Sean frowns he looks at Reina. "What the hell? I thought I told you that your hands aren't suited for flicker jabs."
Reina smiles sheepishly, according to him, she can use jab and her martial arts to chain a combo.
Also, her legs are actually quite long and flexible, perfect for a martial art known as taekwondo.
If she can combined her martial arts with what he had thought, not many in the same rank would be able to defeat her.
His martial arts is considered mundane compared to the martial arts of this world because they lack the active usage of vital force but they can still be a force to be feared if they can assist powerful martial arts.
"Your punch is too weak, the power of your back might not be strong enough to support your hands."
"Your foundation is quite lacking, it seems that you had used too much pills to ascend."
"When you punch, use your feet to deliver your entire power."
Wanting to repay the Black Ape Dojo, he had been acting as a instructor all this time.
Surprisingly, those that followed his advice actually grew stronger.
Unlike others, he wasn't only focused at one's martial art skills but at their physical condition.
"Thank you, senior brother Sean!" All of them bows to him after their daily training.
"Reina, it seems that you had been training taekwondo all this time, I can see that your dash is much faster than before and your movement is with more grace." He complimented.
"Yes, to think that I'm actually a natural in feet techniques rather than hands." She can't help but smile wryly.
"And so? As long as you combine this dojo's martial arts and some movement or kick techniques, you can still obtain benefits from both worlds."
Reina's pet is a juvenile Devil Ape, a mystique creature known for their ferocity and strength.
Rumor says it that it's a descendant of her father's Devil Ape.
"I won't stop training, especially now that the person I defeated once before is stronger than me." It only took Sean days to surpass her level.
She might not know what exact level he is but from what she heard, he's moments away from becoming bronze-muscle rank.
"Why am I even here? I'm not even a martial artist yet!" One person was grumbling as he looks at his hand.
"I don't care, you're going to keep coming to this dojo until I say so." Sean rudely said.
This person is the very same person that he grabbed amongst the guards.
His best friend, after being rescued by him, he had been calling him all this time to hangout with his family.
Sean directly brought him back to the Black Ape Dojo and let him join under his request.
"By the way, where are you guys going to move after you obtained the federation's compensation?"
"Actually, we're trying to find a house near the Black Ape Dojo that's available, according to mom, I shouldn't waste my time in school anymore and focus on martial arts instead."
Sean shakes his head. "Don't forgo going to school, I heard from the reliable source that some drastic changes are going to appear in the school curriculum which will mainly affect your training class."
"Really!? That would be great!" Nurturing a martial artist is not easy, the amount of food they had to consume in order to continue their training is quite large for a normal family.
"Yes, so don't worry, I'll test your little sister's potential, if I find that she has some talent, I'll invest in her."
Hearing this, his friend looks at him guiltily.
Seeing his expression, he can't help but laugh out.
The two of them were leaving the stage but everyone's attention is still on them.
The gaze they have towards Sean is admiration while for his friend, it's envy.
"Tsu, let's go hunt for a new house!" He shouts as he returns back to his private training room.
"Wow, now that you're a celebrity, you're now calling my mom in her name." Hina looks at her with her hands on her hips.
This was actually a revenge for his aunt, she states that she's embarrassed being called his aunt even though she felt that she didn't help him that much and is actually dragging him down.
Since she doesn't like the title aunt, he's been calling her by her name all this, embarrassing her.
"Who's fault do you think it is, big sister?" Yana knowing the truth looks at her mother with a teasing smile.
"This fellow treats us as a family and you think that he would see you as a burden?" Hina added as both daughters looks at their mom with teasing smiles.
"You guys just grew older and now ganging up against me!" She complains but inwardly she's happy that Sean sees her as an important person in his life.
"Let's go guys, we'll search for a home that isn't far from the federation, once I become a mercenary, I might be staying at the outside for quite some time."
The girls already knew this and they had prepared themselves, fortunately, he promised that he would definitely return safely.
