CHAPTER 37: A SHARP INCREASE IN POWER.

           “How did you do it?” Chloe asked curiously as soon as they got back to their room to meet their genius teammate.

           “Zero, you’re so awesome. I’m completely blown away, now I can brag of having a genius as my roommate”. Dave didn’t care about Chloe’s question; he expressed his excitement without restraints.

“Congratulations”. Rose simply said. She hid her complicated emotions to herself and located her chair to sit down.

           “Zero, tell me, I’m really curious. How did you do it?” Chloe did not relent despite the interruption from her other roommates.

Morales shrugged. “I did it the exact way that it’s done by others. I hacked left and right with my sword, that’s all. Oh…, and I also used my race abilities to kill most of them”.

“Dammit, you didn’t use any special strategy?” She was clearly not satisfied.

“Well, if being a genius is a strategy, then I used one”. Morales replied without any shame in his tone.

She snorted. “How about we have a spar?”

“Hey! When did the cheerful Chloe become like this? You haven’t even congratulated me, I’m hurt”. Morales feigned a hurt expression on his face.

Seeing this, though Chloe knew that he feigned it, she still softened up a bit. “Sorry, I just felt it ridiculous. A moment ago, we were together in the virtual simulation hall, then the next, you’re out breaking records”.

“Well, do you want a hug as an apology?” She opened her hands exaggeratedly.

“Umm…, no, thanks”. Morales coughed awkwardly.

“Ok, let’s forget about that. But I really want to spar with you. I want to see how different a genius is from the rest of us”. She suddenly insisted again, pouting slightly. 

“Don’t worry, just give me at most 5 days and we’ll spar then”. Morales smiled at her.

“Great! It’s a deal then, don’t dare forfeit”.

“I won’t”.

“Ok, both of you are finally done”. Dave turned to face Morales. “Bro, you’ve just achieved a feat worth celebrating”.

“How about we celebrate it in a memorable way?” He winked at Morales.

“I don’t think I can. I’m on tenterhooks speaking to all of you, I’m completely exhausted. I want to rest; you guys can celebrate it in my absence”.

“I’ll transfer 10 dojo points to you; I think that’s enough for you all to enjoy yourselves”. Morales offered after pondering for a moment.

“Aye, dojonnaire Zero”. Dave was excited.

“Ok, bye, I have to rest”. Morales smiled back at him.

After bickering him with a few more nagging words, Chloe reluctantly stood up to leave him and follow the others out to celebrate. Rose mostly kept quiet throughout.

As soon as they all left, Morales heaved a sigh of relief before climbing his bed to rest his back. He was really exhausted.

As soon as his back laid down, it did not take much for him to doze up into a deep slumber. It was already evening, so he didn’t feel much guilt about dozing off so leisurely.

…

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Having undergone a long battle where you exceeded your limits countless times and exhausted your energy reserves, your genes have been stimulated and you have improved by a small margin.

STR +3, DEX +1, END +2, INT +2

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After sleeping for countless hours, Morales finally woke up due to the flash notification by his system interface. Everywhere was dark, evidence that this was probably deep in the night.

His eyes still felt groggy after waking up, but he felt relieved as the constant feeling of weakness already subsided.

As soon as his eyes adapted to the light luminosity, he noticed that none of his roommates were back yet. Checking the clock attached to the wall, he observed that the time read 2:00 am.

“Which kind of celebration did they do? Did I give them too many dojo points?” He suddenly felt guilty, he felt like he just indulged them too much.

After pondering more about it, he decided to forget about it. They were all 18 and above year old adults and Chloe was a grade E powerhouse, so there was nothing to be worried about.

After offloading his mind, he finally thought back to the notification that his interface just flashed at him. Willing it with his mind, the notification reappeared before him.

Seeing what was displayed before him, he narrowed his eyes.

“Does this mean that apart from leveling up through spending experience, I can also practice and level up like the others?” He tried it immediately. He sat cross-legged and tried to cultivate.

 After closing his eyes, he felt a faint mass increase in his surroundings after 2 minutes. He felt a faint gathering of air revolve around him.

“I can cultivate!” He was stunned.

This realization meant a lot to him as it could make him alter a lot of his plans in the future. This meant that, unlike the others whose only hope was cultivation, he was a 2-pronged cultivating maniac.

