Day 29

The voice of the floor controller woke me up. “Oh noooooooo, the Northwest Deed has stopped working, and the land surrounding it is beginning to fall into the ground. Hopefully everyone there will get out alright~ Also, due to overachievers yesterday, not all of the Deeds were signed! Due to disuse, the Northern Deed is sinking into the ground, as well as the land in that area.”

I was slightly annoyed because the increase in max essence from my transformation last night meant that I hadn’t recovered to max; it would take 5 more hours. I found Jester laying around in the tower, and tried to ask him again about the system solicitors, but he just rolled away from me and considered snoring. Swearing to myself that I would someday get back at him, I walked outside.

***POV Change***

Grendel had taken the team towards the Northeastern Deed, signing it immediately. What they had not expected is that two individuals, a human and a Telllite fleeing from battle, had arrived and begged to be allowed into their team. Grendel, seemingly uncaring, let them sign up as property.

So Whipman, Jinka, and Song (the woman who manipulated the metal birds) sat awkwardly across from the two refugees, waiting for something to happen. Grendel seemed to be still sleeping. The other original member of the team, Tomptka, was scouting around.

Whipman wondered bitterly if the Tellite woman, who had very well muscled forearms, even noticed that he was a Tellite. His skin had discolored since being reanimated, and his wizened body possessed none of the charm or vitality of a healthy Tellite of his age.

“What are your names and abilities? Teamwork will be improved if we understand each other a bit better,” Song said with a smile. Inwardly, Whipman praised her as a godsend, and tried to appear nonchalant.

The two women, human and Tellite looked at each other. Both belts they wore were blue.

The human spoke first. “I...my names Kissy. I can… well, right now I can just increase health and mana regen of people…”

Kissy shrugged helplessly, looking at the Tellite. Whipman couldn’t help but admire the lean lines of the Tellite’s shoulders.

“I am Ashni. I have no magic, so for now, I will do whatever it takes to survive… but when I pass this godforsaken challenge, I will return triumphant to Tellus, where I am enrolled in an Expert level Thunder Academy.”

“What?!”” Whipman gasped. “But you are so young!”

Ashni regarded him coolly, “Indeed. I suspect that my age demonstrates my physical ability well enough.”

She once more shut her eyes. Whipman struggled to think of something to draw her into conversation. He idly wondered if she had ever taken an apprentice, and would like to commiserate over their uselessness.

***POV Change***

The body had taken a little bit of getting used to, but mostly it was because the body was so stiff. Most of the morning was spent stretching, limbering, and stretching further. I winced, rubbing at a sore muscle in my neck. Hopefully this was just a bit of growing pains, and not a sigh of more to come. I also resolved myself to to never have over 1000 extra Biomass when retaining a growth rate ever again.

Thunder Stance and Wind Stance were my main focuses after I had achieved some amount of flexibility.The Three basic forms: Stiff Breeze, Cutting Gust, Silent Zephyr. Palm strike, knife strike, slash…

-Honestly though…

I looked at my nails. They had grown perhaps two inches, and were a strange, marbled mixture of white and black, in a way that almost appeared purposefully painted.

-Huhuhu, you certainly have developed a certain artistic flair these days.

-But setting aside aesthetics…

I slashed at a nearby tree, ripping through the bark and leaving long furrows in the timber. Admiring the damage done, I flexed my hand and put it up against the tree. Then I pressed, digging my nails deeply into the wood, ripping out a huge chunk without much effort. Letting the shaving fall from my hand, I grinned.

-Heh. I’ll rip that smug expression off that bluffer’s face.

-Before you start monologuing, on to the next order of business…

I blinked, then realized to my chagrin what other me meant. ‘The Skills’

Choosing Ice because I thought it would be more predictable, I channeled my mana.

“Oh! That’s cold.” Before I had even noticed what was happening, my right arm was almost completely covered in frost.

Hastily rubbing off the ice, I spent a few minutes letting feeling return and then tried again. This time I focused on my hand, ignoring the growing numbness and just encasing my entire hand in a block of ice the size of my head.

