Will ran through the forest, ouch tunnel still ouching. He didn't know quite where he was going, currently. He wasn't lost, he still had the map on his mind, but that only told him where the Tacky Mountain, the beast ball, and the forest were. The forest being all around him, of course.

He was hoping for another hut, but since that obviously wouldn't happen, he was looking for a cave. It took him an hour of running before he found one.

The cave he found wasn't a good cave, it was barely a cave at all honestly. It was only a few feet deep, but Will didn't really have the opportunity to be picky. He sat down on the stone ground, his legs burning.

He had been walking for about twelve hours, and then was walking once he got inside the mountain, and then he was running, and then running again once he managed to escape. He was also quite tired. It was getting close to four in the morning now, and he'd been awake since sunrise.

Not that he really felt like sleeping right now. The constant pain in his hand didn't really facilitate a restful night, especially since he'd probably lose his arm if he stopped managing it. On that note, he felt like he should ask when that stopped.

That reminded the sword about the fact that Will should've been very dead by now.

“I'm not sure. I've never had a contractor last this long.”

“Usually around a minute. Actually, why are you lasting so long?”

“What does that even mean? Immune? How can you just… be immune?”

“No one lasted long enough to name me.”

The sword cut him off.

“That doesn't count. He didn't even contract with me. And he thought I was a fucking dagger. Fuckin’ dumb bastard…”

Will decided not to mention how the Sick Freak had named it after himself. It felt impolite. He sure as hell wouldn't like being reminded of it if he was named after the Sick Freak.

Will suddenly thought of something.

The sword seemed a bit… awkward?

“Haha, um, I do, but it's, um…”

The sword stopped stalling and just said it.

“It can only be practiced by women. I'm sorry.”

When Will heard this, he felt about the same as he did when it told him he would get qi deviation if he contracted with it. Which was excited. He could swap his sex whenever he wanted. Now that he thought about it more, he had an idea. He went to the Appearance Alteration Menu switched his sex to female and confirmed the change.

The sword stopped for a moment. It had thought this kid was a boy, but thinking about it more, it wasn't like it had been going off anything other than clothes and hair, really. It felt even more awkward now.

“Oh, uh, haha, I'm sorry, I didn't realize. My bad, haha. So you're a girl then, haha.”

He swapped back again.

“Huh?”

The sword was confused.

“Why did you lie just now then?”

The sword was more confused.

“What?”

“I don't get it. Are you a girl or not?”

Will swapped again.

“Huh?”

Will finally couldn't hold it in and started laughing.

The sword sounded defeated.

“Oh, okay. That's fine, then. You can learn the technique then I guess.”

Will felt a bit bad for the poor thing. He wasn't going to act differently because of it, but he did feel it.

The sword felt a lot less defeated when it thought about it more. It would be a disappointment if the first person able to wield it wasn't compatible with its arts.

“It's not as much a technique as it is a comprehensive arts.”

“It's basically just a bunch of techniques wrapped into one.”

“You'll have to start with the footwork first.”

Will looked down at his feet. They hurt. His legs also hurt. He wasn't doing that. Not now.

The sword was confused for a moment before it understood what he meant.

“I didn't expect you to start actually practicing now. You should at least start memorizing it though. Here.”

The sword sent a whole bunch of information, along with two “videos”. The movements in the first were light and airy like a cloud floating through the air. The movements in the second were like the wind. The figure in the video was running, but it was smooth and graceful. It was like a dance. A very fast dance.

They both had a feminine look to them, which Will found to make sense considering what the sword said earlier. Will also thought they were both really cool. He copied everything he was sent into his Document storage and embedded it into his memory.

“Oh.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The sword seemed to just accept it, too tired to go through the effort of getting proof. It knew he did. Why wouldn't he be able to? He’s immune to qi deviation, can change his sex at will, of course he can memorize things after seeing them once.

“You can still do that in this situation?”

“Not really what I meant, but okay.”

Will left the bit of his consciousness managing the ouchy tunnel behind while he let the rest sleep. It wasn't a good sleep, but he at least got some.

—

The sun rose, and though Will slept through it, he eventually woke up at midday. He was feeling a lot better.

