Altaea looked around as she left the protective dome behind.

Yup, mountains. Lots, and lots of mountains. She sighed.

There wasn’t likely to be many people living in the middle of a mountain range. Well, maybe dwarves. If she could find the right mountain.

“Time for a better view.”

With that said, a pair of wings (with the same colouration as her hair) that looked as though they were made of light sprung from her back. Then they flapped and she shot up like rocket. Well, if she knew what a rocket was.

Within moments the stone dome became a small dot on the mountain. It was a curious mountain, in that it looked like a titan had tried to cut the mountain in half, crosswise, and only managed to get halfway through it. Then broke the chunk off and pushed it down the mountainside. The remaining peak was shorter than those around it, but Altaea realized that whatever had left this damage had also revealed many ore deposits.

Good to know!

Then it was back to flying about, looking for signs of civilization, or anything interesting at all.

It didn’t take long to find something.

It was certainly large, but no titan. Well, maybe it was this world’s version of one? Who was she to judge?

That said, it was a good eighty feet fall and made of stone. It was certainly humanoid, more so than most earth elementals that she’d seen. It was also walking towards her. And coincidentally enough, towards the dome where her host was learning how to be, well, himself.

So, what was she to do? Was it hostile? Or was it just walking in her direction? Well, time for the universal greeting!

She flew closer to the being, making sure that she was out of swat range, and noticed that its “head” was now pointed in her direction. More specifically, the side of its head that one would normally associate with a face was pointed at her.

“Ba weep gra’na weep mini bon!” She called out, hoping for a response.

Well, it wasn’t the response she was hoping for, as it reached over, grabbed a boulder larger than she was and lobbed it at her.

Well, maybe she should have tried [Detect Evil] first? She didn’t even have to try to dodge, as the boulder seemed to slide past her as she gazed at the rock titan. Maybe that’s what it was?

Whatever it was though, it was definitely evil.

Sigh.

Then she pointed her finger at it and declared: “I smite thee!”

Nothing seemed to happen, except that it threw another boulder that slid past her.

Altaea grinned and summoned her armour.

-

As he sat in his comfy chair, he realized that he had forgotten something very important. Something almost everyone he knew would have scolded him for.

He had forgotten to introduce himself.

With a pained look, he gazed out the window to where Altaea had walked through the dome. He really hoped that she wasn’t angry about that.

But then again, if she was indeed the exact same being that he had known for so long in his imagination and writings, then she probably already knew his name. She had also probably just given him a nick-name and rolled with it.

With a heavy sigh he turned from the window and stared at his hands.

The familiar hands that he had gazed at countless times throughout his life weren’t there. Sure, they were large like before, but the scars weren’t there. The oh-so fine wrinkles were gone. Heck, even the broken bone in his right hand seemed to have been straightened out.

He looked out the window again. Habit. There wasn’t anything to see at the moment except a wall of rock.

Well, he may as well “bond” with the ring. Hopefully he can store stuff away in it. But he’d really just have to wait and see what it all entailed.

So, with that thought in mind, he closed his eyes and began to let his mind drift…

What the hell am I doing?! He berated himself. He had absolutely no idea how to meditate!

Well, Altaea had said to focus on himself first. But it was hard when he had an actual magic ring sitting on his ring finger!

Then his mind drifted to her kneeling in front of him and sliding it onto his ring finger.

His head nearly exploded.

“Nope, nope, nope!” He said as he got up and once again realized that the was naked.

“When did I become a nudist?!” He yelled and grabbed his clothing as fast as he could, even though he was alone. It just felt weird being completely bald. Then if felt all sorts of weird being completely bald and dressed. Things felt different, not to mention his now baggy clothing.

With a shudder that was more than just a little bit mild, he walked to the bathroom, opened the door, and stopped in front of the mirror.

“Well, damn,” he muttered to himself as he finally saw what he looked like bald. Well, that wasn’t too bad, as he had a habit of shaving his head when it got too hot outside. The missing beard? The beard was relatively new, so that really didn’t throw him off. Now, the eyebrows? That weirded him out.

“Man, looks like I took the red pill…” he said with a chuckle.

Then he really saw his face. Not just the component parts that one inspects in a mirror, like if your hair was doing something weird, or if you needed a shave or trim the beard. No, this was it all, and he nearly fell over.

He then straightened himself so that he could get a clear look at himself.

He looked like he was sixteen again.

Gone were the developing crow feet. Gone were the worry lines on his forehead. Even the laugh lines on his cheeks were gone. It was all smooth and clear. He looked closer and noticed, or rather, failed to notice, the little chicken pocks scar that had been between his brows, nearer the right one. The scar the bee left under his right eye? Gone.

Then he started inspecting himself, not just his hands or face, but looking for his beauty marks, scars, and even his birthmark.

All gone.

“No kidding ‘get used to your body’,” he mumbled to himself as he put his clothes back on. He looked at his toes, and yup!, no evidence of unfortunate encounters with immovable objects.

