Chapter: Breaking the ninth, challenging the tenth

Jasper pulled out a writing kit as he started jotting down notes, as Erik was talking, his lesson seemed to resound within Jasper’s mind.

“People need to wash their hands or else they might get the germs on their hands into the food they’re making, this way you will get an infection or disease and it could lead to you being sick or dying, I know that a lot of you had to go to the bathroom a lot and were vomiting when I got here, this is food poisoning. Clean your hands, use clean tools on your food and don’t cut different types of meat with the same knife, otherwise it’ll let you sit on that toilet for three days,” Erik said.

Jasper could feel that Erik wasn’t lying.

Seeing as he was in charge of food he felt more than one set of eyes fall on him.

“Not having good habits when you’re eating is one thing, needing to bathe is another. Right now there is a public shower being created for everyone. Everyone will be allowed one shower a day to clean yourself, the cleaner you are the less likely you are to get something nasty.”

Jasper and everyone in Alva had seen how a cold could kill and a cut could turn rancid, now they knew those were infections where their body was rotting away.

“Also, there will be a bathroom facility, there will be two more created in the northwest and southeast districts. Use them. You go for a piss in the night or a dump, use them, otherwise you’re going to get others sick. If you don’t do that, then you’re more of a problem than the hordes at our door, we need to look after one another inside these walls, if we don’t the beast horde won't even need to finish us off,” Erik’s words were cutting, making people look away in embarrassment.

“Alright, those are general health rules to keep everyone safe from getting an infection or some kind of disease. Now, first aid,” Jasper listened to Erik, wrapped up in his words, knowing that this might be some of the most important information he had heard before.

Erik called up people, talking about their body, demonstrating what to do with the if they had broken a limb, if their breathing had stopped.

People ate their food numbly, focused on Erik’s words.

This kind of information, it was unlike anything they had heard before.

I wonder if I would be able to get this information from anywhere but the royal colleges or the different sects?

None of them would be willing to give this information out for free. The tuition for the royal colleges is in tens of silvers for just a few lessons. Jasper shook his head. Truly Rugrat and Erik couldn’t be compared to others he had met before.

***

Erik cleared his throat and drank some water as he dismissed his latest volunteer. Everyone was looking at him as if he was telling them the most interesting story in the world.

“Alright, that’s all I have time for now, there will be more lessons coming in the next couple of days, it’s my hope that with them you’ll be able to gain at least some information that will be useful to you all,” Erik let that sink in. “Also, most of you have gone through some rapid increases in levels which has allowed you a greater stamina regeneration, you can do more longer on less food and sleep, don’t worry we’re not cutting your food, but the fact is that since you don’t need to sleep as long, we can advance our own defenses and the abilities of Alva Village, we don’t have time to waste. Now, the first job I want to complete is the building of the showers and the bathrooms across the village, I want to make sure that no one falls ill and that everyone is in the best condition possible.”

Erik’s voice was softer, he had come to know these people over the last couple of days, he’d harvested with them, hunted with them, eaten meals with them and become a part of their community.

He might be here to complete a quest, but he’d become a part of Alva village.

“The department heads will have work rotas for you, together Alva will survive,” Erik turned and left the stage, it was a somber atmosphere as they thought on his words, those that were done with their food directly went over to see the department heads.

Erik moved to the village headquarters. He got comfortable and turned his vision inwards.

He focused in on his mana system.

His mana circulated through his mana channels, moving from his mana gates it was compressed and refined before reaching his dantian where it was thickest, he looked at the two drops of mana that rested there, they stood opposite one another, like bratty children in a fight. Erik could feel the power that was pooled within them, as they looked like calm drops of pure blue water, he knew that they could erupt with power.

Erik’s mind moved through his mana channels, checking on his mana gates, one had turned into eight, it had been a fight to reach this point.

Erik moved his hand, when he focused, he could feel the mana in the air move slightly according to his movements, as if fish in water, interested by the strange movement.

He felt a slight resonance with the air as he remembered Rugrat’s words when he opened his tenth mana gate.

“You think that you’re powerful now, just wait when you reach past the tenth mana gate, it’s like you become a lord of mana,” Erik remembered the shine in his eyes, the look of intoxication.

Erik’s hand made a fist, he felt the mana and the blood moving through his arm, the power that was hidden within.

“Ten mana gates huh?” Erik got comfortable as the air around him shook slightly, if one was to strain their eyes they’d see blue mist appeared around his open mana gates, one at the back of his skull, one in each of his hands, his feet, his knees and right elbow. The power seemed to resonate with his body, the two accepting one another.

Erik’s control had reached new heights, and with Rugrat forging the path ahead he had told Erik the secrets he had discovered.

Erik’s mana channels expanded as a deep rumbling like the gathering of a thunderstorm appeared from within his body.

Erik didn’t create spears of mana, he gathered it together, and spun it, creating a tornado of rampant man, a mana drill.

He knew that opening his ninth mana gate would be no simple task. Moving neither fast nor slowly, the drill was refined, creating a system powered by the compressed mana in his system, the drill focusing it further, taking incredible control as Erik gritted his teeth.

The mana drill moved through his mana channels, rushing would make it lose power, so slowly it passed through, reaching the site of his ninth mana gate, Erik focused on the mana gate, it no longer looked like stone like the others, it had a silver sheen to it like polished steel hidden under debris.

He drove forwards, the mana drill slammed into the mana gate, there was a screeching noise as it gained purchased, the drill’s speed slowed as Erik’s veins popped out, he drew in more power, forcing the drill against the mana gate.

The mana gate’s surface was cleaned off under the attack, revealing the spotted mana gate underneath, it was an iron door, stopping one from advancing.

The drills progress was slow but measurable.

Erik sat there, his mana channels sticking out as it seemed like the world seemed to be breathing with him, faint mana mist trickling through his open mana gates.

It was monotonous and straining.

If you think just because it’s boring and repetitive I’ll stop, your mistaken.

Erik thought, staring at that mana gate, his determination increasing the power of the drill.

Pain tells me I’m alive! Erik yelled in his mind, sinking into the training that had taken him through warzones across Earth, his will would not be broken.

Time slipped by as the mana gate showed weaknesses, the drill made it further as Erik altered it, increasing its strength.

His body was under incredible stress, but Erik had learned to deal with pain and discomfort long ago. To him they temperded his determination as he pressed forwards for more, to show he wouldn’t be defeated, to show he was the best.

The mana gate made a shrieking noise, like metal being bent inwards.

The mana gate gave way, its fight over.

The rush of mana ran rampant through Erik’s arm, aiming to rush out of his hand.

Erik reversed the draw of the mana.

“I’m not done yet!” He opened his eyes as he used the rush of fresh mana coming in through the newly opened gate, closing his hand, power threw the mana drill back to where it had come from. Erik, circulated it through his mana, faster and faster as his eyes located his next target. His tenth mana gate.

“You are mine!” Erik yelled out, his mana channels lit up with power as the mana drill circulating his mana channels shot up through his mana channels like a bullet.

The mana drill connected with his tenth mana gate.

A resounding boom that shook Erik and made the air around him shake sounded out.