Pure Strength

"Alright! Let's give it all we got!" Scarlett's loud and pumped voice raised the competitive atmosphere between her and Asher to another level.

As an increasing excitement filled their veins, Asher and Scarlett tensed their arms, pulling them back simultaneously. A single second silence raised Asher and Scarlett's anticipation even more.

Then, without any more words shared between them, Asher and Scarlett punched towards their respective trees at the same time.

'Bang!'

Their fists were a light blur in the wind as they violently struck the trees at the full extent of their pure physical prowess. Fierce gushes of wind breezed past Asher and Scarlett, ruffling both their hairs and clothes in a unique rhythmic manner.

Upon Asher and Scarlett's chaotic strikes, both of their trees quiver under their powerful forces, although only Scarlett's tree had numerous long spiderweb-like cracks splitting all over the trunk.

'Hmm….so that's my limit, huh?' Asher initially felt mildly satisfied by his results.

Rearing his fist back, he spotted that he left a 2-meter deep hole into the trunk of the tree.

Even without using any Spirit Mana at all, Asher's pure physical prowess was still superhuman levels. He didn't need to particularly train his physical body at all. Spirit Mana's passive strengthening abilities took care of it all for him.

After taking one last look over his results, Asher had then glanced over Scarlett's results, curious to see how much of a difference is between them.

But when taking a single glance at her tree hole, Asher felt all of his previous mild satisfaction dash away from him.

'You've got to be kidding me….why is this girl so strong?!'

Asher contained all of his shock within his mind as he stared at the 6-meter deep hole Scarlett left in her tree.

While most System Soul cultivators tend to ignore the pure physical prowess at the higher tiers of cultivation, Scarlett's strength couldn't be underestimated at all.

Asher reckons in battle; her physical force could very well be another layer to her terrifying combat prowess.

'Mn-hm! You would be right about that, Asher. Believe it or not, there are some cultivators who have special System Manual or Skills that crazily boost their physical prowess. In actuality, unless your prowess majorly trumps there, these people can be quite difficult to beat. Although....these guys certainly don't have it easy to become powerful.'

Yuki suddenly spoke up, relaying to Asher a brief snippet of information.

Taking in this news, Asher furrowed his brows for a moment. That kind of ability certainly intrigued him as he barely heard of people having a high physical prowess.

But for now, Asher kept his focus on Scarlett, shooting her an impressed expression.

Reveling in Asher's impressed look, Scarlett let out a good nature chuckle. Then, she tossed her eyes on Asher's result and gave him a respectful nod.

"Heh! Hey Asher, you know, with just one punch, you already prove you're more of a man than that big burly dude....what was his name....Dane! Like seriously! When we did this, that dude could barely leave a dent in the tree."

Instead of feeling proud over Scarlett's compliment, Asher immediately started to wonder.

Of course, if they were to use Mana energy, this tree would be split in half by a mere slap by any of them.

But with no Spirit Mana energy at all, a Peak Spirit Tier level genius like Dane couldn't achieve a better result than him?

Asher almost found this hard to believe.

It's even been accurately proven that Spirit Mana energy passively strengthens the body. And since Dane is at the Peak Stage of the Spirit Tier realm, shouldn't his results be at least near the level of Scarlett's?

Or, at the very least, be better than his?

Asher knows it wasn't like he explicitly works out anyway, so it was something to take slight notice off.

Pushing past this topic for later, Asher simply shrugs his shoulders, saying next, "I suppose I just have a luckier foundation than that guy. But besides that, I was thinking about it all this time….Scarlett, you are from the Shuri Clan, right?"

Since they would be spending the rest of the afternoon together, Asher didn't beat around the bush and already began asking questions.

He wasn't sure why; perhaps Scarlett was right, but Asher felt more comfortable talking to Scarlett after showcasing their physical prowess.

This comfortable settlement was shared by Scarlett as she threw Asher's playful, teasing smirk.

"Hey now, Asher. You're saying it like you're still so unsure after all this time. You know, us ranking fellows just have all of our basic info blasted everywhere."

