“Ha, ha, ha.” Elijah was sprawled out on the ground, staring at the sun high in the sky as he gasped for air.
“Get up, you can still fight,” Elder Jeb commanded.
“Fuck you,” Elijah replied.
A day had passed since Elijah, with the help of Caleb, created his first badge. After he finished completing the first badge, Elijah didn’t do much for the rest of the day. He focused on providing the village core with astral energy, issuing quest and used his astral energy to create badges. But today, Elijah decided to change his daily schedule.
Elijah didn’t want to place all his attention on the badges, the village core, quests, and increasing his cultivation level. Elijah wanted to focus on increasing his combat ability and his general fighting ability as well. To do so, he would need a sparring partner. Without hesitation, Elijah chose the strongest person in the village, Elder Jeb, to be his sparring partner.
When Elijah made his decision, he did so with absolute confidence. He knew there was a gap in the stats between himself and Elder Jeb. However, Elijah wasn’t intimidated by the difference.
Facing an opponent stronger than himself ignited Elijah’s fighting spirit. After easily walking all over the goblins, Elijah was ready to fight an opponent that could give him a real challenge. Of course, no matter how difficult the challenge was, Elijah was confident in his ability to overcome it.
Oh boy was he wrong. Although Elijah Supreme Combat skill, improved his attack, defense, instincts and overall combat ability, it failed to help him bridge the gap that existed between Elder Jeb and himself. From the very beginning of the spar, Elijah failed to land a single hit on Elder Jeb.
Maybe Elijah would have better success if he used some of his suppressive abilities. For example, the suppressive ability his ruler specialty granted him, his Supreme Shout skill or Soul Shock skill. All of these things would have given Elijah the opportunity he needed to land a few hits on Elder Jeb.
Unfortunately, Elijah refused to use any abilities other than his Supreme Combat skill. The purpose of the spar was to improve his ability to fight. The Supreme Combat skill improved his ability to learn from the spar, but his other skills would make the entire spar pointless. As Elijah laid on the ground, in his mind, he mentally reviewed how the fight went.
With a sword in his right hand, Elijah stood in front of Elder Jeb who was holding a sword of his own, ready for battle. When Elder Jeb announced the beginning of the spar, Elijah stepped forward and attacked. He unleashed his most powerful and fastest sword strike, but Elder Jeb easily avoided his attack and launched a counterattack.
Whack!
“Don’t overextend yourself.” Elder Jeb spoke after he slapped Elijah’s back with the flat surface of his sword.
You have received -6 (-60) damage.
Pain erupted in Elijah’s mind. Although the attack did not deal a lot of damage, Elijah still felt a great deal of pain. While frowning Elijah did his best to adjust himself before continuing the spar. When he began approaching Elder Jeb again, Elijah slowly stepped forward and was more cautious.
Whack!
“Don’t be too cautious. Remember, you’re wielding a sword.”
Gritting his teeth Elijah did his best to push away the annoyance he felt. Whether the feeling of annoyance stemmed from the pain he felt, or the words Elder Jeb spoke, he wouldn’t say. Once Elijah adjusted himself, he resumed the spar.
Whack!
“Don’t place all your power into one attack. Leave some strength in reserve.
Whack!
“That’s not the proper way to swing a sword.”
Whack!
“Makes sure you plan out your attack. Think about what your opponent is trying to do and how you can take advantage of it.”
Whack!
“Don’t stand and think. Keep moving, this is a battle.”
Whack!
WHACK!
WHACK!
The repeated abuse from Elder Jeb left Elijah exhausted. In the end, Elijah allowed himself to fall as he panted from exhaustion with no intentions of getting up. If Elder Jeb wanted to hit a man while he was down, then he was free to do so.
“Don’t be discouraged, you’re doing great. I know you can’t tell, but you’ve improved a lot since we began.”
Looking up, Elijah saw the encouraging expression on Elder Jeb’s face, a few meters away from him, but Elijah wasn’t fooled. He was sure he could see a hint of sadistic pleasure hidden behind Elder Jeb’s eyes. It was clear to see that Elder Jeb wanted his human punching bag to start working again.
The thought of returning to his position as a human punching bag, brought a frown to Elijah’s face. He struggled to understand why he was unable to put up a decent fight. Activating his Supreme Eyes talent, Elijah took another look at Elder Jeb’s stats.
Status
Name: Jeb
Cultivation Level:41
Energy: 86,454/90,300
Race: Human
Cultivation Technique: Unnamed 6, 100%
Specialty:
Sword 50, 100%
Job: Chief 22 (Locked)
Health: 960/ 960
Stamina: 948/960
Mental: 677/690
HR: 0.9/min
SR: 19.2/min
MR: 3.4/min
Attack: 122
Defense: 19
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Stats
Strength: (126) 114
Intelligence: (76) 69
Dexterity: (126) 114
Wisdom: (76) 69
Endurance: (106) 96
Perception: (66) 60
Vitality: (106) 96
Willpower: (66) 60
Free stat points: 0
Talents:
Identify,
Cultivation Skills
Passive: Meditation (L)
Active: None
Specialty Skills
Passive: Basic Sword Mastery (P)
Active: Sword Strike (P)
Job Skills
Passive: None
Active: None
Titles:
Elder
Status
Name: Eli
Cultivation Level:31
Energy: 47,700/52,800
Race: Human
Cultivation Technique: Supreme Ruler 6, 33%
Specialty:
Ruler 17, 90%
Job: Chief 9, 73%
Health: 756/880
Stamina: 819/880
Mental: 837/880
HR: 0.8/min
SR: 17.6/min
MR: 4.4/min
Attack: 34
Defense: 34
Stats
Strength: 88
Intelligence: 88
Dexterity: 88
Wisdom: 88
Endurance: 88
Perception: 88
Vitality: 88
Willpower: 99
Free stat points: 55
Talents:
Identify, Supreme Will, People’s Language, Supreme Eyes, Limit Breaker
Cultivation Skills
Passive: Supreme Combat (E)
Supreme Speech (I)
Supreme Meditation (I)
Active: Supreme Power (I)
Supreme Shout (I)
Soul Shock (I)
Mirage Step (I)
Specialty Skills
Passive: Ruler’s Presence (E)
Battle Command (I)
Active: Ruler’s Strength (I)
Ruler’s Defense (I)
Job Skills
Passive: Will of the People (I)
War Chief (I)
Active: Heal Minor Wounds (I)
Call to Arms (I)
Titles:
Wilderness Survivor (T), Cultivation Technique Creator
After Elijah looked at Elder Jeb’s status, he brought up his own status page to compare them. This wasn’t the first time Elijah compared the differences between their stats. However, the emotions he felt during the second comparison of their stats, were different from the first.
