Chapter 2: Trial
The beetle that just incapacitated Chen Wutian turned and saw three soldiers rushing towards it. Brandishing their swords!
"Die! Evil beast!"
"Ha!"
Ding!
Puchi!
A backhand with the sword's hilt to turn the neck of the beetle and a swift strike to behead it. The corpse of the beast fell lifelessly.
The soldiers grit their teeth. This was no victory, an innocent child had died. A young and promising soldier lost unjustly. Such is the truth of war.
"I wonder who's child that was."
They quickly regained their bearings. To save more children, they had to focus and speed up the slaughter of beetles!
"Focus! Charge!"
However, before they could leave, more than 10 beetles swarmed the three soldiers.
Screech!!!
The soldiers were quickly overwhelmed. A beetle swung its claws and chopped of the hands of one of the soldiers. Another soldier had its head bitten off by another beetle. It did not take long before the three soldiers were killed by the beetles.
Chen Wutian did not know what was going on outside, he did not know what happened to the once glorious Lan Yun city. He did not know that the uncles he once knew were being slaughtered in the hands of the vicious beetles.
His mind moved.
[Yes.]
Yes. Was he an idiot? No. He did not want to die.
A flash of light. Encapsulating his body, before he disappeared.
He reappeared in an empty plane. The floor was made of water, but strangely he could walk on the water. He saw his own reflection.
1.78 meters tall, a handsome man, skinny, his eyes were black, his short hair, a deep black.
"Was I not dying? What happened?"
The sky above him was black, with the occasional twinkle of stars.
A blue light flashed before him.
[Congratulations host!]
[You have been given one chance to redeem yourself.]
[Slay 0/1 Black Flame Beetle Juvenile (weakened).]
"Yes!"
'My golden finger has finally arrived!'
"Hahaha!"
Chen Wutian clenched his fists in excitement! How could he not know what this was? He had read many novels in his previous life, wasn't this the legendary golden finger? The one only given to the main characters in novels?!
'Hahahaha!'
Screech!!
A screech sounded in the distance.
A small beetle appeared, it was not as tall as the ones invading the Lan Yun city. However it was still a meter tall.
Chen Wutian felt goosebumps all over his body, he had just been killed by the adult version of this beetle, now the system wanted him to fight this?
He read the mission again.
"So it's a juvenile and it's weakened? I might have a chance." He murmured.
"I have been waiting for this golden finger. How can I fail it!"
Chen Wutian sharpened his determination and charged at the beetle!
Screech!!
The beetle reciprocated, scurrying towards Chen Wutian.
He punched out! Although Chen Wutian did not learn any combat skills since he came into this world, he still had knowledge of boxing from his previous life, coupled with 320kgs of strength…
Boom! The fist landed on the weakened juvenile beetle and rattled its bug brain. It screeched and clawed at Chen Wutian, however Chen Wutian caught both of the legs that were swinging towards him.
At this moment, he felt it, the bug was around the same level of strength as he was. But it lacked the human spirit!
"Haaa!!"
Chen Wutian exhaled and released all the energy he could muster, bending and breaking the two legs of the beetle!
Screech!!!
Before the beetle could recover, Chen Wutian swung the claws over, brandishing them as dual blades. He took one of the legs and used it as a dagger, gripping the toe of the beetle, he used it's own claw to stab the neck of the beetle.
Before the beetle could screech, Chen Wutian exerted his strength and swung upwards! Decapitating the beetle!
Thud! The head of the beetle rolled on the water surface.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!"
The task of defeating a beetle without combat skills proved to be strenuous, it was only because of unorthodox methods paired with great will that Chen Wutian could slay the juvenile beetle.
[Congratulations to host.]
[Inspecting battle…]
[The host has been rewarded with the status page.]
A reward for a tough battle.
'Status!'
[ Strength: 320kg (32% usage) ]
The status page was simple, it showed the host's strength.
"System! What does this 32% usage refer to?"
[It refers to the efficiency of the muscles the host is using, 32% means the host is only using 32% of his true strength.]
"What!"
'So it turns out I've only been using 32% of my strength?'
[Yes.]
'Then how do I increase my efficiency?'
[There are methods to increase muscle use efficiency]
'Does the system have some sort of shop?'
[No.]
