After spending a week reading pretty much everything in the library Fei Lei had managed to perform all ten of the level-0 spells he selected proficiently.
When Tetra saw that his training had reached the bare minimum of his approval rating, he told Fei Lei "Go hunt a 1-Star magical beast nearby the trails at the closest hillside, the creature has been giving travelers and merchants a hard time, and it's up to you to stop it."
Fei Lei sat across from Tetra, nodded his head before he stood up, and left that day with only a steel rod that was around 6 feet long in his hands.
Running as fast as he could, it took Fei Lei around 5 hours to arrive at the designated location.
Seeing the terrain Fei Lei smiled at the beautiful view that nature provided. A large and expansive hillside covered in greenery showed many winding roads that led to different trade routes alongside their higher locations. Trees and small pockets edible foliage was scattered around randomly, and there wasn't a single human within sight.
Fei Lei started to search for the magic beast in question the simple way first. In order to draw out his target, Fei Lei ran along the side to the path it was most known to attack and made a lot of noise.
However, Fei Lei didn't have any luck with that plan and decided to stake out the location instead.
Fei Lei perched himself in a nearby tree and stayed there for three days. Surviving off of the vegetation and regular beasts such as boars and rabbits, he didn't have to worry about starving.
As he sat back in his tree branch Fei Lei waited and observed in silence. On the third day of his stake-out, Fei Lei noticed a horse caravan that was carrying magical herbs coming down the trail.
He lied in wait, and as expected a strange bulky and large magical beast appeared to take their goods.
The fur of the beast was a soft golden yellow, like the color of the sun. Its height was around 6ft high and 8ft long, and judging from the weight of its step, it appeared to weigh a little more than a ton and a half.
Every part of the beast screamed lion from the neck down, almost making the beast look majestic, however, its face was more that of a rat than that of a lion, thus ending up with an overall grotesque appearance.
Its nose was in the shape of long protruding and crooked cone, random whiskers and patches of hair ran along the base of its brow to the tips of its snout. Two vicious-looking fangs hung from the tips of the creature's lips shining with an almost metallic glint, and a long stream of drool fell to the ground from its mouth as it chased after the caravan.
Fei Lei hopped out the tree and jumped in between them, raising his pole he slapped down on the creature's head making it fall on its chin before tumbling over a few times in the dirt.
Fei Lei tried to slap the large pole down on its head again when the creature reacted and quickly pulled itself out of the way.
With a single pouncing like motion, the Lion Rat swiped its paws at Fei Lei's head.
Rapidly responding to its counter, Fei Lei leaned back and placed the bottom of his pole into the ground and the top against the Lion Rat's chest.
A claw struck out cutting Fei Lei's cheek as the steel rod began to bend, Fei Lei gripped his fist tightly around the pole as he kicked at the curving arc, snapping the pole straight and sending the creature flying back.
"This beast's skin is so damn thick!" Fei Lei shouted in annoyance.
As he pointed the end of the rod at the Lion Rat, he felt the blood from the cut on his face slowly drip down the side of his jaw.
The magic beast vaulted towards him and tried to bite at his torso, reacting without delay, Fei Lei leaned underneath the lunging creature and swung his staff at his teeth as it jumped over him.
A loud clanging noise was heard as the pole cracked and shattered some of the creature's fangs, dislodging them from its jaw as they shot off into the surface of the ground.
After rolling across the ground, it turned around to Fei Lei and started howling in pain.
Fei Lei took this chance to strike at its throat and activated his Level-0 Spell, Boost. His blood circulation speed up and his heart started beating rapidly, causing his skin started to glow red.
His entire body felt like it was boiling and his muscles and bones were screaming out in agony.
Gritting his teeth, Fei Lei fought through the pain as he shouted and stabbed out with all his might aiming down the creature's throat.
At the same time, the Lion Rat reached out its claws and cut a large gash across Fei Lei's chest.
As Fei Lei's blood splashed across the ground, the center of the monster's neck made a loud snapping noise as a large pool of blood soared out of its mouth while it was howling in pain.
Fei Lei didn't stop there, staring down at the beast he raised his arms and used one final swing of his staff to crush its head into the ground.
After undoing his Boost spell, Fei Lei felt like his muscles had been stressed to the limit, he was about to claim his prizes by harvesting the beast, when a loud roar sent chills down his spine.
Fei Lei looked over and saw a large white striped, black tiger beast, with two long tusks that formed from its mouth, it was around the same size as the lion rat but gave off an even fiercer aura.
