Andrew tapped on the manual, and immediately downloaded it to his device.
The body tempering art was named "Body Cleansing Art", the summary described it cleaned the body of impurities, leading to a change in the quality of the substrate.
Andrew knew that this was gonna be his "ticket", it would not only push his strength slightly higher, but it would make due for hiding some of his abilities.
The art described a very specific way at manipulating your innate internal energy, a slight bit different than qi to push impurities out of the body through the skin.
It was simple to start, but very few people had properly mastred it.
Training this technique to mastery would allow one to almost freely manipulate innate energy. It was a step below Qi, but it was highly compatible with every other art.
Innate energy lived within every cell of the body, upon doing what looked to be very standard radio yoga positions with proper breathing, and proper mental focus on the specific parts of the body that each position targeted, one would soon find themselves burning akin to taking a really hot bath.
Andrew quickly read through the manual and put it aside. He got down on the floor not sparing any time.
He quickly started to hitm poses that looked extremely ridiculous, he was glad he lived alone becasue if anyone he knew saw what he was doing, they might think that he was a bit of a voyeur.
"In order to not ruin my clothes, i am forced to strip them off during this process, the impurities that will be expelled are said to be extremely disgusting..."
Andrew right now was butt ass naked doing very... explicit positions, at some point he swore he would replicate this so he could just do much simpler "forms".
after about an hour and a half of ding this, Andrew was a bit surprised to find that he was actually a little bit exhausted.
Thankfully he had been doing very intensive endurance work, so compared to actually doing his normal routine this was a lake compared to an ocean of suffering.
He noticed a thin glazing of what looked to be black sludge that appeared on his skin, it smelled absolutely rancid and he immediately wet to go take a shower.
standing underneath the water, Andrew was hopeful that this would be a solid start to his journey, he trusted himself more than even the schools professors in some regards when it came to maximizing the body.
Andrew sat in the water, with some random thoughts passing through his head. He couldn't help but enjoy the shower thoughts that still made him feel like a youngster.
"If a black hole sucks in all light, then how do we know if its actually black or just devoid of any color or shade?"
"if you weigh 99 lbs but then eat a pound of nachos, would you weigh 1 percent of nacho?"
"if two vegans argue, then is it still considered beef?"
....
Upon getting out of the shower, Andrew walked over to his mirror, he noticed there was definitely a slight change in skin texture and brightness of the skin.
He got a little paler, a little more crystalline, and even his eyes appeared a bit brighter.
"I guess it wont be long until i end up looking like those rich kids from school, this was definitely the right move to learn this technique first."
Andrew hit a couple poses int he mirror, butt booty naked, before getting dressed.
It was currently about 6 o'clock, he thought about going to the park for an hour or so and cranking out a quick workout.
Andrew ened up deciding on it just too waste some time in the day, he was gonna try and hit the sack a bit earlier tonight as to be energized for tomorrows placement exam.
If he wasn't mistaken, it was simply to check what their stats were looking like to give an accurate diagnosis of which class is best suited for their constituion and talent.
They weighed it as such, if you have good stats but a poor talent, you'd probably get placed in the general martial arts class, but you would still be forced into academic studies.
if you had poor stats but a solid talent, youd get placed in all martial arts curricula, but you would start at the mid or basic grade and they would move you up when your stats met the minimum requirements for the higher class.
Leaving his apartment building, Andrew jogged down the street feeling looser than he had in a while.
He had solid mobility to begin with, but with the talent and his new technique, the micro amounts of scar tissue he couldnt avoid building up seemed to dissolve.
Feeling good, Andrew arruved at the park, where he said hello to the old man sitting hnder the tree meditating, before grabbing a bigger rock this time to begin his work.
He had seen this old man a few times befire, occasionally he would be meditating under the biggest tree in the park.
"Even the old people these days have solid physiques, and i cant seem to see through this man…"
Andrew wuickly stopped thinking about this, as he started his training.
It was the same thing day in and day out.
As Andrew was doing his training, he saw a familiar figure out the corner of his eye.
"No way, is that who i think it is?" Andrew squinted, rubbing his eyes before he realized it was in fact who he thought it was.
"Its definitely that kid Zachary, i didnt expect hed also be started this early as soon as he had awakened. The protagonist cant afford any days off i guess either."
Andrew knew he would have to spend a little more than an hour here, he couldnt fall behind.
However, he was wuite intrigued by what he was doing, his training technique looked very interesting.
Zachary was holding a wooden stick like a sword, swing it gently, but with great orecision and speed.
His moves were getting progressively more fluent, this suprised Andrew as he didnt think progress this wuick was possible.
"Its like hes getting better every 3 swings… he must truly be blessed by the heavens."
"It almost feels like im in some cheesy cultivation novel…"
Just as Andrew was thinking this, he spotted the old man who would frequently meditate stand up as if he sensed something, before walking over to Zachary.
"Damn, this really is like a cheesy novel with plot holes, im gonna take a "wild" guess and sah that old man is some kind if hidden expert, looking to take on a new disciple."
Andrew sighed, he had trained here everyday for the past year but never got this old mans attention.
In a way he felt a little outdone, even though he knew he was probably much stronger than Zachary right now.
Andrew used his enhanced senses from the talent and closed his eyes, trying to listen in on what was being said.
He was only about 30 feet away from the both of them, close enough he could somewhat hear their low spoken conversation.
"You have a remarkable talent for the sword young man, you remind me of myself when i was your age…" the old man said to Zachary, smiling.
Zachary paused what he was doing, "thanks, i just recently started learning the sword this past week."
Zachary decided to lie a little bit, he didnt want to expose he had actually just started today.
"Quite remarkable indeed… how about this kid, how about you become my disciple?"
Zachary was slightly suprised, he didnt expect yet another fortuitous encounter this soon.
He had awoken a talent with god level potential, while also gaining a master of unknown origins, and now he had the opportunity to gain more resources.
However he was a little hesitant, he wasnt sure what his actual master would think of this.
"Go for it, this person is probably one of the strongest in the city, hes a peak foundation establishment… an ant in mg eyes but youll outgrow him much sooner than you think."
Upon hearing his masters words, Zachary steeled his heart before making his decision.
"Yes, im gladly willing, master!" Zachary said aloud, bowing out of respect.
Not too far away, Andrew was hearing this scene.
"This is absolutely ridiculous, I gotta stop listening before I get pissed off…"
A single tear fell down Andrews face, as he started working out even harder.
_____