On this plane, meditation was apparently a process where you aggressively repeated a word to align yourself with that word. This was supposed to align your spirit with that word, which aligned the spirit with that mana, which allowed you to then influence the mana.

This was very different from how meditation was thought of on Earth, he thought that since he was someone from somewhere else it may have been better for him to use the homegrown techniques.

Resolving to try his own way Ozzy stopped focusing on the earth. Instead he cleared his mind and began to breathe normally, this time focusing on his body, and how it was inhaling and exhaling.

--

“I have to stop volunteering to help with manual labor Caldura.” complained Ozzy as he put another log over his shoulder and transported it to the [Lumberjack] who was splitting logs into usable planks.

Caldura was standing to the side, using a rope to tie together a few of the planks together. “More importantly, I think you have to stop volunteering my services along with yours. I have a million other things I need to do.”

The two were assisting at the lumber yard today, the various wood specialists had now set up an adequate camp by the forest where they could bring down trees at a rate adequate to sustain the settlement. The problem was that there weren’t enough skilled people to transport the logs from the log drop off point to the lumber yard where they were processed.

Since the settlement was in its early stages, everyone was working on high priority items like planting seeds, building permanent structures like storehouses and granaries, or preparing the hide of hunted beasts.

This meant the low skill jobs like moving lumber had been left to the soldiers. Now that the soldiers had all been assigned to various tasks and often spent time away from the settlement turning back manaborn, there was a noticeable lack of manpower.

“That’s not fair. Aren’t you supposed to be my shadow or something? If you don’t help me with stuff like this who will?” asked Ozzy.

“Who’s supposed to be your shadow? I’m supposed to help you with your official duties as the leader of the settlement. Get one of your other friends to help you with this bullshit.” she said, tossing the planks into a growing pile.

“Ouch. Go ahead. Hit me where it hurts. Half the people can barely look at my face for fear that I’ll order them beheaded and the other half look at me like I’m the poop emoji.” said Ozzy with a frown. He hadn’t realized it in the beginning but his current social standing made developing a casual relationship very difficult.

This was compounded by his supposed connection to the [Earl] and [Duchess] as well as his hectic schedule in the early days of the settlement. All of this now combined to give him what Sumeila had happily called an unapproachable aura.

Not ingratiating himself with the people of the settlement had formed an impenetrable social wall around him that only people in positions of power like the group representatives or Caldura could breach.

“It almost makes me appreciate Tomar’s thinly veiled hostility.” said Ozzy.

“You’re a strange person. I want you to know that.” said Caldura. “Most people would have removed his head from his shoulders by now. Especially since his disrespect is only growing more blatant with time.”

“Can you honestly say that his criticisms of me are unwarranted or false?” asked Ozzy.

“Well…” said Caldura.

“Or that you have not voiced some of those same criticisms to me?” questioned Ozzy.

Caldura paused in her work to blush slightly. “That’s different. I’m supposed to point out your flaws.” she said, before her face grew serious. “He is a subordinate who is disrespecting you. You cannot allow this to continue, it could cause problems within the populace.”

“A leader who cannot take the criticisms of his people is a poor leader.” said Ozzy, trying to channel the wise look of an ancient sage.

“This isn’t criticism. It’s malicious and morale breaking. I tell you that you’re being an idiot in the privacy of your tent where people really can’t hear me. He’s expressing it publicly and it will degrade how effective the community is.” said Caldura.

Ozzy stopped moving logs for a moment to consider this. It grated against his Earth sensibilities to quench discontent just because you disagreed with someone, then again, who was he to enforce his norms on a group of people who had been doing just fine without him.

Ozzy sighed, he hated having uncomfortable conversations. “Fine, I’ll have a word with him about how he’s expressing himself.” said Ozzy.

“Good. But that didn’t mean you could stop moving the logs.” said Caldura, a small smile crossing her face.

--

“A whole squad? For this?” asked Fireteam Leader Blackwell. Norman Blackwell was tall and cut an imposing figure. Pale blond hair, striking yellow eyes, bulging muscles, and a jaw you could cut paper on, he had caught the eye of many a woman and unfortunately he knew it. It was also why he was made leader rather than due to any actual ability to lead.

“Yes, a whole squad is required for this. One of the [Scouts] identified these things as level 18 [Pack Hunters]. That means a whole squad is needed to take care of these things.” said the leader of the squad Janqua Lindqur.

