Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 13
Matt looked down at the village that was bathed in the color red of the setting sun. The small town was covered with trees from one side, while from the other side you could see farmlands stretching out. It was built at the edge of the forest, probably for easier access to the beasts in there. There was a big wall around the settlement, it was at least 4 meters high and build from thick logs. It looked sturdy and hard to break down by old earth standards, but he wasn't sure about the standards of this world, he felt like it wouldn't last that well if he gave it a good punch or kick.
He was hovering quite a bit above the hunters that he was following at a slow pace, the others probably couldn't see him that well from the ground while he himself could use his heightened senses too zoom in and focus on the desired area and he could hear and see everything like he was there, all thanks to the previous data dump directly into his brain, it sure hurt a lot but was quite handy.
Matt saw as the people shouted someone to the people inside the village that was fenced of with the tree wall. They were standing in front of a large gate now and after they made their presence known people on the other side reacted. They opened the gate and while the hunters looked back behind them, then looked upwards while scratching their heads a bit probably looking for Matt who was hovering above them and hiding within the clouds and just stalking them instead. They went inside and were greeted by some other people, one person moved over to the party of five and started shouting at them while a group that was behind him just looked on.
"Why are you coming back so late? Did you bring anything back with you? Even the other teams managed to nab some small critters."
What was surprising that the one that was shouting was a boy not much older-looking then the one that was in the hunting party, but all the burly men were hanging their heads down as if the youth-owned the place. He started berating the men, while they sweated bullets and sometimes look behind themselves and up into the air, the youth noticed this of course and a big vein could be seen bulging on his forehead.
"What are you idiots doing, you dare look away when I Yang Rong am speaking to you, you seem to have forgotten that I am the tribe leaders son and the next in line!"
The men were probably searching for Matt, not being sure where he was now, did he just get bored with them and leave? He was the one that was carrying all the animal meat, the hunters didn't know how to explain this. The youngest from the bunch decided to speak up though, showing a bit more guts than the elders or maybe it was a bit of bravado that young warriors tended to have.
"W-we were attacked by a big pack of crimson wolves, there were 14 of them as we were trying to hunt a serpent tailed deer, one of them even bit me in the leg"
Cheng Yun said quickly while Yang Rong showed some disdain towards him, mostly at the fact that he was interrupted in his speech. He pointed to his bloody pants that were ripped, though the lack of a wound and how he was walking just fine was suspicious.
"What nonsense are you spewing, if you meet so many wolves you would be in more sorry states, you all look fine, you think those torn pants are fooling anyone, you probably did that yourself, did you smear some squirrels blood on there"
"Well... we were suddenly rescued by a powerful cultivator, he went by the distinguished name Zhang Dong, he took care of the beasts in a flash, they were dead before we could even blink! He also gave me a pill that healed my leg in a flash!"
The brow of the village chief's son rose up high as he was listening to the younger male babble on, this sounded like total hogwash. Why would some powerful elder come in and save some insignificant cultivators, what would he gain from that? Also, why would he give precious pills and resources to a useless bum like Cheng Yun, he was having none of this, he would have to show what happens to people that can't pull their own weight and that lie so blatantly. He started it off by walking over to the younger male that was talking nonsense and gave him a rough slap to the face, his cultivation base was higher so Cheng Yun fell down to his knees while spitting out blood from the full force smack to the face.
While this was going on, Matt was hovering above the group not really sure what to do, having a bit of a stage fright of his own while meeting new people. He just looked on as everything was happening and the youth he previously saved was giving them the rundown. He also was interested in the walking talking trope that was Yang Rong, he was playing the stereotypical silky pants, son of the leader type of character quite well, he even had his own entourage behind him, they all had mocking expressions on their face as he was berating the hunters. His cultivation wasn't all that high, just on the Qi condensation 3rd level, so not much more from the kid he saved and he was even 1 year older.
"Man, didn't think I would find a silky-pants character right off the bat... I bet he gets all the best resources that this poor tribe has and comes running to his daddy whenever something wrong happens, well... guess I did help those people out so they are kind of my responsibility now... plus it looks like it's going to get violent."
As he presumed the slap to the face came soon afterward, the cronies of the tribal silky-pants closed in, they outnumbered the hunting party two to one, but they probably wouldn't really fight back worried that if the village chief found out he would punish them even more.
"Uhh... going to have a migraine..."
Matt moved his hands behind his back and stood up straight, he put on a poker face as he slowly descended down into the village after sighting a bit. He learned how to hide his aura and how to use it so that other people would feel its weight on them. His eyes began to gleam in blue color and lightning crackled from his body as he slowly flew down to where the fight was about to start. He made sure to give off a frighting aura that could be felt all around the settlement as people began looking in his direction with fear in their eyes.
*Guess it's time to face slap some little shits.*
Yang Rong and his group were feeling good about themselves, they all knew that they could do anything they wanted around here if they threw the Chief's name around, all the tribe members cowered in fear and all the girls came running. It was a nice life that most of the tribe people envied. This was just an everyday occurrence to them, just another time to take care of some trash. But then something strange happened, their body hair began standing up for some reason and they suddenly felt an oppressive force slamming into their bodies which made them go down to their knees. They all looked up, their eyes went wide and their jaws dropped as they saw an otherworldly looking cultivator descending from the heavens. His eyes were glowing and his body was covered in lightning that gave off thundering sounds. He was descending on a huge sword made from some strange crystals, they just realized that the hunting party was telling the truth and that they made a blunder, they might have offended this cultivator as he was looking quite stern. A unanimous gulping sound was heard as their bodies tensed up and they began sweating profusely.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 14
Cheng Yun rubbed his cheek as he spit blood on the ground, he felt a stinging pain where he got smacked but he couldn't resist the son of the chief, he didn't want to trouble his family as Rong was a known trouble maker. He would have to take this beating, the senior that supposed to be following them behind probably had better things to do than, it was odd that he saved them to begin with. He was ready to cover his head to ease the blows but then he suddenly felt it, he felt the weight of a powerful cultivation aura, the senior didn't leave and he was coming down.
Everyone looked up and the people from the tribe were shitting bricks right now as Zhang Dong was descending down from the sky while being lit up like a Christmas tree. He had an impeccable posture, he was straight as a pillar, his hands were behind his back and his hood was covering his head. The people could see his bright glowing eyes as he let his aura run free. Matt took his time, thinking to himself that he might be overdoing it a little bit as everyone around here looked like they were shitting bricks.
He came to a halt in front of the cowering Yang Rong and his band of bodyguards, he looked down at them the kid was too scared to raise his head upwards and look him in the eyes, as he knew well that this man in front of him was a lot stronger than his father that was the strongest fighter in the whole tribe. After a moment of silence the cultivator finally decided to speak.
"Sorry to break up your welcoming party, but I think these belong to those guys."
He said while moving his arm in the direction that youth was in, this motion made Yang Rong almost scream out in shock but before he could do that he could see multiple dead beast bodies drop from thin air, with a larger beast deer body landing at the end and covering him in gory guts. Matt had dropped the monster beasts that he was storing in his storage ring and placed them directly on the silkypants that was now squirming under a pile of dead animal carcasses, he would be smelling mighty fine indeed.
"You don't mind me dropping them right here, right?"
He pulled back his overbearing aura and stopped glowing like a neon light and looked back at the hunters that were behind him. They eyed him back with a dumbfounded look on their faces and didn't know if they should laugh and cry. The person under that bloody pile was the oldest son of the Chief who would probably be enraged if he saw that. On the other hand he probably wouldn't be able to do anything anyway as this monster of a cultivator had a unfathomable cultivation base, he had to at least be in foundation establishment but could he be in the rare core formation realm? The shook their heads side to side along with her hands wile awkwardly smiling.
