The sunrise comes through the window to wake me. All the possibilities just lay in front of me. There is so much I want to test and explore. The last of my bread goes, though I still have a lot of food that to cook in my backpack. There is so much that I could try, but working on my house is the priority.
I take a big plate of copper out of my backpack. Not quite as big as the ones made for the village, but well over 100 pounds. I put it on the ground and I start the long process of inscribing it. Patience key when going over every single line for the hours needed. After finishing it, I dig on the ground and place a couple of lines connecting it to the house, then hide everything in a thin layer of clay.
The engravings on the house will be inefficient, but if I was already building it from scratch it was no bother to add a detail or two. I place my hand on a precise spot, knowing what lays beneath, and fill the plate. Looking at my mana bar I see it took a little over 300 mana.
That is a good amount to reserve for experiments or emergencies. Even before the sun is at its highest I finish and sit in the middle of the room. Witch, not coincidentally, is right above my battery.
My focus is to meditate. This time, however, I have no external factors rushing me. At least nothing on the scale of days or weeks. With a different mindset, I start to meditate. Not using the technics I was already used to, but taking meditating on an entirely new path of discovery. It’s almost as if I had never done this before.
All attention goes to my breathing. With deep and measured breaths my conscious thoughts become less frequent. The slight wind moves the hairs on my arms and head over and over as everything around me starts to fade. A different state from my usual practice is slowly coming to be. I’m not in Pando’s meditation, This is closer to what most people would recognize as meditation.
As I head deeper within me, the old habits rear their head, and my surroundings come to my subconscious. This however is in no way regressing, both my previous and new states seamlessly merge, and what may have taken me another decade is just around the corner.
As time flies by, I notice more and more what I could call my soul or my chakras. What it is exactly is of no concern, what does interest me is what I could do. As I try to make sense of it and better perceive my surroundings, I start to notice a bright light in the middle of everything. There is something familiar about it. And after a few moments, I become convinced of what it is. It’s the same as I have brushed against when on the forge sending my mana over the mana plate.
My heart beats faster at the possibilities, given I’m so much closer than before and can perceive everything around clearly. Before even this bright light sphere was hazy and indistinct enough I didn’t know what it was. Slowly but surely I will myself closer to the middle of this space. Only now do I take a good look at myself. My body appears as if I was a ghost. Slightly translucent and incorporeal. On an instinctual level, I know this isn’t my real body or even a permanent body within this strange and wondrous place. It’s just a representation of myself as I shifted my perception almost entirely to within me.
At this realization and thinking over the implications, I will myself into changing forms.
Dogs, cats, wolves, lions, turtles, and fish. Nothing gets even the slightest of responses. I then try to grow or shrink. But while these fell just at the edge of possible, if my conclusions are correct, it would take a lot of effort to change by any meaningful amount.
As my experimentation continues with giddy anticipation, I slowly feel the possibilities out. The changes relate to what I perceive myself to be and look like. Changing my hair color and size is trivial. Weight is harder but also possible. Not even the color of my skin or facial features are outside my capabilities with enough effort.
What I find funny is that it almost matches my preconceptions of what I could change and how hard it would be back on Earth. I never tried anything drastic, it was just a feeling in the back of my head. Now the question was the system taking my preconceptions of my real body and applying them as limits or did I stumble upon these before I even knew of the system?
This question soon went to the back of my mind. I had other much more pressing business to attend. Whenever I tried t move closer to this first light, I was attracted back to my starting place. Almost like the gravity on the moon. Light, but inexorably there.
Much more at ease on my avatar, I focus my gaze on the center, straight at the light ball. With singular purpose, my entire will goes into moving myself. Before, when on the forge, I could barely perceive my surroundings and getting closer seemed such an impossibility. I did not even try for a moment to spare my energy.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Just as expected, it is nothing so simple. Each meter I approach seems like a lap around the track at maximum effort, soon I feel mana streaming towards me as my energy starts to empty. I get closer and closer, slowly losing momentum, with Every smidge of will, the image of me succeeding fills my mind. I still come short as my momentum is ever smaller, so I pull on all I can. Stamina, vigor, health, mana, and even the battery.
All I am comes to the test, and I’m found wanting. I’m still going further, but at this rhythm, I will fail. Probably my last hope I try to pull on Aether. It has never visibly helped me before in a tangible way, but anything is worth a shot.
