Chapter 10 – Attribute Enhancement

“You mean the place that makes you feel great is the Massage Room on the second floor of the Yuan Martial Arts Gym?”

On the second floor of the Yuan Martial Arts Gym, Lu Yuan looked at Cheng Peng beside him with a face full of surprise.

Cheng Peng retorted, “What else did you think it was?”

A strange expression appeared on Lu Yuan’s face, and he shook his head. “Nothing.”

Cheng Peng gave him a disdainful look before walking to the front desk and showing his student ID.

After a few procedures, five minutes later, Lu Yuan was assigned to a small private room.

“Wait here. Someone will come to give you a massage soon. This massage has a great effect. After one session, I guarantee your muscles won’t hurt tomorrow, and you’ll be full of energy.”

Cheng Peng patted his chest as he assured Lu Yuan, “I’m going downstairs to train for a bit. Come find me after your massage.”

Lu Yuan nodded.

After Cheng Peng left, he looked around the small room in front of him.

The room was air-conditioned and at a comfortable temperature.

In the middle was a narrow bed with a neatly folded set of bath clothes on it, and beside the bed stood a small locker.

Lu Yuan put his backpack in the locker, then quickly showered in the bathroom and changed into the bath clothes.

He then sat on the bed waiting, and in the meantime, he sent a quick message to his parents, letting them know he was at the gym and would be home a bit late.

Before long, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Lu Yuan put down his phone and saw a middle-aged man walk in with a suitcase.

Seeing the man’s thick arms under his loose training clothes, Lu Yuan felt a bit uneasy, as if something was off.

Fortunately, the man’s kind and friendly smile quickly dispelled this feeling.

“Lie down on the bed.”

“Alright.”

Lu Yuan obediently lay down on the small bed.

The man opened his suitcase, took out a small stove, lit it with a lighter, and placed it precisely on the small table beside the bed.

A faint sandalwood fragrance wafted from the stove, and Lu Yuan’s heart gradually calmed down.

“Did you overdo your training?”

The man lightly pressed on Lu Yuan’s legs and body as he spoke.

“Quite a few muscles are torn and strained.”

“Is it serious?” Lu Yuan couldn’t help but ask.

“Not really,” the man shook his head and said. “After all, this is a martial arts gym. It’s common for disciples to have bumps and bruises. I’ve seen much worse than yours.”

Lu Yuan finally felt relieved.

The man then instructed Lu Yuan to remove his clothes and lie face down on the small bed.

He took out a white ointment and gently applied it to Lu Yuan’s thighs, calves, arms, and lower back.

The ointment had a cool sensation on the skin. Before Lu Yuan could ask, the man explained, “This is a secret ointment from the gym. With this and my massage techniques, you’ll be fully recovered in a day or two.”

“Secret ointment?”

“Yes, only students of the gym have access to it. You can’t buy it outside, no matter how much money you have. Now, let’s begin.”

The man spoke calmly and then suddenly applied pressure.

The intense pain from his calf almost made Lu Yuan cry out.

But soon, the pain turned into waves of soothing numbness.

The man’s technique was gentle yet firm, each stroke precisely hitting Lu Yuan’s sore and swollen spots.

With his past experience as the “foot massage prince,” Lu Yuan could tell the man was a highly skilled master.

Lu Yuan didn’t know when he fell asleep.

When he woke up, he heard soft music playing and found a thin air-conditioned blanket covering him.

The man who had given him the massage was long gone.

“It’s almost eight o’clock!”

Lu Yuan checked his phone after taking it out of his backpack and realized nearly two hours had passed. He quickly got dressed and rushed downstairs, skipping the shower.

“I thought you were going to sleep until tomorrow morning,” Cheng Peng said, waiting for him in the hall. “How do you feel?”

“I’ll tell you later. Let’s go home!”

“Alright, I’m starving.”

The massage on the second floor of the martial arts gym exceeded Lu Yuan’s expectations.

By the next day, the soreness had almost completely disappeared.

