"I'm just messing with you guys, you seem to be so tense, we won, the principal and the city lord managed to close the portal."
BAM! As his words completed, a fist came flying to his face.
"That joke wasn't funny!" Reina roars, before he can get up, both Reina and Nima starts stomping on him.
Knowing that he's at fault, he didn't fight back and only activates his Ironhide Skin.
He knows that the two girls are quite stressed so letting them vent night be a good idea.
"What's happening here?" A couple of minutes later, Zack returns.
Seeing Sean being beaten by his daughter, niece and the guy's family, he was stunned.
"He made a very bad joke." Said one of the hall master that was stationed to protect the dojo.
"What kind of joke would illicit quite a reaction?" Zack was speechless, when the hall master whispers to him the joke, he finally understood the reaction of the girls.
"Everyone! I know that you already heard the news but I'll repeat it nonetheless, we are victorious!" He roars.
The whole dojo was set ablaze, there were multiple people crying and hugging each other.
Except for the little children, everyone of them experienced the portal break that happened all those years ago.
They don't want to experience that kind of destruction, the city's development was halted for decades because of this and half of their population was killed.
"Every martial artists that had participated in the battle last night are invited by the city lord for a celebratory feast next week." Zack added.
As one of the main force, his presence is actually required, in that feast, he wanted to show to the neighboring cities that their dojo is filled with talents and righteous martial artists.
Sean slips out from the ground while everyone was busy celebrating.
Patting the dirt from his clothes, he saw that everyone was now relieved.
"Aunt, it seems that our plan to relocate would need to advance." Tsu who was happy that they survived felt a hand hugging her.
He doesn't want to be slapped so he used this method to seal his aunt's hands.
"O-okay, I think it's better that you pick our new home." Her voice is very quiet.
BAM! He was kicked away by Hina, she glares at him.
"What the hell are you doing hugging my mom like that!?" She shouts.
"Tch! You're too greedy, we're family aren't we?" He puckers his lips at her.
"Big brother, your expression is really not fitting for someone like you." Yana states with a wry smile.
Grabbing her, he lifts her up. "You brat, you're no longer respecting your elders."
Yana was at first embarrassed before laughing joyfully as he twirls her around.
Seeing this, Hina pouts, puffing her cheeks, she harrumphs and tries to leave.
"Here, this is for you." A bottle appears on her head, startling her.
"What's this?" She was confused but after a while, her eyes widens.
"Cultivation pills!" She knew what it is after remembering what Nima showed her all those years ago.
"Yes, I bought it on the marketplace, with this, your martial arts will improve much faster." He knows this girl always strives to grow stronger.
Unfortunately, it seems that her mother's bloodline isn't really suited for the hard training of martial path.
Surprisingly, all of them grow to have large chest, white hair and intelligent minds.
He's certain that they belong to some clans before but they either perished or left their ancestral home.
"Don't you dare refuse it, if you do, I'll throw it away." Before she can say anything, he glares at her before pinching her soft cheeks.
Hina nods her head, she can't help but recall the memories of her father taking care of her.
She wasn't always a serious person, in fact, she always bully Yana in the past and was known to be a mischievous kid.
Unfortunately, the death of her father, the appearance of her mother getting taken advantage by malicious intent men shaped her current personality.
She always felt a heavy burden on her shoulder, she thought that everything will change if she became a martial artist.
Everything did change but not because of her but because of her other family member, the one not related by blood but of trauma and emotion.
"But I think that you guys are truly not suited for martial arts, don't worry, once I win the competition for our school, I'll ask the principal if there's another path."
He had noticed long before that the vitality Hina has trained would be sent somewhere inside her body, not accumulating causing her effort to disappear.
Hina believes him, she had been training much harder than others but she still nowhere close to becoming a martial artist.
"How about you try to learn some other stuffs like professions under the two paths, researching mystique creatures and creating your own martial arts." He decided to give her an advice.
Hina shakes her head, the sensation of being weak is still present, she will try harder to become a martial artist.
With the successful defense of humans from the portal break, the city was in a state of celebration.
Five days passes by in a blink of an eye, the destroyed buildings are now slowly being rebuild.
The existence of Genetic Upgrade being the main culprit for the appearance of portal break is now known to everyone in the city.
The crackdown of all lowifes are now undergoing a passionate campaign.
Inside the federation, a man wearing a cat mask and black robe presents carcasses of bronze tiers.
"Congratulations master Nameless, because of your performance, some of the hunter groups are now extending an olive branch to you."
The masked guy was Sean, he had been hunting bronze tiers all this time, trying to earn enough money to exchange for spirit stones.
He shakes his head and left, he decided to go to the Gold Family, his strength is already known by everyone in the city, maybe he can hunt under the Gold Family to earn contributions from them.
