Chapter 27: Level 5

It was late in the night as Eric lay on his back in bed with his eyes wide open, shining brightly under the moonlight.

He was ready to start cultivating his mind with all the resources he had acquired. Normally he was able to cultivate his mind for 1 hour per night; if he pushed himself further, Eric would suffer from a pretty serious headache for at least a couple hours.

With the 10 Mental Energy Gathering Pills and bottle of 20 Fatigue Relieving Pills he had, if he cultivated for 10 hours for two nights, he would gain huge benefits. Two days like this would be equal to twenty days of cultivating like normal!

Eric was sure that he would be able to break through to the Second Layer of the Trainee Mentalist Realm and almost catch up to his progress in Soul Cultivation by the end of these two days.

He took one of each pill in his hand and gulped them down. Right after this, he started cultivating his mind. As he visualized the strands of mental energy enter his head, he felt the sheer increase in the amount of energy he absorbed.

'Pills are so great! The amount of energy gathered is indeed around double of what it used to be!' Eric exclaimed as he continued absorbing the energy into his mental sphere at an amazing rate.

After one hour, he felt a headache approaching and quickly withdrew a single Fatigue Relieving Pill from his inventory and devoured it, thinking of relieving his mental fatigue. In an instant, his mind was fully replenished of stamina and the incoming headache he felt had completely vanished.

Feeling completely refreshed, Eric continued to absorb mental energy using this method for the rest of the night.

Quite a while had passed and Eric was almost about to run out of the effect from the fourth Mental Energy Gathering Pill and the eighth Fatigue Relieving Pill when he felt that he was about to breakthrough.

With the few minutes he had remaining while the effects of the pills lasted, Eric felt his mental sphere fill with mental energy and finally expand in size.

He had broken through to the Second Layer of the Trainee Mentalist Realm in Mind Cultivation!

His mind, which was close to being fatigued, had been completely restored to its peak condition and he felt as if his entire sea of consciousness were refilled with energy; along with an obvious increase in mental strength.

Since he had broken through, Eric decided to take a break from cultivating his mind for the day. It was very early in the morning and because it was just after he recently broke through, Eric was not tired even a bit. Since he wasn't tired, he decided to stay up and cultivate his soul with the time he had remaining instead.

***

Later in the morning, while Eric was on his usual morning run, he sensed the three young boys hanging around in their usual spot. He smiled as he noticed another scam opportunity and wrapped a cloth which he found in his cupboard, around his face as a mask, in order to hide his identity.

He didn't want to reinforce his appearance in the kids' minds as he might get recognized, so he decided to cover his face this time and approached the kids.

"Hey, it's me: the guy who gave you the cultivation manual." Eric kept his introduction simple and seeing the kids recognize his voice, he continued, "Did any more of the herbs you previously brought me grow?"

One of the kids promptly answered, "We haven't checked, but we can go and see for you, sir."

He was still respectful towards Eric and seemed willing to carry out this task for him.

Noticing the child's attitude, Eric internally breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. Following this, the three kids quickly ran into the forest to do Eric's bidding.

A while later, they came back, slightly panting and wore bright smiles on their faces.

"The herbs have grown back! Your words were true, sir!" one of the poor children said, looking at Eric.

Eric had already taken out a jute bag which he had taken from his house out of his inventory, which he handed to the child.

The kids knew what to do instantly and ran off into the forest with the bag, just like what they had done a few days ago.

Once they came back, the bag was full and Eric gave them 10 silver coins each, upon which he heard a notification from the Scam System.

The kids rejoiced and thanked Eric, who went back to his house, his cloth mask hiding his excited and almost creepy expression.

Eric soon arrived home, his bag full of Qi Gathering Herbs as well as his impromptu mask safely hidden inside his inventory. He ran up the stairs at a pretty fast pace and carefully locked his door shut.

Once he was in his room, Eric opened the Scam System to check his notifications.

[Congratulations!

You have leveled up.

Scam Level: 5

(0/500 Experience Points)

Level Up Reward: 'Unique Ability: Bargain' unlocked, 'Unique Ability Menu' unlocked]

Seeing his level up rewards, Eric's face turned into an amused smile. Since a new menu was unlocked, he assumed the reward he got was pretty useful and was evidently excited about it.

He opened the new menu which he unlocked from the level up reward to check it out.

[Unique Ability Menu

Unique Abilities are exclusive abilities granted to the user of the Scam System in order to help him with primarily scamming, while some can be multi-purpose as well.

Unique Abilities:

Bargain: Scamming is easier and more profitable in general.]

Eric was pleased with the first unique ability he obtained and he continued to check the changes in his Communication Skills Menu due to his breakthrough in the morning.

[Communication Skills Menu

Persuasion: 10

Intimidation: 10

Charm: 7]

'I'm already at 10 points in two of the three paths of cultivation. Now I'm lacking in the path of the body the most in terms of both cultivation level and the communication skill that corresponds to it.' Eric contemplated the situation and decided to focus on training and cultivating his body a bit more.

As Eric thought about Body Cultivation, he instantly remembered something.

'Oh, right. Didn't dad tell me to come and talk to him once I reach the First Layer of the Flesh Refining Realm and am ready? Since I have nothing else to focus on for now, I should talk to him today evening when he comes back home. He specifically mentioned my Body's Cultivation Level, which I assume is because he wants to show or teach me something regarding body cultivation.'

Smiling at the good timing of this situation, he made up his mind to tell his father that he was ready.

Till the time being though, he decided to cultivate his body.