Upgrading Martial Arts Skill

Trililili~🎶

The sudden ringing sound brought Julian back to earth. He quickly reached his phone to find a familiar name displayed on the screen.

"Sister Hannah."

He immediately connected the call and put the phone on his ear.

"Hey Sis, What's up?"

The one on the other line was Kang Hanna, his late mother's best friend.

Similar to Julian, his predecessor was quite introvert person. He didn't have many personal relationships with other people, and though he had some friends, it could only be considered as superficial at best.

The only person he had deep bond with except for his deceased parents was Kang Hannah, who took guardianship of him after his parents passed away.

Julian whose soul had fully assimilated into the new body, had acknowledged the fact that he was currently the resident of this world. For him, it wasn't an exaggeration to call Kang Hannah as his benefactor.

Despite having no direct connection except for being his mother's friend, Kang Hannah readily took his custody and even adopted and raised him all the way to university, where it was more than enough to give him some monetary support to honour the friendship with her mother. Furthermore, Hannah still gave him pocket money on time every month for living expenses.

He was truly grateful by Hannah's boundless kindness. And somehow his faith in humanity increased by leap and bound. She was truly a goddess!

"Hey July. I heard another invasion happened there, are you okay? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

A sweet and caring voice filled with concern flowed through the speaker, warming Julian's heart.

Well, there was one thing that bother him though…

"I'm fine. I wasn't that far from the shelter when the invasion happened so I could safely enter the shelter on time. You're such a worrywart sister… and can you please stop shorten my name? My name's Julian not July. That sound like a girl, okay?"

"Are you pouting?" Giggles as sweet as honey dew ringing through his ears. His lips drew a smile involuntarily. "Well, our Julian is a big man now. This sister understands."

Although she was Julian's mother's best friend, in fact Hannah's age wasn't that much older than Julian's. She was only 27 or 28 years old this year. He didn't know what kind of beauty product she use or it was just her natural beauty, her looks was still of an early twenty-ish college girl.

Even in his previous life, it was difficult to find a woman prettier than her. She could easily top some of famous model and celebrities. To be honest, she suited Julian's taste for a woman perfectly. But still, because she had taken care of him since early age, it was hard to look at her that way.

For now.

Ignoring the small change in his heartbeat, Julian gave a snarky reply. "Well, whatever."

"Ouch, don't be angry, sister will be sad." It was glaringly obvious she was faking a cry. "Oh yeah, I'll be back in two or three months. Sister will make a feast for you then."

Julian felt somewhat loss. He had already gone to college, but Hannah always treated him like a child. Having been living two lives, just by his mental age alone, he was actually way older than her, twice to be exact. If he were to play by the rule, she was the one who actually had to address him as older brother and not the opposite, and it wasn't strange if he gave her pat in the head and gave her candy.

Oh, Little Hannah, this older brother's heart was hurt.

Well, anyway…

After the two chatted for a while, Hannah hung up the phone in a hurry, as if there was something urgent on that side.

Julian simply shrugged his shoulder and let it pass like nothing. In his impression, Hannah had always been very busy and often traveled outside the city on business. He already used to spend the time alone without her presence at home.

Putting away his phone, Julian suddenly felt a pang of hunger struck him. He had skipped lunch this afternoon due to the sudden invasion and the time getting closer to dinner, so it wasn't strange that his belly grumble in protest. He got up from the couch and leisurely stroll into the kitchen.

His predecessor was quite a penny pincher, so he rarely ordered food from outside and cooked most of his meal himself. Julian also wasn't a big fan of eating outside and he liked to cook. It was one of his hobby other than reading webnovel or watching football game on weekend. Not to boast, but his cooking skill was good enough to be praised by a professional chef.

Looking around the kitchen for supply, he finally decided to make a bowl of beef noodles. The dish was quite easy to make and rarely could go wrong. Ten minutes later he had done cooking and then spent the dinner in peace.

After eating, he immediately went to the living room and sat down on the couch cross-legged, assuming a lotus position and started regulating his breathing according to the Whale Breathing Technique in his memory. Although it was his first time doing it by himself, his body seemed to remember the way it should be done, and the method operated as natural as breathing.

The exercises started running at earnest, and the food accumulated in his stomach rapidly breaking down and transformed into energy. His body greedily absorbed the energy and circulated it into all parts of the body.

About half an hour later, his eyelid opened and his black eyes flicker briefly as he called the panel out.

[Whale Breathing Method's proficiency increases by 1 point! Current proficiency: 79/100]

"In just once session, the proficiency has gone up by one point. If I can do it three times a day, wouldn't it mean I can get 3 points every day? If this is true, the Whale Swallowing Breath can break through in just 10 days at the fastest! Damn it, that's crazy!"

