(((..-- DenWu --..)))
Water droplets slammed hard into the windows and flowed slowly down to the gutter below. Each one flashed with its iridescent shine. Some complained about the fact the water needed to be filtered for consumption, but DenWu knew such things were simply the price of progress. Denduram would have faded into obscurity without its mines, and without the Den clan themselves. The things he did and worked on in the illicit trades were all supportive of that. They kept this planet and his businesses relevant and necessary to those around them, like the walls of an egg.
Below, he could see the rivers and channels that had burrowed into the dirt. They pooled and meandered, and flushed themselves ever further down. The natural path of most took them over the sides of the main mineshaft, and down into the depths. There it would soak into the sidewalls and coat landing pads and open bays. Once all of that was saturated, it would finally start to drip down further, until it reached the warrens themselves. It was a timely process, like most things. At the start of rain on the surface, the Warrens were dry. When the rain finally reached that far underground, the storms up here would be gone. So slow and laggard - as waiting for the CCE had been.
DenWu took pride in his work ethic, and his tasks for legitimate business were capable of keeping him busy. But it was all far too monotonous for his liking. There were no complexities to solve, and the personalities and proclivities of his managers and directors barely mattered, compared to the posturing and planning required when working with those on the fringe.
He also lamented lost influence and profits. Vuxarina's planetary awakening had driven up the demand for his unregulated G-grade crystals, but not a single shipment had been sent to that sector since the warning about the CCE had come. If this kept up, he'd lose the chance to be their preferred supplier - and the parties would simply switch to locally-mined resources as soon as their task was done. Though that also assumed they were able to complete their takeovers without the resources DenWu was currently unable to provide. The restrictions on newly awakened worlds was harsh, and the factions would need as much functional G-grade weaponry and armor as possible to maintain an advantage over the locals and the beasts.
His tail whipped against the floor, and he watched rain slam itself against the window.
----------------------------------------
+ Reid +
"I thought we didn't want to raise Constitution?"
"That ship sailed when you raised your power stat. Plus if you do this next part right, you can do more and need less recovery time. Now pay attention. Constitution, you treated like power. You have physical health down well, but you haven't worked on the overarching vitality."
----------------------------------------
Constitution: 62.5
A reflection of an individual's overall vitality. Constitution impacts stamina and health. Stamina is recommended for all individuals engaged in manual labor or prolonged fighting. Health is recommended for all individuals. May those of high constitution live long and prosper, even in the harshest of conditions.
----------------------------------------
"So vitality is the metaphysical aspect?"
"Good guess, but it's a mix. The venn diagram between physical and metaphysical constitution has more overlap than almost any other. You've been feeding yourself after each training session to refuel, right? Well, you think you're just absorbing nutrients and making your physical body happy. But you're also turning those nutrients into energy your metaphysical self consumes. Vitality does a few things, but we'll start there. The moles you've been eating have nutrients and they have energy. You've been focusing on processing one, and you haven't developed the sense of what to do with the other."
"I can digest mana?"
"Pretty much. But to start, we're going to give you the tools you need to make that happen. Vitality can be seen as how dense your health is, and how resilient it is to outside forces. Think of a camel."
"Oh, I need to store energy like a camel stores water in its hump!"
"Reid, that's not what the hump is for. It's a fat deposit. I'm pulling this from your memories, how do -? Nevermind. The camel's hump is storage, but it's fat storage, like you would have if your body wasn't trying to run at max capacity all the time. I'm not telling you to get fat, I'm saying you need to create resource reserves within yourself that nutrients and energy are going to flow to as you consume things. Then, in times of scarcity, the reserves will be there to keep you going - that applies to replacing bits of eating and drinking, or the energy it would take to fuel one more skill use or that extra bit of healing you want. At first, both the number of stores and what they can hold are going to be limited, but as you grow, you'll be able to make more reserves, and you'll be able to increase the density of those vitality stores to have more resources in the same amount of space."
"I knew that - about the fat. I think. So how do I start?"
"Eat. Pull one of those steaks out of inventory and take small bites. Feel the nutrients and the energy within, and see how your body processes it. Then, try to see what isn't immediately digested, but temporarily stored. Those locations are the beginnings of your vitality stores."
The mole steak strip appeared in his hand, and he frowned before popping it into his mouth. Monotony was always taxing, and day after day of nothing but steak had Reid questioning how much he really liked it. It was still better than crappy protein bars.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Reid chewed and swallowed, then watched himself as he digested the thing. He repeated the process fourteen more times before he managed to follow a bit of nutrients to a spot where they weren't immediately absorbed. They stayed there for almost an hour, then got sucked away to restore something in his legs. The next piece of meat he ate, Reid worked to move bits of nutrients down to the same space. It worked, almost too easily. He spent a day eating and cataloguing until he had four separate resource stores he'd identified. The more he physically sent nutrients into the stores, the easier it was to make it happen again. Reid's body even started to automatically push part of his meal into the four stores by itself.
It was slow and exceedingly boring work. Often, nothing noticeable happened at all. But in a way, the experience had been like a different form of hunting. No matter what you did, you were there, and you had to be ready to pay attention for if and when something did go down. It wasn't the wait, necessarily, but the payoff. So long as you got something out of those 10 seconds of something, the rest didn't feel quite so bad or off. That mentality kept the boredom and monotony from prying at the corners of his mind. Or at least alleviated it. He was still bored throughout, and found his mind wandering again and again as time stretched on.
