Slash!
Huff~ Huff~
Soon, without even noticing it, Naib had already been practicing the two skills for half a day, completely draining his star force reserve and even his stamina in the process, causing him to reluctantly stop for today.
Well, in fact, his star force reserve has already been dried up long ago; it's just that he wanted to see if practicing the two skills without using any star force would yield some proficiency.
"Indeed, although practicing skills without using star force yields some proficiency, the quality and quantity are 10 times worse than practicing with star force; simply put, it was time-consuming and somewhat useless. It's better to use that time to recover my star force before starting again.
"Even worse, the knowledge I gained after practicing without star force only consists of the right form and movements, not including how to better manipulate the star force for better application of the skill.'
Sweating purposely, body tired and mind exhausted, Naib then consumed the flesh on his hand; eyes slightly closed as he felt the bits of meat turning liquefied upon hitting his stomach, before their nutrients equally coursed throughout his being — from his ligaments and muscles — giving an extra increase in his weight in the process.
"Still a good start. Unfortunately, I'm still away from the intermediate mastery.' With that thought in mind, Naib's tired expression eased somewhat.
With anticipation written all over his face, he then opened his character panel, wanting to see the improvement he had made in the past few hours.
[ Naib (Human)
Talent: (Unawakened) (Potential Seeing (Borrowed))
Spirit Manual: Beginner Force Star (Basic Mastery 20%) (Low Grade)
Life Span: 15/62
Realm: Beast Apprentice Early Stage (46%)
Bound Beast: Currently None
Skills: Basic Sword Style - Basic Mastery (30%) (Mortal), Wind Riding - Basic Mastery (12%) (Mortal)
——————————————
Fate Points: 8
[ Quest!! ] [ Inventory!! ] [ Feature Locked ] ]
...
"An increase of 13 and 11 percent. Hehe, not bad.'
If he continued like this, Naib believed that he would advance to the next mastery in just a week, something that most people would find unimaginable, considering that most of them needed at least three months, or even half a year of constant effort, just to reach that mastery!
Moreover, the higher the grade of the skills and the deeper the mastery, the harder it will be to increase the proficiency, a problem that Naib might not experience with the system's help.
Besides that, he believes that if he continued using the skills, he would eventually reach a higher mastery, probably even going beyond the known grade!
Hmm.
"It's almost night again, and the meat that I just gained today is almost gone, only enough for breakfast. Huff~ I still have to think of a way to get another portion tomorrow.'
Unfortunately, despite having a good golden finger under him, Naib couldn't fully utilize their usefulness. Not only does he need to tread carefully in this hellish place, but he also needs to constantly risk his life just to get his daily sustenance, a thing that his pathetic body could barely do!
Fortunately, Naib's problem mostly consists of finding food since there's a lot of water in this kind of place, specifically every morning, when guttation can be found anywhere.
"Hopefully, it will be different tomorrow.' With that lingering thought on his mind, Naib then lazily climbed toward his hideout, entering and covering the entrance of the hole with grasses that he found around before taking out the small congealed stone from his pocket.
Staring at the wisp of mist hovering around the congealed stone on his hand and feeling the cold texture it was releasing, Naib was finally unable to control himself and immediately started running his spiritual manual.
With his eyes closed and brows slowly turning relaxed, Naib then began breathing with patterns — sometimes slow and sometimes heavy — attracting the ethereal wind around, forming a faint cyclone in the process; moreover, the mist hovering within the congealed stone on his hand also began entering his nostrils, coursing through his being before heading to the illusionary pond within his head, adding drops of water within.
Feeling the sudden increase of droplets within the pond, Naib's lips curled slightly, breathing again as he absorbed the star force present around, enhancing his realm at a swift speed!
...
Boom!
However, just after a couple of hours meditating...
As Naib's mind was solely focusing on regulating his spiritual manual while absorbing the congealed stone on his hand, a sudden sound of a deafening explosion, followed by a strong gush of wind that pushed the grasses away from the entrance of his hideout, suddenly unfolded in front of him.
In addition to the slight feeling of the earth vibration and a faint howl from an unknown beast that quickly subsides like the whisper of the winds, Naib was shaken awake from his meditation!
"This! What the...'
Caught off guard by the sudden disturbance, Naib immediately hid the reduced-size congealed stone inside his pocket before looking outside, only to be met by the astounding sight that sent a shiver down his very core.
On his line of sight, the vibrant trees that should be present tens of meters away from his location were already gone, only to be replaced by pure destruction, leaving nothing to behold other than the scattered pieces of wood and roots.
Other than that, despite the darkness, Naib could also see lines of trenches that go deep within the earth, probably 3-5 meters deep based on his observation!
"This, what kind of demon can generate this kind of attack!? Even a transcended beast wouldn't be able to cause this type of destruction in just a short span of time!'
Feeling a deep sensation of dread washing over his soul, unsure whether to praise his luck upon evading a catastrophe or curse out loud upon almost dying, Naib was about to heave a sigh of relief when something above caught his attention.
There, in the atmosphere, probably 25 meters above, a gigantic three-headed crow, with a wingspan that easily covered the sight of the sky, reflects in Naib's constricted eyes.