The training was somewhat unfamiliar to Jake, but he started with Taoist's steps as it could help improve both his strength and endurance.
He finsihed the first 50 cycles with a rapid speed, but it began to decrease after that. Each subsequent rotation was more difficult than the previous one. He managed to complete 250 by the end of the day, but there was no increase in his stats.
Jake felt his breath shortening, but he couldn't stop. The time to rest hasn't arrived yet. He continued to push through the 300 mark and eventually managed to breach 350 mark.
He wanted to stop, but the stat hadn't increased.even a bit.
He was sweating a lot and Jake was starting to have hallucinations and water started to flow out of his mouth.
He was not in the condition to push through anymore, but he did it anyway. When he managed to push through the 450 mark, he finally fell down out of exhaustion.
"The host has managed to surpass his physical limit."
"Endurance +1 has been granted."
Jake was in no mood to delve any further in the increased stats, as he slept almost immediately.
When he woke up, it was already the next morning, and his entire body was aching, but he had to get up to eat. He went down to the noodle store but soon remembered that it was destroyed. His anger almost immediately erupted when he remembered the old man's condition.
He managed to keep it aside and go to the next vendor he found on the street. It was a fast food stall selling some incredible fish balls and omlett. Jake began to eat and didn't stop until his stomach was completely filled.
He then returned back and began his training once again.
3 days later-
After completing 900 rotations of Taoist 104 moves, Jake finally managed to get the notification he was waiting for.
" Strength +1"
Jake continued his sleeping, eating and training schedule.
After 3 days-
Jake managed to improve his strength and endurance stat to 30.
Movement training began with one stat to gain. Jake managed to achieve it within one day.
"Jake Grant
Level-4
Strength 30
Endurance 30
Agility 30
Mana 18."
Only 3 days before the tournament began and he had to increase his mana stats by 2. He had 3 days to train in his breathing technique.
He continued his practice with the breathing art, and gave it his all.
Breathing art, although difficult wasn't as taxing as the physical body refinning. Hence Jake decided to train without rest for the three days
2 days later-
Jake got a sudden message from the system.
"Emergency Mission: Nutrition
The host is in dire need of nutrition to grow his mana vessel
Objective: (0/3000).
Rewards: Mana +1"
Although Jake only managed to gain one stat point, this mission helped him grow his mana stat to the limit.
"Jake Grant
Level-4
Strength 30
Endurance 30
Agility 30
Mana 20."
"The host has advanced to level-5."
"Levelling up Mission: Reach level-5
Status: Success.
All rewards are being granted."
"All of the host stats are increased by 1."
"Jake Grant
Level-4
Strength 31
Endurance 31
Agility 31
Mana 21."
"The host has received advanced grade boxing arts, advanced grade movement arts, advanced grade breathing technique."
"The host has received a new body refinning technique.
Body Refining Technique: 10 Animal stances has been granted.
The body refinning art has been derived from the movements of top level beast and used in refinning and strengthening one's body. It is better than the Taoist's 104 steps."
" The host has recived a skill."
"Skill: Peripheral Vison had been granted."
"The host has recived a skill."
"Skill: Dash has been granted."
One was a better scoping technique while the other one was a rapid speeding technique. Both were extremely useful and Jake was thankful to the system for granting it.
"A hidden feature has been unlocked. The host has unlocked the point system."
"Point system.
It is a system developed to calculate the achievement of the user from all his training, combat missions, refinning and creation activities along with other supplementary task the host will undertake.
The points recived can be used once the market feature is activated.
The pint can be gained from various activities, and the host doesn't need to be too concerned as the point counting will be done automatically and you can check the balance anytime you want."
Jake knew that the secret feature would be helpful, but this was a long term feature which cannot be used unless he reached level 10. From the looks of it, it will take a good amount of time before he could do that.
"Jake Grant
Level-5
Strength 31
Endurance 31
Agility 31
Mana 21"
Jake.began to train himself in the newly acquired movement and.boxing techniques as they would be useful in the test. He was confident that he could score well in the upcoming selection ceremony.
The day before the examination, night-
Jake went to the hospital to visit the old man.
"How have you been?" Jake asked.
"I have been well thanks to you. I just got news from the doctor. They might be able to discharge me sooner than expected." The old man said.
"No need to worry about discharge. Rest here and recover. You will discharge when I deem you fit for it. until then you will stay here under the observation of these medics." Jake said.
"Have you been practicing? Tommorow is the test date. Are you prepared?" The old man asked.
" I am thanks to you. I am feeling somewhat confident in scoring well and should be able to get into a good organization. I will help you build a much better shop and we should hire good workforce and security. You need to think about retirement. You are growing old and need to spend you time properly at home."
The old man burst into tears after hearing it and Jake consoled.him before leaving the room.
....
"What do you think?" The old man said.
" He is even stronger than the last time we saw him. How is this guy training to be able to get this level. I never imagined that a normal human could train until this stage." The man said
" Well there was one force that was famous to be able to train their human recruits to an inhuman level without awakening them. " The old man said.
"Are you talking about the destruction god palace of the past. That is considered as. myth. But then again, after seeing this guy, it might be true that with perseverance and training, human can reach such high level." The man said.
" Only time will tell if he is the one we have been looking for all this time. No matter the result, I still hope he has a good life ahead of him." The old man said.
"Look at you becoming all emotional." The ma said in a joking tone.
" I guess I am just getting old." The old man smiled.