Chapter 4: Stats and Training?

Souma and his troupe consisting of a 3 ft tall egg and a Regal Sabretooth were approximately 2 kilometers away from the village which he spotted once leaving the forest junction. Souma told Akane to stop at the 2 km checkpoint so he could gain his bearings.

Apparently his body was in a state of confusion. From the moment he was falling from the sky he did not worry once about where he was. It was as if the new world was familiar to him. He could not recall what happened in between the moment he slept to the point where he fell from the sky.

Souma got off Akane’s back and he wanted to run around in frustration. He did not know that Beastial Instincts was a passive skill that accelerated his body even faster than the lapse time from his Ethereal Mind. What he did not know was that he could combine the two abilities and become similar to a god or a magician teleporting.

Thus, he began to run around in frustration. He took giant leaps, ran in zig zags and started doing immense cardio to relieve his stress.

He could only wonder.

‘WHY AM I NOT WORRIED ABOUT THIS PLACE’

‘THIS IS A NEW WORLD BUT IT SEEMS LIKE ITS HOME WHY!?’

‘CURSE YOU OROCHI! AMATERASU RETURN ME HOME!?!’

Souma’s tsukkomi was vehemently plastered onto his face and he did not care about the Sabretooth that looked worried at her owner and the egg that seemed to have wanted to jump out and stop Souma.

He could only ignore and continue his strange movements. He did not know that these strange movements greatly improved his stats but he doesn't know a damn thing about this world. All he knows is a random interface that pops out whenever he receives something.

Then he began to express his anger towards the ground. He postured himself by taking a knee and began to strike at the ground passionately. This continued for hours. At first the impact didn’t do anything and a ka-poof could be heard as Souma struck his fist directly at the ground but after repeatedly hearing that annoying sound, Souma was irritated to the point where he struck the ground even stronger causing his fist to bleed.

Akane who could not continue watching her owner beat himself, tried to stop him but the moment she moved, Souma stared at her with his red hue eyes mixed with blue tints and his pressure penetrated the air around the Sabretooth. She was scared to the point where she nearly pissed herself. As Souma returned to punching the ground, Akane began to cry a little. Tamago-chan looked at Akane as if the Egg understood her and began to scuffle near Akane trying to comfort her and Akane fell asleep while surrounding the egg in her arms.

Night approached as the Sabretooth and Egg fell asleep. Souma thrashed the soil and tears formed.

From the beginning of his life Souma knew he was smarter than majority of the people. When similar relatives from smaller clans related to the Kurogane Clan came by to visit, Souma could only avoid the children that came to play. At first he tried to play but when he spoke, it was as if he were 10 years older. He could not relate to the kids that seemed to goof around and play in the house. If someone looked at Souma, they would think he was born under a noble king and raised under a strict household but that wasn’t the case here. At the age of barely 10 months, he already developed speaking. Even his father was surprised but Koujiro quickly ignored it as his son is incredibly smart. His intelligence was shunned by the kids that often came by and they simply ignored the child that was too “smart” for them. Thus Souma began to live a life of recluse and shut his emotions. But now even in a new world, Souma was acting normal when he arrived. He began to recall those emotions of being shunned by those kids, was it because he was so smart that he could not care for his current situation? Souma didn’t know and clearly expressed his anger towards the land he came upon from the sky.

Souma’s punches began to echo throughout the plains. Normally beasts and similar animals roamed the plains. They were quite pleasant but they turned aggressive at the thundering punches that echoed throughout the area. As the wolves, beasts, and the similar approached the vicinity they could only cower in fear. A human was beating the ground and creating an impact. Each time the fists struck the ground, it created chills upon the beasts and a massive crater was being formed from the position which the Human struck at.

The animals could only cower but they quickly turned tail. They saw a Regal Sabretooth laying approximately 15 feet away from the human. From the beast’s knowledge they know Regal Sabretooths are relentless and would gladly eat anything that attempts to bother them. They are carnivorous and bathed in the blood of their victims. The beasts ran away as fast as they could. They could only wonder how the hell did that monstrosity of a beast could sleep at those thundering punches that echoed everywhere.

Souma began to slow down as he could not continue doing this. He was frustrated at this point. He no longer felt those receding emotions of being shunned, but he needed to do something. He was somewhere and he needed at least something to do or else he would go crazy.

Souma did not notice the interface which began to ding on the right side of his view.

Prompting himself to lay in his man made crater, he lifted his bloodied hands to guide the new window that floated in his view.

*T-tring!

Skills???Unknown

Unknown

UnknownEthereal MindMind perceives time slowly making the body akin to moving faster

???