While Norman’s fireteam was composed entirely of sun elves, Janqua’s team was more diverse. Janqua herself was one of the Sovokor, distinguishable as female by the lack of a mane of hair that was usually present on the males. Her fireteam was composed of Chappie and Lula, both Solomon’s Children and one of two Illuins in the platoon, Preka.

The sight of Preka unnerved Janqua, even after all of the time they had spent together. As one of the Illuin, Preka possessed an extra membrane over all of his surface and orifices. This membrane allowed him to maintain his amphibious nature, even for years if necessary. Yet, it wasn’t this feature which caused Janqua her sense of discomfort. It was the presence of the large beak mouth on what would normally be someone’s stomach.

Illuin were largely humanoid, hands, feet, four limbs, a head, but that was where the similarities stopped. They had retractable webbing which could cover their hands, feet, and even the areas between their limbs. They often had tentacles where their mouths should have been, behind which were gill slits, no nose, no ears and no hair. The males sometimes had extra fins or tentacles. The worst part however was the stomach placed on their torso.

Most often it was a giant beak, sometimes it was a mouth like a fish. Either way, most species found it disturbing how they ate from their stomachs, and how they spoke from them. In the case of Preka it was that he clicked after most words.

Still, Janqua tried not to let personal sensibilities cloud her judgement about how she treated her team.

She brought her mind back to the task at hand, which was fighting the Carugar pack. A relatively mindless task, they were a pack animal possessed of sharp teeth, catlike agility, dog-like coordination and the ferocity of an arkuma.

The nice thing was that this pack was still in its adolescence. They had barely reached sexual maturity and their carapace hadn’t developed into the hardened plates found in the adults. Their greyish purple carapace allowed them to blend in to the grasslands during low light.

The squad moved fluidly, forming a basic circle and slowly wearing down the animals through repeated cuts. Blood stained the ground as iron met flesh to reveal bone. The air was filled with the roars of dying carugars and the soldiers moved in a practiced manner. Thrust, gather, slash, gather, block, slash, gather, they had fought plenty of beasts during the expedition’s travels and were easily engaging the group.

Corvo over extended on one of his lunges at one of the carugars and left himself open to an attack by a second carugar. Luckily the [Platoon] wide skill [Shield Brother] was still active and Janqua swiped her shield out without looking to block the pounce.

The action left her arm hurt but probably saved Corvo from being mauled.

“Watch your movements Corvo. They’ll try to bait you out. Don’t commit too much. Slow and steady, that’s the plan.” shouted Janqua as she moved back into position.

“Sorry sir.” said Corvo, wincing from the reprimand.

“Good thing we got to keep the army armour huh sarge?” said Preka to Janqua. “Can’t imagine clearing out the area in leathers.”

“Yes, good thing indeed.” muttered Janqua as she sent another slash to a lunging carugar.

She thought back to the incredible yelling match between Caldura and [General] Obenmeyer prior to the departure of the main army. Thankful that Caldura had managed to obtain a concession from the [General] that let them keep their individual arms and armour.

A few minutes later and the fight was largely finished. The soldiers verified the carugars were fully dead before field dressing them for transport.

“Ugh, I get that we need to bring back all edible meat but do we have to bring carugar back. They’re always so tough and chewy.” complained Blackwell, as he cut into a stomach to remove entrails.

“Could be worse, the mature carugar have urine soaked flesh. Makes it almost inedible. During the Bromilian campaign we had to survive two months on it.” said Lockheed, grinning at his fireteam leader.

“By the way, have you guys seen that weird spear on the racks with the number one engraved on it. I don’t know who it is assigned to but whoever it is needs to be dressed down. I mean, the shaft has dried blood on it. What [Private] worth their salt hasn’t been drilled-” complained Blackwell.

Janqua hearing this turned and spoke to Lula. “He’s not wrong, but I wouldn’t dress down whoever it was too much.”

“Why not Sarge?” asked Lula.

“You can tell a lot about personality from a weapon. Where it’s worn down, where it’s bent, all of it tells you something about a person. That spear, that shows someone with dedication to the craft. I examined it, it’s not dried blood, it’s just that enough blood has been spilled on it that it stained the wood. Don’t get me wrong, they should be reprimanded for improper maintenance, but a [soldier] with that much commitment is worth their salt.” said Janqua.