Hey guys. Happy Thanksgiving. Here is the first chapter for today. Another one is coming right after this one. I still have one more midterm tomorrow, so I most likely will post a single chapter on Sunday. Anyway have a fantastic weekend.

Inside the pool, Ryu sat there trying to increase the size of the mana sphere for the last couple hours. He had tried to cultivate on the ground, but found that he cultivated much faster in the pool. He was continuously refining mana and increasing the flow of mana to his sphere. As time passed, Ryu became more and more proficient at this process. Soon he had increased the diameter of the sphere from 3 inches to 4 inches. However from 4 inches onwards became exponentially more difficult to complete.

Unknown to Ryu, the mana sphere had continuously drawn in mana when he was fighting, although it was slow, the flow had begun refining his body. He had already stepped into the Initiate Rank. He had already become a cultivator/practitioner. Unaware of this fact, Ryu continued to train. As he was guiding the mana to the sphere in his chest, he remembered what had happened yesterday.

One Day Before

Having opened the door and spotted the pool, Ryu went in and cleaned himself and trained for about 2 hours. Although he managed to increase the diameter from 3 inches to 3.2 inches, Ryu found that it would take significantly longer to increase it any further. So, he stood up and walked out of the room and continued onwards. Having arrived at another patrol area, he spotted 10 goblins. There were 8 goblins that looked the same as the ones he had killed before, while the remaining 2 looked different. They looked more intelligent, dressed in robes rather than leather armour, and carried wooden staffs rather than swords for weapons. Seeing this new type of goblin, Ryu grew cautious. He carefully examined the goblins and realised that their staffs had gems at the top of them. The goblins also carried them differently than swords or spears. Ryu decided that these were the goblins that he had to kill first.

Ryu crept forward and sneaked from rock to rock. In all of the patrol zones he had come across there were boulders and rocks on the side. Ryu was baffled because it felt like someone was trying to help him get to the end. Thinking about this, Ryu crept forward. As he was getting to the middle, one of the patrols grew near to him. All of a sudden, one of the staffs of the goblins shined. The goblin wielding the staff pointed in his direction and screamed.

Ryu mumbled, "Darn it! That’s Magic! You are a goblin mage!"

The goblins with staffs were mages! They had cast a detection spell and found Ryu. Ryu was still behind the boulders so he was shielded from attack spells. Ryu remembered what his mom had told him, "Most of the lower and middle mages need to see their targets in order to cast attack magic. Only the upper tier mages can cast attack magic without their eyes on the target."

Ryu hid, hoping that this mage required to see him in order to cast an attack spell. As he began creeping from rock to rock to escape, the two goblins closest to him had arrived at his position.

They screamed and swung their swords at him. By now, Ryu was already used to their attacks and he easily killed the two goblins. It also helped that he had grown stronger because of his mana sphere. As Ryu was making his escape, the other patrol ran to the spot where he had entered and blocked his way. From there it became an elaborate game of cat and mouse.

In the end, Ryu had slain all the goblins, including the goblin mages, but it had come at a terrible cost. One of Ryu’s arms was injured badly. A goblin had managed to cut him and the sword had cut all the way to the bone. There was a similar wound across his back, when he had failed to detect a goblin sneaking up on him when he was fighting two other goblins. The goblin mages had cast enchantment on the goblins like strength, agility, light armour, and enchantments on their swords like sharp edge, speed, and power. These enchantments had made this fight very difficult for Ryu to win. If it wasn’t for Ryu’s mana sphere constantly cycling mana through his body healing his wounds slowly, Ryu would not have survived. After the battle, Ryu had sat down and circulated mana through his body, stopping the bleeding and closing some of the minor wounds.

After he was done temporarily healing his wounds, Ryu gathered all of the goblin’s weapons. He had used his sword to absorb all of the goblin’s swords and his dagger to absorb the few dagger that he had found. However, he did not know what to do with the staffs. He sat there and brought his dagger close to the staffs but his dagger did not change or respond. Then he brought his sword close to the two staffs and it began to vibrate. The sword shined a golden color and absorbed the two staffs. After the light faded Ryu observed my new sword. The sword had become a deep blue color with golden runes on the blade. The gem in the pommel had become a lighter shade of red, even though it was still dark red. Ryu picked up the sword and noticed that the length of the sword had shrunk a bit, becoming more balanced in his hands. The sword had also become lighter, which made it easier for Ryu to swing about. Ryu smiled at it’s changes. Although the sword became lighter, it did not seem weaker. In fact, Ryu felt that it became even more stronger.

