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Chapter 83

New Discoveries

 

“Ugh. I’m so exhausted!” Chu Shen flopped down on the bed with a groan. Lucas gave him an inquisitive glance.

 

“That ‘Grandmaster’ Qin” He said making quotation marks in the air. “Has been training me nonstop for five days now. And to make it worse it’s actually felt like fifteen since he has that illusion array. It’s awful!”

Lucas shrugged. “Can’t be that bad.”

 

Chu Shen looked at him with a blank stare. “Yeah. I just have to look at examples of two hundred basic moves from different weapons and techniques. Then learn it so that I can predict where the moves are going to land by reading the opponent’s muscles. And to top it off, if I don’t learn it, I have to do it all over again.”

 

“Yeah. That seems difficult for an organic to do. Maybe I should skip the training then.”

 

“Nuh-uh. If I have to learn it, so do you.”

 

“Well it would be redundant since I have a map of the human muscular system so I can just run a program to tell me anyways.”

 

Chu Shen stared at him for a second before promptly throwing a pillow, which Lucas dodged. “I hate you Lucas. I really do hate you.”

 

Lucas shrugged. “Well. I wanted to show you something I discovered while you were gone. I was investigating the attribute Qi from the beast cores and discovered it’s actually a 7th state of matter.”

 

Chu Shen looked at him. “What do you mean?”

 

Lucas sighed. “You know the other six states of matter right? Liquid, solid, gas, plasma, Bose-Einstein condensate, and hyper-matter.”

 

Chu Shen nodded. “Yeah. Well except the last two. Only briefly heard it on a physics simulation.”

 

“Bose-Einstein condensates are bosons, a quantum particle, cooled to absolute zero. Or at least close to it. Hyper-matter is the state of all matter in hyperspace. It is when all matter has lost all distance between the electron cloud and the nucleus.”

 

Lucas had an excited look on his face as he explained all this. “However, I found out that attribute Qi actually is a seventh state! This state is a fluctuation of matter and energy. This ‘Earth Qi’ is actually a form of energy that can fluctuate between being actual earth and energy! I even found it can temporarily turn real earth into this energy and be used to manipulate it!”

 

It was Chu Shen’s turn to shrug. “And? I knew all this anyways. I grew up seeing this.”

 

Lucas sighed. “Yeah, but if I can discover how to induce this seventh state it can be limitless! We use fusion and fission to power our systems now but if we can use this seventh state we will no longer be forced to use exotic matter or Hydrogen as fuel but everything! The limits on space travel could be undone! We can even turn mining into a complete waste of time!”

 

“Whoopee. Now let me get some sleep. I’m tired.” Chu Shen rolled over on the bed.

 

“Ugh! I hate it when people don’t listen!”

 

……………………………………………………………………………

 

Chu Shen showed up at the Agata Family mansion as usual. Just like before Grandmaster Qin was there to meet him. However, this time he was not led to the illusion formation. Instead he was led to a small table and served some tea.

 

“Hmm. Thank you Grandmaster Qin. However, why am I not training?” Chu Shen asked.

 

“Simple. You are done. While I can’t say your grasp of the basics are perfect, they are adequate. To be honest you learned quite fast. It took me several months to learn. Of course, I had to learn the entire body and how it worked instead of just the front like you did.”

 

“Why did I not learn the entire body then?”

 

“Because of time and practicality. I am teaching you how to fight an opponent and judge their moves head on. Because of that you only need to see how they move from the front. Also it would take much longer.”

 

“What I will teach you now is the fundamentals of martial arts. Or rather, some secrets that most do not learn for a long time. So pay very close attention.”

 

“Do you know what a martial art does?”

 

Chu Shen replied back hesitantly. “It enhances your power?”

 

Grandmaster Qin nodded. “Correct, but how?”

 

Chu Shen shrugged. “I don’t really know. Isn’t it just by circulating Qi and then releasing it?”

 

Grandmaster Qin nodded again. “True to some extent. Now let me talk about the limits of Qi. We channel Qi through our meridians. However, by channeling too much our meridians can burst. Qi also leaks through the meridians into our body. If the body absorbs too much energy it can be destroyed. That is the reason behind backlash of powerful martial arts.”

 

“Our soul also controls Qi. That is why when we absorb Qi we need to concentrate by meditating. When absorbing Qi we make it our own by imprinting our soul on it, meaning we can use it without meditating. Otherwise we would have to meditate every time we wanted to channel Qi.”

 

“However, this imprint has it’s limits. If we use too much Qi, we have to concentrate which distracts us. Distractions in a fight are fatal. It can’t happen lightly.”

 

Chu Shen nodded. Everything made sense so far. For example, when he made the shield for the soldiers during the bug war. He had to stop fighting and focus on making it. Also the body absorbing Qi was described in the <Void King> technique and was the reason having a strong body was necessary.

 

“Now let me talk about breaking these limits. Reflex actions require no thought. They happen automatically and they do not occur solely in the body but the soul as well.  An example of a reflex of the soul would be a martial artist’s body shield, an automatic reaction brought on by the bodies survival instinct.”

 

“Reflexes are made by endlessly repeating an action. Martial arts are the same. By training a martial art to the point of being a reflex for your soul, you can activate martial arts requiring large amounts of Qi without being distracted. But you must first learn how to channel Qi in those particular meridians, which can be a great roadblock to cultivators.”

 

“As for the meridians, martial arts use certain amounts of meridians to channel their energy. The more meridians used, the more energy can be channeled. Of course, these meridians, even for the basic martial art, is over a hundred since the outer meridians are in the millions.”

 

“Lastly is the body. By spreading out the Qi between meridians you can avoid such backlash. However, sometimes it is a necessary price. Now there is one more feature of martial arts. Creating a structure.”

 

“Qi evaporates when it leaves your body. But by making  a structure, you can allow it to hold it’s form longer. It can also have effects like making blades that slice, shields, increasing your speed, or your bodies strength.”

 

“However, do not think that just by being able to circulate Qi in random ways one will create a martial art. By thinking this way you can destroy yourself from backfire if the Qi does not create a structure but instead destabilizes.”

 

“The reason martial arts is often based off of nature or animals is because by studying the circulation of Qi in animals or plants and how it affects such objects, one can copy the Qi flow and recreate the objects.”

 

“These are the secrets of martial arts.”

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1. N/a

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Chapter 82

Doctors Godly Eyes

 

Grandmaster Qin, however, did not start right away. “Now before we begin training let me mention a few things. What you are training in is considered to be very basic techniques. However, it is derived from the basic requirements to learn <Doctors Godly Eyes>. This is a skill my ancestor came up with to participate in the martial path.”

“My ancestor was a doctor who was very talented. However, the only thing he truly had in his heart was the martial way. How unfortunate it was that he did not have a talent for such things. But he did not lose his passion for martial arts.”

“Eventually he decided to make a martial skill that combined both his medical teachings and martial arts. While a martial artist’s body shield makes them almost invincible to striking vulnerable parts such as acupuncture points until it is broken, it cannot mask the body itself.”

“So he researched how the body reacts to channeling Qi through meridians, to making certain motions, what people are thinking, and other various tests. After forty years, when he was nearing the end of his life, he created <Doctors Godly Eyes>. A unique skill that allows one to read an opponent’s move and know what they are going to do almost before they know themselves.”

“Even martial arts cannot escape the all seeing eyes of the doctor. Any flaw or weakness will be picked up and exploited with surgical precision. It also allows the person to channel their Qi into their fingers and use it to pierce through the body shield to attack acupuncture points.”

“However, the requirements to learn such a high level skill is difficult. The first is to learn the human body’s muscle movements. The second is to be familiar with meridians and acupuncture. This was how my grandson survived the bladed apes, by stopping all bleeding with his medical knowledge.”

“As for you, the first thing you must learn is the human body’s muscle movements. We will use the illusionary array here to perform a demonstration. After that, we shall see.”

Suddenly Chu Shen was no longer in the plain field with rock pillars. Instead he was in a wide dirt arena and a huge person over three times the normal size stood in front of him. Strangely the person had eyes and a nose but no mouth.

“Now pay attention. Since the man is so big, you can study his movements clearly.” Grandmaster Qin said beside him. As he spoke, the giant person suddenly punched forward in slow motion. No fancy movements, only a punch directly forward.

Chu Shen didn’t know what to do though. After the punch was completed he looked at Grandmaster Qin. “So what am I supposed to do?”

Grandmaster Qin sighed. “Just study the movements of the person there. Remember everything about the way he moved. How his body tensed up, where his eyes were looking at, his stance, everything. Only after you can do that can you truly have mastered this phase.”

“Alright.” Chu Shen then started studying his movements. After 200 punches the movements changed. Giant targets would appear in midair and the punch would land on the target, shattering it, before another would take it’s place. After another 200 punches, the fist still struck outwards but at the air.

Another 200 punches struck various invisible targets before switching back to punching in a straight line. This cycle of simple, target, and invisible target punching continued for over three hours.

After the three hours was up, Grandmaster Qin stopped the giant person in the middle of the cycle. “Okay, so what did you learn?”

Chu Shen shook his head. To him it seemed pointless even though he tried his best. “I don’t think I learned anything.”

“How about this. Can you tell where my punch is going to land?” Grandmaster Qin asked. He took a stance and went through all of the steps of preparing to throw a punch but never took the final step that would send his fist flying.

Chu Shen though seemed to have a revelation. He unconsciously pointed at a place in front a little to the left of Grandmaster Qin. When he did Grandmaster Qin smiled. “Great perception. You have passed the first phase. Now the second is sparring. Only if you can apply it in real life can it be considered a skill.”

With that a normal sized faceless person that looked identical to the giant one appeared in front of him. “Alright now try to fight this drone. Sometimes it will punch, other times it won’t. Try and block them all even if it is a ghost punch.”

Chu Shen nodded. Immediately a punch hurtled towards his face. Surprised he dodged left, narrowly avoiding the blow though it still nicked his ear. Grandmaster Qin cackled. “Heh heh. First lesson. In order to read your opponents moves you must pay attention. Don’t be caught off guard.”

Shaking off the fright such a close call gave him, Chu Shen focused on the drone in front of him. The drones arms stiffened and his muscles bulged slightly. It’s stance shifted minutely in preparation of the blow. It’s eyes darted left, right, then left again before focusing on a specific point.

Immediately it’s arm drew back and hurtled towards the left side of his chest. However, right as the fist started out, it was already doomed to fail since Chu Shen’s arm was blocking it’s target. The fist collided with Chu Shen’s arm but it was only a mild impact, not even succeeding in rocking him back.

“Very good. Now practice for six hundred punches and achieve a 90% block rate or you will have to start everything over again.”  Chu Shen continued his training.

