Calm Wanderer
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(MNIBP)Chapter 39 - Uncontrolled breakthrough to the Second Level
🕑 Added 2024-01-22 14:39:18 +0000 UTCThe Highlands, New Jersey, USA.
Ben's P.O.V.
After a few hours of strenuous exercise, May fell asleep on his muscular frame, her naked body glistening with fragrant sweat and a sweet smile adorning her increasingly youthful visage. Indeed, Ben noticed that as time went by, or more likely, as the number of love sessions accumulated and her cultivation Level improved, his middle-aged wife seemed to look younger and younger, with the bigger wrinkles becoming small, while the smaller ones disappearing altogether.
She also gained much more energy while needing a lot less sleep. Granted, it was something he went through even before he reached the Novice Rank, but not to her extent. 'The difference is probably due to my perks. Not that I'd complain about it, though.' He thought, with a satisfied grin, as his gaze roamed all over her alluring form.
As something suddenly came to his mind, the silver-eyed man closed his eyes and used his Divine sense to observe his beautiful wife. 'I should really practice using my Divine Sense without having to close my eyes... Mmhh? She's become stronger than earlier... Seemed to be the same level but... Is it the Peak?... That has to be it! In one session, she reached the Peak of the Sixth Level.'
Pondering for a few moments, he continued. 'So she went from Early Level 6 to Peak Level 6. It's probably good, but I feel like she broke through faster the first few times we did it... Is it because of the bigger energy needs? That's probably why. If I recall correctly, in those novels, the higher one went, the harder and longer it took to reach the next Level... I think I'll check out the Basic Information on the Holo-Computer later...'
Pushing that thought in a corner of his mind, he moved on to check his own cultivation to see if he had any gains himself. In the past, because of his lack of knowledge, he could not precisely assess his strength, unlike now. And indeed, he could feel the increase in his inner energy. He thought with some satisfaction. 'I can literally touch the barrier to the Second Level with my inner energy! I felt it somewhat a few hours ago, but I was nowhere as close to the next level.'
Scratching his short beard in thought, the silver-eyed man decided to observe how much he would gain after each 'love session'. After all, he could feel that their respective gains did not seem to match, with hers apparently greater. 'We'll see if there's any change with the increase of her cultivation level. If not, I'll just take it as relaxing after a long day at work.' He considered, while inwardly laughing.
After a few seconds, the man decided to focus back on what was important: His cultivation. Since he should have a few hours before May woke up, his mind sank into a meditative state, while a part of it recalled the Novice Rank cultivation process. 'From the Early First Level to the Peak of the Ninth Level, the Five-Elements energy is accumulated in the core in the form of gas. Once the inner core is full, one needs to compress the energy enough to make more room inside. The process needs to be completed nine times before one's energy turns liquid reaching the Elite Rank, as a Mage.'
'For a Warrior, the Novice Rank is to refine the skin and muscles with Elemental energy to accumulate Blood power. The body will receive some special characteristics from the Elements used in the refinement. In my case, my body should have a high resistance against the Five Elements among other advantages.'
'For a Psychic, one needs to refine one's will constantly, accumulating Mind Power in one's Mind Palace. From what I read, it's harder to distinguish the level of one's Mind Power. But it should have some vague similarities to the Mage Path. We'll see as my cultivation increases.'
As those thoughts appeared in a corner of his mind, his core kept absorbing the Five-Element energy around before using the now refined inner energy to improve his skin and muscles. Technically, he could push for a breakthrough, and from the feedback he received from 'touching' the barrier to the next Level, it would not be too hard. However, there were some downsides to doing that.
First, there was a high chance that the shock waves emitted from his breakthrough phenomena could hurt May and break things around. And second, he would miss an opportunity to more 'easily' purify his energy to the limit. From what he read in his Scripture information, Energy purity influenced one's raw power and ease of breakthrough among other things.
And the lower the amount of energy one had, the easier it was to purify one's energy. So, doing it at that moment, when he was only a First Level Novice Rank would be the best. Having thus determined his next course of action, Ben focused on the method given by his scripture to purify his inner energy, which in turn helped refine his body more thoroughly.
As his attention was on his Inner Core, he noticed that, unlike what the intel said, the more he refined his inner energy and body the easier and faster it became. 'Logically, the fewer impurities there are, the harder it becomes to get rid of them, right? So how come the opposite's happening... Does it have anything to do with my Physiology Perk? If that's the case, then that'd be incredible.' He thought, both confused and expectant.
After a few seconds, he pushed that thought aside and focused his mind on the current situation. 'I'll just see in the future if I'm right or not. For now, I'll just cultivate.' Hours then went by as the impurities present in his inner energy and body were ground away. What was interesting was that, by removing them, his Core acquired more room to absorb Elemental Energy.
That same Elemental Energy also needed to have its impurities removed, which left more room in his Core, rinse, and repeat. From the experience, he understood that the so-called limit, and thus strength, for each Level was different for everyone. Even for those using High-Level Scriptures like him, differences could be found.
To attain the 'ultimate' purity, if that truly existed, the effort needed would be colossal and, frankly, out of reach for more than 99% of those people. His guess would be that many resources coupled with freakish talent would be needed to succeed. Fortunately, Ben had his Perk to help him. Or at least that was his best guess as to why it was relatively so quick and easy for him to attain that 'pure' state.
