Chapter 215

Day 46, Friday, Eden

Jay woke to darkness and for a moment his sleep addled brain thought maybe he had woken up in the middle of the night. As he once again cursed his lack of any time keeping devices he tried to figure out how else he could figure out what time it was.

The first signs of daylight crept over the horizon and Jay could make out a gradual brightening of the sky outside of his bedroom window.

Well, that answers that question, Jay thought to himself. It was morning. Dawn.

It was also Friday. Tonight was the grand opening of M'redith Meadows. Jay was really looking forward to unveiling his new business. Everyone would be there. He'd probably, no definitely, would have to talk with the King. Jay was the host, he'd have to talk with him. That would be interesting.

Jay stretched in bed and felt his muscles relax after he had finished doing so. He yawned one last time and got out of bed.

It was still dark out but was brightening by the minute. Jay was still clean from his Aura cleaning last night and really didn't need a bath. Still. Baths were relaxing.

Or he could go workout, do his weapon exercises along with normal exercises to help keep him in shape.

The bath sounded far more enjoyable.

But sometimes it wasn't about what was fun, Jay tried to tell himself. He wasn't very convincing.

With a groan Jay finally tugged on his underclothes and armor and grabbed his staff. He left his backpack in his room, he wouldn't need it to workout. He was sure however to take his keycard with him so that he could get back in to his rooms when he was done.

Jay felt like he was forgetting something as he left his rooms and rubbed one finger over the keycard in his pocket just to verify it was still there. Only then did he pull the door closed behind him.

The ground was still dark even though the sky had begun to brighten thanks to the fact that the sun had not yet crested the horizon. Only once it did so would the light chase away the darkness that covered the ground as far as Jay could see.

He picked his way along the paths carefully and watched where he was going after he had almost walked in to a pair of black and teal clad Librarians. They had given him a stern look as he had apologized and stepped carefully around them.

They had watched him as he had continued on his way and their stares felt a bit intimidating to Jay as he left them.

Finally he ended up reaching his destination – the area where M'redith and the others had joined him for practice a few times before class in the past. It was a good spot, and Jay got started right away with some exercises.

Push ups, planks, jumping jacks, along with a number of other exercises were enough to wake him up. He worked until he'd given all of his muscles at least a little attention. Then he moved on to his next activity.

Weapons training.

He did all of the exercises that he had been taught and tried his best to perform them correctly. He worked through the basic blocks and then the basic strikes before he moved on to the dance.

Norri had once shown him a series of steps that were all put together in to a dance. Jay tried to perform the dance just as she had taught him. He fought off imaginary attackers and blocked imaginary strikes as the dance took him through a fight against a host of imaginary opponents.

The dance was the same every time and as Jay moved through the steps required to perform him he began to become more aware of his feet and where he was placing them. They felt... sloppy, somehow. Jay had finally reached a point where he could sense when something was off with his form – and his form was really off that morning.

Jay stopped the dance and started again, this time slower. He moved through the steps one at a time and made sure after each that his feet had been placed correctly. Not just pointed in the correct direction either, but the distance between them and the angle of each foot had to be perfect. As he did so he began to gain a deeper understanding of his weight and how he was distributing it between his two feet.

On some steps he would have to put all of his weight on one foot. On others it was a more even split. Still others would require a shifting of weight from one foot, to the other, and back again, in order to perform the move correctly.

He quickly learned that his weight distribution was almost entirely incorrect as he almost fell repeatedly as he proceeded through the dance.

Up until that point Jay had been focusing almost entirely on his hands and what they were doing. He had been well aware that his footwork was important too but he'd never really internalized that lesson until that morning, all alone in a courtyard.

Jay stopped and began once again. He had yet to complete the dance even a single time that morning, but that was ok – he was learning a lot. Sometimes practice needed to be more than just rote memorization and repetition.

Jay tried again and this time focused on his weight and his feet. He moved his hands through the motions without thought as he'd already spent a great deal of time working on that aspect of training. His feet however required that he think through each movement before he made that movement.

The going was slow and it took him far longer than was usual to complete the dance. When he finished he was covered in sweat and was breathing heavily. Even though his movements had been slow they had still taken a toll on his body and he had to rest a moment before he started again.

This time he did far better than his first attempt and he performed the dance at full speed just as he had when he'd first attempted it that morning.

This time he almost stuttered as he performed each step as he focused on how to best move his feet and control his weight. He looked ridiculous, starting to move before coming to a complete halt and then starting up once again.

He learned something else new as he completed the dance. Some movements were impossible if you stopped and thought about it. Some movements required that one kept moving through one movement and in to another. Hesitation between the two would result in losing one's balance and even falling.

Jay thought that over and tried to pick out which movements those were.

Again he performed the dance, this time he would again halt in between movements as he pondered the correct follow up movement. When he reached the movements that required him to push in to the next movement without stop however he just kept going rather than stop to think about it.