After another three hours he completed the training course. He had to redo it twice. Apparently redoing it meant watching another cycle of the giant drone and then sparring with the regular size drone.

Out of breath, Chu Shen finally finished. Sitting down, he sighed. “Finally done. So what’s the next step?”

Grandmaster Qin smiled. “Why now you get to go through it again. But this time with kicks. Don’t worry about time though. It’s three times as fast in here as outside. We have a day in here before we have to leave so get ready. After this we will combine both before moving on to more advanced unarmed combat techniques like grappling.”

Grandmaster Qin smirked at Chu Shen. “So let’s continue shall we?”

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1. N/a

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Chapter 81
Mansion

Chu Shen didn’t want to agree right away. It was too much of a coincidence that the young man had shown up right as Slaughter did. But he also couldn’t reject geed will. So he invited them inside for tea and to discuss the specifics of the training.

Sitting down after he prepared tea, Chu Shen awkwardly sipped his tea in silence. After a minute had passed by, he finally couldn’t stand it. “All right, what kind of training are you offering?” He asked Grandmaster Qin. But surprisingly, it was the young man that answered.

“It’s very basic training. I was taught the first stages of it before I was attacked by the bladed apes and it helped me kill over ten of them before being overwhelmed with numbers. Gramps will teach it to you using our family’s illusion array so the training should be over quickly.”

Grandmaster Qin spoke up now. “The training is about reading the opponent’s moves. By observing the opponent’s body you will become able to tell exactly where their next blow is and what kind of movie it is. Then you can avoid or counter strike. The higher levels would be observing the opponents Qi flow but since you are an outsider I cannot teach you this.”

Chu Shen nodded. Of course high techniques like reading an opponent’s Qi flow could not be taught to people outside their Agata family. Right before Chu Shen could start considering all the implications of the offer, Ti Wu’s voice sounded in his head.

‘Take this opportunity brat. What he is offering is invaluable. You would have picked it up eventually but it would have been instinctive. This is much better.’

‘If it is as helpful as you say, why didn’t you teach me it then?’

‘Well, I can’t. In order to do so properly, I must be able to reproduce an exact human body and unfortunately I can’t do it with 100% accuracy. So it would be better for you to go without learning then to learn a flawed theory.’

Sighing, Chu Shen looked at the Grandfather-grandson duo. “Alright, I accept the training. When should I expect to be there and when?”

Grandmaster Qin replied back immediately. “I’ll teach you for a week straight and then your friend. How much you learn will be up to your abilities. Come to the Agata Family Estate and show the guards this.” He gave him a token with a wave pattern on it. “Be there by ten in the morning.”

He got up and cracked his back. “Now since we are done here, I will see myself out.” With that, the two left. Not even a minute later, Lucas appeared in the shattered doorway.

Lucas slowly surveyed the wreckage of the door before looking back up at Chu Shen. “Soooo.” He said exaggeratedly. “Did something happen while i was gone?”

Chu Shen, recalling everything that happened was overjoyed. “LUCAS!!” He immediately jumped up and ran towards Lucas with open arms. For a second Lucas was stunned before opening his arms ready to accept Chu Shen’s hug.

What he didn’t expect was the fist that promptly hit him on the side of the head. “Where were you!! Every time I need you you’re gone!! Thankfully I am in need of a punching bag and you qualify! Hold still!!”

“Ah! No! Stop! Is this about all those times I flew off when you weren’t ready?! AH! Why was it harder this time?! No! Please! I might be a cyborg but I still feel pain! STOP IIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!”

Many people who walked by the shop that night shook their heads in pity. It seems as though the employee was paying dearly for the broken door.

……………………………………………

The next morning Chu Shen set out for the Agata family mansion. It was very easy to locate since they were apparently a well known noble family in the city.

It was located on the outskirts of the inner city. The city was set up in three rings with swathes of farming land separating them. There was the outer city which was meant for commoners or markets. Then the inner city that was meant for nobles and high end stores and restaurants. Last of all was the core city which was meant for the city governor and other top powerhouses.

Upon arriving, Chu Shen marveled at the sight of the enormous mansion. While it was lacking compared to the awe inspiring skyscrapers on Sparta, it seemed much prettier to him because of the way it blended with nature. It was a quant feeling just like seeing a cottage in the mountains or a meadow.

As he was admiring the beautiful gardens outside of the manor, one of the guards beside the gate called out to him. “Hey, hey kid! This is the Agata Family Manor. If you have business come in otherwise please stand off to the side to admire the view so you don’t block the road.”

The guard was quite satisfied with Chu Shen’s amazement and spoke in a polite tone to him in return. He took great pride in the beautiful manor that he guarded. Of course, he also knew that he had nothing to do with it’s looks but he was still proud of it.

Chu Shen shook himself free of his stupor. “I am here on official business. That grandpa told me to come here and give the guards this.” He took out the wave patterned token.

The guard, upon seeing it, immediately stiffened. Who would have known that foolish looking kid would actually be an honored guest! Luckily he wasn’t of the type to be arrogant otherwise he may not have such a good job by the end of the day.

“Please honored guest, right this way. We were instructed to lead you to the training hall if you stopped by this morning.” The guard swiftly lead him to a large field off to the side of the manor. Various stone pillars were erected across the field surrounding it in a circle.

“Wait here honored guest while I alert the grandmaster of your arrival.” The guard left without delay towards the manor that could be seen in the distance, leaving Chu Shen behind.

He waited patiently and after less than five minutes he spotted the guard and the old man making their way towards him. “Ah, you made it young man. You know I never asked for your name.”

“No I don’t think you did. My name is Chu Shen.” He said as he bowed slightly.

The old man nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Good. You may call me grandmaster Qin. Has the guards treated you well Chu Shen?” The guard immediately broke out into sweat at this question.

Chu Shen hurriedly shook his head. “Oh no. Even when he didn’t know my identity he was polite. You truly do have a beautiful manor by the way.”

Grandmaster Qin nodded appreciatively. “Thank you for the compliments.” He turned to the guard. As for you, good job. I never liked arrogant types, they seem to court death a lot. Go back to the gates and resume your duties.”

“Sir yes sir!” The guard saluted with a fist to his heart and the other on his spine. He marched off towards the gate, sweat still dripping from his forehead.

Grandmaster Qin turned to Chu Shen. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let us get started with your training.”

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1. N/a

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Chapter 80
Repayment

Bang Bang

“Thank you! Thank you!” The man kowtowed twice on the floor before looking up at Chu Shen. His eyes metal lenses focused on Chu Shen with a whir.

Chu Shen awkwardly nodded in acknowledgment before pulling the man to his feet. “It’s nothing really. This is a business transaction after all, nothing to be grateful over since we are taking your money for this.”

The man shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if you are doing this for the money. The simple fact that you can give me back my sight is a tremendous favor. If you ever need something ask the Agata family to find me.”

“I will do so if I need to. Don’t take this the wrong way but I hope to never see you again in my shop.” Chu Shen said as he escorted the man to the door.

For a second the man was stunned before realizing the meaning in his words. Smiling back at him with a wide grin he laughed loudly. “Of course, of course my friend. I too wish to never see the Prosthetic Shop again unless it is for tea. Take care young one.”

Chu Shen watched the man leave before letting out a sigh and sliding down the wall to the floor. Grinning wryly he envied Lucas who was enjoying his time hunting beasts in the forest. Ever since they started up the business last week they had a booming business.

It seemed as though they weren’t told everything when it was suggested they make a prosthetic shop. Apparently the bladed apes that attacked the poor Lang Xi was not uncommon. A bladed ape was the king of the forest and had become a class 7 beast. Because it was a pack beast, hordes of bladed apes infested the forest and wiped out whole towns.

It was only a year ago that it was killed by an army officer from the Blue Sky Kingdom. But the damage was done. Many people were killed but even more were maimed when the bladed apes attacked villages before being driven back.

As a result, when they opened up the shop they were swamped with people after the second day. Before that many were skeptical that such a thing as replacing an arm was a myth. They had already made over 20 gold from selling prosthetics.

Chu Shen sighed. Dealing with customers was easy. They saw it as buying a service so it was over quickly. Dealing with people who wanted to thank them and repay them with their lives or other things was NOT as easy. It was just too embarrassing.

He heard the door open. Looking up a man was built like a mountain  with a black mask was looking back at him. With a quick glance he saw that the man was not missing any limbs. Curious, Chu Shen got back up and sat down behind the desk.

“This is the Prosthetic Shop, how can I help you.” He said politely.

“Oh. So you are the brat who figured out how to make fake limbs.” The man came in and stood towering above him. “I am Slaughter.”

“Nice to meet you Slaughter. It seems like you aren’t missing any limbs so can I ask what you are here for?” Chu Shen asked calmly but sweat was starting to bead up on his head. This guy seemed to be here for dishonest purposes.

“Well that’s the thing.” The man leaned one huge arm on the desk while scratching his head with the other. “You see. My employer just so happens to be a fellow craftsmen. And when he heard that you could make someone an arm he got curious. So would you mind sharing just how you do it?”

A powerful force pressed down on Chu Shen. Putting both hands on the desk, Slaughter leaned forward and looked directly in his eyes. “And since I am such a nice guy, how about you give it to me for free hmm?”

Sweat poured down Chu Shen’s back in buckets. This guy was serious. But revealing the fabber would be a serious issue. ‘Lucas, why did you have to leave today! I hate you Lucas!’

“Well sir, that is a very sensitive issue you are asking me for. Unfortunately I don’t think I could give it to you, or even sell it.” Chu Shen said as apologetic as he could look.

“Bullsh*t. I don’t want to be accused of bullying someone of the younger generation but I need that technique. So hand it over or I can kill you and wait for your partner to come back and ask him, okay?” Slaughter’s blood red color eyes stared at Chu Shen through the mask.

However, the door swung open to the Prosthetic Shop. Slaughter immediately stood up and turned towards the person. It was a man with black hair with gray streaks. Beside him was a man who seemed to be half metal. Both legs and one arm were a dull metal and both eyes were also made of metal.

It was the man who Chu Shen had escorted out of the shop not even a half-hour ago! “Slaughter. This is the shopping district under the management of the City Lord. It would be best to know when to stop. Don’t think you can blot out the sky with one hand.”

Slaughter looked at him for a second before laughing. “Well I think this gives me permission to rough up a couple street vendors without a background don’t you think?” Saying so he tossed over a black medallion. Written on it was one word. ‘Rose’.

Seeing it, the old man’s face turned hard for a second before relaxing again. “Young man, don’t think just because you were hired by the Black Rose Guild that you are invincible. This child just gave my grandson his sight back. I believe it would be better for you to leave.”