"Uhm, it seems that my path of becoming a chemist is quite fast, I don't know why but my experience as a cook helps me in my experiments." Tsu shared.
She now regards the young man as the head of the family and her pillar of support.
With him around, she can't help but feel more carefree and she starts smiling more.
Meanwhile, her two daughters are looking at the two with narrowed eyes.
Sean not knowing how it felt to have a loving and caring parents, together with his non-existent intimate female interaction doesn't know how to properly control boundaries.
Tsu, who's disposition is quite docile and clingy towards the one she relies on would unconsciously act like a maiden.
With the two locking hands while walking and chatting, they don't look your typical aunt and nephew.
"You know, the two of you are really starting to bug us." Hina suddenly speaks.
Yana nods in agreement, she doesn't know why but she dislike the fact that the two acts like it was natural.
"What?" Both of them asks with a blank expression, causing Hina to nearly trip and fall.
Yana puts her hand on her forehead and shakes her head.
"Are you still trying to become a martial artist? I think that you should seek other horizons, look at Tsu, she's now aspiring to become an alchemist."
"Yeah, I know, in fact, my obsession on becoming a martial artist has waned a little, I think that becoming a mystique creature planner is great." Hina added, her voice quite small.
"Hahaha! That's great! Don't worry about the expenses for your early studies, I can still afford to buy some books for the two of you." Sean just laughs it off.
With the hunting rate of both him and Wuk, earning one gold coin a day is quite possible, now that the latter is now on the verge of becoming a bronze tier, together with the fact that they're going to join a mercenary group, money will be the least of his worries.
It's the resources that he had to worry about, high ranking resources or even rare bronze class items requires blood crystals as compensation.
Sean knows that those of power knows how to create blood crystals and it must have some relations with the body of mystique creatures hunted at the outside.
Leaving the dojo, Sean and Yana were in disguise, the two of them can't be seen in public or they're going to be swarmed by adoring fans and subscribers.
Yana's channel has blown up, even surpassing the view of the gyaru that filmed Sean.
The two of them are too famous to just casually walk in the street.
"What do you think of this?" Arriving at a large building that looks more like an apartment than a house, Sean turns to Tsu and asks.
Instantly the three girls shakes their heads, first, they rather like a backyard, secondly, this building is too big just for their family and lastly, it's going to be a hassle maintaining it.
"Then how about this one?" Both Hina and Yana immediately chops at his head for bringing them to a house that looks like it's haunted.
"What about this one?" He asks as looks at the large destroyed land.
This was caused by a combined attack of insect monsters capable of wielding elemental energy.
The people living on this plot of land was sadly killed.
"I like this place, not that far from the federation and quite close to the marketplace." Sean mutters.
He then thought about something and looks at the girls with shining eyes.
"Why don't we continue to stay at the Black Ape Dojo? I'm not telling to stay there for a long time, just long enough for me to build a house in this place."
He decided that after their house is built on this plot of land, he'll sign a contract with a mystique creature that can manipulate earth or earth element.
They returned back to the Black Ape Dojo, they still need to talk about what design they should pick.
Sean also have to save enough money to build their dream house, with how fast construction is in this world, it won't take years to build their dream house.
Some powers even have martial artists as construction workers, of course, the majority of these powers are under the federation's control.
This was an unspoken rule and not many dared to compete with the federation.
With their future plans laid out, the family are finally on track of what they wanted.
They spent the next two days maintaining a routine of studying and training.
Sean's reputation inside the dojo was actually rising, it's because almost all the people he taught that hadn't formed their vital force had broken through.
13 people! All becoming a martial artists, this shocked everyone, including Sean himself.
"For nth time, I told you, I don't know how! I just trained them based on their physique and they all just became martial artists." Sean was now face to face with all the instructors, hall masters and Zack himself.
"Once, I might think it was just luck, twice I can still reluctantly chalk it up to coincidence but more than ten people!?" Zack looks at him speechless.