The ouch tunnel was ouching as always. He was really hoping it didn't just do that forever. By now, his meridians were full of the sword’s qi. They'd been that way even before he went to sleep actually. They were just more full now.

He really wanted to put it into his lower dantian, but he knew it'd tear his body to shreds the second it left his meridians.

On the bright side, his legs were better now! He stood up eager to test out the footwork from last night.

“Good morning. You about to try the footwork I showed you?”

He started with the cloud one, since he didn't have to leave his cave for it. He moved his feet according to the steps in his memory.

It didn't turn out well. His current body being that of a toddler, his fine motor skills were pretty bad. It felt a lot like trying to write while holding the pen with sausages. Except the pen was also vibrating violently and the sausages were on the end of ten-foot poles.

It only took a moment to dig through his memory to find the next step, but when he attempted to move his foot where it said to, he was two inches off minimum. It was so aggravating and unsatisfying that he lost track of time and practiced it for an hour without realizing.

Even after an hour though, he still could barely get close. His movements reminded him less of a cloud and more of a ball of cotton. After reviewing it and getting that result he got even more annoyed and practiced for another hour.

After the second hour, it finally started to look slightly like a cloud. For about a second in between multiple minutes of cotton ball. But during that moment of almost-cloud, he saw how cool this was.

It was more than simply looking like a cloud, there was some supernatural element to it as well. Like even if he got hit by a sword, it wouldn't hurt. Because how would a sword hurt a cloud? He was only able to achieve about 1% of that, but it was still cool as hell that stepping a certain way could actually negate damage. It didn't even use spiritual energy.

But he was a bit tired of slamming his head against this wall. He had another wall to smash his head against now. There was still the second footwork, the one that looked like wind. But he couldn't do it in the cave. He left his cultivation doors, currently off, in the cave along with his pillowcase bag tying their handles together as he walked outside. He only walked a few feet away, so he wasn't too worried.

He tried following the steps in his mind for the wind-like footwork. It wasn't any easier than the cloud one, but it seemed like the results were more visible when done poorly than the other ones. At least the effect of moving quickly was.

Will felt like this one was definitely going to be more useful. For running away. Because it's not like he was gonna use this to fight someone. Best he was taking on was a regular twenty year old. Fighting someone with cultivation? It'd be better to run. Or to grovel. Maybe make use of his being a baby to make them feel bad about killing him? Basically, he could run faster now and it didn't cost more stamina to do it.

That was the best part, the lack of higher stamina usage. If it was just running really fast, he could already do that. The issue is that running faster than he had been would lead to his having to stop and breathe for a bit. Which he very much couldn't do earlier. He was very thankful he hadn't stopped earlier after seeing what happened with the array-covered Sick Freak earlier.

After Will practiced the wind footwork for an hour, he realized that he didn't have a name for either of them yet. He decided to ask the sword what they were called.

“The first one is Cloud Steps and the second is Wind Dance.”

Now knowing its name, he continued practicing the Wind Dance footwork. After another hour, he felt like he could run a bit faster. It wasn't a great amount, but it definitely was more than he could've gotten by practicing regular running back in the other universe.

Now that he had practiced footwork until he got bored of it, he needed to find something else to do. The issue was that he didn't have many options. He could cultivate, but his only options for that were to use the doors and call a new horde over, cultivate normally without them and cause a dead zone that something dangerous (anything living in this forest) would investigate, cultivate everything but life force and make a spiritual energy dry zone that something dangerous would investigate anyway, or cultivate so little that it wouldn't actually effect anything at all. None of the options were very appealing.

He could go back to the hut, but it felt like it could be dangerous. Walking that far in this forest without the cultivation doors making a horde was risky, and doing it with them was like doing it with a Sick Freak beacon, which was even worse. Also, considering that the Sick Freak made the hut, or at least the basement under it, it felt pretty dumb to go there. Which left him low on options.

“Weren't you gonna practice the footwork?”

“What are you, a child?”

“Good point. Well, why not cultivate?”

The sword thought “dead zone” was a bit overdramatic for an area just drained of spiritual energy, but it didn't dwell on it.

“What do you usually do then?”

“Best not do that then. Maybe you can work on another array like the ones on your doors?”

