Chapter 6: First Scam

The next day onwards, Eric had decided to modify his schedule a little bit: he reduced the cultivation time a little and added some physical exercise to his schedule.

His body was young and he couldn't manage heavy training such as push ups, weight lifting, etc. but he was not frail and could manage basic exercise and running. After he broke through, however, that wouldn't be an issue as his physical strength would also rise.

The reason why he started doing physical exercise was mainly because of two reasons. First, his body was weak and even if he didn't pursue body cultivation seriously in the future, it would still be a help to have a stronger body.

It would be an advantage especially when learning weapon techniques, as some of them had a lot of requirements from the user's body.

The second reason was not related to cultivation, but was more of a personal goal. In his previous life, Eric wasn't fat, neither was he really muscular. He had wanted a muscular and fit body since childhood, but due to his own laziness and schedule, he wasn't able to achieve that goal.

Now that he was in the body of a child, if he trained his physical body starting at an early age, by the time he was an adult he would quite certainly be fit.

These two reasons were enough for Eric to modify his schedule, which previously consisted of solely cultivation.

He usually exercised in his room and ran outside in the morning till breakfast. After that he came home and took a nice, relaxing bath, followed by Jane's home cooked delicious breakfast. Once he had eaten his breakfast, for most of the day Eric cultivated and rested when he felt tired.

His schedule was not the most interesting, but it showed decent results. It had only been a day and he felt more Qi accumulate in his Dantian. It would take him at most a week to reach the Spirit Apprentice realm if he continued at this pace.

As night befell and Eric was content with his progress with cultivation for the day, he lay down on his bed and fell asleep.

***

It was early morning the next day and Eric was out running around the outskirts of the nearby forest. It was pretty much the perfect area for Eric to run around as it was pretty long and spacious and it was almost always empty.

He wiped sweat off his brows as he came to a stop and leaned on a tree to catch his breath.

'I shouldn't try to push myself. Running too fast will only deplete my stamina,' he thought to himself as he resumed running after a short break.

As he moved forward, a group of kids entered his field of view. There were three boys slightly younger than him, wearing tattered clothes. By their appearance, Eric could tell that they were not the most financially gifted bunch.

As he neared them, he saw that they were looking at and trying to inspect a plant one of them was holding.

Once he was even closer, Eric started to sense an irregular density of Qi in the plant they were holding and as he grew curious as to what it was, a system window popped up in front of him.

[Name: Qi Gathering Herb

Tier: 1st Tier

Effect: Upon consumption, doubles the speed of accumulation of Qi inside the dantian for an hour.

Estimated Value: 50 silver coins]

This one tiny herb actually had such an effect. Eric unconsciously smiled as he thought about how beneficial it would be to him. The first thought that came to his mind was to scam the kids for it; it would be fairly easy to trick a bunch of poor kids even younger than him.

Eric was about to approach them, but he stopped himself and started having second thoughts.

'Should I really steal something from those poor children? The coins they would get from selling the herb would be very useful for them, especially in this condition. With the amount of money I have, I can buy an even better herb and it wouldn't cause me any monetary problems.'

He felt a bit sad for those kids, but he didn't let those thoughts deter him.

'In a world where the strong do as they please and the weak have no choice, halting your own progress out of pity for someone you don't even know is not a risk I'm willing to take.' Eric knew the reality of this world and to survive in a merciless world, he also had to be a bit cruel sometimes.

If he still had some guilt, he could use the excuse that they were NPCs, but since he was already determined and committed to do what he had to do, that wasn't necessary.

'The herb itself won't be that useful to them and they probably don't even know its value. Instead, if I give them the cultivation method, it would help them even more in the long run. If they were to become cultivators with the help of the cultivation method, they won't be in such a precarious situation in the future; so I am technically still helping them.'

Eric came up with an idea and slowly approached the kids.

He looked at them up close; they all had messy black hair with dust and dirt on parts of their faces and arms and wore similar unsightly rags.

'Such a sorry state they're in, the three of them,' Eric internally sighed before he faced the child in the middle who was holding the herb.

"Hey, little brother, what's that plant you have?" he asked cautiously, trying not to scare them.

At first they were a bit startled, but Eric looked friendly and the kid who held the herb decided to reply.

"I-I don't know. It's an herb I found in the forest, but I don't know what it exactly is," the kid looked at the Qi Gathering herb as he spoke.

Eric didn't wait in case he started second guessing himself again and immediately proceeded with his offer.

"Say, how about I give you a cultivation method in exchange for that herb. I have a use for it and I'm pretty sure you guys will have a use for the cultivation method, right?"

Eric smiled intently as he said this, hoping that the kids don't find his offer weird and suspicious… which it most definitely was.

The kids however, were surprised by his offer and respectfully handed him over the herb almost immediately.

"Please, sir. We would be very grateful if you were to give us a cultivation method." The kid handed him the herb while the other two nodded and expressed their gratitude.

As he had expected, they were kids, poor kids at that; they would instantly agree to any offer that seemed propitious. Even in this 'game world' of cultivation, the basic traits that human beings usually possess still remained.

'Ding!'

[Scam successful

Tier 1 Qi Gathering Herb acquired

Scam Level: 0

50/100 Experience Points]

Eric had gotten experience points but had not yet leveled up.

A bit disappointed, he started thinking of ways to increase the experience points he got from the scam, when he remembered something.

An evil grin formed on his face which he quickly replaced with an earnest smile.