Monsters
I smile as I see him. "Welcome home, dad."
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"You brat, just when did you get so strong?"
"Why? Jealous?" I say as I come out of the shower, drying myself.
"Jealous? Not really, I'm still realms above you after all." My father says.
Let's keep it at that. My father is currently in the Core formation realm, stage 4. However, his sword intent is only in the second stage.
"You two... Ever since both of you came back, you have been mumbling to each other. What are you two talking about? Dinner is ready." Asks my mother.
My father exchanges a glance with me and says "Nothing much. Can't a father show his oldest son favouritism?"
"You..." Mother narrows her eyebrows as veins start showing on her forehead.
Oh shit...
"Okay okay, we are coming." Says my father as he pats me on my back, indicating that I should follow him.
This bulked man with black messy hair and black eyes is my father. Until now I still wonder how he, a brute, managed to marry my mother.
My mother, a woman with elegant blue eyes and short hair, is a very gentle lady that can turn into a demon sometimes. I took after my mother's eyes and hair colour. Her slender body was a frail one in my previous life. Like a fragile twig, her arms will collapse just from carrying a mug. Her sickness came from an assassin poisoning her. Even though I managed to suppress the poison, it made my mother's life a living hell. Several times I thought if I should end her pain but her smiling, cheerful, scrawny face kept me going. Kept my hopes up.
Mane and Lee took after my father and Christina, a mix of my father and mother, with black hair with blue eyes.
Christina's small tiny body struggles to reach the table to grab her bowl. Mane and Lee are 10 years old this year, They are significantly taller than Christina but they are only tall up to my chest.
After dinner, I invited my father outside the home for a little talk.
"I want to know how to suppress my realm."
"What?" My father gave me a puzzled face. "You are only in the first stage of Qi condensation. What is there to suppress?"
This imbecile...
"Just tell me..."
...
My father sighs. "Before that answer me, how did you improve your sword intent to that extent."
"By improving my comprehension of swords. That's all." I mockingly say.
"Brat, I know you have to increase your comprehension of swords to improve your sword intent. My question is how?"
...
I look around and close my eyes. Nothing, I cannot detect anything.
"No recording devices or anyone are hiding, I'm a core formation, they cannot hide from me." My father says.
But a Nascent soul can, we can never be too careful.
"I received a blessing from people of the upper realm. That's why my sword comprehension improved by leaps and bounds. I even received a sword style from them." I say.
"Someone of the upper realm? What do they look like?"
I shake my head. "I do not know. The blessing I found is in the form of a magic book that disappears once used, integrating all the knowledge into my soul."
I'm sorry. I can only say this, for now. I will reveal everything when I am strong enough to protect us.
My previous self has the cultivation of a Foundation Establishment Stage 9. This time, I will surpass my previous self.
My father stares at me for a while. He finally sighs and says "Fine. The way you can suppress your cultivation is by limiting the flow of mana in your meridians and storing the excess in your mana storage."
...
"I see, thank you."
As I walk back into the cabin, my father stops me. "You know that I am worried about you. If you have any troubles you can talk to me about it."
I nod.
And we both return. Father goes into his room and takes a book out. "This is a cultivation method I manage to scavenge for you. I hope this can help you." Says my father.
Although that's what my father says, deep down he is very worried. He is well aware of my past talentless state.
I smile and thank him profusely. It's the river flow cultivation method, the only cultivation method I knew in my whole life.
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Two days later.
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I inhale and exhale.
The flow of mana in my body is getting abundant. I manage to break through into the third stage of Qi condensation.
However, for my sword intent, I hit a bottleneck. It isn't easy to cultivate swords past the sixth stage.
I sigh and look at my sister. She is steadily building mana storage in her chest without realising. Good.
At that moment, a large shriek that trembles the ground can be heard from the mountains behind the forest of my home.
!!!
My sister jumps in shock and I hug her before quickly carrying her back home.
This scream. It belongs to a monster I am familiar with. A category 5 Deathworm.
