CHAPTER 40 - Healing

It's been cleared.

I am now aware of the possibility of communicating with Bruma through memories too, so that is a good thing going forward. Actually, I already knew it should be possible, I just needed to know if it was possible for not only the owner of the link to do it but for the receiver to do it too.

I will be using that ability to show a few things here and there to her from now on, but nothing worth mentioning for now.

These days I’ve been securing the place of monsters and wild beasts and I finally think we are good to start practicing. I have cleared out most of the nearby threads and laid out some primitive traps to warn me of any undesired guests.

Nothing crazy, and that's precisely the problem. I am sure that some monsters, the dangerous ones mostly, will be able to tell them apart in between the bushes and avoid them.

But what can I possibly do? There is no way I will waste my scarce time looking for a better way when there is a wave of enemies coming from everywhere, and I am not even capable of keeping myself safe.

This place is isolated enough, so not bothering myself with those thoughts, I continue my training.

I keep up with my usual routine in the mornings, but I change my game plan for the afternoons. Instead of going out to hunt for beasts, I decide to use the one I already have with me to learn from it.

It may sound rude to her, but my little friend is still a couple of weeks or so away from healing up her leg. It is an impressive speed, that’s for sure, and it’s all thanks to both her energy and mine focusing on the wound, revitalizing and mending it slowly over time.

That’s right, both her energy and my qi are similar, and that only makes me want it more. My plan for now is to decipher how to un-mix the energies in the environment to be able to look easily at the one I want.

From the start, I have been looking at this from the wrong angle. I know that qi is flowing through the ground and air, but there are ways that are easier to perceive it or get a hold of it.

Just like using the feet to channel it from the soil, or using my own qi without supporting myself on external forces. Obviously, there are pros and cons.

If for example, I use the qi from the air or the ground, I will have a bigger amount of it at my disposal. However, it will be a lot harder to control it and extract it from outside than using my own.

Instead, if I choose to use my own, I will be able to handle it easily and freely just fine, but I will be limited by the amount I have stored of it and it could result in that tiring sensation that I already experienced a couple of times if I used too much at once.

That’s what I am looking for, first, a way to know where to find the new power and extract it from, and then, a method to do so, and handle it. The possible utilities and all those other things can wait until I am able to use it.

The first step of my plan is as I said before, to divide the flowing energies in the air to the best of my abilities. I can feel both powers in the air everywhere. In fact, qi is the minority of it, the most part of qi comes from the soil and myself, while the other energy feels up every single spec of air, not leaving one single place devoid of it.

I choose the air surrounding my body as a starting point for my experiment.

Using my control over qi I start absorbing it from the air, focusing on getting in the most I can inside my body and then redirecting it to my heart where it accumulates. It fills to the brim and then I start distributing it evenly throughout my body.

By the time I fill up my whole body, I poke at the nearby energy with all my senses to try and find a way around it just like I did with qi. Sadly, not only am I unable to do so, but the only thing I find is more qi rushing in from outside of the range where I absorbed it, making the whole task pointless.

I try a few times before giving up and inspecting my body. Never before have I used so much qi at once to reinforce and strengthen my body and it’s… amazing. I feel like my strength just doubled from that and I have not even used it to empower my movements at all. The sheer amount of it in my organism helps me feel as if I can take on the whole world head-on.

I move around and perform my normal training movements and can’t help but feel amazed at just how effective it is.

A pity I can’t use this method when fighting, I can’t possibly stay still for minutes in front of my enemies asking for a break. It’s a good experience though, and even if I feel some strain from the stunt, it is definitely manageable, perhaps because I relied on external qi instead of my own, that way not depleting my reserves.

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I will need more testing to be sure.

Going back to the main point, this doesn't work. If I don’t want to make do with the normal mixture of energies, I will need to come up with a new strategy to avoid sucking qi from afar and avoiding filling the space that the one I absorb leaves in the air with more of it.

‘I have an idea, but I will need to be able to have perfect control of qi in my surroundings.’

