Chapter II: Home

Outside Shizukana Gake, The Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 15, 172 ,328 DE

Like below the Escarpment, forests cover most of the eastern edge of the Great Plateau for hundreds of kilometers to the north and south. As I follow the path through the forest from the Escarpment to the city of Shizukana Gake, where I live with Old Man Jones, the sounds of the engines of steamer cars or steamer bikes and loud pounding music disturbs the nighttime peace of the forest. The light from their bonfires reflects off the shiny black surface of the Watch Tower, which is only a few kilometers outside the walls of the city.

Looking like a spear with five skeletal rings attached to it, the slender Watch Tower rises more than a kilometer and a half into the night sky. Though it comes from the time of the War Masters, the gleaming black metal of the Watch Tower looks like it could have been erected just yesterday. One of hundreds of thousand of similar towers that surround the entire perimeter of the Great Plateau, the Watch Tower emits waves of Power that repel the Demonic Beasts, which is the only thing that keeps them from invading the kingdoms and empires of the human race.

The clearing around the base of the Watch Tower is the top party spot for the bratty children of the minor nobility and the wealthy in Shizukana Gake. While the general culture of the Heian Kingdom tens to be more than a little conservative, a lot of the children of the nobility and wealthy mercantile families run wild. The younger children of the clans and families spend several nights a month gathering near the Watch Tower to drink, take drugs, dance, and engage in wild orgies. The only thing that matters to those scumbag children is how wealthy or aristocratic someone's parents are. If you are not of aristocratic blood and cannot afford at least a steamer bike or are not brought by someone who can, you are not welcome to their little groups of sycophants or their parties as anything other than a target to be abused.

Outside of their parties, their main hobby would be bullying anyone with lower social status and wealth. Trash like them are what disgusts me most about humans.

I wish I had no human blood in my veins.

The guards at Shizukana Gake's gate recognize me, and despite my wearing only a loincloth, they do not interfere with my passage. The night watch on the East Gate are all old hands. They have already seen me walk into the city with just a loincloth, carrying the carcasses of Ferocious Beasts, more than just once or twice. Even though I make my leather clothes from the hides of Ferocious Beasts, they do not hold up too well against some of the things I tangle with in the Demonic Wildlands. Because of being left nearly naked after a hunt a couple dozen times, I acquired the habit of keeping my clothes in a pack, hidden near the trail up the Escarpment, but with the Idiot Cows being Idiot Cows, I would rather just go home in a loincloth than screw with them.

Passing through the gate tunnel, I glance at the guards to either side of the tunnel exit, but they show no more interest than the guards outside the walls. Looking as though he is half asleep, the Gate Commander leans against the outside wall of the gate guardroom. His eyes open for a few seconds, but after appraising me, they close again.

Even once I am in the city, it still takes almost half an hour to reach my home. The compound , where I live with Old Man Jones, is in the Trade District in the south end of the city. By law, all of the trades that require offensive chemicals, make a lot of noise, or require bulk deliveries of large quantities of raw materials can only be operated in the Trade District.

As far as the locals are concerned, Old Man Jones is an Engineer, the best in the city, but in reality, he is an Artificer, an actual Disciple of one of the ancient War Masters. If the local rubes ever found out, they would report him to the Temple of the Celestial Court, and things would get real ugly, real fast. Old Man Jones would probably kill a lot of people before leaving the area, and we would have to set up entirely new identities somewhere else.

The Trade District is not a bad place to live. We have gas-fueled streetlights, and the city utilities pipe gas and water into our compound. The streets are well-maintained, and the City Guard patrols keep most of the gang trash out of the area.

The locked-up storefront of our compound has a simple sign over the door, Jones' Engineering. With me, Old Man Jones, two Journeyman Engineers, a few Apprentice Engineers, and a couple shop attendants, we have a thriving business repairing and producing custom steam powered machinery, with some specialized electrical equipment. Since large scale supplies of electricity are not available, like they are in the Sengoku Empire's cities, not many Engineers work with electrical equipment in Shizukana Gake, and we make a killing off electrical work for those who need it.

Other than the storefront, our compound is surrounded by a fifteen foot stone wall. Inside the wall, half of our compound has a factory, where the Journeyman Engineers do the day to day work of the business. Completely walled off from the main factory, we have a residence and a second, private factory just for Old Man Jones and myself to carry out experiments in.

Even though it is past midnight, when I pass through the gate to the patio in front of the residence, I see light coming from the kitchen window on the side of the building. Every room in residence, shop, and main factory has been piped for gas and has gas lamps of the highest quality to provide lighting. Along with a large collection of gas-fueled steam powered machinery, we burn quite a lot of gas every month. The gas bill is about our largest consistent monthly expense.

On the way to the kitchen door, I sling the carcass of the Striped Forest Cat onto a stone table we use for butchering Beasts.