Fei Lei raised his staff at the lunging monster, but the creature tackled him to ground near the ledge and was on and completely overpowering him.
As he lay prone, the young mage stuck his staff between the sides of the creature's mouth and held back its head while its claws pressed down on his chest and tore into his skin.
Fei Lei took a deep breath and channeled this breath of summer while he reactivated the Boost Spell.
His gut inflated as his lings filled up with air, and without warning, Fei Lei let out a loud Lion's Roar Spell directly next to the creature's ear.
Blood spurted out from its rupturing eardrum as the creature's eyes widened in shock.
The Tiger Monster felt a wave of disorientation just long enough for Fei Lei to push it aside and off of him.
He then struck out with his pole, aiming his attack for the same ears that he wounded.
The beast shook it's head side to side rapidly before it countered by swinging its paw, hitting and sending Fei Lei's pole flying off of the hillside.
The force from the creature's blow sent shockwaves throughout Fei Lei's palms. Blood dripped to the ground from a patch of the skin had been torn away along with the staff that he tried so hard to keep in his hands.
"This damn tiger must be a 2 Star Beast!" Fei Lei thought as he stared down the creature.
He formed his hands into the shape of claws and widened his stance as he maintained his boost spell. Instead of running away, Fei Lei placed his back against the edge of the hillside cliff.
Throwing himself into the life or death trial, Fei Lei then roared back at the beast in defiance.
The Tiger monster accepted the challenge as it approached him before leaning back on its hind legs and began wildly swiping its claws at him.
Fei Lei leaned aside and felt the sting of its nails gouge through the side of his waist, he then raised his claw-fingers when he suddenly felt an all too familiar type of energy surrounding his hands.
A transparent almost vapor-like claw formed around his hand as he raised it up and cut off a piece of creature's face.
Without realizing it, Fei Lei was using the same telekinetic power he unlocked when he lost his childhood friends.
The beast let out a hiss as blood soared across its eye and on to Fei Lei's face.
The tiger cried out in pain as it continued to wildly swat around its claws until it managed to slap Fei Lei's gut. Its claws cut out another chunk off his skin while knocking Fei Lei into the ground.
Not even having the time to register the pain, Fei Lei's body slid back inches away from going over the ledge as the beast lunged after and used its paws to pin down his chest.
The tiger creature then opened its jaws and attempted to chew through Fei Lei's neck, the mage boy countered by filling up the creature's mouth with telekinetic energy and forcing it back down its throat.
When the creature tried to retreat, Fei Lei grabbed hold of the fur around its neck and placed his feet into the tiger beast's stomach.
Lifting and kicking into the creature's gut with all of his might, Fei Lei then pulled the monster into a backward rolling motion, sending both himself and creature tumbling down a cliff.
Fei Lei stayed underneath the creature's belly, holding on to its body as tightly as he could while the tiger's back slammed into the nearby slope sending them bouncing through the air.
As he fell, Fei Lei, fortunately, spotted his staff laying on a small perch of stone and pulled it over with his telekinesis. To keep the creature from snapping at him, he grabbed the creature with a one-armed bear hug and squeezed as tightly as he could while gripping his staff with his other hand.
Fei Lei then started to control their descent, flipping his back towards the ground while he used his free arm to position the steel rod over the tiger's heart.
Next, using his telekinesis, Fei Lei formed a thin spearhead at the tip of the pole and stabbed at the creature's heart as hard as he could.
As he applied pressure, the Spear began to bend, and only a small amount of the tiger's flesh had been pierced through.
The magical beast clawed and snapped at Fei Lei cutting open several wounds on his stomach, chest, and shoulders, but Fei Lei persisted through the pain and stayed on latched to the creature's chest.
Just before they hit the ground, Fei Lei used his telekinesis to make an air cushion in the exact shape of his body and prepared for impact.
A loud thud and pap echoed throughout the terrain as both Fei Lei's back and the back end of the pole slammed to the ground.
Using the leverage principle, the force from the fall greatly augmented the force from the pole and ripped open a hole through the front of its body before impaling the Fanged Tiger's heart.
Hemoglobin from the creature's heart splashed out onto Fei Lei's face in a pool of blood as he felt the bones in his arms and ribs crack. His spine took a lot of damage too, and his legs were numbed from the shock.
The damage he received from the fall quickly quaked throughout his body while he felt the creature's lifeless body sink onto his face. He couldn't move and was starting to suffocate under the sheer weight of the beast.
