Chapter 2 - Cultivation

When Kyle thought about cultivation, some stats were shown in front of him.

[Cultivation Technique: Five Elements of Chaos Transformations]

[Cultivation Rank: Mortal]

[Cultivation Base: 0/1000]

[Qi Power: 0]

[Meditation Technique: None]

[Soul Rank: Mortal]

[Soul Power: 1.5]

[Body Tempering Technique: Basic Body Reinforcement (Tampered)]

[Body Rank: Mortal]

[Body Tempering: 12/1000]

[Body Power: 1.12]

"There is a lot of information here. But from what I can gather there are three main sources of power. The first is Qi, the second is the soul, and the third is the body. From what I can see I can't train the soul. The Body technique Is the one that I'm currently using, but it says it's tampered, well, it doesn't matter. Now the next one is Qi, how do I cultivate Qi?"

Suddenly, as if answering his question, his memory started to be filled with new information, it was mainly about his cultivation technique. He now knew the basics of cultivation and had a rough grasp on how to cultivate.

"But I still wonder why the government technique is tampered with. Never mind it for now. Let's cultivate."

Kyle sat cross legged in his bed and started to absorb qi with his breathing and circulate it according to the cultivation technique. At first it was a little hard since Kyle never knew what qi felt like. It took him a couple hours until he got the feeling right. And it was only confirmed when he got a notification.

[Qi absorbed: 0.5]

Then, when he finished circulating the qi and settling it in his Dan Tian he got another notification.

[Qi consumed: 0.5 -> Cultivation Base Increased: 0.1]

"This is going to take forever. But it's the only way forward." Kyle thought. After that he kept getting the same notifications repeatedly at different intervals. The Qi came from breathing, so it took him five seconds to absorb the qi. The Cultivation base came from circulating the Qi in his body to settle it in his Dan Tian and it took him thirty seconds to do that.

The mortal phase of his qi cultivation consisted in forming his Dan Tian, something that everyone has but due to never using it in life before, it was stunted. His job was to gather qi and charge it in his Dan Tian to train it to grow. Due to the body being charged with Qi as well there was going to be some improvements as well, but for now he couldn't feel much.

Kyle didn't feel tired at all and kept cultivating the whole night. When it was morning and the sun hit his face. He finally decided to stop his cultivation session and get ready to go to class. Since he was an orphan and was supported by the government, he couldn't miss any class or they would decrease his monthly allowance.

"Cultivation!" Kyle thought as if giving an order.

[Cultivation Technique: Five Elements of Chaos Transformations]

[Cultivation Rank: Mortal]

[Cultivation Base: 103.2/1000]

[Qi Power: 1.032]

[Meditation Technique: None]

[Soul Rank: Mortal]

[Soul Power: 1.8]

[Body Tempering Technique: Basic Body Reinforcement (Tampered)]

[Body Rank: Mortal]

[Body Tempering: 12/1000]

[Body Power: 1.6876]

"Wow, it seems that my soul and my body were improved with my cultivation as well. That is nice." Kyle thought.

"Status!" Kyle ordered in his mind.

[Name: Kyle Goldblood]

[Age: 15 years]

[Strength: 3.0]

[Agility: 2.8]

[Vitality: 4.2]

[Stamina: 1.9]

[Qi: 3096]

[Power Index: 2.975]

"Wow, a whole point in everything. Great, and a whole point in power index. Awesome!" Kyle cheered.

"Today I'm going to teach those bastards a Lesson."

Kyle went to do his morning routine, but what he didn't realize was that he was breathing and capturing Qi passively. Not until he checked his notifications that is.

"I want to disable these notifications, if I'm getting them just from breathing, It's annoying."

[System notification: Qi absorption from breathing notification disabled!]

"Great, now let's go to class."

Kyle grabbed his bag and left his room. During morning, no one blocked anyone since almost everyone was late to class as well, so he never had a problem going to class. Today's class was nothing special, but for some reason Kyle was able to learn much better and his mind seemed sharper than usual.