“Just leave old man.” Slaughter said. Chu Shen just sat there wondering what was going on.

The old man strode up to Slaughter. “Leave now before I have to teach the younger generation about respecting their elders.”

“I tried giving you face but you ignored me! F*uck off old man!” With a roar he punched outwards, towards the old man. The old man sighed. The fist shot into the old man’s stomach but never contacted. Before it could he bent his body backwards into a bow, narrowly dodging the blow.

Lifting his hand, the old man caught the other fist Slaughter send towards him. Miraculously he had raised his hand before Slaughter even moved his fist as though he could read Slaughter’s mind. Using the caught fist he hurled Slaughter out the door, smashing it to pieces.

Jumping out, the old man faced Slaughter who was just rising to his feet. Surrounding people immediately backed away, wary of being caught in a battle that they didn’t belong in.

A blood red energy covered Slaughter’s body. The old man though did not activate his body shield. With a hand, he gestured to Slaughter.

“Don’t underestimate me you old sh*t!” Slaughter raged at the old man. Orange and red swirled metal gloves appeared around his hands. Punching outwards, Qi surged around it. However, the old man appeared to have a sixth sense and dodged it before the punch was even completed.

Outraged at his blow being dodged, Slaughter let loose hundreds of blows at the old man in less than a minute. However each time he launched a fist the old man seemed to anticipate it and dodged it halfway through its attack.

“Alright youngster, I think I gave you enough of a demonstration.” The old man said while glancing over at Chu Shen.

“Hey! Don’t annoy me you dogfart!” Slaughter yelled, absolutely livid at being ignored like this. All of a sudden though he felt his body shield break and a series of sharp jabs hit all over his body. He lost all sense of feeling and fell to the ground in a senseless heap.

Meanwhile the man Chu Shen had helped earlier started talking beside him. “I returned home and less than ten minutes ago my grandpa came out of closed door cultivation. After I told him what you did for me he said he would teach you some things as a repayment. I hope you accept.”

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1. N/a

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Chapter 79
Business

Chu Shen and Lucas got to work. First they had to make a design for the prosthetic. Of course they couldn’t have it run off of a battery. This world didn’t have technology so if they weren’t around when its power went out then what would the poor old lady do?

She would return to being armless of course! So they started adapting it to run off of beast cores, just like Lucas did. Luckily both of them had experience with this so the work was done quickly and efficiently.

First the arm was put together along with motors and hydraulics to move everything. Then there was an indent on the upper part of the arm. Pressing the indent for ten seconds would reveal a small hole meant for the beast core. There was inscriptions placed on the bottom of the hole that channeled the cores energy.

Removing the metal bands around it holding the core in place, one could then replace it with another core. It could also be expanded an inch or two, allowing for more powerful beast cores to be loaded into the socket. After all, a beast core’s level was determined by how big it was though usually it was only an inch difference between levels.

Finally there was the attachment socket and nerve reader. Intercepting and understanding the electric signals sent by the brain to the non-existent arm, the prosthetic was able to understand exactly what to do. Of course, there was also the calibrations that needed to be done on sight.

Finished, Chu Shen and Lucas set out to the old lady’s house within the hour. Arriving they discovered the old lady wasn’t exaggerating when she said it was a wooden shack. It was a single room house that was made of basically twigs. It looked like a strong wind would blow it down.

The only source of fire to cook with a dented and rusty old kettle next to a campfire pit outside. Chu Shen sighed as he saw these miserable settings. Lucas shook his head as well.

The old lady had her back to us stirring whatever was cooking inside the kettle with her one hand. The other still had bandages on it. Chu Shen quickly got her attention by clearing his throat. “Ahem. Mam, we arrived like we said we would.”

The old lady quickly turned around and greeted them. “Ah yes! It’s the young benefactors. I apologize for not noticing you sooner.”

Lucas quickly waved his hand in front of him. “Please don’t be so formal. We were just helping out like any other human would do.”

She quickly shook her head. “That may be so but you still deserve respect. Not to mention you might be able to fix my arm. That is going far beyond what I deserve.”

“Cough, cough. Ling Xi, are those the young boys you told me about?” A hoarse voice called out from inside the hut.

“Yes it is. Now be quiet, you need your rest.” The old lady, Lang Xi, quickly poked her head inside the hut and scolded. Obviously this was the sick person they needed to hire the doctor for.

“Come here boys, Cough Cough.” Chu Shen and Lucas walked in to see an elderly old man who looked to be in his late fifties lying on a blanket in the wooden hut. Bowing their heads respectfully, Chu Shen and Lucas stood beside the old man.

The old man tried to sit up but Ling Xi quickly held him down. “Stop moving! You need your rest!”

“No!” The old man shrugged her off of him. Looking at both of them for a couple seconds he nodded. “Please youngsters, tell me your names and how old you two are.”

“I am Chu Shen, 13 years old and this is Lucas Webil, fifteen years old.”

Lucas looked at Chu Shen. “I thought you were twelve.”

He shrugged. “I had my birthday two months ago.”

Lucas shook his head. “We’ll have to celebrate later then.”

A cough interrupted them. Looking back at the old man they both grinned sheepishly.

Ignoring the small outburst, the old man nodded. “And I am Lang Wen, you two youngsters have a bright future. Thank you for saving my wife and granddaughter’s lives. If not for you I would have lost them. If there is anything I can do let me know.”

“We will. Now we have what is needed to regain your arm. However, before it is perfected we need to run some tests, please step outside.” Chu Shen asked Lang Xi politely. They both went outside back to beside the cooking stew.

Lang Xi seemed hesitant at first before shrugging. Her instincts told her these kids wanted to help her. So she decided to trust them. Unwrapping the bandage, she exposed her cut off arm. Normally a person would still have scabs and tissue hanging out. However, Chu Shen gave her medicinal pills earlier that healed her arm in the hour they were apart.

It was considered quite fast for a pill and it cost forty silver to buy. Very expensive and a staple of any mercenary.. But to Chu Shen it was worth it since it would only take a couple days to earn it back. Otherwise how could they attach the prosthetic?

Taking the prosthetic he activated the socket and put it on the stump of Lang Xi. Unfortunately the arm had no fake skin and was pure metal. But it was still sleek and streamlined, making it look dangerous.

Lang Xi just looked at the metal arm for a second. It resembled her old arm exactly except that it was made of metal. She was puzzled at this outcome. What she was expecting was a medicine that could regrow her arm. This metal arm though…… She just really didn’t know what it was supposed to do.

“What exactly am I supposed to do now.” She asked with a questioning shrug. Then she stopped, frozen. When she opened her palm in a helpless gesture, she felt not one, but two hands moving. Looking down very slowly at the metal hand, it was in the same position as her other hand, though it was off by a couple inches.

Ling Xi just stared, frozen, at the metal arm. Tears slowly trickled down her cheek. She never truly thought that these young boys could actually give back her arm.

“All right then. Since we can confirm it works, let’s fine tune it shall we? First close your eyes and lift your left hand directly above your head. Now your other. Okay, let me adjust this hereeee……. Done. Okay try it again.”

“Now try moving your fingers. Just your pointer finger for now. Then the next one. Okay now make a fist.” It was decided that Lucas would do the calibration since he could control the internal systems and adjust them without tools.
Soon Lang Xi was moving her arm like normal. Lang Wen cried as well once they managed to show him his wife’s arm. Taking them aside, Lucas told them what they needed to do to keep it running.

“If it runs out then replace it with a beast core from a lightning attribute beast. Just press here and take out the old one and replace it with a new one. A class 1 beast core will last a year and a class 3 will last fifty years. The current one is a class 2 that should last twenty years so don’t worry.”

Chu Shen and Lucas decided to say goodbye then. However, just as they were about to leave, Lang Wen stopped them.

“Wait a moment young fellows!”

Pausing they looked back at him with a questioning look. “What is it?” Lucas asked.

“I just wanted to ask you how much it cost you to make that arm and can you replace other limbs like eyes or legs.”

“About ten or twelve silver and an hour of work. We can also replace any limb including ears and the like” Lucas replied back.

Lang Wen nodded for a second before springing on them a question. “Ever thought about selling these metal limbs? I mean, this is a mercenary town. Over half the town has lost a limb of some kind even if it is only a finger. You could make a fortune.”

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Chapter 78
Old Lady

A black colored fire shot out in a column in front of Lucas. It looked like a flamethrower. With even the slightest touch the trees would vanish into a putrid black ash. The black flame spread quickly, burning holes in whatever it touched, clinging to whatever it burned.

Over a half-mile of forest over twenty feet across was burned to ash instantly and even more was being destroyed as the fire spread. In an experiment Lucas dropped a thing of water on it but it instantly turned into steam without snuffing out the fire.

Chu Shen reached out a hand covered in Qi. As his hand touched the fire he sensed a strong corrosive and burning force trying to destroy it. Instantly he started using null Qi, which cancelled out the destructive forces of the shadow flame.

Observing carefully, as bits of ash landed on the trees surrounding them, they started to wither away from the corrosive force. Chu Shen released a surge of null Qi, putting out the fire and stopping the corrosion of the trees.

Lucas shook his head. “Well. That wasn’t expected.”

Chu Shen shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what happened. In terms of instant destructiveness your tools win. However, in terms of killing I think this Shadowflame Primordial Pistol wins. Without my null Qi the Shadowflame would have eventually burnt me to death from just a touch.”

Lucas nodded. “Yeah. That shadowflame is insane. It clings to anything it touches, burning and corroding it. It’s like an acidic napalm. It can even burn pure energy. It would be exceedingly troublesome to deal with.”

Lucas then looked at Chu Shen’s Primordial Pistol. “Well we test fired the shadow flame ape core. Let’s try the stone frogs instead.”

Nodding in agreement, Chu Shen aimed at the forest. Pulling the trigger his pistol fired.

A brownish-yellow colored beam shot out and struck the trees in front. Instead of smashing the trees, an earthen shell formed around the trees encasing them in over meter thick rock. Firing the laser pistol at the tree it was revealed that besides the rock covering the tree nothing else happened.

Chu Shen handed the pistol to Lucas. “Alright, fire it at me. I need to see how powerful it is.” Lucas fired it at Chu Shen. Just like with the trees he became encased in rock.

All except for his head. A gray helmet made of null Qi protected it from being encased in stone. However, Chu Shen was not able to move. Trying to break apart the rock he couldn’t even budge. Circulating his Qi he unleashed a vibrational force. Cracks appeared on the stone but nothing else happened.

Using up more Qi he used Song of The Universe to slowly weaken the rock covering. Then with a quick jerk he destroyed the cracked rock cocoon. Gesturing towards himself he looked at Lucas.