“Haha, I’m really a genius. All hail the white-bearded Gandalf!”

He didn’t know why he said that, but he just remembered and referred to the great sage- Gandalf without any prepping because it felt smooth to the tongue.

After doing a few more experiments to confirm his conjecture, he finally extracted the loot that he got from the dungeon run with a thought from his storage ring.

As a ring operated and created by magic, he didn’t need to scour through it physically, just a thought was required for him to retrieve what he wanted.

The next moment, the pill that was given to him by headmaster Cinnabar appeared on his hand, quickly followed by the appearance of the 5 monster cores that he harvested.

The 5 monster cores were of different colors. 2 were black, one was orange, one was blood-red, and the last one was a dense gleaming purple color.

Seeing this, his eyes flashed in excitement.

For the dungeon run, being renowned and receiving favor in the sight of the headmaster was not the only gain that he got. The gain in experience reserves, dojo points, and resources were the best as far as he was concerned.

He now had a total stockpile of an astonishing 1,754,270 experience.

For dojo points, he now had a mind-blowing amount of 810 dojo points. He was now what could be referred to as a rich student in the dojo, his status was now countless times higher than a few hours ago.

Well, for resources, the 5 monster cores alone were resources worth being injured for to almost every student. The pill was completely out of the world, the headmaster did him a huge favor by giving him that.

After doing a small mental calculation to know and appreciate his gain, he finally took the first monster core, the blood-red one, and threw it on his mouth.

As soon as the core went through his throat, it immediately melted like snow, filling his throat with a cool feeling before going down to his digestive organs. His stomach felt pampered.

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You have swallowed the monster core of a Vampire wolf:

You have received the following increase in attributes.

STR +2, DEX +3, END +1, INT +2

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Seeing the effect that just one monster core brought, his face lit up into a fanatic smile. His eyes grew sharp like razors, turning to poke sharply at the other 3 monster cores.

Without any hesitation, he dumped the other 4 cores into his mouth.

He felt the same sensation, but this time the cooling sensation was extremely fierce, making his face grow white due to the cold.

He wiped inexistent sweat from his face.

“What an impatient bastard I am”. He already forgot that monster cores were strategic cultivation resources, and the dojo advised students to take them with caution.

Well, as his head didn’t explode directly, that meant it was not too dangerous, right?

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You have swallowed the monster core of a mutated Lion:

You have received the following increase in attributes.

STR +2, DEX +1, END +2, INT +1

…

You have swallowed the monster core of a mutated Black panther:

You have received the following increase in attributes.

STR +2, END +2, INT +1

…

You have swallowed the monster core of a mutated Black bear:

You have received the following increase in attributes.

STR +4, END +3, INT +2

…

You have swallowed the monster core of a Draconic ape:

You have received the following increase in attributes.

STR +5, DEX +3, END +4, INT +3

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Seeing such a significant leap in his attributes, Morales finally experienced why a dojo was said to be the best development place of any Pugilist.

Though this was the case, he still felt that the attribute increase being brought about by the monster cores was too outrageous.

He felt that maybe it was related to his special identity as an earthling, maybe the system, or it could even be because he was a genius.

After cultivating for a few minutes to get his inner body regulation under control, he finally took the precious pill and threw it on his mouth without hesitation.

He felt his body tremble for a moment as energy coursed through him tangibly for the first time since he transmigrated, he felt like he could remove Beiger out of existence with just a squeeze of his hands.

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You have swallowed a rare cultivation pill.

Grade: Advanced.

You have received the following increase in attributes.

STR +20, DEX +12, END +16, INT +8, CHA +5

You have laid a perfect foundation for your future cultivation: -5% experience for future level-ups.

…

Current attributes:

STR 80, DEX 45, END 30, INT 25, CHA 19, LUCK 2

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Seeing his current attributes, Morales felt like bashing his head against a rock excitedly.

“I’m superman!”

He felt extremely excited. He was sure that with his outrageous strength alone, he could trash anyone below the grade E superhuman realm.

Now, he was even sure that he probably had more strength than new grade E experts like Chakra and Chloe. He finally transformed from a cub to a dragon. He was not satisfied yet though, he still wanted more.

For the rest parts of the night, he spent his time cultivating.