Chapter 40- Yang-Style

Abel stepped out of his room and made his way to the yard. He started some stretches and rotating his joints in turn, relaxing his stiff body.

'The essence of Tai chi is slow, flowing movements and deep, controlled breathing. It is a martial art that promotes overall well-being and the fundamentals in any combative martial art.'

Abel thought over his knowledge of Tai chi as he carried out his warm-up exercises. Once he was done, he kept his feet shoulder-width apart with his knees slightly bent and shoulders relaxed.

Maintaining an upright posture with his spine straight was a must. He focused on centering his body weight and grounding himself, feeling the connection between his feet and the ground.

After a few minutes of deep, diaphragmatic breathing with the Xiang family breathing style, Abel got started on his form.

Tai chi was widespread and the great thing about it is that the user could use traditional movements or incorporate their own martial arts within them. There were many different styles but Xiaowen only knew of 3; the Yang style, the Chen style and the Sun style.

The traditional Yang Style's 24-step form, 108-step long form and Yang Sword form corresponds to different levels within a single style.

The 24-steps was a widely practiced movement for beginners. The 108-step long form was a more extended form but with 108 movements, offering a deeper exploration of Tai Chi principles. While the Yang-sword form integrates a sword into the movements, emphasizing both grace and precision.

The Chen style is also a traditional form but with much greater and more complex movements, emphasizing on slow yet explosive techniques. Xiaowen had learned a modified version of the Chen style with additional challenging movements.

The Sun-style was made up of 73-steps and blends elements of traditional Tai Chi with other martial arts. In this case, the Xiang family martial art. Overall, this style was characterized by its agile footwork and compact movements.

Abel was currently starting off with the beginner 24-Yang steps and would then move onto the long form's 108-steps. It was a shame he currently didn't have a sword, or he would have liked to practice the Yang-sword movements too.

Regardless of the style, Abel concentrated on keeping his movements slow and flowing. He had to pay attention to the details of each movement and transition smoothly from one to the next.

He would inhale during certain movements and exhale during others. This coordinated breathing helped him keep the flow and balance of the practiced form.

He slowly carried out the 24-steps… then again and again. After he repeated them 3 times, he let out a deep breath with some sweat beading his forehead.

Abel knew from his memories that mastering Tai Chi wasn't just about memorizing the sequence or movements but also about refining the quality of each move.

It was understanding the principles of Tai Chi and cultivating a deep awareness of the body's movements and energy flow with each breath.

After seamlessly switching to the 108-steps, he was even more mindful of his body's sensations. He tried to visualize the energy flowing through his body with each motion and every breath.

Although there was no otherworldly force in the world like mana, the visualization seemed to aid in the flow of his movements and eased his breathing.

After repeating the long form twice, he started a cooling down exercise.

He was using this time to reflect on his body and mind. He felt tired yet refreshed in body while his mind had calmed from the constant thinking over the riddle.

'I should practice Tai chi before carrying on with the books and records, it might help.'

He made the decision to practice another time after taking care of the dungeon and getting some sleep. Whatever little help it might give would always be a welcome addition.

The great thing about Tai chi is that it was a personalized experience. You could extend it or shorten it depending on your needs. Of course, you'd have to be an experienced and skilled practitioner to do such a thing, otherwise you'd need guidance and instruction from a professional.

Thankfully, Abel had the 'experience' from years of practice so he didn't need anyone to guide him.

He took a look at the time and saw it was close to midnight, Frankie and Melissa had probably gone to bed a couple of hours ago so Abel made his way to the kitchen. He saw a pot of spaghetti and meatballs so he fixed himself a plate and started eating, finishing off the leftovers.

Once he was done, he quickly washed up the dishes and pots then paid a visit to the bathroom before making his way back to the pod.

Whoooooosh

Finding himself back in the study, he made his way outside and informed old man Rye about his departure. The old man merely waved him off and told him to go take care of his own tasks.

After getting onto the street, Abel didn't make any stops and quickly got on his way. It was currently 3 am in Velskryn so he had more than enough time to clear the dungeon and bring back all the loot in the cover of night.

He didn't want to waste precious time online being cautious in his entry and exit of the dungeon but he also couldn't be careless, so he decided to clear the dungeon and take care of the loot while it was dark. With this Adaptive Eye skill, he'd be able to see anyone at night as though it was day.

A short 20 minutes later, Abel found himself at the dungeon's entrance once more. After making quick work of the group of Stone-toothed Rats outside, he skinned them and started off his third dungeon run.

He had barely cleared the first half of the first floor when his impending level up took place.

*Ding*

+ Level Up

+5 STR

+5 END

+5 DEX…

'I completely forgot I was on the verge of leveling up!'

With all the matters he took care of in reality along with the amount of records he'd read in the study, Abel had completely forgotten about his EXP bar.

'Open Character Stats'

Name: Red Sky

Level: 6

Profession: Battlesmith

Alignment: Neutral

Title: Rodent Ravager

Reputation: 20

Health (HP): 370

Mana (MP): 290

Attack: 103-107 

Defense: 47

Strength (STR): 55 (+6)

Agility (AGI): 31 (+8)

Endurance (END): 47

Toughness (TGH): 31

Vitality (VIT): 37

Wisdom (WDM): 15

Intelligence (INT): 29

Resilience (RES): 12

Dexterity (DEX): 39

Luck: 5

Satiety: 95

Stamina: 89

'My defense isn't even half of my attack while my agility is pathetic'

Abel let out a sigh when he saw his defense and agility. He couldn't do anything about it without changing his current equipment.

The gap between his attack and defense would widen further without much stronger armor as his strength would increase by 5 while his toughness would increase by 3. This meant his attack would see a leap of +5 every level while his defense would only increase by +1.5. It was even worse for his agility as that would only increase by +1.

