Year 1034 of the Zhang Dynasty - Outlands of Heavenly Phoenix City - Linjian farm
I wake up in the barn with the light of the sun.
[Good morning Linjian]
(Good morning Maria)
After a breakfast I went out the central square to continue with my training.
[From now on you will follow this schedule]
A schedule?
[In the morning you will make muscle building exercises, you are too thin right now]
That is true, my arms look like branches.
[In the afternoon you will train your Earth Manipulation and Life Detection until you waste all your MP, then you will take a nap and repeat it]
(Why Life detection, shouldn't I just focus in Earth Manipulation?)
[Your foes will not always fight face to face]
... I haven't thought of that.
[The remaining time I will teach you otherworldly knowledge, and I hope you answer some of my questions about this world]
(Of course, but have in mind that all I know comes from travelers and merchants)
[That will be enough]
“Shall we start with the muscle building exercises?“
[Something will appear in front of you, don't get too surprised]
?
“Wha“
In front of me stood a white humanoid figure without face.
[This is a projection of a dummy I created with the help of the book of appraisal, it will show you the right way to exercise]
------------------------
-First week of training-
One night I asked Maria...
(Who is the ruler in your world?)
[There were 195 countries in my world, and the big majority chooses their rulers with votes from the common people]
“From commoners!?“
-Second week of training-
Maria asked me...
[How many cultivation ranks exist in this world?]
(Bronze, silver, gold, jade and immortal. Only an emperor is capable of reaching the immortal rank)
[Each rank has 9 grades like in the cultivation novels?]
(Yes, they do)
[What rank is a city lord?]
(Between gold and jade, the lord in this city is jade ranked)
[How do you know that?]
(Cultivators practically yell such things whenever they show up, so it is common knowledge)
-Third week of training-
(What would the most destructive weapon of your world do?)
[Last time I google it, a Hydrogen Bomb could destroy a radius of 100 km]
(100 KM !??)
-Fourth week of training-
[Is there some kind of tournament event in the city?]
(There is one every first day of the year)
[And when is the next one?]
(In three months)
[We should go there, we need information about their fighting methods]
(I think our food supplies will hold out)
-Five weeks of training-
(How many years did your people live?)
[About 100 years, and the yours?]
(Commoners usually live until 50 and the cultivators...)
[It depends on their cultivation rank, right?]
-Six weeks of training-
Upon reaching Earth Manipulation level six, I started to be capable of covering all my body with the reinforce.
“Earth Manipulation“
[15 MP CONSUMED]
The MP consumed was always 15 for full strength and 3 for light effort
“Life Detection“
[10 MP CONSUMED]
In the level five this skill can reach 400 meters for 10 MP and 40 meters for one MP.
-Seven weeks of training-
[How many emperors there were in the history of this world?]
(The current emperor Zhang Wei ascended 1034 years ago and the last emperor lived 2340 years in power that is all I am certain, but there were some others)
[So there were at least 5000 years of civilization]
-Eight weeks of training-
Maria started teaching me how to read and write using her projection ability.
[There are twenty six letters in the alphabet...]
-Nine weeks of training-
(How do you remember all these things?)
[The Book of Appraisal grants me access to all of my memories, I could even tell you stuff that I only saw once]
(Unbelievable)
[It too increases your memory, the fact that you learned how to read in a week is enough proof]
-Ten weeks of training-
Maria started to teach me arithmetic.
[The four operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication and division...]
-Eleven weeks of training-
One afternoon while I was training Life Detection, a notification appeared.
[SKILL MANA HANDLING AWAKENED]
“Mana handling?“
[Looks like your abusive use of mana awakened a skill]
“What can it do?“
[It decreases the necessary MP to use skills]
“Should I say Mana Handling every time?“
[No this skill is always active and gains experience when using other skills]
...one night of that week.
[Tell me about how the days and months are called here]
(The days are called Spirit day, Iron day, Bronze day, Silver day, Golden day, Jade day and Emperor day)
[They are seven here too]
(And the months are called Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig)
[...The Chinese zodiac]
-Twelve weeks of training-
The subject today is biology... so that is what a cell is.
-Thirteen weeks of training-
[What is the currency of this world?]
(Spirit coins, with 10 coins you could buy a bag of rice)
[How many coins do you need to witness the tournament?]
(About 100 spirit coins)
[How many coins do you have?]
(I was saving to buy another horse, so I have about 500 spirit coins in the house)
-Fourteen weeks of training-
(Maria did you ever get married?)
[...in my thirty years of life I never really wanted to have a partner]
(...)
[I forced myself to have a boyfriend once, but I couldn't feel a thing and ended up hurting him.]
(...)
[After that, I only lived for myself]
-Fifteen weeks of training-
Finally, my Earth manipulation reached its highest level.
“Earth Manipulation“
Thanks to Mana Handling Lv. 3 now reinforcing my body costs 0 MP, technically it was 0.3 MP but it was close enough.
[Try focusing on converting the soil in your arm into stone]
?
[Just do it]
I focus...
(Turn into stone)
[100 MP CONSUMED]
Wow, my arm feels the weight of stone.
[Now you can transmute the Earth into what you want it to be, but be careful it will consume a vast quantity of MP]
This is great, but my arm cant move like this.
[Now we only need to wait the new year's tournament, in the remaining time train the Animal Whisperer and Life Detection skills]
-Sixteen weeks of training-
Ending my last breakfast here, I put on my city clothes and grab my luggage. Inside the bag there is a transmutation made medical kit, a transmutation made plastic water bottle and 510 coins.
“Ziyun, Xue“
I stand in front of the graves of my loved ones.
“I will go deeper into the Heavenly Phoenix City“
I really don't want to leave.
“And I will not come back...“
But this is the only way.
“Not until I have fulfilled my promise“
[...]
“So wait for me“
I get on my horse, the only living being left in the village, and left.
////////////////////////
-Linjian Lv. 10-
HP 100%
MP 0999/1000
Stamina 120/110(+10)
Brawn 14(+6)
Awareness 10(+1)
Endurance 7(+6)
Resistance 5
SKILLS
Book of Appraisal
Earth Manipulation Lv. Max
Animal Whisperer Lv. 2
Life Detection Lv. Max
Mana Handling Lv. 4
OTHER
Trained body (Stamina + 10, Brawn and Endurance + 5)
Under clothes Earth reinforce (Awareness, Brawn and Endurance + 1)
Reincarnation of Maria Campbell (MP 10000%)
26 years old
////////////////////////
What the hell? He better not have trained all that time with earth magic just to coat himself in rocks the entire time.
Earth itself is strong. Cultivators take until level 50 or 60 to be capable of destroying a mountain. Sometimes they have to be 70 to destroy an entire territory or area.
But Linjian can simply try creating Mud puppets or golems. May even create a giant hand of stone and smash it into the ground with mana alone.
the skill sounds a lot like the "stone skin" skill and nothing like earth manipulation
@Arc You have no idea what earth manipulation is huh.
It takes a lot of time to have spikes come out of the ground or shot stone bullets. Best thing is to increase defense and attack power. Afterwards you can think of genius ideas.
@Gledis in most fantasy Novels earth manipulation is a a skill that allowes for free form manipulation of earth and stone be it throwing stone spikes or building a house.
The other from is Earth Affinity which allowes for skills such as stone skin, earth wall and earth spike etc.