“Hey Elizabeth, you’re out early.” A male colleague asks, as Elizabeth rushes to get outside the office.

“Yeah Stan, I need to do something later, so I’m going out early.” Elizabeth waves off her colleague and immediately goes out.

Elizabeth has already asked for an early leave because of two matters.

The first and most important matter was Elizabeth reaching the first realm yesterday night. While continuously absorbing the pure energy released by the briefcase, Elizabeth reached a small bottleneck.

It wasn’t too hard breaking through and eventually, Elizabeth reach the first realm of cultivation.

After reaching the first realm, new memories flowed through Elizabeth’s mind.

The first realm is called Physique Tempering.

Physique Tempering focuses on making the body stronger by absorbing the natural energies of the earth and heavens.

The energies make the bones tougher, the blood more malleable, the skin more flexible, and the flesh stronger.

The first realm has 9 levels and each level raises one’s strength considerably.

When Elizabeth reached the first realm, her body released this mucus-like liquid that covered her whole body but before she could clean up, she felt that her body became considerably lighter and tougher.

Because of her excitement, Elizabeth couldn’t control her strength and when she decided to wash up, she managed to pull out the doorknob. After that, she accidentally bent the showerhead.

Once ordeal of taking a bath has passed, Elizabeth tried calculating her strength.

She’s definitely stronger than an average adult person but weaker than a Meta human. She started checking her physical ability and noticed that she can easily lift 75 kgs, release a punch worth 75 kgs and a kick as heavy as 100 kgs.

Because of this, Elizabeth’s excitement shot through the roof and she wants to immediately return back home and continue her cultivation.

Now the second matter is a little bit more complicated than the first one.

While Elizabeth was at work this morning, her mind was on overdrive and she was thinking of what to do with the briefcase.

When she woke up remembering everything she did, even the joy of reaching the first level of Physique Tempering, could not snuff out the shame and embarrassment she felt.

What she did was a crime. Stealing an object during an accident is a crime and returning a stolen object does not absolve one of their crimes, nor does it solve Elizabeth’s first matter.

Since Elizabeth is stuck at an impasse, she decided to do something valuable with her time while she tries to find a way to solve her problem.

Elizabeth changed from her police uniform to more casual clothes. Right now, she’s currently wearing a white shirt with black stripes all over it and black jeans that allow for easy movement. Her shoes are simple, white running shoes without any enhancements.

Once dressed, Elizabeth rushes to get home.

The main police station is situated near the center of the city just a few blocks away from the God-slayer organization and the main base of operations.

Elizabeth works at a branch situated near the Portal district. Portal district, as the name implies, is a district that’s focused on transportation. It’s filled with trains leading to every district in the city and carpools leading to the parts unreachable by the train.

Usually, Elizabeth would take the bus but her excitement made her take the train, since it’s faster. After entering Portal district, Elizabeth rushes to the ticket booth for the Fallen Goddess district.

Once she receives her ticket, she immediately walks to the waiting area. Due to her excitement, Elizabeth doesn’t notice a strange man continuously stealing glances towards her.

When the train arrives at the station, Elizabeth goes in and the strange man went in to follow her.

It would take 2 hours for Elizabeth to go home from work if she took the bus but the technologically advanced train would only take 10 minutes.

Despite the short amount of time travelling, Elizabeth couldn’t stop being jittery from excitement and her obvious excitement and smiling face gained a lot of attention, as a lot of males and even females are looking at the beautiful woman sitting in the train. The strange man didn’t stop looking but tried to look more natural.

Looking outside the window, one can see the wide expanse of Mercury city and its 31 districts.

The large metal buildings cover the sky but there is enough space to allow the civilians to see the skies. After 10 minutes of travel, the train settles in the train station in the Fallen Goddess district.

Once the doors open, Elizabeth runs out quickly and started walking towards her home.

When Elizabeth exited the station, she finally managed to calm herself.

Now that Elizabeth is calm, her sharp senses returned.

Looking at a passing mirror, Elizabeth notices a man that's staring at her and following her from behind.

Elizabeth made sure to check before assuming.

Once she makes sure that the man is following her, she decides to confront him privately where there won’t be anyone affected.

