When I woke up I saw Usaki pacing back and forth around Shina, this surprised me quite a bit, so I got closer to see what was happening.

—Hey what are you guys do.

—Come on Shina! I know you can do it, you're close to getting it —said Usaki trying to motivate Shina.

—Can you explain to me what you guys are doing —I said quite confused.

—Oh, Arusai you're awake —he said glancing at me— I'm helping Shina so she can use ardenya —Looking closely at Shina I noticed how the energy in her body was gathering in one specific spot, but I couldn't quite identify where exactly.

[Magic Vision goes from lv2 to lv3]

Thanks to the skill leveling up I was able to see her magical core more or less, which was directing all her energy to what I believed was where her ardenya energy was trapped.

—Why is she doing that, I thought she already knew how to use magic —I said surprised.

—You see —he said turning to look at me seriously— her magic is corrupting her —Wait, what do you mean her magic is corrupting her —I asked nervously.

—I don't know the exact reasons, but I noticed when she healed you, a kind of negative energy was overtaking her magical core. You don't notice it now, but her core is being infected by that evil energy little by little and it seems to only increase when she uses her light magic —I wasn't able to properly process this, that something was inside Shina's body and it was harming her.

—And what would happen if that energy completely infects Shina —I said worried.

—Most likely evil will take hold of her and she'll end up being a subject of the cursed variant —That last part confused me a bit.

—But isn't she supposed to be the cursed variant or is there more than one.

—No. There is only one and she is not it, the cursed variant is supposed to be pure evil from birth, which implies that her core is corrupt, however a cursed variant can obtain subjects by infecting other monsters with that evil.

—But Shina doesn't seem like she wanted to be infected, she seems unhappy with her current situation —I emphasized.

—And of course she is, for some reason the cursed variant didn't fully infect her, which caused her to be mistaken for the original.

—I understand and you want her to use ardenya so she doesn't get infected anymore, right?

—Exactly and I'll take the chance to teach you too how to use it —This was the only good thing in this whole situation, still not understanding how Shina ended up in this situation.

Suddenly we felt a kind of energy explosion, when we looked to see where it came from, we saw Shina standing with an expression of relief, I also noticed that there was barely any magical energy in her body, her body seemed to be absorbing energy from her surroundings.

—How do you feel Shina? —Usaki asked happily.

—I feel wonderful, I've never felt this good —Shina declared.

—That's perfect, now I'll teach you guys how to use this energy to fight, follow me —he said before heading towards the exit.

Shina seemed surprised by how rushed Usaki seemed, but she snapped out of it when she saw me also heading to the exit.

—Well Usaki, where are we going to train —I said curiously already outside the burrow with Shina by my side.

—Around here I saw the perfect rock to train a bit.

—A rock, what does he want a rock for —I thought with interest.

And he was right, nearby there was a rock of considerable size, Usaki approached it and started inspecting it, but then he charged his fist with ardenya and punched it cracking the rock.

Shina and I were quite surprised by Usaki's show of strength, however I realized that if he was this strong, I didn't want to imagine how strong Parin was.

—It seems to have enough resistance —he said turning towards us.

—Enough resistance, for what? —Shina asked.

—You're going to practice with this rock —he said very casually.

—Wait, are you serious —I said a bit incredulous.

—Of course I'm serious, this rock is perfect so you can see how strong your attacks are.

—But I'm not one for close range attacking, I attack more from afar —said Shina somewhat nervously.

—And I don't really have much to hit with.

—I know, however not even I know the true potential of ardenya, that's why we're going to see what we can do — he said optimistically.

—First, I'm going to explain better how to use it —he said bringing his attention back to the rock.

—If you want to increase the strength of any part of your body, you have to infuse your muscles with ardenya, unlike magic where you have to make the energy travel through the body to the required part, something strange happens with ardenya, just by thinking about strengthening a certain part of your body it happens already, as if the energy was there from the beginning, I still can't explain it exactly, but for now it'll be better if you master that and then we'll see what else we can do.

While coiled on top of the rock I focused again, trying to feel that energy Usaki explained, but noticing that this wasn't working I tried thinking about strengthening my muscles, but instead of thinking about moving the energy like I was doing, I thought about directly strengthening my muscles. When I was about to give up, I felt a sudden explosion of strength along with the sound of something cracking.

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[You have gained the special skill Ardenya Enhancement lv1]

When I opened my eyes I noticed my whole body was surrounded by a purple aura that wavered as if it were fire, I didn't have time to be surprised by this when I saw Shina with a kind of sharp black light triangle, which she then launched and pierced the rock almost as if it were butter, but without enough power to go all the way through.

—So in the end you were able to use ardenya to attack from a distance huh Shina —I said getting down from the rock and deactivating the skill.

—It was difficult, but I managed it in the end —she said satisfied— although it's low level it seems more powerful than spells, although I don't know what to call this exactly.

—What does the skill call it.

—Let's see it didn't give me a specific skill, it just improved my ardenya control and gave me a skill called Shadowlight Blade.

—Shadowlight, what a spectacular name, I'm surprised by how quickly you adapted to this skill thing Usaki and you —I said enthusiastically.

—Speaking of Usaki, where is he? —she asked worried.

—Don't worry, he said he'd come back, if he's been able to survive alone all this time, what's going to stop him now —I said in an attempt to reassure her.

—Until he gets back, let me try to fully heal your wounds —she said delicately.