The locks on the residence and private factory were all made by Old Man Jones. These locks are nothing like the trash made by common Engineers and blacksmiths. Each lock has patterns etched into it and uses the ambient Mana in the environment to function. If you are keyed to a lock, when you put your hand on the plate, the lock automatically opens.

Mana is the proper name for what Cultivators call Yuan Qi, but under the rule of the Dragons from the Celestial Court, the name has been long forgotten.

As I shove the door open and step into the kitchen, Old Man Jones looks up from the book he has open on the table, and as he frowns his one human eye narrows. "What happened to your clothes?"

Old Man Jones is a big man. Standing about two hundred and ten centimeters tall, he has the build of an ox. With his size, one metal arm, and the metal plate covering more than a third of his face and half his skull, he looks more intimidating than most any other human I have ever encountered. Smart people get the clue that he is a dangerous man. If someone pisses him off, he is the type to kill the person and go right back to eating his breakfast like nothing ever happened.

I shrug. "I left them at the base of the escarpment. A herd of Demonic Cows chased me right up to the path from the lowlands, and I never had the chance to grab my pack."

"Are you sure they were Demonic?"

"There were as dumb any normal cow, but they were definitely tainted by Chaos. Has my nose ever been wrong about Chaos?"

"No. What were their characteristics?"

I describe the Demonic Cattle for Old Man Jones.

After I finish, Old Man Jones' stares into space for a few minutes. "We're gonna have to take a look around down below pretty soon. Something probably isn't right. There may be something big happening out around the Swords Temple or a bit farther."

I shrug. "Whenever is good with me. I'll skip school any time. It's not like I learn anything there to begin with."

"Mika-chan left a bowl of sliced vegetables in the cooler for you."

Mika-chan is a twenty-something year old widow, with several children, who works as our housekeeper. Old Man Jones bangs her regularly, along with some four to six other women, but except for Mika-chan, the others change every few months. That shitty old man, with his half bald and half metal head is surprisingly popular with women from fifteen to forty. There are even more than just a few old grannies that have their eyes on him, but he never even looks in their direction.

After grabbing my butchering knives from the kitchen, I head back outside, and Old Man Jones turns back to his book.

In the ten plus years that I have known him, I have never seen Old Man Jones sleep even once. He spends every night reading. That shitty old bastard and his habit of always reading is what got me started on reading, myself. Now, because of him, reading is my fourth favorite hobby. Or maybe, I should call reading an addiction.

After gutting the Striped Forest Cat, I clean the entrails, and put them in a bucket along with the brain, eyes, and tongue. Once the carcass has be hung for a couple weeks, I will butcher it. Filling the bucket of entrails with water, I take the carcass and the bucket to the cooler. After hanging the carcass, I put another bucket under it to catch the blood that drains from its nearly severed neck. While the cat was only at the First Circle of Coalescence, it is still many times more nutritious than the common farm animals that most people in Shizukana Gake eat. Whether flesh, entrails, blood, or bone, everything from a Ferocious Beast is nutritious if properly prepared. You could probably find a way to prepare the skin and fur as food, but I prefer to use them for clothes.

The cooler is a product of Old Man Jones' knowledge and ingenuity. After building a stone room, we lined it with a metal alloy that is nearly immune to rust and engraved patterns into the metal that control the temperature in the cooler. Once completed, our coolers will last for decades, maybe longer. We have sold a number of them to rich merchants and noble clans, making a small fortune from each one. Other than Old Man Jones and myself, there is no one else in the Heian Kingdom, maybe no one east of the Kami Kaze Mountains, who can inscribe the cooling patterns we use.

The Kami Kaze mountains cut off the far eastern edge of the Great Plateau from the rest of the continent. Running north from the southern edge of the Great Plateau, the mountain range jogs east, a few hundred kilometers south of the Plateau's northern edge. According to Old Man Jones, the mountains continue more the two thousand kilometers east through the Demonic Wildlands. Because of the tornado force wind stream that runs along the top of the mountain range, the only way to get through the Kami Kaze Mountains is to go through tunnels. That keeps the lands to the east mostly safe from invasions by the Empires of the rest of the Great Plateau.

Taking the heart and tongue along with the bowl of sliced vegetables, I go back to the kitchen and light the stove and grill. After putting a wok with oil on the fire to heat, I slice the cat's heart and tongue and sprinkle seasonings on them. Putting the meat on the grill to cook, I throw the vegetables in the wok with more seasonings.

I look over my shoulder at Old Man Jones. "I don't have enough Precious Herbs left to use the pressure tank for even a full week. I'm going back into the Demonic Wildlands tonight after I eat. I need to harvest more herbs at the Swords Temple, and I want to get there before dawn."

As Jones looks at me, his eyes open slightly wider. "You're going through the Precious Herbs that fast?"

