“Yoga means addition – addition of energy, strength and beauty to body, mind and soul.”

Amit Ray

After dinner, it was time for training with grandfather, heavily supervised training. Mother was happy for the training to go forwards as long as it was supervised by someone ‘far more reasonable’ in her words. So we would walk out onto the salt flats west of the mountain for training that was out of earshot but still within sight of the family home. Here we continued to work on my physical stats just in a slightly calmer method than we once had when we had trained without oversight.

This month we were trying out yoga to see if it would result in a new skill and a level or two. As an infant, I was already incredibly bendy and flexible. But I was also working on my balance, strength and core.

Position 1, cat, I had to arch that back! The positions sounded so much better in Sanskrit but I couldn’t quite recall them yet. I hoped that as my skill recall grew in strength and level hopefully one day I would be able to recall everything I had seen in my old life if only for a moment. I looked forward to remembering in HD quality some of the many many movies and tv series I had binge-watched before.

“You look a little ridiculous you know.” Grandfather might have mellowed a lot, but he was still a natural cynic. He was of course naturally critical of nearly everything I did. He always pushed for more, or for a more extreme version of the training I was attempting to do. In his words, ‘No bleed, no speed’ in referring to how quickly you were able to level a skill. The more dangerous the training the more significant and the bigger impact it would have on your status and skill list. Or at least this was the mantra he lived by.

“It’s called cat pose,” I replied. We had differing views on the best way to progress forwards. Grandfather was very much of the opinion that no bleed meant no speed at levelling and gaining skills. There may very well be something like that in place, the more arduous the training, the better the skill gain and levelling from it. However, I had managed to get a lot of skills without having to bleed for them and it did not seem to make a noticeable difference to me in terms of time and effort in achieving them.

Grandfather was still of the opinion that everything would be more effective if he was flicking needle-like daggers at me during the process which was why we were doing this within sight of a mother who would shout his head off if he attempted doing anything like that again.

“You could join me you know.” I pointed out. Grandfather was technically hypothetically interested in following my unusual method if they resulted in new skills but to have someone watching my fumbling attempts at reproducing something I had never been particularly skilled in even before I was reborn as a baby was more than a little irritating. Did he really have to watch my literal and figurative baby steps in figuring this out? It would have been nice to practice some of this when they were all asleep but I slept more than most nowadays.

“I already have the skill surefooted as a balancing skill I don’t need a new skill.” He waved away my suggestion.

I transitioned into a cow pose. I had to admit that the Indian names for the positions sounded far better. It was a shame I still couldn't remember them. Actually, I felt fairly impressed with myself that I could remember them in English in the first place. I was a kinetic learner more than a visual or audio. Especially when that audio learning had to go through my mind attempting to translate it.

“What exactly are you trying to achieve again?” Grandfather asked. “You are perfectly bendable anyway what is the point of doing these warm-up positions?”

“Well first I need to warm up, then it stretches, balancing, core and strength,” I answered as I moved forward into the baby pose. He had a point I was incredibly flexible in my new body but that would change over time. I hoped that if I could get into a couple of good habits now, they would follow through with me in later life. Truly one of the most pleasant benefits of being born again was my new body. No aches or pains and I aimed to keep it that way for as long as possible. I might be bendy now but if I could maintain it maybe Yoga classes in my ancient age would not be quite so embarrassing. Although watching my grandfather perhaps the system got rid of all the ailments of ageing anyway.

Plus, new skills meant new levels and experience.

Ding! Balancing (Lv 1)

“Ha! I have a new skill.” I smugly shouted. It had only taken a couple of sessions.

“What is it called?” Grandfather asked quizzically.

“Balancing.” I smiled.

“So what, now you will be able to stand without falling over. Surefooted is a far better skill to get and one that you could get if you would try out my assault course while we throw things at you.” He was still pushing his methods.

“I will do the assault course if you put in some padding for us to fall and you do the Yoga with me.” I bargained.

“Not going to put in padding but we can always run it out over the water for you to fall in if you want something soft to land in. And I will try this Yoga of yours.” He counter-offered.

. . .

