While lying in bed, Logan opened his Status and began to change things around. He learned about that feature from the System prompts. It was just an interface designed to relay information about the user back to themselves, so Logan decided to make things a little more detailed for his own convenience.

Status

Name: Logan Gates

Race: Human [Mortal]

Cultivation

Realm: Body Tempering - Early (1/12)

Visualisation Technique: Long Night [Flower Field (0/9)]

Martial Techniques

Piercing Thrust (Amateur)

Logan was thrilled about adding his visualisation technique to his Status. He had no idea how many groupings of flowers there were, but it seemed that the System did. The convenience of such a thing was simply too valuable. He got all of that at a low privilege level, making him wonder about all the benefits he could get if he raised it more.

He also expanded his mastery over Piercing Thrust. Seeing a two-letter word looked strange, so it was nice that he could fiddle around. Logan thought about changing something else but inevitably decided that with his life on the line, aesthetics didn’t matter as much as growing stronger.

That left him to close his eyes and study the painting. Logan examined all of the blue daisies as a whole. Seven days had passed since the ritual, and he had long since comprehended each individual flower. Now, he just had to fuse those grains of knowledge into something more substantial.

Snuggled up under the makeshift blankets, studying the flowers made Logan feel warm and cosy inside. He hadn’t dedicated much time to it now that he wasn’t trapped in a cell and had other things to do, but that didn’t mean his progress was slow. After enhancing his mind, deciphering the painting had become easier than ever before.

Even with limited time during the day, Logan guessed that he would break through sooner rather than later. That was why he got comfortable and fell half asleep. The painting wouldn’t really help their current situation, and since he was too tired to train, the best course of action right now was to relax.

Logan suddenly realised something as he gazed upon the soft blue petals growing out of the hillside. Weren’t they trapped just like him? A flower couldn’t get up and walk to a different hill, not that it would ever want to. The soil gave it life and helped anchor it safely to the ground. Then again, he didn’t want to be totally free either. Like most people, he dreamed of owning a home. And if it was in the cards, maybe even a wife and children to grow old with.

All of those required time and effort to maintain.

Logan mulled this over as he watched the dancing flowers. He hated being trapped underground and was terrified of the monsters that could be hiding around every corner. It made him feel like he was still trapped in those cells. From the deepest parts of his soul, he craved the idea of freedom. Of course, that wasn’t all that he desired. He wanted to make connections with other people, pursue his dreams, and live a comfortable life. True freedom was impossible in that case, so maybe he didn’t want that at all.

Perhaps he was asking for the ability to choose?

A flower couldn’t survive without burying itself in the earth, and a person couldn’t be happy without some level of responsibility. They had to spread their roots no differently than a plant. And for once in his life, Logan desperately wanted the power to choose which hill he would settle down on.

Without any warning, the mystical aura surrounding the blue daisies began to fade. Logan didn’t know where that energy was going until he felt a tingling sensation in the back of his mind. His thoughts flowed like water, the world sharpened around him, and his mind grew more powerful by the second.

Just like that, he had comprehended the first of nine flower sets.

Opening his eyes, Logan couldn’t hold back a smile. He decided that today was shaping up to be pretty good, all things considered. He felt that way until he got up and walked into the hallway. Locking eyes with Tom, the man leaning against the opposite wall like some old-timey gangster, Logan felt his smile turn rigid.

“Good morning,” Logan said, speeding up as he walked past.

He hoped to get ignored by the gloomy bastard, but he was wrong.

“We need to talk,” Tom said, pushing himself off the wall.

“Sure, man. Just let me- Oh, you mean right now.”

Logan stood there as Tom walked into their shared bedroom. A moment later, he sighed and followed behind. Hopefully this would be quick. Logan knew it wouldn’t, but he didn’t focus on that and instead tried to school his expression as Tom stopped walking. He faced the opposite wall and didn’t move.

“So, what did you want to talk about?”

“The drama you caused, obviously,” Tom said, spinning around and crossing his arms. “You can’t just lie to people like that and mess with their heads.”

Logan blinked. “I did what now?”