"You should know that I also just recently broken through, how can I be called a master in turning people into martial artists!? If I was, I would transform all my family into martial artists." He shakes his head.
In fact, he's merely following his intuition and enlightenment from learning techniques and skills from the system.
His understanding of the martial dao is different from the people of this world, after all, his own realm is different from them.
"Okay but still, please continue teaching at our dojo, you're a valued instructor of this establishment." An old man suddenly spoke.
Everyone turns to him, their expression turns strange.
Iron even snorts, trying to hide laughter, unfortunately for him, in such a quiet room, his reaction immediately gathers everyone's reaction.
"Sorry, I'm sorry grand elder, it's just, Sean is technically not a instructor of this dojo but a disciple under the Gold Family's endorsement.
"In fact, from my knowledge, he wasn't paid to train those people, he just did in order to repay the dojo's support towards him and his family." Iron added.
The old man was now glaring at Zack, feeling embarrassed, the latter clears his throat.
"I promised my cousin that I wouldn't take you from him, I shouldn't have agreed to that promise." Zack was feeling bitter.
It's because of Sean's status as a Spiritual Tamer that made him hesitant in training him.
Unfortunately, he didn't know just how incredible Sean's talent is towards martial arts, if he did, he would've fight for him.
Suddenly, the door was destroyed by something and Harold enters with a gloomy face.
"What are all going to our family's newest recruit?" Even though his words directed to everyone, his attention settled only on his cousin.
"We're just discussing something, you don't need to react so violently." Zack said with a sense of guilt.
"Harold, young boy, can you give-" The old man was about to ask something when Harold raised his hand.
"Don't treat me like Zack! I don't have any debt towards you and doesn't care about your request, Sean is our rising star, one that's going to be at least a silver rank Spiritual Tamer."
He glares at the old man before grabbing Sean and leaving.
The sudden event caused everyone to become silent once again.
Sean was surprised on how forceful Harold acts today, it's just not like him.
"Sorry you have to see that, unfortunately, I can't just let those greedy b*stards to just take you." Harold can only apologize to him.
"You know, you don't need to do that, after, my family is still living here." He can't help but say.
"Don't worry about them, I heard that you wanted to build a house in some plot of land that you chose, my men are already building your home, it won't take long, probably only a month for your home to be complete."
Sean's eyes widens in disbelief, why is everyone actually making decisions without even his agreement.
"Your family is now staying at the mansion, actually, your sister Hina has stayed with us before." He added.
Sean's eyebrow is twitching, it seems that Harold's reaction is too over the top.
Seeing him like this, Harold can't help but shake his head. "You don't know how precious you are."
"Age and strength is the trait that determines potential and it seems that yours doesn't only limit to gold rank."
Harold looks at him, dead in the eyes and says. "You have signed a contract with two mystique creatures but can still sign a contract with another one, can't you?"
He's surprised that he had predicted this but he's slightly wrong, he can't only sigh a contract with one more mystique creature, he can sign a contract with three more.
"The more contracts you have, the greater the burden it is for your soul but it's worth it, once you become a gold ranker, you would develop a core."
He doesn't know this and listens carefully, both of them enters the armoured vehicle that looks like limo.
"The core is important for your future path and the size, quality and completeness of your core is related to your spiritual power, soul strength, martial arts and number of contracts."
Sean's seems to have an easy time achieving success in all four.
"You can create an inner world and this world can manifest itself once you become an innate ranker, you can say that your core is like an egg and the world you will create is the creature that hatches from that egg."
This is similar and yet different from Beast World.
Beast World is a miniature world not a place cultivated by breaking one's core.
"Right now, the entire Gold Family decided that you're going to be a guest elder of the family."
Sean agrees without hesitation, he wishes to repay the small debt of gratitude he owe to the Gold Family.
