Surging Strength.
As he watched the message pop up on the transparent screen, Arthur gradually got even happier. With a good movement art, a pill to enhance his cultivation even further and some spirit crystals, he was set for the near future. Spirit crystals were a kind of currency used by cultivators, and they were worth a lot of money. Since he got 10 of them, he could sell one when he gets to the nearest city, and keep the rest for later.
Without further ado, he opened up his inventory and learned both the phantom wind movement art as well as thunderfire sword art. Since they were both level 0, he decided to train the phantom wind movement art first. Although he could be considered a cultivator, he had no idea what kind of beasts were lurking in this forest, and even the weakest of demonic beasts would have no problem with instantly taking out a 1st stage body-refining cultivator.
Since he wouldn't be able to fight any demonic beast either way, he would rather learn the movement art first, just in case he needed to run for his life. He soon got into an odd stance, before he burst forward. He wasn't really used to his strength yet, so it looked a little awkward at first, but the more he practised the faster he got.
Soon, his speed had more than doubled compared to before, which was a nice improvement. His figure had even started to look a little blurry when he reached top speed since that was half the point of the movement art after all. With his movement art reaching the first level, he took out his blue jade sword from his inventory. After taking the sword out of the sheath, the beautiful sword seemed to shine with a strange blue lustre underneath the faint sunlight.
Once again, he got into another stance, before he started slashing out with his sword. He lunged, slashed, and pierced forward with his sword according to the different basic moves of the thunderfire sword art. After practising for almost half an hour, he had reached the first level of the thunderfire sword art as well, and he finally had an offensive martial art to rely on. Since he was only in the body-refining realm, he couldn't project any qi into the air or outside of his body, which severely hampered the effectiveness in combat. But as soon as he broke into the next realm, the qi-refining realm, he would become a completely different monster in combat.
The sun that was once in the sky had started going down, and Arthur really wanted to get a move on, but he still had one more thing to do before he left this place. Although he felt like it might be a bit risky, Arthur still sat down cross-legged on the ground again and took out the green cloud pill from his inventory. The qi in his surroundings immediately grew restless when he took it out, and even just a whiff of the medical fragrance of the pill sent shivers down Arthur's spine.
Medical pills, just like martial arts, had different tiers to indicate their potency, as well as their price. These tiers went from tier 1 all the way to tier 9, and the higher the tier, the more expensive they were. The green cloud pill that Arthur currently had was a tier 2 pill, and even though it could fetch a high price if he were to sell it, Arthur would much rather consume it right away. His most immediate concern was getting enough strength to protect himself. If he couldn't even do that, then he wouldn't even get an opportunity to sell it anyway.
With a clear mindset, Arthur swallowed the pill whole and then waited for a few minutes. Soon, he could feel an immense heat in his stomach, practically burning him from the inside out. Without further ado, he circulated the qi in his body with the help of the purple thunder manual, and immediately suppressed it. With the immense qi under control, Arthur slowly started to use it to refine his body.
The process was fairly painful and arduous, but after around 20 minutes of refining, he could feel himself breaking through to the second stage of body-refining, but he wasn't done yet. He still had a majority of the green cloud qi left, which meant that he could keep refining his body. After another hour, Arthur was covered in sweat, and his brows were furrowed in pain, but he was almost there. He just needed a little push before breaking through once more. With a fierce shout, he could feel himself breaking through again to the third stage of body-refining!
After taking a deep breath, Arthur quickly stood up. Feeling the immense strength inside of his body, he was pleased with himself. Because of the loud shout, he had decided to move from this spot, before any demonic beasts came, he wasn't confident in fighting one yet unless it was the weakest kind. The only problem was, he had no idea where to go!
He was evidently in a forest somewhere, but he had no idea which direction to go in if he wanted to reach the closest city. Since that was the case, he just picked a random direction and started walking. The scenery inside the forest was beautiful, and Arthur just walked leisurely and admired his surroundings. It wasn't often you could find something that was untouched by humans to this degree, and it had a certain primal beauty to it, something Arthur really admired.
His peaceful stroll was eventually interrupted though as he could hear talking up ahead. To be frank, he was a little nervous, since this was his first encounter with the people of this world. What if he couldn't even understand their language? That would be pretty harrowing. As long as they weren't hostile, he could deal with it. With determination, Arthur started walking towards the sounds of humans talking.
He couldn't make out what they were saying at all, but he felt like the words were familiar somehow. This gave him a little confidence boost, as it made him feel like he would probably understand their language. He soon came upon a clearing, where 3 men were sitting around and chatting.
As soon as they heard him approaching, they all turned to look at him, hands on their weapons. Seeing a human, especially a young man, they calmed down a little, but they were still wary.
"Hello, my name's Arthur, I was wondering if I could just ask you guys a question real quick?"
He tried to sound as polite and friendly as possible, but they still had their guards up.
"Go for it kid."
One of the men, presumably their leader, answered in a deep voice.
"To be honest, I'm kind of lost, and I wondered if you could just point me in the direction of the closest city."
As he talked, Arthur scratched the back of his head, appearing rather awkward and embarrassed. The 3 men, who had been on guard thinking about what kind of question Arthur would ask were baffled, he was just lost...
After they looked at each other for a second, they all broke into laughter.