He then closed the system interfad slept for only two hours.

  When he woke up, he felt fully refreshed as though he had slept a full night—thanks to his high vitality stat.

  He then took a moment to plete his m routine and put on his clothes before returning to bed. “System, show me the leaderboard from when it first appeared,” he said.

  [Global Level Leaderboard (Earth in World Only)]Date: 24 June 2025, 00:00:00

  1: Spear Supremacy - Tier 1, Level 25

  2: Stephahompson - Tier 1, Level 23

  3: I’m Famous - Tier 1, Level 20

  4: Xavier White - Tier 1, Level 18

  5: Jennifer - Tier 1, Level 15

  6: ??? (You) - Tier 1, Level 10

  7: Anonymous - Tier 1, Level 9

  8: Lucas Walker - Tier 1, Level 8

  9: Elizabeth - Tier 1, Level 7

  10: Anonymous - Tier 1, Level 7…]

  [You are currently in 6th position. Please choose a name, or you remain anonymous.]

  ‘Hmm, should I go anonymous or not? No, I’ll just put my name—I have no reason to hide. It’s not like I’m in some cultivation novel where I py the pig to eat the tiger,’ he thought with a smirk.

  After entering his name, he checked the updated leaderboard out of curiosity, w if its release would make people focus more on leveling to gain ‘fame.’

  [Global Level Leaderboard (Earth in World Only)]Date: Current Time: 25 June 2025, 02:10:08

  1: Spear Supremacy - Tier 1, Level 382: Stephahompson - Tier 1, Level 343: Xavier White - Tier 1, Level 334: Jennifer - Tier 1, Level 305: I’m Famous - Tier 1, Level 286: Alice - Tier 1, Level 277: Liam - Tier 1, Level 248: Elizabeth - Tier 1, Level 239: Anthony Brown - Tier 1, Level 2210: Lucas Walker - Tier 1, Level 22…

  139: Mikael Angelini - Tier 1, Level 10]

  ‘Damn, the leveling pace is i’s a bit disappointing when you think about it. I ’t be sure about everyone, but it’s clear that many people on the leaderboard are probably leveling just to climb the ranks atention.’

  ‘And that’s pretty disappointing. It means that a rge portion of Earth’s so-called “stro” are just people chasing fame… it’s really, well, disheartening.’

  ‘In just one day, I dropped from 6th pce to 139th, but I don’t care about that because I retly had a thought that vinced me: skills are more important than raw stats.’

  ‘Think about it—if you want to be strong enough to, say, destroy a mountain with a punch, and you start with the assumption that a mountain weighs at least one billion tons (likely more), you’d need around 10 billion in your strength stat alone. And that’s not even sideriroying a p or anything more.’

  ‘So yeah, this realization firmed my decision to foproving my skills, even if it means being weaker in terms of pure stats. I’ll just ighe leaderboard like I inally thought—it doesn’t affect me, so I should stiy training and focus on that alone.’

  He decided to begin his training with body refining. After all, he now had a stronger rad the Training System, so his refi should be more effective.

  He sat on the wooden floor wearing only his underwear. ‘Body refining is going to be tough and will make me sweat. If I keep my clothes on, I’ll just soak them for no reason.’

  After this thought, he reread the booklet on body refining, then adjusted his position into the lotus posture and took an orc core between his hands. He started breathing itern described in the booklet.

  He closed his eyes, ihrough his nose while ting to four, then exhaled for the four seds. He repeated this cycle several times before reg the mantra:

  ‘I am refining my body.’

  ‘I am my body, and my body is me.’

  ‘I train my body for myself and only for myself.’

  ‘I choose to brave the pain to bee stronger.’

  ‘My goal is a qualitative upgrade.’

  ‘I choose level 2 of body refining.’

  He followed the same process as st time, except now he selected level 2 of body refining.

