Chapter 2 - Precious Touch

Chapter 2 – Precious Touch

Wayne focused his mind and digested the knowledge he got for Precious Touch special skill. It took him five minutes to be able to understand everything about the skill.

"Hmm~ My special skill is definitely special. Now I know why those with the special skill usually succeed as hunters or explorers," Wayne was smiling. The knowledge he digested was telling him that the special skill, Precious Touch was not a run-of-mill skill.

"Basically, with a touch from me, anything can turn better," Wayne thought about the skill basic ability. He continued, "The skill has five functions. Fix, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division."

"Fix can fix a broken or incomplete thing. Some might need other materials to be fixed but most broken things can be easily fixed with the Precious Touch," said Wayne.

"Addition is simply strengthening an item. However, to use addition, I need to use other things or materials to be used or sacrifice to strengthen that one item," Wayne was smiling because, "That means, I can strengthen my weak equipment over and over without wasting money to buy better equipment and all I need is materials or other weak equipment which can easily be found from killing monsters," Wayne was smiling.

"Subtraction is the weakening of an item. This function can also be used to purify metals from impurity, curses from equipment, or any status that is useless to an item," said Wayne. "Subtraction is the opposite of Addition. I will not use this to weaken my equipment but removing the curse and useless status will be useful."

"Multiplication is a fusion of items. If the addition is strengthening of one item, multiplication is making a new item by combining it with another item. This will be extremely useful if I want to make something super powerful," thought Wayne and he nodded satisfactorily.

"Lastly, Division which is defusing an item. This can be useful if I am desperate for certain materials and I found an item with that material in it. This function can also be used to remove stronger impurity and curse similar to subtraction," said Wayne.

All in all, all five functions of Precious Touch were useful and could help Wayne become stronger easier. Even so, Wayne felt that it was a pity because the skill could only be used on non-living things. It did not work on humans, animals, monsters, and plants.

"If the skill works on humans, I can become a healer with Fix. Since Fix can be used to fix broken and incomplete things, I can regrow arms, legs, and many other body parts. Not only that, with Subtraction and Division, I can also remove tumors and illness from patients," Wayne felt it was a pity.

He also had the thought that if he awakened earlier and if Precious Touch worked on humans, he could easily heal his sick mother. When the thought of Lena came to his mind, Wayne felt sad. He took a deep breath to calm down.

After that, Wayne ended the day and went to sleep. It was midnight and he needed proper rest as he had many things to do since he had awakened.

30th Winter Year 2500, 06:00

Wayne woke up early that day because he was excited to start building his cultivation map. With B+ potential and B+ body talent, Wayne was considered to be average in terms of potential to become strong.

Be that as it may, with his Precious Touch, he would become above average. When he got the knowledge of the special skill, he already made a plan of what he wanted to do with the skill. He was happy that once he got the skill, he got all the knowledge regarding the skill. If not, he would need to do many experiments using the skill.

Wayne had his breakfast, took a shower to freshen up, and then, he went to his room and went online. Wayne turned on the laptop and connected to the internet. After that, he searched 'Cultivation Technique Shop' and lists of shops selling cultivation technique books appeared in the search engine, Woogle.

Wayne clicked the shop one by one and when he found what he wanted, he bookmarked the shop and went searching at other shops. "Hmm… It looks like the full-body cultivation technique is super rare. They don't sell any of them," Wayne scratched his head.

"…" Wayne was thinking of what he should do. Since his talent was the body, the best cultivation technique he could use was the full-body cultivation technique. Even so, that cultivation technique was unavailable.

After humans got the system, they could not use skills without constructing their cultivation map. The cultivation map was important to hunters and explorers if they wanted to become stronger because the map was the foundation of their strength.

To build the cultivation map, hunters and explorers needed to get the cultivation technique related to their talent. For example, a hunter with fire talent needed to use a fire-related cultivation technique to build the cultivation map. If he used a water-related cultivation technique, he would not be able to build the cultivation map.

For Wayne, his talent was the body and the best cultivation technique for him would be technique exactly similar to his talent which was the full-body cultivation technique. The closer the technique was with the talent the more cultivation point could be built on the map.

Wayne could use the hands or legs cultivation technique since it was related to the body talent but the effect would be lower. Wayne could build a maximum of 360 cultivation points on his map. If Wayne used a cultivation technique that was too far from his talent, he might not be able to build that many cultivation points.

The cultivation technique was used to build the cultivation map which was formed by forming the cultivation points. In simple words, the technique built the points which would be connected to form the map. The more points were built the better the map. The better the map, the stronger the hunters and explorers.

Wayne wanted to build the points as much as possible. If possible, he wanted to build the exact 360 points. Even so, it was not possible now that there was no full body cultivation technique available.

"What should I-," Wayne suddenly thought of a brilliant idea. If he could not find one, why not create it himself. He had the Precious Touch skill and he could easily create the best cultivation technique for himself using the Fix, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division.

