《Emperor of Crafting》


 Chapter 1

    Blake sat in his last class of the day on the final day of his school career. In just a few hours he would be allowed to enter the spirit realm for the first time. His nerves made it impossible to sit still and listen. He wasn¡¯t the only one to struggle either. Around him, the 49 other students in his governmentally mandated class grouping were fidgeting in their seats. The teacher''s voice pierced his mind as the class came to a close.


    ¡°Remember, you have one year to reach tier 3 or fines will be levied against you.¡±


    This was not new information to anyone here. Upon completion of high school everyone not continuing their education was required to spend a year in the spirit realm improving their tier. A higher tier meant a higher mana generation. That mana was needed to run much of the modern world so the New Earth Republic, or NER, did everything to encourage people to reach as high a tier as possible.


    Blake thought it ridiculous that they felt the need to make people progress at all. Who wouldn¡¯t want to reach a higher tier and the slew of benefits that came with it? There was even a rumor that a higher tier brought an increase in lifespan, not that there was any easy way to know in the 50 years since humanity got access to the spirit realm. Any increase so far could easily be attributed to healthier people not dying as easily.


    Blake¡¯s mind turned back to his goal. If he could reach a high enough tier then he could live easily just off the mana he generated. Mana banks are a common sight nowadays buying up people¡¯s excess generation.


    ¡°All right class load onto the buses so we can head to the awakening facility.¡±


    Awakening facility was a nice name for it. Most people just called it body storage. Going to the spirit realm was not a physical thing but rather a journey of the mind. From what Blake had been told it was like falling asleep then waking up in a different body. There was supposed to be no difference from the normal world outside the magic and monsters but while there your body on Earth was vulnerable.


    Body storage facilities were the solution to people wanting and needing to spend long periods of time in the spirit realm. He would be placed in a tube that provided his body with nutrients and took care of waste for as long as he was gone. That did not sound fun to Blake but it was worth it for magical powers.


    Lost in his thoughts Blake didn¡¯t remember the trip to the awakening facility. There was a bus involved in there somewhere he was sure but the next thing he knew he was standing in a massive room that reminded him of a stereotypical warehouse.


    Everything was grey with the occasional splash of brown. The ceiling was open showing the ventilation system and metal supports. There was a stage along the far wall with enough seating for hundreds if not thousands of people lined up in the room. The seats were the hard plastic chairs that said they were only used on rare occasions or the owners were just plain cheap.


    Students from across the city were filing into the room and grabbing seats at random. Blake never had many friends and no close friends so he decided to sit alone. Nerves would make it impossible to socialize anyhow as he was no extrovert. Grabbing a seat near the front, as everyone always seemed to avoid the front, he did his best to stay in the moment and not get lost in thought again. It was a struggle but ten minutes later a man stepped onto the stage.


    ¡°Congratulations class of 50 ASR(after spirit realm)! In just a few minutes you will take the next step in ¡­¡±


    Blake tuned out the speech after only a few words. He couldn¡¯t believe he had thought they would say anything important. No, just a stereotypical ¡®you got this!¡¯ speech. It went on for almost half an hour with more people coming up to join in. Some were the principals of the various schools there but many were just supposedly influential individuals from the community. Blake had never heard of any of them.


    In the end, everyone was split into groups and shuffled off to various side rooms. Blake followed along without complaint, unlike some people.


    ¡°Do you know who I am?! I demand to have a private induction. And none of this waiting nonsense either!¡±


    Blake heard a voice shriek over the murmurs of the crowd. He wanted to smack his head at the stupidity of such a statement. Some people around him did smack their heads. To his astonishment, Blake watched as a man his age was led away from the crowd with an attendant apologizing profusely to him. Now Blake was curious as to who he was to get such special treatment.


    Soon enough Blake was in a much smaller room with human-sized tubes lining the walls. A short man with greying hair was leading his group of twenty. He turned around addressing them.


    ¡°Alright everyone go to a chamber and lay in it. I will be around shortly to connect you to the capsule. In case you were not listening earlier I will be administering a mild sedative. To enter the spirit realm you need to be asleep and many struggle to do so in these circumstances. Once you are asleep your stasis chamber will be flooded with mana to weaken the barrier between our realm and the spirit realm. This will allow you to make an initial connection. In the future, such measures will not be necessary.¡±


    Moving towards one of the capsules Blake got a closer look at it. Seven feet long it was made of a futuristic-looking metal, maybe an aluminum alloy? It had blue streaks running through it that lit up occasionally as mana was run through it. The top part of the cylinder was a glass hatch that was already open. Along the edge of the metal part of the capsule, Blake could see glowing runes. He didn¡¯t know what they did exactly but thought it was a safe guess that they were controls of some sort.


    Inside the capsule was a grey bed that looked like it belonged in a hospital. Looking around Blake saw others taking off their shoes before getting in so he followed suit. The capsule bed was hard and he felt it should have been uncomfortable but a warmth suffused his body making everything feel perfect. When he was rich from his adventures in the spirit realm he would have to see about getting an actual bed like this for his ten-story mansion.


    ¡®Pyromancer pyromancer pyromancer.¡¯ He chanted in his head while waiting for the attendant.


    Upon entering the spirit realm he would unlock his innate Talent that would set the course for his future advancement. Talents could be anything from being especially good at cooking to being able to teleport. They provided the innate ability to do something as well as instincts within a field of expertise. Blake wanted a Talent that had immediate combat potential. While they could be changed with time, effort, and money he lacked the time and money to do so.


