The crisp morning air gently swept Adam's black forelocks against his fair skin.
Adam's face currently did not have any of the usual signs of crankiness and imperfections usually present when someone first wakes up.
Adam wasn't someone who suffered a lot from Acne in his highschool years. But he was still normal. There were occasional pimples and smudges that popped up here and there on his face, even though he paid a fair amount of attention to hygiene. Such things were unavoidable at puberty.
Currently however, none of that was present. Adam's natural skin seriously looked like it came out of a body care product's commercial. It wasn't extreme to the point where Adam might look like an artificial anime girl; but he could certainly pass as a celebrity now.
The young man slowly stood up and examined his refined senses. His vision was significantly stronger now. In fact, he promptly took off the pair of glasses he had been wearing since the last IB exam and stuffed them into his dark gray jean pockets, they would not be needed anymore.
Adam could see the branching patterns on individual leaves in great detail from several meters away. He could clearly hear all the ducks and wildlife sweeping through the forest around at least a one kilometer radius.
He could pick up aromas around the forest that were very faint and fleeting, nothing he could have hoped to do before.
Adam made an educated guess that his taste buds likely underwent the same transformation, but he wasn't stupid enough to go around licking foreign plants and ducks in a strange forest.
"Oh well, base level cultivation is complete. I shouldn't be afraid of confronting the world now, it's time to explore."
Adam believed it would be unlikely for him to find anything useful in the forest for now, he needed to find a human settlement first to have somewhere to stay at least temporarily, and gather information about this new world. And the greater field of view provided by the grasslands should help achieve this goal quicker.
At least, Adam hoped that there would be human settlement nearby. Almost all fictional worlds have at least some human presence in them right? Right?
The possibility of the alternative being true immediately haunted Adam. What if there were no other humans in this world? What if he was in a Doctor Stone situation and would have to Minecraft his way into civilization?
Or what if the dominant species in this world consumes humans like in certain psychological thriller animes? What if…
Adam naturally entered his internal monologue as he traveled through the grassy planes. That much didn't change from entering the foundation establishment stage…
He was so engrossed in his own world that he didn't even realize he had almost walked right into someone.
"Hey! Can you hear me? Are you possessed?"
Adam snapped back to reality and stopped just in front of the stranger after hearing the assertive but charming and distinctly feminine voice.
He looked up and saw what appeared to be a female knight.
The girl in front of him looked like a very elegant woman. She looked to be in her early twenties. Her straight blond hair was about shoulder length, and was tied in a neat braid at the back. She had fair and milky skin and a pair of ocean blue eyes. She was not wearing any makeup, but her natural appearance was already very respectable.
The lass was clad in a suit of lightweight silvery armor, with decorative dark blue sections of cloth in between that matched the color of her eyes. The armor had a metallic glint when reflecting the fresh morning sun, that when coupled with its flexible and lightweight design, amplified the handsome appearance of the young woman. She was also wearing a pair of straight, long, dark pants and a formal looking white long-sleeved shirt with light blue cuffs underneath the armor.
To complete, she was also wearing a necklace that held a small but visible golden badge with a cross clearly cut into it.
The girl spoke again.
"Oh, you can hear me. Sorry. I apologize, I was suspecting that you were under the influence of something sinister by the way you looked completely detached from your surroundings."
"Now answer me, who are you? And what are you doing so deep within this grassland? Your appearance and figure don't match that of an adventurer."
Now that was a difficult question for Adam, how could he realistically explain his situation? Well, in cases like this, academic rule, when you have no idea what's going on, be honest, it will prevent the situation from deteriorating further.
"Hello, I'm Adam Obama, I'm a highschool student that was a killed by a political extremist and then reincarnated into this world. When I woke up yesterday I was sitting in that fores…"
A chill ran up Adam's spine when he turned around to point at the forest he had walked out of, but the problem is it wasn't there. Nothing was there. It was just another patch of grassland that seemed to extend forever. In fact, now that Adam looked around him, it was the same giant patch of grasslands that extended out in every direction, seemingly infinitely.
The girl retained the same bored but curious expression until Adam mentioned the forest, after which her expression immediately darkened. She grew incredibly serious.
"I knew there was something suspicious! A teenage boy with such a slim figure and wealthy appearance walking alone in the North-West Midlands? Do you take me as a child?! Die Fae scum!"
She immediately unsheathed her blade, a stainless blade of very fine craftsmanship. It was a completely real, steel sword. And its wielder's intention to kill seemed real too.
Now quick Theory of Knowledge idea here. Let's talk about ethics.
Adam was not a misogynist, he believes discriminating against 50% of the population is a surefire way to make your nation technologically and industrially inferior than all your peers, get outproduced in a war due to less available numbers to mobilize, and then get colonized, enslaved and die.
Adam also believed that it is inappropriate for a man to strike a woman in the majority of scenarios.
