Further Cultivation and Discovering a New 'Hobby'

Letting out a pained sigh, I clutched at my chest where the golden eagles claws had practically crushed and cut me into mush at the same time.

The pain never got better. I don't think it will either.

That place has zero plot armor, huh? Even when I think I'm making decent progress, all I can do is guerilla warfare some rabbits before getting killed by a boss creature or whatever you'd like to call it.

But I pushed through the pain as I summoned in the biggest rewards I'd gained this time in the hunting dimension. Three medium-sized orbs and a purple orb around the same size, if not slightly bigger. Despite bringing them out, I only looked at them. Why? Because these orbs are valuable to me right now. They're what I'm gonna have to use when I get into refining my bone marrow.

For now, however, I can just use the small red orbs to get by.

The purple orb is a bit different. I need to use it so I can perfect my use of my power but at the same time, I can't exactly practice my martial arts in the apartment because I'd either attract too much attention from my family or I'd do that AND I'd also end up destroying my room.

It may not seem like it because I get bodied in the Hunting Dimension but I'm superhuman at the moment. Technique and actual fighting skills aside, I'd easily out-strength Captain America, Black Panther, and The Winter Soldier. Could probably do it at the same time, honestly.*

(*A/N - This isn't an exaggeration on Marc's end. He could already lift more than Captain America, and now he's double, maybe even triple that currently. So he could indeed overpower those three.)

De-summoning the orbs, I closed my eyes and got to cultivating again. I was at 40% Muscle Refinement and each orb gave 10% toward it's completion. Each orb took an hour to fully 'ingest' so I should be done by 6 in the morning. Then I have another 2 hours to do whatever I want so I can spend that refining my tendons a little...Right, let's get on with it then.

Willing the first orb of the night to turn into energy, I felt my muscles and blood get blasted by the energy, impurities slowly being removed and forced out of my skin.

. . .

The next time I opened my eyes, I looked to the side and saw that it was 8:23AM. Huh. Seems I went a bit over the time needed.

Not that it mattered. After accepting Charles' offer, I didn't need to go to school for the next 2 days.

I could basically ignore the horrible smell coming from my body at the minute, the impurities having come out of my body everytime I cultivated and after a while, you learn to ignore it. Or at least, that's how it is for me. What I'm doing is blocking my sense of smell from picking it up.

I stood up, the sludge on me sliding yet miraculously staying on my body.

I walked over to the window of my room and opened it fully before turning to my door and walking to it. Opening it up just a little, I checked the hallway for my mom and found it clear, so I dashed to the bathroom. Not before closing my door, to make sure she didn't see the horrible impurity-covered towel that I was going to have to throw out later today.

You might be asking, why don't I just cultivate in the shower? Sadly, while that is a good idea for the most part, people do need to use the bathroom during the night and every morning my dad has a shower between the time of 5 and 6, meaning he'd no doubt be banging on the door telling me to hurry up. I don't know what'd happen if my cultivation was interrupted either and I'd rather not find out.

The problem extends to my entire family, honestly. What if my sister or mom needed the toilet in the middle of the night? I'd have to shower and then tell them why I was having a shower in the early hours of the morning.

It'd be a good idea if we had two bathrooms or I lived on my own.

Getting into the bathroom, I closed and locked the door before quickly turning the shower on and throwing myself under the cleansing spray of water.

Letting out a groan of relief, I began to scrub at the yellow-ish fat and the black impurities that began coming out again after I started refining my tendons. It didn't take long, however, because it was surprisingly still a sludge-like liquid which meant it hadn't dried and stuck itself to my skin. That'd be horrible to clean.

Once down, I looked over my body and marveled at how refining my muscles 100% had changed them. They'd become much more streamlined and lost some of the unnecessary bulk they had. But I wasn't like those skinny and slender pretty boys from most Xianxia novels. Neither was I like the characters from Fist of the North Star and full of bulk and muscle mass.

After the refinement, I was the perfect balance.

Picking up a bottle of shampoo, I poured a dollop of it onto my hand before beginning to wash my hair of the the impurities that had somehow got in it.

Again, this didn't take long and before I knew it, I was finished.

While getting out of the shower, I looked at the number inside my head concerning the tendon refinement.

[Tendon Refinement: 15% (Incomplete)]

Nodding to myself to keep up my cultivation, I smiled as I felt the barbaric power flowing through my muscles. Looking down at my hand, I clenched my fist and audible crackles filled the air, the air being pushed from my fist so quickly it created mini-shockwaves. Seeing this I genuinely had to wonder just how strong I was?

A question for later, honestly. I had no way to check and there's no way a normal lifting bar would be able to withstand the weight I needed to see I could lift.

Lifting a car would be too noticeable as well. I'll have to check with the professor or Hank when I go to the X-Mansion or whatever it's called in this timeline.

Wrapping a towel around my waist, I went into the hall before making my way back to my room.

Upon entering it, I quickly dried my body before dropping the towel and walking to the towel I'd been sitting on earlier. Frowning in disgust at it, I wrapped it up into a ball before putting it in a bag - I'd burn it sometime later.

Getting some boxers on, I sat on my bed and looked down at my hand. Activating the Chi given to me by perfectly refining both my skin and my muscles, I watched as an aura of pure white with flecks of gold floating around it. Instantly, I felt my defense and overall power explode forward. My already inhuman body feeling outright obscene.

Better yet, I knew this was no where near the top of what I could become. I was filled with excitement at what was to come. So much so, in fact, that I nearly sat back down to cultivate some more but I had things to do, so I stopped myself and just put on some joggers and a hoodie.

Slipping on some trainers, I picked up the bag with the towel inside it and I walked out of my room, down the hallway, and after telling my mom I was going out on a jog, I opened the door and dashed off.

I kept my speed low but even then I was running fast enough to qualify for the Olympics.

Frowning, I realized that I needed to get some proper control on my new body and it's new strength. Guess what I was doing was the right thing then.

I was making my way to that abandoned gym but it wasn't to work out. No, I had that purple orb to take and I wanted to bring my use of my body's power up to a level where I could be confident that I wasn't wasting any of my energy when I attacked. It'd also help increase the efficiency of my hunting in the Hunting Dimension.

Exiting the apartment building, I continued my run but at a much slower pace. I continued on the usual route and when I went through the usual alleyway, I saw those three people from two days before.

Seeing them, I actually stopped and smiled quite widely. Why?

Because I bet they have quite a bit of money on them, right? I need money to take advantage of my future knowledge. Pulling my hood up, I decided that this would be a good time to test out how fast I actually am. As long as I'm careful, I should be able to keep my face hidden, and if not? I'll just get Emma to clear that part from their minds.

...What? I don't care if it's unethical. My family's wellbeing takes precedence over something like that.

Ignoring such thoughts like that, because I wouldn't mess up and show my face, I took the same approach as I had with the rabbits in the dimension last night, and I silently charged at the three of them.

The first guy didn't even know what hit him. Same with the second and third.

Quickly looting them of all their money, I quickly sprinted off again, not before stealing one of their lighters, and made me way to the abandoned gym.

$103. A decent haul. But it could be better. Which is why...I think I have a new hobby to do when the sun goes down - beat up and steal from criminals, of course!