Slightly pleased, I flexed my hand. It didn’t move. I frowned. It took a few minutes of scratching at the ice to realize that this would take forever. Gritting my teeth, I smashed the ice encasing my hand against the tree, figuring that even if I were injured, it would heal quickly enough.

Slamming the ice against the tree produced a dull noise, and cracked the tree’s bark. There was a slight discoloration on the ice, but otherwise little else. My eyelid began to twitch.

*****

It took quite a bit of blunt force and effort to crack the ice. I eventually jumped off a tree and punched as hard as I could into the ground at the end of my fall, shattering the ice and most of my fingers. But still, it demonstrated how effective the ice could be as a restrain. Unfortunately, forming the ice had cost around 500 mana, and that was just enough to cover my hand. Still, if I took the process more slowly, restraining a captive would be a piece of cake.

-Yes, but why would we not just kill them and reanimate them? Then they would be forced to obey us.

Ignoring the question that left me stumped, I continued to experiment with the capabilities of Lesser Ice Affinity. It seemed that I could only created the cold through contact with my skin. I could cool the air nearby, but it generally drained mana very quickly and the bite of the cold dispersed quickly.

When I put my hand on a tree trunk and channeled, I could send frost up 10 m above my head; apparently the direct contact boosted the effective range of the ice skills. After experimenting with this for a while, I received a notification that gave me an idea.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lesser Ice Affinity Lvl 2”. Chilling effect has improved. Control over created ice vastly improves. Mana costs slightly decreased.

I concentrated, willing the ice to form in my hand. A sorta oblong lump of ice formed in my hand. Dropping it, I wiped my hand on my pants and tried again. This time, I went longer, forming a stick about two feet long. I dropped that too, and tried again, this time forming a pyramid of ice on my hand.

-What are you doing?

-Seeing how much control I have. I’m slowly getting better. It’s hard, it resists the shapes. But if we can form ice into knives...They might be allowed to be used while we are here, because they were formed of mana. And who doesn’t want an endless supply of knives?

***POV Change***

Grendel strolled into the front room, interrupting the awkward silent. He grunted, gesturing at Whipman. “Come, we have company.”

Whipman felt Ashni’s eyes follow him as he accompanied Grendel out the door.

He wondered if he looked cool.

***POV Change***

Taking a break from pointlessly producing dozens of ice lumps, I experimented with the Lunar Affinity. Immediately after I started, a notification popped up.

Due to sunlight, manifestation of Lunar phenomenon has only 50% effectiveness.

-So typical.

I channeled mana through it, but nothing happened. I allowed more mana to flow. Still nothing. Only when the amount of mana I was using reached about 600 did a small wisp of white mist appear. Fascinated, I willed it and it shifted, shimmering through the air. It was opalescent and luminous. It reminded me of liquid pearl.

Most strange of all, when I focused, it transformed from mist to become physically dense for a brief instance. I spun it around my body, marveling at the control. I condensed it into a tiny shield, a tiny sword, a tiny spear, a feather, a small personal moon.

I danced with it for several minutes, using it to rip large troughs in the ground and nearby tries. It was strong, stronger than by claws. I willed it down, imbuing it into my hand, meaning to try slashing with both, but the mist flickered and died. Blinking, I realized that my mana pool was completely empty.

A chuckling from behind me made my hackles rise, and I spun around, only to find the old bald woman Toddie. She was bobbing her head.

“Yes? You need something?” I said sharply. I didn’t take it well that she had managed to sneak up behind me.

She just kept bobbing her head and humming tunelessly. “Your magic was pretty.”

Feeling slightly self conscious, I walked 10 more meters away from her, and began practicing the 4 cadences.

***POV Change***

Whipman fell to his knees, shocked. Grendel’s sightless eyes gazed straight ahead, dead.