His performance was much better on those portions of the dance this time and he didn't fall even once. As he came to the end of the dance he twirled the staff until it swung under his arm where he then tucked it in. His left foot slid up next to his right and he bowed at the waist and finished the dance.

He felt as if he'd learned as much as he was going to – at least for that morning.

He had one last series to do – and that was the series of movements he had learned from his Mighty Book. Theses movements were the ones that allowed his body to change over time and possibly even evolve. It all required that a person perform a specific series of movements immediately after leveling up.

Jay had learned that right after leveling up a person's body was at its most malleable. If a person went through the exercises during that time then the exercises would be far more effective than they would at any other time.

Jay hadn't known the series of movements when he had leveled up the last three times though, so he was a bit behind. He knew that he would be ok as long as he remembered to work through the series of movements a few times a week.

Jay rested his staff on to the ground. The series did not call for holding a weapon. The performer's hands had to be empty. He took a short walk away from the weapon to give himself room to move.

Jay cleared his mind and thought of an ocean, its surface calm and serene. He waited until his breathing had slowed and only then did he begin to go through the complicated movements and breathing that the series required.

It could be called a dance if it weren't for the complete lack of rhythm to its movements. The various positions he was required to put his body in to had no correlation to any strike or block that he knew of – whatever his body was doing it wasn't a weapons dance like the one that Norri had shown him. This was something else, something older and far more mysterious.

Jay could feel his body respond as he went through the motions. At times he was required to hold his breath. At other times he was forced to breath in quick short fire gasps as his body was too contorted for his lungs to work properly. If he breathed in any other manner in that position he would most likely pass out.

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Jay didn't know how long it took him – during the series there was nothing else, just the movements and his breathing. The world faded away entirely as he moved and he entered a trance like state.

Jay's newfound appreciation of weight distribution and transferal meant that he managed to perform the entire thing far better than he had previously. He could feel a current, a buzzing, under his skin and he knew that whatever he was doing, it was working.

He came to the last position and held it for a moment, not wanting it to end. He could feel a bubbling sensation as if he were about to burst. He waited another moment but the feeling faded rather than intensify. Whatever was happening in his body was not something that was ready to show itself. With a mental sigh he finally he let his breath out gently and allowed his shoulders to sag. He had finished the series.

He felt energized somehow. He moved his arms about and felt like they were looser than usual. Surely that was all in his mind though – one workout session couldn't have that much of an effect right? Jay wondered. He took inventory of how he was feeling and found a new odd sensation. He felt 'full.'

Not full full, like one would feel after eating too much – and not bad full, like one would feel after getting too gassy and unable to burp. He felt an entirely new manner of full, as if his being had been topped up with...something. It was a pleasant feeling and as it gradually faded after he had finished his workout series Jay looked forward to the next time he could feel it.

A sudden notification appeared.

Grading...

That was all. There was no follow-up notification and Jay paused in confusion before he finally shrugged and took a deep breath.

Jay coughed and made a strangled sound. He smelled horrible. It wasn't just normal sweat. He had perspired a thick foul smelling substance that was somehow both oily to the touch and tacky, like an adhesive. He felt sticky and gross and he immediately wished that he had picked the bath house instead of working out that morning.

Whatever the series of movement he had learned from his Might Book did they made him smell, feel, and look horrible. Jay, not for the first time, thanked the Goddess for his Tropical Island Aura Class Ability. His adventures in Eden would have been a lot less pleasant without it. His entire group depended on it at times. Being able to be clean in just 30 seconds whenever he chose was quite possibly his favorite Class Ability out of all of the ones that he had seen so far.

He cycled the Aura on and motes of light created a riot of white dots around him as the lifted off of his body and armor and rose in to the air. As they did so they got smaller and smaller until they disappeared entirely.

Jay sighed as he felt the light buzzing on his skin, like being scrubbed by tiny invisible brushes. Moments later he was clean and the motes had died down to only one or two. He turned the aura off and smiled.

It had been a good morning so far. Time for breakfast.

Jay thought about the lessons he had learned that morning from his solo workout. Without anyone else there to pay attention to Jay had been forced to focus on himself. He had learned a bit about foot placement, footwork, weight distribution, and weight transferal. A busy morning indeed.

Jay's stomach rumbled and he momentarily forgot all about combat exercises and weapons practice. He wanted food. Now.

Jay chuckled to himself and decided to head for breakfast. He didn't have his backpack with him but he shouldn't need it to eat breakfast. By now M'redith or Aiden had already gone by his rooms and found them empty. They'd catch up with him at breakfast. Or so Jay hoped. It'd be weird to not see them at breakfast after doing so for over a month.

The sky had brightened considerably by the time Jay had finished his morning practice and started his walk towards the dining hall. The ground had lighted up a bit as well and Jay could see rays of sunlight cut through the trees around him.

Jay stepped off the path to let a line of black and teal clad Librarians pass him. They were not done with their show of strength it seemed. He watched as the line of Librarians met up with another Librarian, this one clad in brown leather armor. They spoke for a moment and then the teal and black Librarians formed up around the leather armor clad Librarian and they moved off as a group. Towards the library of course.

