Caldura didn’t speak, and after a while Ozzy realized that she had also stopped tilling the earth.

“What?” he asked, troubled by the weird look that she was giving him.

“You’ll have to learn how to do it a little bit, you know that right?” said Caldura.

“What?! Why?” asked Ozzy.

“It’s one of the best ways to clear up your spirit blockage, and increase how much mana is being exchanged with your spirit.” said Caldura, a wry smile growing on her face at his obvious distress.

“OH COME ON!” shouted Ozzy.

--

“I swear, these bugs are going to be the death of us. They are literally eating us alive. Do you see this Joseph? This one is consuming me from the outside in. The outside Joseph.” complained Emery.

“Shut up already!” growled Minnie.

“Everyone shut up.” said a weary Fierro.

Joseph continued walking through the swampy region, unwilling to engage any of them. They had been on long range maneuvers for a week and tempers were starting to fray.

“You can’t tell me to shut up. You’re not the squad leader.” taunted back Emery.

“Emery.” relented Joseph.

“Yes sir?” he asked with a grin.

“Shut up.” said Joseph.

“Yes sir.” said Emery, while smiling back at Fierro and Minnie.

The four of them had been patrolling the surrounding region, creating loud noises and generally creating the impression that a larger group was passing through. The idea had been to trick whatever monsters lurked into thinking that a large army still occupied the area.

When Joseph had first heard the idea he had thought that it was stupid but may have had some chance of working. After marching through the swamp he was wholeheartedly convinced that his superiors were idiots and that the only sane people left in the world were the ones who had stayed in Monravia. Even with light clothes, leather boots and leather jerkins, the group was sweating like a boiled pig.

“Hey, can anyone explain to me why it’s just the four of us out here? I mean, we get made into a [Temporary Platoon], whatever that is, but why aren’t we doing [Platoon] level maneuvers? Why are we moving around as a [Fireteam], whatever THAT is?” asked Emery.

Everyone sighed, even an order couldn’t stop Emery’s mouth for long.

“How long was that Fierro?” asked Joseph.

“I had a count of 237, Joe.” he replied.

“I think it’s getting faster.” joked Minnie.

“Screw you guys.” said Emery.

“Hold up.” said Fierro, from his position at the head of the group. He sheathed his sword and knelt down to examine the ground. A few moments later after he had finished examining the ground and the surrounding terrain he stood up.

“Relax, it looks like something with six legs that weighed over 100kg walked through here about four or five days ago. Its poop is dry so we shouldn’t be too worried but keep an eye out just in case.” said Fierro, the team’s sole tracker. Really, he was the platoon's most experienced tracker and their highest level [Pathfinder].

Joseph turned to the last man in their fireteam. The man had an actual name, but Joseph had taken to thinking about him as the Silent Cartographer. “Note that down.” he said to the man, with a nod.

The [Cartographer] brought out his fabric piece and made a few notations using a wax pencil, before nodding back to Joseph and continuing the trek.

“Who knows why officers do things Emery. We’re a fireteam because they say we’re a fireteam. What does that mean? Who knows. To me, it’s a fancy way of saying that they gave half a squad of people a whole squads responsibilities.” said Joseph.

“Yea, but why fireteam. That doesn’t make sense. We’re not starting or putting out fires.” said Emery.

“Hold on, I have something in my boot,” said Minnie.

“There’s a dry spot up there. We’ll hold there for a quick moment. Emery, you’re on watch.” said Joseph.

The group made its way to a dry spot that was slightly raised within the swamp. They were lucky to have a [Pathfinder] within the group, thanks to Fierro they could move through the swamp in the shallowest areas and avoid having to wade through hip deep swamp water.

Emery stayed near the edge of the rise and kept an eye out for anything unusual as the other members of his fireteam sat down as Minnie pulled off her boot to dislodge whatever was stuck within it.

As Emery stared around at the large drooping trees that were covered in the dull purple moss and slime that seemed to cover everything a voice interrupted his musings.

“They are called fireteams based upon the ancient Arcavian word for four, which was firay.” said an until now unheard voice.

The entirety of the fireteam turned in shock to look at the [Cartographer].

“You can talk?” sputtered Emery.

The man nodded before turning back to his map without addressing anyone else.

“Huh. Ozymandias knows Arcavian?” questioned Emery, even as he turned to everyone else and they shared a look. They all thought for a moment about the man who led the settlement before each coming to their own conclusions.

“You’re supposed to be on watch Emery.” snapped Joseph. Which caused Emery to turn back to observe their surroundings.

Eventually Minnie managed to get out the rock that was lodged in her shoe and the group gathered and departed the dry hillock.

As the group returned to their travel through the swamp a voice could be heard, faintly. “That reminds me, have you guys heard someone running at night-”

--

Ozymandias sat in a mud pit near the riverbank. It was near where the settlement’s sole [Hydromancer], a member of the [75th Platoon], had recently helped divert some water to develop a rudimentary plumbing system for the settlement.

The past few weeks had been a trying series of meetings to determine a layout for the settlement and after some tedious back and forth with Sheila they had managed to finalize a rudimentary plan for the area. Which meant that they could start building houses.

A plan which had been vehemently halted by public outcry. Another period of discussion within the various groups had revealed that the residents definitively wanted access to a convenient water system prior to them building houses.

The inconvenience of travelling all the way to the river for all of their water needs had grown too tiring and so the builders had been tasked to construct a water tower, as well as to divert a segment of the river through an artificial waterway which had been built to service the settlement.

An action which would have been inconceivable for a settlement of their nature on Earth was instead done quite adeptly, especially because Caldura had positioned a nearly seamless stone coating along the waterway to prevent leakage.

All in all, Ozzy had been very impressed and he was once again reminded that the limitations in place in his previous world were not in place here.

Still, that brought him back to what he was doing on this muddy bank, which was meditating. It was one of the most difficult tasks he had to undertake. Caldura insisted that he spend at least six hours on the task, but through some aggressive negotiations Ozzy had managed to cut that down to three hours and only after sunrise.

The reason for his location was also in that vein. Since his meditation and attempt to sense mana was an effort to align himself with mana like Caldura, she had determined that he needed to be somewhere where he could feel Earth.

Mana was supposedly the easiest to sense when the meaning it carried was heavily skewed. It was also easier to sense a mana that you had an affinity for. Just like how some foods tasted better to some people, there were certain meanings which people had an affinity for.

Caldura, for example, had an affinity for earth. She found it easier to sense earth mana compared to fire mana. It wasn’t that she couldn’t sense or manipulate fire mana at all, rather it was excessively difficult for her, so she never bothered to. According to her there were entire schools, organizations and even countries built upon this idea. People, drawn together based upon their affinities.

“Aargghh” growled Ozzy, his mind was wandering again, and he brought it back to heel. This had been the problem with meditating on mana. Unlike what he did at night where he was allowed to let his mind wander, so that his body could rest, meditating on mana was a more active process.

The real problem was that no matter how much he wallowed in mud he couldn’t sense the earth mana that Caldura was talking about. In fact, he couldn’t even sense the water mana which was nearby as well. In the depths of the night he had even tried to sense emotional mana. Mana which carried the meaning of emotions, which was the power used by berserkers.

He had been unable to sense them all. Caldura had blamed the deviation of his spirit, but Ozzy thought it was something else. He thought it was the meditation method he had been given.