Chapter 227 - Progress
The taxi parked before Adam and he got inside and instructed the driver to take him to his apartment building.
After going so he closed his eyes and entered his mindscape, where he was welcomed by a peerless beauty that was sat in the living room of his apartment.
[I will never get used to seeing such a beauty] thought Adam to himself who, despite spending many hours with her in the mindscape while recovering in the dungeon, still hadn't gotten used to her beauty.
{Adam, you returned already. You just left the dungeon, is there anything you need?} asked Ava, seeing Adam appear before her.
Adam shrugged and said, "Nah, there isn't anything urgent that I need. I was just bored and wanted to see how much I have progressed"
"Show me my status" instructed Adam.
Upon hearing his instruction, Ava waved her arm and before Adam appeared the status screen.
{Ding, the host's current status, including the host's points and gold, is:
Mortal LVL: 43
Dungeon Form LVL: 5
EXP: 0 / 40000
HP: 540 / 540
IESP: 59 / 59
EESP: 59 / 59
Strength: 55
Speed: 89
Intelligence: 59
Resistance: 55
Wisdom: 10 (5+5)
Charisma: 7
Luck: 5
System Points: 126,000
Stat Points: 3
Gold: 1,285,000}
Adam couldn't help but be amazed by how much he had gained in a single day of hunting in the dungeon. He had made it a habit not to check his progress while hunting so that he didn't become lazy or complacent after seeing some results, but he hadn't expected to gain so much in a single day.
He had gained over 10,000,000 dollars in a single night and all of his stats had increased by 2 points. Additionally, he had 3 stat points and 126,000 system points to spend, which was an incredibly large amount considering he had only hunted for a single day.
It was all thanks to his 2 Unique Skill that massively boosted his power and Adam couldn't help but wonder how powerful the skills would become and how powerful he would be if he had even more Unique Skills.
"Congratulations Adam, you have made a big leap in a single day. If you keep up this pace, becoming an Advanced Cultivator / Earth Mortal will be very quick and easy for you to accomplish" praised Ava.
"Thanks, but I am not planning on aiming for the Advanced Cultivation Level. Since the Mortal Cultivation Realm has many cultivation levels, I am assuming that there are higher cultivation realms that surpass even this world's and I won't stop hunting until I reach the pinnacle of power" declared Adam who wanted to find out about all the mysteries of the universe and get the answers to all his questions.
As long as he was progressing and developing he was happy, but he wouldn't be satisfied until he reached the peak.
"What is my current combat power?" asked Adam.
{Your current combat power is IE:64, meaning the average of your stats is of that of a rank 6 Novice Cultivator both internally and externally} answered Ava.
Adam had skills, abilities and high combat prowess, but his power was still subpar and he needed to focus on increasing his cultivation level as quickly as he could to balance out the power of the abilities and skills that he had.
"Ava, what would you advise me to spend my stat points on?" asked Adam.
{I would personally recommend you to increase your speed. You have specialised in speed which is a good specialisation and as long as the rest of your stats are relatively even, it would be best for you to continue to increase your speed} advised Ava.
Adam was already planning to spend the stat points on the Speed stat, but he just wanted to hear Ava's opinion on the matter.
After spending all 3 stat points on speed, Adam relaxed in his apartment within his mindscape as he spoke with Ava and taught her more things about humans and showed her how to act with humans.
Ava enjoyed learning how to be a human and enjoyed spending time with Adam, while Adam was the same and was passing time with the one that was bound to him, felt what he felt and knew everything that he had been through.
Since it was a long ride, Adam spent all of it with Ava and after Ava alerted him that he had arrived at his destination, he left the mindscape and returned to his body.
Paying the taxi driver and giving him some extra money, which wasn't anything to Adam who had earned over 10 million in a single night, Adam left the taxi and looking at his apartment building, had a wide smile on his face.
[I am coming aunt and Chase] said Adam to himself as he headed over to his apartment building from where the taxi had parked, but before he could, a young woman ran over to him.
"Adam, Adam, where is he? What happened?" she exclaimed as she rushed over to him.
Adam had already sensed her coming, but pretended that he hadn't and only after he screamed, did he turn around and face her.
It was Emma and Adam was unsure whether Cole had told her about cultivation and what was going on, so didn't know how to answer her or what to tell her.
He knew that Emma was Cole's pillar and she was the one that stood by him when he felt lonely and abandoned, but just like Adam had left his aunt in the dark about cultivation to protect her, he didn't know if Cole had done the same with Emma.
She rushed over to Adam and grabbed onto his shirt with tears in her eyes and a worried expression.
"Tell me please, you must know" she pleaded.
Adam looked into her eyes and could tell that she knew that Cole had embarked on something dangerous, but he still couldn't tell if she knew about cultivation and didn't want to tell her without Cole's permission.
"Let's go inside, and I am sure that Cole is fine so calm down" reassured her Adam as he gave her a gentle smile and led her into the apartment building.
She was one of his closest friends and his best friend's girlfriend, so it was only right that Adam treated her well, but he also made sure to keep his distance from her and lowered his Charisma stat, not wanting to ruin their relationship.
Seeing Adam's reassuring smile, Emma wiped her eyes and calmed down, then followed Adam into the building.
"How are your studies going?" asked Adam.
"They're fine, but that doesn't matter right now. Cole has been going away for so long these past few months and I don't even know why. He hasn't told me anything, but now he has been gone for a long time without coming back to see me and also hasn't answered my calls or messages" she said as her worry began to return.
Her words showed Adam that she didn't know about cultivation so he wasn't going to say anything that might reveal it to her until Cole was ready to do so, but he understood why she was so worried.
If he was in her position, he would have been the same or even worse, so all he could do was reassure her that Cole was safe and was doing something very important.
Adam wanted his return to be happy and Emma being upset and worried, would make it very hard for it to be happy, so before going to see his aunt and Chase, Adam knew that he had to deal with Emma/
They went up to her penthouse before visiting his aunt and in the penthouse, Sarah was sat in the central relaxing area and it was clear that she was also worried.
Adam hadn't seen much of her since she actively began growing the business, but seeing how she was, it was clear that she was also worried about Cole and probably him as well.
Emma sat Adam down, then sat opposite him with Sarah beside him and both of them had serious expressions and had finally had enough of not knowing what was going on.
"You are going to tell us what you and Cole do when you disappear and why you both are different. Both you and Cole know something that we don't and you will tell us now" said both Sarah and Emma in unison, both clearly frustrated, curious and worried.
Adam was calm, but didn't know what to say or how to react as he cursed his luck.
[Why did it have to be me? I don't want to tell them, it should be Cole] thought Adam to himself.
"Come on, tell us. Whatever it is, we will accept it and move on, you can't keep hiding it from us" they urged seeing Adam's reluctance.
[Damn it] thought Adam to himself as he leant back in his chair.