    The mancer Talent tree was the term for any Talent that related to the manipulation and creation of an element. Magic talents in general were sought after for their both immediate power and future potential. Only ten percent of people would get a Talent that was officially magic. While all talents were supernatural in some way, magic talents were those that used mana. Mana could be used by anyone in theory but magic was a complicated field of study that was very difficult if not outright impossible for most people to do without an appropriate Talent.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Pyromancer was a sub-Talent categorization of the mancer Talent tree focused on fire. Every Talent was different but the ability to manipulate fire, no matter the form, could immediately be used in combat. Some people could only throw fireballs at first as that was all their Talent could do while others summoned swarms of tiny sparks. There were an infinite number of pyromancer talents; all of them useful in Blake¡¯s.


    While there were many safe non-combat routes for Blake to take through the tiers it was slow. Combat would allow him to progress quickly and at a lower cost. Killing a monster to sell its body was much easier than trying to source materials to make something in a field oversaturated with crafters. Monster components were always in demand. Of course, this was all second-hand information he gathered through forums but it was a common enough opinion that there was no way it could be completely false.


    ¡°Are you ready young man?¡±


    Blake nearly jumped out of the capsule in surprise. He had gotten stuck in his head again and hadn¡¯t noticed the attendant arrive.


    ¡°Ye¡­¡± Blake''s voice squeaked and he took a moment to clear his throat and deepen his voice. ¡°That is yes I am ready.¡±


    The attendant smirked at him but didn¡¯t comment on his surprise. Reaching into the capsule the man grabbed something Blake hadn¡¯t noticed before. A thin tube ran along the inner edge of the lid. On the end, the part the attendant grabbed, was a thin but long needle. Blake shivered a little at the sight. He was not a fan of needles. Ironic, he could admit, given he was preparing himself to fight monsters that more likely than not pierce him with claws and fangs at some point. Another plus for magic, it was usually range damage, no need to get up close where he was liable to get stabbed.


    Blake got lost in his own thoughts again thinking about fighting styles that would minimize the risk to himself. He was going to get himself in trouble if he kept getting distracted like this. The attendant was able to insert the needle into his skin before Blake noticed what was happening. If that had been an attack he would be dead. Maybe. He would like to think that an actual threat would keep his attention. There was such a thing as danger sense, right?


    A cold liquid entered Blake¡¯s veins from the needle. The world began to spin around him as his hold on consciousness began to fade.


    ¡°Remember to wait at the village center for the rest of the group.¡± The attendant said.


    Blake tried to ask what he was talking about but he had lost feeling of his mouth and all that came out was a garbled mess. What village center? He was now seriously regretting not listening to that long speech. There must have been more than empty motivational catchphrases. At this point, his mind was too fuzzy to think straight and he slipped into a deep slumber.


    * * *


    Blake¡¯s regained consciousness in a black void. It wasn¡¯t so much that there was no light to see by as he had no eyes to see with. Trying to figure out what was going on Blake attempted to maneuver around but found he had no body at all. The sedative might have been messing with his senses but Blake felt that there was more to it. As a kid, he had broken his arm and had to have surgery done. He had been put under for an operation to fix it and remembered clearly the sensation of the sedative affecting his body. Despite not technically feeling anything from his limbs at the time there had been a fuzzy sensation that told him they were there. In this black void, there was no fuzzy sensation.


    Blake began to hyperventilate. At least he tried to. His mind was spiraling unable to form any coherent thought over his panic. He needed to breathe but he couldn¡¯t. With no body, he had no lungs to breathe with. If he had been capable of rational thought he would have realized that he did not need air but his mind got stuck on the idea of breathing and would not let it go.


    Blake didn¡¯t know how long he was like that. He was just in the void, panicking, trying to hyperventilate, failing to hyperventilate, then panicking some more about not being able to hyperventilate. At some point, a warmth suffused his mind. Over a moment, or maybe an eternity, the warmth grew in intensity until it became almost painful. It never actually was painful more like the idea of pain. It was like looking at someone getting kicked. You know they are in pain but it¡¯s not your pain. To Blake, it was the idea that he felt he should be in pain but just wasn¡¯t.


    The intensity combined with the strangeness of the sensation finally allowed him to get control of himself. Once he could have rational thoughts it was only a few seconds before he regained full control of himself. He couldn¡¯t help but be embarrassed. He might not have listened to the speech back at the body storage facility but he knew from his own research and conversations with people that something like this would happen.


    His spirit was adjusting to being without a physical body and his Talent was awakening. Everyone went through it. He had heard that a lot of people panicked during this step but he had thought them weaklings with no spine. He distinctly recalled thinking that there was no way he would panic. Blake resolved then and there that if ever asked he would say he was perfectly comfortable with the whole thing and didn¡¯t panic once.


    As the heat continued to increase Blake couldn¡¯t help but get excited. Was this heat a sign of a pyromancer Talent? There were no clear patterns for what type of Talent people awakened but feeling ever-increasing levels of heat during his Talent awakening could only be a good sign. Time went on and Blake¡¯s excitement eventually faded into boredom. With nothing else to do, he decided to focus on the body storage attendant¡¯s last words. He was supposed to stay in some sort of village?


    After a while, Blake vaguely remembered something from his spirit realm studies class over a month ago. The facility his body was at was supposed to have some sort of special item to prevent new realm walkers from appearing randomly. It would redirect people to a prepared location within a tier 0 spirit realm. Normally someone would end up at a completely random location within a huge area that was the ¡®Earth spawn area¡¯ as some people called it.