'…'
[Since the host has shown a pitiful understanding of strength, the system will bestow you a gift.]
Chen Wutian was pleasantly surprised! With a flash of light, a book appeared above him and slowly drifted into his palms.
'Physical strength control and law'
He flipped the book open and saw a many words accompanied with drawings of the human body, it detailed excercises one could do to increase the efficiency of muscles.
'Amazing!' Chen Wutian gasped.
'Thanks for the reward, system.'
[ The host has 30 days before the next mission. ]
'Wait! 30 days? What will happen to the outside world?'
[The time in the system space is calculated differently. 1 second in the outside world is 10,000 years in the system space.]
[However, this will be the only time the system space will open to the host.]
'Oh, I almost thought I just gained a supreme treasure space.'
'Then, how do I return to the outside world?'
[After the host has completed all the tutorial missions of the system, the host will return to the outside world.]
With that, the system panel closed and went silent.
'Hmm, the second mission will start in 30 days, since the first mission was to kill a beetle, the second mission will no doubt only get harder from here.'
'I must make use of these 30 days to study the book of physical strength control and law!'
In the first day, Chen Wutian spent an hour comprehending the first page of the book, he practiced the motions on the first page. Hopping into a very strange posture, he moved his body up and down, horizontally and vertically. Hearing pops in his muscles and bones, his tendons stretched.
In just a few minutes he could feel immense strain on his body. Sweat covered his entire body and foul stench emerged from his body, a black viscous liquid left his body from the open pores.
Luckily he did not feel hunger and he could just wash his body with the water in this plane.
After the first day…
'Status!'
[ Strength: 343kgs (34%) ]
Incredible, in just a day of training, his muscle efficiency had increased by 2% and his strength shot up by 23kgs! This was more than ten times faster than his previous training!
When he was resting, Chen Wutian also read the second page of the book of physical strength control and law. However he found out that he could not even hold the first position of the second page for even a second.
'It seems I need to master the first page's motions completely before I can move on to the second page.'
Eight days later…
A total of nine days had passed, there were still 21 days before the second mission.
'Status!'
[ Strength: 545kgs (50%) ]
After the ninth day, Chen Wutian realised that practicing the first page seemed too easy. It could no longer bring about great changes to his body.
'I should try the second position now.'
On the morning of the tenth day, Chen Wutian started with the motions of the second page. It was even harder than the first page when he first started training it.
'Endure! Endure! Endure!'
Just like that, another 10 days passed.
20 days had passed and there were 10 days left until the second mission would start!
There was a young man, in the middle of the plane of water, his black eyes seemed to contain the universe, emboldened by a flame of determination. The young man moved up and down in a strange motion. As if imitating a praying mantis. The muscles and bones in his body popped and his tendons were stretched taut.
The young man was Chen Wutian!
His body was firm, slightly more muscular than before, there was an invisible aura around him. Chen Wutian stopped training, he seemed to realised something.
'This invisible aura! I'm about to step into the first realm of body training!'
'Status!'
[ Strength: 992 kgs (80%) ]
'992 kgs of strength!'
Chen Wutian's mind buzzed, it had only been twenty days and his strength more than tripled! He was elated!
'Oh system you are my blessing!'
The excitement on Chen Wutian's face was evident. After a while of self celebration, he calmed himself down.
'992 kgs, only when one can exert the force of 1,000 kgs can they be called a first stage body refining martial artist!'
'Also, it seems that the second page of the book of physical strength control and law is no longer suitable for me, after reaching 80% of efficiency, only the third page can satisfy me now.'
Making up his mind, Chen Wutian decided to train in the third page for nine days, before resting for one day to recover his energy and spirit for the second mission.
And thus… on the thirtieth day…
'Status!'
[ Strength: 1,420 kgs (100%) ]
Looking at this massive number, Chen Wutian smiled.
'I can now breakthrough to the martial artist stage, however… I don't know how to. Father never taught me…'
It was quite awkward, he had the strength to breakthrough but he did not have the method. Usually, only large families or families with former soldiers or martial schools would teach people the method of breaking through to the martial artist level.
This knowledge was not publicly given to the common people.
Just as his thoughts were about to drift off…
Ding ding!
[The second mission has been issued.]