He slowly made his way over to his bed the laid down, adjusting his pillow as he thought of everything.

If he ever got home, would anyone recognize him? What had actually happened? Did they think he was dead? Were his parents worried about him? Heck, with all that pandemic nonsense going on, he had pretty much turned into a recluse, his introverted nature kicking into high gear. Even his buddies from high school hardly heard from him. Like, almost never.

How long before one of them even noticed?

Slap-slap!

Wow, that hurts so much more now. He winced as he pulled his hands away from his face.

This line of thinking was absolutely useless. Unless he had some way to get home there was no reason to waste his energy worrying about it.

“Only focus on what you can change.” One of his favourite quotes. Don’t ask him who said it first though…

So, he did what he was advised to do: he began getting used to his body, the only way he knew how. He started doing push-ups.

“Is this easier than it used to be?” He asked himself as he finished his fifth set of twenty reps and rolled onto his back.

“Yes sir! It sure is much easier than it used to be!”

Why did he sound like a stereotypical southern hick?

“Because ye’re bored!” Said the Scot.

“OK, maybe I really should try to do some meditation…”

How did it go? Lotus position? Hands clasped in each other, thumbs touching at the tip.

So, he did the only thing he knew how to do with meditation.

It was actually a self-taught technique that had him imagine his body as a giant robot with power switches in his head. Each switch would shut off a section of his body, causing it to relax. The idea was to start at the toes and work all the way up to the top, eventually having your face relax.

What was the point of doing that you ask? Simple: to sleep.

When he was growing up it would take at least an hour, usually two, for him to be able to fall asleep at night due to his busy brain, and thus his tensed body. He would go through every detail of his day, frame by frame, wondering if he had done something wrong, trying to see what he could do better. Going over arguments trying to find a good comeback. That last part never really worked as he was just never the kind of person to just say mean things to other people, even if they were being jerks.

Anyway, back to the present!

Using this method, he was able to get somewhere. He actually managed to turn his feet off. Literally.

He could not move his feet.

He could still feel them, but he couldn’t move them. He had a moment of panic, thinking that he’d somehow broken himself, before the thought occurred to him to try to flip the switch again.

That worked, much to his intense relief!

Maybe not that one until he got to know his body better….

Or maybe….

He got up off the floor, dusted himself off, then realized there was no dust. Huh.

Then he laid in his bed, adjusted his pillow, and shut his body off.

Everything went black, but the thing that really got his attention was that his heart stopped beating.

Panicking, he flipped every switch again and felt the sweet/painful rush of his heart beating once again.

“That was… Damn,” he stuttered out, placing a shaking hand across his eyes. “I need to refine those switches…”

And so that is what he did for who knows how long, as he hadn’t bothered bringing his watch/health tracker with him.

Well, putting it on again. Huh, there was a thought: would it work the same as before? Heck, would it be anywhere near accurate measuring his calories burned? Heartrate was probably going to work, not to mention the pedometer.

I really need to learn how to focus. He reminded himself. That was another thought: was he still a combination of ADD and OCD? Was his brain chemistry even the same? Did that mean that if his depression was a physiological issue and not a purely psychological one, would it go away? Hmmmm….

And so he concentrated on his mind, searching his thoughts and feelings. Trying to find his centre as he imagined being in a void. Another trick from growing up, also originating from the need to try to fall asleep.

He’d gotten the idea from his favourite author and tried to make it work for him, tried to adapt it.

This time, this time that flame sprouted inside that void and quickly began to absorb his errant thoughts, causing the flame to balloon out in size. Soon enough, he was sitting in an area of utter calm.

And it burst just as quickly as his amazement popped it, well, like an overfull balloon.

It really wouldn’t have been so bad if it didn’t come with a wildly spinning head.

It took him another chunk of time to settle his head and thoughts and to just relax again. It wasn’t hard, as he was laying on his bed. In fact, the fatigue of the last day seemed to be catching up to him as he fell back into his mind.

-

Altaea looked down at the rubble heap that she had once called a rock titan. It probably wasn’t, but that never stopped her from giving things nicknames.

What she found particularly interesting was that it seemed to have a biological component to it. Or maybe its skin was just rocky? Maybe like a stonechild? But this thing put the children of stone to shame. Stonechildren only got to about 1/10th the size of what this thing was. And they looked better to boot.

That aside, she began to [Delve] the remains, just in case.

Well, one thing she discovered was that it definitely had a biological side to it, and that it ate rocks. So many rocks and various ores, not to mention gems, were found in its stomach and what passed for its bowels. So, she added a thin telekinetic sting to each interesting thing and gave it all a mental pull.

Wiping herself off, she realized that she really should have thought that through better. Well, live and learn as they say.

