He then closed the system interface and slept for only two hours.
When he woke up, he felt fully refreshed as though he had slept a full night—thanks to his high vitality stat.
He then took a moment to complete his morning routine and put on his clothes before returning to bed. “System, show me the leaderboard from when it first appeared,” he said.
[Global Level Leaderboard (Earth Origin World Only)]
Date: 24 June 2025, 00:00:00
1: Spear Supremacy - Tier 1, Level 25
2: Stephanie Thompson - Tier 1, Level 23
3: I’m Famous - Tier 1, Level 20
4: Xavier White - Tier 1, Level 18
5: Jennifer - Tier 1, Level 15
6: ??? (You) - Tier 1, Level 10
7: Anonymous - Tier 1, Level 9
8: Lucas Walker - Tier 1, Level 8
9: Elizabeth - Tier 1, Level 7
10: Anonymous - Tier 1, Level 7
…]
[You are currently in 6th position. Please choose a name, or you can remain anonymous.]
‘Hmm, should I go anonymous or not? No, I’ll just put my name—I have no reason to hide. It’s not like I’m in some cultivation novel where I play the pig to eat the tiger,’ he thought with a smirk.
After entering his name, he checked the updated leaderboard out of curiosity, wondering if its release would make people focus more on leveling to gain ‘fame.’
[Global Level Leaderboard (Earth Origin World Only)]
Date: Current Time: 25 June 2025, 02:10:08
1: Spear Supremacy - Tier 1, Level 38
2: Stephanie Thompson - Tier 1, Level 34
3: Xavier White - Tier 1, Level 33
4: Jennifer - Tier 1, Level 30
5: I’m Famous - Tier 1, Level 28
6: Alice - Tier 1, Level 27
7: Liam - Tier 1, Level 24
8: Elizabeth - Tier 1, Level 23
9: Anthony Brown - Tier 1, Level 22
10: Lucas Walker - Tier 1, Level 22
…
139: Mikael Angelini - Tier 1, Level 10]
‘Damn, the leveling pace is insane! It’s a bit disappointing when you think about it. I can’t be sure about everyone, but it’s clear that many people on the leaderboard are probably leveling just to climb the ranks and get attention.’
‘And that’s pretty disappointing. It means that a large portion of Earth’s so-called “strongest” are just people chasing fame… it’s really, well, disheartening.’
‘In just one day, I dropped from 6th place to 139th, but I don’t care about that because I recently had a thought that convinced me: skills are more important than raw stats.’
‘Think about it—if you want to be strong enough to, say, destroy a mountain with a punch, and you start with the assumption that a mountain weighs at least one billion tons (likely more), you’d need around 10 billion in your strength stat alone. And that’s not even considering destroying a planet or anything more.’
‘So yeah, this realization confirmed my decision to focus on improving my skills, even if it means being weaker in terms of pure stats. I’ll just ignore the leaderboard like I originally thought—it doesn’t affect me, so I should stick to my training and focus on that alone.’
He decided to begin his training with body refining. After all, he now had a stronger race and the Training System, so his refinement should be more effective.
He sat on the wooden floor wearing only his underwear. ‘Body refining is going to be tough and will make me sweat. If I keep my clothes on, I’ll just soak them for no reason.’
After this thought, he reread the booklet on body refining, then adjusted his position into the lotus posture and took an orc core between his hands. He started breathing in the pattern described in the booklet.
He closed his eyes, inhaled through his nose while counting to four, then exhaled for the next four seconds. He repeated this cycle several times before reciting the mantra:
‘I am refining my body.’
‘I am my body, and my body is me.’
‘I train my body for myself and only for myself.’
‘I choose to brave the pain to become stronger.’
‘My goal is a qualitative upgrade.’
‘I choose level 2 of body refining.’
He followed the same process as last time, except now he selected level 2 of body refining.
