Jono remembered what he overheard from the four teenagers' conversation last night. They were all the same age as him, but one of them was already in the second stage of strength, while the other three were in the first.
"I hope my power level can break through and advance to the first stage soon," said Jono with a frustrated sigh. He knew he had to at least understand his super abilities first in order to break through and advance to the first stage.
"Never mind, it's time to try the second beast," he said rather excitedly.
Jono then began to open the squirrel-shaped beast's cage. The squirrel remained in the cage, its legs tied and its mouth plastered. He then began to kill the squirrel. This time, he needed several slashes. He then attempted to absorb the squirrel's magic energy using his ape puppet.
After the ape puppet landed and stood beside the squirrel, the squirrel's magic energy began to come out and flow into the ape puppet's body. What then surprised him was that, at this time, his ape puppet could absorb the energy from the squirrel carcass.
About fifteen minutes later, there was no more energy left in the body of the squirrel carcass. He thought this absorption process would end soon, but a few moments after absorbing the magic energy from the beast carcass, his ape puppet remained in the absorbing position. Ten minutes later, the ape puppet absorbed the carcass of the beast too, until it left nothing of the beast's carcass.
The squirrel beast's carcass seemed to have entered the ape puppet's body. Jono was astounded to witness this occurrence.
The ape puppet in the squirrel cage then began to walk out of the cage again and came to a halt in front of him. Currently, the ape puppet appears more natural, as the stiff furs on the ape's surface have been softened and smoothed, making them look more like real ape furs.
The ape puppet's outer appearance is nearly identical to that of normal apes; however, the ape puppet's walking movement remains stiff and unnatural. After observing the ape's outer appearance, he began to control the ape puppet to walk again. Aside from the change in appearance, he noticed no other changes. This made him a little confused.
"Is this ape puppet's super ability only to walk?"
"What is the meaning of a puppet that can have super abilities?"
"Is walking a super ability?" He wondered, his face irritated.
Jono then performs various actions with his ape puppet, which can only walk and run. Even though the ape puppet appears more natural, its walking style remains a little stiff, and he can't change this ape puppet's walking style.
Jono then began to think about the possible reasons behind his ape puppet's super abilities. He lacks experience, but he frequently reads about the information that circulates in cyberspace or on the internet. He also reads novels of various genres regularly.
With everything he's learned from the internet, he thinks there's something important about his ape puppet. A few moments later, he reached the most likely conclusion.
"Does this ape of mine lack the beast's carcass absorbed to awaken its super ability?"
"Huh! That must be the reason!" He exclaimed with glee that he had deduced that was the case.
Jono then turned his gaze to the last cage, which held a cat-shaped beast. With that, he hurriedly opened the beast's cage and slashed it with his dagger. The cat died instantly after five slashes.
He then controls the ape puppet and makes it enter the cage, but after trying to absorb the magic energy from the beast's carcass, the ape puppet couldn't absorb the magic energy of the beast, just like the first beast that he killed yesterday. This confused and irritated him. He tried several times but was unsuccessful.
With a face full of despair, he absorbed the magic energy from the beast into his own body. He sat beside the cage, absorbing the beast's magical energy while also performing the breathing technique to circulate the entire flow of magical energy throughout his body.
He noticed changes in his body after absorbing all the magical energy. Even though he hadn't entered the first stage of the first phase, he could feel his body strengthening. He felt he was close to that limit.
Currently, Jono has not yet broken through to the first stage of the first phase, where at this power level are people who can be said to be the weakest in this world. And he didn't start performing the breathing technique until he was twelve years old.
Despite being taught breathing techniques by his grandfather since he was a child, Jono only mastered his breathing technique at the age of twelve, whereas other people with sufficient resources at the age of twelve would have broken through the first stage if their super ability had awakened and they understood the effect of the super ability.
People who train their bodies and practice breathing techniques since childhood will increase their strength faster when their super abilities awaken than people who don't train before their super abilities awaken. A gifted child who has practiced body, mind, and breathing techniques since childhood will typically advance to the first or second stage the moment their super abilities awaken.
Even if they only practiced a little of their super abilities, once they awakened, they would instantly advance to the second stage. In contrast to someone who lacked practice, they would need about one to three months after their super ability awakened to break through the first stage of the first phase. Of course, this is also on the condition that they immediately understand their super abilities, unlike what Jono experienced.
After two years of doing the breathing technique, Jono has not yet broken through to the first stage because he was too lazy to do this before, but now he is determined to do this regularly to increase his strength. This made him regret that he wasn't practicing as much as ever before.
He was determined to have entered at least the second stage until the day he started school, despite the fact that children his age are generally only in the first stage now. Only children with sufficient resources at the age of fourteen have progressed to the second and higher stages. And Jono is one of those people who has a lot of financial resources. Before his grandfather left, he received a large sum of money from his grandfather. However, he spent a large sum of money on an apartment and other necessities.
With this in mind, he should be able to increase his strength level to at least the peak of the first phase, with the money left behind by his grandfather. However, with the remaining funds, he may only be able to increase his strength to the fifth stage.
Jono then stood up and began his physical strength-building exercises, followed by breathing techniques. He repeated these two things over and over until sunset. He came out of the gym with his clothes soaked with sweat. He was starving right now.
He then went straight to his bathroom to take a shower. After that, he went to the kitchen and prepared noodles and eggs. He ate his noodles while reads some trending news from his smartwatch's hologram screen.
After eating, Jono began to think again about his super abilities. He compiled information about his previous experiences with his super abilities. There might be a clue that he could discover. He looks confused because it is possible that his ape puppet can only absorb certain beasts.
Jono examined the data he had gathered, from the bamen he had purchased to the beast he had purchased. After reading all the data several times, he finally understood something.
First, the type of bamens that he bought was mostly coming from a beast that has the element types of water, air, earth, fire, and a small part of other rare elements. Secondly, the magic energy and beast carcasses that the ape puppet can absorb are only gravity and earth type elements.
"How come there's no connection, anyway?"
"Or there's a very slim chance it's related," he pondered, perplexed.
"I see. I'll have to buy another beast, but one or two of them must have the element types of gravity and earth, or they must be the same beast I bought yesterday."
"This is most likely unrelated to the earth element type of beast."
"The snake beast has an earth element as well, but my ape puppet can't absorb it," Jono reasoned, while nodding his head.
Jono plans to go again tomorrow to the Bolo Beast Market. He is thinking about all of this while playing with the ape puppet he controls, which runs and jumps around him.
While controlling his ape puppet, he is also playing with a dagger with his right hand. He did this as a form of exercise.
Jono resumed his training immediately after reading some of today's trending news and resting for nearly two hours. He didn't want to be a slacker any longer. He practiced until midnight. After training, he ate egg noodles, and fell asleep. He was so exhausted that he didn't shower before going to bed.
"Hopefully there will be progress tomorrow," he said quietly before falling asleep.