After having been through their second rotation of Grace Periods, the group had discovered something strange at night.

There was a different moon in the sky. It changed every four days, almost in line with their rotation of defensive measures. So they decided to adopt a slightly different time measurement than usual.

Since talking about a seven day week would be a bit awkward with their schedule, they instead measured their time in rotations.

Every rotation was four days, and an hour or two on top, and since that aligned so perfectly with the moon seemingly rotating as well, they stuck with that.

Max had decided that to keep better track of time, he would mark every rotation spent with a mark on one of the trees next to the Node. So for the last few days, he had dutifully carved a soft line into the bark

After the third mark, they had seen two different moons, three counting their own. One was red as blood, it was more oval than it was round, and looked sinister to say the least. The other was more like their own, although much bigger and with a hint of silver. It took up almost ten times as much real estate in the night sky as the good old Earth moon, so needless to say, they had a few very bright nights in a row.

Of course the topic of moons elicited a hailstorm of questions for Bixby, but he stoically stuck to the schedule he had set up. First informing them of the very basics of Mana and giving them only what they really needed for survival.

They had finally learned about ranks. A question Dave had carried around for a while.

Ranks were relatively simple to explain, but difficult to grasp in detail. Every living thing in the Manaverse had a rank. That rank represented one's attunement to Mana. The higher the concentration of Mana in your body was, the higher your rank would be.

The rank was measured in numbers for simplicity's sake. Freshly attuned people would be at rank one, while the most advanced individuals would be at rank five.

Or at least that was the theory. There were lots of things still unknown about the higher ranks, since it was a rare thing to reach such a high stage in the cultivation process.

Bixby’s world was a rank three world. Meaning that the highest individual of their whole race was level three. History records over dozens of millenia mentioned only one single Nodefox that reached the fourth rank, and it left the planet soon after, to cultivate in a higher plane.

It wasn’t just Bixby’s world where high ranked individuals were rare though. Simply to reach the third rank of cultivation would require multiple decades of training, and it only got more difficult the higher one would go.

The dark Nodefox Dave had seen at the river was at the peak of rank two. And because of that he was likely one of the strongest individuals on this plane right now. The tunnels created to this new and still inherently unstable plane could only carry a certain concentration of Mana over, if an individual of the third rank would try to pass, the tunnel would simply collapse in itself.

It was possible that other races had tools to build better portals, but that was pure speculation on Bixby’s part.

Knowing that the monster Dave saw during the night at the river would be at the top of the food chain on this plane right now gave him some peace. At least he now knew there couldn’t be too many other threats like that running around.

The rank wasn’t just something to show off though. Since it represented a person's capability to hold Mana, it also directly correlated with strength. A person on the second rank would have much superior physical attributes than a person on the first rank.

Dave found it hard to imagine how strong a person of the fourth or fifth rank must be. According to Bixby those persons were able to wreak havoc and devastation on an almost planetal level.

The main way to increase one's rank was simply to keep leveling Skills, therefore increasing the body's Mana capabilities. But Bixby also showed them a special technique to slowly build on their rank.

It was akin to mediation. One would sit perfectly still and feel for the Mana. Just trying to feel it moving through and following its patterns. Feeling was only the first step though. Once the ways of Mana felt somewhat familiar, one would start moving it on their own accord. It took a great level of control and intimacy with the flowing ways of Mana, but by continuously cycling it through their body, one would eventually increase their underlying Mana channels. Making the body able to hold more Mana.

That was like digging a hole by hand though. It was slow and took lots of time to achieve small results, but it was ultimately necessary. While one could reach second rank without an elaborate cycling practice, it was pretty much unheard of moving further than that.

After being shown the technique, Dave started to incorporate it into every training session of his. Usually it would go like this, first he would train for an hour or two, then he would take a rest and go through the meditation exercises. On most days he repeated the process three or four times during the day, depending on how much work there was to do around the camps.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Lately they had gotten a little short on firewood. In the beginning they had just used loose wood that was laying around, but now they had grazed down all the twigs and branches that were scattered around the forest floor.

So they were forced to cut down trees. Dave was skeptical in the beginning, since he didn’t want to turn their secluded camp into a wide open wasteland by timbering all the trees down.

But since they only needed a little firewood each evening, they could last a while on just one tree. Also Mira’s Skills were growing by the day, so maybe she could help with regrowing trees soon.

By now she was able to control the growth of a whole field of different crops in only a few days. She went a long way from sprouting up a tiny banana tree in a few hours.