    Blake hoped he wasn¡¯t supposed to do anything to make sure he arrived at the right place because if he was he was screwed. He didn¡¯t think there was anything he could do in his current state so he would just have to set aside the possibility that he messed up somewhere. The good news was, even if he had a random start, he would only show up in a tier 0 realm.


    Despite everyone calling anything not Earth the spirit realm it was not one realm but rather multiple. A realm was like a mini reality that had naturally occurring magic. A tier 0 realm like the one people from Earth arrived at was weak in terms of its natural magical manifestations. Magical manifestation was a fancy term for magic items. This was anything from a plant that healed those who ate it to a monster that desired human flesh.


    There was little difference between a tier 0 realm and Earth besides the monsters, which are more like angry animals, and the fact that only a small portion of a few realms had established civilization. Most areas were wild and unexplored. There wasn¡¯t much benefit to staying in a tier 0 realm so most people tried to reach a tier 1 realm as soon as possible. The act of crossing over to a higher-tier realm was known as ascension and was the primary goal of many. Ascending to higher realms strengthened your Talent, enhanced your connection to your body making more benefits carry over to earth, and had many more benefits beyond that.


    Time slipped by as Blake dreamed of reaching tiers unheard of. The heat kept increasing but still no pain. As far as Blake was aware the highest tier reached by a human was tier 15. It was reached by General Jerom of the NER army. There were rumors of others reaching as high as tier 20 but none had been confirmed. There were also other sapient races that humanity had encountered in the spirit realm but Blake didn¡¯t know much about them.


    After even more time had passed a tipping point must have been reached as the heat began to hurt Blake. Any defense he had against the pain and sensation disappeared all at once and a hot sharp pain assaulted his mind. As soon as it began it was gone but Blake still gave a loud yelp. It was mental since he had no mouth but still.


    The heat and every sensation left with the pain leaving Blake once again alone in the void with no frame of reference for anything. He was just beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong when he felt a pull on his mind. No not his mind. Not quite. It was more like his sense of self was being yanked on. He didn¡¯t have time to examine the feeling further before, with a start, he was once again in a body. Bright light shined into his closed eyelids burning his sensitive retinas.


    Forcing his eyes open Blake sat up from his laid-back position and looked around. He groaned when he saw where he was.


    ¡°So I really did screw up. I hope my Talent is at least good.¡±

 Chapter 2

    Blake found himself in a small glade 100 meters wide. The glade was perfectly circular and he was at the center but despite the unnaturally perfect shape, there was no sign of damage or debris that suggested that something had caused it. The grass at his feet was a dark rich green and short enough that it looked freshly mowed.


    The trees surrounding the glade were some type of pine and about 30 meters tall on average with hints of colorful flowers amongst the green leaves. Blake didn¡¯t know much about trees but from his limited experience in city parks these looked stereo typical in every way. The green plants combined with the mild temperature and clear sky gave the impression of a late spring or early summer day.


    Blake knew not to take the environment at face value. While the spirit realm often reflected reality it was not bound by the same rules. For all he knew it could always be like this. The sun might not even set as tier 0 realms were too small to hold an actual sun.


    At higher tiers, the realms grew but at tier 0 each realm was at least 100 miles across and could be as large as 500 miles. That was about the size of the average size of a state in the former U.S.  Everything beyond the boundaries of the realm was no more than an illusion to imitate reality.


    As a breeze blew through the glade Blake shivered despite the warmth of the sun. Looking down he found himself completely nude. Not a stitch of clothing could be found on his body. He could feel warmth flood his cheeks as he looked around for something to cover himself with.


    It was looking like he had messed up somewhere and was not in the village he was supposed to be at but he didn¡¯t want someone to stumble on him and think him a creep. Unfortunately, his luck was in the dumpster for the day as there wasn¡¯t so much as a conveniently sized plant to wrap around his waist.


    Blake spent a few minutes circling the area making sure to keep the glade in sight at all times so as not to get lost. He was hoping to find some sign of¡­ something. He wasn¡¯t sure what exactly he hoped for but anything was better than nothing. Sitting down on the surprisingly soft grass of the glade he tried to decide on what to do. He had such a clear image in his mind as to his goal; him ascending through the tiers by slaying giant monsters for their body parts and then returning to Earth as a superhero.


    As he thought about his ¡®plans¡¯ Blake realized he had no real plans. At best, he had vague ideas of what he wanted his future to look like. Focusing on the core objective in his mind he decided to start there. He needed to ascend to a higher tier. Everything else was dependent on that. The question was how. He had assumed he would learn how once he was here but now what?


    Another breeze blew by reminding him of his current state of dress. Blake decided to put ascending on hold for a moment and focus on something else. Clothes. He couldn¡¯t really die while in the spirit realm but he could be uncomfortable.


    If he were to ¡®die¡¯ while in the spirit realm, he would just wake up on Earth with any power he had earned removed. It was supposed to be a horrible experience but Blake was confident he would be fine if it came to that. He just didn¡¯t want it to come to that.


    Since death wasn¡¯t a concern he could focus on comfort before he ascended. Blake decided he would just pick a direction and walk in a straight line until he found something. His possible spawn location might have covered a huge area but it wasn¡¯t infinite. Even if it took a few hours he would have to stumble on someone eventually.