Ryu sheathed his sword and dagger and slowly walked back to the room. Ryu started calling it his cultivation room because it was the more effective place for him to train. He had stumbled into the room and barely managed to undress before collapsing in the pool.

Present day

Ryu had decided after he woke up that he should finish expanding his mana sphere to a diameter of 5 inches before going out again. Otherwise he might really die next time. It was out of pure luck that he managed to survive. He was not going to risk it again. After all, whenever Ryu ran into a goblin patrol their numbers always increased. The first time it was 1 goblin, the second time it was 4 goblins, the third time it was 5 goblins, the 4th time i was 6 goblins, and the last time it had been 10 goblins. The next time there might be 12 goblins or 15 goblins. There was no way that Ryu could be sure. So he chose to train.

Ryu thought in his head, "Sylvie. Yuki. I’m sorry that I missed your birthday. I promise that I will come home so we can celebrate your next birthday. Mom, Dad. I’m sorry I’m making you worry. I promise something like this will never happen again."

After promising this, Ryu closed his eyes and spent his entire concentration on training.

A Few Days Later

Ryu was standing up from the pool with a look of joy in his eyes. He had finally finished expanding his mana sphere to a diameter of 5 inches. Ryu had thought about further increasing the size but he felt a premonition that if he had increased the size further he would have died. Ryu was lucky because he did not know that if he had increased the size further, his body would have exploded from overloading his body with mana.

After Ryu had reached the maximum size for his mana sphere, he felt a change. His strength had increased multiple times. Although Ryu did not know, his strength had increased by 6 times. He had reached the 10th tier of the Initiate Rank. He was at the very peak, on the verge of breaking into the Novice Rank. All that was left for him to do was to create a dantian. Once he created his dantian he would step into the Novice rank.

Ryu stood up and stretched and performed his daily exercises. This involved sit-ups, jogging, and sword practice. This was his daily routine at his house. However, Ryu had also added dagger practice in because he wanted to be proficient in the use of a dagger as well. So he trained for the last couple days. Although he was not a master at using the dagger, after practicing he became more used to wielding the dagger.

After exercising, Ryu stood up and packed his things. Afterwards he went to the pool and filled a couple vials with the liquid. He had found these on the goblin mages. The water was not for drinking. He had tried to do so 2 days ago and he had been filled with horrifying pain. He had passed out several times and it has taken 1 whole day for him to get better. Although it was extremely painful, it did boost his cultivation speed for 1 day. He kept the vials with him in case of emergencies or if this room disappeared in the future. As he was about to step out he realized that he hadn’t checked the book after he had reached the 3rd stage.

Ryu opened his bag and pulled out the manual(book -> cultivation manual). Opening it, Ryu saw the same text he had seen before. Nothing new appeared and just as Ryu was putting it away, he decided to go through all the pages. Turning the page Ryu saw some new text. The first line went.

The 4th stage is to create a dantian.

Reading this, Ryu became excited. He was going to become super powerful. However, the next line made him feel depressed.

However, before forming a dantian one must get used to the mana core and accustom themselves to it. Otherwise if you form a dantian and your body is not strong enough, then you will die. The correct time to form a dantian is when your body stops absorbing mana from your mana core. When you feel that your mana core cannot strengthen your body any further, this is when your body has become totally accustomed to your mana core.

Ryu sighed. It seemed like he still had to wait before creating his dantian because he could feel the mana strengthening his body. He put the book away and took one last look at his mana core(mana sphere -> mana core) before walking out the door and back into the tunnel.

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The Entity stared down at Ryu and sighed, "Haaaah….. Little one, this is where your true test begins. Most of the other candidates also made it up to this point. However, they all failed the 2nd part of the test. I hope that you can pass. "

As it was speaking, it felt another pair of eyes watching Ryu as well. It turned around and stared into the darkness.

The Entity sighed again, "Haaah, child. Do constrain yourself this time. And do go easier on this one. Even I have lowered my expectations for this one."

As soon as it spoke, it sensed the other presence disappear.