Newfound Strength

Newfound Strength

"That's as much as someone at the 3rd stage of the Martial Apprentice Realm!" Adam shouted out in glee as he became amazed.

The average strength for someone at the 1st stage of the Martial Apprentice was 2,000 kg, and every stage breakthrough would give the martial artist around 500 kg of more strength. So now that Adam had a fist strength of more than 3,000 kg, he was equivalent to a 3rd-stage Martial Apprentice Realm martial artist.

Of course, this was just in the strength category. He was still much inferior to someone at the 3rd stage of the Martial Apprentice Realm. Those in that realm had more than just physical strength.

With a much higher speed, faster reaction time, more dexterity, a higher amount of control over their bodies, and the ability to wield the mystical energy known as Spiritual Qi, those in the Martial Apprentice Realm were not just all brawn.

Adam knew this all, but from his strength, he guessed that he could still beat those in the Martial Apprentice Realm if they were unprepared or injured. A fight was decided on more than just strength.

Smiling, Adam went over to the next machine.

The high-tech-looking treadmill.

There were three standards that a martial artist needed to reach in order to be recognized as a martial artist by the Federation. The second one is related to speed. Similar to the 2,000 kg requirement, one needed a speed of at least 45 m/s to be called a martial artist.

The last time Adam was here, his speed was about 20 m/s. However, a lot has passed since then, and Adam knew it was going to change by a large amount. Adam, after breaking through a stage and merging with three brand new talents, could be called a completely different person than when he was here a few weeks ago.

Jumping onto the treadmill, Adam started sprinting at full speed. The treadmill would match the runner's speed no matter what and then give a score at the end of the runner's average speed during the exercise. Only this way would the treadmill be able to test someone's speed.

Quickly, a minute passed, and Adams' score was tallied.

37 m/s!

Smiling at the new and improved score, Adam didn't stop and did the same thing. However, this time, he activated his speed talent.

37 m/s was definitely near a true Martial Apprentice Realm martial artist, and he was proud of this fact. By the time Adam completed his foundation training, he would probably be no inferior to a martial artist.

And after he breaks through into the true Martial Apprentice Realm, he will be even stronger.

Cultivation was a long journey. Advancements in the early stages continued to be important even in the later stages. Advantages were also held.

So, the fact that Adam was now stronger than his peers in the early stages meant that his future would no longer be small.

Like a snowball rolling down a hill, Adam would continue to pile up advantages and increase in size.

While smiling about his future, Adam continued to sprint at full speed with his low-grade speed talent activated. And soon, another minute passed. Adam's new score was tallied.

111m/s!

Every breakthrough in the Martial Apprentice Realm would give around 15–30 m/s of speed. So Adam's new and improved 111 m/s speed meant that he was about as fast as someone at the 3rd stage of the Martial Apprentice Realm, just like his speed.

It was another amazing improvement from his previous meager 20 m/s, and Adam was proud.

After figuring out his speed, Adam also walked into the reaction time chamber in order to find out his reaction time.

Unlike the treadmill and the punching bag, which would give someone a detailed report on how strong or fast they were, the reaction time chamber was different.

Inside the small chamber were a dozen metal balls, each linked to a supercomputer.

These metal balls were the testing devices.

And by imputing which difficulty they'd like, one would be able to be tested. The metal balls, depending on the difficulty they chose, would fly at the trial taker, threatening to pummel them into submission.

The metal balls wouldn't kill anyone, as they had a feature to avoid fatal blows and vital spots, but they would still hurt like hell.

They would fly at extremely high speeds and collide with the bare flesh. It would be weird if it didn't hurt.

However, through this brutal trial, one would be able to figure out how fast their reaction time was and also train it at the same time. Being threatened with violence was a great motivator.

But Adam didn't want to train anything but instead test himself.

So rather than going to a harder difficulty like usual, Adam clicked the half-step Martial Apprentice Realm difficulty. He was confident in his new strength and didn't think he was much inferior to someone in the Martial Apprentice Realm, but for now, he was just experimenting.

And a few minutes later, he revived his report.

