Chapter 13: Breathing Method and Reputation

The fish-belly white of dawn floated up at the horizon.

Rod opened his eyes in bed.

【Second Heart】 and 【Trees' Blessing】 had given him physical strength and recovery far beyond that of an ordinary person.

After a brief rest, he had already returned to peak condition.

Physically he was nearly inexhaustible, but mentally he was not.

After a night full of events.

Rod felt a desire to do absolutely nothing.

"Still have to wrap things up though."

He struggled for a moment, then got up anyway.

Only to find Tally still draped across his chest.

Last night, ignoring her exhaustion, the moment they returned to the ranger's cabin Tally had wanted to feed.

Normally Rod would have shoved her aside without mercy, but the succubus had actually done her job last night, so he softened and kept her company playing until the small hours—who would have thought that playing led them both to fall asleep.

Rod gently laid her down on the bed.

After washing up, he practiced his breathing method as usual.

The breathing method he currently cultivated was the standard-issue version for officials of the Kingdom of Etherlon, so plain it didn't even have a name—everyone called it 【Standard Breathing Method】.

If one ranked breathing methods from low, mid, to high.

Then 【Standard Breathing Method】 was the gatekeeper of the mid tier.

Anything stronger than it counted as mid tier; anything weaker, low tier.

In truth, breathing methods and the meditation methods used by mages were essentially the same thing—both were methods of accumulating spirituality.

The only difference was that one used spirituality to strengthen the body, while the other converted spirituality into mana.

When he had first obtained 【Second Heart】.

Rod's body instinctively absorbed spirituality, madly remodeling itself to adapt to the new heart.

That was why in such a short time he had been able to leap two tiers in a row, reaching the peak of the fourth tier.

Now that the remodeling was over, he could only rely on 【Standard Breathing Method】 to absorb spirituality.

Fortunately, with the 【Trees' Blessing】 skill now in hand, his speed was far faster than before.

He believed it would only take a few days to break through to the fifth tier.

When the training ended.

Tally finally woke up.

She was languid all over, paid no heed to Rod being drenched in sweat, and simply pressed herself against him, planting kisses on his neck one after another.

"You're mine now~"

Rod pushed her off.

"What are you doing? We agreed on five days, are you going back on it?!"

"Not today."

When Tally let loose, she was especially wanton—Rod had to take care of other matters first.

Such as Father Owen's spoils.

Rod had the halfling Ali's spell-pouch in hand.

But a spell-pouch could not hold another spell-pouch.

This was common knowledge known to virtually everyone on the continent.

The mana inside the folded spaces crafted by different mages would not be identical, and might even produce repulsion.

Once repulsion occurred, the only outcome was the folded space collapsing, with everything inside flung into another plane.

He took out the spell-pouch.

He did a quick inventory of the items.

Apart from five hundred Jin Along, Father Owen's haul was far less than Ali's.

【Doctrine of Sacrifice】

【Sword of Dedication】

【Veil of Intoxication】

And a spellbook, recording a spiritual-strengthening art called 【Ascetic Flesh】.

Among them, 【Doctrine of Sacrifice】 was the steel-bound great tome Father Owen had carried.

This steel tome was clearly of exceptional quality—not only could it serve as a weapon, it could also enhance the caster's speed.

【Veil of Intoxication】.

This was likely the aid he used to cast his mind-control spells.

And 【Sword of Dedication】 was linked to 【Ascetic Flesh】.

Cultivating 【Ascetic Flesh】 required not only living the life of an ascetic monk, but also using a weapon imbued with holy attribute to wound oneself.

In exchange, one gained a powerful body.

Father Owen must have cultivated this spiritual art to produce that body of his, so unlike an ordinary person's.

Rod had no interest in 【Ascetic Flesh】.

After all, Father Owen's appearance was truly ugly enough to put him off.

But 【Sword of Dedication】 was something he could put to use.

Its quality was decent, and it wasn't far off from the standard-issue steel sword Rod normally used.

"I'll take this one."

Tally picked up the 【Bewitching Veil】.

"Take whatever you want. If we have these, you and I deserve equal credit."

Rod shoved the halfling Ali's magic short sword and half of the magic potions to her as well.

Tally didn't care much about these.

She just felt her performance last night had been quite ordinary, and hoped to raise her own grade.

She sensed a wisp of aura within the 【Bewitching Veil】 that could let her advance.

"During those five days we agreed on, you'll have to work harder. I'm about to advance."

Rod was a little surprised.

Succubi are an extremely lazy race; they rarely take the initiative to raise their own grade.

Afternoon.

Rod entered Shi Ying Town.

Today happened to be the day to collect his weekly wages.

On the way out, he ran into Vivian in the Bai Yu district.

Vivian was still clearing away the burned trees.

This seemed to be a kind of special custom of the tree spirits.

Rod didn't disturb her further, planning to bring her some new saplings and nutrient solution on the way back.

The moment he stepped into the town hall.

Rod sensed the clerks pointing and whispering.

It wasn't because of Tally.

At this point she had transformed into an ordinary farmwife.

The subject of their remarks wasn't hidden at all; almost all of it revolved around the story of him rescuing Daphne last night.

Sure enough.

Just as little Tom had once spread the rumor of him keeping a succubus, the constables had also spread word of his heroic feat last night.

Everyone in Shi Ying Town is a loudmouth.

Still, Rod was happy about it.

After all, no one dislikes words mixed with praise and acknowledgment.

"At first we really didn't think of the Two-Finger Mountain labyrinth. Lucky we ran into you."

He ran into David on the road, who cheerfully talked about last night's events.

"You know, those twenty-odd people in the labyrinth were all notorious thugs and bandits. You wiped them all out, and the residents can finally get a good night's sleep."

"When I first saw you last night I thought I had the wrong person! Miss Isabella is a peak sixth-grade, and at first I thought that sword strike of hers would cut you clean in half. Really didn't expect—"

Rod waved his hand, meeting David's curious and shocked gaze, and said:

"I got beaten until I vomited blood."

"Big brother, looking at your spiritual accumulation, you haven't even reached fifth grade! And—?"

"Don't try that 'kill with praise' routine on me."

Rod knew that in that single exchange with Isabella, he had basically been beaten down the whole time.

Where was any back-and-forth?

Every buff on her came from extremely high-quality treasures; his 【Steel Vine Charge】, which possessed peak fifth-grade killing power, couldn't even break her defense.

Fortunately, though, shared skills could grow stronger with proficiency and deeper understanding.

Unlike human-made spiritual arts of fixed grade,

a race's innate skills all had growth potential.

"Oh right, David, do you know where I can buy higher-grade spiritual arts?"

The number of spiritual arts in the Spiritual Arts Guild was small, and they were all low-grade; they could no longer satisfy Rod.

"Higher-grade spiritual arts? I do know of some, but they all belong to private groups, and the prices are very steep."

The Spiritual Arts Guild was the kingdom's official organization; they encouraged citizens to learn spiritual arts, so the spiritual arts in the guild were not only sufficiently basic, but also very cheap.

Rod thought about the six-hundred-plus Jin Along in his pocket.

Instantly his confidence swelled.

"Money is money, I still have plenty."

(End of chapter)