A Good Pint

Practicably sweating blood from the tremendous pressure he felt by just looking at a man who looked like nothing more than a homeless man that seemed to have found some money.

Being under such a crushing aura, he felt like his lungs were going to burst, but there was nothing he could do, he even feared the most basic thing a human could do and that was taking in a breath. He didn't want to die.

With blood leaking out his ears, he heard an ice-cold laugh subside into a soft, calm voice.

"I told you, scum like you never change"Whilst the bartender was using all the energy just to try and keep himself from fainting, he watched the man who crippled him crouch down in front of him with a soft smile.

"I don't like it when people inconvenience me, for doing that, give me a better room" Seeing those eyes that could almost frighten him to death, he stuttered out a room number.

"Se-seve-se-seven".

"Good, at least you can be useful" Getting closer "Now one last thing, you're going to give me 5 extra days to stay here, for free," Grabbing his jaw I started to forcefully make him nod his head as well as saying for him "Yes, yes, excellent"

Standing up, I heard the thud as the bartender fainted, but right now I was thinking more about being secluded in the room, so I could work on raising my physical level again, but this time strengthen my muscles as I have hardened my bones enough for me to start.

Like before, but unfortunately I don't have enough Ki right now to make my bones more durable.

Stepping onto what seemed to be the world's only staircase that sounded like a scream with each step I took going up. Glimpsing at the numbers on the doors as they were all mixed up making it harder for me to find my room, however, I did find it.

My room was more like room 15. Opening the door, I quickly found myself in a box made of wood with a single lopsided bed and another door that probably lead to the toilet.

Turning around to close the door, I looked for a way to lock the door so no one could disturb me. Propping the door closed with a wooden plank I pulled from the floor.

I began looking at where I could start preparing to cultivate in this room, lifting the bed up to make more floor room for myself, I began to take off my clothes as I didn't know what my technique of making my muscles stronger would do to them.

Folding them neatly off to the side. Sitting down, until I made sure I was in a comfortable position and took in a deep breath, getting myself ready by firstly blocking out all the surrounding noises.

After a while, with the sounds coming to a halt, I began to focus all my remaining mental energy on transforming the Ki from the surroundings into my very own reformed Ki.

Lastly, letting the Ki penetrate my tendons I could feel as it tore its way through my body, ripping, everything from my bones which had caused me to sweat profusely in pain, but unfortunately for me, this was only the start.

Just past the tendons, the Ki started to seep through into my muscle fibres, destroying them, causing me to cough up some blood. As the Ki was busy destroying the inside of my body, but luckily I would send a second wave just after with Ki that would heal my damaged body, making it feel brand new.

Not knowing how long it's been since I started to increase my muscle's strength,but I started to notice that the stronger my muscles got, the easier it was for me to crack my bones, under the strong tension my muscles now had.

Focusing on pulling more Ki out of the air to make sure I had an abundant amount in order to heal my bones, and doing so on top of that would still help increase their durability ever so slightly.

After an even longer unknown period of this consent back and forth, I reached new stages in my cultivation, with my Bone Hardening hitting stage 3 and my Muscle Strengthening reaching the peak of stage 2.

I used to do this for slight gains in the past. However, now I was having fun doing it knowing it was having an impact, and on the other hand, I now knew it was helping me reach my goal faster.

Standing up, a lot quicker than I expected as my body felt lighter than before and looking down, I could see my muscles filled out, but the part I was most happy about, was my left arm filled out too.

Starting to put on my stretchy jeans, felt strange as I saw that the legs stopped about 3 or 4 inches above my ankle, making me mumble "That's some ankle swingers"

On the plus side, my legs, filled out the trouser very well as each of my muscles could be seen under the fabric, however, when I moved on to putting the top on, it was a struggle, but as I was done the once noticeably baggy t-shirt, became an extremely tight fit.

Not even bothering to try and put the jacket on as I could tell that even if I put it on I would look stupid as my height had changed compared to when I bought it.

Now that I had time to think for myself, I could smell something good coming from downstairs. I wanted to eat actual food and not be on a Ki diet forever to have to give me sustenance.

Pulling the wedge from the door, I began walking down the corridor towards the stairs to the bar.

The Bartender had poured so many drinks today that his forearms had started to ache, but he didn't mind so much as he was getting his money's worth.

A man who wasn't able to even raise his arm without it wobbling, as he shouted over to the bar as he slurred his words"Ben gives me's sh-ome more beer!"

Ben looking over at the group that had been drinking away since breakfast time pulled on the leaver and began to pour the beer into new mugs and dropped them on the counter, shouting back to them a smile"If you can walk over here without falling, you get it for free but, if you don't it will be double!"

One of the sturdier blokes jumped out of his seat and answered as he thumped his chest"h-I'll be tack(Hiccup)ing that bet"

With Ben smiling, knowing he was going to be getting some free money, he watched as Daniel Tried to move the chair, but missed completely, fell face-first onto the floor.

Ben decided, since he won the bet, he would take the beer over to them. Walking past the other customers, he dropped the mugs on the lopsided table and reached out his hand, expecting the money to fall into it.

Thud!

Thud!

Calm, slow thumping could be heard resonating throughout the bar, one man noticed his drink was shaking from each thud. Most of the men sobered up quickly, looking over in the direction of the noise.

Most of the men put their hands on their hilts, whilst some others grabbed their distinctive weapons. Everyone thought along the same line, that some drunk, foul summoned a beast, for it wouldn't be the first time.

However, when they heard the stairs creak and crack, their hands tightened as they listened intently for how many legs the creature had, as that indicates the strength of its beast core, it's not always the case but, for them, it's safer to live by that rule.

Picking up on only two distinct steps made them sweat a little, as most humanoid creatures reside in the category of a peak blue core and beyond, but to know how strong it is you would have to fight it.

Hearing the noise get closer, to the door that leads up the stairs when suddenly a man slowly ducked through the doorway and started to look around, searching almost and when he stopped, he was looking at Ben, with very cold eyes, giving everyone shivers, when he spoke "Did you call them for what happened a couple of days ago"

Everyone hearing that quickly let go of their weapons and began drinking immediately to try and not looked involved in this dispute.

The bartender was scared out of his wits not knowing who this man was or what he did to provoke such a monster, and everybody was feeling sorry for Ben as they thought his greed had finally caught up to him.

Ben thinking of a way to try and calm down that man's gaze that started to weigh down on him, so he quickly spoke: "I am sorry, I think you're mistaken, but maybe we could resolve it over a pint" as he walked back to his bar and waited for his reply.

I don't feel like talking to him but since he let me have a pint on the house I am not complaining, walked up to the bar as I reached over the counter for a mug and poured a pint myself.

Ben found this quite aggravating as this person in front of him sat down and put his legs up acting like it was his establishment, so he mentioned "What do you think you're, doing"Trying to gain back some face in front of the crowd who just watched.

Taking a good mouthful of beer, "I don't want someone as dirty as you touching it"