Kev caught up to the group obviously pretty quickly. As promised, there weren’t any morankai too nearby. All the same, he was vigilant as he scanned for morankai, instead of handling each as they came, he rotated through the group, making the whole day a training session.
Kev decided he might as well give them all the opportunity to have shield mastery, they could decline it if they didn’t want to use it, but then it would always be there if they needed a lttle extra protection. As they walked he spoke to them about moving their energy through their body. When they took breaks, which they had to do a lot more often than Kev was strictly speaking, happy about, he would put them through a stable stance.
Surprisingly, they all listened pretty attentively, even Derek and the two college girls. Kev figured this was primarily because the somewhat routine encounter with morankai.
Kev began the day by disabling the creatures entirely, then the group would alternate who shot or stabbed them for the points. Everyone took turns, no one shirked. Most of them, even Bob, got a little sickened at the thought of killing even the morankais, but they would need points to live and this world wasn’t fair.
After a time, Kev started to encourage everyone to use their bladed weapons to kill the morankai. True, points were points, but there was an entire difference between shooting your target and putting a blade in it. One by one, each took their turn. Some, Kev left alone after that for the rest of the day, some Kev pushed for more.
As the day wore one, one by one, the group was given the opportunity to add shield mastery. Those that wanted to took it, those that did not, didn’t.
The day ended with the sun going down and the group finding a fairly large lounge area in a ship and waiting for Kev to clear it. Kev came back as the group settled in around a central area. Kev found some items in the lounge and was able to cobble together a huge metal basin and some wood. After busting a hole in the ceiling of the cabin, Kev started a fire. Morankai wouldn’t be able to see the lounge room from outside it and it would almost definitely be too dark to see the smoke.
Having a fire made this slog seem more like an adventure. Kev left the group to their quiet contemplations for a while. It had been an exceedingly long day for everyone, especially Kev. Kev took a moment to pull food from The Shop. He didn’t buy enough for anyone else, not even his mother. For the first time ever for most of them, they each had to buy their own meal.
Bob, Shari and Cris all had dishes Kev wasn’t really familiar with, each with its own aroma that blended chaotically with the smoke from the fire in a not at all unpleasant way. The rest of the group had foods Kev did recognize. Fried chicken over there, salmon over there. The list went on. Everyone ate quiety.
Finally Anna said, “This is the best fuckin tostada I’ve ever had.” and the tension broke. The group chatted and talked about their experience for a while. Laughing at little goofs and mistakes they had made throughout the day, or laughing about what people will think of the weird rope bridges they left all over the place.
After a while, tired bodies succumbed and people started to sleep. Before they did, Kev gave them each a low-tier healing pill which would help their bodies heal from the strenuous work of the day. Blessedly, Bob offered to take the first watch and Kev was able to get some sleep. In fact, Kev slept through the night, no one ever waking him for their own watch. Alicia slept on a couch next to Kev and for the first time in a long time Kev slept like he didn’t have a care in the world.
The next day the group woke up and Kev warmed them up by putting them through some weapons forms to get them thinking about the body positions, forms and movements. Except for Kev, they were all pretty sore and achy the next day. Kev gave them each a low-tier healing pill, they all ate and on they went.
Today, Kev had them taking morankai down in groups. He would hurt them, then send a pair, one with a shield mastery and one without, to fight the creatures.
When they weren’t fighting they were working on developing the mastery of their chosen weapons. The same for each was true, whether they took it or not, they needed to learn and try.
Bob, the, as it turned out, Tanzanian man, was the first to unlock the spear mastery. Kev wasn’t that surprised. What he was surprised about was Shari gaining sword mastery before anyone else. Half the time she didn’t even know what Kev was saying, but as it turned out she had studied the sword for many years, so for her it was more getting past the mental block of her skills being magical. The rest fell in order with Doctor Justin coming in third. Kev didn’t want to think anything too silly, but found it interesting that the white folk were falling behind. He did chuckle when Anna was the next person, she was from SoCo after all.
