3 City

<Congratulations, you have broken through to 'Skin Tempering: 1st Realm'>

[Player Name: Yu Ming

Cultivation: Skin Tempering 1st Realm (500 Qi: 100%)

Body: Sun God's Divine Yang Body

Talent: God

Spiritual Roots: 5 elements Yin-Yang roots

Cultivation Method: Starry Sky Qi Absorption Method

Qi: 9

]

"Huh, I need 500 Qi now? That's …" Alex quickly did some calculations in his head, "25 minutes. That's a lot."

"Do I have to use that technique for 25 minutes just to level up once? Isn't that a really bad system? What about later on? Will the time increase again?" he wondered.

"Hmm… I should find some pills to give me more Qi. However, at this rate, I will need 50 of those previous pills just to level up once. That should be harder than just using the ability for 25 minutes.

"Whatever, I will just look around for now. This looks so darn realistic. Maybe I should get rid of the health bar, for now, to let me see more."

Alex walked around the jungle looking at the greenery. He quickly found a small path and took it. Coincidentally, within 5 minutes, he was out of the jungle, looking at a big perimeter of wall, blocking off an entire city in front of him.

He looked to the side of the wall to see a gate with people and carriages lined up near it. There were guards waiting near the gates taking something from the newcomers before letting them in.

'Do I need money?' he wondered. Just then, someone else walked out from the forest. It was a man wearing a yellow robe with green in the linings.

He saw Alex looking around blankly and especially, noticed his plain robes. So he asked, "hello brother, are you new around here?"

Alex looked around with a confused face. 'NPC or player?' he wondered.

"Yes, I just arrived here today, and don't know what to do to get inside," Alex replied.

The man heard that and softly asked, "Are you a player?"

"Yes," Alex said excitedly. 'So he was a player all along huh.'

"Well, just cultivate for an hour or 2. After that, once you breakthrough, you can go hunt some weak monsters in the jungle, and sell their bodies to one of the merchants that always run through here."

"That should get you about 5 or so silver coins, enough to enter the city." The man said.

"Cultivate? What's that?" Alex questioned.

The man looked at him weirdly. "You learned your cultivation method right?" Alex nodded.

"Then, just sit around and meditate. Your cultivation method will kick in on its own," said the man. After that, he bid farewell and left the place.

"Hmm… since I already broke through, I should just go and kill some animal." He walked back to the forest he had just come from. However, it didn't take long for him to find an animal.

The creature he met had a name floating on top of it.

"Woah, it's a level higher than me. Can I even fight it?" the fox was definitely stronger than him. Alex was worried and wondered if he should change his targets.

"I'm only level 1, so there should be a protection mechanic in the game that doesn't let me die, right?" Alex decided to fight the fox.

He quickly opened his weapons panel and equipped his sword. The sword was about 2 meters long in length and was very precious looking.

He tried to go forward, undetected by the fox, but that was all a dream. There were way too many things in the jungle that made noises when one walked.

The fox immediately lunged at him the moment it saw him. Alex tried to swing his sword at the fox, and ended up hitting it right in the face.

The fox whimpered and backed off. An angry look appeared on its face as it started growling. It once more jumped at him.

This time instead of using the sword as a sword, Alex swung it down hard like he was back home chopping woods with an Axe.

"Core? What is that?" he wondered. He took it out from his inventory and looked at it. It was a small reddish-brown sphere that felt a little coarse to the touch.

"Is this like that pill I ate earlier?" he wondered. It looked like it, so he assumed it was. So, without any hesitation, he put the core in his mouth and swallowed it.

"Oh wow, so it was a pill. Maybe I should go find some more of those foxes."

He was already near the city, so he decided not to. Instead, he decided to breakthrough.

He opened his status and as expected, a [Breakthrough] button had appeared in his cultivation line.

He clicked the button.

He was now a level higher. He looked at his status again and realized the [Breakthrough] button was still there. So, he pressed it once more.

He opened his status page once more.

[Player Name: Yu Ming

Cultivation: Skin Tempering 3rd Realm (1500 Qi: 100%)

Body: Sun God's Divine Yang Body

Talent: God

Spiritual Roots: 5 elements Yin-Yang roots

Cultivation Method: Starry Sky Qi Absorption Method

Qi: 509

]

Alex picked up the fox's corpse and walked out of the forest. Along the way, he realized he could put the corpse inside his inventory. And so he did.

He found his way to one of the merchants waiting in line. He read the name, 'Victorious Snow Merchant Group'.

The merchant there traded his corpse for 10 silvers. Alex took it and went to the gate. The gatekeeper asked him for an identification or 2 silvers to enter the city.

Alex didn't have anything that could identify him, so he simply paid the fee and entered.

He tried to log out after entering the city, but the game told him that he wasn't in a very safe place to log out.

Only after renting a room in a tavern did the game tell him that it was safe to log out.