Looking at the loot, Altaea thew a [Cleanse] over herself and her small hoard and watched as the filth disintegrated from herself and the pile of loot. It was somewhat cathartic to watch. Well, calling it proper loot may be premature, as she would need to refine the ores and polish up the gems. Well, maybe she’d get her host to do it. He needed to learn a few things anyway.

With a smile, Altaea decided to cut her exploration short and head back to the dome.

Once there, she decided to remodel it a bit, to make it blend in a bit more. A rough patch here, a transplanted shrub there, some rubble up that side, and it looked much better!

But what was she forgetting…?

Ventilation!

Cough!

A few more tweaks here and there, and voila! Maybe she’d put in windows at some point.

Shrug.

Maybe she should add him to her collective? It would probably help to keep him alive, and also provide entertainment. Yup, great idea!

So Altaea walked through the stone wall again and noticed the pile of quintessence on the other side of the building.

“Did he save a bunch?” She asked herself as she went inside. Another shrug.

Looking around, she noticed that he wasn’t in the living room, nor the second room, but found in laying down on his bed with his eyes closed.

That gave her pause. She was pretty sure that he knew that elans didn’t sleep. Nor could they actually sleep, they merely went into a meditative state to replenish themselves. Heck, it was one of the better things to be immune to: sleep spells.

With those thoughts in mind, Altaea sent a mental invitation to her host and waited… not long. Her host’s eyes popped open as he looked over to her, then promptly scrunched shut again as he groaned. Oddly, he didn’t move anything except his face. But before she could inquire, he responded.

“Sorry, working on some self-taught meditation. It doesn’t seem to be going well.”

Then she felt him accepting her invitation into her collective and smiled. She immediately did a mental probe of his health and found that he was indeed in perfect health. So why the seeming paralysis?

“Funny story?” He said as he began to twitch, then sat up. “This trick I had as a kid to fall asleep works much better with the… adjustments to my body.”

“Funny story?” Altaea said with a grin. “That’s pretty much a new body.”

He blinked, seemed to notice that he was also missing his eyelashes, then did that funny laugh of his.

“Well, that explains the ridiculous control I have over my heart!”

At her questioning, and quite frankly concerned look, he explained what had happened.

She face-palmed.

“I am so sorry. I really should have left you with some meditation techniques designed to get you used to, not only your body, but your mind as well.” She said as she sat down next to him on the bed. “You just seemed to know so much about not only me, but about everything that it didn’t occur to me that you wouldn’t know the basics.”

He grinned and held out his hand. Altaea blinked and took it, feeling the warmth therein, and smiled as he shook her hand.

“You can call me Joram. Pleased to meet you.”

Altaea blinked, then laughed out loud. “It is a pleasure to meet you ‘Joram’.” She said with all the charm she could muster.

Ten seconds later Joram’s heart was restarted and he was once again sitting up, though looking a little pale while Altaea looked a bit guilty.

“Sorry, I’m not quite used to chatting with a mortal – er, a newbie.”

“Well, then, let us fix that!” Joram said with that goofy grin of his. “I have an idea about that. Would you care to listen?”

Intrigued, Altaea nodded and began to listen to Joram’s proposed training regimen. One thing was for sure, he didn’t think small.

-

Joram sat on his bed, watching Altaea as she mulled over his proposal. She had the best poker face that he’d ever seen. Not that there was no expression on her face, but that it was the exact expression that she wanted to be there, giving nothing away. In this case: pensive.

He knew that it was a long shot, but he also figured that if she was the Altaea of his stories, then she had probably already done the research needed to pull off his idea.

But would she agree to it? It was certainly an unconventional idea, to put it lightly. But it was also something that would not only keep him alive but let him thrive.

If he could survive the training that is.

At length, Altaea looked up and stared him straight in the eye. “You know? I really did do all the research into this, and not a few other combinations like this,” she started. “But if you can do it, you’ll be the first one to do so. Well, other than me that is.” She finished with a grin that somehow managed to be both challenging and soothing at the same time.

“Well, it’s worth a shot. Not like there’s a whole lot to do here, in the middle of nowhere.”

“That’s fair,” Altaea said as she leaned over and stared him in the eye.

Joram blinked and realized that Altaea also looked quite young, about how old he looked. It was just hard to notice because of her sheer presence. You don’t tend to notice little things like apparent age when hit with such a powerful presence.

But now she seemed like any other person as she stared into his eyes. He couldn’t even blink.

But he did when she flicked him in the forehead.

“You’re too easily distracted.” She said as she sat back. “OK, first things first. I am going to implant several meditation techniques into your memory. Then, we will start the physical training. Since you’ve effectively gotten a new body, you need to get used to it.”

“Is it just me, or am I stronger than before?” He asked, looking down at his hand as he flexed it.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that you are ‘stronger’, just that you were returned to your peak physical condition.” She explained with a wave of the hand. “I don’t know how you managed to damage your body so badly, but you can now probably run more than a few hundred yards without falling over dead.”

