Chapter 5 Stages of Cultivation

"You dare make a move on my son August" Carmine cried out in rage as she moved towards her son as well.

Her steps were graceful as she smoothly arrived beside Lance, showing her excellent mastery of her footwork technique.

She extended her right arm and slapped out towards the incoming August who as a step too late at arriving before Lance first. Her palm was laced with cyan glowing Demi Energy.

"Haha, Carmine, you dare to face me head on! It looks like I have to teach you how high the heavens are".

Augusts face was stern as a stone, his rather ordinary facial features were rock solid as he rolled his Demi energy through his Demi cells into a fist strike with full force.

His power rolled out as he released his Demon spirit which was in the shape of a Warthog with four large tusks and a large spike on its back.

In other words, his demon spirit was extracted from the bronze tier Demon beast Red Spiked Warthog.

Exerting the outward appearance into the space above their heads was the symbol of a bronze tier Demi human.

Carmine who was facing his fist showed no fear nor anxiety on her face as her expression grew colder and colder.

Drawing her demi energy into a palm strike, she welcomed August's fist as both of their attacks collided against each other.

The space above Carmine brought out sliver mists and developed to bring out her demon spirit. Under everyone's watchful eyes, A Silver backed Eagle emerged from the mist and spread its feathered wings high.

One was a bronze tier warthog while the other was a majestic bronze tier Silver backed eagle.

Carmine body pushed forward as both of them stopped into a momentary stalemate, but not for long. Under everyone's watchful eyes, August was sent flying like a thrown out javelin, crashing to the floor in a sorry state.

He struggled to regain his balance as his face alternated between green an ash colors. Then with a trembling hands, he pointed his finger at Carmine and asked in a shaky voice.

"You.... You have reached A rank Bronze Tier?" August could not believe that the usually low profile eighth elder Carmine would actually have reached the peak of bronze tier.

All the elders at the scene took in a deep breath. Carmine's strength had actually reached such a level. A few years ago, Carmine had not even started cultivating, now however, she was as strong, if not stronger than most of the elders.

Even the patriarch Von Krill was stunned, so were the disciples.

"Lady Carmines strength has reached such a level, she is only a step away from entering sliver tier".

"Yes, that's right. A rank is the peak of bronze tier, I thought that even if she were to be strong, she would only be C rank bronze tier at best, just like Elder August. I never thought my assumption was so far off".

"Lady Carmines Silver backed eagle demon spirit has an affinity level to reach Peak A rank silver Tier. Coupled with her green innate root talent, its no wonder she is so strong".

Carmine stood firm and fine with elegance. She looked at the wounded August and sneered with disdain.

"Lance my dear, you can continue, mom is right here".

Lance who had snapped out of his rage momentarily was looking at his mother with shock and amazement. He never thought that his mother was so strong.

At the same time, he let out a breath of relief as he the last thing he wanted was for his mom to get injured.

Generally, after the great calamity and the appearance of Demi humans and Demon Rankers, the stages of power and cultivation were divided into several levels.

The first realm didn't really have a name attached to it and was just known from Level 1 to level 8. These levels were the basic levels that teenagers would usually climb up.

The next realm was known as Bronze tier. When reaching this stage, demi humans and demon Rankers would be able to draw Demi Energy into their bodies making them much more powerful than even thirty level 8 demi humans.

Also after reaching Bronze tier, the various sub stages were no longer divided into levels but into ranks instead.

There were five sub stages which are E rank, D rank, C, B and A rank. The increase in demi energy doubled in each rank.

After bronze tier was silver tier, followed by Mysterious Steel tier, Gold tier, Dark Gold tier and platinum tier. Of course they were higher stages above platinum tier but demi humans level of powers peaks out after reaching Dark Gold rank.

The reason was, a human was only able to integrate with one demons spirit for their entire lifetime. Another reason, was because no normal human being would be able to integrate with a demon spirit higher than Gold tier, because the human physique wouldn't be able to handle the integration.