The first time Elijah saw the difference in stats between himself and Elder Jeb he wasn’t discouraged. He was confident enough, no, he was arrogant enough to believe that he would be able to overcome the gap that existed between them. After being repeatedly beaten by Elder Jeb, Elijah had no choice but to admit that he was wrong.
On his second look at the difference between their stats, Elijah only felt helplessness and frustration. He did everything he could possibly do and was only met with failure. Elijah had failed before, but this failure felt like it was much harder to swallow than the other failures he’s experience. Especially when Elijah remembered that he wasn’t even fighting Elder Jeb at full strength.
Old Age
Effect: Due to growing older, your body can no longer perform as well as it did when you were young. 10% decrease to all stats. 50% decrease to the absorption of astral energy.
Since Elijah received the memories of his future self, he believed he was a person that was destined for greatness. He began comparing himself to the protagonist in the fantasy stories he read. He thought he would be able to overcome all obstacles that blocked his path.
Now, he was forced to face reality. He wasn’t an invincible expert from the stories. He didn’t have the ability to fight cultivators above his level like the main characters in the stories he read. He was simply a regular ordinary cultivator.
Of course, while Elijah was entertaining these depressing thoughts, he conveniently forgot about the fact that he wasn’t even using his full strength. Also, he forgot that he hadn’t assigned all of his free stat points. If he dumped all of his free stat points into strength and dexterity, he would have no problem putting up a decent fight against Elder Jeb.
Although these two details were important, Elijah was letting himself forget the most important detail. Elijah was attempting to beat a swordsman, that studied the sword for several decades, in a sword fight, while having very little experience with a sword. Even if Elijah had the same stats as Elder Jeb, it would be impossible for him to change the final outcome of the spar.
“Thinking of giving up? If you are? Don’t bother, because I won’t let you. Admitting defeat isn’t something a chief should ever consider or do.”
Elder Jeb’s words were like a slap to the face. Although this was only a spar, Elijah realized his action did not conform to the actions of a supreme ruler. Refocusing his gaze Elijah saw Elder Jeb was standing a few meters away from him with a smile on his face. He gave Elijah a nod of approval right before he hurled a baseball size stone at his head.
“Think fast,” Elder Jeb commanded.
The stone was a lot heavier than a normal stone of its size. Factoring in Elder Jeb’s strength and dexterity, the stone had the potential to deal a decent amount of damage. The result was Elijah easily caught the stone in his right hand and experienced very little pain.
“Good job,” Elder Jeb said. “As you can see your reflexes have gotten better. This spar may not be pleasant, but it is helping you improve yourself. This is actually a great training opportunity for you.”
Putting away his smile, Elder Jeb gave Elijah a serious look. “Do you think all of your opponents will be at the same or lower level then you? Do you think it’s difficult fighting someone at higher level than you? Right now, you’re learning about how to face an opponent that you can’t beat with brute force. You have to learn how to think, strategize and most importantly endure. Even when you feel like you have no hope of victory, you must remember to never give up. You should continue to fight even when you don’t have the energy to do so. When all you can see are roads leading to death, you must grip your sword tightly, pour all of your faith into it and trust it to bring you down the path of life. Trust it to cut down all obstacles blocking your path. Whether that obstacle be a powerful expert or a mighty dragon.”
The speech Elder Jeb gave was very inspiring. Sadly, his words were waisted on Elijah’s ears. Of course, Elijah was listening, but the majority of his attention was on the stone in his hand. Well, not the stone itself, but the process of him catching the stone.
Before Elder Jeb even threw the stone at Elijah, Elijah was able to see through all of his movements. Elijah could see that Elder Jeb was going to throw the stone at him before Elder Jeb raised the stone above his head. Elijah could see the path the stone would take before it left Elder Jeb’s hand. Elijah could see exactly how he should catch the stone, so it wouldn’t deal any damage to his hand when he caught it.
When the stone landed in Elijah’s hand, he could only stare at it in awe. Countless thoughts and ideas surged through his mind in waves as his brain struggled to understand what he experienced. Under the wave of ideas surging through his mind, there was one idea that stood out more than others. Although Elijah felt like he did everything he could during his fight with Elder Jeb, he was actually able to do a lot more.
“So, are you ready to continue?” Elder Jeb asked Elijah after a brief period of silence.
Getting off the ground Elijah dropped the stone he was holding and grabbed his sword. He focused his gaze on Elder Jeb and gave him a smile that regained some of his lost confidence and arrogance. Elder Jeb smiled as well when he saw Elijah’s golden eyes burning with the desire for battle.