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Just as Ren expected, he finished the introductory texts that Mikel sent him in just mere hours.

He memorized everything word for word and had completely understood everything that he read.

This didn’t just enrich his knowledge about the human body or prepare him for his uncle’s upcoming exam. It also helped him optimize the results he received when training with the basic combat technique.

With his additional knowledge base, he’s enhanced the quantity and quality of the chakra he could convert using his three energies.

Although it wasn’t much, an increase is an increase. Sooner or later, the advantages will start piling up into something really noticeable.

Ren could seriously ask his uncle to give him the exam now so that he could start his apprenticeship. But Ren ultimately decided against it.

He wasn’t in a rush, and again, his priority was his martial arts training. Learning the clan’s healing arts and medicine was only second to that. That’s why he didn’t rush for the exam. Instead, he used most of his time practicing to feed his chakra seed to nourish his body.

In the Foundation Strength Stage, the goal is to moisturize the practitioner’s whole body with chakra. The more thorough they are, the better.

A common mistake practitioners make in this stage is to just mindlessly and repetitively practice breathing techniques or foundational combat techniques until they reach the stats fitting for those who have reached this stage.

Punch Force: 800 – 1,500 kg

Lifting Strength: 0.8 – 2 tons

Sprint Speed: 10 – 14 m/s (36–50 km/h)

Reaction Time: 120 – 180 ms

Endurance: Can train 6–10 hours daily without collapse

In the novel, this was the stat range of someone within the Foundation Strength Stage. So long as they approach the peak of this range, they immediately conclude that they’re ready for a breakthrough to the next stage.

But that’s wrong. Very wrong.

The stat numbers are just a showcase. It could change, especially since it doesn’t include the bonuses one gets if they have a rare martial physique or above. Relying solely on hitting these numbers to tell whether one was ready to move on to the next step on the ladder was wrong.

The hero’s ’grandpa in the ring’ said so himself. Many martial artists are ruined because of this reliance.

A martial artist must refine themselves from both the inside and the outside.

The goal of the Foundation Strength Stage is to moisturize one’s whole body, with emphasis on the word ’whole,’ with chakra to not only enhance their prowess but also for the targeted enhancement in the later stages.

This was them laying the groundwork for a more detailed and deeper enhancement later. The improvements in raw power, speed, reaction time, etc. come naturally once the initial groundwork is done. There’s no need to chase after it, nor is it an accurate way to measure someone’s actual progress.

Ren, fortunately, knew all of this; that’s why he won’t fall for the same trap.

Besides, he’d hit the ceiling of those numbers pretty soon just by relying on the basic combat technique, not because he had mastered it to perfection, but also because of the stacked bonuses given to him by his Banished Arsenal and Limitless Martial Physique.

Hell, he could easily more than double those numbers and he still wouldn’t be ready yet to break through to the next stage.

The pulses of his chakra seed only happen when it gathers enough chakra from Ren’s practice, and when that chakra goes, it’s not something that Ren can control just yet. Most people at the same stage as him also can’t control the flow of their chakra just yet.

It is very possible, in this stage, for the wisps of his chakra to go to the same spots again and again. This wasn’t because of randomness, though; it’s most likely because that area demanded it more to make sure that part of the practitioner’s body was ready for what they wanted to do.

Once an area is fully moisturized, the chakra will naturally go somewhere else where it’s needed.

Only when this stops happening and the practitioner feels a sense of ’bloatedness’ will it mean that they’re ready for a breakthrough. It means that their chakra couldn’t go anywhere else now and is just gathering around the seed.

The chakra seed won’t reabsorb the chakra it released, so it’s just being wasted there. The only choice left is to move on to the next stage—the Muscle Forging Stage.

For Ren, though, this means that he had to let it overflow. He can’t ’force’ a breakthrough no matter how ’bloated’ he feels. He had to let it happen on its own. That’s one of the requirements for keeping the Limitless Martial Physique.

**

Alex didn’t continue supervising Ren’s training.

The diligence, restraint, and discipline that Ren displayed was more than enough to grant him independence in training. Of course, he was still reminded to focus only on the basic combat technique for now.

This restriction wasn’t because the clan was being stingy or wasn’t trusting him; it’s simply because Ren wasn’t ready to learn the clan’s unique martial arts just yet.

And just like everywhere else, practicing new martial arts needed supervision, especially for beginners like him. It doesn’t matter how trustworthy he was or how fast he produced results. This was non-negotiable for beginners like him.

Ren wasn’t upset; he had completely expected this from the start, and he wasn’t planning on violating the order either.

But just because he couldn’t practice them yet, it doesn’t mean that he’d stay ignorant about them.

Ren still had the Clan Leader’s badge on him, which granted him unlimited access to the clan’s Martial Hall.

Ren would take some time reading there after his morning practices, not only to keep himself educated but also to set expectations for himself.

He had seen the older practitioners around the clan. He clearly remembered how they seemed to be in incredible pain and suffering while they practiced.

Ren already had a guess, and while he didn’t know its name yet, Ren knew that that was the unique martial art of the Banished Arms Clan.

From what he had learned from his observations so far, that combat technique charges one’s chakra into something that causes immense pain to one’s self and even more to the enemy.

The pain was enough to distort the faces of the practitioners who had been using it for a while now, which already proved that it’s not that simple, so one could only imagine what it’d be like for those fighting against them.

Frankly, Ren thought that the technique was a little barbaric.

Sure, it was interesting. Using a combat technique that hurts the user and hurts the target even more sounds cool. But Ren discovered a lot of downsides to that technique with his unparalleled comprehension.

And that is, it leaves the user injured.

The injury won’t be physically obvious, not until it gets to a certain point. The pain inflicted upon the user leaves micro-injuries within the user’s body.

Ones that could be healed yet, but not always completely. At some point, those micro tears and injuries that weren’t healed properly will cause the user’s potential drop.

It’s no wonder that there was a need for supervision. It’s impossible for the clan to not be aware of these kinds of side effects with its long history.

But whether the clan also knew how to completely ensure that they could heal everything properly was still up for debate.

This was something that Ren would have to be on the lookout for.

Actually, this technique made its appearance in the original story. It’s unnamed; the author literally couldn’t be bothered to think of a name for this, but its effects were revealed.

After all, Ren’s original counterpart used the very same technique during his battle with the Hero. Alas, it didn’t amount to much since once the hero knew what to look for, he had already devised a way to counter it.

And his way was to simply not get hit. How can a devious technique like inflicting pain if it doesn’t land? The Hero was more than fast enough to avoid collisions, so he won in the end.

From what Ren could tell, that’s just one of the main weaknesses of this technique. It’s the side effects that are really scary.

Ren was actually already thinking of ways to remedy this problem. This isn’t voluntary; he simply can’t help it since it’s going to be his turn soon, and his unparalleled comprehension won’t let him be at peace knowing that there are many downsides to practicing this technique.

Right now, he thinks that he would rather use other generic techniques. At least those wouldn’t pose risks to his health and potential.

Alas, it’s still too early to decide simply because he hadn’t seen the complete technique just yet.

But just as he was in deep thought, a loud sound suddenly ripped him back to reality.

Weng! Weng! Weng!

Sharp sounds of the alarm echoed loudly across the entire clan compound, and Mikel’s voice immediately followed.

"ALL CLAN MEMBERS, BE ALERT! THERE HAD BEEN A DUNGEON OVERFLOW! FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AND BE SAFE!!"