*BANG* A gunshot rang out once more in the forest, this had been an hourly occurrence for close to a week by now. The local animals were long used to these sounds and thus no burd were scared off and no creatures scurried off when the gunshot rang out.
At the epicentre of the gunshot there was a man with a gun in his hands, he looked at his other hand and could see a black dot in the palm of his hand.
He pinched the black dot with his other hand and pulled it out revealing a small hole that was only a flesh wound, the black dot in the other hand was the bullet that was stopped completely by the muscles.
The man smiled victoriously and let out a deep sigh, "I've finally got the trick down I think" he muttered elatedly. This man was of course Ron.
It had been a week since he began running towards the centre, during this time he's been training the 'Muscle guard' technique.
At first Ron was shooting himself in the arms where the muscles were one of the biggest muscle groups in the body.
Once he got feeling down in his arms he switched up to a smaller muscle group which was the palms of his hands.
('Only one way to find out if I truly have it down') Ron thought as he dropped the bullet and gripped the gun once more, he put the gun against his head and activated the 'Muscle guard' technique.
He could feel the technique activating, it was a feeling of being pinched without having any pain attached to it.
Taking a deep breath Ron pulled the trigger *BANG* A slight hint of pain was there as a small trickle of blood rolled down Ron's face, feeling the spot where he shot himself.
Ron could feel a small bump and soon he picked it out, and looked to reveal the bullet that was successfully stopped by his facial muscles alone. He had finally mastered the technique.
It wasn't the only technique Ron had mastered during this week of running, he had been running a lot and as a result he's been experimenting with the 'Multi-step' a lot.
At first he was stumbling into the dirt as he fumbled the timing multiple times however as the old saying goes 'practice makes perfect' soon he's gotten the 'Multi-step' technique timing down with two steps and in the kindling state he could use it with three steps making it significantly faster but also much harder on his body.
The first time he tried it he could feel his bones snapping like twigs in an instant forcing him to consume a potion of light healing, so far Ron had consumed two potions of light healing due to his constant shooting himself and the aforementioned accident along with two rejuvenation potions to remain awake and keep running for a week. It might seem wasteful but it was the main reason why he bought them in the first place.
('Alright next on the agenda') Ron knew what it was that he had to do next, the first stage of the body forging technique.
In theory it was to simply follow the recipe and go for a soak however reality proved differently. First off the cost of the ingredients were 1,000 wish points, and it would only increase significantly for each stage Ron wanted to reach.
Secondly, although there was a recipe Ron still practised on how to prepare the medicinal bath as the recipe was quite extensive, due to this Ron had practised it three times already costing him 3,000 wish points.
The first two times Ron made it nearly blow up in his face making his choice to practise it well worth it, after the third time everything seemed to go according to recipe but he still didn't want to mess with it so he threw it out however now it was time to accomplish the first stage.
('Firstly I need to find a good location') He would be completely defenceless in the medicinal bath as he needed to absorb all of it, it was advised in the booklet to do this in a safe location behind closed doors.
Ron looked around the forest where he currently was, he had left the desert area 6 days ago and entered the forest area. That forest area was the same one he went through with Scarlett where the spider's territory was located; however it wasn't his current forest.
Ron had left that forest area and travelled north and eventually came to a massive plains area, there were wolves, deer and other plains type creatures however Ron didn't hunt a nest of them due to time constraints. He did however hunt some meat here and there for food supplies. After the plains area came another forest area where Ron currently was.
While running around Ron was looking for a cave he could take over and complete the first stage in there as he could block off the exit making it a sealed cave.
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Eventually he spotted a cave that could work, he ran into the cave only to find the current occupant staring him straight in the face; a bear. A feeling of deja vu came to Ron as he remembered the first bear he saw with Elwyn a month ago, ('That feels like a lifetime ago') Ron had come far in the month since then.
The bear, not happy at the intruder in its home roared and stood on its hind legs reaching the same height as Ron and began swiping at Ron, Ron suddenly disappeared from the bear's field of vision as he multi-stepped and circled around the bear. Stabbing the bear through its skull from the back killing it instantly, the last time he ran away in fear of a bear now he killed it in one shot.
After clearing his thoughts and the area Ron began to prepare the medicinal bath, he spent another 1,000 points bringing his total down to only 400 points with another 100 wish points in miscellaneous items that he bought like a stopwatch, a cauldron and some torches.
