To have a smooth path forward, Richard needed to set a good foundation. Otherwise, he would have to undo everything in the future and restart.

The foundation realm decided how the rest of the stages would go. It was the stage where the user divided the Ki into percentages and focused on the body parts he wanted to transform.

Noah’s cultivation was called Lion King’s Entourage and it was limited to the next realm, Core formation.

The foundation for this path was the heart. It went through a transformation with the Ki focusing on it and through it the rest of the body followed.

The process wasn’t just simple as putting Ki into it, as the user had to cultivate the concept of bravery and ferocity.

The Lion wasn’t from earth but from the Varog Kingdom. It was given the title king because the rest of the Lions weren’t match.

The beast was a nightmare that no person would like to meet, unless they were crazy. With a size that rivaled hills, the beast was a menace that could erase villages with a roar.

It was one of the legendary beasts of Pandora.

Nonetheless, the method wasn’t one of the top goods and the real one was called Lion King’s Might.

The best foundation would have multiple body parts that went through a transformation, but that was a difficult task.

It required more time and talent.

It needed a much more complex method and having a good understanding of the body, while also having quick reactions. With multiple parts, the body would have countless reactions and the user would have to keep them in check.

This was a game that utilized the body as the core, people couldn’t carelessly handle it.

It was fortunate that Richard was a reader of countless genres and could use them as references instead of moving about blindly.

‘I will test it out on animals and bugs.’ Richard decided before getting up and joining his new family.

The life in Harrison village was very simple and it had never seen any crisis since the last Great War, 21 years ago.

It was a small village with a population of around 1000 people, majority of whom were farmers. Everyone knew each other and outsiders were rare.

In the 70 years of its existence, the village had produced only five great men that had risen beyond their circumstances and achieved lordship or Knighthood.

The region had long summers with heat reaching 60 degrees Celsius and sometime more. There were heavy storms and during winters in dropped below zero.

The Kingdom of Varog experienced all four seasons and all of them were enhanced by the presence of the mystical energy in the atmosphere.

Everything that existed on earth had gone through changes on Pandora and even other totally magical species existed.

Meaning, even diseases were much worse on this planet and poor people were done for when they hit.

The people of Pandora adjusted to their surroundings but people still died from the cruel climate, but mostly from the animals and other humans.

Harrison Village was given to Edward Harrison and now it was governed by his son Charles. He had recruited few men under him to be his entourage.

These men protected the village when needed and joined Charles for battles.

It was rare for bandits to come to these poor regions but sometimes they did. It was recommended to return home before dark or an encounter was a possibility.

These men were not army personnel and did their own thing during the rest of the time. There was no wall around the village and the atmosphere was very peaceful as everyone did their tasks.

Seeing such a village wasn’t new for Richard as he had visited some in Asia and Africa. Some might find it interesting, but Richard really didn’t like the unclean environment.

Richard moved without stopping and arrived at the ground beside the fish farm. It was the ground used for training and sparring.

There were boulders of different sizes and wooden weapons. There were wooden posts used for practice and whips for training the durability of the body.

It was within expectations that a village wouldn’t have a proper gym.

The people trained by lifting boulders, large stones, large clubs, bodyweight, wrestling, sparring, going through the motions of armed combat, hitting the wooden posts and hunting.

It all looked crude but it couldn’t be replaced because people wouldn’t want to waste any metal.

There was no iron mine or copper mine in the territory of the Baron, so it was limited in quantity. The tools were made from iron and copper while the weapons were either made of iron or steel.

On the other hand Knights had better material utilized for their equipment such as tungsten, titanium and other unique Pandora minerals.

Regardless, Richard thought that he needed to find a way to get proper physical training. He was a gym regular and understood that each exercise helped a particular set of muscles.

He couldn’t perform the full boy exercise with these equipments. Wrestling and sparring was the best, but it also led to injuries and down time.

Nonetheless, Richard decided to just try the same routine for now and keep in mind the change.

Looking at the other young kids, Richard was glad that the body knew how to fight or he would get his ass whopped by children.

On earth he had learnt grappling and kick-boxing along with shooting and knife fighting. But, he was still an amateur.

You couldn’t have it all and he had never trained during his childhood, only picked it up in his twenties.

Looking at them training, Richard realized that he might have to kill people. That thought caused him to pause mid-step.

‘Hmm, I should be able to kill.’ Richard guessed as he didn’t really feel anything from the death of unknown people and especially people that were on the wrong side.

He had seen many deaths and attended funerals but felt nothing.

The only thing that scared him was the death of people close to his heart; parents, family and close friends.

As Richard was lost in his thoughts, he heard a playful voice from the left, “Oracle, what will you bestow up on us today?”

The tone was trying to imitate those from high upbringing but fell short and sounded comical. It was not meant to be rude and was a joke.

People joked about him being the oracle as he saw unique things and seemed to stop at random times.

“Just thinking of changing how we train, you?” Richard replied as he felt the arm on his shoulders and looked at his best friend, Leone.

Just like on earth, Richard was very selective about whom he called best friend. He knew many people but would rarely call them friends because there wasn’t a strong bond between them.

He was very sensitive to how others acted and judged according to them. People that only knew how to take and never willingly helped out couldn’t really be considered friends; they were people that he knew at best.

People that would never call you back or try to accommodate you definitely didn’t think much about you.

As such Richard rarely ever felt anything for people around him. He acted friendly with everyone but his attitude with close ones was clearly different.

“Did you get enlightened by the heavens or hit your head? This is made by Lord Harrison, remember.” Leone patted his back and looked at him incredulously.

Leone was 13 years old with blond hair and blue eyes. His body was large unlike Richard, who was slim.

