Len opened his eyes, checking around their room. Suddenly and completely awake.

He knocked on the bunk above him, causing Rick to grumble and turn over. Len knew it would be enough as he got up out of bed. He moved to the window and opened it. Dawn hadn't yet crept in; it was still a few hours away. He breathed in the fresh air. Using mana on his eyes, he was able to see through the darkness.

Rick sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the top bunk. Len cast a cleaning spell over himself, removing the night's grime. He grabbed his canteen and gulped down several mouthfuls.

“Fucking ass crack of dawn,” Rick muttered dropping down from his bed onto the floor, without making a noise, wearing his regulating blanket.

Len pulled on the leg bracers and arm bracers before he donned his own blanket, it warmed him up slightly against the morning’s chill.

Over top of that, he wriggled his way into his body armor. Len snatched up his helmet and stood, donning it before securing his sword and scabbard to his belt.

He carefully picked up the loaded backpack, turning it around and slipping his arms into the straps. He tightened them, adjusting the height high on his shoulders and back.

He moved around, feeling the weight of the pack shifting and pulling him in different directions.

It barely felt like anything at all. That was the problem as you increased your tempering and cultivation. Things that had been difficult before became so easy they were negligible. Even though he couldn't feel the weight of the backpack, it didn't mean that it wasn't there.

Something easily forgotten in a fight, knowing everything around oneself was essential. It was all too easy to get numb as one grew in power. Using more expensive spells, overusing one's strength instead of using metered, measured responses.

If he and Rick hadn't, then the five would-be looters would have been corpses.

Len moved around the room, disarming the alarm formation. Using a strap of leather, he tied them together, placing them inside his messenger bag.

He checked it was closed up tight, slinging it over his shoulder and under his arm, then throwing it over his backpack. He shifted around to make sure it wouldn’t come free without a good tug before bending down and lifting up the food crate.

Rick leaned down, already in his armor, with his weapons on his hips and backpack secured, picking up his crate of tools. He stood up with a yawn, scanning the space. "I think we're all good.”

“Burning daylight.”

“Hasn’t even risen yet to burn,” Rick said. “Be nice when you can make some folded space gear, then don’t have to lug all this crap around.”

Len opened the door and checked the hallway, no one was moving around.

“Hardship builds character,” Len waited for Rick to move past before he closed and locked the door.

“I don’t think I tempered your bones enough,” Rick reached for his hammer.

“Keep moving old man,” Len pushed him with his crate. Rick grumbled in his ornery ways as they went down the stairs and to the counter.

Len coughed, getting his attention, he nearly jumped out of his seat as he turned to the two men.

“You going to go fight the king’s guard?” The man half-joked, worry etched into his features.

“Just turning in our key.” Len put the key on the counter.

“Alright,” The man took it as Rick and then Len went through the gate.

"On to forest travels, beastly something-or-others, and glory!" Rick shouted as they reached the doorway.

"Will you keep it down?" Len yelled. "There are people trying to sleep still."

“Lucky fuckers.” Rick complained.

They walked towards the old industrial district, there were some people around in the morning. They looked over in interest but kept moving.

"Looks like hard times ahead," Rick said, tilting his chin towards an abandoned building.

"Well, there's certainly a lot of people working on the other side of the town in the new industrial district," Len said.

The further they moved away from the heart of the city, the fewer people there were and the more destitute it became. Buildings had been abandoned, stores shuttered, houses in disrepair. Some buildings had their planks torn off and materials stolen.

As they moved into the old industrial district proper, various shanties and slums could be seen built up among the dilapidated warehouses. Homes for those without the means or jobs to find better places.

Len passed a group of crippled workers standing around a fire pit, pulling their thin clothes tight and moving around to warm up. They watched the two of them warily. None tried to approach them as they walked past a worn tavern that showed some signs of life.

They turned down the road that would lead them north, a broken lumbermill a reminder of better pasts.

"Looks like the mana is already affecting the plants," Rick said, as they left the buildings behind, entering the space between buildings and forest.

Len activated his mana sight. "Started to get into the soil and plants, surface level for now.”

“Lets get into the forest and bury this thing,” Rick lifted his crate.

“Right.” Len said. “Feel better having with at least one of us having the hands free to use their sword.”

