Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 77

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 77. Galaxy Martial God Hall – First Ranking Tournament (1)

I lay sprawled across the sofa in the Club Room.
“Ugh, I’ve lost all will to live.”
Without access to my inner energy, my body felt as heavy as lead.
During physical training, I’d deliberately refrained from using my inner energy, but the withdrawal from relying on it constantly in daily life was tormenting me.
At my muttering, Cheon So-yeon brought me water and offered comfort.
“Don’t be like that. My vital energy balance is precarious too, so I’ve had to suspend my inner energy cultivation for a while, just like you.”
Cheon So-yeon, who had obtained the enlightenment of Sword King Cheon Ja-su, had experienced a sudden surge in inner energy from a realization her body couldn’t contain.
Rather than being like me—a balloon on the verge of bursting—her state was more like water precariously sloshing at the rim of a cup, but the danger to her vital energy balance remained equally real.
Of course, with her talent, she’d restore balance quickly, while I had a long road ahead.
“Ugh, my mouth tastes bitter.”
“Want some grape juice?”
Cheon So-yeon brought me grape juice, seeing my lack of motivation.
The juice was sweet. But the medicinal tonic was bitter.
The tonics I usually took weren’t this bitter—why was this one so foul?
The reason was simple.
The tonics I normally consumed were formulated for a child’s body and tailored to a child’s palate, while the tonic I was taking now had potent medicinal properties to rapidly fill the void, and it was the kind adults took.
Just because I’d channeled the medicinal properties meant to aid my body’s growth into my dantian didn’t mean the benefits of all the tonics I’d consumed before vanished entirely.
If the body is a building, then tonics are the materials that go into constructing it.
Just because I’d redirected those materials elsewhere didn’t mean the building I’d already constructed disappeared.
Taking this tonic now was like urgently replenishing the building materials I’d accumulated over years.
It was fortunate this happened before my second growth period—otherwise, it would have been troublesome.
After about a year of taking this bitter, tedious tonic, the potential of the medicinal tonics I’d carelessly squandered would be fully restored.
“Why is he like that?”
Cheon Ga-ryeong looked at me with disdain as I lay there listlessly, sucking on grape juice through a straw as if I’d lost the will to live.
Cheon So-yeon answered Cheon Ga-ryeong’s question with an ambiguous smile.
“Something happened.”
“…Did he get scolded a lot because of yesterday?”
“Well… it’s a bit different, but Ji-woo did get scolded quite a bit, didn’t he?”
“My, his parents must be quite strict too.”
Cheon Ga-ryeong still didn’t know that I’d lost my parents.
Well, I had no intention of telling her.
“Strict? Way too strict. Even drinking juice doesn’t help—my mouth still tastes bitter. I don’t want to take medicine.”
“You still have to take it properly. Come on, open up.”
“Aah.”
“Good, that’s the way.”
Cheon So-yeon placed the bitter medicinal tonic into my slack mouth and made me drink water.
“Are you her babysitter?”
At Cheon Ga-ryeong’s remark, Cheon So-yeon smiled.
“Don’t be like that. Ji-woo’s feeling down because of it.”
“But still, is she really a baby?”
“Goo goo, goo goo. I’m a baby, don’t want to take medicine.”
At my response, Cheon Ga-ryeong looked at me with disgust.
“Here, let’s drink some grape juice.”
Cheon So-yeon placed a straw in my mouth. After sucking down the juice, I spoke to Cheon Ga-ryeong and Cheon Gong-hu.
“You two do whatever training you want or learn whatever interests you. The Club operates on complete autonomy, so if you need anything, just tell Teacher Kim Do-hwa, our advisor.”
All the spiritual medicine I was consuming now had been obtained using the Club’s budget.
Thanks to that, I didn’t need to touch the inheritance I’d received.

