In contemplation, Jake sat on a rock, right leg bent and arm resting on his knee, chin cupped in his hand. He had a decision to make.

A few feet in front of Jake was a small shaking rabbit curled in on itself, head bowed and ears flat. The white ball of fluff was the adorable creature Jake had seen.

From Jake's short encounters with it, he could testify that its fur was the softest thing he had ever touched. A child, an adult even, would tote this rabbit around for the pleasure of stroking his fur.

Hell, Jake wanted to scoop the little critter up right now, then cuddle the furball to his chest and rub his cheek against it while he made cooing sounds.

And the little bastard knows.

“Master. Oh, great master, ruler of the land and air. Giver and taker of life, why do you treat your humble servant so?" The little shit whined, not that Jake was paying attention. He was thinking.

When Jake first met the rabbit, he found it hilarious.

Come on, it was a talking rabbit with the attitude of those arrogant nobles you read of in books and watch in anime. Those guys that are placed there so the main character can beat them down as they grow stronger. You never actually take them seriously. They're always a joke.

A rabbit with such an attitude was absurd, and Jake bent over double as he laughed.

He needed the release. It was very cathartic.

Then the rabbit kicked him in the face and tried to kill him.

Still hilarious, but as the rabbit spun around in the air, wind Qi condensing along the rabbit's ears into Qi-scythes and continuing past the ear's tips a few feet, Jake felt a slight twinge. He was in danger.

It was not much danger, but enough that it caused an instinctual reaction.

Fist lashing out faster than Jake could consciously process, it connected with the rabbit.

The rabbit, poised above Jake, ready to twist and bring its ear-scythes down on his neck, disappeared, leaving Jake's arm and fist in its place.

A thump could be heard to the left, followed by a low grinding rip. Seconds later, Jake could make out a patter like light rain.

Sitting up, Jake wiped the blood from his face, then looked over. A new twenty-foot trench was running along the bank of the lake. Jake could still see the dust hanging in the air.

At the end of the trench, lying on a mound of dirt, was the rabbit, white fur still pristine. At least until the rabbit rolled over, blood was leaking from its nose and mouth, staining the rabbit's fur.

Head flopping one way then the other, the rabbit struggled unsteadily to all fours, eyes glazed over.

Jake got up, stretched, then reached down and grabbed a cob of corn to nibble on as he strode over to the rabbit.

The rabbit didn't notice Jake looming over him until his shadow fell onto him at which point its head snapped up.

"So, this is your garden, huh?" Jake casually asked.

"Yah—it is—you neander—thal.” The rabbit gassed out in a pain-laden voice.

"Wrong," Jake said as he kicked the rabbit like a soccer ball, “ugh, that felt good." Jake shuddered as he spoke, scraping his foot against the ground, eyes squinting at the rabbit and its magically soft fur flying out into the lake, "Too good. Not good for my mental health if I wanna kick the thing just for an excuse to touch its fur. Gonna turn me into a sadist."

A quick detour to grab the rest of his food, Jake perched himself on a comfortable rock located on top of an outcropping sticking into the lake and waited. It was the closest location the rabbit could swim back to. If it came back here, they would talk. If not, Jake enjoyed sitting at his favorite fishing spot, looking out at the lake. Would be perfect if I had a pole.

Minutes later, a dripping rabbit pulled itself onto the rock and looked at Jake.

In a flash, Jake was up and kicking the rabbit out into the lake a second time, "Whose garden is it?" Jake said to the drops of water on the stone, "Whoops, meant to ask before I kicked him... Oh, well." Shrugging, Jake went back to his food.

Jake was pissed.

He had no idea why. He knew it was irrational but did not care. Jake was going to make the rabbit's life a living hell.

For one, the rabbit was fully aware of how cute and adorable it was. Who likes the attractive person blatantly manipulating everyone. Though flattering in the moment, afterward, you always felt used. Because of the blatant fact, you were, no matter how pleasant. Learn some subtlety.

The rabbit was trying to do that. As tempting as it was to stroke its fur, Jake would not fall into the honey trap.

Also, the rabbit's voice was an obnoxious grating nasal thing, which was able to slip into an obsequious snivel at a moment's notice. The rabbit should have been born a worm.

He was good at crawling into places he's not wanted. Spoiling everything with his mere presence. Claiming that which belongs to another!

The air rippled around Jake, stone cracked at his feet, and the lake's waters boiled, trying to swamp the struggling rabbit gasping for air while he swam for shore.

Everything else was inconsequential. The rabbit tried to lay claim to what was Jake's. The Land was Jake's. The Garden was Jake's. And the stupid fluffy rabbit said it was his.

That was it. Jake was mad because he felt his territory was being claimed. It was stupid, but Jake could not stop the instinctual hatred bubbling up inside of him.

Should I kick him into the lake again? Na, kicking him into the water is petty and childish. Besides, I need someone to fetch my food.

Jake was a reasonable, logical, and patient person. He would overcome the boiling anger inside him and let the rabbit live. For now.

The second time the rabbit came crawling out of the lake, he looked at Jake and flinched.

