Days passed as Ringo focused on the new task, not moving an inch from his initial position, purely focused on controlling his Chi.
What started as a billowing coat that looked like it was going to break at any moment, now remained perfectly stable around him, it was incredible what evolutionary energy could do.
Ringo created a closed cycle using his bloodstream as a base, starting from the heart. Chi was sent throughout his body along with the blood flow before returning to the heart. At first, it required all his concentration to maintain this, but over time, evolutionary energy began to transform it from active to passive, just like breathing, this energy shield became an involuntary reflex.
At that point, to stop the shield he would have to concentrate, like holding his breath.
Even after reaching this point, he wasn't satisfied, the chi around him was clearly visible, like a cloak covering several centimeters around his body and walking with it was extremely conspicuous.
Thus Ringo began the second phase, transforming this cloak into a thin layer over his skin, invisible to most and also increasing the cloak's defensive power even while reducing its bulk.
This would be much more difficult than simply creating the cloak. For the first part, reducing the cloak's volume was possible, but that would decrease its defense. So what he needed to do now was learn to concentrate a large volume of Chi into a thin layer.
It seemed much easier said than done.
Ringo shook his head as he separated a clone, the clone grabbed his space bag and teleported to Aquamarine, soon returning with the bag full of rocks.
Ringo stood up and began emitting Chi again, this time the Chi covered the stone with minimal energy loss, but when Ringo used the stone to try and break another stone, his lips trembled...
Looking at the stone that had turned to dust after barely touching it with his energy, he fell into deep thought.
He should have thought of that, Chi comes from the body and his body has already reached Grade A.
Of course, the energy it emits is based on Grade A, even a simple stone attacked by Chi of that level crumbled to dust.
Shaking his head, Ringo separated the clone again, this time it went to Black Spider in Kandor, there were already much more resistant stones, even so when Ringo tried again, the result was only slightly better, the stones becoming larger fragments instead of dust.
Finally, Ringo shook his head and changed his angle, he picked up all the Maktru that Black Spider had collected in that time, it already weighed over a hundred kilograms!
So he picked up an ordinary stone, covered it with Chi and began to strike Maktru.
As soon as he hit it, leaving only a slight dent, Ringo finally sighed in relief, starting to hit it with the stone again.
On the 66th attempt, the stone broke, but Ringo wasn't worried. He picked up another stone, imbued it with Chi and continued to use his evolutionary energy to accelerate his understanding, continually trying to strengthen the stone with his Chi.
Thus, the training room turned into a constant cacophony of stone hitting metal.
On the first day, Ringo managed to hit a stone 104 times before it broke, on the second day, 201 times, on the third day...
Two weeks later, Ames had finally returned, while Ringo was still hammering stones against a large, crumpled piece of Maktru.
When Ames found him, she saw a scene that made her stop for a moment, before her lips trembled and she sighed, she didn't know how many more times Ringo would surprise her.
In the room, surrounded by fragments of stone everywhere, making it difficult to see the floor, Ringo was hammering a piece of metal with a stone.
He continued counting aloud, completely focused, his body sweating. - 6,156... 6,157...
Ames could only watch, Aesop was right behind her, looking around the room with the same strange expression. The pair stared for a long time before Ringo's stone shattered. - 6,766!
Ringo sighed deeply, the routine of the last few weeks had been truly exhausting, but... the results were evident! The energy surrounding Ringo was much thinner, he seemed more like he was glowing instead of appearing covered by a layer of energy.
He learned through practice how to focus his Chi and the results left him very satisfied! Even though his progress as a Super was very slow in recent weeks, in terms of energy control, even his evolutionary energy and his nightmare energy advanced.
Ringo sensed that he had probably gained some ability related to energy control, but as always, he couldn't see anything.
Ringo finally noticed the pair watching him from outside. He smiled when he saw Ames and waved excitedly. Despite his progress with Chi, his progress with Ames was truly more important, above all, faster!
He, who was already very close to the next evolution, was very happy to see her return.
Ames sighed, but gave a slight smile, she was also happy to see Ringo again, so she waved back.
Aesop nodded as well, with a curious and interested look, he had heard a lot about Ringo of Ames, and he even realized she hadn't told him everything, which surprised him.
It's really true that when a daughter grows up, she forgets about her father!
The pair entered the training room as Ringo stood up. Aesop noticed the man glowing and clicked his tongue. -Is that some kind of special effect?
Even Ames raised an eyebrow, curious as to why Ringo was glowing.
Ringo shook his head and explained what he was doing. -Energy training, I'm developing an energy shield, it's already much better than it was a few days ago.- He finished as he released more energy and created a voluminous shield again, surprising the pair.
Even though the shield had increased in volume to its original level, in terms of defense it was much more enhanced, but this type of glowing shield was best used during battles, so Ringo still quickly reduced his Chi shield back to the thin, glowing layer.
-What kind of energy is this?- Aesop approached, nudging Ringo's bare chest curiously, without any shame or sense of decorum.
Ringo's lips trembled, if Ames hadn't been beside Aesop, he would have already punched the abusive old man. Instead, he shook his head and explained the Chi.
Ames already knew about it, they had talked about it before, so she wasn't surprised. Aesop, on the other hand, was very curious about this form of energy outside the Super system. He had seen many things in his life, but energy not based on the Super system or race? This was a first.
-Can anyone learn to use Chi?- Aesop asked curiously.
Ringo looked at him with a raised eyebrow, even Ames seemed stunned for a moment, but even though Ringo wanted to see a muscular version of Aesop, he still dismissed that silly dream from the old man's mind.
-Yes, but to reach my current level you would need hundreds of years of continuous hard work, including physical training, fighting, pain, meditation, and so on... are you sure you want to learn?- Ringo asked curiously.
Aesop paused for a moment, then chuckled softly as he said. -I remembered I have something to do. The wines of the Void Dragon don't produce themselves, you can have your fun yourselves.- After saying this, the old man walked as fast as he could out of the room, clearly fleeing.
Ringo and Ames exchanged glances, the pair saw the "joke" in each other's eyes and Ames even let out a soft laugh, clearly in good humor.