Turning his attention back to Sabrina, Dante said, "How do you want to do today? You know what happened the last time I tried my luck with the D-Class."

The truth was that Dante would come up with a reason, even a lame one, not to leave Sabrina alone today. She was usually quiet and thoughtful, but today she was just... empty. He could hardly stand to see her suffering like this.

"Sure, but I don't think you'll have any problems. Now, do you know what kind of monsters those are?" she said, pointing to four-legged monsters that roamed in the distance.

The sandy ground was marked by paw prints that seemed old. How long should the sect maintain this field of concentrated Qi have, for the ground to show such marks?

"More or less. Unless I'm mistaken, they're called desert stoves, right?"

The animals were a type of chameleon, but only if around its neck a chameleon was on fire, ready to fry anyone who appeared in front of it.

"Correct. From what I remember, they prefer to attack at long range, but it's never good to underestimate monsters of that class. We also have to remember that from that level on, the map says there may be more monster types."

Nodding his head, Dante began to prepare. In fact, while there was only one type of F and D Class monster in each concentrated Qi field, the stronger levels tended toward variety.

Sabrina agreed to stay with him for a while, at least until he felt comfortable. More at ease, he sat in lotus position, so that he could access his Qi.

While Sabrina had found a shade, Dante chose a place where the sun had no obstruction. Accessing his core, it didn't take long for him to feel the strong energy being absorbed into his skin, almost instinctively.

He took off his black uniform with sapphire adornments. Although he had been shy the first few times, he was used to fighting shirtless - the more skin that absorbed sunlight, the better.

Breathing deeply, he concentrated on analyzing all the Qi inside him. His core pulsed, firm and full. His training was showing clear results.

Cultivating Qi made him realize something interesting. Even though the fire aura in that place was less than in his usual training place, in terms of raw Qi, Dante was undoubtedly able to absorb more in this desert place.

Remembering the fundamentals taught by Isaac, he had no doubt that this was because, there, he was able to absorb both fire Qi and light Qi. No, it wasn't just that. There, he could absorb his specific type of Qi - solar Qi.

Feeling stronger than ever, he placed his hands in front of his body, palms facing up. Sparing no strength, he drained his core with all he could.

From each palm a bright energy began to emanate, almost as if a fire had caught fire, such was the brightness of the new Qi.

Just like the other times, he was not surprised when he failed to condense the energy into a smaller area.

It was strange for his body to fail in this task. This had been the fundamental basis for his first technique on the old path. Now, whenever Dante tried, it was as if his channels had just locked, so that the amount of Qi expelled decreased considerably.

Again, releasing the Qi outflow at full throttle, he carefully observed how the energy behaved. It was as if the Qi first enveloped his hand in an aura, and then tried to expand the energy around.

Dante's initial technique consisted of generating a kind of concentrated fireball, which would be expelled at the moment of contact. His control now failed in this task. He could not condense Qi into a small enough form.

Staring at the sun, he had an idea. Long ago, his grandfather had said that the Flaming Falcon cultivators did not use weapons, because they could make any part of their body into deadly arms.

The problem was that he honestly had no idea how to do this. In any case, he would need to find a way. Dante had one clear weakness compared to other cultivators of his level. His ability to cause damage was mediocre.

Therefore, it was imperative that his first technique aided him in this.

Concentrating with every neuron he had, he closed his eyes and imagined his body. Lowering one hand, he decided that he would concentrate first on his dominant hand, in this case, his right.

Visualizing the way his hand reacted to his command, he began to concentrate his aura on his hand. After a while, he had reached the maximum concentration of his channels.

Rotating his hand, so that he could analyze it well, Dante feared that this was still not enough. As he tried to touch his hand with the ground, his worries proved to be well-founded. No more than a faint black mark was left on the surface. Still unable to expel concentrated Qi.

He had greater destructive power now, with respect to his old path, but to make progress required fine control of Qi.

Not knowing how to proceed, he heard footsteps coming towards him.

"I think I can help you," Sabrina said, sitting down in front of Dante.

