Looking upwards, Victor began to think about his practice again. What he was doing was entirely based on information, and there was hardly any intervention in it. There was no guide to teach him the tricks or explain the changes. He had to figure everything out on his own. He briefly considered asking the village chief for advice, but he quickly dismissed this thought. He had already decided to keep a certain distance from Uncle Muhtar, and this seemed like the most logical decision.
As Victor continued to lie on the ground, he also continued to breathe deeply like a bull. His face was flushed, and his heart was still beating rapidly. Steam was rising from almost his entire body. He knew this was his body's stress response. However, he hadn't expected it to last this long. But as his heart rate remained in this state, it began to slow down.
Therefore, he didn't push himself and remained lying down for another half hour. When he seemed to recover a bit, he slowly got up, but he wouldn't be able to do high-intensity exercise for at least another two or three hours. He would probably forget to practice the basic breathing method for a day.
A few minutes later, the rumbling of his stomach greeted him. The energy from the fruit had completely run out, and now his body needed him to replenish the energy it lacked. Victor shook his head and walked slowly into his house. He took out the mushrooms. He paused for a moment and fried twice as many mushrooms as usual. Once they were ready, he started eating quickly, but he didn't feel full at all when the mushrooms were gone.
Victor gave an understanding look and got up to fry more mushrooms. He fried and ate the same amount four more times before finally feeling full. This was ten times more than he normally ate. However, he wasn't sure if he ate so much just because he had completed the first two stances or because his body had shed so many dead cells. But luckily, he had about five days left until the solstice. At the solstice, he could earn extra money and support his consumption. Otherwise, he didn't know how long his six-month food supply would last.
Uncle Muhtar had told him as he was leaving. Those words were still vividly in his mind. But Victor possessed something no one else did. The canoe in the seed realm was enough to put him a few steps ahead of all the people on this planet, as long as luck continued to be on his side. This pushed him to be full of hope.
Victor got up from eating and took his plate to wash it. But when he picked up the plate, it suddenly shattered into pieces, and Victor found himself staring at the fragments of the wooden plate. He hadn't understood what had happened and looked at the pieces of the plate in astonishment.
However, a short time later, his eyes lit up, and he seemed to understand what it was. When the energy concentration in his blood reached 3%, it meant that his strength had increased by another 300 kilograms, and this power had been gained in a very short time.
The reason it hadn't happened while he was frying mushrooms and why it broke now was probably because his body was very tired and was slowly recovering. Even now, he suspected that the full 300 kilograms of strength hadn't fully manifested but only a small portion was being used as his body recovered slightly. When his body completely released the stress and fatigue, the full 300 kilograms of strength would be added to his body.
Victor felt both joyful and overwhelmed by this situation. The strange fruit had already greatly increased his strength, reaction force, and other bodily functions. Victor had spent time trying to adapt even superficially to that increased physical condition, but he had adapted very little. On top of that, this rapidly increasing power had pulled him behind his superficial level of control. He would have to set aside time for this tomorrow as well and bring himself back to that level. Otherwise, he would continue to break plates as he was doing now. However, these troubles had to be accepted as sweet troubles. After all, the increased power would increase his survival rate and allow him to fight for better resources.
Victor looked at the time. It was already late at night, and Victor needed to sleep. He had had a very full day. Tomorrow, he needed to go to the village grocer. He would buy a few things. He also needed to make sufficient preparations for the solstice.
He forced himself to take a shower and did his best not to break anything with his increased strength. After barely managing to shower, he got into bed. The continued stress in his body and the day's fatigue quickly overwhelmed him and caused him to fall asleep in a short time. Shortly after he got into bed, nothing but the sound of his regular breathing could be heard.
The night passed without incident. When he woke up in the morning, he went out to the garden before taking a shower and started doing the same exercises as yesterday. He had very little time today, and he quickly needed to get used to his strength enough to control himself without breaking things. This was even below superficial control, but time was short.
After training for about half an hour, he finally controlled his strength a little, and he no longer had to worry about breaking things. This control was very little for him. It still needed much more refinement. But for now, it was considered sufficient. He had sweated a little and noticed that his heart was in much better condition than yesterday. However, it still wouldn't fully return to its former state until the evening.
In this way, Victor also confirmed his idea. He could only practice the basic breathing technique once a day, and that too for a certain period. More than that would only bring him burden.