He had already filled out the doors with as many as he could reasonably fit at this point.

“Didn't you come up with that array? Just work on another one.”

Will realized that the sword assumed he had made those arrays. Well, they were made by someone's baby boy, so it was kind of close. It was a reasonable guess, he probably seemed like a genius from what it'd seen. Sadly, he wasn't even close to a genius. Well, he was a genius for a two year old, but he didn't even know if he was that impressive in this world. There may be actual two year olds smarter than he was in this world. It was a bit depressing to think about.

“Then where did you get it from?”

The sword was sure he hadn't gotten it from the Sick Freak. An array used by him would've worked way better, and an array designed by him wouldn't have worked at all.

“From who? Your toddler friends? You buy it at the toddler market?”

It was a bit hard for Will to answer. He didn't really want to explain the Information Manual Exchange Marketplace to the sword. He decided it would be best to just explain his capabilities without explaining the why or how.

The sword didn't even bother doubting. There was no point.

“Well, maybe by something else?”

“Maybe you should just practice footwork, then.”

Will sighed loudly and heavily, then begrudgingly continued practicing the Wind Dance footwork. After fifteen minutes, he was so bored he sent some of his consciousness into the mind space to play on his phone. He noticed that he was actually able to perform the steps about the same with his consciousness split like this as he was with it only split between dealing with the ouchy tunnel. It made sense, he supposed. He didn't really have an issue in the mental aspect. It was just his lack of dexterity that was an issue.

By the time his two hours of phone playing were up, the sun had started to set. Checking his progress, he found that he was a bit faster now than he was before. It wasn't as substantial a change as he'd seen in the first two hours, but that made sense considering the first two hours had started with him unable to get two steps right in a row.

As he was convincing himself to continue practicing, he remembered the books from the Sick Freak's bookshelves. He'd copied them all when he was there, but he hadn't looked at them yet. He decided to start looking through them.

The first one he looked at was a book of poems. They weren't very good poems. Looking back at the title and finding it read Demonic Lightning Poems, it made a lot of sense.

The next one was a book on alchemy. It appeared to be pretty low level. Will’s Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor surprisingly allowed him to know what the herbs it referred to were, as opposed to just a literal translation of their names. Sadly, it only let him know what they looked like and other information that would be clear from just encountering one, like the air around one herb being a bit warmer, or how the color looked in different environments, though he couldn't tell which of those environments it could actually be found in naturally. Will didn't have a cauldron though, so it wasn't particularly useful to him anyway.

The next two books he looked at were adult novels. They surprisingly didn't get removed because of age requirements. Will assumed it was probably because of how much they used euphemisms. If he didn't have the Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor, he'd probably think they were just really confusing books about gardening. Of course, he did have that, so he understood that the flowers it kept mentioning were not flowers, and the valleys, hills, mountains, and peaks were not geographical descriptions either. He closed them both once they got to that part.

The next one he looked at was pretty interesting. It was a book on formations. Most of the formations were less than useless for him. One made it look like plum blossoms were floating through the air. Another made people within its range ‘let loose their inhibition’, which judging from what else it said about its effects, seemed to be a fancy way of saying it made them act drunk. But there were a few things in the book that were very interesting to Will.

Foremost of interest was the technical knowledge. It wasn't a book for people first starting out, so it didn't describe the basics, but it had a lot of tips that let Will figure out some stuff. The biggest thing he learned was of a common quality that almost all formations share. That common quality being the need for things he didn't have.

When it came to treasures needed for formations, he had the lightning trees, the compass maybe, and the sword. And the sword was stuck to his hand currently. It was a bit disappointing.

The next book he looked at was a novel. It seemed like a young adult novel. Will made it halfway through the first chapter before getting bored, and since it wasn't anything useful anyway, he moved on.

After another euphemism-ladened adult novel that Will skipped, he got to what seemed to be an herbal compendium. It wasn't that useful, since he didn't have an alchemy cauldron, but it at least helped him know some things to look out for, whether that be for avoiding or gathering. After embedding it into his memory, he checked it against the documents he copied plants into and found that only three were in there, one being worth gathering and the other two being dangerous enough to avoid. He was glad he hadn't tried gathering herbs before getting this book.

