NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12: Conviction
_ring_ring_
[You have slain a mundane tier beast]
[+1 stat point]
Those nine words brought more joy to Shen than getting ten million dollars. Well, not really, but he was joyous nonetheless.
His first battle with a beast ended with a not so outstanding success, even if at the cost of temporarily losing his arm, and he had gained valuable battle experience from the whole ordeal.
Shen shook his head and smiled.
"Never block an attack with your body, that's for sure."
The only concerning thing was the lack of pain he had noticed ever since he had arrived in this world, excluding the system merging with his body, and the rate of him getting injured.
However, Shen shrugged his shoulders.
"We'll burn that bridge when we get there..."
Then he raised his brow and in slight confusion and scratched the back if his head.
'That doesn't really sound right..'
Anyways, he had better things to do than ponder about proverbs.
Perhaps noticing his train of thought, the system rang out and a screen appeared in front of his face..
_ring_ring_
[Sāi shards of a mundane tier beast detected]
[Would you like to absorb?]
Shen's eyes widened once again. It seemed like he would be able to absorb the shards of a mundane tier beast.
"I guess it probably has something to do with my level or something..."
It did not seem to be a coincidence that he was able to absorb mundane level beast shard while he was at the mundane tier.
"Absorb."
Shen made up his mind to absorb the sāi shard, partly because he could, and partly because he was curious as to what would happen if he did.
He winced, expecting a blinding pain to envelop him like before, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, a warm, relaxing feeling slowly washed over his body. When it stopped, he could not feet any difference.
'System interface..."
Since there wasn't any noticeable difference, he chose to check his stat values.
However, when his eyes fell on the floating, holographic screen, his mouth hung open.
_ring_ring_
[Name: Kai Zhao
[Level 0] [Race: mortal]
[Tier: Mundane human]
[Stage: -----]
[Strength: 1]
[Agility: 1]
[Sāi: 10]
His sāi stat which did not even have a mere zero before, now had a whooping ten points.
From some cultivation novels he had read, sāi was supposed to be some kind of energy or something.
"Assign the free stat point to sāi."
Shen said as he began musing once again..
'From my understanding, I would need a lot of sāi i am going to be able to make an energy burst attack like that Xin girl had done.'
However, his system seemed to disagree with his line of thought this time.
_ring_ring_
[Error: Stat installation failed]
[Cause: sāi stat does not support stat installation]
In shocking surprise, Shen blinked twice and rubbed his eyes.
Did the system just refuse to put the unassigned stat point in sāi?
To be sure his system had not broken, he tried once again.
"Assign the free stat point to sāi."
_ring_ring_
[Error: Stat installation failed]
[Cause: sāi stat does not support stat installation]
Then again...
"Assign the free stat point to sāi!"
_ring_ring_
[Error: Stat installation failed]
[Cause: sāi stat does not support stat installation]
Shen groaned in frustration and pulled at his hair.
Why the hell was the system being so stubborn?!
He only wanted to advance his sāi stat, yet the damned thing vehemently refused.
"I wish I could hack this damned system or something..."
Shen stood up and stretched his now healed up arm.
Just like before, the system had done a marvellous job patching him up.
"Assign the stat point to... Strength, I guess?"
He could have put the stat in agility, but he would prefer being able to pummel beasts with his bare hands, instead of running around to escape them.
_ring_ring_
[Stat installation successful]
[One stat point has been added to the [strength] bar]
[Name: Shen]
[Level 0]
[Race: mundane human]
[Tier: lower mortal]
[Stage: -----]
[Rank:-----]
[Strength: 2]
[Agility: 1]
[Sāi: 10]
Shen could feel a tiny bit stronger already.
It was still early in the afternoon, and since he had virtually no place to go to and nothing to do, he stretched and decided to go deeper into the cave. It was better hunting and levelling up than leaving and going back to the noodle shack rubble with nothing to eat. He was rather hungry, though.
***
Xin stared at Kai Zhao in astonishment.
Even she would not be able to use her own arm as bait for a beast.
Not to talk about letting it climb atop her to even start with. Once a beast got the slightest chance and seizes the upper hand in any battle, it did not matter if you were a mundane human or a cultivator at the peak stage of the lower mortal tier.
You would die a painful death.
Yet this mysterious noodle boy had managed to survived.
"He got stronger..."
Xin had always had a far higher perception ability than that of every other cultivatior. She could feel the natural sāi around her, the killing intent of beasts two kilometers away, and perhaps most importantly, people's auras.
Mundane people had no aura at all, and very strong people had a suffocatingly heavy aura.
She had been watching him since she noticed him earlier, and she could have sworn that he did not have an aura before.
However, now, she could feel a faint aura emanating from him now.
"I... It's impossible..."
One only increased auras by painstakingly cultivating diligently for days.
Heck, ordinary cultivators could take seasons, even. But this guy...
"His sāi aura increased in an instant..."
Xin did not know what was going on, but she wanted to see how things ended up.
This time, she had to withdraw her own sāi aura, not because she feared the boy sensing her, but because she feared the higher leveled creatures getting attracted to her sāi and attacking them.
They would pose no problem for her alone, but the noodle boy would most certainly lose his life.
Beaming slightly, Xin mumbled.
"This is the most interesting thing I've seen in the last two years!"
Sure, she was stalking someone without their knowledge, but at least she held no ill intentions.
"I have to get to the bottom of this!"