Indeed, as May was stirring awake a few hours later, the man felt himself reach the true limit of what his current cultivation could achieve. In a strange turn of events, he actually had to be extremely careful to avoid breaking through, as, in his inner perception, the First Link of the Novice Chain felt so brittle that a slight movement of his inner energy would shatter it into thousands of pieces.
'I'll wait until I'm downstairs. The Training Room should stop my breakthrough fluctuations.' He thought while feeling the woman on his torso stretch lazily, naturally rubbing the pink buds adorning her growing bosom on his ripped abdominal muscles. The heavenly sensation on his upper body made him lose control of a small strand of inner energy before he reined it in almost immediately.
However, the damage was done, as that strand brushed against the Second Level's barrier, creating a crack in it. “Damn it, woman!” He exclaimed before swiftly moving her to the bed and standing up as quickly as he could. Grabbing a random pair of his underwear, he dashed toward the underground level as quickly as he could while trying to control the extent of the barrier's destruction.
At that point, more than half was in pieces, while the rest of it was breaking even faster. 'Fuck me! I really need to master my lust or I'll get screwed at one point. No pun intended.' He thought while feeling both annoyed and amused at the same time. 'I think I should've enough time...' He pondered as the door to the Training Room opened and he almost teleported to the Arena.
Once inside, he could not hold on anymore and thus let his Inner Energy break what was left of the Link separating him from the next Level. As soon as the last fragment disintegrated, a whirlpool constituted of Five-Elements Energy appeared with him at the center.
Sitting cross-legged, the silver-eyed man used a strand of his inner energy to protect his underwear from being destroyed before starting the process of receiving the baptism of Universal Energy for reaching a higher level. Whether it was his body, his inner energy, or his Mental Power, he could intuitively feel that it helped him grow much stronger than a few minutes prior. The baptism did not last for too long, though. After all, from what he read previously, going from one Minor Level to another gave the least amount of strength increase. The best being going from one Rank to another, and the second best was going from Low Level to Mid Level or from Mid Level to High Level.
In any case, he became stronger and that was the only thing that mattered to the newbie cultivator. Feeling the power coursing through his entire body, he muttered, amazed. “This feels even better than I thought. Let's test it a bit.” As soon as he made up his mind, Ben stood up and started running around, moving randomly to test his speed and physical reactions. After around a minute, he stopped, satisfied with the result of his preliminary test.
Once outside, he noticed May sporting a look that seemed to be a mix of annoyance, worry, and amusement all rolled into one. The man understood about the first two, but the last one... As something suddenly came to him, his gaze moved immediately downward where he saw himself only wearing a pair of underwear.
Lifting his head to look at her, he declared with some embarrassment. “I should go put something on, right?” His question was followed by May bursting into laughter for a while. Rolling his eyes, the man mumbled. “It's not that funny, come on.” The somewhat sulking expression on his face and his words, increased the woman's hilarity, instead of stopping it, however.
Thus, the usually dignified man had to wait in the middle of the Training Room with his arms crossed and only wearing his underwear, for his childish wife to stop laughing, the latter taking a longer moment than Ben would have preferred. “Are you done laughing at me?” He asked with a cocked brow to his now somewhat calm lover.
Wiping a tear on her cheek, she retorted. “Sure. Thanks for the laugh, Honey. I think I needed that.” The relieved expression on her face, coupled with what he could feel through the Soul Bond vanished his slight annoyance. 'She's been through a lot recently, hasn't she?' He thought while a wry smile appeared on his face.
Shaking his head, he stated. “I guess I deserved the laugh. I do look like an exhibitionist, don't I?” With an amused grin on her face, she replied. “At least you're not completely naked. Not that I'd complain about it. Your body's a true work of art.” A teasing grin surfaced on his face as he retorted. “Speak for yourself! You're so sexy that I almost couldn't hold myself from breaking through in our bed.”
Chuckling for a bit, she put her arm around the back of his neck before pulling up herself and crossing her legs around his waist. “I like your choice of words.” Grabbing her springy butt over her pair of shorts, he could not help himself but squeeze it a few times as his feet led him quickly back upstairs.
Whispering to avoid waking up the others, he retorted. “That's not what you think. Sort of.” Pecking his lips, she responded with a mischievous smile. “I know. I could feel the mess in your inner energy through our Bond. It was vague, but from what you just said, I can connect the dots.”
Reaching the bathroom, the two disrobe swiftly, especially Ben who only had a pair of underwear on. Once inside the shower, Ben retorted. “Right. I was holding myself back because I didn't want to hurt you or break anything around with my breakthrough phenomena. And from the mess that happened in the Arena, it was a good idea.”
With a look of realization, she asked, puzzled. “Joke aside, why did you lose control like that?” Shaking his head, the man kept silent for a few seconds before saying hesitantly. “Because...” Letting out a helpless sigh, he looked at her with an embarrassed look. 'There's no way to save my dignity, is there?' Out loud he responded. “Because of your breasts.”
At those words, the woman froze for a long moment, her brain seemingly incapable of understanding his words.