  As soon as he fihe mantra, he felt a mix of extreme disfort and mild pain, like an intech affeg his entire body. But Mikael e without much trouble; after all, pared to a broken bohis was minor, and in parison to ging race… well, that was in a league of its own.

  He tihe breathing cycle for the 15 minutes before he thought, ‘This level is manageable for me—let’s try level 3.’

  He repeated the mantra but selected level 3 this time.

  Wheivated it, he felt a sharp pain—like stubbing his toe on furniture, except it affected his entire body. Mikael gritted his teeth but e for 30 minutes before stopping.

  He let out a breath, frowning. ‘Not a single gain after 30 minutes? Seems like body refining is tough. I’ll just take a short break before moving on to level 4. It won’t be pleasant, but as they say, no pain, no gain.’

  Ten mier, he was ready to tinue his training. He wasted no time and immediately started with level 4.

  Immediately, Mikael felt pain parable to receiving small cuts all over his body, making him grit his teeth and ch his fists.

  He grunted softly in pain but tio endure. After 20 minutes, he was close to stopping.

  ‘No, I o keep going. Stopping now won’t help me grow faster! I’ll push through until it’s been 30 minutes—no less.’

  True to his resolve, he endured until the 30 minutes were up before finally stopping and colpsing onto the floor, breathing deeply from the exhausting ordeal.

  ‘I’ll just rest on this nice floor for the en minutes before trying body refining again,’ he thought as he y sprawled out on the ground.

  Ten mier, he got up with difficulty and resumed his sitting position. ‘If I want my body refining to be more effective, I'll o increase the difficulty level. But holy, I don’t think I endure level 5, given how the pain has been increasing,’ he thought. ‘Instead, I'll focus on enduring level 4 for longer periods.’

  Having decided, he immediately resumed body refining at level 4.

  Time passed steadily. Mikael would refine his body for as long as he could endure before taking a short ten-minute break, only to return to it afterward. Each time, he pushed himself to st a little longer.

  After eight hours of training, he could endure up to 50 mi level 4 before the pain became unbearable. Of course, he didn’t just improve his pain tolerance; he also made signifit progress in body refi.

  [Body Refining Teique: Tier 0, Level 3 SkillDescription: This D-rank body refining teique from Aedris ehe user to refiheir body using quantitative or qualitative methods. Efficy depends on multiple factors discussed ieique’s guide. This skill affects all physical stats (STR, AGI, END, VIT, PER) but does not affect spiritual stats.

  Current Progress:Quantitative +0 statsQualitative Stats Value: 1.00 → 1.03]

  Throughout his refining process, Mikael noted eacremental improvement and cluded that, given his talent and level 4 iy, he could gain a 0.01 qualitative stats increase every two hours of body refining.

  After this lengthy, grueling session, Mikael took another shiven he was covered i. O of the bathroom, he found himself bored. Without i access, reading was enjoyable but got repetitive, especially as his only hobby.

  He asked, “System, is it possible to have i access in my apartment?”

  [Certainly! rovide high-quality i access in your apartment for a modest fee of 100 LP per month.Note: Payment will be taken at the start of each month (Earth time).]

  Mikael sighed but responded, “Fiake my LP; I’ll pay for the i e.”

  [Transa plete.]

  He took out his phone, which had been practically useless without an i e, and thought, ‘It’s impressive that they provide i access from such a distanaybe even another dimension, who knows. I don’t know why, but this small venience, pared to everything else it do, actually surprises me!’

  He spent some time watg YouTube videos, snag, and drinking water, appreciating the mueeded rexation.

  While rexing in bed, Mikael thought, ‘What now? Body refi is great and all, but it isn’t the most time-effit approach—at least nht now. Eight hours of painful training for only a 3% strength increase… yeah.’

  ‘Alternatively, I think my best option is to foaxing out my skills. I 't evolve them to the ier yet since I don’t have the [Skill Evolving System], and I’m not ied in spending LP on it right now.’