"N-no it's fine, it's fine Senior Dong!"
"Oh? Well glad to hear that."
He replied and then looked at the still shocked bully bunch.
"Think you should help your little friend out of there, he'll probably need a throughout bath afterwards though."
The tribe members that he was talking to, looked at themselves and moved up from their kneeling positions and just nodded sheepishly at the male in white words and began pulling the dead wolf bodies off of him, Rong climbed out of the pile covered in some gory bits, the wolfs weren't processed and Matt did cut them up into pieces with his sword skill, so there were various 'juices' flowing in that pile, better not to know where they came from.
Cheng Yun had to cover his mouth to stop laughing, turning away after seeing in what of a sorry state the silkypants was in. He was glad that the bully got some instant karma, even though it wasn't that much but it was quite a hit to his face. His eyes sparkled as he looked at the man in white that was hovering on his sword in front of them, hands behind his back and looking like a mountain, those were the sort of people young men alike looked up to.
Matt nodded his head a bit, thinking that was enough for now. He didn't feel like beating up the brat, even though he looked like he needed a good trashing. He thought that some public humiliation would bring the overconfident youth down a peg or at least he hoped so.
The hunters sighted in relief as all of the animal bodies were removed, they could go back to their original work now and deliver those to other tribesmen for processing. They cupped their fists at Matt and started helping the others with the bloody mess, everything got cleaned up in a jiffy. Afterwards you could hear more footsteps coming closer as more and more people arrived, they all looked in the prime of their life, everyone was built like a brick house while one bearded man stood out as he was the largest one of them, being half a head taller then the next largest man from the loot, this was the tribe Chief.
The burly bearded man looked around, he saw his son that was drenched in what looked like blood and some unidentified bodily fluids. He looked to the floating man that was looking in his direction. He couldn't measure the degree of this man's strength, plus he was hovering on a treasure with no problem he was clearly above the Qi condensation realm that everyone in this village was in, this man could not be messed with or everyone in here could lose his life.
"A pleasure to meet such a master, my name is Yang Shan I'm the Chief of this village, what brings you to our humble home."
He ignored his son's predicament as he probably was up to no good as always, he already had a headache as he always had to cover up his son's stupid escapees and he sure hoped that his stupid son didn't offend this type of cultivator or they all were done for.
"Ah yes, greetings. Sorry about that little friend over there, just wanted to drop of those beast bodies and I didn't see him there."
He shrugged while every person that was here before sweatdropped as they clearly saw him fly up to the Chief's kid and wave his hand in his direction before the pile of gore appeared. Not like they would tell that in this situation though.
"I met some of your people back in the forest, they said that you had a hot spring in here, was wondering if I could stay here for the night and use that hot spring of yours."
The tribe chief glanced over at the hunters that Matt helped out, they just rubbed their necks and gave the chief a little nod. He wasn't sure why the cultivator wanted to use that, as it was just a plain old hot water pool, there was no spiritual qi in it or anything. But cultivators were always an odd bunch.
"Ah yes! We will prepare the springs and bring you some refreshments as well, you can stay in our humble village as long as you want!"
He barked some orders at the near by people that quickly started running from where they came from, while the Chief moved over to Matt that was still hovering on his sword and tried to beckon him in the direction of the hot springs.
"Just follow me Senior, I'll guide you here, you can also ask me any questions that you may have."
Matt nodded while jumping off his sword, the sword then vanished into thin air after a wave of his hand which made the surrounding people go wide eyed once more and whisper among themselves. Spatial storage techniques were a rarity and most people didn't have storage rings like what he had, if they did the storage capacity wasn't much bigger than a cubic meter. Matt had an almost infinite amount of space in there.
"Okay chief, lead the way."
He replied and followed after the burly man, a lot of people followed after him while a lot of them were also in front as they shooed other tribe members away so that the cultivator behind them wouldn't need to wait, rule one of this kind of world was not to anger people stronger then them.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 15
Matt kept his hands behind his back while walking straight, he kind of didn't want to keep this position anymore buy he wanted to at least look like a Master even though he was a total noob on the inside. He looked around checking out the wooden buildings. The buildings were mostly made from wood, with straw like roofs though for all he knew they might have been made out of some fantasy spirit straw and spirit wood, for some reason a lot of things had that prefix in them.
He glanced left and right, people were curiously looking out of their homes wondering what all the fuss was about, but they quickly ducked back in after they noticed the tribe elders in the front with solemn faces that were kicking everyone to the side that they came across.Matt didn't really notice the rude behavior as it was a bit in front and he had a wall of muscular men from each side to block his view.
*What's with this beef cake parade… couldn't you bring out some curvy amazon ladies to do that instead…*
He lamented to himself as they walked through the village, the pace wasn't too fast or too slow. They moved closer to the middle of the small town and Matt could see the marketplace that even this place had, though there wasn't much what the people were selling besides animal pelts, meat, fruits and vegetables.
The whole thing got more awkward with each passing moment, he was surrounded by people and looked like some big shot with way too many body guards around him. The moved along the normal villagers kept their distance but also sneaked in glances while holding on to their kids, it would have been really unfortunate if one of them bumped into the tribe members that were on edge and sweating bullets not knowing if this strange cultivator would go berserk on them for any little thing they would do.
Of course a little ball rolled in the direction of the meat shield around Matt and one little kid was chasing after it, while the parents had their hands full with other kids, quite normal from the size of families that were around here. The ball fell right in front of the marching of the burly uncles and the child run up to them to grab it, this making them stop in their tracks and glare at the kid in front of them.
"How dare you block the way of this honorable senior!"
One of the men barked while the child looked up in fear, starting to cry in response. It was a little girl about the age of 5, her mother quickly arrived at the scene and grasped the little thing trying to protect her from the rage of the burly overbearing men. Matt did a mental facepalm as he saw the whole thing.
*What's wrong with these people, it's just a little kid, she's just being a little oblivious to her surroundings like any kid that age. T-they aren't going to do anything to her and the mother... right?*
He looked on with concern while keeping his indifferent looking poker face, he was at lest good at showing no emotions. He looked at the pleading mother and the crying child while the angry uncles were looking awfully angry, he gave out a sight as he would probably have to diffuse this awkward situation. Just as one of the big men was about to go towards the mother and child duo, he stepped forward. He was a lot faster then the other man, he grasped his shoulder stopping as he was stretching his burly hand out towards the other two.
"That's enough, you're scaring the poor thing"
Everyone stopped in their tracks as the cultivator moved forward to stop the tribe member from moving the child out of the way, the man in question did a bow while moving to the side while Matt moved over to the child and mother. He still had his poker face on, he picked the ball up from the ground and presented it towards the little girl.
"It's okay you little rascal, the angry looking uncle won't do anything to you if I'm around."
He tried smiling a bit, but it looked more like a smirk, but thanks to being quite handsome and maybe thanks to the aura that he exuded the small child stopped crying as she took her ball back. The mother looked at the handsome man in front and blushed a bit, nodding her head at him as she backed away with her daughter in toe.
*Well, think that went well... I think.*
"Hey dude, no need to be so rough with kids, you lot have to chill out a bit."
The tribe members looked at Matt, not really knowing what he meant with 'dude' or 'chill out' , did he want them to go under a waterfall? Or into the icy mountains?
"S-so... where was that hot spring again?"
He coughed into his hand as he could tell that the men were giving him odd looks, soon they resumed the walking towards Matt's next destination. After they were away from the spot that they bumped into the child a lot of the villagers showed up, leaving their houses now when the coast was clear.
"Did you see that? He defended the child."
"Yeah, he was also really handsome!"
"Think he is looking for a wife?"
"Who would want your ugly ass as a wife."
