Chapter 14

[Bubble Ring: Crafted by the Zebo Corporation. Creates a protective bubble around the wearer that reflects damage back to the attacker. Lasts 1 second.] The silver ring had a thick band with a smooth, spherical red gemstone. The piece of jewelry seemed strong. Although, one second isn’t that long. I am going to have to time it well in order to get use out of it. Danny activated the ring to get a feel for how it functioned. A thin film encased his body for a moment then it disappeared with a Pop! That felt weird. The bubble had been inches away from his skin and felt cool and soapy, like taking a cold bubble bath. Danny activated the ring again. Nothing happened. Don’t tell me…

[Bubble Ring: Recharge time 24 hours.] Danny was relieved that it wasn’t a one-off thing like he had originally thought, but once every 24 hours was still a pretty big limitation. Since monster bodies vanished after about a day, combined with the fact that Aspen the guide had never heard of them using items before Level 100, it was unlikely that the Oni Baboon had used this in the fight that resulted in its death. That at least made Danny feel a little better about facing down whatever had killed all the monkeys. Are baboons monkeys? He hadn’t learned a whole lot about the more exotic animals in his classes before the Integration. Trying to avoid thinking about his life before, Danny asked, “Should I harvest this thing?”

“Up to you.” The guide said. Danny had made an in-road earlier and he wanted to continue to build goodwill with the guide, if he could. He decided that practicing some of the things that he had recommended earlier would be a good place to start. Danny diligently carved the Oni Baboon’s body, harvesting hide and organ alike. This time it was a little easier, but cutting apart something eerily human-like left a foul taste in his mouth. That and he threw up in his mouth a little. After powering through, Danny returned to Aspen. He waited for a moment. He didn’t really know what he was expecting, an “attaboy” maybe? But that never came. The guide just wordlessly turned and led the way back to their camp at the Pillars. It seemed that compliments were as hard to come by as answers when it came to the guide.

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Aspen felt the corners of his mouth turn upward. He quickly schooled his expression. It was important for the natives to not see any sign of approval until they at least made it to Level 50, or, in the case of this one, past the Awakening stage. Compliments made them complacent. This was just another tried and true practice that he had learned from his decades of experience in training fairy youth. There was a reason that the race was one of the most distinguished when it came to military operations. Despite their diminutive size and small number, the fairies had a reputation for being some of the most effective mercenaries in the Multiverse. Aspen took pride in the fact that none of his charges were anything less than exceptional. Lot of good that did Teak…

Aspen quickly dismissed the negative thoughts. He had been thinking of his pupil. Something about the native reminded him of Teak. The Earth native was squeamish and didn’t listen. He squandered a lot of his talent by foolishly pursuing cultivation, but there was something about him that made Aspen certain that he would go far, confidence-inspiring moments of brilliance. In that way they were similar. Aspen wouldn’t make the same mistake with this one. He was the guide. Danny was a native. They weren’t friends, even less than acquaintances. It was purely professional. Once the Tutorial was over they would never see each other again. Don’t get too close, Aspen. It never ends well.

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The current plan was for Danny to train using the Body Pillar until he had increased his stat by another point. Then, they would do some reconnaissance on the remaining monster nest. Danny would do the reconnaissance, Aspen would grumpily give barbed pointers. It made sense, each point in your base Stats would be multiplied by your cultivation. Right now, with 11 gates opened, Danny had an effective strength of 13.5. The System rounded to the nearest half, but Danny could view the more detailed breakdown if he wanted to. That was nearly three times stronger than he had started. According to the guide, Danny would only be able to increase his base stats by around three to four points. Also, once you reached higher Levels, it became harder to get these increases. At Level 100, or the end of the second stage for cultivators, it would be entirely impossible to raise base Stats. Danny had plenty of time to maximize his growth, but there wasn’t a whole lot to do right now unless they chose to relocate.

He practiced a little bit with his Qi Manipulation and Weeping Willow Dances skills, but he felt that he had largely hit a roadblock with those. The Qi Manipulation practice looked promising at first, but Danny quickly realized that he had no idea how to improve his technique. There was no manual like with his staff fighting style. And even that he had memorized a while ago. He mainly needed experience. He was too weak to fight the monsters near him, but he needed to fight monsters to progress. It was like trying to find a job straight out of school. He thought about trying to practice his coordination with Indy, but again, he needed a live combat situation for that. At least I have the Pillar.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The Body Pillar was the only thing that he could see actual meaningful results with. Danny put his hands on the statue. This would be his third time. Once when they first found it, another after the disappointing trip to the baboon monster nest, and now. He had only got that single point so far, but he hoped he was close to another. Unlike with opening his gates, Danny couldn’t really tell if he was close or not. Regardless, there was no time like the present. Danny fed a small stream of Qi into the statue and opened his eyes back in the misty world of Pillar, a familiar Training Spirit looked surprised as he stepped forward.