However, Adam was a faithful student to a certain brown haired lolicon philosopher. He believed in true gender equality. That you should respect woman if they treat you fairly. But if a fully armor clad person starts swinging a solid steel sword at you with the purpose of inflicting serious injury or death, then I will start fighting back.
Adam swiftly dodged to the side as the sword crashed down on the grassy soil where he was just a moment ago.
"Fast." The female knight thought, her attitude towards Adam immediately changed, it seemed like he was only weak in appearance.
She quickly recovered her stance, held the blade with both arms and swept sideways in a smooth and well-practiced motion.
Adam dashed towards the blade and dropped just as it was about to make contact, sliding right under it.
This move had caught the girl completely off guard, who now had her back towards him.
Adam used the opportunity to throw his fist forward with professional MMA level speed and power.
The knight was also quite fast herself, she quickly did a ninety degree turn and delivered a side kick.
Adam's fist met her kick, a powerful and complete thump erupted as both combatants were knocked backwards slightly.
Adam was really impressed with himself. The girl was obviously a professional fighter, and she was currently wearing a suit of very well-designed combat armor. That kick would have completely shattered his knuckles and likely snapped his ulna from his previous life. But his cultivation had allowed him to deliver an equal amount of kinetic energy, or perhaps even higher considering he didn't know any fighting techniques and couldn't elevate his body's strength to its full potential.
And it also provided him with the durability to take the blow and be perfectly fine, Adam's fist felt the impact, but was not injured in the slightest. He could keep going.
But it wasn't enough to persuade the knight to give up. Once she regained her balance she immediately grabbed her sword and charged.
Adam believed he couldn't keep fighting like this, although he was slightly faster and could dodge most of her attacks. She did have a weapon. If they kept the fight up like this, she would eventually get lucky with one of her blows and then things would not end well.
So Adam tried a ballsier strategy, he trusted his cultivation and carried it out.
As the girl swung again towards Adam's left waist, he reached his left hand towards the sword with the aim of grabbing it.
Adam had braced himself for the impact, he was very much afraid of pain, but when adrenaline kicked it, and you were intoxicated with newfound power, it was normal to act irrationally.
But the overwhelming pain Adam felt when he grabbed hold of the sword slashing with a high velocity towards him instantly made him regret the decision. He winced hard and looked at his hand. It was intact and holding the sword, but there was obvious dribbles of blood sliding off the edges of the blade and his hand where it made contact with the edges.
His move had surprised the girl too. He was braver, or perhaps just more air headed than she thought.
Because Adam had planned the move, he snapped back to his senses quicker and used the opportunity.
He delivered punch right at the girl's stomach with all the strength that he had.
The impact sent her flying back several meters.
Her armor had absorbed most of the impact, and showed it with a large fist sized dent where Adam had punched. But the girl still clearly felt the punch and the power behind it. However, she was truly a professional. The knight quickly switched her shock and slight fear into determination to win, and lifted her sword once again.
"Wait, how does she still have that?!"
Unfortunately for Adam, the pain he felt when he grabbed the sword had made him subconsciously loosen his grip, so when he knocked her flying… she carried the sword with her…
Adam wanted to vomit out a colorful puddle of blood and unsweetened carbonated water because soda is very detrimental to your health.
"The whole purpose of that attack was to disarm her! So I injured my hand for no reason?!"
But now was no time to complain. This time the knight's attack was different.
The girl closed her eyes and whispered something under her breathe while holding up her sword. When she opened her eyes again there was a distinct golden glow in them.
The glow also quickly appeared on her sword as she authoritatively declared:
"
Yup, that metaphorical mouthful of blood was definitely coming out of Adam now, who currently wore an expression that looked like squidward.
He had spent the entire night cultivating and immediately started exploring afterwards. He didn't bother to learn any skills. So he was essentially a glass cannon right now, a foundation establishment cultivator with no skills.
Martial skills were just like any other skillset in life, just knowing them is only the beginning, one needed to spend considerable amounts of time practicing them to attain a level of mastery and use them fluently.
For Adam, Chen Fan had given him all of his cultivation knowledge and skills. But they were just that, baseline memories, and Adam did not have any of the experience that was usually required to obtain them.
It was similar to if you transferred your knowledge of logarithms, trigonometry, vector operation, complex numbers, and other algebraic methods to a kindergartener. They would know the information but have zero understanding of it, put them in a math contest and they would be completely clueless because the poor kid would have no idea of how to use all that information.
It was exactly like that for Adam, he could technically use one of the skills in his memory right now. But without practice he would have no way of controlling the strength, Qi consumption, specific actions, intensity, or even direction of the skill.
Also given that the girl was about to attack, he wouldn't have time to even read what the skill did, and would have to go with the title.
Knowing who Chen Fan was, and how ridiculous his powers were, Adam didn't wish to risk it. After all he only wanted to end the fight. He did not wish to accidentally kill himself in the process, he didn't want to kill the girl either, and he most certainly doesn't want to accidentally kill her entire family up to four generations… which is not even that unlikely if randomly throwing around Chen Fan's skills.