"That's right. It is doable," Wayne nodded. He decided to create one by himself. He just needed to buy the necessary ingredients which were many cultivation techniques related to body talent and created his cultivation technique.

Wayne surfed online and searched for a list of all cultivation techniques related to the body. To his surprise, there were a ton of them. "Body talent is too general and so, it has this many cultivation techniques," thought Wayne.

Wayne started reading the description of each cultivation technique and took note of what he thought would be suitable for his body cultivation technique. There were hands, legs, skin, organ, heart, liver, mind, brain, soul, and many others.

Wayne made the list and it took him three hours to note everything he needed. "This is a lot…" thought Wayne. There were about 50 different body-related cultivation techniques he found. After that, he started buying the technique online.

The cultivation technique was expensive but Wayne did not need to worry about money because of the inheritance left by Lena. Although the money would not last long if Wayne splurged like this, he considered it an investment because he could make more money if he became stronger.

The cultivation technique was not something created by humans. The cultivation technique sold in the shop was a monster drop. When a monster was killed, there would be a chance that it would drop an item and one of them was the cultivation technique.

The reason the cultivation technique was expensive was because of this. The chance of dropping a cultivation technique was 50%. It might look a lot but it overlapped with many other item drops that made the percentage lower. Added to that, one monster could only drop one item.

Wayne took an hour to buy all the cultivation techniques he needed. Now, all he needed to do was wait for them to be delivered to him. The delivery would not take long. The longest would be four to five hours from the time he made the payment.

The technology had advanced a lot since the start of the age of magic. The technology used to rely on science but after the age of magic, humans made many breakthroughs by combining science with magic. Since then, humans had managed to reach unreachable places such as space. Although humans did not reach that far yet in space, it was progressing forward.

While waiting for the package, Wayne went online and read the trending news that was currently happening all around the world.

[Kya! Kya! The mysterious explorer is a hot guy!]

[Super Explorer x Super Actress! The marriage of the century!]

[Hunter Guild Silphy conquered Planet Hugint No 3]

[Diam High Academy preparing for the entrance exam]

[…]

"…" Wayne was speechless with the top two trending news. He knew about the second trending news. There had been a scandal between that 'super explorer' and the supposedly 'super actress' for the past week.

They were photographed together in a pool lovey-dovey and their agency had been keeping silent since the photo went viral. From the look of the trending news, Wayne had a feeling that they had admitted their relationship and planning for marriage.

Wayne was not interested in the two lovebirds because he was not into entertainment. He knew the news because there were too many of them for the past few weeks.

The super actress was not that super. This year, she managed to act in a super popular drama and her name rose to fame immediately after that. The reporter used the super to hype the story more.

As for the super explorer, he was a newbie explorer. A young early 20s explorer. He was a genius because he advanced from the first layer special dimension to the second layer in his second year of the high academy.

He once again advanced to the third layer in his fifth and last year of the high academy and was crowned the fastest and youngest explorer to advance to the third layer. Since then, he was called a genius and super explorer by the media. Be that as it may, Wayne did not care much about the 'super' love birds.

As for the first trending topic, Wayne was not interested in that too. He knew the story of the mysterious explorer because that explorer had done a lot of things beneficial to humanity but he kept his identity a secret.

The mysterious explorer was the leading figure in conquering Hugint No 2. Not only that, but he had also saved the lives of many explorers in the special dimension. He was currently in the third layer.

Wayne clicked on the trending news to see the identity of the mysterious explorer. He was not interested in him but he at least wanted to see the face of the man helping humanity. The man deserved recognition.

Once Wayne checked the news, he saw the picture of the mysterious explorer. "Well, he is handsome," said Wayne while nodding his head. The trending title was right, the mysterious explorer was handsome. After looking at the picture and real identity of the mysterious explorer, Wayne moved on to the third trending topic.

Wayne was more interested in the third trending news. "We finally conquer the third planet," said Wayne and he was smiling. What the Silphy Guild achieved was good news for humans.

After humans gained the system and when the dungeons appeared, humans had found out that the planet they were currently occupied was not the only planet where the dungeons appeared. Other planets around them met the same fate too.

After humans had managed to fuse science with magic, they found out that all the planets and stars in the universe had dungeons. Humans did not want the monsters to conquer them and thus, they focused on space travel to annihilate the monsters appearing in the universe. The explorer would focus on the special dimension while hunters would focus on the dungeons.

50 years have passed since the start of space exploration. However, the threat was so big that not many signs of progress had happened.

Humans had managed to occupy eleven planets including Hugint No 1 (Human's main planet) but the hunters only managed to conquer Hugint No 2, a neighboring planet of Hugint No 1. With Silphy Guild's achievement, humanity had conquered the third planet.

