I blinked slowly awake. Warmth surrounded me, but a deep-seated exhaustion dragged at my bones and made my eyelids extremely heavy. Soft white light suffused everything around me and I couldn’t make anything out at first. It took a few moments of slow blinking before my eyes could adjust and make out my surroundings.

Sounds slowly filtered in. I could hear some murmuring and someone was groaning in pain.

I sat up abruptly, and the world spun around me and my stomach lurched in my gut. I had to twist my body to the side before acidic bile rose and spewed forth. I gagged and retched for what felt like a long time. Before it finally subsided.

“Take it easy now. Your body went through a lot. Everything is fine. You survived,” a male voice said behind me.

I turned as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. On the other side of the small bed stood Carson. He was in his gold accented robes with a sunburst over his left breast. His golden sun staff in his left hand.

“Wha-, “I coughed before continuing, “What happened? Where am I?”

“We managed to eliminate the Orc raiding party and are currently recovering. You are in the administration building, the area we designated as our medical ward.”

“How long was I out?” I asked.

“It’s only been a few hours since the end of the fight. You did amazing things towards the end there. Even taking on the Chief and the Shaman solo. A few of us managed to break off and help you burn them down, but you did quite a lot of damage before help arrived. Once the fight with the chief was over, you collapsed and we brought you in here, along with the rest of the injured.”

“Only a few hours? Damn.”

“You had quite the nasty debuff, Berserker Fatigue. It’s the cost of using your bloodline ability, I presume.”

“Yeah, everything I gain for five minutes. I lose for six to twelve hours.”

Carson nodded in understanding. “Well, you are in luck. One of my divine abilities helped drastically reduce the duration of your debuff. It wasn’t able to clear it away completely, but it managed to reduce their duration by seventy-five percent. In fact,” he studied me intently for a moment before smiling. “The debuff cleared while you slept.”

“Wow, um… thanks Doc,” I said with gratitude.

“Oh, I’m not a doctor. I was a nurse before the apocalypse, though. But since Lord Apollo saw fit to offer me such wondrous healing abilities, I take the title of healer as seriously as any doctor from our old world. Here, take some water. It will help clear that nasty taste in your mouth, and you need to hydrate. Even my abilities don’t replace the need for water.”

I took the glass of clear water and drank it down. I was rather parched. As I drank, Carson moved on to check on his other patients in the room. The room looked like it might have been a meeting hall or something, given how big it was. They had twin sized beds spaced around with tables and medical supplies.

Not everyone seemed to have received the miraculous healing of the Faithfull. They each had so many charges a day, but I saw Kiara administering her herbal poultices and changing bandages, while some others took alchemical potions. I was sure the Faithfull burned a lot of their charges during the fight.

After I put the empty glass on the table next to the bed I was in, I brought my attention to my system's prompts. I had dug around the system settings in my user interface which enabled me to eliminate some prompts like damage taken or dealt, and also combined some prompts together.

Congratulations, your skill Acrobatics skill has increased 3 Ranks

Acrobatics Rank 8 (+16% Jumping distance, +8% movement speed)

Congratulations, your skill Athletics has increased 2 Ranks

Athletics Rank 8 (+16% movement speed, -8% movement stamina cost)

Congratulations, your skill Axes has increased 2 Ranks

Axes Rank 9 (+18% Damage, +9% chance for Debilitating Injury)

Congratulations, your skill Evade has increased 2 Ranks

Evade Rank 10 (+20% Evasion Speed, -10% damage on AOE)

Congratulations, your skill Grapple has increased.

Grapple Rank 5 (+10% Grappling Strength, -5% Grapple Stamina Cost)

Congratulations, your skill Identify has increased.

Identify Rank 9 (+18 to Identify Stronger Targets, +9% Information Gained)

Congratulations, your skill Polearms has increased 2 Ranks

Polearms Rank 15 (+30% Damage, +15% Armor Penetration)

Congratulations, your skill Spiritual Sense has increased.

Spiritual Sense Rank 10 (+20% range, +10% Detect Concealment)

Congratulations, your skill Unarmed Combat has increased 3 Ranks.