Arriving at the mansion, they were given a small house, the mansion's estate is quite large and can house dozens of small houses that can fit 7 or 8 people without feeling stuffed and suffocated.
"Do you want to visit your family first?" Harold asks.
He nods his head, he now realized that Harold seems to be obsessed with the innate rank.
He doesn't know why but he doesn't dare to ask, it might be very important.
Arriving at their new home, he looks at the number of the door and looks at the car.
Seeing the driver nodding his head, he finally knocks on the door.
"Coming!" Hina's voice can be heard inside the house.
Upon seeing him, her eyes lights up as she throws herself to him, she doesn't want to anyone to see how pathetic she looks right.
She thought they were kidnapped when they brought here, when she saw her sister and mother being captured, she was helpless to do anything.
Seeing her like this, Sean realized that he can't just leave them without protection.
He decided to contract a mystique creature that is both of the earth element and can serve as guards for the three girls.
'If only they can become martial artist.' He thought with regret.
He then shared to them what Harold told him, when they heard that the Gold Family will build a house for them as an advance payment for his service, all of them were shocked.
"Don't underestimate just how much money the top powers of this city holds, if it weren't for the fact that this city is now lacking in population, they would have prospered greatly."
Just being able to hunt bronze tiers has already made him rich in the eyes of civilians, if that's the case, he can't imagine just how vast the difference between him and a top power is.
"Hmm? Somebody's knocking? Is it our new neighbor?" He knows that silver-bone rankers of the Gold Family also have their own house.
"Nima!" When Hina opens the door, she saw her bestfriend and the two hugs each other immediately.
"I'm so sorry, it's all my d*mn father's fault!" Nima was furious at her father but knowing the reason why he acted like this, she can only sigh.
She looks at Sean and start scratching his hand gently.
Knowing this gestures, he stands up and smiles. "It seems that sir Harold has something to tell me, I'll be going everyone."
When they're finally outside, Nima looks at him with hesitation.
"You can tell what's in your mind, you're Hina's bestfriend and also my friend."
With his soothing voice and sincere eyes, she finally decided to share a secret with him.
"The reason why father had become obsessed with you is because of a treasure he obtained during the previous portal break."
He knows that portal break is related to secret realms or entrance to other worlds, many treasures can be obtained there.
"The treasure he obtained came with a mysterious technique that develops one's spiritual power, improving one soul strength." Sean was shocked when he heard this.
"Unfortunately, to activate the treasure, in this world, one needs an assistance from a bonafide innate ranker."
"This still doesn't answer why he's particularly obsessed with me, shouldn't he be asking help from your uncle, dojo master Zack?"
"We obtained the requirements to become a innate ranker from the city lord."
Sean's eyes widens, she turns to Nima, excitedly waiting for her to say the requirements.
"First, because of some mysterious circumstances of this world, only those that had managed to sign a contract with at least five mystique creatures are eligible."
This requirement immediately taken out a lot of rankers off the list.
He now realized why Harold don't want to rely on Zack, others can still vie for the innate realm if they can strengthen their soul enough to not capsized from five contracts.
Unfortunately, Zack's first partner was killed in the past portal break, instantly preventing him from reaching the innate realm.
"The core must be strong enough to uphold the ascension, the soul must not have any major flaws and one's vitality force should be refined."
Each are achievable, it seems that only the first requirement is what preventing the majority of gold rankers from reaching innate realm.
"Since I managed to sign a contract with two mystique creatures at the iron-skin rank, I have the possibility of reaching innate realm?" He asks.
She nods her head, she turns to him and says. "If there are a hundred innate rankers, ninety of them or probably higher are Spiritual Tamer."
Sean freezes, he had always wondered why Spiritual Tamer is considers so precious.
Is it because they are rare? Maybe, is it the ability to have one or two more mystique creatures compared to normal person, perhaps.
He felt that compared to nurturing one, the federation should focus on finding a better method to create martial artists.
