Half a day later, Sky and Kara heard cracking sounds as Aria began to secrete a smelly black liquid. Since two of them were touching him, some of the liquid got on them causing them to scrunch their noses and back away. Not noticing their reactions, he was excited about his breakthrough into the Muscle and Tendons stage of Body Tempering. In addition to that, as he explored his body with qi, some of it happened to enter the world seed and he noticed that it had nearly one thousand times the size of his spatial pouch now and seemed to be filling up with qi of the five elements. Realizing how badly he smelled, he tied a rope to the boat and the other end to himself as he dragged along in the water to wash off quickly before climbing back up onto the boat. Just in time to hear Marg and Lydia calling out that dinner is ready.

When all sat down on the deck to eat, the group congratulated Aria for his breakthrough before looking at Sky in shock. Coming out of her shock, Lydia asked, “S-S-Sky… You have elemental energy?”

Smiling happily Sky grabbed Aria’s arm and said, “Yep! I can’t really use it yet since I don’t have a cultivation technique to control it but I can store it early for when I breakthrough.”

Jumping from her seat, Marg asked, “How! What did you do? That’s such a great thing, you can’t keep it from your best friends, right?”

However, Sky just smiled and said, “It’s a secret.”

Grumbling about how her best friend betrayed her, Marg was just about to eat when a massive, silver whale-like whale qi beast jumped up out of the water. Marg panicked and yelled, “It’s a Steel Beast at the peak of the Muscle and Tendons stage! Oh god, this is going to be…” However, before she could finish speaking she heard five unfamiliar sounds as the Steel Beast fell dead into the water, causing an enormous wave that soaked everyone on the boat. Both surprised and disappointed, she said, “Damn. It’s worth a lot of money but our spatial pouches can’t hold it and we don’t have enough space on the boat to dismantle it…”

Hearing the word ‘money’, Kara gave Aria a death glare and said “We are going to be poor at the second level if all you do is kill shit. Go. Get. The. Body.”

Sighing, Aria jumped into the water after the sinking Steel Beast. Once he caught up to it he placed his hand on it and formed a connection between it and the world seed to collect it before going back on the boat. Smiling towards Kara he said, “Don’t worry, I got it. We can always stop at an island or something later on but should keep moving for now.” Then he sat down, took his plate of food out of his world seed and sat under the envious stares of those who didn’t prepare for the giant wave. While enjoying his meal, Aria opened his tablet to check his new stats as, from the Steel Beast, he earned +150 XP and leveled up again.

Level: 1 -> 2 (+2 Store Points)

Stats:

Strength: 15 -> 16

Agility: 21 -> 22

Vitality: 21 -> 22

Endurance: 15 -> 16

Qi: 45 -> 55

Will: 27 -> 35

Mind: 70 -> 80

Element: Void

Inner World Stability: Unstable, can’t support life, spirit, or soul based entities. Located in

Braincore.

At first he was surprised with the large increase from the last time he saw his stats. However, then he remembered that not only did he level-up, he also moved up a stage in the Body Tempering realm. AS if sensing his odd glare at the air, Kara walked up to him to see what was wrong.

Whispering, Aria said to Kara, “Kara. I found out what the ‘Level’ option is in our stats. Killing qi beasts gives ‘XP’ which causes us to level-up and boosts our stats. Next time you see a qi beast you can kill, try it.”

“Alright, let’s cultivate again and leave monsters below the Muscle and Tendon stage to me.”

Since the sky was getting dark, they decided to set up a schedule. Lisa and Liam would rotate night shifts for steering the ship, however, there wasn’t a shift for guard duty as Aria was the only one who could kill Muscle and Tendon stage qi beasts. So, Aria put his bed to the roof and attached a couple of large umbrellas in case it rained. That way if a beast appeared he didn’t have to leave the building to kill it. Luckily, as a beast-person, Sky had acute senses for danger and would wake-up Aria as a beast was approaching.

