How to Cultivate a Game

Pillars of woods littered the monkeys' territory. The trees were their homes, and Nee Chen was their homewrecker. "Get wrecked!!" The young warrior's figure flitted under the falling leaves. His sword moved ruthlessly, endeavoring to take a life. the monkeys scampered and retaliated, and now, he found himself surrounded.

"BOOST!" A martial art that boosted the maximum damage of an attack! With Nee Chen's sword infused with a perfect fusion of qi and killing intent, his sword slashed with incredible might. he didn't care where he was surrounded or not. The recklessness from knowing he could resurrect gave him courage.

While the Game Master's words were echoing in the back of his mind to cherish his own life, he continued to move forward with haste disregarding the warning entirely. He needed that Exp. He needed that strength. 'The Game Master would not understand me...' And he found it below the Game Master to understand his thought process.

That was why despite all the goodness that was shown to them, Nee Chen still found the heart to show ingratirude. Moreover, he was desperate. "BOOST!" He activated his martial skill the second time, and his sword had become sharper. With one swing, he finally managed to inflict a fatal blow to two monkeys simultaneously.

Both furries fell down at the same time as they weren't able to evade the attack.

Martial tempering realm beast 3/5.

Nee Chen only needed to kill two more, and he was done. However, he was hurt, and bleeding. Plenty of scratches could be seen on his skin, and there were even a few bruises that came from the thrown rocks from afar. "RAAAGH!" He screamed at the monkeys intimidatingly.

A bunch of monkeys retreated in a flurry as they had become afraid of Nee Chen's fighting spirit/. however, they didn't completely retreat as they made sure to surround Nee Chen in such a manner that he wouldn't escape. "HOOH!" HAAAH!" "HAAH!" The monkey tribe of yellow-furred creatures made obscene gestures at him.

"Come at me, you wussies!" He challenged them as he flexed his sword with a menacing light. He felt his hurting left shoulder and slightly off-balance center of gravity. Thankfully, the mere beasts in front of him didn't know any martial arts. It was natural given that martial arts were the invention of humans. They were the reason why humans had become the apex predators of this cruel world.

"What was the problem? Too afraid to take a hit?"

Mastering his own martial skill Boost had been a piece of cake for Nee Chen. It was all thanks to his other martial skill Equip. Boost and Equip had a synergistic effect that allowed each skill to be mastered in a more efficient manner.

EQUIP! Nee Chen sheathed his sword in one smooth motion, and with the tense atmosphere, he carefully eyed the ignorant monkeys aware of their cunning. Abruptly, two monkeys rushed at him with feral speed. He activated another skill with not a microsecond to miss. BOOST! Consecutively casting his martial skills, Nee Chen beheaded a couple of monkeys in a single slash simultaneously.

The combo of EQUIP + BOOST was very destructive and was able to slay two foes who were also at the 1st stage.

With impressive alacrity, Nee Chen followed up with another slash, ensuring those who followed were struck! The monkeys panicked seeing blood splatter against them. Nee Chen swiftly zigzagged among the trees as he searched for a way out of the monkey territory.

Ping!

At the sound of his system pinging, more monkeys rushed at him. This was an opportunity for him to get a feel of the 2nd stage!

Slay a Martial Tempering realm enemy 5/5

[Name: Nee Chen (Humble Blade) | Class: Warrior | Level 20+1 (2nd—Mind Enlightenment)]

Nee Chen's Dantian expanded as his qi swirled in a spiral. He felt his mind to be growing several folds as his perception became clearer. Trying his new strength, he cut off a falling leaf just right in the middle. He grinned and turned around only to see all of the monkeys suddenly halting.

They must have felt it too.

Nee Chen provoked the monkey by flexing his sword a second time.

From the tip of Nee Chen's sword, a silver line was created. Nee Chen admired the beauty of his sword slash, not that he was content with his current strength. In fact, Nee Chen wanted more. The exhilaration that leveling up was bringing him was so addicting he wished that he could level up forever.