It's actually because of this, it seems that the importance of a innate ranker is much greater than he thought.
"Don't worry, if I truly become an innate, I will help your father."
She nods her head. "It will also a closure not only for him but for me too, the day when mom died, father was exploring the secret realm."
She knows her father is obsessed with the treasure because he lost his beloved in pursuing it and he can't even use it.
The blow was too much for him, he felt he wasted his entire life and the life of his family in pursuing his path.
"I think you should talk to your father during all this time." Sean's expression changes.
He instantly predicted what would happen if he successfully activates the treasure.
Wether it's godlike or trash, there's only one future that Harold will take.
S**cide, he's actually thinking of it, the only reason why he didn't immediately do this is because of the treasure and Nima.
The former was useless at the moment and the latter blames him for the death of her mother.
Both are pushing him to the edge, no wonder he still hasn't reached gold-veined rank all this time.
Those that harbors obsession and demon in one's hard has a difficult time reaching gold rank.
He looks at his friend and sees that she's unaware about her father's mentality.
He wants to warn her but it might make her feel guilty, it seems that he can only try to persuade Harold not to do it when the time came.
At the mansion, he was brought to the guestroom and there, he meets his future teammates.
A silver-bone ranker called Steel Plate in the hunter community and ten bronze-muscle rankers which all have high probably of becoming silver-bone rankers.
'They might be an elite group nurtured by the Gold Family since their youth.' He thought.
The oldest amongst them is actually the silver-bone ranker but considering the life age of martial artists in this world, this person probably has a couple more decades left in him.
"Let me introduce you-" Before Harold can complete his sentence, the bronze-muscle rankers swarms towards him.
"I saw you in the battlefield last week!"
"I watch your stream in my sister's phone, you're so cool back then!"
"You killed more insects than all of us combined."
The silver-bone ranker suddenly speaks but his words shocked everyone present.
"I still haven't thanked you for helping our group back then."
Nima glares at him. "You said that you just went there to investigate!"
Sean looks at her with pleading eyes. "Please don't tell the girls about this, I don't want them to worry."
"Family head, is he going to be our new team member?" Asks the silver-bone ranker.
Harold nods his head causing the guy to laugh out loud.
"With that fox of yours, it will be easier dealing with silver tiers, our caravan is going to thrive!"
Everyone was speechless, they know Sean is quite strong but this doesn't meant that they can walk sideways against silver tiers.
"Don't worry, as long as we don't encounter mystique creatures with tough bodies, we can kill them with his help." The silver-bone ranker confidently said.
"Not every silver tiers are like the insect race, almost all of them have incredibly tough bodies and passive regeneration." Sean shakes his head, not that optimistic.
"Why don't you guys go together to attend the celebratory feast tomorrow? Spend this day getting to know each other."
Harold was relieved to see Sean being so well liked, this put his mind at ease.
For Sean, the entire day passed by with a heavy toll in his head.
Harold became overprotective of him, trying to claim him all for his own, meeting new teammates that are too enthusiastic towards him.
He immediately falls asleep once he went back to their new house.
The girls seeing his condition didn't wake him up.
Sleeping for three hours, he recovers from his mental fatigue.
Without alarming everyone, he quickly went out of the estate.
It took some time with how guarded the estate was.
If he didn't spent all his time hunting at the outside, he would've been discovered.
'A stealth technique, I wonder if I can learn one.' He thought.
The system is no longer pushing him to create more skills and only waiting for him to sign a contract with another mystique creature.
Meanwhile, in a room full of camera multiple people were watching a figure in a black cloak leaving the estate.
"Boss, this is the fifth time a figure like this appears inside the estate." One of the guards complains.
"What can we do, we tried to capture a couple of them, only for some of our colleagues to be killed!" The head captain roars.
"The Gold Family won't take this lying down, it's been a month since the last appearance of this group."
Sean doesn't know that he was mistaken for a spy that the Gold Family were investigating.
