Looking at the weapons on hand, Richard was qualified to end anyone below the foundation realm. Of course, there were exceptions that came from powerful bloodline and families.
No one was born equal and the lucky ones were blessed with advantages from birth. It could be high quality Ki, strong stamina, and High regeneration ability, exceptional affinity to an element or even unique body parts.
Nonetheless, the birth didn’t decide your end and things could be changed with hard work and risk taking. There were luck encounters and magical items in the world that could completely change the body of a person.
There were legends of the Dragon Slayer who ate the dragon heart and gained its abilities. There were legends of a sword called the Soul Eater that helped its owner grow through consumption of souls.
There was even the legend of someone getting miraculous powers from a fruit and a spring. Pandora was a magical place and rewarded people that risked their lives. Of course, luck played a great part.
Richard didn’t even dream about such encounters because of his terrible luck. He was someone that only succeeded when everything was clear and nothing was left to chance.
He was twelve years old at the moment, so there was time to grow even if it was not to the most optimum point.
Kids from great families should have already reached the Foundation realm before this age with the resources available to them.
Richard didn’t really care about that detail. His goal at the moment was making the life of his parent’s better.
Within few years he could make them wealthier than they dreamt possible, but he needed strength to go with it.
They were still vessels of the Knight so he could easily take it away. Trusting people to not take advantage of their authority and prowess was foolish in the current atmosphere when even people from the modern era would do so.
Coming up with things to do for making wealth wasn’t hard since there would be countless things that weren’t present at the moment.
So, Richard decided to focus on the power for the moment.
Ki was the energy from the body and the amount depended on the body, along with the technique being used.
It was an energy that could be found everywhere, even rocks had it.
People could absorb energy from the world to help the growth of their bodies Ki, but the Ki from the outside was different and needed expert control for usage.
Being a cultivator wasn’t an easy job and required patience, creativity and high level of perception.
Richard closed his eyes and made the energy flow around his body according to the details learned from Noah.
Ki traveled like blood throughout the body and it started from the center of the body.
The Ki travelled from the center towards the heart and flowed towards the brain before moving towards the rest of the body.
The procedure wasn’t instant and it needed to be produced, using the energy from the cells. There was no storage system and the process wasn’t smooth, so there was loss during transmission.
The Ki had to be used or held manually at the Ki refining stage, as it would dissipate after a while and only pieces would be stuck to various parts of the body.
The Ki refining stage fed Ki to the body during the cycle and strengthened it. By entering the Ki refining stage, one was already beyond mortal.
The record for a normal human weight lifter was around 500 Kg and Richard could pick it up without any issue at the current age.
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By the time he reached the foundation realm, Richard could lift more than a tonne.
Ki was made from the cells, the building blocks. The bone marrow was responsible for red blood and white blood cells.
Red blood cells carry oxygen and removed carbon dioxide.
White blood cells were part of the body’s immune system.
The heart was responsible for pumping the blood while the brain was responsible for the whole body.
The Ki system seemed to be dependent on the understanding of the human biology and the widely known method available to everyone just had Ki flow from heart to brain to the rest of the body.
Richard came to the conclusion because the better method seemed to have range of focus on each part of the body and doesn’t just focus on the cycle.
The method given to Noah put a heavy focus on the heart which caused a qualitative change.
It all seemed simple theoretically but all these body parts were essential and messing with them could cause him to become a cripple at the least.
If he truly wanted to go far, Richard guessed that he would need to make changes to his DNA. He could change few cells within his body and control the immune system to stop it from destroying them.
From those few cells, his whole body would change as they would split into more and more over time.
For now that was something for the future, he needed something simple at the moment.
He was more mature and knowledgeable than most people in the current world, so there should be a way to impress some professors.
There should be academies or universities for the rich that could be explored.
It was unfortunate that he wasn’t some doctor or he would have an easier time dealing with the issue.
Putting aside the cultivation technique, Richard tried out his skills.
Sharp eyes
The Ki moved towards the eyes in a fixed pattern or it could damage them. It improved his vision tremendously and made it easy to aim.
From this it was clear that depending on how the Ki flowed into the various parts, a different technique could be utilized and the rank could also change.
The sharp eyes skill was completely covering the eyes, showing that it was meant for people that didn’t understand the structure.
Meaning, by just focusing on the lens, optic nerves and the retina it would go through a monumental change.
Moving on, Richard started the Powerful Roar skill and found that it focused on the sound box. It seemed to be easiest to modify, he could just divide the focus between the lungs, pharynx, mouth, nose and the larynx.
Powerful Roar was like the roar of a normal Tiger but with the proper modifications, it could cause some real damage and produce high decibel levels.
Just like the other two, body strengthening also didn’t have a focal point and covered the whole body.
It meant that energy was wasted at a fast rate and the increase in power was low with the energy divided too many times.
Richard decided that he could just use it on the parts that needed it during an encounter.
Finally, he had a look at the magical technique.
Earth Hand
It was different from the others since it wasn’t physical and the procedure was also mysterious.
To utilize the skill, Ki had to move in a particular order and make a shape. He needed to have the intent in mind or it would fail.
Seeing this, Richard got a new insight into these powers. Unlike other skills, he had no way to modify it at the structural level with his understanding.
The symbol formed was unknown and should have something to do with the earth element. Richard had no knowledge on the subject.
As such, he could only modify it at the time of usage. He didn’t need to form the hand in the same way as described.
Regardless, he could only use it once at full power.
All these thoughts went through his mind and Richard opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling once again.
It was an exciting prospect. That is, if he wasn’t put into a depressing position.
‘They aren’t dead. I am alive…Focus on the positive side. I am dying in a ditch. Damn it…I am going to make it. I am going to win. I can do it. I can do it.’ Richard pushed his dark thoughts inside and focused on living.
The dark thoughts weren’t easy to push back. He was just a human and he knew they would always slip through when it felt hard.
The week had been enough to finally focus.
It helped that none of his loved ones died and the fact that he wasn’t too emotional. He knew the negative thoughts could pull him down later, but for now he was ready to play.
He was focused on helping out the family and finding a path back home. It could be difficult. It could be risky, but he was ready to push through.
He was not the young kid that would always back down. Life had never been easy and it would only get worse for those that would only whine and back down.
People with strong will and persistence that learnt from their mistakes and took a proactive role in the world flourished and shone like bright stars.
Hard work was good but that work had to be in the right places or it would be a tremendous waste of time and energy.
In life the first stage was always finding the right path and it was where most people gave in because it required patience and a lot of heart ache.
Mistakes could be made and experience was achieved along with new knowledge, but not everyone could handle it because of various issues.
Wealth, family and health
Going back home was the final goal, for now Richard wanted to get to a satisfactory level that allowed him to roam the world freely.
There were seven ranks, so he needed to at least get to the fifth rank.