Well, it could be called flinching, only loosely, though. The rabbit's body jerked like a flinch as Jake's foot hit it.

The next few times the rabbit arrived, Jake could see the hope shining in the rabbit's eyes that the punting was over as he crawled onto shore. That hope died quickly once it was in the air again.

After those attempts, he tried to talk a few times, but all it got him was a longer swim.

The rabbit actually thought he was smart and tried to swim to another part of the shoreline. But no matter how hard it tried, waves always washed him back to the spot he initially slashed into the water. At which point, he had to swim to shore and crawl onto Jake's punting stone again.

Jake lost count of the number of times this continued.

Finally, the rabbit waited, head down, on his least favorite rock for long seconds as nothing happened.

Popping a grape into his mouth, Jake watched the dripping rabbit for long moments. After a few glances up at Jake's impassive face, the rabbit took the initiative. In one sharp shake, all water was whipped out of its fur, leaving it all fluffed out like it was freshly manicured—that was kind of impressive.

Afterward, the rabbit hopped forward, stopped a few feet from Jake, and crouched down with its head bowed and ears flat.

Adopting his thinking pose, Jake ignored some whining speech from the rabbit while he contemplated what he would do with the intruder.

Long silent moments passed before Jake gave a flippant wave of the hand to leave and spoke, "I'm hungry. Go get me some apples. And something else, surprise me."

The rabbit disappeared with a gust of wind and a blur. Moments later, the rabbit appeared before Jake, its ears wrapped around a pair of apples and a half dozen cobs of corn wrapped in a swirl of obscuring wind floating above it.

Setting the food down at Jake's feet, the rabbit darted off again. Jake reached down, grabbed an apple, then looked out over the lake. He wanted to fish. Except he needed a pole, line, and hook.

Some of his poles might have survived, but Jake rather doubted it. His house was a chard mess.

He could make a fishing pole made of wood, probably.

At the very least, if he didn't try to make a pole, he would never fish again, not like he wanted. He could go fishing with a spear, net, or a stick and line, but that was just...work. Surviving.

Proper fishing was about relaxing.

It might take some time, but it was definitely on the agenda. Jake would need a lot of practice, though. Needs to be the right kind of wood to bend without breaking. A strong wood…like the kinds used for bows? Could work. Oak can be used, right? Not sure if it's the best type of wood, though. A good kind of wood for a bow is...ash? Yeah, ash. I've heard of ash bows before. Ashwood should work great for a fishing pole too. There's ash around here, right? Yeah, just need to find some.

When the rabbit next appeared, Jake lifted a couple fingers, stopping it from running off again, "What's your name?" Jake asked.

"If it pleases you, Lord, this one is called Wh—

"Nope," Jake said, cutting off the rabbit. “Fluffy. Your name is Fluffy now. And what is with this lord business?"

The rabbit flinched when Jake spoke his new name but nodded his head in acquiescence after a moment, "As you say, this one is now Fluffy. And are you not the Lord of these lands? The caretaker and ruler? He who has absolute command over all within?"

Head dipping to the side in thought, Jake's eyes narrowed before he replied hesitantly but with growing surety, "Yes~? Yes, I... I am the…Lord."

At the words, the ground shuddered, the water of the lake leapt into the air leaving glittering droplets, and the air swirled around Jake forming a small tornado for a second.

Looking around within the tornado, Jake noticed that even the plants were leaning toward him as if they were bowing. Everything acknowledged his right, and he felt it.

Jake was more connected to the land than before. His conscious acceptance, and the spoken words, were the final steps that Jake needed to take to become fully one with the land.

Before he spoke, he was still the Lord and would have most likely remained so until his death, but the acknowledgment was the final straw. There was no going back. The land could not be taken from him without his death, and Jake could not willingly forsake it. He knew that he could leave for a time, but he would always feel a tug to return.

As for any tangible abilities he gained with his awakening, like suddenly being able to move mountains with a wave of his hand and creating wind blades able to cut forests in half, there were none.

He was able to feel the land better, though. It was like a numb limb regaining feeling, or looking at the world your whole life through a fogged up dirty window then suddenly having it wiped clean. Jake would have never guessed that his sense of the land was muffled before, but now the difference was so stark that he was unsure how he missed it.

A shudder rocked Jake as prickles spread over his body. Jake had been suppressing his sense of the land the first moment he noticed it. There was no need for it, and it was rather distracting from Jake's attempt to pretend everything was normal with his life.

With the influx of new, deeper knowledge filling his mind, Jake was unable to keep up the mental walls.

Jake was swamped by a flood of information.

Rational thought left Jake as fear overwhelmed him. Retreating to the center of his mind, Jake attempted to escape the raging mental storm.

Time and again, Jake sent out tendrils of thought trying to stave off the pressing weight of the storm as it drove towards his mental refuge.

It crushed all his attempts to stop it.

Trying to stop the flood was like holding up a mountain, and no matter how hard he threw his mind into the effort, the storm would not be pushed back.

Jake’s willpower was being continually ground and smashed until there was only a tiny core of his mind that remained.

