Dry Plains - Arrogance

Invon City.

Inside a bustling building with the words, 'Greasy Oyster Pub', above its door, drunk mercenaries downed ale as if it was their last day alive, singing and dancing to a bard's enticing song.

At the bar sat Reinhardt and the rest of the Jacks along with the Crimson Talon, all laughing, chatting and enjoying their drinks, "That's a nice hammer you got there Rein, doubt you could afford something so nice, so come on, tell where you stole it from."

Armen with rosy cheeks jokingly asked Reinhardt, however Simon asked before he could reply, "Please don't ask, he hasn't stopped boasting about it, he even sleeps with it beside him, he's practically married to that hammer."

With his chest puffed out, Reinhardt spoke, "Hmph, you're just jealous I've got such a beautiful hammer and all you've got is a tiny little dagger. Oh, and I did steal it, from a Warrior Moss Trogg."

At the same time, a handsome, slightly muscular teen dressed in elegant clothes, that clearly cost a pretty penny, followed by two 2 muscular men, entered. Seeing everyone was silent at his arrival, he raised his head in arrogance as he walked in, "You can continue.", with a flick of his wrist he allowed everyone to continue enjoying themselves.

However when he did, everyone looked at him as if he was an idiot, it was also at that point that he realised they were not initially looking at him but someone else, something with a beautiful hammer.

A hammer that was fit for someone like him, as soon as his eyes landed on that elegant weapon, he forgot that everyone was staring at him and walked over.

"Ahem. Mercenary, I'll give you 100 silver for that hammer."

Reinhardt, who had just revealed his proudest achievement, heard a condescending tone behind him. Turning around he saw a small teen wearing rich-kid clothes with a face that just screamed arrogance.

"What did you say?"

The deep gruff voice along with the mansstature, caused the arrogant teen to take a step back, apprehension written on his face, but when he remembered his position as well as the 2 bodyguards behind him, he regained his confidence.

"What? Are you a deaf mercenary, I will give you 100 silver and you give me that hammer."

Reinhardt didn't even entertain him as he turned around to continue his boasting.

However this truly annoyed the teen, reaching forward he grabbed Reinhardt's shoulder, "Do you know who I am mercenary, I'm Ethan Invon, do you hear that, Invon!"

Although Reinhardt was not an unreasonable person, he wasn't someone you want to anger, and the others knew that.

"Piss off."

Swinging his arm back, it collided with Ethan and launched him into his bodyguards.

"Agh. You bastard! How dare you! Kill this bastard and take his hammer!"

The 2 bodyguards behind him moved forward, their bodies crackling with strength, however Reinhardt wasn't intimidated in the slightest, rather he was more annoyed, he just wanted to enjoy some drinks and now he was being threatened.

The rest of the Jacks also stepped forward, along with Armen, "What do you think you're doing?".

**********

The Dry Plains.

'{Quick Slice}'

An ebony sword with a green hue sliced through a Crystal Lizard's neck, ending its life, "How is it still getting hotter?"

Osirus and the Golems had been walking for over 2 hours, fighting lizards non stop, inside his armour he was dripping with sweat, his undergarments were completely soaked through, however this only made him more intrigued, with his curiosity getting the better of him as he continued forward, trying to figure out why it was getting hotter.

After walking another 30 minutes and fighting 2 more Crystal Lizards, which he realised were getting stronger, larger and tougher, the temperature was truly too much, as his armour was black it was much better at absorbing heat, making it so that he could literally cook an egg on it.

However he also realised that this was slowly tempering his body, looking at his {Status}, he focused on {Body Cultivation} which had slightly changed, {Body Cultivation:Lv.5(0~3/50SP)}.

Although it wasn't much, it was still progress, he decided not to go any deeper, but instead stay at his current depth and search for lizards to fight, which would give him SP as well as temper his body, furthermore, as the lizards were getting stronger the deeper he went, it balanced out the SP decline from killing many of them.

3 hours later.

