Soaring Strength

Julian could hardly control his lips from smirking.

Strength increased by 2 points, vitality and agility each increased by 1 point, for a total of 4 points of attribute increase!

Now it was certain that strengthening Thunder Fist could improve his strength the most, followed by vitality and a little bit of agility.

"What kind of improvement will I get by strengthening the Whale Swallowing Breathing technique? Considering the technique is based on energy absorption, maybe vitality? Curious."

Glancing at the panel, there were 117 points remaining in martial arts proficiency.

He didn't dwell for long and simply threw all the points into the Whale Swallowing Breathing Technique, quickly raising the value from 78 to 196.

"Still 4 points short. I'll buy more meat tomorrow and strive to break through to the next level!"

Whale Swallowing Breathing technique used food as its fuel. The richer the energy contained in the meat, the better effect it would provide for him.

Rather than using ordinary meat, it was actually better if he could get some meat from otherworldly alien races. Alien's flesh and blood contain extremely rich essence, so consuming a small piece of it was enough for a whole day's practice. Using the Whale Swallowing Breathing technique, a small piece is probably enough to increase proficiency by more than ten points.

Just imagining making a steak out of Three Horned Buffallo or Cockatrice oyakodon, droll started flowing down his mouth.

However, the meat of alien beasts can only be obtained in Hunter's exclusive store. Even if he could get access somehow, the price was not something that a mere student like Julian could afford. So, he could only dream about it for now.

Julian's SPIrit flared up again, and he vowed that he would live a life where he could eat such luxurious ingredients whenever he wanted.

After turning off the panel, Julian tried to move his body and immediately felt great improvement in his strength, speed, and reaction speed.

It can be called all-round strengthening!

Well, his attributes had increased by a total of 10 points in one night. So a drastic change was expected.

But still…

When the other people bled and sweated for a year long but still wouldn't be able to improve as much as he did in one night, Julian felt it was a fucking cheat.

A cheat that only he could use.

Khukhukhu.

Julian couldn't help but burst out laughing while sending a condolence to all the poor fellows out there.

"Another 19 attributes, and my life energy level can break through to level 2!"

Originally, he estimated that it would take nine days to break through to level 2. But now it seems that it obviously doesn't take that long.

"Levelling up martial arts can also increase my attributes. In that case, getting more random martial art cards should be my priority in the future!"

"Let's test my current strength!"

Julian's muscles went taut as he balled his hand into a fist and punched with all his might.

Whoosh—

An air-breaking sound reverberated in the living room. The window curtain a few feet from him fluttered just by its sheer pressure.

"So strong! This is the power of proficient-level martial arts!"

Julian stood in a daze, still basking in the aftertaste of power rushing through him.

"How powerful the Thunder Fist at master and perfection level will be?"

He couldn't wait to witness it with his own eyes.

After a short break, most of Julian's stamina had already recovered, and Julian didn't waste any seconds and began exercising again.

Having been tasting the sweet feeling of getting stronger, Julian couldn't help but get addicted.

*

Today was Sunday, so there was no class.

After warming up a little bit and taking a shower, Julian changed into casual clothes and went out to buy daily necessities.

Hannah gave him more than 3,000 Federal Credit (FC) per month. In White Whale City, the average ordinary family of four could live a comfortable life with four or five thousand FC per month. Thus, such an amount of money was actually more than enough for a student living alone like Julian.

Julian once again realized how much Hannah took care of him. It was borderline pampering. By this point, Hannah's position in Julian's heart had already gone beyond the roof.

If he were still the original owner with mediocre talent and not having the system, he would be satisfied by such an amount of money. But now he was already determined to tread the path of Hunter, which would cost him an enormous amount of funding. Three thousand FC per month was a mere drop of water in the ocean. Just for buying meat to practice Whale Swallowing Breathing technique, his wallet would be emptied in no time.

Still, Julian did not want to ask Hannah for more money, so as not to increase her burden.

Fortunately, he still had a little bit of savings, which was enough to last for a while.

