Al and his new companion had left the forest littered with Rank 2 corpses, and although the Spiky boi and the Supra bunny weren't that useful other than specific parts that are easy to carry, the whole corpses of the two Bear-board they killed were extremely valuable, from their meat to their bones, tendons and fur.

Even Al now wore boots made from those tendons and fur, though he rejected any further Armor since it would be too cumbersome to his fighting style and too thick for his small frame.

The Supra bunny's fur was also great material for blankets, since it was soft and warm, and their meat tasted great, but they didn't have any practical value. Al did want to make the process of bringing them back to camp easier though, so he started thinking for potential methods.

Currently their biggest setback was that with the uneven ground and the trees, it was really hard to find a rout to bring the cart back and forth to the orphanage to take the materials back with their, but there was no big issue in regards to manpower (or, well, Koro-power).

After a couple of hours of wracking his brains, he put his plan into action. He first took 12 of the 15 Porcuspines they had, and attached them to eachother by their end-points using well-tied Bear-boar sinew, along with some extremely potent glue that Khan-wan managed to make by boiling the boar's cartilage, like Al had instructed her.

When he asked her to try it two weeks ago he had no clue if it would work, but he remember watching someone make glue with pig's cartilage in some YouTube video long ago, and it worked out wonderfully.

When the glue dried, Al had the framework of a 30cm-long cube that was extremely light, but could bend and withstand a lot of pressure without breaking. It unfortunately wasn't wheightless, since it seemed the Porcuspine's cap had a limit of about 80-85% weight reduction, and Al had a good theory as to why.

The theory was that any non-air mana that surrounded it would slightly lower the Spine's maximum bonus, and ambient mana was enough to bring it to that level Since cultivatorsmade mana congregate around them, the stronger they were the bigger the effect was, the cap would be even lower, around 50% was Al's current cap.

While pondering such things, Al moved onto the next step. Misty had been going around his prototype for a while, maybe trying to envision what it would become, he ignored her and got back to work.

He filled the 6 sides with leftover planks from the previous wall, and then used some more glue to set it all in place except one side, that could pop in and out of place. He also covered it in Supra bunny fur, which would further soften any impact, and were somehow dirt-proof, since the filth just fell out on its own. He now knew how the bunny's were always sparkly clean. 'Earth magic is really convenient...'

Al took a step back and marvelled at his creation. He had made a small, fluffy, super-light and shock-absorbing box! It had 27L of capacity, and enough size to fit most furs, bones and big pieces of meat.

When he finished it, Al went to the adults to tell them about his plans. They seemed reluctant at first, but decided to try since there was nothing to use. And so, they started to train on using it, especially Koro and Chu-Pei.

After a week which Al spent cultivating with Yuly, they did their first live test. Al found and killed a Bear-boar with Misty's help, and the adults set out with no cart, only Koro and the box.

It took them about a fourth of the time than usual to get there. The butchering team quickly got to work on first skinning it, trying to damage the fur as little as possible. They had gotten a lot of practice over the past few months, so they did it swiftly and efficiently.

Once the first piece was ready, another one got rid of all the excess material on the interior of the fur, then she folded it and fitted it into the box, closing it before starting on the next piece. Koro then picked it up and threw it at the orphanage.

With his already monstrousstrength, throwing 6 kilograms over 1 kilometre was no problem. What he'd been training this past week had been his precision, and he could now nail the throw on a 20-meter radius of his target. This was incredible, really.

The box fell onto the large yard in front of the orphanage, and some of the older children that had been conscripted for this job swiftly emptied it, closed it back up and gave it to Chu-Pei who was with them to throw it back to where it came from. His accuracy was incredible, and his wind element gave him a good synergy with the box, so he could always throw it in a 5cmeter radius of his target. If the box was empty, that is.

Once they repeated the process many times most of the boar's parts were in their respective storerooms, except the bigger ones like the tusks that were just carried back on foot. Overall, the process was almost three times as fast as before. 'Well, that's a win in my books.'

Over the next two weeks They kept practicing using this method, and Al made a freezer room. Well, it was just an insulated room that had to be cooled daily by their two Ice element cultivators, but it was better than nothing. He also had to make some repairs to it from the inside, and the cold improved his Toughness. 'Hooray!'

They had been using the cold winter to stave off rotting, but it had already come to an end a month ago, and they had been forced to sell off most of their meat. They weren't con a starve or anything, but they wanted to keep it for themselves. Especially since it seemed to benefit Koro immensely.

When Al was hunting a Supra bunny with Misty in order to keep testing, he finished it by electrifying it and a blue screen appeared.

[Lightning Palm] Skill has reached High proficiency. The conversion efficiency is now 200%, but too much charge will decrease control.