As soon as she sat down, she stood up, uncomfortable. "First, can we go to that area, so I don't get in contact with the sun?"

Dante, realizing he was so absolved in his thoughts that he hadn't even thought about her well-being, agreed immediately. Soon after, they sat across from each other, Sabrina in the shade and Dante in the sun.

"You are trying to somehow condense the Qi in your hand, right?"

"Yes, but without success so far. I don't know, it seems like the most I can do is just strengthen my skin in general, and not shape the surrounding aura."

Staring into the void as if trying to solve a puzzle, Sabrina was silent for some time.

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

"From what I'm observing, I think you have a very strong predisposition for 'long-lasting' techniques, that is, for strengthening even. The problem is, the technique you have in mind probably uses a large amount of Qi in a short period, so it's like you're using a technique, and not really a strengthening."

Thinking about that, Dante again raised his hand and concentrated the Qi there. Trying to further restrict the area of the energy, he was finding it difficult to maintain the maximum strength of the flow.

"Your meridians are not used to this, because your ancient technique should be channeled little by little, and not concentrated in a few Qi channels all at once. I'll give you my example, to see if it helps. My Qi, theoretically, can be used so that I can make any shadow within my reach physical. However, when I use a technique on a surface other than my hair, it invariably becomes weaker."

Demonstrating, Sabrina concentrated on the ground in front of her. A hand appeared. Soon after, another hand of shadows emerged from her hair. Ordering the two to stand side by side, the difference was glaring. While the hand that was connected to the ground was thin and somewhat transparent, the one connected to her hair looked like a thin vein of pure shadow Qi.

"I can't explain the reason for that. I don't think anyone knows, really. All cultivators have some different manifestation in their physique. Now, what is the main change you have noticed since your Qi changed?"

Dante focused on recent memories. His new Qi was a jumble of light and fire energy, but still different. He had deduced that the damage potential of solar fire would be frightening, but he had not yet been able to prove the theory.

What he had managed to execute, however. At that moment, if Dante had been near a lamp, it would surely have turned on. Not turned on, combusted.

He looked at his hand, and frowned, a typical face of someone with a stomachache. Looking at Sabrina, he thought it best to warn her.

"Please don't interrupt. If I'm right..."

Without further ado, he brought his hand toward the ground. Forcefully.

Unlike the other time, he didn't strengthen it one bit with Qi. Instead, he concentrated energy on his arm, so as to give more impact to the blow.

When Dante's hand found the ground, he winced. From the sounds, he had clearly broken some of the bones, as well as made several cuts.

He just didn't hear Sabrina's words of concern because he was too busy trying to test his new idea.

Closing his eyes, he visualized his Qi, just like the other times, going quickly to his hand so that it would regenerate the wound.

Seeing the way the energy wrapped around the wounds and remolded the bones, he scraped his fingers on the ground. This time, he detected no broken bones, only a trail of blood that irrigated the sandy soil.

Using all the mental strength he could muster amidst the agonizing pain, he focused fixedly on his fingertips. There, as his Qi began to wrap around his finger and regenerate, he forced the regeneration to stop.

Instead, he tried to make the Qi come out through the wounds and wrap itself around the finger. Just as he was about to succeed, however, he felt his concentration slipping away.

Even wet with sweat and still feeling phantom pain in his hand, he couldn't help but give a big smile as he looked at Sabrina.

"You crazy man," she said, returning a shy smile.

He had made it!

Now all he had to do was improve his technique.

Thanking Sabrina, he told her that it was now okay for her to hunt monsters too. Surprisingly, she said she would stay by his side today. He couldn't help but be happy knowing that he offered her a little comfort as well.

After two more tries, Dante was satisfied with his prototype technique.

Watching his hand, he channeled the concentrated Qi in his fingers. Now, he no longer needed to hurt his skin in order to achieve such a feat. Perhaps his physique would somehow evolve according to the damage he sustained.

