01 initialization, p.2
01. Initialization, page 2
part #1 of Paths Of Power Series
I moved into my bunk, and sat cross-legged as the image showed. Closed my eyes and breathed in slowly and as deeply as I could. I tried to visualize those little blue lights entering my lungs. I could almost see them manifest in my mind’s eye as my breath reached the depth of my lungs. I held my breath there for a moment as I tried to send them into a circle just behind and below my navel. I saw it as more of a sphere, almost crystalline in texture.
Three tiny blue motes joined three others already there. I slowly exhaled.
I repeated this process for about five minutes, filling my Dantian to the brim with essence. “Ok, let’s see how hard it is to try to compress this into Ki,” I muttered.
With another deep breath to fortify me, I imagined a pair of hands pressing the essence in, trying to squeeze it from all sides. Nothing seemed to happen at first, so I bore down as hard as I could, sweat forming on my brow. Then, finally, the little blue lights started to compress into one big ball of blue. I took another deep breath as I continued to squeeze this new and mysterious energy with all my might.
Slowly, the light at the center of the mass started shifting colors. Gradually the very center lightened and changed from a pale blue to a golden hue. Then, as I continued to squeeze, a golden drop fell from the center and pooled at the bottom of the sphere. I let go as I breathed rapidly, feeling like I just unloaded a full trailer by hand. “Why am I so tired?” I muttered. “Didn’t those prompts say something about an interface?” I thought hard about the word Interface, and wonder of wonder my character sheet appeared before my eyes.
[Character Sheet] [Companion Sheet] [Settlement Menu] [Interface options] [System]
John Baker character sheet
c0
Cultivation Rank:Body 0
Health points: 65/65
Health regeneration: 0.54 hp/hour
Stamina: 50/110
Stamina Regeneration: 11/minute
Ki: 1/50
Essence: 40/50
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 11
Agility: 10
Constitution: 13
Endurance: 11
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 13
Techniques:
Skills:
Special:
Bonded to Spirit Beast: You have bonded a Spirit beast. You and your Spirit Beast can always locate one another and share an empathic link, which allows for better understanding and alerts one when the other is in danger.
I burned over half of my stamina, making one point of Ki? Un fricking believable. It’s going to take forever to compress Ki if I have to wait… um, sixty stamina divided by eleven per minute… five and a half minutes, per point of Ki, plus the five or so minutes it took to fill the Dantian with essence.
I let out a breath. “It’s fine. I can work with this. While I have this open let’s have a look at how they rate me….”
“Strength of twelve, I guess if it’s a base ten for average, it’s probably not too far off. I’m stronger than average, but I’m no roided-out bodybuilder. Average Dex and agility, well, I’m not clumsy, but I’m no gymnast either. Thirteen constitution isn’t too bad, and with a sixty-five health pool, I’m guessing it’s five hp per point of Con. You don’t end up with a high endurance by driving ten-ish hours a day.”
“I think my college education didn’t go entirely to waste if it’s what got me a fourteen and thirteen in Int and Wis, respectively. Nothing much else except the perk I got listed under special. Looks all about right. A few tabs on top, it looks like. My char sheet, the companion must mean Rukia’s sheet, settlement tab….”
You do not meet the requirements to create or manage a settlement. You require 5 Sapients, c5,000 (c = System Credits a universal system-wide currency) and a suitable structure to create the most basic settlement (Hamlet) or be granted admin access to an existing settlement
Ok, system settlements are a thing, and system credits, I had no idea how to get those. At least I could look at Rukia’s Stats
Rukia character sheet
Hit Points: 50/50
Hit Points Regen: 10/day
Stamina: 140/140
Stamina Regen: 14/minute
Ki: 0/50
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Agility: 16
Constitution: 10
Endurance: 14
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 7
Cultivation Rank: Body 0
Special abilities:
Spirit Beast: can gather essence through fighting other beasts, and able to consume Beast cores to increase in power. Does not unlock meridians like sapient Cultivators, but grows more naturally in power as they gather essence. Essence is automatically converted to Ki. Ki is stored in their own Spirit Beast Core. Spirit beasts, unlike their human counterpart, can gain an element to their Ki once they reach their first rank. It will be a weak affinity but will grow in strength as the Spirit beast rises in rank.