???Beastial InstinctsSTR ???%-???%

AGI ???%-???%

Perception skill automatically active.

Damage increase by 5x on Vitals

New Skill

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Unrelenting RageBeginnerLv. 135%User is in a state of rage. He will continue to perform his actions unless prompted by his mind to stop. He will not give in to any words and will continue to perform until his rage is satisfied. Depending on what the user is feeling, the ability will change depending on the emotions felt by the user. Pain is eliminated once in the state of Rage and anything that may try to stop the user will become an enemy. User will also gain an increase of selective stats that depends on the will of the user.

10% chance to recognize friend or foe within this state. Percentage will increase after increasing capability with the skill or find alternative routes.

Souma was shocked at the description of the skill.

He knew that he was in a confused state but he could not believe he nearly killed his new pet. Souma recalled his memories and could wonder how the hell did he make a crater. He was still in a state of shock as he looked around him. The crater was at least 5 feet deep and he had to scale the sides of the crater to get out.

Souma needed to figure out more about this “interface” because it clearly was interesting for him. It reminded him of the game that was often talked on Television about some mythological creature that released a Virtual Reality game that was so real that it felt as if your body was actually in the world. Knowing this information, he tried a few things...

Souma raised his right index finger and began to point towards the night sky and shouted...

"STATTTTTUS WINDOWWW!"

….

Nothing happened…

‘WHAT!? I looked stupid raising my hand like some shounen character and nothing!?’

What the hell indeed. Souma clearly expressed that and he felt stupid for the first time in his life.

‘I should just meditate like Shishou...Apparently he says it is good for the body and helps the mind focus on things.'

Souma stood up and found a nearby flat area approximately 20 feet away from the “sleeping” duo. As if an egg could sleep but that's none of my business. He needed to clear his mind because not only his fists were bleeding, he could not continue down this path. Shishou would always tell father these words after returned from the Company HQ angrily, “Wrath is for those who are weak minded, vent your anger in something productive then the results will only show to those that work for it”.

Ahh words from Shishou were always right! Of course Souma did not know that his teacher was a lecherous pervert towards some of the maids at the Kurogane household but that’s another story for another time.

Souma sat in a full-lotus position and began to recollect his thoughts and drifted into a deep concentration space.

Of course Souma had to be lucky or else what could he explain what was going on?

He was in a astral space, void of time and he could do whatever he wanted in this space.

As he opened his eyes, the room shone brightly. It was a room plastered with white. He could not figure the ends of the room but it seemed they went on limitlessly. Souma stood up and noticed the Travel pack with the Bokken stick and one slice of leftover beast meat beside him…

‘Wait what is this doing here?’

Souma looked confused but apparently the ring was connected to this vast space. A grin could be seen on his face.

‘WAIT THIS RING IS AWESOME. UNLIMITED INVENTORY!? HAH! THAT VIRTUAL REALITY GAME CANNOT COMPARE! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK AT THE SPACEEEEEE!!!’

Souma jumped in glee but once again he was launched.

GOD DAMN THIS ABILITY!? I NEEEED TO CONTR-

Before Souma finished his face kissed the white floor but he felt no pain.

Grumbling, he stood up “carefully” as to not spur any rash movements that might result in him flying again. He was even surprised that when he was in that rage state, he didn’t go flying as he usually did. It was as if the state of rage made him use full control of his body thus he could control the power from Beastial Instincts.

Souma was looking around but came to nothing. Everything was white.

Souma looked at the travel pack and near it he spotted the same metal plate.

‘Haaa, what is this doing here? I thought the ring could not bring it in...was it because I held onto it when I was meditating…?’

Souma wondered about.

He needed information but he did not know what to do. Of course he could go to the village but he needed to establish a quota before doing anything. His mind began to use his intelligence to its maximum potential.

Status…

Data…

Report…

Information….!

He mumbled about saying those words and once he said Information, the metallic plate began to adjust within Souma’s hand and began to glow with runic words. Those words were then translated into his language and he could read what came on the plate.

Status WindowNameSouma KuroganeAlignment???Race???Level1ClassLockedTitleLockedReputation0Health2214/???Mana???/???Stamina300Vitality200Dexterity150Strength???Agility???Wisdom50Intelligence???Leadership0Luck20Attack???Defence???Magic ResistanceFire???Water???Earth???Black???

Of course Souma was shocked.

‘WHAT IS WITH THE QUESTION MARKS BUT DUDE THOSE STATS ARE INFLATED!?’

Souma thought, “Am I a god?” a smile perked from ear to ear.

