Exploding the shards wouldn’t work. It took Leon about five seconds to realise that. First of all, Qi manipulation costs a person their mental strength and a small amount of soul force. To control Qi at a distance, the cost became exponentially greater, and to top it all off your control rapidly decreased as well.

Take that one step further and try to make random chunks of Qi explode while inside another creature… Well, there was most likely a solution, but it wasn’t something that the current him could pull off. Perhaps having poison, fire, or ice Qi would circumvent that, meaning all one would have to do is release the skill and allow it to collapse into a burst of flames or poison inside an enemy’s body.

But that would have to wait for later, sadly.

Approaching the tree, Leon smiled at the difference. The original Sundering Strike had left a pinky-thin gash in the side of the tree that only went a few centimetres deep. After drinking the Boundless Spirit Nectar, the very same technique was now several times more powerful. The cut was easily twice as wide and nearly three times as deep compared to what he could do before.

His Qi supply had doubled while the liquid itself had grown purer, denser, and far more potent. For a skill that used an equal amount of Qi, he had effectively increased the durability and damage by several times. And that wasn’t even mentioning the many other bonuses he received, ranging from the speed at which he could use his Qi to the fact that he could spam skills without his channels tearing themselves apart.

Leon felt like he had been reborn, but it hadn’t come without a personal cost. He had grown by stealing an opportunity from Sophia. He wouldn’t feel right if he didn’t repay her with interest. She was quite a prideful person so he would probably have to force her to take his payment, whatever it may eventually be, but that wasn’t a concern for right now. He needed to fulfil his end of the bargain and improve his strength.

“Hmm, I expected more for some reason.”

Leon turned to find Sophia standing behind him, her eyes staring at the cuts on the trunk. She had already finished butchering her panther while Claire was a few minutes behind. Her panther was slightly larger. Perhaps it was a different sex, meaning they had interrupted some kind of mating display?

“I could’ve made it stronger, but I decided to use the same amount of Qi so that I could see a better comparison between my past and current self.”

“That’s quite an improvement then.” Sophia nodded. “Still, I kind of hoped you would go from leaving a scratch to…”

“Cutting the whole tree down?”

“More or less. Though my imagination was a bit more dramatic than that, your blade shining in the setting sun as your sword leaves a line in the bark.”

Leon glanced at her. “How is that better than cutting the whole thing down?”

“You would have turned around and said something badass as the tree fell over, showing that in reality, you did cut all the way through. It just took a second for the tree to lose balance and fall over.”

“I think you need to watch less anime,” Claire shouted, walking over to them as she put away the last cut of meat in their shared storage ring.

Sophia blushed.

Claire ignored her as she paused at the sight of the tree. “Damn, that’s a solid upgrade. What exactly happened when you drank the elixir?”

Leon recounted his experience absorbing the unique treasure. The sisters were impressed when he explained what each phase of the process did to him, and then that expression of awe turned into pure shock when he showed them his titles.

Evolving their minds had required weeks of gruelling effort. They trained every single day to the point of exhaustion, and then the next day they did the same thing again until their quantitative efforts resulted in a qualitative change. Only when they pushed through those limits did they evolve, their mental abilities breaking through to almost superhuman levels.

Even with the upgrade, it wasn’t enough to get through the second door and beat the timed puzzles, so they did it all again and evolved their minds once more. While they could all split their mind three ways and had elevated their cognitive abilities to use three techniques at once, the effort required was simply too much. And without the puzzle, they would have never been able to improve their minds in the first place.

Now, Leon had evolved more than two aspects of his spirit by drinking some glowing juice, the level of effort incomparable to giving yourself a migraine for weeks on end. He thought Sophia would be upset that he had taken her opportunity. He didn’t know how he would’ve reacted at her age, but he did know that he wouldn’t have been happy to see a friend use up his one-of-a-kind treasure.

That was why he struggled to understand her barely contained joy. She was practically beaming as she reread the notifications, even asking him clarifying questions here and there. It wasn’t just the fact that she could learn something new. His growth seemed to bring her genuine happiness for some reason.

Was she really such a pure child or was there another reason?