It took him almost 2 years to reach proficient level in Whale Swallowing Breath method, and now he just needed 10 days? What was that if not crazy? It's so unbelievable.

Could it be the reason for such an unbelievable speed was the system?

The more he thought about it, the more reasonable he felt.

After digitizing his strength, he would gain at least 1 point of proficiency every time he practiced the exercises, so the speed of improving martial skills was naturally much faster.

What a downfall!

Hunter's prowess wasn't just coming from their basic stats, the mastery of martial arts skill was also important. The synergy between stats and martial arts what truly made a hunter become powerful.

Driven by the earlier success, Julian spirited up and immediately began to practice Thunder Fist in his room. According to the professor, by cultivating the Thunder Fist to perfection, the punch would generate enormous power, enough to blast the air along with thunderous boom.

Even if a person with a life energy level of 1 performed it, it was enough to punch through a one-centimeter-thick steel plate.

A ton of practitioners used this boxing method to temper their bodies. And it was also one the most popular method among the students of Combat Department. Upon the perfection, it was said that it could be upgraded to a more advanced martial arts "Greater Thunder Fist."

Julian was completely immersed in training that the time passed in a blink of an eye. Before he knew it, Julian had already practiced for almost two hours before deciding to take a break.

Checking the training's progress from the panel, the Thunder Fist had already improved by 3 points, reaching 88 points of proficiency. He only needed another 12 points before breaking through to the next level of skill mastery.

Julian nodded in satisfaction at his remarkable progress.

If he really did the training in earnest, he could do the practice routines for more than ten times a day, which meant that he would be able to upgrade its level by the end of tomorrow at the latest.

What an insane speed!

If the other knew about it, they would surely find a cliff to commit mass suicide!

"Why did I feel I miss something important?"

Julian scratched his head, trying to recall what he missed before. Not long after, he burst in exclamation and quickly open the mission panel.

[Complete the mission "Long Distance Running Novice" and get 50 PD points.]

With the addition of 50 PD points, his remaining points reached 100 points which was enough to be exchanged for random martial arts card.

It was no brainer. Julian quickly willed the store panel and exchanged the points in a dash.

[Random Martial Arts Card: Randomly obtain 100-500 martial arts proficiency upon consumption, exchange price: 100 PD points. One-use disposable item.]

Both the Whale Swallowing Breathing Method and the Thunder Fist can be upgraded by just a little bit of proficiency. Even if he was unlucky and only got 100 points of martial skill proficiency, it was still enough to level up the Thunder Fist.

"Extract Random Martial Arts Card." Julian recited the command silently.

In an instant, new information popped up in front of him.

[Get 329 points of free martial arts proficiency!]

"Not bad!"

Although it was not the highest 500 points, 329 points of martial arts proficiency was not bad at all!

"Let's level up!"

He invested 12 points into Thunder Fist in a jiffy and a change happened almost immediately in the status panel.

[LEVEL UP!]

[Thunder Fist: Beginner -> Proficient (0/200)]

A lot of new knowledge and information about fist technique poured into his brain, it was as if they were directly copied into his mind. While he gained enlightenment into the Thunder Fist, another transformation happened to his body.

All the muscle in his body heated up simultaneously, contracting and relaxing, and suddenly bulked up, as if he was training in the gym all day long. If his mind wasn't preoccupied by the sudden influx of information, Julian would definitely scream like a little girl from the searing pain.

It lasted for more than ten seconds before this feeling slowly dissipated, just right before he finished digesting the new knowledge in his mind. He could feel that his muscle became more toned and full of strength.

Julian immediately inspected the change in his status panel.

"Strength increased by 2 points, vitality increased by 1 point!"

To his surprise, levelling up his martial arts skill was also resulting in improvement of his attributes!

However, he felt that it was actually quite reasonable. In the first place, The Thunder Fist was also known for its effectivity in body tempering. Just like in many martial arts novels he had read before, tempering body by bathing in thunder and lightning was a classic!

"Just breaking through to the proficient level increases the attribute by 3 points. If you upgrade it into adept level, how many points can it gives?"

Julian licked his lips in anticipation and rushed to infuse another 200 martial arts point into Thunder Fist skill.

[LEVEL UP!]

[Thunder Fist: Proficient -> Adept (0/300)]

Familiar feeling ran through his body, and this time it lasted for about half a minute before Julian digested all the information that was suddenly shoved into his mind. The trembling and fever of the muscles all over his body gradually subsided.

Looking at the panel again, a lot of changes have already taken place.

[General Profile]

Name: Julian

Level: 1

[Attributes]

STR: 16

VIT: 17

AGI: 12

SPI: 16

[Martial Arts]

Whale Swallowing Breath – Proficient (79/200)

Thunder Fist – Adept (0/300)