The first thing Drew saw when he opened his eyes, was a crowd of people that surrounded him while he lay upon the ground.

What happened?

“Did it work?” Matt asked with excitement as he wrinkled his nose and leaned over Drew’s prone form.

My core!

Drew closed his eyes and focused inward to examine his source of chi. A moment later, his eyes opened wide with shock.

“This changes everything!”

Drew remained silent after his declaration, so Matt responded, “Fam, don’t keep us hanging! What changes everything?!”

He searched for a way to explain his new sensations, but could not find the words to describe the way his new core felt. It was indeed Tier 3, as Matt called it, but was nothing like he expected it to be.

“It worked.”

“Yeah?” Matt prodded him. “And?”

“I can feel… EVERYTHING.”

Matt rolled his eyes.

“Are you ok?” Jess asked, concerned.

Drew did not have to turn his head to know that his daughter-in-law leaned over him with a frown. She was within a few feet of him and he could actually feel the chi within her body and the clothes she wore.

“Better than ok, I feel amazing!” he responded with a grin and stood up.

Jess straightened and took a step back as he gained his feet. Her original concern was instantly replaced by anger. “Then why did you decide to scare all of us half to death? Emma woke up crying and scared. It took forever to calm her back down. Couldn’t you have gone somewhere else to swallow a core? Did you have to do that here? And just what are you covered in? That stinks!”

After she finished her tirade, Drew responded. “I’m sorry that I scared everyone. I actually didn’t intend to use it, it just kind of dissolved into chi when I looked at it. I didn’t want to waste it since it was only the second tier 2 core we’ve found.”

“Who cares about all that.” Matt stated with a dismissive wave of his hand. “What do you mean you can ‘feel everything’.”

“It’s hard to explain,” Drew began.

Matt grunted in frustration. “Just use your words, fam.”

“Well, I can feel everything around me within a couple of feet.” Before Matt could interrupt again, Drew held up his filthy hand. “I can trace the grains of the wood beneath my feet, even through the… sludge, or whatever it is without even looking down. I can feel everyone that’s within a two foot bubble around me. It’s like I have eyes all around, but… not. It’s almost like… sonar or something.”

“Alright, how many fingers am I holding up?” asked Carol, as she walked up behind him.

“Four.” Drew answered immediately.

“And now?”

“Seven.”

“What about now?” she asked.

He could tell she was smirking as she rotated one of her arms far behind her back, outside of his sensory range. “Uh… one finger on your right hand, I can’t see your left hand, it’s too far away.”

Carol’s half smile dropped.

“Ohh! Ohh!” Lucas raised his hand and tried to step forward, away from his dad. “Me next! I want to try!”

However, his father, Dave, held his son away from the waste-covered man.

Drew chuckled. “Maybe later. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do to get this place ready.” he turned to Matt. “I never did ask, what did you find upstairs?”

“Just normal bedrooms. I don’t think any monsters went up to the second floor.”

“How many?” Drew asked.

“Six.” Matt responded.

“Awesome, everyone can sleep upstairs where it’s safer.”

Malcolm shook his head. “Not yet they can’t. It’s too cold at the moment. The fireplace really only warms the great room and the kitchen.”

Drew glanced over at Adam, who currently held his wife in a hug. “How long until you can make fireplaces in each of the rooms like you did at the apartment?”

“I’m almost out of energy. Fixing the front door and then getting the core out of that monster used up most of it. If everyone wants me to start working on that, I’ll need a battery to recharge.”

“How long does it take to make each fireplace?” Malcolm asked.

“It depends on how far I have to go for the materials.” Adam explained. “Remember, I can’t just make bricks or metal out of thin air. I have to essentially steal it from somewhere else, carry it back and upstairs, and then reform it into what I want.”

“How about just a rough estimate?” Malcolm pushed.

Adam rubbed his eyes and sighed. “I don’t know, maybe three hours per fireplace? Maybe only two if I have help carrying the materials back. But, I need to recharge and find a place with bricks and metal.”

Drew spoke up. “I’ll go get a few batteries for us all to recharge. After that, I’ll make sure you have the materials you need.”