He stood taller than Richard but still continued to lose.

Richard had the advantage of an old soul and thought different from others. Among all the fighters, he was the one that focused mostly on grappling and showed moves none had seen before.

The child spirit was strong and curious so it experimented from the fragments it saw.

Listening to those words, Richard was about to roll his eyes and respond in his normal manner when he fortunately remembered his situation.

‘Almost got myself killed.’ Richard thought as he would have definitely sounded proud and looked down on the Knight.

“Ahem, I was just thinking and no one knows everything. We should always strive to do better.”

“Strive?”

“Struggle to do better.” Richard had to remember that people weren’t educated and spoke in a simple manner. He had to avoid using any difficult words, plus adjust his mannerism or it would stand out.

His way of speaking was different and as time went on, people would notice how he did things was dissimilar.

“Learnt that from young master Lance, or heard it in a dream?” Leone was curious and from his attitude it was clear that he cared for Richard’s words.

To him Richard was a unique existence and always joked about him being some chosen one. He had promised to always follow him, even if Richard declined.

He was the best fighter in the village but always lost to Richard. He got to hear bizarre things from him that were just too mystical.

Leone believed that Richard was meant for greatness. They were going to be brothers to the end, it was unfortunate that Richard didn’t have sister or it would have been official.

“It was a dream.” Richard responded as he gazed at Leone who stared back at him.

“What?”

“Nothing, let’s start training.”

“You are going to start, I am just continuing.”

“Yeah, you are right. I will spar with you once I am done.” Richard nodded and pushed him away as he moved towards Noah.

“It’s good to see healthy. Don’t worry me like that, it was terrible.” Leone smiled and felt better seeing that Richard wasn’t looking like dead corpse.

Richard smiled at those words and gave him a shake of his hand. Leone had noticed the change but unlike his parent’s he hadn’t thought about the serious causes.

It was better that way or the friendship might have ended.

An hour passed by as Richard finished the sets and was filled with sweat from head to toe. He had lifted a boulder to train his strength but there were only limited ways that he could life a rock.

It didn’t have the flexibility of a proper tool.

Nonetheless, he tried to do what he could and train in different manners with the rock. He did pushups of different kind with the weight on his back.

He did pull-ups and utilized the two of the large stone by carving a hold into them for his feet. It was also the first time he used a Ki skill against something.

Richard commanded his Ki to travel to his right hand and only strengthened the skin and bones around it, leaving the rest of the body.

With that, he made a knife hand and pushed it against the rock. He didn’t have any memories of breaking large rocks with bare hands, so he was cautious about it.

It wasn’t enough, so Richard decided to give it a punch. He had punched walls before, it shouldn’t be worse than that.

With that thought out of the way, he did it without hesitation and but held back.

Nonetheless, it was enough to break some of the rock and his skin didn’t break.

With that out of the way, Richard did pull-ups on a nearby tree while the others ended up watching him. It wasn’t the first time the boy did weird things, so they just watched and nodded approvingly.

While, Richard thought that the Ki rotation process was inefficient and slow. Once he finished up the exercise, he sat down and thought about it while catching his breath.

Utilizing his understanding from various media, Richard thought of having the Ki spin and transport Ki in four directions at the same time instead of one long rotation.

Towards his legs and towards the brain from both directions, it would cut a lot of time and make the process smooth.

The spinning would also increase the speed and maybe remove impurities. Though, it might damage his nerves so he would have to be careful.

Leaving the thought aside, Richard finished up the rest of sets and stood beside Noah.

The man was conflicted looking at Richard and would need time to adjust his mind to the reality.

“Good, you kept your promise… Come; show me what you can do.” Noah muttered calmly as he stood in the wrestling circle.

His gaze was intense like a predator eying his next meal.

Richard cleared the sweat from his forehead and eyes. This was his first fight in a long time. He was someone that liked combat but never fought people.

He would never start a fight, but he would definitely end it.

The 12 years of Pandora had taken away that hesitation thankfully or he would get killed waiting for an assailant.

Knowing that it was a spar and wanting to test out his body, Richard moved first and rammed into Noah.

Using Ki to give his legs a boost, Richard covered the short distance instantly and found his head almost smashed by a knee strike.

Noah reacted without missing a beat and aimed for his head.

Luckily, Richard was cautious and kept his hands close or he would have lost his head. Noah seemed to have really treated him as an enemy and sent him flying out of the ring.

He had moved back at the last moment as well to lessen the affect, but still almost broke his arms as he had flown with the impact.

“Fuck!” Richard cried out and landed properly as Noah realized what he had done. There was hesitation and shame.

Regardless, he quickly reached Richard and checked his arms.

Let out a sigh of relief, “It looks fine…. Let’s not spar for a while.”

Noah didn’t look at him and walked away with those words. He decided to just watch for now and think about things.

He really hated thinking about complex problems.

Richard watched him leave but didn’t hold any anger for the poor man. It was understandable that few hours couldn’t make a difference when it came to such a sensitive topic.

“Since Noah is feeling cranky, how about joining me?”

Richard felt a hand touch his shoulder and heard a feminine voice. It was easy to recognize as Maya was the only adult female hunter.

She was an average looking woman with brown hair and brown eyes. She had long hair tied in a ponytail even though it could be used against her during a battle.

It showed that she still hoped for some romance since short hair ruing her looks.

Maya was also Child Richard’s crush, it seems he liked that older woman that knew how to fight and looked strong.

The age thing probably came from Richard while the rest was all Child Richard.

He had even promised to marry her when he was 14. But, Maya didn’t take it seriously and treated him like a little brother.