  He g his skill progress:

  [Unarmed Martial Arts Mastery Tier 0 Level 1, Progress: 79%]

  [Footwork Mastery Tier 0 Level 2, Progress: 22%]

  [6th Seier 0 Level 1, Progress: 22%]

  [Swordsmanship Mastery Tier 0 Level 3, Progress: 72%]

  [Body Refining Tier 0 Level 3, Progress (Not activated)]

  ‘My skills have e a long way sihe beginning. I think I should focus oh Sense skill first before leveling up the others. With 2K LP avaible, if I set aside 500 as backup, that leaves me with 1.5K LP to use for training.’

  ‘From that 1.5K, I’ll allocate 600 LP to the 6th Sense skill and 300 LP each to the other skills, except body refining, which levels up differently and requires the k teique from Aedris fress.’

  After deg, he left his apartment and arrived at the Hub. He then directed his thoughts to the Records. “Records, I’d like to allocate 600 LP to training my 6th Sense skill.”

  [The two most relevant options for now are:

  A trainer with a low-level magical teag ability for 100 LP per hour.

  A top-tier human trainer without magical abilities for 25 LP per hour.]

  ‘Right, I remember—the magical teag ability requires four times the price but is twice as effit.’

  “Records, I’d like to go with the trainer who has low-level magical teag ability. I’ll schedule six hours of training for my 6th Sense skill, followed by three hours each for unarmed martial arts, footwork, and swordsmanship.”

  [Transa firmed -1.5K LP]

  Mikael ehe training room as usual.

  Bang.

  There, he saung a heavy bag, cirg around it and striking with a focused expression. Her intense gaze bined with her medieval-style armave her the look of a fierce but beautiful warrior.

  She was so absorbed iraining that she didn’t notice Mikael’s arrival.

  “Kiara,” Mikael called.

  Her ears twitched cutely, and she slowly turned around in apparent disbelief. When she saw him, a smile brightened her face, lighting up the entire room.

  “MIKAEL!” she yelled, before charging at him with surprising speed. She collided with him in a powerful hug, sending him ft on his back.

  Kiara kept holding onto him, refusing to let go.

  Now lying on his back with Kiara h above him, Mikael met her gaze as she looked at him darkly and asked, “Why did you leave me alone for four whole days?”

  He felt a chill at her intense expression but kept his posure and answered calmly, “Sorry, I was caught up in another world and couldn’t return sooner.”

  Kiara visibly rexed upon hearing his expnation, but she tinued, “Why were you stu that world?”

  “I got injured while in Aedris, and the system wouldn’t let me leave until I healed. Well, teically, I could’ve left, but it would have e a 20,000 LP fine, which I couldn’t afford.”

  Kiara froze, her bangs falling to cover her eyes. In a low, calm voice, she asked, “Who hurt you?”

  Behind her bangs, her eyes turned lifeless as dark thoughts filled her mind. ‘They hurt him? I’ll make them pay. No, killing them would be too easy. I’ll torture them until they beg for death. Or better yet, I’ll capture them ahem iernal torment. That would be a fitting punishment for daring to hurt my Mikael.’

  Unaware of her thoughts, Mikael replied, “Oh, it was an orc chief. He ended up a lot worse than I did, though, so it worked out.”

  Kiara responded with a harmless smile, but her true thoughts remained a mystery.

  Mikael, notig she wasn’t moving, spoke up. “Uh, Kiara, I o get up.”

  Relutly, Kiara pulled her legs bad stood, allowing him to rise.

  Once he , he tinued, “So, you’re hitting the pung bag when I’m not around? Training or just a hobby?”

  “I ’t really improve specific skills, so training doesn’t do mue. I just do it because it’s a nice pastime.”

  Mikael paused, sidering her words, then asked, “I have a question—a bit personal. Mind if I ask?”

  “Of course! You always ask.”

  “I’m curious—you said you ’t improve by training, but your skill in martial arts is clearly better than mine. How does that work?”