Janet and Tanya were out doing Yoga in front of the tent. Once again, their machete’s and crossbows were out and they were both facing opposite directions. I recognized the pose and joined it, we kept doing positions, basically following Janet’s lead, finally ending the practice with a sun salutation.

I got the expected notification. I’d also done yoga in the past. When I was studying Asian philosophy and Chinese, I had started taking yoga and then kept up with it. A good way to meet girls, of course, at the time I was 17 so the girls I met thought that I was such a cute little brother. But you know, still, girls in lycra bending and stretching!

You go boy! You’ve got skillz!

Yoga (Hatha)

Rank: Bronze

Elemental Sphere: Earth

Range: self

Damage: variable

Cool Down: none

Duration: Permanent

Spell Resistance: none

SP: 4 per minute, forms or other training.

A form of inner martial art that is concerned with developing chi and harmonizing the body. It is a system of poses designed to free up the meridians and enable the body to exceed its limits.

Level 8, (3352/6400)

“Level Eight!” I bragged.

“Oh,” said Tanya, “I’m only level two.” She waited until I started to console her and then said, “Copper!”

“Oh, snap!” said Janet. She and Tanya fist bumped and did the whole explosion thing afterwards. I looked at Janet and she said, “Oh, you don’t even want to go there. Iron 9. Remember therapy? Well, afterward, I became a Yoga instructor.”

“Just wondering,” I said. “You two are so competitive! So suspicious.” They exchanged looks. I could tell they didn’t believe me. “OK,” I said. “We still going with the plan?”

They both looked puzzled, so I elaborated a little more, “fighting practice, formations, archery/crossbows, spell talk, and supplies. Remember?”

“Sounds good to me,” said Janet. “You mentioned Wang Chun, Aikido and Krav Maga? You still up for that?”

“Yep,” I said. “Last night before I fell asleep, I came up with a training plan. Well, the start of one. Does anyone here have any stats lower, in the body category, than 18?”

“I have a 15 in dexterity,” said Janet. Tanya just shook her head.

“Ok,” I said, “that makes this easier. The way I figure it, training can only raise your attributes so far, if your above 18 in a stat, you are close to super-human and repetitious training like lifting weights, running, etc. isn’t going to really help you anymore. I mean, improving anything over 18 is probably only achievable by putting in amounts of time that we simply don’t have. So it’s all going to come down to levels and stat upgrades for us from now on. And I don’t have any exercises that would improve dexterity, Janet. Maybe doing calligraphy or crafting or ASL might help, but I don’t know. Try it and figure it out. Let me know if you do.”

“So that leaves us with basically training skills. I’m assuming that skills like cooking you train by cooking, leadership by leading, planning by planning, and martial arts by doing martial arts. I’m not sure if there’s an unarmed martial art skill or a kicking skill or a punching skill. I think not, but maybe? Maybe there is and it’s just low level enough that when I got my Wang Chun skill, it overwrote it, I don’t know. But anyway, I’m going to attempt to teach you some Aikido, Wing Chun, and Krav Maga fundamentals and hopefully, you’ll get the skill. And, as we practice every morning, the skill will go up. Speaking of which, did your Yoga skills go up this morning?”

“I got 2 points in it,” said Tanya.

“I got 3,” said Janet.

“Alright,” I said. “That means that my idea that practicing gives points and then levels, is true. Sweet, that means experience.”

“Did you notice that he’s almost drooling there?”Janet said.

“Yeah, yeah, I did,” said Tanya. “It’s a little creepy the way his eyes gleam when he starts talking about experience points, isn’t it?”

“Oh, come on, that's real coming from two girls who knew off the top of their heads the amount of experience they’d gained without having to look it up. By the way, I got three, Tanya you need to work better.”

“Ooh, snap!” said Janet.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that in a bad way,” I said. “I’m just thinking that you need to work on your mindfulness. Be fully present in what you’re doing. That’s the difference between three points and two points, I’m pretty sure. OK, who's ready for some martial arts?”

