Absolute In/Existence

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***

"How long have you been here?"

"Two months."

"Have you gotten the hang of things around here?"

"Yeah, more or less."

"Sounds good."

Long Tian and Han Sen talked with each other as they walked across a frequently traveled path. Soon, grass began to take back the traveled path as Han Sen led the way to a forest area.

Following, Long Tian noticed that there were less people the farther they walked. Turning various corners inside the forest, Han Sen led the way expertly.

He saw as Han Sen's footsteps slowed and turned careful. His dagger was already drawn and he turned to look at a bush. Han Sen lifted a hand and Long Tian understood as he stopped and stayed quiet.

Han Sen got low and Long Tian served as Han Sen's presence diminished. Suddenly, something small jumped out of the bushes and Han Sen struck swiftly.

Puchi!

His dagger pierced the rabbit that jumped out of the bushes and it died in an instant. The rabbit fell to the floor lifeless and Long Tian was able to get a better look at it. It's little paws had claws and the teeth in its mouth were sharp.

 'Impressive,' thought Long Tian as he looked at Han Sen.

He could see how Han Sen had honed the ability to attack unexpectedly and hide the intent from his movements. Something which would take some years to master.

'He's talented,' thought Long Tian as he made a move as well after finding a rabbit.

Since he lacked the technique and experience, Long Tian can only rely on the talent he had painstakingly worked to improve.

He tried attacking like Han Sen by attacking swiftly and suddenly in order to catch the rabbit off guard. His comprehension is monstrous and it helped him understand everything there was to swordsmanship and assassination, but putting it into practice required control over his body.

He was able to hide his intent, and it was already hundreds of times better than Han Sen's, but he had no technique.

Before his sword even swung half way down, the rabbit had scurried away after hearing Long Tian's sword cut the air. Long Tian sheathed his sword after seeing the rabbit run away.

He clicked his tongue in disappointment, realizing that his speed, precision, and skill was terrible. Speed and precision are self explanatory, but skill refers to one's ability to efficiently make use of a sword's cutting strength, and even enhancing if one is truly skilled.

Not just swords, but any weapon. It's what a True weapon's master can accomplish.

Han Sen watched from the side and smiled as he began searching for another rabbit. He found another after searching for ten minutes, missing the first strike but successfully making the next.

Nodding, Han Sen decided to stop for a bit and begin to skin and prepare the two rabbits in order to eat them.

Off to the side, Long Tian was practicing his swordsmanship. Although without a technique the improvement isn't much, Long Tian was still able to improve his precision and speed.

Nodding to himself, Long Tian felt like he had improved enough to deal with a simple creature like the rabbit.

It was a rapid improvement he owed to his training he had done with the Myriad Extremes Martial Arts and reaching the Master Realm.

"Ordinary creature mad rabbit killed. No creature soul gained. Eat the flesh of mad rabbit to gain 0 to 10 ordinary geno points randomly."

Killing a rabbit after finding one, Long Tian frowned. He looked at the sword in his hands and swept his hand across the side of the blade. He needed to attack with more precision or he will end up breaking the sword.

Sheathing the sword, Long Tian sat next to Han Sen after grabbing the rabbit he had just killed. It was his first time killing a creature from God's Sanctuary and hearing the strange voice. It was a little odd, but he found it interesting.

Borrowing Han Sen's dagger, Long Tian skinned the mad rabbit and roasted it over a fire before eating it.

"Mad rabbit flesh eaten. One geno point gained."

"Mad rabbit flesh eaten. One geno point gained."

Finishing the entirety of the rabbit, Long Tian got up and got to work. He earned 8 ordinary geno points, the first of many he will receive.

Long Tian: Not evolved.

Status: None.

Life span: 200 years.

Required for evolution: 100 geno points.

Geno points gained: 8 ordinary geno points

Beast souls gained: none.

Han Sen also went back to hunting and they both moved. As they hunted down the rabbits, Han Sen gave Long Tian a word of advice.

"You can only eat five of the same creature, any more and it won't improve your geno points. It might take you ten more creatures just to get one more geno point."

Long Tian nodded and only hunted four more mad rabbits. Even after killing four more, Long Tian failed to obtain their beast soul.

Rubbing his chin, Long Tian cleaned his sword and sheathed it. He tied the rabbits on a string that Han Sen gifted to him. Carrying it on his back, Long Tian turned to Han Sen and asked.

"Are you heading back to the Alliance?"

"Mm, I'm heading home to take care of my little sister while my mother heads to second God's Sanctuary."

"Oh, be quick then. Don't leave your sister alone for too long. I'll stay here and train in the meantime."

