"T-thank you, sir! It was nothing, really." Xin spoke a bit embarrassed to be praised directly by someone of such caliber. Nobody ever praised him other than Liu Guanyi, after all.
"Oh, and you." The Ranker turned to Liu Guanyi as his smile became wider. "I don't really care about your identity but you truly surprised me, boy. How powerful is your physical capability?"
"You haven't used the entire extent of your strength, have you? Those wooden robots seem very easy to you."
Liu Guanyi nodded. "You are right, sir. This kind of level of training doesn't really affect me to be honest."
"Hooh... confident, aren't you? In the last test, you have shown that your body is pretty powerful and that you are quite an expert martial artist. You seem to be very special, don't you?"
"It seems that you have a discerning eye, sir. Your guess is right, I was always been gifted with a powerful body since I was born." Liu Guanyi stated casually with a smile.
The Ranker only nodded and asked. "Then, how high the level of difficulty it would be to really push your limits?"
"Maybe two times... no, three times hard?"
The Horned Ranker rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, thrice huh? Maybe even more with body enhancement. It's a bit difficult to find the appropriate devices to help your training but I will see what I can do about that, don't worry."
"I guess that's for today, you can do whatever you want but I suggest you train more or simply rest your bodies. I'll see you tomorrow, kids." Locke bid his goodbye and began to turn back.
"Wait, sir! Can you find any weights, something heavy that could be worn easily? I usually use something like that to train, it's quite efficient." Liu Guanyi interjected.
"Lots of weights that could be worn on the body? That's a good idea, maybe this will help a lot."
. . . . . .
It had been more than a week since the first training. Liu Guanyi and Xin were training alone since the Ranker hadn't shown himself since then.
Maybe he was looking for something that could make the training better? Would he be able to find such a thing? Only God knew.
Unfortunately, they can't proceed to the next floor right away. Because Adori was busy training under the Arie Ranker. Well, it didn't matter that much for Liu Guanyi anyway, he was in no hurry to climb the tower.
If he really wanted, he could climb much faster than the current speed, he had Adori in his team and Xin was decent as a support.
But Liu Guanyi didn't want that. The reason? It was simple, their powers weren't his. No matter how strong Adori was, it wasn't his power.
It didn't mean that Liu Guanyi didn't want to rely on someone or something, no. Actually, when he befriended her on the floor of tests, he had already planned to use her position as leverage and her talent to blend himself in the background.
However, those were only means to an end and not his true purpose.
What Liu Guanyi wanted was to improve as quickly as possible to return to his peak and then to find out the answer to the next path that he had failed to obtain before.
Moreover, finishing the climbing too fast would bring attention and observation that could risk his identity being exposed before he made a foothold in the tower.
After all, climbing the tower and becoming Rankers took a long time, about a few hundreds of years for most regulars.
And what would Liu Guanyi get in return for such risk?
Mostly fame and glory for having an incredibly remarkable record for climbing the tower and that was it. There were many things that Liu Guanyi didn't know yet, and he was really wary of those unknown things so he wouldn't risk that.
For example, why he was reincarnated in the tower?
Why was he called an irregular, was it because he opened the gate by himself?
Were there any irregulars other than him, if there were, how many were out there?
How long they had been in the tower and what were their objectives in the tower?
Did they also get reincarnated to the tower, was opening the gate meant reincarnation?
There were too many unanswered questions and mysteries about his circumstances and the tower itself so it would be better to play it safe. Liu Guanyi could see that even at his previous peak, he was nothing in here let alone when he was currently pretty weak.
The pace they were going was already fast, as long as they kept it up, it was more than enough. It made no sense for him to overdo it.
Outclassing the same ranked regulars meant nothing if there were so many people with great power and longevity that had lived for more than thousands of years out there.
Liu Guanyi was becoming strong pretty quickly and steadily so there was no need to be hasty. Hastiness only begot mistakes.
If Adori was praised and hailed as a prodigy, then what would he be considered since he grew at a faster pace even than her, a talented princess of a great empire? A monstrous prodigy? A one in a thousand years genius?
Liu Guanyi knew with his pace, as long as he bid his time and continued to train, he would eventually surpass those old monsters, the so-called Rankers and maybe those higher than just Rankers.
If he couldn't do it in hundreds of years, he would do it in thousands of years. If he still didn't manage to surpass them yet, he would do it in tens of thousands of years or at least die trying!
This was his conviction as a Martial Practitioner.
Not backing down from challenges and adversities but also didn't face them recklessly.
They continued their training until the sky was already bright before a tall man with horns on his head appeared as he approached them and waved his hand.
"Hey, kids! Sorry for making you wait. It took me some time to contact my acquaintance from the workshop to make something that suits what you've described."
"Fortunately, he managed to make it in just a few days, he sure is quick." Said Locke with a smile.
"Anyway, let's try to put it on. I'm curious how it will turn out." Locke spoke as he took out something from his inventory.
Surprisingly, it was some kind of shirt made of metal and a few iron bracelets. There were a toggle button and number "1" on the shirt. Similarly, the iron bracelets had those as well.
"This?!" Liu Guanyi was quite surprised as he lifted them up.
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Don't always take what Liu Guanyi act outside as his real thought.