Year 1035 of the Zhang Dynasty - The Northern Forest - Bunker

One month after entering this forest I am starting to gain less experience for hunting bronze ranked spiritual creatures. At first I won one level per day, after it was three per week and in the last two weeks I only won two levels.

(Should I keep hunting them?)

I asked Maria while still in bed.

[Don't get impatient, the lower estimate level of a silver rank is 31]

(At this pace it may about a year to reach that level)

[You only got one life, don't waste it]

(...)

[Look at it this way, leveling up isn't the only thing you did in this month]

...that is truth, in this month I created an underground bunker of of 10x10 meters with three rooms of 3x3 meters and one corridor.

One room was my bedroom furnished with a transmuted plastic bed, a chair and a table. Another one was a store room with smoked boar meat and water in case I cant leave, and the last room was empty in case I need one. The door was made of stone and it was at the ground level to mislead unwanted visitors.

I also trained my animal whisperer with the spiritual creatures. It seems that I can temporarily stop their movements for some time in the short range of 4 meters, but I am sure it will increase with its level.

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-Linjian Lv. 24-

HP 100%

MP 2300/2300

Stamina 136/126(+10)

Brawn 28(+5)

Awareness 23

Endurance 14(+5)

Resistance 12

SKILLS

Book of Appraisal

Earth Manipulation Lv. Max

Animal Whisperer Lv. 5

Life Detection Lv. Max

Mana Handling Lv. 5

OTHER

Trained body (Stamina + 10, Brawn and Endurance + 5)

Reincarnation of Maria Campbell (MP 10000%)

27 years old

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[Now stand up, we got things to do]

(I did a little muscle training and went out looking for the breakfast)

------------------------

-Second month of training-

I level up two times this month, and gained two level in both animal whisperer and Mana handling.

-Third month of training-

One day I detected some cultivator hunting near me so I quickly activated plan C.

...

I level up one time this month, and again gained two level in both animal whisperer and Mana handling.

-Fourth month of training-

I leveled up once at the end of the month, and maxed the levels of animal whisperer and Mana handling. The maximum level of Mana Handling gives me the ability of controlling pure mana, by itself it did nothing but I could increase the density of mana in my transformations at the cost of more MP.

-Fifth month of training-

After reaching the maximum level of Mana handling I could maintain Earth knight with the cost of 20 MP each minute or roughly two hours in total and with that the number of hunts per day incremented, but regardless of that my level didn't increase this month.

-Six months of training-

The Northern Forest was starting to have a shortage in bronze ranked spiritual creatures, there were silver ranked ones here but Maria insisted that I wasn't ready yet. Without choice, I was forced to find them in the nearby meadows. I didn't leveled up this month.

-Seven months of training-

A cultivator appeared again in the Forest, but this time I take a look at him.

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-Mo Yuancheng Bronze Rank grade 7-

Estimated level 17

HP 100%

SP 16/16

Stamina 107/118

Brawn 18

Awareness 15

Endurance 9

Resistance 8

OTHER

15 years old

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(I could win a fight with him)

[Don't, if he doesn't return his family will send people to discover what happened]

(I aren't going to attack someone just to become stronger)

If I were to do that, how could I claim to be different to them?

[I know, you aren't that kind of person]

-Eight months of training-

This month I tried fighting a flying bronze ranked spiritual creature, and it wasn't very effective. The plan A was useless, so I only could fight it using my Earth knight form and throwing compacted soil spears but that wasn't useful either because the giant blue bird dodged them all. At the end, I could only use plan C.

(Should I try learning another skill?)

That night I asked Maria about it.

[I don't think you can]

(Why?)

[Since you learned Mana handling, I have this feeling that your skill slots are full]

(Skill slots?)

[It means the capability of holding skills]

Then, I will have to do something with my current skills

(Should I try to make a flying platform?)

[Your skill is Earth Manipulation, not Wind Manipulation. Fighting in the sky will only get you in trouble]

-Nine months of training-

I decided to use the animal whisperer skill and its thirty meters of range to paralyze the flying spiritual creatures and after finishing them with the Earth Embrace. This method will only work with unintelligent beings, but for now it is all I got.

