Attackers

Fusing the two went a lot quicker than last time; clearly, his experience from doing it last time had helped a lot. After an hour of fusing, Sora had already fused half of the Qi droplet with his dantian, officially being 3/8ths of the way done with his entire dantian.

Another 45 minutes passed as Sora had finally finished using all the Qi contained in the droplet and fusing it with his own dantian.

"I did it a lot quicker than I had anticipated... Did the Qi cloud have something to do with it?"

"It's weird, though; why does it take so long to upgrade my dantian's foundation? I can fully fill up my dantian with Qi in a minute, but fusing it with my dantian takes almost 2 hours."

Ignoring it for now, Sora opened his status and hovered his eyes over the dantian foundation information.

"Status."

<[Sora Jin]

(Race: Human, Locked, Locked)

(Age: 15)

(Physique: Zen Physique)

(Bloodline: Locked)

(Dantian Foundation: White, 2/4 Gray)

(Rank: Qi gathering 1)

(Qi required for breakthrough: 0/100)

(Skills: Air purification, Qi Meditation, Zen creation)>

"Thinking of what that old man told me, he said that to gain power, one needs to have a high-level dantian. Although he never mentioned anything about a dantian foundation, I feel like it should be very important."

"One thing I've learned in life is that building a foundation is much more effective long term than reaching for the stars immediately. So even if it takes a while, I should focus on developing my foundation before increasing my rank."

Looking around him, Sora noticed that the energy cloud from before had vanished entirely. It seemed that the absorption of the Qi droplet and the increased speed during the fusing process had utterly drained the cloud into nothingness.

Disappointed, Sora began using the Qi absorption skill without an energy cloud; holding his thumbs, it would work since he hadn't tried it yet. Thankfully, it seemed as if it worked, flooding in through his meridians; it again caused a reinvigorated feeling to spread throughout Sora's body.

Unfortunately, this time he didn't absorb as much Qi as he had previously, indicating that the Qi cloud helps greatly during cultivation.

About 10 minutes later, Sora started feeling uncomfortable, and the bursting sensation returned within seconds. Having expected this, Sora cramped together the energy cloud contained within his dantian and condensed it into another Qi droplet.

Paying more attention to the Qi droplet, Sora realized that the droplet had changed slightly since the previous Qi droplets he had made. This one seemed to contain purer energy and had darkened somewhat from its original white color to an off-white color.

Ignoring the phenomenon for now, Sora continued the fusing process as he flew the droplet towards a non-reinforced area of the dantian.

Focusing, Sora had been fusing for slightly over an hour and had completed 5/8ths of his dantians foundation. The fusing speed didn't seem to be very influenced by the Qi cloud, only about a 10-20% boost.

Another hour passed as Sora had completely fused the Qi droplet to his dantian, now being 3/4s of the way to gray foundation, whatever that meant.

"Alright, I'm almost done with the foundation, but I want to find a town before night falls. I really don't want to sleep on a branch again."

Standing up, Sora hopped down from the tree and started walking on a path he hadn't walked before.

It was tranquil in the lush forest; green trees and bushes were the only things visible for what felt like forever. The sound of birds chirping, Sora's footsteps, and the occasional rustling in nearby bushes felt like a loop. It was awfully calming, even more than drinking a cup of tea or taking a bubble bath.

After a long time of walking, however, Sora still hadn't gathered any clues or sights of a nearby town. It was as if the entire vicinity was completely uninhabited by humans; this made Sora quite nervous.

In reality, the bed isn't the main reason Sora wants to find a town. This world is currently a mystery to him; he barely knows anything and is quite scared of a powerful creature or foe finding him.

"If I don't find any signs of a town in the next 3 hours, I should give up, for now, finish my foundation and start climbing the ranks. This is getting slightly too dangerous."

Another hour and a half passed as Sora kept walking when he suddenly heard a slight rustle in a bush to his left. Ignoring it, as Sora had heard many rustles before this one, he was pretty certain it was just another bunny or bug trying to run from what they thought was a predator.

In the next second, 2 small human-like creatures jumped out of the bush and ran at Sora, daggers in hand.

Not getting a clear look at his attackers, Sora immediately cast Zen creation in the form of a dagger. Not underestimating the enemy, he used as much Qi he could possibly force into the dagger mold, aiming to create the sharpest and hardest dagger he could.

Jumping and twisting his body in the air, Sora replied to the attacker's aggression by dodging both attacks and swinging his dagger at the top of one of the creature's heads.

Landing, Sora could finally get a good look at his attackers; it was a human-like shape indeed. Before him was a pair of green and small-looking humans with big ears and red eyes, closely resembling the old mythological goblin back on earth.

The one that had been hit by Sora fell backward and didn't seem to be getting back up any time soon. Looking at his fallen comrade, the goblin-like creature's face twisted and turned from the original look of arrogance to a look of terror.

Realizing this foe was out of its league, especially now without its comrade, it turned tail and rushed as fast as it could away from Sora.

"You think you can get away now that your backup is down? Not a chance."

Running after the creature, it tried everything to escape, zig-zagged around trees, climbed trees, broke branches, etc. Unfortunately for the goblin, it didn't stand a chance.

Sora did both parkour and gymnastics all throughout most of his childhood; when it came to chasing and being chased, not many were better than Sora on earth.

Having caught up, Sora cornered the goblin before casting Zen Creation. A big sledgehammer appeared in the hands of Sora, and in the next second, it was swung down towards the goblin's head.

The goblin desperately tried to find a way out of this situation, but no matter how hard it tried, it was impossible to evade the hammer at this distance. Connecting, the big sledgehammer slammed into the goblin's forehead, and the goblin dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Dragging the unconscious body of the goblin back to its fallen comrade, Sora grabbed both and climbed up a tree, eventually stopping when they reached the summit. Putting them down, Sora tied the unconscious one up using the clothes of its fallen comrade and sat down.