As soon as he finished the mantra, he felt a mix of extreme discomfort and mild pain, like an intense itch affecting his entire body. But Mikael endured it without much trouble; after all, compared to a broken bone, this was minor, and in comparison to changing race… well, that was in a league of its own.
He continued the breathing cycle for the next 15 minutes before he thought, ‘This level is manageable for me—let’s try level 3.’
He repeated the mantra but selected level 3 this time.
When he activated it, he felt a sharp pain—like stubbing his toe on furniture, except it affected his entire body. Mikael gritted his teeth but endured it for 30 minutes before stopping.
He let out a breath, frowning. ‘Not a single gain after 30 minutes? Seems like body refining is tough. I’ll just take a short break before moving on to level 4. It won’t be pleasant, but as they say, no pain, no gain.’
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Ten minutes later, he was ready to continue his training. He wasted no time and immediately started with level 4.
Immediately, Mikael felt pain comparable to receiving small cuts all over his body, making him grit his teeth and clench his fists.
He grunted softly in pain but continued to endure. After 20 minutes, he was close to stopping.
‘No, I need to keep going. Stopping now won’t help me grow faster! I’ll push through until it’s been 30 minutes—no less.’
True to his resolve, he endured until the 30 minutes were up before finally stopping and collapsing onto the floor, breathing deeply from the exhausting ordeal.
‘I’ll just rest on this nice floor for the next ten minutes before trying body refining again,’ he thought as he lay sprawled out on the ground.
Ten minutes later, he got up with difficulty and resumed his sitting position. ‘If I want my body refining to be more effective, I'll need to increase the difficulty level. But honestly, I don’t think I can endure level 5, given how the pain has been increasing,’ he thought. ‘Instead, I'll focus on enduring level 4 for longer periods.’
Having decided, he immediately resumed body refining at level 4.
Time passed steadily. Mikael would refine his body for as long as he could endure before taking a short ten-minute break, only to return to it afterward. Each time, he pushed himself to last a little longer.
After eight hours of training, he could endure up to 50 minutes at level 4 before the pain became unbearable. Of course, he didn’t just improve his pain tolerance; he also made significant progress in body refinement.
[Body Refining Technique: Tier 0, Level 3 Skill
Description: This D-rank body refining technique from Aedris enables the user to refine their body using quantitative or qualitative methods. Efficiency depends on multiple factors discussed in the technique’s guide. This skill affects all physical stats (STR, AGI, END, VIT, PER) but does not affect spiritual stats.
Current Progress:
Quantitative +0 stats
Qualitative Stats Value: 1.00 → 1.03]
Throughout his refining process, Mikael noted each incremental improvement and concluded that, given his talent and level 4 intensity, he could gain a 0.01 qualitative stats increase every two hours of body refining.
After this lengthy, grueling session, Mikael took another shower, given he was covered in sweat. Once out of the bathroom, he found himself bored. Without internet access, reading was enjoyable but got repetitive, especially as his only hobby.
He asked, “System, is it possible to have internet access in my apartment?”
[Certainly! We can provide high-quality internet access in your apartment for a modest fee of 100 LP per month.
Note: Payment will be taken at the start of each month (Earth time).]
Mikael sighed but responded, “Fine, take my LP; I’ll pay for the internet connection.”
[Transaction complete.]
He took out his phone, which had been practically useless without an internet connection, and thought, ‘It’s impressive that they can provide internet access from such a distance—or maybe even another dimension, who knows. I don’t know why, but this small convenience, compared to everything else it can do, actually surprises me!’
He spent some time watching YouTube videos, snacking, and drinking water, appreciating the much-needed relaxation.
While relaxing in bed, Mikael thought, ‘What now? Body refinement is great and all, but it isn’t the most time-efficient approach—at least not right now. Eight hours of painful training for only a 3% strength increase… yeah.’
‘Alternatively, I think my best option is to focus on maxing out my skills. I can't evolve them to the next tier yet since I don’t have the [Skill Evolving System], and I’m not interested in spending LP on it right now.’