Holding off the weight was all he focused on, but he was failing as information continuously slipped through whenever he wasn’t specifically paying attention. It was as if his defenses meant nothing.

A daisy was dying because its roots were rotting away as the surrounding ground was flooded with water.

A puma scraped the bark of a tree as it climbed into the branches.

A gust of wind rustled a small grassy glade in the valley.

A--

A--

It was too much. Too much. The information was crushing Jake.

The land--

Everything stopped as clarity returned to Jake.

The LAND was crushing Jake.

Land.

Jake was crushing Jake. fuck...

Jake was fighting himself. He was trying to push himself down from the ceiling while attempting to jump. The two literally could not be done simultaneously, at least not without something breaking.

It was not that he was being smashed by the flood of information but rather the mental strain of trying to push it away while simultaneously attempting to absorb it.

The land was himself. Why would he hurt himself?

Jake let go of his shield and left the perception of the land flow into him.

For a time, Jake was lost as his mind flicked from one part of his land to the next. There was too much to remember, even a fraction of what Jake learned, so Jake did not try.

He focused on the general condition of the land.

What Jake got was the feeling of contentment but also anticipation and preparation. The land was waiting, preparing for the storm about to come. Tension was building up, and soon, it will explode in unmitigated change.

Jake did not know how long it took him to process the land. Eventually, it came to an end.

Jake was at peace with himself. He was calm and collected, as he could feel everything around him.

The water lapped at the rock he was sitting on. A pile of food lay to his side, and the rabbit was crouched, ten feet away, off to Jake’s right side.

Taking a slow, steady breath, Jake rolled his shoulders, working out the bit of tension that gathered, then opened his eyes.

It was time to refocus his mind on what was really important. Looking at Fluffy, Jake said, "I need you to get me some ash wood. A sapling or branch with no knots on it. Needs to be more than five, less than ten feet long."

The white rabbit huddling against the ground bobbed its head and said, "Of course, Lord. And congratulation.” Then darted off.

"Don't forget to bring more food!" Jake called after the disappearing rabbit. Fluffy was smart. Even if he didn't hear, Jake was sure Fluffy would figure out he needed to bring more food. Or he’s gonna go swimming again...

Sensing a boulder a little ways off, Jake got up and walked over to it. Had to be a few hundred pounds at the least, but the underside was exactly what Jake wanted.

Casually, Jake bent down, and with a slight grunt of effort, he lifted the boulder and flipped it over, inspecting it with his eyes. Then he washed it off in the lake before carrying the rock back to his seat, placing it as a backrest.

His eyes flicked to two more boulders a little ways off. Fetching and placing them, Jake looked at his handiwork.

A stone chair.

The seat was flat, the armrests a little rough and slanted up, but it would work. The backrest had enough of an angle to sit back and be moderately comfortable, especially when one considered he was sitting on rocks.

Settling his naked, malnourished butt onto his chair, Jake bit into a pear and did what he should have done when he first woke up, meditate.

Jake ain't one of those yoga meditation nuts. But, if there is a better way to center oneself to feel the energy inside one’s body, Jake didn't know what it was.

Closing his eyes, Jake slowed his breathing and tried to regulate his heartbeat while he looked into himself. It was easy, only taking a few moments like he had done it a million times before.

Jake's breaths, now slow and steady, were matched by his heartbeat.

The world around Jake fell away, and he could see Qi running through his body. More than that, he could see threads of Qi leaving his body and connecting him to different locations around his land.

The ends of these threads weren't constant locations but the end of a slowly moving vacuum, constantly sucking up Qi while never taking too much from a single place.

The tethers were internally divided in two, with one side constantly sucking up and feeding Qi into his body, which was readily absorbed. The Qi leaving Jake's body going the other way along the tether was a purified, more concentrated Qi of the same type taken. It was a cycle.

Although it was less Qi than the plants originally had, the purified Qi seemed to do more for the plants than the Qi taken. They always perked up and rapidly absorbed the new Qi.

Jake was fascinated and curious about what was going on within his body, so he looked inward. Jake tried to e back a scream as he began gagging, mentally pulling back. "Ahh! Mother~gak...'fuck was that?"

Tentatively, Jake reentered his meditation to figure out what was going on within him.

Unbeknownst to Jake, mental walls had been constructed within his mind. Walls that allowed him to ignore the constant pain plaguing his body due to his battling Qi. It was like the pain of pulling a muscle, but everywhere and constant.

As he looked deeper into his body, some of those walls weakened, letting some pain through. Now that he was looking, he could feel the dull persistent ake of suppressed pain.

Some people might think real men are the ones who embrace pain and power through it.

If that was the case, Jake had no intention of being a real man. If he could reinforce the mental walls, he would. Pain is for suckers.

What Jake was most interested in figuring out was what the disgusting sewage intermingling with his Qi was. It made him feel like he had just walked into a porta potty and was struck by the smell and image of a maggot-infested-fly-covered pile-o-crap just below the seat's rim.

If Jake wanted to figure out what the Qi was, he would need to metaphorically walk over and use the toilet, getting covered in flies while the smell wormed its way into his skin.