‘Hahahahahaaaaa’

Muuufuuuufufufu

‘THAT VIRTUAL GAME THAT WAS CONQUERED BY SOME PLANT HAS NOTHING ON MEEEEE!?’

Of course Souma didn’t know a thing about the Virtual Reality game that was displayed on his world but he could only dream. He was once a 4 year old boy of course. He wasn’t deprived of his childhood as Koujiro would get anything that Souma would want but he didn’t get anything. All Souma did was practice with his teacher and read all the books within his father’s study.

There was about 1,500 books within that study but with his mind, he had photographic memory and he could recall everything. From love stories to Martial Skills to Cooking, he began to read all those books. He needed information so he knew the information in those books will be needed in this new world. Souma’s favorites would be the Manga section that his Father kept in the back section along with his por- Well, his “extensive” books were hidden but Souma doesn’t know anything.

Souma still gazed at his “new” stats but the question marks still made him wonder. Maybe he’ll find something out in that village. After looking at his stats, the plate began to dissolve, well more like merge onto his hand. Souma was a bit shocked but once he called out “Information on status”, the plate would form into air and create a format that displayed his stats. Now he can recall his stats wherever he went but there is still something he needed to do.

He knew he had to settle one thing before going into a settlement. He has to fix this damn ability that caused him to jump so high and run so far with ease. Souma needed to control his ability and that is what he’ll do within this endless space. Seems like a good idea but first if he’s gonna do something about his overpowered enhancement he needs to test something first; Pain.

Souma knelt down on one knee and made a fist and started punching the ground. Two things immediately came to mind.

1. No pain! THAT’S GREAT!

2. HOW THE HELL DID I DO THIS!?

Apparently, his strength was overdose and created a fissure within the room…

‘ahh...I think I should stop punching the floor since I already know pain from the floor doesn’t affect me here……..’

Souma got back on his feet and began to do stretches as he was going to do an extreme workout that he saw his father do within the Dojo. A training that facilitated the body’s limits and went past those limits. Several sets of one-handed stand push ups and doing rotating from one hand to individual fingers. On a normal case, this was a nut case “exercise”, hell it shouldn’t be exercise more like hell’s regiment or some sort. Of course his father could do several repetitions since he built his body and worked out from scratch but this is something Souma was new to and he doesn’t know if his new body could handle it.

Souma at first was hesitating at the training regiment because he doesn’t know if his body could handle it. He knew he shouldn’t waste time so he went for the spur and did the first routine and he succeeded.

‘Oh oh OH! I CAN DO IT!!!’ With his new vigor, he performed the exercises. As soon as he got to the fingers, he felt the gruesome pain from his muscles build up.

‘oh my BUDDHA! this hurts!? HOW DOES MY FATHER DO THIS EVERY DAY!?’

‘AHH AHH!!! DAMN I FELL!’

‘LET’S DO IT AGAIN!?’

…

Several hours passed but to Souma it felt like days well in the Astral plane time did not move so he continued. Several dings could be heard from the interface but he dismissed all and began to ignore them until his training period is over. After the one hand/one finger push ups upside down, he moved onto his legs. The sore pain from his hands eventually numbed and began his footwork. He did minor dashes back and forth but he did not relax. He had to control his speed so everytime his feet did an outburst of speed, he would automatically change direction. His body looked like a pinball that racked around in all angles. First he went north, then east, south, east, north, west, south...etc…

It continued on until his feet was used to the speed burst. Now he could gradually increase his speed while his ability continued to follow through. After a few hours, Souma could control his speed and when he changed directions, he would do a burst which he sped forward. His body produced after images but Souma doesn’t know that. He was too focused to pay attention at the Dings that the interface made. This exercise was impromptu but it worked for him. He actually copied a training exercise but changed a few things for him. The training exercise was from Buddhist monks that paid homage to Shishou when Souma visited Kentaro’s house in the mountains. The monks would carry weighted gears and ran down the mountain but they changed directions once their legs started to give in to the pain. The immediate change in direction causes the leg muscles to flex and grow so Souma applied a similar training exercise to grow his muscles in order to handle the speed.

Now Souma is fully adept on controlling his speed and strength. All he has to probably worry about is that jumping speed.

“haaa haaa….”Souma panted after finishing his running exercise.

“Now how do I handle the jumping dilemma…”

He thought deeply. His jumping ability obviously came from his legs but what could I do to limit it...Wait how does a kangaroo handle jumping?

For some reason Souma thought of animals that constantly jumped. He also recalled the books on Anatomy that his father had in his study.

‘Leg muscles...’

‘Quadriceps….’

‘Muscle knots…?’

“Ahh ahh!!! I got it!”

