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*body strengthening has been renamed body enhancement

Chapter 13

Hiro returned to the camp and saw everyone resting. He took out some of the poison blossoms he had collected. " I need to attempt to make an effective poison. I guess I'll try the same thing I did with the blood roses. I guess to start I should grind these up and on a rock but I can’t let this get on my skin.” He placed the 2 of the blossoms on a rock and began to crush them against each other. As he ground up the flowers up little by little they lost their beauty and turned into a white paste. "Hmm... No notification saying that I created poison? Well I guess I should see if it was successful. I need to make a trial run on something." He took his blade and rubbed it into the paste.

Your blade is now coated with poison. Upon inflicting damage upon an opponent it will be poisoned.

Alchemy level increased to 8.

He stood up. “Hey guys I want to try out this poison I created. I’ll be back shortly and then we can leave.” Everyone nodded then he ran off into the woods.

Hiro used his tracking skill and he found the signs that a black viper had been near the area. He tracked it until he found the snake laying out on a rock sunning itself. “I need to test the poison. I want to see how weak or powerful it is. I need to fight it and wound it slightly. Then I will dodge until it dies.” Hiro jumped out at the night viper and tried to slash it but the snake detected him before he attacked. It dodged his attack and hissed at him baring its fangs. Hiro activated his icy stare. The snake was intimidated by his stare. "I've got to be fast to avoid all of its attacks."While the snake was intimated he gathered his ki into his legs to augment his agility.

Hiro lunged at the snake and slashed it. “Now lets see how effective it is.” Hiro retreated back but the snake was angered from being damaged. Despite being intimidated by Hiro’s icy stare the black viper furiously attacked him. Hiro dodgedthe attacks one after another. His prediction ability makes this very easy. “It’s slowing down. The poison is working.” The snake begins to attack less and less and eventually it drops to the ground dead.

Dodge now level 9

Body Enhancement now level 5

“The poison was a success. I am going to coat all of our weapons in this.” He returns to the camp.

“Hey, my plan worked my alchemy skill has improved to allow me to make poison. Foria and Snow coat your arrows and sword in the poison to help us if we get into a battle.

“That’s what you were doing”, said Foria.

“Nice work young one. Poisoning an enemy will definitely give us an advantage in battle ” said Snow.

“Thanks” Hiro said as he looked at the ground blushing. “I just wanted to be useful. I was kind of down after our sparring the other day.”

“We were all raised to be a ranger, mage, and a warrior. You just began. You should not try to compare yourself to us” said Korin.

“Thanks. I didn’t think of it that way. I feel a lot better now. Is everyone ready?”

“We’re ready!”

The group grabbed their equipment and left to finish journeying through the forest. The group walked and talked as they traveled through the forest. The mood was light and the group laughed as they shared stories of childhood. Hiro and his group began to notice the trees were not as thick. They began to see more and more sunlight. Then the trees began to make way to a lush green pasture. They saw grass as far as the eye could see.

Hiro was so surprised. He couldn’t believe there was a place this beautiful just outside of the hellish forest he had been living in recently. They continued walking and eventually came upon a dirt road. Korin indicated that they should follow the road north and after about a day’s journey they would come to their home town of Kaito. The group decided to walk until the sun began to go down. They set up camp with the tents that they had taken from the orcs. Hiro took some of the pieces of firewood he had stored in his bag and lit a fire using his fireball skill. Everyone laughed and talked for hours. Eventually they began to fall asleep one by one.

The next morning Hiro awoke as usual early in order to begin his physical and mental training. He equipped his gauntlet and sword and began doing his strength training. He did pushups, situps, and squats until his body was exhausted. "I was able to increase the amount of pushups back to 250 even while wearing the gauntlet. The fruits of my training already began to show." Hiro now began meditation. "I have to practice moving my ki around my body. I have to see how it will effect different parts of my body." He sat down and tried to pass his ki around his body in different ways.

He began by gathering it all in his abdomen. Then he started moving smaller portions of it around his body. First, he gathered it into his right hand and then to his left. Next, he gathered it around his left leg and then his right. Finally he shrouded his whole body with the ki. As he opened his eyes he saw the familiar aura of his ki around his body. He felt his ki surging through his body creating a dramatic improvement in his speed, stamina, defense, and strength. Hiro thought to himself what if I could do this all times? What if I could train so much that my body enhancement could always be on? He had now managed to keep his ki active for nearly 40 minutes which was nearly triple the amount he was able to do before. He then took a deep breath and released his ki.

Your continuous training has improved your strength +5, wisdom +4, vitality+2.

Hiro was proud of his steady improvement. "Now he should practice my sword technique. I cannot just improve my body I must also improve my technique." Hiro grabbed the claymore from his back. It did not feel as heavy. His strength must have increased sufficiently for him to begin to wield the large sword. Next Hiro began to concentrate. The image in his mind was that of the beastmaster. Hiro focused and the beastmaster began to appear before his eyes. He began to attack. The beastmaster was still faster than he was and Hiro was barely able to dodge the attacks. The weight of his weapons was still a hindrance. No matter how hard he tried he was still not able to best the image of the beastmaster.

Now he was pouring sweat and breathing very heavily. Hiro lay down on the soft grass and looked up at the clear blue sky. He could feel a cool breeze on his skin. The sun was just over the horizon showing its beautiful bouquet of colors. Hiro could not believe that this was truly real. Then he heard Snow’s voice. “Have you improved any since our last spar?”

