Chapter 35: Duel with Max

I was surprised by the words I just said. I got too excited, and now I have to face Max in a duel. Max looked at me in bewilderment and told me in a confused way, “Okay, but if I win, you have to cook me something tastier than that Lechon!” I’m honestly a little bit excited to fight since I blasted through all those ranks, and I was getting bored of the constant cultivation of mana and meditation. I prepared by holding onto a spear augmented with spear intent. While spear intent can be charged like an energy blast, but another use of it is to sharpen a weapon to the max. Weapon intents are just a manifestation of the mastery of weapons. Before starting, I saw Max’s aura growing weaker until I can analyze him with my eyes of wisdom. He shouted, “Ready?!” and charged towards me. With a spear in hand, I bent my knees down and charged at him using the staff of the spear. The spear hit the ground, and I jumped over Max to cut him down with my downwards thrust. With the gravity helping me to increase altitude, the spear intent wielded to the maximum. He laughed and said, “Gotcha!” Then, his body manifested the properties of the earth element and I hit him squarely in the body. There was a ringing sound when our clash finished. I tried to jump back, but my limbs are numb. Max then said, “This is enough already.” I shook my head in disagreement and continued to charge at him again.

The numbness in my limbs was gone quickly, and before he could counterattack my charges, I was already right in front of him that caught him by surprise. He pecked at me lightly, but this little peck sent me flying and hitting the wall of the gazebo that caused me to throw up a mouthful of blood. "GODDAMN, THAT HURTS!" With our little exchanges, I looked at the book on Max compiled by the Library. Upon looking at it, I saw that he was at the peak of being a Rank-9 Mortal rank and is currently being held back by the contract of equals we signed together. I feel bad that I am holding Max back. Max was so delighted to see that I seemed to have lost my will to fight and said, "I wonder what I’ll get to eat later. Hmmm. Goat meat, perhaps? Maybe pork again! Or maybe some corn!” I feel sad that with all that powering-up, I am still not strong enough. I cannot believe that I lost to a creature less than a month old. Getting up weakly, I said with a tone of reluctance, “Alright, alright, I lost. I’ll show you a new technique.”

I then showed Max a new way to manipulate his mana. If he rotates the mana inside his meridians to both the fire and the ice properties at the same time, he could turn it into water. He tried it out, and it was harder than he thought. With the help of the Library, I was able to point out the mistakes in his understanding of the technique. It wasn’t really that hard, he just has to slow the rotational flow in one of his meridians so that a second one can easily come and go at it. When the first rotation of his newly acquired water mana was done, Max also gained the ability to have two different mana present in his body. While the theory behind it is easy, without the Library’s guidance, it was practically impossible to do. The direction just says, "Let your blood flow while keeping your heart pumping," which is pretty vague and impossible for most people to do. Now that he has acquired a new technique, Max forced me to go out of the mansion and make him something to eat.

When we stepped out of the mansion, I saw Topher outside looking like a suspicious person with a cap and sunglasses, wearing a medieval commoner’s clothes. Both our eyes met, and we just stared at each other for a moment. I acted like I was about to scream out, "Police!" and he hurriedly ran to cover my mouth. Topher then whispered to me that Stephanie went out again, and he was just nervous about what could happen since the last time she left home, she was kidnapped. I just shrugged him off and decided to go on my way since it isn’t really my business. Then, I remembered that I don't have any money with me, so I raised out my hand and told him that I needed more cash since I used the last they gave me when I bought that pig to roast during the party. Topher didn’t care much and shoved me around a 100,000 worth of paper bills then shooed me away. It seems like my friends are loaded; just last time, they gave me 10,000 worth of money that they fished out of their pockets. The economy here in this kingdom, is still based on paper money because there are not many mana stones in circulation. For a set amount of money, people could get mana rocks from the Living Stone. Mana rocks are the byproduct of the Living Stone that is only useful for people of the 1st and 2nd rank.

While walking, I bet I could form more Heavenly Profession manuals based on the books I have read. I have read a few novels on crafting specifically, sculpting. One book is about rock sculpting with the use only of the straight chisel and another book is about a sculptor who can sculpt the moonlight. When I compiled a book on those two novels, I found some flaws. I immediately thought of the idea that painters and sculptors are like rivals because they create entirely different artworks: two-dimensional and three-dimensional. Together with my first book, "Heavenly Guide to Painting," I was able to compile a book entitled, “Heavenly Guide to Sculpting,” which is a book on becoming a sculptor. Along the two book that I compiled, I also got another book entitled, “Heavenly Guide to Artistry.” When I opened this book, I couldn’t understand a thing. It seems that I need to collect more art-related professions to finish this book.

I turned to Max and instructed him to give me a handful of rocks that I could use to try sculpting. With my left index finger coated with spear intent, I started sculpting little figures here and there. First, I tried sculpting things I saw along the way like the trees, houses, the road. After some time, I felt my confidence to sculpt, building up inside me. The perfect piece of rock to sculpt can be found right on the edge of town near where the farms are. Just by staring at it, I developed a sudden urge to sculpt something.