Chapter 30 - The limit
Kai quickly pulled out his card and read.
Kai heard the distant sounds of a beast running toward him as fear slowly overtook his excitement to fight a beast for the first time, as he saw a towering figure appearing above him.
It looked like a mix of a black furred dog and a hellhound. Its eyes were red, and its tail's tip was made of pure elemental fire. This beast was nearly 10 ft tall, towering over Kai.
The beast lunged, trying to stomp on Kai with its feet.
Kai stared as the shadow appeared above him and panicked as he ran quickly under the beast. His eyes sharpened slightly, and without him realizing it, he had begun doing something that would later allow him to become the strongest in the world.
Kai kept dodging the beast's attacks, but at a point the beast spun and hit Kai in the chest with its tail, burning a hole through his shirt. Kai's black spiky hair was slightly on fire.
Kai ran backwards and then activated Inspect.
[Flame Hound]
[Beast Rank - Spirit]
[Beast Element - Fire]
[Status - Enraged]
Kai was utterly stumped. This beast was only Spirit.
And he was barely able to fight it.
Minutes passed. Kai kept on dodging, not even fighting back, and then he saw a holographic screen at the same time the movements of the beast engraved themselves into his mind.
[Battle Sense skill is being learned]
[0 > 5%]
Kai grinned as he finally clearly saw the beast's attack pattern like an open book.
The beast ran and tried to once again stomp on Kai, but he slid under it and activated
[Mana Sword Arts]
A slash of golden mana left his sword, hitting the underside of the beast, which exploded with blood, spraying Kai with it.
Kai spat out the blood and vomited in disgust, then got his bearings as he was going to walk away from the beast's dead corpse.
But then the system informed him of two things.
[For killing a Flame Hound, you gained 200 Exp]
[First time killing Flame Hound, you gained an additional 300 Exp]
[600/600]
[Level up!]
[1 additional attribute point]
[Remember to take the beast core within it. It is like the heart of the beast, holding its element and its condensed mana.]
Kai stared at the beast and muttered, "Can't you do it for me?"
[No. For a Flame Hound, it is in the center of its body.]
Kai gagged just at the thought and said, "I have an idea."
Kai activated yet another skill.
[Mana Manifestation]
Streams of mana in the air, and mostly from Kai's body, created a small finger like object that disappeared into the beast and came out of it with a sphere glowing with a reddish and golden hue.
Kai stared at it and then said, "System, I can absorb this?"
[Affirmative]
[Allow me to teach you how. With your basic cultivation technique, you do not just gain mana as it is active and raise your mana level and gain a cultivation level, but also learn how to absorb beast cores.]
Knowledge flooded Kai's mind as a small headache appeared and persisted after the knowledge was imported into his mind.
Kai groaned and then activated his cultivation technique.
[20+ mana]
[20+ mana]
[20+ mana]
[20+ mana]
[20+ mana]
[20+ mana]
[20+ mana]
[20+ mana]
[You have completed a hidden quest]
[Rewards: 500 Exp]
[500/700 Exp]
Kai looked at his status that changed a lot.
[Host Status]
[Name: Kai / Yuan]
[Strength: 12]
[Intelligence: 6]
[Speed: 11]
[Charm: Locked]
[Soul Strength: 596]
[Perception: 7]
[Agility: 9]
[Defense: 12]
[Mental Fortitude: 12]
[Endurance: 10]
[Mana: 2620 / 2620]
[Body Status: 100% / 100%]
[Attribute Points: 1]
[Level: 6]
[Exp: 500/700]
Kai smiled, seeing that his mana cap increased again, but then his train of thought was cut off as another Flame Hound appeared and tried to stomp on him.
Luckily, Kai dodged, and after a quick exchange he killed it and grabbed the beast core and absorbed it as well.
[160+ mana]
Kai then remembered the exam and began killing beasts using his now two favorite skills.
[Mana Sword Arts] and [Mana Manifestation]
Shortly after, just 7 minutes of slaughtering beasts left and right, his mana had broken to 5000.
