The day began with a drizzle, the rain falling half-heartedly. It was the worst kind: not light enough to ignore, but not heavy enough to bring thunder and lightning. I stayed inside until the rain decided to commit one way or the other.

The refrigerator stayed cold overnight, which confirmed the Antler could be frontloaded with mana and kept running for longer than six hours. I infused four points of mana to see if it’ll stay cold from one morning to the next. My mana recovered overnight, so I had the points to spare.

The cave was big enough for my morning routine, and I did my resistance training, qigong, yoga, and meditation. There wasn’t an impact on any of my stats yet, but I could feel changes happening under the surface. Because of the qi, I think.

I felt such joy when qi circulated through my meridians. There was something addictive about it. Not Addicted addictive. More like a bowl of really good ramen--the real kind, not the instant. It filled you up and warmed you through, and you’d fight off a mad dog to drink up the last bit of broth at the bottom of the bowl.

And afterward, you felt right somehow, like the world and all the things in it were in the places they belonged. Okay, so I really loved ramen--maybe more than I should--but I also loved how qi felt as it moved inside me. In a way, it was like nature magic: it made a thing more like its best self.

After my morning routine, I sat in meditation and soaked up the excess warmth and energy.

Qi Body 2 > 3 As mind leads qi, qi leads the body. This Skill encapsulates the understanding of qi, as well as its role and related structures within the body. The Skill improves cultivation speed and quality, and also provides a bonus to learning qi-related Skills.

Well, that was a great way to start the day: the Qi Body Skill went up. It was a nice recognition of my progress. And the increase also reminded me that I still had a free Attribute point to spend.

Intelligence 14 (15)

Oh well. I hoped for an immediate powerup, but it wasn’t to be. I’d have to grow into the extra point.

It was still drizzling outside, so I practiced my magic skills instead of crafting. That turned out to be a good decision, because the post-meditation mindset helped me focus. I found I had an easier time bending the water to my will.

I wasn’t Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender--I was only bending thimblefuls of water--but I got that thimbleful to levitate an inch above my palm. I also discovered that--just as water mana was attracted to water--water was attracted to water mana. My will wasn’t strong enough to pull water from the pool yet, but I did gather mist from the waterfall. The feat took five minutes of steady concentration to collect a cup’s worth of water in my hands.

By the end, I was out of mana. It recovered at a rate of one point every fifty minutes (with some yet-to-be determined bonus from sleep). That should provide enough for another practice session after dinner.

Humming to myself, I braved the desultory rain to get the rest of my day started. I fished up a breakfast for Ikfael. I didn’t see her around, so I left it by the pool. As for myself, I ate some plums and fennel. A proper meal would wait till I started a fire.

Then the crafting started in earnest. I began by making a new spear. I knapped flint into a spearhead, smoothed a length of wood, and spent some of my cordage on lashing the spearhead to the haft. When the weather cleared enough for a fire, I’d make pitch and re-lash the spearhead.

New spear in hand, I hiked up to the top of the cliff. Once the deer hide was finished soaking, it’d need to be stretched on a rack, and for that I needed more cordage than I had. There were vines up there that should do nicely, at least for lashing the rack together.

The minty scent was gone, and all the Devil Vines were missing. Ikfael’s threat from yesterday must’ve sent them packing. I still kept watch though. They weren’t going to surprise me again.

I brought several coils of purple and orange-flowered vines back to the glen, before setting out again. This time, I looked for wood for the frame. The branches needed to be sturdy and relatively straight, each five to six feet in length.

I also looked for more cedar bark. Tying the deer hide to the rack needed finer cords than the vines. And a good amount too. I expected to spend a lot of time braiding rope. It was going to be tedious, but necessary if the hide was to be stretched to maximum usefulness.

By the time I was done foraging, I stripped two fallen cedar logs clean of bark and gathered a fair amount of punk cedar too. Punk cedar was the rotted center of the log, and it was used to smoke and color buckskin.

I came and went from the glen, and was a muddy mess by the time I was done. The only good news was that the drizzle finally let up. I went downstream to clean off and catch myself a fish dinner. I baked a whole bass along with some broad beans and onions.

One of these days, I was going to get a hold of some salt, and it would make everything better. Still, the meal was tasty enough. And alternating between venison and fish (and any other game I caught) was a healthier approach overall.

I set aside a portion of the meal for Ikfael, as she still hadn’t returned.

Mana 9/15

That was odd. According to my calculations, I should’ve recovered ten mana by now. Was it because I spent some time outside of Ikfael Glen’s territory? If so, it meant that her Blessing affected the recovery rate of mana. Good to know.

Ikfael Glen A temporary Blessing from the spirit of Ikfael Glen. First granted out of obligation to a god, the Blessing continues because of Eight’s amusing antics and his daily fish tribute. Provides a bonus to healing and recovery rates while within Ikfael Glen’s territory. Also tempers environmental effects within the territory and protects against small insects and vermin.

I do wish S-Eight provided numbers with his descriptions. It’d make it easier to plan. Oh well.

I lay back and watched the wind dance with the treetops. The clouds above them drifted westward, no doubt taking the half-hearted rain with them. My mind drifted, and I let it wander, not thinking anything of substance. I’d worked hard today, and the day before, and the day before that. I could afford an hour to rest.