Unarmed Combat Rank 6 (+12% Damage, +6% attack speed)

Congratulations, your Grace in Combat has ranked up 2 Ranks

Grace in Combat Rank 5

No bonuses at this time. Increase your rank further to gain a bonus.

Congratulations, your Jade Dragon’s Scale Armor has ranked up 2 Ranks

Jade Dragon’s Scale Armor Rank 3

No bonuses at this time. Increase your rank further to gain a bonus.

Agility +1

I hadn’t gotten so many skill up notifications since just after Initialization. It kind of boggled the mind a bit. I even ranked up two of my techniques twice. I still needed to rank one up to where I actually get some kind of bonus. I did not know what rank actually gives something extra.

Congratulations, you have aided in the Settlement Defense Quest.

Orcs Slain: 62/62

Orcs Driven off: 0/62

Residents Slain: 0

Congratulations, not only did you slay every Invading Orc, you suffered 0 Fatalities.

Quest Bonus: x2 Rewards

Quest Rewards by Path:

Path of Mana: +2,000xp, c5,000.

Path of Faith: 2 Divine Favor, c5,000.

Path of Ki: Dantian Elasticity Pill (High Grade), c5,000

Five thousand credits isn’t bad, that pill reward is definitely interesting. If it increased the ability for my Dantian to stretch, it might aid me in reaching my Middle Dantian as much as the Meridian Cleansing Pills did. It was high grade too, so it should be even more effective than the average grade pills I used before.

Congratulations

Your soul bound spirit beast companion has achieved body rank 8.

Chrysalis State has been Initialized.

As the Master Bond Holder, a choice must be made.

Mind

Body

Spirit

Choose your Companion’s Path

Rukia finally reached body rank eight too? I’ve been giving her a shit ton of Spirit Beast Cores, and she must have gained a lot in that fight. Wait, what is this Chrysalis State?

Chrysalis State: when a spirit beast reaches a breakthrough point in their cultivation, their Ki flows out of their body and forms a shell around their body. Inside the Chrysalis, their body mind and spirit undergo evolution, strengthening and adjusting to handle the new level of power.

So, she is basically in a cocoon. And she is going to be stuck there until I choose how she will advance? I quickly pulled up more information on each branching path I could choose from.

Body

Spirit and Demon Beasts on the Path of the Body are among the most physically powerful of all beasts. They focus their Ki on their physical development, infusing their Ki into their Bones, muscles, Hide and internal organs. This Ki infusion usually causes their bodies to grow to enormous sizes, dwarfing their brethren.

Body Path beasts increase their physical stats at the expense of their cognitive function and Ki pool and Elemental control. Beasts on this path have the least intelligence among the three paths.

Mind

Spirit and Demon Beasts on the Path of the Mind are the most intelligent of all spiritual beasts. They invest their Ki into their brain at the expense of their body. Beasts on the Path of the Mind are the smallest of their brethren, usually close to the same size as their mundane counterparts. They have the greatest chance at developing true sapience.

Mind Path Beasts have a larger Ki Pool at the expense of developing their bodies and elemental control. They have better Elemental Control than Body Path beasts, but not nearly as much as Spirit Path beasts.

Spirit

Spirit and Demon Beasts on the Path of the Spirit are the most balanced of the Beasts. They infuse their Ki both into their brains and body, growing both at the expense of not specializing. With a more balanced mind/body connection, the beasts on the Path of the Spirit have greater control over their element, a deeper Ki pool than Body Paths and stronger bodies than the Mind paths.

Spirit Path beasts are not as likely to develop true Sapience, but it is still possible depending on the native intellect of the beast and how far they advance.

I pondered the options for a few minutes. It would be interesting to have a giant Rukia, even bigger than she was now. Before making this choice, Rukia already matched me in height. The top of her shoulder was even with my shoulder. But did I really want her getting even more massive? Sure, she would be physically strong and probably pretty fast, but in a settlement, she would be as big as a building and it would be difficult to keep her fed.

On the other side, taking the Mind Path sounded like it would shrink her back down to her original thirty-five to forty pounds. Being that small would put her at greater risk in a physical altercation, even if it would give her the biggest chance of becoming a sapient creature.

