The first pill was always difficult on the body. It took three full days to recover, with Dasha spending his time between the House of Wisdom, his lab, and, eventually, the Shadow Hall. The fifth gate crept up and he was more than ready. He was nearing the Late stage of Qi Condensation. A step away from a breakthrough.
His vision rocked back and forth, and he steadied himself. Looking down he faced a blue disembodied reflection of himself.
Dasha was on a boat, somehow, and stranded in the middle of nowhere. Clouds and a light blue paint spread across the sky without the obstruction of the sun.
[ Gate 5 : Fort Chipewyan
Main Objective: Kill the Misi-kinepikw
Prize Pool: 6,000 XP, 10,000 PP
SPECIAL OBJECTIVE: ?
SPECIAL PRIZE POOL: ? ]
‘Fort Chipewyan…Canada, Alberta,’ Dasha deduced. ‘This must be Lake Athabasca. And Misi-kinepikw means great snake in the Cree dialect.’
“I really am back home, eh?”
His small boat wasn’t a boat but rather a canoe. Specifically, the types used by North American Indigenous people, long and limited in space. Having been exposed to many museums in his early life, Dasha could identify it instantly.
The water was peaceful but not for long. Dasha closed his eyes and cranked up the Qi Condensation in his body.
His goal was to kill the Misi-kinepikw while on a canoe. No doubt, it would attack from below and depending on how good the player was with a paddle there was a chance to escape. Even so, he didn’t want to waste time. In his head, he thought up the potential special and hidden objectives.
‘If it’s time-based like the previous gate, then I’m in luck.’ His canoe rocked back and forth. He sat down and the balance returned. ‘Rain and thunder is commonly associated with the horned serpent. Therefore, I should expect something of that nature.’
The canoe wasn’t dissimilar to what he did for sports and he was able to adapt to it very easily. His stroke technique was impeccable. He maintained a steady rhythm and ensured that each stroke of the paddle was efficient, because efficiency was what he strived for.
‘Now then, where would a horned serpent be? Underwater, but where specifically? Close to the coast? Submerged deeply? Should I go for a swim?’
Lake Athabasca was a long, multi-province body of water. A quarter of the lake lay in Alberta and a third was in Saskatchewan. To further complicate matters, Lake Athabasca was formed by local rivers and flowed upwards to the Atlantic Ocean. From what he learned at Gate 3, a barrier contained the area to ensure players wouldn’t go too far. That meant if he made a mistake and went in the wrong direction, he would be wasting precious time.
‘The sun isn’t in the sky for some reason. If I wait for nighttime, I could calculate my position through the stars, assuming they’ll appear.’
He was in a bit of a bind. No stars or sun meant he couldn’t triangulate his position. He could let himself drift and have the water carry him what he guessed would be north but that would burn time too.
‘Will I really have to rely on luck?’
He continued paddling with a scowl. He despised gambling his skills on mere happenstance. With numbers, in the real world, it rarely happened. But every now and again, luck was involved. Luck encompassed his world.
In his head, he kept track of the time.
‘Fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine…’
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Paddle, paddle, paddle. Observe and listen. Those were his only options, it seemed.
The sky refused to change colours. The wind would veer here and there, but generally returned to an amicable push to the north.
Feeling all the signs leading up, he decided to do just that. Paddle north. Paddle till his arms would give out.
‘...forty-thousand two-hundred and sixty-nine, forty-thousand two hundred and seventy, forty-thousand two hundred and seventy one…’
Twelve hours passed with no results. No indication of the the main objective—to kill the Misi-kinepikw. The waters were useless and there was no sign of land either.