—Take it easy Shina, sooner or later they'll heal, don't waste your energy on me.

—Don't worry, I want to try healing you with ardenya.

—Alright, try it, but don't use your magic.

—Don't worry —she said with a smile— I don't plan on using it again —she said losing that smile.

Seeing her expression and aura so negative saddened me a bit, so I got close and nuzzled her head gently with mine.

—Don't worry, don't think about that anymore—" I said before stopping the nuzzling, —let's try using ardenya to heal me.

Somewhat happier Shina got in position and focused, a good while passed without anything happening, I could feel Shina starting to get stressed.

—Take it easy Shina, take your time —I said delicately.

My words managed to calm Shina a bit and right then Shina's paws started emitting a black light, which settled on my wounds and started healing them. I noticed that although it went a bit slow Shina kept going, it seems like this didn't tire her, so much so that she managed to completely close the wounds she was healing, leaving both my skin and scales like new.

—Shina you —I was surprised when I saw Shina crying, but I didn't feel sadness in her aura, it was pure happiness and a feeling of achievement.

—Finally... I was able to heal someone —she said amidst tears.

I could only stay watching while Shina was a waterfall of tears, but Shina noticed I was stunned, so she slowly started to calm down.

—S-sorry, my race has a lot of affinity for light magic, so everyone is always asking them for help healing others, but I never managed to fully heal someone, at least not without resting quite a bit, I...

—You feel useless —I interrupted, Shina looked at me and gave me a smile.

—That's right, you can't imagine how much, I felt like a nuisance and it only got worse when my fur started changing color and I —As she spoke all those negative emotions grew stronger.

—Calm down Shina, I don't know what you've gone through but it's better if you forget about it —said Usaki appearing with the body of a Parin a bit bigger than the one that attacked us last time.

We were both surprised by Usaki's sudden appearance and the body he was carrying. However I can say what impacted Shina the most were Usaki's words, because her aura was a sea of different emotions, there were so many at the same time that I couldn't identify which ones they were.

—You say it as if it were easy —said Shina angrily.

—I suppose they exiled you from your home too —said Usaki melancholy.

—Don't tell me it happened to you too.

—Yup, they threw me out for a ridiculous reason, not that I've gotten over that, but now I'm much better than before. We may be fighting quite often against other monsters trying to kill us, but to be honest I prefer how my life is now.

—That's why I tell you, forget that topic and focus on your current situation —he said getting closer to us.

—Changing topics, I figured you guys would be hungry so I brought you this —he said putting the Parin body in front of us.

—Seriously, you hunted this for us —I said incredulous.

—I wouldn't really call it hunting if he's the one who came to me, I just brought his body for you guys —he explained.

Suddenly Shina let out a small laugh, Usaki and I looked at her a bit strangely.

—Yes. You're right, it'll be better for me to ignore the topic —she said before approaching the Parin body and starting to eat. I couldn't help but smile before joining her for the meal.

After a few bites, I noticed Usaki was examining the rock and seemed quite satisfied with what he was seeing.

—I suppose the one who cracked the rock a bit more was you, right Arusai? — he said without looking at me.

—Yes —I said with my mouth full.

—And where is what you did Shina —he asked curiously.

—It's over there —she said pointing with her paw to where she launched her attack.

—I see, so you were able to do a ranged attack with ardenya —he said climbing up to see the hole Shina made better.

—You made a pretty deep hole —he congratulated her.

—I still have to practice, it took me too long to make the attack, by the time I'm ready they'll already be on top of me.

—Don't think so, you probably do it faster now —he assured— try it.

Curious I watched as Shina somewhat doubtfully prepared her attack, I could see how she controlled the ardenya in her body to take it out and start forming the Shadowlight Blade above her head, to quickly launch it and make another hole in the rock.

Shina seemed quite surprised by the speed at which she performed the attack, Usaki just smiled smugly upon seeing Shina's surprise.

—See, what did I tell you, although you still do it slowly compared to your spells, it's surely faster than you thought.

—I do it quite fast for having just learned to do it, also it's considerably more powerful than my spells —Shina concluded.

—The only bad thing I've found with ardenya is that it hurts too much to release the energy —said Usaki as if remembering something.

—Also that it takes very long, I did it in one try and it took me hours —I added.

—I did it after three tries and it took me all night —said Shina with a sigh of tiredness— how did you manage to withstand the whole night without sleeping—" Shina asked Usaki.

—It's not the first time I've gone without sleeping, once I was awake 3 whole days without sleeping, one day is nothing —he said proudly.

—And why were you three days without sleeping —I asked curiously.

—Why else, to survive —he declared.

—Well, I don't know what answer I expected —I thought making fun of my question.

When I was going to take another bite of the ape I felt a presence approaching, Usaki also noticed this and turned in the direction of the presence, but suddenly I felt more and more presences appear.

—Shina get ready something that seems to have a lot of legs is heading towards us —Usaki warned.

—Usaki —I said somewhat nervously, "—it's not one with many legs, it's like ten monsters heading this way—" I said alarmed.

Before Shina and Usaki could react several mice almost the size of Usaki colored green appeared, and the one at the front of them all was bigger than Usaki.

—There's the cursed variant and her followers —I couldn't even say anything when the triangular formation of the mice, the shorter side separated and went in different directions, the bigger mouse kept going forward, while the other half stayed behind. I was greatly surprised when they started manipulating the energy around them and began controlling the earth.

—This has to be a joke —I thought preparing for the fight.