NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 2: Bronze body sutra
"Status," Tian said as he looked at the golden screen that appeared in front of his eyes. He made sure that the monk cooking in the kitchen couldn't see his status screen as he looked at the magical text floating in front of him.
[Status]
Name - Wu Tian
Age - 10 years, 5 months
Potential - Low Class - C grade
Cultivation technique - Bronze Body Sutra
Remark - You are as weak as a bug in the grand scheme of things.
As Tian finished reading the status, he was surprised by the fact that there was a "Wu" in front of his name. He didn't know who his biological parents were, but one thing was certain now: his surname was Wu.
The other thing he noticed was that his potential was low class and C grade.
He clicked on the potential tab while ignoring the remark, as every gold finger had at one time looked down on the owner when they were just starting out, and it was nothing new.
As he clicked, there was an explanation about the levels of potential. There were four major levels and four minor levels in the potential of an individual. What this indicated, Wu Tian didn't know, so he left it aside for now.
He then clicked on the next tab, which was Bronze Body Sutra. The tab opened up like a skill tree with only one option visible, which was Bronze Body Sutra.
[Bronze Body Sutra] - Level 0
Progress - 1/100
Limit - Level 5
Evolves at Level 5
[Remark - A basic body-strengthening technique which is able to evolve as there are known evolution paths.]
Tian looked at the progress and found that he had only completed one cycle of the body-strengthening sutra.
"But what is my gold finger? Auto Clicker? What does it mean? How do I even use this Auto Clicker?" he asked as he searched in different tabs but didn't find anything that could explain to him how his gold finger worked.
As he finished eating, he decided to look more into his gold finger later. He left the kitchen and arrived at the prayer hall. Soon, he finished offering the prayer with the head monks and then quickly returned to his training. As he started performing the moves, he was excited and wanted to quickly finish the cycle of Bronze Body Sutra to go research his gold finger when the golden prompt appeared.
[Auto Clicker can be used - Bronze Body Sutra]
There was a small button with a cursor icon at the bottom. Tian, who was in the middle of his cycle, pressed the button. Soon he felt that his body was moving on its own. His body, without his control, followed the movements and exercises as per Bronze Body Sutra. It was even a pitch-perfect version of the Bronze Body Sutra as described in the book. He felt the intense heat in different muscles as described in the book, and then he also felt his muscles groan and make crackling noises when he performed certain moves.
It was as if he was simply a robot and was doing the repetitive moves again and again. It was painful, but he was able to continue until the third time, where he felt as if his body was reaching its limit today. Just like any exercise, Bronze Body Sutra also relied on the principle of breaking and healing cycles. So, he needed some time to heal before he could continue again. He stopped the exercise after completing the fourth cycle.
Tian sat down, panting, as he felt as if he had just come out of a washing machine. His muscles strained to the extreme, his body radiating heat and releasing faint steam as he was sweating profusely. He looked up to see his senior brother Chen walking towards him as he slowly stood up and bowed to the monk.
"What's the matter, Tian? Why are you already tired today?" Chen asked as he noticed the clearly visible sweat on Tian's face and the red, strained muscles of his arms and legs.
Tian looked at his senior brother as he answered while barely managing to stand straight as his body was sore all over. "Brother, I think I am hungry again. This body-strengthening sutra is too fierce. I barely did four cycles, and I am already this tired."
The senior brother Chen checked his hands and then the muscles of his arms as he nodded in approval. "You successfully completed the cycles, and that's why most of your body's energy is used up. That is why you are feeling hungry. But there is still some time until food is ready, so why don't you go and get some rest? I will tell the monks in the kitchen to add more to your food portion since you are performing so well," he said as he patted Tian's head and smiled.
Tian nodded as he bowed and left for his bedroom. This was a small wooden room where multiple young monks slept, and in a corner, the smallest bed was allocated to the youngest person in the room, which was Tian. He soon lay down on the bed as he looked at the golden interface again.
[Bronze Body Sutra] - Level 0
Progress - 5/100
Limit - Level 5
Evolves at Level 5
[Remark - A basic body-strengthening technique which is able to evolve as there are known evolution paths.]
There was additional progress in his cultivation sutra. He estimated that he should not perform more than six or seven moves in a single day, as the monks didn't have enough food to eat, and he would also feel sore all over his body, which would result in him not being able to do other daily tasks at all. Although he could rely on Brother Chen right now for support, he didn't want to give him more trouble.
Chen was the person who took care of him since he was young and was like a real elder brother to him. Tian would always listen to him and do whatever he said without complaining.
Chen was also the person who was responsible for teaching basic martial arts to the children and teenage monks. Tian felt that there was already too much on Chen's plate, so he didn't want to bother his senior brother with his growing food problem.
"It seems like I would have to sneak out to hunt and eat... This much food won't be enough for me... And I would also need a strong medicine for the soreness all over my body," he said as he formulated a plan in his head to later sneak out of the temple and procure some food. Normally, the monks would take a good 10 to 12 years to complete the Bronze Body Sutra as they would at most complete one or, if lucky, two successful cycles per day. Looking at the speed at which he was cultivating, Tian estimated that he would complete the Bronze Body Sutra's first level in about 15 to 20 days. This speed was monstrous, and he would have to eat a year's worth of food to provide his body the necessary energy to complete strengthening his body.
Tian put the matter of food aside for now and focused his attention on his gold finger. "I can use Auto Clicker on Bronze Body Sutra, but I am also practicing Wood Breaking Fist Art. So why didn't the prompt appear for it? Maybe it's because I need to perform the technique perfectly at least once to qualify to use Auto Clicker on the technique," he speculated with a smile, getting many ideas from this.
"Hmm... maybe I should try to perform Wood Breaking Fist Art next time and try to throw at least one perfect punch to qualify to use Auto Clicker for the technique."