'He was right,' Alicia thought. 'This is amazing.'

The past few days had been the best of her life. She felt herself improving so much she couldn't even explain it. It was almost as if she was another Alicia entirely.

And now, she would improve even more, for she had purchased the Fireball Skill, and it had given her a metric fuckton of knowledge.

The Fireball Skill was only at the E- tier, and she was only at level 1 out of 10—and even that barely—but the best part of it was how it gave her basic magic knowledge she was severely lacking. She now understood how much willpower to use to cause the desired damage and how to properly control her spell after mana hit an enemy. She reckoned that was enough to push her straight to twenty fireballs max before she felt sick.

Alicia also believed she now knew better how to advance to the next level. Those whispers of magic she felt when using spells would synergize perfectly with the Skill's progression path.

She might get as strong as she had hoped when she joined the tutorial, after all!

Not that she would ever get as strong as Shen though. That guy was just incredible. Maybe... Maybe he was really from Ancient China or something? Maybe he wasn't either making up a background or being delusional?

She would think about it.

Anyway, he was sitting close by in the shallow cave they had found, already purchasing the Learning Ability Upgrade. They still had thirteen days remaining in the second stage, too! Alicia bet he would buy just about everything in the Stat Store.

She had lucked out in finding someone so awesome she could trust—

Alicia suddenly froze at the thought.

Someone she could trust? Did she, really? She frowned, and after a while, decided that yes, she did.

Tears immediately came to her eyes.

Oh, she could already tell how she would just kill herself after he betrayed her. And he would betray her soon enough. They all did.

Yet, how could she not trust him after he had saved her time and time again in their battles, after he had taught her so much, after he did his very best—even her cynical side could tell—for her?

Alicia trusted Shen, and as silent tears rolled down her face, she could only hope he would take as long as possible before crushing her heart.

Shen was sitting cross-legged, taking a deep breath before buying the Learning Ability Upgrade.

He hadn't felt any pain when given the G-rank Learning Ability Upgrade for free—he hadn't even noticed it—but maybe it would hurt this time? He definitely didn't want to get distracted in a fight, not when the system directly affected his mind.

Speaking of which, after the initial wonder toward Skills passed, he realized how frightening the system was. It could affect his mind directly at any time it wanted, without forewarning or asking for permission. Some strong cultivators could do that too, but they were individuals. Who knew how many masters the Guardian System had, who could control the system to affect him however they wanted?

Yet, the only way to protect himself from them was to become strong enough to resist the system. And the fastest way he knew to achieve that was precisely by using the system the best he could.

Even if his thoughts were treasonous somehow and they could hear to it, there was nothing else he could do but strive to grow stronger.

So, he said, "Buy F Learning Ability Upgrade."

| Purchased: Learning Ability Upgrade (F) | -50,000 AP

| Remaining AP: 121

He had been right to sit down for that.

The first thing he felt was as if someone was swinging a heavy hammer against his skull. Then as if he was being electrocuted. His entire body trembled. None of it was painful, but it was weird and definitely uncomfortable.

The two sensations came and went at a constant pace. Shen felt his brain becoming larger in a way that was hard to explain, as if his mind was expanding.

The process took a few minutes. When it was over, he found himself lying on the ground though he couldn't remember falling.

And when Shen opened his eyes, the world felt different.

The cave was the same as it had been, but he was extra aware of the cave's structure. It was too smooth to be natural, its shape too conveniently rectangular to host people. Those were observations he could've made before, but he had never used the knowledge or made the connection. Now, it came more naturally to him.

That meant he wouldn't just learn new things faster. His mind was more elastic and able to reach conclusions better. He could recall stuff he knew and put them to practice much more easily and quickly.

"Are you alright?" Alicia asked. He turned to see her standing worried beside him, slightly reddened eyes showing she had cried a little not long ago.

Shen stood up. "Yeah. Things feel... clearer." He took his spear, which he had left stuck on the ground.

Thoughts invaded his mind.

Shen knew a lot about spear fighting. The Feng Clan specialized in it, and the system had classified their Spear Art with a C potential. He had seen lots of people using it over his sixteen years of life and had many theories memorized.

Previously, that had been enough to push him to some heights in it, but now? Now he understood movements and their purpose and how they connected to each other much better. It was one thing to read that a move was based on a string's flaying on the wind. It was something else entirely to really understand it and how it could be applied.

Shen could also see how to better take advantage of momentum while using the Gale Footwork in battle. One thing led to another so clearly... How had he not seen that before?

Shen reckoned he hadn't become a genius, and a lot of things still eluded him. He guessed his abilities were still low-level enough that they were considered G or F tier. The learning upgrade would probably not be as effective for higher-leveled stuff.

But now?

Now it was perfect.

It had become much easier to see what was right in front of his face.

"Let's hunt," he said while grabbing his backpack.

Alicia nodded. "Yes. I want to show you my fireballs too."

They found Shadows soon enough, the spiders from before, except with higher stats. They were faster, stronger, and more resilient. They also felt a little smarter. Yet, they were still at the F rank, thus easily disposed of.

Shen danced among them with ease. His spear wasn't more precise, but he could feel better when to turn it to waste less movement. He wasn't stronger, but he used his momentum with greater effectiveness. His actions flowed better.

And Alicia, he noticed, had become someone who could stand on her own two feet.

Her fireballs dealt about as much damage as needed to kill, not more, not less, and she could throw many more than before.

| Greenwood Spider (F) | 121 → 131 AP

Shen wanted to level up his stats to F+ and then get to the E rank himself before leaving that stage. It seemed he would have no trouble with that.