The man that said that to the lady got socked in the face right afterwards and the people began laughing at him. The tribe members got lively after seeing the wandering cultivator in white, they got a good first impression as he seamed like a righteous person. They wondered what he wanted around here, they sure hoped that this was a sign that something good was about to happen to their village.
Matt was oblivious to the good impression that he made on the villagers as he just wanted to get to the damn bath and be left alone for the rest of the day, this was a bit too much human interaction for one day for him and he just wanted to wind down.He was lead to a wooden building after a while, after coming inside he noticed that this looked like a bath house that you would see in Asian countries, he could see the side for men and the side for females as also what looked like to be the innkeeper lady that bowing to him accordingly and greeting him while the tribe chief was giving her the stare down.
He was finally left alone in the changing room while the other men all left to wait outside, the surrounded the whole building making sure that no one else would come in. They also forced any people that were doing anything in the hot spring to leave. This made Matt sight a bit more as he still wasn't used to the special treatment that everyone was giving him. He started removing his clothes, but he didn't really need to place them in the changing room as he just placed them in his storage ring that he kept on his finger, he was sure that storage rings were water proof.
There was a big mirror in the changing room, which made him look at his new body and face. He didn't get a good look at it yet, he placed his fingers on his chin and moved his head left and right while examining his new found handsome man face. He had a mature charm to himself, he wasn't a bishonen or anything, his age made him look something between 25 and 30 , but he knew that people lived longer here and your aging started to slow down if your cultivation increased.
"Hm, not bad... but the most important thing..."
He looked to the left and then he looked to the right, shifting his gaze all over the closed of changing room before slowly moving his hands towards his undies. He had regular boxer briefs all in white like the rest of his clothes, he didn't know if these type of clothing was the norm as he thought people in this kind of setting wore a loincloth or something. But he had more important things to think about now as he had to know the size of his little brother down there and with one quick push he revealed him.
*Woah, well this is an improvement over the old model*
The villagers provided some warm water and soap to wash of before going into the hot spring, you didn't want dirty people going in there right of the bat without soaping up and rinsing themselves, so he did just that. After cleaning up he headed to the hot spring with a towel wrapped around his mid section, finally having some time to wind down as he lowered his body into the water and close his eyes while sighting. He gazed up at the sky, it was turning dark and he could see the stars and the unfamiliar moon above his head.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 16
The villagers left the cultivator at the hot spring inn of their village, the Chief ordered his people to block it off so that no one would bother the peculiar acting expert while he himself left to tend to his idiot of a son. He hoped that he didn't say anything foolish to the cultivator he wanted to be on friendly terms with anyone of this caliber, he couldn't really offer him anything as they were just a poor tribe in the middle of nowhere. Most people just dreamed of getting picked up by a prominent sect or clan and being a disciple of a renowned master. He wished he could help his son do that, but he seemed to have offended this Senior so that went out of the window, but the man didn't look angry probably not caring about a junior doing silly things, which was good.
After getting Yang Rong over here along with the team of hunters that knew the most about this enigmatic man, he started asking questions finding out about him saving the team, fending off a pack of wolves on his own and doing it without batting an eye. He then looked at his son that was holding his head down as he told that he started berating the hunters that the man helped, this ending with him having a pile of dead beasts dumped on his head, he still had a peculiar smell coming from his body even though he had already changed his clothes by this point.
It seemed to the Chief that the man wasn't hostile towards them as he saved his villagers and also didn't do much to his son besides embarrassing him slightly. Yang Shan was glad at the later part, as this experience might get his useless son to think before acting first. There were far more powerful people out there, he couldn't have his son just parading around and throwing his weight around if he didn't really have anything to back that up besides his old man. He nodded and gave a good fatherly smack to the head with a closed fist, reprimanding him for being an idiot. Yang Rong went down to his knees and rubbed his poor noggin, now he had a bump in the middle of it.
"B-but father..."
He sent the boy home, he couldn't have his antics offending Zhang Dong so he wanted his son to keep it low, he'd invite the man to his home later for dinner, or maybe breakfast if he didn't want to eat anything at the moment. He told the men around the hot springs to inform him when the cultivator was about to leave and then walked away to prepare the feast.
About half an hour passed as Matt was soaking in the springs just relaxing with his eyes closed, his body wasn't tired though he did feel stressed. It hasn't been long since he was wished away into this world, did some bored god do this to him, as he passed out in a coma in a hospital and this was just a dream? He had no way of knowing, he could clearly feel pain, everything looked like it was real and the people were acting normally, well normally for cultivator type of people with the bowing and respecting things.
He opened up his eyes and realized something, something really ,really bad. This was a hard truth of this world... there was no internet around... he was getting bored ... He couldn't play any games, he couldn't watch any new tv shows, read any comics or manga or read any fantasy novels like he liked to do back at home. He didn't know how the entertainment industry looked around in this world, but what he could tell cultivators spent most of their time hold up in some abodes meditating and contemplating their dao. Dread filled his mind as the thought of meditating in one spot for years at a time just gathering spirit energy? How did that even work... he brought up his screen and clicked at his cultivation method.
Lightning Qi cultivation art : Immortal grade cultivation art, can be cultivated up to the great circle of the core formation realm. The cultivator gathers the surrounding Qi into his body transforming it into lightning Qi, works best if cultivated at high altitudes, closer to the heavens or in a storm where the lightning elements are abundant.
*Well that doesn't explain much, let me see, also it has a cap on it...*
He got out of the spring and wrapped the towel around his waist to cover his little brother. There was a large boulder in the middle of the spring onto which he got up and sat down in a meditation pose. He gathered his thoughts on the cultivation technique as he had the information about it in his brain. Matt sat in a lotus position with his legs crossed in an uncomfortable-looking way. He brought his hands together with his right palm going under his left one while his right thumb went above his left thumb as they connected. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the spiritual Qi around his surroundings.
Matt remained in the cultivation position for a bit and started absorbing the Qi around him. The spiritual force felt like little droplets around him, hovering in the air that he needed to pull in and towards his lower dantian that was in his abdomen. The droplets of Qi were guided to his hands and then towards his belly as he started absorbing the water-like substance, slowly gathering more and more. The spiritual power was thin around these parts so it was taking him a while to do this, but he was getting the hang of it. After the droplets turned into liquid and entered his body, it started getting rowdy in there. He needed to transform the spiritual energy into lightning Qi now, this was one of the hardest types that a cultivator could cultivate as it was quite unstable. But with the knowledge that he already had and the formed lightning core he managed it do that without fumbling all too much. He didn't even notice that a good couple of hours had passed by now and that it was midnight.
The tribe people noticed it though as they could feel a disturbance in the Qi force. They could feel the spiritual force from the surroundings getting sucked in one general direction which was, of course, the hot spring that Matt was sitting in almost naked. He was absorbing most of the spirit essence from the air which didn't leave much for the others, so everyone that was trying to cultivate peeked out in protest wondering who had the audacity to suck up their resources. They quickly found out that it was the wondering man dressed in white that was doing it. About this time they also noticed that the sky was void of stars as it was got really cloudy. Thunder could be heard up in the sky as it rumbled and in a shocking turn of events lightning bolts started crashing down into the hot spring that the cultivator was in, this making everyone go wide-eyed at the spectacle.
Matt was really in the zone right now, just taking in the Spiritual force and turning it into his own special kind of Qi. The sudden jolt of electricity that hit him just propelled his cultivation further and further. The little storm wasn't much as it didn't generate that much force, this as the reason why it was advised to cultivate in stormy areas at a high altitude, the practitioner could then gather many more lightning bolts into his body and further his cultivation at a higher pace. You could also use special herbs, magical treasures or pills that had a similar effect as well.