After another three hours of class. He was filled with Qi and got the following notification.

[Qi capacity reached. Excess QI will be converted to cultivation base]

[Qi consumed: 0.5 -> Cultivation base Increased: 0.001]

"So inefficient. I must cultivate properly at home. For now, let disable this notification as well."

[System notification: Qi excess conversion notification disabled!]

Time passed and it was already three in the afternoon. This time it was time for martial arts training. Since the war with the demons was still happening and monster materials were still needed. Students from all over the world were required to learn martial arts and abilities so that they could contribute with government when they reached sixteen years old and were sent to a military base. They would spent three years in there. It was a form of high school but with missions and the military looking over.

"Friday there will be another power index assessment. Do your best to improve yourselves so you don't die during the military draft." The teacher said. He was a burly man wearing a white karate kimono and a black belt.

The martial arts students were taught was an evolved form of martial arts that combined almost all martial arts in the world and got the most powerful moves combined with the best flexibility. It was called Global Mixed Arts. It also encompassed weapons like swords and polearms.

Guns were not being used as much anymore since demons would simply heal from a bullet wound and monsters would only feel as if they had taken a punch. The human body with the addition of abilities got so strong that even humans were somewhat immune to firearms to a certain extent. The weapons regressed to blades and other melee weapons since they could be used together with abilities and deal damage to both monsters and demons.

Kyle also wearing a white kimono as well and a white belt. No student was allowed to graduate to the next belt since they were not doing it from the heart but rather they were being forced to learn. It didn't matter much anyway since the most important indicator of one strength was the power index.

Powe index was a measure of the cells in one's body and the power they pack. Kyle now was almost reaching 3. But it wasn't that great. Other students have power indices greater than 30 depending on the family and their ability.

Orphans didn't have much luck since the ability they get from the government was very weak and didn't allow them to progress much, but it was still possible to reach 20 before leaving school.

"Today, as usual we'll be training with swords. Let's practice a few swings and later you'll be sparring with a partner. Now let's practice the Thousand Transformations Sword Set form." It was a set of movements that would demonstrate most applications of the sword as if simulating an imaginary fight. There was meaning behind every move, but students didn't care. They just swing their swords, and repeated the form a few times.

Kyle was also doing it, but he noticed something different. He could feel a strange energy being gathered around him. He could feel something was being absorbed while he was practicing the form. When he finished the form he paid attention to the notifications that he was ignoring so far while practicing the form.

[Swordsmanship: Thousand Transformations Sword acquired]

[Absorbing knowledge from the environment: +0.1]

[Absorbing knowledge from the environment: +0.1]

[Absorbing knowledge from the environment: +0.1]

…

This notification kept popping up and the feeling of absorbing was growing stronger. He understood that the system was absorbing the knowledge from the other students while they were practicing the form.

Soon, something like memories, but rather, technical knowledge about the sword set was start to fill his brain. He could see that his understanding behind the Thousand Transformation set was being improved.

"Kyle. Stop looking around and start doing the form."

"Sorry teacher."

Then Kyle started to practice the form. But his movements were different this time. Rather, his pacing and strength behind the moves were different. He could understand some of the moves and knew that some were for defense while some were for attack and even some were just feints.

[Thousand Transformations Sword reached small achievement]

After some time he got this notification and soon after he could almost understand every move from the form. The strength behind each move changed and the pacing was improving as well. He started to swing his sword faster but it was still strong. It didn't take much time to reach small achievement. But he kept increasing his understanding.

[Thousand Transformations Sword reached intermediate achievement]

His understanding reached another level, and he could feel the intention behind every move. His next execution of the sword form was fast and powerful, his feints transitioned to real attacks swiftly and carried momentum. His parries were forceful and swift and his legwork was swift and stable.

[Knowledge too weak to improve further. Please seek better environment or a better teacher.]

Then Kyle got this notification. He understood that he couldn't leech from other students anymore due to them not understanding the sword set themselves. It was good already that he could improve his understanding to the intermediate achievement.

"Now let's begin sparring."