Something bugged her though, as if something big was following her.

After reaching a small road, Elizabeth dashes into her left, straight into a small alleyway.

Her new body allowed her to move faster than before and she immediately covered a lot of ground and as expected, the man followed her but he seemed slower and unsure. He doesn’t seem to be familiar with the district, because he keeps hesitating whenever Elizabeth disappears from sight but the fact that he could keep up means that he’s a Meta human at the very least.

Elizabeth's continuous running just reinforces the fact that she's no longer normal and she relishes that fact.

Eventually, Elizabeth reaches a remote area in between multiple alleyways.

It’s devoid of people and the walls here are sturdy. After a minute, the man catches up and stares at Elizabeth.

“Who are you? And why are you following me?”

Humans can never defeat Meta humans.

That has been a fact since the time Meta humans appeared.

Technology can shorten the gap but never fully close it.

Meta humans are and will always be stronger than humans but why is Elizabeth facing a possibly hostile Meta human.

One word.

Excitement.

Elizabeth is excited to test out her new body.

Even though achieving the first realm made her stronger than a normal human, fighting a Meta human is still risky but there is one thing that gives Elizabeth a fighting chance.

It’s Narissa.

Narissa is a squad level Meta human, a rank above the lowest, and Elizabeth constantly trains with her.

Elizabeth always loses but after dodging bone breaking kicks and heart stopping punches, Elizabeth developed a way to fight Meta humans.

Eventually after countless sparring sessions with Narissa, she eventually could fight her equally but still Elizabeth could never beat her.

What about now? Elizabeth kept asking herself, would she win now.

“I’ve been sent to retrieve the briefcase.” The man calmly adjusts his rough coat. He seems very uncomfortable with his clothes.

Elizabeth’s excitement immediately disappears.

Sighing, Elizabeth prepares to speak.

“I knew this would happen.”

The man doesn’t reply.

“Okay, let’s do it like this. Tomorrow at the same time, let’s meet here.” before Elizabeth could finish her sentence, the man dashes forward to punch her face.

Elizabeth’s excitement flares up to maximum and reacts quickly by dodging.

But..

It’s not enough.

He’s too fast, faster than Narissa.

Elizabeth still tries to dodge the fist that could very well smash her skull in.

Then in that moment, the flying fist stopped for a second.

That second was enough.

Elizabeth managed to dodge to her right and send a kick to the man’s chest.

The man flinches a bit, surprised that a normal human can output that much force but the man immediately recovers, thinking that it’s simply a fluke.

Is he holding back?

The man’s face contorts in confusion.

Despite the danger, Elizabeth still finds herself very excited and readies herself.

One thing Meta humans never expect from a normal human is them charging first and that's what Elizabeth did.

Elizabeth rushes down low, taking the man by surprise. Elizabeth reaches her target and punches the man in his center with her full force.

The man groans lightly and before he could properly react, Elizabeth opens her hands and clutches the man. Elizabeth smiles confidently as her fingers crackle with electricity, shocking the man.

Electricity bigger than the night before envelops the man.

It’s definitely bigger than before but not enough.

The man’s face clutches in pain and he reacts by clawing at Elizabeth. Elizabeth dodges backward and kicks the man’s lower body.

The man winces from the pain but immediately charges Elizabeth with a flurry of punches and kicks but every kick and punch stops for a second, allowing Elizabeth to dodge with her body intact.

“HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?” The man screams.

Wait? He’s not holding back? Elizabeth’s eyes become serious. If it’s not him, somebody else might be here. This is going to be dangerous but I need to test it. Elizabeth’s eyes go serious as she charges forward again, but this time with more vigor.

Weirdly confident in her mysterious helper, Elizabeth attacks with her guard wide open.

“Take this!” The man punches with bone breaking force towards Elizabeth.

The man stops again.

As expected he stops for a second every time he’s near punching me. Smiling, Elizabeth launches a powerful kick, hitting the man square on the face.

“Ugh!” The man groans but Elizabeth doesn’t stop on her assault and grasps the man’s neck. Elizabeth immediately releases the 2 charges left on her taser.

“AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” The man, despite showing greater strength and speed than Narissa, Elizabeth is having an easier time.

Is this the result of cultivation? It’s amazing!

Elizabeth follows up by inserting her foot in the middle of his legs then hooking it behind.

Elizabeth easily trips the electrified man.

The man tries to stand but Elizabeth releases a continuous amount of powerful kicks and punches until the man is unconscious.

Even when the man isn’t attacking, his body is freezing up. When the man slumps unconscious, Elizabeth looks around to look for her mystery helper.

Feeling a chill, Elizabeth feels that this cold is both familiar and protective.

Eventually the chill disappears and the man is still unconscious.

Elizabeth sifts through the man’s belongings to find a small phone and a small folder.

Opening the folder Elizabeth sees her public file and some information not open to the public. Elizabeth hides the folder and phone.

*RINGS*

Surprised, Elizabeth fumbles to get the man’s phone. There’s an unknown number but Elizabeth guesses that the number is an accomplice.

She answers and listens.

“Hey Carlo, I’m in the house.”

He’s inside my house?

“I’ve tried looking for the case but no luck. I’ll keep trying but.”

The sound of a doorbell comes from the phone.

“I’ll call you back there’s somebody outside the house.”

The man hangs up.

*RINGS*

Another ringing catches Elizabeth’s attention.

The ringing is comeing from her phone.

Elizabeth puts away the man’s phone and pull hers out.

Narissa is the one calling.

Elizabeth immediately answers the phone and Narissa’s energetic voice comes from the phone.

“Hey Elizabeth I heard that you went out early. That’s a first! To celebrate, I brought colas and foodstuff, anyway come out already, I’ve been ringing the doorbell for 5 minutes now.”

Despite her complaint, Narissa’s good mood is felt through the phone.

“I’m still outside” Elizabeth is cut off by Narissa’s next words.

“Hey your door isn’t locked. I’ll come in first okay! I’ll set everything up and wait for you.” Then she hangs up.

Tsk, why couldn’t you wait for me properly?

Elizabeth hangs up her phone and looks at the unconscious man behind her.

I can't let them hurt Narissa!

After deciding, she runs and goes toward her home. With her slightly stronger body, Elizabeth only takes a few minutes to get home.

She opens the gate and rushes to open the door.

*Gasp*

Greeting her is the gruesome sight of Narissa sitting at the living room, stuffing her face with chips. Her guilty face gets paler once she sees Elizabeth’s worried face.

“I’m so sorry! I was hungry. I couldn’t help it.” Looking around, Elizabeth doesn’t notice anyone or anything out of place, and after seeing her look around, Narissa starts looking around as well.

“Hey! What’s the problem?” Once she's sure the place is clear, Elizabeth heaves a sigh of relief.

“It’s nothing.”

Smiling, Elizabeth closes the door and walks towards Narissa.

Despite Elizabeth’s calm façade, she doesn’t let her guard down and keeps her senses aware.

Elizabeth sits in one of her couches while Narissa is sitting on the carpet near the small table.

Elizabeth and Narissa talked and watched films in her living room for a few hours, which slightly annoyed Elizabeth, since it made her original goal disappear but she can’t shut out Narissa just because of her newfound abilities.

When their drinks were gone, Narissa went to the kitchen and noticed that some parts of the kitchen have thin sheets of ice.

“Hey Narissa I don’t have any drinks out here. I’ll go out and buy some okay.”

Narissa nods in reply while watching a movie about a female having multiple partners.

Elizabeth goes out the house to buy some drinks and look for any signs of danger.

When she goes out, what she saw shocked her speechless.

It was snowing.

Beautiful white snow littered the subdivision.

A district has multiple subdivisions and right now Elizabeth’s subdivision is filled with snow.

The snow fell slowly but heavily, as if it wanted to hide something. The big buildings are painted in peaceful white and the roads are covered to look like an empty easel.

Recovering from shock, Elizabeth tries to feel the energy of the falling snow. There was nothing but the faint feeling of the usual small energy. It means all of this is artificial, yet Elizabeth has never seen something this beautiful except the mountain range and valley in her dreams.

“It’s beautiful.”

Elizabeth shakes her head and somehow feels that she shouldn't go out anymore.

