9 Beastly Body Strengthening Art

The public Library was outside. Leon made his way to the gate to leave the clan. The way there was as he remembered. At the gate he showed that he had his Clan token and walked out.

The town wasn't particularly big. Much smaller then what he remembered it to be at this time in his past life.

"Since I wasn't born as a talent this time, the town didn't prosper as much." Leon thought.

And Leon wasn't wrong, in his past life he was born with heavenly talent. Because of this the Flamesmith clan had been secretly supported by the Council of Fire.

The Council of Fire was the ruling government of the Fire Continent. It was the strongest power, that kept everything in check. They controlled the clans and the law enforcement of the continent. They were also responsible for the protection of the continent and its people.

Only the strongest and most talented cultivators could join it. Joining the Council of Fire was the dream of all Summoners in the Fire Continent. It was the greatest honour on you get and with the vast amount of resources you would be able to grow faster as a summoner.

Leon arrived at the public library.

The public library was much smaller then the library in the Flamesmith clan. It was only a floor tall. Leon walked in, everything was free of charge and everyone was allowed to borrow books. So he didn't have to worry about being stopped from reading anything.

Leon went and looked around. He saw regular books as well as arts. Unlike the Flamesmith clan which separated the two into two separate Libraries.

The public Library was small so Leon found what he was looking for quickly. He saw a shelf full of Arts. But not just any <Tier 0> arts, <Tier 0> arts focused on the body.

Leon picked two arts and read the summary on their first page. He had gotten a glimpse of all other arts and these two looked the most promising.

"<Pounding skin Art> let your body be hit by a thousand punches everyday while saying this chant to make your body stronger."

"<Charred finger Art> Touch a candle flame with your finger and slowly make your finger heat resistant."

"I can't train the first art, without the slaughter qi reinforcing my body, I won't be able to last 3 punches. The second one isn't even close to what I want. Let's see the others." Leon was losing hope after reading the first two.

He picked another book and read it.

"<Knife block Art> Stab yourself in the chest with a knife and if you survive stab yourself again do this until your body gets stronger."

After reading the arts summary, Leon read it again, he flipped through the book and the art was exactly what the summary had said it was.

"F*ck! I didn't know there were Arts that taught suicide!" Having read the book Leon was fuming, the author had written such pompous trash. If he didn't get angry he wouldn't be human.

Everyone in the library looked at Leon. Because of the commotion. The librarian moved to Leon.

"Sir all the books here aren't very helpful. All the body arts are either useless or incomplete. I recommend you check the elemental arts over there."

Leon nodded but continued to see the next few books. Seeing that Leon wasn't listening the librarian shook his head as he walked away.

"<Hopeful art>, just hope you get stronger, and if you hope enough it will happen."

He didn't even have words for this art. He just ignored and moved on.

"<Gold Hope art>, fill a bathtub with gold, melt it and then sink yourself in it, you will then gain the gold body ability."

"<Water Hope art>, put yourself in a bathtub of water and hope you get stronger." Another book was added to the pile on the floor.

"Why don't any of these have any chants or runes?"

Leon was getting annoyed, he felt the last four book he read were similar. He checked who the author was and his deduction was proven right. They were all by the same author- Lucky Devil.

He went though all the books and picked out two more books by the author called <Fire Hope art> and <Happy Body art>. One was to burn yourself and pray to God that you'll gain the flame body while the other was to be happy with yourself and stop trying to cultivate your body.

Leon picked up the books and tried to see if there was a secret in the arts. After flipping through them he threw them all to the side.

"Useless, F*ck! I didn't know such trash arts existed!"

Leon picked up the last book on the shelf, "<Beast Bloody body Art>. Bathe in bestial blood to grow stronger."

A sigh of relief left Leon's mouth. He read through the whole thing and finally found something he could use. "The art is complete but is to complicated for a Tier 0 art. It needs you to collect beast blood, the fresher the better. Then you need to cover yourself in it and form a rune." Leon flipped to the last page that showed the image of some type of ancient writing inside a circle.

"The rune will take up around 10% of the energy of the beast to form. It will then be able to absorb energy from the surrounding passively and make the body of the cultivator stronger. The talent of the beast will determine the rate of body strengthening of the rune and maximum limit it will strengthen the body to."

Leon scrutinised the picture of the rune on the last page and was surprised. "It's so complicated? Even I would need to concentrate to draw something like this, how could your normal mortal do this?"

"But I can see why it would be useless to most people. Mostly mortals would cultivate this art so they won't be able to kill beasts by them selves. They'll have to buy it or pay someone else to help them kill it. Even if they get the beast blood it is difficult to form the rune, then even more so to form such an unstable one."

"Even if the mortal somehow forms the rune the effects would severely lackluster as the passive strengthening from a low talent beast will barely be felt and high talent beast are hard to find and hard to kill."

Leon kept the list back into the book. He then went back to the Liberian to borrow the Beast Blood body art.

The Liberian saw the book and shook his head, "This book may have a cool name, but it isn't any good, you should go look for some other art. I've seen hundreds of people borrow this book yet no one has come back and told me they cultivated it successfully."

"There is no reason to not try, who knows I might be the one that cultivates it." Leon said with a smile.

The Liberian sighed, "Thats what the last hundred said. Here, good luck."

Leon took the book and headed back to the Clan. He had got what he came for.

Along the way he used the 500 copper to buy a bottle of the lowest quality beast blood and a cheap soul quill.

...

At the clan gates Leon showed his Clan Token and entered. He walked all the way to his house. It was still early morning and his house was empty.

His dad had left to do his work as an elder of the Clan, while his mother had left to meet with her friends for morning tea.