    Just as he was about to set off Blake stopped in his tracks and facepalmed. Talents! He was in the spirit realm, he should have a Talent now. He focused for a moment trying to recall how people were supposed to access their Talents for the first time. Sitting on the grass he crossed his legs and focused on meditating.


    Each Talent came with an instinct on how to use it. Some people could tap into that instinct without a problem but most needed a bit of time. He could vaguely recall there being many different ways to approach the problem but normally he would have someone coach him through the process.


    Diffrent types of Talents had diffrent optimum methods of connecting to them. Someone with a identification type Talent could tell him what type of Talent he had and then he could get specific training for his Talent. Being all alone he would have to stick to the one universal method he remembered. Meditation.


    Meditation was universally applicable and could help him tap into any Talent he may have but there was one problem. The reason Blake remembered this method in particular wasn¡¯t because it was some amazing all powerful technique for accessing one¡¯s Talent. No. He remembered it as the exercise he struggled the most with in class. His brain liked to wander. Why focus on one thing when you can do hundreds? Meditation was the bane of his life.


    In the end though, Blake had no other option. He didn¡¯t remember any of the other methods and even if he had there was no guarantee they would work for him. No such luck for his lost, naked rear.


    Some time passed before Blake let out a yell and stood up. It could have been five minutes or five hours he wasn¡¯t sure but his focus was only becoming more scattered as time passed. If he was being honest he knew it was closer to five minutes, if even that, but concentrating on one thing for any period of time not letting any other thoughts in went against his very nature.


    Sitting still and staring into space for hours on end as his brain ran wild? Sure he did that all the time. But sitting still and not thinking? Too hard.


    Blake gave up on it for now. He would be back in civilization soon anyway. He could find a more suitable method then. Also clothes. He really, really wanted clothes. A sense of disgust overcame him at the thought of getting clothes from someone else. It was so sudden and visceral that he stumbled back for a moment.


    It faded away just as quickly as it had come making Blake doubt his own memory for a moment. Not sure what was happening he retraced his thoughts. He was thinking of finding a village. Then about clothes. Getting clothes from a village? The wave of disgust returned.


    Blake was very confused. The disgust was his own, he was sure, but also not? The only reason he felt any separation from the emotion was because it contradicted his pre-existing feelings on the matter. However, was that true? He wanted clothes but was that what the disgust was aimed at?


    Blake let his mind wander for a bit. He imagined what would happen over the next few days. He thought about how his trip to a village would go, what he would do once there, and so on. After a few minutes of studying what thoughts triggered the disgust, he had narrowed it down.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    It triggered at the idea of taking or using anything crafted or harvested by others. Disgust overcame him at the idea of eating food prepared by others or fruit harvested by their hands but if he was the one to pick the fruit that seemed fine.


    Blake groaned. If this was Talent like he thought it was then it might be one of the most embarrassing ever. His Talent was that he was introverted. There was no other explanation he could think of. Talents made someone good at a specific skill. A Talented cook would know how to work with ingredients they had never heard of before just by sight and smell. A Talented fisherman could tell you where the best places to catch fish are without having seen a fish a day in their life. There were always other powers that came along with the practical ability but those could shift more with time. The innate skill, while not immutable, was the core of who and what you were. Blake was an antisocial, introvert.


    He couldn¡¯t imagine what sort of ability might fall under that category. Maybe some sort of invisibility? Despite having come into contact with his Talents instincts on accident he didn¡¯t have a true connection with it so he didn¡¯t know what the ability was yet. Despite the slight success he was not motivated enough to try meditating again so he began to walk instead.


    As he walked Blake swore he would pay attention to his surroundings and try to find a bush he could rip out of the ground and hide his nudity behind. Within minutes he had broken his promise as his mind drifted to potential powers he might have.


    Invisibility was not unheard of and a stealth Talent would fit with wanting to avoid people. It wasn¡¯t necessarily the best option for stealth, though. A general stealth skill that only muted his impact on the senses rather than erased it entirely might be better.


    One thing the NER schooling system made sure to drill into his brain was that all Talents are equal. Some saw this as propaganda to make weaklings feel better but there was something to what they said even if it was a rather shallow interpretation of reality. The impact any Talent could have on reality was indeed equal. A stealth Talent that impacted vision could indeed be full invisibility while one that covered sound and sight would only be half as effective on each.


    According to NER teachings that meant they were of equal strength. In reality, invisibility meant nothing if you were easily located with another sense. A full stealth ability, one that erased someone from the very concept of senses, will barely impact anything at all. According to the NER, it was equal strength sure but they would also say it was wasted. Who cared if they had the same amount of power if it was spread so thin as to be useless? Anyone who was really into power crafting, the term for the study of Talents, and how the abilities interacted would notice a massive hole in this logic.


    Blake had always loved learning about the variety of Talents out there, although he had focused on magic. It was generally seen as useless as you could only have one Talent so why care about the others? It was because of this attitude that many missed what should have been an obvious observation.


    That weak and useless stealth ability? It was only useless at tier 0. Each tier strengthened your Talent allowing for a larger and larger impact. Invisibility could only get so invisible but suppressing your existence from every sense? That could be upgraded much further. An invisibility power could of course be stretched and evolved to encompass other senses but that took time, effort, and resources not many had.