After setting up the stopwatch and the torches Ron closed off the cave and was left in the dark with some light from the torches.
Ron set up the cauldron and began pouring in ingredients according to the recipe, sometimes he heated up the cauldron, sometimes he stirred it like a witch in those old fairy tales. Eventually Ron came to the last ingredient which was copper, just pure copper and nothing else.
Ron watched the copper bars disappear in the mixture as he slowly lowered them one by one, it was an act that should defy all logic as the bars began melting and the liquid became warm and then from warm to boiling.
Ron didn't know the exact science behind it and frankly he didn't care, as long as the end result was correct he didn't need to know about the middle part.
He wasn't an alchemist. Undressing himself and putting all his valuables in the storage pouch Ron set the timer on the stopwatch, this part wasn't necessary however he wanted to know how long he had until the tournament began.
After setting the timer to one week from now Ron emptied his mind and began to enter the meditative state, usually he enters it if he wanted to enter the sea of consciousness however this time he held himself back.
Fixing his gaze on the boiling cauldron Ron made his heart rate go as slow as possible, 50 beats, 30 beats, 15 beats it went slower and slower.
The need for oxygen became less and less and soon he was only breathing once every minute, having achieved his goal he took one final lungful of air before stepping into the cauldron.
A burning sound sizzled and a burning pain assaulted Ron's nerves, he tried his best not to flinch or make his heart rate go back up.
Slowly climbing into the cauldron Ron eventually stood with both legs in the cauldron and began to sink deeper, he closed his eyes and went completely under in the liquid in the foetal position.
Pain assaulted his every fibre, it was so overpowering that Ron almost slipped up multiple times and wanted to jump out of the cauldron.
It felt like millions of ants were taking bites out of his skin and body, Ron had to stay like this and endure it until all the liquid was absorbed into the skin.
Ron lowered his heart rate even more from 15 beats to 10 beats eventually down to almost 3 beats, with this Ron entered an almost stasis like state.
Ron also couldn't slip into unconsciousness as his heart rate would speed up again and the need for air would be his downfall as the liquid cannot enter his lungs or he would die.
It felt like an eternity had passed and the pain was still there making Ron nearly go insane, with all these conditions and this process it was no wonder no-one ever tried it in the desert town.
Slowly Ron could feel his awareness shift, this wasn't in the booklet so he was unprepared but managed to recover in time.
He could suddenly see a light in the darkness of his consciousness. The light became brighter and it overtook his entire consciousness. Ron knew where he was, this was his sea of consciousness.
There were differences this time around, normally Ron wasn't aware of his body's condition outside of the sea of consciousness however this time he was fully aware of his body.
It almost felt like an out of body experience. There was another difference, normally Ron would have his body and he could walk around his sea of consciousness but this time he didn't have a body, it was more like a 3d view that one couldn't interact with.
Ron could see his lavender coloured flame along with 55 lit stars, he could also see a small layer of grey mist was present that wasn't there normally.
This was actually something Ron had been building up for almost two weeks now; tinder and once Ron had a close life fight he could burn it and light more stars.
Changes soon started appearing as another type of mist was gathering, this one was a different type of colour as it appeared to be brownish-orange.
('Could this be?') Ron realised it was most likely the body forging method that was gathering in here as tinder, feeling the outside for a quick moment confirmed to Ron that the pain had disappeared and a pleasant feeling was now there. He had passed the most difficult period and now he had to wait until all the medicine was absorbed.
His focus snapped back to the sea of consciousness as something was happening over there, the flame was starting to get agitated at the amount of tinder that was present here and wanted to absorb it and refine it into a pulse.
Normally this was good however Ron was still absorbing the medicine now and if he lit stars now he would start shedding impurities destroying the rest of the medicine that his body needed.
He immediately got to work to control the tinder into a ball and calm down the flame, his prior experience in this task meant it was quickly under control.
The ball continued to grow as the medicine was absorbed into the body, slowly the ball went from a tennis ball size to a basketball size and continued to grow.
Ron could occasionally spot small slivers of grey in the ball as it grew, once the ball got to the size of half of Ron's body he could feel a weight being placed upon his mind.
The flame was getting harder to control as it wanted to swallow this massive ball of tinder however it was still growing and not ready at all, with all his mind Ron tried to control the ball and the flame until it grew to the size of himself.
Just as he felt his control slipping the ball stopped growing Ron took that as the sign that the medicine was absorbed and moved the massive ball to the flame letting it cover it.