After the savings are used up? As long as his strength improved and he could become a powerful hunter, he didn't need to fear not having any money in the future. After all, in this world, Hunter was the ultimate moneymaker!

As the most powerful hunter in the making, Julian didn't have any fear of spending any amount of money!

Hey, but what's there? A 50% discount for all meat products?

If I can't get one, don't call my surname Kim! Sorry, ladies, I won't give up on this one!

*

After purchasing enough meat, Julian immediately worked in the kitchen after returning home, and practiced the whale-swallowing breathing method non-stop after eating.

After converting all the food he ate into energy, he started to do push-ups, squats, and sit-ups, striking while the iron was hot.

Cooking, eating, practicing swallowing breath, exercising...

Repeat and rinse, a day had passed just like that.

The good news was that the swallowing breath method finally broke through to the next level.

[General Profile]

Name: Julian

Level: 1

[Attributes]

STR: 17

VIT: 19

AGI: 12

SPI: 16

[PD points]: 300

[Martial Arts]

Whale Swallowing Breath (Adept 0/300)

Thunder Fist (Adept 6/300)

"Increased 2 points of vitality and 1 point of strength."

Despite also reaching adept level, the attribute improvement coming from the Whale Swallowing Breath was 1 point less than that of the Thunder Fist.

It might be due to the difference between grades.

It was apparent that the Whale Swallowing Breath, which was the most basic method that circulated in White Whale City, was slightly inferior to the Thunder Fist technique.

But he didn't feel disappointed. After all, a 2-point gain was always welcome.

After that, Julian opened the mission list.

After exercising for most of the day, he had completed three more missions: [Push-up Elite], [Squat Elite] and [Sit-up Elite], and obtained a total of 300 PD points.

He couldn't help but recall the times he was still addicted to the game in the past, when he could grind all day just to fill up a little bit of his EXP points. Oh, what a sweet and fulfilling time that was. This world's level of culture was also on par with his previous world before he was transmigrated. A lot of fun games can be found on the market.

Had he been as hopeless as before, he might return to the time when he did nothing but play games all day, but now, he had already found a way to become stronger, he had no time wasted on such escapism.

He had to grow as fast as possible if he wanted to survive in this dangerous world.

"The store still has more than ten minutes to refresh."

Julian glanced at the exchange store. Currently, the only item left in the exchange shop was the lottery ticket.

But the risk was too high. He didn't have any intention to waste the precious PD points on it for the time being.

The top priority was to improve his strength first!

More than ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

The moment the countdown reaches zero, the exchange store is refreshed immediately.

[Exchange store has been updated. Next refresh: 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds.]

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

[Cultivation Crystal: Obtain five years of experience and comprehension of one designated martial arts skill. Exchange Price: 500 PD points. One-use disposable item.]

[Stamina Potion: Instantly recover most of the stamina and relieved fatigue. Exchange Price: 200 PD. One-use disposable item. Can be used by individual other than host.]

"It's all good stuff!"

Julian couldn't take his eyes off the translucent windows, his mouth started drooling.

Not to mention the random martial arts cards, he was also greedy for both of the new items that appeared on the list.

The Stamina Potion that could instantly recover stamina once you drank it was absolutely a priceless treasure. Even if its effect was limited to stamina and couldn't heal injuries, in a prolonged battle, this item could decide life or death. A precious trump card!

The other item's value was also better and not less than the stamina potion. With Cultivation Crystal, he could cut five years of effort in a blink of an eye.

Considering his mediocre talent, he estimated that he would rack up at least seven hundred or eight hundred worth of MA proficiency points upon consumption. It was certainly way better than the random MA cards.

He might be able to elevate the Thunder Fist punch directly into perfection rank in one fell swoop if he used the crystal on it.

Alas, it was still too expensive for a poor bastard like him. 500 PD points was an amount that he couldn't afford for the time being. So, Julian could only look at it with clenched teeth and wait for another opportunity later.

Coming back to his senses, Julian swiftly exchanged his points for a random martial arts card, and then used it without second thoughts.

"Oh, Goddess of Luck, give me your blessings!"

[Ding!]

