As they walked, Dante took the opportunity to organize in his head what he needed to do for the day. After hunting, he still had to go to his secret room and cultivate together with Isaac.

As they made their way through the long corridors of the base they were in, Dante was silently grateful for his new kind of Qi. Even a few days ago, he doubted that his stamina would be enough to go from one point to another without rest.

After passing through another hall as large as the main one, they climbed a staircase, which led to an environment surprisingly similar to the eating room.

Long pillars supported the high ceiling, which embraced the sun's rays with glass of different colors. Dante found it curious that, for the first time, there was not an exclusive predominance of the color blue, but rather a carnival of different refractions of light.

"Wait until you see what they have to sell. Even if you don't buy anything, this should be incentive for you to get as many slayers points as possible," Sabrina said, pulling Dante by the arm, eager to go ahead.

In a small isolated booth, far away from the confusion and the crowd that gathered around the various sales points that seemed to be scattered around the room, Dante and Sabrina acquired some sort of badge. There, it stated their name and extermination points.

Dante was surprised when he saw he had over 200 points.

"Those points are because of the test where, err, I needed to save you," Sabrina said, shyly. "Mister Fig said he would give you some extra points for your performance. Sounds like he was pretty generous."

In fact, if Dante counted exclusively the monsters he had killed, he wouldn't have even half of those points. Still, this raised a new doubt in his mind, were the teachers watching the test all the time? If so, why did Sabrina have to intervene, and not the teachers?

The idea that the tutors would let him die without any intervention scared him. Deep down, Dante had always known that the Slayers' training environment was cruel, but feeling the reality on his skin was always different.

As greedy as before, Sabrina took Dante by the arm and they went to a tent that had several pills available. Before he could analyze the products, Sabrina bought some pills and handed them to him.

"Here, take these. Since you haven't hunted monsters yet, you need to go prepared in case you get hurt again."

"But, I won't get in your way like this. You don't need to spend your slayers points on me, imagine if you fall out of the top 100 in the rankings because of it," Dante said, worried about her performance. Not that he didn't appreciate the help, because he did need it. It was just that he didn't want to be a burden to the girl again.

"Hmm? ahhh, you must not know about how points work yet. The points we earn by killing monsters are fixed. But, the points also work as currency, although the points present in the raking never decrease. This makes us incentivized and have the tools to get stronger, without having to calculate the monsters killed with the number of points."

That made sense. That way, the more monsters you killed, the more cultivation materials you could buy.

After walking Sabrina through a few more booths, Dante seriously asked what he should spend his points on. Master Isaac had told him that he would have enough Qi and sacred treasures for him to advance once his body was ready, and so far he had not lied.

Added to the pills Sabrina had bought, he really had no idea what to spend his money on.

Thinking of buying some weapons, he glanced around the stands, but the problem was that he still hadn't decided what his new path would be. If he were to take his old techniques as a basis, his most mortal weapon would be his own fists.

After wandering around for a while, he found Sabrina again.

"Those earrings look nice on you," Dante said, teasing her. She tried on an earring that looked like a pendulum, with a black crystal on the end.

A little surprised by the boy's audacity, she said, "Not like that, silly. This crystal on the tip of the earring is called hidden dark," she said, while pointing to the crystal on the tip of the earring, "it is useful for me to have access to a large flow of Qi, in an emergency situation."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Surprised by the usefulness of the jewelry, Dante moved on to look closely at the items laid out on the table.

"Can I help you with something, kid?" said a slightly overweight lady with white hair, who seemed to be in charge of the items. She had the appearance of someone who had been born with the goal of one day being a grandmother.

"Do you happen to have anything that might be useful for someone who uses Fire Qi?" Dante asked, thoughtfully. He couldn't ask for something too specific, or he might give away his new type of Qi."

With a smile that would surely put fear into even the most hoarder of dragons, she selected a few items and displayed them in front of Dante.

"There's nothing Nana doesn't have, kid. Those are some of the most basic items, which will help even the strongest of cultivators for sure."

Then she looked to the sides as if to make sure no one was looking at her, and pulled out from under the counter a box made of a red wood, adorned with paintings of flames.