Bonded Spirit Beast: this spirit beast is bonded to a sapient Cultivator. The master and beast can always locate one another and share an empathic link, which allows for better understanding and alerts one when the other is in danger.
Well, she wasn’t as strong as I was, but damn for being maybe forty pounds, a ten in strength is pretty damned high; no wonder she pulled like a mule on the leash. Faster than I was, she could sprint like no one’s business. Solid stamina, more than mine, of course. If I recalled my D&D days, a three in intelligence was pretty damned high for an animal. I Always knew she was too smart for her own good. Pretty good wisdom for a two-year-old pup too.
Spirit beast, let’s see here… basically leveled through fighting, I hoped we didn’t have to do too much of that, but it would be all too often by my luck. Basically, she gets the easy mode of cultivation, plus she could eat the cores of other beasts to boost her growth speed. I wondered what else they were suitable for. Her bonded spirit beast was the same as mine, just her side of it.
Before I closed out my interface, I opened the system tab to see what was there. It seemed to be a list of UI and notification options. I scrolled through and selected what made the most sense for now. No pop-ups while in combat, display my and Rukia’s health, stamina, and Ki bars off in the corner of my vision. Apparently, it would fade from view unless I intended to look at it. That’s nifty, at least.
“Ok, girl,” I said, “we need to figure out what we are going to do. We can’t stay here forever. If all the cars and tech stopped working, as the truck did, and no means of communicating with anyone, like at all!” I took a deep breath.
“Ok, we are going to have to travel on foot. Snowville was only half an hour away before, but it’s going to take all day, possibly two, to get there now. We should aim for the rest area for now,” I sighed, feeling the enormity of it all. I used to go coast to coast in only six days. Now it could take a year or more to make that trip. “I need to grab what we need to survive. At least we have plenty of food available… but no microwave to heat it” another deep breath.
“And no pots or pans either. Wishing for what we don’t have won’t help, so let’s get to it” Rukia flicked her ears and wagged her tail.
I pulled down my clothes duffle bag, emptied most of it but left my socks, a pair of jeans, and a couple shirts. Then, I grabbed all my healthy snack/energy bars and dumped them into the duffle, pulled out several cans of stew, and stuck them in the bag along with my can opener and several plastic spoons. Finally, I pulled out my vacuum-sealed pouches of homemade chili and put them in my small cooler; if I kept it closed, they should keep for a couple days
I dumped most of a case of water bottles in, I was going to need the fluids out there. I grabbed Rukia’s food and water bowls, transferred her food into several gallon-sized zip bags, her food container was too bulky to fit in the bag.
“Ok, food for you and me, water for both of us,” I said, looking around. I already had my boots on. I pulled my coat down from the top bunk. “Might need this if it rains on us,” I said. Then I rolled up a throw blanket around my smallest pillow, “it’s spring, and the weather is nice now, but it still gets chilly out at night, not that you would notice,” I chuckled while looking at her fluffy fur. I grabbed my mostly dull food prep knife and its sheath, it was only three or four inches long, but it’s still worthwhile. I grabbed my two pocket knives, they were sharp at least, and for good measure, I grabbed a bag of rawhide sticks for Rukia to chew on later.
The bag was heavy, but we would need everything I grabbed just in case I couldn’t make it back. I left my tablet and computer behind. They didn’t work and would be less than useless to me on foot.
I hooked Rukia’s leash to her harness, one of those thirty foot retractable ones, and carefully looked around outside before opening my door and climbing down. As I reached the ground, my eyes fell on my leather work gloves and my old tire thumper, a foot and a half rod of white wax wood, a good inch and a half thick at one end and an inch thick at the other.
