14 chapter 14
"It's time to train!"
The corners of Eric's mouth began to turn up ever so slightly, giving him the appearance of eager expectation.
He reached a secluded area in the woods behind the main headquarters.
He had been in the world of the supernatural for over a month at this point. The only thing that happened was that he kept getting rewards, but he never had the chance to test them or train with them. He only tested out the transformation technique that the system rewarded him with.
He had not put any effort whatsoever into his training—all of a sudden.
He did not know how to train!
"En... How do I train?"
After considering it, Eric concluded that the existing training should still emphasise physical activity.
Eric was no longer under the impression that he was weak due to his present body; yet, his current strength does not fall within the parameters of his physiology as the alpha of his race. There was still a great deal more that needed to be learnt; because his potential is limitless, he is oblivious to the concept of bottlenecks; hence, training will consistently produce positive outcomes.
"Let's go out there and do two laps before anything else!"
Eric flexed his muscles and immediately launched himself at breakneck speeds; a trail of dust could be seen as he sprinted around in less than a second, having completed two laps in that amount of time.
Eric was astounded by his own newly discovered incredible speed; he was travelling at a subsonic level of speed, and he was jogging to attain this level of speed. Eric himself was highly shocked by his enormous speed.
"It seems I underestimated my true power; breaking the shackles of human limits has indeed brought me to a new league of power," Eric mumbles to himself while clenching his fingers.
[Alpha Human Physiology] is too domineering, and this is merely at the initial stage; at higher stages, even Eric is a bit afraid of what he can do.
What gods? What devils? All he needs is a slap on their face to show them their place.
Good!
It had reached the point where it had surpassed the absolute limits of what a human being could ever achieve in this world on his own; in other words, his strength was roughly at the beginning stages of god class.
According to what he has gleaned from his memories, even the weakest of gods are readily superior to beings of the Satan class. Eric has reason to believe that he can effortlessly obliterate more minor to medium-sized countries at his current level of power.
To provide some context, a typical Satan class entity can destroy an oversized island with some effort.
Eric concluded that it is pointless for him to increase his strength unless he first refines what he already possesses. As a result, he must first extract one hundred per cent of his existing strength by learning various techniques and fighting styles and then determine which would suit him the best.
Even if he does have the ability, which enables him to compete with the powerhouses of this world to some degree, the approach he takes is far too crude given that physical force is not the answer to every problem.
It is imperative that he immediately begin honing his skills as of right now.
Speaking of technique, he took Captain Marsilio's machete as a reward; it was made of enchanted steel, and the grip was made of the same material but braided with grippy material.
The craftsmanship of this blade was, at best, above average; a regular person's first impression of it would be that it is of high quality.
The machete was around 70 centimetres long, making it neither very little nor particularly big. It is particularly suited for counter and quick slashing, which is quite good in Eric's opinion. Eric isn't a sucker for katanas or western swords, and he preferred application rather than looks.
Eric gives the blade a few light slashes to become accustomed to its feel. The more frequently he employs it, the more at ease he becomes with it, and at some point, it comes to feel like an organic extension of his body.
His profoundness and understanding of his blade expanded as he continued to swing the sword with each strike; if certain Chinese sword immortals had witnessed this, he would have coughed up blood and died.
As Eric swung the sword, he realised the eight fundamental concepts that must be mastered to become a master of the way of the sword in his style:
• Physical Conditioning: One strike pierced the heavens.
• Aspects of the Mind: Consciousness and a Calm or Serene Attitude
• Deception: in a duel with a sword, being honest and fighting fair will almost certainly result in your death.
• Confidence and Toughness of Spirit,
• Rhythm, or more specifically the absence of it. In sword fighting, it is a cardinal sin to fall into a routine that can be anticipated.
• Intimidation: employing fear to intimidate a weaker opponent, such as the cold glitter in your eyes as you prepare to murder a million people.
• Timing and Distance: Although it may seem like a simple concept, striking at the appropriate moment and being near enough to make contact requires a certain level of ability.