Returning to the dojo, he looks at the FP he had earned and he can finally afford one spirit stones.
After all, he desperately needed one in order to break through his current rank.
Bronze Tier Breakthrough: Transition from Skin Tempering to Muscle Tempering, new innate ability
Requirements: (1) Perfection Stage of Skin Tempering; (2) Middle stage of Body Tempering Technique; (3) Create a skill related to the current realm.
He already accomplished the third requirement, his level is also on the 9th stage and his foundation is quite solid, he can level up if he wants to.
It's the second requirement that he was having trouble with.
Hopefully, Wuk's breakthrough would help the two of them accomplish the next stage of their synched martial arts.
"It's Sean!"
"Sean, look here!"
"My idol!"
"Please marry me!"
Just as he enters the dojo, he was immediately greeted by his adoring fans.
Most of them are iron-skin rankers and non martial artists.
His performance ignited a crazed in the city, what's more, the principal released the news that he's going to represent their school in the competition between cities.
Now, many are trying to join the Black Ape Dojo causing the other martial art establishments to grit their teeth in frustration.
He waves at then while sweat pours down in his forehead, he's afraid, really afraid.
"Please don't surround senior brother!" A group of disciples creates a barrier around him.
"Thanks as always cherry." He was grateful to this girl, she had created a group specifically to deal with crazed fans.
"Stop acting like some serious person." Grabbing one of the guards, he went to his private training room.
Because of his fame, Zack has granted him his own private room to train in.
"Oh! If it isn't our famous celebrity." Nima seeing him immediately starts teasing.
"Please don't, being famous isn't that good at all." He sighs and shakes his head.
"Had you finally completed that tasks of yours!" Reina who was practicing her jabs asks.
He's the one who taught her that, as a martial artist and a genius at that, she learned the application of jabs in just one day.
"Yes, in fact, now that I completed that task, I think that I'm ready to join the Gold Family's mercenary group." He turns to Nima.
Nima's eyes lights up, this was excellent news, she had been waiting for him to ask this.
"With your current strength, you can start anytime, the lowest requirement to join our mercenary group is bronze rank but we'll give you an exception."
"No need, after the celebratory feast, Wuk will rank up to bronze tier without any fail." He shakes his head.
He didn't know that there's such a rule to join the mercenary group.
"Really!?" Everyone's eyes lights up, Wuk, the magical iron monkey that is strong enough to injure those from the early phase of silver-bone rank.
"Yes, so wait for two more days and we'll show you how strong we currently are." He wasn't joking.
As long as the spirit stone was delivered to the federation on time, Wuk would rank up to bronze tier without any fail.
Unbeknownst to him, multiple people from other cities had their eyes on him, especially on Sector Z.
Inside a room, multiple people were discussing about something.
"The number of cities destroyed by mystique tide and portal break has been increasing." (Unknown 1)
"I thought that our race would finally be able to flourish now that the number of our martial artists has been increasing more compared to the early years." (Unknown 2)
"We need to do some drastic measures!" One of them slams his fist on the table.
"Increase the reward in regards of hunting silver tiers and above, put more emphasis in the treatment of martial artists and develop a training regime for the younger generation!"
"I agree."
"I agree as wel."
"I agree as well, especially on the last part."
One by one, the people starts agreeing, those that disagreed were forced to accept the decision.
"First and foremost, public school funded by us should increase their focus in training the younger generation, put up a strict requirement for fhe number of students successfully becoming martial artists."
"Agreed, the common people are always the source of strength of our human race, if we can help nurture more martial artists, our race will never disappear!"
Everyone agrees except for those that has ties to martial art establishments, if school became more important, then, their business would take a hit.
They rather not want to see that but how can they refuse, it was for the good of the entire mankind itself.
They can only hope that at least they are going to be left with some soup.
"For the martial establishments, how about we let them create a village or town at the outskirt of their city, if they can manage it for ten years, then the place will be given to them."
Everyone's eyes lights up but they then frown, building a village under their name is a great temptation but protecting a city filled with all sorts of defenses is already difficult, much less a territory in the wilderness.
"Give incentive for the common people to have more children, widows to remarry or at least carry another child and those at the age of sixteen to start thinking of starting a family."
Even though this world is a lot larger than Sean's former world, together with existence of secret realms, there are only about 4 billion people left.
Back to Sean, everyone was now watching him spar with Reina and other martial artists of iron-skin rank.
"I don't think they can break senior brother's defense." Whispers one of the disciples.
Reina and her teammates are attacking Sean at the same time but their attacks aren't harming him one bit.
Impenetrable Fortress
A skill that is entirely focused in defense, unmoving as a mountain, rooted as an ancient oak and tough as a diamond.
Sean was now training to increase his mastery over his two skills.