After some time in that cultivation room, Lothur was sitting cross-legged on a cultivation cushion, with his eyes closed.
However, he was not cultivating but instead experiencing the illusion created by the small cube while training his understanding of the Art of Tearing Down Trees.
Within that mental illusion, this young man was in the middle of a large forest, where thousands of trees formed a seemingly endless sea of green leaves.
Yet, while the area he was in was quite interesting to see and explore, Lothur was not interested in wasting time there. No, this place had cost him dearly, and he did not want to waste a second in this cultivation room.
Consequently, he was already using a long ax against a tree in front of him, constantly striking at that thick trunk.
There, he stood with his legs spaced away from each other, his knees slightly bent, and his feet turned in different directions.
At the same time, he was holding the big ax with both hands, making movements that were slowly changing.
At first, his body position had been different from now, when he had practically started to attack that tree without any preparation. But as he reached his target, he slowly found the best-attacking positions, improving his posture and offensive movements.
But even though he had already evolved quite a bit in the last few minutes, he was still slowly learning about the unique behavior of an ax in his hands.
Weapons like these had centers of gravity far away from the hands. So, the force he had to make to 'play' with such an artifact was not small, and every movement was a challenge for him.
On the other hand, weapons of this type failed concerning attack speed—consequently, the attacks made by ax users needed to be highly effective.
Not only was it ideal that he finished his enemy with as few blows as possible, but he also had to be creative with his attacks. Otherwise, a living, moving opponent could have a significant advantage after one mistake on his part.
With the experience he gained from attacking that tree's trunk, Lothur was evolving his understanding of the Art of Tearing Down Trees.
...
A few hours later...
[Art of Tearing Down Trees] [Rank: Iron]
[Mastery level: Beginner]
[Effect: +5% STR]
Finally, the system message appeared in front of Lothur, making this young man stop his illusory training for a moment and return his attention to that cultivation room.
Opening his eyes, he continued to see the same screen as before. He found it interesting that even within an illusion, the system worked precisely as in the real world.
In any case, it did not take him long to realize that, unlike his training in the real world, something like this in an illusion did not increase his attributes.
But this was to be expected. After all, that small cube was made to train the understanding regarding techniques of its users, not to train the body.
Typical training had that characteristic due to the constant use of the user's body, but just studying the technique itself would not do that. As such, he gained no benefit beyond learning the basics of that technique.
On the other hand, the mental attributes had different workings compared to the physical ones. Therefore, even illusory training could not stimulate his Intelligence and Perception.
As for his Will, it could be stimulated by such a thing. But since physical pain played an essential role in stimulating this characteristic, the gains from training with that were far less than what he could get from regular training. So, his results were not remarkable in this respect.
However, Lothur was pleased to be able to master the basics of that technique without having to leave the city. What's more, even if he had to cut down trees to advance it, he could still train the strokes of the technique without having to do so.
That would not bring him advances in understanding. Still, he could improve his physical characteristics through training with a real ax.
With this in mind, he was quick to summon the ax in his spatial ring, ready to face the puppet in that room.
Not only could this help him improve his attributes, but it would also give him real fighting experience!
Thus, he soon activated that puppet, selecting a lower strength level than his, but prepared to increase the difficulty as he got used to the experience.
...
"Hah... Haa... Wow!" Lothur finally fell to his knees on the floor, utterly sweaty after fighting for almost 5 hours against the puppet in his cultivation room.
In that time, he had been able to advance his combat abilities to the point where he had mastered the fundamentals of what he had learned in the previous illusion in order to face the puppet, with a power comparable to that of a 3rd Transformation cultivator.
But that had been his limit for now, which in itself had made him suffer a lot in the last few hours, but also taught him about how decisive he needs to be when using an ax.
Anyway, while he was breathing hurriedly, this young man saw the last of the warnings regarding the improvements in his characteristics.
[+0.1 in all physical attributes.]
[+0.1 in DEX.]
[+0.1 in WIL.]
[+0.1 in CON.]
[+0.2 in STR.]
...
[Name: Lothur Ritter]
[Physique: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger]
[Bloodline: ****]
[Cultivation: level 3]
[STR: 4.3] [CON: 5] [DEX: 4.3] [AGI: 6.3]
[INT: 30] [PER: 11] [WIL: 40.8]
As he smiled and saw his status, Lothur saw the timekeeper in that room coming up on his last few minutes that he had the right to stay there.
Even though there was still time for him to train for a little longer, since he did not think he would get any more attribute points, he simply ended his training today.
He still had to return to Viktoria's residence before that woman returned, so he decided to use the remaining minutes to clean himself up and go home.
'Ah, that was a good training day!' He smiled satisfyingly.
'I'll come here again tomorrow before returning to my routine at the Morning Star Academy on Monday!'
He would like to use this place more often, but he did not have the funds to come here daily. But on the other hand, even if he wanted to enroll in this institution, he could only wait for the time being because his level was still too low.
Hence, he was determined to come to this place tomorrow and perhaps on weekends in the future. But, other than that, he was aware that his focus should be on the academy.
Therefore, it was not long before he returned home for the meal and rest that he so desired at the moment.
...
As he finished dressing Monday morning, Lothur checked his status one more time before heading towards Annaliese's carriage.
[Name: Lothur Ritter]
[Physique: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger]
[Bloodline: ****]
[Cultivation: level 3]
[STR: 5.5] [CON: 5.6] [DEX: 5.0] [AGI: 6.8]
[INT: 30] [PER: 11] [WIL: 41.2]
After seeing this and feeling a slight increase in his confidence, he got into the carriage of his beautiful sister-in-law, who was still feeling awkward as she stood face to face with him.
"Good morning, Anna."
"Morning." She replied in a low voice as she avoided eye contact with the young man in front of her.
"How was your weekend? Your family has already freed you from your punishment, right?" He asked as he jumped up from his seat and stood side by side with her.
"Yes, I can now return to my usual routine."
"Well, I don't like the idea of you having to be punished because of me."
He placed one of his hands on top of one of hers, looking into the brown eyes of that beauty.
She ignored that and simply asked about his weekend. "Did you go to the Cultivation House? How was your experience?"
"Yes, I went." He smiled. "I had a good time in that place..."
"But I don't want to talk too much about it. In the future, you will see the results of my training, hehe." He looked out of the window of that carriage, excited to return to the academy.
'Today, I will talk to those three individuals.' His eyes sharpened as he felt his hand scratching for revenge on the people who beat him.
...