‘The Sea God’s Temple, huh. It’s going to be rough. Doable. But rough.’

Ackster had decided on the first step of his grand plan to save his life and, in the process, the world.

But getting to the Sea God’s Temple and taking the Sea God Manual was easier said than done. In the first place, The Hero and his party only discovered it by accident when it got smashed open during a fight with a kraken, so Ackster only knew its general location.

At least there should be a couple of years before then, so Ackster would have time to scour the ocean floor for the Temple. Hopefully, he would find it before the kraken showed up or made its nest. Of course, the quicker he found it, the better since it would let him grow stronger faster and move on to the next steps of his plan.

But finding the Temple wasn’t the only obstacle in Ackster’s path.

He had to be strong enough to find it and venture that deep into the ocean. Even if the kraken didn’t show up, there were bound to be loads of other aquatic monsters and beasts with a taste for human flesh.

And fighting underwater to get to the Temple was bound to be a mess.

There was a lot to do before Ackster could tackle the Temple.

Fortunately, he at least knew what to start with. His skills.

At first, when he realized he was in Ackster Phileam’s body and had maintained the original Ackster’s skill, Strong Body, Ackster thought that the skill was not quite omnipotent but very versatile.

So, if he wanted to get stronger, he would simply have to focus on training Strong Body.

But the Nomi card’s display had shown Ackster that Strong Body’s capabilities didn’t exclude the presence of other skills.

Even if Strong Body increased his natural resistance to poison, there were other skills that did the same. And if Ackster fulfilled the correct conditions, he would be able to learn them as well. It was the same with the Pain Tolerance skill.

Ackster was sure that his body helped him endure pain a little better than if he didn’t have it.

When he thought about it, it wasn’t weird that he got those kinds of supplementary skills in addition to Strong Body. After all, they had relatively simple acquisition conditions.

Resist poison to gain Poison Resistance and tolerate pain to get Pain Tolerance. Simple. It was a little concerning that both were F-ranked, however. And even more so, considering that he had only really experienced both one or two times, especially Poison Resistance.

It had gotten to the F-rank from one dose of the poison goblin’s poison. Without Strong Body and the glade of Sun-kissed Grass, Ackster would have died to it. No doubt about it.

And the pain when he realigned his broken arm was probably enough to get his Pain Tolerance close to F-rank, and then, stabbing himself with a serrated knife, pushed it over the edge.

However, what Ackster found surprising was the [Keen Senses – G].

His strengthened senses should be a part of Strong Body. But, just like with the other two skills, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to acquire that skill on its own as well.

However, Keen Senses had a much higher acquisition difficulty.

Merely straining his ears and looking at intense darkness a couple of times over the span of three days wouldn’t be enough to get the Keen Senses skill. It required training his senses, preferably all of them, and noticing an improvement.

But thanks to Strong Body, Ackster had noticed an improvement almost as soon as he put his mind to it. And, without even using all of his senses, he still got the Keen Senses skill since he used multiple senses.

If he had only used his hearing or sight, he would have gotten something like Keen Eye or Keen Ears.

Ackster liked the skill. Keen Senses would be helpful for the spartan training plan he had in mind, even if it was G-ranked now.

But that wasn’t why he was excited at having acquired it. It was what getting it so easy meant.

Strong Body had helped Acskter acquire Keen Senses in a fraction of the time usually necessary. And if it could do it with Keen Senses, Strong Body would be able to do it with other skills as well.

Ackster would be able to use Strong Body to acquire a bunch of strengthening and supplementary skills that had straightforward but demanding requirements.

He would have to experiment and see what Strong Body could do and what skills it would help him get. But Acskter was already looking forward to it.

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At the moment, he knew Strong Body helped with his senses, metabolism, poison resistance, reflexes, flexibility, strength and muscle development, and recovery. Strong Body might also help him deal with any pain he would experience better. But Ackster wasn’t certain about that part.

Also, if the way Ackster’s body remembered the original Ackster’s movements and body language and quickly adapted to new exercises was any indication, Strong Body was pretty good at learning new tricks. Maybe something like martial arts.

So far, Ackster had only taken advantage of a fraction of Strong Body’s possible capabilities, and he was looking forward to seeing this skill blossom and reveal its full potential. If he was up against The Hero, he would be damned sure that he needed it.

With a decision made, Ackster once again firmed his resolve and walked straight off the dirt road toward the next city south of Degrest.

Following the roads and stopping by the towns to do some proper adventuring business would be the easiest and quickest way for Ackster to get to the coast and find a boat to take him to the Central Isles of Matar while also earning some money.

However, following the roads would make him trackable, and he would get there too quickly.