They followed the a half-overgrown path into the northern forest. Ruts carved into the ground by the passage of carts.

He tried to extend his domain to see further around trees and under bushes. It was like water pushing up against glass.

Although his cultivation had surged, it had not yet reached the point where it could extend more than a meter away from his own skin.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Taking a page out of Rick's playbook, he sent out pulses of mana, tens of them a second, to build up an image of everything around him. As they moved onward, Len refined it using the elements instead. Pings of water, air, fire, earth, and metal spread out, each of them adding color and characteristics to the world around him.

To reduce his overall mana cost, he decreased the frequency, allowing them to range further and cover a 20 square meter area around him. His own pings brushed up against Rick's, and the two of them shared a glance.

Len focused on the left side of the road, while Rick focused on the right.

“Looks a good a place as any.” Rick looked around.

Rick stepped off the path a few meters, the ground moved apart infront of him, creating a hole big enough for his crate. Taking a knee he put it in the hole and dusted off his hands, the ground moving back over and burying the crate.

"All right, now that we've got that fixed." Rick said as he returned to the road. "how about we start putting on some speed?"

"Saying just what I was thinking," Len replied. They'd been restraining their strength for the last two days, their tempered bodies able to surpass normal limits. Len stepped upon the ground, no longer restricting the amount of strength he held back. He pushed off the ground, moving a dozen meters in just one step.

He adjusted with his second step. Each successive step became more balanced, more focused. The forest started to move past quicker and quicker as he rocketed forward.

To him, he was only at walking pace, but with the added strength, each step upon the ground moved him tens of meters, the next moving him tens of meters more.

He moved as fast as some may sprint with the ease of one out for a leisurely stroll. He kept his head on a swivel, making sure that nothing untoward crept up on them.

It was mid-morning before anything started to change.

Rick slowed his pace, holding out his hand to Len as the path opened into a clearing. “Logging camp?”

“Looks like it, there’s a cabin there,” Len jutted his chin towards the nearby structure.

The area around them had been cut back, though the forest was fighting to reclaim what it had lost.

“Lets check it out,” Rick’s steps carried him towards the cabin.

Len followed, marks marred the surface of the cabin’s wood."Beasts," Len said as he came to a stop.

"Wolves," Rick ran a finger down the claw marks. "Big ones," he said. They were at chest to head height.

"Jumping?" Len asked.

"Too deep. Maybe. Definitely mutated though, to either get this high, apply that much strength or have claws that sharp," Rick looked at Len.

"Fair enough." Len pushed open the door, checking inside. There were various tools left around, sharpening blocks, a barrel of water in the corner, some rations that had been torn apart. The door itself was battered. He smelled the air, looking around, spotting the dead body. His pings picked up metal upon the ground.

"Blood," he said.

“One quick way to shut down the mining and logging jobs in the area,” Rick said.

“Don’t see anything else of use, shall we keep going?”

“Sure, there’s tracks here of other people though,” Rick pointed to the ground. “People with mana.”

Len looked closer seeing the disturbances. “Fighters and probably some kind of middling caster?”

“No noble is going to be out here,” Rick said.

“So that leaves hunters.” Len grimaced.

“Probably.”

“Well lets keep going and hope we don’t run into those idiots, divert around them if we can.”

“Fair enough. I’ll take point,” Rick stepped on the ground and took off, Len followed behind the two of them appearing to ‘skip’ through the forest, the cart tracks were less worn the further they went, some peeling off to head towards the stained mountain range.

“Mining roads I’d bet,” Rick said.

“Think you’re right on that. The northern forests have just been the playground of the nobles and the royal family. Little going on up here.”

“Defensible though,” Rick said.

“Not when the mountain range changed.”

“Yeah but who thought that was going to happen?”

“Fifth core cultivators could tell you that,” Len said.

“They happened afterwards though! Look, the hunters went off that way,” Rick pointed to a road with the shrubbery pushed down by people walking through it.

“One less problem.” Len said, putting his crate on his shoulder and pulling out his canteen to drink from it.

He put it back in the special pouch on the side, without the stopper, so it could refill.