Moving on, he found the most useful book yet. It was a book on arrays. It disappointingly didn't have any arrays in it, but what it did have was a lot of information on them. It seemed to be a book focused on designing new arrays rather than a book of arrays to use. It describes a lot of symbols and what they did, how they worked with each other, and a lot of other useful stuff. Embedding it into his memory and looking at the spiritual energy gathering array he had bought, he was able to understand somewhat what some of the symbols on it did. He could understand a bit of it with Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor already, but that told him more about the meaning behind each symbol rather than its exact function. Now he understood how those symbols interacted with each other and how their placements effected that.

Sadly, the vast majority of the less basic symbols simply weren't in the book he had. He wasn't sure if they were rare, a secret, in a less beginner level book, or were from a different universe altogether. He didn't know who the array was made by, other than the fact that someone considered them a baby boy when it was put up for sale.

After the book on array design, he surprisingly found a technique manual. It was for the Demonic Lightning Fist and it sucked. A lot of it was because it was confusing, but even with that issue cleared up by the Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor, it was clear that it just wasn't a good technique. It was clear the Sick Freak wasn't a talented punching expert. Whether he just used someone else's technique, used other body based arts, or just attacked from range with his demonic lightning, Will couldn't say.

The next book he looked at was another young adult novel. After that was a book of euphemisms that used cooking and alchemy terms, which fit well since the main characters were a mortal chef and an alchemist. After that was another one with the standard flower and geography euphemisms. He stopped them all before even finishing the first chapter.

It took Will a bit to understand what the next book was. At first, he thought it was another adult novel, but Will really couldn't figure out what it was trying to imply. It didn't take him long though to realize that the Automatic Universal Linguistic Knowledge Database Accessor was telling him that this was just an actual gardening book. Which made a lot more sense, considering the lack of a plot and how the references to plants were full names of spiritual plants. It wasn't that useful for much else other than the chuckle he got after realizing what it was. He didn't have any of the requirements, and he definitely wasn't going to start farming outside a random cave in a forest where his enemy lived.

The next book was another young adult novel, then a book of poems not written by the Sick Freak that was actually pretty okay, though Will didn't know for sure considering he wasn't interested in poems. After that was another euphemism book, followed by a book on manners which Will embedded into his memory.

The next book he found was a book on monstrous beasts. It had a blurb about what a monstrous beast was, which had a pretty loose definition, some explanations of relevant terms, and then the rest of the pages were information on different monstrous beasts. After embedding it into his memory, Will had a fun time trying to match the beasts he copied from his horde to entries in the book. He made a second copy of the monstrous beast book, putting the models of the beasts he'd matched up next to their entries, along with the little information he'd written down next to some of them, and the rest tacked on to the end of the book. He unembedded the first one and embedded this one instead.

After the monstrous beast book, he found another adult novel, another young adult novel, another adult novel, and another young adult novel.

After that he found a book on torture which he closed immediately. The next one was another adult novel, except this one didn't use euphemisms and got an age requirement put on it. After that was a book on torture that also got an age requirement put on it, then another one, then a book on torture that didn't get an age requirement, then another adult book that got an age requirement, then another. The rest of the books were the same mix of age restricted adult book, torture book, and age restricted torture book. Judging by the colors of the books’ covers, Will seemed to remember these all being on the second bookshelf from the door.

The books he'd copied really managed to drive home the “Freak” part of the Sick Freak's title of Sick Freak. To put even adult books that only used euphemismsin the first room from the door is crazy already. But the Sick Freak actually had a second shelf in the first room dedicated solely to explicit stuff that those didn't even qualify for. Will's only disappointment was that he wouldn't be able to export them to show people how messed up the Sick Freak is.

Once he'd finished going over the books he'd copied, six hours had passed. He ended up losing track of time, it seemed. Well, he managed to stave off boredom while practicing footwork, and he was actually a good bit better at it now, so he was satisfied.

He was also going to sleep. He went into the cave, using the Wind Dance footwork of course, and sat with his back against the wall. Leaving a piece of his consciousness handling the ouch tunnel, Will quickly drifted off to sleep.