Night had begun to fall so Osirus felt it was best to head back as although he could still fight the lizards using his improved senses, it still wasn't worth the risk, plus he was starting to get exhausted as even now, the heat has not decreased with night.

Returning back to his campsite, he cooked some of the Crystal Lizard meat, looking at the perfectly roasted meat that was dripping with succulent juices, his mouth couldn't help but water as he took a bite.

"Mmm."

It was truly delicious, and that wasn't all, along with the flavour, he also felt Mana come from the meat and circulate around his body before being absorbed into his cells, slightly strengthening them.

With the added bonus of increasing his strength, he began ravenously eating them, since he had been hunting for quite a while, he ended up killing over 15 of them, which would be more than enough, even for his appetite which had increased dramatically after embarking on {Body Cultivation}.

It wasn't until after 2 hours and 3, 1.5m Crystal Lizards had been completely eaten, that he finally stopped, content with his dinner. Patting his bulging belly, he couldn't even be bothered to move to his tent as he got Atlas to walk over and sit next to him, at which point Osirus used him as a bean bag.

His body slightly sunk into the soft pillow-like body of Atlas, and it wasn't long before he fell into a pleasant sleep as his stomach tried its best to digest all the food while his cells were stuffed with Mana.

With a stretch under the warm sun, Osirus woke up more refreshed than he had ever before, Atlas's soft body turned out to be the perfect cushion.

However there was another reason he was so refreshed, his body felt faster, stronger and tougher than the day before, checking his {Status} he was surprised to see quite a large change, {Body Cultivation:Lv.5(3~37/50SP)}, his {Body Cultivation had increased by 34SP just from eating those lizards.

This was probably why there were so many more Body Refiners than Mana Gatherers since the body naturally strengthened itself with Mana.

Seeing as he was only 13SP away from reaching Lv.6 the same as Reinhardt, he decided he might as well level it up.

Immediately he felt Mana flow into his body, and circulate through it while being slowly absorbed by his cells, soon he felt all his physical parameters increase by a large amount, this also included his endurance which meant he would be more resistant to the heat.

He hadn't tested out his strength in a while so he decided he might as well do it now so that he could get a grasp of the increase.

He started by testing his strength, he had Atlas stand in front of him as it wouldn't get any stronger as his {Body Cultivation} increased, only when {Mana Cultivation} did.

Getting into a fighting stance, he unleashed a powerful punch, "Boom!", a slight shockwave was sent out as Atlas slid back a metre or so, its stomach had caved in considerably, but it didn't take long before it naturally went back to normal.

After seeing his punching strength had increased, he decided to test his pure strength, walking over to an actual boulder that had a diameter of about 120cm, crouching down, he hugged the massive boulder, before lifting with everything he had.

With a slight groan it broke from the earth, slowly rising as veins appeared on Osirus's beet red face, it wasn't long before its 350kg weight reached his waist.

"Boom!"

The ground rumbled as it was dropped to the floor, "Huff. Huff. Huff.", Osirus took in deep breaths that truly took everything he had, but he still had a massive smile on his face as he realised just how much stronger he had gotten in the last week.

After resting for a few minutes, he was back at full energy as he decided to test out his speed, with his average stride being about 70 cm, he found a relatively empty area and walked about 140 strides, which equated to roughly 100m.

He then had Atlas stand at the far end while he stood at the other, and then instructed Atlas to start counting with his fingers when he said go and to stop when he passed it, after making sure the Golem understood, he prepared to sprint at this full speed.

Lowering his body, he got into a running position, 'Go!', at the same time he instructed Atlas to start counting, he shot off, the ground behind him slightly sinking in as he shot off.

"Whoosh."

In a matter of moments he passed Atlas and an abrupt stop that caused him to carry on sliding along the soft ground.

Walking back to Atlas, he looked at the amount of fingers that were held up, '1, 2, and a bit.', it took him just over 2 seconds to run 100m, which put his average speed at about 40m/s or 90mph.