Chapter 73: Training Part 2

Adam had put 5 IESP behind the Dual Slash and was pleasantly surprised by how much faster and stronger the Dual Slash was with the additional amount of Internal Energy.

As the smoke, that was caused by the impact of the attack, subsided, Adam was shocked to see that his short, overweight and old master standing there as if nothing had occurred.

Within his bare hands, he held the two blades of energy that Adam launched towards him and had a gloating expression.

"Hahahaha, nice attack kid. But unfortunately, it was too slow and weak to harm me" mocked his master as he crushed the blades formed of energy within his hands.

"I only caught the attack because I didn't want you to break my dojo, but still I must give you some credit. I never expected such a swift attack from a mere rank 1 novice" stated the old man.

Adam looking at his master couldn't help but gape in awe as he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his stomach as his master punched him and launched him sliding backwards.

"Combat Training is over, for now, recover your energy and vitality, then we can continue" instructed his master.

Adam did as his master instructed and entered the ethereal state of the Ethereal Recovery Skill, where his body began to rapidly recover.

While in the ethereal state, Adam was replaying what he had seen of his master's movements, but he still couldn't see it clearly or understand how he was able to move so quickly that there were afterimages behind him.

After recovering, Adam battled with his master and the combat training would only stop when Adam had exhausted his energy reserves or had been heavily injured.

Adam didn't feel like he had improved, but his master was noticing that each and every time they would battle Adam would have new tactics and his precision and perceptivity was improving ever so slightly each time.

As Adam continuously analysed his battles, while also constantly attempting to track his master's movements, he had improved, without him noticing, as he used what he could to his advantage.

Adam used all the dagger techniques he knew of, but he still couldn't land a single attack on the short and overweight old man.

After 6 arduous battles, that was mainly Adam receiving a beating from his master, the entire day had passed.

"Training over kid, good job" announced his master as he returned to the corner of his room to sleep.

"Master, do you think I am improving" asked Adam, wanting to know the speed of his progress.

"Kid, it requires time and patience and with your perceptivity, it will only be a matter of time before you improve. But for now try to increase your strength as you are still too weak for me to teach you any of my skills, that you are incapable of learning or using" answered his master reassuringly.

Although their time spent together was short and they were yet to experience things together, that would make them closer, they still both filled a void for each other.

Adam needed a senior figure to teach him about the world of the cultivation and train him, as he had only known about cultivators for a short period of time, while the old man had been alone for centuries and wanted a disciple that was talented, he could trust and could carry on his legacy.

As his master began sleeping in the corner of the dojo, Adam after recovering didn't enter the dungeon yet and wanted to see how much EXP he could gain for training his body.

Exercises and pushing the body past its limits, allows it to be able to absorb more energy after recovering and was one of the best ways to cultivate with a strong foundation.

The foundation of a cultivator was essential to their strength and progress, and cultivators who relied on pills and medicine to increase their strength instead of working hard, were almost always weaker.

Adam began simply with push-ups and after a few hundred, he was yet to feel tired.

Adam was beginning to understand more about controlling his Internal Energy, which required much more control and understanding than controlling his External Energy.

Using his External Energy was subconscious, in the same way, that an ordinary person wouldn't have to control his lungs and body to provide oxygen to his muscles.

External Cultivation was building up upon the External Body and External Energy of a person that ordinary humans already have, just at a limited amount.

However, Internal Energy wasn't as simple and was something that was new and unique to Internal Cultivators who would store energy within their Internal Body, that they would be able to control for all kinds of different applications.

After observing how his Internal Energy was used when he used the Dual Slash Skill, Adam had an idea of how to increase his strength.

If he was to use his Internal Energy to reinforce his already strong body, that was using his External Energy, he would be able to display double his strength by fusing them, but he would only be able to sustain the strengthened state for a short while.

Adam used both his IESP and EESP and managed to complete 1000 push-ups.

After that, he went on to do 1000 sit-ups and 1000 squats, stopping to recover between them as each one of them would exhaust both his energy storages.

Adam was unsure how much EXP he gained from the training he completed, but he did feel as though he had made some progress.

[In the morning I will do 1000 push-ups, squats and sit-ups and will run up and down the mountain 10 times. Then I will battle against my master for the rest of the day, leaving me time to hunt in the dungeon in the night] planned Adam, wanting to make the most of his time and Ethereal Recovery Skill.

With a plan prepared, Adam was mentally drained despite his body being able to recover with the Ethereal Recovery Skill and it was finally time to return to the dungeon and test out his upgraded Dungeon Form.