“Was it really that bad?” Joram asked, a worried expression on his face.

“Well, your lungs were damaged at some point, then damaged some more. You neck was one of the worst messes that I’ve ever seen in anyone alive. Various joint degeneration, etcetera, etcetera. Suffice it to say, you really got lucky meeting me.” She said with another smile, this time it wouldn’t have been out of place on Mrs Claus.

“Thank you.” Joram said with as much heartfelt conviction that he could put into his voice. It seemed to have been enough as he got a wonderful smile in return.

“You did rescue me you know.”

“Well, if you put it like that.” Joram said and leaned over and gave her a gentle punch to the shoulder. Her shoulder was surprisingly soft.

“Don’t go all soft on me now.” She said, seeming a bit embarrassed.

But that really could have just been her messing with him. For all that he knew her, she seemed to be able to read him like an open book. And she really seemed to like teasing him.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Well, not like we can dream anymore,” she said, a bit more serious again.

“Why don’t you just switch to your aasimar side to sleep if you miss dreaming?”

“Because it is dangerous,” she replied. “But that’s neither here nor there. You might want to lay down for this next part.”

He blinked, then blinked again as he realized that he was looking up at the ceiling. Huh.

“Do I know kung-fu now?”

“What?”

-

Altaea left Joram in his room to start meditating and headed off to the living room/kitchen. With a thought, she put the floor back to how it was and looked around. From the memories that she’d observed, she now knew what the big white things were, and what they did.

So, she opened the fridge and inspected what was there. Seemed OK. She opened the freezer and noticed that things were no longer frozen. That might be a problem.

So, she did what she normally did: she investigated.

It didn’t take her long to inspect the memory of the fridge, noting the lack of electricity needed to power it.

With another few minutes of investigation, trial and error, and not a few [Reconstruction]s, she managed to find the exact amount of electricity (and force) needed to power the fridge. Then she had a thought and went back to the storage room and opened up the metal panel on the wall.

Sure enough, there was writing indicating the “voltage” and “amperage”. There was even a convenient list of what each switch controlled. She grinned.

An hour later, and a fair amount of Dust lighter, Altaea left the storage room still grinning. She grinned even wider when she hard the hum of several appliances. Well, really just the fridge and mini-freezer, and a small black fan that turned on again. She wasn’t quite sure if the stove made any sound, but from what she had learned from Joram, she was pretty sure that it shouldn’t.

That said, she was pleased to see several small lights blinking at her from the stove and the microwave. Then a few more from the table where Joram kept his other “electronics”.

But she held herself back as she knew that Joram would take great pleasure in showing her his various gadgets.

Then she turned to the living room window and spotted the plants. They would need sunlight, especially that little tree. It seemed very important to him. Well, there was no seeming. She had felt it quite strongly from him.

After a few moments of deliberation over various redesigns of the dome, lamp light, and other ideas, Altaea settled on making a small blue “stone” (it wasn’t actually a stone, but a curious substance that trapped light and then slowly released it) a minor magical item by giving it a permanent [Daylight] enchantment.

Was it overkill? Yes. Was there another, simpler, solution. Yes. Was it worth it? Definitely.

After having hung the “stone” up in the window, Altaea settled on just [Delve]ing the mountain they were on to see what she could find.

Maybe it won’t be so boring after all…?

Altaea grinned.

-

Time passed as Joram worked hard at his meditation assignments, slowly, but steadily, making progress. In a matter of days, he was able to gain his [Psionic Focus], and not just that, but he had even taught himself a trick to have two going at the same time!

What did that really mean? Not a whole lot at the moment, but he had an inkling that it would be useful in the future.

He hoped.

That done, he realized that he hadn’t eaten a bite, nor drank even a drop of water in all that time. But did he feel hungry or thirsty? Not one whit.

It was still… weird. New body, new everything. Same old thoughts. Well, there were new ones in there, but he thought that he was largely the same.

Did the thought of him changing from who he was scare him? It sure did. Did the thought of losing himself and his precious memories terrify him? Definitely! Did he want to go “home” to his friends and family? Sure.

But that feeling of homesickness wasn’t there as strongly as it would have been in most people. He was an introvert by nature, and he was quite happy speaking with his family every month or two to let them know that he was still alive, to catch up on how they were doing.

Was that odd? Probably. But he had always been like that.

Except with his daughters. He enjoyed every minute with them, seeing them learn and grow. Watching them try something new and either fail at it or succeed. Either one was precious to him, as it was time spent with them. It was time that he could teach them what he knew.

It was time where he could get as many huggles from them as they could throw his way.

That. That he missed more than words could say. So much so, that it threatened to consume him at times. Even now.

But he took solace in knowing that at least his depression was a psychological issue and not a biological imbalance.

Small things, right?

Shaking his head, Joram got up and noticed the faint hum for the first time. On a hunch, he walked over to the light switch in his room and flicked it on.

Light.

