“You may choose to accept or die.”

Mitch thought about it. He really did. He had always been one of those few people who took internet privacy seriously, and he was entirely averse to being monitored. He was also utterly opposed to dying. His two aversions warred within him before, perhaps unsurprisingly, survival won out. Acceptance now would mean he might be able to escape the observation later but dying was a dead end. Unenthusiastically, he added the jade to the pouch as he closed it.

“If it makes you feel better the jade will also tell you your strength and summarize your abilities.”

Why the fuck hadn’t this dickwad led with that? He might not have been so hesitant if he had known this thing could tell him where he stood in life. Knowing his probability of survival would have made this whole process much more manageable. He still didn’t like it but having a benefit to outweigh the cost made it much easier to accept.

“How?”

“Just send your energy into it, and you will be able to access its interface.”

“How do I do that?”

“You figure it out.”

So, not only did he get items of dubious value, but he also had to scramble about to discover how to use them. Fucking terrific.

“Fine, I’ll take your damn spyrock. Now, I assume this is one of the caveats you mentioned. What are the others?”

“Let’s start with the most serious. If you tell anyone any of the information I have disclosed to you, your entire world will be destroyed immediately. Those I represent will not tolerate betrayal.”

That was bullshit, but Mitch had already made this decision once, so he felt little pain in making it again.

“Fine.”

Kanshou looked at him for a moment before continuing.

“You will give me periodic explanations of the things you are doing and answer my questions on the topic, this will occur whenever I deem fit, but at least once a month.”

“Until when?”

“Until we lose interest.”

“No. There will be a set ending.”

“This is not negotiable. You will accept the terms or I will kill you now.”

Mitch grit his teeth around this answer this time. “Fine.” Negotiating was no fun when someone else held all of the cards. “What else?”

“That is all for conditions, but our first session of you explaining things will be immediate.”

“Fine,” Mitch said resignedly.

Mitch finally made his escape from the Viper Den. He couldn’t have felt worse if someone had shoved him into a woodchipper. Ok, that might be an exaggeration, but he was definitely exhausted. It had been twenty-six hours since he had entered Kanshou’s lair and he had not slept a wink. That and the tension of the whole affair put him far past the point of exhaustion. The only thing he could think about now was a beer and some rest.

The kanshou watched as the boy left. He had not gotten as much information as he would have liked from his conversation with the boy, but the boy’s complete lack of understanding had made garnering useful information nigh impossible. In fact, he had gathered almost no more than he had surmised on his own. He was not too upset though. His understanding would grow with time.

He was very curious what would come from the basic resources he had bequeathed to the boy. In his own realm, those items were worth very little to anyone, but the poor, which to be fair was the majority of the population.

He hoped it was something good. He had spent a fair amount of resources to create that illusion to calm the boy and regain some measure of cooperation, especially that gravity trick. He had only been given so many of the energy stones, and running that show had cost him more than he would have liked. He was probably more frugal than he needed to be, but a millennium of thrift had made him prudent: at least with the resources from his own realm. He had plenty of resources from this realm but had gotten bored of hedonism centuries ago. So perhaps he was frugal with everything.

It was time to report to his superiors on the day’s events.

Mitch woke at three in the afternoon the following day. One beer had turned into a few, had turned into a lot. He had had the presence of mind to drink some water and take a multi-vitamin before crashing though, so luckily he wasn’t hung over.

It was time to get started. He had three months to make himself ready to stand against the mutant hordes that modern weaponry would only be mildly effective against, and he was getting no help. The flintstone batteries may be helpful, but only if he could employ them.

He lay the things he had been given onto his table and started to examine them again. He was most interested in the stones and the cube. He thought he might be able to use the rocks to power some gear if he could figure out how to make some things that could use them. He wasn’t sure yet what he would be able to make, but had some vague ideas.

He wanted to figure out the cube the most. Having something that could tell him how much or little progress he was making would be invaluable in ensuring his survival in the upcoming Tollings. The need to have the capacity to endure the energies after each Tolling was now deeply ingrained in his psyche, and he had trouble placing combat abilities before that. The only thing that helped was the image of being eaten alive by a horde of mythical beasts.

He picked up the cube but got no sensations from it as he did the stones. He held it in one hand, then the other. Nothing. He pressed it to his forehead and balanced it on the crown of his head. Nothing. He even put it in his crotch. Don’t judge, that was where is consciousness always started its journey when he meditated. Also, don’t think too deeply into that statement.

Getting nothing from the cube, he picked up one of the batteries again. The same as before he had a visceral sense of intense energy within it.

He closed his hand and his eyes and began his usual meditation routine. He only had to try twice this time before his mind sank down into his body. As always he manifested as a mind-ball in his groin chakra. Don’t judge, remember?

He willed himself up and out into his arm, following his arm’s structures down to his hand. He had never spent much time in his extremities while meditating previously, so everything was a bit new to him. Looking around carefully he floated closer and closer to his fingertips. When he finally reached them, he noticed something strange.

There were thousands upon thousands of tiny channels in the fingertips. They interwove themselves intricately with the blood vessels in a pattern that was impossible to comprehend. Mitch traveled to one finger after the next, but it was when he reached his pinky that he noticed the oddity. Not all of the channels looped around back into a closed system as his blood vessels did; about half terminated with open ends at the top layer of his skin. He touched one of the channels, but instead of being sucked in like always nothing happened. He tried again with the same result. Finally, he tried one more time, but this time he worked to shove his way in. There was a great deal of resistance, but eventually, he found himself inside of the channel. If he had been corporeal, he would have nodded in satisfaction. He started to head to the fingertip, at least he tried to.

When he attempted to move nothing happened. He used a bit more effort but still got no result. Looking around for what was stopping him he noticed something he should have seen right away. The channel was bulging around whatever his form was made of, too small to contain his… whatever he was at the moment.

His first thought was to force his way out again, but he had another idea after that. He had expanded his consciousness to encompass his entire body before. Could he shrink it as well?

Never one to hesitate overmuch he began trying to shrink himself down to fit within the channel. He felt immense pressure, as though he was swimming a football field below the surface of the ocean. It was incredibly uncomfortable, but it seemed to be having the desired effect as the bulge in the channel began to become less and less pronounced.

Suddenly, something snapped, and he found himself to be about one-third of his previous size and able to move as freely as he did in the larger channels. Once again he headed toward the end of the channel in his fingertip.

When he reached the terminus of the channel, he could feel the energy flowing inwards from the opening. There was no doubt about it, this was energy from outside making its way inside. He had always wondered how the energy entered his body, now he knew. He would have to check if there were endings similar to this one elsewhere in his body.

This was the hand he was holding the stone in, he knew, and he thought he might be seeing it now as there was an intense glow coming into the channel from the outside. He reached out from the end of the channel toward the light from the stone, intending to get a feel for the energy within the stone.

Instead, he was pimp slapped by a giant.