He opened up his eyes that were now glowing and looked upwards as the last thunderous strike was delivered onto his body before the stormy clouds subsided. Matt looked around the hot spring that was now sparkling with lightning energy that sipped into the water and supercharged it. Due to his forceful cultivation method, he managed to turn this spring into one that gathered lightning qi energy now, it was a gathering spot of the lowest of low grades, but for the people in this Tribe, it would be quite the treasured spot now. After finishing up he brought up his screen to check if his cultivation had advanced in any way and he was pleasantly surprised.
Cultivation Base Qi :Core Formation [Early Stage 5%] (Lightning Core)
*Heyyyy, that's pretty goood.*
*Now I only need to figure out the body cultivation thing*
Silver Body : Silver Body is the next advanced form of the Copper Body refining technique, instead of hard psychical training that is mostly attributed to body refining techniques, the cultivator absorbs weapons/treasures that are metallic in nature to refine his body into a treasure in it's own. The higher grade the treasure is the stronger the body gets. Common grade weapons and treasures have no effect on this technique. The technique can be trained up to the Nascent Soul great circle realm.
*Ah, so it's one of those... glad that I have a discount to crafting skills... guess I'll have to get some crafting materials and some crafting skills next.*
Chapter 17
*Wait, how long was I sitting on this rock...*
Matt noticed that it was really dark outside, some lanterns lit up the place around but he knew that it was quite late now.
*Those guys are probably still waiting for me outside...*
He moved off the boulder and found himself a towel to dry his body off. He put his clothes back on finding the self-cleaning function of them quite handy, as he wouldn't be stinking up the place like some of the other dudes that he saw in this village. The hygiene around here was just so so, but at least they did have this hot spring to wash of. He put on his boot and fixed his wrist protectors as he got ready, he stood up and looked behind him at the spring what felt a bit different than before he sure hoped that the people still could use it with the mild lightning Qi now floating around in there.
He noticed that the moment that he walked out to get dressed someone outside the changing room walked away, guess they were keeping tabs on him or something.Matt went out feeling refreshed and even a bit stronger thanks to his slight cultivation progress, he also didn't feel all that hungry even though he didn't eat much the whole day, besides the junk food he got from his store. This was also attributed to his high cultivation levels as people of that level could sustain their bodies on spiritual energy for a very long time without having to eat or drink. The same thing applied to holding their breath and living longer, a core formation expert had a 400-500 year life expectancy and considering that his body was about 30 years of age, he had a long way ahead of him.
*Maybe they'll invent the internet till my life runs out if it's that long -sigh-*
Matt was greeted by the burly men outside that were still standing there, they gave him a bow of respect like they always did. He moved out while nodding his head at them and going back to his stoic poker face look. The Chief of the village soon came up running with some other people in tow once more.
"Hope you enjoyed your stay at the hot-springs, but those lightning strikes..."
"Ah, sorry I just had an epiphany and cultivated for a while, but don't worry the springs are still intact.Though they are a bit different now than before, shouldn't be much of a problem though." *Well, don't really know though*
He interrupted the Chief's questioning as it was getting late and while not needing that much sleep he wanted to turn in for the night.
"Do you think I could stay here for the night, I can also pay you if you want."
The town leader perked up at the mention of a reward, but he couldn't just ask a monstrous cultivator for any cultivation resources all willy nilly. So he decided to decline the offer, at least for now...
"No need Senior Dong, we have prepared accommodations for you at our guest house, I'm sure it will be to your satisfaction. It's right next to my own home, so if you have anything you need you just need to ask. I'm hoping that you'll join me for a morning meal tomorrow after you rest."
Yang Shan asked while declining the payment, though Matt just wanted to give him some gold coins, thought that those were probably enough.
"Ah sure, I'll see you in the morning then, hope it's not a bother."
They both nodded at each other and Matt was lead away by some other warriors and women that were prepared to serve him for the night, yes the girls were supposed to serve the cultivator in any way possible, plus they agreed out of their own free will as this looked like a free meal ticket out of this dump. But they also were there to clean and cook if he decided to stay for longer or needed any servants.
He was led to a nice log cabin looking building that you would see at lake resorts, there was a fireplace inside and it was quite spacious. He was soon left in there with three females, there were all cute looking ladies and also quite young. Two of them looked like they were between the ages of 16 and 18 while the third one looked to be in her twenties. The girls gave him a bow and just stood there with sparkles in their eyes as they looked at Matt who was removing the hooded rope part of his clothes, he didn't need it now and he placed it in his storage ring.
Our hero found himself in the company of three pretty ladies, now you might think that being the manly man that he was he would just woo all of them at once, while using his sensual skills. But Matt just found himself frozen in place, not really being able to muster the courage to speak to the female trio that kept looking at his face. He had almost no experience what to speak of, he had one or two encounters here and there but they didn't count for much. He found himself staring at the girls with his passive resting bitch face so after a while the women started getting uncomfortable as they thought that he wasn't pleased with them being around here.
"Uh... I'll be in my room, g-goodnight..."
He didn't want to be in this awkward situation anymore so he decided to head over to the bedroom alone, the females felt a bit dejected but they bowed at his words and left the building, reporting to the people outside that the cultivator didn't seem interested in them that much and gave them an unimpressed look. The three girls were one of the best looking ones from the entire village. Guess after a while you lose interest in those sorts of things? The girls lamented their fate as the cultivator was sure their type of man, strong and good looking and probably loaded with cash, the clothes that he was wearing were a sign of how well off he was as they didn't compare to anything they had in this village.
The girls pouted at each other and just went away for now while Matt himself gave out a sigh and flopped onto the bed, the mattress was a bit hard but he could deal with it. He lamented to himself at the blunder with the girls but not really that much, thinking that after he got acclimated in this world and got the hang of it, then he could start pursuing the whamen.
He glanced at the map of his and could see dots surrounding his abode, probably being the tribe villages that were guarding or just spying on him for the night. He mentally shrugged at the whole thing and thought that he had a couple of options now. He could either stay here, for the time being, there were a lot of beasts around here that weren't a problem for him. He could earn spirit points by slaying those quite easy. Though the odd prefix before their names was strange, something must be making them go berserk and if he stayed he would probably have to face that as well. The second option would be to leave and head over to Spirit Spring City where his so called Clan was in, he could get acclimated in there as well, but would he have a place to grind like here? Were there more powerful cultivators in the city that he wouldn't be able to defend himself against? Or go with option three and just ignore that City and just explore some more.
*Think I'll stay here a bit longer, the people seem friendly enough. This thing isn't giving me any quests, so I guess this is more of an open setting, the rage monsters seem like a quest to clear though...Well, guess it's time to sleep.*
He put his thoughts to the back of his mind and turned to his side as he closed his eyes, the first day had finally finished, but on the next time new adventures and opportunities awaited.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 18
Morning came and the sun was up once more, the small town was buzzing with noise as everyone was gossiping about the person that was resting in the cottage next to the Chief's home. The man in question didn't sleep all that well as he tossed and turned in the unfamiliar bed most of the time, getting in like 3 to 4 hours of sleep. He wasn't that tired thanks to his new constitution though, but he swore to himself to get a better bed in the future, he even pulled up his cash shop and could see some furniture that had plus stats to resting and relaxation. But he had less than 100 points at the moment so first came the grinding.
He washed his face and brushed his teeth, he got a nice deal in the form of 1 SP for a toothbrush and toothpaste set at least the non magical things were cheap in the store. But there was nothing in the form of electronics in the item store, guess they limited it to non technological items from his old world, guess they didn't want him selling smartphones around here. People in this world used some strange jade slips that had limited range and the world was huge so you couldn't just contact everyone you wanted.
