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’Thank you to whoever made this Green Lotus Core Technique.’

This is what Sieghart Augustine Fletcher was thinking after he felt the gentle, warm, and soothing chakra flowing through his body. In addition, he also felt that same gentle charka massaging its way through his exhausted muscles, kneading his flesh in such a gentle way that soothed all the pain and excessive torment he forced through his body.

It wasn’t long ago that Sieg felt the world come crashing down on him.

He originally had a good life. Sure, he was an orphan, but the matron and the sisters that worked in the orphanage were genuinely good people. They took care of him and the other orphans really well.

They never ran out of food, never had to worry about clothes, never feared the cold because of their warm shelter, and never had to worry about bullying or discrimination either.

Due to his status, Sieg was granted a scholarship in the nearest prep school in exchange for excellence. He had to have good grades in order to keep the scholarship, and when he was capable enough, he also had to start helping with simple tasks in the school so long as it wouldn’t hinder his studies.

Sieg did everything well. He was raised as a gentleman; he grew up with good manners; he received praise because of his consistently good performances; and more importantly—for him, that is—his peers looked up to him.

He’d deny it until hell itself freezes over, but Sieg does care a lot about what people say about him. He had no idea where it came from, but he always held himself up to a high standard, and sometimes, he couldn’t bear the thought of not being good at something.

Especially after getting used to being praised all his life.

Perhaps the only person he’d gladly lose to would be his best friend—Aria.

Sieg and Aria grew up in the same orphanage, and they’ve grown really close. Aria used to look up to him because, well, everybody’s praising him. Young Aria wanted to be praised too, so she stuck close to him.

And due to inexplicable ways, Sieg felt like Aria being with him just felt right. He doesn’t like it when she follows other boys; girls are fine, but other boys aren’t allowed to be close to her. He feels stifled and dissatisfied whenever that happens.

It wasn’t until they reached their teens that he realized what this feeling was.

He likes her, not just as a sister or best friend. He likes her romantically. He had gotten used to her presence, and he had already claimed her as his wife, just not officially just yet.

Sieg told her that they should wait since they’re too young.

Even though Aria managed to get adopted by a rather rich family and was now living a good life, he didn’t think she would leave him. They promised that they’d stay together forever, so he wasn’t in a hurry to advance their relationship.

Just being best friends was enough.

He was the one who told her that their status can change after their initiation ceremony.

Back then, he dreamed of training together with her. He dreamt of him teaching her martial arts in a very intimate way. They’d explore dungeons together, get loot, slowly build up their wealth, climb the martial ladder, become famous because of their skills, be the next pillars of the human race, become the next Martial Gods, and eventually, get married and start a happy and loving family.

Sieg saw himself as a traditional man. He wants to be the provider; his pride doesn’t allow him to live off a woman. That’s why even though he knew that the things Aria was giving him were just some random things that are common to the family she’s been adopted to, he vehemently refuses them each time unless it’s really a trivial matter.

It gets surprisingly difficult to say no to Aria sometimes, after all.

But whenever she tries to give him something that he thinks is too valuable, or something that she stole from her adoptive family just for the sake of helping him, it doesn’t matter what it was; he’d refuse it.

Again, his pride won’t allow him to accept help. In his mind, he should procure the things they’d need. If he couldn’t get it with his own hands, then he probably doesn’t deserve it.

Sieg had high hopes, just as always. Not even once did he think that he’d be worse than anyone, Aria included.

That’s why, when the sky came crashing down on him the moment his horrible martial talent was revealed, Sieg felt like his soul was leaving his body and that the world was ending.

He never even thought that fate would play a huge joke on him.

Sieg went from the golden boy to a piece of trash in just a single announcement of talent assessment. One that mattered the most.

He couldn’t believe it. But even after confirming it three times, the result remained the same.

Common Grade 5 Martial Physique. The worst of the worst. I meant that for him, reaching the Bone Forging Stage was the farthest he could go on the martial ladder. He shouldn’t even dream about surpassing that, since many before him already tried and they all failed.

He’s not an exception to that rule.

Sieg was no genius. All the praises he received all this time were for nothing, just empty flattery. All his dreams, hopes, and goals were all invalidated, just like that.

This was worse than any nightmare he’d ever have. At least you can wake up from nightmares. For Sieg? This was reality. You don’t wake up from that.

Meanwhile, Aria? Epic Grade Martial Physique. Violet Chakra Martial Physique, if memory serves him right. It doubles the chakra she coverts and and raise its quality too.

She soared to the skies while he fell to the trash pile.

All of a sudden, standing next to her felt wrong. Suddenly, he became an eyesore, especially to those who looked upon fondly at Aria.

Even Sieg was disgusted with himself and tried to distance himself from her. However, Aria didn’t let him do that. No matter how he tried, she pushed back, now allowing her to box herself in and hide from the world, for better or for worse.

Sieg tried to remain positive.

He reasoned that all is not lost. So long as he puts in more effort, so long as he practices diligently, so long as he doesn’t lose heart, he will eventually rise above the rest.

Sieg tried not to let the statistics speak on his behalf. He wanted to break the notion about common grade 5 talent. He wanted to break through his shackles, turn his life around, and be the person he was always meant to be.

But facts spoke, not louder, just clear and precise.

The statistics weren’t nonsense. The common Grade 5 martial talent was indeed the worst, and he felt it very clearly.

He discovered how horrible it was for him to convert chakra. Reading through martial arts manuals felt like wading through tall grass in search for something. It made him feel stupid all of a sudden.

Even basic concepts, ones that he thought he understood, become different and more difficult for him to apply.

All of a sudden, Sieg felt like all his theoretical knowledge about martial arts, the same ones he aced back in his days in prep school, just suddenly disappeared. Or at least, something made him forget about all of them. And now, he couldn’t make sense of them anymore.

But Sieg pushed through. With Aria providing him with plenty of moral support, Sieg bitterly continued forward.

He demanded more of himself. He thought that what he lacked quality could be compensated with quantity. He thought that his lack of talent could be made up for with sheer, unrelenting mass of effort.

So long as he practiced hard enough, so long as he exerted double the effort as most people, so long as he’s doing something, he’d eventually catch up to the real geniuses, change his fate, and turn his life around.

Alas, all that did was to exhaust him completely. So much so that he’s ruining his own foundation by overexertion before he could even build something decent.

Even though only a little bit over a month only passed since the Initiation Ceremony, Sieg’s body was already littered with tiny and hidden injuries everywhere. Ones that nobody could sense and don’t matter right now. But by the time they start to matter, it’ll already be too late.

Fortunately for Sieg, the world just gave him another chance in the form of the Green Lotus Core Technique.

Honestly, he wasn’t expecting much. The past few weeks had been rough for him, and it opened his eyes to how cruel this world could be to the untalented.

But to his surprise, the Green Lotus Core Technique was genuinely beneficial to him. Although not immediately, it will eventually correct all the mistakes he made in the past.

More importantly, it cooled his head off and allowed him to regain his rationality.

That’s why he’s grateful to whoever made this technique and praises their decision to share it freely with the public.