That really only left me with one option. The more balanced approach regarding mental capabilities and physical strength. The up side of the third option though, is she would have a lot more control over her Ice element, and I was quite interested in what she could do with it.

With my consideration completed, I chose.

Congratulations, you have chosen the Path of the Spirit for your soul bound companion

Evolution Initialized.

Incubation period: 24hrs.

Cancel. Cancel! “Fucking cancel, damned it!” The incubation timer ignored my commands and continued counting down from twenty-four hours. “Mother fucking, gods damned it all to the pits of hell.”

Carson came back over quickly to check on me after my outburst. “What’s wrong? Are you still injured?”

“What? No, I’m fine.” I said, as I waved him away. I pulled myself out of the bed, glad to find myself still dressed, even though my armor was nowhere to be seen. “Where are my leathers? And my weapons?”

“Your friend Magnus took possession of them, promising he would give them to you once you woke,” Carson answered.

John: Magnus, you there?

Magnus: Yeah, bro. I’m glad you’re finally awake.

John: The Apollo Priest, Carson, said you have my gear?

Magnus: Yup, got it right here in my ring. I’m over by our cabin.

John: Thanks, I’ll be over there shortly.

Magnus: Um… before you do… I don’t rightly know how to say this, but Rukia turned into a giant egg, just outside the building you are in.

John: She reached rank 8 and entered into this Chrysalis thing. She is going to be stuck inside for a full 24hrs. I’ll be out there in just a minute.

Magnus: Ok, I’ll go ahead and meet you by her egg. It’s the damnedest thing I ever saw.

I went outside. Really? She was on the other side of the wall from me? I thought, shaking my head. Rukia’s chrysalis sat up against the wall. It looked like an egg, structurally anyway. It was an opaque icy blue and gave off waves of chilled air. Fog swirled around its base, giving it an eerie ethereal quality. I could feel the icy Ki shifting around inside, but I didn’t know exactly what it was doing.

I used Identify on it.

Ki Chrysalis

Quality: N/A

Rarity: N/A

Durability: 250/250

Weight: 996lbs.

Traits: Incubation Chrysalis facilitating evolution between cultivation stages.

Incubation Time Remaining: 23hrs 51min

“Well, it’s durable as all hell,” I said as magnus approached.

“Yup, it’s tougher than a two-dollar steak, that’s for sure,” Magnus said as he started handing me my gear.

I put my weapons in my storage ring and buckled on each piece of armor as they were handed to me. It felt weird not wearing armor any more. Like walking around your first apartment as an adult, without pants for the first time. My hands started shaking as I tried to tighten the buckles down until Magnus had to step in without a word to help.

A moment passed in silence before I broke it. My voice was as shaky as my hands. “another day. We have to wait another day.” My heart felt like it was in a vice, and words were difficult to get out. My son, my wife, they were both still alive but were in danger. They could die, and I have to either wait another damned day, or abandon Rukia. I was Rukia’s entire world. I had her since she was a pup and she suffered from anxiety whenever I wasn’t around.

“It’s ok, bro. They survived this long. One more day won’t make much difference. We are stronger now, and faster. We can make up that time, no problem. We will head straight there full steam ahead. Take this time and rest. We can use those potions to prepare our bodies for the next stage. If we do that, nothing can stop us.” Magnus said, after putting his hands on my shoulders and staring me in the eyes.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to be patient. I was stuck here for another day, then I can use that day to unlock my Middle Dantian.

As I buckled my last strap, Stephanie found us with a smile on her fade. “Thank you for all your help this morning. You could have snuck out over the walls and there wouldn’t have been anything we could have done about it. Without your help, we might have lost some good people.”

“It’s no problem, ma’am. Standing against monsters is something any real man would do,” Magnus said while tipping his helm like he would a cowboy hat.

“Be that as it may, I wanted to show my appreciation to you all. I have your body refining potions finished, and I have something else to give as a thank you from me.” She said as she first handed me and Magnus a small wooden box each, then held out a larger box with both hands.

