Chapter 12— Battle of the Small

This is a explanatory chapter; mostly composed of naration. In short, a boring one.

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Valor heaved a deep breath before he exhaled slowly, instead of air, he produced steam, Coming out of the small gap of his lips he made. Whistling like a boiling pot, and after all the steam left his lungs, he pronounced, "Thirty."

What he is doing may be seen as a simple gag children does, mixed with tricks and physics. But this breathing of his great grandfather is no trance, It trains the lungs to function more efficiently by expanding the air he breathes in. They heat up in his nostrils and gush to his lungs, They quicken the circulation of his blood by pushing the oxygen faster in the veins, Then the exhaust steam is the unnecessary element his body has.

But of course, with this technique, He needs to be precise and very careful, or else his lungs and veins might pop under the pressure. Now he just needs this lungs and veins of his to get used to it, before he can start working on the exercises— One of the most important factors for the path takers, they tend the muscles, making them strong and flexible— granting more control to the body.

With this, He'll practice the steam-foundation circulation—with the spell, steam rush, as his base; along with the breathing and exercises. He heaved a deep breath again, enduring the acute pain all over the body, Like hundreds of needles puncturing him in and out. But he can say with the pain, this breathing of his allows his brain to function faster— it allows him to focus more. Making the breathing a little easier to do.

He then exhaled with steam, it rushed out with a silent whistle. Valor who is now sweating heavily heaved another one again, he felt the feeling of having hot air in his lungs, they rushed his blood circulation and mana circulation, "Thirty-two." He said before sighing in relief, he breathed normally and the cold air pleasured his throat and lungs. "Haaaa... This breathing is much harder than I thought." He said and looked at the book again, "Steam breathing— By Gilbert lustrave.

"With every breath of this exercise, it adds up 1 point to Str, Dex, Prc, Agil, Sp. So the time you reach the thirty-second breath, You will have thirty-two points added to your stats..." Valor reading the description couldn't help but raise his brows in amazement, He then commented, "Wow, The breathings found in the library isn't as powerful this, Those of the best in their disposal only give ten or fifteen. This has double! Great-grandpa did me a real favor." Valor then continued reading

"You can keep on breathing this to continue having the effect, but don't overdo it when your body cannot take it any longer, Your body will explode. Unless you can endure or the situation needs it... Yes, as disappointing it is, You can only have thirty points of buff. You won't expect more of the breathing for the path one." But Valor wasn't disappointed, Because a strain five breathing technique that can give him 32 Stat points is already a good foundation. His body can adapt and fight those at the higher level.

"But you can heighten the buff with the basic moves of the exercise."

The steam set of his great-grandpa works very simple, in order to use steam breath, he must have already circulated the steam foundation first. These two are called steam foundations when they are being used. With the steam-rush spell as his base, he can now stand toe to toe with the minotaur.

Valor nodded before taking another book off the shelf, It is titled, "Steam exercise— By Gilbert lustrave." It has the size of a regular book but is thin with few pages. He started reading the intro

"Along with the steam circulation, steam rush base body, plus the breathing, You can now practice the exercises of the Steam body. These will be the sets of moves that use the steam body at its fullest potential. But be careful, steam is a powerful element, A single accident can mean the end of your life."

"The Steamexercisee has thirty-two moves, It corresponds to the thirty-two breath of the breathing. The higher you get, the more powerful the move gets." He then read the book, remembering every pose and thinking about how to apply them in a practical situation.

"The time you reach thirty-second move, no additional power will be added. Instead, You can use the other moves with the power of the thirty-second move. Like the breathing."

With this knowledges, he can now start his adventure. By applying to a military school and start as a newbie, he will get missions like killing orcs or gathering herbs whole he studies with the professionals' guides. With that, He can use the military transportation and go to many hunting grounds and even have entry to siege fortresses.

But he won't yet, he'll stay here until the missions of this golden system are already finished. He can't just leave knowing something will happen.

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Valor sighed after three hours of reading, he stretched his back with pops and satisfying cracks. Excited to execute the moves but he remembered that it is already lunchtime, So he placed down the jellyfish on the table, and stood up to get ready. The Vital energy he got should be enough for three hours. He can charge again by then.

He Placed back the books on the shelf before removing his armor— unbuckled the belts inside, and loosened their ties. Three minutes later and he is left with his black pants and white long sleeve with loose ends. He took them off and went to his closet, There he saw his clothes, almost all are normal designed— He prefers plain than extravagant.

He looked at them contemplating, thinking what to wear, but with him thinking that. He pondered if he must take a bath first, But he decided to do that later. He then took on another white long sleeve and brown pants, Fixed his hair, and sprayed mild cologne.

But while preparing, He heard a screech behind him. So he quickly looked back and saw a mouse, it is quite big but Valor doesn't care otherwise. Some people might now hunt it through disgust, but he believes that monsters that harms are the only ones that should be killed. Not those that also try to survive.

