John respawned in an alleyway. He then took his phone out of his storage space. He pulled up a map and looked for the nearest highway. The battery on his phone was running low.
He then went full stealth mode. His suit turned from white to black.
He noticed that a special forum for apocalypse fanatics had an address for their bunker. It was a large project that was initially funded by the government incase of nuclear fallout.
John entered the address into the GPS and found that it was quite far for him. Too far to walk. It also was dangerous now. With mutants everywhere. Not to mention you had chances of running into literal gods.
He went to the highway and jumped in front of cars. He died a few times, but eventually one person stopped. He smashed the window. Threw them out the car and stole it.
He then drove to a spot about five kilometers away from the shelter.
He abandoned the car and ran the rest of the way. His disguise disappeared.
He was surprised to see that there was a line of people waiting to get into the shelter. They were doing physical examinations to make sure the person wasn't 'infected'.
They also did a background check to make sure the person wasn't a criminal.
John spent about an hour in line. Then it was his turn. He passed as a normal human.
John was surprised these people didn't go insane. They were outside after all. But then he noticed that all of them were avoiding looking at the sky. They all had their heads down. Some of them even had their eyes closed.
A manager of the bunker noticed something weird about John. He thought he seemed a little too casual. He didn't seem worried about the future at all. Everyone in the line had lost family members to insanity or attacks from other humans.
They also all had their heads down to avoid looking at the sky. Yet this person didn't seem concerned about their safety at all.
They thought this person was a little weird.
John set a waypoint outside of the shelter. He was told that they wouldn't be opening up the shelter doors after everyone had been admitted until the crisis was over. There was a built in ecosystem inside. As well as a warehouse stocked with cans of food.
As well as fresh fish and multiple greenhouses.
There was even a pool, arcade, library and gym.
John was given some rations which he gave away. He had food for himself in his storage space. He wasn't worried about food.
It was quite peaceful inside. There was a privacy problem though. Due to hosting so many people. He had to share a room with 20 other people in bunkbeds.
There were thousands of people in this shelter. So nobody really complained.
The shelter was sealed airtight and had life support systems to ensure people didn't suffocate.
But John was hoping to find a private spot to practice.
Despite being sealed tightly. The aura went though materials. So there was still aura in the shelter.
"Fuck it..."
He began to meditate and focused on creating his new cultivation method.
So first he imagined yin and yang... He visualized them and had them spin. He had done something similar when making his soulverse. But back then, he was using his ability to manipulate soul. Right now, he was just a normal person.
Could a normal person create their own cultivation system? Yes! But it would just be theoretical. Just like how someone can write about someone with powers without ever experiencing it themselves.
John felt no feedback.
So he changed his approach.
He meditated without trying to focus on the end result. He cast away his desire to create a cultivation method. He looked at his thoughts like floating clouds.
He then entered a state of flow.
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At first people bothered him. Taking him out of this magical state. But he did not become angry. They did it with good intentions. They didn't want him to die from dehydration or starve to death.
But he told them he would be fine and not to disturb him.
He then entered meditation again.
He entered a state of flow that was uninterrupted for an entire week. He didn't take a single break. He amazed the people that shared a room with him. Nobody dared to bother him.
Name: Johnathan Time
Age: 19
Strength: 2.5
Dexterity: 3
Constitution:11
Perception:3
Energy:20
Skills: ["Lvl3 Iron Finger", "Lvl3 Iron Skin", "Lvl4 Fitness", "Lv1 Meditation"]
He had gained another skill! But he didn't stop. He meditated for a month without moving. A blood clot formed in his legs and was shot into his brain killing him on the spot.
(You have died! Do you wish to respawn? Y/N)
He respawned.
After a month of progress. He had a breakthrough.
Name: Johnathan Time
Age: 19
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 6
Constitution:20
Perception:10
Energy:50
Skills: ["Lvl3 Iron Finger", "Lvl1 Body Tempering", "Lvl4 Fitness", "Lv3 Meditation", "Lv1 Cultivator"]
His iron skin skill had evolved into a body tempering skill. He clicked it to look at the specific details. He was pleasantly surprised. His skill from his first world he had traveled to was indeed recognized. All it took to evolve was for him to awaken.
He mentally clicked the body tempering and a window popped up:
{Name: "Body Tempering", Level: 1, Data: {
Lv1: {Name: "Skin Refinement", Stage: [leather, mud, iron, diamond]},
Lvl2: {Name: "Skeletal Refinement": Stage: [copper, jade, iron, fairy]},
Lv3: {Name: "Organ Tempering", Stage: [blood_shielding, membrane, calcification, fusion]},
},
Stage: Skin_Refinement,
Progress: 75%
}
He could see from this that he was still only at level one of body tempering. The first stage had four stratums. You had leather, mud, iron, and the legendary diamond.
Through his previous training. He had already reached the iron level. This is why his progress was at 75%. He was currently still at level one. But his progress had progressed to the iron stratum.
Once he brought his body to 100%. He would advance a level and restart at 0% progress. Because the skill was recognized by the system. It meant he didn't need to follow the same exact training he had done before. Simply taking damage could help him progress. His progress would be consistent.
That wasn't all either.
Something interesting had happened. He could see a white circle in his minds eye. It didn't disappear either.
He browsed his minds eye and zoomed in on the white circle. Inside of it was a vortex of aura. It seems that the 'dantian' in this system doesn't exist in a physical sense. It instead is intangible and in the minds eye.
"This should be around the Qi Condensation level."
Everyone was surprised that John was still alive. As he hadn't eaten or drunken anything in over a month.
He stood up and his vision went out.
He almost fell down as his legs had become numb.
John waved his hands and could feel the aura following his commands. He soon was panting and out of breath. But he had did it! He could manipulate the aura. Just like when he was foundation establishment and formed dao pillars. He could form multiple vortex's of aura in his dantian.
The system may be intangible. But the benefits of cultivating were obvious.
"Now I just need to try doing techniques."
John hadn't heard any news for over a month of his 'seclusion'.
He took out his phone from his storage dimension and was about to check out the situation. But his phone happened to be dead.
So he took out a charger from his storage dimension and looked for an outlet.
He frowned though as there wasn't one in the room. So he left and looked for an outlet.
There weren't too many outlets available. So John went to the arcade and unplugged one of the machines that nobody was using. He then sat down on the ground and plugged up his phone.
He surprisingly still had a connection.
He looked at various news outlets. But what he found was a bit depressing. Most of them hadn't updated anything in weeks. It seemed the staff had abandoned the company in order to survive.
It also wasn't noticeable since he was in a shelter. But the temperature outside was dropping to unsafe levels.
This was due to eldritch entities floating in the atmosphere blocking off the sunlight.
There were people outside the shelter banging on the gate. Trying to get in. But the shelter was sealed. Even with enhanced strength, they weren't able to break the gate. It had been designed to withstand explosions after all.
After John's phone was fully charged. He put it in his storage space and went to the pool. He wasn't alone as there were around 15 others swimming and socializing.
John was now capable of manipulating aura.
So he concentrated it on his feet and attempted to run across the water. He didn't even change his clothes into swimming wear.
He successfully took a single step on the water, but then his next step. He collapsed into the water.
It took so much energy out of him that he almost drowned afterwards.
He was saved by the lifeguard.
"Hmm... I tire too easily from just manipulating a tiny bit of aura. I need to build up my cultivation level."
It was physically exhausting to manipulate aura.
So John planned to build up his tolerance level.