The Categories of monsters are divided based on their strength, rarity, intelligence, and behaviour.
Higher categories have better strength, lower rarity, and aggressive behaviour.
The criteria for each category are:
Category 1:
-Can be defeated by an ordinary adult.
-Is small in size, about 1 to 100cm in height and width.
-Low intelligence
Example: Slime
Category 2:
-Can be defeated by someone from the 1st stage of Qi Condensation.
-is small in size, about 10 to 150cm in height and width.
-Mediocre intelligence.
Example: Goblin.
Category 3:
-Can be defeated by someone from the 4th Stage of Qi Condensation.
-medium in size, about 100 to 250cm in height and width.
-low intelligence
Example: Ogre.
Category 4/6:
-Vary in size, about 10 to 350cm in height and width.
-Can be defeated by people below the Core Formation realm.
-Mediocre/high intelligence
-Wields weapons and armour.
-Have respective tribes/Civilisation.
-Can be communicated with.
-Have passive behaviours.
Examples: Orc, elf, and Kobold.
In their passive behaviour, they are classified under category 4. However, during the Great War of Races, they are reclassified as a category 6 once they become aggressive.
Category 5:
-Vary in size: about 50 cm to 40000 cm in height and width
-Low intelligence
-Aggressive behaviour.
-Requires a few core formation realm stage 2 and above to defeat.
-Can be killed using simple strategies.
Example: Deathworm.
Category 6:
-High intelligence.
-Aggressive behaviour.
-Vary in size: about 50 to 350cm
-Requires at least a Core Formation realm to engage.
-common, existing in large numbers.
Example: Fairies, demons.
Category 7:
-Requires a Nascent Soul to engage.
-High intelligence.
-Aggressive behaviour.
-Huge: about 5000 to 100000 cm in height and width.
Example: Dragon, Frost queen.
Category 8:
-Requires many Nascent souls to engage.
-High intelligence
-Aggressive behaviour.
-Huge: about 1000000 to 100000000cm in height and width.
Example: Demon lord.
The sound of the shriek came from the direction of the mountain behind my house. My home is in the east of the capital. And further east is the kingdom of elves.
This...I remember this.
I am very familiar with this. This is one of the reasons why the Great War of Races started years later.
I pass Christina to my mother who is comforting the crying Christina.
...
I have no intentions to save the elves. The elves did survive, in fact, but they blamed the appearance of the Deathworm on a human.
They are half-correct.
The Deathworm was summoned by a demon cultist dressed as a human tamer to send the humans and elves into conflict.
However, the current king does not wish to start a war with the elves yet. So he sent several core formation cultivators and helped fend off the attack.
Now, that is where I step in.
A Deathworm's essence has thousands of uses, from alchemy to medicine. Not to mention its core, just consuming it might boost my cultivation by leaps and bounds.
The scale on its body can be used as armour or enhancement to weapons.
In a nutshell, this Deathworm is a gold mine.
After every 10 academy days, students will have 1 day of break. Tomorrow is one.
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I wear a large black coat and wrap a long black cloth around my neck which one part is laid over my head and sneak out of my house under the excuse of training.
As extra measures, I stole a concealing scroll from a noble merchant in the capital.
What I am doing might seem foolish and reckless, being blinded by money. However, I am very confident I can kill it despite the difference in strength. Why?
I once land myself in the Desert of Deathworm when searching for an artifact, home to millions of Deathworm. How did I manage to survive? I was able to adapt quickly thanks to an Artifact called the eyes of truth that can decipher the weaknesses of enemies. With that, I manage to survive by feeding on the blood and meat of Deathworms.
I run towards the mountain and climb over it. My stamina has improved with my cultivation.
At the top of the mountain, I can finally see it. The Deathworm. It's currently being restrained by the magic cast by Elves. The king's army will arrive during nightfall so I have about 7 hours left.
I check my equipment. Venis poison, tube with a syringe, a regular hunting sword, storage ring, butcher knife. Nice, everything is ready. I'm good to go.