I prepare and start moving the nearby particles of qi away, but not too far. I get a good grasp of them and then start forcing them into a wall shape a few centimeters away from my skin. The void around me starts filling slowly, so every time I find qi inside the improvised barrier I move it away, adding to the expanding wall.

It gets to the point where I can no longer maintain my concentration and I need to dissipate, so seconds after it all crumbles I try again to look into the energy inside the barrier to look into.

There, with now a less amount of conflict in energies I am able to take a peek at a new power. A brand new world of possibilities just at my reach. I feel a feeble connection with it for a second before it all crumbles and I lose sight of it and drop to the ground, unconscious.

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“Ughh… Fuck. What the hell.” I roll on my back to face the sky as I feel my head spinning.

‘Why does my head hurt so much?’ I recall what I was doing before hitting the ground and can’t help but laugh.

“Hahaha, I was so close.” I grovel around for a while, waiting for the pain in my head to go away. And it does, but it goes away so, so, so slow…

‘Damn, it is going to be frustrating to get better at this.’ Yeah, but I know the drill now, I know it can be done, I just need to improve and get better with time.

‘For now, rest! I need to rest for the night after a good meal or I will go nuts.’ I get up and start making my way to the cabin, scared of the amount of pain I will need to withstand, yet anxious by the possibilities it will open up.

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‘Yesterday was a productive day, I finally got to know a way to get another power thanks to my new friend.’ I think that as I wake up and look around, searching for the white fox that lays next to my feet at the end of the bed, peacefully sleeping.

I stay still for a while to make sure I am fine by now from yesterday’s stunt, but thankfully, I am fully healed.

‘I need to keep myself in check.’

*breathe in*

*breathe out*

‘Okay. I am ready, let's go!’ I take a moment to keep myself from doing something stupid and lose a whole day in the process.

From now on, I will keep practicing, but I can't do it first thing in the morning and stay asleep for the whole day.

I will leave it for the afternoon when all the other things are done. It should be okay by then to focus on that.

I wake up Bruma and take her with me to the kitchen to have breakfast.

We have our fill, and I prepare to go out and do the usual jogging when I feel something tickle the side of my face.

“You want to come too?”

*Tweet* *Tweet*

“Okay, make sure to take care of your wound.” I say that and leave her to stay on my left shoulder.

I do my daily run and even when I start improving my footwork and kicks she stays. She jumps on top of a branch of a tree nearby and keeps watch from there.

I go around my daily activities and she comes in tow. I notice that her leg is still not fully healed, but she uses some of her power to keep herself in place when on my shoulder. Is as if she was an extension of my shoulder, completely still, unmoving no matter what I do.

It makes me think that if she really wanted she could even stay in place when I was jumping around while kicking.

At the end of the day, I get ready to go another round at it, ready to take on the headache.

I start by performing the same actions from the day before, moving the qi nearing me away and creating a wall with it. I keep focusing as much as I can to make sure the energy is as pure as it can be when I go on to the next step.

I maintain the barrier for a little bit more time before I feel my mind wavering and decide to follow on to the next step. I choose a section inside the barrier that I deem good enough and look into it, reaching with my senses.

Again, I get a faint feeling connecting me to it. I reach it, and pull, trying to get closer to the power and get a clear view of what it is. I pull and pull but it feels like I don't get any closer.

At last, in one last effort, I push my mental fortitude to the test and get another clear view of the core of the power.

There, something similar to qi stays afloat, suspended by itself in the air. A sphere of energy that captivates me with its beauty. I am just about to try and will it to move just as I do with qi when…

I black out.

The moment I wake up I get reminded of just how painful the experience really is as I roll again in the ground for a while.

‘It definitely is something hard to grasp for me right now, but I will get there.’ I am hopeful. I am making progress.

‘If it is really that hard to control it will probably be as strong once tamed. I need to persevere and try new things whenever I feel stuck. It’s something brand new for me and there are no records of it just like there was none of qi, but I have a lead now, I just need to follow it.’

And that is what I do for the next whole month.