Aren, as an orphan that was being subjected to homelessness. Actually had a pretty good life right now, he had a pretty good body and wasn't starving or dying of thirst. Those were common problems, and having experienced those problems, he wouldn't ever let himself to fall into them again. He knew his luck, and he wouldn't let it be wasted due to things like morals or the whims of others.

Being a mercenary gave him some tax breaks and a bit more leeway in the legal system, on early levels in the guild. In the higher levels you can get complete invulnrability and as a wise man once said 'Fuck taxes'- Aren Hoa, at an unknown time.

So he again cleaned himself, walking around the streets to the training center's. Aren was tired from waking up so early, but it wasn't really a problem. He got nice and awake on his way there, there were some guards, but nothing special. Give the ticket to them so that you can enter, there isn't anything to with bribery because they get payed well and the consequences were dire.

I walked inside and saw a group of people sub-divided into smaller groups, one was in 'poor health' if you said it nicely, one was more healthy, and another was as fit as me. I walked to the last group of the group and blended in, to see if I really was one of them they asked "How do you train?" I said in response, like any martial artist "Sorry but, go fuck yourself." And they let me into the fold, I was respectful but very dismisive on certain topics. That's just martial arts ettequite, be respectful to those you haven't fought yet or have defeated you, Especially the later.

Fun fact, true martial artists don't actually need to take this dumb exam/test. So Aren didn't need to worry about messing with an actual martial artist, and since he's at the top part of the set-up stage he should be fine doing what he wanted within reason. Slowly more and more people entered, Aren started to bring in others and test them. he tried to keep on the forfront, showing himself taking action shows the ability to lead. And most recognized that, even if subconsiously.

The old leader didn't seem to realize that he was the leader at all, seems inexperienced. Aren knew some things about humans, one was; when a group appears, there's someone leading it even if they don't know they do. No clue why or how 'maybe its just in our blood?' That was the best anwser Aren ever came up with in his short life, he was never for the philosophical, thinking of something useful was more his style. Who cares why, it just does.

He'd like to research it, he sees a lot of benefits in it. But he just doesn't have the time, assets or tools he needed to do it. His mindset is, if I do this and this happens consistently then that's how it works.

Anyways after some time a skinny person walked in all domeneering and stuff "Listen up! I'm your examener! Don't you be getting any ideas! I'm a body refinement stage martial artist!" There were murmers all around "Yea! That's right! Now follow me!" He was really confident, that's to be expected. But Aren wasn't scared, he knew more than most, more than most non-true martial artists anyways. And that guy had become a martial artist without any setup, or almost no setup.

You may wonder what the difference is, but its pretty big. Someone like that guy would first, be weaker than others that actually did, and progressed very slowly because his body couldn't handle refinement for long periods of time. The latter was probably the reason he's even here, Aren remembered his dad say that acting as an examinator could get you some pills. He made a mental note of that, it could be useful in the near future.

The 3 groups and the examinator arrived at the training ground, there were a few machines around and courses. The examinator brought Aren and the rest to a machine, it was like a high striker. But where you strike is level with your chest and is facing you, and it seemed to use a pole? There were hooks at the side where the sideways pole would go past, but when it slows down it'll get stuck.

In all honesty, Aren thought he would have to punch a magic block of stone that would tell you the force of your attack "What? Did you expect a measuring stone? Stop kidding yourself, you're not even martial artists." He pointed with his skinny little arm "Attack that point with one of the blunt weapons." He pointed to a few stands with wooden weapons with cloth around the attacking parts "Before you ask, pick one of those."

After some time having people picking up weapons in a disorginized manner, some normie punched the machine. It got three rungs up, he was escorted out of the premises right away. Most people got nervous after that, but Aren, as courageous as he was, stepped forward. He yawned "Let's get this over with." He didn't want to waste time here in awe, he wanted to get the boost in social status that came with the job. He was a sewer rat turned semi-artist, yep, semi-artist, it's slang for someone perparing for a martial arts realm.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Anyways, a mercanary wasn't really a respected profession, but it was a big boost to Aren. And being scared couldn't fit in his already filled schedule, so he walked up and punched it with around half his might. It was pretty obvious he did try that hard, it went up 4 rungs and that's it "Ding, ding, ding. Look! the first person to pass, wow, you must be feeling good about yourself you weakling." He pointed somewhere else, it was a 50m dash track "sadly, strength isn't the only thing you need. Run over the track, some rando will keep your time with a timer."

