Lake slowly got up from the bathtub as he inspected his body.
Most of his muscles had shrunk causing him to feel inexplicably light and weak.
As he got out of the tub, he also realized that even though all of the beast’s blood had evaporated and been absorbed into his body, the strong scent of blood still lingered in the room.
Lake could even sll that the bloody scent was mostly emanating from himself.
Frowning, he activated his stealth ability to hide his scent as more than half of the bloody sll instantly disappeared.
After the scent had disappeared, Lake inspected the internal structure of his body.
Mana was coursing through him in a small, but steady stream. The density was light but compared to before it was much thicker and denser than before he ford his Mana Heart.
As he felt the increase in mana Lake decided to open his status screen which he had more or less forgotten about since his stats never increased that much since he upgraded Steel Body to the max level.
....
[Status]
Host = Lake Egoven
Age = 18
Primary Role = Master of Fate
Secondary Roles = Master Assassin, Mage
[Stats]
Strength = 10.00 -> 11.51
Agility = 6.05 -> 8.39
Stamina = 8.36 -> 10.24
Mana Strength = 0.13 -> 1.01
Mana Capacity = 0.53 -> 1.75
....
Looking at the numbers, Lake was stunned. This was especially true for when he saw the increase in his physical attributes.
When he had co out of the bathtub he had clearly felt extrely weak yet his stats showed an increase in his strength.
Thinking of sothing, Lake took another glance at his body, this ti paying closer attention to his muscles.
After observing for a while, Lake managed to sense a light trace of mana nourishing his muscles and bones!
When he felt this, he was slightly surprised but after thinking about it, found that it made sense.
Once the purity and density of mana reaches a certain level, the mana slowly starts to nurture the body and strengthen it. What had originally left Lake so dumbfounded was that neither his mana density nor its purity was anywhere near the level required for this to happen!
However, the beast blood he had absorbed seed to have so minor effects on his body which allowed the mana to start the strengthening process early.
Thinking of this, Lake raised his fist slightly before letting a punch fly.
Whoosh!
A small gust of wind was generated from the pressure Lake’s punch exerted on the air.
Seeing this, Lake knew that his strength had surpassed the limits of the Martial Apprentice Realm and stepped into the Early stages of the Martial Warrior Realm.
His mana capacity had also increased greatly along with his mana strength, placing him in the early stage of Martial Apprentice Realm in terms of mana. However, the most important thing to be gained from this is the wide variety of spells he could cast using it.
Previously, he was greatly limited by his mana capacity that prevented him from truly taking advantage of his spellcasting skill. Even if he were to cast a useful spell in battle, after two or three casts his mana would be mostly depleted and he would have to rely on his physical strength to fight the rest of the battle. This had happened to him when he was fighting in the fifty vs one battle.
After casting the Mana Bolt Spell and the Smoke Screen Spell, he had already exhausted most of his mana.
Now however, Lake could cast tens of low level spells before he ran out of mana.
Another advantage he gained from this increase in mana was the ability to finally strengthen his body like other Martial Artists!
Previously, no matter how much mana he used to strengthen his body, there was very little effect. At most, there would be an increase in his fitness index by a few decimals.
This was mainly due to a combination of two reasons. One, his mana strength was simply too low to increase his strength by much at the ti, and the other was that his physique was so strong that the increase in strength wasn’t high enough to make a difference.
Controlling the mana in his body, Lake slowly began to experience the effects of increasing his fitness index with mana.
[Stats]
Strength = 11.51 (13.34)
Agility = 8.39 (10.14)
Stamina = 10.24 (11.53)
Looking at the extra row of digits that appeared beside each stat, Lake guessed that the numbers represented his enhanced fitness.
Now, he could be considered a genuine martial artist with a fitness index comparable to a Low Rank Martial Warrior! In the future, if Lake were to use a combination of his skills and spellcasting, he felt that he could even fight head on with a Mid Rank Martial Warrior!
After testing out his new strength, Lake canceled the strengthening effect of his mana as he looked at the ti. Seeing that it was only a few hours before the eting ti, Lake took a quick shower to try and remove so of the bloody sll on his body before finishing preparing the assignnt he had planned for his class.
When it was only less than an hour before the eting ti, Lake finished the assignnt for the Blackheart class and after checking it over once, sent it out to everyone.
The assignnt he had planned for them was a fairly simple mana strengthening exercise that focused on control. By using their mana to strengthen specific parts of their body, they could greatly increase the control and efficiency of their mana.
With this control, they would be able to focus where the mana gathered and how much it strengthened their body, allowing for them to use twice the force with half the effort.
This was originally an exercise that the instructors of the academy would teach the students once their mana reached a certain level, as it required a decent amount of mana to begin with. It was also an extrely boring process so most students didn’t take the practice of this exercise seriously.
The one that Lake sent out was a more simplified version of the exercise that allowed the students to practice it. Moreover, Lake had added a little ga within the exercise to help motivate the students to practice it more.
After sending it out, Lake equipped his battlesuit and headed out towards the teleport station.
A few minutes later, Lake arrived and saw that the rest of the team were already waiting.
When the group saw Lake’s pale face and skinnier fra, they were slightly stunned.
"I say first year, I thought we agreed to take the night to prepare ourselves to fight today. Why does it look like you took the chance to prepare yourself to die instead?" Landur asked with a funny expression on his face.
"Indeed, you look worse than a terminally ill patient." Hana nodded her head in agreent.
"Haha! Junior, I wonder if you spent your night preparing yourself in a different type of way? You should know that exerting yourself too much puts a great strain on one’s body, even for a martial artist." Jayce spoke with a dirty smile.
Hearing these comnts, Lake, who had almost forgotten about his current appearance, was instantly reminded.
"It’s nothing, I spent a lot of ti practicing a unique martial art last night. Although my body looks weaker, I assure you that it won’t affect my performance today."
"If your body is ill you shouldn’t co on this hunt. The field isn’t a place to play around in, especially when your body is weakened." Gwen spoke with a serious expression on her face.
Seeing this, Lake shook his head before thinking for a bit.
Raising his hand, Lake threw a punch towards Jayce.
The punch was slow and looked like it didn’t contain much force as Lake had only casually thrown it out.
However, when Jayce saw the punch flying towards him, his expression changed slightly as he reached out and caught it.
Bam!
A loud muffled sound echoed out as a small shockwave was sent out from the point of collision between Lake’s fist and Jayce’s palm.
Jayce had an excited expression on his face as if he just found sothing interesting.
Gwen and the others looked over with curious gaze. Although they could have a rough estimate of the strength Lake’s punch contained from the shockwave just now, Jayce was still the one who felt the brunt of it and was also the one most experienced in fist techniques so his estimation would be far more credible than theirs.
Seeing everyone looking over towards him, Jayce quickly suppressed his excited expression, however, the excitent in his eyes couldn’t be hidden.
It’s been a long ti since he t soone near his age who could almost match up to him in terms of fist strength.
"There is no need to worry about junior’s strength. From the punch just now, his strength index should be in the range of 11~12, making him equivalent to a Low Rank Martial Warrior."
As the rest of the group heard this, they were stunned as they looked over at Lake who casually retracted his hand.
Looking at his pale face and sickly appearance, they suddenly understood just how misleading appearances could be.
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