I didn't have to go out for the next week as I cultivated nonstop, cycling between sword practice and cultivation, and reading both the cultivation and battle manual, the movement manual I will finish later, it's the smallest of the three manuals but the requirements are that I am in the Mana Refinement realm at minimum to start practicing the movement techniques.
After this week of nonstop cultivation and the use of all the souls I advanced to the 5th-level and then the 6th-level of Body Refinement thanks to the large zombie soul, as I advance more and more I need larger quantities of mana to fuel my growth.
I would advance much faster if I had a cultivation room, a room with a rune formation that increases the density of mana, but even if I started learning now I would need to be at the Soul Refinement realm to start practicing.
What I want to learn is alchemy, the art of creating spiritual artifacts and potions or pills through detailed manipulation of mana, while it is mainly used to create what is stated above as the cultivation manual says, it can also be used to alter normal matter for diverse purposes.
Through alchemy, objects can be repaired, and with enough mana, the manipulation of physical matter for transmutation or to create buildings can be achieved too.
While cultivators would see the last part as useless I see the value in being able to turn dirt into gold, even if the world outside is currently an apocalyptic nightmare.
With enough experience using transmutation, I might be able to create complex technology from simple dirt, I would need to clearly understand the blueprints beforehand but that is not going to be too complicated.
I haven't mentioned it beforehand but the Body Refinement realm improves the body greatly, and the brain is part of the body as far as cultivation is concerned, so my memory and processing speed have been increasing every time I advance a level, while my intelligence hasn't increased I now can brute force many problems that I before I had to stop to think.
But that is the future, and while I am reading everything there is to know about alchemy in the cultivation manual I can't perform alchemy until I am in the Soul Refinement realm, this realm is the beginning of a true cultivator, it is where they begin to directly manipulate mana outside their bodies.
Now I will go and hunt more zombies, the last battle with the brute, that is what I will be calling them from now on, showed me that I am stronger than I thought, and with the advancement into the 6th-level of Body Refinement, I don't think even 3 of those could win against me now.
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I sidestepped the punch of the brute as I slashed, its arm falling off its body, I didn't let it react as I kicked it into a wall, shattering its bones.
I was on top of the brute a second later, and with a slash, one more soul was added to the crystal.
"This is quite fun now that I think about it, like a game, killing monsters to level up and become more powerful," I said as I came out of the warehouse I was in, the past hour I had patrolled the surroundings of my house, killing any zombie I found, there were not many but that is to be expected.
The zone I'm in is not very dense, there are many buildings but they are small and most are destroyed or heavily damaged, it looks like the outskirts of a city.
And looking from the top of one of the least damaged buildings affirmed my conclusion, there is a city some distance away, with many large buildings that can be seen from where I am.
"I will have to go there if I want more zombie souls, here in the outskirts there aren't that many zombies," I said out loud as I began to return to my house.
While I didn't find that many zombies I mapped the surrounding areas and found some spots to go and explore in the future, like the large supermarket to the east and the police station to the south, there are also many empty warehouses to the north, that is where I am right now.
To the west is the city center, and I won't be going there until I can confidently go against hundreds of zombies by myself, a zombie hasn't bitten me yet but I won't risk my life when I have time on my side.
I take much longer to tire but I still get tired so I can't be killing zombies forever, being stuck surrounded by zombies is a very bad situation for anybody, even for me.
+++
I returned home after killing a few more zombies on the way, in total I obtained 21 zombie souls and 2 brute souls, this will be enough for two weeks of continued cultivation without going out of the house.
During this time I will be demolishing the few broken-down buildings there are inside the walls of the house so I have more space to practice with my sword, the Solar Saint Battle Techniques are techniques focused on Flexibility, Power, Speed, and Precision in that order, the crystal is also mentioned in the manual but until I am at the Soul Refinement realm I will not be able to use it for battle.
The manual explains that until I reach the Soul Refinement realm I need to practice endlessly with my sword, when I reach the Mana Refinement realm, the next realm after the Body Refinement realm, I will be able to use some of the techniques in the manual.
Another part of my training with the sword is to learn how to attack with it, as it is wide enough to cut and thin enough to pierce with equal power, my training focuses on when to pierce and when to cut, moving around the enemy and not giving them a chance to strike as I overwhelm them until they are defeated.
The sword style in the manual is quite easy to understand and learn, what is hard is to master its use to the highest point, but when I do so I will be unbeatable in single combat, a perfect duelist dares I say.
This is where the Focus, the crystal, comes into play, it is used to make area-of-effect as well as various ranged attacks as well as help with some techniques that are difficult to perform without a Focus.
But that is the future, as of right now I am still training, and there is no time to waste.