• Exercise extreme caution; this does not equate to being cowardly, but rather having the sufficient common sense to avoid underestimating your opponent.
According to Eric, one should focus on these eight primary facets of swordsmanship. According to him, being a skilled swordsman is not so much about executing a few flashy techniques here and there as it is about having the self-control and determination to get to the pinnacle.
Even though Eric could not perfect the manner of the sword, he got a fundamental understanding of it by just swinging it.
This is the power that his new physique gives him: he can learn anything as long as he puts his will to it; he doesn't need a teacher or a guide since an alpha will find his way.
"All right, now let's see [Gradation Air] and [Touki]," Eric murmured as he began to examine his other abilities.
Touki is straightforward and uncomplicated; it ties his inexhaustible vitality down in the shape of a golden aura that encircles him and significantly boosts his physical attributes.
It is analogous to a power-up that the protagonist of a shounen manga would receive, and a person like Eric would utilise it as a final trump card or in circumstances in which he needs to quickly eliminate his opponents.
Even though Eric wondered if he could keep it activated forever, he feels it would be more efficient if he channelled all of this power directly into muscle and maintained it activated all the time rather than tying it to an aura.
This way, it would be less flashy and more effective...
Eric didn't want other people to readily find out his skill set since he didn't want to be vulnerable to things like the prediction of his abilities if he wanted to live a low-key life in the mob.
How many of them were fools?
Caution!
Being cautious is the most important thing!
Eric sat on the ground for a quarter of an hour while he pondered ways in which the aesthetic of Touki could be enhanced.
Although the sweat on his body began to dry over time, he never lost his pale complexion. People who didn't know would think that he had done a great workout!
With some trial and error, he concluded that this method was very suitable for him, but his use of Touki would still be noticeable.
because it is physically impossible for him to conceal anything that he is planning to release.
The best thing for him to do would be to condense himself to a tiny size and then use it at the point of impact, just like Tsunade does with her super strength technique.
But in contrast to Tsunade, he would never let this extremely compressed Touki stop moving through his body's systems, including his organs, muscles, and even bones.
Eric possesses a practically infinite quantity of life force thanks to his [Absolute Life Force], which means that the benefits and drawbacks of performing this are almost nonexistent for him.
For one, unlike mana, life force is difficult to detect, so he can get away with fooling everyone. For another, even if they did notice it, it would be like a thin thread running through Eric's body, just like ordinary humans.
There is no danger unless someone succeeds in sensing Eric's life force density, which is impossible without extensive research on Eric, which is highly unlikely.
Now comes the [Gradation Air],
As long as he is able to picture something vividly and has enough mana to practically build anything, [Gradation Air] can be a very diverse ability for him to use.
The idea behind this is rather straightforward: the user can mould mana into the material composition and design of an object that they are imagining in their head, and this can be done. To project the world within to the outside world, a precise understanding of both yourself and others is required. One could define it as a spell that rouses imagery within the user's heart as pseudo-matter.
Eric successfully projected the identical machete and was successful in doing so; the quality wasn't reduced since Eric had a very complete understanding of the composition of the blade and its factors, which is why he was successful in constructing a perfect replica of the original.
This magical conduct can last indefinitely as material until the user dismisses it because there is no world will or other bullsh*t that would make the magical construct fade away due to being recognised as an inconsistency in the natural order.
"Though I still could not replicate the history of the projected objects, well, it's still better than nothing," Eric remarked.
After reaching a number of implementations, Eric chose to call it a day because it was already evening and he was very content with the progress he had made up to that point in time.
He decided to go out to dinner because it was already evening.
This poor, unsuspecting mob never knew that this would be one of the worst decisions ever made in the human history of the century.
A/N: Due of final exams, I was unable to push out chapters; the update frequency will be more consistent in the next four days. Aside from that, you can already tell that the MC will meet one of the main characters in the next chapter, and the plot will pick up a notch.