They both said they were so we spread out on the field and I began to explain the philosophies of the various martial arts, Wang Chun’s softness, aikido’s circular philosophy, and Krav Maga’s endless aggression. I trained them in falling, some basic joint locks, a block/punch combination useful against a knife attack, and ended with my favorite form, Siu Nim Tao. After about an hour, I called it quits and we stopped to take a breather. The girls were sweaty and grass-stained from their practice.

Janet cast her spell ‘Clean’ on all three of us and just like that, we were. It was amazing. We stood there afterward, stunned. “I’m clean!” said Tanya. “I haven’t felt this clean in literally, maybe a month. My trailer doesn’t have good water pressure and I barely could take a shower.”

“I know, right?” said Janet. “Look at my hands, even my nails look spa done. In the spell’s description it said it was like a combination of a locker room and a spa visit, but my god! I love this spell! I think it’s my new favorite! Even my pits don’t smell,” she said, sniffing her armpits. She looked up and saw us staring and said, “Oops! Boundary Foul. Inappropriate sharing! Penalty Box Two Minutes!”

I was starting to learn that Janet said exactly what was on her mind, so I just laughed and said, “Even my teeth feel clean. I’ve got to learn that spell. Share it now, please!”

Janet focused and then the spell appeared in front of us: iu ee

Spell

Clean

Rank: Bronze

Elemental Sphere: Life

Casting Time: 20 seconds

Somatic: Small sweeping motion

Verbal: Be Clean

Range: 4 meters centered on the caster.

Duration: 10 mins or instant (on living being)

Spell Resistance: No

MP: 5

Once cast, a cleaning spell enables you to perform simple cleaning effects for 30 minutes. The effects are minor. A cleaning spell can clean a 3-foot area every 30 seconds. The caster must direct the spell's effects. It will perform the equivalent of sweeping, mopping and polishing. Or it can also clean a person that it has been cast on. It is the equivalent of taking a shower and then drying off. It also handles personal grooming such as brushing your teeth and cleaning your fingernails. In other words, it combines a spa treatment with a locker room.

Level 1, 8/25

“Please, please,” I said, “don’t let this spell be a cleric only spell! OK, that can wait, did anyone else get some notifications while we were practicing?”

They both said that they did, but both of them had set their notifications to auto minimize, so they didn’t know what they were. I’d done the same thing, so I said, “Let’s take a notification break, OK?”

I opened mine immediately and saw that I’d got Martial Arts (Aikido) and Martial Arts (Krav Maga), I’d also got teaching too. Teaching helped my students learn better and faster by ten percent a level. I have to think that most of my college professors never received this skill.

“What did you get?” I asked.

“Aikido, Krav Maga and Wang Chun” they both chorused.

“Sweet,” I said, “cause that’s what I was trying to teach you. How many points did you get?”

“Well, I just have three in each,” said Tanya.

“Same here,” said Janet.

“Great! That three means that you were both paying attention. Only 22 points more and you’ll be level two and get 250 experience, each, 750 points. That’s THREE FREE LEVELS! Well, it would be, but you're not at level one anymore. Still, ” I said, “that 13 percent towards your next level just for learning. Woah, AWESOME!”

“How does that work? Do we have to put in an hour’s training to get the points? Or is 30 minutes enough?” Tanya asked.

I just shook my head, “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe in time we’ll be able to figure it out, but right now, we get points whenever the System wants to give them to us. But I’m pretty sure that if you use what you’ve learned in a fight, you’ll get experience points for it too.”

“That makes sense,” said Janet. “I bet you get more points for using it for real than you do for training.”

“I bet you’re right,” I said. “So what’s next, archery or formations?” I asked.

“Let’s do formations, first,” said Tanya. “I really think we broke down in the rat fight and if they’d been tougher we could have been a world of hurt. Everybody OK with that?” Both Janet and I nodded. “So, we agreed,” she continued, “TUP, Skinny, Fat, Drift Left means move left slowly, Right means the same to the right. What else?”