The danger level rose the closer he would get to Matar. If Ackster weren’t ready to handle it on his own before he arrived, he would drown.

And so, he would begin his spartan training regime now.

Ackster wasn’t, by any means, experienced in the art of training or devising training regimens, especially in other worlds of swords and magic.

However, Ackster had two cards he could put to good use, despite his lacking expertise.

The knowledge he had as a transmigrator who had read the original story and the Nominus Card.

Since the original story centered around The Hero, Acskter didn’t know every little detail there was to know about Millmeria. In fact, The Hero’s story only covered less than a fraction of all of Millmeria’s history, and Ackster felt he was bound to encounter things the original story hadn’t even mentioned in passing.

But the original story had told the readers a great deal about The Hero’s journey and growth. Even if it wasn’t all-encompassing knowledge that Ackster could apply to himself since he and The Hero had different talents, potentials, and opportunities, Ackster could make deductions and work out a somewhat orderly way for himself to grow stronger.

And then, with his Nomi, Ackster could evaluate in real time his methods of training and see what was good and useful and what needed to change. It wouldn’t be perfect. Far from it, in fact. But it would be enough to get Ackster started until he could find someone to help train him.

He had a candidate in mind, but that would probably have to come after the Sea God’s Temple since they should be beyond the Central Isles. Ackster also probably wouldn’t be able to meet them without the Sea God’s Manual and the strength it would hopefully give him. Even then, it probably would only be enough to get a visit, not guarantee tutorship.

But that was a matter for the future.

At the moment, Ackster had to focus on his training, which would begin with pushing himself to his utmost limit in every aspect possible.

As he imagined what he was going to put himself through, Ackster almost began dreading the consequences of his choice. Only the thought of The Hero from the original story and his strength at the end, and the fact that Ackster would have to fight him, motivated Ackster to go through with his method.

After leaving the trail and walking while in deep thought for a while, Ackster stopped, and he gradually realized that he wasn’t lost. He could quite easily feel that he would find his way back to the road if he tried. It could either be because of Strong Body or Keen Senses, but it didn’t matter.

What mattered was that he didn’t have to keep track of the directions by remembering in which cardinal direction the sun rose and whatnot. He just had to focus on training while gradually moving south through the forests, wilderness, and nature that he encountered on his journey.

It was a slight relief since he wouldn’t have the freedom of mind to think about superficially unnecessary things like that while training. But it was like throwing a couple of ice cubes at a bonfire.

Before the bonfire of figurative dread could consume him, Ackster knelt down and opened his bag.

If there were one thing Ackster would absolutely need while he was sticking with his spartan training in the middle of nowhere, it would be a certain skill. He needed to acquire Iron Stomach so that he could eat almost anything whenever he got hungry.

Thankfully, it was a relatively easy skill to acquire. It mostly required an iron will and some persistence. But there was a way to get it even faster as long as one had a necessary prerequisite skill.

Poison Resistance.

With Poison Resistance, Ackster could eat things that would be dangerous to consume and force himself to acquire Iron Stomach even quicker.

And he had just the thing that would get him that skill at a record pace. He just had to be able to force himself to eat them.

Ackster looked into his bag. Unsurprisingly, the first thing he saw was the thing he had brought back along with the Doppelganger Slime.

He didn’t even know what it was since it had been dark, and he hadn’t been in the best of states when he brought it back. He also hadn't looked at it after bringing it back to his room since he was busy with the Doppelganger Slime while it lay inside his bag.

But now, looking at with the light of dawn aiding him, Ackster could confirm that he did not know what he had picked up on a whim. The most he could say was that it was a slime. But he had no idea what kind of slime it was.

It looked lethargic, and the slightly murky grey color wasn’t something Ackster could pinpoint to a specific type of slime. But its shapelessness and sagginess did remind him of the Doppelganger Slime in its dormant state before it woke up and copied Ackster.

He had also found them in the same place, so it wouldn’t be weird if the two were related somehow. But the slime in front of him clearly wasn’t a Doppelganger Slime. If it were, it had to be a unique variant of an already rare variant of slime.

It could also be a failure. Since Doppelganger Slimes were mostly artificial, it wouldn’t be weird if the creation process failed and something not-quite-a-Doppelganger Slime popped out.

Ackster held up the grey slime to the light and inspected it to see if he could find out anything about it based on how it reacted or felt to hold. But it felt like holding a big jellyfish. It was about the same as the Doppelganger Slime, and Ackster had learned nothing about his idle traveling companion.

Sighing, Ackster put aside the slime and fished out what he was really looking for, what would kickstart his journey to great strength and his spartan training.

He grabbed the nasty, stinky goblin fingers he had snapped and taken from the poison goblin’s corpse.