CHAPTER 53 - Dreaded outcome
After a long and arduous period of thinking, I am unable to come up with a solution, at least with my current expertise on the subject. I can’t control mana that well, but I can do it more or less with qi, and I can feel it being absorbed and generated slowly all over my body.
My blood, and every part of my body is in some way “tinted” with qi, which makes circulating mana inside my body kind of explosive in my opinion.
There have to be other ways, I am sure of it, but even after trying to get rid of qi in a specific part of my body, it keeps being generated at a slow pace. It is everywhere, all over my body, it’s like a surge of power that comes from every one of my cells passively.
Not being able to use mana in an efficient way is dangerous and a hassle, but I will need to keep it like that for now. I have some theories about why the mixture of both energies explodes, but for my current self, the best way to avoid being blown to bits is to leave it like that for now.
I ponder on my possible solutions right now, and I think about creating a weapon or item that will help me gather mana for me, but it doesn’t convince me, if I start depending on external factors from the start I won¡t be able to get better. Not to mention just how hard it would possibly be to create that item with my actual resources.
Once that’s done, I go back to my scans on my body. After noticing that my body is passively creating qi, I came up with an idea. Shouldn't I be able to hasten the process if I learned how to generate it myself actively and actively did it?
Once I have a clear goal, whilst the storm is still raging, I put my all into identifying the sensation that comes from generating qi and trying to replicate it.
The process is long and boring, with no signs of improvement or getting close to accomplishing it. For hours, I try again and again to feel that feeling, but with no good outcome.
It is after nearly half a day that I come up with another method. First I stop sucking in qi from the environment, blocking its entrance and only boosting my internal production, or so I hope.
Once that’s been done, I trust our hideout and Bruma to protect me as I get rid of all my stored qi, pouring all my reserves into my hands and sending it into the mountain deep underground, nowhere to be seen.
My actions don’t make any noise, as what I just did is something similar to reinforcing the stone for a while. Basically wasting all my qi in one go, and leaving me tired and unprotected.
I stop sending qi only when my head starts to feel dizzy and the fatigue kicks in.
With my body in dire need of what’s been its new source of sustenance for a while, I feel it all strain on its own, twitching all over and trying its best to replenish itself with as much qi as it can on its own.
That’s my cue. With my body fighting for survival after my qi has been nearly depleted, I try to feel the now increased feeling of qi being generated all over my limbs, organs, and skin. I don’t even need to block the external influx of qi anymore as the little amount my body sucks of the environment is minimal.
Time flies by, and by the time my body regains enough qi to stop the excessive strain while trying to generate it on its own, I am already at my limit. Not only is my whole body sore, but my mind is a mess. I overworked myself, and I already started working whilst tired due to the absence of qi.
With no other choice, I lay down and rest, trying to get some sleep.
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Morning arrives, which means that either I hardly slept or that I slept too much. Going by the licking on my face I am more inclined to choose the latter. Opening my eyes, I see Bruma trying to wake me up. The whole left side of my face being wet being the outcome of it perseverance.
As I get up, I can feel my stomach growl, hungrier than ever after so much work and with a lot of time after the last meal.
Deciding I should get something to eat and exercise a bit with Bruma, I fuse the stones blocking the door into the mountain again, ready to leave.
“Let’s go, let's hunt for something to eat.” I could swear to see my little friend’s eyes glimmer at that sentence. She instantly jumps on my shoulder and hangs tightly there, ready for the descent.
‘Oh right, I nearly forgot.’ I do hide our backpack with supplies again in a hole in the rock before departing, just in case.
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For the next couple of days, we follow the same schedule. I practice with qi inside the cave and we get some fresh meat in the mornings. Only pausing to eat something or get some sleep.
With the dawn of the third day, I finally made some real progress. At last, I am able to not only feel how it is done, but I am able to hasten the process by a small amount if I focus.
It is a painfully slow thing to do, and I am unable to do so while moving or performing any other task, so for now it’s kind of useless. With time though, I am sure it will become one of my strengths, being able to replenish my qi at a faster rate when resting or even doing so while moving if I manage to master it in the future.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
It is gonna be a hard grind to get there, but I can slip the practice everyday in smaller periods of time to make my way there day by day.
It has helped me reach a deeper understanding of how my qi flows through my body too. I have noticed while doing so that even if the most amount of qi is stored in my heart and flowing through my veins and blood, I can definitely make it flow throughout my whole body, though with less efficiency and efficacy.
That made me realize too, that I will need a lot of work, good planning, and experimenting to be able to contain both mana and qi in my body at the same time.
However, for now, it's time to go back to base and get updated on the current situation and how things are going. I am sure there has been some movement going on these days on both our base and the vampire's one.