As they parted ways to go about their own business, Leon still couldn’t understand why she had reacted that way. There was no relief that he could protect her better or anger that she had underestimated the usefulness of the elixir. Her reaction was one of pure, unadulterated joy.

She was just happy for him.

Taking a deep breath, Leon pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he evaluated his current situation. He was a quarter of the way through Muscle Forging. His right arm, back, and stomach muscles had been enhanced by Qi, and that had cost him about a week of cultivation. Now, with the upgrades to his spirit, he would likely shave down the remaining three weeks to a few days.

The size and density of his Qi supply had doubled, meaning his dantian could hold four times as much Qi. That would allow him to do four days of cultivation in less than one. Another person could take about a week to finish Muscle Forging from start to finish, but that wasn’t even the biggest benefit to his cultivation speed, and it wasn’t the increase in potency or purity, either.

The biggest benefit was the enhanced regeneration. Because his spirit had been elevated to a new level, his Qi regeneration hadn’t decreased at all. In fact, it had actually increased because of his highly refined dantian, its boundaries so pure that it reminded him of a diamond.

Now it took about twenty hours to fully regenerate his supply rather than thirty.

His Qi already full again, Leon sat down and began to cultivate. He worked on his left arm until it was fully refined. Opening his eyes, he spotted Sophia in the middle of cooking dinner while Claire mediated to his right. After asking if she needed help, he used the extra time before they ate to test out the differences between his two arms. The one had been perfected by a Marrow Tempering Pill, so it would be nice to see if there was a tangible difference between the two.

There was no advanced methodology involved in the test. He literally walked around the pocket world until he found a dead tree that had fallen over, its trunk partially buried in the muddy ground. Leon simply walked over and picked it up in each arm, feeling the weight as he tried to lift it above his head. He couldn’t really feel that his right arm had a perfect foundation, but as he hefted the log, it had a much easier time than his left.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Just to confirm, he pulled out another Marrow Tempering Pill and swallowed it whole. This was his second, the essence surging through his body and correcting hundreds of tiny flaws in his left arm. Comparatively, his right arm was largely untouched, his foundation already perfect in that area.

Leon wasn’t exactly sure why or how he had made mistakes while refining his left arm. After reading the pill description and discovering that imperfect foundations were a thing, he tried extra hard to perfectly nourish his arm. The end result was that nothing changed. It seemed that it wasn’t an issue of focus but one of resources and information. Leon simply didn’t know how to establish a perfect foundation without using Marrow Tempering pills.

Or maybe there was no way to do it without expensive resources. He simply didn’t know, highlighting his fervent desire to translate those books. The way to forge a perfect foundation would likely be common knowledge in an established empire, not to mention that there would also be some pill and elixir recipes that could help in laying a good foundation. And yet here he was, throwing around dead trees like an ape because he couldn’t read the Evergardian language.

Sighing, Leon trundled back and helped Sophia clean up before dinner was ready. She was happier than usual, both due to him evolving his spirit and the fact that she had levelled up in that last battle. What Leon found strange, however, was that Claire hadn’t. Sophia was level six and Claire was level five. They both advanced together after every other fight, but now that pattern had been broken for some inexplicable reason.

Sophia usually did more damage. That was a solid explanation as to why she levelled up early, but it wasn't the only one that made sense. Claire was also taller and older than her little sister, meaning that if they all received the same dose of energy from a shared kill, Sophia would level up faster because she was smaller.

***

The next day, as the sun faded over the treeline, Leon and Claire once more stood across from each other. They were in the open with their weapons in hand. There was no house or shelter in this pocket world, leaving them to fight a short distance away from Sophia while she prepared dinner beside a makeshift fire.

The situation made for a very odd scene. Two people faced off while they were surrounded by slices of meat hanging all around them on tree branches. Their supply of spices had well and truly run out despite intense rationing, leaving the meat as it was; dry without any flavouring. Better than starving to death or waiting for it all to rot, but it was by no means his favourite food.

“Ready?” Leon said.

Claire nodded.

