.Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, work it, do it… something… something…

I had a habit of recreating songs I remembered from Earth, and this one had been on repeat for the last day or so. It was a popular techno song from some French dudes, I think, and since I was terrible at remembering lyrics it was perfect (the whole song was only a dozen words on repeat). It had first come to mind when I was considering how crazy dangerous this new world was (they might not have car accidents, guns, or bombs, but the insane monster wolves who could mangle steel with their teeth more than made up the difference), and it was exactly what I needed to become: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. But how??

Which brought me to the heart of the matter.

My goal, I decided, was to see what gave the red-armored soldiers their abilities, and possibly even see if they could teach me how to fight. At least then, maybe, then I would have a better chance of surviving in this primitive place. Sure, the soldiers hadn't been able to kill the giant wolf, but they had given it at least minor wounds, and a few of them had even managed to survive when they decided to run and hide (I had seen both pink-hair and flame-sword in the hours after the attack). I could live with that - I mean, they still kicked serious ass compared to the normal shadow wolves, plus I’d love to be able to do those sweet kung-fu moves with all the fire and lightning special effects!

On the other hand, there was blacksmithing with Jaws, which also seemed like a lot of fun. I had always loved building, working with my hands, and seeing how things operate. Our monthly journeys to the smithy were genuinely interesting, and I honestly admired the technique, skill, and craftsmanship of the people working there.

Or maybe I could do both? Work at the smithy during the day, and train in the evenings.

However... quite frankly, that sounded like a lot of work…

Not that I was lazy, but I was just a normal guy, not some crazy action hero, or a movie character written and fueled by pure cocaine and motivation. Sure, I had taken some martial arts when I was younger, but I only went as far as a purple belt; and while had I owned a few swords (what self-respecting gamer geek didn't), I had never really learned how to use any of them properly.

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My mind had been going round and round for hours... I even considered trying to contact that crazy old Merrik guy for an apprenticeship! Not that I had the first clue about how to even get in touch with the dirty wolf-eater.

Going over my list of potential advantages in this world, things that may give me an edge over regular people (and, hopefully, whatever monsters are still out there), I started to plot out how I might take charge of my own fate a little bit.

First of all, there was my soul-bond with Mark. He hadn't gotten back to me yet, but having a link like that was sure to come in handy... plus, hadn't he mentioned that he was rich in one of his messages? Yeah, for sure that couldn't hurt, but it went on the back burner for now.

Next was the soul-rope astral projection ability that I had figured out recently. It could come in handy, especially for scouting and spying at extremely short ranges... which was not all that great, except for the ability to 'see and hear' through walls. It would probably be an amazing ability to have next time we were locked in the fortress, since knowing what was happening outside while sealed inside what was essentially an artificial stone mountain could surely be of use to somebody!

Then there was the knowledge I had brought with me from my past life on Earth. There was a pretty drastic difference in the technology levels, but I wasn't certain how to take advantage of that yet - knowing how to program in three languages doesn't matter much if you don't have a computer. Being an Engineer, however, I had also been trained in the fundamental theories of metallurgy and various fabrication techniques, as well as practical applications of fluid dynamics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and classical physics. Surely something in that (disturbingly dynamic) list would come in handy, especially if I ended up going the blacksmith route.

Finally, I had the magical mind book that was given to me by the Celestial. It was still doing its thing, and I was still feeling amazing every time I woke up for a sufficiently long nap. The book had also somehow helped me get the astral projection working in the first place, so maybe it could help in other ways. I still had a building sense that it was... opening, or something along those lines. Or maybe there was a period of adjustment before it could operate at full capacity - maybe it was even changing me, in some way, so that I would be a more compatible host (but not 'host' in a scary Hollywood movie way).

My first three potential advantages were pretty neat, even downright handy in certain situations, but none of them would help me kill a shadow wolf - at least not in the short term.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

The final item on my list had a lot more potential. As far as I understood it, my body was absorbing universal energy (qi, manna, whatever you called it) nearly every night, but I still had no idea what to do with whatever cosmic force was being gathered. It was supposed to be a 'cultivation method' or something, but I didn’t really know what that meant, except for having come across the term in popular Asian fiction and literature when I had lived overseas, back on Earth. Or maybe I should just start collecting dragon balls...

