Over 200 years ago, the first portal appeared on Earth. At that time, the planet was divided into various countries that supported different ideologies and ethnicities.
The sudden appearance of portals caused chaos. Those with greater power attempted to seize control, while those with the portals continually regained it. The possibility of human evolution was near, and so was the evolution of science and technology.
Old concepts, such as cultivation and fighting techniques, were slowly being adapted to the new world, and science took leaps and bounds—evolving far more in five years than humans had in their entire lifetime on Earth.
That was until....THE GREAT INCURSION
The audio from the computer continued to play, accompanied by the sizzling sound of the frying pan. Usually, Max wouldn't be able to hear it since the kitchen was on the ground floor and the computer was upstairs, but thanks to his enhanced senses, he could hear everything loud and clear.
"I am just a regular everyday normal mother..." he hummed, placing a lump of meat in the pan before covering it with a lid.
The fight in the bathroom wasn't that serious, and Max and Rayan had made it out of the center without further drama. Still, one thing Max couldn't forget was Rayan in action.
"I wonder which grade he reached to get so unimaginably strong?" Max couldn't help but question. Unless someone reached 18, they weren't eligible to get the X-band.
But Max could still imagine—someone as rich and talented as Rayan must be Indigo or Blue, maybe. Max didn't have time to think much about others because there were still problems ahead of him.
Thankfully, the written test wasn't hard. But what was about to come was the real challenge for Max. Three months from now, and 3000 nits in his savings account—that's all he had to prepare himself for the only chance to change his life.
"I need to at least become an Awakened and get to the Violet tier... otherwise..." Max was serious. He closed his eyes and opened them again, then sat to dine in the kitchen.
"PROTEIN!!" he yelled, eating the arcane dish he made.
7SH wasn't a direct combat-based cultivation skill but rather a survival-based one. Yet this skill still offered one thing that could indirectly help Max grow other physical aspects:
Enhanced Recovery.
That's the part Max wanted to unlock. Once done, he could train and exercise more frequently, and with almost three times better recovery, Max could achieve results in three months that someone would typically achieve in nine.
Max ate full to his neck. His plan was to head into the Dark Dungeon next, but he preferred not to do that with a full stomach. So, he prepared.
Analyzing the pictures and maps he had taken from past explorations, he set his mind on the nearest crystal cluster. This time, he had also bought an aid kit and some antidotes, which were publicly available without question.
The last time he entered the dungeon, he found a few things. And this time, he wanted to test them all.
Max took his time to devise the plan. He wore the same cyclist gear from before, the same bag, and headed to the bathroom. A flush of the toilet—and the next second, he was sucked inside the dark portal.
'Blehh!'
Max was about to puke as soon as he popped out on the other side, but this time, he placed a hand on his mouth and stopped himself. Slowly, he was getting the hang of this portal transportation thing.
After minutes of calming down, Max was ready for his stunt again. The plan was simple—he needed to head to the nearest crystal cluster. This time, he would go without the bag.
The only two gears he took were the clamper and a kitchen knife.
"Alright, let's do it!" Max took a deep breath as he stepped out of the safe zone and casually walked to the cluster with light steps. He attached the clamper and took a running position.
His focus wasn't even on the crystal but on the safe zone.
Clang!
The mana crystal broke off, and Max ran without wasting a millisecond.
"Graaaahhhh!!"
The monster roared from far behind, getting closer with each second. Max ran with all his might. Even with his enhanced senses, he couldn't sense the monster at all. At every beat, Max assumed the monster was behind him, ready to grab him any moment and...
BANG!
A strong collision sounded behind Max—he had successfully stepped inside the safe zone.
"GRAAAAAHHH!!"
The monster roared behind him, almost deafening his ears, but this time Max wasn't scared. He looked at the beast with a sharp smile. The monster constantly attacked with its tentacles, trying to grab Max, but it couldn't get past the golden energy field.
"Theory confirmed, it's a sound-triggered monster..." Max said. His eyes sharpened to take a closer look at the monster. There was barely half a meter of distance between them, and that's when Max noticed something.
The sharp sockets in front of the face, which created the illusion of six eyes, weren't actual eyes. In fact, the monster had no eyes at all. Max quickly recalled the video he saw about monsters.
[Remember, there is no such monster as absolutely unreasonable or powerful. They are hunters, sent to hunt you. They might have different structures, but they are also as vulnerable as any animal.]
Max's eyes lit up—he had finally solved the question in his mind. "So you have really sharp ears that detect low-pitched vibrations... but even with that, it won't be easy to hunt, right?"
"GRUHHH!!" The monster continued to roar, utterly oblivious to Max's speech.
"I was thinking... why would a predator as silent as you scream and attack? Wouldn't it be better to sneak attack directly?" Max continued. "You're similar to a bat—you can't see your target, so you make sound and use the reflection of sound to locate your prey!"
Max pulled out the kitchen knife, ready to strike the monster while still standing within the safe zone. He swung his weapon and...
Clang!
Before the weapon could hit, one of its tentacles grabbed the knife. Max's smile froze on his face. The monster pulled the knife, and Max had no option but to let it go.
The monster pulled the steel knife in and threw it in its mouth.
Crunch-crunch!
It continued chewing through steel as if it were nothing. The monster swallowed it and even burped, and just like that, his 80nits were gone. Cold sweat dripped down Max's neck. He couldn't help but imagine his bones instead of the knife.
"Never mind, see you again, bye!" he nervously said, placing the mana crystal in the container before jumping into the black portal.
Bang!
Once again, he slammed against the ceiling and then fell to the floor. This was the first time he'd made it out of a dungeon without injury.
"Fuck, my back hurts..."
Almost without injury.
But unlike other times, Max had a smile on his face. The goal wasn't so far from his reach. He was slowly getting the hang of things. "If everything works just like this... I might as well make it to the military!"
Max was still energetic. He opened his suit and sat down, relaxed. When his heartbeat returned to normal, he retrieved the crystal and began cultivating. He closed his eyes, found the trace of energy, and let it flow through his body, repeating the process.
Hours passed, and night turned to day. The crystal in his hand had lost its blue light, now resembling a dull, grey rock. But Max still focused on cultivation.
Max wasn't very resourceful, but others were. The minimum age to start cultivation was 15 years old. Max was competing against kids who had already been cultivating for three years, with better techniques and even more impressive combat skills than him.
If he wanted to even stand a chance, he had to give it his all—day and night.
Max finally opened his eyes. His body was drenched in a tar-like substance from head to toe. He even smelled bad, stinking like burning leather.
"Yuck... I smell so disgusting..." Max muttered the words as if they tasted bad. He took a long shower, and after making sure he was cleaned up, he headed outside—straight to the public toilet.
The sun was still warm, and the air carried the scent of spices. Max sniffed. "Is someone cooking fish?"
He didn't mind and kept walking down the road. Something felt off. The people—it was almost like he could smell every person passing by.
"..."
A realization hit Max. His sense of smell had gotten more enhanced. Another realization followed—he was about to go to a public bathroom. And that combo didn't smell good.
Max rushed in and rushed out with his nose covered as fast as he could. He was so overwhelmed he had to head back and take another shower.
"Why is cultivation so hard?" Max cried internally. He had no other option but to continue. He couldn't spam cultivation yet, so he had to take a day or two break each time he absorbed a mana crystal.
And meanwhile, in that time, he had one goal—
"It's time to train like hell!"
He warmed up and was about to hit an exercise when a sudden ring on his door attracted his attention.
"Ding dong!"
Max looked blankly, "Who could that be?"