Wait, wait, wait! Was it really just a dream?! Joram took several steadying breaths.

I can test this. He thought, looking down at his hands.

Younger hands. No scars.

He twisted his head about, looking this way and that at any angle he could.

No pain.

That right there was proof enough for him that he hadn’t dreamt everything.

So, he took another steadying breath, opened his door, and noticed very bright light in the hallway. Now that he noticed, he turned to his bedroom window and saw light trying to get around the edges of the blinds.

He face-palmed.

Aren’t you the observant one! He chided himself as he walked to the living room/kitchen.

First thing he noticed was the crazy bright light, like he was outside. Then Altaea sitting in his comfy chair, eyes closed. Then the hum of his fan, the fridge, and even his chest freezer. He looked around and noticed all the little lights that had been out since… the event.

Yup, that was what he was going to call it: the “event”. Was there a better way to describe it? Surely. Did he particularly care? Nope.

Not wanting to disturb Altaea in whatever it was that she was doing, Joram picked up his phone and plugged in into his charger, grabbed his thin notebook and lapdesk, and headed back to his room.

Once there, he opened up the notebook and powered it on. Soon, he was typing away, recording the events of the last several days, his thoughts and feelings.

Now, he had never really been one to keep a journal (even at the encouragement of his father), but he felt a strong urge to do so now. It could have been a way to cement things in his mind or a way to further prove to himself that he wasn’t dreaming. For he had, belatedly, remembered that you couldn’t properly read in a dream (or presumably write anything coherent).

So, he wrote and wrote and wrote.

While writing he noticed something interesting. His words per minute seemed to have gone up. Huh. Was it due to him having a younger body now? Some increase in hand-eye coordination or manual dexterity? No accumulated damage to his hands from the years of hard, manual, labour?

Whatever it may be, he just grinned and took it in stride, as was his nature.

Sure, he’d received no end of comments about it throughout his life ranging from positive to scathingly negative. But he had always taken in things calmly and looked at things as objectively as he could. Had that been a constant throughout his life? No. He had had many times where his unflappable nature had cracked, and he’d been like just about everyone else. But, by and large, he’d been a calm person.

So, given that he’d literally asked to become a new person, he took the many small changes in stride and strove to master all of the little quirks that he was discovering about himself.

The largest happened when he had gone to reflexively run his hand through his hair as he was thinking and noticed that his head was still smooth as a baby’s bottom.

That caught his attention.

Normally it would feel like sandpaper by now, constantly bothering him if he was laying down as it would act like velcro on his pillowcase.

Then he ran his hand across his jaw. Still baby smooth. Eyebrows? Nope. Hmmm.

“Altaea!” He called as he hurried back into the living room only to receive a quirked eyebrow in return.

“You do know that we can speak over the network, right?”

Cough.

“Sorry, force of habit…” he replied lamely as he looked away, then back at her. “But, uh, what happened to my hair?”

“It is on the table.” Dead-serious look.

Joram’s eyes widened as he looked to the few bits of hair on his dish towel, then back to Altaea who then cracked a grin.

“You’re a High Elan now Joram. Think about it.”

So, he absently pulled a chair out from the table and sat as he calmed down and thought about it some more.

What did he know about High Elans? Nothing concrete, as he hadn’t learned anything directly from Altaea, but had just gone by what he “knew”, what he’d written. Well, there was a lapse in judgement. He berated himself.

Focus!

He knew that they could see in perfect dark because he could also see in perfect dark. He also knew that they didn’t need to eat or drink, because if they did need to, he’d be dead right now from dehydration. He had better hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity, but that could be chalked up to his new body.

But he was a psionic being now. That, he knew just by being able to obtain a [Psionic Focus]. Did his extra control over his mind extend to his body? Well, he knew that it did due to him literally stopping his heart.

So, did that mean that he could control other things? Like the hair growth? Nail growth.

He looked down at his hands again, peering at his nails. Perfect, albeit short, nails. They hadn’t grown beyond the edge of the nailbed. Meaning, they hadn’t grown at all.

He looked up at Altaea and saw that she had a knowing smile on her face.

“I can control my hair growth,” he stated, a small and shaky grin forming on his face.

“You sure can,” she said with that beautiful smile on her face. “And if you had been a woman, a whole lot more too.”

Joram blinked at that. How annoying would a period be without all of the modern-day conveniences surrounding one’s time of the month?

Another thought came to him as he briefly looked down but caught himself and looked back up at Altaea.

“All the things?”

“Yyyy-up!”

“Wow.”

“Yup.”

“Thank you.”

A smirk, then a genuine smile. “You’ll get used to it,” she said. “But I sense that you have other thoughts on your mind.”

He blinked; mind blank for a moment before he remembered why he’d gone to see her the first time. “Oh, well, I was wondering if I could start on my class training now. I’ve been able to get my [Psionic Focus] now, you see….” He stopped as he noticed her smile starting to slide to one of mischief.