__________

For the next week, time passed peacefully. Liam and Lisa spent their time cultivating and steering the ship. Marg and Lydia spent their time cultivating, cooking, and dissecting qi beasts. Aria, Kara, and Sky spent their time sleeping and cultivating with the occasional break to eat and for Aria and Kara to fight qi beasts. Kara moved her bed onto the roof to cultivate with Aria at night and Sky kept sleeping on Aria’s bed to cultivate with him. At first Aria was uncomfortable with Sky in his bed but, although nothing too intimate happened, he slowly got used to it.

Neither Kara or Sky could use their cultivation techniques as they slept, however, the qi from Aria would naturally disperse into their muscles and, oddly enough, if they used their cultivation techniques for a few hours before sleeping, Aria’s Passive Cultivation would consider it to be part of his technique and control the energy. The downside to this is that they would feel a bit stuffy in the morning until they circulated their techniques on their own for a few minutes. At the end of the first week, Kara and Sky were full of excitement as Kara reached the peak of the bone stage and Sky had a breakthrough to the early bone stage. They were the only ones on the boat to make much progress, however, Kara made more progress of the two due to her leveling up. After reaching level two, both Aria and Kara noticed a drastic slowdown and had yet to level-up again. Although this could be attributed to them mostly seeing qi beasts in the skin realm which provide little XP.

On this day, a week into the trip, Aria had an ugly look on his face when he woke-up. He had read dozens if not a hundred xianxia and wuxia web novels and, in all of them, only normal people with little to no fame would have a relaxing trip while the main character would experience trials and find riches and rare resources. Why was this trip easy so far? Was he not the main character? Was he not destined to find a bunch of rare resources and marry princesses? Sighing, he realized that he had been thinking of this trip as a book or video game when reality is much harsher. This isn’t a game, it’s his life and he could die at any time. He only survived Earth because of random luck. He only got the World Seed technique because of random luck and other than that he hasn’t really had any massive luck or tribulations since coming to this world. This boat isn’t anything special, Kara’s technique might be special but that isn’t his luck, and he isn’t completely sure yet whether or not Sky really likes him, although he does like her. She’s beautiful, talented, and has an easy to get along with personality…

Sighing again, Aria decided to look at his map app. He hadn’t looked at the app since he opened it but it should have been recording their route so far. After opening the map, he saw a satellite overview of the places he had travelled plus places within a five mile radius on the water but a quarter mile radius on land. It wasn’t up-to-date, but what the area looked like as he passed by. There were also buttons called Add Location, Route to Location, and Radar. The first two were pretty clear, the first one allowed Aria to highlight a location and name it while the second one functioned sort of like Google Maps. It provides a directional line on the map for land, air, sea, or a mixture-based travel. However, it only works for places showing on the map. The Radar button was the one he was truly interested in. When he tapped it a new screen popped up.

Radar Introduction: Radar is an extension of the map. It functions by extending your Will into the environment. A small window will appear on the map with a list of all things that appear within your range, item names are based on your knowledge. In addition to that, anything that has a reaction to your Will causes an alert in your mind. On land, radar functions a quarter of a mile in radius around you and 5 miles below you for every 25 will you have. However, on water, radar functions two miles in radius around you and 20 miles below you for the same amount of will. This feature is entirely based on the ‘Will’ stat and doesn’t require anything else.

Would you like to enable radar? Y/N

Aria wasn’t too excited about it because he has a lack of knowledge of items and creatures of the Tower. So, he had a feeling it wouldn’t be too useful until he spends some time learning. However, he enabled it anyway and went back to manually cultivating. Just like that, their peaceful times continued.

Another week passed as a surprising notification popped up in front of Aria.

Radar found a large group of humans and beast-people on a small island to the north-east. No signs of fighting but a large amount of qi-containing materials.

Surprised, Aria stood up and said, “Hey guys, let’s go chat with Lisa for a moment. I have a question for her.”

Kara and Sky were surprised at the abrupt statement but they had grown used to passive cultivation and didn’t wish to stop it for even a moment so, Sky wrapping her arm against his left arm and Kara holding his right hand, they jumped off the roof and walked towards the siblings on the deck.

“Hey Lisa. Can you stop the boat for a moment?” Asked Aria.