Jake had little desire to mentally wade back into such a situation, but it was kind of essential to find out what was going on. Finding waste in what might amount to one's soul was kind of a big deal and was a problem that needed to be solved.

Not knowing or understanding what was causing a problem does not magically make it disappear.

When Jake "looked" at Qi, he would "see" a color associated with the aspect the Qi represented. A light green for wind, sky-blue for water, a clay brown for earth, and smoldering-red for fire.

Those were only the main ones, however, the ones Jake expected. Jake also saw a silvery chrome sheen for metal, a dark dripping red from the blood swirling around his body, and a dark green of nature.

And that was only a quick cursory look around his body. He had no doubt others existed outside his body, if not inside it.

That was not what was making Jake gag. Those colors were fascinating and rather captivating as they swirled around and intermingled. Metal Qi hung around his bones while earth Qi crept along his skin and muscles. Blood and water mixed together, flowing through his veins and organs, with blood far more dominant but unable to push out water entirely. Fire gathered in his heart and muscles while wind rushed along his throat to clump in his lungs. Nature Qi had no specific concentration as it floated, gathering and dividing at random around his body.

Though each type of Qi mainly existed within the stated locations, strands and clumps of every kind of Qi traveled all throughout Jake's body. Often, masses of Qi would fight with each other, and one would consume the other.

Each of the Qi types was also affecting his body. Earth Qi was hardening his skin and fighting in his muscles with fire, making him more resilient and stronger overall. Steal Qi was strengthening his bones, making them as strong if not stronger than most metals. Blood and water Qi were healing and regulating his body’s temperature as they circulated resources. The fire Qi was controlling his body temperature and providing energy. Wind Qi, while it always kept his breathing level and constant, also seemed to increase his speed. And the nature Qi also seemed to heal his body, as it helped regenerate and grow anything that was damaged it came across.

Underlying it all were two other kinds of Qi.

The first type of Qi was the kind that filled his dantian. The only interaction the colorless pure Qi had with the other types of Qi circulating Jake's body was when one type of Qi or another crossed paths with his dantian. At that moment, a portion of the passing Qi would be sucked into his dantian.

The portion absorbed would not be of whatever type was passing by but pure Qi. The clump of Qi passing by would be significantly reduced in its mass, but it would become more idealized. A more refined and better representation of the subcategory--such as earth, water, or nature--of Qi it was trying to be.

It became more concentrated.

During his dantian's absorption process, other types of Qi were released along with the pure Qi. It was no real problem for Jake, well, probably.

Based on the novels Jake had read and his own limited experiences with Qi, being flooded with tiny motes of random Qi types would be generally bad. Not only for cultivation but for the body as a whole.

It had something to do with putting impurities in the body, messing up the body's internal functions, and diluting an individual's cultivation base. However, Jake seemed to be able to use every type of Qi, so any of the types of Qi released in the absorption process could either join the clumps existing within his body or fight for a new spot.

If the Qi could do neither, it would be consumed and have to repeat the process until enough Qi of said type was around for a chance to properly carve out its territory.

Constant internal conflict of Qi. Of course, that's my thing.

That was where the problem lay. Not the constant conflict, but the fact the Qi Jake was absorbing into his body was contaminated.

The second type of Qi running rampant throughout Jake's body was released along with all the other Qi in the extraction process. It wasn't much, individually, but it built up each time his dantian sucked in Qi.

When Jake looked at the pitch-black Qi, he got the feeling of sewer runoff. Any attempt on Jake's part to control the Qi was ignored entirely.

Jake only tried to control the Qi once, though.

Making mistakes was a cornerstone of life. Never going to learn if you don't do something wrong. Jake took pride that there were not many mistakes he made twice.

This wasn't going to be one of those few times.

Saying it was like he was wading through sewage would not be enough. It would not describe the visceral invasion Jake felt. He was not touching the Qi with his body but his mind, maybe his soul, and it was being contaminated.

The moment Jake made contact to try and control the Qi, he could feel his mind begin to twist, his thoughts warp with the desire to destroy and consume. He was never designed to make contact with that type of Qi.

It was not evil or the antithesis of his being, where the two could not coexist. It was similar to how animals need oxygen while plants need carbon dioxide.

Small amounts won't matter much but get enough gathered in one location, and there will be serious issues.

Saying it was corrupted-Qi would suggest it was not natural, though it could corrupt Jake if he tried to interact with it. He knew that from the moment he touched it.

No, despite what it did to Jake and how it made him feel as he mentally touched it, it was natural. It was just the opposite side of the coin. The yin to his yang, so to say. Not good to evil or right and wrong; it just was.

And Jake was not meant to have a lot of it within him. But because it was natural, he did appear to have some protection from it.

Apparently, the black Qi in its purest form did not like to coexist with the normal Qi suffusing Jake's body. Jake could detect specks of the black Qi within the Qi he absorbed from the land, and it was fine.