Asher could only nonchalantly shrugged at that while explaining, "True, but I still barely know anything about you guys. At most, I looked at the ranking list just to know who I will be dealing with later down the line. But, more than that….well, I'd rather find out more face to face."

Just from those honest words, Scarlett's smirk turned ten times wider. Then, without care for boundaries, she strolled right up to Asher and began slapping his shoulders like she was one of the guys.

"See? That's why I like you, Asher. No annoying sneaky snake shit like those other guys!"

Asher only slightly curled his eyebrows as Scarlett roughly slapped his shoulders.

Barring past on how hard she's slapping, Asher focused on just how easily Scarlett took his words at face value. And considering their talks yesterday and today, Asher concluded that Scarlett certainly isn't the easy person to gain the trust of.

Just Daisy's bewildered actions alone spoke volumes on how Scarlett would typically act.

Yet here she was, believing everything he said without a second thought.

Of course, what Asher said was only the honest truth. But he did feel a rise of appreciation for Scarlett since she's easy to get along with, at least for him.

Before Asher could reply back to her, Scarlett suddenly stopped slapping his shoulder and turned her gaze to the skies while having a wistful expression.

"And to your question….yes, I am from the Shuri Clan. Their title prime genius daughter as they and everyone else like to call me."

Scarlett's tone sounded slightly sour when speaking, though she kept a light smirk on her face.

Before Asher responded, he briefly thought about the differences between a Clan and an established Family. As far as he was concerned, Clans were essentially equal to any Class level Families, no matter their levels.

The differences come with how Clans operate their lifestyle. Compared to the modern life many around Pearlcrest City have, nearly all Clans have a more traditional lifestyle that resembles history from long ago.

With everything he knows about Scarlett just from these two days, Asher felt his curiosity heightened, so he asked her, "Out of curiosity, what Class level is your clan? Cause of your….let's say, wildly intense personality, I can assume problems would arise with their own values."

"Hmph. You really know how to compliment a lady, eh?"

Scarlett slightly huffed as she turned her gaze back to Asher, flicking her unkempt fiery red hair at him.

Although she did it say in a joking way, deep down inside, Scarlett did feel something unique from Asher describing her personality wildly intense.

Still, Scarlett kept her expression smirkingly impassive as she began telling him, "You sure can guess right. Compared to those other prissy-ranking students, my Shuri Clan is on the low end of the High-Class level. And their damn traditionality is to a grating degree. Heh! If they knew I was doing this during my break….oh, you would laugh from their brazen reactions."

Asher curiously tilted his head, feeling a slight pang of sympathy.

If he was still the same when he first awakened his System Soul, Asher would've felt entirely indifferent to Scarlett's situation.

But after his time with Elsa and seeing how heavy her Family control is, Asher felt an instinctive reaction to help Scarlet in some way. For now, though, he decided to focus on uplifting Scarlett's mood, asking her,

"I see….you make it sound like you see their brazen reactions quite often. Is it a habit for you to annoy them?"

"Eh." Scarlett causally shrugged her shoulders.

"I can only do it to a certain extent. There are still things even I can get into serious trouble for. Still, being prim and proper was never and will never be my forte. All that stuff is too suffocating for me."

"Heh….you know, I also like that free spirit within you. Not too many likes going against the grain. I saw it all the time while I was still in the common students' section." Asher smilingly said.

From Asher's words, a certain glint swirled within Scarlett's eyes. Her smirk wildly broadened while she pumped her hands together.

"Alright, alright, enough with that, let's get back to the action! Let's do a bet, Asher. Without using Magical Energy, we will see who can knock down the most tree within a time limit. The winner gets one free favor from the loser, but it has to be within reasonable limits! I am a fair woman, after all."

Asher only needed to think for a moment before swiftly liking this idea. This could actually do for some good physical training in any case.

Asher felt his competitive spirit rose again as he then said, "You're on. Careful though, I don't like to lose."

"Hmph! I should be warning you, I never lost in my life!" Scarlett confidently boasted while flicking her fiery hair.

Without even Asher and Scarlett fully realizing it, a strange connection was beginning to bud between them. An eagerness to outdo each other and push each other to their very limits burn within their cores, causing them to be increasingly fired up.