So Adam improvised and did the next best thing. He concentrated and gathered the strings of Qi inside him to his fingertips. He extended two fingers from his right hand and pointed the hand slightly upwards and sideways.
He was about to attack by releasing his Qi after concentrating it. It was something he had learned from the Cultivation textbook. This was an extremely primitive, inefficient, weak, and crude method of attack only used by barbarian cultivators who had absolutely zero skills. But Adam wagered it was probably better than meeting a glowing magical steel sword with his bare hands.
The female knight swung her sword forward and unleashed a blinding, golden arc that dashed towards Adam at incredible speed.
Adam also brought down his hand after drawing an arc shape in the air and unleashing a silvery blue ripple that slashed towards the opposing golden wave.
The arcs crashed in midair and the deafening sound of two saws slicing into each other could be heard, if Adam did not have any cultivation right now he would be vomiting blood from his ears.
However, the knight's energy seemed to be stronger, the golden wave split Adam's ripple into two and continued forward. However, its color had faded to a dimmer yellow, and its speed was noticeably slower.
It was still far too fast for Adam to dodge though; he crossed his arms in front of him and braced for impact.
The arc smashed into him and knocked him flying into the ground.
It took a moment for Adam to regain his focus. After which he saw the beautiful knight standing over him, her serious expression was gone and replaced by a look of curiosity.
Okay, Adam didn't want to die, he sensed that primitive slash had used up more than half of his Qi energy, while the girl looked like she could still have a few more turns with her "cleansing rift," he had obviously lost the battle.
So Adam did the next best thing, he raised his arms into the air and called for the girl to chill.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Onee-san, Jie jie, glamorous senior sister, oh respectable holy knight! Can we stop fighting for a second! I have no idea how I have wronged you but I am willing to return the favor in whatever way if you spare me. Just please-"
The knight simply smiled.
"Relax, I do not intend to kill you. I mistook you for a Fae trying to lure humans into their forest, you must understand that they have caused tremendous human suffering in this area, and us Order Knights have a bloodied vengeance against them."
"But that attack you have just conducted was obviously not Fae magic."
"I apologize for my rashness. I should have confirmed my suspicions before taking actions. I am sincerely sorry."
After which the girl reached out a hand, which Adam took with his less injured right hand, and she pulled him up into a sitting position. After which she also sat down and continued.
"You are an eastern cultivator right?"
Adam was surprised and happy at the same time, so there were not only humans in this world but also a China-esque civilization?! Oh wow! Adam's inner nationalist flared right up.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that."
The knight smiled, "that would explain your appearance. Only people from the East and the Fae have dark black hair and eyes, I am glad you are of the former. Again, I am incredibly sorry for my rashness, are your wounds okay?"
After which the knight immediately reached out and examined Adam's arms with sincere concern in her eyes.
To her surprise they had already stopped bleeding by themselves, and were showing early signs of healing.
"People of the East are truly peculiar." She thought.
"Let me still apply some assistance to their healing, hold still. Channeling,
Before Adam could argue, the girl had already finished a small healing spell and dropped a few drops of golden liquid onto his wounds.
Seeing the cute and handsome girl elegantly handle his wounds with her graceful yet firm hands made Adam's heart race a little. This girl's appearance was incredibly appealing, but she also had a confident tomboyish aura that complimented her identity, and simply made her more attractive. Adam almost forgot about the fact that she had just tried to kill him, almost.
"Hey you know what would really help me forgive you for trying to kill me just now?"
"What?"
"A kiss."
She immediately leaned in, no shy anime blush, no hesitation.
Adam jumped and lightly pushed her back.
"Woah, I was only joking. You're serious?"
The knight gently smiled.
"I am serious for being incredibly regretful for having harmed an innocent person as an Order Knight, I am willing to make amends for my mistake as long as it does not cross any core moral principles. An innocent kiss would be perfectly fine."
To that, Adam did not know how to respond. So he moved on to something else.
"Then tell me about this world, I really just woke up here yesterday, where am I? What is this world? Who are the Fae? And who are you Order Knights?"
The girl showed her beautiful smile again that synergized perfectly with the early noon atmosphere.
"I have some questions to ask of you as well. We can talk on the way. For now, let us leave this area. It is not exactly safe here." After which she got up and signaled for him to follow her.
Adam nodded and propped himself up, his wounds were almost completely healed now from his cultivation and the healing spell.
"Hey onee-san, how should I address you?"
The knight turned around and looked a little embarrassed.
"Ah, I apologize again Adam. I forgot to introduce myself."
"I am Seren Edenfield, Gold-class knight of the British Royal Order of Knights. You are currently on the outskirt territories of the Kingdom of Great Britain. We welcome you profoundly with generosity."