[Obtained 402 points MA proficiency!]

"Khukhukhu… Thanks, Goddess of Luck! You're the best!"

He immediately invested all the MA points he got and upgraded the Thunder Fist technique first.

The data on the panel changed again.

[General Profile]

Name: Julian

Level: 1

[Attributes]

STR: 20

VIT: 20

AGI: 13

SPI: 16

[PD points]: 200

[Martial Arts]

Whale Swallowing Breathing – Adept (0/300)

Thunder Fist – Master (6/500)

As expected, his attributes also soared after leveling up his Thunder Fist technique—by a whopping 5 points at once!

Both his strength and vitality have been increased to 20 points, and in terms of strength and vitality alone, he had already reached level 2 of the life energy level!

With his master level Thunder Punch, no one under life energy level 1 might be his opponent with his current strength. He might even be able to threaten newbie official Hunters who were generally in the lower half of level 2. Probably.

In just two days, his strength has undergone earth-shaking changes.

This golden finger was really awesome!

There were still 200 PD points left, but he didn't have anything specific in mind for where to spend them, so he decided to save them for the time being. Although the stamina potion was good, he didn't need to fight others to the death, so it was of little use.

Let's just save it and wait a little bit longer to purchase the cultivation crystal.

With such calculations in his mind, Julian called out the list of missions again.

There was a new mission on the list.

[Push-up Expert]: Perform 2,000 push-ups. Reward: 200 PD points. Current progress: 0/2,000.

[Squat Expert]: Perform 2,000 squats. Reward: 200 PD points. Current progress: 0/2,000.

[Sit-ups Expert]: Perform 2,000 sit-ups. Reward: 200 PD points. Current progress: 0/2,000.

[Long-distance Running Elite]: After running 50km. Reward: 100 PD points. Current progress: 10/50.

[TIPS: Improving actual combat experience is also necessary for your personal development. Only by combining practice and actual combat can you become stronger!]

[NEW!][Practical Combat I]: Defeat three people with the total value of the four-dimensional attribute is required to be no less than 60 points. Reward: 300 PD points. Current progress: 0/3.

"Interesting…"

Julian rubbed his chin as he read the new mission appear on the list.

It's kind of makes sense.

His stats could be just a number on a piece of paper, and even though he had made considerable progress in his martial arts, he might not be able to exert his strength to the fullest without refining them in a real-life battle.

What could an ordinary person who had spent around 35 years in a peaceful and safe environment like Earth and had never killed a chicken or cow do even if he had such powerful strength?

Even if you gave a domestic dog a sharp fang and claw, it wouldn't suddenly become a wolf when you let it out in the jungle.

Wielding a gun didn't guarantee you would be able to pull the trigger in front of a robber.

Could he guarantee that he would be able to do well against another Hunters, let alone a ferocious Alien race, in the future?

He honestly couldn't give an answer to such a question.

He might be able to do it. No, he would be able to do it properly. Probably.

Anyway, it was a good thing that the system produced such a mission this time, dousing his hot head a little bit. He was almost swallowed by the feeling of omnipotence coming from the sudden increase in his strength. It wouldn't give him any benefit if he were to act overbearing just because of his meager strength.

He wasn't even an official Hunter, for Pete's sake.

A lot of canon-fodders in the novel perished because of such unfounded confidence, and he had no plan to be one of them.

"Thanks a lot system for your kindly reminder."

[…]

Whether it was intentional or not, he was sincerely grateful for the system's timely interference.

"Let's be more careful in the future."

Julian once again reminded himself to keep being prudent, as he always did.

"Then… where can I get the opponent for this mission?"

In this age when martial arts were prevalent, it was actually not difficult to find a few people to compete with.

As far as he knew, more than a dozen martial arts clubs in White Whale City provided places for martial arts practitioners to practice martial arts and exchange pointers with each other. Some well-known martial arts clubs even have former mid-ranked hunters with life energy levels 4 and 5 as their tutors.

So, if he went to these places, he would definitely find opponents with whom to compete.

Julian finally made up his mind to go to the martial arts club after class tomorrow.