Further Power and Waking Up In An Abandoned Warehouse

Instantly the flow of heat flooded my body but this time...it felt natural. Completely and utterly natural. There was no pain or uncomfortable feeling. Just the feeling of strength flooding my body as my muscles expanded and contracted and my bone and skin density began to soar.

But that wasn't the only thing. My senses began to expand and became so keen that I could sense the area around me with perfect clarity. It was like having Observation Haki or something.

Once the heat stopped flowing into my body and changing it, I felt completely different.

More solid and much more powerful. I could most likely take a gun shot right to my head and walk it off with a smile. And that's without my strength enhancing techniques activated or any Qi reinforcing my body.

Laughing at the absurdity of this situation, I began to do a few stretches as I felt my body out, trying to find it's limits.

Once I'd stretched enough, I bent down and jumped with as much force as I could. Instantly, I found myself getting thrown upwards about 8 or 9 meters. So, well beyond whatever a human could do. Nice. It's so nice because I'm nowhere done when it comes to getting more powerful right now. Still have more points to spend.

"Show me Strength Reinforcement that meshes well with my class and [Serpent Physiology Lv1], and has the potential to work well with [Beast King Body Strengthening Lv4]," I said, wanting to see how detailed I could make my searches.

Surprisingly, the screen actually began to buffer for a few seconds before it displayed three things, each with their descriptions already showing.

[Low Grade Beast Body Lv1 - 100 Points - A beast is a thing known for it's physical brawn and might. Whether it be speed, toughness and power, beasts have humans beat. This skill allows a non-beast user to be enhanced by a more feral physical state and be more in tune with their animal side. Boosts physical strength, stamina, speed and durability of the body while bringing out the person survival and predatory instincts for better use. Doubles the effectiveness of any beast-themed skills.]

[Low Grade Martial Arts Body Lv1 - 100 Points - A martial artist is a person known for their control and technical use of their physical might. Whether it be fighting skill or mentality, they have normal people beat. This skills gives the user a natural disposition and talent for martial arts and doubles the effectiveness of any unarmed fighting skill regardless of level. It's effect increases per level of this skill. Boosts reflexes, body control and coordination, innate willpower and comprehension for martial arts.]

[Pink Muscle Enhancement Lv1 - 100 Points - This skill allows the user to not have even a milligram of useless muscle; the penultimate concentration of muscle. Strength, speed, stamina and durability are all raised without one of them being sacrificed and all of them are raised significantly higher than they would be without this skill. This skill doesn't give an instant boost to the user's overall strength but instead works toward maintaining their overall potential by having them cut any weaknesses from their muscles.]

"Buy 'em," I said, knowing they'd help me massively. Instantly a wave of heat so powerful, my vision instantly went white, flooded my body and I felt like my internal body was melting and being re-made from each individual cell up. Like I was having my foundation torn away and rebuilt better.

I quickly figured out why this was happening: They were merging with [Beast King Body Strengthening] and they were forcibly leveled up. I was cheating the system. But at the same time, [Low Grade Beast Body] was doubling the effectiveness of [Serpent Physiology] and along with all the changes happening to my body, it was only making the pain worse.

But I didn't care about the pain. I was getting more powerful.

The very thought was...incredibly intoxicating to me for some reason. Maybe it was my physiology skill effecting me and the [Low Grade Beast Body] making me more in tune with my instincts...but no matter what it was, it was making me a bit power hungry.

If anything, my instincts told me I really needed this power. A weak beast...wouldn't survive. I needed to be a strong one.

Instincts I'd never had were screaming one thing at me: The strong devour the weak.

...And I found myself agreeing with them. After all, there's a famous quote about it. ''It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong.'' - Otto von Bismarck, the man who unified Germany into the German Empire. He wasn't wrong, either. Even if I was from Earth, even if I lacked motivation then, I have motivation now and I'm not strictly on Earth anymore. If I'm in this death game...I need strength. That's it. Nothing else to consider, is there?

Slowly but surely, the pain began to stop and I felt...wonderful. The tests I'd just done were now useless to mark where my power was at right now. I was definitely many folds stronger already.

I'd fallen over during the power-up, so I flipped myself up and onto my feet, everything feeling so much easier to control now that I had [Low Grade Martial Arts Body] and after it'd been assimilated and forcibly raised once it joined [Beast King Body Strengthening] it's effects had increased even further. I could easily control my body - if I thought it, and it was possible for this body, it felt like I could do it without a sweat and flawlessly.

Smiling wide, I began laughing, uproariously. This power...gaining it and improving it like this...god, my instincts were screaming for me to test it out!

My smile stretched so wide my cheeks hurt but I just ignored it and looked up at the screen ever present in the white expanse and swiped away the notification that told me the three skills I'd brought had been assimilated into [Beast King Body Strengthening], "Show me class orientated skills."

As soon as I spoke, a new list appeared and I looked through it, remembering the names of skills that interested me.

It didn't take long for me to find the ones I planned on buying.

[Basic Grade Qi Armor Lv1 - 50 Points]

[External Martial Arts Mastery Lv1 - 50 Points]

[Internal Martial Arts Mastery Lv1 - 50 Points]

[Basic Grade Medical Knowledge Lv1 - 50 Points]

[Basic Grade Qi Healing Lv1 - 50 Points]

But out of all of the the ones I saw, three different skills caught my attention mainly because they didn't have any levels after them and because they were simply called ''Specializations' instead of skills.

[Cultivator Specialization - 50 Points]

[Beast Art Specialization - 50 Points]

[Sage Art Specialization - 50 Points]

This would decide my future as a Monk/Martial Artist. Each of these were different types of cultivation. Cultivator was a mix of the others - a jack-of-all-trades type specialization - so I'll explain the others first.