“I’ll go with you.” Matt volunteered. “I still have WAAAAYYYY more questions.”

“Of course you do.” Drew laughed.

By the time Drew and Matt left the room, most of the crowd had dispersed and reformed in the great room near the fireplace where it was warm.

“You’re really gonna walk around covered in poop like that?” Matt asked in disbelief. “You need a shower.”

Drew looked down. His entire body was covered in black goo, even the bottom of his bare feet. He could see a trail of faint blackened smudges on the cold tiles that led back down the hallway.

Where did this come from? What is it? Whatever. I need to clean it off me.

He was about to form a shower of water above his head and scrub himself clean, when he realized he was inside the main room of the lodge.

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Yeah, probably better to do this outside.

“Not gonna answer?” Matt asked, annoyed.

“Yeah, I need a shower.” Drew agreed. “But, there’s no running water so I’ll have to do it outside. It’ll take a while, and we need Adam working on fireplaces as soon as he can. So, I’ll bring back a battery before I clean myself off.”

Matt wrinkled his nose. “No offense, but no one’s gonna want a poop covered battery. I’ll go get one while you clean up.”

“It’s not poop!” Drew protested.

Matt opened the front door. Just before he walked outside, he added, “You keep telling yourself that fam.”

The young man was gone before Drew could defend himself. With a sigh, he stepped out into the cold. He trudged through the snow and walked around the house until he was hidden from view. Slowly, he began to strip out of his clothes.

When he was completely naked, he condensed water just above his head and let it rain down upon him. He picked up a ball of snow off the ground and used it to scrub his body clean.

His pain receptors were long disabled and Drew was impervious to the cold. However, a few minutes into his shower ice began to form all over his body.

Ok, I can’t have that.

In an imitation of Matt, Drew formed three small fireballs around himself to melt the frozen water. Within a few moments, the ice melted and steam began to rise as he continued to clean himself.

His new senses allowed him to find every last scrap of filth and purge it from his body. When he was cleaner than he’d ever been before, he moved on to washing his clothes.

Luckily, the jacket he wore was mostly spared from the filth. His long sleeve shirt underneath and his pants collected almost all of the sludge. After thirty minutes of scrubbing, and a new appreciation for washing machines, he dried out the wet clothing with heat from his summoned fireballs and reclothed himself.

Ok, now to find some bricks and metal for Adam.

Unfortunately, the large house adjacent to them was wooden, just like the lodge. Drew circled around their new home and spotted the adobe house across the street.

That’ll work.

He began to stalk toward the dwelling to ensure it was empty, when he remembered the super-dilo.

I should go get Matt, just in case.

He found his friend on one of the living room couches with his legs crossed and feet resting on an ottoman.

“You look comfy.” Drew stated.

“I see you’re no longer covered in feces.” Matt said pointedly.

“For the last time, it’s not poop!”

Matt laughed. “I know fam, I’m just draggin’ ya. It’s probably just the impurities in your body.”

“So, you think upgrading my core cleansed my body or something?”

“For sure.” Matt furrowed his brows. “Although, I don’t know why it didn’t do it when we went to tier 2. In the serials, it happens every time you go to the next realm.”

“Who knows.” Drew shrugged. “Are you ready to head out? The house across the street is made of bricks. I figure we can clear it out and then slice some off for Adam. That way, he doesn’t have to leave.”

“Sure, just let me top myself off with chi first. It’s a lot of work keepin’ warm.” Matt climbed to his feet and walked toward the stairs.

Drew checked how much chi remained in his core.

He was so surprised by the result, he spoke aloud, “That’s weird.”

After Drew did not explain his statement, Matt complained, “Fam, you gotta stop doing that! WHAT’S weird?”

“Either washing myself didn’t use any chi, or it used so little that I can’t even tell the difference. My core is still full.”

Matt whistled. “Compressing your core a second time adds that much chi?”

“That’s just the thing, my core didn’t actually compress. It’s the same size as before.”

“Wait, what?!” Matt stopped in his tracks. “Why didn’t you say that before?”

“Sorry, my brain has been kind of all over the place and all the new sensations are a lot to take in.”

