From the memo about that goblin, Leshy found that his name was Diadus. He was a skilled swordsman, had a wind-walk gift, and he had the higher ranking then Leshy which is E. The info about him was not as detailed as Leshy's own card with no "recent log" section, making it impossible to recreate his last few days in the "Ultima". However, Leshy's card also slightly changed. There was a new sentence there.
'On the third day, he fought and defeated Diadus, E- ranker of the goblin race. Leshy's excellent tactic of running away in the middle of duel surprised Diadus, made him drop a guard and resulted in his demise. Way to go Leshy!'
"Hmpf, the author of those is getting more and more annoying. It's not even funny anymore" said Leshy angrily "It kind of feels as he treats my life and death struggle as an amusement," thought darkly Leshy.
"This wind-walk ability is quite nice, which is giving subtle control of air pressure. With such power, one is able to run and accelerate faster. It is much better than the crappy abilities I've seen so far. That ability actually suits quite well a swordmaster. I wonder if there is any pattern here." Leshy put that thought at the back of his mind since he had not enough data to prove or disprove it.
He stood up and walked to the dead goblin to retrieve his core and bag of holding. The most noteworthy from his items was a sword; everything else was just miscellaneous items needed to survive in the wild. Leshy decided to rest for the day in a cave and make it his temporary home. In that order to feel somewhat safe here, he walked outside to cut some brushes and camouflage the entry. Then he ate, washed and took care of wounds. A few hours later, Leshy was cross sitting, reading once again manual about the qi manipulation and absorption. Before he laid two goblin's core, giving a warm and gentle glow to the surroundings.
"The only reason I won't last fight was due to my physical abilities improvement. I was faster and stronger, reaching the level of someone who trained all of his life. Qi energy seems to be the only explanation behind that improvement" deducted Leshy with eyes full of expectations. It is not every day that you are given a chance to be part of something supernatural. Leshy didn't intend to lose that opportunity as he decided to focus hard to unrevealing mysteries about Qi.
"My card says I already opened the main meridian, so I should be able to detect energy and work hard to circulate energy through my whole body, making my cultivation more profound" continued thought Leshy.
He closed his eyes, trying to detect qi. After a few minutes of focus, he could feel a sparse speck of energy flowing around. There weren't many of them. He opened his eyes, and he still could tell where the power was flowing, but it required much more effort than when he had his eyes closed.
He resumed meditating with closed eyes, trying to absorb the qi energy from surroundings according to the manual. After half an hour, some specs of energy started flowing towards him slowly, making a tiny vortex around his stomach area. As the vortex was getting more prominent, some of the qi rushed to the meridian in his stomach. Once the apex was half full, Leshy began circulating the energy in his body.
If somebody was to walk to the cave right now and could see the Qi, he would notice many small streams of energy around the cave flowing toward Leshy, building a sphere before him. It was a truly magical view.
It may seem then even though the energy around was sparse, it should be a high quantity of it. Still, in truth, it could barely fill the Leshy's central meridian, which was not big by any standards.
Leshy continued to circulate the energy inside him. The path between his stomach and heart was already active, giving him a great sensation of something both warm and cold, nourishing his organs. However, once he started to circulate energy towards the right hand, the path was not clear. Some of the power got lost some, some got absorb by surrounding flesh, and almost none was able not to move to the tip of his hand without dispersing. After trying for nearly two hours, Leshy opened his eyes.
"Seems that opening all meridians and qi paths is a long and tedious process, but it also tempers body. I am going to use one of the goblins core to accelerate it. This time I should be able to use power stored within it properly" having said that Leshy picked a glowing green core put it in his mouth. Very soon the core started to melt releasing stored qi. There was many times more energy in that core than in the whole cave after a few hours of cultivation combined. Leshy's manipulation of energy was growing more proficient as less of it become chaotic and dissipates. Under his control, the qi to started to flow in a constant direction towards his right hand. Qi was slowly, wave after wave trying to breakthrough countless blockers on its path and clear impurities. The energy was also being absorbed by his body enhancing it and slowly helping to heal his injuries as well as mini strains in his body created after last fight. Leshy started to experiment with his control over energy slightly altering what manual recommended but with no satisfactory result, it ended up with some of the energy getting chaotic and lost. After about 5 hours all the energy from the core got either absorbed and was flowing within Leshy's body or got dissipated to the outside. In Leshy's calculation, he would need 3-4 more sessions like this to fully unlock meridians in his right hand.
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Once he stood up, it was already getting dark outside. He felt starving and mentally tired. He walked to the kitchen and ate some of the supplies. Looking at them, he estimated that they should last up to 2 weeks. He came to the realization that this is approximately the time he has to find another source of food.
"Life here is no fairy tale. You not only need to fight for your life but everyday activities like getting food, cleaning are still valid as ever. What a bummer." thought Leshy "The worst part is there is no toilet here. Man, I miss my moments with iPad in the temple of reflection. Having your behind unprotected from wind and small bugs spoils this little moment of pure joy" continued complaining Leshy as he was walking back to his bedroom. Tired he lied down hoping that tomorrow will be all nice and peaceful. Almost like in the office.
Next day he woke up together with dawn which was way earlier then he used to. However, Leshy felt refreshed, which was a big surprise to him as usual, he needed at least 8 hours of sleep. What was even more surprising and made Leshy rejoice, was that the injury in his right side was almost not hurting anymore. It was not complete healed, but after one more meditation session, it should probably be gone.
"Today's plan is to scout the neighbourhood and get myself prepared to continue the journey to the north-west. If Vanessa got transported here, she must be somewhere in that direction. I have no idea however how far or close that could be. I am afraid it may be a while since the goblins needed a day to reunite and they were probably just a few meters from each other." concluded Leshy.
After short preparations, he walked out of his cave with the telescope ready to start looking around. In the end, the cave was located almost on top of the mountain, which made it right observatory spot. He spent quite a time to scope surroundings and notice two abnormalities - first - in North West there seem to be barely visibly smoke coming from some unknown place. The second one, a bit closer, looked like 3-4 buildings. From this far Leshy couldn't notice any movements but there were probably inhibited since those buildings were not nature made.
Leshy walked a narrow path down to the forest. The forest was deep with trees not as close to each other as in the jungle but still quite dense. Some of the trees were enormous as if they were a thousand years old, which gave a feeling as if the forest was infinitely large and full of mysteries. He walked slowly and quietly with a spear in one of his hands, trying not to disturb the forest quietness. He was also taking notice of his surroundings, afraid to get lost on his way back. Every time he saw one of those large, thousand-year trees, he marks it with X from the side he came from. The other thing was that from time to time, he sat under a tree and start meditating to check how much spiritual energy was in given localization. However, every time he checked the spiritual level seemed to be pretty much the same.
The vegetation in the forest was also quite exotic, with strange-looking plants, big flowers and trees were not only ample but had also having leaves of various shapes and sizes. Some of the trees had fruits on them, but Leshy was too suspicious of them being poisonous, so he abstains from grabbing them. He decided that once he sees some animal eat them, then he will also consume them.
"Well, maybe just to be sure, let's wait till two different kinds of animals try those fruits first. You know, in case one of the species had some crazy poison resistance. Better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes my little life" thought Leshy imaging himself dying a horrible death by poisoning.