I grab everything I need to, and I descend the mountain with Bruma, ready to make it back to base. I hadn’t really tried to learn how to manipulate mana from the magical beast as I intended, but I did learn something new, so I will take it.
Dashing through the forest, I feel the breeze on my face as I run dodging the trees in the way. I still tread carefully, scanning each and every one of the places we go through.
Soon enough we get to the small river that we crossed when we came from the city. Gaining speed, I wait for the perfect time to jump over it, safely arriving on the other side.
I was hoping to make my way back safely, but not even a few seconds had passed since I jumped over the river and that weird sensation that I felt the first time settles again in the surroundings.
I keep running, determined to avoid any confrontation right now. At first, it works, and bit by bit I am leaving the feeling of being watched behind, probably outrunning the beast.
However, out of nowhere, something comes flying at me from another angle that isn’t my back.
*swish* *swish*
Forced to improvise on the move and with no time to duck or gather mana, I create a barrier out of qi and reinforce my arms to block the attack, not really sure how strong it will be.
Two sharp blades, similar to knives with two blades, not having a handle, crash into the wall of qi, sending cracks over it but stopping on its tracks there, not managing to go through.
I could move the barrier with me now after my control improved, but I deem it unnecessary as I get out of the way and another barrage of blades comes from behind.
I dodge just in time, avoiding the next batch of blades that hit the ground where I was standing seconds ago. Looking around, I can’t still see a single monster or beast, not even my scans come up with any readings.
‘There are at least two of them, and they must be planning on pelting me with those blades till I die.’ I think as I realize I am not in the best spot here.
Using trees and everything I can find around as cover, I try to guess from which direction are the projectiles coming, but their speed and the need to dodge them makes it harder to spot the attackers.
Barrage after barrage, I am forced to dribble and feint in between the trees, looking for a chance to counterattack.
As I make my second lap around a bunch of trees that I already used as cover I notice something. The monsters are not that far away, guessing by the time I start hearing the blades slicing through the air they should be closer, enough for me to detect them with my scans.
‘Wait, it never crossed my mind, but what if they can hide from my detection somehow?’ Crouching down, I grab one of those blades they are throwing at me, and sure enough, they have a way of hiding its presence from mana.
It’s been a while since the first barrage of blades came flying at me, but now they come with less intensity and with longer wait times in between.
Knowing that they can hide from my scans, I choose to take one down as fast as I can and then use the other to try and decipher if it’s possible to overcome its “mana camouflage”.
Using the breaks in between attacks, I focus my sight and hearing to pinpoint the overall location from where one of those attacks is coming.
Another round of blades comes flying at me, and I am able to identify the shooting spot as somewhere in a range of 5 meters behind me. I create a new barrier to block the incoming attacks this time, forcing my way through the wave of blades to get to the attacker faster.
Once inside the overall zone, I expect the attacker to be, I focus again on the area with all my senses. Forsaken my mana sense, I look for every spot advantageous to a sniper. I scour the place with my sight, from the top of the trees and their branches to the bushes below.
After a while of searching and another attack from the other monster, I finally end up spotting something weird. On top of a branch nearby, the colors are weirdly colliding one against the other, just as if there was something in the middle blocking their smooth passage.
Aiming at that spot, I get creative. Using my qi, I create a knife out of it and attach a weak barrier to its end instead of its pointy end. I put into practice the throwing tactics I practiced before to hit the desired location.
The weak barrier that I substituted the pointy end of the knife for collides against the point where the colors weirdly mix. The barrier crumbles, mixing the manna inside with the qi that makes up the knife, creating a small explosion that encompasses a couple of meters around the area of impact, blowing to bits everything in range.
I reinforce my barrier to withstand the timbers and the splinters that fly by as I watch with bated breath the outcome of my attack. Once the initial explosion finishes, a big chunk of the tree is missing and the corpse of the monster lays on the ground with its right size blown to smithereens.
I would love to see the monster close up, but more attacks come my way and the barrage intensifies after the death of its companion. Soon, however, the rain of blades stops. I take the chance to scan the area again and again with mana, trying to get some reaction with different approaches.
Minutes tick by, but there are still no signs of my scans working. I want to try and develop some way to locate enemies with the help of heat, similar to thermal vision, but I can’t really use fire magic without a source of fire, so it's useless for me right now without preparation.
Not in the mood to waste the whole day searching for the other monsters now that it stopped attacking, I pick up the corpse of the one I already dealt with and make a run for it.
I can still feel that sensation as if I were being watched as I leave, but soon after it vanishes and I make my way out of their territory.
‘It’s a pity I couldn’t catch the other, I will probably put to good use this guy's exoskeleton.’ I think as I eye the monster.