Of course, I select the option which lets me see the rewards. Stupid question, really.

Congratulations!

You have completed: challenge of Willpower level 1.

Grade: A (G-SS)

‘It is not by having no demons that we learn to strengthen our will; it is by not allowing their voices to sway us.’

Reward: +2 Willpower, +2% Effective Willpower.

Challenge unlocked: challenge of Willpower level 2

Accept rewards? Y/N

Another stupid question! As if I would choose to reject the rewards after going through all of that!

Rewards accepted; Energy store sufficient.

Leave arena / Challenge level 2

I have to admit that I’m very tempted to take the second challenge. The rewards from the first one are exactly what I was hoping for. Though two points to Willpower aren’t a huge amount, the fact that I can earn them without needing to level up is huge. Though what was that about my Energy store being sufficient?

I frown. Does that mean that the points I’ve been ‘rewarded’ are being given to me like the points I ‘earned’ before reaching twenty in each stat? Meaning that to be applied to my status, they take away from my Energy store? It seems likely, which feels like a bit of a swindle: I’ve worked hard, yet still have to give up Energy to get the points?

Then again, with what I now know about how the points on my status screen actually are reflected in my bodily changes, I suppose it’s not so surprising. I might have put effort into increasing my willpower, but for it to become Willpower with a capital letter, Energy needs to explode out of my Core and make the changes. Without the Energy, I don’t know what would happen. Probably nothing.

Though I can’t say for sure, I don’t think I lost Energy last time I increased my Willpower in my Core space, but perhaps that was more to do with my use of health. Maybe that’s what I should try next? Using my health to push at the boundaries of my soul space?

Then again, maybe I should see just how much time has passed in the ‘real world’ first. I can always come back, I tell myself.

Reluctantly choosing ‘leave arena’, I feel myself rise slowly out of my soul. As was the case last time, I feel very disorientated as I open my eyes, the world spinning around me.

Swallowing down the nausea, I close my eyes again and just focus on breathing. At least I’m lying down so there’s no way for me to fall. After a relatively short amount of time, the sickness abates and I reopen my eyes tentatively.

The world has stopped spinning, the rough ceiling above my head staying where it should. I turn my head to one side; Catch is there, sleeping. Turning to the other side, I see Bastet by the fire, eyeing me.

How long was I out? I ask her. My mouth doesn’t feel that dry so it can’t have been nearly as long as last time. I’m not famished either, though I am a bit peckish. Pulling a lump of meat from my Inventory, I chew at it as she responds.

Not long. One white eye has reached its zenith; the other is cresting the horizon.

Thanks, I tell her with a hint of gratitude. Good – that’s not too long at all. Actually, I could probably have answered my own question: there’s a ray of moonlight coming through the hole in the wall and making a spot on the wall opposite. That must be the second moon rising.

So now I have another question: do I sleep, or do I go back and experiment with pushing the boundaries of my soul space?

It’s hard to decide. I do often feel refreshed after meditating, especially when I’m in Heavy Meditation. This would be Deep Meditation which could arguably be more relaxing. On the other hand, I certainly don’t feel mentally rested right now. Physically rested, yes, but mentally tired.

But then maybe that’s because it was a challenge?

In the end, it’s my status screen that convinces me.

Name: Markus Wolfe

Race: Human

Class: Tamer

Level: 14

Energy to next level: 49%

Energy absorption rate: 40u/hr

Energy towards debt: 94% (240)

Intelligence

39+1 (+5%)

Mana: 600/600 (15u/IP)

Wisdom

40+2 (+5%)

Mana regeneration rate: 1050u/hr

Willpower

54+14 (+27%)

Health regeneration rate: 68u/hr

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Constitution

22

Health: 142/330 (15u/CP)

Strength

20

Stamina: 120/120

Dexterity

20

Stamina regeneration rate: 200u/hr

Class skills

Dominate – Initiate 5

*Companion Bond

Tame – Initiate 7

Fade – Initiate 4

Inspect Fauna – Novice 9

Inspect Flora – Beginner 8

Inspect Environment – Beginner 9

Fire-Taming – Beginner 7

Non-Class skills

Flesh-Shaping – Journeyman 9

Stealth – Novice 3

Animal Empathy – Journeyman 5

Meditation – Journeyman 9

Energy Manipulation – Master 1

Sensation Management – Beginner 9

Spearmanship – Novice 3

Archery – Beginner 8

Blunt Weaponry – Novice 1

Short Blades – Beginner 9

Fire-Shaping – Beginner 8

My Energy store hasn’t dropped since earlier today, even if the rewards panel in the status screen indicated that it used Energy. Or should that be ‘since yesterday’ since according to my countdown on my debt, it’s now a day later?

I suspect that in fact it did use Energy from my store to increase my Willpower: that is coherent with what I know about how this whole System works. But I’ve been in Deep Meditation for hours. At its base rate, Deep Meditation offered between seventy and a hundred and thirty percent increase in Energy gain. I’m now sitting at Journeyman nine, which means that my increase is now between a hundred and sixty-five and two hundred and thirty percent.

With my current level, I seem to gain about four or five percent per day, purely with Light Meditation offering a bit more than half again my base absorption rate – effectively forty units turns into over sixty, though the actual rate seems to depend on how much I’m actually ‘meditating’ even as I move and do other tasks.

If Deep Meditation can offer around two hundred percent increase on average, that means that I’d be earning more like nine or ten percent per day. Although I wasn’t in my soul space for a long time – comparative to my last time doing it, at least – I was still in there for a good few hours. So, I might easily have earned enough Energy to pay for my increase in Willpower.