They continued forward, Rick pausing to check his compass and map occasionally. Time passed quickly, the only sound being the wind pulling at their clothes and the occasional bracer hitting their breastplate.

They stopped for lunch, exchanged the crate and Len took point, continuing the relentless drive forward.

By mid-afternoon the road they were on, diverted from the direction they wanted to go.

"Guess we'll have to do it the old-fashioned way," Len said, moving amongst the trees, reading the land ahead as his steps found boulders, trees, and hard ground to push off of. The pace slowed somewhat, but Len led them unerringly forward.

"Dinner and camp," Rick called out. Len signaled that he'd heard. Moving through the land, he could read it easily. Someone who'd spent enough time in nature could start seeing the signs of sun, plants, and wind upon the land, seeing beyond the next rise.

"A couple more minutes," Len called out.

"All right," Rick said back. Neither of them were overly tired as they continued past the swamp onto the other side and up a rise. Len slowed his pace, coming to a stop at the rise. He held his hand up at a noise in the distance. Several roars of clashing beasts. Rick moved up to him, checking the other direction, making sure nothing would come from behind. Len kept listening, hearing more roars of clashing beasts. Then, a yelp. Something was wounded, and badly. It was coming from the distance.

"Someone won, and someone lost," Len said, relaxing.

"How far you figure?" Rick asked.

"This kind of territory, I'd say a kilometer and a half, two. Wind's blowing the other direction as well.” He checked the positioning of the sun. “Should be a good place to camp for the night, might not find much better than this.”

There was a creek off to the side, and a clearing next to a rock formation.

Rick relaxed and put down the crate. "Alarm formation?"

“Doesn’t hurt.” Len took off his messenger bag and pack, taking out the alarm formation from the room. “I’ll get it laid out.”

It took an infusion of mana to the formation and tapping the markers against the master enchantment and he set out the alarm formation around the camp quickly.

By the time he returned Rick had laid out their waterproof blankets next to their backpacks to use as pillows, had a small fire going with extra wood to the side, and was sitting on the food crate, eating out of a can. He reached down and grabbed another can, tossing it over. “All good?”

“All good. Nice little camp here.” Len said, pulling out his mana blade and cutting open the can.

“Not bad at all, be chilly though I don’t think we’ll have rain tonight. At least my knees aren’t telling me there will be. Though. I guess they’re not the most reliable things anymore. Young knees!” Rick chuckled as Len rolled his eyes, feeling the mana density increase the closer he got to the camp.

“You set up the mana gathering formation?” Len popped open the can and sat on a nearby rock.

“Yeah, figure the best way to make us faster is to temper the body and cultivate our mana.” He took out a copper coin. “Heads or tails?”

“Give me heads,” Len sighed, pulling a spoon out of his pocket and using a cleansing spell on it before he dug into the can.

Rick flipped the coin, letting it fall in the dirt.

“Aren’t you a lucky one, heads.”

“Dunno if either side is lucky if we’re beating the crap out of one another,” Len said around a mouthful of beans.

“Don’t believe that I’m the one saying this, though we shouldn’t go too far, want to keep our energy high and ready for anything,” Rick said.

“I told everyone that there was at least some sense in that rattly old skull of yours,” Len waved his spoon.

“And screw you too,” Rick flipped him off.

Len chuckled and continued eating as night fully descended.

“Good first day, we’ve travelled a good distance. Still got a while ahead of us.” Rick stood up. “Gonna go rinse the can out in the creek.

“You want to keep them?” Len sped up his eating.

“Don’t have anything to cook with, can cook up something in these ones.”

“Didn’t think of that,” Len said.

“At least we got the cans. Makes you miss the storage devices though, keep everything you want in them,” Rick said.

“When we get back I’ll look into making some. Though I can’t get around the cultivation need.”

“Has to be some way right?” Rick asked.

Len scrunched up his face. “Maybe?”

“Well you figure that out I’ll deal wit—” Rick stilled, his eyes flaring with mana.

Len ceased moving, scanning around.

“Shit,” Rick said.

“What?” Len asked, opening his sight and looking in the same direction. There was a group of ten people wearing armor heading for their camp. Each of them with mana flowing through their bodies.

“Hunters.” Rick confirmed his thoughts.

“Fuck,” Len sighed.