A short club couldn’t hurt. I stuffed my gloves in my vest pocket, picked up my girl, and set her on the ground. After grabbing my rather heavy duffle bag, I closed the door, turned south, and began walking.
Chapter 3
As I took my first step towards the rest area, I felt my cargo shorts... shift. Then, as I took my second step, they started sliding down. “Shit,” I called out as I dropped my tire thumper to grab my shorts before they fell to my ankles. As I looked down, wondering why my shorts were so loose, I mean, I usually kept them tight with my belt since I practically had no ass. But then, I noticed something rather shocking.
I could see straight down to my feet without leaning forward a bit first. My seven-year driver’s gut… was just gone. I thought hard about it for a moment as I cinched my belt a lot further than usual. Didn’t that prompt say something about fixing physical flaws or defects or something like that? I checked my glasses, my vision wasn’t too impaired, things just got a little blurry at a distance.
I took my glasses off and looked carefully at the mile marker just down the road. I could read it just fine, sharp and crisp lines. So I put my glasses back on and looked again. Now it looked just a bit off, the lenses over correcting now. So I took my glasses off again and put them back in my truck, grabbing my actual sunglasses. When I did so, I noticed my lighter in the dash cubby. Shit, I almost forgot to bring a source of fire. So I grabbed that too and climbed back out.
“Ok, girl, let’s try this again. Let’s make like an Autobot and roll out,” I said, chuckling at my own lame phrase. We got maybe ten feet from the front of my truck before I heard a loud shriek coming from above and behind us. I whirled around and saw a large hawk, wings flared, and talons outstretched, coming right for us.
“Shiiit,” I cried as I dove to the side. I could hear the rush of wind as its talons just barely missed me. Rukia growled and let out a sharp bark at the bird. I looked at her as I stood back up quickly. She was crouched like she was about to chase after the bird. I looked back up, tracking the hawk as it circled above us; after staring for a moment, a small window popped up to the side of my vision, which was nice since I could still watch the hawk circle
Hawk
Spirit Beast, body rank 1
It wasn’t much information, but it did let me know something essential. It was already further along in cultivation than either Rukia or myself.
As I continued to focus on the beast, I could begin to feel a bit of what felt like pressure coming off of it, kind of like a storm as it rolls overhead, making the air heavier than usual. It wasn’t a lot, but it was there.
The Hawk dove again, but this time towards Rukia! “NO FUCKING WAY, YOU SONOFABITCH” I cried, swinging my make-shift club at the bird before it could sink its talons in my dog.
It shifted its flight path to avoid my admittedly clumsy swing, but it missed my girl at least. As it moved, Rukia lunged up, managing to snag a couple tail feathers as it climbed again, giving off an indignant squawk.
Rukia spat out the feathers, licking her chops while watching the bird circle around for another pass; she really wanted to catch that bird. She seemed to think this was some kind of game with the way her ears perked forward, tail wagging, and manic look in her eyes.
I dropped my duffle bag, something I knew I should have done earlier. I looked for a rock or something nearby that I could throw at the bird, maybe drive it off if it thought we were too much trouble for it. But, of course, there was nothing but tiny bits of gravel on the highway. Where was a gator when you actually needed one?
Resigned to waiting for it to dive again, I crouched down, absently marveling at how easily my formerly bad knee flexed properly for the first time in years. With an angry shriek, the hawk dove again. This time a golden yellow color enveloped its wings. Its body seemed to blur a bit as its speed seemed to double. It dove straight for my face. I reflexively tried to block with my arm.
Searing agony scored my flesh, blood began flowing down my forearm, and a -6 briefly appeared in the corner of my vision. And a blood drop symbol appeared next to my health, flashing unpleasantly.
The hawk let out a triumphant cry as it rapidly rose in the air, my blood dripping from its talons. I felt a sudden but brief weight on my back as I bent forward, cradling my left arm; a flash of black and white fur crossed my vision. I looked up as Rukia flew through the air and sunk her teeth into the wing of the hawk, a growl coming from her throat, all playfulness in her demeanor gone.