They came at each other without techniques. The only skill he used was Fortify, allowing his blade to weather the storm of spear thrusts he now faced. Claire was also using the same skill. The wood and metal of her spear held a certain unnatural shade, its tip shimmering as it raced towards his heart.

Leon ducked and weaved through the blows, deflecting any that came too close to his skin. The sword was a great fit for him. That wasn’t to say that martial arts was inferior, it just wasn’t the right tool for him. His sport, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, was a grappling art that wouldn’t really work against someone with a spear or a giant panther that weighed as much as a small car.

He did know some basic striking from his minimal training in boxing and muay thai, but it wasn’t enough to be useful in real combat. Even now, Leon’s skill with the sword was likely equal to or better than his ability to punch and kick. Did he feel bad about abandoning his supposed passion? Of course, but he now realised that it had become a sunk cost. He fought with his mother all the time because of it, and as he grew older, his interests had obviously shifted elsewhere.

And yet his desire to drop the sport was usually squashed by the people around him. He was good at fighting, so why stop? It would be such a shame to waste his talent. But of course, the decision was up to him, and the idea of quitting made Leon feel bad enough that he just never did. Now, as he danced with Claire, the sound of clashing metal ringing throughout the small clearing, he couldn’t help forgetting why he felt bad in the first place.

Sword fighting was fun.

Leon blinked, pulled out of his musings by a glinting spear going straight for his eye. He reasoned that now was as good a time as any. Using Reactive Strike, he condensed his Qi enough that it would explode on contact. Only unlike before, he didn’t compress it all into the tip for one final attack.

A thin line of Qi coated the edge of his sword. Leon twisted his arm, raising his blade into the path of her thrust. His sword clashed with the head of Claire’s spear, but instead of Leon dancing out of the way or parrying her thrust, he slashed his sword against the tip of her spear and shoved it away.

The edge of Qi collapsed. A split second later, a directed wave of force smashed into the side of Claire’s spear. Her weapon practically bounced off his sword like a baseball. Leon smiled at the results. With only the slightest of movements, her spear flew wide and her flank was left exposed, proving that his idea was a good one.

Leon brought his sword up into an overhead blow. Standing tall, he slashed down at her head in a deadly arc. Claire stared up at the gleaming blade with wide eyes. She tried to pull her spear back, but it was too late. There was nothing she could do to stop her inevitable defeat. Claire winced, recoiling as the blade stopped in front of her face.

She went limp, slumping over in the bloody grass as she took a few ragged breaths.

“What was that?” Claire said, glaring up at him. “I thought we agreed to only use Fortify!”

“I said I wanted to try out something new, didn’t I?”

“That means a new way to swing your sword or dodge.” Claire crossed her arms. “Not make your sword freaking blow up in my face! If you want to play around with skills then tell me.”

“Sorry, I assumed you knew what I meant. I didn’t mean to catch you off guard. On the bright side, my attempt at using Reactive Strike for defence seems to have worked splendidly. Now we know that skills can be really flexible depending on how they were made. I mean, from a devastating attack to a defensive parry, I think that was quite a good demonstration.”

“I’m happy for you,” Claire said, seeming to have her own ideas about applying her skills, “but if you’re really sorry, you wouldn’t mind doing me a favour, right?”

“Uh, sure…” Leon said, nervous at the way she was smirking at him.

“Excellent! After we set up camp tomorrow, I’ll have to ask you for help with something.”

They stopped sparring and moved on to a different type of training. Leon became a target for Claire to practice her slashes and thrusts, and whenever she failed, he smacked her spear away as efficiently as possible. Deflecting regular attacks wasn’t very hard. The reason Leon was retrofitting Reactive Strike was that everyone could infuse Qi into their strikes, making it much more difficult to parry a flaming sword or spear dripping with poison.

That meant he needed some kind of surefire way of repelling all offensive techniques. He had thought about it for a while until he realised that nothing could be better than an all-encompassing explosion. It sounded crazy, but it could theoretically repel almost anything that came for him. As long as he had the timing right, his sword could stop the physical component while the explosion and residual wave of Qi could block any weird techniques.

All he needed to do now was get some real combat experience to see if the logic held against something five times heavier than Claire.