Geniuses Gather
Adam chose the middle-grade defense talent mainly because of the increase it gave to his bone strength.
His bone strength was the lowest of the five stats that made up his vitality index score, and he wanted to raise it quickly. And since the only other way to increase it was through the painful training that Principal Smith had warned him about, Adam would rather choose the system's upgrade method.
Plus, upgrading his bone strength with a talent merging was painless. Actually, if anything, it was somewhat euphoric. Rather than the pain-filled training, Adam chose this blissful feeling of the talent merging any day.
It wasn't even a hard choice to make.
Since there was no reason not to, Adam instantly chose to merge with the middle-grade defense talent after purchasing the middle-grade defense talent.
Following a quick and euphoric upgrade to his mortal shell, Adam felt his body's strength improve again. However, like last time, another layer of skin was shed, making him feel itchy and dirty.
Thankfully, his alchemy lab also had a shower inside it.
Without hesitation, he decided to use the shower and get rid of that itchy feeling. A quick shower later, Adam, with his hair still wet, decided to look at his status screen once more.
–
Adam Courtois
Cultivation Base: 9th Stage of the Body Refining Realm
Vitality Index Score: 98.2
Middle-Grade Cultivation Talent
Middle-Grade Defense Talent
Low-Grade Strength Talent
Low-Grade Speed Talent
Cosmic-Grade Alchemy Talent
Level 2 Talent Shop
–
Seeing his vitality index score continue to upgrade, Adam felt happy, but he was curious to know how much his bone strength had increased, so he clicked on the number.
–
Skin Strength: 98 points out of 100
Blood Strength: 96 points out of 100
Bone Strength: 97 points out of 100
Viscera Strength: 100 points out of 100
Muscles and Tendons: 100 points out of 100
–
The last time he checked his bone strength, it was at 88 points, but now it had advanced almost 10 points and was nearing 100 points at a powerful 97.
"It went up another 9 points." Adam thought disappointedly to himself.
Widely speaking, any genius would be pleased to see a 97-bone strength stat, but Adam wasn't. He could even be called slightly disappointed by this. Adam was expecting it to max out from his talent merging.
He was definitely annoyed that his bone strength was still lower than his viscera, muscle, and tendon strength, but after he thought about it more and reality hit him, he realized that it was still better than nothing.
Adam remembered how weak he had been just two days ago and how much he had evolved in 48 hours. He had gone from a caterpillar to a butterfly in just a short amount of time.
Others would kill for his metamorphosis, yet here he was, disappointed at how slow his progress was.
If this wasn't arrogance, then what was?
Principal Smith had already told him that barely any students in the Federation's history had reached 100 points on their vitality index score before the college entrance exams. Adam was just 1.8 points away from it.
All he needed to do was buy the speed and strength talents and undergo a few training days, and he would join that elusive category of geniuses.
It was a blood-boiling feeling, and after Adam remembered this, his previous anger was swept away.
So after drying and reclothing himself, Adam hummed a joyful tune before walking out of his alchemy lab.
—
After merging with the middle-grade defense talent, Adam spent another day, as usual, going to his classes and learning about things he either already knew or didn't really need to know.
It was meaningless in his mind, but Adam just sat through it numbly without anything else to do.
However, the loudspeaker announcements mentioned Adam's name just as the school day ended.
"Adam Courtois, Samantha Livingston, Yan Xiaonan, and Otto Wagner, please report to the martial arts field behind building #5. I repeat, Adam Courtois, Samantha Livingston, Yan Xiaonan, and Otto Wagner, please report to the martial arts field behind building #5." A female voice spoke over the loudspeaker.
Samantha Livington was Sam's full government name, but Sam said she didn't like people calling her Samantha and instead asked people to call her by her nickname, Sam.
As for the other two people named on the loudspeaker, Adam had met one of them before but not the other.
Those two were the other two students at the half-step Martial Apprentice Realm.
The former was the one he did know. Yan Xiaonan was a young Asian girl who was actually the daughter of Mr. Yan, his usual shopkeeper, and the person he bought medicinal ingredients from.
However, Adam only knew her through her father and nothing else.
She was extremely shy and antisocial. The only person she ever talked to was Sam, and even then, Sam forced it. Yan Xiaonan never wished to speak back but was forced by the dim-witted class president to do so.
Adam had also tried to talk to the girl, but he could understand social cues, and after receiving constant, shy headshakes, he stopped.
The second person, though, Otto Wagner, was someone Adam only knew of and had not seen. Apparently, the boy never actually came to school and was instead only registered as a student in form.