That was it. Nothing else happened. I did miss Ikfael’s company a bit. Even if she just lazed in the pool while I worked, it was nice to have someone around. Even if they were an otter.

It was one of the things I had to deal with after Helen died: the emptiness of the house. Dogs helped. Cats too, when they felt like it. And friends and family, when they visited. Hobbies and projects. Work and To Do lists. I kept myself busy, always in motion, because if I didn’t, I would’ve fallen apart. And I was afraid I’d never be able to put myself back together after.

I sighed and took a deep breath. It wasn’t lost on me that all the training and bushcraft I was doing kept me busy. So, I forced myself to rest; to sit with my worries and fears, while the wind danced and the clouds drifted.

And I didn’t fall apart. Not then, and not now. At least, not permanently.

###

Okay, that was enough sitting around. There were a couple hours of daylight left and Skills I’d yet to explore.

At the center of the Spear Arts Skill was the feeling of holding a spear.

“Skill-Sensei, I’m getting the idea that maybe you hate me. I suppose it’s better than a rune, but not by much.”

I shook my head. All I could do was work with what I had, so I picked up my new spear. And the feeling promptly disappeared.

“That’s weird.”

I put the spear down, and the feeling returned. I picked the spear up, and the feeling disappeared.

”Oh my god, I’m sorry it’s just a homemade spear, but it’s all I have.”

There was no response from Skill-Sensei. I had no idea he would be so picky. Well, frick him--this was the spear I made, and I was determined to learn to use it. I hunted through my memories looking for anything that would help.

A couple years back, the company produced a five-part series on Historical European Martial Arts. The show focused on the longsword though, and only ten minutes of the introduction were devoted to spears and polearms. It was a ridiculous decision, given the importance of polearms in warfare, but our finances weren’t great at the time. We needed a money maker and placed a bet on the romance of the sword.

Hmm… countless kung fu movies featured fight scenes with spears and staves. They were much longer than the four feet of ash I held. Still, there may be hints I could use.

Let’s see: left foot forward, left hand forward. Yes, there tended to be agreement between the hand and foot. And when the footing changed, the hands did too. I slid my right foot forward, but didn’t know what to do with my hands. I switched grips, but the movement was clumsy. I could see myself accidentally dropping the spear doing it in the middle of a fight.

My memory wasn’t clear enough to see what the martial artists did with their hands.

”What else?”

There was Balsa from Seirei no Moribito. The series was one my favorites. In it, Balsa was short spear wielding bodyguard with the task of protecting a young prince. There was a scene early on where she protected him from a squad of imperial assassins.

And… nope. That memory wasn’t clear either. Also, I questioned whether learning how to fight from anime was a smart idea. The show was so good though, and Balsa was an amazing, badass protagonist.

”She was like: bam, whoosh, flip, and strike.”

I thrust the spear and swung it around. I jumped back to dodge the imaginary assassin that suddenly attacked from behind a tree. I slid and ducked under his ninja sword, lifting my spear to impale him in the heart.

A soundtrack began to play. Of course, it had to be Carl Douglas singing Kung Fu Fighting.

I ran, the spear at my side. There were more imaginary assailants--the glen was full of them. I felt like Zatōichi, the blind samurai, and I cut them down, as they tried to surround me. I laughed at their oafishness.

Their captain appeared out of a cloud of black smoke. He carried an ōdachi, a Japanese greatsword. The other assassins backed away to give us room to fight. I saluted him with my spear, but the fool was uncultured and sneered in response. Well, he’d pay for that.

I took the initiative and jumped at him, my spear like lightning. He batted it away, his ōdachi circling to cleave me as I passed. The keen edge missed me by a hair. I backed away, wary. The sneer never left his face.

I slid and thrust, dodged and ducked, as the battle between us raged. It was a brutal duel, and my breath became ragged. My shirt cut to pieces. The assassin captain was just as winded though, and he’d have a fine scar just above his left eye if he survived.

One of his lackeys got impatient and swung at me from behind. I felt the wind ahead of his blade. I ducked under and rolled and… oof....hit my head on a rock.

”Ow. Ow. Ow.” I made T symbol with my hands. “Time out. Time out.”

The imaginary assailants waited for me to recover. Hah… the fools. I lulled them into a false sense of security with my temporary lapse of competence. I leaped up and caught one under the chin with my spear, then I swung in a circle to clear space around me. The spear slipped from my sweaty hands. And flew straight into another assassin’s stomach.

”I intended that.”

I retrieved my spear and transformed from Zatōichi into the Wakandan warrior Okoye from Black Panther. Then later, I was Jackie Chan with a mop, washing the assassins’ faces. With their tears.

Altogether, I goofed around for half an hour. It would’ve been longer, but the assassins were out of breath.

”Well, that was pointless,” I said, breathing hard. “And also a blast.” I gave one last thrust, intending to wash the sweat away after, when I felt a momentary flash of holding the spear.

Wait, what? Did I win Skill-Sensei over with my enthusiasm? That couldn’t be. The Skills weren’t sentient. At least, not as far as I knew.

I started moving my hands along the spear’s haft to see if the feeling returned.