At the same time, the corpse of the weakened juvenile beetle started to disintegrate. About two seconds later, a small red crystal was left on the water surface.
Ding ding!
Before Chen Wutian could walk over and pick up the crystal, the system spoke first.
[ Slay 0/100 Wind Fanged Wolf. ]
'What!'
Before he could complain, a hundred wolves appeared in the plain before him. These wolves were 1.2 meters tall and sported green tufts of fur all over their bodies. Seeing their prey, they rushed forward!
"Ha!"
Chen Wutian shouted and steeled himself!
A great battle was about to commence!
"Ao!"
Many howls rang in the empty plane, followed by the rustle of wind, many wolves charged forwards!
Chen Wutian clenched his fists and punched! The strength of his punch was incomparable to his punch a month ago!
He felt the wind tearing apart in the path of his fist!
'This is the feeling!'
His eyes shone with fighting spirit.
The punch landed solidly on the first wolf blowing it backwards, it landed on the plane and whimpered in pain. Chen Wutian was surprised to see the wolf still alive after that punch.
'These wolves are much stronger than that weakened beetle!'
"Ha!"
He charged forwards hurling many fists in all directions, the unluckily wolves were hit many times, some punches landed on the skulls of unfortunate wolves and they died immediately!
Some wolves evaded the attack and launched attacks of their own, claws, bites, shoving and paw strikes. Without any combat arts, Chen Wutian was inevitably hit by these attacks.
The sharp claws and fangs of the wolves were able to penetrate his skin, and the blunt force attacks were able to shake up his organs.
[ Slay 15/100 Wind Fanged Wolf.]
Not long after the mission started, Chen Wutian was already exhausted after killing only 15 wolves. The remaining 85 wolves looked coldly at him.
'My killing is still too inefficient!'
Chen Wutian could not be blamed, he had yet to learn any killing techniques or even any combat skills. Although he had seen people demonstrate martial skills on the Internet before he had never really tried to learn them. Not only was it difficult to learn martial skills in the first place, doing so without a teacher or any form of guidance was seen as wasting one's time.
As he watched the wolves attentively, so were they watching Chen Wutian breathe heavily.
Chen Wutian used this opportunity to think about the battle just now.
'The wolves, they move very efficiently, their steps are light and their movements swift, far faster than they strength they actually possess.'
'If only I could learn it.'
More wolves charged forward, moving at extreme speed!
Chen Wutian could only grit his teeth and force his body to move!
Whoosh!!
Ao!
He fought brutishly, waving his fist with wild demeanor, however, even when doing so, he watched the wolves very carefully.
That's right! Chen Wutian was trying to learn the secrets behind the wolves' movement. Trying to imitate their stance!
As more and more wolves died, they contributed to Chen Wutian learning their skills. However, a drawback to this was that Chen Wutian was getting struck more and more, his body accumulating many injuries, he was already bleeding from many wounds.
The blood flowed freely onto the ground. The water was red with the blood of the wolves and Chen Wutian. Only after the 54th wolf…
Peng!
The punch that shot out of Chen Wutian's fist shocked him!
That speed, was even faster than the wolf! He felt the change of his body the moment he moved, he had successfully imitated the wind fanged wolves movement secret! That punch instantly killed the wolf after striking its abdomen.
There was shock even among the wolves!
'Eh? Our prey became faster?'
They could no longer hold back! The remaining wolves all charged towards Chen Wutian at the same time! However this time it was different!
"Hahaha! Come at me, filthy dogs!"
After learning the secret movement skill of the wind fanged wolves, Chen Wutian could not move at a faster speed while using less energy. This was simply spending half the effort to reap twice the reward!
Fwoosh!
He moved like the wind! Punching the skulls of the wolves, he was now even faster than them!
Puchi!
Ao!
…
Whoosh!
Ding ding!
[ Slay 100/100 Wind Fanged Wolf. ]
Standing straight in the middle of the vast plane. Chen Wutian was covered in blood. He was not panting, his eyes were deep as he felt the muscles in his body contract in a way not thought possible.
'With this secret skill, I'm afraid I can take on 5 of myself before I learned this skill!'
[ Congratulations to host for completing the second mission. ]
[ The host has been rewarded with the system inventory. ]
'Open my inventory!'
A blue panel appeared before Chen Wutian, showing many empty grids.
