The clang of metal and the hiss of steam filled the air as Liam approached the blacksmith's stall. Sparks flew from the anvil where a burly man hammered a glowing blade with rhythmic precision. The scent of molten steel and burning coal stung Liam's nose, but he didn't flinch. His eyes were sharp, scanning the weapons hung on display like trophies.
"Excuse me," Liam said, clearing his throat.
The blacksmith looked up, raising a bushy brow. "Aye?"
"Do you have any swords for someone in the Path Genesis Realm?"
The blacksmith let out a short laugh, then said, "You mean a Profound Grade sword, lad?"
Liam blinked. "Profound Grade?"
The man chuckled again, setting his hammer down and wiping his hands on a soot-stained cloth. "Artifacts are graded, son. Starts from Bronze, then Profound, Spirit, Earth, and finally Heaven. Same for pills, techniques, armor—everything. It matches with the Major Realms most folk ascend through. Path Genesis folk usually use Profound Grade items."
"Got it," Liam nodded, mentally noting the grades. "Do you have a collection of Profound Grade items I could look at?"
The blacksmith shrugged. "I've got a few swords and a breastplate, but if you're looking to study a variety, better hit the Market Square. Plenty of merchants hawking everything there—just mind the fakes."
Liam thanked him and turned to leave, his boots tapping against the cobbled street. As he walked, he began browsing shop after shop, examining weapons, armor, even cultivation manuals and strange herbs.
Each time, he brushed his fingers against the item and absorbed every inch of detail—weight, balance, flow of energy, engravings, anything that might help him understand it. His goal wasn't to buy; it was to comprehend. He needed the knowledge of 2000 Profound Grade items to reach the Middle Stage of the Path Genesis Realm. A long journey, but one he'd taken upon himself without hesitation.
Yet, between swords and spears, his mind wandered.
Alex and Rose.
He'd left them alone at the house. Would they be okay? Would they get along? Did Rose already dislike Alex? Or worse… like him too much?
He laughed a little to himself.
Then his smile faded.
He remembered the real reason he had orchestrated the whole meeting between the two.
He lied about Rose's situation. She had money—probably more than him and Alex combined. She was a chosen, handpicked by a Duke's envoy. She had power, connections.
But he told Alex she was struggling, knowing that she wouldn't refuse if he offered for her to stay for free, after all who doesn't love no rent?
Because he wanted to test something.
He wanted to see if Alex's kindness towards him was unique… or if Alex was just a good guy. If he helped everyone like that. If Liam meant anything to him at all.
When Alex agreed to let Rose stay over so casually, his heart had stung.
What if he didn't matter?
What if he was just another kid Alex picked up because he felt sorry for him?
As he walked, he found himself at a merchant stall that sold Profound Grade talismans. The merchant was a spry woman, her voice chirping as she explained the function of each piece.
Liam nodded politely, studying each one. Yet his heart wasn't in it.
Sweat clung to his back, his shirt sticking to him. Not from the heat—but from the weight of memory.
The orphanage.
He had a female caretaker, she went by Lady Su. She wasn't a profoundly stunning woman not a repulsing ugly one, just a regular middle aged woman dealing with her declining marriage.
Just that, sometimes she wasn't the nicest. Her words still haunted him today.
"Your parents must've faked their deaths to get away from a brat like you."
He was seven. He didn't even know what death really meant. Just that people were supposed to have families. He'd believed his were just away… coming back eventually.
He'd rejected adoption. Told people he already had parents assuming it would be bad to lie to them, and disappoint both them and his parents when they came back.
Lady Su yelled at him for that. Told him he ruined his own chance. Called him a parasite.
"Everyone else got adopted. Why're you still here, making life harder for the rest of us?"
So he changed. Tried to be mature. Polite. Helpful. Smart. Whatever it took to be liked.
But it never worked, atleast not in the short term. He got one more family that tried adopting him, a newly married couple who wanted to have a kid without the pain of pregnancy.
He was happy with the arrangement, until randomly the couple just left. He thought he was the problem, but little did he know Lady Su had just brought up how disobedient he was, ruining his chances of adoption and hers of peace. What a psycho.
And then he came this strange world. Monsters, leveling up, and death at every corner.
He barely survived the first few days, reaching the village by following the crowd and just spending time in his little shack with the limited rations he had. In fact he almost starved after he finished his food earlier than expected. That's why he was going to ask some shop owners for some food.
And then he met Alex.
Alex gave him food. Bandaged his wounds. Talked to him. Treated him like a person, even more so, a friend.
Liam had clung to him like a lifeline.
And now… was it all just kindness? Would Alex have done it for anyone?
He tried to shrug it off, moving to the next stall—Profound Grade throwing knives. The seller was an elderly man who chuckled at Liam's intense focus.
"Studying, eh? Are you trying to become a Blacksmith or Alchemist? They're pretty hard professions to get into kiddo."
Liam smiled faintly. "Not really, I'm just trying to understand what's the best Profound Grade Item I could buy."
"Wise choice," the man said, leaning back. "What type of Item are you looking for? Artifacts? Or those mysterious techniques? In that case you'd have to talk to one of the Star Towers, we simple old merchants don't have that type of stuff lying around"
Liam hesitated. "Im not too sure myself, just browsing until I find something that's useful to me"
He didn't elaborate. Instead, he thanked the man and moved on.
