"Who cares?" He began dragging the first lump through his channels. But the problem arose when he was halfway through dragging the second one.

Alexander felt as though he was dragging raw, rough-textured mud through his channels. The weight, or rather the size of the lump, seemed to grow or his channels were shrinking; he couldn’t tell. But it was easy to guess.

Yet Alexander did not complain as he dragged it against the pain to his golden Dantian, adding another point to his strength.

The pain intensified while dragging the next lump through the channels. He wanted to scream in agony. But the real pain came when he deposited all three lumps and the pulse spread through his body.

He felt as if his body was on the verge of bursting. Looking down, he noticed the veins all over his body bulging, as if straining against a dam; his eyes were bloodshot, and his skin was pink and swollen, as if it were about to rupture.

Alexander felt something as he wiped his nose with the back of his palm, and he saw a small amount of blood as his eyes widened.

"Just as I thought," the voice echoed from his depths.

"What do you mean?" Alexander asked immediately, fear and panic evident in his tone.

"No need to get alarmed. You see, there is another thing I did not tell you."

"How many things did you not tell me?" Alexander asked, annoyance and frustration creeping into his voice.

"Well, this is not a normal cultivation path, so what did you expect? With it, you can soar very quickly, but it's not without its limitations." The voice paused, organizing its words.

Alexander gulped hard but did not say anything as sweat dripped from his forehead.

"Well, if I were to explain this in one word, your body has hit its limit," the voice continued again. "To be honest, you can cram in one more level, but after that, your body will probably burst."

Alexander waited for some time with his hand on his chin. "I think I have an idea, but can you explain in more detail?"

"Open your stats screen," the voice commanded.

Alexander did as he was told and opened his status screen.

Name: Alexander

Race: Human

Level: 4

Exp: 0/220

Strength: 12

*Perception: ___

*Dexterity: ___

………………

"Now try expanding it."

Alexander, almost with trembling hands, pressed the ……………., with a mental nudge, of course. And it expanded.

*Agility:

*Constitution: 2

*Intelligence:

*Vitality:

A smile spread across Alexander’s face as he saw the full status screen, but he soon frowned towards a particular thing in the status screen, well actually two particular things on the screen.

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"Isn't the two of them, the same thing, dexterity and agility, I mean. And how is there…."

"shhh!" Before Alexander could complete his sentence, the voice made a sound as if sucking in air. "What sacrilege! How the hell are you my descendant? Dexterity and agility are two completely different stats."

Alexander rolled his eyes at its antics. "Doesn't both of them make you faster or something?"

"Boy, shut your trap before divine judgment falls upon you."

Alexander was about to roll his eyes once again, but the voice continued, this time with a normal yet solemn tone.

But after some minutes of incessant talking, Alexander had to force himself to listen. Sentences poured out of the voice as if an ancient dam had just burst.

But, Alexander understood what he was trying to say, the gist of it at least. Apparently, dexterity is like a weapon sense of sorts. Its main effect concerns one's coordination and connectedness; it mainly affects precision and coordination. It reflects one's fine motor skills and ability to perform delicate tasks with speed and accuracy. But that wasn't the most important, as training will be better for improving accuracy and coordination rather than dumping points in this. According to the voice, the main function of dexterity was something else. It was related to coordination and perfection, so, it helps shorten skill activation time, which was akin to shortening the time for technique.

Alexander was kind of amazed; he had never heard anything like it.

On the other hand, agility boasted a more conventional nature; its prowess lay in enhancing nimbleness, reflexes, and an array of swift movements. It facilitated rapid reactions and a myriad of other dynamic responses. While it did contribute somewhat to speed, akin to dexterity, its influence in that regard was modest at best, as so was the influence of dexterity.

According to the voice, speed primarily depended on his strength and constitution.

"Not only that, every stat has far more use than just its name might suggest, and some of them even work together or against each other. Like constitution, strength, and vitality combined affect your health, on the other hand constitution in some cases hinder or help agility and dexterity, but in this case not vice versa. It's all very complex, but don’t worry; I will tell you when you need to know," the voice concluded after seeing Alexander in deep thought.

"By the way, why is there a 2 beside constitution? I do not remember dumping any points into that."

"Oh! That. In that paper, from where you got me, I had one drop of my specially prepared blood stored. Throughout the ages, it lost its power both from the erosion of time and from keeping the pattern safe and functional."

Before the voice could finish, Alexander chimed in, "Do you mean all that bloodstain on the paper was from your one drop?"