    Blake tripped over his own feet and face-planted. Yep, future assassin of the year right there. Blake grumbled to himself as he got to his feet. Apparently walking through an alien forest was not enough to keep his attention on the surroundings. Granted for an alien forest it looked remarkably mundane. Outside the rather lacking fauna, this could be anywhere on Earth. At least that¡¯s what Blake assumed. He had never left his hometown of Frenton City so his experience with nature had been contained to parks.


    Blake frowned as he looked to the sky. The sun was beginning to set. On the one hand, it was nice to see that this realm had a functioning day-night cycle, assuming the sun came up in the morning, but on the other hand, he had been walking for hours with no sign of people. He might have missed something in his daze but it was unlikely, humans were no longer suited for traverversing wilderness and any passage would have been obvious.


    Unsure as to what to do Blake stood frozen. If he sped up a little he could maybe make it back to the glade before dark but then what? He could also keep moving forward but he decided to go with option three, stay where he was. His spirit body, the body he inhabited while in the spirit realm, did not require food and water the same way his normal body did but he still grew tired. Especially mentally.


    So much and yet so little had happened in the last day that he didn¡¯t know what to make of it all. His mind felt like it was squeezed dry after his panic attack in the void and he hadn¡¯t had a chance to really calm down since then. Sure the walk had been peaceful but the uncomfortable sensation of being in the nude combined with the persistent questions in the back of his mind about what was going on made it impossible to fully let go. A nice night¡¯s rest was exactly what he needed.


    Blake tried to remember anything about comfort in a survival situation. Maybe camping was a better way to look at it? He wasn¡¯t sure. Either way outdoor living wasn¡¯t much of a hobby anymore when Talents allowed people to live in comfort no matter where they went. What use was knowledge of how to start a fire when a pyromancer could make one with a thought?


    He came up with nothing. There had probably been some infomercial or blog post he had read at some point about it but nothing that stuck in his head. He decided to just try and make a pillow out of leaves. There weren¡¯t many dead so he spent time picking them off of branches. As he worked his instincts kicked in again. Surprised at first he forgot what he was doing and lost focus on the instinct. It took him starting and stopping his pillow project three more times before he could feel what it was telling him to do. Nothing. It was telling him to do nothing different.


    That wasn¡¯t wholly accurate. It didn¡¯t want him to act any different but instead wanted him to think differently. As he plucked leaves off of tree branches he focused on his actions and his goal. Despite having connected to the instinct he struggled to follow it. This wasn¡¯t mindless meditation but it still required a level of focus he struggled with. At one point he tore a branch from a tree in irritation. His embarrassment at his own actions ended up being an amazing way to focus as his thoughts didn¡¯t drift again after that.


    Once the leaves were gathered he began to dig a little pit with a stick. He would fill the pit with leaves and use it like a bed. Once again his Talent did not push him to change his actions just focus on them. He focused on the end goal, the bed. As the last leaves settled into the pit a wave of information and energy rushed into Blake.


    The information on the other hand was painful. His mind, already tired from the day, was stretched as new information filled it. At first, it wasn¡¯t anything new. Everything he had done to make the bed became crystal clear. It was as if he was doing it in that moment and he knew he would never forget how to make this crappy little leaf bed even if he forgot when he had done so. After his previous memories and thoughts had been clarified more information came. He knew everything about his new bed from the amount of leaves to the density of their placement. Without even laying down he knew exactly how much give it had.


    Before Blake could fully adjust to the information a second wave of information hit. This time it wasn¡¯t about the making of the bed but rather the use of it. It was strange. In a moment it was like Blake had spent a few days training all day every day with a professional on how to¡­ sleep. There wasn¡¯t much information more ingrained muscle memory. Clearly, this was not the intended purpose of this part of his Talent but Blake couldn¡¯t help but laugh. He expected he could shave an hour or two off his sleep and wake up perfectly rested despite sleeping in a subpar bed.


    Warmth then suffused Blake¡¯s body like a warm blanket. It was the same kind of warm energy he had experienced in the void between reality and the spirit realm. Despite being hot enough that he felt it should be able to harm him it was only comfortable.


    Mid laugh Blake cut off and collapsed into the leaf bed. He was exhausted. Even in his half-asleep state, he rolled to position himself just right in the leaf pile. He cupped some of the leaves shifting them around to better fit the shape of his body. He wasn¡¯t even conscious of his actions by this point.

 Chapter 3

    Blake woke up smiling. Then he frowned. Then smiled again. His emotions were in complete disarray. Physically he felt great. The previous night had been some of the best sleep of his life. The bed wasn¡¯t great, his Talent couldn¡¯t overcome a fundamentally crappy crafting job, but his body had little trouble adjusting to the discomfort.


    His mind well rested and body ready to go he had a positive outlook on life. On top of all of that, he had unlocked his Talent. He had been too worn out the previous night to appreciate, or even notice, but he had fully connected to his Talent following the completion of the leaf bed.


    He now had a decent idea of how his Talent worked and its domain of influence, the term used for what he would become easily skilled at. Crafting. His Talent was centered around crafting anything and everything. It also had aspects of a information domain but the information he got was more of a increase to skill growth than an ability. At least, that¡¯s how Blake saw it.


    This was the source of Blake¡¯s internal conflict. His Talent had nothing to do with combat. Sure there were workarounds to make his Talent combat capable but only by relying on the very things he had hoped to avoid by becoming a combatent. Time and money. The whole reason he wanted to fight was because, at least at first, you could rely completely on your Talent. A pyromancer, one of the most combat applicable Talent types, could go around lighting monsters on fire. No funds needed and it was easy to get started.