“Fire it again. I need to know something.” Nodding Lucas fired the earthen colored beam. This time after being encased in rock Chu Shen suddenly used a burst of null Qi in a shockwave around him.

When it came in contact with the rock shell it instantly shattered back into earthen colored energy before being absorbed into the null Qi. The Qi shot back into Chu Shen who absorbed it.

Chu Shen stretched his back for a second while laying out his thoughts on the new weapon. “It might not be as destructive, but it certainly can hold someone off. Unless they are a Martial Practitioner it should be able capture them for a good thirty minutes. Otherwise it might delay them for a minute or two.”

Lucas nodded. “Agreed. Physically you are as strong as a Martial Student Level 8 and even you had to use a martial art to weaken it. Unless they have an unarmed martial art it should hold them up long enough to kill them or escape.”

“Okay, since we tested out the new weapons we should head back. I am pretty tired from all the hunting we did earlier.”

“Alright wuss.”

“Hey! Just because you’re a cyborg and can’t get tired doesn’t mean you can look down on me!”

“It’s not my fault that you’re fatigued so don’t blame me for pointing out facts.”

“ARRGH.” Chu Shen threw his hands in the air and stomped huffily towards the hotel. Lucas chuckled and followed him a victorious smirk on his face.

The next day they got up to go hunting like they normally did. But while walking through town they encountered some weird rumors…

“Hey did you hear about that battle yesterday?”

“Yeah. I heard that it was a class 5, maybe even a class 6 beast.”

“Nah. I heard it was several class 5 beasts with a fire and shadow element between them.”

“I saw the wrecked forest myself. If I had been there then I would have died just from the aftershocks. Luckily it’s an isolated section of the woods so no one died. Probably.”

Lucas and Chu Shen looked at each other with an awkward grin at each other. How could they know test firing some weapons would cause such a disturbance.

Shrugging it off, they both went back to their regular process of hunting primordial beasts for money. Chu Shen and Lucas were in the middle of killing a pack of wind wolves when something disturbed them.

“AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

A high pitched scream echoed out from inside the forest. With no hesitation Chu Shen immediately smashed the wind wolf he was fighting into the ground and ran off towards the sound of the scream.

Simultaneously Lucas activated his plasma gauntlet, making a blade of blue iridescent plasma jut out from his gloved forearm. Swiping it at two wind wolves he cut them in half and ran after Chu Shen.

Quickly arriving from his movement technique, Chu Shen came across a heart rending scene.

A young girl of about eight was huddled against a tree screaming while a fairly old lady was standing in front of her. One of the old lady’s arms was missing, the stump still bleeding.

Facing them was a bladed ape. A metal attribute level 3 beast that had extremely hard metal blades that grew all over its body. It had a human hand in its mouth and was eating it. It was no surprise considering the beasts habits. It would slice its prey up into pieces before devouring them. The Bladed Apes loved it when it’s prey was in fear.

Chu Shen rushed in right as the bladed ape swung down at the old lady’s neck. Swinging his hammer he hit the apes side, crushing it’s ribs and sending it flying.

When it landed it immediately tried to get up and run. Before it could a beam of energy shot through it’s forehead, killing it instantly. Lucas holstered his laser pistol before walking up to the old lady. Taking out some gauze, he helped staunch the bleeding.

Taking out a blood coagulating pill, Chu Shen gave several of them to the old lady before moving onto the young girl. She had nothing wrong with her thankfully. Lucas checked out their surroundings before declaring it safe. Chu Shen then asked some questions.

It turns out the old lady was a herb gatherer. Risking her life she would go into the outskirts of the forest and forage for herbs there. Usually she would have her husband with her but he fell ill. In order to pay for the doctor she needed to gather herbs quickly so she took her granddaughter with her.

Unfortunately a Bladed Ape found them on the outskirts and chased them deep into the forest where they were currently. Feeling pity, Lucas and Chu Shen agreed to escort them back to town.

They soon arrived back in town with a minimum delay from Lucas avoiding all primordial beasts unlike their usual hunting. As the old lady and the young girl started heading back Lucas followed them with his eyes.

“I feel really bad for her.”

“Yeah. With her arm gone how can she be expected to fend for herself now. Not to mention she still has to go back and gather more herbs for the doctors bill.”

Lucas adopted a thoughtful look. “You know. I scanned her arm. I think I can make a prosthetic for her now.”

Sighing Chu Shen agreed. “Well if we can help her we should. It’s just too pitiful to see them like this.”

Running after the old lady he quickly reached her. “Hey, mam! Mam! Wait up for a second.”

The old lady looked back and stopped, bowing towards him. “Yes benefactor, how can we poor people help you.”

“I think we can help you with your arm.” The old lady looked at him for a second, confused, before the words he spoke sunk in. Wide eyed with shock she stammered out.

“I-i-is it t-t-true. C-can you really help me regain my arm?!”

Chu Shen nodded. “Yes but we need an hour or so to make preparations. Could you tell us where to find you?”

The oldy lady quickly nodded. “We live on the street behind the Mystical Herbal Garden, in the wooden shack three houses down.”

“Alright. We will go there once the preparations are done.” With that said they quickly returned to the hotel room to start fabbing a prosthetic for the old lady.

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Chapter 77
Testfire

“So before we testfire these things how about I go ahead and try out my other tools so we can compare them?” Lucas begged Chu Shen.

Rolling his eyes, Chu Shen agreed. “Fine, but only the offensive ones. I know you are experimenting with the force fields still but we need to have firepower.”

“Fine.” Lucas conceded. Ever since he started inventing more things Chu Shen had looked into getting him a spatial ring. However, they were very expensive. So instead they got a bag that Chu Shen inscribed with the [Earth Shattering Inscription].

With the inscription, the bag lightened everything inside the bag. They also paid for a [Shrinking Inscription] which made whatever was put inside the bag smaller. It was similar to spatial rings but not quite since it didn’t create a pocket dimension.

They paid extra to see the inscription master inscribe it and then Lucas copied the scene down along with the energy readings. Thanks to that he was able to inscribe the inscription on small pouches he wore on his clothes. There was over a dozen pouches including the backpack he wore.

Speaking of the backpack, many people wore bags slung over their shoulder, not a pack strapped to their pack. It attracted much attention and eventually people started trying to recreate it. Once it succeeded, it became wildly popular since it didn’t restrict arm movement much.

Lucas withdrew a small gun very similar to the prototype gun without the socket. Aiming at a tree trunk in front of them, he fired. A red beam of energy shot out and disappeared instantly.

Looking at the trees in front of them a pencil width hole had been punched through the tree and even several trees behind the first one. The wood around the hole was scorched and even some flames started up.

Obviously this was the laser gun. It could pierce through any of the class 4 beasts body shield easily. Not to mention that it could continuously produce that beam of energy for over five minutes before the barrel needed to be cooled down. But over 20% of the energy would be consumed.

Next he took out a round ball the size of a softball. Gripping it tightly it flashed blue once. Throwing it outward, within a breath of time it suddenly exploded outwards.

A sphere of blue energy shot out before being sucked back into the ball. Glancing where the ball was there was a perfect sphere cut out around the metal ball including rock. An extreme heat still lingered in the air.

This was a plasma grenade that would send out a large wave of superheated plasma in a 100 foot diameter. Using magnetic fields it would control the ionized plasma to stay in this perimeter before sucking it back into the ball.

By providing it with some energy it could then reheat the plasma, it could also be remote activated making it a very versatile tool. Lucas stretched out his hand and the ball flew into his hand. Using a magnetic grappling hook was useful sometimes.

Finally Lucas took out a pair of elbow length gloves. The gloves also had a rectangular box-ish thing attached to the top of the forearm. It was round and streamlined but it still looked like a box. A barrel poked out the end of it, ending just above the wrist.

Lucas put on the gloves. “You know, I made this last time and I haven’t had a chance to fire it yet. It’s a railgun. However, as you know lightning steel is far superior to any superconductor in my dimension when it is at a hundred percent purity. As a result, this tiny railgun is almost as strong as a fighters.”

Aiming with his right hand, he unleashed a shot at a small grove of trees about two hundred feet away.

BOOOOOM CRA-CRA-CRA-CRAAAAACK

Flinching from the loud sound of a bullet flying at Mach 20, Chu Shen quickly looked at the grove to assess the damage. There wasn’t any trees left. At all. For over half a mile where Lucas had fired it.

Lucas shrugged. “Not as powerful as I thought. I loaded a blunt round so that it would crush the target instead of pierce it. I have a piercing round in the left glove though.”

Chu Shen quickly waved it away. “NO! DON’T FIRE IT HERE! If you do you might attract some strong beasts. There are still class 6 beasts we can’t handle. Or at least.” He looked at the destruction in front of him. “I don’t think we can.”

Lucas shrugged again. “Fine. Time to test fire the beast core pistol anyway. Actually, I think we should call it something else.”

Chu Shen rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Like….. Beast Pistols.” Lucas posed with the beast core pistol pointed in the air. Chu Shen promptly face palmed.

“No. Never.”

“Okay. What about….. Primordial Pistol. I mean, you did say these were primordial beasts so it makes sense.”

Chu Shen adopted a thoughtful look before shrugging. “Fine. It sounds better than beast pistol plus it will make you happy.”

Lucas jumped in the air with excitement. “YEEEHA. Anyway, why did you choose these beast cores anyways. I mean, you said we couldn’t use any core but these. So why is that?” He asked with a questioning tilt of his head.

Chu Shen sighed. “Simple. Beast spirits. These cores have a beast spirit in them. You see I told you about soul right?”

“Yep. It controls Qi so you can cultivate.”

“Ah huh. Beasts also have a soul and sometimes it can become trapped inside the beast core. This is a beast soul. By taking a beast spirit and putting it into an artifact there is a possibility of imbuing it with a skill of the beast. Like the shadow fox’s Shadow Cloak. However a beast spirit also recharges the beast core with energy once it’s drained. This way we don’t have to keep on buying beast cores but we can keep on using them.”

Lucas shrugged. “Then why do people keep gathering beast cores. Eventually there would be tons of cores that keep refilling so they can keep on cultivating.:

“You would think so but when an artifact is forged using a beast spirit, the core is also destroyed. So in order to make weapons, one must destroy a beast core. Not to mention that it is not a guaranteed success. Usually several cores are wasted to make a spirit weapon. As a result, more beasts are hunted down to make more weapons as the old ones are destroyed by age or use.”

Chu Shen shook his head. “Anyways you got my hopes up saying you would test the Primordial Pistol. So why are you delaying so long.”

Lucas sighed. “Yeah. So let’s fire this baby up!”

He pointed the Primordial Pistol towards the other side of the forest.

Very slowly he pulled the trigger.

And the Primordial Pistol fired.

