The rat boss appears to be just slightly dazed after forcefully crashing its way out the wall. But it is a little stronger and faster than me, so I set a good distance away from it.
It did not attack right away and seems to be sniffing the air, gauging its opponent. So I gave it a taunt, with adding finger movements asking it to come, and with a mocking tone and laugh.
[Magnus: Hey! Come here smelly rat. Don't give me a sniff, you're the stinky one...ahahahaha]
Not sure if it understood my mocking, but as if on queue, it looked angered and gave out a shriek. Then, all its claws came out bigger and lengthened to about 3 inches. Its teeth got larger and sharper as well.
[Magnus: No you don't...]
It swiftly attacked and when it had enough distance, it jumped high at me, so I quickly generated...
[Magnus: "Earth wall"]
The rat boss broke the earth wall but its momentum got ruined and made it a little disoriented, which is exactly what I was aiming for. So at the perfect timing, I gave it a solid uppercut...
*Bam* It was thrown up in the air.
While it was falling and before it hit the ground, I gave it a devastating spin kick to its body...
*Bwok* Then it crashed to a tree looking almost dead with only its tail moving a bit.
I ended its suffering with an "Ice spike" to its head, which killed it.
I stored its body along with the other 35 rank 1 rats carcasses. Then, I moved away and rested on a tree to recover my mana.
After recovering my mana, I went back home as there was no more time to hunt further. Before reaching the castle, I cleaned myself and restored the stuffs I used. Clean is a really convienient magic, you can get down and dirty and Clean will take care of it for you. Restore is even better as it's able to bring back items to its former or original state.
I was able to sneak back into my room unhurdled. It was just 6:40 PM, so I still have time to check how much cultivation progress I made. It was a whopping 76%. It went up by 26%, therefore, I just need to hunt one more time and I should be able to move to Core Formation cultivation level. That's great!
I got a total of 42 rank 1 beasts (7 rabbits and 35 rats) and a rank 2 rat boss. Meaning, each rank 1 beast gave half a percent or 0.5% while the rank 2 gave 5% boost. Thus, I just need to hunt 48 more of the former or 5 of the latter.
[Status]
Name: Magnus
Age: 3 yrs old
Level: Condensation - Pseudo stage 7 (76%)
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Next day, I went back to the same rat cave to hunt more of them. Thankfully, these rank 1 rats are not too bright and I was able to easily lure them to complete my goal of Condensation - Pseudo stage 7 (100%). No more rank 2 came out which is fine as well.
Afterwards, I immediately came home and made myself ready to try and advance. I'm not worried of being found out, since the ring, by experience I'm assured can cover it for me.
As soon as I started, in a lotus position, I can feel the mana raging like a flood all over my body. It feels like a dam broke, and you were swept away by it. Superb and delicate concentration is required. Fortunately, the ring assisted me as a saving grace, which quelled the onslaught of mana and allowed me to guide it, and have the mana start to form the core in my dantian.
The greenish core started like a tiny grain of sand, then slowly but steadily, it kept growing and became as big as a glass marble which is the normal size for starting Core Formation level cultivator. But mine did not stop there, it kept growing until it was the size of a golf ball. It was not just greenish in color, it had streaks of white, blue, transparent, red, brown, and gray colors around it, which are the 6 elements I can use.
I feel closer to mana and that I can manipulate it easier now. After breaking through, my stats now show as:
[Status]
Name: Magnus
Age: 3 yrs old
Level: Core Formation – Low stage 1 (0%)
HP: [420 >> 580] 580/580 (recovery rate = 20 per minute)
MP: [360 >> 520] 520/520 (recovery rate = 20 per minute)
Str: [90 >> 130] 130
Spd: [86 >> 135] 135
Agi: [88 >> 135] 135
Sta: [88 >> 130] 130
Int: [180 >> 260] 260
Cha: [100 >> 140] 140
Elements: Light, Water, Wind, Fire, Earth, Space
Skills:
*upgraded* Major heal and cure
*new* Light beam
Ice spike
*new* Ice shield
Wind cutter
*new* Wind blast
Fire ball
*new* Ring of fire
Earth wall
*new* Earth spike
Teleportation
Identify
Clean
Restore
*new* Scan
*new* Map
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*upgraded* Personal space – Time difference (x20) where 1 hour in the real world = 20 hours in the personal space
(Note: Other rooms such as Alchemy, Enhantment and Array Formation, and Blacksmithing can now be created when you learn them.)
*new* Store (is now open)
Mask – Starter gift. Can alter overall appearance for 8 hrs. For long lasting change, it needs to be fully soaked in the blood of Chameleon beast rank 4.
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