He killed, and his AP increased.

"East!" Bob shouted. "Run East!" he repeated and climbed down the tree as fast as he could.

'Stay,' the alien thought came to his mind. 'Submit. Become One with the Void.'

As he descended, a dark javelin hit the place he had been standing a moment before. "Shit! They are attacking now!"

Worse, the javelin became liquid and started flowing down. Bob was faster and soon reached the ground, running away with his people.

They had first seen six white Void Hatchling and one black Void Seedling two days ago. They had thought it was part of the tutorial and attacked. Though their attempts dealt damage, the Hatchlings regenerated fast and didn't die. As for the Seedling, it just dodged their attacks like Neo on the Matrix movies.

Then three people had just started attacking each other, and the others had started hearing things. One of the attackers, Carla, had survived, and white liquid had just appeared inside her and consumed her, turning her into one of them.

The survivors had run for their lives.

Yesterday, he had seen three Seedlings and ten Hatchlings. While Bob had been scouting, he also saw a white Hatchling stop and turn into a Seedling. The damn things made people turn on each other, consumed the winners, and spread like a disease.

If this wasn't some ploy of the Alliance to make humankind hate an inexistent enemy, the damn Void was really something they would not want to plunge their planet into.

Now, the Void Spawn were fifty total, fifteen of which were Seedlings, and they were spreading and using surrounding tactics. They had come from all directions, leaving only a tiny opening to the East.

Bob could get teleported to the final boss to escape at any time, but some of his people still couldn't. He would do his best for them until he either fell or succeeded.

He hadn't asked to be made leader, but now that he was, he sure as hell wouldn't give up without a fight.

Shen's spear pierced the werewolf's head from one side to the other.

The spearhead met some resistance that he believed to be from an F+ resistance stat, but he killed it all the same thanks to his techniques. He didn't even need his qi.

A cave with thick iron bars was behind the werewolf. Shen had seen a similar entrance before, in the place he had found the second middle boss, a hobgoblin fighter that had been way too easy to kill.

He looked at Alicia. She was breathing faster, but not as fast as she used to do after their first fights. She would probably not die if they took this challenge on, and he wanted both the AP and to hunt more with his improved learning speed.

"There's probably a middle boss ahead," he said while approaching the cave's entrance.

It was a small one, barely as tall and wide as him. Some iron bars were clearly a door, but they were locked in place by a thick chain and a strange, small, metallic thing—a half-circle connected to a box.

"Identify," he said.

| Padlock (G)

The meaning of the word came with the name, and he understood it was a mobile lock. So curious. In the Eternal Empire, locks worked on qi, but this one was mechanical. Something to tell Alicia later.

"It's locked," Alicia said while also approaching. "Should we look for a key?"

Shen answered by grabbing the padlock and pulling. It resisted at first, but he filled his arm with qi and pulled again.

It opened with a click.

"Gods among men, huh?" she said to herself.

Shen held a laugh in. That was being a god for her? The Eternal Empire couldn't move planets around, yet a slap from the Immortal Emperor could literally destroy the world. That was true power. She was in for big surprises.

He silently walked to the backpack, grabbed it, and led the way.

The cave was a few dozen feet deep before turning to the right. When they did, they found that the cave immediately funneled into a long, wide tunnel with embedded crystals on the ceiling to give light.

A couple werewolves were standing guard there. The tunnel was wide enough for at least ten big beasts to stand side by side, so they had no trouble attacking together.

Nor did Shen and Alicia have any trouble dealing with them.

The two humans had created a simple system for occasions such as this: Shen would attack the ones on the right first, and she was left to either flee, defend herself, or attack the ones on the left.

He rushed at his werewolf and thrust his spear at its head. It dodged, but he had expected that and moved the spear to the side while pulling. The spearhead blade cut a little of the beast's neck—not enough to deal damage, but enough to make a point.

Shen had seen werewolves in the Eternal Empire before. There, they had been dignified cultivators walking the Path of the Wolf. They cared for their bodies, wore clothing, and wielded weapons to fight.

Here, they were mindlessly aggressive beasts that acted on instinct.

They were like thin, tall people turned wolf, and their claws and fangs were the only weapons they carried on their naked bodies. At least their bits were also hidden by fur.

As any rabid animal, the tiny cut to its neck made it slightly scared, making it attack even more voraciously. It rushed even faster at Shen, who was already moving back while pulling his spear. When he thrust again, the werewolf was going too fast and behaving too stupidly to dodge.

Shen's rotating spear pierced its heart and came out on the werewolf's back.

| Mutated Werewolf (F) | 755 → 765 AP

The carcass immediately turned into light, freeing him to turn, already ready for the remaining werewolf. It was coming at him too, but a fireball to the head made it lose its balance.

The fireball didn't kill right then. The beast's F+ resistance wasn't useless. Yet, it left a hole in the werewolf's face that left teeth and burnt muscles visible.

The second fireball, right after the first, did the trick. It blew teeth and exploded inside the beast's head.

Shen noticed the explosion was much stronger than what a fireball the size of his fist should produce, but magic had to be called magic for a reason.

He nodded to Alicia and started walking again. Soon, five werewolves left hidden crevices on the walls in front of them.

He smiled. That was just like the other two middle bosses' lairs he had visited. The tutorial would throw him more and stronger enemies until he reached the middle boss themselves.

That was perfect.

Shen grasped his spear and advanced.