She and the bird crashed down to the ground, Rukia shaking her head vigorously back and forth, trying to rip the wing right off. I heard the dry snap of breaking bone when Rukia let go before the bird could slash at her with its talon.
It flapped its wings awkwardly, one wing clearly broken and not able to support it in flight. It hopped on its feet and facing my dog, red light seeming to flash dangerously in its eyes as another golden glow enveloped its beak and talons. It crouched down, about ready to fling itself at Rukia when I full-body belly-flopped on the bird. It was trapped under my weight. It was obviously pissed off as it tried to wriggle around and lash out at me.
I grabbed it by its neck with my good hand as I tried to maneuver my other elbow to its back to keep it from flipping over and disemboweling me with those glowing talons. “You will not get my dog,” I growled, partly in anger, partly in pain as my torn arm continued to bleed all over me and the bird. Without much in the way of a better attack strategy, I just squeezed its neck for all I was worth, hoping to kill the damned thing before it got loose.
It took a couple of minutes or possibly hours, I couldn’t be entirely sure, but the bird finally stopped struggling and fell limp in my hand. Just to be sure, I gingerly reached my left hand into my pocket to pull out one of my pocket knives. Moving the arm hurt like a bitch, but I wasn’t letting go of this creature’s neck until I was sure it was absolutely dead. I flicked the knife open and dragged the sharp blade across the hawk’s throat, nearly severing it in the process.
I took a deep and ragged breath. It was finally over, then as I inhaled, a cloud of white smoke or mist rose out of the dead bird. It slid into my mouth, down my throat, through my lungs, and settled into my Dantian, transforming into brighter motes of essence, I looked inside, and there were a couple dozen of these brighter and larger dots of essence forcing their way into my Dantian. My Dantian was already mostly packed with the essence I haven’t converted yet after my 1 experiment in making Ki.
I watched as those new lights compressed the other essence lights further and further, making room for themselves. I could feel a straining in my core as it did this.
What’s going on? Is it going to break my core before I could even really get started? I thought worriedly. As I watched, the smaller lights began to merge, becoming as large as the new essence. Finally, after they all combined, becoming just as large and bright as the new essence, my Dantian settled.
Notification messages flashed before my vision, but I swiped my hand through them, and they minimized into a little blinking square in the bottom right of my view. I looked around for Rukia and saw her licking the blood from her muzzle. “Come here, girl,” I said softly, needing to check to make sure she was ok. I ran my hands through her fur, checked her legs, making sure there were no breaks or tenderness.
Rukia didn’t react except licking my face, probably thinking I was just giving her the love she constantly needed. Once I was satisfied she was ok, I checked over my arm. There were 8 deep gashes in my arm from the bird’s talons. I scooted my butt over to my duffle and dug out my first aid kit and a bottle of water.
I poured the water over the bleeding gashes, cleaning them out the best I could. Then I pulled out iodine ointment and applied that generously to the wounds before layering gauze over it and securing it by wrapping an ace bandage around my arm until it felt secure and had enough pressure to stop the bleeding but not cut off circulation. I flexed my left hand a bit, and my fingers moved ok, but my arm still throbbed like a bitch. I popped two acetaminophens to help with that and drank down the last of my water. The blinking red drop icon, probably bleeding icon, disappeared, and I was left with fifty-five out of sixty-five health.
I looked around, seeing if there was any more danger, including looking up at the sky. It all seemed clear. Rukia lay down next to me, head in my lap. “Ok,” I breathed deeply again, “let’s check out these notifications.
Congratulations, you have gained the skill Identify. Identify rank 1
You can now identify people, creatures, and objects by studying them for a moment. Increase your rank to identify higher-ranked opponents, items and to gain more details.
Congratulations, you have gained the skill Spiritual sense. Spiritual sense rank 1