He pointed at a few people and said "ini mini miny mo, It's you, time him." he pointed at Aren. The guy that was told to time him sighed and took out a pocket watch, then signaled for Aren to come over. When Aren came close he casually said "Do one lap, don't worry I'll time it with this" He showed Aren his pocket watch "It works as a stop watch too." Aren nodded, stood at the start/finish of the circular track.

"Start." Aren ran at a moderate pace, for him. And the finish he arrived at in around 8 seconds, what? Did you expect a gigantic 500 word speech from him about how you should never give up? "You passed, congrats on this minor achievement! Must be feeling real good about yourself, you fuckin' show off!" The Examenator said hartily and saltily 'Must have some kind of memory of barely passing this test, or he has anger issues.' Aren came up with two great hypotheses, the former correct.

Aren got an iron tag and went on his merry way, he wasn't planning on doing any quests for now. This place was a mid-game area, though he didn't know what that really meant. All he really knew was that he was going to be abused in any request until he becomes a martial artist, so he was going to wait until he got to the normal 'level cap' of a semi-artist. Then do some examinations for some disentary pills and refinement pills, you may be wondering 'Disentary pills, like the water shit kind?' Yes, but also no. It also deals in making you pee a river, you again may be wondering 'How could that be usefull?'

Remember what was said a while ago? Flashback; 'After all, impurities are discharged from the body through his human waste.' (Chapter 4). Now, what did the disentary pill do again? Hint, look at the previous paragraph. Ding, ding, ding, you are correct! water shit + making you pee a river! 100 points, but subtraction of 100 points 'cause there's no game show.

Anyways, back at the ol' sect-y doodle of Xu Su. She was finally done with all this setup bullshit, she was at a nice 70-80%. She was behind Aren by about 10%, but she's been taking a break for a day or two. She did have nightmares, but she accepted them. Though she could no longer accept them with them changing into attacking her other insecurities 'frick that other soul.'

She was going to break through and become a martial artist, the body refinement realm, also known as the muscle refinement realm. It isn't that hard to enter it, if you just know what to do. And have a good tolerence for pain if you don't want to waste a half a day sitting around, or you have to buy a pill. Xu Su went with the pill, it's just annoying to do it without the pill.

If you can't get the pill, then that's your problem. Figure it out yourself, git gud scrub. 'Pop the pill into your gullet and take a nice rest, when you wake up you'll be like a new person!', that's the alchemist guild's slogan for the stuff. Works well on more well off young masters, but it has a 50% success rate on average. The best you could get is 80% with it as the highest ever recorded success rate in the world, if you actually went to a higher realm it would probably get to the fabled 99%, 100% if you're very lucky.

Xu Su didn't know a lot about realms and stuff, she was still a teenager. The only reason she even knows about them is that her father is an elder in a sect higher up in the food chain, there should be about 5 layers above it.

She has about 10 pills with her so that's 10 chances. so that's, 50, 75, 87.5, 93.75, 96.875, 96.9375, 96.968-. that goes to a gigantic 99.90234375% chance to succeed in stepping into real body refinement, there's no question to if she broke through in the end right? She's a side character with more importance than usual, a female lead.

After a few pill induced comas Xu Su had entered the body refinement realm, the reason some people call it muscle refinement was that back in the old days, so a few tens of millions of years ago. The people practicing didn't realize that they could do the whole body instead of only the muscles, back then so many people broke their own bones in a single punch. If your bones aren't strong enough while not a intermediate level cultivator, they'll break over too much stress, stress that can be created by your own muscles.

The man that realized that you can refine your bones too was hailed as the greatest genius of the past, present and future. He was able to destroy everything in his wake and became the first man to rule the world, he was able to rule the world with his greatest achievement, breaking through to the body cleansing realm. The first one in history, there was no trick, no pills, only raw talent and luck could do that back then. Though it was said that he got far farther in his elden years, even a legend that he got into cultivation. But those are but fairytales, brought about by his sudden dissapearance when he was in his 60s.

He's still honored with an entire academy in the greatest country, a spiritual successor of his great country, a giant statue in every city a part of the alliance, a world wide holiday, the word meaning great/greater/greatest was replaced with his title's name herald (Said in english), and the addoration of children all around the world for them getting free shit everytime his holiday came around, also the adults, with how you get free from your job in it. His name-

Aren Kingsley.