*I guess food and furniture will have to do. Well I can turn spirit stones to SP, so I should see if I can sell stuff at one of those action houses, if I grind here enough I'll probably have a lot of beast cores to spare, think those should sell well.*
Matt whistled to himself as he exited his bedroom and as he opened the door he twitched a bit as one of the serving ladies from the previous night was standing right there. She gave him a little bow and informed Matt about breakfast that he was invited to by the Chief.
"Ah yes, the big guy did say something about eating in the morning yesterday, I guess you'll guide me there, little miss?"
The girl smiled at him and nodded moving in front of him as they left the house, there were the guards around as yesterday but this time around they didn't follow after him but remained in place. They were right at the Chief's place, so there was no use in doing that as there were more burly uncles at his house anyway.
The Chief's house was also made from logs and wood, it was a lot more spacious then the cabin he was sleeping in. He could see that there were a lot of people living in there as they were buzzing around and everyone was doing something. The Chief had one wife, but he had many children the oldest one being the kid that was berating his fellow tribesmen yesterday. It wasn't odd to have many wives if the male was of higher status and could support them. His whole family was ready and waiting at a long table filled with many various dishes that Matt wasn't all too familiar with, but there was a whole lot of meat there.
"Good morning Senior Dong, come sit with."
He was lead to a spot next to the village leader, he nodded at the people around the table which varied from old elderly people to kids in about their teens, guess they spared him of having children there. He was feeling a bit guilty as the people were making a really big deal of him being here and he didn't really do much to deserve it besides being the person with the biggest cultivation in the room. The man of the house started prattling on while Matt examined the food on the table, there was something to drink, the cups were dark so he didn't know if it was water or something else. Most of the dishes were meat based, there was some brown bread in there too though but no butter.
"And this is second uncle Li and his wife Lei"
He nodded at the people not really being able to remember the names as they all sounded a bit similar to him. But he decided to suck it up and just nodded while not showing much emotion on his face, but it twitched here and there as he could swear he heard the same names getting repeated several times.
"Does the honorable Senior Dong want to say something before we eat?"
*Could you stop calling me honorable, you don't even know me.*
He grimaced a bit while everyone in the room looked at him, their facial expressions ranged from fearful, curious all up to stern as they waited for him to speak. Matt just coughed into his hand and tried replying in a way that wouldn't make him look stupid.
"Ah, the Tartat Tribe was it, you have my thanks for the lodging and the food, um don't worry I'll be sure to repay you, later on, Oh also, could I have a word with you, Chief Shan, after we have eaten?"
The Chief showed a glint in his eye and nodded while laughing, he also ignored that the man got the tribe name wrong. A big smile on his face as he heard that the cultivator would repay them later on and that he wanted to speak with him in private.
"Sure sure, Senior just eat as much as you want and we will speak afterward."
He mostly wanted to discuss the grinding session that he wanted to do, there were a lot of beasts in that huge forest that was the size of a country on its own. There were a lot of frenzied monsters in there but they weren't strong or anything. He wanted to strike a deal with the Tribe members, he would provide them with the animal corpses and they would process them for him. The tribe would get all the meat from the beasts as they wanted and the pelts but he would anything that could be used for crafting, like horns, claws, scales and also the beast cores that were also used for that, but could also be used for other things like pills and potions and even for some cultivation techniques.
He took some bread and gave it a bite, it was the brown kind of bread with seeds in them so it had a lot of nutrients, it wasn't all that fluffy but it had a good taste to it. He was worried about the meat on the table as after killing the wolves yesterday he was afraid that they would cook and serve those to him, he didn't really want to eat dog or wolf meat. He just asked and was told that it was made from the deer monster instead as herbivore meat was a lot better to consume than carnivore meat. So he took the plunge and started eating the meat, it tasted a bit bland without seasoning but was fine to eat so he chomped and nommed to his heart content and after some time they were done with eating.
Well at least he was done, but everyone else was kind of forced to stop after he was done with his share. They later stood up and he went away with Yang Shan to a separate room to talk. Matt told him about the deal and he was ready to even let them have some of the crafting materials if they wanted them, he was mostly aiming for the cores and the spirit points to further his power level. But the Chief was more than happy to agree to his terms as they were having a bit of a food crisis now, with all the beasts killing each other at an increased pace and the hunters having a hard time procuring meat without casualties. He also had another agenda as he thought that maybe if the cultivator was going to go to the forest to hunt beasts, he might get to the bottom of why the beasts are going mad. He didn't think that the man was there just for the beast cores though, but he didn't want to pry further.
"Great, well then I'll be heading out not sure when I'll be back, but you don't need to have people follow me all around this place next time when I return... okay?"
He asked while scratching the back of his neck, the Yang Shan just nodded and opened the door for him while letting Matt out of the room, seeing him off as the large crystal sword was revealed and Zhang Dong jump onto it to fly away towards the forest area while other people just watched him with wonder and envy in their eyes.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 19
He flew into the air, his sword glistering in the sun as he zoomed around the area already feeling better after he left that village and was now alone. He always disliked crowded places and he didn't have his trusty headphones to block out the noise around him anymore. So he was finally out in the open and decided to go in a different direction than he came from, wondering if the same problem was happening in other parts of the forest. He could see where he was on the map, he marked a waypoint on his spirit maps and flew off at a high speed. He didn't worry about losing his way as the map was pretty accurate, he did find this settlement and all.
Didn't take him long to spot a couple of angry looking beasties, they were attacking some other creature that was running away. It had an elongated frame split into segments, with one pair of legs per that body segment. It looked like it was made from a hard shell and the head had large antennae sticking out, a pair of elongated mandibles along with more claw like appendages that made it look quite ferocious. Size wise it was about 4 to 5 meters long. It was more or less a giant version of a centipede, Matt grimaced as he saw those monsters moving about and just wanted to ignore them as they were quite gruesome looking.
But he had to toughen up, plus he had a way to take them out without moving in too close. He gathered up his spirit energy into his hand to form a long spear and took aim at the creepy crawlies that were chasing something that looked like a big boar? He focused on his target and chucked the javelin at it, hitting one of the monsters closer to its hind area than in the head. This didn't kill the big centipede, but it did slow it down. It stopped in its tracks to see what attacked gnashing its mandibles at the surroundings in a menacing way. But this only gave Matt the chance to charge up one more bolt of lightning and as he got closer he chucked it right at its head that promptly exploded into gory bits.
Giant Centipede Slain ( Qi Condensation 4th stage ) Earned 35 Spirit Points.
The second monster didn't stop in its chase after the large boar and continued on without helping its kin. He decided to forget about the body of this horror as he chased after the other one, missing with his aim here and there before finally landing a killing hit, the trees were getting in the way and he wasn't really used to throwing lightning bolts at things that moved, but this whole thing sure made him feel like Zeus.
The other beast got away but he didn't chase after it, he flew down to check if the monster was dead. The guts and bodily fluids were all over the place, Matt covered his nose as the big bug had quite the smell to it.
*Uh... will those villagers even want to eat this thing...*
He shrugged for now and placed the dead body in his storage ring and then backtracked to the spot that he killed the other one, only to find more giant bugs of the same kind eating the corpse that he had slain. This was a good thing and a bad thing in a way, good that he had more monsters that he could practice his skills on, bad that the other beasts body was wasted now. Well, he rained down lightning laced javelins on the monsters, getting better and better at aiming them as practice did indeed make perfect and soon a pile of remains was filling the ground. He was glad that he had his ring on him, it would really be annoying if he had to fly with those stinky corpses around, he waved his hand and they vanished into thin air.
*Well this is going well... should I see where these monsters come from and clear out the nest, or just check out the area some more.*
These monsters weren't enraged or anything so they were just regular insect beasties, but they gave similar amount of points that he could farm. He left one corps outside to examine it, he could tell that the armor was kind of sturdy as knocking made robust sounds, maybe the people in the village could make things from this?