So here we were working through yoga poses to see if I couldn’t get some form of advanced balancing skill and level up my current one. Hopefully, this would continue to help the dexterity stat continue to grow. Grandfather sometimes grumblingly joined in and I took the moment to tease. “Stand like a warrior you must, spread arms and feet apart you will. No! Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. Warrior pose this is.” I practised my Yoda voice and speech as I held a warrior pose. At my current height, all I needed was fluffy green ears and a brown robe to pull off my Jedi impression. Grandfather was less than impressed and more confused by my weird syntax than anything else.

“No kill, no skill,” Grandfather muttered. Despite being able to copy my poses identically and without difficulty he had yet to gain the simple skill I had. Could belief hinder the growth of skills and stats?

“Yes, you have mentioned that, but that is patently not true. The only things I have ever killed so far are some ants and some fish. I have significantly more than a few skills related to just the elimination of a few ants and the catching of a couple of fish.” I argued back.

“Well, we have already established that you are nothing like a normal child. Haven’t we!” Grandfather may have become more accommodating and forthcoming with information or reasoning behind his actions, but he still advocated the school of hard knocks in nearly every situation.

‘You’re balancing? Brilliant let’s make it more effective by throwing things at you.’ I constantly had to object to his more extreme methods. If I was being honest even though I had a pain tolerance skill it was not something I wanted to keep levelling. Sure, it might be useful one day but I did not enjoy being in pain and tried to avoid it rather than cause it. I was all for achieving small gains and consolidating them. Slowly improve my physical condition rather than overdo things and be in agony later. Overdoing my mental stats had resulted in unknowingly crippling myself. I had no desire to do the same again with my physical vessel.

The system and stats might make a proper training regime irrelevant but I was going to take things slower with my body using nothing more than my body weight to train with. At least for the majority of my childhood. We had a rotating set of training. I still swam, still climbed, still ran. But I had also introduced, with my Grandfather’s help, other more unusual things to train.

From my old world, we had included Yoga and Gymnastics for now. I was still only an infant at the moment. But I hoped to recall and include some karate, judo, jujitsu and general martial arts into my training when I was a little older. Once I was a little better maybe even rhythmic gymnastics while listening to music on my mental HUD. Thoughts for a later date.

But for now, under the continued pressure of my grandfather, knives were back on the table. Knife work had been allowed back into our practice routine by my mother provided nobody got stabbed. Was anybody up for knife yoga? Grandfather was.

We continued our yoga poses while holding . . . of all things, knives. It was a decent compromise. As long as I wasn’t being stabbed I was happy and as long as I was holding a knife Grandfather was happy too. Admittedly my knives were a lot smaller than his and one wondered what shop you went to that sold miniature knives for infants. A silly question, he had obviously had them custom made sometime in the last year. I wondered how he had explained that to whoever made them. 'Yes, I would like some miniature knives for a magic trick something I can hide within my palm.'

We ended our session with some quiet mediation. Perhaps one of our most peaceful sessions yet despite the implements of war still held in our hands.

Time to have look at my progress over the last month. It was tempting to look at it every day and after every activity but most times if you did that there was no change at all. I tried to let it build it up a little before checking my status.

Now that I had my hud going I could easily see how much stamina or mana I had left and those were the only two I really needed to know minute to minute. So I had managed to stop looking at it quite so much. It looked like it would be nap time soon.

Level: 12

Name: Lord Kai

Experience: 112,650/ 819,200

Age: 2 year 1 months, 1 weeks, 1 days, 16 hours, 29 minutes

Health: 1420/1420 Stamina: 103/873 Mana: 1340/1340 Psi: 1340/1340

Trait: Long-Lived, Fast Learner, Super Senses, Source of Mana, Quick Witted

Attribute: Celerity

Vitality: 142 +1

Endurance: 71 +2

Strength: 49 +1

Dexterity: 101 +2

Senses: 134 +1

Mind: 134 +1

Clarity: 114 +1

Magic: 134 +1

Charisma: 37 +1

Luck: 5

Free Points: 40

Skills:

Tier 1: Time sense (Lv 45 ->46) Listening (Lv 30->31) Meditation (Lv 50) Swimming (Lv 50) Humming (Lv 27->28) Sneak (Lv 22) Whistling (Lv 27->28) Singing (Lv 27->28) Drumming (Lv 25) Running (Lv 42->43) Acting (20) English (Lv 15) Spanish (Lv 15) Japanese (Lv 15) German (Lv 10) French (Lv 7) Dodge (Lv 25) Breath Control (Lv 30) Sight (Lv 15) Scent (Lv 15) Detect (Lv 15) Taste (Lv 15) Bussola (Lv 7->10) Draw (Lv 25) Climb (Lv 27->28)Calligraphy (Lv 5) Mathematics (Lv 10) Decoding (Lv 6) Lie (Lv 12) Knife Skills (Lv 22->24) Trading (Lv 25->26) Sailing (Lv 6->10) Appeal (Lv 6) Knots (Lv 25->30) Stitching (Lv 25->30) Diving (Lv 15->20) Throw (Lv 12 ->13) Insight (Lv 1 ->3) Farming (Lv1->5) Balance (Lv 1)

Tier 2: Sense Mana (LV 40) Eavesdrop (LV 28) Memorisation (LV 22) Composition (Lv 22) Recall (Lv22) Pain tolerance (Lv 14) Piano (Lv 20) Violin (Lv 20) Trombone (Lv 20) Saxophone (Lv 20) Linguistics (Lv 16) Translation (Lv 16) Stealth (Lv 12) Quick reflexes (Lv 30->33) Haggling (Lv 5) Misdirection (Lv 8) Order (Lv3) Knife Arts (Lv 1 ->3) Rebec (Lv 12->14) Aulos (Lv 12->14) Cornu (Lv 1->5) Harp (Lv 1->5) Poison tolerance (Lv 1) Transplant (Lv1->2)

Tier 3: Echolocation (Lv 28->30) Expel Mana (Lv 37) Absorb Mana (Lv 30) Mana Manipulation (Lv 29->30) Ignite (Lv 15) Freeze (Lv 10) Boil (Lv 11->15) Bargain (Lv 10) Gale (Lv 17) Deception (Lv 3) Melt (Lv 10) Command (Lv 1->2)

Tier 4: Material Manipulation (Lv 15) Mana Drain (Lv 20) Parallel Processing (Lv 15->20)

Tier 5: Mind fortress (Lv 17->18)

Skill experience: 15900

Origin experience: 5000

Combat experience: 10500

Crafting experience: 5000

Trading experience: 5000

Popular experience: 1000

After I ran out of stamina and curled up on the floor in a baby pose, it was easy to fall asleep. I’m sure that I looked less than elegant probably with my mouth wide open and drool dribbling out of it. However, I was fast asleep and noticed neither that nor being picked up and carried back home.

I woke up in time for dinner or they delayed dinner for me to wake up and eat it. People discussed their day. But I had been there for most of it. The sailing in the early hours of the day, the singing and sewing in the morning, salt and farming both pearls and food in the afternoon, before some physical training with Grandfather. It didn’t sound like they had been up to much other than more of the same that they had done with me. That or they weren't telling.

After the meal, I played a little for the family on the variety of instruments my grandfather had got me. I was still grateful for the ability to play out loud rather than only listen to music in my head. The mental imagining of music and listening along in my head was never the same as actually being able to feel the vibrations in my body. The difference between cerebral pleasure and a physical one. I particularly enjoyed the buzz as I attempted to play the cornu to the best of my ability.

Even better though my mother would join in singing along as I played the tunes she already knew. Aleera hadn’t as yet learned any of the instruments but it looked like she was eager to pick one up and was tapping along.

“I’ll tell you a tale,

now list to me,

With a hey ho,

the wind and the rain

but the rain it raineth every day."

Gradually our singing wound down and we were ready for bed. Or rather it was time for bed. My nap times very much depended on when my stamina ran out but with this much vitality it almost solely depended on when my stamina ran out as opposed to the time of day. Everyone headed for bed in one form or another. I headed there too but while I still had stamina there were other things I could be focusing on. Silently I pulled up my hud, pulled up a song I could recall to listen to and started drawing. Time for my inner Picasso to shine forth.