* * *

As late July approached, summer break began.
Other clubs apparently had training trips scheduled, but I couldn’t even dream of such things since I had to attend supplementary classes by order of the Family Head.
Cheon So-yeon, being of the Heavenly Martial Physique, was still weak and preferred not to travel anywhere during the break.
Club activities during the break amounted to nothing more than individual self-training and learning how to manufacture spiritual medicine.
I didn’t necessarily need to learn it, but since that was the Club’s founding purpose, we regularly invited external instructors from the family’s Pharmaceutical Division, and everyone attended the lectures.
Only I listened intently and was genuinely committed to manufacturing spiritual medicine.
Cheon So-yeon merely acquired the necessary knowledge of medicinal and poisonous herbs, Cheon Ga-ryeong showed no interest in spiritual medicine manufacturing whatsoever, and while Cheon Gong-hu listened diligently, he lacked any real talent for it.
As a result, I had practically become the visiting instructor’s disciple.
After supplementary classes and Club activities ended and school was dismissed, I trained earnestly under Siu.
Occasionally, Riven would ask Siu to convey that these supplementary classes weren’t what she had aimed for, which seemed odd, but I simply acknowledged it and moved on.
With my inner power sealed and focused on physical conditioning, I pondered whether there was any way to shorten the sealing period, and soon recalled the Orc Warrior’s body-hardening technique I’d obtained on the 19th Floor.
I translated the Orc body-hardening technique into Galactic Common Language and showed it to Siu.
“It’s a body-hardening martial art similar to Iron Triple Stance or the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art.”
Iron Triple Stance was a third-rate martial art, while the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art was literally a divine art-tier technique—could they really be grouped together?
Of course, both were Shaolin-based martial arts.
In the current martial world where humanity had ventured into space and realms beyond the natural boundary had been pioneered, only a handful of martial arts could be called “divine arts.”
Many martial arts that had been called divine arts in previous eras had lost their divine art designation.
Slapping the divine art label on anything carelessly could result in lawsuits for fraud or ridicule and mockery.
“Where did you get something like this?”
“Well… the internet?”
At my excuse, Siu’s expression showed surprise.
“A martial art of this caliber should belong to a quite high-level sect, yet it’s circulating on the internet?”
“Well, you know, there are sites where old documents and such get posted. I saw it there and translated it myself.”
“Now that I think about it, I noticed some rather primitive aspects scattered throughout. I suspect it might be a mixture of Mongol or Tartar martial arts from the 1600s and Germanic martial arts from the 1300s.”
That’s the Orc Warrior’s martial art.
…I couldn’t say that. Orcs didn’t exist in this world.
“Is it a good martial art?”
“With some refinements, it’s not a bad external technique. However, I’m planning to teach you external techniques that connect with the martial arts you’re currently learning, so I’d recommend not studying this one. It’s far too antiquated.”
Indeed, the 1600s and 1300s were 3,300 and 3,500 years ago respectively.
The current Galactic Martial Arts World is in the 50th century AD.
“Then when do I start learning that external technique?”
“You’re still too young to master external techniques right now. I’m thinking of starting around middle school, during your second growth period at the earliest. The intensity will be quite weak at first so you won’t be overexerted.”
I felt slightly disappointed at Siu’s words.
Come to think of it, I have regeneration ability—couldn’t I just exercise, regenerate, and exercise again?
After thinking about it briefly, I decided to drop the idea.
If she asked where I learned this regeneration ability, I’d have no explanation.
Siu could ask me to teach her the secret formula of the regeneration technique’s mysterious ability, but this was a superpower with no formula to teach.
“Sigh. So I just have to exercise then?”
“Yes, you’ll just have to exercise.”
Today’s diary entry.
I exercised hard today.
I’ll exercise hard tomorrow too.
Well done~! Stamp of approval!