He was right. Even after staying in the chamber for almost 5 minutes, Adam barely even had one close call. During the trial attempt, Adam felt like he was taking a simple stroll through the park.

Nothing ever truly threatened him.

"It seems that I'm already no inferior to a true martial artist, whether it's speed, strength, or even reaction time. All I need is Spiritual Qi, and I'm set." Adam thought aloud.

Unlike the insulated alchemy floor walls, the walls of the testing chamber were completely soundproof, so no matter how loud Adam spoke in there, even a martial master wouldn't be able to hear him, let alone the Body Refining Realm students nearby.

Feeling overly confident in himself, Adam bit the bullet and changed the difficulty, upping it to the 1st stage of the Martial Apprentice Realm.

Instantly after pressing the button, one of the metal balls flew at his chest, but since Adam had already gone through this once, he wasn't caught off guard and was able to cleanly dodge it.

Before he landed, another metal ball came at him from behind, but Adam's senses were high, and he sensed that one as well.

Twisting his body better than any mortal man would be able to, Adam dodged the second metal ball before landing safely.

Another 5 minutes were passed in this manner, with Adam being kept on his toes constantly. However, since the difficulty wasn't much lower than his true strength, Adam wasn't able to avoid injuries.

After the 15th metal ball, Adam took one square in the chest, sending him into a coughing fit. The 23rd one slammed right into his thigh, turning his eyes misty, while the 29th metal ball clocked him in between the eyebrows, giving him a funny-looking bruise.

Thankfully, none of them truly hurt him, and other than some surface-level bruises that would heal before the sunrise tomorrow, Adam was fine.

So, ignoring the bump between his eyebrows and his sore chest, Adam walked out of the testing chamber with wide and cheerful steps, ready to start the school day.

—

The school day wasn't very intense or important, but since Adam truly had nothing better to do today, he went along with it. Professor Singh's class was first, followed by another professor who was in charge of teaching fist techniques, and finally, the professor in charge of ELA.

The Federation didn't need just martial artists who were stupid. They needed to be able to think for themselves. And that's what ELA was for. That class helped students gain the ability to think for themselves while also teaching them about the history of the Federation and humanity's rise in the universe.

Thankfully, Adam was extremely ahead in those classes, so he didn't need to pay much attention during the lesson, so he instead took the school day as a nap and slept throughout it.

Since they knew who Adam was and could see how haggard he looked, none of his three teachers really cared about his sleeping and ignored him.

Eventually, the school day ended, and with a new, refreshed feeling in his body, Adam left Sagittarius High School's campus and went into the city.

Adam's new home was a giant planet named Eagle, located in what was once known as the Eagle Nebula back during the pre-interstellar era. Since the planet was the nebula's largest and most prosperous, it was also given the name "Eagle" in honor of its region.

However, though it was in memory, Adam thought that the founders of this planet's society were just lazy. Even the planet's largest city was named Eagle City.

'Could they not really think of something else?'

These were his thoughts a few years ago when he first moved into Eagle City, but now that he has lived here for four years, he doesn't really care much.

Moreover, now that the college exams were nearing, Adam didn't think he would stay on this planet much longer.

Other than being extremely large and prosperous, Eagle didn't have many top-tier colleges. All of the Federation's top colleges were either further in the Milky Way Galaxy near the galactic center or on the Andromeda Galaxy's border, both of which were billions of light years away from where he lived now.

So, other than some white noise to keep him up at night, Eagle's lack of originality didn't do much.

Exiting the campus, Adam quickly managed to hail a cab.

"Where do you want to go, kiddo?" A middle-aged man asked Adam as he entered the cab.

As a person without a talent, the middle-aged person was forced to get a normal job. Thankfully, with a few well-placed connections, he was able to get a taxi license and operate near the planet's best high school.

It was a great profession and potentially the best one someone without a talent could get, so he was usually in a happy mood. This time was no different.

"Take me to Eagle City's Pill Menagerie." Adam simply said. That was the place he got his herbs and ingredients. It was the planet's finest establishment for ingredients.

"Got it." The middle-aged man didn't question Adam's choice, and after calculating the price, he was off.

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