This month I won a level, it needed four months of constantly killing spiritual creatures to get a level.

[One level more and you may have a chance with silver ranked spiritual creatures, keep at it]

One more, just one more.

-Ten months of training-

(Maria is there a way to store mana?)

[To store mana?]

(Yes, if there is a situation where my MP reaches 0 in the middle of a battle I want to have a back up plan)

[Lets see...]

...

[No, the book of appraisal doesn't have any info on it]

(...you said that this MP works like a video game of your world)

[Yes?]

(Did those have something like that?)

[Well, they have mana potions and mana stones]

(Tell me about them)

...

-Eleven months of training-

I keep killing spiritual creatures, but I was more focused on creating mana potions and stones. I keep using the Earth Manipulation to create all sorts of material containers looking for one that could maintain the mana of Mana Handling from dispersing. It was more fascinating than just searching and killing creatures every day.

-Eleven months of training-

Nothing works...

[Give up, you already tested every material you can create]

(...)

[It was worth a try, but more than this will be just a lost of time]

There is something that I don't see, something obvious. I can feel it.

(Maria, explain me again what the mana is)

[...all right, the mana is the soul force inside an individual whose strength is determined by the stimulus of experience]

Inside an individual...

(What is an individual?)

[Wow, what a strong question]

(Answer it)

[Biologically speaking, the individual is basically the delimitation formed by the cells of same Genes]

Cells of the same genes...

(There is a material I didn't use)

[...I am against self injury]

-Eleven months of training-

(I did it, I created a mana stone)

A purple spherical stone of the size of a fist resides in my hand.

[Unbelievable]

Merging my previously dried up blood into a stone form while pushing mana in the center with the Mana Handling skill I was able to create something never seen before.

It take me a month to find the right form of keeping the mana inside because the stones were unstable and they kept breaking out of nowhere, what it needed was a spherical form and an empty space inside to stabilize itself.

[You seem delighted]

My face was surely a grinning one.

(I am)

I break the stone in my hand and a blue mist leaves it, and then invades my body.

[MP + 500]

I needed three times the MP necessary to create it, but it was worth it.

-Eleven months of training-

I keep killing the creatures in the forest and the nearby meadows, but now I make sure to reserve MP to create one Mana Stone everyday. The Cell Reproduction regenerates my blood every day in my sleep, so it didn't affected me losing a bit every day.

I was still delighted with my success and because of that it didn't matter that I wasn't leveling up.

...

One night I asked Maria.

(Is there a way to copy the mana stones with my Earth manipulation?)

If there were a way then I wouldn't need to bleed every day..

[The mana stone contains DNA and because of that transmuting it will use too much of MP]

(So, I can but it will empty my MP?)

[To make something the size of a fist your current MP will not be enough]

-Twelve months of training-

The free room in my bunker become a storeroom of mana stones and I transmuted a plastic belt to carry four with me every time.

(Should we go to see the tournament again?)

[No, we already have enough information and you never know when a cultivator will challenge you to a duel]

(Did it happen often in those novels?)

[Yes, it did]

-Thirteen months of training-

One morning after my daily muscle training I went out and my activation of Life Detection sensed seven people, five of them obviously surrounding two of them. One of the surrounded ones wasn't a cultivator.

...

What should I do?

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-Linjian Lv. 29-

HP 100%

MP 2699/2700

Stamina 129/131(+10)

Brawn 33(+6)

Awareness 28(+1)

Endurance 17(+6)

Resistance 15

SKILLS

Book of Appraisal

Earth Manipulation Lv. Max

Animal Whisperer Lv. Max

Life Detection Lv. Max

Mana Handling Lv. Max

OTHER

Trained body (Stamina + 10, Brawn and Endurance + 5)

Under clothes Earth Reinforce (Awareness, Brawn and Endurance + 1)

Reincarnation of Maria Campbell (MP 10000%)

28 years old

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