Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, work it, do it… something… something…

I had a habit of playing songs I liked from Earth in my head at times, and this one had been on repeat for the last day or so. It was a popular techno song from some French dudes, I think, and since I was terrible at remembering lyrics it was perfect (the whole song was a dozen words on repeat). The song came to mind when I was considering how crazy and dangerous this world was, and it was exactly what I needed to become: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. But how the hell was I going to do that!

My goal, I decided, was to see what those painted warriors were – and then see if they could teach me how to fight. At least, maybe, then I could have a better chance at surviving. Maybe they couldn’t beat the god wolf, but I could live with that. I mean, they still kicked serious ass compared to the other shadow wolves that attacked the town. I’d love to be able to do those sweet kung-fu moves, or be able to shoot lightning from my eyes!

Then again, Jaws seems to REALLY want me to become a blacksmith. Our monthly journeys to the smithy were pretty fun, and I really admired the technique and skill and craftsmanship of the people working there. Maybe I could do both? Work at the smithy during the day, train in the evenings…

Actually, that sounded like a lot of work… Not that I was lazy, but… well, I’m just a normal guy, not some crazy action hero. Sure I had taken some martial arts when I was younger, but I only went as far as a red belt. And while I owned a few swords (what self-respecting gamer geek doesn’t), I had never really learned how to use any of the. Even as an adult I would be helpless on this world!

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My mind went round and round for hours. I even considered trying to apprentice myself to Merrik, but I discarded that one pretty fast. Alright, let’s go over the advantages I have on this world, things that might help me survive.

i. My soul-bond with Mark.

ii. The astral projection soul-rope.

iii. Knowledge from another world.

iv. Jaws and Purple-Hair.

v. The formation and tome given to me by the Celestial.

The first four were neat, even downright handy in certain situations. But none of them would help me kill a shadow wolf – except Jaws, who could probably tear one apart bare handed. But it’s not a good idea to rely on my dad for constant protection. In fact, that would probably end up making me weaker in the long-run. I suppose if I became a blacksmith I could probably bulk up, but even a burly blacksmith would be torn to pieces by three or more of even the weakest shadow wolves!

The final thing on my list had a lot more potential. As far as I knew I was absorbing universal energy (qi, manna, whatever you called it) nearly every night, but I still had no idea what to do with it. It’s supposed to allow us to ‘cultivate’, but I didn’t know what that meant. Don’t people cultivate vegetables and plants and such? I only remember hearing the term used in a gardening context. There were SO many things I wished that I had asked the Celestial when I had the chance!

Alright, well… it’s universal ‘energy’ right? And since one of the purest forms of energy is electricity… maybe it had something to do with that! Plus, I had already seen that one guy shooting lightning! I decided to give it a shot. But what should I do with electricity… being an Electrician was both a hindrance and a help at this point. I knew exactly what lightning was, and how it was created, and could even duplicate it with the right equipment. But I also knew that it was undirected and followed the path of least resistance… it was basically impossible to actually aim.

I decided to just ignore science for the moment. I could use it to help give me ideas, but worrying about what was scientifically possible or not seemed like a pretty stupid idea on a world with god wolves, painted warriors who run up walls, and Merrik. I snuck into the kitchen and stole a spoon and a fork, then set the spoon down and tried to shoot lightning out of the fork and into the spoon… … and nothing…

But I kept trying. After about thirty seconds I swapped the spoon and the fork and tried again. Still nothing. But I kept on visualizing it in different ways, until I finally tried imagining power flowing through my body; from my chest to my hand, from my hand to the spoon, and then jumping from the spoon to the fork… … and then I fell over as a large blue window suddenly popped into existence in front of me.

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