Lisa was curious why but listened since Aria is sort of in charge. “Is something wrong, Aria?” She asked

“Nothing’s wrong but something interesting is happening nearby,” said Aria. He then shouted, “Marg! Lydia! We’re having a group meeting on the deck for a moment.”

After a moment, the two walked out of the building as Marg questioned, “Is something wrong Aria?”

“Nothing is wrong but I’m less familiar with maps of the region than your families are but I found something interesting. About two miles to the north-west of us there’s a small island with a bunch of cultivators. I can tell they aren’t fighting but there are a lot of qi-containing materials there, are there any trading events in this area?”

Before Marg could speak, Lisa yelled in excitement, “The Natesh family trading fair! It’s the Natesh family trading fair! Oh my god, Aria, we have to go! Liam, we can see our parents!”

Slightly taken aback, Aria said, “Woah, slow down for a moment. Okay. Go ahead and steer the boat to the worth-west, where I’m pointing, and explain what this ‘Natesh Family Trading Fair’ is in detail as we travel.”

Nodding and steering the boat, she continued, “The Natesh family is one of the three leading families of Natesh city. However, taxes on all shopping areas and trading fairs are split between the three family’s. The Natesh family focuses on healing and trading so they are more of a merchant family than a standard cultivation family, hosting a massive cultivation trading fair every five to ten years. The location is never revealed but it’s always outside of the city to avoid paying taxes to the other two families and to allow teleportation portals to the fair from three other second level cities. The entire event is supervised by the family’s Nascent Soul Ancestor who sets up teleportation portals with the help of Nascent Soul experts from other second level cities.” Taking a breath she said, “It can't be relied on for travel between the first and second level since no one knows it’s location or when it will be held as it’s not announced to the public until a week beforehand. Aria, if we go there then there will be teleportation portals to multiple second level cities, including Natesh, saving us a long trip. Plus, Aria and Kara can sell or trade the materials from the monsters they killed.”

After he heard Lisa, Aria was beyond elated. He only had a year to reach a second level city but now he’s going to reach one only like five weeks after entering the Tower! Thinking for a moment he said, “Lisa, I assume this isn’t something people often randomly come across, correct?”

“Yes. Each time they host it, only one or two groups will stumble upon the event but they rarely have the funds to use the teleportation portal and end up leaving to continue their journey. However, if they have the funds, then they can use the portal.”

Hesitating for a moment Aria said, “Lisa, obviously you and Liam will be fine as members of the Natesh family. However, what if we don’t have the funds? You two are the only ones that can navigate in the ocean so we will be left to randomly wander the ocean which defeats the purpose of taking the ocean with you two instead of the land route on our own. So, what are you two’s intentions if the rest of us can’t afford the fee?”

Her excitement diminished, Lisa said, “Liam and I will speak to our parents about getting your fees covered. Our parents are good people and you two are the reason we could get this far so they absolutely will. However, if they don’t cover them, I will stay behind and guide the boat. I can’t speak for Liam because he is the young master of the family so they may force him to stay. I, on the other hand, am the daughter of a guest and cannot be forced to return.”

Nodding, Aria said, “Alright. We should be about an hour away and will make a decision based on the situation when we get there. You should all pack your belongings in case we can use a portal.” As people dispersed, Kara stayed with Aria who called out to Sky.

“Yes Aria. What can I do for you?” Queried Sky.

Blushing a bit, Aria said, “H-Hey Sky. Kara and I might not be going to Natesh. First we’re going to spend some time at the trade fair and then find out about which cities we can teleport to before deciding…” Face flushed completely red and stuttering, he continued, “I-I-I I enjoyed the time we spent together and wouldn’t say no if you wanted to come with Kara and I… It would mean leaving your friends, Marg and Lydia, so I understand if you don’t wish to go with us but…”

Before he could finish speaking, Sky’s face lit up as she jumped at him, hugging him as she replied, “Yay! I was kind of afraid you two would leave me. I already told Kara that your energy is binded to me, so you're stuck with me whether you want it or not.” Spinning around and heading into the house, she said, “I’ll spend this next hour or so with Mard and Lydia.”

“Binded?” Aria was confused so he looked at Kara who simply smiled before walking into the house.