9 Inner Energy Fist

Adam heard a familiar girl voice calling his name from far away. But he was unable to see or detect its source. He didn't know where he was or how did he get in this dark place. He felt like being slowly dragged down in deep water. But he was strangely calm and peaceful as if he was going to fell into a heavy slumber.

When the water had reached his neck, he closed lazily his eyes as he surrendered to sleepness.

"Adam! Adam! stop!" suddenly the voice shouted again but this time clearer and louder.

Adam opened his eyes in shock as he finally recognized that the suffering voice belonged to his friend Yasmine. He was no longer in that dark space, he found himself in a cave surrounded by scared goblins and hugged by a beautiful girl. He was so confused, all he remembered was entering the goblins' cave to complete the quest then absorbing a lot of shadows.

"It seems like I have lost consciousness after absorbing that large amount of energy." Adam thought after analyzing the situation.

"Adam, Adam, wake up! Get back to your senses." Yasmine said with a shaken voice behind his back.

When he heard Yassmine's voice, Adam who was in deep thoughts started to blush as he remembered he was being hugged by the goddess of the school.

She was like a fairy with her natural purple hair and eyes, her nice slim body and chalk-white flawless skin seen through her ruptured blue jeans.

"Uhuh, I am fine now. Thanks for saving me." Adam said to Yasmine.

"Oh! Thank god, I was worried about you. Let's take down the goblins so we can leave this disgusting cave."

"Condensed Airballs". She shouted as two transparent balls the size of coconuts appeared in her hands.

Adam wanted to stop her but she kept throwing the balls like a mad. In the blink of an eye, the crowd of goblins was wiped out. Except for the shaman goblin that conjured an energy shield with his staff.

As a member of the White Lotus family who is specialized in air bending, she gained the Condensed Airballs attack after reaching the E rank.

What Adam hid was revealed after the attacks: dozens of dark shadows flew toward him and entered his body.

Yasmine was terrified as she thought Adam was attacked. But she quickly calmed down after she sensed Adam's powers increase.

"Don't worry this is my ability. I can absorb the death's shadows, so to increase my power." Adam was obliged to explain what had just happened.

Yassmine stared at him speechlessly then sent a barrage of condensed airballs to the shaman till his shield broke. she was convinced Adam wasn't joking after she saw the shaman's shadow flew toward him.

"What a heaven-defying ability!" Yasmine exclaimed.

"I think it's a blessing from god rewarding me of my good deeds," Adam said proudly.

"Good deeds my a*s, how can you leave me in the middle of the market without saying a word. You are an awful person."

"I am so sorry. I didn't want anyone to see me use my ability. And I hope you will keep it a secret, or my life will be in danger."

"You are right, but you should have trusted me. I am your friend and I will never try to harm you."

"I am sorry again, and thank you for saving me today."

"Anyway, let's return to the city. It's very cold here."

The train arrived in Independence city at sunset. Yasmine returned home, while Adam went to the hunter's guild to claim his reward.

The reception girl gave him a sealed scroll and said: "This is a low fighting technique of the Sunbo Family the strongest family in Frost Village. It's worth over 25000$."

Adam took the scroll excitedly and headed toward his home. Once he arrived he locked his bedroom and started reading its content.

It was written in the description:" Inner Energy Fist is a fighting technique that uses the stored user's energy to strengthen his fist's attack power. When fully mastered the fighter can generate power equivalent to five bulls. Minimum requirement: reaching the E rank."

After three hours, Adam had fully understood and memorized the principle. But because it was already night time he couldn't start the practice, so he measured his energy with the energy measurement device. It showed 1078E.P.

"Yeah, I have finally reached the D rank," Adam shouted from joy.

On the next day, Adam went to the forest to begin the practice.

even after an hour of successive tries. He couldn't make any progress. he opened the scroll again and checked if he forgot something. But it's contents matched what he had memorized.

"I have wasted an entire day and my secret was revealed for nothing. this skill is so f**king complicated." He was disappointed when he remembered that his peers from big families have already learned several skills and he was still stuck with a low rank one. "They must have teachers answering all their questions."

But Adam didn't like using money to soften his way toward glory. When he was a child he used to read stories about poor kids becoming strong fighters and his favored one was Independence Highschool's headmaster's biography. He was just a poor orphan yet he was able to become one of Independence City's top five fighters.

Adam also wanted to become a great fighter without any external help, so he could set an example for all those poor kids who don't believe they can achieve their dreams.

Adam sat cross-legged and started to think of a strategy. Finally, he decided to divide the instructions into two parts and to focus on each one separately. And when fully mastered he will combine them.

The first part was to sense his inner energy and learn how to circulate it. While the second part focused on moving the inner energy to the fist.

He closed his eyes slowly and began his meditation. He was progressing slowly but steadily. He needed six days to complete the first part and three days to complete the second.

He kept coming to the forest every day after finishing school to practice. His inner energy control has reached a very high level. He became able to direct his energy to every part of his body in less than one second.

After nine days.

"Inner energy fist" Adam shouted and A faint black glow appeared on his right arm.

He struck a large old tree to test the new skill's power. And the results were amazing as the tree was shattered into pieces.

He then began the hunt, though he didn't use his sword instead he attacked the monsters with his bare hands using his new skill to get familiar with it.

He fouth against dozens of white bears, a very territorial E rank monsters the size of elephants, that live in the cold areas. But they no longer posed a threat to him as he only needed one hit to take them down. His new skill combined with the D ranker's strength overwhelmed his enemies.