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Chapter 76
Cliffhanger

Bang

Chu Shen flew backwards as a black hairy arm retracted. Lucas punched the ape in the back, making it stumble backwards. Reaching back it grabbed his hand and threw him away into a tree over 100 meters away. Lucas rolled to a stop but instead of rushing back to help he stood there watching.

The ape snorted as a black flame appeared around its body. The black flame lumped together in the ape’s palms, forming a flaming glove over it. Suddenly the ape punched forward towards Chu Shen who had just gotten up.

A gloved fist made of Qi surged towards him. If he didn’t block it then Chu Shen would certainly suffer.

Suddenly a gray glow appeared around him in the form of armor. The Qi formed into a full body armor with sharp edges and spikes sticking out of the joints and forehead.

The fist hit the armor and seemed to sink into it. The gray armor suddenly became realistic where the fist hit, like it was true armor and not a martial art.

Chu Shen suddenly blurred and disappeared. The ape quickly turned around, looking for it’s foe. A hammer struck the ape on the side of the head sending it smashing into the ground, completely ignoring it’s black flame armor.

The ape only had a slight discoloration on its skull from the strong hit but unexpectedly it didn’t get up. As it laid there a gray liquid slowly oozed out from its ears.

Chu Shen nodded as he looked at the result of his training. For the past month both him and Lucas had been coming into the forest and finding strong beasts like this to fight.

Everyday they would try out new inventions and martial arts, trying to perfect their understanding. So far, Chu Shen had been able to advance to the first stage of the Song of The Universe, The Stars Dance, Comet Travels Through, and Cancellation Armor.

The stars dance was about short precise movements making it a great dodging technique while comet travels through was about fast straight movements. It was best used to close the distance between opponents which was how he used it against the shadow flame ape.

Song of The Universe was also used in his hammer blow. Using his Qi to pass vibrations through his hammer he liquified the apes brain, killing it with one blow. Unfortunately until he reached another stage this only worked on bare skin.

He practiced his Void King technique as well, breaking through to the nineteenth circulation. Now his skin was as tough as black iron, letting him take medium strength blows head on of those at the same level as him and getting away with only a bruise.

He was now as strong as a Martial Student level 9 as a Martial Student level 4. His strength had increased from 30,000 pounds to 35,000 since he broke through to level 4 and he had increased his strength by using the Void King technique. He increased it by 1955 to 36,955 pounds.

While this may not seem like a lot remember that a level 1 Martial Student only had 20,000 pounds of force. Not the 30,000 that he had when he broke through. At the same stage most cultivators would have 25,000 pounds of force. This mean he had almost 40% more strength than other cultivators.

Lucas on the other hand had definitely grown a lot as well. While they were not able to kill a primordial beast every day they did kill a lot of them. Most of the primordial beasts were class 4 with a couple being class 3 beasts that attacked them.

Of course, Lucas was able to avoid a vast majority of class 3 beasts with his tracking program but occasionally there was exceptions. Most beasts had exceptional senses so if the beasts wanted to track them down the most they could do was keep ahead of the beasts.

Instead of avoiding such determined beasts, Chu Shen and Lucas would kill them. Using the money earned from the pelts, beast cores, and meat they were able to pay for their hotel and daily expenses.

However the most important thing was that using the money they were able to buy more raw materials for the fabber. Lucas was overjoyed when they were finally able to create a laser pistol.

But the one thing that truly surprised Chu Shen was when Lucas asked Chu Shen to teach him about inscriptions. It turns out he was a natural. To inscribe inscriptions one needed to channel energy into the ink as they made a pattern on the object.

One needed to fluctuate the energy as they inscribed in order to create the perfect inscription. It required intense concentration to accomplish. For Lucas however it was easy. Chu Shen was shocked at how easy it was to grasp what he had been trying to master for seven years.

Shaking his head wryly Chu Shen could only attribute it to karma. It was just like how shocked Lucas was when he himself mastered engineering to Lucas’ level in a year.

He could read energy levels using his scanners and then replicate them using his body as a circuit. Channelling electricity to replicate Qi he could energize the inscription ink. Of course he could also replicate the inscription drawing exactly.

They hunted down lightning frogs, a class 3 beast with a lightning affinity. Plugging the beast cores into the modified channelling inscription several at a time Chu Shen and Lucas would take a day off to recharge Lucas each week.

Chu Shen would reflect on improvements he could make to his martial arts. Lucas also would have the fabber make several things while he recharged. By now Lucas was very satisfied with how everything was going.

Lucas and Chu Shen headed back to the hotel with the corpse of the shadow flame ape in their spatial ring. Corpses of several class 3 wind wolves were also stored.

After selling the corpses they quickly went back to the hotel. Lucas had been talking to Chu Shen about an idea he had. Once there Lucas got to work using a model pistol. The pistol had a very weird powersource.

Instead of a powercell there was instead a round slot as though it was meant for something else………

Taking out the round indent from the pistol, Lucas also took out some inscription ink. Drawing a modified amplification and channelling inscription on it took a while. About half an hour before it succeeded.

Finally Lucas put it back. Chu Shen on the other hand was almost done with his version as well. After another ten minutes he finished with his. He wiped sweat off his brow.

“Lucas you monster. I spent eight years learning this from my master and you somehow still beat me. You’re like a machine, you never even mess up the inscription.” Chu Shen shook his head.

“How apt your words are chap. Anyway let’s get to work my good boy.” Lucas said in a British accent. Chu Shen punched him lightly in the arm.

Shrugging it off he picked up the shadow flame ape beast core. He plugged it into the inscripted socket which he had put back in the pistol. Chu Shen did the same with a stone frog core.

“So what do we do now?” Chu Shen asked.

“Now we test it out. But……. We can’t exactly fire it in our room.” Lucas shrugged helplessly. “We could try it out on the outskirts of the forest but it is late.”

“Well I can’t stand the cliffhanger, can you?” Chu Shen asked.

Lucas nodded. “ It won’t take too long.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Authors Note: I learned about the fourth wall about a week ago and I already cracked it.

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Chapter 75
I Like Your Friends

Ignoring Lucas’ lame attempt at a joke, Chu Shen had Lucas take over the fabber. After all Lucas knew what would be most compatible with his body.
Bringing up some prosthetic designs, he quickly modified them to fit his destroyed leg. He also left out the battery, deciding to hook it up to himself.

Finally it was time.

Pulling out the materials, Lucas loaded them into the fabber. With a whir, the fabber booted up its internal systems.

The fabber was separated into three parts. The first was the processor. Here it broke down any materials placed inside and then separated the materials. Then came the preparation center.

Here the materials were prepared. By that, it meant mixing different materials together to get the proper ratio. Sometimes compound materials were needed to make a product so synthesizing the materials together was done inside the fabber.

This time there was nothing that needed to be synthesized so there was minimal preparation needed. The last part was the laser printer. Using the laser printer, or rather the gravity-modulator, the materials would be easily manipulated into shape and bonded together at an atomic level.

The fabber itself was the size of two phone booths laying side by side on the ground. Half was filled with machinery and the other only a frame with a clear material around it.

As the construction of the prosthetic advanced to the laser printer a beam of red light shot out from the frame and hit the floor. It was a laser scanner that took measurements to an atomic scale, coincidentally it was what gave the laser printer its name.

The air seemed to warp slightly in the area as a black sheen tinted with silver shot out of the skeletal frames. With visible speed the prosthetic appeared, just like someone was removing an invisible curtain.

After less than two minutes, the prosthetic was done. Pressing a button on the side, Lucas opened up the laser printer. Grabbing his prosthetic he held it up with an evil grin on his face.

“Haha! I can finally get back my leg! I was slowed down by so much since I lost it!” He sat down on the bed and immediately unwrapped the fake bandage around his leg.

Holding up the stump to his leg, a silver liquid dripped out and attacked itself to the prosthetic. Grabbing some left-over materials from the waste tray of the fabber, he held it up to his leg. The silver liquid engulfed the black iron and lightning steel.

The silver liquid surrounded the small seam between the prosthetic and his ‘real’ leg, obscuring it from view. Reaching his hand down, Lucas put his hand right below the silver liquid. It slipped down and formed several silver pill like objects. The prosthetic was now seamlessly attached to his leg.

Lucas brought his hand up to his mouth and swallowed the silver pills. Chu Shen watched this with idle curiosity. If it had been anyone else they would have been freaked out. However, he had been with Lucas for a month previously and he knew exactly what that silver liquid was.

It was Lucas’ repair system. Nanites. Microscopic robots that could repair his systems. Of course, the nanites needed materials in order to repair the systems which was why he needed the black iron and lightning steel. He also ate the nanites afterwards to recycle them.

Lucas could have also just eaten the materials but to make the prosthetic would have taken a lot longer. So it was better to use the fabber instead. After all, it was specifically designed to create things unlike his nanites which were meant for general repair.

Lucas stood up on his leg. Testing it out gently at first and then harder, he ran around the room in a blur, making a miniature hurricane. “Hehe. It works! I have my legs back!”

He looked at Chu Shen with a large foolish grin on his face, while Chu Shen smiled back. “So now that you are back in full capabilities, let’s go.”

They could continue hunting around here but eventually they would kill all of the prey from overhunting. So instead they were planning on leaving for a mercenary town by edge of the beast forest.

The beast forests were a stretch of forest inhabited by primordial beasts. Typically when a beast reaches class 9 or 10 it becomes sentient. Or at least, capable of thinking of the bigger picture and communicating.

Beast forests are typically ruled by a class 12-13 beast. Usually these beasts would come to agreement with the surrounding nations. Humans would be allowed into the beast forest but if they died they would not pursue the beasts inside.

It was mutually beneficial because the beasts would become stronger after fighting to the death with humans. At the same time humans would also become stronger after fighting plus they could harvest the beast cores. Not to mention that it culled out the weaker members of beasts.

It was only natural to the beasts that those inferior creatures be culled from the herd. However, the average level of beasts inside the beast forest was typically stages 5-9 with the center of the forest being stronger monsters.

Chu Shen discovered that mercenaries would often hunt inside the forests to gather beast cores. As a result, towns sprung up around the forests. These towns were called mercenary towns. All of this Chu Shen found out after buying an info book for 1 silver bringing their money total to 16 silver.

It was cheap because of how common it was. Only general information was available, along with a basic road map. Studying this Chu Shen found out the closest mercenary town called Letten was over twenty miles away.

Lucas had been told all this information yesterday when he had bought it.

Chu Shen and Lucas left the town until they were a little bit aways. Lucas deployed his jetpack and held out his hand. Chu Shen looked at it like it was a snake.

“What, I’m not going to bite okay?” Lucas asked, looking amused.