In fact, he felt even better than before.

After all, muscles grow stronger through repeated tearing and healing.

“Hu—hu—”

Lu Yuan completed a set of the basic fist technique, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead, but he felt more energized.

“Not bad!”

Lin Zhiqin looked at him with a slightly satisfied expression and nodded. “Most of your movements are well-practiced, just a few areas need improvement.”

After saying that, Lin Zhiqin corrected a few of Lu Yuan’s mistakes in his technique, then turned to the other students and called out, “Next.”

Today’s class was primarily about assessing the students’ retention of what was taught in the previous session.

Receiving praise from Lin Zhiqin right at the start made many students look at Lu Yuan with admiration.

“Lu Yuan, you’re amazing!”

The girl with the hair bun from the last class had changed to a ponytail and applied more elaborate makeup this time.

She deliberately greeted Lu Yuan loudly. Seeing that he didn’t respond, she giggled and said, “Still playing it cool.”

“You’re really good. Among everyone here, you practice the best.”

As Lu Yuan stepped down, Liu Yue quickly approached him, speaking with a hint of admiration.

“I plan to use this as a specialty for the Unified Examination next year, so I’ve been putting in extra effort.”

Lu Yuan smiled at Liu Yue and casually replied.

“I’m also practicing martial arts for the physical education specialty in the Unified Examination. I heard the requirements for combat are lower than for sports like badminton. But I feel like I have no talent for this at all; no matter how hard I try, I just can’t get it right.”

Liu Yue sighed.

“We’re just getting started, and besides, girls naturally have a disadvantage in this area.”

Lu Yuan offered a casual comfort while his attention was on the attribute panel he had brought up in front of him.

[Name: Lu Yuan]

[Age: 17]

[Profession 1: Student Level 3 (345/400)]

[Profession 2: Martial Artist Level 1 (98/100)]

[Strength Points: 7]

[Agility Points: 8]

[Constitution Points: 7]

[Intelligence Points: 10]

[Profession 2 Basic Skills: Basic Body Training Level 2 (121/200)]

[Basic Fist Technique Level 2 (23/200)]

Compared to a week ago, Lu Yuan’s professional experience points for [Martial Artist] had increased significantly.

Just two more points, and he would reach Level 2.

Both basic skills had also leveled up to Level 2.

Especially the basic body training, which was now only about 40% away from reaching Level 3, indicating just how hard Lu Yuan had pushed himself in strength training this past week.

However, he couldn’t understand why his Four Attributes hadn’t changed at all.

“But I can clearly feel that my strength has increased, and my body has become more robust. Even my appetite has grown.”

Lu Yuan couldn’t figure this out.

“Alright, next, I’ll take everyone through a review of what we covered in the last class. We’ll do two sets of strength training, and then I’ll introduce new material.”

By now, Lin Zhiqin had a good grasp of everyone’s mastery of the basic fist technique and began to outline today’s lesson.

Following Lin Zhiqin through a set of the basic fist technique, Lu Yuan noticed a few more experience points added to his Level 2 basic fist technique.

The effect was much better than when he practiced shadow boxing at home alone, likely because of the hands-on instruction.

Then came two sets of strength training as a warm-up before the main lesson.

Just after completing one set, Lu Yuan suddenly received a panel notification.

[Congratulations, your strength attribute has increased!]

[Congratulations, your constitution attribute has increased!]

Lu Yuan was startled and quickly checked the attribute panel. Sure enough, his Four Attributes had changed to:

[Strength Points: 8]

[Agility Points: 8]

[Constitution Points: 8]

[Intelligence Points: 10]

Both his strength points and constitution points had increased by one.

“How did they suddenly increase? I didn’t feel any significant change.”

Lu Yuan was a bit puzzled.

But soon he figured out the key.

“It must be that after a week of training, my strength and constitution points had already reached the threshold for an increase. The points improved, but it just didn’t show up on the panel. Now, I’ve just broken through this threshold, so the increase is displayed.”