He had been in a semi-meditative state throughout the hours, though it didn’t help. The human body possessed seven primary senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, vestibular, and proprioception, and depending on the definition of sense, there were fifteen more. Regardless, from what Dasha understood, what Qi Sensing amplified was those seven senses in particular. The vestibular was the perception of balance and spatial orientation, and proprioception informed the details on the position, movement, and orientation of a human’s body parts relative to each other and to the environment. The vestibular sense consisted of the inner ear's semicircular canals and otolith organs—tiny hair cells that detect motion and head position—making it essential for walking, sitting, standing, or even stabilizing the eyes. Meanwhile, the proprioceptor sense entailed of sensory receptors located in the muscles, tendons, and joints.
Working those seven senses in conjunction, Dasha’s Qi grappled onto his surroundings akin to how a cat’s whiskers detected air vibrations. He was like a living radar detector whose range spanned a seven metre radius.
He sensed the harmless fish swimming below him. He felt the tiny, insignificant ripples of when a slightly larger fish swam under him.
[ Qi Sensing (Early Stage) upgraded into Qi Sensing (Middle Stage) ]
A sharp, frustrated inhale. The utility of the skill aside, he wanted results. He wanted to fight. He felt restless doing nothing.
‘Is this really just luck based? Can I really not do anything?’
He took a couple dips into the lake and nothing. He saw nothing besides harmless fish. Assuming this was accurate to its real-life counterpart, Lake Athabasca was approximately a hundred and twenty metres deep, too deep to fully explore without an oxygen tank. He did the numbers, he did the tests. It was impossible.
Wet, cold, and hungry, Dasha contemplated his next steps.
‘I should have had Paul scout first. No, maybe not. He’s still healing from what I did to him. A tool is only as good as its ability to function.’
Should he have taken the Indigenous Studies at his university? Clearly it would have done him some good. While his knowledge was unquestionably close to an expert’s, he lacked the completeness of someone who spent their whole life studying it. Much of his time acquiring his masters in history was specifically on conflicts: world wars, large battles between regional states, etc. The precise intricate mythos of the horned serpent lay beyond his fingertips. Just barely.
He let the paddle rest. He crossed his arms and drummed his fingers.
‘Should I just take another pill?’ Dasha’s scowl deepened. ‘I could be spending my time on better things.’
Being patient was one thing but wasting efficiency was another. He could focusing on reaching the Late Stage of Qi Condensation.
‘I’m so close too. So close. I should just do it.’ His Qi Sensing flared, double-checking the dangers around him. Suffice to say, there was nothing but fish. He licked his lips. ‘Open inventory.’
He brought out the pill and some food too. Sweet potatoes and a banana. ‘I didn’t anticipate it would take this long. Good thing I took precautions.’
Dasha’s inventory was filled with such precautions. Tools, food, shields, spears, swords, and weapons that he had never touched in his life. Why? Because sometime in the future, he suspected he would need them. Maybe not in a fight but in a puzzle. In the Heavenly Games, everything was free game.
He robotically ate his food, making sure to put the banana peel back into his inventory. All that remained was the Earthly Oasis Pill. This time, he was ready. This time, he would take it and avoid the consequences.
Entering a meditative state, his Qi swam in his body like a water balloon. Slushing and trudging but in accordance to his will. Then, it was time for the pill. With determined eyes, he plopped it in.
He shut his eyes and ignored how his lungs were being torn apart—how his breathing tempted him into a revolting set of coughing. He wanted to cough so bad. He wanted to break. He wanted to embrace his desires.
But he refused.
Through his nose, a controlled amount of black gas aired out. The tearing sensation contained in his chest amplified as the seconds went by. Before, he spouted it out without restraint. Now, he was only allowing bits of what he deemed correct.
This method of utilizing the pill yielded greater results. It meant circulating through the meridians and finding every bit of impurity. He was sure that after half a day’s worth of Qi Sensing in this environment he had developed even more impurities.
But despite the way his lungs expanded and deflated, he kept still. He kept the pain inwards and never allowed it to deter from his goal. He continued to release even amounts of the gaseous impurities. His eyes closed, his Qi centered to himself, he didn’t notice the canoe rocking.
He didn’t notice the soft ripple breaking the calm.