He got the smart idea of leaving one of the creature bodies out in the open, in the hopes of attracting it's kind. He thought that there should be a pace where they were coming from as the other ones appeared quite fast after he slew the first one. He hovered above them while checking his points, he had some now but still far from having enough to buy better skills or gear. He heard the sounds of insectoid feet on rummaging on the ground as another group of giant centipede monsters emerged. He smirked and cleared them out as well, soon being able to precisely aim his lightning spear at the heads which brought the beasts down with one hit.
"I'm sure am a bit overpowered, aren't I? Or at least haven't found anything that could hurt me yet... better not get cocky. Think those monsters came from that way."
He flew in the direction the large insects came from and after spotting more of them, clearing them out, gathering all the remains he wooshed further and further and finally came up to a hill. The hill had many holes in the side of it and he could see the insect monsters crawling out of them. Sometimes they moved some food inside, sometimes they bit each other but mostly they were just being creepy.
"Hm... wished I had some grand skills so I could take this hill out ... It looks like there are hundreds of them there..."
Matt checked his map and the amount of red dots on it was huge, he couldn't tell how many of those creatures were stuck in that hill but it was a lot. He could more or less distinguish the power level of these monsters by now, there weren't any strong ones around them as all of them were at the Qi Condensation stage, there was one a bit stronger than the other ones but it wouldn't be a problem.
"Question is... do I have enough spirit qi to fling so many javelins at them... guess this will be a good training exercise."
He wasn't tired from using his throwing skill that much at the moment, but he didn't use it that much and he had downtimes to gather up more spirit qi from the surroundings, which his lightning core was kind of doing on its own passively.
"I'm cheating a bit as they have no way of getting up here to where I am... oh well... "
Matt started throwing javelin after javelin at the creepy crawling giant centipede monsters, doing it faster and faster as they emerged from the hillside to see what was going on. They knew that they were in danger but they couldn't see with their limited senses, not really having good eyes and mostly using their huge antennas and changes in the surroundings to get a read on their opponents. They weren't really ready for a shameless cultivator that just bombarded them from a safe distance with bolts of lightning. Matt started getting really good at this, managing to fire off multiple javelins at once, he learned that he could produce multiple spears of lightning in his hand and throw them with an added devastating effect, or he could charge up longer and fling a huge one that could take out multiple centipedes if they piled up in one spot.
After using this skill to take out most of the insect beasts, he started feeling tired, he felt weird as his body as getting deprived of spiritual energy after prolonged usage.
"I guess that I do have a cap to this power, but luckily there aren't many left and I think the leader is coming out."
The hill burst open and a centipede that was about twice the size of the other ones emerged, but it also wasn't much for him to handle as it also just took one supercharged javelin to the face before crumbling down, dead on the ground.
Giant Centipede Slain ( Qi Condensation 12th stage ) Earned 100 Spirit Points.
"Oh, guess it was close to advancing, maybe I'd have gotten more points if I had waited a bit?"
He cleared out the entire nest within a couple of hours, his throwing abilities were at a higher level now plus he finally had some SP to spend.
"Let's see...think I killed close to 200 of those bugs."
Name :Zhang DongAffiliation :Zhang ClanSpirit Points : 5584Cultivation Base Qi :Core Formation [Early Stage 5%] (Lightning Core)Cultivation Base Body :Foundation Establishment [Middle Stage 0%] (Silver Body)Techniques :Lightning Qi cultivation art, Silver Body Arts, Thunderlight Sword, Thunder Movement Art...Dao : Dao of Heavenly Lightning, Dao of Smithing and CraftingOther : Senior Aura
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 20
He was quite satisfied with himself, he was gaining points and learning to better use his skills in actual battle situations. If he could he would buy himself some sort of high tech training chamber to train instead of in a safe environment.
He stretched a bit and looked around his surroundings, it looked gruesome. There were dead bugs everywhere and they gave off a pungent smell. The centipedes were monsters with a poison attribute to them. The whole place was covered with various liquids besides blood and they ranged from yellow to purple.
Matt grimaced as he started to place the corpses in his storage ring. He sure hoped that those tribespeople would find a use for these giant bug remains. He was a bit disturbed while walking around the remains at least he didn't need to directly touch the remains just get close enough so he used his sword to hover slightly above ground level. This took him some time as he also started checking out the surroundings wondering if these types of bugs hoarded any items. He thought that maybe he could get some added treasure, but he didn't find anything and the openings in the hill were kind of narrow. Matt didn't want to crawl into the dark an unknown even though the minimap didn't show anything living inside, what if there was something blocking the signal and some creepy thing pounces on his face?
*Okay, I have some points now. But that skill sure does use a lot of energy if I have to spam it for an hour.*
His core was working in overdrive as it naturally sucked in spiritual energy from the surroundings to replenish his used up tank. He felt like he lost about half his Qi while going berserk with the javelin skill. He focused to bring out his lightning sword now with one hand, while summoning the spear with the other hand. He held both of them in the same way and concentrated.
*Hm... even though these two skills look similar and have a similar length to it, the javelin drains a bit more... maybe because it has to have enough punch to it, so when I throw it, it doesn't dissipate. The sword is always close to my body so I can sustain it better.*
He started to learn about managing his Qi reserves while engaging in battle. But he also wanted to test out some close-range combat and incorporate his other skills. He had the basic fighting knowledge to use punches and kicks, plus he had that flashy movement art that made him very hard to hit, but it was a bit hard to hit anything while moving as well. He sure could use a sparring partner or something for this, was kind of hard to learn much on your own, guess he would need to find himself, someone, to train with...
However, he did not see any old Asian grandpas that would teach him the way of the Dao while he cleaned their fence anywhere within the area he was in. For the time being the monsters around this area would be used to test out his plethora of skills which he didn't have an awful lot of. For the remainder of the day, he flew around the area taking it easy. He helped the members of the saucy tribe here and there if he spotted anyone in danger but he didn't find any more infested breeding grounds of monsters like the poison insects.
Matt managed to find a nice elevated spot as well, it was a larger hill, maybe it could be considered a small mountain but he didn't really know. He sat down in the lotus position as he did the previous day and started cultivating. The clouds soon gathered around him as he sucked in the spiritual Qi from around the area, the beasts and animals fleeing the spot that he was in as they noticed someone of a higher cultivation level. The beasts were somewhat intelligent and unless they had that strange berserk status they would not bring themselves in harm's way.
He spent the remainder of the day there, managing to go from 5% to 12% in his cultivation. Matt was a bit surprised that he was advancing so fast but that was probably because this was just the early stage, plus his body cultivation didn't budge at all as he needed to get some weapons to absorb.
He saw the sun starting to go down on the horizon, so it was time to return. He probably could handle himself during the night, but due to his old habits, he decided to head to his temporary home in the village. People could see him wooshing about in the sky, clasping their hands in respect as they saw him. Matt headed to the Chief's house, for now, he wanted to get rid of the giant centipede monster corpses as soon as he could, it didn't feel right to carry those things around with him.
"Greetings Senior Dong."
Said Yang Shan as he saw the cultivator in white who was standing outside his abode, he tried to beckon him over to his home for a chat and maybe some tea but Matt just waved him over instead. The Chief walked over and looked at the man who was scratching the back of his neck and thinking about something.
"So, uh... remember the deal from yesterday? I did hunt some monsters, so uh could you guys take care of the bodies?"
Yang Shan smiled in response as the deal didn't sound bad at all, they didn't really need to do much on their own, just process the goods and earn a bit of spare change while getting food and resources.
"Oh yes! Sure, sure just let us handle it."
The Chief looked ecstatic as this would aid his tribe a lot.
"So... where can I unload the bu... the beasts... Probably going to need a large area..."