This was some thing his parents did in his past life, while being locked up in the tower he had asked them to tell him what they did all day so he knew their routine.

Leon went up to his room. He set down all the book, the bottle and the quill. He then looked at the pills his father had bought for him and kept them to the side.

"Using such low quality pills would lower my potential while giving me a slight increase in my bodies strength. Potential for strength, is the dumbest trade off you could do."

Leon picked up the <Beast Blood Body Art> he flipped to the page with the rune drawn on, he then picked up another book that his younger self used to use to write notes in.

He then opened the beast blood bottle and dipped the soul quill into it. He then started copying the rune onto the book.

Soul quill was a special quill that allowed the writer who used it to draw runes onto paper without the use of elemental energy. The rune could then be activated using Soul energy and tested for its effects.

"I'll have to slowly improve the rune, by making small changes, until it becomes actually useful."

"This rune is actually even harder then I thought, you need to at least be a Summoning Master to make something this complicated. Looks like the origin of this rune isn't as simple as I thought."

He then finished drawing it, studied it. He then put his hand onto the rune and used his soul energy to activate it and measure its effects.

Soul energy was the energy of the soul that all humans had. It was different from elemental energy as it was used to build the soul.

Leon's soul energy had been drained as both souls in his body had almost all their soul energy drained to keep the body alive and support it to keep two souls.

It was Leon's past souls large amount of soul energy, the reason the younger Leon was still alive.

The rune lit up and Leon could tell what it's effects were. "It still takes in 10% of the energy of the beast, it's just that it's a little more stable."

Leon continued to do same on the next page...

Leon did this repetitive task for the next four hours, he drew hundreds of runes each a little diffferent then the last. He then activated them and tested for the effects.

Continually altering it made Leon how wrong he had been to think this tune was simple.

Around the 104th rune he stopped and looked at the rune. It held traces of the rune he had started with but it was very different.

Leon put his finger on it and activated it. Feeling the effects he smiled.

"Absrobs around 50% of the dead beasts energy, it's made even more efficient in the strengthening, it should be around twice as strong as the original rune, which means the for their same talent of beast this rune will cause almost double the amount of strengthening to the body."

Leon sighed looking at the rune, "This is the most efficient rune I can draw in my current circumstances."

Leon heard the door open downstairs, his mother had returned.

Leon walked down to greet her.

Sandra entered and saw Leon, she saw him and asked, "Leon, what happened? I met Aunt Reva on the way and she said that you were thrown out of the lecture in the morning."

"Well, I, don't know, I just didn't like Elder Raymond, maybe I was tired and my mind was clouded."

Sandra sighed, "Well, it doesn't matter, Pace already dealt with Elder Raymond. You should go thank him. He's always taking care of you, his parents still aren't back right? Why don't you call him over for dinner or lunch tomorrow?" She then walked to the living room and put her bag down on a table.

"Sure, mom, I'll ask him tomorrow." Leon said as he went and got a snack from the Ice Rune Fridge. Sandra saw this and entered the kitchen as well.

"Leon, Aunt Reva also told me you were looking for arts? and that you asked about Tier 5 arts." Sandra took out some vegetables and beast meat.

"Mom, are you sure you met Aunt Reva on the way, this a lot of 'telling' for meeting 'on the way here'." Leon took the vegetables and started chopping them with speed and grace.

"Boy don't you sass me! So tell me what happened, why are you looking for arts so suddenly?" Sandra started boiling water.

"I think the pills dad gave me made my body stronger, So I thought I could finally practice arts." Leon moved the vegetable onto another plate and started cutting the next one.

"Did you find any good arts?"

"No, I even went to the public library but their wasn't anything too useful, I did borrow a book because I already went all the way there."

Sandra put the pasta into the boiling water and then looked at Leon cutting the vegetables. He was clearly different today. He would never help in cooking normally. It was like he had suddenly matured.

Leon noticed this but continued to chop the vegetables. He would never let anyone else cook for him, since he was young he was under threat of poisoning at the Flamesmith clan.

Plus as someone who had used poison to kill hundreds of people he knew how lethal they could be, So he always made his own food.

Sandra watched Leon cook and smiled but it was a sorrowful smile, she thought, "It looks like it's almost time..."

"Mom, why are you blanking out? You'll over cook the pasta." Leon said.

"Ahh! Thanks Leon."

They both finished making dinner and set it on the table.

A few minutes later David arrived as well and the whole family was united again at the table.

"Sandra what happened? You cooked something good two times in a row? Impossible!"

"Say you don't like me cooking again!" Sandra roared.

"I'm kidding, I love your cooking, it might be a little bit off sometimes but that's what makes it the best in the world. Never too perfect, when it's good its the best food I've eaten, when it's bad...It's still good."

"What do you mean by off?!"

"You sometimes put too much salt..." David knew he had messed up.

Sandra had a look at disdain as she looked at Daivd, "I dare you to eat your breakfast tomorrow."

"Honey, please, don't do this."

Sandra ignored David's pleas as she said, "I didn't make it, it was Leon who made it today."

"No, mom helped as well, it was a team effort." Leon with a serious face spoke.

"I see that's why it was so good, only my our son could rival his mother in cooking, you have inherited your mother's skills and my looks and charisma." David said with a slight nod.

Both mother and son looked at each other, they were both rendered speechless.

...

Leon laid on his bed, the moon had risen and it was already night time. His parents had fallen asleep.

The expression his mother had earlier, that sorrowful smile, had told him a lot.

"Things might turn for the worst soon." Leon thought. He sighed and shook his head, it was still better then his past life, because of his talent the whole clan had been destroyed by the time he was 20.