“Let’s find out”, said Hiro. He and Snow squared off. Hiro activated his ki ability and copy as he knew Snow might have some seriously strong techniques. When the breeze stopped blowing they charged each other. Snow’s aura was intense. His new shield made it seem like he was a walking tank. Hiro knew he would not be able to penetrate that shield. He moved his ki to his legs. He began to dart back and forth in order to confuse Snow. Hiro was moving so fast that he created an after image. "I can move like the beastmaster did. Amazing! Snow was right! I have improved', Hiro thought to himself.

Snow began to show signs of difficulty tracking Hiro. Hiro noticed this immediately and darted in at Snow. He attacked from what seemed to be a blind spot. Snow was caught off guard but he was still able to get his large shield around in time to take the attack. Hiro slashed at Snow with all of his might. Snow felt the heaviness of Hiro’s blows. They were incredible. "I couldn’t imagine that Hiro was the same person from the other day when we sparred at the orc camp. I guess I should join Hiro in that training he does in the morning seeing his immense progress."

Hiro continued to press the attack while Snow defended extremely well with his shield. The blows began to come faster. They jumped in at each other and crossed swords. Snow was no longer far superior in strength. He still had an advantage but the difference was not the same as it was in their first match. They struggled as they pushed each other trying to take a superior position. Snow’s edge in strength forced Hiro to bend at his knees as Snow’s full strength was upon him. Hiro dodged to the side and darted back in using his new found speed.

Snow was ready this time. He used a strange foot movement to side step Hiro. As Hiro went past him Snow used a leg trip to make Hiro fall forward off his feet. Hiro was falling causing his body to fly horizontally, then he brought down the shield across Hiro’s back. The thud of the metal on Hiro’s back could be heard all over. When Hiro hit the ground it created a small crater. Snow, who was actually perspiring, put his blade near Hiro’s throat and said, "This is my win but you are definitely much better than before."

Hiro half laughed as he was in a lot of pain. "Thanks. I only improved because of your teaching"

Endurance improved to novice level 2

Snow extended his hand and Hiro slowly grabbed it. Using Snow's strength, Hiro got up. Feeling the pain from Snow’s attack. Hiro groaned. He went to his bag and grabbed some of his healing potion. Hiro drank some of healing potion and he felt better. "Snow I'm still not your match. You are still the strongest but the gap between us has been closed considerably."

"That is true but you will need more than improved physical stats to beat me."

"What else will I need?"

"Battle experience. You will need to fight in battle against different enemies in order to sharpen you battle instincts and skill."

After resting, Foria and Korin awoke and the party gathered all their equipment and got on the road. They walked along the dirt path for most of the day, occasionally stopping to rest. Finally in the distance they could see building. “There it is!”Shouted Korin “There is our Kaito!”

The group was relieved. Hiro was excited but said, "Something seems off. I feel something strange is going on there."

"What do you mean", asked Korin?

"I don't know but I just sense something is off."

"Ok. Let's be on guard."

They continued walking and were getting closer to the town. Hiro felt something very off. He told everyone to be on their guard. As they got closer to the town they began to hear screams. Hiro’s presence detect ability was now able to reveal information about enemies in the town. There were over 70 enemies within the town. Most seemed to be similar to orcs but there were two that were on a different level. The group got in their battle formation a prepared to attack.

New quest save the town from the monster invasion. Accept? Yes! Rewards: ???

Rewards ???

"That’s never happened before oh well I’m going to help save the town regardless of the rewards.

Snow lead the charge. Hiro followed closely behind. Korin and Foria stayed about 30 meters behind them parallel to each other. As they entered the city, they saw the brutal scene goblins and orcs were killing people all over the place. Bodies had been ripped apart. People had been decapitated and children had been taken hostage. The goblins were chasing survivors on the street with swords and clubs. It was awful. Snow was enraged but what he saw. Snow broke off to the right once they entered the town.

He saw 3 orcs around a young woman. He smashed the first orc with his shield. It flew about 20 meters into the side of a building and died upon impact. He then spun around and sliced one of the orcs with his sword. The slash came vertically across the orcs chest. Blood shot out from the wound onto Snow. He licked the blood off his face and charged the last orc. The orc tried to run but Snow quickly over took him and ran the orc through with his sword. The sword went through the orc’s back and came out its chest. The orc fell limp and Snow moved on. Meanwhile Hiro was facing the main force with back up from Foria and Korin.

About 8 orcs and 12 goblins were standing in front of Hiro. He activated his predict ability along with icy stare, Hero’s battle cry, and his weapon enhancement. The red aura surrounded his body while his ki shrouded his blade. Hiro charged at the enemy. Foria began firing arrows. She killed 4 enemies in her first volley of arrows. Now the arrows only had to pierce the skin of her enemies as they had been coated in the poison that Hiro made. The orcs fell one by one. When Hiro came close to them they were confused and cowered before him. He swung his claymore and cut three orcs completely in half. He then dashed over to an orc that possessed a shield. He swung his weapon at the orc who lifted his shield to defend. The sword cut through the metal shield as if it wear nothing more than a piece of paper. Korin began casting his fireball spell and burnt several of the orcs to a crisp. Hiro continued cutting through the orcs one by one and by the time Snow had rejoined party all 20 orcs that stood before Hiro were dead.

Sword Mastery increased to novice level 3.

Now it was time to take on the two large enemies. Snow and Korin decided to take on the one Hiro sensed was in the southern section of the village. Hiro went with Foria to the Western edge of the village.