Han Sen smiled and nodded.

They talked for a while and decided to go out hunting in two days. Meanwhile, they will finish the meat of the rabbits.

Whilst Han Sen returned to the Alliance, Long Tian returned to his room and began training his swordsmanship. Everytime he got tired, Long Tian would simply rest and head out to find some water before retuning and continuing his training.

His sword got faster and his strikes were more precise.

By the time Long Tian finished the mad rabbit meat, it was already the next day. Han Sen will only appear in his own room to eat the mad rabbit meat, so Long Tian needed to head out alone to hunt for more ordinary meat for himself.

His ordinary geno points had already reached 13, which was quite little, proving Han Sen was right about the effect of the same meat lowering the possibility of more geno points.

Equipping his sword and chestplate, Long Tian headed straight out of Steel Armor Shelter. Following the same path as the day before, he was out to look for more ordinary creatures.

Since mad rabbits will no longer increase his geno count, he needed to look for a different creature.

Although unsure how far his training from the day before took him, Long Tian had grown confident in his swordsmanship. The speed of his strikes had tripled and the precision of his strikes was down to the centimeter.

Concealing his intent and lowering his presence as he stepped foot into the forest, Long Tian began searching for creatures.

He listened to the sounds, sniffed for the smells, and searched for any clues.

After a couple of feet, Long Tian found a feline paw print on the floor. He followed the trace of the paw and by the time he found the creature he was tracking, it was already in the mouth of another creature.

It was a large lizard with red eyes with a body length of a foot. In its mouth were the remains of what appeared to be a small feline creature.

Gripping the hilt of his alloy sword, Long Tian stepped forward cautiously. He lowered his body and got as close as he could.

But it seemed that he had gotten a little too close to the lizard. It moved forward, ready to run away, but Long Tian was ready. With fast reflexes, Long Tian was already swinging his sword at the lizard.

With a swift draw of the sword, Long Tian's sword cut through the lizard's thick scaly skin. Just as the sword was going to cut halfway through, it was stopped by something hard.

Frowning, Long Tian realized that he had struck the lizard's neck bone. The lizard felt the pain in its neck and already losing control of a majority of its body. It's used its tail to wack at him, hitting him accurately on the waist.

With a pained look on his face, Long Tian realized that this lizard wasn't an ordinary creature but a primitive one. He was simply lucky that this primitive lizard had shear received such a heavy injury or else the roles would have been flipped.

 Reacting swiftly and not giving the lizard another chance to attack, Long Tian withdrew his sword before slicing it back through the lizard's neck.

"Primitive creature red-eyed lizard killed. No beast soul gained. Eat the flesh of red-eyed lizard to gain 0 to 10 primitive geno points randomly."

Sheathing the sword and grabbing the lizard's body, Long Tian went back to Steel Armor Shelter and straight to his room. He skinned the lizard and got to cooking as he thought about his fight with the lizard.

At his current strength level, he has already attained superb precision with the sword. His speed can only be increased as long as he grows stronger and skill needs a technique in order to improve the cutting power.

Technique only serve three purposes; effectiveness, control, and power.

Effectiveness: The enhancement of the 'weapon', in this case, a sword's sharpness and cutting power.

Control: Use of proper muscles and movements to increase the force of one's attack.

Efficiency: How well the strength and force of the body is guided for its intended purpose.

Without a technique, Long Tian's sword lacked sharpness.

Of course, Heaven could make his own if he needed to, but that would defeat the purpose of arriving in this world in an 'empty' state.

"Red-eyed lizard flesh eaten. One primitive geno point gained."

With one third of the red-eyed lizard, Long Tian began adding points into the primitive column, bringing his primitive geno points to 2.

Sitting down, Long Tian can only rest and wait for Han Sen to return whilst his waist injury heals.

Long Tian thought about his encounter with the lizard and sighed. He could contend with primitive creatures already thanks to his swordsmanship, but without martial arts or techniques, it won't be long before he dies to one of them. He can only wait to fill up on ordinary geno points to increase his fitness before heading to deal with the primitive creatures.

Only then would he really stand a chance to deal with stronger creatures by himself.

It made him wonder however.

What would have happened if he fought that primitive lizard head on?

Gripping the sword next to him, Long Tian smiled wryly as he thought about doing exactly that. He wanted to prove his strength, that he can fight those who have better fitness than him by simply relying on skill.

Gritting his teeth, Long Tian stood up and continued to swing his sword despite already achieving the fastest speed he could. Determined, he swung his sword and looked forward to growing stronger.