Reid was mid-chew, idly wondering what a metaphysical version of the stores would look like when he caught the barest bit of a glimpse. He knew how the process worked, now - and followed it in. The glimpses came and went, guiding him to a metaphysical space within himself where the true constitution metaspace would reside. Pain came with them - similar to what he'd experienced in chasing down the gym. But, either the pain wasn't quite as bad, or he was getting used to it. Reid pursued them with a fervor until - finally - the metaspace itself shifted and popped into existence.
He stood in an odd amalgamation. It was part of his home kitchen, but also looked like his office's break room. The tables reminded him of the canteen, and the chairs were mounted bench seats like his middle school cafeteria. Everything in it was just a bit... odd. Instead of a full fridge, a dorm-room sized version sat in the too-large opening. Most cabinets didn't look real, like they were doors mounted directly to the wall. The stove only had a single burner, and every drawer was empty. Still, he'd done it. He'd made his third metaspace, and he didn't even need Nyx to guide him through this one.
As if called by the thought, she popped into existence beside him.
"Not terrible - especially for one you sort of stumbled onto. Your visualization can be improved, but that will come as you start to work on it by yourself. Just remember, this space is pretty much a metaphysical representation of your nutrition and energy stores. It'll help you grasp concepts like manipulating the energy you have in storage, and it'll also get you to the point where you'll be able to feed your physical self using metaphysical means. Lone Agent - that Achievement effect you got - should make the rest of the work here come fairly smooth. Go ahead - check your gain."
----------------------------------------
Constitution: 62.5 -> 97.5
----------------------------------------
Reid smiled at the increase, and knew he'd be able to easily get himself further along - even if it ended up a time consuming endeavor. He took another few bites of meat, and watched the resources they contained get absorbed and stored. As they did, there was also a minor change to his kitchen metaspace, where it felt like he now had food in the fridge he could 'eat' like leftovers. If he-
"Ah, ah ah! - stop daydreaming. You just spent quite a while cycling yourself from full to empty. While you might feel ready to roll into more training, your body is fatigued. You need to take a breather, and get some sleep. Your internal stores aren't a replacement for actual rest, just like downing energy drinks isn't a viable way to keep yourself up and functional for multiple days. You're a half step from crashing anyway, so just allow yourself to drift off."
As Reid let himself heed Nyx's words, the sound of dripping water lulled him to sleep.
#
#
For centuries, tiny rivulets of moisture had taken the same path. They wore their way through the deep ground and stone, flowing ever downward towards a final destination. For centuries, tiny paths had slowly merged and morphed into larger and larger openings, until they formed a grand run large enough to house the underwater rivers that so infrequently came. There was only one odd bend in this otherwise nearly-vertical flowing path. The den, kept stable by the challenge area's field effects, remained unchanged and unweathered even as the material around it eroded and dragged deeper down. With its magical protection finally gone - the iridescent liquid was free to eat into the old, untouched rock. The first few drops in a torrential storm were at last reaching the area, and they coated everything in a beautiful, acidic shine.
----------------------------------------
(---) Jim (---)
Jim suppressed a groan as his stomach rumbled. He'd been stuck, trapped between the chasm walls for days. His god-granted figure, coupled with his backpack full of supplies, had kept him from falling all the way down. He spent his time eating and drinking what supplies he could still reach, and trying to figure out if there was a good way to get himself out of the mess. Sometimes he looked at the walls, and tried to figure out what the marks there meant. But he was hungry again, and needed to eat. Just one more ration bar, then he'd figure out a way up.
His hand rifled past water bottles, and seized on a bar. He pulled, and items in the pack shifted as they had done already dozens of times. Except this time, the bulk of the items keeping him stuck between the walls had finally moved in just the right way - and Jim's body was plummeting again.
He fell for seconds before slamming into a body of water. Jim felt himself nearly sucked down by an underground current, but managed to swim hard against it and found the surface, then the shore.
Everything around him was pitch black, and even his darkvision did little to help him understand the surroundings. But while there was no light - there was plenty of noise.
Somewhere far away from him, there was a mad chorus of scraping, chittering, buzzing, and vocalizing. It sent shivers up his spine, and breath caught in his throat. He activated his invisibility instinctually as a reaction. It didn't matter how far away the noise was - the fear was with him here.
Seconds passed as he listened, skill active. Then a rhythmic popping shattered the air around him. Jim jumped, and activated his heat sense.
He wished he hadn't.
Twelve long sets of legs stretched above him. Each one ended in a barbed foot, and connected to a body shaped like an oval. On its underside, the oval was full of hair-like growths that seemed to move on their own. They idly pushed towards a central mouth that was invisible to heat sense but for the line of drool that hung down where it closed. The top of its body looked like the half-open bulb of a flower, dotted with eyes at seemingly random places. He could see them blink, as the rough skin of the beast shielded more body heat from his view.
It twisted and turned, then scurried back and forth. It was searching - he realized. Searching for him. The thing had seen him before he'd used his skill.
He swallowed hard, and spared a glance up at where he'd fallen from. There had to be a way back.
There had to be.