He asked while scratching the back of his neck even more.
"Oh, you don't need to trouble yourself, Senior, just drop the beasts off anywhere you want, our Tribesmen will begin processing them immediately!"
"Are you sure? ... right here in front of your house? "
Matt looked at the burly man that just nodding with a smile on his face and shrugged, looking at his ring as he took a few steps back. He took out his flying sword first which made the tribe chief a bit puzzled. He then flew up so that he could begin the dumping procedure. Yang Shan then looked in bewilderment as a mountain of dead giant centipede monsters quickly piled up in front of his home, blocking the main gate fully from one side. There were a couple of other monsters in there but the dead bug parts were the things you mostly saw.
"Well then... I'm going to turn in for the night... you guys have fun."
Matt quickly zoomed out of there on his sword while the Tribe Chief's face started twitching. From all the monsters this Senior could hunt he had to go for the dreaded Giant centipedes, this kind of monster wasn't edible for humans at they were poisonous and their bodies were hard to process. They could kind of fashion crude armors and weapons from the insect shell and their sharp mandibles, the cores were the most lucrative part as they could be sold. He barked some orders at his retainers that moved out to gather more people, this mountain of dead bugs would be a chore to clean out as the poison from the bodies was dripping down into the soil already.
"I'll have to designate a special building for this... that senior is an odd one... "
While the other people were slaving... happily working through the night to clean up the graciously gifted animal remains, Matt brought up his status screen of his gains. He managed to rack up more points after the bug wars.
Name :Zhang DongAffiliation :Zhang ClanSpirit Points : 6084Cultivation Base Qi :Core Formation [Early Stage 12%] (Lightning Core)Cultivation Base Body :Foundation Establishment [Middle Stage 0%] (Silver Body)Techniques :Lightning Qi cultivation art, Silver Body Arts, Thunderlight Sword, Thunder Movement Art...Dao : Dao of Heavenly Lightning, Dao of Smithing and CraftingOther : Senior Aura
"Not bad for the first day ... feel a bit sorry for those guys, but there were a couple of edible looking beasts in that pile... sure hope dropping them in that bug pile wasn't a bad idea..."
It, of course, was a bad idea as the poison from the centipedes soaked into the other creatures remains but it could be eaten as the tribe people did have some cleansing and cleaning measures. They, of course, coursed him out at night as they found out that there would be even more work for them due to this. Matt just flopped onto his bed and rested while thinking about the things that he should do tomorrow.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 21
The next day, Matt brought up his cash shop and checked out some of the crafting manuals, there was a lot of stuff in there it ranged from single weapon crafting recipes to full collections of everything in a bundle, that would be cheaper than buying everything one by one. There were many weapons and armor categories, he did have that golden hammer that he got so he probably should get some weapon crafting skills first, but wouldn't he need something to sharpen the blade, was that hammer enough?
Novice Crafting Bundle :8000 (5600)Lets the user craft basic gear, the bundle includes recipes for common grade items, the grade of the items depends on the crafters skill, Novice starter crafting abode included in the bundle.
*What's a crafting abode?*
He searched for the term in the store and raised his eyebrow at what he got.
Novice crafting abode 4000(2800)Creates a manufacturing abode for the user, can not be opened if enemies are around. It can only be used only for crafting common grade equipment.Apprentice crafting abode (Can only be purchased if Novice abode is present. )40000(28000)Creates a manufacturing abode for the user, can not be opened if enemies are around. It can only be used only for crafting Mortal grade equipment.Adept crafting abode(Can only be purchased if Apprentice abode is present. ) 400000(280000)Creates a manufacturing abode for the user, can not be opened if enemies are around. It can only be used only for crafting earth grade equipment.
*Well this doesn't explain much, the abode can be opened? Does it put me in some kind of pocket dimension so I can craft in there? ... well, that would be neat! Or does it spit out some kind of house out in the open instead?*
Matt wasn't sure about the opening part of the explanation, he sure wanted to get that noobie bundle though even though he could only make the lowest of low items. Being curious he decided to buy it not like he had to use it right away. He looked as his points dwindled once more, spending points on skills was one of the more exciting things that a gamer could do, but it also was a chore to choose if you had limited points for it.
He waited for the crafting knowledge to invade his brain and give him a migraine once more, he closed his eyes and tried to focus on good things but the pain didn't come and he didn't feel any knowledge of smithing.
*Did I get scammed?*
He poked on his status screen and he soon spotted a new icon there, it looked like tongs and a hammer, crossed with each other. He hovered his finger over the new prompt being uncertain if he should click it or not. He looked outside the window, the night was dark and he couldn't see much outside. The place didn't have any electricity so there were no street lights around, people in this world used either fire or special magical treasures that produced light. But this village had none of that, besides simple candles and fireplaces.
Matt gulped and went for it clicking the icon and was greeted by a clung of a hammer on an anvil before a bright light filled the whole place. People could see a bright flash in his window that vanished as soon as it appeared. He felt a buzzing sound in his ears as he got momentary blinded, after rubbing his eyes he opened to find himself in another room. The walls looked like medieval castle walls, there was a giant furnace that was bubbling with liquid metal. There was a big anvil in the middle of the room with the furnace next to it, he spotted all the classical blacksmith utensils around, but they all looked kind of shabby.
*Okay, so I have my own pocked dimension to smith stuff, neat.*
There were no windows around and the room was lit by torches that were attached to the walls, plus a lot of candles here and there, the whole place had that middle-age vibe to it. He pulled his golden hammer that was supposed to have some crafting related bonuses, he swung it around hitting the anvil in the middle just to hear a nice ding sound.
*Well... shit, what am I supposed to do in here, I didn't learn any crafting skills*
He could see some iron ingots lying around the place, but not much besides that. Matt scratched his head and brought up his window, which was a bit different as it looked like the crafting space had its own window. He could see the list of recipes that he probably previously got in the bundle listed there, it was mostly for regular weapons like daggers, swords, maces. But there were other things like fans, robes and some tools. Guess it included all the basic craftable items that were in the bundle, though they were in there and not in his head for some reason.
Matt selected a regular looking iron dagger, wondering if it would do anything and as he clicked he saw that there was an iron ingot next to the dagger picture now. As he was looking at that a little clip played of a caricature of a blacksmith picking up an ingot and placing it in the large smelting furnace and then hammering on the anvil.
*Is it showing me to place one of those ingots in the furnace? Well, not like I have anything to lose at this point.*
He shrugged and picked up an iron ingot from the pile by the wall, and slowly placed it in the furnace. After this something weird started to happen, the smelting furnace began glowing and music began playing. He then looked at the anvil in the middle of the room as an enthusiastic voice could be heard coming from it.
"Get Ready! 3......2....1...GO!"
He was bewildered as a slab of red glowing metal appeared on the large anvil, a catchy tune began playing and some glowing green prompts started appearing on the slab.
*God damn... this is a rhythm game!?*
He had the golden hammer in his hand and started hitting the glowing green spots that turned red if they were out of sync, the whole thing took about 2 - 3 minutes and as he kept hitting the hot block of iron it started turning into the shape of a dagger.
"Congratulations, you created a common Iron Dagger middle grade"
He looked at the dagger on the anvil while some confetti got tossed in the air and then vanish soon after, he picked it up and swung it around and sure enough it was a real dagger and it was quite sharp too. Matt was a bit surprised by the whole thing but that explained why he didn't get any direct knowledge about crafting, it just put it in the game like system and depending on how well he did in the rhythm game, the quality of the item would be decided.
*Uh... I'm not good at rhythm games..."