He shrugged and went out to the hallway, He walked normally this time. No wiggling feet nor sucking energy, Just him in his usual vibe. He walked silently while thinking about things, mostly the circulation.

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Back to his room, With books neatly placed and bed sheathed finely. everything was quiet until a squeak resounded, Again the mouse roamed the floor. It went in the cover of the bed, sniffed the mary can before loosing interest to it. It walked out the shadows but didn't advanced yet, It stopped between the borders of light and shadow, sniffing with its hoping nose.

It tried to find something with the smell, one minute later and it found it. Its sight focused above oaken table, There lie the glowing tubes— red and blue, the jellyfish floated dormant.

The black eyes of this small rat just looked at it for a sec, before it took a step with the right front foot. With this step, the rat's hair stood up 90 degrees. Its innocent look before Vanished, The eyes reddened, while its teeth grew sharp. With the second step, Its hair stiffened, they became hard and sharp thorns on the body. The third step made its limbs extend with semi-metal claws, it's also the step that carved dent on the wooden ground. The fourth step made its bones cracked, requiring it to stand there for a while—it's changing the composition inside— its muscles deformed and its insides pumped everywhere, this were all seen outside its skin, the muscles moved impossibly, four seconds of inside palpitation and it started moving again. Its body rose and stood up with two feet. The fifth step is the rat still building its body, The tail waved before it broke into a hundred strand of hair limbs, Before they again merged into one thick tail.

Its hand closed into a fist before it opened again, still getting used to the body.

With its rat's face, it smiled when it looked again at the bottles of the jellyfishes. It stood there with an evil gaze before it took the sixth step. Then the seventh. Eight. Ninth. Ten. And it jumped to the air, landing two feet above the ground, its claws nailed on the table's left front leg.

it climbed fast before it reached the apex of the table, so it jumped at the last grab and landed on the oak plateau, it walked silently while hair limbs extended out its right arm. It then passed many materials for learning purposes, before Three seconds later and it arrived in front of the glass, Squeaked silently with a manic expression. Mesmerized by their looks before it tries to make the dormant beings obey.

It extended its left arm and knocked on the glass, then squeaked silently to the red jellyfish. Like it wants to communicate with the dormant being, But the jellyfish didn't even move and just floated peacefully. So the rat shrugged and commenced its plans.

Its hair-like limbs extended to the bottom of the bottle, and the airholes of the tube is where they went. They went in before slithering inside the life support system, A while later and they went out to the water inside and swam in the solution.

It quickly reached the tentacles and was expecting happily, Like what it saw when Valor did it— it freely gave Vital energy. But to its unforeseen reaction, The jellyfish electrocuted it and made the hair limbs back down. The rat looked at the jellyfish surprised before it became angry, It screeched with teeth exposed before its saliva sprayed— they dropped on the glass surface of the vile. But the jellyfish doesn't have ears nor eyes, they don't know that a creep watches them, But they know it when they're in danger.

The rat then started banging the glass of the red jellyfish, using its semi-metal knuckles, Forming cracks with every smash. Its teeth gritting in anger, and wrath also fueled its maddened attack, But the jellyfish remained unbothered— Quiet and peaceful. Like a man staying still while his woman bombards him with words.

Ten smash later and the solution leaked, the crack largens before fully collapsing at the eleventh strike. It readied its hand to puncture the body of this jellyfish, But the time the barrier of glass broke. The dormant being went crazy, It jumped to the rat's head and strangled it with its tentacles, also rushing it with an electric shock.

The rat of course tried to remove it, but like the saying, it tasted its own medicine. The jellyfish remained unbothered and kept on electrocuting the rat. Soon the muscles collapsed, and the limbs palpitated on the oaken floor.

The rat's body must have been rendered immobilized, But the parasite inside can still fight even with its host paralyzed. Its hair-like limbs all went out the rat's head and punctured the jellyfish through its head. The jellyfish's electrifying ability may kill the cells of these hair-like limbs, but the parasite has almost infinite at its disposal—So the jellyfish has the disadvantage, and also predictable to lose.

The dormant beings may be labeled immortal but it doesn't mean it's not a living made of flesh, The limbs weakened with every trust and slash— Giving the rat the chance to break free. It grabbed the jellyfish when the paralyzing effect paused, Before it smashed the jellyfish on the oaken floor, the jellyfish rolled with the throw, with clumsy plops in every turn. The parasite regaining its control over the body shook the head of the rat in headache. It then looked at the almost immobile jellyfish, a smirk formed on its horrendous face. It formed a fist to its right hand, and many hair limbs went out that hand. They wiggled first before it merged and circled into a thorn, hard and stiff. It squeaked lightly, laughing evilly before it jumped above the jelly fish with a punching pose.

A silent splurt was heard inside Valor's room, before it went quiet again.