“I know what I saw you dirty bastard!”

“Yes, yes, you saw some fancy smoke in the water, we heard it already.”

“The whole lot of you are you stupid! It could be a damn monster and all of you are laughing! This blasted town doesn’t have a single cultivator, and we could all be doomed! But laugh! See if I care!”

“Oi come back Old Man Jenks! We didn’t mean it!”

The old man in question didn’t turn around as he stormed out of the small village tavern.

“Hey Eggy, I just passed Old Man Jenks angrily blabbering about something as I walked in here. What happened?”

“Just another one of his rambles about something mystical, and of course none of us believes him.”

“What was he rambling about this time?”

“Get this…he said while he was out fishing, he heard a loud roar coming from deep within the ocean, and when he looked down, all he could see were so called black flames spreading everywhere beneath the water. He said he hurried back to land to warn us all, but of course no one listened. Black flames beneath the water? Did he think we were stupid?”

-A conversation from a rural coastal Tavern

Jrino was relaxing in his office, sharpening his beautiful odachi as he normally did. Then seemingly out of nowhere he paused for a moment then looked towards a certain house. He didn’t say thing, just did a slight shake of the head before he went back to sharpening his sword.

Well, he would’ve just done that if he didn’t hear a voice in his head.

“I’m sure you felt that as well.”

Of course, the only person in the Outpost who would talk to him like this was Greja.

“I did.”

“What do you think happened? It felt like a large amount of something containing Qi exploded out, but it was far too controlled to be some sort of accident. I know it was from Raizen’s house, but he shouldn’t be in the Qi Refinement realm yet.”

“The boy got control over his flames.”

“…I see. Won’t he become something of a little monster now?”

“He already is.”

…..

And just like that another night passed and I was once again woken up by Richard’s knocks. I freshened up and met him outside. Though when I got up this morning I tried to use my flames by almost asking them to show up in the raised palm of my right hand.

It was kind of weird since I didn’t literally ask, it was more so the flames themselves sensing my intention and following suit. It was neat.

Anyway, I met up with Richard, and apparently I missed some fun last night.

“There was another attack on the Outpost last night, and where’s your spear?”

“It broke in the Dungeon, but really? Why didn’t you come get me?”

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“Oh okay, and it wasn’t as bad as the first one and we were strong enough to handle it. With the new influx of more people becoming Body Tempering realm cultivators and the training we’ve been getting, we had more than enough manpower to handle it. Don’t worry though, if it got too bad we would’ve definitely come to get you.”

Oh, it’s nice that they’re getting stronger.

“Well, that’s good to know. I don’t mind helping out though.”

“Ah we can’t depend on you for everything, we need to get stronger ourselves. Anyway, I’ve been meaning to ask. You’re a lot stronger than the rest of us, are you on the next cycle of Body Tempering? I’ve attempted it once, but the pain caused me to lose focus. I think I can get reach it in another try or two.”

Hmm, how should I answer this question? Can I trust Richard enough to tell him exactly how strong I am? Or would that be a dumb decision. Hmm. Eh, he handled the situation well when I told him I wanted his friend to pay a price, so why not trust him again? It’s not like I particularly care all that much. Plus, with the boost those flames gave me and the addition of my own flames...I’m probably a bit stronger than a typical 3rd Cycle.

“I’m actually on the 3rd Cycle.”

We were basically at the training grounds when Richard paused after hearing what I said. He seemed to be in a bit of a shock for a moment before finally talking again.

“Are you kidding?...no…your probably not kidding…The way you were flying around the night of the first big attack and dismantling most of the Goblins yourself…even the fact you went into a Dungeon by yourself and made it out...Sigh sometimes life isn’t fair.

“Welp...I’m glad we have such a strong person on our side, it will definitely help me sleep better at night.”

“Glad I could help, but speaking of the Dungeon, we should probably talk about it.”

“Ah yes I almost forgot to ask. Would you have some time after training?”

“Sure, I have to go get a new a spear after training then I’ll come back to the training grounds.”

“Sounds good.”

And with that we went our separate ways. He went to his group, and I walked over to the Outpost Leader.

He spoke before I even greeted him.

“Do not use them while training.”

It only took me a second to realize what he was talking about. My flames. He knew about them? How? Could he sense them? Is he really watching everything that I’m doing?

He seemed to sense I didn’t necessarily like what he said as I heard a voice in my head this time.

‘You can’t sense it too clearly at your level, but your flames contain vast amounts of Qi. Whatever you did yesterday was easily sensed by all the workers of the Outpost. Though only Greja and I know the cause.’

Well, I guess that makes sense? It’s not really much I can say about that. Plus, even if he was watching everything what would I even do? I don’t have the power to make him stop. All I could do was probably go live in the forest or try to find another Outpost, neither of which sounds fun.

Moving on.

“I understand.”

He simply nodded, and I took that as my que to go grab a wooden to spear to begin training. With no need for any pressure training, we went straight into sparring. I thought the boost I got from the flames would give me a bit of an unexpected edge, but the only thing I got was a raised eyebrow and a not a single hit on the Outpost Leader.

He wasn’t even moving at a speed I couldn’t manage, but every single one of his moves was so perfectly timed that it felt like I was chasing ghosts.

Needless to say, I didn’t accomplish much when I was attacking, but I did more learning on defense anyway and this time wasn’t any different.

I got my ass handed to me as I did my best to dodge and block his attacks but failed numerous times. Though that was arguably the best part because I got to watch him attack and see how his body moved with each exchange.

Got beat up but learned something out of it. Typical training session.

Anyway, this went on for the usual time, before the Outpost Leader once again vanished and it was time to go. Richard and his group were sparring again today. Good for them.

I quickly left and began making my way towards the Blacksmith. My steps were quick as I was pretty excited to see my new spear.

Walking into the shop, the blacksmith was behind the counter as usual. \

“Wait.”

After that one word, he disappeared to the back for a moment before coming out with what I could only describe as a beautiful piece of craftmanship. The spear was simply sublime.

The shaft seemed to be made out of wood from the trees in the Forest, before I even touched it I could tell it wouldn’t snap from just a full powered swing. Though that wasn’t the star of the show.

The blade. The blade was something else altogether. The color was a sleek, smooth black, and it appeared to be about a foot long all on it own. The blade itself started out as a small curve before both sides of the curve extended out about a foot into a very sharp point. It was kind of like a very skinny pizza where the crust was curved downwards. Weird comparison but it works.

Either way, I loved my new spear.