Act 8: The Strength Guide

…

“Maybe this is something you might be interested in,” the old seller said while pulling a book from a bag behind him and dusting it off repeatedly.

It was an extremely old book. The old man directly stated its price and was sure Mwana would buy it considering how cheap it was.

“Is the price negotiable?”

“It is 2 shells!”

The old seller almost exclaimed out loud, ‘for God’s sake how much of a miser can you be?! You even want to start haggling over 2 shells. You want to buy it for 1 shell now or something’. However, he kept his calm once Mwana handed over the money.

After receiving this booklet, Mwana simply started reading it on the spot:

Martial Body Building Strength Guide

1. [Ordinary Warrior]: up to 1 tonne
2. [Mortal Body Forging]

[Low Mortal Body Forging]: 1 - 10 tonnes

Seeing these 2 sections, Mwana was indeed shocked. According to the old man, this booklet was the strength ranking of ancient martial artists. While it was not too much different from the present, it seemed as if they were a bit stronger especially for the ordinary human warriors. As for Junior Warriors [Low Mortal Body Forging] in the present, their strength was measured in units of bulls, tigers, elephants or whatever other animals and concepts a core martial art and martial school followed.

In Mwana’s case, he previously had access to 6 bulls of strength at the Skin Hardening level but now as an Intermediate Warrior, his strength had already surpassed 8 bulls of power. With his draconic bloodline, he could go as high as 10 bulls of strength at the risk of injury which was well over 10 tonnes. However, looking at the next section for Intermediate Warriors, he was ashamed of his meagre strength.

[Mid Mortal Body Forging]: 10 – 50 tonnes

Bloodline Awakening: Depending on the Bloodline, physical strength can increase exponentially with cases of over 100 tonne strength recorded and some rare instances of strength nearing 1000 tonnes arising.

“What a shocking figure?” Mwana could not help but exclaim out loud. He was truly shaken by the figures he was seeing.

50 tonnes seemed reasonable for an expert at the peak of the Intermediate Warrior level but who were these monsters with over 100 tonne strength? What bloodlines did they have and what treasures did they eat?

During the 6th stage of Mortal Body Forging, the Blood Boiling Realm, warriors would experience their 2nd Bloodline Awakening. It was at this stage that massive differences in physical abilities would appear in warriors based on their bloodline quality and purity. After all, warriors in this stage could use Bloodline Transformation abilities such as Beast Transformation.

Seeing these numbers, Mwana finally understood why many people risked their health by going through the Blood Boiling stage earlier. The strength boost was too large! After all, blood boiling was supposed to be the 7th realm due to the dangers of ‘boiling blood’ but most of the world took it as the 6th stage. Even for this, it was only because of the need for resources and the fact that some time needed to pass between the first and second bloodline awakening. Otherwise, most warriors would have elected to go through it sooner. In fact, those who got other opportunities would chose to go through it earlier either at the same time as Tendon Strengthening stage or even alongside the Bone Forging process. 

[High Mortal Body Forging]: 100 – 1000+ tonnes

- The wide range of physical ability in this stage is attributed to the growing influence of bloodlines on strength at the later stages.

3. [Solid Body Casting]

- Naturally, casting the physical body increases strength to over 500 tonnes even for those without any bloodlines at all.

[Low]: 500 – 2000 tonnes

[Mid]: 1000 – 3000 tonnes

[High]: at least 5000 tonnes

- Additionally, after Physique Awakening, some physiques have perverted strength making it impossible to grade strength clearly.

[Physique Awakening] Specified Category: Physical Combat Types

Single Awakening – at least 10,000 tonnes

Double Awakening – 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes

Triple Awakening – 1/2 million+ tonnes

In some rare cases, blessed individuals undergo a final ancestral blood awakening that grants them immeasurable strength though only a handful of such cases have been recorded in history.

[Ancestral Blood Awakening]: Ancestral Strength – Immeasurable

- The number of Awakenings depends on Bloodline Purity.

Reaching this point, Mwana had already turned numb to the giant figures. Anyway, it was levels of measurement from millenniums ago so he did not have to care. However, seeing bloodline purity mentioned again, Mwana almost felt like crying. He was seeing and hearing the words ‘Bloodline Purity’ everywhere nowadays. It was like someone jabbing at his sore wounds.

However, the figures and information also helped Mwana understand the difference between Transformation Stage Warriors and Crystal Warriors. It was clear that the growth of Crystal Warriors undergoing Solid Body Casting was exponential while Transformation Stage experts would only experience a linear growth in strength. At most, those who went through the Transformation Stage would only go through one physique awakening before stepping into the Earth Body Realm/Earth Rank.

4. [Earth Rank]: Virtually Immeasurable Earth Strength borrowed from the Earth itself.

- The only limits the warrior experiences are: Time, Body Capacity (Nodes), Energy Conversion Rate, Contact between the Physical Body and the Earth, and Energy Storage Space within their Crystals.

5. [Sky Rank]: Law Strength (Immeasurable).

- Law Strength is determined by a warrior’s Law Mastery.

“Doesn’t this mean that there are so many people can kill me with a slap?!” This was Mwana’s first thought after perusing the booklet. He felt like an ant in this wide world.

Before this, Mwana had maybe thought he was like a cat in a world with lions, hippos, and elephants. A cat was outmatched but maybe it could outmanoeuvre the larger animals, scratch their eyes, threaten with a hiss and at the worst case scenario, it could run away or hide. However, Mwana’s worldview was shattered. It seemed as if he would not be able to do much even against the lowest level experts in the High Mortal Body Forging ranks let alone Solid Body Casting experts and other higher ranks. Even his chances against just ordinary Senior Warriors were trash!  

[Additional Notes]

Body Forging can be divided into 4 unique realms:

- Physical Realm: Mortal Body, Solid Body

- Elemental Realm: Earth Body, Sky Body

- Firmament Realm: Void Body, Heaven Body

- Seeking Divinity Realm: Sacred Body, Divine Body