10 A Sudden Exhodus
Kai admired his status while paying additional attention to his Body grade and stats.
[Body Grade]: Mortal Grade 2
==[Stats]==
[External Strength]: 6+(0)
[External Defense]: 13+(4)
[Internal Strength]: 2+(0)
[Internal Defense]: 1+(0)
"It seems those long nights training with rocks have finally paid off, I have achieved a [Mortal Grade 2 Body]"
Kai had been diligently training the [10,000 year immortal Summit Law] and by the 7th day, his body had gone through a drastic evolution. His muscles were not large, however, they were a lot more compact and dense. He gained an additional 5 External strength from his original, measly 1. Kai could now exert explosive power using nothing but his physical strength.
Kai's External Defense stat had also increased by 10, meaning even the bites from the [Vicious Hare] would only leave shallow cuts and could now shrug off their violent kicks. The kicks still damaged him, however, there was no longer any risk of receiving broken bones.
Lastly, reaching Mortal Grade 2 had doubled his [Health] from 20 to 40 which was also a pleasant surprise to Kai. Kai had already deduced that Health similar to HP in games where reaching zero would mean death, but it also influenced basic things like his natural ability to recover from injuries as well as his body's natural resilience against diseases and poisons so the higher the number was, the better off he was.
"Sadly, it seems the limits mentioned by the system are extremely accurate. I've reached the Mortal Grade 2, so the effects of [10,000 year immortal Summit Law] can no longer improve my body".
Kai was at a loss for what to do. The manual had already reached its cap. He wondered if there was a way to upgrade manuals however he had yet to discover anything and the system did not answer his questions.
"Ok, let's forget about that for now. I will eventually get another Body Cultivation manual. Now that I've reached 100 Qi, I may as well start my breakthrough to the Second Level of Qi Condensation".
Kai had sacrificed a lot of potential manuals that he could have created in order to gain enough Qi to breakthrough so he was in a hurry to begin.
Kai willed his full [100 Qi] to begin the circulations necessary to attempt a breakthrough. The process itself was automatic so Kai only needed to watch the Qi. He watched in awe at the efficiency of it all.
Thanks to the manuals beaming themselves into his head, Kai's body already knew what to do so his mind just watched as the body circulated the Qi on its own. Kai's consciousness was actually separate from the activity going on in his body. Whenever he broke through, his body would be on autopilot where he was almost like an outside observer looking in.
The [100 Qi] within his body rumbled before it began flowing a stream of light throughout his body. The path was the same as when he broke through to the First Stage, however, the Qi was now a lot thicker. The Qi passed through his Qi channels expanding them to almost 3 times their original size thus allowing even more Qi to pass through them at one time. After only a few minutes, the Qi flowed back down to his stomach and settled there before it dispersed to every corner of his body.
=Congratulations, host has broken through to the Second Level of Qi Condensation=
He saw the message pop into his head.
Kai immediately felt the difference once his consciousness regained control. He felt that his Qi channels could now accommodate even more Qi, thus allowing him to exert even more power during his attacks.
"This is incredible, the difference between the first and second stages are like night and day. This feels like a three-fold increase in power!".
Kai was amazed. He knew that Internal Manuals could make him powerful, however, he didn't know it would be like this. If he punched the tree from before, he wouldn't just leave a fist-size hole in it, but probably rip a hole through the tree!.
Kai stood up and had a look at his Internal Cultivation status.
==[Status]>
==[Stats]==
[External Strength]: 6+(0)
[External Defense]: 13+(7)
[Internal Strength]: 4+(0)
[Internal Defense]: 2+(0)
==[Internal Cultivation Manuals]>
[Dragon Subduing Law] [F-Rank based on Grade 1 Fishing Rod]
[Limit]: Qi Condensation level 12
[Qi Gather rate]: 1 Qi / day
[Ability]: Absorb Qi from a beast you have caught yourself. Limited to 2 Qi per beast. Limits increased based on cultivation level.
[Current level]: Second Level of Qi Condensation
[Qi Breakthrough Requirement]: 300 Qi (Second Level of Qi Condensation)
Apart from his Qi pool which had increased by 100, nothing else had changed, however that alone was amazing. Kai now had double his original Qi pool so he would be able to fight for extended periods of time as long as his body could cope with the exertion.
He still had to be careful about how he used Qi during his fights as he had to end each fight with a net positive Qi gain or else his efforts would have been wasted. So decided to continue with his self-instilled cap of using 1 Qi against every beast he hunted unless he was forced into a corner.
"Why do my upgrade requirements need me to use Qi?. That's like forcing gamers to use their exp pools in as mana!". Kai silently complained to the system. He had to strike a delicate balance for how he hunted so he could also progress in his levels. He didn't have the luxury to use up all his Qi in one fight as that would mean a day's worth of active and passive cultivation lost.