It only became a problem once the infected Qi passed by his dantian and was purified and separated into all of its component Qis. <<<

At that point, the motes of black Qi began to spread out and start fights. When the specks of black Qi came into contact with any other type of Qi within Jake, the two would mash into each other. Each side would kind of vaporize until only one remained, but the intent was the same as fighting.

Weird thing was that immediately after the fights, the winner would increase in size to what would be larger than the combination of both.

After a while of Jake watching the fighting Qi, he noticed that a new energy would appear around the two clumps of Qi during the fight.

The energy was only really noticeable for the briefest moment after the fight ended. Before that, Jake had to focus hard to detect the slightest hint of the energy.

The instant after the fight, the energy merged with the winner becoming noticeable for a moment, and then significantly increasing the winning Qi's size and density—for lack of a better word.

From what Jake could tell as he watched, the winner of the fights was determined by the mass and density of the blobs of Qi. However, the mass of the Qi was far less critical than the density.

This was a crucial fact to Jake. Because there was a significant blob of black Qi heading towards his core. More than that, the only collection of Qi within Jake that came close to Black-Qi’s—as it will now be known—density and size was Jake's core, the collection of Qi inside his dantian.

Which was right where Black-Qi was heading.

Jake's vision of his internal Qi wavered as his heart was beating so hard and fast it was starting to distract him.

Panic was welling up within Jake at the thought of all of the Qi from his core being used for anything. That his core could be compromised. And…what?

Jake didn't know, but it would be bad. The thought caused an instinctual fear to well up in Jake, similar to being surrounded by walls of fire.

He was about to grab the Qi. Throw it away from his core, or absorb it into his being. Anything to prevent it from fighting with his core.

But he stopped. The idea of his core being damaged terrified him, but the actual event felt...banal. Like it happened so many times, any anxiety had long since vanished.

So Jake waited and watched.

The large clump of black Qi approached his core. Unlike what Jake expected, his core opened. Layers upon layers of pure Qi peeled back and spread like the petals on a flower.

At the center of the open flower, a single layer of pure Qi lay between Black-Qi and...something. Everything froze for a moment.

Then something wormed its way through the layer of pure Qi. The tendril of power paused, then lashed out at the mass of black Qi.

It was not a fight.

That would suggest Black-Qi had a chance.

It did not.

The multi-chroma tendril touched the black blob, then the lump ceased to exist. In its place was the haze of the other energy that flashed into a white-light-blue Qi, which zipped through Jake's body and down one of the cords connecting Jake to the land before he had a chance to really look at it.

But that energy that came out of his core... it seemed so familiar it distracted him. As if he had known it for untold ages, but he could not place it now.

Before Jake could focus, the frills of his core came together and smothered the tendril within its folds. Leaving a pristine unblemished core of pure Qi once again, with no suggestion of the strange power at its center.

Most of Jake’s curiosity was sated. It mattered little what the internal functions of his body were, he felt great, and nothing appeared to be actively trying to kill him. So for now, Jake was content to ignore it.

Jake was more concerned about where the black Qi was coming from. That was an immediate problem that needed addressing.

The feeling of wrongness Jake got from the black Qi made him wary. Whatever was producing it was probably threat to him, not to mention the damage it could do to his land.

Extracting himself from his inward meditation, Jake pulled back to the edge of reentering his body. Instead of his body, he refocused his attention outwards and sank into the surrounding valley, searching for the black Qi taint.

Time slipped by as Jake focused on his task.

At first, Jake's perception of his land was crude and ungainly. He would try to look closely at a tree and end up inspecting the quality of the soil around the roots, which did end up having one speck of black Qi, but that was beside the point.

Then Jake would zoom out, looking at his valley as a whole, when he was trying to get an overall feeling of the same pine tree. Jake was like a grandparent fumbling around on the computer.

With a bit of practice, Jake got the hang of it, and he was able to zoom in and out at will. It became little more than a mental satellite map for Jake. The main difference was it was not so much an image but knowing what it looked like.

It amounted to the same thing, but Jake had an understanding of every part, not just a picture. Like he actually read a book instead of skimming it.

Jake knew that an oak tree was dying one and one quarter-mile away from beetles boring through it. If he went across the river and a few hundred feet up the mountainside, there was a small vein of gold under a bolder.

There were 471 squirrels, 359 rabbits, 83 foxes, 2 falcons, a black bear, 7 owls, 4 mountain lions, billions of insects, thousands of rodents, thousands more fish in the lake, 9 badgers, and dozens of other species, all living in Jake's valley.

Jake knew where every one of these creatures were, he was getting a migraine holding all of them in his mind, but he knew. And anytime he cared enough to find out, he could think and know how many and where they were, like how there were 15,374 pine, oak, ash, and maple trees within his area of influence.

It was amazing to sit on his stone chair and know everything around him.

Days passed, or what Jake assumed was a twenty-four-hour period, not that he could tell because the faux sun never moved, while Jake ate the food Fluffy brought to him and became accustomed to his mental perception of his land.

With each day, Jake needed more and more of a break from practicing and refining his new mental abilities. So he began to work more and more on figuring out how to make a fishing pole and ignored the search for black Qi. Probably won’t be that big a deal anyway.