Without lingering any longer, Victor quickly took his shower and fried his mushrooms for breakfast. His plan for today was to go to the grocer, so he postponed his practice until the afternoon. He wanted to do the shopping quickly in the morning because it would be very crowded there around noon, and waiting in line was inevitable. He quickly finished breakfast, left the dishes, and washed his hands.
He went inside and first lifted his bed into the air with both hands. A small protrusion was visible under the wood on the back leg of the bed. He slightly moved the bed aside and lifted that protrusion. There, Victor's hidden pouch of silver and copper coins was located. These silver and copper coins were what ordinary people mostly used.
Contribution points, on the other hand, were used when transacting with the city government. For today's shopping, iron goods were the priority, but these goods were nothing extraordinary. Therefore, silver and copper were sufficient. He would, of course, like to trade extraordinary items, but those were not things he could find in the village. Besides this, he also needed to buy some daily necessities.
He put the silver coins in his space ring. This space ring had come just in time. The space was very suitable for carrying items, and its size was more than sufficient. Therefore, after thinking for a moment, he also moved his important belongings from the house into the space ring. Not because there would be any problems in the house, but it was considered much safer to have important things with him at all times, and since the space in the ring was sufficient, he had moved them without much thought.
Victor left the house and walked towards the village road. The village market was quite the opposite direction for him. The village market was even behind the chief's house. From Victor's house, he had to walk almost the entire length of the village in a straight line. Therefore, he postponed his practice and set off early. This journey took more than an hour. If his body hadn't strengthened and he hadn't completed the first two stances, it would have taken much longer.
When Victor arrived at the village center, the first thing that caught his eye was the two obelisk-like structures at the entrance of the center.
This structure resembled an empty door frame. Its length was around 10 meters. He was always quite surprised when he saw this structure. Because these stones were monolithic and seemed to have been carved in place. Moreover, their weight was no less than a few tons. There were also various strange reliefs on the stone. These reliefs seemed like a strange system, but he couldn't understand it. There was no information about these reliefs in the village. Victor shook his head and ignored the structure. He didn't have enough free time to research history yet.
The village market occupied a very small area behind the center. There were a few grocers in this area. Each of these grocers was also quite specialized. There were those who sold linen clothes, those who sold iron goods, those who sold wooden goods, those who sold mushrooms and herbs, and finally, those who sold household goods and utensils.
They also only sold one type of goods. It was unknown how much tax they paid to the city government. They probably paid half of their earnings as tax. Therefore, the materials sold in these grocers were not considered cheap.
Victor first headed towards the grocer selling household goods. Here, he bought a large woven bag. It was impossible for him to use the storage space in front of people, so this woven bag was quite necessary. An old woman was sitting at the counter of this grocer. She was trying to knit something with a needle and thread in her hand. When she saw Victor, the old woman's eyes lit up, and she began to follow Victor with the corner of her eye.
Victor didn't want to linger too long in this grocer's shop. He immediately spotted a bag he liked and picked it up to inspect it. The bag was quite sturdy. He liked the bag. He took the bag and went to the old woman at the counter. He asked for the price. When the old woman told him the price, he nodded and paid.
Just as he was about to leave the grocer's shop, he spotted a long rope standing on the side and picked it up and paid for it as well. He left the grocer's shop. Afterwards, he began to wander among the grocers to buy many things he thought he would need when he went outside, such as clothes and flints.
He was filling everything he bought into the large bag. When he arrived at the grocer selling iron goods, which he had left for last, the large bag was completely full. He had to spend a few silver coins to complete the small things and finish his shopping, but this money had been well spent.
The grocer selling iron goods was located at the very end compared to the entrance. Without lingering any longer, he went directly into that grocer's shop and was about to say what he wanted. But at that moment, a loud noise erupted from the cave entrance near here in the village, and the door suddenly collapsed.
Victor quickly threw himself outside. From a distance, he saw a large cloud of dust where the door had collapsed and kicked up dust and soil. From behind the door, dozens of creatures resembling bats but much larger than bats began to fly towards the village.
Victor remained rooted to the spot, and his heart began to pound. Watching something he had never even wanted to think about happen live was like watching a horror movie for him.
In the early years, he had always thought that what was happening now could happen, but the passing years had made him feel safe here. However, that nightmare scenario was now unfolding before his eyes.
Victor took deep breaths and tried to calm himself down. He wasn't strong enough, and he needed to calm down quickly and hide himself.