Kai quickly moved away from this train of thought as it was making him resentful of the system.
He looked at his stats again and realized he had gained an additional 2 Internal strength and 1 Internal Defense. Kai was always happy to welcome an increase in stats. His internal attack power had essentially doubled and from what he felt within his body, the actual power he could exert was a lot more than double. This just reinforced his hypothesis that Internal cultivation should be the priority.
Kai wanted to test out his newfound powers as soon as possible, but he was still wary of the night so he went to bed early. he could no longer improve his body with his current body manual so he simply just went to sleep
The next morning, Kai immediately went out into the grass clearing looking for something to test his powers on. however, the area around the hut had already been exterminated of all bunny life by Kai. He picked the direction that leads away from the terrifying forest he had come from and chose to move that way.
The further he moved, the more anxious he had become. He had been walking for a while now and estimated that he must be further than 500 meters away from his hut. This was officially the furthest Kai had wandered away from the hut in the last week.
"Did all the bunnies run away from this place because of me?".
Kai had been committing bunnycide for the last week so he felt it was possible that they could have fled the area. Kai came to a stop when he reached 1Km away from the hut. He turned around and discovered that despite the land being rather flat, he could no longer see where his hut was. If he kept going, he risked getting lost.
Kai decided to double back the way he came and choose a different direction.
The day slowly passed and Kai was slowly starting to wonder what was going on. The whole day he had not run into even one rabbit. he went back to his hut in frustration. The directions Kai could go were rather limited. To his north was the forest he had come from. This was a place of nightmares for him as he pictured the pit of beasts he had woken up in. he would never go back there, not until he was fully confident in his powers.
When Kai thought about the single roar that made his body lose all strength, he shivered and doubled down on his decision to never go back to that place.
As for the east, across the river was a sheer mountain range stretching as high as the clouds. The eastern mountain range continued endlessly in both directions as if creating a natural wall between east and west. Climbing this monstrosity was also out of the question.
West was the vast clearing that Kai had been hunting in and south was the large river flowing down from the north towards the horizon It also seemed to go on endlessly.
"Everything in this world seems to be unnecessarily large, even the animals", Kai thought to himself. Not only were the trees, mountains, and fields impossible massive, but the bunnies and worms he had encountered were also massive.
Kai went back into the hut and lied down on the bed. He would have loved to just stay here and hunt rabbits until he became an immortal, or at the very least until he reached the level 12 Qi Condensation from [Dragon Subduing Law]. Afterward, he would go out into the world to look for items with large amounts of Qi that he could use to create manuals, however, now his plans had been crushed.
Kai looked at the hut he had called home for the last week and thought about the possibility of permanently leaving this place. He did not know what was out there, but at least here he was relatively safe. Nothing had tried to eat him in his sleep and he was able to get stronger.
Kai decided not to give up on his safe haven just yet. He took out his rucksack that he had prepared for an emergency. it was full of dried meat and berries, a few rabbit stomach water sacks filled with water, and a homemade sleeping bag made out of rabbit hides.
Kai stepped out of the hut with resolve in his eyes. He would explore as far as he could to see if there were any creatures he could fight. If he found nothing within 1 day's travel of the hut, he would abandon it...
Kai did not waste time once the decision was made. He already had everything he needed to he started walking along the river bank towards the south. He remained vigilant as he moved. The sun had yet to reach its highest point so Kai knew it was still before 12:00 in the afternoon so he still had a few more hours of sunlight.
After a few hours of fast-paced walking, Kai came across a waterfall towards the east that merged with the river. Where the two merged became a river almost two times the size of the one Kai had been following, and a lot more violent as well with sharp rocks pointing out along the way. To avoid making any mistakes, Kai moves slightly inland but the river within his view.
"If I had stayed on that driftwood back then, man I need to be more careful". Kai realized just how close he had been to a horrible death had he not swam out the river when he was close to the hut. Yet again, Kai felt grateful to the place for having saved his life in more ways than one.
Kai kept moving towards the south as the light began to fade away. During this time, Kai had not encountered any living creates, even the river seemed barren of fish, and he had yet to see any birds in this area. The only sounds were those of the wind and the raging water from the river. The whole situation was quite eerie
Kai was tense. "This is too creepy, it feels like a monster is going to pop up out of nowhere. I'd rather fight 100 bunnies at the same time than keep going through this torture". Just as he was thinking this, a violent and extremely loud booming sound came from the forest.
Kai was so surprised that he almost fell to the ground, however [Twig] kept him balanced and standing as he quickly turned his head north, only to see an enormous mushroom cloud of swirling colors slowly rise into the sky.
"W..what in the hell is going on..", Kai didn't stop to ponder on his own question as he took off running in the opposite direction.