Fei Lei was losing consciousness when he began thinking in a panic, "I can't! If I do I die! Damn it, I can't focus on the spell matrix! What the hell am I going to do?"
Suddenly memories of the human anatomy began flooding his mind, his Sigil started to glow as a surge of dopamine flooded his brain, as a shot of adrenaline was sent straight to his heart.
With an animalistic roar, Fei Lei threw the creature off his body before he cried out in pain.
The strength he used far surpassed the limits of his body and dislocated Fei Lei arms in the process, and before he passed out, Fei Lei forced himself to cast quick recovery.
Falling on to his back, the spell began to reset Fei Lei's bones and slowly began to heal.
Just as Fei Lei was starting to lose consciousness he looked to his side and saw an approaching shadow appear in the distance.
Walking up to the unconscious boy was a young maiden looking to be four or five years older than Fei Lei appeared.
The top of her head shortcut crimson red hair where her bangs got longer the closer they got to the front of her face. The back of her hair was tied up high into a waist-long braided ponytail that had a small red ribbon tying it off.
Her ears were pointed, her eyes were sharp, and from what little of her flesh he could see, Fei Lei could figure out that she was fit like a pro-athlete. Other than her arms and a bit of her waist, the rest of her body was covered in a thick red cloak while she wore a fish scaled mask to hide her face.
She looked over Fei Lei and smiled, "What a cute kid. I'll tell you what, if you grow up to be a strong and handsome man like Teacher, then I'll marry you."
After wrapping Fei Lei's injuries up, the mysterious girl lifted him up and headed back in the direction of Tetra's Dojo.
Once she dropped him off back at Tetra's house, the young girl spoke with him for a short while before disappearing into a shadow.
Fei Lei woke up a few days later to his master using several stinky medicines to cover his wounds.
Fei Lei smiled before he tilted his head and noticed the level one and level two mana cores beside him.
They were both Earth Cores that sparkled with a brown gem-like glow, the Two-star core was slightly bigger than the one-star core which looked like a pebble.
Fei Lei then raised his fist and clenched it in a gesture of victory as he said, "I did it!"
Knowing he was still injured, Fei Lei cast his quick recovery spell again and passed back out.
After waking up a few days later, Fei Lei was fully healed before he once again resumed his training. This time he was learning to use his Sigil to gain control over his body, and fine-tune his psionic ability that he named, Telekinetic Hands.
Seeing the progress Fei Lei made every day, filled Tetra with pride. He continued to coach Fei Lei to the best of his abilities, until, one day he saw Fei Lei practicing martial arts that came from Earth.
Surprised by the new training methods and teachings, Tetra began to help him perfect these abilities and correct the mistakes in his form.
The more he delved into martial arts, the more memories he recovered about that particular subject. Little by little, he remembered almost everything from his previous incarnation knew about the science of martial arts.
Fei Lei continued to be trained by his teacher for a total of 3 years where every day was comprised of harsh and unreasonable training.
Over time, Fei Lei went through what he considered to be the training regiment from hell. Not a day went by that didn't almost cost him his life, not a single moment did his teacher grant him mercy.
Fei Lei was berated, shown no favor, and crushed by his teacher's fist several times, but everything his Teacher did was for his own well being.
During the end of the sixth year since becoming a free man, Tetra called his student into the dojo.
Fei Lei had turned 16 recently and has grown into a strong well-built man. Though not the tallest person, he was 5'8 and was built like a championship bodybuilder.
His hair had grown so much that his braided hair now loomed over his bottom, and next to his braid was a massive 8-foot straight long rectangle-shaped greatsword that weighed around 200 pounds.
The sword was strapped to the back of his waist sticking out in a diagonal direction, so as not to affect his movement.
His Teacher looked him in the eye "Today you leave on your warrior's pilgrimage, You have created 8 martial arts that I approve of; Muay Thai, Capoeira, Sambo, Drunken Fighting, Pencak Silat, Jeet Kune Do, Bo Jutsu, and Ken Jutsu. You must always challenge yourself through your own self-training, do not grow contempt and lastly, take my advice when I say this. You must make friends, you must not seek strength on your own if you want to accomplish your goals. Search well when looking for a Guild to join and find a guild master who you can one day entrust your burdens to; but most of all, be happy."
Fei Lei bowed to his father figure, slamming his head onto the floor mats before saying, "You taught me much and I promise one day I'll make you proud."