He sighted while tossing the dagger into his inventory, he decided to chug another ingot into the furnace and now being prepared he run up to the anvil before the countdown started. A different tune than before started playing which made him frown but he was more ready than the last time as he started hitting the spots with his golden hammer, the slab of iron glowed quite a bit as he managed to land a perfectly timed hit but this was just his second time and all things considered he did quite well though he missed here and there.
"Congratulations, you created a common Iron Dagger high grade"
He took out the first dagger and compared it to the other one, the high grade one was shinier and it looked sharper than the first one he made. He poked at the tip with his finder wondering how sharp the thing was, but the dagger wasn't able to inflict any damage on his superior body, that had a high body refining technique and common grade items couldn't damage him.
"Well, I guess this is an interesting way to do it... at least It's fast I just need to gather materials and the rest thing is automatic. I wonder if I can add some special effects to these items..."
He started playing with the crafting interface and he figured out that he could add other items to the ones that were required, the prompt only showed him the minimum required items needed.
"Wonder what will happen if I add one of those beast cores...
He had the big rabbit core on him and also the smaller crimson wolf cores that the villagers gave him previously. So he decided to test it once more, going for a regular sword now, it used up one more iron ingot then the dagger. After adding one of the cores he started hammering the now bigger slab of metal in the middle of the anvil. He started getting better and better at the game but he wasn't perfect at it quite yet, but after getting the finished product he got surprised.
"Congratulations, you created a common Crimson Long Sword perfect grade"
"Hm, don't need to get a perfect score to get the highest grade item? Maybe if you add high grade materials it lowers the requirements for the items."
Afterward he went on a weapon creation frenzy and used up all the iron ingots and cores to create perfect grade common weapons, he made a Spear, a two-handed Hammer, a Greatsword, an Axe and a Jian Sword there were all in the crimson series and looked nice and menacing as the added cores gave them a style upgrade as well.
"I need cotton fiber or leather for clothes, so I guess I'll try those later... don't think the hammer game will play for those though."
He didn't see any tailoring equipment, it looked like a forge mostly for weapons and maybe metal armor, though people in this world didn't really wear those as they used a plethora of colorful robes and clothes. Guess you don't need iron armor if you can make your body as hard as a diamond.
Unfathomable Senior
Chapter 22
He found himself back in his cabin, nothing looked out of place as he was standing in the same spot as if he never left. He felt a bit spent, but more mentally than physically. He had a high cultivation base so after he focused his senses he could more or less hit all the glowing spots, he reckoned that due to this he would be able to have an easy time crafting things below his level that were the common and mortal grade items but when getting into the earth and heaven graded ones there would be a spike in difficulty.
Matt was curious about making the cultivator robes, there was a couple of cool ones in there though the one he was wearing felt like it was quite the high spec as well. He soon would find out the horror that was tailoring...
He turned in for the night. After a good night's rest, he left his cabin only to get greeted with many busy villagers that looked like they were still clearing out the gory pile of centipedes that he left for them. He kind of turned his head in the opposite direction as he spotted the mess hoping that people wouldn't see him, but he was kind of sticking out like a sore thumb.
Well not like anyone would complain to him even though they were mad, Mad just b-lined towards the market as he wanted to get some clothing materials. His appearance was met with bows as always and with smiles from some of the villagers and with frowns from others. He headed over to what looked like a stand, it had various beast hides in it and other things.
"W-welcome sir, how can I help you?"
The shop owner that was a middle-aged lady greeted him as he moved closer, he nodded at her and replied with a casual hello. He looked at the wares and then back to the shop owner. He rubbed his chin while looking at the wares while the lady got more and more nervous.
"How much can you give me for this..."
Matt didn't really know the value of those clothes as well he didn't know the value of his gold coins or spirit stones. The shiny coin was placed at the wooden table and the woman looked at it with open eyes. She grasped it with a shaking hand and examined it. Matt looked on as the lady shook, bit and then licked the coin for some reason before trying to return it to him.
"S-sir, I cannot accept this... it's too much"
The woman was troubled as she did indeed want the golden coin, but this coin, if you translated it to the modern world rate, would go for about 10k dollars or Euro. The things the villagers sold weren't worth that much, they were mostly simple cotton cloth and beast leather, a common thing around these parts.
"Well... just give me all of your leather and cloth, uh don't need finished clothes just the fabric though. You can just give me more if you have some later."
After some pushing, he managed to give the bewildered woman the gold coin and left with a bunch of leather pelts and rough cotton fabrics. He sneaked back into his wooden cabin and closed the blinds in his room before heading out into the crafting abode once more. He now had the raw materials needed for the procedure and he was curious about what the game system had cooked up for him next.
He looked at the items that he could craft and selected a leather tunic that looked kind of sturdy. After he selected the crafting item a prompt appeared if he really wanted to change to crafting clothes, which he found strange as the prompt didn't appear when he was selecting the weapon recipes. After he selected yes the room started shaking and the anvil started getting lowered to the floor, till it was gone. In its place, a handlebar started moving up along with a white platform. After it appeared it started glowing in a pattern that he was familiar with.
*I-is this a dance dance revolution pad...*
It had two arrows pointing left and right and two pointing up and down, but also had some going into each corner as well. The handlebar was there to hold onto it while tap-dancing around as it was in these kinds of games. He put in the required leather pieces for the tunic and looked at the dreaded dance game. He could see which arrows he needed to step on as an out of place screen moved down from the ceiling and it showed him the steps he needed to take while showing a seizure-inducing animation on it as well.
Matt awkwardly moved his legs hitting the arrows more or less, he never had the pleasure of trying this in real life and the experience was new so he didn't get a good score as he fumbled around. In the end, the got a middle grade one which wasn't really an achievement as he would have to really mess up to get a common low grade.
*I think I'll stick to this robe in the future...*
He looked at the dancing game which was flashing in the colors of the rainbow and looked super out of place in the gloomy blacksmith looking room. But he did get a whole lot of crafting resources, it would be a drag to let them go to waste.
*Well, no one can see me in here... so no one will know... still better than sewing the stuff myself.*
He slapped his cheeks to pump himself up, he moved his feet to the beat fumbling here and there but after a while he figured out the gist of it, but he didn't get anything above the Common high grade, now he had a lot of tunics and cotton robes that he didn't know what to do with. The clothing didn't really have any special attributes to them, besides being a bit more sturdy due to the high grade. He would have to add the beast cores and other resources to make them more special.
*Think I had enough for today ... *
He rubbed his chin and looked at his system screen, after going through the crafting window he also figured out that he could access a creative mode where he could design his own weapons and armor, but it was severely limited at the moment and he couldn't add much besides symbols or letters. Maybe later he could design a gunblade ... or maybe a chain blade?
He got a little bit sweaty after the jumping and wiggling his posterior about, if someone saw him dance around with that awkward expression on his face he would probably crawl under a big mountain in shame. For now, he exited the pocket crafting dimension and gave out a sight.
*Well, not if you don't take the fact that I have to do silly games to craft items, this isn't a bad thing at all, though I'll have to experiment with the recipes and see what I can use to make things like the crimson weapons, maybe I can use something besides the beast cores as well.*
He had somewhat an idea what to do now, gather more points, make more weapons and maybe more robes. Though he didn't want to spend a super long amount of time in this region, he did remember the city that he was supposed to go to, but he wanted to stock up on things he could sell there as well.
*Well, don't think it will be a problem if I stick around here a bit longer, there must be more insect nopes to slay!*
So the decision was made and Matt continued with his routine, he mostly hunted monsters in the day gathering them for the townspeople which were a lot gladder as he started bringing in some huge lizards and snakes as well. He tended to go for the nonmammal looking beasts as those reminded him of cats and dogs a bit too much. This was hypocritical, but he mostly defeated those in self-defense or while protecting other people thus, the poor tribe received quite a bit of insect monsters to work on instead. A week had passed like this.