“I’m not an idiot. You obviously said something to Amelia to start all this drama. I want to know what you told her, and I want you to go and fix it. Now.”

“Why do you think I started this? Other than the old folks from the church, I have the least to do with this drama than anyone.”

“Bullshit,” Tom spat, his face settling into a scowl. “You said something to make Amelia chew me out last night. She did it right after you two walked down to those prison cells together, so don’t even try to lie about it.”

Logan frowned, wondering how things had gotten so jumbled up. He remembered asking Amelia to go and make peace with everyone, yet Tom had interpreted Logan as the cause of his problems. Would he also have James and Stephanie whining to him, or were they going to keep it to themselves and stew in silence?

He didn’t know which one would be worse for the group.

“I admit I spoke to her about you,” Logan said, “but it wasn’t to start a fight. I told her to go and sort things out so we can move on with our lives. Such petty drama isn’t worth all of this arguing.”

“If you really told her to do that, then why did she come and demand that I apologise to everyone?”

Logan had to hold himself back from rolling his eyes. “Maybe because you were in the wrong?”

“That’s a load of crap, and you know it. If Amelia really wanted to settle things, she would’ve told you to come and apologise to me!”

“For what? The fact that I stabbed the rat, causing it to lunge at you?”

“Obviously,” Tom said, jabbing his finger into Logan’s chest. “If you didn’t attack the rat while it was distracted by the cut on its nose, I never would’ve been caught off guard.”

“Alright, I’m sorry that I stabbed the rat when you weren’t ready. We’re all amateurs, and I don’t think anyone fought perfectly yesterday, so let’s put this all behind us so that we can survive in this messed-up place, okay?”

Logan reached out for a handshake, but Tom ignored it and pushed past him. “It’s good that you know your place. Now go and apologise to everyone else so that things can go back to normal.”

“Yeah,” Logan chuckled, “that’s not going to work.”

Tom pulled his hand off the door handle and turned around. “And why the hell not? Just tell them that the rat wouldn’t have escaped if you didn’t break our formation.”

“I didn’t break formation, and no one besides you thinks the accident was my fault. They all think it’s yours, so me going and apologising would probably annoy them even more since it would look like you bullied me into it.”

Tom stomped his foot on the ground. “Why the hell would they think that? It isn’t my fault that I fell, it’s yours!”

“Look man, you messed up the swing. Mistakes happen, especially when you only learned how to use a sword last week. Maybe you would’ve nailed it if I didn’t attack. But you didn’t, and now I have to have this awkward conversation because your ego is too massive to apologise. And it’s not like your friends expect you to grovel and beg. All they want is a casual apology. It really wasn’t a big deal until you apparently started badmouthing me behind my back.”

As Logan spoke, Tom went through a full range of emotions. He looked like he was about to blow steam out of his ears, and then he looked confused before going pale at being caught out for gossiping. Logan honestly didn’t care about it since no one agreed with Tom’s nonsense. Still, that didn’t mean he was okay with being stuck with an egotistical pain in the ass who couldn’t handle criticism.

“I didn’t bad mouth you,” Tom said, huffing through gritted teeth. “Who even said that, anyway? Was it James?”

“Amelia told me.”

“That’s bullshit! I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone before. If you want to make up lies to get between me and her, then you need to try harder, dumbass.”

“Well, she did tell me and I’m not lying. You can ask her if you’d like, but since you won’t be apologising, I can only assume that she will be even angrier with you.”

“Shut up!” Tom shouted, getting in Logan’s face. “I don’t care if you’re interested in her, alright? Fuck off out of our lives and go back to whatever hole you crawled out of, or else I’ll make you regret it!”

Logan did roll his eyes this time, his patience running out. “Sure thing, buddy! Let me just hop in the elevator and drive home real quick, and then you can live out your deluded fantasy with a girl who thinks of you as a friend.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Tom didn’t like that much because he grabbed Logan’s collar and screamed in his face. “You think you have a better shot with her than me? You have no chance, so stay away from her before I-”

Logan grasped Tom’s wrist. Although he didn’t look that much stronger than when they first met, igniting his lifeline and entering into the Body Tempering realm had made Logan much stronger than an average person. Add on a week of life force training and being soaked in mystical energies from an immortal egg, and he could now call himself a superhuman and be close to the truth.