Making his fishing rod was much easier than Jake had imagined. At least once, he figured out how to control his Qi and practice enough to do what he wanted.

All Jake had to do to change the shape of the wood was alter the nature Qi saturating it.

Jake discovered two ways of doing this. The first and hardest way to manipulate the nature Qi in the wood was to focus his will and force the Qi to change shape. This took a lot of time and was mentally draining.

And Jake was reasonably sure he was only able to do it because the Qi recognized Jake was part of itself, being that he and the land were one.

It was much easier to go the second route, which was to project a bit of his Qi—you know, it's getting confusing referencing my Qi. Technically all the Qi surrounding me is mine. Can't do anything with it, at least not directly, but it's mine. The only Qi I can actively control is the pure Qi of my core, so anytime I'm referring to using my Qi, it should only be that Qi.

So, the second way to change the shape of a piece of wood was to take Jake's Qi and inject it into the piece of wood—which took a day or two for Jake to learn how to inject Qi into something while retaining control—and start pushing and pulling on the nature Qi of the wood to alter the wood’s form.

A slight twitch here and nudge there on the wood's Qi, and the wood could form any shape. Within reason, of course.

He could not have the stick grow more mass without bringing the branch back to life and it starting to grow leaves and roots again.

It took an eighth of his Qi to bring the branch back to life the one time Jake tried, though after wards it was alive it was significantly easer to grow. After he stoped feeding Qi, however, the branch withered and died in the few seconds it took for the Qi to leak away.

A useful fact to know, but not something that would help Jake in making a fishing pole.

Beyond that, he could do anything within his imagination. Sharpen the branch to the point that it could draw blood with a prick and be strong enough to be jabbed into a stone without breaking or deformation? Yep, the spear is right over there in that rock.

He could flatten out the branch to less than a paper's width. Chop up the pieces, then reconnect them as he saw fit. Combine that with some leaves he manipulated to be as soft as any down feather pillow, and Jake had some very comfortable clothes.

No one but the rabbit was around, but Jake didn't want to walk around naked. Having clothes on once more made Jake feel better, like putting them on made him more human and civilized.

Instead of whatever a naked man sitting on a stone thrown overlooking his land talking to a rabbit was.

During the process of crafting clothes and a fishing pole, Jake broke many, many branches.

It got to the point that Jake asked Fluffy to stop bringing him ashwood branches and chop down different trees and bring him those logs for experimentation. He didn't want ash trees to go extinct before he had a fishing pole.

Some branches exploded into shards of wood, others burst into flames, and more disintegrated into a sludge like substance. Over time, Jake became more competent with his usage of Qi.

He no longer dumped Qi into the wood, and instead of forcing the wood to change shape, Jake enticed it. Nature did not submit to the whims of man, and though he could force some things to happen, more often than not, it took time and patients.

Changing the shape of wood took a steady constant supply of Qi. Anything abrupt and something would go wrong.

One benefit of all the practice was it did get Jake over the fear of using his Qi, not that he was planning on running himself dry, but taking some off the top would hurt nothing. Especially since the more Qi he used, the more would be pumped into him through the tethers connecting him to the land.

So Jake was never really in danger of running out of Qi unless his Claimed Land was destroyed or something. At which point, he would need to be careful.

The practice, and usage of his Qi, also taught Jake about infusing. Mainly that he could do it. Infusing consisted of shoving a bunch of Qi into an object, getting it to stay, and willing it to become stronger or something along those lines.

Another aspect of infusing that Jake discovered was that as he focused his will and added intent to his Qi, it would take something away from him. Whether it was his will, soul power, focus, or intent, call it what you will; the more Jack used it, the harder he found it was to focus.

When Jake pushed himself too far with infusing, Jake found himself collapsing and lying there in a daze, unable to focus on anything for long.

After that horrible experience, where he was pretty sure the rabbit was kicking and mocking him the whole time, Jake plained on never pushing himself to that extent again.

A thought occurred to him that spread a smile across his face as he got up and punted the rabbit out into the water, ”Sniveling little asshole." This is enchanting. I can make magical weapons!

Jake went back into discovering what he could do with gusto. Quickly finding out that it was much easier to recover from a moderate amount of mental effort than total exhaustion. Go figure.

During his attempts, Jake tried infusing things with the intent of being softer, stronger, elastic, frictionless, and sticky, among others, along with combinations of them.

The more intent he tried to put into his Qi as he infused it into an object, the more Qi it would take to...well, stabilize. It was kind of like the memory on a computer; you could only store so much without the need to add more.

However, nothing so unassuming as an error message popping up on the screen would happen if Jake did not have enough Qi to hold his intent.

Assuming he could focus his mind and pour enough of his will into his Qi that the infused Qi would be overloaded by his intent. Jake did not want to try that again.

If Jake did not inject enough Qi to stabilize the intent, the results would depend on how much Qi had been injected.

When only a little Qi was injected, the Qi would slowly trickle out, with a small amount of Qi having the chance to stay within the material and affecting the material in some way. Usually, it was not the way Jake intended.

