Galaxy Gym

Lin stared at the orb, not knowing what to do with it. He tried to pick it up by putting his hand underneath it and lifting it up, but his hand went right through it and a second after his hand touched it, it disappeared.

"Bai? Are you here?" Lin said out loud, wondering if he could talk to Bai within the space. When no one answered, he figured he can't talk to Bai while in the mental environment.

He decided to find answers from Bai once he wakes up. In the meantime, Lin continued killing any animal he found within the field. Every animal seemed to be some type of monster, and they all shared the same red eyes and pointed teeth. 

The more he used the sword to kill the animals, the more he understood the sword. He would experiment with his stances and grip on the sword, noting which techniques were more efficient. The state of the animal corpses showed his ever so slight progress. Instead of gruesome and rough tearing of the animal, the swings slowly started to create cleaner and easier slices at the vital points.

The monsters would always drop a black orb and Lin would make them disappear by touching them. More and more organisms were slaughtered and many hours passed until it was 6:00 am and Lin awoke with a start. 

Black light shined in his face as he saw around 100 black orbs sitting round his room. 

"Bai, what do I do with these orbs??" Lin said, still groggy but full of refreshing energy. 

"Grab one and crush it between your hands." Bai said in his head.

Lin followed his directions and crushed one that was on his lap. A surge of qi rushed through his finger tips into his dantian. 

"Now crush nine more and then cultivate them." Bai continued.

Lin started to crush multiple orbs until his dantian was feeling bloated, almost like he just ate an incredibly large meal. Once he crushed ten orbs in total he adjusted his position into the lotus position, but it was very uncomfortable due to his lack of flexibility.

"You can just do it while lying down, there's no right position for cultivation." Bai said after noticing Lin's uncomfortable expression.

Lin nodded and laid back down. He realized he didn't know how to cultivate so he requested guidance from Bai.

"Ok, you would usually choose which place you want to cultivate for different purposes, but you first need to establish your foundation before any of that." Bai started. "First, sense the qi in your dantian."

Lin did as he was instructed and focused on his dantian, sensing the prickly and warm feeling he gets when feeling qi. Suddenly, he was looking at a black space with particles floating in sparse concentrations. 

"Good, seems like you're seeing the projection of your dantian now. Ok, now start leading the particles together. Imagine them floating towards each other and will them to combine with each other."

Lin started willing the qi together, concentration evident on his face. He struggled to control the qi, but he stayed composed and patient, silently leading them to one point in the dark space. Slowly but surely, the particles gradually followed his will and came together. 

After an hour that only felt like 5 minutes, the particles were finally concentrated in one spot. Lin willed them to combine and they slowly merged together until a black, irregular blob of qi was formed.

Lin slowly opened his eyes to the bright sunlight filtering through the windows with a satisfied expression.

"Good job. That was much quicker than average! That shows your innate talent. You might think it's because of your body's constitution, but that process was mental meaning that you have a natural talent for cultivating. Of course, that's exactly why we picked you!" Bai said, congratulating Lin for setting his foundation.

Suddenly multiple system notifications popped up in front of him.

'100/100 foundation reached! 

Level 1 —> level 2! 

+1 to all stats!

+2 BAP'

'200/200 foundation reached!

Level 2 —> level 3!

+2 to all stats!

+4 BAP'

'300/300 foundation reached!

Level 3 —> level 4!

+3 to all stats!

+6 BAP'

'400/400 foundation reached!

Level 4 —> level 5!

+4 to all stats!

+8 BAP'

Lin was surprised to see how much of his foundation he set up. He started to wonder if there were different colored orbs and how much he could refine his foundation with them.

"As you can probably see, black orbs give a numerical value of 100 to your foundation. There are other colored orbs as well including brown orbs that give 200, red orbs that give 350, orange orbs that give 600, yellow orbs that give 1,000, green orbs that give 5,000, white orbs that give 10,000, and transparent orbs that give 15,000. After certain level thresholds, the orbs will have more value." Bai elaborated after reading his thoughts.

"That seems complicated… Well, I'll understand it at some point." Lin said with a shrug. "Status open." Lin opened his stats with anticipation.

————————————————————

Name: Hao Lin

Age: 14

Race: Human-panzela mix

Level: 5

Vitality: 11

Stamina: 11

Agility: 11

Strength: 11

BAP: 25

Foundation: 0/500

Perception: MAX

Titles: NONE

Skills: NONE

————————————————————

Lin looked at the stats with wonder. He didn't know the value of the numbers so he was excited to try out his stats. He started distributing his blank attribute points after much contemplation.

He put 9 in agility, 7 in vitality, 5 in stamina, and 4 in strength. He put more in agility and vitality for pure survival. Your mobility could be the decider between life and death so having speed and flexibility is essential. Additionally, the ability to stay alive with even major injuries and have some sort of resistance to pain is necessary to escape and stay conscious during dangerous situations.

