Mark hadn't expected this sort of question. Strength was something that humans weren't easily able to gain as they couldn't harness any abilities. This is what made them inferior to the other races, but when 1 human does gain strength they are seen as saviors to other humans.
"First, I would like to make sure that nothing I am about to say will leave this room." Mark took the first precaution in order to protect himself. If word spread about how he was able to attain strength by being hurt, others may want to take that power or use him for their own purposes.
"That is fine, these rooms aren't recorded at all and the walls are all soundproofed, so there is no need to worry about a leak of information." Dante explained the workings of the rooms and continued, "I also don't intend on breaking your trust in me just yet."
"When you speak like that, it gives me the impression that you do intend to spread the news at some stage." Mark questioned Dante and his true intentions. "If you spread the news I may not come back to your store."
"Ha, you think you are the only one who threatens me like that? I'm a shopkeeper, people threaten to never come back all the time and not once have I given a damn." Dante laughed as he heard the weak threat. "What makes you think you will be any different?"
"Simple, I intend to become the most powerful being in existence." Mark spoke with a straight face. There were no signs that he was kidding.
Still, Dante couldn't help but to burst out into laughter after hearing those words. After struggling to breath for a number of minutes, Dante pulled himself together and looked Mark in the eyes. He saw that there were no signs of falsehood or joking in his eyes.
"You serious kid? You're just a human, the other races with chew and spit you out." Leaning back, Dante began to lecture Mark on the other races. "Humans are the only race that can't use abilities. This already puts us at a disadvantage to the other races. Not only that, the other races have their own abilities that make them unique."
"I'm well aware that humans are weak, but that doesn't mean I will stop trying." With conviction in his eyes, Mark declared his unwillingness to back down.
"It doesn't matter how strong you become, you aren't able to overpower an Animen's beast transformation, the Dark Folks technology, or the Highers ability to see the future." Explaining all the things that separated the races, tried to calm Mark down and help him see reason. "Unless you have someway to get past all of that you ain't gonna be the strongest anything."
"That's fine, I don't intend to be the strongest right away. First, I need to become the strongest human."
Sighing in defeat, Dante tried to steer the conversation back to the original topic. "We should set this aside for now, there is probably other things before you will tell me what happened in the ring, so what is it?"
"You're very perceptive, and you are right. I would like you to provide me with at least a healing ring that can fix broken bones." Getting straight to the point, Mark demanded an item from Dante.
Once again breaking out into laughter, Dante couldn't help but think this kid was insane.
"You really have no idea how to bargain do you? Fine, I can get you the ring in the future, but I will be needing a bit more from you then."
"That's fine by me." Thinking that this was a reasonable request, Mark had no reason to deny the request.
"Good, now tell me what happened in that fight."
"Fine, I have the ability that if I get hurt I will get stronger. That cracking sound that you heard in the fight was me breaking my fingers in order to increase my strength." Holding up his hand, Mark displayed his broken fingers that he sacrificed in order to increase his strength.
Dante flinched after he saw the state of Mark's fingers, they were bent in unnatural ways that shouldn't be possible. Now he understood the reason why Mark would want that ring to heal broken bones.
"I can see that your fingers are broken, but I didn't see you break them yourself, so how do you explain you breaking them without touching them?" Dante couldn't think of anything that could have done that except for a skill from the ability.
"I have a few skills associated with my ability. I can use those skills in order to break my bones without touching them." Mark confirmed Dante's suspicion, however he left out the part of him having a system that helped him accomplish using these skills.
"I see, so looks like you are a human with an ability." Dante leaned forward, resting his chin on his knuckles. "Is what I would say if I believed you."
"What exactly are you insinuating by saying that?" Mark was stunned by the sudden change in his attitude. He expected Dante to be suspicious, but to outright say he was lying about something, this wasn't something that he had expected.
"There has never been a case of a human having an ability. Either you are lying about being human, or there is something you aren't telling me." Deducing some of the lies hidden in Mark's words, Dante grew even more suspicious of him and his strange ability.
"Well, I will admit there is stuff I cannot tell you, however I can assure you that I am indeed a human."
After hearing those words, Dante reached into his pocket and pulled out an orb. This orb was a clear orb with a small moving cloud in the center.
"This orb allows someone to view a status condition of the person touching the orb." Dante held out the orb, gesturing for Mark to place his hand on the orb.
"Fine, if this is going to prove that I am human, so be it."