“I just want to make sure you aren’t going to suddenly take off again.” Chu Shen said, looking suspiciously at him.

Lucas shrugged before suddenly he jumped forward and grabbed Chu Shen around his waist before he could react.

FWOOOOSH

They instantly shot upwards. “WAAAAAAAAAAA. THIS IS WHY I HATE YOU LUUUUCCCAAAAASSSSSSS!”

“HAHAHAHAHA. I love your friends disciple. You should try and get more like this. HAHAHAHAHA.” Master Ti Wu sounded inside his head.

“Shut up master.”

“”HAHAHAHAHA”” Both Master Ti Wu and Lucas laughed at Chu Shen as they rapidly flew north.

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Chapter 74
Need a hand?

Chu Shen sat up in bed. “Awwwnnn.” His mouth opened wide as he let out a big yawn and stretched. Looking over he saw Lucas still slumped over in the chair from when he shut down earlier.

Getting up he poked Lucas in the shoulder. He jolted upwards, just like a real human that had been startled awake. ‘The wake-up cycle must be very short.’

Mentioning this to Lucas he quickly shot down Chu Shen’s idea. What he did was not a complete shut-down, more like a power saver mode that induced sleep, so there was never a wake-up cycle.

Chu Shen ate breakfast and very swiftly they left to hunt for some more animals. This time they upgraded to a class 4 beast. Now it was more of a challenge.

This beast was called Scorching Horned Rabbit. Like the Shadow Fox it was weaker than most other class 4 beasts because of its nature. However it was still aggressive and could shoot fireballs and cover itself in a fire Qi body shield.

Lucas and Chu Shen started hunting and found the Scorching Horned Rabbit.
It was a rabbit with a horn on its head ending in a lethal point. They used the same method as the Shadow Fox with Chu Shen distracting the rabbit and Lucas attacking it from behind.

When Chu Shen stepped out the rabbit perked up and looked up at him. A red colored Qi covered the rabbit’s skin. It’s horn also glowed a bright red instead of its pure white from before. It studied Chu Shen for a second. Chu Shen waved his hand in a hello gesture.

Upon the signal Lucas charged out to kill the rabbit. It had started to run towards Chu Shen whenever it must have sensed Lucas. Swinging its head backwards a fireball formed at the tip of its horn and shot towards Lucas.

Not expecting this move, Lucas wasn’t able to dodge it. When the fireball impacted Lucas it burnt through his clothes and left a small burn mark on his synthetic skin.

Bang

Of course since his skin was fake, even though it looked completely real, it wouldn’t burn. However, when the fireball hit him it also made a small explosion, launching him backwards into a tree.

It immediately jumped towards Chu Shen with its horn pointed forward, an ominous red glow gathering on its horn. He jumped sideways to dodge the charge. Chu Shen, not giving the rabbit time to launch its fireball, immediately used his crossbow.

Hisss

It streaked through the air and hit the rabbit in its flank, though its body shield blocked it with a flare of red energy. It still succeeded in knocking the rabbit backwards.

Chu Shen immediately charged forwards swinging his hammer with both hands in an overhand swing. The rabbit jumped upwards, over his swing. It started to form a fireball on its horn but luckily his hammer was still in its weightless form.

Chu Shen swung his hammer upwards and smacked it in the chest. The blow immediately broke its body shield and flung the poor rabbit upwards. This strike dealt heavy damage to the rabbit but not a lethal one.

Lucas had by now gotten up, his face twisted in anger. “I don’t care if you are peter cottontail. But if you hit me with a fireball, you’re dead rabbit!” Immediately he activated the plasma welder and ran up to the rabbit. Waiting for it to land, he immediately slashed at it, cutting it’s head off.

Chu Shen nodded. There was no hesitation at all in killing animals now. Going onwards they killed about fifty of the rabbits before noon. If it wasn’t for Lucas’ tracking system, they never would have found the rabbits.

With it, they could hunt large number of rabbits unlike those poor hunters who had to depend upon tracking or luck to bag a beast like this. Using his storage ring, Chu Shen came back to town for lunch.

Afterwards they sold the corpses of the bunnies at several different stores, at each one they only sold ten. With that people would be less suspicious. Since the Scorching Horned Bunny was a class 4 beast he received slightly more more at a silver and 20 coppers, with 100 coppers being equal to a silver.

With this they now had sixty silver added with the six silver left over from dinner and breakfast. Finally Chu Shen thought it was time to visit the local blacksmith. He brought Lucas inside who just wandered around looking at the various items.

He himself browsed the shelves but he didn’t find what he was looking for. Going up the counter he called out to the cashier. “Uh excuse me. Could you help me find some metal ore?”

The cashier looked at him blankly. “Uh, you do realize kid that this is a blacksmith shop? We sell weapons not metal.”

Chu Shen grinned sheepishly. “Okay, can you tell me where I can get some then?”

The cashier shook her head. “Fine. There is some over in the Four Materials Shop, it specializes in selling materials to crafters so there should be some over there.”

Chu Shen nodded and immediately headed over to the Four Materials Shop. Inside there was several sections separated by symbols. There was an ink bottle and pen, a hammer, a sword, and a plant. Obviously the symbols meant inscriptions, smithing, cultivating resources, and alchemists respectively.

Chu Shen immediately headed to the smithing section. Inside there was a list of ores with samples in front of each label. There was also purity listed as well going from one star to five star.

He browsed the different types of ore before finding the best ones at a three star purity. It was called black iron, durable but cheap at 1 silver for two pounds. There was also Lightning Steel, steel that was saturated with lightning Qi at forty silver a pound.

Calculating in his head, Lucas helped him make some suggestions as well. Finally they decided. Eight pounds of black iron and one pound of lightning steel totalling forty four silver, bringing their total down to twenty two silver.

As for what to do now, Chu Shen had no idea. Going up to the counter he decided to ask the employee. “Um, excuse me. I wanted to buy some metal, how can I do that exactly?”

“Okay kid, tell me the amount, purity, and name of the material and I will bring it out for you. Then you can inspect and pay for it here.” Chu Shen nodded.

“Alright, can I have eight pounds of black iron and one pound of lightning steel at three star purity.”

“Give me a moment and I will be right out.” Soon she was back out with a package. A small square of silver metal was inside and a slightly large square of black metal.

Chu Shen frowned. Obviously black iron was heavy, resulting in this low amount of black iron. Deciding immediately it would not be enough, he bought another ten pounds, bringing his money down to 17 silver.

Leaving the shop Lucas and Chu Shen left immediately for the hotel. Once there he brought out the fabber. It was time to replace Lucas’ leg.

Lucas grinned. “Well I might not need a hand, but can you give me a leg?”

“……..”

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Chapter 73
Money

Lucas and Chu Shen landed after a little over fifteen minutes of flight. Lucas used his cybernetic eyes to scan for a nearby town which was almost thirty miles away. They got close before landing so that they could avoid being spotted.

They also wrapped a strip of torn cloth around Lucas’ leg and Chu Shen chopped a tree branch in the shape of a walking stick for him using a short sword from his spatial ring.

Soon they got into town. After exploring for a bit Chu Shen made a judgement. This realm was almost exactly his own, except for minor differences in technique.

Chu Shen had discussed with Lucas exactly what they were going to do when they got into town. However things did not go like Chu Shen planned for them too…………

It was to be expected honestly, Chu Shen should have seen this coming. Their original plan called for them to rent a room and buy some metal. With that Lucas could make a crude prosthetic using the fabber.

However Chu Shen forgot something very important which I am sure you know by now.

Money.

Yep, money. Who actually believes there is a universal currency much less inter-dimensional currency? Maybe the currency that can be traded with everyone would be goods but Chu Shen didn’t have any.

Of course he was an artificer but he only had inscription ink and some beast cores. He also had some scrap weapons but no one wanted them. This was a pretty nice town and to sell something that only a low level apprentice could make was apparently a pipe dream.

So Chu Shen and Lucas finally gave up. Now both of them were sitting down next to the stone wall that surrounded the city.

“So Chu Shen, do we have a plan as to what we should do next?” Lucas asked.

Chu Shen sighed. “Earning money is hard. But we might be able to hunt some of the beasts around here.”

Lucas got up. “Alright let’s go then, come on!” He enthusiastically cheered Chu Shen on. Sighing once more Chu Shen got up.

“Fine, I heard there are class 3 beasts on the south side of the village. A class 3 beast is comparable to a Dragon Stage cultivator so we should be able to earn some money quickly. It’s starting to get dark out so we should hurry.”

They immediately set out for the south side.

Once there they encountered their first class 3 beast, which was actually familiar with Chu Shen. Surrounding the beast stealthily Chu Shen whispered to Lucas the information he knew about this beast.

“Lucas, this is a class 3 beast called Shadow Fox. From what I remember from my world it can cloak itself in shadow making it invisible. It’s also fast and aggressive but will run away if it realizes its in danger.”

Lucas grinned. “Alright then. I don’t have a combat HUD exactly but I do have a tracking program meant for analysis in the lab. It should be a piece of cake.” His hand split apart and changed to become a plasma welder.

Chu Shen shook his head. Well, it was time to see exactly how Lucas kept up with him. Taking his living steel hammer he recalled the fact that he still hadn’t upgraded it yet. Grimacing he took out the crossbow that he had also neglected to update.

Then they attacked.

Chu Shen came out first, simply walking out and standing in front of the fox. The fox immediately perked up and looked at him. Suddenly it vanished, seeming to meld with the long shadows cast by the descending sun.

Lucas quickly appeared behind the fox, so fast it was a blur to Chu Shen even with only one leg. The plasma welder lit up a bright blue, slashing at a seemingly empty spot in the grass.

Yelp

The fox immediately cried out in pain as its back was struck with searing hot plasma, ripping through the fox’s spine. Lucas winced as well, seeing the plot of the animal.

Shaking his head he looked away from the fox while Chu Shen came up with the short sword and stabbed the disabled fox in the back of its neck. It’s pelt was worth some money along with the beast core though not very much.

Lucas looked at Chu Shen for a second but looked away again. “Ugh. That was awful. I mean, how could you kill a poor beast like that. It wasn’t doing anything wrong.” None of his previous enthusiasm was apparent.

Chu Shen looked at him strangely. “It’s simple, we need the money to get food and a place to sleep. Besides, did you forget about that man who tried to kill us for being in the wrong place?”

“Life is cheap here. Try your best to survive otherwise you may just be left behind, buried under a nameless tombstone.” Chu Shen left Lucas with those cold words and left to find more foxes. Those were actually words that his father had told him before when he was training.

Using his hammer he swiftly and efficiently crushed the heads of the foxes, avoiding the chest where the beast core was located. Without Lucas to spot the foxes sneaking ability it became harder however not impossible.