Lin was the type of person who made decisions with the future in mind. He always made sure any decision he made would either benefit him in the future, or at the very least not cause problems. Though there were always unavoidable circumstances that he would prepare for if his decision affected his future. He was a thorough person who avoided overthinking on things out of his control, but explored every option before making a decision when it counted. That was one of his core qualities along with his ability to remember specific things perfectly.

"What do I do with all these orbs?" He asked Bai.

"Just think 'Collect' and the system will automatically store what you intended to collect. You can think 'Inventory' to look at what the system has stored" Bai responded.

Lin thought 'Collect' and the orbs zapped into nothingness. After he collected the orbs, Lin got out of bed and got ready for the day. He put on his uniform, washed his face, brushed his teeth and hair, and went out to the dining room where the rest of his family was already seated in front of breakfast at the table.

After breakfast, his mom drove him to school and dropped him off in front of the campus. Lin went through his educational classes and lunch. When it was time for his cultivation classes he started walking to the Galaxy Gym.

He reached the gym and went to the front desk. He asked the lady behind the counter for a trial class for sword fighting.

"Ok, sir. Let me check the schedules of our sword fighting instructors." She said, typing on the keyboard. "Ok Mr. Yan is free in an hour at 2:00 pm. I'll notify him of your trial. You can go to the pavilion by the weapon training field at 2 o'clock and he'll meet you there."

Lin nodded and headed towards the standard gym. He planned on testing out his abilities after his level up.

He reached the room and went straight to the weights. He decided to try picking up each weight in order from lightest to heaviest. He started with the 20 pound weight and he lifted it with ease. It felt like a palm sized stone in his hand and he was surprised by his strength. He continued to pick up the weights with little to no struggle. Then he reached the 0.5 ton weight and lifted it with a bit of struggle, and when he picked up the 0.6 ton weight he knew it was his limit.

He then walked to the treadmills on one side of the room and started testing his speed. He started with 20 mph. He ran it without breaking a sweat so he turned it up to 30 mph and it was still too easy.

'I'm already running faster than the fastest a human had ever run 7,000 years ago, and easily at that!' He thought with amazement.

He started running at 40 mph and he ran it with albeit a slight struggle but it still wasn't his limit. He kept raising the speed until he found his limit at 60 mph. He ran at that speed for 15 minutes until he was exhausted and took a break. His stamina was amazing considering the fact that he was running at his limit for over 15 minutes.

He checked the time and it was almost two, so he started heading towards the pavilion. He noticed a lean man emitting an unfathomable aura. When the man noticed him he waved Lin over to him. Lin ran to the man, appearing in front of the man in 3 seconds.

"Hello, you must be Hao Lin?" The man said in a deep voice.

"Yes, that's me. And you are Mr. Yan correct?" Lin responded.

"Yep. Now follow me." Mr. Yan said while walking to a sword rack on the field. Lin followed him. "Go ahead and grab a sword and test it. Befitting balances of weight, shape, and size vary from person to person so find one you're comfortable with first." He said pointing to the swords on the rack.

Lin approached the rack, taking out a sword only to immediately feel uncomfortable with it. He moved on to the next sword and that one felt slightly better so he swung it a few times only to put it back. This continued until he found a sword that he could train with.

"Ok, now show me how you hold the sword." Mr. Yan instructed.

Lin stood in the stance that was most efficient for him last night. The instructer nodded and gave pointers on how to fix the stance. Lin did what the man said and found the position more comfortable. Mr. Yan then told him to swing the sword, so he did and the instructer gave more pointers on his grip, arm positions, and the shifting of his body.

"Your movements look stiff. Try moving your waist and shifting your weight as you swing… grip the handle harder… your shoulders are too stiff…" The instructor continued pointing out mistakes and telling him how to fix them. Finally, the instructor was satisfied.

"Perfect! Now remember what your doing, ingrain it into your brain. Get used to your movements and continue swinging like I told you."

Lin proceeded to swing the sword for 10 minutes until the instructor told him to stop.

"Ok, now I'll show you a defensive stance." The instructor went into the stance with a sword in his hand and gestured for Lin to follow. Lin copied his stance and was corrected by the instructor.

Lin concentrated fully and memorized every feeling and detail in his sword technique. Soon, the instructor decided to teach Lin how to deflect and defend sword strikes.

Mr. Yan stood in front of Lin in an offensive stance and striked his sword at Lin's side. Lin moved his sword swiftly to the side, just barely blocking the swing.

"You're reaction speed is impressive for a beginner." Mr. Yan praised as he continued to swing at Lin. Lin blocked, deflected, and redirected the sword swings constantly until he was too tired to continue.

"The lesson is over. You can ask for one more trial lesson or you can choose this course for scheduled classes. It was nice meeting you and I hope you decide to book my classes. Have a good day Hao Lin." Mr. Yan said goodbye before meeting another person at the pavilion.

Lin decided to go home as he was exhausted from everything. He got home at 4:30 and greeted his mom who was in the kitchen cooking dinner. Then he went straight to the bathroom to take a shower, washing all the dirt and sweat from his body.