'Awesome! Now I can carry many items conveniently! Although… it might be difficult to explain why something can suddenly appear in my hand.'
Chen Wutian still had no idea if the legendary storage rings in those cultivation novels existed in this world, even if it did, how would he explain himself having one? There were too many things to conceal.
After exiting the system plane, not only did he have to explain his sudden increase in strength, he also had to hide his "storage ring".
Sigh…
Just as Chen Wutian was lamenting, the corpses of all 100 wolves disintegrated, leaving small red crystals similar to the beetle before the battle.
He walked up and picked up one of these crystals.
"What is this?"
[ Obtained 1 inferior grade bloodstone. ]
An inferior grade bloodstone!
This was it! Chen Wutian suddenly remembered the teachings in school. Normally in high school besides advices on the physical tempering path, teachers also educated student on the types of Insectoids and the many species of beasts and demons that shared the planet with humans.
When a beast, demon or insectoid perished, they would leave behind a bloodstone. Inferior level beasts would leave behind inferior grade bloodstones. A human could then absorb these bloodstones and turn them into supplements for the body. It was theorised that if a human could absorb 100% of the energy in a low grade bloodstone, they could gain 5kgs of strength!
However this was highly theoretical because no human could consume 100% of the energy in any item, not just bloodstones. It all depended on how well the consumer's body could absorb.
Chen Wutian happily ran along collecting all the bloodstones on the ground.
'Open my inventory!'
Ding!
One of the grids appeared with the image of an inferior grade bloodstone. When Chen Wutian selected the item with his eyes, a panel appeared:
[ Inferior grade bloodstone: 101
Consume to increase strength by 5kgs ]
Before Chen Wutian could consume them, the system's emotionless voice sounded.
[ Time until final tutorial mission: 30 days ]
'Last one!'
'Father, mother, I hope you are still doing well outside. I pray for your safety!'
Chen Wutian was anxious, he had experienced first hand the terror of the Black flame beetles. A single claw was enough to cripple and killl him.
Since there was 30 days left before the final mission, he had to increase his strength! Before the second mission started, he was confident with his strength that had skyrocketed. However if Chen Wutian did not comprehend the secret of the wolves, he would have died in their jaws. There was no option to be overconfident!
Complacency meant death!
'From what I remember, absorbing a single inferior grade bloodstone takes about an hour even for the slightly talented, and even absorbing 30% of the bloodstone which was considered 1.5kgs of strength was considered a high affinity with absorption. I wander how my body reacts to the bloodstones…'
Chen Wutian's eyes hovered over the consume button, then, he concentrated!
Ding!
[ + 505kgs of strength. ]
'Huh?'
'…'
'Damn!'
'This system is too powerful! Not only did it consume all the bloodstones instantly, it also absorbed 100% of the energy! Too awesome! Too awesome!'
Chen Wutian was beyond surprised! Too awesome!
Before the excitement could go any further, a wave of heat appeared in his body. A powerful feeling erupted! Spreading all over Chen Wutian's body! An extremely pleasurable feeling engulfed his mind. The feeling of power!
It felt so good that Chen Wutian could not help but moan in excitement.
'Status!'
[ Strength: 1,925 kgs ]
After the efficiency of muscle usage had reached 100%, the brackets disappeared on the status page.
'I mustn't get complacent!'
Thinking about the near death experience just minutes ago made him shudder.
The exercise on the first page of the book of physical strength control and law allowed him to increase his strength by 10 kgs everyday.
The second exercise, 15 kgs.
The third exercise, 20 kgs.
Although I can understand the fourth page's exercise, I need atleast 10,000 kgs of strength to train it daily…
Looking at his meagre 1,925 kgs of strength… this would take awhile. Chen Wutian began to train. He planned to train for 29 days before resting for the last day before the final mission.
The days of training were uneventful, sometimes he was so bored and lonely. It had already been over two months of solitude and training.
And thus the fateful day arrived.
'Status!'
[ Strength: 2,505 kgs ]
Truly a rebirth of one self. Before he entered the system space, Chen Wutian only could exert 32% of his true strength, which was equivalent to 320 kgs of strength. Now, 100% of his power of 2,505 kgs was behind every punch!
Ding!
[ Time left until next mission : 0 days ]