The Human Giant



Even though Yoze didn't plan to continue training his Big Golem, he still wanted to train. Since he was there he planned to focus on learning another body cultivation method and martial art technique so he could better teach Tiki and Dreyer tomorrow morning.

"Let's start with the Sinking Swamp body cultivation method," Yoze recalled the contents of the method in his mind.

The Sinking Swamp body cultivation method focuses on making the body extremely sticky to the point that nothing could escape once contact has been made. It also had an effect similar to quicksand such that the more an enemy tried to escape the more stuck they would become.

Unlike the Boneless Man body cultivation which didn't allow its hosts to reach the peak of first-rate martial artists, Sinking Swamp allowed it. It had a total of five levels and each had a unique way to train the person's skin and muscles so they could grab a hold of anything.

The first level was the Coin stage where Yoze could have a coin stuck anywhere on his body without effort. The second level was the Gum stage where he was able to make his body as sticky as gum. 

The third level was when Yoze created the sticky inner vigor of the Sinking Swamp body cultivation method. In this stage, he would transform his body to become as sticky as glue and make it difficult or even downright impossible for ordinary people to escape his hold.

The fourth stage was the swamp stage where he would become so sticky that peak second-rate martial artists will find it difficult to escape his hold once contact has been made. The fifth and final stage was the Sinking Swamp stage where even peak first-rate martial artists will become stuck to him.

It was thought that if everything went smoothly a person would reach the peak of Sinking Swamp after a decade. Thus reaching the peak of first-rate martial artists and being one step away from being an elite martial artist.

"Grade 8 Body Cultivation, grade 5 Muscle Manipulation, grade 7 Grip, my grade 9 flexibility talent might apply as well." 

However, Yoze predicted that it wouldn't take him a decade to reach the peak of Sinking Swamp. Instead after taking a look at some of the talents he had, that might apply to reduce the time he predicted it should only take him 4 hours.

But that was based on the few talents that Yoze felt had the highest chance of being applied to his training speed. In reality, his training speed was most likely going to be faster.

"Let's just get started and see if I can reach the peak in one go." 

As expected once Yoze began training, his progress was rapid and he reached the peak of the first level in 10 minutes. The second level took him some time to reach the peak but it only took 30 minutes. 

The third level was when he expected to start producing the sticky inner vigor that came with the Sinking Swamp. When Yoze felt his body release the first strand of sticky inner vigor he could sense that it had some natural stickiness to it and became even sticky once he activated it.

The third stage only took Yoze 30 minutes to reach the peak and the fourth stage took another thirty minutes. By the time he reached the peak of the fifth stage, less than three hours had passed.

As Yoze stood in his courtyard, his skin wiggled like waves in the ocean which would have sent a shiver down the spines of ordinary people. After stopping the manipulation of his skin and muscles, Yoze looked at his clothes that were stuck to the surface of his skin.

"Luckily, I can deactivate the stickiness of my body anytime I want. If it was like Mindless Legs, being completely passive then I wouldn't be able to take off my clothes without ripping them." Yoze muttered to himself as he pinched his shirt and saw how it immediately became taught, almost ripping.

"Now for the Turtle Shell Body Cultivation method."

Recalling the body cultivation method, Yoze noted that it only had one level which was simply training your back to become even harder than a diamond. Even though it only had one level and only protected the person's back it also increased the person's endurance and pain tolerance so they were not afraid of close combat.

"I just need something to whip my back. "

Recalling that the method needed a strong whip, Yoze looked at the various equipment that was around his courtyard before finding one that he could train with. It was a machine that with a click of a button would either hit someone with whatever is attached to it.

After finding a whip and attaching it to the machine, Yoze took off his shirt and took the stance that the Turtle Shell body cultivation recommended.

"Bang!" 

With a simple button press, Yoze heard the sound of a whip slicing through the air before hitting his flesh. Other than letting out a grunt, he ignored the pain and continued to press the button.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

Not knowing how many times he pressed the button and had gotten whipped, Yoze finally relaxed and placed his shirt back on. His skin wasn't damaged in the slightest even after all that whipping but he was still able to reach the peak of the Turtle Shell body cultivation method.

Just in time as the sky had a glimmer of red light coming from the rising sun. Seeing that the sunrise was coming soon, Yoze decided to end his training and went home to catch some sleep before breakfast.

After eating breakfast with the family, Yoze noticed that Tiki and Dreyer were already dressed for today's training. Even throughout breakfast, they had serious expressions written on their faces as if they were heading out for war.

"Hey, where are you going to be required to dress and look like this?" Noticing the uniqueness of how Tiki and Dreyer were dressed, Jewel couldn't help but ask where they were going.

As she asked she took a big bite of the demon meat on her plate and felt relieved as she could feel that her headache from drinking was subsiding.

"We are getting trained by Yoze for martial arts today. So we have to be prepared to be sweating our butts off." Dreyer said.

"You two are getting trained? Can I join?" Jewel turned to Yoze as she hoped to get trained as well.

"Of course, I wanted to invite you yesterday but you were drunk so we just left without you," Yoze answered.

"Oh, and I would like to ask you if you know any investigators that could find out information about people using a name and picture."

"I know a few and I can get in contact with them. If you are looking for information about someone and you're not afraid of someone finding out I recommend hiring multiple investigators to increase the chances of important information being noticed." Jewel thought about some investigators she had recently contacted and gave their information to Yoze.

"These people are fine. " Looking through the information that Jewel had written down, Yoze suddenly noticed a familiar name.

"Detective Dave? I thought that they only worked on cases for tracking people down." 

"Yeah, but I figured that since you're looking for information about someone they might extend their services with enough money. In any case, we know that they are good at finding people since they helped us find these two." Jewel replied.

Yoze nodded his head in understanding and finished eating his breakfast and had Jewel, Tiki, and Dreyer follow him back to his room. 

"Jewel since you already are practicing your body cultivation method there isn't much I can help you with. If you are willing you can pick another body cultivation method to train just like Tiki and Dreyer."

"This way I will be able to help you out and give you some advice," Yoze explained to Jewel.

Already understanding the situation, Jewel nodded her head in agreement with Yoze's plan since she had expected this. Unless she was willing to give Yoze her body cultivation method there was no way for him to give her very detailed advice.

"Okay, since today is the second day I will show you the other two body cultivation methods that you can choose to train in. The first is the Sinking Swamp body cultivation method and the second is the Turtle Shell body cultivation." 

"Of course, if you want you can also choose to practice the Big Golem or Iron Skin body cultivation. If you feel that Boneless Man is great for you then you don't have to change." Yoze said, explaining all their options.

With all the different options available to them Tiki, Dreyer, and Jewel discussed what they felt was more useful to them. After a bit of discussion, Jewel was the first person to decide on what she wanted to train in.