"If I cannot become an explorer, I will focus myself in conquering planets as a hunter," thought Wayne. He got a special skill and he should contribute something using his power for humanity. Even if Wayne was eligible to enter the special dimension, he would try to conquer the planets too.

A few hours later. 13:45.

Wayne's living room was filled with boxes. All of them were the cultivation techniques he bought in the morning. He used a knife and opened all the boxes and arranged the cultivation book on the table. After that, he took out all the boxes to the recycle bin.

Wayne sat on the sofa and in front of him was a coffee table with fifty thick books arranged properly on top of the table. Wayne took one of the books.

"Hand cultivation technique," Wayne read the book title and focused himself to use the Precious Touch skill. Once the skill was activated, his hand shone lightly and the light flowed towards the cultivation book.

[Precious Touch activated. 1. Fix? 2. Subtraction? 3. Division?] the system asked Wayne. There was no Addition and Multiplication because Wayne needed to touch two things at the same time.

"Fix?" Wayne was surprised. If there was a Fix option, that meant something was broken or incomplete in the cultivation book. "Is this book fake? Did the shop scam me?" Wayne wondered. Before he fixed the book, he decided to check on the shop where he bought the cultivation book.

When Wayne checked online, he found out that the shop was legit and super trustworthy. All the reviews said the shop was excellent. That got him thinking.

"Is it possible that the technique is incomplete or broken since the beginning when the monster drops it?" Wayne thought calmly and then, he realized that it was possible because there was the grade for everything from the monsters drop from G- to SSS+.

Obviously, G- was the worst grade and SSS+ was the best. He also knew that hunters and explorers would seek to use the best grade technique and skills they could find because they were better. Wayne knew now that some of them could be incomplete or broken.

Wayne appraised the hand cultivation technique.

Name: Hand Cultivation Technique

Rank: Normal

Grade: G+

Lock: None

"Let's fix this," said Wayne and the book shone for a few seconds. After that, Wayne appraised the book again and he was surprised.

Name: Hand Cultivation Technique

Rank: Normal

Grade: F

Lock: 1

"Whoa!" Wayne exclaimed in surprise. He read online that the best hand cultivation technique was the one he previously had. A normal rank, grade G+ without any lock. However, after he fixed the technique, he found out that the real technique was two levels higher in grade with one lock.

"The difference is massive! A grade G+ is much more inferior than a grade F. Not only that, the skill has one lock which means it can be upgraded to a higher rank! This is the true hand cultivation technique!" Wayne was happy to find out this truth. He was thankful for the special skill he got.

Equipment, materials, cultivation techniques, skills, and many more coming from the monsters had rank and grade. Rank was the big level while grade was the smaller level. For cultivation techniques and skills, they had additional status called lock.

Having lock meant the skill could be upgraded to a higher rank. It meant that the technique and skill could advance at a big level. The rank upgrade would increase the power of the technique and skill a lot compared to an increase in grade.

Not only that, since the technique or skills could be upgraded, there was also no need for a hunter or explorer to search for a better and powerful technique or skills. They could rely on the skill they had earlier and unlock the lock to upgrade the skill rank.

Wayne picked up another cultivation technique and again, he could fix it. He wasted no time and fixed it. Wayne moved on and 15 minutes later, he found out that all the cultivation techniques he bought could be fixed.

"So, all this time, humans had used the incomplete or broken cultivation technique," thought Wayne and he felt like this situation could not continue like this. "I cannot interfere in this since my power is limited but if humans keep practicing a broken technique, it will be hard for us to advance."

Wayne sighed and he opened the cultivation book and was shocked when he could see words on the book. "What the? Since when can words appear in the cultivation book?" Wayne was shocked.

There was never once since the appearance of the cultivation technique book that someone could read the book content like reading a normal book. For a hunter or explorer to learn the technique, the system would scan the book, and the knowledge of the book would enter their mind.

However, once the knowledge was etched in their mind, they could not teach the technique or skill to someone else. Not only that, but they also could not write it on paper or do anything that could teach others about the technique.

Even if they wanted to create something completely different from the knowledge they got, it was impossible. This was the reason why humans relied on the monster drop to learn techniques and skills.

"Maybe the system forbids sharing this knowledge because they are broken and incomplete?" Wayne was thinking deeply. "Now that I have fixed the technique, is it possible to share this?" Wayne was thinking.

Wayne stood up and decided to scan the book. If by chance he could scan the book, that meant he was right. Wayne scanned the book and he could do it. After successfully scanning the first page, Wayne sat in front of his laptop thinking of his next move.

His hand was on his desk and he tapped his index finger thinking of something. "If I spread this now, it will be bad for me. I am still weak without any protection. If someone with bad intentions knew about this, they would catch me and force me to work for them."

"Let's wait until I am stronger and I will spread this knowledge," said Wayne. He decided to scan all the books and saved it. While scanning the books, he realized how OP his Precious Touch and the name of the skill was spot on.