That was why Tom cried out in pain. His hand went limp, involuntarily releasing Logan’s collar. He also shrank away while groaning in pain, his posture shrinking to make him look even smaller than usual. Tom was already quite short to begin with. The man was an inch or two below average, making him look like a child before Logan.

“It was a dumb accident, and all you had to do was own up to it with a simple ‘oops, won’t happen again!’ Hell, a rat wanted to bite your ankle off. Seriously, no one would blame you for jumping out of the way, but your gossiping about me and refusal to admit that you played a role in this is pissing everyone off even more than the actual accident.

“And nothing is going on between Amelia and I, not that it would be any of your business. Seriously, check your ego before I do it for you, then go and apologise to your friends before they kill you in your sleep. Fuck, I might even do the job for them at this rate.”

Logan released his grip, gently pushing Tom so that he tripped and fell on his ass.

He looked up with wide eyes as Logan continued. “And just so you know, I was the only one on your side before all this. I told Amelia to forgive you. I told her to go and smooth things over. I told her to tell James and Stephanie to move past this! It was a stupid mistake, so I was more than happy to move on without you saying anything. But you just had to make it someone else’s problem, didn’t you?”

Logan had to bite his tongue and leave to avoid getting any angrier. He was usually even-tempered, but having his collar grabbed and someone scream in his face was too much. Combined with all of the crap Logan had been dealing with recently, this was a rather gentle ending to their fight.

He defended himself without doing anything irreparable, setting up some firm boundaries in the process. There was always the option of giving in, but if Logan didn’t stand up for himself at that moment, when would he? It wasn’t in his nature to behave aggressively. Unfortunately, Logan had learned early on that sometimes, being aggressive was the only way to stop a situation from escalating.

It was difficult to understand for someone who grew up believing that if you were nice, everyone would be kind back to you. The real world just didn’t work that way. If you had no spine, arrogant pricks like Tom would take it as an invitation to walk all over you. They would push and push until their actions bordered on criminal, sometimes going beyond.

Logan walked up to Amelia and the others with what he imagined to be a less-than-pleased expression. They picked up on that and looked nervous as he stomped over, but he wouldn’t be too harsh on them.

“I spoke to Tom. He doesn’t seem to think it’s his fault. I had a chat with him about trying to be more gracious, so when he comes by to apologise, don’t make it hard on him, alright?”

Stephanie glanced at Amelia, hesitating to speak for a few seconds before she worked up the courage. “He’s coming to apologise? I’ve known Tom since we were children, and he is too… proud for that.”

“Then what the hell were you people expecting by fighting with the man if you knew what he was like? Just tell him to do better next time and move on with your life.”

“We did,” Stephanie said, shrugging. “If he didn’t start trying to shift blame, no one would’ve cared. It was a silly mistake that any one of us could’ve made, but hearing him call you an idiot was very upsetting.”

“You saved our lives. We can also see how hard you’ve been trying lately, so hearing Tom badmouth you was too much to ignore.”

“Not to mention that we didn’t even say anything mean,” Amelia added. “Even when I spoke to him last night, I just told him that we didn’t like how he was behaving and that it would be best if he apologised to you for the sake of the group.”

Logan closed his eyes. “Look, I don’t care what he says about me. Thank you for standing up for me, but please just stop fighting. And if you can’t manage that, at least keep it private and behind closed doors. I don’t need to be involved unless it starts interfering with our hunts, alright? I would like to get home without us killing each other, and I’m sure all of you do, too.”

They glanced around at each other before nodding.

“Good, now sort this shit out with your friend.”

Logan walked to the other side of the cavern and began studying the manual for Flash Step. Like Piercing Thrust, there were many little details that he had to learn before even attempting the full move. Each technique appeared to have its own quirks and tricks that had to be figured out, but hopefully, it would be easier to learn this movement technique now that he had already gotten a handle on Piercing Thrust.