At least that’s what Dave had been told. He admittedly didn’t spend a lot of time around his friends socializing since they founded their little camp. Something he felt a little remorse about. But he was just so taken up by training.

Since today was his day to make firewood, and since he had a little trouble sitting still anyways, he decided to cut his cycling time short and already head over to the place where Ryland had cut down the tree yesterday.

After the few brief minutes it took him to cross almost the whole span of their little clearing, Dave wasn’t sure what surprised him the most. He had only heard about Ryland felling a tree, but he hadn’t seen it yesterday. So now he stood there in disbelief.

Laying there on the forest floor was a tree almost the size of a train.

Most of the trees around them were larger than what Dave was used to from back home. Some were even ginormous enough that Dave wondered how they could even grow. When he heard that Ryland had cut down a tree, he had imagined one of the more normal ones, not one with enough lumber to build a second Mayflower.

His respect for Ryland just grew a lot.

The other thing that surprised him was to see Mira sitting there. She knelt in front of the tree in what looked like a sort of prayer almost. She was softly whispering words. It took Dave a second to realize that there was a rhythm to her voice. A rhythm and a soft melody.

Hypnotized by her chanting, Dave just stood by. He didn’t want to destroy Mira’s focus nor did he want her warm melodic voice to stop, so he simply watched.

Time is an interesting thing. Sometimes, when watching precious things, it seems to rush by us, making the most touching moments in life almost fleeting. Yet time seemed to still for Dave. It couldn’t have been more than a few moments, a minute at most, that he was standing there, but it truly felt like a lifetime.

His hand was resting on a tree to his right, and he seemed to be feeling the life pulsing through the bark of that tree. He could smell the forest more vividly than before, even though his nose was used to it for many days now. Birds seemed to chirp brighter around him, and the sheer feeling of life filled him to the fullest. Right then and there he was content.

But as things go, even the perfect moments tend to end.

A twig snapped under Dave’s food, bursting under the weight of a step he didn’t know he had taken. Mira stopped and looked up to Dave. The spell broke and everything clicked back into place again.

“Oh hey, I didn’t see you there.” She gave him a slightly embarrassed smile.

Still rattled by what just happened, Dave stumbled for words. “Uhh, sorry I just wanted to do the lumber you know. I didn’t want to uhh… disturb you.”

“That’s okay, I was actually just preparing the wood. So you have good timing.”

Dave questioningly raised an eyebrow. “Preparing the wood?”

“Yeah it’s kind of a new Skill I got after finishing my quest. It seems a bit sinister but I think it’s useful.” Again she smiled to hide her embarrassment.

“What is it?”

Mira seemed to be thinking about it before answering. “Okay but don’t judge me for the name okay?”

Dave nodded and she continued. “It’s called ‘Life Drain’. It allows me to draw life energy out of plants and give them to other plants. I’m still working on controlling it better, right now I can only make the life energy go into the ambient environment, rather than direct it. But it’s still useful for things like this.” She gestured to the tree stump laying in front of her. Dave could swear it just looked more alive a second ago. It held a slightly darker color now, like the tree had been laying there for weeks, rather than a day.

“I see. So by taking a bit of life away from the tree, you make it easier to chop it up for firewood. That's smart.”

“Yeah not just that, how do you think Ryland was able to fell this thing.” Mira laughed.

It certainly seemed useful. Although Dave had to admit it was a pretty sinister name for a Skill.

He went over to touch the tree and was surprised to find how brittle its bark had gotten. “That will really make it a lot easier.” He gave Mira a look over, seeing her with new eyes. “You’re really doing a lot for our camp, you know that right? Not just with that, but you’re pretty much our only source of food, you’re probably the most essential one of us.”

Mira blushed at that. “Stop that, we’re all important. Maybe I contribute a lot right now, but don’t forget who saved us back when this all just began.”

Dave hated being constantly reminded of how he braved dangers for them. While it was true, and it felt good to be seen as a hero in the beginning, he just didn’t feel like one anymore. Since they came here, he felt like the most useless of all of them.

Mira cared for their food production, Ryland built most of the necessities they had in record time, Sarah wasn’t just managing all of the organizational tasks, she also started sewing. That meant Sarah was the only thing holding their clothes and therefore their modesty together. What Sam and Max provided went without saying.

Apparently Mira saw his discomfort, she took a step towards him and Dave swallowed when he realized how close she was. Her face was soft with sympathy. “Hey, I know it has probably been hard on you, but …

“Hush!” Dave forced out a harsh whisper. Something else had caught his attention. A sound he definitely didn’t want to hear close to the border.