The victorious captain walked purposefully forward towards Whipman. It was tall, with a thin, husk like body and its eyes sewn shut. Its name was Qwata. Following him was an emotionless human male with short, dark hair, who had kept Whipman at bay with his staff while Qwata absolutely eviscerated Grendel.

Whipman felt a cold hand descend on his shoulder. “Your battle prowess in spite of your low stats was admirable,”

It’s cold voice was sinister and jittery, like the sound of insects eating dried leaves. “And I always have a soft spot inside me for my fellow undead…”

It disturbed Whipman that the creature had omitted the use of the word heart.

Qwata made a sharp gesture to the man. “Go, sign this Lease. You will be in control of them.”

***POV Change***

What made me sweat even more was that after a while, Toddie came and joined me as I practiced the earth cadence. She even did it better than I could manage, asking me about the more advanced forms.

I switched to water stance, but she was even more prodigiously talented, if that were possible, at that one.

Giggling, she smashed my chest with her hand during a light spar. I fell back, sputtering. “Hey! I can’t use physical force,”

Toddie shook her head. “No, no, no, that’s fine. You forget your back leg and arm. Earth is all parts at once. Push and pull, advance and retreat. All force comes from a lack of force elsewhere.”

I nodded slowly. The resentment builds. It creeps into all things. Although it may be addressed on one side, pressure is building on another. You impale yourself on it because you don’t expect it to shift so fundamentally, when it is such a deep rooted thing.

With my eyes closed, I began to move through the exercises for Earth Stance, feeling the weight of my base. All strength came from the depth of that base, and-

“Oy, you, property.”

I blinked, my train of thought lost. Inwardly I was slightly furious; It was unlikely that I would be able to regain that level of insight easily. But at the same time, Jester’s arrival meant we would likely be leaving to attack another Deed.

“Where to?” I went straight to the point.

Jester looked at me, his head tilted to the side as he settled into a laying position. “What? Oh, no, we aren’t leaving. I can’t leave the land area, remember? I signed the Deed as owner. I miscalculated; I’m stuck here. Whoops. But I was just lonely back at the tower. You shouldn’t host a team yoga exercise without me, Predator. Bad form.”

Doing my best to control my rising temper, I spent the rest of the day training the cadences and Ice Affinity, once my mana regained. Unfortunately, every time I was close to the mindset needed to refine my stances, Jester would begin with his snide comments, infuriating me and driving the training from my mind.

There was one positive outcome from these surges of hot anger, however.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “My Heart is the Bellows, My Body the Metal Lvl 2”. Enhanced state is slightly easier to activate. The rate at which the flow of blood removes debuffs has increased. Aspects of your Racial Growth Rate “Warden of Glacier and Moon” have been integrated to this ability: increased heart rate leads to a slightly sharper mental state.

Belatedly, right before bed, I spent my Essence, my max increasing to 26.

Although It was frustrating that I didn’t have access to Whipman to help me with my form, I definitely was improving thanks to Toddie. And the time given to me to practice my ice was definitely useful.

Still, the last thing I did before heading to sleep was pray for strife; I didn’t know how to survive without it. The free time made me nervous. I wanted my blood to pump, and for adrenaline to sweep away my worries.

***Author's Note***

Hey all. I want to take this opportunity to encourage you all to follow, favorite, or rate me if you haven't already.

I have a specific reason for requesting this.

A bit of background; before uploading any chapters to here, I had days 1-7 written (which have been called terrible and janky, and I'm too busy writing more to go back and fix them. Let's just assume that your smiling faces, readers, have made my writing improve ^.^). So I uploaded all seven in like 3 hours that one day.

SOMEHOW a reader arrived, read up to Day 4, wrote a review, and then disappeared, apparently not noticing that 3 more chapters were out within the hour. Chapters, I would say, that improve dramatically on the story. Day 5 is when you meet Ketlia, for god's sake.

I am very thankful for the reader who gave me my first review. I have just become increasingly infuriated that my top review is on material only up to Day 4!

Well anyway, rant done. Woo, I need some stress relieving hobbies.