From what Logan could tell, Flash Step and Piercing Thrust were foundationally similar. They both used the concept of rotation to enhance the power of a movement. Obviously, the one was focused on the hands while Flash Step used the entire body as a medium, but the core principles between them were still the same.

Logan chose the technique in hopes that it would be easier to learn than an unrelated technique, which it was to a degree. Thanks to the overlap between the two techniques, he already had an idea of what some of the steps were asking him to do with his legs. Flash Step was also diverse enough that it would help him understand the concept of rotation. He was gaining a lot of insight since the techniques focused on different parts of the body.

The biggest issue now was how to actually learn those new sections.

Just like when he tried to learn Piercing Thrust, he quickly understood the theory after reading over the manual for around an hour or so, but theory and practice were two different things. Most people knew that you shoot a gun by pulling its trigger, but until someone actually got a weapon in their hands, they were about as likely to miss the target as everyone else.

That was why mastering a technique was nearly as important as learning a concept. Logan could master Piercing Thrust and significantly improve his strength, but without the concept of rotation to back it up, someone with a mastered concept and flawed technique would be stronger than him. Concepts were also the only way to improve beyond the amateur level.

The Heavenly Laws were the foundation. The more Logan understood the concept of rotation, the closer his regular movements would become to an amateur technique. He could unleash that level of strength right now with Piercing Thrust, but by mastering the concept of rotation, any random slap or punch could apply the same level of power.

If he applied that same knowledge to a mastered technique, its power would also be increased. That was why he wanted to learn various techniques while keeping the number low enough that he could use them all in battle.

Instead of focusing solely on one technique or trying to as many as possible, Logan was going down a middle road. That would allow him to gain the most strength at the fastest possible speed. It wasn’t the standard method for most young people, but he needed to follow it if he wanted to survive. Also, he couldn’t afford to buy more than a few techniques. That left him with a limit that he had to work around.

With the theory down, Logan began a cycle of practising Flash Step and taking breaks to reflect on his progress. He sometimes read over different sections of the manual to see if he could glean anything new. Others, he calmed himself down by studying the Long Night, his surroundings transforming into a field of dreamy flowers.

That was how Logan’s morning went. He largely ignored everyone else. The old folks sat around and chatted while Deon and the other three trained with their weapons. None of them had entered the Body Tempering realm yet, so they were all just going over the basics. He hoped to push them all into the first stage by the end of the week. By then, they should encounter some powerful beast that would improve Logan’s privilege level if slain.

Being able to purchase items from the System Shop was their highest priority.

For example, Logan could buy life force medicines and push the old folks into the first stage of the Body Tempering realm. That should heal their age-related conditions enough to travel long distances. Depending on how potent the pills and elixirs were, it might even give a few of them the strength to pick up a spear or sword. Having more capable fighters was the best outcome, but Logan reduced his expectations and aimed for them to be travel-ready.

It was a shame that the egg couldn’t fix all ailments. The arthritis and osteoporosis that were afflicting a few of the older members were both chronic conditions. The egg could heal a bruise or stitch up a cut since that wasn’t the state their body should be in, but regenerating the cartilage in a joint or changing the hormone balance of an elderly woman to increase bone growth were both outside of how the egg ‘healed’.

If it could fix those age-related conditions and alter the state of the body, Logan could make them all young again. Hell, he would also be able to strengthen them to superhuman levels. Months of conditioning and intense training done in seconds. That would be incredibly useful, but the egg couldn’t do it. Altering flesh simply wasn’t within the realm of its capabilities.

In the end, increasing his privilege level was a must. If they didn’t get a steady supply of food and medicine to heal the old folks so they could travel and fight, their hopes of returning to civilisation in under three months would be meagre. And if Tom didn’t apologise, training everyone up before they tried to hunt a powerful monster would be much more difficult.

That was why Logan trained in the cavern rather than the colder prison cells below. If Tom refused to come before the afternoon, he would take Amelia, James, and Stephanie to go and hunt without him. It would be better to leave the asshole behind than allow him to pull the rest of the group down, but it seemed that Tom’s pride hadn’t won out, the door creaking open at the end of the hallway.