    Eventually, he would have needed money but he could have sold monster corpses to cover his needs. He didn¡¯t understand the process of ascending to a higher tier very well but it is well established that the skill and time requirements for a combatant were much lower than that of a crafter or other non-combat roles.


    With a crafting Talent, he would have to learn how to craft as well as source rare materials from combatants and sell whatever products he did make to fund it all. If he made crappy products he wouldn¡¯t be able to afford the materials to keep practicing. And where would he get the initial funds he needed? His parents had died years ago and he had no known family. He had been taking care of himself for years.


    Blake¡¯s mind continued to spiral. On top of all that he was stuck in the middle of a forest with no civilization in sight. After finding nothing after walking for hours the previous day he was having to face the reality that finding a village might be a more difficult task than he had realized. With a crafting Talent he might as well be attempting to search the forest as a normal human. A crafting Talent was of no help in his situation.


    Then again he had a Talent. That was something to be excited about. Blake¡¯s smile broke out again. He might not have been completely stable. Despite feeling well rested and his mind clear the panic of the previous day had still left its mark.


    Trying to ignore his doubts and fears Blake focused on his new Talent and its potential. With a moment of focus, he connected to his Talent getting a feel for what it could do. It was like a whisper, or maybe an instinct, that came with his Talent telling him what was possible. His Talent was broad. Really, really broad. Talents lost strength in their immediate impact the more they encompassed and his Talent was the most extreme form of that he had ever heard of.


    The way Blake¡¯s Talent worked the better he got at crafting the more he could do with it. Every time he made something for the first time he would get information on his craft as well as its uses. He had seen this last night with his bed. When finished he suddenly knew the crafting process more intimately than if he had crafted an identical bed a thousand times. He also got the knowledge on how to better sleep on it as that was its purpose.


    Blake now knew that any future bed he made would be marginally better from now on. Even if the crafting process was identical to his leaf bed it would just be better. More aligned to its purpose. That was the supernatural component of his Talent. The rest fell under the category of skill even if it was an abnormal way for it to work but the enhancement of anything he had crafted so long as he had done so once before had no founding in his own knowledge or skills. It was completely dependent on the reality-bending powers of his Talent.


    This was also the component of his Talent that was neutered because of its breadth. Lots of crafting Talents provided something similar but they had a much bigger impact than his did. Blake remembered reading an article about a woman who had a sword crafting Talent. It only applied to one kind of broad sword but every sword she made was magnitudes stronger than it had any right to be. Even at tier 0 that woman¡¯s swords were capable of shearing through buildings like a knife through warm butter. This applied to every sword of that type she made no matter how bad.


    Blake¡¯s Talent on the other hand might make any future bed he crafted slightly softer. If he had made a sword then maybe it would keep an edge a little better. Maybe. Not only was the effect much weaker but he had to have already made something of that type. He felt that there were other limitations to it but he didn¡¯t know what yet. He would need to experiment to more deeply understand his Talent.


    In return for the restrictions, he could craft absolutely anything. He was not bound to a specific style of sword. He could make any weapon, armor, or utility item he wanted. He supposed that being able to craft anything was too much of a positive for his Talent given there were restrictions on it beyond just having a weak individual impact.


    Blake had been of the opinion that breadth was most important for a Talent but he wasn¡¯t so sure anymore. He just had to hope that by tier 3 his Talent had been more of an impact. Maybe he could be an artificer, someone focused on multi-discipline magical crafting. His Talent certainly leaned that way. Except the magic part. His Talent did not provide access to mana.


    Blake thought for a moment before he set off walking. He wanted to play with his new toy¡­ Talent it was a Talent¡­ but he also didn¡¯t want to give up on reuniting with people. He decided to move back towards the glade he had started at as it was visually distinct and hopefully easier to locate if anyone was looking for him. He no longer wanted to wander around blind in hopes of finding people as he very well could be walking parallel to them and never know. Best to stick to one place for the foreseeable future.


    By the time he had found his way back to the glade, the sun was high in the sky. The trees grew close enough together that the sun didn¡¯t bother him but he would need to be careful of getting a sunburn if he stayed in the glade. He was just glad that his spirit body didn¡¯t need food and water. Blake had grown bored on his walk back and was chomping at the bit to practice his Talent. He had thought of a couple of different things he could try to get a better idea of its limitations.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Once he was back at the glade he started immediately. He wanted to begin with the most basic use of his Talent. He wouldn¡¯t try anything he thought would stretch its limits or cause it to fail. He was going to make a shiv. In reality that meant a pointy stick as he didn¡¯t have much to work with but Blake thought calling it a shiv sounded cooler. He grabbed a mostly straight stick about the length of his forearm off the ground. He then found a boulder that was rather rough but with a straight side.


    Rubbing the stick against the rock, Blake gradually wore it down. The rock acted like sand paper and slowly stripped the wood. The whole time he focused on the idea of what he was making as his Talent told him to do. He was making a shiv. It shivved things. Truly he had a profound idea of his craft.


    Blake found it surprisingly tiring work wearing down the wood into a point. He had to apply constant, consistent pressure to make sure there was enough friction to grind down the wood. Not too much pressure though as that could break the stick in two. He learned that the hard way. Twice.


    Eventually after an hour of mind-numbing, muscle-burning work, Blake had his pointy stick. A shiv, he corrected himself. Once he decided that he was done his Talent activated and flooded his mind with information. More prepared than the night before and well rested he was not as overwhelmed.