Jay stepped back on to the path and continued his walk to breakfast. He passed plenty of people on the way to the dining hall but it was the Librarians that stuck out. It was hard not to stick out when you were 7 feet tall.

He turned the corner and walked across the open space in front of the dining hall. Most of the open space was taken up by people talking with others before they went in to eat. Others were doing the same, just after they had eaten. The area ended up being a place for social interaction and a crowd usually formed in the area as others attempted to get in line for food.

Jay wasn't feeling all that sociable as his stomach growled once again. He was really hungry that morning for some reason. Jay wondered if it had anything to do with the series of workouts he had done for his statistics. He'd have to find a faster way of describing that.

Stats workout? Statistics yoga? Upgrade meditation? None of them seemed quite right but Jay decided to go with stats workout for now.

He got in to line at the dining hall and smiled at a group of younger students in front of him all wearing brightly colored practice leather armor. They looked impossibly young, almost like children. They were maybe thirteen, fourteen years old. Jay would have had his first kiss at that age whereas these kids were learning how to fight monsters. Same age. Different societies.

“Ow!” Jay said as he rubbed at the back of his head. Someone had just thrown a rock and hit him. Ok, maybe calling it a rock was stretching the truth a little – it was a pebble. Jay rubbed the back of his head and turned around.

Norri was waving at him from the end of the line and stood next to a laughing M'redith and Aiden, who was shaking his head sadly at Norri.

Norri yelled, “Save us a table!”

Jay nodded and rubbed his head again. “Stop throwing rocks at me!”

People in line around him laughed – whether at him, his comment, or Norri's precise aim, he wasn't sure of.

Norri turned to M'redith to ask her a question and Jay chuckled. It seemed like they were done with trying to talk to him while they were in line. Jay turned back around and saw that the line had moved while he hadn't been paying attention. He stepped forward six steps and waited more.

The smell of bacon and sizzling butter dominated the entire area and Jay couldn't wait to eat, he almost didn't even care what it was at that point.

Jay groaned as the line moved one step and stopped again. This was going to take forever, he thought to himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by a messenger who approached Jay with a serious expression.

“Patron Jay of Kagan's Dome?” asked the messenger as she came to a stop beside Jay.

The people around Jay muttered at the messenger's use of the word 'Patron.'

Jay smiled wistfully as he sighed. “That's me.” Jay wondered how they found people to deliver messages to. How had the messenger known that he would be in line for breakfast? What if Jay had gone back to his rooms to pick up his backpack? Would the messenger have gone there or waited for him at the dining hall? Jay wasn't sure he wanted to ask those questions right now however as they would just extend the time before he could eat breakfast.

The messenger smiled and her blond hair slipped out a bit from under her hair band. She quickly tucked the stray hairs back under the band. “Message for you,” she said with a smile, “Patron.” She watched for Jay's response.

Jay scrunched up his face before he relaxed. He was a Patron. No sense in trying to get her to call him just Jay.

“Thank you,” Jay said and took the envelope that she handed to him.

The envelope was sealed with a green and white speckled wax. Pressed in to its surface was the seal of Boland, his fixer and source for all knowledge financial. He broke the seal, opened the envelope, and then removed a single sheet of folded paper.

Once unfolded the message was short.

Jay, nothing to apologize for – I'm here whenever you need me. You will be pleased to know that with the exception of Sha'li I have already sent out the invitations you requested in advance of your letter. Sha'li's invitation should have been waiting for her when she returned home last night or shortly thereafter.

Initially attendance was expected to be quite low due to no one having any idea what a mini-golf course is. Once word got out that the King, Mayor, and representatives of the Church will be attending however that rapidly changed. You can expect quite the party tonight.

See you then, and again – reach out to me day or night,

-Boland

Jay chuckled. Boland knew what needed to be done long before Jay did. It was a good thing he had sent out the invitations already. Jay was sure the King would be a bit off put by receiving a same day invitation to a strange 'mini-golf' event.

Jay remembered that the messenger was still there and Jay tugged out five or six copper and handed them to her. “No reply. This is for you,” he said as she took the coins. The messenger grinned widely.

“Thanks Patron!” she said as she ran off down a path to her next delivery.

“Next up!” called a person standing at the door to the dining hall. They checked Jay to make sure he was allowed in before they waved him inside.

It was time to eat!

Grading complete! Congratulations! You have unlocked a new menu item – Evolution!

Required: Perform moving meditation correctly: COMPLETED

Please check your menus as a new item has been added.

Jay suddenly forgot all about his food. He wanted to look at his menu now but couldn't. He had to get breakfast first and out of line and find a table. Then he could check out his new reward.

Jay blindly picked plates and a beverage off of the counter as he turned around and quickly found an open table. It was quite possibly the first time since arriving in Eden that he had not given his breakfast a good look.

At least he knew what to call the stats workout now: Moving meditation.