As for Dante, while he valued this world's ability to assist him in gaining power, he did not necessarily want to be too entangled in its politics, lest he lose sight of reality. By competing with these lowly fellows and engaging in their games, he might develop the illusion that this world is real.
Normally, this would not be a problem for other students, and if something like this happened to them, they would be excited because they could cause more trouble and get a nice payout.
However, for Dante, who could enter with his real body, he was in danger of succumbing to such a mental ailment. After all, with his real body down here, he was no different from the natives of this virtual world.
If a ridiculous meteor fell from the sky and crashed down, he would die along with everyone else. Thus, the pressure was heavy on Dante to keep his mind off such matters and not get too involved with the locals.
It was also best if he met fellow students and teamed up with them or interacted with them, as that would remind him of his player status and keep him aware of where he really came from.
In any case, this thought remained at the back of Dante's mind. At present, he was entirely focused on inspecting the entity in his dantian that had condensed from his intense cultivation just moments ago.
It was a tiny blackish-red bead with a raging fire within. Dante could feel it within him, like a ball of fire in his gut. He felt he had full control over it and could access its reserves of fire energy at will.
Dante had a thought and checked his in-world SDI, the one specifically for the True Martial World that was not affiliated with his real body.
Player Name: Dante
Player Race: Human
Faction: Supreme Martial Hall (Kingdom-level)
Internal Arts: Inferno Ascension Technique (Level 1: Ante-Inferno Ember Stage)
External Arts: None
Strength: 250
Agility: 250
Dexterity: 250
Intelligence: 250
Constitution: 250
Vitality: 250
Money: 0 copper coins, 0 silver taels, 0 gold bars?
Unfortunately, practicing Internal Arts wouldn't break his gene limit and was just a unique, nearly magical power he could accumulate for himself, forming a pseudo-superpower of its own.
He checked his Internal Arts section and saw that it was written that he had achieved the first level. The technique manual itself was filled with only the chant and did not outline the stages, so Dante clicked on the tooltip for more information about the various stages of the technique.
A large wall of text appeared before him, which he read attentively.
[Inferno Ascension Technique - Stages for the Technique
ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm Level 1 - Ante-Inferno Ember: This is the initial stage that allows one to step on the path of Internal Cultivation. The user ignites the embers of their life essence, kindling the connection to hellfire. The generated Internal Force forms into a small bead in the dantian and gains a faint fiery hue, granting the ability to use basic hellfire for any application.
Level 2 - Limbo Enkindling: The user's mastery deepens, and their connection to Hellfire grows stronger. The flames of Limbo are evoked, allowing the user's senses to escape their body and form a spiritual sense around them. This spiritual sense's strength is based on the power of the user's mind.
Level 3 - Lustful Ignition: With each step, the user stokes the fires of desire and ambition, allowing them to manipulate the minds of others for brief periods depending on the intensity of emotion. Strikes fueled by lustful flames deliver severe mental damage, breaking through physical defenses with ease.
Level 4 - Gluttonous Inferno: The flames of Gluttony empower the user to devour the life, spiritual, and mental force of chosen targets for themselves, refining it with the purest hellfire to form nutrients for themselves. The users can also grant this converted and purified essence to others with varying effects.
Level 5 - Greed's Ember Flow: Upon reaching this level, the user can harness the undulating energy of greed, creating a second and even third dantian to contain more Internal Force. Their Internal Force capacity soars by at least twofold, and the exact exponential increase is based on their constitution as well as the number of activated sub-dantians.
Level 6 - Wrathful Conflagration: The user taps into the furious fires of Wrath, channeling their fury and rage into raw power. Strikes imbued with wrathful hellfire become nearly unstoppable, and the user can momentarily enter a state of controlled rage, granting immunity to pain as well as rapid regeneration and a direct increase in power by at least two-folds, with the exact amount dependent on their Strength value.
Level 7 - Heretical Inferno: At this level, the user attains the ability to manipulate their sinister hellfire in ways that challenge conventional martial arts. The hellfire's heretical essence, upon contact with the foe, corrupts the opponent's mind and pollutes it, converting it into hellfire demons that you can control.
Level 8 - Violent Tempest Blaze: Drawing from the violence of the Inferno, the user creates a tempest of hellfire, enveloping their dantian and greatly magnifying the purity and potency of Internal Force. This raging inferno grants the ability of passive cultivation and allows for the wanton use of Internal Force to cast great AOE-like attacks at low costs.
Level 9 - Fraudulent Pyre Mastery: The user, at this level, gains the power to weave illusions with hellfire, creating deceptive mirages that confuse and mislead opponents. This mastery of deception also enables them to generate hellfire clones that can act autonomously of the main body.
Level 10 - Paradise's Inferno Awakening: The pinnacle of the Inferno Ascension Technique merges the flames of all levels into a transcendent blaze. The user becomes a vessel of pure hellfire, radiating an aura that engulfs the surroundings. In this state, Internal Force coalesces and upgrades into True Qi, a unique and unmatched energy on the same level as the Spiritual Energy of the Immortal Worlds.]
Dante was stunned. His eyes deeply flickered as he realized the uniqueness of Internal Arts, especially this one. Before selecting this art, he had examined many in the same fire section and saw that not all had the same levels.
Internal Arts were also categorized into ranks depending on how many levels they had. Mortal rank arts had 3 levels, Earth rank arts had 5 levels, Heaven rank arts had 7 levels, and immortal rank arts had 10 levels.
Simply looking at the kind of abilities he could acquire, even by the time Dante reached level 3, a Martial God would have to flee at the sight of him. He had spirit sense and could detect, track, and evade all your attacks as though he were in Ultra Instinct.
He had lust flames to warp your mind as well as make you do foolish things, and could even penetrate the defense of your Blood Qi since it almost completely ignored physical defenses. Even if you had a sea of blood Qi, it would be useless if it couldn't drown a torpedo that lived in water.
No wonder, upon seeing his talent and the technique he chose, those elders nearly lost their composure on the spot. If it were not for Hao Donglei and a few concerns they had, they might have besieged Dante on the spot.
Even Da Bo practically lost his mind and was about to attack directly when he saw Dante instantly achieve the first level. Even the most talented youngster would take a year or two to initiate themselves after chanting the mantra many times, yet he did it in a matter of minutes?
Then wouldn't he reach the Deity-like level 10 by tomorrow? At that point, a single wrong move from Dante could consign them to forgotten history.
Dante pondered and grasped the cause and effect. His talent was remarkable, but the laws were in place. To test his understanding, he continued to chant the mantra and cultivate for another 30 minutes.
A bright flame ignited around his body, making him appear as if he were ablaze. The blackish-red fire simmered around him, consuming everything around him except for inanimate objects since he did not wish it to.
After 30 minutes of cultivation, Dante stopped chanting and opened his eyes, his brow slightly furrowed. He could discern his progress with precision thanks to his affinity with the technique and knew that, in this time, his cultivation had only advanced by about 3%.
Compared to achieving level 1 in just over 3 minutes or so, this required nearly ten times the duration for far less progress. However, in this moment, Dante comprehended everything about Internal Cultivation and even External Cultivation, as well as how they were interconnected.
It was quite straightforward when thought through—Internal Force was generated based on unique internal energies that were condensed into the internal force through the chant.
Where did these energies come from? How were they generated? After consumption, how did they regenerate for further cultivation?
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