...

The moment Shin regained his senses in the Real World, the familiar smell that was so hard to breathe suddenly assaulted his nose for another time. "God f*cking d*mn it! How the hell that every f*cking time that I logout of the game this is the first thing that I will experience? How many times is it already? Two? Three? Tsk! Maybe I should ask the Gaming Company about this. I guess there is something wrong with this Gaming Cabin."

"But that was also highly unlikely. This is something brought by Big Sis, so I'm sure that there can't be any kind of problem with this. But asking the Company is still the best choice. Nah! I'll think about it later once I'm done with my training."

Then immediately hopped out of the Gaming Cabin and skilfully tapped some buttons on it to activate the cleaning mode of the Cabin. And as usual, he immediately went to the bathroom to take a warm bath before proceeding to do his daily training routine.

But this time, he didn't do his training at the garden like what he usually do, but he walked out towards the veranda of his room instead. It was because he is not going to practice his martial-art skills and mentalism techniques this time but leard some new skills. So after his basic foundation training and some slight meditation, Shin immediately started learning the 'Qi Reinforcement Skills' that Old Plum had given him.

He had three martial-art manuals for this skill application, the 'Reinforce Iron Bones', 'Jade Dragon Scales' and 'Thunder King's Constitution'. Based on the names, Shin can already deduce what kind of reinforcement skills are them. And base on what Old Plum had said, he can also combine these three to create the so-called 'Sacred God Physique'; but this one was for the future.

The first thing that Shin had done was to choose what skill he needed to learn first. And after some careful consideration, he decided to practice the Reinforce Iron Bones first. "Yeah... Let's start with the innermost first. This Skill will focus at strengthening my bones while refining it. It can also improve my bone density and change its composition a little."

Shin read the entire manual for one full hour before he was able to finish it. Then he spent another hour to digest all of the knowledge that he got from that manual. "Hmm... This is a strange skill indeed. So it says I only need to engrave the runes on my bones according to the manual and I can already successfully learn the skill. And through those runes, my bones are going to refine itself as it can automatically absorb the 'Force of Nature' from its surroundings."

Shin clicked his tongue and immediately added. "Tsk! Then this skill is really full of wonders. And I wonder how that Old Geezer came up with this kind of skill."

"And it sound so simple." Is what Shin wanted to say, but alas, he immediately ate those words back the moment he started practicing the 'Qi Reinforcement Skill'.

A 'Qi Reinforcement Skill' was something that could be learned as long as the Martial-Artist met all of the requirements to practice the skill. And that was why Shin thought this skill was so simple. But he forgot two things about it. First, this skill was created by someone that was called the 'Monster of the South' in the Martial-Art circle. Second, this skill was originally a part of a 'Qi Reinforcement Skill' that was meant for 'Ascension Realm Experts'. So it was natural for it to be a not so simple skill. And that was why Shin immediately regretted underestimating this skill.

First, he entered a deep meditation state before directing his consciousness inside his body. After that, he started to gather some Internal Qi on a single location before transforming it into a graver(an engraving tool). Then he took a deep breath to prepare himself at engraving some runes on his bones according to the manual. And the first part was his right arm; starting with the bone fingers of his right hand, and that was when the hell began.

The moment his graver that was made of Internal Qi came in contact with his bones, he immediately felt a soul-piercing pain that was coming from his right hand; and that pain almost broke his concentration. Fortunately he has a monstrously strong willpower to continue to persevere. But that was just the start; it was because what came after it was something even more hellish than the previous pain. When he tried to move the graver, Shin felt that his soul was being ripped apart bit by bit.

But Shin still managed to persevere all the way until he managed to complete the first rune. Yes, it was just the first rune yet his forehead and back were already covered with sweat.

Hou~... Haa~... Hou~... Haa~...

Shin's breathing became rough as he got out of his deep meditation state. And when he managed to regain his regular breathing, he couldn't help himself but to curse Old Plum for his brutal skills. "What the f*ck, Old Geezer? Are all of your skills come from hell? Why all of them are so torturing to practice? Even that new breathing technique that has a calming technique was also hellish to train."