Beast Arts focused on the body. Making the body into an indestructible and unstoppable weapon was the final goal of all Beast Arts. It changed your Qi into Beast Qi which gave a bigger physical boost when used to reinforce the body. It also tempered the body quicker and with more success than normal Qi, Spirit Qi (Cultivator) or Soul Qi (Sage). So, it was looking to be the specialization I was most suited for.

As you might have guessed, Sage Arts focused on the soul. Making the soul endless and unkillable was the final goal of all Sage Arts. Like said before, it changes your Qi into Soul Qi which gives an increase to your mental faculties and can also be used to attack an opponents soul, making killing things much easier if they don't have any protection for that sort of stuff. Though as a trade-off, Soul Qi is the least effective at tempering the body and has the least success when used to reinforce the body making it the physically weakest type of specialization.

But it made up for this weakness by giving the ability to be able to use Soul Qi to perform spells that can be used at long distance. It practically turns you into a mage.

My instincts expressed their disgust at such a specialization and I had to admit...it didn't seem to be for me. I'd never been a fan of mages. More into playing as a warrior in RPG's or D&D. Just how I was, I guess.

Which brings me onto the last specialization; the happy medium. Or the jack-of-all-trades specialization which wasn't really a specialization because it gave the benefits of both...just in much smaller amounts. Though what it lacked in pure Soul/Mind or physical power, Spirit Qi more than made up for it in versatility. But even with this versatility, it'd be lesser than Beast Qi in strength, intensity or physical damage-output and weaker than Soul Qi in it's soul-destroying properties and mental improving properties.

Plus, with the shop of this place, it wasn't like it was impossible for a Monk with Beast Qi to have strong soul defense or for a Monk with Soul Qi to have a strong body that isn't a glass cannon.

There was very little reason to pick the Cultivator Specialization, honestly.

In the end, I quickly came to my decision and spoke it out, "Buy [Basic Grade Qi Armor Lv1], [External Martial Arts Mastery Lv1], [Internal Martial Arts Mastery Lv1], [Basic Grade Medical Knowledge Lv1], [Basic Grade Qi Healing Lv1] and [Beast Art Specialization]," as soon as I said this, information and knowledge quickly began to fill my head.

It wasn't hard to pick Beast Specialization, honestly. It fit better with what I'd already built, and I already had a skill called [Beast King Body Strengthening] so why not go all the way, right? Whatever, I was on my way to being a physical powerhouse. Versatility was important, sure, but so was focusing on a specific way of power.

The rest of my choices were pretty easy to explain: [External Martial Arts Mastery Lv1] and [Internal Martial Arts Mastery Lv1] were so I had more moves and techniques for my arsenal. You can never have too much skill in martial arts. [Basic Grade Qi Armor Lv1] because...well, you can never have too much defense. Plus I wanted to see if it had the chance of merging with my other defense technique. [Basic Grade Medical Knowledge Lv1] and [Basic Grade Qi Healing Lv1] were the easiest to defend: I wanted to know how to properly patch myself up if I did end up getting seriously hurt. Plus, [Basic Grade Qi Healing Lv1] let me heal my wounds quicker and for lesser amounts of Qi. Gotta save as much Qi as possible, right?

As soon as the new information settled, it began to reform itself in my head. Ah, another merger. At the same time, a change kickstarted in my Qi and it began to become ferocious and wild. Though, despite the slowly brutal nature coming over the Qi, it actually felt more natural for it to be like this. Guess that's [Serpent Physiology] and [Low Grade Beast Body] at work, huh?

Smiling, I waited for the merge to end and when it did, the screen changed in front of me.

['Unarmed Combat Mastery Lv1', 'External Martial Arts Lv1' and 'Internal Martial Arts Lv1' have merged to become the higher ranking skill 'Yin-Yang Martial Arts Mastery Lv1'.]

[Normal Qi has been successfully converted to Beast Qi.]

Nice. Well, I should quickly get the last few things, right? Don't wanna get kicked out before I finish my shopping spree.

. . .

I brought a few more things after that, rushing through what I needed and while I had over 2000 Points left after my spree so far up to that point, I quickly spent 1500 points on buying three skills.

[Monk Iron Body Technique], [Beast Iron Body Technique] and [Advanced Beast Cultivation Method]. Each costing 500 points. The first two merged with [Chunbu Outer Technique Lv1], [Golden Indestructible Body Technique Lv1] and [Basic Grade Qi Armor Lv1] to make a higher ranking skill called [Beast King Body Technique]--I was beginning to think I had some sort of fucking destiny or something. Maybe the King of something? Possibly the King of Beasts?

Jokes aside, I upgraded [Qi Manipulation] to level three for 250 points and my Qi capacity grew minimally but the main change was the quality of my Qi. It was purer and my control over it increased by leaps and bounds. Once I'd done that, I upgraded [Serpent Physiology] to level two.

Boy did that fucking hurt.

Though after the change was over, there was a qualitative and quantitative leap in my strength. If all my other abilities improved upon my body and depended on the physical quality and natural strength of it when they improved it's strength, then [Serpent Physiology] effected the quality and natural strength of my body. The higher leveled that skill was, the better and more effective my other skills would be. My foundation, so to speak.

I also got the ability to summon scales all over my body which increased my defense even further. Got claws and fangs as well. Not sure why I got retractable claws but you know what, I'm not complaining.

Once I'd done this, I just sat down on the floor before sighing. I didn't know where I'd wake up - I was obviously in a new body so there's a very real chance I could wake up in a new place as well.

So, even while I was sitting down, I kept my senses tuned to the max and kept my guard up.

Eventually, I found the surroundings fading before I found myself in a dark and wet warehouse that looked abandoned as hell.

...I fucking called it.