Er and Yi were there, discussing a problem one of them had encountered pursuing his craft. Er nudged Yi and pointed with his chin at Dahe. Yi looked up, recognized Dahe and smiled. He made a beckoning motion with the hand holding the utensil. Dahe sat at their table, hoping to reconnect after a long hiatus. “How’s everyone doing?” By this time, more had ascended to the third circle, and others had left. Dahe had only a nodding acquaintance with the new entrants to the sect.

“Well enough. Everyone seems to be doing better with their studies since you started the Study Guide craze.” Dahe nodded. He may have started study guides, but he didn’t have the knowledge or experience to do more than simple basics. That’s where others came in. They did their best to distill their knowledge of higher levels using basic terms in ways that were easy to understand. In fact, many found that by this distillation process they actually helped themselves. They were able to increase their ability after firming up cracks in their foundation.

“I just remembered something I heard about from a passing merchant.” Many of Dahe’s pieces of information were passed off in such a way. He had even once told someone he’d heard it from ‘buddhist monks in the orient.’ He was then questioned about what buddhist monks were and where the orient was. His answer? “Far away.”

“It’s certainly impressive that not only are you a scholar, but you also have the ability to attract Fusang’s attention.”

“I can only call it luck, or perhaps an opportunity from the gods.” Dahe smiled, he enjoyed saying things like that. Of course he didn’t overdo it, but he still liked to slip those kinds of jokes in every so often.

“Well, we must thank those gods. We’ve benefited from your study guides as well, even if they weren’t yours.” Dahe smiled, he knew he could only help occasionally. But it felt good to help others, and be recognized for it.

“Oh, please, stop, keep going. That’s enough, go on.” Er and Yi burst out into laughter. Er grinned at Dahe, “if being an Energist doesn’t work out for you, I’m sure you could always make a living as a comic storyteller.”

That idea struck Dahe resoundingly. Why not? Couldn’t he? Didn’t he have the repository of some of the best of Earth’s humor in his head? What would be the local equivalent of ‘who’s on first?’ there wasn’t much in the way of team sports, especially since people could have such large differences in strength and speed. There were also not as many games, besides simple board games. There were chess equivalents, and some card games, but that was it. How much trouble would he be in if he introduced board games into this world? He’d have to make a note and ask the goddess when she reached out to him in about ten years.

Once Dahe returned to his house he put the tapestry aside and returned to his weaving. There was a larger demand, especially as merchants were starting to get interested. He was pretty sure they were just selling it as a novelty, cloth woven by an Energist.

He slipped once more into his mental world. He had started paying attention to fine detail. He could actually have a bigger area if he sacrificed detail, but he wanted to enjoy every particle of experience he could. When his brain got stronger and more powerful, he could expand then. Meanwhile, he sat in a dining room, eating a croissanwich while a large TV played an episode of Power Rangers from his youth.

After finishing, clean-up was unnecessary, he returned to the living room. Once there he sat on his Eames lounge chair and selected a book from the shelves. It was about tactics and strategies. Living in this world meant he would have to expand his abilities. He would likely never lead men into battle, however, it was a good idea to be conversant with the strategies of his world and this world.

It was a few months later when the question of the tapestry was finally resolved. He had finished speaking with the Task Office, when he encountered Di Yi Re Shui. It turned out Di and Di Yi were common names, so he went by Re Shui, or just Re. Re was looking for companionship, hoping to talk to someone. Since they didn’t actually talk much, Re thought they should socialize more, so he had sought Dahe out. Dahe understood, sometimes you get wrapped up in your own projects, and you forget your relationship with the outside world.

Dahe invited Re to his home, and once there, prepared some tea he found palatable. He had found it hard getting used to drinking tea, especially with his memories of soda. But he did manage to find some teas that he could enjoy drinking, occasionally.

They sat down in the small living room and discussed Fusang’s recent lessons. Fusang seemed to cycle through his lessons. If a student ever showed himself fully grasping what Fusang called “the starting points”, then Fusang would often give him a task and send him out into the world. This was to prevent the student from settling into a stodgy way of thinking.

The conversation drifted around Fusang’s teachings. They spoke of his lessons overall, and their own personal experiences outside of Fusang’s lessons. Dahe had to admit that he had little experience beyond a local teacher. Re thought Dahe was being too modest, not knowing that Dahe’s actual previous experience was nonexistent. They even tried out a slow motion test with a pair of sticks.

Once there was a lull in the conversation, Re turned towards recent activities. Dahe suddenly remembered that he had worked on a tapestry, and decided to finally get a second opinion. However, if Re had no real experience with tapestries then he wouldn’t be much help. But still, Re could offer opinion on its artistic merit.

“I just completed a tapestry.” Re leaned forward, his eyes widening with anticipation. “How interesting. May I see it?” Dahe nodded, then led Re to his crafting room. Against a wall was the tapestry loom, with the tapestry still on it. Re walked into the room, looked to Dahe who gestured towards it. Re turned to face the tapestry. Re’s eyes slowly widened, his mouth parted slightly. “Gods above” he muttered. Dahe was amending his impression. It seemed that, perhaps, he had done better than expected.

“This is awe-inspiring,” Re finally managed to say after a few moments. “Really?” Dahe couldn’t help the skepticism in his tone. “Yes, it really is. I didn’t know you were this gifted at tapestries Dahe. This one would be worth, well, a lot of mony.”

Dahe had not needed to know much about money, not when he was planning on staying within the sect for twenty years.

Ah mony. Turns out this world had currency based on rare metals in a fashion similar to, but not identical to, Earth’s currencies. Silver and Gold are present, but so are other metals. Antimony is the most common currency. ‘Mony became the slang term for currency in general. After Antimony comes Silver, Gold, and then Rhodium. And more valuable than those, what was most valuable for Energists, Energy Crystals.

As a middle level sect in a lower level area, especially being in the middle of nowhere, only the highest level members of the sect were able to get their hands on energy crystals. Dahe still had not actually seen one.

“We need to show this to Fusang.” Re was looking Dahe directly in the eyes. Dahe’s eyes widened. “Really?” he asked once more. “Really” Re replied.