like a log.

If someone were to see the state I am in right now, they might get the impression that I am currently on my last breath.

Well, they are not wrong.

In this round of digestion, I’m not sensing any surge of energy from my heart. Could it be that it doesn’t react to this phenomenon?

No, it is reacting. But instead of repelling this devouring sensation, it is more accurate to say that Asya’s heart gives me the necessary life force to withstand this corrosion.

If that is so, I can only grit my teeth in endurance as I fight to cling onto my consciousness as it dimmed again and again. It feels like I’m being eaten by the darkness I feel in my consciousness.

15 minutes passed.

30 minutes passed.

After about an hour passed, the corrosion finally started to quiet down and then completely stopped after having passed another 10 minutes.

I breathe cool air as I recalled the peril I had just overcome.

That was painful….. And dangerous…

However, I can feel the results directly in my body after regaining my focus.

I can feel my body overflowing with strength, incomparable to before. But my body felt like it was forged just to withstand this overflowing strength, which then gives me this comfortable feeling like I had just been reborn again.

In human bodies, there is this concept termed as super compensation.

It is a phenomenon where the muscle is burdened under great pressure after rigorous training or motion that it tore the muscle apart. Moments later, this torn muscles will be rebuilt to adapt and withstand the weight it burdened with before, thus bringing improvements in bodily performance.

However, normally speaking it only happens gradually and normally takes 2 to 3 days for one round of super compensation to complete.

Of course there is also the method of intentionally ignoring this recovery period within the super compensation round to achieve greater results, but that’s not the main point so I will skip on that part.

So from that notion, I can conclude that it’s not necessarily lethal to eat this meat, but I can conclude that without sufficient preparation, eating this on a whim can result in death.

After all, the super compensation just now was too dangerous and painful…..

Of course, excluding the quality of the meat aside, the prana that was inside the meat and the meat itself were foreign things that humans simply cannot consume. After all, like my explanation earlier, unlike normal meats, void creature meats bathe in prana from the moment they were born. Thus consuming them would give a substantial shock to the stability of equilibrium of harmony between the three variables. Thus this occurrence is within reason.

The important thing is, my body is being altered in ways that would inherit a bit of their abilities as I absorb their prana. Excluding my overall leap in strength and stamina, I can feel my body being invigorated with power.

Especially, my eyes, ears, and jaws.

Wolves have good sights and hearing, and added with my previous marrow cleansing, I can feel the prana I just absorbed fused with the said parts of my body and enhance it.

Moments later, my hearing becomes even sharper as the sound of gentle breeze grazing the trees and leaves around me becomes clearer, while the light I perceive with my eyes become even more vivid as my eyes scanned the wilderness with renewed details and resolution in my eyes.

I feel that my jaws are brimming with power as I feel the prana seeped into my jaws.I try to open and close my mouth. Hmmm….. It does indeed get stronger too.

Shit.

What is this? Is this prana wants me to live like the wolves and rely on the strength of my jaws or something?

Well, having more strength in my jaws is nothing unbeneficial so I’m not worried about it.

Rather, I think it will help me very much…

After all, I am currently living in this vast wilderness. That means I will have to eat lots of things, be it hard or soft. Having stronger jaws is an advantage.

Rather, it helps me eating more of their flesh!

Nuohohohoho.

With this, I gained another way to improve my body.

All right. From now on, I will begin to gather these meats from those wolves and devour them.

After making sure I can nonchalantly withstand the super compensation I will face from eating their meats I will then change my prey.

The wilderness is vast.

There is no shortage of preys!