“Oh, excellent! Took you longer than most, but we can get to the next phase of your training!”

Gulp. “… and that would be…?”

“Calisthenics!”

-

Altaea smiled as she watched Joram try to make his way through her obstacle course. It wasn’t anything crazy, just something that she thew together to test his agility, coordination, and endurance.

There was rock climbing, swimming, jumping puzzles, and balance beams. Slides that were almost vertical to practice falling, hurtles and low walls to either jump over or slide under and even a few ropes to climb. She was quite proud of it, especially since she’d taken extra care to make sure the level of difficulty was low enough for even a child.

Which was why she was annoyed when she heard him mutter something uncomplimentary about “American Ninja”. She wasn’t sure on the reference, but she got the impression that he though her obstacle course was a bit “extreme”.

Ten minutes after he started, he fell over and didn’t get up. Altaea frowned, checked his health through the collective, but found him to be fine. Well, exhausted, but not injured.

This was going to take a long time.

-

That was his life. “Wake up”, meditate to harness the might of his mind (and to accustom himself to his body, training, and everything) for about six hours, then it was the insane obstacle course that Altaea had set up.

Were the people of her world in so much better shape than his?

Stupid question.

Of course they were. Modern society had pretty much killed most physical activity in peoples’ lives. Need to tend a very large garden and livestock? Nope. Need to be constantly moving to gather food and avoid/run from predators? Nope. Need to walk ten miles to get to work, then another ten to get home at the end of a long day? Nope.

Most people had jobs where they did very little physical activity, walking around the office didn’t count.

So, people were especially interested in things like sports, extreme sports, the Olympics, and shows like American Ninja where they could watch people do things that they could only dream of. So that they could see, and remember, that people were more amazing than what most of them currently were.

That said, Joram wasn’t a sports fanatic. He enjoyed playing something every now and then, but wasn’t involved in any teams or leagues. Heck, he didn’t even like watching sports, much to the chagrin of his family and friends (he wasn’t a “proper” Canadian). Nor did he enjoy jogging or running. From what Altaea had told him, his damaged lungs had probably contributed to that.

But this obstacle course was, to put it mildly, insane. Sure, the rock walls had foot and handholds aplenty, but it was that everything was timed.

Altaea had somehow managed to set up a floating, digital, clock up in the air. It was even the same shade of green that the appliances used. That aside, if he ran out of time trying to get through/over/under or by a particular section of the course, he’d get a zap.

Not a nice little static shock you’d get by dragging your socked feet across a rug. No, this was a proper taser-level zap.

Was this what he would consider cruel and unusual punishment. Definitely. Could he do anything about it? Probably. Had he literally asked to be trained? Well, yes. But he hadn’t thought that it would be like this.

All of this ran through his mind as he lay on his face after he’d run out of time getting through the parkour-like section of the obstacle course.

That was another habit he’d had. Any time that he injured himself on the scale of his whole body, he would lay still, contemplating first the pain, then running a mental checklist of things like: “can I feel/move my fingers/toes?”. If everything came back affirmative, he’d still lay there contemplating how it had happened. Had he taken that corner too fast on his bike? What had happened to cause him to be thrown from that horse? You know, important questions like that.

This time, however, his answers were quite simple and easy to come to. He had been too slow. Was it reasonable to expect a parkour rookie to be able to do a stretch of obstacles a good thirty metres long in under thirty seconds? Maybe. But tasing him? No. Just no. The pain of the tase was one thing but falling flat on his face because his body could literally do nothing to arrest his fall was quite another.

Would he stop? Never.

So, as he lay there contemplating life, the universe, and everything, Joram began meditating to ignore the pain. He and Altaea both knew the skill as “Autohypnosis”. A very useful skill to ignore things like severe injury or dying. Useful. Then there was the function of memory. One could memorize vast amounts of information, diagrams, images, and such. One could also remember things long thought forgotten.

But he digressed. What he used that particular skill for now was not to remember anything, but to ignore his possibly broken nose and then to get up. It only took him a few minutes this time. A proud moment.

Then he looked up and sighed.

Altaea was watching him, an encouraging smile on her face. Would she be so cruel to use that smile if she knew how well it worked on him? Yes. Did that knowledge stop him from trying again? Almost. He was, after all, a very stubborn man.

But another side of his stubborn nature reared its head at the thought of giving up. It was the side of him that, once he decided to do something, he worked his hardest to do it.

Did that mean he never gave up? No. To get to the point where he actually decided to go all out to do something was exceptionally rare. As a result, people had called him a quitter more times than he cared to remember, and he had the ability to remember them all now. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to succeed, it was that he genuinely didn’t care most times.

But when he did, there was no stopping him.

So, he stood there and studied the section of the course, plotting out how he would tackle this problem. He didn’t know how long he spent visualizing his solutions, but the sun had noticeably shifted its position in the sky by the time he snapped out of his thoughts.

