"Watch your mouth, kid. This is a mutually agreed-upon transaction. How can you call it degenerate?"
Li Ke stretched his back. Tangji hadn't actually used much force. Though it stung a bit, he considered it a win since she hadn't resorted to any truly brutal methods.
"But people who indulge in women improve their strength very slowly," Roche complained again.
"Your weapons might be powerful, Big Brother, but your physical stamina clearly can't keep up. Besides, learning magic is exhausting and drains your mental energy."
Despite her young age, she could see right through him. Li Ke didn't want to marry Tangji at all. Just like the residents of the Pandemonium, he simply desired Tangji's body.
The only difference was that back in Pandemonium, people traded for survival. Here in Arad, everything had a price in gold. In reality, it was just a different way of getting by.
"Well... people have their own ways of handling things," Li Ke replied.
He could tell that Tangji was a woman with many burdens. Moreover, she seemed to harbor a strange, inexplicable sense of gratitude toward him. He figured it might be because he treated her with genuine respect, though he couldn't be entirely sure.
After all, the idea of earning someone's trust so quickly felt a bit far-fetched.
To be fair, Tangji's presence was striking—not that the other women were lacking. Galina was also quite remarkable in her own right.
The problem was that Galina's specific abilities made her very difficult to approach.
"But ten gold coins can buy so many things! I might not understand these matters, but the amount of food you can buy with ten gold coins is huge. It feels like you are spending a lot just for a conversation," Roche said, tilting her head.
In Roche's eyes, the transaction didn't make much sense given how harsh life was in Pandemonium.
"There's no such thing as a bad deal when both sides are satisfied." Li Ke shook his head and shrugged. "All in all, I don't feel like I'm losing out."
Standing up, Li Ke stretched and glanced at the two corpses being dragged away by Tangji's underlings. He sighed. He had originally planned to use them to recoup some of his losses, but since Tangji's group had claimed them, he chose not to dwell on it.
"Let's go. Time for our lessons." Li Ke patted Roche's head and headed toward the inn.
Along the way, he followed Roche's advice and bought a few notebooks and textbooks. When they returned to the inn, Li Ke and Roche went to a quiet space to begin the teaching session.
Since Li Ke genuinely wanted to learn the language—and had a brooch he could use to assist him—his progress was remarkably fast. He mastered the basic language skills in no time.
Though, having someone from Pandemonium teach him the local language of Arad did feel quite unique.
After having dinner, Roche returned to the Mage's Guild headquarters for the night. Li Ke stayed behind, continuing to review everything he had learned that day.
However, staring at his severely depleted coin purse, Li Ke couldn't help but sigh.
"Money really goes fast when you're trying to settle in."
Flicking his coin purse, Li Ke resolved to head out first thing tomorrow morning to sell the iron ingots in his inventory. That was the only way to ensure he could keep supporting Roche's education and their daily needs.
While the food the kid ate wasn't expensive and she was easy to please, the sheer volume she consumed was staggering.
"Seriously, how can someone eat so much and still stay so small? That appetite is truly something else."
Shaking his head, Li Ke pushed those stray thoughts aside. But with his train of thought broken, he lost all interest in continuing to study the local script for the night.
He pulled up his 7 Days to Die system interface, stared at the skill book for the Blood-Qi Secret Technique, and after a brief moment of consideration, decided to use it directly.
While finding Kiri to teach him might have been a safer bet, he currently had no idea where she was. Plus, things between them were still a bit awkward. Naturally, direct learning through the system was his best option right now.
After all, the sooner he increased his strength, the better, right?
Li Ke lightly tapped the "Learn" button. The next instant, a familiar, agonizing pain violently surged through his brain and tore through his entire body. But unlike last time, he could feel something else accompanying the pain.
He felt the simulated memory of training his body countless times, pushing it to its absolute physical limits just to sense the blood-qi that those cursed with Kazan's syndrome could tap into with ease. Along with it came decades of experience in manipulating that energy.
How to control his own blood. How to manipulate the blood flowing from his enemies. How to make an opponent's wounds bleed even faster. How to accelerate his blood flow to boost his physical strength and reaction speeds. How to pump blood rapidly through his veins to instantly restore his stamina.
The exact skills and experience that the nameless swordsman had spent over a decade mastering flooded into Li Ke's mind all at once, fully integrated into his muscle memory!
At the same time, Li Ke could vividly hear the roaring rivers and rushing streams flowing through his own blood vessels, punctuated by the thunderous pounding of his heart!
He didn't know how much time had passed before he snapped his eyes open. Waves of intense dizziness struck his body one after another. Not only that, but he felt an unbearable, burning heat radiating from within. His blood was pumping at an dangerously accelerated rate. It wasn't until he recalled the newly acquired methods and slowly throttled his circulation that his body finally stabilized.
Even so, his head was still spinning terribly.
Yet, despite the pain, he couldn't help but complain out loud.
"No wonder Berserkers all need a Ghost Hand! That thing is just too damn convenient!"
Li Ke really felt the urge to vent. Based on the memories and experience he had just inherited, the Blood-Qi Secret Technique was ridiculously difficult to master! More importantly, it was incredibly impractical!
Just how impractical was it?
The swordsman he had blasted away with his shotgun earlier had studied the Blood-Qi Secret Technique for over ten years, yet he had remained a third-rate fighter the entire time. Worse, the technique had riddled him with countless side effects.
Numb limbs were just the baseline. The swordsman's tongue had even lost most of its function after an aggressive blood-acceleration attempt, leaving him completely unable to taste food.
The reason for these terrible side effects was simple.
He would frequently spike his blood pressure and velocity, only to abruptly force his circulation back to its normal rhythm. This sudden internal whiplash caused his blood vessels to rupture constantly.
But he had no choice. His regular human capillaries couldn't withstand the immense pressure of high-speed blood flow for long. Overusing the acceleration feature would literally cause his body to implode!
So why did Li Ke complain about the Ghost Hand?
Because a Ghost Hand eliminated any worry about bursting blood vessels or developing blood clots! A true Berserker could treat the Ghost Hand as a literal second heart, dumping all the physical strain and high pressure onto the mutated limb itself!
Furthermore, because the demonic energy of the ghosts constantly altered and numbed the user's mind, it actually protected the brain from being fried by a berserk rush of blood-qi.
Ultimately, for anyone without a Ghost Hand, trying to properly wield this world's Blood-Qi Secret Technique was practically an impossible task.