The material might crack or pop with a small explosion if a moderate amount was used.

After that, Jake found the explosions only gets bigger.

Jake quickly figured out that not all materials are the same. And even when you are working with the same type of material, where it was gathered, and thus its innate level of Qi it had, has a significant effect on how much Qi it can contain.

He could push past the boundaries of the material, but it becomes exponentially harder to hold the material together while trying to stuff more Qi into it. It's a tug of war with oneself, and one mistake leads to immediate disaster.

AKA, explosion.

The different amount of Qi a material could take depended wholly on the density of its Qi. More Qi, the higher the limit. Simple.

What was not simple was Jake not wanting to be limited to the materials Fluffy could gather. If he could just make a better material, he could inject more Qi. Easy, right?

Wrong! It was the farthest thing from easy.

When Jake tried to push Qi into a stick without any focused intent in an attempt to increase the natural level of the sticks Qi, he was mildly surprised.

His Qi did not join with the stick's innate Qi but instead filled the stick like any other enchantment he had tried. The main difference was that the only cost for Jake besides his expended Qi was the small effort it took to use his Qi. The interesting part was there seemed to be a direct relationship between the amount of Qi suffusing the stick and it being overall more durable.

Jake could even pump more Qi into the stick as Qi leaked out, so long as he stayed within the limit of what the stick could contain.

But if Jake wanted to add Qi with an actual intent behind it, he would need to remove all of the already injected Qi, likely damaging the material with his shit control. This was because the stick could only take so much Qi, so if he didn't remove the already injected Qi, he would not be able to reach the upper limit of Qi and intent for the enchantment on the stick.

Jake could only force so much intent into every drop of Qi. He was kind of new at all this.

The other reason was that if the stick was already half filled with Qi and he tried to inject more with intent, any intent he did manage to get in would diffuse into the whole mass, weakening the overall effect of the enchantment.

With Jake's lack of control and finesse, anything Jake does is subject to the assumption that he made a mistake at some point.

As he was playing with filling the sticks with Qi, there might have been a slight increase in the overall level of Qi within the stick. It might also have been Jake's imagination.

Jake had no real way to tell one way or another without months, if not years, of constant experiments. It was not something Jake wanted to do because he already thought he knew the answer.

It did raise an interesting question for Jake, though. He wanted to see what would happen if he rapidly increased the ambient Qi around a branch.

He achieved this by spewing most of his Qi into a small cave where he placed a log.

During this experiment, Jake accidentally—ahem, totally intentionally, discovered that if he increased the density of Qi around an object, it allowed a minuscule amount of Qi to seep into the said object. He was not trying to cause an explosion or disintegrate the wood from a distance. Definitely not.

Frowning as he gave the still intact log the stink eye, Jake grudgingly inspected it. The thick branch was chopped off a tree a while ago, so it was technically dead, and the ambient Qi just kind of ignored it until the Qi got so dense it was being forced into the stick. That point only lasted so long as Jack could keep up that density of Qi, but Jake was sure the log was slightly better at taking Qi than before.

Jake did make the minimal effort of inspecting the log before performing the test to be sure of any results... the second time.

So if Jake wanted better materials, all he had to do was increase the density of Qi in a given area. Easy on a small scale but near impossible on a large.

"That experiment went a lot faster than I thought. Still, all that effort to learn something I already assumed… eh, it was still fun. An' what else do I have to do?" Jake muttered to himself as he threw the log back to the ground. Although there was a marginal difference in the material, it wasn't to the point it really mattered for what Jake was using it for.

At least Jake now knew he could increase the density of Qi inside materials. It just took a lot of effort and a long time and was not worth doing for those reasons, but it was a fact to keep in mind.

There is also the issue of how fast Jake could push the preverbal mountain of Qi needed for the enchantment to take hold.

It was only ever about a fourth of his Qi, which he restored within minutes, but he was using so much Qi he was beginning to get sore. Saying what amounted to your veins being sore is weird. It was even stranger to feel it.

Another thing to consider was that if he went too fast while he injected Qi, the material would explode. Too slow, Jake's mind would wander from the lack of effort, the intent would get mixed up, and the Qi would have little to no effect, or the wood would just kind of melt.

If he stopped suddenly, there was another instance of an explosion.

Enchanting is dangerous, huh.

The whole process was a god damn bitch to get right. Jake was glad he couldn't keep proper track of time or have a frame of reference for what he was doing. It saved his ego for how long it was taking him to learn.

Due to his fucking around, Jake was now the proud owner of sticks that could stick to anything.

It is a marvelous invention capable of taking any common stones and turning them into joints for miniature structures.

Think KNEX but nature.

All of Jake's efforts led to a finished product for his pole, line, and reel in no time. Well, a lot of time, but Jake had no real way to keep track of time, so it could have been an hour for all he knew.

Jake shrunk, elongated, connected, and reinforced some vines to make the best fishing line Jake had ever used. It looked like five-pound test but could hold over a hundred-fifty pounds. Or, if you are getting technical, one Jake.