The foxes could not get past his body shield though, as the ability to coat the body in Qi was called by cultivators who reach the martial realm. He simply waited until they attacked before swiftly smashing their head in once they revealed themselves.

Foxes, compared to other level 3 beasts were not very strong. Not to mention that Lucas was a very advanced cyborg while Chu Shen was a martial student. Comparing their power levels to the foxes, they truly were like normal beasts that were being sent to the slaughter.

Eventually Lucas came back and joined him in hunting the foxes, though he was still slightly squeamish. Seemingly to apologize for his previous breakdown he vigorously hunted down the foxes with him.

Soon there was over twenty foxes that had been slain. Gathering them all Chu Shen left the beast cores inside the foxes since it might damage it’s fur to remove it. Better to leave it to the experts.

The two most expensive things on the fox was it’s fur, which was a pretty black and orange color, along with it’s beast core. Bringing it back, Chu Shen was able to find a small shop that bought the foxes, giving him a silver for each fox. Counting it up he nodded.

A room at the inn costs ten silver and a meal costs two. With it, they could have a nice rest. Together, Lucas and Chu Shen headed for the nearby inn and rented a room to share. While Chu Shen ate a small dinner, Lucas went up to the room to power down.

After all, Lucas was a cyborg and only needed power though he could enjoy food. Chu Shen on the other hand needed food to survive. Considering their small amount of money, Lucas decided to forego eating for now.

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Chapter 72
Ah! My Leg!

Chu Shen and Lucas appeared suddenly on a beautiful mountain with other mountains surrounding it. While the mountain was large and greenery abounded everywhere, they were at the very top where only desolate rock was around until you went further down the mountain.

Directly in front of them was a man in dire straits. He wore a robe that though tattered exuded the appearance of nobility. It had holes and burn marks on it, revealing the tarnished metal armor underneath.

The man was facing away from them, looking down the mountain side. “I finally lost them. Thank God, I can finally rest now……” He suddenly stiffened as though he sensed something.

Turning around he saw Chu Shen and Lucas staring at him.

“………”

“……..”

“He doesn’t seem that scary Chu Shen.” Lucas spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. Immediately like a cat that had its tail stepped on, the man jumped backwards, floating in the air.

“I don’t know how you got here without me finding out, but you will never get the Yin-Yang gloves.” Immediately a black glove appeared around his right hand and a white glove around his left hand.

He punched his two fists together and as they drew apart a Yin-Yang symbol in the shape of a ball appeared growing bigger and bigger.

Chu Shen immediately recognized the danger. “Lucas, get away, NOW!” Circulating his qi, a shield appeared in the air between them. It was circular and had chinese script on it.

Lucas didn’t react very fast. At least, not until his HUD lit up with warnings of a massive power surge. Immediately he activated his shields and tried to run away.

“Hey hey! Why are you trying to kill us all of a sudden! We were just out going for a walk and suddenly you attack us! What gives!” Lucas yelled out.

“Hah! Like I would believe such gilded words! Take the first cycle of yin-yang you scum!” The man yelled.

Chu Shen manipulated the shield to be in between Lucas and the man. He himself released a gray energy around him, coating himself in Qi like all those in the martial realm can do.

The man released the yin-yang ball which by now was twice the size of a man. The ball flew forward and hit the shield Chu Shen constructed. It passed through without even slowing down, though it did reduce in size slightly.

The ball quickly flew towards Lucas. As he saw it coming he tried to dodge by jumping into the air but unfortunately this ball was as fast as lightning! It hit Lucas destroying his forcefield and incinerating his leg.

The man frowned at this. If they were truly trying to capture him then they would have brought someone more powerful. “Why would they seek me out with such weak strength.” He murmured. Then he saw something that stunned him.

Lucas fell to the ground and grabbed at his stump of a leg. “Ahhh! You b*stard! Do you know how long it’s going to take to make a new leg huh! Not to mention I don’t even know if I can make a new one in these conditions!”

Sparks came out of his leg and bits of metal dangled out of it. The man’s jaw dropped at the sigh. Pointing at Lucas’ leg he stuttered. “W-wh-what the hell is that!”

Lucas got up and started hopping to keep his balance. “This! This is my leg you bstard! You can’t even recognize what you chopped off?! Bstard!”

Chu Shen on the other hand was trying to sneak around the mountain to Lucas. Seeing his chance since the man was stunned, he ran up to Lucas and grabbed him.

He hauled Lucas behind him, making Lucas flutter in the wind looking like a kite. Turning over his shoulder he yelled at the man while he ran. “Sorry for scaring you! Hope you don’t take offense!”

Turning to Lucas, Chu Shen asked a question. “Hey Lucas, you have any flight systems?”

Lucas’ eyes immediately lit up. “Of course I do. Man I should have thought of that. Hey Chu Shen, put me down.”

Meanwhile the man was flustered. It seemed like these kids were truly just taking a walk when he tried to kill them. He thought it might have been one of those greedy cultivators disguising themselves to make him hesitate.

He sighed.

He had been chased for over a week by greed cultivators trying to steal the Yin-Yang gloves, which left him kind of jumpy. Now that he was thinking clearly, he could sense the energy in these kids dantians. They weren’t a threat, they were barely even close to his level. ‘I was definitely in the wrong.’

After Lucas was set down he leaned on Chu Shen for support. Out of his back emerged a gray cylinder with a blunt tapered end facing towards the ground. Lucas grabbed Chu Shen tight. “Hey man, hold on okay, I’m about to take off!”

Chu Shen nodded. “Alright Lucas, let’s go.”

Immediately a whine was heard slowly powering up the flight system. A blue glow appeared underneath the cylinders bottom. While they were prepping for take-off the man still stood there stunned.

Finally he called out to them. “Sorry about the mix-up! If you ever pass by Wildent then go to the Black Night Sect and show them this. I will make up for this.” He threw a small token at Chu Shen who caught it out of reflex.

The man became covered in a white colored energy and flew up into the air, away from direction he was looking at when they first saw him. Chu Shen grinned. “Alright, we will!”

Suddenly Lucas shot up into the air. “AHHHHHH.” Chu Shen yelled out as he flew upwards. His cheeks were flapping from the wind making him look like a fish gasping for breath. Covering himself Qi, he counteracted the windsheer.

Lucas started yelling over the sound of air whistling past his ear.“OH YEAH, WE’RE TAKING OFF!”

“I HATE YOU LUUUUCAAAAAAASSSSSSS!!!!!!”

“HAHAHAHAHA”

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Arc 3 [The Black Rose]

Chapter 71

No Charms?!

 

Chu Shen appeared inside the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion exactly where he left off at. Looking around nothing had changed. A small gasp sounded behind him. Spinning around what he saw stunned him.

Lucas was looking around with a shocked expression on his face. “What the heck just happened?!!”

‘Great you brat. Now this mortal is inside the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion. What to do, what to do.’

Chu Shen shook his head as master Ti Wu remarked sarcastically in his head. “Lucas, listen okay? I can explain everything.”

Lucas immediately focused on him, a desperate look on his face. “Alright, i’m listening.”

“It’s like this, I am from a different dimension. In this dimension the strong are prey to the weak. People can control energy with their souls and strengthen their body beyond belief. My mom was captured because of me being too weak so I must get strong to rescue her.”

“I accidentally hitched a ride on this object that travels to different dimensions which is why I ended up in yours. The bracelet I gave you teleports whoever wears it into this place. As for where we will end up I don’t know.”

At least that was the gist of what he said. Lucas constantly interrupted him with questions about this and that. He cried with him after he talked about his mother being kidnapped and laughed in joy after finding out his parents were safe.

After a while Lucas just sat there, trying to absorb everything that he had just been told. Finally he got up.

“Alright Chu Shen, since you have that bracelet thing I should be able to at least go back right.” Chu Shen started to nod at that before he suddenly froze.

“Whats with that face? I can go back right?” Lucas asked worried.

Chu Shen looked at him sheepishly for a second. “Ah, well about that……. I never really used the charm. “

“……….”

“………”

“WHAT!! I CAN’T GO BACK!!!! Agh, my life is over, overrr!!!” Lucas crumpled up in a ball in despair.

Chu Shen hurriedly went over to comfort Lucas. “Hold on, it’s not that bad! In five years the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion should come back to your dimension. All you have to do is wear the bracelet and survive until then.”

“Yeah, not that bad.” Lucas said sarcasm dripping from his voice. He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling in a wistful look. “I bet Xentus is going out of his mind trying to find us.”

He sighed, remembering his adoptive father. Chu Shen sighed as well, recalling the kindness Xentus showed him.

After a while, Lucas got up. “In order to survive I need a couple things. I need a power source, I am a cyborg after all.”

Chu Shen nodded. “Alright, can you open up your parts? I think I might know a way.”

Lucas’ took off his shirt. Underneath his skin split before sliding to the side, revealing the intricate machinery underneath. Chu Shen looked at it before he pulled out a beast core from his spatial ring.

Unplugging a wire from one of the power cells he had Lucas lay down on the floor. Pulling out an inscription tablet used to practice inscriptions he got busy.

Using some inscription ink meant for the [Channeling Inscription] he quickly modified it to transfer Qi between the beast core and the wire.

The reason he chose this beast core was because it was from the land eel, a lightning type beast. Unlike cultivators beasts have innate elemental powers but they can’t unleash its full potential until they also unblock their meridians.

The modified inscription flashed gold before the inscription ink turned into ash. Sighing Chu Shen tried again. After twenty or so tries the inscription flashed gold and the inscription ink turned golden as well.

Chu Shen wiped sweat from his brow. Truly, modifying inscriptions, even the most simple ones, was very taxing on the mind. This entire time he had already explained to Lucas what he was trying to do. Understanding, Lucas merely watched him, his eyes flashing with curiosity.

Preparing himself he put the wire on the receiving end of the inscription and the beast core on the other. Inputting Qi, he activated the inscription. Silver blue energy coursed through the inscription where it was absorbed into the wire.

Lucas, who was watching his internal HUD, showed a shocked face. He was at about 81% power but now there was an increase in .1%! While this may not seem big, his powercell could power him for over ten years in normal usage and nine months in constant combat.

With this, he didn’t have to worry about recharging. Lucas immediately communicated this to Chu Shen. Both of them rejoiced in this newfound idea.

“So I know this whole thing about being strong is very big in your dimension. But can I really be killed so easily?” Lucas had a hard time believing that.

“Imagine if someone can destroy a city with a wave of his hand, if you offended him he might kill you over something as simple as looking at him the wrong way.” Chu Shen explained quite clearly the rules of his dimension.