'A new set of top tier level 5 armor is going to cost a lot. Boots, pants, helmet and arm bracers. I shouldn't spend too much on equipment that will just be discarded soon. I'll wait to see how much poison Chronelix was able to refine from the Rat Meat. Maybe I should just buy level 10 equipment.'

His shopping list for things he needed just kept growing without end in sight!

He continued his unstoppable rampage throughout the first floor, making quick world of all the monsters, only pausing to pull out another item from the trap chest.

This time, he had gotten boots made out of Rat Pelt that add +1 to his agility. Though they gave the same defense as his current shoes, the added agility point would still help so he switched them out right away.

His speed didn't lessen when he stepped downstairs but the second level took him much longer due to the sheer number of enemies available in all 25 rooms.

Before he descended onto the third floor, his sword proficiency finally broke through to Trainee. It increased his damage with a sword as well as his attack speed by another 3% which was a small but welcome increase.

'Damn it, I forgot to get arrows to improve my archery... I'll do it tomorrow.'

He descended to the last floor and got right into the thick of it.

Although it would have been nice to improve his bow proficiency, it wasn't worth the time to run back and buy arrows now. By the time he had cleared out the dungeon in its entirety, barely an hour had a half passed!

The Rat King wasn't a problem and he managed to dispatch it even quicker than the day before. He had prevented it from healing up through the slightly more ores available on the walls.

'Just like I thought, it should take 3 days to refresh. It won't take longer than iron ore but this mine is tiny compared to the video's I've seen of others mines in different regions'

He made a quick inspection of the ores on the walls and realized how small this mine was in comparison to a normal iron mine. But it was understandable, seeing as how Nocturnium was a specialized metal unlike the more widespread iron.

He got into skinning the monsters before him and decided to wait till the ores fully refreshed the next day before he would mine them all out.

Just like the day before, it had taken him 2 hours to finish skinning all the monsters. Whether it was due to his increased skinning proficiency or the result of his title, he managed to get even more loot than yesterday.

After filling up 51 inventory spaces with all the different Rat Meat, he stuffed what he could in the remaining spaces.

'I need to come a little earlier next time. I forgot how long it takes to skin all these monsters.'

Abel though to himself as he made his way back to the city. The sun had started rising a short while ago and the cover of night he'd use to comfortably enter and exit the dungeon had receded.

While thinking about the hassle of safely entering the dungeon for a second time, he made his way back to the city. As he approached the city gates, he sent a whisper to Coinweaver asking if he was online.

This time, the young merchant replied quickly, asking him to come to the house in 20 minutes as he was selling off the last batch of rat poison at the moment. Although the text in the message couldn't convey a tone, he was able to pick up how ecstatic the merchant was.

Feeling his own excitement rise up, he swiftly waded through the slightly bustling streets and made his way to Universal Bazaar.

Tring Tring

"Good morning Sir!"

"Good morning"

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any other customers this early in the morning so Abel quickly started taking out all the monster parts from his bag. He wanted to offload everything and buy some food before heading to the meet up point.

"The total comes to 8 silver and 30 copper coins. Would you like to make the exchange?"

"Yes."

Abel quickly got his money and left the shop. His current wealth was slightly less than 66 silver coins. He planned to get his share from Coinweaver as well as the remaining loot in the dungeon before buying the largest spacial bag.

It would hopefully be enough to save him the time of running back and forth. Just the repeat run for the extra loot would waste an hour of gaming time.

Although he could never get the equivalent of coalition credits in the same amount of time back in reality, he didn't forget he still had an important chain quest to solve.

After purchasing 20 loaves of black bread and stocking up on some mana incense sticks, he made his way to Chronelix's house. Although there were still a few minutes to the appointed time, he preferred to be early whenever he made plans.

It was an ingrained habit Abel had built up over the years. He hated being tardy and would never be late if he could help it. He would never understand how some people could just brush off being late to meetings. While it was understandable for women, he would never accept this from a man.

Thankfully, Coinweaver wasn't the type to keep others waiting either and just 2 minutes later, the young merchant was spotted making his way down the street. He greeted him with an eye signal and then followed him into the house.

After stepping inside, Coinweaver broke out into a grin before saying,

"Alright, let me fill you in on the results. First of all, Chronelix said that only Rat Lord Meat and Rat King Meat could be refined into a lesser-poison. All the other Rat Meat could only make minor-poison but we still made a killing!"

"Get on with it already, we signed a pact so just give me the figures"

"Alright alright, I know you log out around this time. He was able to refine 61 vials of minor-poison and 10 vials of the lesser-grade variant. The former sells for 1.5 silver coins per vial while the latter sells for double at 3 silver coins. In total, we made 1 gold 21 silver and 50 coppers. Here's your share plus the cost of loot."

*Ding*

Coinweaver would like to send you 67 Silver 32 Copper coins, Accept?

Yes/No

'Yes'

"By the way, how much would you offer for this spacial bag?"

Abel asked as he was taking out the Rat Meat in his bag.

"Hmmm… its not the lowest grade but it's not much higher. I can take it off your hands for 18 silver coins. I doubt anyone would offer you more than that"

"Alright, I'll sell it to you tomorrow, I still need it for now. But here's the loot for today."

He asked about the resale price because he planned on getting the largest spacial bag after selling off all the loot in the dungeon but he still needed it to actually bring that loot back.

 "It's more than yesterday. Chronelix leveled up his skill so he should be able to refine a greater amount than the first time."

"Alright, I'll send you a whisper when I have the next batch."

After bidding farewell, Abel made his way back outside, he had to get the rest of the loot!