“In this last box, I have prepared some of the best healing, stamina and mana potions I have ever made. Each healing potion will heal a full one hundred health points over one minute and will clear any one injury-based status aliment. If you are bleeding, burned or suffering from a broken bone, this potion will clear it and still give the full hundred health. The stamina potions will restore two hundred stamina over one minute and boost your stamina regeneration by twenty percent for five minutes. The Mana potions will restore three hundred mana over one minute and boost mana regeneration by twenty percent for the same five minutes,” she opened the box, and I saw ten of each potion in six rows of five, or five rows of six, depending on how you looked at it.

I took the box with both hands and bowing my head over it. “Thank you very much for this kind gesture. It will surely help us reach my family safer.”

The alchemist looked satisfied with our appreciation of her work and then gave her instructions on our body refining potions. “There are four potions for each of you to refine your body. I have labeled each stopper with a number. You take them one at a time, make sure you fully process each one before moving on to the next. Each potion is stronger than the one before it, and you need to take the weaker ones first to acclimate your body to the power. If you take them out of turn, or take the next one before you finish processing the previous, it could overload your system and cause irreparable damage. It could leave you as a cripple… if you survive. I’ve never made these before, so be careful. My skill says they will do as intended, but… just be careful.” With that last cautionary remark, she turned around and went back to her lab.

I put the boxes of potions into my storage ring and set out to find the High Priestess. I needed to let her know we would need to stay one more night. “Magnus, would you mind letting the others know we will be staying one more day and for them to get as much done as they can before we leave?”

“Sure thing, boss,” he said with a chuckle.

I just shook my head. I could see Laura across the wide courtyard, near the greenhouses. I strode off over to her. When she saw me approaching, she broke off her conversation with another villager and met me halfway.

“Thank you so much for your contributions to our defense. It wouldn’t have gone nearly as well without the aid of your party. Hecate as my witness. After they burst through the gates like that, I didn’t think we would make it through, even with your help. Is there anything I can do to aid you or your people before you depart?”

“Well, you see…” I took a deep breath, “We can’t leave quite yet. My dog Rukia is going through some evolution thing, and she can’t be moved for a full day. We must beg your hospitality for one more night.”

“We would be delighted to have you. That means you can stay for the party we are throwing tonight. But is there anything else we can do for you? We know you didn’t have to help us, and we want to do something for you in return.”

“Well, the Alchemist lady, Stephanie, already gave us some astounding potions.” I said with a shrug.

Laura thought for a moment, letting her eyes drift over me. After a brief moment, her eyes flickered with an idea. “Your giant dog, Rukia, you said, right? She was your minor perk choice, right? And you mentioned you had a Ki smithy for your moderate perk?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Why do you ask?”

“That means you don’t have a soul bound item, right?”

“No, I don’t. I just have Ki enhanced weapons. Rukia is my soul bound companion,” I said.

“Perfect. I know exactly how we can thank you for your help. I have the ability to forge the soul bond. If you and your party have something they would like to soul bond with themselves, I would be willing to perform the ritual for each of you before you leave tomorrow afternoon. If you have nothing suitable, our crafters can pull something together.”

My mind went to my axe, Dragon’s Fang, and how I wanted to change out its handle and make its twin. “Would you be able to soul bind a matched pair of hand axes?”

“Oh certainly. Why don’t you talk to your party about it and everyone can decide what you want to bind to? Feel free to stay in the same cabin tonight as well. Again, we are happy to have you,” she said.

After a few more pleasantries, I went back to the cabin to talk to the others and see what they wanted. Once that was sorted, I could take the first potion and if it didn’t impact me too much, I could work on my second axe at the same time.

I paused just before I touched the door handle. Wasn’t there someone here with the carpenter class? Their ability with woodworking would surely be better than any of us. I turned on my heels and went asking about for the carpenter. Once I found her, I found out that she was more than a carpenter. She was a wood shaper with plant magic. Once I Juanita what I needed, she was more than happy to make me a pair of axe handles out of the fire aligned wood.

I had to pull out my axe and let her trace out the shape and take measurements, but once she was done, she said she could complete the project in a couple of hours and that she would deliver it to me personally. She seemed excited to be working with the new material. Once that side quest was complete, I made it back to our cabin once again, and this time I went in and talked to the rest of the party.