And then it stopped rising, no matter how many cores he absorbed.
Kai kept on killing beasts, expecting something to happen after a while, but nothing changed. No change on his card or in the sky, not a single movement of the sun.
Kai stayed there for a while, killing beasts, farming Exp, but the more he did, the less Exp he gained. At a point he gained 50 Exp from Fire Hounds and still killed more.
Minutes passed, then an hour, then two hours.
Kai was on the ground coughing. He was completely out of breath, the sword in his hand was cracked and broken.
Kai threw it away and took deep breaths, trying to catch his breath.
[1/5000 Mana]
Kai sat down in the lotus position for what felt like the millionth time today as he cultivated to bring back his mana. Next to him was a small mound of beast cores that would make anyone rich.
Kai then took a deep breath and said, "System, how much left?"
[Just 50]
Kai got up sharply, excitement running through his body as he unsheathed the katana and cut his green robe, making a makeshift bag to put the cores in, and ran at a Fire Hound in the distance with Exp dancing in his eyes.
Kai lunged into the air, jumping to 15 ft, and let out crescent slashes from the katana using mana manifestation, and then many things happened at once.
[You have leveled up]
[You have reached Level 10!]
[Mark has been unlocked!]
[Conditions on world translation have disappeared]
Kai glanced at the cultivation skills.
[Mana Manifestation - Level Maxed - Allows the host to control mana outside the body and to push his own mana outside of his body.] (200 mana)
[God Eyes - Level up conditions not met - Allows you to see life signatures and the overall level of those in your sight as well as letting you use more skills]
[God Eyes sub skills:]
[Sharp Sight - Allowing you to see around you even if your eyes are closed to nearly 50 km]
[Complete Vision - Allows you to see everything in the air from mana to gas]
[Mana Steel Body - Level 2 - Allows you to turn your outer body as tough as steel by using a large amount of mana] (250 mana)
[Mana Control - Level Maxed - Allows the host to control mana within the body to near perfect abilities to enhance your body. Right now you do not have any control due to your level for this skill] (100 per min)
[Mana Sword Arts - Level Maxed - The true combination of mana and swords, the more you level up this skill the more mana you will be able to infuse your sword with mana]
[Inspect - Level 2 - Allows the host to view a short or detailed summary of a target depending on the level of the skill]
[World Language - Allows the host to understand and communicate in any language]
[Mark - Allows the host to mark individuals enabling shared vision and location tracking. Allies or enemies can be marked with a unique scent only the host can detect]
(0/5 Marks)
[Silent Movement - Locked - Silences the natural sounds of a human while active, breathing, footsteps, etc]
[Shifting Tide - Level 1 - Allows the host to change their physical appearance at will]
[Basic Forging - Level 0 - Allows the host to forge weapons of the Normal class with enough practice and very high materials to even a Spirit class weapon]
[Separate - Allows you to split skills] (500 mana)
[Synthesize - Combine two skills to form one] (500 mana)
[Supreme Regeneration - Max Level - Healing the body, mind, spirit, and soul at a rapid speed while being cost efficient] (200 mana / 30 min)
[Mana Katana Arts - Level 2 - The true combination of mana and katanas, the more you level up this skill the more mana you will be able to infuse your sword with mana]
Kai grinned as he noticed the last skill, and he was confused about God Eyes.
Kai said, "You will not tell me what life things are, no?"
[Correct. I will not tell you.]
Kai sighed and said, "Though nice skills, that is even better than my current sight."
Kai closed his eyes and was still able to see around him as if he was using his eyes, but he had vision around his head in a full 360.
And when he activated Complete Vision, his eyes blurred as he saw the sky blanketed with unknown green fog and a purplish one, and a lot of mana. The weirdest thing was a thicker path of mana flowing to his card from somewhere southwest of Kai.
Kai grinned and ran toward it, eyes still closed, killing beasts as he ran with his now leveled up skills.
Then he got a thought.
Kai spoke in his mind, "You said I can fly with mana manifestation, no?"
[Affirmative.]