3 Mortal Techniques > Cultivation
Su Meng picked up his sword and went outside of his house where there was a small training ground with a few dummies. The material used to build those dummies were definitely tougher than any usual dummies he knew from his old world, however, despite it being quite tough, he was aware that they were most likely used by him at a young age since if he still had this body's cultivation level, he would have been able to destroy them without trouble.
Su Meng slashed his sword with half of his strength towards the dummy's neck.
*Clang* The sword was easily deflected upon the impact with its neck and Meng's hand grew a bit numb.
[What is it, host? Why have you stopped training?] Vista asked when he noticed his host just standing still after that one slash.
'This is definitely not made out of regular wood. Still, this body has no build-up muscles yet it can swing with such a sword with ease. If it were my previous life, I would have lesser raw strength but I was definitely more flexible and nimble. I need to get used to this body and start with the footwork technique if I want to survive in any kind of confrontation.' Meng thought while holding his chin with a thoughtful expression.
[...Host? I can tell that host's health is in perfect condition so please stop ignoring me.]
'...Why hasn't Vista answered in this way? Is it possible that he can't hear these thoughts of mine? I guess I can hide my thoughts from him in case I don't want to talk to him. This makes it much easier'
"It's nothing" Meng replied aloud since no one was around him anyway.
'I need to grow accustomed to how to separate my thoughts into 2 sections...private and shared with Vista.'
Meng decided to spend the rest of the day, training with dummies. Jumping around them while occasionally slashing the sword towards their neck or thrusting towards their eyes.
After the day of training...
*Huff* *Huff* 'I can finally make scratches on them without using my entire strength...but most important, my body feels so much lighter despite being so exhausted after the training session or maybe it's just because I grew more accustomed to this body.
[|Elementary Swordsmanship (Lv. 1)+|]
[|Elementary Nimbleness (Lv. 2)+|] (NEW)
[+50 skill points for your first advancement through hard work alone]
[+10 skill points for advancing through the hard work] x3
[Skill points: 180]
'Time for a shower...I guess the river will also do' Meng turned towards his house with a satisfied smile before his face froze and remembered the fact that there is no shower in his house. He looked towards the river flowing near his house with a helpless smile.
...
'What will happen when I try to click on this Elementary Alchemy?' Meng thought while dipping in the river.
He clicked on it and this time, his hands didn't pass through the text, instead, a new text appeared in front of him, those were recipes however with his current level of mastery, he could only create ointment on light bruises and scratches.
'Definitely can't use already precious herbs to practice and level up this alchemy through this way. I will have to try clicking on this "+" next to the displayed level.' Meng thought before he tried it and a message popped up.
[Do you wish to upgrade Elementary Alchemy from Lv. 1 to Lv. 2?]
'Huh?! There is no mention of the cost! Do I risk it? But...I could also those points for something that will definitely help me such as Swordsmanship or Nimbleness. Since there is no mention of the cost, I doubt Vista will tell me but asking won't hurt...'
[This is one of the most important functions I can not reveal to the host. I apologize for the possible inconvenience.]
'Expected as much, well, if it takes all of my points, I will just have to train through the night too.' Meng thought before he confirmed it.
[|Elementary Alchemy (Lv. 2)+|]
[+ 50 points for your first-time advancement through Vista]
[Skill points: 180]
'The whole fifty points, huh? That's equivalent to 5 advancements and I made just 2 of them in the entire day. Still can't believe that it truly uses the name Vista...Let's take a look at what changed.' Meng clicked on the Elementary Alchemy and immediately noticed that the ointment had in name added "Enhanced" and he also noticed a new recipe named Weak Ephemeral powder. The powder could get rid of someone's one of five common senses, the sense of sight to be precise. As long as the powder would get into contact with the victim's eyes, the victim would lose its sense of sight for a short duration. The duration of the effect varies from the opponent's strength, in cases where the opponent is simply too strong, it might only invoke light stinging and blurry vision for a very short time at most.
'Jackpot! This powder is something that might greatly help me with hunting those monsters. I just have to wisely choose my opponents so their primary sense is sight instead of smell or hearing. Well, I should go back for now...' Meng smiled while looking up at the night sky before his smile disappeared. He got out of the river and dried himself before dressing up.
When he was about to go back inside his house, he stopped for a moment while looking at one of the dummies.
[|Elementary boxing (Lv. 4)+|]
'It's pretty high, let's try it at least once.' Meng thought and clenched his hand into a fist before hitting the dummy's torso area with all his strength.
The dummy that was stuck in the ground started to violently shake to all sides before it calmed down after a minute.
'Even without any profound energy, the strength of this punch was really something else...In case I won't be able to penetrate the hide of some monsters, I can rely on the blunt damage of my fists, trying to cause some internal bleeding. I am indeed more comfortable using my fists or knives instead of a sword but if I can level up that Swordsmanship, I might be able to increase my sword's damage, and using a sword is much safer than using fists since it has a longer range. I should also stop calling them monsters since they are being called profound beasts here...I have yet to adapt and it will definitely take a long time.' Meng thought while looking at his clenched fist before he stuffed hands into his lower clothes' pockets, going straight to his house to rest for a bit.
.
.
.
The second day, Meng woke up early and started training right after he ate some rations. That day, he sweated a lot since he was practicing numerous things at once.
At the dusk...
|Elementary Swordsmanship (Lv. 2)+|
|Elementary Nimbleness (Lv. 3)+|
|Elementary boxing (Lv. 4)+|
[+10 skill points for advancing through the hard work] x2
[Skill points: 200]
'The difficulty to advance changes in each level quite drastically, yesterday, I only trained for a few hours yet I was able to advance my Swordsmanship from 0 to 1, however, today, it took numerous hours of practice just to rise by 1 level. And even though I can feel like I have made progress in boxing, it still wasn't enough to advance.'
*sigh* Meng released a tired sigh with a slightly troubled expression on his face while sitting on the ground, leaning against the tree.
"Vista...you there?" Meng muttered while looking at the orange sky with an apathetic face.
[Does the host require my presence?]
"Yeah, tell me honestly...Do I stand a chance if I venture inside the forest with my current condition? I want to hear your thoughts on this matter, you are supposed to help me, right?"
[Of course, I am here to support the host however I can. To be honest with the host, I am quite surprised at the speed of your growth and the focus that radiates from the host while he is training is spectacular-]
"Stop trying to make me feel better, tell me if I have a chance of surviving, there isn't much time left." Meng said coldly before looking at the time remaining on his quest.
[Time remaining: 7 days 6 hours, 14 minutes, 28 seconds]
[...Very well, the host is quite special so I won't beat around the bush. The host's condition right now is a bare minimum to venture inside the forest, however, I can't say much because if the host loses his composure in front of the profound beast's killing intent, it doesn't matter how skilled the host is. If the host can fight the way he is training, I believe he can venture inside as long as he is extra careful.] Vista's monotonous voice resounded inside Meng's head as he continued staring at the orange sky.
"Composure, huh? I might be able to do that." Meng muttered with a faint smile appearing on his face as he was recalling his recently recovered memories of his past life.