Like Sam, Otto was the only child of an extremely powerful and famous military man. However, unlike the girl, he was extremely arrogant and haughty.
Otto terrorized his peers, especially the poorer ones, during middle school. During those years, Otto was unanimously recognized as a tyrant, and everyone feared him.
His father, a military man, witnessed all of this and foresaw his son walking down a horrible path. Rather than willingly watch it, he decided to step in.
Deciding to end his son's tyranny, Otto's father pulled his son out of school and forced him to follow him during his military adventures.
That was around two years ago, and since then, Otto has never reappeared at Sagittarius High School.
That was none of Adam's business, though, and after bidding his teacher farewell, Adam made his way to building #5.
Following a 20-minute walk full of silence, Adam reached his destination.
Building #5 was the lecture hall where Professor Singh taught. Behind the building was an extremely expansive area that led into a small man-made forest.
The area wasn't like this, though. Previously, it was just a simple martial field that the school used for tournaments, but as the school became bigger and bigger and students needed more training resources, Principal Smith decided to create a man-made forest that they could train inside.
The forest wasn't too large—only a few square miles in size. Compared with just how large Eagle was, it was nothing. But the early experience a student could get in this forest was worth its weight in gold.
Besides, the forest wasn't a pleasant place to stroll through. It was a training resource, after all.
It didn't have squirrels or pigeons, but rather it contained a wide array of ferocious and brutal animals capable of tearing any mortal man to shreds.
These animals weren't just normal mortal animals, either.
Spiritual qi didn't bring wonders to humans alone. It facilitated the evolution of every form of life, conscious or not.
This included plants, animals, stellar bodies, and everything in between. As long as they were strong enough to accept its blessing, anything could evolve through spiritual qi.
If not for that, Planet Eagle wouldn't have been so large in the first place. A planet could be much larger than Earth. But Planet Eagle wasn't just a little bit larger than the Earth. It was almost the size of Jupiter, more than a thousand times the size of Earth.
Planets of this size before the spiritual qi resurgence also weren't rare, but almost all of them were gas giants, not rocky planets capable of sustaining life.
Planet Eagle became this large only because of the universe's spiritual qi, which enlarged it to its current size.
And the animals living in the forest next to Sagittarius High School also evolved through spiritual qi. This meant that, let alone mortal men, the animals in the forest were even threats to martial artists!
Of course, since this was a high school full of extremely weak students, they weren't too strong. Adam knew from some graduated alumni that the strongest animal in the forest was a wolf, comparable to someone in the Martial Apprentice Realm.
The rest varied in strength from the 1st to the 9th stage of the Body Refining Realm.
Principal Smith found no need to have any stronger monsters in the forest, so he constantly ensured that none of them were too strong.
No student was above the Body Refining Realm, and having a beast in the Martial Apprentice Realm would do nothing but threaten the lives of his students, something Principal Smith would never do.
Arriving at the martial field that acted as a separator between the forest and building #5, Adam could see four figures already there waiting for him. Two were sitting lazily on the ground, uncaring about their appearance, while the other two stood.
But even the two standing figures had different postures. One of the standing figures was much taller and had his spine ramrod straight; he looked like a noble soldier waiting for a roll call. The other also stood straight, but he didn't possess the same grit as the other and stood simply.
Getting closer, Adam pinned the two sitting silhouettes to Yan Xiaonan and Sam, with the other two as Principal Smith and another equally tall, if not taller, blonde boy.
'I guess he must be the mystery boy Otto.' Adam thought to himself.
However, since he couldn't be too sure, Adam didn't say anything until he arrived within shouting distance of the group.
The group was divided into three small groups. Principal Smith and Sam were in one, talking to each other. Otto stood silently a few feet away like a robot as he waited for more instructions, and the shy Yan Xiaonan sat a few meters away with her head between her knees.
"You took your sweet time coming here, didn't you, Adam? Were you even in school today?" Principal Smith's joking voice sounded.
"I was on the opposite side of the campus. This was already the fastest I could've come here." Adam protested, even though he could see the smirk on the old man's face.
Principal Smith just laughed in response.
"It doesn't matter much anyway. These idiots weren't doing anything either way. Just come over here, and we can start." Principal Smith spoke as he waved his hand, beckoning Adam over to where he was.
"You too, Xiaonan and Otto. Come closer. These old lungs can't shout like they could back in the day." Principal Smith added as he also beckoned the other two students.
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