“Most places are ruled by a dominant organization with important people being in charge of cities. Face, or pride, is very important to these proud people so if you offend them they might kill or cripple you to regain their pride.”

Lucas thought for a little bit before realizing, this was like corrupt officials in his own dimension! If you offended a wealthy businessman they could bribe a judge to put you in jail. In a world where human life is not as precious as his own, then instead of jail time it would be his life that was bought.

As Chu Shen put up the now drained beast core, a translucent barrier appeared around him and Lucas. The entire place started crumbling with the stones whistling through the air, creating a loud ruckus.

“IS THIS THE TELEPORTATION EFFECT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT CHU SHEN?!”  Lucas yelled.

“YES IT IS. IT SHOULD BE OVER SOON.” He yelled back.

As the pagodas formed like last time, Lucas stared openmouthed in awe at the wondrous sight. The gray vortex appeared around them.

Then they disappeared.

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Chapter 70

Cyborg BFF

 

“Hey Chu Shen! I have an interesting project over here. I wanna see if we can modify the nanites programming to combine into androids.” Lucas Webil called out.

Chu Shen stuck his head out into the hallway. Black soot covered his face. “Sure. If it works, maybe I can use it for my robot project.”

“Let’s go then!” Lucas dashed down the hallway while Chu Shen quickly followed him. It had been another month since he had won the Pod Racing and Robo Games, making it a little over 10 months since he came to this realm.

Nowadays it was like a dream. Unlimited budgets, the capability to test whatever came to mind. It was heaven. Of course, Chu Shen hadn’t forgotten exactly why he had come here.

He was able to modify a couple things so that it emitted radiation/Qi in his room so he could cultivate. He even broke through to be a level 4 Martial Student. Master Ti Wu woke up and was livid at the fact that he wasted so much time learning ‘useless’ things.

That was until Chu Shen showed him one of the robots he was building. Even Master Ti Wu admitted this path had potential. One of his robots was as powerful as a Martial Practitioner. And according to Xentus, this was child’s play compared to Sparta’s real weapons.

Right now they were encouraged to build whatever came to mind. After he deemed they were ready, they would have access to all of the projects Xentus had worked on or was working on. Of course if they ever gave away any blueprints to Sparta’s enemies, they would be killed on the spot.

The only people here on Athena, besides Xentus, was Lucas and Chu Shen. Lucas was a fifteen year old cyborg with a pretty tragic past.

“The accident happened five years ago. It was take your kid to work day. My parents were a part of Xentus Viri’s research team. They were working on the project while I watched behind a barrier when something went wrong.”

“ Mr. Viri said it was a quantum fluctuation that caused the experimental FTL drive to explode. It killed my parents and almost killed me.”

“The only thing that wasn’t destroyed was my brain. Mr. Viri heard about what happened and felt responsible. It was the project he was working on with my parents that went wrong. Because of that he personally helped me.”

“He found out because of quantum interference that any attempt at regrowing the body would cause it to become twisted and deformed. So instead he transferred my brain, which was starting to become cancerous from the energy, into a digital format.It had some side-effects though.”

“For one I don’t forget things plus I had a massive rise in IQ. Before I was already a genius at 171 but it went to 290 when I changed. After he gave me a new brain he gave me a physical body though I have modified it a little bit.”

“After discovering my intelligence plus the fact that he still felt responsible for the accident he took me in. He made me who I am today.”

This was what Lucas had told him. Feeling sorry for Lucas he shared the made-up story of his parents being lost to the bug invasion. Of course, he still felt the pain since he truly didn’t know if his parents were okay.

Feeling that special companionship that comes from mutual loss both of them grew closer. Within a single month they became the best of friends.

Right now they were on one of Sparta’s moons, Athena, inside a special complex that Xentus Viri had created. As a result of being in the same building they shared a lot of the same things, helping them to bond faster.

Xentus himself urged these feelings on. He said it quite clearly. “One of you is like a son to me. The other like a ruffian picked up from the road. I expect you both to become brothers, at least, as long as I’m alive hehe.”

After Chu Shen helped him with his project, Lucas stared at him. He looked back. “What?” He asked, feeling a little weirded out.

“Don’t you know what today is?” Lucas asked with a look of disbelief.

“December 25th, why?” Chu Shen looked puzzled, still not getting the point.

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Christmas you dummy. You know, that holiday where everyone exchanges gifts?”

Chu Shen shook his head. “Nope, never celebrated it.”

Lucas shook his head sadly. “Well, either way I got you something.” He pulled a small red present out from one of the cabinets. Handing it to Chu Shen he waited anxiously. “Go on, open it!”

Obeying Chu Shen opened up the small red box to reveal a small necklace. “I got Mr. Viri to help with it. It’s actually a class 2 vehicle shield calibrated to cover your body. I figured it could help protect you in case of an explosion so that happened to my……. parents. Doesn’t happen to you.” Lucas wiped away a small tear while smiling at him.

Chu Shen’s heart ached with pain. He hugged Lucas. “Don’t worry. It’s not that easy for me to die.” On an impulse he withdrew the only thing he had that he could give away. One of the bracelets from the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion.

“Here. I have one just like it. Hold on to it until I can find a different gift okay.”

They talked for a little bit before heading back to their own projects. As Chu Shen worked with the plasma welder on the fabricator in front of him, he tried to think of what to get Lucas.

‘Hmm. Something unique. It has to be meaningful so what could it be? Maybe a mech using that liquid metal.’

“Ah. Finally finished. With this modified fabber, I can use even junk metal. Heh. Maybe I can use this as a gift for Lucas.” He smiled at that thought.

Then it happened.

A translucent barrier appeared around him. Chu Shen gaped at it for a second in shock before he reacted. Using his spatial ring he quickly stored the fabber inside it before he disappeared.

……………………………………………………………………………….

Xentus Viri was in the middle of extrapolating data from the miniature black hole in his lab.

Beep

He lifted his head from the raw data being displayed. “What is it Genie. I’m in the middle of a breakthrough here.”

“Sir, I have detected an anomaly.”

“What exactly?”

“The two children, Lucas Webil and Chu Shen have disappeared. I detected some form of energy around them before they vanished from my sensors. The energy is similair to what is detected from wormholes.”

“WHAT!?” Xentus yelled. “GET ME A READOUT OF THAT ENERGY QUICKLY! I NEED TO FIND THEM NOW!”

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Chapter 69

Tournament End

 

After Chu Shen won the tournament it was time to start the challenge part of the Robo Games. It would only last for an hour but the arena was still divided in two.

Chu Shen, surprisingly enough, only received one challenge.

It wasn’t because the others were scared but rather, within the 5 rank limit there was none that could match his robot. He perfectly countered the exact type they had made.

Besides the two Nugitraaiil the two other contestants were heavy units that used mainly shields or large amounts of weapons. Neither had armor that could protect it from Chu Shen’s hammer.

Of course, there will always be a lone person standing out. And this person was naturally the Nugitraaiil that Chu Shen had beat. With his pride, how could the gray Nugitraaiil believe that he couldn’t beat Chu Shen if he wasn’t caught off-guard by his weird abilities.

The gray Nugitraaiil with his Drethgaalos tried once more to defeat Chu Shen and since he was ranked fifth he had to fight. Unfortunately, Chu Shen once again beat him.

Afterwards the gray Nugitraaiil went up to Chu Shen and said he would follow him until he could beat him, according to his races traditions. Chu Shen waved him off saying that he only needed to build a robot with his in mind in order to beat him.

The gray Nugitraaiil thought about that and nodded. If he had known about the capabilities of Chu Shen’s robot before building his own, then he would have gone a completely different direction.

With that in mind he could put his pride at rest, accepting that Chu Shen was not better than him, just less traditional. Saying farewell he didn’t bother Chu Shen with trying to follow him. The purplish-black Nugitraaiil nodded at him in acknowledgment before ignoring him.

After everyone realized that Chu Shen’s robot was meant for a different fighting style than the one they were using they also realized this fact. Until the next Robo Game, there was no way to beat him.

With that realization, everyone’s eyes turned from his position, to second, causing a fierce competition to break out.

Eventually it came to an end. Within that hour there were over 13 fights. Finally Chu Shen was called up to the arena to receive a medal from the founder of the Robo Games, Steven Bawkins.

“It is with my greatest pleasure that I give Chu Shen the {Best Engineer Youth}. I hope that he continues in his quest for knowledge.” With that, the gray haired elderly man placed the medal on his neck.

Bowing, Chu Shen shook hands with him before leaving shortly after.

………………………………………………………………………….

“Huh?” Chu Shen looked puzzledly at the viewscreen.

“That’s right. You passed. Free materials and workspace for ya, now I just have to get you to come on up to Athena. Ugh. All that paperwork…. What a pain.”

Chu Shen shook his head. “I know I won first place in the Robo Games but I haven’t done the Pod Racing yet.”

Xentus Viri looked up from his grumbling. “Hmm? Oh that. Yeah, yeah, I changed my mind. Can’t an old fellow like me do that? Anyway I expect you to be here in a week. I’ll send some transport to fetch you at two OK? Good, see ya.”

“Wait….. And he’s gone.”

Chu Shen had no idea what just happened but apparently Xentus Viri wanted him to get to work sooner than later. He shrugged. He still had a week left and Leonard was still here. Time to have some fun.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Xentus Viri rubbed his forehead. “Ughhhh. That crazy kid. Lucas, if I knew how much you’d like him I would have never shown him to you until I finished testing him.”

Chu Shen wasn’t being passed because Xentus Viri was impressed with his work, though he did think it was pretty good, but because he couldn’t stand up to Lucas. He was practically a son to him after he raised Lucas for the past five years.

Whenever he asked for anything, he got it. The only thing he ever had difficulty with was bonding with fellow kids. Lucas was just too smart and loved science.

Because of that the only thing he ever really talked about was nanites, FTL equations, the probabilities of the big rip or the big crunch being true. Normal teenagers didn’t really think about that.

So to solve his social awkwardness, Xentus Viri came up with a solution. Bring in some genius kids from across Sparta, give them a lab, and then put Lucas in as well.

With that some bonding would happen. Unfortunately…… none of the other kids around Lucas’ age was smart enough. Only Chu Shen who was three years younger than Lucas fit the criteria.

So when he showed off Chu Shen, the only candidate to be his friend after five years, well……..

Endless questions, constant nagging, begging, pleading. All of the tricks found in any teenagers bag including some that weren’t, like hacking Genie and making his AI pester him for Lucas, were employed on the helpless Xentus.

It had gone on for only the past day but it was still enough to drive him crazy. Finally he gave in, resulting in Chu Shen skipping the last test for him and being sent here straight away.

He sighed and shook his head. “Well Lucas. Let’s see how you do with friends.

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