Jason takes his watch but there is one final thing to check out from his recent experience. He hadn’t noticed it before but there was a System pop up off to the side of his vision. It had been a good long while since the last bonus and almost all of his had something to do with plants so one from a different source would be interesting.

New Knowledge Bonus Gained

For finding a method of controlling your inner self, future such manipulations will be easier.

+3% malleability to inner self

‘Huh, got a knowledge bonus without a discovery bonus. It even points out I found the method. Whatever, I can look into it later. For now, I should focus on my watch.’

Jason’s watch and the next day drags on. Then again, even he can’t go a full night without sleep and come out of it fine. In consideration for this Rosha and Courtney generously give him last watch again. He wasn’t awake enough to say otherwise so they assume he agreed with it as well.

Next day though he is ready. He can form the first two runes and now that is core rune is stabilized there shouldn’t be anything to stop him. As the group marches through the forest Jason connects the runes together.

For the first time everything aligns for more than a moment and his Energy flows through the complicated shapes. First Energy rushes into the transformer rune and as it travels through it, the flood becomes a river. Next into the spiral the river of Energy travels. As it goes around the spiral, the energy becomes aligned. What was a rushing river smooths out and becomes placid as all the power goes in the same direction at the same speed. Then it hit his core rune and things go crazy.

The placid river of energy gets sped up and flies through the core rune. Farther into the rune his Energy condenses down from a river into a stream and finally a thread. As it reaches the end Jason’s water metaphor has broken down and the Energy looks more like a laser.

It does reach the end though and without a single problem. At first as the Energy leaves the rune it remains in a tight beam. This doesn’t last long as the beam breaks apart in a chaotic mess. Each new beam of light going off to form more runes and from those runes more beams shot off. Where the original beam was a blinding white, these new beams all shine with different colors. They don’t last long though before each one develops into a new rune.

This creation and splitting off of new beams goes on twice more. Each of the runes creating a seemingly random number of beams leads to an uncountable number of runes. Then it all fizzles. Jason tries it again with the same result. As the group walks, he examines what is happening and it always fizzles at about the same point.

As he digs further into the original three runes the problem becomes clear. He doesn’t know how to guide the resulting power into a stomp. If it had been just a single flow he could direct it out his foot no problem. However with it going all helter-skelter on him there is no chance. Jason can only sigh and wait for night. The System will have picked up on what he accomplished so next time he sleeps it will send him to the training room.

Night comes and the group settles down to camp. Courtney and Rosha are a bit skeptical when he asks for the mid-shift again but relent. Then it is time for his first sleep period. Jason however doesn’t go to sleep. While he has learned what it needed, he doesn’t feel ready so instead he spends the time in cultivation. A good thing even if only because he hadn’t done so since his technique had ranked up.

As he settles in to mediation everything seems as normal. At first it does anyway but soon a difference spreads across his awareness. Before his Energy would flow out with every pump of his heart. It had kept that rhythm, likely out of habit, until he started to cultivate. Now though his heart is still and without a guide Jason’s Energy flows freely with its own pattern.

When he first notices it he lets the energy do as it wants but there is a certain lack of beat to it. Part of the benefit of basing the flow off of his heart is that was the natural rhythm of his body. Now without the heart to guide Jason’s body each little system in it has started to diverge. He shudders at the realization.

Any creature's body is a careful balance between chaos and order. Each part fits together in just the right way and yet constantly changes. Even with how his path is leading towards a more immaterial based form there needs to be a balance or else like a balloon with a hole in it he would burst or at the very least lose power.

‘I need a new pattern to base my body off of. As I mediate some of the new chaos in my system is being worked out. But that is like using a finger to block a hole in a dam, a stopgap at best. Though that is a good starting point. If I could get my Energy to flow to the rhythm of my cultivation things should work out. While my heart is gone, the core still exists there and can become my new heart.’

‘Wait a second. That’s a thought! What if I started using my actual cultivation method in-game now? There is a risk if it doesn’t work of course but I would feel more comfortable basing my body off of a method that has followed me through two lives. Though I guess technically depending on how you count NeoRealm you could even count it as a third life. Put that way and despite the risks, there is no way I can’t attempt this.’ Ready to try he whispers a command, “System, set an alarm for a few minutes before my watch”. The alarm might interrupt him but he isn’t going to shirk his duties again.