He glanced at his skill progress:
[Unarmed Martial Arts Mastery Tier 0 Level 1, Progress: 79%]
[Footwork Mastery Tier 0 Level 2, Progress: 22%]
[6th Sense Tier 0 Level 1, Progress: 22%]
[Swordsmanship Mastery Tier 0 Level 3, Progress: 72%]
[Body Refining Tier 0 Level 3, Progress (Not activated)]
‘My skills have come a long way since the beginning. I think I should focus on the 6th Sense skill first before leveling up the others. With 2K LP available, if I set aside 500 as backup, that leaves me with 1.5K LP to use for training.’
‘From that 1.5K, I’ll allocate 600 LP to the 6th Sense skill and 300 LP each to the other skills, except body refining, which levels up differently and requires the C-rank technique from Aedris for progress.’
After deciding, he left his apartment and arrived at the Hub. He then directed his thoughts to the Records. “Records, I’d like to allocate 600 LP to training my 6th Sense skill.”
[The two most relevant options for now are:
A trainer with a low-level magical teaching ability for 100 LP per hour.
A top-tier human trainer without magical abilities for 25 LP per hour.]
‘Right, I remember—the magical teaching ability requires four times the price but is twice as efficient.’
“Records, I’d like to go with the trainer who has low-level magical teaching ability. I’ll schedule six hours of training for my 6th Sense skill, followed by three hours each for unarmed martial arts, footwork, and swordsmanship.”
[Transaction confirmed -1.5K LP]
Mikael entered the training room as usual.
Bang.
There, he saw Kiara punching a heavy bag, circling around it and striking with a focused expression. Her intense gaze combined with her medieval-style armor gave her the look of a fierce but beautiful warrior.
She was so absorbed in her training that she didn’t notice Mikael’s arrival.
“Kiara,” Mikael called.
Her ears twitched cutely, and she slowly turned around in apparent disbelief. When she saw him, a smile brightened her face, lighting up the entire room.
“MIKAEL!” she yelled, before charging at him with surprising speed. She collided with him in a powerful hug, sending him flat on his back.
Kiara kept holding onto him, refusing to let go.
Now lying on his back with Kiara hovering above him, Mikael met her gaze as she looked at him darkly and asked, “Why did you leave me alone for four whole days?”
He felt a chill at her intense expression but kept his composure and answered calmly, “Sorry, I was caught up in another world and couldn’t return sooner.”
Kiara visibly relaxed upon hearing his explanation, but she continued, “Why were you stuck in that world?”
“I got injured while in Aedris, and the system wouldn’t let me leave until I healed. Well, technically, I could’ve left, but it would have cost me a 20,000 LP fine, which I couldn’t afford.”
Kiara froze, her bangs falling to cover her eyes. In a low, calm voice, she asked, “Who hurt you?”
Behind her bangs, her eyes turned lifeless as dark thoughts filled her mind. ‘They hurt him? I’ll make them pay. No, killing them would be too easy. I’ll torture them until they beg for death. Or better yet, I’ll capture them and keep them in eternal torment. That would be a fitting punishment for daring to hurt my Mikael.’
Unaware of her thoughts, Mikael replied, “Oh, it was an orc chief. He ended up a lot worse than I did, though, so it worked out.”
Kiara responded with a harmless smile, but her true thoughts remained a mystery.
Mikael, noticing she wasn’t moving, spoke up. “Uh, Kiara, I need to get up.”
Reluctantly, Kiara pulled her legs back and stood, allowing him to rise.
Once he was up, he continued, “So, you’re hitting the punching bag when I’m not around? Training or just a hobby?”
“I can’t really improve specific skills, so training doesn’t do much for me. I just do it because it’s a nice pastime.”
Mikael paused, considering her words, then asked, “I have a question—a bit personal. Mind if I ask?”
“Of course! You can always ask.”
“I’m curious—you said you can’t improve by training, but your skill in martial arts is clearly better than mine. How does that work?”