He was confident in himself as the martial arts he possessed made his body faster, stronger, and even tougher, so he practiced letting his guard down around Rio.
"Then excuse me for being impolite," Rio said as he closed the gap between them slowly until they were basically half an arm's length from each other.
"Ufff" he groaned as his eye rolled back and he fell to his knees. Yes, Rio kicked his family jewels, 'like what did you want me to do, you are standing there with your legs wide open, you were asking for it. But due to his defense the martial book gave him, I doubt it would leave a lasting effect.' Rio thought
As Sylvester winced in pain, probably questioning why Rio was ever born, Rio crouched and patted his back, "I know, I know. Even if I feel the pain, I wouldn't be a man if I did feel sympathetic" Rio comforted.
Rio comforted him not due to the fact he felt sorry but to make him feel obliged to fulfill his part of the promise and he won fair and square.
As he got up slowly, still slightly crouched he winced "Whatever I don't need your comfort, take the book you have 30 seconds".
As he pulled the book out of his ring and handed it to Rio, Rio peered at the book and thought 'absorb' while seemingly flipping through the book.
[Ding! Instructions received…]
[Ding! Domineering Rhino Martial Art Absorbed]
As the flow of information flowed in Rio's eyes making him almost lose his balance due to dizziness. 'I must have merged with the outdated chip; the newer released update fixes this problem"
[Ding! Instructions received…ETC 24 hours update AI?]
'Yes', he answered as now he can focus on the newly acquired martial arts that he has received from Sylvester.
[Ding! System updating…. ETC 23 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds…]
"Since everything is settled, I'll take my leave," he said as he handed the book back to Sylvester and walked toward his room.
After a couple of hours he had already reached the Initial stage of the Domineering Rhino Martial Art, he gradually felt his body growing stronger and denser, 'status' he thought after a couple of hours of practicing in his room.
[Ding! System updating… ETC 18 hours 34 minutes 12 seconds]
'Ah, I forgot about the update' as Rio gently slapped his forehead. 'Well, I'll just continue practicing'.
A couple of months went by and people were standing at the gate waving to a carriage. Sylvester just turned 10 and from the gossip, that's been going around, Sylvester is going to the Zathis Magus Academy since he has the talent to potentially become a mage, however, Rio's family didn't have devices to distinguish how good his talent is.
So he goes to the Academy to test his talent and select which sects he wants to join. Since he has some talent in his spirit roots, he would most likely get a place in a good sect. Rio wouldn't say people with spirit roots are one in a million finds, but it is very unlikely to get a spirit root and on top of that you could end up with a trash spirit root, which could lead to you being bullied and aloe berated in your chosen sect.
From what is concluded so far there are 6 types of talents for mages and 7 types for Knights
Mages
None
Low-Grade Talent
Medium-Grade Talent
High-Grade Talent
Top-Grade Talent
Superior-Grade Talent
Knights
None
Low Heart Talent
Medium Heart Talent
High Heart Talent
Top Heart Talent
Superior Heart Talent
Saint Heart Talent
It seems since Sylvester just turned 10 and was tested to have a spirit root so now he could go and apply to the Magus academy to see what talent he possesses.
'I can't wait until I reach ten years old and leave this place' Rio thought while practicing the martial art that reached the perfection stage just in a couple of months. Even Sylvester hasn't only reached the Master Stage.
'It would be even easier for me to enter the Magus Academy with my system's new status after updating' Rio thought before calling the status
'Status'
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP: 3,850
Class: 0th rank Mage
Subclass: 4th rank Martial Artist
Strength: 3.8
Agility: 3.5
Endurance: 4.0
???:???
As explained by the system it seems the EXP points are a status when he achieves something, for example, if he trains and ranks up in martial arts, the higher the stage the more points he'd get as the bottleneck in between the stages becomes more difficult to bypass. However, Rio doesn't need to worry too much about comprehension since his absorbing ability handles that.
From the history it seems Rio got 100 EXP from entering the initial stage, 250 EXP for entering the Intermediate stage, 500 EXP for entering the advanced stage, 1000 EXP for entering the Master stage, and 2000 EXP for entering the Perfection stage.
'In total, I think the harvest is pretty good and I need to think wisely on where to put my points as it seems 1000 EXP is equivalent to 0.1 stat point, so in total, I have around 3.8 stat points to distribute' Rio pondered before placing 1.8 stat point to Strength and the remaining to agility.
Rio gradually felt his muscles tense very tightly as if his whole body was on the brink of having a muscle spasm before the tingle disappeared and was replaced with a feeling of empowerment and lightness.
'So inserting just this small amount of stat points can make me feel this empowered, I should try to get as many stat points as possible' Rio thought before opening his status to see his improvement.
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP: 50
Class: 0th rank Mage
Subclass: 4th rank Martial Artist
Strength: 5.6
Agility: 5.5
Endurance: 4.0
???:???
'System, the search must efficient ways of gaining EXP' Rio thought while satisfied with the improvement.
[Ding! Instructions received…]
[Host can kill any living thing or extract EXP from spirit stones]
'Spirit Stones? Seems my knowledge is very lacking, if I could get my hands on some spirit stones and compare it to the gains of killing, I wonder which would be more efficient' Rio pondered before making up his mind
'I'll raise my points to at least 10 in each attribute before sneaking away and venturing towards the market to find knowledge about these so-called spirit stones'
Rio went to the back of the manor and saw some birds in the trees to see how much EXP is gained from animals. Rio picked up a stone and carefully aimed at the bird.
'Pew'
A quick and silent sound was made and the stone went through one of the birds and the rest quickly flew away from their comrade's carcass.
[Ding! Host killed a bird and obtained 20 EXP]
'Interesting, if I kill a bigger animal, would it increase?' Rio thought before proceeding to the farm they had, where all kinds of livestock were there, from little chickens to big cows.
As farmers were maintaining the fields and quickly snuck past and tried not to disturb the animals as their sounds would probably alert the farmers. It's not that Rio is scared of the farmers, but avoiding attention and questions would probably be best for now.
Rio entered the chicken coop and twisted one chicken's neck.
[Ding! Host Killed a chicken and obtained 25 EXP]
'Slightly higher than my last kill' Rio thought before carrying the chicken away with him and proceeding to kill a sheep. However, it is quite troublesome as they're always in herds.
One dog was gathering all the sheep for the farms to start trimming them down. While they are being herded, Rio stealthily snatched one as quietly as he could and swiftly broke its neck before leaving the body and retreating to avoid being seen.
It doesn't matter that it was dead anyway, who would care over a dead sheep, they would just be slightly concerned before making some stew out of it.
[Ding! Host killed a goat and obtained 45 EXP]
"Over twice as much EXP from killing the bird" Rio muttered before a slight glint shined in his eyes.