“It sounds like you formed a domain.”

“A what now?”

“A domain. You can control everything within it with just your will.” Matt explained.

Drew looked at Matt and squinted his eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“Nope, that’s not the way it works.” Drew said confidently.

“How do you know?”

“Because you’re within my ‘domain’, and you aren’t jumping on one foot and clucking like a chicken.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “It’s not mind control, it lets you control the environment and using chi is easier.”

Drew focused on the last part of Matt’s statement. “It makes casting spells easier?”

“Yeah, and cheaper.”

“You sound pretty confident about that.”

“Fam, that’s my specialty.”

“What, spouting nonsense?”

Matt shook his head and walked away. As he ascended the staircase, Drew heard him mutter, “So cringe.”

Is that why it barely used any chi? I guess there’s one way to find out.

Drew cast a gravity spell on the sofa, ten feet away. He fed chi to the spellform and watched it slowly drain away from his core.

Hmmm. It looks like it’s using the same amount as before.

After he was sure about how much chi was used, he canceled his spell and recast it on himself. He instantly felt lighter. As he shifted on his feet, he felt like if he wasn’t careful he would fly into the air.

Dang… I think he’s right.

Drew continued to channel chi and watched as there was no change in his core. When Matt returned ten minutes later, Drew still maintained the spell.

“It looks like you were right.” he announced.

“Of course I was.” Matt said with a cocky grin. “I’m always right.”

“Oh really?” Drew challenged. “Then why didn’t you recharge by cultivating? Why’d you have to refill from a car battery?”

“Fam, you gotta let that go.” Matt shook his head. “So, what was I right about this time?”

Drew snorted. “I’ve been lowering my weight with a gravity spell for ten minutes now and I’ve barely used any chi.”

“How much is barely?”

“I don’t know, maybe ten percent of what I normally use?”

“You know what this means, right?” Matt asked rhetorically. “You can totally fly now.”

“I could fly before.” Drew defended.

“No, you could fall through the air until you ran out of chi. Then you’d pancake on the ground.” Matt corrected him as he brought his hands together in a slap. He then looked up to the sky. “Ahh! I’m sooo jelly!”

As they walked outside into the cold, Drew reminded Matt, “You know you’re not using that word correctly, right?”

“I don’t care what Rebecca said. I like the word, and I’ll use it the way I’ve always used it.”

With Drew’s diminished weight, each step bounced him off the surface of the snow. As they walked across the street, he changed his normal stride into a sliding scuffle. With the new movement, he was able to skate on the surface. The more he practiced, the faster he moved, until Matt had to run full speed to keep up with him.

“Wait up fam!”

Drew increased his weight and sank into the snow. As he skidded to a stop, fluffy snow flew through the air and covered the nearby adobe wall which bordered the neighbor’s house.

He turned to Matt, who struggled to move through the thick snow. “You know, we can just slice away some bricks here and bring them back to Adam. There’s no need to take them from the house itself.”

Matt stomped up to him and tried to stop next to Drew. Instead, his foot slipped and he landed on his rear.

“I freakin’ hate snow!” Matt said as he struggled to his feet. After he dusted the frozen flakes off his pants, he formed fireballs around himself. He held his hands just above the floating ball of heat to warm them.

Drew began to slice through the stucco covered brick and asked. “How much of this do you think he needs?” He was careful to ensure the cuts occurred within his domain which vastly lowered the chi consumed.

“Probably all of it.”

Drew looked to his left and his right at the almost three foot high wall which spanned over a hundred feet. “You think he needs that much?”

Matt shrugged. “Who knows. We can always just ask him.”

“Good point. When I…” Drew saw where Matt was about to cut and interrupted himself. “Wait! Make sure the blocks will fit through the door when I carry them in.” After Matt moved his laser inwards another foot and sliced through the bricks, Drew added, “Yeah, that size. Actually, how about you cut the bricks and I'll carry them in. It’ll go faster that way.”

“Ok.”

As Drew transported an armful of weight-reduced bricks back to their lodge, he imagined the changes necessary to make their new home livable and secure.

It’s so pretty here.