As he neared his goal for today—around 500 items studied—his pace slowed. He leaned against a wooden post near a stall of Profound Grade spells, seemingly the skill alternative for natives. The script on each page glowed softly with energy.
His legs ached. His back felt stiff. But more than that, his chest felt hollow.
He closed his eyes.
Why did he care so much?
He should just be grateful Alex helped him.
But he wanted to be someone Alex chose to be around. Someone who mattered.
Someone different.
"Maybe I'm just selfish," he muttered to himself.
He opened a manual, letting the script glow across his eyes.
A passage on using Path Qi to throw and accelerate a weapon in the air, increasing it's lethality many times over.
He understood the underlaying principal behind it quickly with the help of his heaven sent talent.
The number ticked in his mind: 420.
Almost there.
He stood again, rubbing his temples. The sun was long gone, the moon hanging in the sky. The hour he promised Alex actually flew by, it had been an hour and two quarters by now.
One final merchant.
Profound Grade boots, imbued with Speed Qi.
He studied them, counted them. 500.
He sighed, stepping away from the stall.
His feet dragged forward.
The weight on his heart still lingered.
But then, he remembered Alex's expression when they first met.
The way he smiled.
The way he treated him.
Would Alex really do that for anyone?
Maybe he was just a generous guy.
But Liam smiled, shaking his head. "No… He wouldn't have kept me around this long if I was just a tagalong."
He turned toward the house.
"Of course Alex wouldn't just toss me aside," he whispered, a quiet conviction settling in his chest.
The moonlight shone on the rooftops, and Liam began walking home.
Unaware that things were about to enter a flurried state of progression.
[Adaptive Clone]
Level 1:- All clones summoned gain the ability to think in line with the host, no longer needing commands to operate.
Passive Skill.
Alex stretched his back, all the exhaustion from "The Sages" boundless wisdom disappearing immediately.
'Adaptive Clone, Although I can't gain experience from killing monsters, I can still get money to buy tools and maybe even those mystical techniques.' He thought that giving them a try would be best, some special ones did require certain bloodlines but others were just gatekept by Paths.
Although, thinking about the high price of the technique for a Supreme Path? Not to mention he had eight and possibly a higher level ninth Path? Maybe there was a bundle he could buy for the Invincible Path, yeah that would be nice.
[Attribute Clone]
Level 2:- The attribute Enhancement is increased to 200% for the selected stat, however all other stats will be reduced by 20%.
Life was looking up for him, the 20% decrease was a bit steep, but in comparison to the boost it seemed like a steal.
Keep in mind, as he progressed through the Realms the enhancement he would get would keep increasing, for example he directly flew to 30 strength after breaking through to the Path Genesis Realm.
That was a whole 90 Strength after the 200% attribute boost! 90 damage per hit, his previous hp was around 700, it would take less than 10 hits to deal with the him from the Body Barrier Realm.
Although, now that he looked at his panel, wasn't he missing a few columns?
Name: Alex
Race: Human
Class: Abyssal Doppelganger (II)
Class Skills: (Adaptive Clone), (Attribute Clone)
Realm: Path Genesis Realm (1 Karma Qi)
Supreme Path: Karma [Initiated], Fate [Initiated
Talent: Clone [D Rank – Growth Type]
Strength: 30
Defense: 10
Mana: 40/40
Mana Recovery: 0.05/S
Stamina: 12
Agility: 10
Comprehension: 20
Available Paths: 7 Remaining
Where was his health at? Also where did his attribute points go? Oh wait probably lost those with the system, even so shouldn't health still be a displayed stat? Or did his off brand system from temu not have the funding for it?
But hold on a second, if his talent was a perk of the system, why was it still present and moreover why could it still be upgraded? And what exactly was the condition for upgrade?
Nonetheless, Alex's mind worked up a storm of ideas, countless possibilities going through his fried brain until he ultimately got up to look at Rose.
"Hey, Miss Sage, did you get any attack skills from your class?" Alex questioned, breaking the silence in the room.
"Partially, but at the moment I don't have any offensive abilities besides my basic stats, why?" Rose asked, her eyes growing vigilant.
"No reason, how can you get offensive abilities? Did you get any gains by instilling those Chinese Dao Concepts into my head?"
"No. It's my fault for having such a useless student, the way it works is pretty simple, If you have a little breakthrough in the Karmic Path, I'll get initiated to it, if you breakthrough to the next Realm I'll get into the Path Genesis Realm" She said, explaining her Paths activation requirement.
"But, even so we don't have any techniques to help us convert the Path Understanding into strength, so unless you've got the money to buy one we're going to be punching mobs for a living."
Alex, hearing all of this smiled, for starters he had gotten a really powerful person as a teammate hadn't he? If one day she enlightened the world on all Paths, wouldn't she have a chance to be a peak expert in all of them?
Moreover, money? The adaptive clone was his way in to the real big bucks.
"Rosevalt, you can sleep in my room, I'll put Liam to bed when he gets back too, we all need to be up early tomorrow to exploit some civilians."