"No, no… What do you take me for? I sealed the blood inside it; there was no way I am going to tarnish the sanctity of something that could be considered my legacy. The blood you saw was from the fools who attempted to wield its power by spilling their blood onto the paper like mere simpletons," the voice said with irritation.

"Anyway, as I was saying, fortunately, I prepared that drop with much care, and it held until today. When the array activated, along with everything else, that blood too was injected into you."

"Injected?"

"Yeah, it’s a bit complicated. I have created a real-life litRPG system after all," the voice said with pride.

"You will understand in due time. As it entered your body, it unleashed a torrent of energy, and I chose to channel it into fortifying your constitution. And, of course, the energy you utilized to forge your strength Dantian also originated from this source."

"Is there any left, for free level up I mean?" Alexander asked with anticipation.

"Well there is but you cannot directly use it. Not only do you need to upgrade your constitution your body needs to be in a constant state of drain as well, more on that later."

"So why is there a * mark beside it, and why is it still transparent? Is this one active?" Alexander questioned back without wasting a single breath.

"Haaah!" the voice sighed again. "Well, that's the thing."

"How many things are there?" Before the voice could finish, Alexander said in frustration.

"Many, there are many; just listen to me for now. I forcibly upgraded your body. Maybe it’s more apt to say that I wasted a huge amount of power, or rather qi, to upgrade your constitution. But unfortunately, this can only be done once. Think of it like an impartment of sorts. Now…" The voice paused as if about to drop a bombshell.

"Now what?" Alexander asked in confusion.

"Well, now your body has hit its limit, and you need to upgrade it, as per normal. Like body cultivators, you have that in this era, right?"

"Yeah, we do. But they are surely rare, so much so that I doubt that you will find one in the entire city."

The voice paused as if pondering. "How big is the city?"

"Well, let me think. It's roughly the size of a country from your era. To give you a clearer context, there are only seven cities in the entire world. In between, there is only the wilds and the ocean, and from what I heard, the capital is as big as a continent from your times."

"Oh! Impressive. Anyway, body cultivation is not only ancient and inconvenient but also outrageously hard, not to mention it's also inferior. But the real problem is, unlike me, you do not have any, I mean, any kind of talent in body cultivating."

"So can I not do body cultivation at all? Do I need to be in level 4 or 5 for the rest of my life? If that is the case, what's the point of this system? Is there any alternative?....." The panic was evident in Alexander’s ensuing questions as he felt his last chance slip through the cracks.

"Come down, calm down, boy. Though body cultivation or body tempering is inferior to normal cultivation, it has one benefit that normal cultivation cannot compete with."

"And that is?"

"Anyone can practice body tempering, but as you do not have any talent for it, we will have to use a lot of resources to actually make it work."

Alexander contemplated for a while and then said, "So do I have to constantly find and use rare treasures to upgrade my constitution to keep up with my level ups?"

"Kind of, yeah. But, and don’t worry, this time the 'but' is good; once you reach a certain level of constitution, your constitution stat will be unlocked, and that is when the brilliance of my system or the cultivation method comes in, and you can dump points in that to upgrade your constitution," the voice stated this time with pride and smugness.

"So which point should I reach to get that feature?" Alexander asked, contemplating.

"Unfortunately, I cannot tell you that. Actually, it works something like this: through continuous upgrades of your body, it reaches a certain point where you can utilize my method and not burst into a million pieces. It's when you will be able to create a constitution Dantian of sorts. But the fact is, everyone’s condition is different, so I have no idea when it’s going to unlock. But you can be reassured; whenever it does, the system will notify you immediately, as it's continuously scanning your body or would it be more apt to say running through your body and soul. Ah! Who knows, it's been so long I forgot."

After some pause, the voice said again, "Oh, by the way, I have no idea how it actually works, so you will follow the same method as used for body tempering as me, with a little deviation."

Alexander pondered deeply but remained silent, his brows furrowed, as if hesitating.

"Boy, no matter what you think, nothing in this world comes for free. My method or the system might offer some assistance, but that's all it is. It can illuminate a path or perhaps even carve it out for you in certain cases, but ultimately, you have to traverse it yourself, whether it leads through a verdant meadow or a thorny thicket."

The voice paused, its weighty words hanging in the air like a heavy fog. "And if you lack that resolve," it continued, "I am sad to say it, but you will never transcend anything beyond average."

The word hit a nerve, "I understand. What do I have to do?" Alexander's demeanor shifted from hesitation to resolute determination.