"That's just for Nana's favorite customers. Because you are Sabrina's friend, you earn that right. Thank her later, see," said the lady, winking awkwardly at Dante. It seemed that in her dictionary thank you meant something different than it did to Dante.

He could feel the instantaneous change in the air when the wooden box was opened. There, each item was essentially different from the others.

While the simpler items were just jewelry with red crystals, which carried fire Qi, these new ones seemed to be made of materials highly charged with fire Qi.

"Thanks, Nana, but let's stick with something simpler for now," Sabrina said, intruding into the negotiation.

Of course, she thought the items were too plain for Dante. Sabrina didn't know that he would have the resources to go forward, and assumed that he needed to ration his money.

Laughing as he predicted her face when he bought one of the expensive items, Dante said, "Excuse me, Nana, what price did you say?"

He pointed to a bracelet made of a crimson-colored metal that seemed to make the air around it boil.

"This one..." said Nana, as she looked beyond and calculated, "it comes to a trifle over 78500 extermination points, with the first purchase discount!"

Dante suspected that, if not for the nature of his Qi, he would have frozen in time right then and now. With a brief calculation, he theorized that he would have to kill thousands of monsters to have the slightest chance of buying that! and it was only a bracelet!"

With a look that said "I told you so," Sabrina again came to the rescue. "Who knows in the future, Nana. But, taking advantage of this so-called first-time buyer discount, what about one of those rings," she said, pointing to the simpler items.

"You and your cunning again, young lady. Very well, very well, I can do this one for 55 points," said Nana, with the same look as before. It seemed like she knew all along that Dante didn't have the money to buy her more expensive products, after all.

"Come on, Nana, I'm already buying these earrings here, make us a special price," Sabrina returned, with an almost devilish smile. Dante made a note to never owe Sabrina anything.

After some more negotiation that would have put any auctioneer in check, they managed to buy both the ring and the earring for 250 points. Sabrina charged Dante 45 points, but he got an item of Fire Qi.

According to her, the price difference was because of the type of Qi. The dark type was much rarer than the fire type, and therefore much more expensive.

Dante's ring worked a little differently from the earring. While the earring needed to be broken to release a large amount of Qi, the ring emitted a weak but continuous aura that always kept the Qi in Dante's hand circulating.

To get used to the new sensation, he closed and opened his hand as he walked, amazed.

"Do you need anything else?" asked Sabrina, as they headed for the exit.

"I need to know how my hunting partner is this negotiation monster, that's what."

"I've had some experience working in commerce. Since I had to get by at a young age, I had no choice but to learn how to make a few bucks," said Sabrina, as she looked off into the distance, revisiting the memories in her head.

Patting himself for having asked yet another stupid question, Dante tried to fix his mistake, "I'm... I'm sorry, I'm sorry for asking. I didn't mean to make you sad."

Surprised at what she had said, Sabrina replied "oh, it's not bad at all, don't worry. It was actually a pretty quiet period. My boss was a good and honest man."

What Sabrina did not say, however, was where her former boss was. In a ditch, just like everyone she loved. Moments like this made her Qi flicker, so that she agitated her senses, managing to map the shadows of her surroundings. It would be a useful skill, when controlled.

Noticing Sabrina's reflexive countenance, Dante thought it best not to make matters worse. Even though she said everything was fine, it was obvious that it wasn't.

Lost in his own thoughts, he began to remember what his adolescence was like. He had always helped his parents and grandparents in the family clan. Since they had no Slayer in their lineage, they did minor jobs, rarely getting into any actual combat.

Other than the fact that Dante would be nothing but a silverback if he stayed with his family, his past was not bad at all. Concentrating, he could almost smell his grandmother cooking for the whole family.

Along with these thoughts, Dante felt fear. Fear that if he didn't stay strong and turn things around, his family would become weaker and weaker. The thought that his loved ones would suffer made him feel a mixture of anger and determination.

He was not doing this just for himself. He was doing this for the sake of those he loved.

So, between worry and motivation, he went forward. It was time to make his dreams come true. It was time to slay.