Chapter 107: Fundamental Defence Techniques Part 2

Looking at the cost of the mastery, Adam could see that it was much different to how it was when he had the Mastery Feature discount.

[System how much will it cost for me to increase the Mastery of the External Hardening Technique to 10%] asked Adam.

Adam could only see how much it would cost to increase his mastery to the next percentage, but he wanted to see how much it would cost him overall before he decided whether he wanted to go through with it or not. 

{It will cost the host 5285 to increase his mastery of the External Hardening Technique to 10%} answered the system.

It was a very large amount of system points in order to increase his mastery, but Adam was curious to see its effects and whether or not it was worth it.

[What will the effects of the External Hardening Technique be if its Mastery was increased to 10%] asked Adam.

{It will make it so that for every EESP, that the host uses through the technique, the host's resistance will increase by 10 points and the current limit for the amount of EESP that the host can expend each minute is 2, which is the same as the current rank that the host is at. This will allow the host to increase his resistance by 20 points by expending 2 EESP every minute} answered the system.

[That probably means that with complete mastery of the technique I can increase my resistance by 100 points with only a single EESP every minute, that is incredible] thought Adam to himself.

However, he felt that from the explanation that he had received from his master and the system on the External Hardening Technique, and comparing it to what he had seen from Chase's technique, they were very different.

It was as if Chase's hardening wasn't a skill or technique and was an ability that was unique to him.

{That is exactly correct and it seems as though your subordinate has a Unique Skill like your Collector Skill} confirmed the system.

{A Unique Skill is a skill that gives the user a special ability that cannot be replicated through ordinary skills and techniques. Unique Skills are innate and unique to each cultivator that has it and cultivators that do have a Unique Skill are usually born with it or it has been passed onto them} explained the system.

[Thanks, but since when did you give me useful information without me needing to ask for it] thanked Adam who felt the system's pleasant behaviour was unusual.

{He} scoffed the system.

Although 5285 system points was a massive amount of system points currently for Adam, he still decided to increase his mastery. Increasing his mastery would not only increase its effects, but it would also allow Adam to activate the technique much faster and would also give Adam instant knowledge of how to use the technique properly and fully rather than just slightly hardening his skin.

Spending the system points on his mastery, Adam instantly felt basic knowledge and concepts about the External Hardening Technique enter his mind as he also felt that his ability to increase his body's resistance increased.

Adam was satisfied with his gains and pleased with his decision as without wasting any time began attempting to learn the Energy Sleeve Technique.

All that was left for him was to learn the Energy Sleeve Technique until he had 1% mastery of it, then he could also increase it to 10% mastery and head towards the centre of the floor where he would aim to defeat the Boss Beast.

With the knowledge, he had gained from 10% mastery of the External Hardening Technique, Adam found it much easier to use his energy to form a thin layer of Internal Energy around his body like his master had described.

Surprisingly he was incorrect when he assumed that it was the External Hardening Technique that was easier and it was the other way round as he reached 1% mastery of the Energy Sleeve Technique within an hour.

The Energy Sleeve was very similar to the External Hardening in terms of effects on the user, but instead of reinforcing the body itself, it would form a thin layer of Internal Energy around the user's body that would reduce the impact faced by the user, increasing their resistance.

After also increasing the mastery of the Energy Sleeve Technique to 10%, Adam had spent 10570 system points altogether and had taken a big hit in terms of system points because of it.

However he didn't feel bad about it in the slightest and if he expended 2 IESP and 2 EESP every minute, he could increase his resistance by 40 points by using both the External Hardening and the Energy Sleeve Techniques at the same time.

With that, he was much more confident in his combat ability and could sustain much more damage, allowing him to face stronger opponents.

If he matched that with 3 of the E+ Rank Monkey Fur Coats that he had within his inventory, which each increased all his stats by 1 point for 10 minutes, Adam would be extremely powerful and was confident in his ability to defeat the Boss Beast of Floor 2.

Adam couldn't help but be thankful for the unique constitution that integrating with the system gave him which allowed him to progress through anything by using system points. The sensation of information and knowledge entering into his mind and his mind completely integrating it into Adam's body was incredible. He could use any skill that the system gave him or he had mastered through the system comfortably as if he had been practising it for years.

Activating both the External Hardening and the Energy Sleeve Techniques at the same time, to test out its power, Adam was shocked by the feeling of security he felt by doing so.

Summoning his Leporidae Summon for the third time, Adam instructed it to slash his arm and the Leporidae Summon did as Adam said. 

It jumped up and slashed Adam with the same amount of force that it did the previous two times, but it was massively shocked by the results.

With his resistance that had reached almost 7 times that of an average human, while he had both the External Hardening and the Energy Sleeve Techniques activated at the same time, the Leporidae Summon's slash only left a small cut on his arm.

The cut was very shallow and he had only lost a few HP from it, when it would have left a deep scar in his arm and hurt him much more if it wasn't for the techniques he had activated.

If his resistance was so capable as a rank 2 cultivator using two techniques at the same time, Adam couldn't help but wonder when his cultivation increased to a certain point, would he be able to become bulletproof.

That would make him almost invincible, and now weapons wouldn't work on him unless a cultivator wielded them or they were enhanced weapons like the weapon that he had stolen off Angelo.

The thought of being bulletproof was very attractive to Adam, who wanted to be invincible, and he noted down to himself to make sure to increase his mastery of the techniques in the future.

Adam suddenly felt lightheaded as he looked at his status to see that his IESP had plummeted to 0 after he had practised in the Energy Sleeve Technique for a long time and his summon was automatically retracted as he stumbled backwards and fell onto a tree.

He was barely managing to stay conscious with his depleted IESP as he activated the Ethereal Recovery Skill to recover his Energy Storages that had been used heavily in the past training session and to also relax his mind that had also been strained heavily.

[After I recover my energy, I will head towards the centre of the Floor to face the Boss Beast and become level 20, so I can finally move onto the next Floor] decided Adam.

He felt confident in his strength and after recovering his energy and mind to its peak state, he was ready to head towards the centre.

He knew that his master would be very shocked by the results that Adam was able to achieve by seemingly sleeping, but Adam could just find an excuse to cover for the Dungeon System and also wasn't going to show his master all the mastery that he had over the techniques.

His master would also be shocked by Adam suddenly becoming a rank 2 cultivator from being LVL 16, but at the low cultivation level that he was at, it wasn't extremely special and unusual for somebody to skip a few sub-levels.

While Adam was using the Ethereal Recovery Skill to recover, he was deep in thought after all the knowledge that the 10% mastery of the techniques gave him, as began collecting his thoughts and everything that he knew about cultivation.