He's quite experienced in hiding his presence but he's forgotten that humanity hasn't only progressed in terms of martial arts and they don't only rely on this to survive.
"Nameless Fighter! You're finally here! Your requested item is here." A clerk presents to him a white sparkling stone.
Seeing this, Sean was extremely excited, the Gluttonous Carp isn't available in this city but maybe it is in the other cities, for now, he has to continue earning FP if he wants to obtain another one of this.
A spirit stone!
Quickly leaving the federation, he returns to the estate much to the dismay of the guards.
He's too slippery and they didn't see where he went when he reaches the location where the security camera isn't accessible.
With the spirit stone in hand, Sean excitedly summons Wuk and Jasmine.
Wuk was staying inside Beast World while Jasmine was cultivating on the roof.
Wuk was immediately drawn to the spirit stone, instinctively, he craves it.
Sean didn't tease him and throws it to him. Wuk catches it.
The spirit stone suddenly starts flashing with intense light before slowly dimming.
Once the spirit stone turns into a normal stone, Sean takes it from him and throws it inside Beast World.
He then gave him a blood crystal. Wuk didn't absorb it like he did on the spirit stone but swallows the crystal.
[Bronze Tier Breakthrough: Increase one trait of the mystique creature.
Requirements: (1) Iron Tier 10; (2) One blood crystal; (3) One spirit stone of at least low tier.
All requirements are met... Proceeding to breakthrough.]
Wuk flashes back into Beast World, he falls into deep sleep.
[24:00:00]
A timer appears on Sean's mind, he didn't expect this, it seems that he needs to wait for one day for Wuk to complete his breakthrough.
He's only left with Jasmine, it seems that she's only lacking in terms of vitality but he doesn't know what level she would need to reach to accomplish an evolution.
The next day, everyone starts preparing for the city lord's banquet.
Sean was forced to wear formal clothes which irritates him slightly.
"Don't worry, I'll steal some good food for the two of us." He whispers to Hina.
Now realizing that this cousin of hers has a knack for eating, the two of them had been bonding with food.
"Sean, the city lord wants to honor your contribution and you'll be in seat with the silver rankers present in the banquet." Harold suddenly said.
Sean freezes, he wants to socialize with other hunters in order to integrate himself to the mercenary circle, he didn't expect that the city lord would actually do this.
Unfortunately, he can't refuse, he can only smile and went with Steel Plate.
*Sigh* "What am I going to do? Why am I in the same group as you veterans?" He grumbles.
"Just say that you don't want to hangout with us old folks." Steel Plate jokes, too bad for him, Sean looks at him, dead in the eyes and nodded.
The limo became silent, Zack and Nima were speechless of Sean's forthrightness.
"Can I leave after the city lord introduce me? I don't think I like staying around such distinguish martial artists." He turns to Harold with pleading eyes.
"No!" Nima and Steel Plate says at the same time.
"I think knowing and befriending the silver rankers in the event is quite beneficial." Harold coughs slightly.
Sean feels tired already.
Arriving at the city lord's estate, they were greeted by some of the federation's fighter.
Sean even saw some familiar faces amongst the crowds.
"This must be Sean, I saw what you did back then and I couldn't deny that I was moved by your heroism." A seductive woman with a shapely figure approaches Sean and puts a hand on his chin.
Sean blushes, his hormones aren't controllable, especially in his age and now that he became a martial artists, his demand over that department also increases.
He looks at Harold for help.
He doesn't know that Nima who was watching this was pissed off, she clenches her hands as she stares at the woman.
"Lady Aqua, please don't tease the young boy, he doesn't have any experience in that department yet." Harold doesn't want to lose Sean and immediately intervenes.
He knows that many people in this banquet are actually aiming to get their hands on this city's number one prodigy.
An iron-skin ranker with an iron tier pet but is unmatched at bronze rank, fortunately, no one knows he's a spiritual tamer or else the demand for him would be greater.