In fact, that seems the most likely explanation since otherwise it doesn’t make sense for why I wouldn’t have gained Energy.

Which means that if I spend the rest of the night in Deep Meditation, I might have two good effects: more Energy gain and maybe even another point in Willpower.

At the same time, we’re going to be travelling through the forest tomorrow, going deeper into the valley; I'm going to need my wits about me.

I hesitate for a moment, then make my decision. I will go back into my soul space. I won’t do a challenge, and I won’t spend a long time there. When I come out, I will see whether I’m feeling more or less fatigued than when I went in. If I’m feeling more fatigued, I will sleep. If I’m feeling less fatigued, I will continue. It’s worth a go, I figure. Though if I end up feeling less fatigued, I know I’m going to regret not doing this every night since discovering this facet of my Dominate Skill.

Putting that out of my mind for now, I go back into my soul space.

The box which offers me the challenge appears immediately in my vision, but I reject it this time. Instead, I settle down to the ‘ground’ as before. I’m not completely sure how it worked last time, but I have a good idea where to start.

Once more making a humming, elongated ‘ommm’ sound, I get a sense of exactly where my limits are. It feels like the substance I have to call my soul extends beyond my ‘body’ by about a millimetre. Last time, I filled in the empty space which had surrounded my hand and arm. Once I’d finished doing that, I pushed at the empty space surrounding the rest of me. I figure that that’s what I need to do now.

Reaching for my health pool, it doesn’t take me long to grab it again: I developed something similar to muscle memory while doing it so much when healing my soul.

Not sure exactly what to do here, I just push at the boundaries around me. I actually move physically, holding my hands out in front of me and imagining them extending further, even with me sitting still.

I feel resistance, not against my ‘hands’ but a mental resistance. It’s different from that of the challenge, though. That was more of a rushing pressure; this is more like I’m reaching for something which is just a little out of my grasp.

Not really knowing what I’m doing here, I just…direct my health into my ‘fingers’ and reach some more. It doesn’t seem to do anything so I sigh and stop pushing.

What happens when I level up? I think to myself. Closing my eyes, I bring back the memory of watching my most recent level up when I committed all my points to Willpower.

The Energy had washed out of my Core like waves, lapping at the edges of the Core space and expanding them little by little. It didn’t explode out in a single wave, nor had it focussed only on one spot. Maybe that’s where I’m going wrong.

Returning my hands to my lap, I keep my eyes closed. Even if I know that this is only some sort of avatar or mental image of myself, I’m so attached to my physical body and the physical effects of it that closing my eyes still helps me concentrate.

Humming again since that seems to work, I once more take hold of my health and gently send it washing out of me like a wave. I focus on imagining it emerging in my centre, my heart coming to my mind, and with every pulse of my heart it is sent to my extremities, to my skin. There, it washes past my skin to push a little outwards before returning to the centre, the next wave taking over.

I imagine waves on the beach, the next one coming as the first returns, yet like the tide coming in, each wave pushes just a little further up the beach, or in my case, outwards.

Over time, I sink into the images, my heart pulsing with the beat of the ocean, the waves washing through me like blood. It feels endless. Like the waves that wash with my heartbeat are but a drop in the oceans of water that lie behind them.

It’s almost a shock when I start feeling resistance, when my health runs almost dry. The ocean does not run out of water; how then can this be? I almost keep pulling from my reserves, but a sense of danger runs through me like an electric shock. It startles me back into wakefulness; pulls me out of my image. My heart stutters, the waves drain away.

Slowly rising out of my Deep Meditation once more, I feel even worse this time. It’s a real struggle to keep from seeing my supper again, only sheer force of will and swallowing almost convulsively stops the bile from rising too high.

I don’t even try to open my eyes. I feel absolutely horrible, shaky and shivering.

I’m in shock, I realise with a moment of clarity. I curse the fact that I have to focus to be able to use Flesh-Shaping. I need more health. Remembering what I did before, I slide back into Heavy Meditation to work on converting mana into health and sending it flooding back into my body. The disconnection from my senses works in my favour here as I actually manage to concentrate without the nausea and physical suffering grabbing at my attention.

My body gobbles the health I feed it as if it were starving, the luminous blackness surrounding my internal matrix almost matte. Once it’s finished consuming the health I feed it, I pull back out of Meditation.

This time, I feel a lot better. There’s less disorientation to using Heavy Meditation than Deep Meditation anyway, and I’m no longer suffering the symptoms of shock. I feel liquid trickling down my cheeks and lift my hand to wipe it away. As I do, I smell the coppery scent of blood. Looking at my hand, I’m unable to see colour – the little moonlight allowed into the alcove isn’t strong enough for that – but the darkness of it against my skin indicates it’s what I suspected: blood.

Sighing, I pull a rag from my Inventory and wipe my face. I’ll need to wash it properly in the morning but this will do for now. Lying back down, I feel the bone-deep tiredness in my body. This time, it seems like I’m physically tired as well as mentally – pulling the health out of my body and replacing it clearly has an effect. Though I should have known that from how much pain I was in after last time.

Looks like I will still need to sleep. Pity.

Checking my status screen, I can’t help but smile. At least I got a point in Willpower out of it – proof that it wasn’t just a one-off last time. Even better, I’m sitting at fifty-one percent Energy, indicating that it didn’t even use any of my store.

Closing my eyes, I’m asleep before I can even think about what that means for the future.