He slowly walked back to the starting line, going over a few last details in his head, got into position, then ran.

Thirty seconds later and he was on the ground again, this time on his right side.

This was going to be a long day.

-

Altaea watched as Joram fell time after time. But she also watched as he got up every time.

You see, failure wasn’t failing at something. Failure was quitting. Failure was not getting up again.

And that is why Altaea showed Joram an encouraging smile every time he fell. Not that she enjoyed seeing him fall, though it was pretty funny sometimes, but she relished seeing that spark of determination in his eyes. Seeing his willpower triumph over everything else.

Well, maybe not the obstacle course. That was trouncing him quite thoroughly….

But at least he wasn’t giving up just yet. She knew how young people had the tendency to hop on a new idea or trend and then drop it shortly after once all of the excitement of the new experience wore off. She really hoped that she hadn’t misjudged his determination, because the course that he had set for himself was anything but easy.

Normally, people would spend their whole lives studying the monastic paths, perfecting their bodies and harnessing their ki. In fact, most failed to reach the highest ranks of their orders. Was it because they gave up? No, it was because of the sheer difficulty of their path.

Then there were the psionic disciplines. Again, many failed to reach the highest ranks of power and understanding. Was it also hard? Exceedingly so. Most, to put it bluntly, weren’t smart enough to understand the complexities of the universe. Did that sound like a terrible thing to say about a person? Yes and no.

Just like how some people were amazing at mathematics, calculous, and such, others couldn’t quite grasp such things. People were made differently, simple as that.

She had a sense that Joram might be one of those few who could reach those lofty heights, but it was too soon to tell. Not just because he was just starting, but because she didn’t know if he would stick to the path he had chosen.

For he had chosen to combine the monastic path with the psionic one. Not to just learn a martial art to get by, nor to just learn a few powers to make ones’ life easier. No, a full merging of both paths, the best of both.

She hadn’t been bragging or joking when she had told him that she was the only one she knew of to successfully create and follow a gestalt path of her own, the path of a [Paladin] and a [Vitalist]. She was beyond thrilled that he was willing to try the same thing that she had. Well, he wanted to combine being a [Monk] with being a [Metacreationist], or a [Shaper] as it was colloquially called. It was an intriguing combination to say the least, and she was still working out all of the details in her head. But it had… promise.

Most psionic schools had the drawback of not being able to defend themselves well in melee. In combining a psionic path with a monastic one, well, that could even the scales fairly well. And if he chose the powers that he would learn wisely, then he truly had the potential to be a beast.

Well, not literally. Figuratively speaking.

Altaea smiled again as she watched Joram pick himself up and head to another section of the obstacle course. With a flexing of intent, she caught his surface thoughts and realized that he had decided to continue on instead of obsessing over one small part of the course.

That worked too, as the course was designed to improve every part of ones’ body and reaction times. Strengthen the whole to aid in a specific task, and all that.

And so the days passed as Altaea split her attention between observing Joram, answering his questions, asking her own questions of him, and perfecting the combination of the classes he wanted to acquire. Also, exploring not only his massive collection of tv shows and movies, but the environs.

***

Time flew by for him. Which wasn’t something unusual in and of itself, for time had always flown by for him. But now? He felt the accomplishments. He could feel that he was able to run farther, climb and swim faster. He was able to jump from platform to platform with relative ease, and even pass through the parkour course without eating dirt.

In short, he was getting into excellent physical condition. But that wasn’t all.

He was making steady progress with learning more of psionics, and psionics itself.

It was a combination of intent, will, or whatever you wished to call it, understanding of the world and how things worked, and then using the energy in your mind to will it into being. Sounds easy? Nope.

But Joram was proud of his progress. He could now see any magical or psionic auras (they were both a type of energy after all) and finally found out why his apartment had power.

He noticed it when he had gone into his storage closet to look for a book. The electrical panel had been glowing. It had startled him at first, as it almost looked like it was sparking. But he soon realized that it was just an enchantment on the thing.

Ha! “Just”.

Having come from Earth, any form a magic was mind-blowing and fantastic all at the same time. He could spend hours looking at an enchanted item, trying to understand how it worked. He would stare at the aura itself, trying to understand what he was seeing. Then he would inspect the item, trying to figure out how the enchantment had been anchored to a physical medium.

That part was beyond him… for now.

But he also spent time teaching Altaea of all things modern. Electronics, the software that ran it, and even mundane things like the periodic table of elements. She, of course, knew of many of them, and even had her own names for them. But organizing the elements according to their neutrons and valence shells was new to her even though she had a basic understanding of how things came together, if not the why.

He was very glad that he’d kept his university textbooks. Sure, he could have made money reselling them, but he was the sort of person who liked to go back from time to time to reread something. And so, anatomy, biology, chemistry, and physics were on the list of things that they went over. Not to mention algebra, calculus, and trigonometry.