* * *

As I spent unremarkable days training and exercising, time flew by quickly.
During the break, I went to the Swimming Pool with Cheon So-yeon and visited the Amusement Park again.
Not only with Cheon So-yeon, but Cheon Ga-ryeong and Cheon Gong-hu also played together under the guise of club activities, and by the time school started again, the four of us had naturally formed a group.
Forming a group didn’t change things drastically.
Cheon Ga-ryeong still got along well with the other classmates, and Cheon Gong-hu timidly followed her around.
It was just that the time they spent wandering during breaks decreased slightly, and the time they spent chattering beside Siu and me increased a little.
When the second semester began, news came that one or two students from the adjacent class had started entering the Third-Rate Realm.
It was hardly relevant to me.
I had become a novice who would lose even against Third-Rate Realm cultivators because my inner energy was sealed.
It wasn’t until late December that I realized this was actually relevant to me after all.
In early December, on a cold winter day, Teacher Kim Do-hwa, who knew my inner energy was sealed, called me over and asked.
“Cheon Ji-woo. How are you planning to handle the class ranking tournament?”
“…Excuse me? A ranking tournament?”
That’s right—this ignorant Martial Arts Specialized School divided classes based on martial arts rankings.
The first-year students, divided into Classes 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the time of admission, each grew over the course of a year.
Each class in this school has a minimum of 15 students and a maximum of 20.
During the entrance exam, there weren’t enough students to divide Class 1, so 21 students ended up in one class, but once the next year came, they would definitely be cut down to exactly 20.
Or perhaps they might be cut down to 15-student units for even greater selectivity.
“…Don’t tell me you haven’t prepared a strategy yet?”
“Well… I hadn’t even thought about it.”
When I first enrolled, more than half of Class 2 had only constructed their dantian and hadn’t reached the Third-Rate realm. Now, many of them had stepped into it.
I’d heard that even a few of the students classified in Class 3, those called geniuses, had reached the Third-Rate realm.
With my inner energy sealed as it was now, I’d be lucky to stay in Class 1—I might very well drop to Class 4.
After all, my inner energy was currently sealed, leaving me unable to use martial arts.
“You say your inner energy was temporarily sealed because you consumed the spirit elixir incorrectly, but your true ability is more than sufficient even among fourth-year students. You’re telling me you need to drop from Class 1?”
Kim Do-hwa understood that I’d consumed the spirit elixir incorrectly, causing an imbalance in my core body and sealing my inner energy.
Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong. My dantian had absorbed the latent medicinal properties that my body should have consumed.
“Doesn’t this happen fairly often? What do you usually do in such cases?”
Consuming the spirit elixir incorrectly and creating an imbalance in one’s core body was remarkably common.
“Well, I’ve never seen an imbalance severe enough to require sealing inner energy, so I can’t really say.”
Ah, I see.
Indeed, if the imbalance were severe enough to require sealing inner energy, they would have already suffered qi deviation and been hospitalized long ago—it made sense she had no experience with it.
Direct descendants of the family were more than adequately supplied with spirit elixirs provided by the clan, so they never consumed other types.
“Even with imbalances, teachers like myself would oversee them, and they’d simply participate in the ranking matches. But you….”
Watching Kim Do-hwa trail off, I spoke with a slight pout.
“My physical growth is progressing rapidly, at least.”
“I know. With your original aptitude, such rapid growth shouldn’t be possible—that’s what surprises me.”
Wow, she’s being quite blunt.
But it was natural for Kim Do-hwa to be surprised.
My growth rate had accelerated so much that my ranking, which had been ninth in the class when I enrolled, had climbed to fifth.
One could say it was only a four-place improvement, but my ranking had plummeted to fourteenth during the first semester.
Just before summer break, after gaining an opportunity and my body adapting to my inner energy, my physical growth rate had increased, allowing me to surge from fourteenth to fifth place.
Of course, that same opportunity was the reason my inner energy was sealed now.
“I don’t think the seal will be lifted within this year. It’s possible it might still be sealed by the end of next year.”
At my words, Kim Do-hwa released a deep sigh.
“Sigh… I’ll bring it up at the faculty meeting, at least. But maintaining one’s condition is also a virtue of a martial artist, so you may still have to participate in the ranking matches as is.”
I nodded at those words.
“Then I’ll be in Class 3 or 4 next year. There’s no helping it.”
“You’re giving up that quickly?”
At Kim Do-hwa’s question, I shrugged.
“There’s not much difference between first and second year anyway. If I feel lacking in support, I’ll just tap into the Club’s resources.”
“You’re quite cunning, aren’t you?”
Kim Do-hwa dismissed me with an acknowledgment.
As I recounted the conversation I’d had with Kim Do-hwa while leaving school, Cheon So-yeon’s complexion turned pale.
“Emergency! Special training! Special training!”

(Continued in the next chapter)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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