Shin focused all of his senses on his right-hand thumb where he put the first rune, as he tried to feel any changes on it. But just like what was written on the manual, he couldn't fell any kind of changes on his bones unless he managed to engrave a whole sequence of runes on his bones; which was pretty much made he him to almost back out from it. But alas, the arrow was already been shot from the bow so there was no backing out now.

Then he tried to take another look at manual to see how many runes did he need to complete a whole sequence for his right hand. And the answer is... Twelve...

Shin started sweating bullets the moment he confirmed the numbers. What's more, he also needed to engrave a total of 4 rune sequence to cover his entire arm. And each sequence was different from one to another. And to dampen his mood even further, he also needed to engrave the same number of rune sequence on his left-arm bones to balance things out.

Shin braced himself for what about to come before stating to torture himself once again.... Eh!? I mean to resume engraving some runes on his right-arm bones to strengthen himself.

And with that, Shin spent his entire morning just to engrave the rune sequence on the bones of his right arm. Naturally, he also took some breaks from time to time to regain his peak condition before continuing. But he also needed to skip his meals to complete all of the sequences on earlier time.

Then he rested for a few hours in noon before proceeding to engrave some runes on his other arm. And this time, he spent his whole afternoon to complete all of the rune sequences on his left arm. And since he already experienced the pain and the process on his right arm, he was already used to it so he was able to engrave the runes on his left arm in an even faster way. The only problem on it was his spirit; because of the repeated 'torturing', his spirit became even more exhaust so he need to do some breaks in between of each runes, making the engraving process on his left arm to become a little longer.

And once he recovered himself, he immediately noticed the changes on each of his arms. Even without reinforcing them with his Internal Qi, he could feel that he could make a hole in a metal wall even if he just punched it with his physical strength alone. He could also feel that both of his arms were strong enough to handle a force from a martial-art skill or a mentalism technique even without the support of his Internal Qi.

'That was... awesome' thought Shin to himself. Then he stood up from his sitting position before taking his usual fighting stance. And immediately after that, he took a deep breath before quickly throwing a two-consecutive punch in front of him with each of his fist.

Bang!

Bang!

Then two consecutive air explosions were created in front of him, sending a powerful air ripple in all directions. Shin stay on that posture for a moment to engrave the feeling that he is currently experiencing before gathering a bunch of Internal Qi on each of his arms.

And as if responding on what he did, the runes that were engraved on each of Shin's arms suddenly shines inside his body even if it was not visible on the outside. Then Shin felt an unexplainable feeling from each of his arms. After that, he threw another two consecutive punches on his front creating yet another explosion. But this time, it was obviously stronger than the previous two.

Boom!

Boom!

Instead of just air ripples, his punches sent a two consecutive shockwaves. And after familiarizing himself at that feeling, he slowly retrieved his battle stance while taking a deep breath.

And aside from the new physical strength that he got, Shin also got some secret surprise regarding his Mental Energy. Due to the repeated 'torture' earlier, his mind and spirit also become tempered in the process, giving him some improvements on his Mentalism.

Then shook his head before chuckling on himself. "Hehe... As expected of that Old Geezer, all of his skills are not so simple. Even though the process of achieving it was too hellish to be called painful, the compensation that you will get was more than enough to make you satisfied."

Then he clicked his tongue and said. "Too bad that I can only experience the real profoundness of this skill when I completely engraved all of the rune sequences on all of the bones of my body."

Then he shrugged his shoulders after it. "Well, I can't be too greedy. Hmm... Maybe I should engrave the rune sequences on my legs after regaining the peak condition of my spirit and body. Hmm... Yeah, I should do it after two days of rest then."

After planning his that, Shin could now finally have his meal. He already skipped his breakfast and lunch earlier so he couldn't afford to skip his dinner too. A Martial-Artist could still survive without eating and drinking for an entire month because they could absorb the 'Force of Nature' to supplement their bodies with the nutrients that it needed.

But even if that was the case, eating was still helpful to one's body too, especially that the food on this world was not ordinary. All of the ingredients that they were using were either from Monstrous Beasts or rare some cultivation plants which were beneficial to the bodies of Martial-Artist and others, especially that these ingredients could help them on their future breakthroughs.

And after taking his meal, Shin took another quick shower before hopping in his Gaming Cabin. And when was done with the system maintenance, he immediately relaxed his mind and body before closing his eyes and muttered to the System.

"Initiate Login!"

.....