Lance nodded at his mothers words and turned around to face Augustus whose face was pale. His face was pale and his cheeks were swollen and bleeding.

"Daad.. Swave mweh!" Augustus wanted to cry for help, but because of his swollen cheek, his words came out in slight gibberish.

Seeing the fear in his sons eyes, August had an extremely unsightly face, however, he was no match for Carmine.

Seeing Augusts face, the rage that was built up within Lance dissipated and he laughed heartily. Following which he resumed his slapping happily, however, he had no idea the calamity that he had just escaped.

Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!

Never before had Augustus been humiliated to such a sorry state. His head was practically slapped till he resembled a piglet. Blood gushed from his nose, mouth and right cheek like an unceasing spring, and his lips had been slightly split open.

All the disciples couldn't help but shiver at the torture like revenge.

It wasn't until the patriarch had had enough and decided to intervene due to August's begging that Lance finally stopped with satisfaction.

Following which, under the intense and murderous glare of August, Carmine krill and her son Lance left with satisfied expressions.

..........

Inside Carmines abode, Lance sat on the couch with a pondering expression. It had been close to half an hour since what the event at the punishment yard and Carmine had long since left the house to perform so basic duties.

"Well, I guess its time to see what I got". Lance said as he felt somehow nervous and slightly excited. He had spent a few minutes wondering about how he got this system and what exactly it was. Thinking back to the incident at the lake at the bottom of the cliff followed with him obtaining this Game like system, his only explanation for it was that he had merged with a unique type of Demon spirit, but apart from that, he knew basically nothing else about it.

"Perhaps am a special case, or maybe there is actually someone else out there who has the same situation that I do. I just need to do some research and find out, but first..."

With a thought, the system panel came into view and sure enough, a notification with blue glowing letters was waiting for him.

[ Quest complete, Congratulations ]

[ Rewards: +3 stat points ]

"Hmm! Stat points huh?" If he remembered right, stat points were the same thing as attribute points and could be allocated to any of his physical attributes. Currently, all he had was strength, agility and stamina.

Thinking about it, Lance decided to test it out, however, when it got to this point, it was a really difficult choice. Should he prioritize strength, speed or stamina.

"Definitely not stamina, at least not for now". After eliminating stamina, that left him with only strength and agility.

"I'll just leave it for now". Lance thought, as for him, it was really a difficult choice. At this point, lance had begun to have a good understanding of this video game system. Earlier, he was interrupted by his mom when he was checking it out. Now its vest to see exactly what this thing has to it.

There were some Tabs on the status panel that he hadn't checked yet. With just a thought, he clicked on those tabs.

[ Skills And Abilities ]

[ Skills: None ]

[ Skill points: 0 ]

Seeing that there was no skills or abilities, Lance wasn't very surprised, this particular tab couldn't show him much, so he quickly moved on to the next one, [ Quests ]

[ Quests Available; Main quest ]

[ Reach level 10 ]

( Host can receive Random Quests, Hidden Quests, and Special Quests at any time )

That one didn't give out much either, Next!

[ Equivalent Exchange Shop ]

[ Shop: Locked ]

[ Unlocks at level 10 ]

"Damn! Is there anything useful I can do with this?"

[ Knowledge Mastery: The system records each and every single information that the host comes across. Additional knowledge added will not be forgotten and will increase mastery of various fields. Random quests and hidden quests can also be awarded through this area ]

At this point, lance paused for a while. Thinking about it, this was something that he could actually use.

He had already confirmed in his thoughts that this was all the doing of a demon spirit. But the weird thing about it was.... he had never heard of a demon spirit that presented itself as a system.

Maybe it was just because he was unexposed or maybe he was a unique case, however, he knew himself that he was lacking information.

Since there was a chance to gain quests when gathering knowledge, then why not put it to the test and see how it works?

Lance made his decision and walked towards the computer in the living room.