The fifteen weakened goblins gave way to twenty-five young goblins, then to ten mature goblins, then weakened hobgoblins—a larger, taller, stronger, and smarter type of goblins—and so on. The last of the ten waves before the middle boss was a single feral weakened orc, another green beast, much larger and stronger than the previous ones.

That was the first enemy that didn't die in a single thrust to the chest. It also was so heavy the rebound almost pushed Shen out of the island.

He won though and turned back just in time to see Mark getting punched in the face by his own orc. By reflex and sheer luck, the boy swung his sword deeply into orc's neck, killing it in a single strike.

The redhead had kept shooting bolts against Shen throughout all the last waves. Shen was even thankful for all the training in deflecting and parrying by this point. He was confident in surviving even if up to three arrows or bolts came his way, even using no qi.

For now though, Mark was crouching, holding his nose with both hands. That would give Shen some time to train—

Light surrounded all remaining people—about eighty percent of the initial numbers—for a split second, and when it was gone, his health and stamina bars were full. The pain in his bones was gone too. He could cultivate again before the intermediate boss.

Or maybe not.

Tutorial - 1st Stage

You'll face the middle boss in ten seconds.

The middle boss is a weakened version of the final boss. If you die to it, it'll disappear and you’ll move on to the next wave. Dying to it will not cause you to be expelled if you already died once, but you'll not be eligible for extra reward for killing the final boss.

Winning against it will reward 100 bonus AP on top of the 10 AP it naturally gives.

You'll learn the value of AP after the battle.

Fight well!

There was no time to prepare, as light formed a new orc in the middle of the island.

This orc had red skin rather than green, was much larger than the previous one, taller too—around half again Shen's height—and packed with muscles. Black tattoos filled his bare skin. Its only similarities to the previous monsters were the ugliness, the pointed ears, and the loincloth it wore. Both its ears and nose had earrings, and its eyes were glowing red. Unlike the former orc, who had brought no weapon, this one wielded a large saber.

"Inspect."

Weakened Orc Warrior (F) — 200 / 200

That was a tremendous leap from the previous weakened orc with fifty health points at the G rank. It would be a challenge.

Shen gripped his spear, rotated his qi, and prepared for battle.

It had been created to serve a single purpose: to kill a human. It had no name, no past, no future. Its entire existence was in the here, in the now. Its success didn't matter either, for it would still be destroyed should it kill the being it was destined to kill.

Yet it had no time for introspection. No time to wonder about the mysteries of life. No time to choose a different path.

All it could do was to live its brief existence to the fullest, and that meant killing the human.

It was significantly stronger, heavier, and faster than the human. It should have been, at least. That's not what it found.

The human weaved his metal-pointed stick around with such precision and fluidity that even it was mesmerized by its death-promising beauty for a moment. The repeated attacks of the pointy edge awakened it. Its saber wasn't built to deflect sticks coming and going at such speed though. It still parried most of the slashes, but the thrusts were impossible to deal with.

It tried to close the distance with its supposedly superior speed, but it failed. The human wasn't exactly as fast as it was, but his footwork was exquisite. It tried to get away from the thrusts, but found itself with its back to the vast emptiness below while still under attack.

Out of alternatives, it rushed against the human even at the cost of its own blood. The spearhead bit into his throat twice, but not too deeply. It survived and finally reached the human.

It raised its saber above its head and brought it down upon the human with all his might.

The fool human tried to block, but the sheer weight of the saber and the strength behind the attack easily clove the wooden shaft. The blade should've also split the human's skull in half, but he stepped back, and the metal only barely cut his chest and belly.

It wasn't surprised when a new long spear appeared floating around them as soon as the human's was destroyed. It knew that could happen and was prepared to intercept any enemy attempts at reaching for a new weapon should it destroy their current one. Yet, the human's movement proved impossible to stop.

It didn't worry though. It now knew how to attack. It rushed at the human again, ignoring the pain and the damage caused by the stick, and swung its saber again.

This time, the human didn't deflect but sidestepped while twisting its body and rotating his spear into a beautiful movement. At the end of the move, the tip of the spear entered its head from below. It pierced all the way through, leaving through the top of its skull.

It died with regrets, failing to have achieved anything in its short life.

Shen's battle against the orc warrior had been the hardest one yet.

To begin with, he had had to keep his qi circulating to give him a small boost of strength and speed. His thrusts hit, but did minor damage, as the monster's red skin was actually thick hide. It also parried most of the slashes, which caused Shen to give ground on the very limited island.

Still, he would've won with time, thrust after thrust, if it wasn't for its decision to rush at him.

Shen had thrust with his full might when that happened, even scoring two relatively deep strikes to the middle boss's throat. Yet it didn't die. It swung its saber from top to bottom, and he stupidly tried to block it with the shaft of his spear. It cut through and would've killed him if his reflexes weren't also improved thanks to the qi rotating in his body and if he hadn't trained according to the Gale Footwork manual he had memorized.