I nod. "The closer I get to the complete fusion of my Mana with my Body, the more herbs it takes to support my Body Forging."

Jones shakes his head. "I never expected it would take you this long to complete the basic Forging Scriptures."

I shrug. "You've never practiced them. You don't understand how difficult it is to create a complete fusion of your Mana, Ki, and Psi, with your Body, Mind, and Soul. For whatever reason, I'm having the hardest time finishing the Basic Scripture for Mana."

Again, Jones shakes his head. "I'll never understand what Life had in mind when she left the Scripture of Origin behind. The only ones who managed to cultivate it were people with strong Beast bloodlines."

"You said cultivate."

Old Man Jones hates the Daos, Cultivation of the Daos, and people practicing it as opposed to practicing Coalescence.

Seeing me smirk at him, Old Man Jones glares at me. "I know I did. Cultivate and cultivation are not bad words. Those fucking lizards just hijacked the words. You can cultivate things other than the fake laws of their Daos. There are worlds where Coalescence gets called Cultivation. They're beautiful worlds, where no one has ever heard of the Daos, and Dragons are mythical creatures that horde treasure and eat princesses."

"Cultivators gain strength from the Daos and their fake laws. You're just going off on your 'I hate the fucking Daos' tangent again."

"Oh. Yeah. What was I saying?" Old Man Jones blinks a few times. He gets irrational where the Daos are concerned, but he never talks about why he hates them so bad.

"Scripture of Origin."

"Oh, yeah. The Scripture made no sense to me. It crippled most of the few people who tried to cultivate it. I could never figure out why Life left it behind, and you don't know how pissed I was when I found out you started on it. It's a one way street. Once you start, you can never Coalesce your Power normally."

I snort. "I know how pissed you were. You ranted and raved for a month straight."

"It wasn't that long."

"Thirty-seven days."

Old Man Jones puts on a smug smirk. "A month has forty days."

"Asshole."

"Heh. Whatever. The way you use the Aspects of the Trinity to forge yourself into something new just makes no sense compared with how Life Herself said you are supposed to use them."

I let out an irritated snort . "If anything, I'm un-using them. But as soon as I saw the Scripture, I felt like it was left there just for me."

Old man Jones just stares at me for a few moments. "I just hope the result will be worth it, and you don't ruin yourself."

Before you can practice the Scripture of Origin , you have to complete the Body, Mind, and Soul Forging Scriptures. When you follow them, you Forge your Body, Mind, and Soul like Artifacts, and you forever seal your ability to use Mana, Psi, and Ki. Once it is done, if you cannot touch upon Trinity itself and open a Core Realm at the confluence of your Body, Mind, and Soul, you will be forever cut off any chance to Coalesce Power. You will be left with nothing but a stronger Body, Mind, and Soul when compared with other Mortals.

From what the ancient War Masters could determine of the purpose of the Scripture of Origin, it is a different way to Coalesce Power and results in greater strength at each Circle. It also opens up the ability of to use actual Elemental Power, before becoming an actual Transcendent, but to do it, you need to acquire Elemental Seeds and create an Elemental Core. The main problem will be finding Elemental Seeds.

Because I am half human, I will not naturally Transcend, and I have not Coalesced as I grew, like a pure Great Wolf would have. I cannot assume that the Dragons will never find me before I Transcend. I need every advantage I can lay my hands on, and if I can practice the Scripture of Origin, I will have one more trump card when the Dragons find me.

"How long before you finish?"

I let out an exasperated laugh. "No fucking clue. It could be a month or two. It could be never. Fuck, it could be today or tomorrow."

"Do you think you'll be ready for the Grand Academies Three Year Selection?"

Dumping my food into a bowl, I grab the pot of rice that Mika-chan always leaves for me when I am late and take it to the table.

I shrug. "Maybe. I just don't know."

"Give me some of that." Old Man Jones reaches for my meat and vegetables, but I snatch the bowl off the table and tilt my chair back.

"Hands to yourself, shitty old man. You should have said something while I was still cooking."

"You're selfish, Obnoxious Brat."

Flipping Old Man Jones off, I start eating, while he goes back to his reading.

After I have my fill, I let the front legs of my chair hit the floor.

Thunk.

"I need to go if I'm gonna reach the Swords Temple before dawn. Are you coming with me?"

After staring at me for a few moments, Old Man Jones shakes his head. "You're a better scout than I am. Just make sure you don't tangle with any Demonic Beasts you can't handle. And if you Transform into a Wolf, kill anyone that sees you."

"Yes, oh mighty nagger. Don't start nagging again. I've heard it all. You sound like an old woman when you start your nagging. Did someone cut your dick off and shove it in backward?"

Old Man Jones glares at me. "Obnoxious Brat."

Laughing, I toss my bowl on Old Man Jones' book. "You can have the rest. I'm out of here."

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