    He now intimately understood the process of making his shiv. It was honestly kind of embarrassing to him, seeing where he had messed up. His Talent did not explicitly tell him what was wrong but it was hard to miss his mistakes when he could understand the whole process so well. If only he had applied a little more force there or used a different part of the rock when sanding down that part of the stick.


    Blake had never been one for meditation but for the first time in his life, he found it easy to fall into focused reflection on his actions. His Talent did not understand his goal only he did so he had to go moment by moment to analyze his actions. He could tell exactly how his actions had brought about the result they had so all he had to do to correct his mistakes was go back and reiterate on his attempt.


    For now, though, Blake needed a break. It had only been an hour but his Talent had him focusing intently the entire time not to mention his arms being sore from the repetitive motion. He lay on the grass of the glade looking up at the sky. It was a picturesque blue with fluffy clouds floating about. There was something odd about the sun though.


    It took a moment for Blake to pinpoint what was so strange to him. He was looking at it. He was looking straight at the sun but there was no pain or any of the usual discomfort from doing so. It was bright but not painfully so. The sun looked more like a near perfect painting of a sun rather than the real thing.


    Thinking about it Blake realized that it was indeed fake. As a tier 0 realm, there was no way there was enough space to fit a real star. Everything beyond the clouds must have been an illusion. Maybe even the clouds, he didn¡¯t have any way of knowing how high up the realm extended, realms were not consistent with these sorts of things.


    After only five minutes of rest, Blake got up again. He hadn¡¯t realized how dependent he had been on technology for constant stimulus before getting stuck in this forest. Five minutes shouldn¡¯t be much time but it felt like an eternity when all he had was cloud watching to keep himself entertained. Besides, he wanted to make another shiv and see for himself how much his Talent could do.


    Blake began his new shiv the exact same way as the last one. He got a forearm-length stick and began to rub it against rough stone. He adjusted the exact positioning and force he used in the process based on the insight he had gained from his last attempt but other than that did everything the same. The only input his Talent had to the process was his focus. Instead of just focusing on his end goal the Talent also had him see the connection between his previous craft and his new one. Considering they were both shivs made the same way that was easy.


    Once he was done Blake was surprised to find more information enter his mind. It was much less than the previous two times, more like an update, but he hadn¡¯t thought anything would happen as his instincts had told him that only the first of a kind would do anything. As he analyzed the new information he could see what happened.


    Only the changes he had made on their impact on the end result were part of this new knowledge. It seemed that as long as he kept improving and improvising he could get new insight. Anything he had done the same was completely skipped over which was more in line with his expectations.


    As he had improved the end result, it being slightly more even and sharp, in comparison to his previous attempt there was also a slight update to his knowledge on how to use the shiv. Blake hadn¡¯t paid it much attention as it was not immediately helpful but when he made the last shiv he had learned to use it.


    The knowledge could be boiled down to ¡®stab enemy with sharp end¡¯ but the small amount of muscle memory with it could come in handy. With this second shiv that skill improved. The amount was in line with his improvements to his craft which he believed was important to take note of.


    So far what he had learned about the use of beds and shivs was basic but if the quality of his craft influenced how skilled he could become then what would he be able to do when he had access to actual tools and materials for crafting? Could he become a master of the sword after making one himself?


    Blake smiled widely at that. Sure his initial goal of fighting monsters for quick advancement was off the table but at least he wouldn¡¯t be defenseless. Who would expect some random crafter to secretly be a weapons master? That was assuming he decided to keep it a secret. He might be able to get a sponsorship from a big corporation, or maybe a guild, if he revealed the details of his Talent. Something to consider once he was out of this forest.


    Focusing on his new shiv Blake tried to identify any differences between it and his first attempt beyond his improved crafting skills. He neither saw nor felt a thing. Deciding to test them in action he ran them through a series of tests.


    Testing a shiv meant stabbing random stuff. First, it was the dirt, then dirt with grass. Eventually, after various densities of dirt, he moved on to trying to stab a tree and then seeing how well it kept an edge when stabbing a boulder. His second attempt might have been slightly more resilient but any difference it made was slight. It could very well be his own expectations influencing his perception.


    The strength of the effect was unfortunate but he had come to appreciate the skill component of his Talent more than the supernatural part. If he imagined his Talent as an information Talent then its worth skyrocketed in his mind. Information Talents, sometimes called seer Talents, were rare and almost always powerful. Many of humanity¡¯s advancements following the introduction of the spirit realm were due to seer Talents pulling key information out of nowhere exactly when needed. Blake¡¯s Talent technically did that with his crafting and skill in using his crafted tools and items.


    Blake felt he now had a good grasp on the basics of his Talent. It was time for him to try and push the limits a little to see where those limits lay.


    * * *


    A monster prowled its forest. It circled its great domain. Again and again, it went around just as it had done the day before and the day before that. For as long as it had known it had circled its domain, protecting it from threats. What were those threats? It did not know. It had never seen another creature but from the moment of its creation, it knew that its purpose was to eliminate threats.


    It prowled the underbrush. Maybe the threats were hiding? No, just like the previous times it had checked there was nothing new. No threats. Tasty roots though.


    Despite the repetitive nature of its task, it felt that something was different that day. It didn¡¯t know how it knew but it knew. It was almost time. It was almost time to put into practice the power it had been born with. It was time to eliminate a threat.

