Whoosh!
Just as Max was thinking this, two more puppets moved towards him from different directions and punched out at his forehead and back.
Swoosh!
Max's reaction was instantaneous, and he moved to the side, effectively evading both punches.
In the next moment, he punched at both puppets in the chest with his full strength and sent them flying.
Max knew these puppets wouldn't give him a breather, so he quickly opened his stat window and increased what he needed the most right now: strength.
[Strength: 60]
He increased his strength stat by 20% in one go and instantly felt a strange power merge into his muscles, bones, and blood which made him feel the improvement in his raw strength.
Whoosh!
Just then, three puppets closed in and punched at him.
Because of his heightened senses, his reaction speed was almost instantaneous, and using his agility which was already at seventy points; he was able to dodge their attacks easily.
Then he brandished his fists and punched at all three of them with everything he got.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
All three puppets were sent flying, and Max could see that their wooden shells had sunk more than half an inch wherever his punch landed.
'Hehe, a twenty percent improvement is huge indeed.' Max became excited. Before using his full strength, he couldn't do this since these puppets' bodies were much tougher than their fists.
'Let's increase it by five more points.' Max decided after seeing that there wasn't much backlash when he used his full strength.
[Strength: 65]
'Ugh! I think this is enough.' As he increased it again, he felt a slight pain in his bones and muscles, indicating that this was his limit before he could assimilate the power he had just gotten completely.
'Let's do it then.' He clenched his fist and looked toward the puppets.
Whoosh!
Not disappointing him, four puppets charged at him.
Shua!
Bang!
He dodged their attacks and punched them away one by one. However, he didn't use his full strength this time since there was a danger of harming himself.
Bang!
Bang! Bang!
Slowly the number of puppets attacking him increased, and he was soon put in a disadvantageous situation. He could barely keep up, using his agility to its limits.
Fortunately, after using his strength in varying degrees to make his body familiar, his speed of assimilation increased, and he could use more of his power to force them back.
Moreover, the fact that the puppets that he successfully forced back didn't attack also helped. Or he would have been overrun by them by now since he was using pure physical strength.
…
Bang!
After approximately an hour later, he punched the last puppet back.
His forehead was covered in drops of sweat, and his breathing was rough.
Weng~
The formations in the room buzzed, and all the puppets once again became lifeless. These training rooms were designed in a way that after all the puppets were defeated, the formation would go in a state of rest for a while so the disciples could rest.
Seeing this, Max sat down to recover his exhausted stamina.
In the normal case, he wouldn't have been so exhausted, given his stamina level was at the peak of the two-star realm, and although these puppets were powerful, their speed wasn't comparable to his, and their movement pattern was also fixed, so he could have easily 'finished' them off.
However, to speed up the assimilation process, he intentionally put himself under pressure where he had to constantly use his senses, agility, and strength to the limits.
Although this helped him assimilate his strength faster, the rate at which his stamina drained also sped up.
…
Weng~
The formations once again buzzed, and the puppet became active.
Phew!
Max stood up. He had recovered 70% of his total stamina. Before the puppets started attacking, he once again raised his strength stats by five points.
[Strength: 70]
After that, same as in the first round, he started using his strength moderately in the start and then slowly increased it.
After three more hours, Max was huffing like crazy, and his body was covered in sweat. However, his eyes were full of excitement. He had successfully raised his strength stat to 80 points.
'Although I'm not able to exercise complete control over my improved strength yet, it's still more than enough to fight and do other things that don't require extreme precision.' Max thought.
There are always two problems when he increases his strength or agility attribute. The first one is very dangerous, that is, the possibility of his veins, muscles, etc., rupturing due to the sudden injection of power.
The second one was that he couldn't control his power properly. For example, if he wanted to open the door gently, he couldn't and might end up breaking it due to the lack of control.
However, after fighting against these wooden puppets for three hours in a row, he could exercise enough control over his strength.
'If it weren't for this training room, I would've taken at least a week to do this by myself.' Max sighed. He then thought, 'I wonder if this increase in my base power can affect the power of [Calidus Brachium]?'
After resting for a bit, he stood up.
'Let's increase some agility points now.' Thought Max and opened his status window before increasing agility stat by five points.
[Agility: 75]
He then walked up to a corner of the room and put the token the Elder gave him on the wall.
Weng~
Clatter~
The formation buzzed, and all of the wooden puppets started clattering. After a few seconds, their clattering stopped, and Max could see that these puppets gave off a different feeling.
Whoosh!
One puppet suddenly whooshed toward him at breakneck speed. Since the room wasn't too big, It was in front of Max the next moment and punched out.
Surprised in Max's eyes seeing this, he took a deep breath before swiftly dodging its attack.
However, he didn't punch it away because he wanted to become a bit more comfortable with his improved agility.
If he punched it away, another two puppets would come, and it wouldn't be as easy for him to handle two puppets with such high speeds.
