"I hear you humiliated Frank this morning," Clara spoke through a silhouette in the voice of a man that Ning knew to be her own, but simply distorted.
The silhouette looked like a man, so Sophie, the blue-haired girl that was with him was under the illusion that the boss was a man.
"He was the one that came after me first," Ning said without any hesitation.
Sophie looked at him weirdly, clearly unable to process how he could have possible beat Frank at all.
Clara remained quiet for a while. "Did you grow stronger?" she asked.
"I… think so," Ning said. "Due to Frank calling me to a duel, I couldn't really test myself. But I did enter the 5-Sense Improvement realm yesterday, so I must have."
"You entered the 5-Sense Improvement realm?" Clara asked with the tiniest hint of surprise in her voice, which was barely audible through the distortion.
"Yes," Ning said. "Thank you for the technique you recommended for me. I never expected it to be so good."
"Me neither," Clara couldn't help but say. "Anyway, that's not why I called you two here."
The two looked up waiting for more information.
"I am giving the two of you a mission," Clara said. "I will be on the carriage to Grandfort city tomorrow. I will need the two of you, along with others that I will ask to join you later on. Be ready."
"Yes, boss," the two answered at the same time.
"You may leave now, but do not tell anyone else in the gang. I don't want people to know when I come and when I go," Clara said.
"Yes, boss."
The two of them left the room after that. Sophie was about to part ways with Ning immediately when Ning stopped her.
"When do you think my sheath will be ready?" he asked.
"Your sheath? Oh right," Sophie thought. "We can go around noon. Do whatever you want until then."
"Okay," Ning said and walked away. He went into the study room and looked for any book that would help him at all. There were a few people in the study, and Ning asked one of them for a particular type of book.
The person showed him a book that had what he wanted and Ning went on to read about it.
The book explained to him how to judge a person's strength using the Training rock. Each training rock was uniquely formed that couldn't be carved or chipped away at. They were way too strong to be able to do so as well.
Despite the difference in size or shape, each training rock had the same amount of Essence inside of it, allowing for its judgment of one's strength to be about the same despite each one being different from another.
Ning learned how to judge his strength based on the movement of Essence in the training rock. With what he knew now, he could judge his own strength without anyone having to tell him as well.
He didn't immediately leave the room, however, as the book had more to offer. After learning how to test physical strength, he went on to learn how to test the improvement in senses.
This was a more abstract testing method that required way too many different types of testing to get an accurate answer.
One would have to test all the various types of senses to see how much they have improved and then get an average of all the different improvements. The test could take up an entire day, or maybe even multiple ones, and the number of different tests you had to prepare was annoying, to say the least.
"I'm not gonna bother with this one then," Ning thought. It wasn't like learning about the improvement was going to aid him in any way since he was going to continue improving as he cultivated more and more.
"If I'm really bothered about it, I'll just ask the system," Ning thought and turned the page over.
The Essence Sense realm was not something one could test since the sense itself only became possible at that rank.
As for the amount of Essence in one's body, it was always the same amount. The only difference would be the purity of Essence they would have. For that, Ning was sure he was one of the purer ones.
He left the room not long afterward and went to the backyard. There were very few people there now, so Ning got to try out the Training rock by himself.
He used all the power in his body and punched the rock as hard as he could. A loud, muffled sound spread throughout the yard, making a few people turn their heads to look at him.
However, after noticing that it was someone using the Training rock, they quickly turned away.
Ning watched the crystal become clear around when he had punched, and as the darkness moved away, he got a relatively accurate answer of 22 times.
His physical body was 22 times stronger than a normal human being.
"That's very strong," Ning thought. "I wonder how much it will slow down once I am in the higher ranks."
After learning what he wanted to learn, Ning left the yard and went over to find Sophie, and along with her, he went over to the smithy.
They arrived in the smithy not long afterward and met up with the person that had made the sheath for him.
"Here you go," the man said as he handed a metallic sheath to him.
Ning looked at the slightly oversized sheath with a surprised look. One size of the sheath had a small gap in it that didn't look normal at all.
"Your sword is too good," the man said. "Normal sheath won't help you at all. You will need someone to make a sheath with Essence. For now, I've made it so that instead of having to put the sword into a small opening, you simply have to place it in that gap and then push it into the sheath. That way there is less chance of damage to the sheath."
"I see," Ning said as he tried it out. The sword went in perfectly, without touching any side. "Thank you."
