Al had been testing his class skill for a few days already, and it was pretty incredible. It wouldn't help much in manouvering around the forest, at least not yet, but it was incredible for going places.

The stamina consumption was obviously higher than running normally, and since his Toughness wasn't very high he didn't have a lot of it (yeah, Toughness improved stamina). Also it started straining his muscles after a while. The speed was high, but with more Dexterity it would be even higher. Right now, pure stat gain was the most important.

Some of the kids and adults, had also managed to get their [F Grade Core]s to Mid proficiency, including Jiao, but mostly it was the ones that had been practicing paired cultivation. Apparently it was a well-known method in this world, but for some reason it was usually considered something only lovers should do, which was a stupid train of though in Al's opinion.

The ones that did try it immediately saw the results though, and convinced more and more people to do it too. Even the adults did it, though only with the ones of the same gender. Al didn't know how it was possible for none of the 5 to be in a relationship. Though, to be fair, he had heard rumors about where the males used to go to when they spent the night at the village...

And, about the village, they had sold much of the loot gotten from Rank 2 beasts to the traders there, and they had amassed quite the small fortune. It seemed the rank shift hadn't happened in the woods near the village, meaning they currently had a monopoly going on.

They had used part of the money to get better materials to upgrade the wall, and Al felt it was a wise decision. The Spiky bois may not be able to do anything to it, but a Supra bunny could jump above it or dig under it, and a Bear-boar could break through it in a couple of charges.

As he watched the people of the orphanage work diligently, Al kept doing push-ups next to Koro, who did them at double the speed despite having a meditating Jiao on his back. He was a mass of bulk at this point, and his height alone was that of a 12 year old, not someone who was barely 6.

Physical training mainly increased Strenght, but it also helped Toughness along since you were literally ripping your muscles apart. Well, the two stats usually went hand-in-hand anyway. Too much Strength and not enough Toughness and you would literally rip yourself apart every time you threw a punch, and in the opposite case you wouldn't be able to move, since Toughness also increases weight.

After another week of training with Koro's guidance, which caused him to regain a bit of his haughtiness and start calling him "runt" again, he saw that sweet blue screen.

Strength has reached F+ Grade

Al was really happy, but he kept up the training. He had gone to the village a couple of days ago, and used part of the money the orphanage gave him, which was a share from the profits of the monster parts, to buy some interesting manuscripts he found. He had been reading them while he rested his muscles, and while many things in them didn't concern him, he did find out some pretty interesting things.

In one called "The order of elements", it talked about all the known elements and their rarities. There was a vast amount, and while the basic four were there, they weren't nearly as common as they were back on Earth.

Instead, some wacky elements like "Wood" and "Metal" seemed to awaken in a lot of people. Al had no way to discover why it was so different, so he just let it slide. Yuly's element seemed to be called "Life", and while it was one of the more uncommon ones, it didn't seem to be some godly power or anything.

Something was wrong with the manual though, as it said that in the early stages it could only cure scrapes and bruises and restore stamina. 'Well, it's to be expected from a shoddy manual like this to get things wrong,' Al thought. His element wasn't even listed there, so Al guessed there were many more elements than the 17 listed on the manuscript.

Another one, called "Road of Cultivation, Compendium of the Path" (which sounded really weird in English) said there were apparently 9 Realms to cultivation, though it had only been confirmed up to the 6th, and the rest were from old legends.

They were called Condensation Realm, Foundation Realm, Strengthening Realm, Circulation Realm, Integration Realm and Boundary Realm, which left Al thinking.

The first one was obviously due to condensing your core, then the second one must be the actual starting point for cultivators. Al couldn't mess up now, since in many wuxia novels screwing up in strengthening your foundation would severely harm future cultivation.

There were also some vague tips on how to proceed through each stage, so when Al finished his training, he went to Yuly's room to look them over. When he got near though, he felt some strange mana fluctuations, and entered Yuly’s room in a flash (quite literally).

He saw her sweating profusely with a strained face, and when he asked "Are you okay?" She didn't respond. He hastily took her hands and tried to sense her mana, only to find that the outer part of her core was in the middle of turning into pure mana, but it had stopped advancing and was now reverting back to how it was.

Al had read about this in a manuscript, and it happened when one didn't have enough mental strength to go forth with a stage advancement. This was bad on its own, since you would lose months of cultivation, but Al guessed it had to be even worse in the Foundation Stage. He quickly started warding the mismatched mana away from Yuly's core, allowing her some breathing room to purify it. The process slowly kicked back into action, and after some time, Yuly had advanced a stage.

Al was tired, but Yuly was in a much worse state, knocked-out and hyperventilating. Al moved her to her bed and put a wet towel on her forehead, nursing her until she woke up.

When she did, Al asked "Yuly, why didn't you tell me that you were about to reach the next stage?"

She looked away "I...I wanted to surprise you..."

Al chucked inside, but he didn't let it show as he put a stern face " Well, you definitely surprised me. Don't ever do that again, you could seriously harm your cultivation. Look here, I've been reading these manuals..."

As the two went through what Al had read, they decided that Yuly would help Al get to the next stage, and then do mental training by constantly manipulating her mana for several weeks.

Al had had a theory in his head since a long time ago. It was that the natives of this world can also train their stats like back on earth, they just didn't have a convenient System to quantify it.

They certainly didn't have the normal human limits of Earth before the integration, since Koro's strength had already gone long past that. This meant Yuly should be able to get her Intelligence and Will up to E grade too, or at least near that, which seemed crucial for cultivation.

Even some of the manuals said it, though they called it "achieving enlightenment" for whatever reason. It wasn't anything mysterious like that.

So, over the next two weeks Al and Yuly did some intense cultivating, which made Al reach the next stage. It was hard, but much easier than getting his core to E Grade. Then Yuly started her mental training in earnest, and Al continued his physical training with Koro.

The new wall had been finished already, and now a layer of extremely resilient stone that excelled at repelling blunt attacks had replaced the wood, but the planks had been reused to improve the structural integrity of the orphanage itself.

The wall was now almost 4 meters tall, much thicker, and surrounded by a line of mean-looking spikes on the outside, and it would take all of Al's physical strength combined with enhancing his legs as much as possible to jump over it now. He would be able to save some energy by simply jumping high enough to grab onto the ledge and then pull himself up, but his hands were still really soft, and that may damage them a lot. Plus, it wouldn't be nearly as cool.

He could also just go through the gate, located where the path to the village was, but that was for fucking normies.

While thinking about those kinds of things, Al kept on training for several weeks. Just a couple of days in, his Toughness reached F Grade, and after about two weeks he got his Strength up to E- Grade. 'C'mon, just one more,' Al thought.

After that he continued training his Strength, but he also put a lot of his focus into training Dexterity. After almost two full months, he had gotten both of them to E Grade, and even his Toughness had gotten an upgrade, reaching F+ Grade.

Al proudly checked his Status, something he had forbidden himself from doing these past few months in order to motivate himself.

Alberto Peñas

Age: 2 years

Level 5

Class: Prodigy of the Lightning Rapier

Strength

E

Dexterity

E

Toughness

F+

Will

E

Charisma

E-

Perception

F

Assignable

4

Skills:

[Mana Manipulation] (High)

[E Grade Core] (Mid)

[Body Enhancement] (High)

[Lightning Palm] (Low)

[Quick Steps] (Low)

Al rejoiced at the sight. He was also two years old now, but he already knew that since winter had started a couple of weeks ago, and his birthday was at around that time. Not that he cared for celebrations.

In any case, now that he had reached E Grade in almost all his stats, there was something he had to do. 'Time to assign my points, baby!'