“Turn Left, Turn Right,” said Janet. “And the speed will be set by Monsoon since he’ll have to keep his butt in front of us. No more running away from the healer. But I did get another spell for healing last night that will help with that in case we need to separate. It’s called ‘Party Heal.’ It heals everyone in the party within a five-meter area. It’s expensive, but does a pretty good job of healing, 30 HP’s healed for 30 MP plus five for each party member in the area. Each level does more healing at a greater distance. I think it gets cheaper to cast at higher levels. Sweet, huh?”

“Awesome!” I said.

“Share girlfriend,” Tanya said. And Janet did:

Spell

Party Heal

Rank: Bronze

Elemental Sphere: Life

Casting Time: 2 seconds

Somatic: Bringing hands together in a prayerful manner.

Verbal: Heal Them

Range: A five-meter area set within 2 + (1 meter per level of the caster).

Duration: Instant or lingering 5 minutes plus 30 seconds per level.

Spell Resistance: No

MP: 30 plus five MP for each party member within the range of the spell. + 2 MP per level of the spell.

Once cast, a basic party heal spell heals 30 points of damage to everyone in the party within a five-meter area. In addition, it lingers on and heals future damage while the spell is active - provided that the damage does not exceed the total points of damage allowed. Each level of spell proficiency grants +2 hp to the healing. Each level adds one meter to the range of the spell. Each rank of the spell removes 5 MP points of the cost.

Level 1, 2/25

“Woah,” I said. “Cool spell! I love the lingering effect. In the future, you might be able to cast it before we start fighting and save us all a bunch of pain. I wonder, if your wounds get healed as fast as they happen, does it still hurt?”

“If a bear shits in the woods,” said Janet. “Does it still stink?”

“Sorry,” I said. “Little aside there, my mind goes all over the place. You’d think that being more intelligent would help, but not. Anyway, I guess we’ll find out soon, won’t we? Probably?”

“What the bear thing?” asked Tanya, puzzled.

“No,” I answered, “the pain thing, but I guess, the bear thing too. Oklahoma had bears, up in Tahlequah, a lady I met once in an airport had one get in her trash cans. At least she said she did.”

“Anyway,” said Tanya. “Let’s bring it back, people. So, we’ve got: TUP, Skinny, Fat, Drift Left, Drift Right, Turn Left, Turn Right. What else?”

“Tighten up,” I said. “It means pull up closer, get into closer range. You’ve pulled outside of the area that I feel I can block for you. Loosen up too, I guess.”

“Split,” said Janet. Tanya and I both looked at her. “Somebody casts a spell that does a lot of damage in an area like my party heal but doing damage instead. We don’t all want to get hit by that. Well, I’m pretty sure none of us do, but you get the idea. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have a plan to get out of the way, and not get in each other’s way?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “Girl on left breaks left, or backward if they can’t go left, girl on right breaks right, or backward if they can’t go right, I break forward or backward if I can’t go forward. And then, a ‘Gather Up’ call to resume the formation.”

“I think we don’t need a gather up call,’ said Tanya. “Just a T-UP will do.”

“Ok, that makes it simpler.”

“What happens if we can’t gather?” asked Janet. “Somebody got hit and is on the ground.”

“Then we form up around them. Nobody gets left behind or alone!” I said.

“I’m still ‘girl on the left? right?’” asked Janet. I looked at Tanya who nodded at Janet.

“OK,” Tanya said. “Sounds like we’ve got the basics down. Ready to practice?” The other two of us just nodded our heads and we started practicing. We went at it hard for about an hour. We discovered another call when doing so, ‘Stop!’ Basically, it meant just what you’d expect, stop moving, hold your position. Originally, it was just so Tanya could freeze-frame us and point out errors in our positioning. Janet kept breaking right, I would drift too fast, we’d both get out of position a lot. Tanya had a hard time positioning us, even with her new intelligence, it was hard for her to imagine enemies and position us to fight them. But we were getting better.