—–
FLASH!
The Qi and Fire-Attribute Mana merged together, Chris groaned a lot, but he was pretty good at bearing pain. He gritted his teeth and continued refining the essence, after a few seconds, he was able to do it. The Qi flowing out of him suddenly changed, turning from gold to fiery red.
This fiery red Qi was Fire Qi, and it flowed with a strong heat and a fierceness that only the fire element has. After this, I guided Chris to make this Fire Qi flow through his entire body, it was painful to him, as if he was burning from the inside out, most practitioners of Fire Arts always had to go through this initial burning pain sensation.
However, after some time, he got used to it and ultimately, the flames became more and more warm and comfortable instead of being painful.
When he finished, he was left exhausted, however, he had converted most of his Qi into Fire Qi, but that also used his Mana and Qi… the Fire Qi was stored successfully within his Qi Core, and his conventional Qi was slowly regenerating.
At least, unlike me, the kids don’t have the curse of making their energies regenerate half as fast, so he’ll recover his Qi rather quickly.
“Phew… Ugh… I am so tired…” sighed Chris, resting on the grass and sighing. His black hair was all messy and his spirit was also tired, resting over his chest.
“Good work, you’ve done it. Now practice this at home whenever you got the time to accumulate more Fire Qi, I will teach you ways to use it in the future.” I said
“Hahah… Thanks…” sighed Chris.
“Chris, are you okay?” asked Eric worriedly.
“He’s exhausted…” said Erika.
“Now’s your turn, Eric…” I said.
Eric looked at me with fear as I touched his shoulder. He seemed to think I was some sort of specter or something, because he grew rather pale. Probably imagining that he would go through the same pain as Chris did made him have a bit of fear.
“Fear not, Nature and Life Qi refinement is way less painful,” I said.
“R-Really?” he asked.
“Yes… Now let’s do it.” I said.
The same process was done with Eric, his spirit helped at making Nature and Life Attribute Mana while he refined both elements and his Qi.
He had an innately lower amount of Qi than Chris though. Mostly because Qi is based in your body type and Eric compared to Chris is way skinnier and smaller, the blonde boy is made to be a spell caster more than anything, and he has the brains to think about strategies even in the middle of battle while Chris is more of a muscle brain.
Nonetheless, not learning how to use martial arts and Qi would be a total waste, so I still forced him to learn as much as possible-
“Uaagh! It hurts! Blake, you lied to meeeee…!”
The almost six-year-old boy began to cry a bit as he was feeling as if several thorny vines began to pierce through the inside of his body. Well, this was how it was. Depending in how the nature of your Qi was, sometimes it would hurt more than other times.
“I am sure it doesn’t hurt, grow some backbone and bear with it!” I said.
“Uuuggh…” cried Eric, as he gritted his teeth and continued refining the Qi, until it was finally done.
At the end, he refined a double element Qi, Nature and Life Qi, both elements are very closely related with one another to the point even a child with the affinity for the elements should be able to refine the double-element Qi.
I could refine it too, but there’s no point when I’ve already compromised with my current Physique that requires Blood Qi, my specialization. But having my other two friends have other elemental Qi will widen the range of abilities we can use as a team.
“Hahaha! You’re a crybaby!” said Chris.
“You also cried like a girl before!” said Eric.
“I-I didn’t!” said Chris.
The two kids who were always close friends began to fight against one another childishly.
“Are you implying girls cry? I am not a crybaby…!” said Erika, she got into the fight out of nowhere, she probably dislikes when people associate being weak to girls.
“Sometimes, I have a hard time believing these children are our new recruits…” sighed Eleanora through telepathy.
“Well? It is better than not having anything…” I said.
“That’s… true,” she sighed.
“They also remind me of her… a bit. I want to do what I couldn’t do to help her back then and make these kids into strong people,” I said to her through telepathy.
“And as your loyal servant and friend, I shall help you do so as well,” she said.
“Ahem! Now that things are done for. We should really begin some practice. Alright! Who wants to fight me?” I asked.
“Me! Me!!!” said Chris.
“I want to! I’ll show you my moves!” said Erika.
“I-I would prefer to practice my magic…” said Eric.
“Hm, Eric, come first then! You’re the one with the least desire to fight, so I have to be extra rough with you so you grow a backbone quickly.” I said.
“Eeeh?! I-I said I didn’t wanted to!” cried Eric.
The blonde boy seemed a bit scared, he knew I was quite rough around the edges sometimes.
SLAM!
“Uagh!”
Chris patted very strongly the back of Eric, almost making him trip over the ground.
“What was that for?!” he asked.
“Eric, go for it! Show me what you got!” said Chris while giving him a thumbs up.
“T-This is… Ahh… My uncle and my auntie are going to get mad with me if I come back home with bruises…” said Eric.
“Don’t worry about that, Blake never truly damages you.” Said Eleanora.
“What? How?” asked Eric.
“It is a pretty cool and flashy technique he has! Flowing Fist… Technique? Or something!” said Erika.
“I-I see… Well… Alright, fine…” sighed Eric.
“Good!” I said.
—–