Kill The Old Ones!

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The Martial Physique Tempering reward is what Ren was truly looking forward to...

Anybody in his position would, too. After all, this opportunity raises the floor of his talent and potential; who could not be tempted?

As ridiculous as Ren was right now and how utterly baffling his strength was, it doesn’t change the fact that his awakened talent was slowing him down. The longer he trains and follows the martial path, the slower it’ll drag him down.

And Ren can’t simply slow down, especially knowing what comes after this.

That’s why he’s looking forward to this. This opportunity isn’t something even he could get easily. Only events like the City vs. City Tournament will have this kind of reward.

Ren activated the seal on his villa to suppress all the phenomena and manifestations he will cause within it, preventing them from disturbing the peace and quiet of the clan and not allowing the vultures—that are seemingly stationed themselves permanently outside the gates of the clan—from seeing them either.

Once the suppression field was active, Ren called out to the world system:

”World System, I’m ready to receive the Martial Physique Tempering reward,” he said.

[Understood, User Soren.]

The tempering procedure will commence after a minute; please hold, endure, and try to stay awake for as long as you can during the procedure. The longer you can hold on, the higher chance and better quality of improvement you may receive.]

Ren took a deep breath and waited. He’s already lying down on his lawn, waiting for the procedure to occur.

He’s not standing or sitting down because, from his knowledge of the books, he knew that he’d end up lying down once it starts anyway.

The wait didn’t last long; the world system’s voice notified him, and in the next moment, Ren braced for the incoming pain.

And he was right to do so, because it definitely was painful.

The procedure penetrated his body very easily; he reckons that not even the fully engaged Black Adamantium Technique will be able to stop this at all.

This process went straight to his marrow, penetrating so deep and reaching the very strands of his DNA to rewrite it. While it certainly improves his qualifications to pursue martial arts, it never said that the procedure will be pleasurable to him—or to anybody who’s chosen this particular reward.

Ren gnashed his teeth.

It wasn’t frequent that he felt pain like this. The day he succeeded in creating the Black Adamantium Technique, he had never been physically hurt again, until today, that is.

But he endures. Heavens, did he endure.

Ren wanted to receive the best improvement he could have, and if that requires him to endure this hellish pain, then say no more.

Because you see, the improvement that this tempering will bring isn’t certain; it varies considering numerous criteria, but the main gist is that the longer one can endure the procedure, the higher their chances are at getting an improvement and the better said improvement will be.

Ren’s body was twitching in pain; he was writhing on the ground as he forcibly endured the pain and maintained his consciousness. His muscles were inflating and deflating; blood was oozing from his nose and on the pores of his body mixed with cold sweat.

His gums were bleeding because of how hard he was gritting his teeth, and he was ripping out the blades of grass he could grasp.

While it was clear, from what he looks like, that he was in pain, what he’s actually feeling was way, way beyond that. Ren could feel this pain clawing at his very soul.

It’s a profound agony he’s never experienced in his life until today.

Had his willpower been any weaker, he’d have passed out by now.

But Ren held on. He fought and clung to consciousness for as long as he could while telling himself that all this pain and agony would be worth it.

The procedure lasted for a whole 30 minutes, and the longer it went, the more painful it became.

And Ren will forever be proud to say that he stayed awake for the entire thing, even though at the very last minute of his procedure he felt seconds away from giving up. He screamed, cried, thrashed, and writhed on the surface of his lawn, but he made it in the end.

He stayed awake just long enough to hear the world system congratulating him for enduring the whole process. After that, he passed out in his pool of discarded blood mixed with his sweat.

Ren woke up about three hours later when the sky above the Central City turned orange.

He sat up and felt simultaneously light and dirty and hyperaware of everything. He ran to the bathroom, hurriedly shucking out his dirtied clothes straight to the washing machine, and sat on the tub, which he hurriedly filled with hot water.

Ren cleaned himself meticulously, using soap and hot water to get rid of the dirt, grime, and residue that clung to his skin while inwardly marveling at the change he felt within himself.

While his martial realm didn’t increase, he still felt stronger anyway. His chakra became denser, its flow was smoother, and his body was more compact and powerful. Even his soul felt better.

He summoned the World System’s message to see just exactly what had happened.

[Martial Physique Tempering procedure - completed!] ]

[Congratulations for enduring the whole process.]

Your martial physique grade was raised from Common Grade 1 to Epic Grade (Neutral)! ]

[Your Aberrant Martial Physique—Banished Arsenal Physique] responded with the improvements. Its negative effects and restrictions remained unchanged, but its positive effects—the physical damage bonus—increased from 15% to 30% thanks to this procedure.

Your Green Lotus Core martial physique also matured even more. Its effects were raised from 300% to 500%.

Ren let out a loud laugh upon reading these messages.

Three martial physiques have been improved—his base one, the aberrant, and the green lotus core.

He thought that he’d only raise the floor of his talent, but this was so much better! No wonder he felt this light and definitely stronger!

His base martial physique, the Common Grade 1, has been upgraded to the Epic Grade (Neutral)—an attributeless martial physique. It wasn’t like Adrian Arclight’s Heavenly Sword Heart or anybody else’s epic-grade physique.

An Epic Grade (Neutral) Martial Physique just provides faster martial training progress; that’s it. And honestly? Ren doesn’t mind. He’d have been happy even if it were just this.

But of course, it wasn’t the only one.

Exceeding his expectations, his aberrant martial physique and also the additional martial physique he had later had also been upgraded by this procedure.

The physical strength bonus coming from the Banished Arsenal Physique went from 15% to 30% per breakthrough, which was insane. And it’s even better because the negative effects haven’t changed.

And the effects of the Green Lotus Core Technique, or any other neutral-based chakra, on him went from 300% to 500% after the Green Lotus Core Martial Physique had been upgraded.

This means that Ren would heal and recover five times faster than most people from now, instead of three. Such improvement was not small at all!

Ren didn’t care that the Limitless Martial Physique hadn’t received an improvement or wasn’t even acknowledged by the world system. He doesn’t need it to; it’s already given him too much, and he’s satisfied with it.

Even without him deliberately training, Ren could already feel the improvement in his training speed.

He could catch up with the training speed of Epic Grade talents before through shortcuts, advantageous means, or luck. Without these, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up at all.

But now? He was confident of truly keeping up without using any tricks. He’s on the same pedestal as them, after all.

Of course, there’s still the Sacred Grade and Divine Grade talents, still. But those people are far too few and far between, and he doesn’t need to think about them for now.

With his talent upgraded, Ren felt more certain and confident about what’s coming next.

Now, for the last of his personal rewards—the Martial Insight, or enlightenment opportunity for a 24-hour duration—frankly, it’s the least useful to Ren.

He had the unparalleled comprehension sheet. This reward was redundant to him. But for the sake of appearances, he’d use it eventually; no need to rush.

So, that basically settles his personal rewards. He had used his system wish for an additional blessing for the city, customized a motorbike for his artifact reward, chose a soul-based martial technique, had his talent improved, and will later use the enlightenment chance.

There is an unofficial personal reward, though. It wasn’t really ’useful’ per se, but it does add prestige to him.

It’s a badge called ’Letter Kingdom’s Champion’—it’’s a status badge that could be worn. It doesn’t have any bonus effects, but it does tell everybody who he is and what he represents.

A badge that recognizes his contribution and importance to his city and Letter Kingdom. He’s not forced to wear it, but some people would definitely look for it when he makes a public appearance.

All in all, not bad.