Alternatively, didn't people also cultivate vegetables and plants? In real-world terms, I only remember hearing the word used in a gardening context, or maybe from those self-help books that told the reader to 'cultivate a calmer you' or some such nonsense. There were so many things I wished that I had asked the Celestial when I had had the chance!

Alright, well… it was some kind of universal ‘energy’ right? And since one of the purest forms of energy is electricity… maybe it would give me a place to start. Plus I had already seen that one lady shoot lightning, which made the fantasy a bit more tangible, so it was worth a shot. But what would I do with electricity; being an Engineer was both a hindrance and a help at that point. I knew exactly what lightning was, for example, and how it was created, and could even duplicate it with the right equipment... but I also knew that it was undirected, and impossible to control except by taking advantage of the fact that electricity, or current, always and followed the path of least resistance. It was essentially impossible to actually aim electricity in a practical sense, unless you hit someone with a wire first, like with a Taser (where the wire provided the path of least resistance).

However, that was where the Asian literature could come in, since I was pretty sure that much of the modern fiction was based on even older stories, rumors, and legends. As far as I knew, there might even be some truth to them as well, since the Celestial had mentioned that Earth was constantly having its energy sucked away to power other places (that some jerks decided was more important than my entire planet of origin...), so I decided to temporarily set pure science aside and look at things with more of an open mind. I could use it to help give me ideas, but worrying about what was 'technically scientifically possible' seemed like a pretty stupid idea after being reborn on a planet with giant super wolves, dudes who ignored gravity, and The Merrik.

I began by trying to focus on the sensation of 'wellness' that swept through me every time I had a long enough sleep, and then slowly worked in images of the magical-mind-book while picturing electricity: What it was, how it operated, and how it represented itself to my senses. It might have seemed like a waste of time, but since I was still too young to roam around freely I had a lot of time to kill.

And... nothing happened. For nearly a week I kept trying when I had spare time (which was a lot, since basically all my time was 'spare' at not even a year old).

Despite my lack of immediate results, I kept trying. Still nothing. But yet again I kept on visualizing it in different ways, until I finally tried imagining power flowing through my body; from my chest (where I imagined the Celestial's book residing) to my palm, from my palm to my index finger, jumping across a small gap of air into the index finger of my opposite hand, and then followed the same steps in reverse order until it had completed a full cycle, returning to my chest.

I fell over backward with a startled yelp as a large blue window suddenly popped into existence in front of me, containing the following message written in familiar text:

Hey guys, Nerdy CEO here.

I see that you are headed for one of the portals! Probably not a bad idea, all things considered, not that I would want to stop you anyway; free will, remember? Everything here requires an opportunity and a choice, and you are making yours.

Anyway, those portals don't lead to the infinite Celestial Plane, or even one of the Divine realms. Which means you are, technically, getting less than the full reward I promised you. And since it was my responsibility to deliver the karmic reward, I decided to upload a little compensation package into the soul-link I set up for you, and of course let you keep the link itself. It’s not really much of a gift, just a simple something that might help you find your path to immortality, if you are lucky.

Both of you will largely be on your own from here on out, and always remember that how you choose to cultivate your path is the most personal thing in the multiverse. Even taking advice from someone can be immensely harmful! Few who follow a path laid down by others have ever achieved true greatness.

But hey, information is power, right? That's where my gift comes in, and I included some other tidbits here and there, no big deal. Nothing that isn't considered common knowledge on the infinite vastness of the Celestial Plane.

Overall, you guys should have a pretty big leg up on the competition… but Mortal Realms can be insanely dangerous to you fragile mortals, so you may want to consider not making too much of a splash in the first few hundred years or so.

Last thing, there is a silver lining to your choice: Beings incarnated directly on the endless expanse of the Celestial Plane are powerful, but it tends to be a more 'eternal-yet-generic' kinda power that leaves them no real possibility of advancing further. This means that people who start from the bottom and work their way up can have a huge advantage… if they ever actually get there. Fair warning; most do not.

I wish you both the best of luck,

PS. Again, if you end up working together to cultivate, you risk destroying your greatest strength: Diversity! Each and every one of us marches to a different beat - the path you forge yourself will always be the one you know best.

CCEO