“The bandits’ groups should be my first target, they are the perfect materials for the ritual,” Zatiel’s eyes were cold as he pictures the future of his target.

“My body is too weak. If I want to complete my goal safely and fast, I need to improve it”

The normal stat value of a grown man was of 1, so Zatiel’s body was barely stronger than an average person. Of course, he was only sixteen and was in no way athletic, but thankfully, the improvement in the Spirit Force produces a small but still useful overall improvement in the body.

” A.I. Chip, show me the best ways I can enhance my body fast”. Zatiel commanded.

Several options were shown, Zatiel reviews them and finally decides to use a Breathing technique.

Breathing techniques are ways used by the soldiers of the mortal kingdoms to enhance their physical abilities and those that excel on them are given the title of a Warrior. Although it will never give the ability to defeat a true Magus, If a Warrior takes an apprentice by surprise, he can strike a fatal blow before the apprentice can even react.

When Zatiel entered the tower, he was given a meditation technique and a breathing technique. Although the spirit force is much more important to most apprentices than their physical attributes, having a strong body not only reduces fatigue but also diminishes the time the body needs to sleep, giving more time for other tasks.

Although using the breathing technique was tempting in the beginning, Zatiel’s improvement in his spirit force was very low, so he focused all his time on his meditation technique.

Breathing techniques generally use a set of movements and a way of breathing to enhance the vital energy in the body. Although some give the user the ability to use some kind of spells like fire and lightning, they are nothing more than parlor tricks before a true spell used by an apprentice. So the breathing technique that is used in the tower just improves the abilities of the body and shows a set of moves useful in combat.

As Zatiel was going through the information, something occurred to him, ‘if the goal of the technique was improving the vital energy of the user, why not use it in combination with Death Touch?’

“A.I. Chip, is there a way to combine Death touch and the breathing technique?”

[Bip… Calculating data, using a virtual module to experiment.

Estimated time to result in 2 hours.]

“That’s slow! The computation abilities of the A.I. Chip is connected to my soul, the stronger I am, the faster it is. Expecting it to be as fast as my previous life is not realistic. Well, I suppose there is no other thing to do but wait, it is not like I can move in my current condition.”

Although his condition has improved tremendously using Death touch, it still will take a long time for him to be fully healed.

After two hours the A.I. Chip finally gave the result.

[Improved breathing technique: Use the life force of other individuals to enhance that of the user. Only useful in the initial stages of body strengthening.]

“Good, transfer the way of using it directly to my brain and start immediately”

The information was very little so Zatiel just felt an electric current in his brain and he learned immediately how to use the technique. Without wasting time, he starts to use the technique right away, using part of the life force of the tree to heal his injuries and a part of it to improve his body.

…

Two days later a massive crash was heard in the forest as a huge tree fell. The tree that once was full of life now was rotten inside and was so soft that it could be ripped to pieces easily with bare hands.

Zatiel was beside the tree, but he was very different when compared to the bloody person that was there a few days ago. Not only have his injuries completely healed, but his body was now 10 cm taller, reaching 1.8m in height, and under his robe, you could appreciate his well-developed body.

“A.I. Chip, show my statistics”

[Bip…

Strength: 2.1

Physique: 2.7

Speed: 1.9

Spirit Force: 4]

“Good, although the growth was very big, it will be reduced considerably as my body becomes stronger, but it does not matter since after the ritual is completed, I will have a more efficient way of improving it”

Although it does not seem much, having 2 points in Physique is not so simple as being twice as powerful as a person with 1 point, as the improvement is exponential. For example, with his current physique if Zatiel finds himself with the same wound that threatened his life just 2 days ago, now he will just need to rest for a half a day to heal it completely.

“I am currently in the periphery of the Grey swamp, most of the bandit groups take refuge in this place and don’t dare to enter further inside due to the fear of stronger magical creatures”.

“A.I. Chip scan my surroundings and let me know the moment you find any clue of humans”

After giving the order, Zatiel begins to tour the swamp. Now with his 1.9 Speed, he was running almost 3 times as fast an Olympic medalist, hence it didn’t take long for him to find his first clue, a set of footprints, although whoever left them behind tried to erase it, with the help of the chip, finding the place where he was headed was easy.

After running a little more than 5 kilometers he found what looks like a camp, with a hundred tents give or take. There were lookouts in the trees and traps surrounding the entire place.

Of course to Zatiel this was no more than a child’s game.

“This should be a relative big bandit camp, I can’t enter directly or else they could surround me, and I will be in trouble if that happens, besides it looks like there is someone strong in this place”

Zatiel looks to the center of the camp where a huge tent was located. Whoever was there, he certainly had a high concentration of energy on his body, if it is vital or natural energy, he didn’t know at this moment.

“I need to prepare some things before starting,” Zatiel thought as he left the bandit camp