With all of that, his skill in [Autohypnosis] was progressing at an astounding rate, never mind the fact that he was able to keep all of that knowledge fresh in his mind after he had recalled it. Which helped.

For he had dreamed of becoming a chiropractor at one point. But life had done its things and changed his plans for him, so he wound up studying to instead become a physiotherapist. Not the same, but adjacent, and the bonus was that he could take that diploma and continue directly into chiropractic some time down the road if he still wanted to pursue that dream.

That said, he was overjoyed to be able to somewhat continue his learning. Sure, there weren’t any colleges or universities around that he could study at, but he had… “acquired” (not a few) digital textbooks on the subject and everything just seemed to click easier than it had.

Maybe it was all the mental exercises that he had been doing, but he really didn’t focus on the “why” too much as he just wanted to enjoy the fruits of his labours.

Then there was Altaea. Now there was a beast! As soon as he showed her something she caught on and learned it. After the first ten minutes of showing her how his main laptop worked, she was using it like a pro. And to be completely honest, she soon surpassed him. Which only stung a little. Just a bit.

The most amazing thing that they’d discovered (well, that she’d told him, anyway…) was that the [Reconstruction] power didn’t just work on Constructs, but it also worked on the various tech around his place. Dropped a phone and it broke? No problem! Battery ran out? No problem!

Batteries weren’t much of an issue with a ready power source, but [Reconstruction] also worked to repair the batteries to full functionality. Even the alkaline and carbon ones he had. That made him smile.

Another thing that he had worked on, much to Altaea’s amusement, was his ring. Specifically, the ring that she’d given him that first day.

It was still weird to look at in on his ring finger, but it also was a bit reassuring in its own way. Was that a bit weird? Irrational? Surely. But it nevertheless helped.

That said, he had also watched it absorb various minor magical items. The hard part was getting it to spit them back out. The only thing that he’d not been able to get the ring to disgorge was a Ring of Sustenance that Altaea had given him to try. It didn’t really bother either of them, as the effect of the absorbed ring functioned normally (not to mention now only needing two hours of rest to recharge himself!). But it was frustrating to fail.

Altaea continually reassured and encouraged him, reminding him that everything took time to learn and do. It was only a minor sticking point with him that she could do anything that he showed her.

The inferiority complexes one develops when living with a goddess….

But! A major breakthrough came for him a few weeks (or was it over a month?) after he had started his training.

“I did it!” Joram yelled and then was promptly whacked on the head by a training dummy.

Altaea looked over and smiled. “Don’t get cocky!” She yelled as she went back to playing one of the video games on his laptop.

“But I did it!” Joram said as he made his way over to her outside table and pulled out a chair. Joram also winced when she managed to crack his mouse in her excitement as she played. Huzzah for [Reconstruction]!

Altaea paused the game and turned to him. “Show me.”

Taking a deep breath Joram stood up again and made his way over to the small forest of training dummies. Altaea had been delighted at the idea of moving, non-magical, training dummies as she had watched one of his kung-fu movies.

So, what did that mean?

Overwhelming numbers of training dummies all trying to beat him to a pulp.

OK, I’ve got this. He though to himself as he psyched himself up.

Reach out, hit the arm on his left, cause it to spin. Strike to the right, cause that one to spin. Kick forwards to get that one going. Soon enough, it was all that he could do to block and dodge every wooden arm or leg coming his way.

But the true accomplishment came from how fast he was able to do it.

He wasn’t at the level of those old monsters you’d see on the internet, never mind in movies or on tv, but it was nevertheless impressive for someone who’d been practicing for a month.

Sure, he still got hit a fair amount, but he was now able to block an attack every second or so, from nearly every side.

After a minute or so Altaea called a stop to practice and motioned him to come over once again.

“Well done, Joram,” she said with that amazing smile of hers that nearly knocked him over. “I know that it has been tough, but I am so proud of you for sticking with it.”

Joram was so pleased with the praise that he not only blushed but had to look away for a second.

“Looks like you’ve graduated to Level 2 Training Grounds!”

He fell over.

***

Altaea looked down at Joram’s prone form and chuckled. The training was surely difficult, but well worth it in her opinion. Not that she’d ever tell him, but he was a natural. The speed with which he progressed through the course was on par with the best she’d seen. Well, that is, after he had gotten used to his body.

And how he’d managed to teach himself [Deep Focus] was nothing short of brilliant. She wasn’t entirely sure how useful it would be to him, but it was a very good start to things. Heck, she wasn’t even sure if he had noticed that he’d also gotten [Psionic Body] at the same time.

How she wished that his level of talent was more common. Who would have thought that she’d find someone with the potential to become her equal in a random place such as this? Especially after Asmodeus…

With a shake of her head Altaea quick-saved her game and closed the laptop. It was time to make Level 2 of the training course.

If Joram had been able to see the grin on her face, he would have surely run for his life.