"HOOO-HAAAH!" An angry monkey jumped at him from above. To Nee Chen who was now in the 2nd stage, the monkey's descent just felt too slow.

EXECUTE!

Using only his fist, Nee Chen unleashed his new martial skill, Execute! His fist blasted in a blur, gorily exploding the monkey as his skill made contact with its chest. It was a powerful new skill that could not compare to his other skills.

Suddenly, Nee Chen felt all of his qi rapidly vanish at the activation of the skill.

"What? Ugh… Why was my qi at zero percent?"

Reading his new skill's description, Nee Chen felt faint.

[Humble Blade's Arts: Equip, Boost, Execute.]

Execute— Expends all qi with one devastating attack!

Surrounded by angry 1st stage monkeys with their eyes gleaming red, Nee Chen paled.

*Gulp… "Know the skill first before playing with it, I should remember that."

Run.

~~~

Lurker had been very active in the past five hours. He was able to reach Level 10 quickly thanks to the powerful Exp Boost, and the fact that he had a lot of experience with regards to hunting and killing. He would even go so far as to boast that it had been too easy, and he would want more challenge. 

He deduced that gaining Exp from killing would be very easy for him considering that he was at the 5th stage before he died. The Game Master said himself that it would be smooth sailing for Lurker to return to the 5th stage. If not, perhaps the 4th stage within half a year.

The speed of his cultivation was quite scary. Even now, Lurker was in a state of disbelief.

After going deeper into the darker and more dangerous parts of Butterberry Forest in his hunt, Lurk decided to return to his creek so that he could contemplate on which class to choose. "Interesting...' He commented as he studied the fur classes, or in his eyes, the four Dao Origins.

"Very interesting!" He exclaimed.

Warrior | Rogue | Mage | Cleric

In front of Lurker were four different floating avatars.

The system looked more like an illusion with its intricate lines that connected and created letters, words, and icons. Even now, Lurker had no idea how this beautiful thing came to be.

Yes, beauty. It was very detailed as shown by his displayed system interface. It was a work of art. Though rigid, it had a sleek and cool interface that was easy to use. Most of all, it could unlock an individual's latent potential to the maximum.

The fact that he still remained human now though his cultivation had been reduced to the 1st stage was a mystery of its own. He should have become a deformed abomination instead of being so handsome... Lurker recalled his character creation... He was hopeful of being reborn as a crocodile, but starting as a human was not so bad either.

In fact, even his aesthetic sense was now more like a human than a crocodile. No. That was doing the crocodiles dirty. In fact, as a crocodile, he didn't even know what was beautiful and ugly. 

"I should be content with being alive, than complaining about these nonsensical things such as aesthetics..."

If what the Game Master said was true, it was possible for Lurker to return at the 5th stage without any hitch. Though still in disbelief, Lurker chose to wait and see for himself.

By waiting and seeing, he meant to be temporarily submissive to his current master. Lurker was a very ambitious beast. Though he was terribly outclassed, the thought of rebelling someday once he gathered enough strength was still a very open option for him. He wouldn't discard that option, but if he could achieve it someday, he wouldn't know.

Because.

Unfortunately for the crocodile, he could never rebel. That was what it meant to be a player for the Game Master. Fortunately, he wouldn't need to know that he could never rebel, so maybe in decades or eternity to come, he would continue being ignorant of the cruel truth of joining the Game Master's bus.

"I should start now! Let's see..."

Lurker went into an uncomfortable stance. He was trying to derive his martial arts from beast forms into human forms.

Since he could not use his martial arts now with his human body, Lurker had to start from zero. At first, Lurker was thinking of returning to his beastly origins. In this way, he hoped to take the same oath he once did. Lurker however already tried, but he couldn't feel the beastly blood inside him anymore.

"That would make sense since I was reborn into human..."