How wrong I was to assume this time would be like always. As I draw it to my avatar at first it does nothing. But when I surround myself with it and some passes through me, the image going through my mind becomes ever so slightly more vivid. This small difference is barely noticeable, but it gives me hope, a lot of hope.
With a second wind from my discovery, I pull on as much Aether as I can and slowly draw it into my body. Beyond anything I have ever thought myself capable of, I hold the image of me wielding all my resources better to achieve a flawless ascendence before succeeding in touching the sphere.
Aether gushes into me and the image only becomes more vivid. Now I can no longer just hope, but know and feel I will succeed. It’s in my bones as if victory is already achieved. The certainty with which you grab a fruit from the table to eat. There is no doubt about your capability, it is a certainty, all it is required is to follow through with the intentions.
Follow my intention and vision is exactly what I do. Before noticing, I’m touching the light. As my hands faze through it and the light blinds me, I feel my perspective on this entire space change. What I have done is not the end goal, it’s merely the entrance exam.
Instinctual knowledge from this place and the system fills me. This for lack of a better term is my soul. Having a developed soul stat helped me significantly in this journey. It will take time to unlock the real benefits from this place, but I probably have a few bonuses when I come back and can look at the system windows. Trying to summon it here doesn’t do anything, for now, other than giving me a mild headache. I sit at the center of this space relaxing for a little while longer before leaving. Only a couple meters from me a pinprick of light sits.
I reach for it but as I will myself to move, nothing happens. I pul on the last smidges of mana and my other resources, but I can barely move a few millimeters, and soon after I cease my efforts my body returns to the original place. The rules of this place are still new to me, so after much effort and with no regrets I leave.
Sleep takes me in barely a moment. I notice nothing, not even the time of the day. Being bone tired and almost falling over asleep will do that to you.
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As I awake, I see the sun come up. I could sleep more, given I’m still tired, but it would not help me much. I don’t know how long I spend meditating, but I have slept well over 16 hours. Sleeping past this point is counterproductive. And that is accounting for my different physiology.
Most people get barely any benefit from sleeping over 8 or 9 hours. Of greater importance is the quality and regularity of sleep. Now with the system changing us in ways unknown, all that may go out the window.
As I stretch my bones pop back in place and the blood flows through on long-disused limbs. Each long step feels more familiar until I’m out of my hut and almost the river. With my brain now fully awake I run and jump in.
The cold water and flowing motion are refreshing. I had forgotten how good it was swimming. I sometimes swan at Fish Lake, but it seemed the time was always short given how much there to do on the grove.
I don’t regret for a moment my actions, but perhaps there were better ways to go about it. More efficient ways. Why I never had any help? I was trying to do alone the work of a dozen men, and while I succeeded, with less effort I could have had a trusted dozen people helping me.
Being too close to the problem, and too tired from always pushing my limit pushed me to ignore opportunities. Regret however will get me nowhere, I just need to do better in the future. I WILL do better.
Floating in the running water, Aether flows from my hands. It is easier to control it, but as expected there is much less than before. I was below half of the amount received from the system during integration. Some of it went to Pando as expected, but it was still a precious resource to be cherished. After integration, I had not come across a smidge of Aether yet. Unlike Mana and the other ones, there was no Ather Regen. I could only rely on the system, or attempt to find more of it to absorb.
Aether’s usefulness was however very good news. There was much to experiment with and understand yet, but even just being able to help in mentalization had all kinds of benefits. Faster skill growth, new applications for skills, the focus and certainty it helped to achieve, there was nothing quite like it.
Laying back I use a little of my Aether to sense how the seed above my eye has developed. Now no longer concerned with the possibilities, I watch as it has grown to fully encompass my eye and it has made its way to my brain.
I try to connect with this small part of Pando using a small tread of aether and concentrate on reducing as much as I can the thickness of the roots growing. I could tell it to stop altogether, but after inviting the seed in my body, I don’t have the heart to tell it not to grow. As I keep the connection open, I feel ever closer to this fragment.
This connection lucky doesn’t use any Aether, so I keep it up for quite a while.
As the sun comes fully into view I get out of the water to some food. I’m now hungrier than I have been in quite some time. I must have spent at least a day meditating, probably more to be this hungry.
Dreaming of my meal I open my Stat screen and what greets me puts a big smile on my face. Now we are seeing some real advantages.