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By the time they stopped for lunch on the second day on the bridge, Kev’s mom, Derek and Cris had all got and accepted the masteries they wanted. That night, they had traveled farther than Kev would have imagined but much less far than Kev wanted. He wasn’t sure what would happen if they were still on the bridge when it disappeared, but he really REALLY didn’t want to find out.
The next day was much the same. Kev switched the teams out in handling the morankai but as he progressed down the bridge they ran into fewer and fewer morankai. Kev was pleased with this because they were so slow at handling the morankai. Not only were they slow at handling the morankai, they were just slow, period. None of them were in great shape, which tracked as most of them had been confined to rooms up until a few days ago. Even walking was a chore for most of them.
Kev made it a practice of storing everyone’s gear for them unless they had a morankai to fight. It was much easier to walk empty handed than to do so with a shield and sword or even gun. Kev also supplied plenty of low-tier recovery pills. At 90 points a piece, for the seven of them, multiple times a day, and the 80 point low-tier healing pill before bed, Kev was losing plenty of points. He was extra glad he had killed the two golden morankai he’d found in his mother’s cluster before bringing her the last one.
Even so, he wasn’t going to be able to supply everyone for the whole trip unless he got lucky and there was another golden morankai on this bridge or a pack of abnormals or something.
After the second full day of travel, Kev was pretty sure that they hadn’t gone more than forty, maybe fifty miles. For day three, and every day that followed that, Kev handled the morankai alone. Not only would this save the reserves of the group allowing them to use the effects of the pills for longer, but it also kept the group moving faster. Kev would hit them with the pickaxe/warhammer hard enough to splatter them over the deck of the ship or knock them right off. He would get a few points, and they’d move on.
After the early days Kev started rationing the pills a little bit. Another two days of that and Kev was only able to supply a recovery pill during the midday meal, and a healing pill at the end of the day. That was enough to keep the group moving better. The real difference was that, especially with the use of the recovery and healing pills, the group had just got in considerably better shape. Alicia was the oldest member of the group, but with her mortal Tier Ki Cultivator ability, she had already seen an increase of several points to her endurance, recovery and even strength.
The rest of the group, despite not having Ki Cultivator yet, also saw improvements to their stats. When the sun set, Kev would clear a ship, practice meditating with the group for a certain amount of time and then turn in. In the morning, he was often up before everyone else practicing kata forms or working out. The group would go through a kata together to warm up and then set out.
Each night, when the sun set, Kev would clear a ship, practice meditating with the group for a certain amount of time and then turn in. In the morning, he was often up before everyone else practicing kata forms or working out. The group would go through a kata together to warm up and then set out.
After 8 days of walking at what Kev thought might be the world’s slowest pace ever, everyone’s tempers were starting to fray. Despite getting workouts in, as well as meditation for Ki Cultivator, Kev’s stats had remained pretty stagnant. He needed to not be traveling. He hadn’t gone this long without increasing his stats at least one point ever. After two weeks being around, Kev checked his status.
Status: Name Kevin Moses (Divine Doppelgãnger)
Points: 25,363
Race: Human doppelgãnger
Soul Quality: ✪
Age: 14 days
Stats: Strength: 135
Endurance: 117
Recovery: 79
Soul: 30
Abilities: 6/0
Soul Tracker
Ki Cultivator Earth Tier (Middle)
Intermediate Shield Mastery (1/5)
Intermediate Axe Mastery (1/5)
Ceaseless Mind
Conqueror’s Spoils (LOCKED)
He was still pleased that his soul stat was up, and to be fair, he had managed to increase his Shield Mastery. All the same, he wanted to improve more. He couldn’t wait to get to the central cluster. To that end, Kev had some good news.
“Everyone. I just wanted to let you know that we are at halfway mark.” Kev said. He did some mental math and figured he would probably have enough points to get everyone to the main cluster without having to ration the low-tier pills he had been providing.