If his friend went out to look for him, the man she knocked unconscious should be gone by now.

And after thinking about it fighting two squad level Meta humans is practically suicide, so Elizabeth decided to stay.

After going inside, she sees Narissa is fast asleep on her couch.

She must be tired from all her work.

Elizabeth gets a blanket and covers Narissa, then turns the television off.

After that, she goes in her room and locks it.

Elizabeth pulls out the briefcase from a secret compartment under her floor.

“What the hell should I do with you?” Sighing, Elizabeth stares at the battered briefcase in front of her.

Elizabeth pulls out the man’s phone and starts looking for clues.

The phone looks new.

It must be because they don't want to leak any information but right now, information is what she needs.

After sifting through the phone, Elizabeth found a message saying only a few words.

Kill the thief and retrieve the item.

Elizabeth furrows her eyebrows and start looking for any leads. Another message took her attention.

Kill the failure, he knows too much.

Elizabeth immediately dials the number of the hospital where the owner of the briefcase was confined and after ringing, a pleasant female voice answers.

“Hello? This is the public hospital how may I help you?”

“This is police officer Elizabeth Rielle. I called to ask about one of the victims of the car accident a day ago?”

The sound of a woman calling other personnel is heard from the phone.

“… Miss Rielle, I regret to inform you but the victim is dead. He was reported to die from asphyxiation. It seems the accident claimed his life. We’ve already reported it to the police department, you could check up on them.” Elizabeth gives her thanks and hangs up.

Elizabeth’s mood turns even gloomier, especially after thinking that she may have caused the death of the man but there’s nothing to be done, so Elizabeth lies down in her bed and starts brainstorming on what to do.

Giving back the brief case is a dead end, since the owners seem to want this incident covered. So the most favorable option for Elizabeth is to simply hide the case and cultivate as fast as possible and when her power is sufficient, she’ll have to deal with this problem head on.

“Ughhh, why am I so unlucky.” Elizabeth sighs and closes her eyes.

Recovering her resolve, Elizabeth sits up and places the briefcase in front of her.

Closing her eyes, Elizabeth feels the pure energy leaking out and starts to absorb it.

She tried opening the briefcase earlier with her newfound strength but it’s not enough, so she decided to open it at a later date.

The energy swirls all over Elizabeth’s body.

Slowly, her body absorbs the clear and pure energy.

There’s no need for filtering, the energy is deliciously pure.

The energy continuously fills her body, increasing the amount inside her core.

Before the energy goes inside the core, they first move throughout her whole body, tempering it, like how a blacksmith hammers their product to straighten out edges.

The whole process is painless but the feeling of her body constantly changing makes her uncomfortable.

She can feel her body improving constantly, and thanks to her talent, even this scant amount of energy allows her to improve quickly.

If she had no talent, she probably would take a few months just to reach the second level of Physique tempering.

She can feel the strengthening of her bones, the malleability of her blood, the toughness of her skin, and eventually peace.

Normal people would have a hard time cultivating because of the time it would take but Elizabeth immediately enters a deep meditative state, allowing her to absorb energy quickly.

This goes on for hours and hours until Elizabeth hears Narissa’s voice.

“Thanks for the time Liz! I had fun. I’ll be going ahead okay! Take care” Elizabeth replies an affirmative and tries her best to return to her deep meditative state.

Her body starts perspiring the same sticky liquid she released when she reached the first realm.

She remembers that the first realm focuses on the improvement of the body, making the cultivator free of hunger, and thirst but for her, the most important point is getting stronger.

Since the first stage is strengthening the body, cultivators of this stage cannot use any magical abilities but only physical techniques.

The reason is because cultivators at this stage can only strengthen their body and not their core.

A cultivator’s core is the source of their energy and strength, so unless a cultivator reaches the second realm, which is “Core Tempering”, they cannot use any magical or energy based abilities.

Elizabeth knows that at her speed she can reach the second level if she continued cultivating for 3 days.

I need to cultivate faster or else my life will be in danger. I’m thankful they sent only squad level Meta humans, but it’ll be dangerous if they start sending more powerful Meta humans, at that time only a miracle will save me.