Al was ecstatic. Now the only unevolved skill that wasn't High proficiency was [Quick Steps], since he had gotten it pretty recently. He also felt like he was really close to Level 10.

The next day Al was having trouble finding any Rank 2s, 'It seems I overexploited the area...' but after a while he finally found one. When he finished it he felt his soul 'I don't know what to call it otherwise' increase in size again, seemingly fitting into a 'groove' that would be hard to get out of. 'Oh yeah, level 10 is kinda like a bottleneck, and every level up is harder from that point...' Anyway, Al put the point into Intelligence, since he felt he would need it for his next breakthrough, and opened his Status, since he also wanted to see his new class skill.

Alberto Peñas

Age: 2 years

Level 10

Class: Prodigy of the Lightning Rapier

Strength

E

Dexterity

D+

Toughness

F

Will

E+

Intelligence

D-

Charisma

E-

Perception

E-

Assignable

0

Skills:

[Mana Manipulation] (High)

[E Grade Core] (High)

[Physical Augmentation] (Low)

[Sense Enrichment] (Low)

[Lightning Palm] (High)

[Quick Steps] (Mid)

[Flash] (Low)

[Flash] (Low): Directs mana towards arms and legs in conjunction to executing efficient movements in order to skilfully pierce designated target.

That sounded very difficult and technical, but after using it, it was just a skill that perfected his already good piercing technique, and combined it with efficient mana enhancement. It was extremely effective however, and even Misty seemed impressed by how quick it was.

He returned to the orphanage, and decided to go with them to the village the following day, since he was pretty bored staying at the same place for so long.

When they got there, they saw a man with a big brown moustache in fairly extravagant clothing showing off many items over a makeshift counter, and with what seemed to be a horse-driven cart behind him. 'A travelling merchant?' As the adults discussed something between themselves, Al eyed the wares.

There were several worn-out manuals, some pretty pill-looking orbs and some seemingly random powders, rocks, plants and roots. 'Alchemy materials? I guess I just gotta be one with the trope at this point.' There was also an orange pill that was clearly the most valuable object, since it looked like the centrepiece of a collection.

After the adults bought some of the manuals and pills, and sold the man with the moustache some Bear-boar fur and tusks and some Supra rabbit meat after having him taste some, Al approached the pleased-looking man, probably because of the unexpected gains he'd gotten from this village in the middle of nowhere.

"Hey little one, your family are quite the spendrifts huh?"

Al decided not to correct the merchant, and instead put on his best cute face, making full use of his Charisma, and asked while pointing at the orange pill. "Sir, what's that pill there? It looks yummy,"

The man chuckled, 'It worked' and responded "You have a good eye, little one. That my best item, a Tier 2 breakthrough pill worth more than five gold, it helps immensely to get to Foundation Realm from Condensation Realm.

'So that's how they do it! They must have one for every realm too!'

"And how does it do that?" Al asked.

"It infuses in your Dantian and improves its Ki resonance, making the task of Condensing the Ki around your core much easier!"

Al felt it made sense, but something felt off. That would make your Dantian less pure, and the whole meaning to advancing stages was to make it as pure and attuned to you as possible. He had to ask.

"But wouldn't that make your Dantian less pure?"

The man responded, a tinge of annoyance in his voice. "Well, most pills work that way. The loss in purity is almost insignificant, and even though breakthrough pills are one of the most aggressive in that regard, it's only documented to ever really negatively affect cultivators from the Integration Realm or higher, so it's not like you people should be concerned about that.

Al felt like the man was losing his patience, so he backed away. The information had been crucial, and he decided to tell Yuly, Jiao and maybe even Koro not to take pills without asking Al first.

Dan Kogh-Ram's new "master" 'That's what he thinks he is' was interesting. He had given Kogh-Ram the name 'Mis-tie', which wasn't worthy at all, and it didn't even mean anything. He was an interesting human however. His body was clearly that of a youngling, and (after checking) Kogh-Ram knew it wasn't some sort of rejuvenation technique, yet his mind was one of an adult. Kogh-Ram did not know why that was, but answers would have to wait.

He had also no knowledge of any pills, elixirs nor martial techniques, which would be normal for any other youngling his age, but not for someone with his insight and capabilities. In fact, it seemed he had never taken a pill or learned a martial technique in his life, yet he managed to reach the level of strength he was at in little more than a year, according to the people around him.

He did use some techniques, but they seemed to be of his own creation, judging by their simplicity and how he managed to improve them every once in a while. Kogh-Ram had grown used to it by now, but the speed at which those techniques progressed was overwhelming.

Maybe it would be fun to stick around this human, while he thinks our lives are linked.