Souma was thinking for an hour or two but eventually he stumbled upon an answer.

A genuine smile appeared and Souma spoke.

“Yoga.”

After doing yoga, he has to continue this training regiment for at least 4 months. He doesn’t know that time is nothing in here but he’ll have to do it. He wouldn’t mind if Akane and Tamago left him to do his bidding. He needed to get this under way.

Thus Souma began exercising. Each day he focused on each section of the training and ended the day with a relaxed Yoga session that stretched his muscles to become flexible.

After 2 weeks of training, Souma decided to increase the repetitions and include various sessions of shadow sparring. He wanted to have a body that was balanced so he add even more workout sessions. He did not sleep as his body strangely did not feel the need to sleep. From his internal clock, apparently a whole day each session was approximately 4 hours long. He had a total of 6 training sessions that branched out within 24 hours and continued every day with no rest.

His mind constantly reviewed the survival skills his Shishou taught him and reviewed fighting skills from the books he read from his Father’s study. From Muay thai to Russian Sambo, he practiced on his day offs. Within a week, 6 days were training sessions and on the 7th day, he would dedicate those days to learning new techniques. Souma was in a new world and he needed to survive. He doesn’t know how the world is and how everyone would treat him so he had to be prepared.

1 month has passed…

Muay Thai mastered.

Russian Sambo mastered.

Kendo mastered.

Aikido mastered.

2 months passed…

Brazilian Jiu jitsu mastered.

Chinese Kenpo mastered.

Buddhist Shaolin Fist mastered.

3 months passed…

Iaijutsu/Iaido mastered.

4 months passed…

At the last month, he reviewed everything his body did. He continued and on the last week he spent shadow sparring his Shishou. Of course Souma has never fought Kentaro but he saw his father and Kentaro fight before. They used several martial arts that Souma did not even know about. Most of them were similar but they were performed much differently. The style seemed to flow very much like water. Every retaliation strike they did was crashing down like a waterfall and Souma etched that performance very well into his mind. He began to recreate his Shishou in his mind and started to spar on the last month to gauge his skills. 9/10 he would fail against his teacher. The occasional wins were due to sheer luck as he poured his body into his skills and began to mix the various forms of martial arts and produced a single art. It wasn’t the same as Shishou’s but it held a stance very different to his teacher’s water-like movements. If Kentaro was water that relied on retaliation, Souma was the wind which relied on speed and immediate recovery. He applied his techniques quick and on the off chances he won against his teacher’s shadow.

Later he will find out that Kentaro and his father weren’t going easy. So a feat of actually defeating his teacher 1 out of 10 times is a great improvement…

Souma didn’t know the drawback on his new meditation/astral plane ability but he’ll find out later in the next several days.

On the last day, Souma began to recollect his memories and reviewed everything that happened in this space.

He gradually cancelled his meditation and drifted back to the new world.

Souma opened his eyes and noticed it was still dark. He looked around and found the two sleeping together.

“oh….4 months have passed...why are they sti-”

Souma barely had time to finish his sentence when the pain of his experiences entered his body. He could not suppress it and let out a shriek.

“URYAAA! THIS HURRRRRTTTS!?”

His muscles felt tense and they ached as if all the pain he felt within that world came in bulk and multiplied by 10.

“AHHHHHHHH!!!!! NOOO!!!!”

Souma began screaming and grabbed his body. His shrieks were loud that it even alerted some patrol guards from the village. His screaming woke Akane and Tamago-chan and Akane grabbed the egg and went towards Souma.

Souma continued to scream until his body went numb and he passed out.

15 days have passed since that incident.

Shuffling could be heard as Souma was nearing his awakening.

“ughhhh…”

“hwaaa haaaa”

After a few more mumbling, he began to wake up.

He looked around his surroundings. He laid on a 2-person bed next to Akane. Souma seemed to be in a inn of some sort. They had a makeshift table with pretty ornaments and a dresser for some utility clothing and he looked through the window and saw that it was a little bit after noon.

“Ahh, seems like a day has passed” Souma sighed.

“Well actually you were asleep for 15 days…” mumbled the little girl that stared at the 15 yr old boy.

“Whaaaaaa!? WHERE AM I!? WHO ARE YOUU!?” Souma sprang about and the little girl blushed and turned around.

“ecchi...Ummm...mister could you put on some clothes and my mother and father would like to talk to you downstairs…” The strawberry colored girl was red and left the room for Souma to get his bearings straightened.

“UWAAHH!! I am naked!? Damn...I seem like a pervert now...haaaaa.” Souma sighed as if his day couldn’t get even worse.

But he was wrong...it’s about to get even more crazy.

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