A sliver of wood and some copper scrap Fluffy scrounged up from his house served as his lure. Though Jake could not mold the metal with his Qi like he could the wood, he was able to polish the metal so it would flash.

It was not like Jake needed to mold the metal to use it, though. He smashed a small piece of copper into a close enough shape with a couple of rocks, then wrapped wood around the edges to attach it to his line.

His pole was a seven-foot-long branch of wood with some twigs stuck end to end scattered up the length to guide the fishing line.

The reel was the most challenging part of the whole thing, other than the constant practice needed to do everything. Jake did not have the bearing, gears, or plain mechanical know-how to make a modern reel. Making it so that he can turn the handle once and the bail rotates several times pulling in the line was beyond him.

What was not beyond Jake was using Qi to cheat.

First off, Jake made the reel large; the thing was six inches in diameter. It easily solved the problem of not being able to pull in enough line without being the speed-reeling world champ.

After thinking up that, the rest was easy, nearly impossible without Qi but the easiest thing with it.

Jake made the reel consist of three parts. The first was the shaft; it was what the spool rested and spun on while also sticking out and looping around to attach to the rod. The next was the spool that held the line. The last was a circular plain of wood connected to a handle, which Jake would use to turn the spool. It also rested and was held in place by the shaft and could connect and disconnect from the spool as Jake wished.

How you ask? Well, that's easy. Jake had pins that popped out from the piece of wood his handle was on and into the spool, locking them together as they turned, and two more keeping the spool and handle from sliding around on the shaft.

Some might think that such a thing would never work, but Qi is incredible and very utilitarian. All the wood touching the spool, Jake infused it with Qi and used his enchantment to make it nearly frictionless. The slightest touch would send the spool spinning.

The pins to lock the handle in place were reinforced with strength. Jake had to pop them in and out manually with his Qi so it took a moment, but who cares? It worked.

As for fitting all the pieces together, so they had no wiggle room and were strong enough to hold up to any strain?

Qi!

And voilà, Jake had a functioning, if more mentally demanding than he was used to, fishing pole, line, and hook.

All while he searched for the source of the mysterious black Qi. Throughout Jake's foot by foot, then an inch by inch search over his land, Jake did find some clumps and specks of black Qi, but never the source.

It was more common on the south side of the lake, opposite of Jake, but that was all he discovered.

Finally, Jake gave up. He would continue to look, but Jake was tired of combing the ground for nothing, and it wasn't like it was a real problem. With him around, every speck would eventually be consumed. And with Jake consuming the black Qi, it actually seemed to help more than hinder the land.

The black Qi was becoming little more than fertilizer.

Besides, Jake wanted some protein. He didn't need it, he had almonds and walnuts, but they weren't a steak.

Neither was fish, but with animals talking now… it didn't feel quite right eating them. That was assuming he could successfully hunt animals augmented with Qi while only having a spear.

But Jake could eat a fish or two.

See, he had perfectly logical, reasoned ideas for why he wanted to fish, no other underlying reason.

Getting up from his stone throne for what felt like the first time in years, Jake stretched his new and improved body, excited to try out his new fishing rod.

As he reached down, Jake got a look at his new body. He was in the best shape of his life, somewhere between toned and ripped.

Say what you will about the constant agony of internal Qi fighting and tearing up the body; it was a better workout than anything Jake had ever done or heard of.

With all the produce The Garden was producing, which was growing faster than he could possibly eat thanks to Qi, he had plenty of nutrition for his body. The food was better than the best supplements available on Earth if his body was any judge.

Combine the super food, Jake’s body that was essentially under a constant heavy workout, Qi, and about two weeks, you get Jake.

And if by any chance eating Qi-laden food was bad for him, too bad. Jake was not going to stop eating the food. It was amazing. Maybe I should cut back, though, don't wanna get fat. Jake thought rubbing his eight pack with a small grin.

Jake adjusted his bark and leaf clothing, then picked up his rod and strode over to the lake’s edge.

He had a wooden hook at the end of his vine line, which had some shiny copper embedded into it to make it flash and give weight. It was a pretty good flasher if Jake said so himself.

Fluffy was flopped on his side by the pile of food and wood scraps, to the side of Jack’s throne resting.

Winding his arm back, Jake used his Qi in one last slow probe along the reel checking to make sure it was ready.

Snapping his arm forward and flicking his wrist, Jake cast his line out into the lake.

The little flasher darted out over the water, sailing in a long arch before it began its descent to the surface.

The poor little flasher never made it to the water's surface. Never completed the task for which it was made.

A sparkling rainbow trout, the size of an ATV, jumped out of the water mouth closing on Jake's lure. With a wrench of its body, the line snapped, before it flopped against the water, sending a wave rippling out.

The ripples in the water quickly stilled as Jake stood mouth agape at where his lure was. I didn’t even make it to the water…

Jake could hear a quiet snickering laugh behind him at that moment. Jake's eyes narrowed and began to glint with manic glee as he looked out over the lake. "Mother. Fucker." Jake stated, turning to punt the annoying rabbit into the lake before turning back to the still water, "I'm gonna get ya."