“You must be something if he lets you use the Pillars like this.”

“What do you mean?”

Sassa donned a clever smile. “If you land a touch, I’ll tell you.” Danny smiled back. His staff appeared in his hands, again obeying the dream logic. The closest he had been to landing a hit had been on his first visit, during their “warm-up.” Since then, Danny hadn’t even come close. Sassa liked to in-fight. She almost always began an exchange by getting close and then unleashing a barrage of slashes, mixing kicks and punches and shoves in between. The versatility made it hard to predict what she would do and her speed made it hard to react.

Danny had been puzzling over what to do. Everything he had thought of didn’t seem to work. He tried focusing on defense, only to be betrayed by his inability to react to her attacks. He tried going on the offensive, but she was much more comfortable than Danny was while pressured and would always capitalize when he inevitably made a mistake. An idea had come to him when he had been cultivating last night. He started thinking more about styles and the weapons that each of them used and realized that he had a drastic reach advantage. If he could stop her from getting close in the first place, he would stand a much better chance of landing his hit.

“Begin.” Sassa said. She launched forward but had to stop after a couple of steps due to Danny jabbing his staff toward her head. Every time she tried to close the distance she would lean forward slightly. Danny used this tell to stuff every attempt to approach. If she didn’t respect his reach, she would run straight first into the butt of Danny’s staff.

Unfortunately, this led to her just circling him, like a predator stalking its prey. Sassa stayed just outside of his range, daring him to overextend for the touch. Danny quickly realized that this status quo wouldn’t be conducive to him winning their bet. He also didn’t have to be the first to land a touch, he just had to get one at some point. Armed with this realization, Danny began to strike aggressively. The Training Spirit deflected his jabs and strikes without taking the bait. She continued to keep her distance, until Danny struck hard at her sword, seeking to knock it out of her hand. She deftly dodged the attack and was upon him. Danny’s staff was wildly out of position from the disarming attempt. He had to work hard not to let a smile creep onto his face and give away the trap. Using a modified version of the technique he had used on the boss bat, Danny let out a wave of Qi instead of a pressurized jet. He aimed at Sassa’s legs. She was thrown off balance and had to stop to catch herself, leading to Danny’s staff making contact with the side of her arm.

“Yes!”

“That’s cheating!” Sassa whined. It was a bit of a dirty trick, and Danny was pretty sure that it wouldn’t work twice against someone as skilled as Sassa, but she had never told him of any rules. “This is the Body Pillar, save the cheap stuff for the Qi or Soul Pillars.” She glared at him. “Ugh. Fine. A deal’s a deal.” She stared blankly at him. “What was the question again?”

“You said that it was strange how I was using the Pillars.”

“Oh! Yes, the Pillars are a pretty big deal to us, you know. One of the closest kept secrets of fairy-kind. You are the only outsider I have ever heard of using them. And a set was donated to the Integration no less. Unprecedented.”

“Wow, I am the first human to use one of these?”

“Probably, and you’ve used it three times in three days! You should really slow that down, by the way.” Sassa said.

“What, why?”

“Because the Pillars aren’t made for sustained use. Usually, they are given a few days in between sessions to recharge. I can already see degradation.” Danny looked around and saw that the grass was a little duller, the water was more opaque, even the mist had gone from thick and dreamy to thin and dreary.

“I— I didn’t know. What happens if the Pillar doesn’t recharge?”

“It’ll break. This place will be gone forever.”

“What about you?”

“A Training Spirit cannot exist without their Hin-Alei.” Sassa said solemnly. Danny looked away. He had not even considered that he was being irresponsible with its use. He wondered if Aspen knew about this. Surely he had to…right? What could be his reason for not saying anything?

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Sassa said “I’m not actually alive or anything. I am a copy of the real Sassa’s memories and skills. The real me is out there somewhere, having adventures. I wonder what it’s like…” She trailed off. Somehow that made Danny feel worse than potentially harming the spirit.

“I better go then. I don’t want to cause any more damage.”

“No! Um…The energy was already spent to bring you here, might as well make good use of it.” Danny hesitated. That logic seemed a little thin to him. But Danny needed to get stronger if he was going to face whatever massacred the baboons.

“Okay…But if I get another touch, then you have to answer another question.”

“And what makes you think you’ll even get close now that I know your little trick?” Danny set his feet into his opening stance and held the staff before him, sure to point it at Sassa, ready for jabbing.

“Just a wild guess.” They sparred for several hours.

Danny never landed another touch.