He stepped back, suffering just a minor cut from chest to belly, and took the new long spear that appeared floating around the island.

When the orc rushed at him again, Shen made a critical decision. Martial arts had many moves, from simple ones like thrust or swing that had multiple uses, to specialized and complex ones that were seldom used, but still important. He knew what he had to do to not die. It was a move he had trained in but didn't feel prepared to use in actual battle:

The Swirling Twist.

Its name was purposefully redundant because it had two rotating moves that maximized momentum while escaping from a vertical attack or straight thrust. He twisted his body back and to the side while also swirling his spear in a movement that would make it achieve maximum speed at the end. He aimed at the orc's head and struck it from below with all his power.

His spear impaled the monster's skull, and it died at once.

He quickly unstuck the spear and looked around, in case there were more enemies to come, but there wasn't.

He had won.

The middle boss had fallen.

Weakened Orc Warrior (F) | 200 → 310 AP

As it turned into light, together with its equipment, Shen stopped circulating his qi. His entire body hurt a lot. One reason the Foundation Establishment was important was that it prepared the martial artist's body to receive larger amounts of qi for long periods. He was still on the Marrow Revitalizing step though. The most he could do was imbue his body with qi for less than a minute, and unless the Guardian System healed him again, he wouldn't be able to infuse his body with qi for at least half a day.

If he insisted, his muscles, heart included, could simply burst open and give him a terrible death.

"Next wave," he said.

Next wave in 2 hours (waiting for everyone to finish with the middle boss to commence countdown). 9 enemies in groups of 3.

It elated him to see he had time to rest, two hours rather than one, and let himself fall to the ground.

According to the blue boxes, that had been a weakened form of the final boss. He wasn't sure he had enough time to train enough to beat a stronger monster. As for the mortals...

He looked around to see most of them falling against the middle boss. Few of them would receive the bonus reward for killing the final boss without dying. If they could kill it to begin with.

Minutes later, a human fell with a scream, and light surrounded them all. Shen’s body was healed, the pain disappeared, and a blue box appeared in front of him.

Tutorial - 1st Stage

Congratulations to those who defeated the middle boss!

If you didn't, don't feel disheartened. The middle boss was a challenge meant to give you an idea of what awaits you in the end, and act as an incentive to improve.

By killing enemies, you have accumulated Alliance Points, or AP. AP is the only currency accepted by the Guardian System. The Guardian System is the source of all messages you have been receiving.

You cannot transfer AP to others. Your AP is the sum of your accomplishments, and the Guardian System only rewards those who deserve it.

For now, you can use your AP to increase any of your stats. The cost of each can be checked by saying "Stat Store."

Later on, AP will also be capable of purchasing items, enhancements, and skills. Those options are currently blocked.

"Stat Store," he said, very interested in what he could buy.

Stat Store

Your AP: 310

-

Rank: G → F | 1,000 AP

-

Max Health Points: 100 → 101 | 101 AP

Health Regen: 1.2 → 1.3/h | 130 AP

-

Max Stamina Points: 100 → 101 | 101 AP

Stamina Regen: 0.52 → 0.6/min | 60 AP

-

Strength: G → F- | 1,000 AP

Agility: G → F- | 1,000 AP

Resistance: G → F- | 1,000 AP

Shen found it strange that he could use AP to raise both rank and strength. He had thought his power was determined by his rank because when inspecting enemies, it was the rank that showed. So how could they be improved separately? Also, why did the rank increase from G to F, yet the attributes went from G to F-?

The costs were very high. He had 310 AP, the maximum one could have by that point of the tutorial's first stage, and he could only buy things related to health or stamina. As much as he wanted to save for a big purchase, he wanted to see how it felt to increase his max health points.

There were no instructions on how to purchase anything, but the Guardian System had been pretty straightforward until now, and he could guess it well enough.

"Purchase max health points," he said.

The message he received was very unexpected.

Incompatibility Warning

The Guardian System has detected you're a qi user.

Changing your body further by using the means of the system is faster and easier than cultivating qi. However, both paths are incompatible. This is not a problem for rank, strength, agility, or resistance, but meddling with health and stamina will change you in ways that will make any common cultivation method useless.

Should you choose to continue, you will become unable to grow stronger through cultivation.

Do you want to proceed?

"Hell no," he said at once.

Shen might cut his cultivation path in the future if he found himself stuck, but for now, it was too good to give up on. He had already saved some AP by improving his health and stamina regen through cultivation, and he was just starting. He wasn't about to give up on that advantage for absolutely no reason.

That meant he had no reason to check the prices until he had 1,000 AP. That was the first box that didn’t disappear automatically, and after multiple attempts, he made it go away a little later by saying, "Close box."

With that out of the way, he wanted to cultivate, but he needed peace and calm to focus, and Mark would shoot bolts at him soon enough.

It was time to intimidate the boy or, failing that, kill him. As much as he didn't want to become a big villain just in case there was a group stage later, there was one rule that reigned supreme in the cultivation world:

Never stand between a martial artist and their cultivation.