With fingers resembling phosphorus, he struck an attack with open hands against the ground, utilizing his finger as claws. Even on the stone ground, he was happy with the result. He had left a small trench where his hand made contact with the ground.

Getting up, he tried this time to practice using the techniques on his left hand as well. His theory of evolution proved plausible when he didn't have to hurt his other hand to be able to perform the technique on it as well.

However, the Qi expenditure seemed to be much higher when the technique was active on both hands.

Eager to test it against the monsters, he needed to cultivate for a little over an hour to recover all the lost Qi. He was surprised when he analyzed his Qi and found the sphere slightly denser than before.

Would the self-inflicted injuries also help him in his evolution? At the same time as, new ideas were springing up in his mind. He couldn't help but feel fearful.

It seemed that his progress involved pain. Trucks of pain.

If his body somehow adapted to the injuries, that meant that the way he would get stronger faster was to hurt himself harder and harder.

In addition, he would have to seek out as many types of Qi as possible to absorb the attacks. His feeling was that his body would acquire a certain resistance to the Qi that affected him.

After cultivating until his core was overflowing, he came close to Sabrina.

"Hey, want to see the show?" he said confidently. It wasn't often that he bragged about his abilities, but the technique, although untested, looked promising.

"After you, showman."

Approaching the smallest group of monsters in sight, it wasn't long before Dante tried his usual strategy. Since, at least until then, his main weakness was the absence of an effective attack technique, he always tried to lure one monster at a time.

Deciding not to test his luck yet, he got close to one of the animals and began to emit a sound he had learned from his family. They called it a lullaby, but Sabrina said it sounded more like a mating rite.

Dante had felt bad when she made fun of it at first, but after the first dozen times, he could only laugh along with her. He had to admit, that kind of sound didn't seem to be much incentive to make a child find sleep.

The speed with which the flaming chameleon came toward him took him by surprise. Circulating his Qi, he ran off in the opposite direction so that his battle would not attract unwanted attention.

When he was at a satisfactory distance, he concentrated the Qi at the point of his fingers.

"Morning Claw!" he shouted, looking at Sabrina, fishing for the girl's reaction.

"I think we should think of a better name. But then, Dante, watch out!" said Sabrina, as she signaled to the creature with black fur that came running.

The monster was the size of a medium-sized dog, but moved as fast as a jaguar.

The animal seemed to want to fight in close quarters, so that it jumped up, trying to bite Dante.

Deciding that he would focus on his technique first, Dante dodged, but just barely. As he jumped to the side, he felt a paw rub against his leg.

One of the flaws of his new physique, Dante had learned, was that his Qi instinctively treated every injury as needing immediate care. Thus Dante feared that he would run out of Qi if he tried to absorb the attacks and fight back at the same time.

While he was thinking about what to do, the monster would not let up. He saw only a fireball coming towards him as he quickly ducked.

To his surprise, the apparent fireball turned out to be a beam of Qi, which followed His trajectory. It was not long before part of his torso was engulfed in flames coming from the monster's mouth.

He immediately saw Sabrina's shadow hands enveloping the chameleon. It wasn't long before the usual sounds of breaking bones appeared.

Struggling to maintain consciousness, he looked in the direction in which the fire had hit him. What was left of it, in fact.

In place of skin, he found bones and tissue.

What was most surprising, however, was the strength with which his Qi was going into the area of the injuries. It was as if his channels were overloaded to the point of exploding. Feeling his core draining rapidly, he concentrated only on absorbing ambient Qi.

Luckily for him, it seemed that his body dealt with the injuries more efficiently than usual. Perhaps it was the fact that the creature Qi was fire based, just like his own.

This time, however, the healing process was being excessively long and painful. Normally, the pain would pass when regeneration took a turn, and he would soon get used to the feeling of being whole again.

Perhaps because of the severity of the injury, this time the pain was excruciating. All Dante could do at that moment was to focus on the spark of his consciousness that was still struggling to absorb Qi.

When he felt that the pain at the site was subsiding, he let himself go. With Sabrina there, there was nothing to worry about.