 Chapter 4

    It had been a day since Blake had first made a shiv. He had spent the time testing his Talent and now felt he had a decent grasp of how to use it. He knew it was only a shallow understanding but that was all he needed for the moment.


    Blake had been unable to figure out what the energetic heat that infused his body when his Talent activated was and he had many more questions that had come up during his tests but they were irrelevant from a practical perspective. Once he was back in civilization he could just ask someone who knew more about this kind of thing.


    His first test had been to not follow the instructions of his Talent when crafting another shiv. That meant he did not focus on the goal of his craft and what its purpose was. He found that there was no new information upon completion of the shiv. Thinking that he might not have improved his skill at making the shiv enough to get an update he tried to make something new to test it further.


    He made a spear. It was similar to the shiv but with a longer handle. There was still no new information. When he repeated the craft but focused on his goal and purpose of the craft his Talent returned to full functionality.


    This had proven to Blake that his focus was important to the function of his Talent. Trying to test that further, he made another spear but rather than focusing on its purpose as a spear he saw it as a strangely shaped hammer. He actually got information on its completion. The amount he gained was as if he was making a completely new item but everything was disjointed and incomplete.


    He couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of what his Talent was trying to tell him about the crafting process and the information on the use of the spear as a hammer was near useless. He had already seen how the quality of his work influenced how much he gained and this was a clear example of a failure.


    By that point, Blake had been exhausted. It had only been the early afternoon but the constant physical exertion combined with the mental strain of his Talents information download had quickly worn him down. He ended up taking a four-hour nap in his leaf bed. When he woke up he felt decently well rested but he resolved himself to make a better bed before falling asleep for the night. He had the information from his first attempt to help him improve after all.


    Now in a better state of mind, he returned to his experiments. Wanting to further explore if failing brought any benefits Blake attempted a different kind of craft from making rudimentary tools. He wanted to do something that was almost guaranteed to fail to see the results. He attempted an alchemy project.


    Herbology, he corrected himself.


    Blake had one classmate a few years ago who had been very adamant about herbology and alchemy being different. Herbology was the growing and combining of plants while alchemy was the combining of any ingredients through the application of mana. Herbology typically did not typically use mana when combining plants, though it was an option for more advanced experts.


    An herbalist would use mana when growing plants as that was the key difference between them and a gardener. At least that was how Blake understood it. He had never seen the need to delve deeply into it and had only remembered as much as he had because the girl who was so into the subject was hot. No need to make a fool of himself in front of her.


    So with his goal of making a simple salve with whatever plants he could find in the vicinity, he set out for a short walk. Blake knew nothing about plants so he just grabbed anything he imagined was an ¡®herb¡¯. In his mind that was any small plant with leaves. Once done he took the leaves from the various plants and placed them on a flat, smooth stone. He used a small petal to mash it up while focusing on his goal. He wanted a healing salve.


    Why a healing salve? Because despite Blake¡¯s previous thought to watch out for the sun while in the glade he had forgotten to pay attention and had sunburned his entire body including his sensitive lower regions. He really needed clothes.


    Sunburns were bad enough when they were only covering arms and legs. His lower regions felt like they were falling off. He looked like a giant humanoid lobster. Hopefully, no one stumbled onto him just to think him a monster. That would an embarrassing way to end his first trip to the spirit realm.


    To help turn the mix of ground-up leaves into a paste that could generously be called a salve he spat in the pile of leaves a few times. His mouth was becoming dry making it difficult but he soon had a greenish goop for his effort.


    While in the spirit realm, Blake might not need food and water for basic functioning but the conservation of mass still applied so he couldn¡¯t spit infinitely without finding water. He didn¡¯t really sweat and his insides didn¡¯t consume water to function which was why water was not a necessity but he would have to find water soon even if it was only for comfort.


    The green goop had been enough of a craft to activate his Talent since he had been so focused on his end goal. This confirmed that if there were restrictions on what he could make they were esoteric in nature. As the information flooded in Blake¡¯s Talent told him what he had already known. The goop was useless. It had absolutely no function beyond looking like a giant booger.


    There was, however, good news. His methods and actions must have been much more aligned with his goal as the information he received was coherent. He could tell what ingredients had contributed to his goal of a healing salve and how his handling of them influenced the result. Blake was surprised to find that one of the plants did indeed have healing properties and he got some ideas on how to bring his healing salve project to fruition.


    On another note, this experiment helped Blake get a better feel for his Talent. He did not have to succeed with every attempt to make something to get value out of his Talent. Sure, without a successful product, he didn¡¯t learn anything about how to use it so a successful craft was more useful but he wouldn¡¯t have to worry about pounding his head against the wall, lost for a way to move forward.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    After that Blake decided he was done for the night and moved to making a new and improved bed. He started by making a chisel to help with his digging efforts. It was similar to the shiv except instead of ending in a point it was shaved down to a sharpened, flat edge. Sharp was relative as it was clearly rounded but it was the best he could do with what he had.


    Blake had not meant for this to be a test of his Talent but he had learned something important from the resulting information after completing the chisel. The information on how to use whatever he made might be useful when it came to weapons or utility items such as beds but he now knew that was not its strength.


    No, it came to truly shine when applied to a crafting tool. The information not only gave him insight on how to use the chisel in crafting better items but also gave him ideas on new items he could make.


    One of Blake¡¯s biggest concerns with having a crafting Talent was his skill. Crafting Talents were much more dependent on how well you made items as you needed to be able to sell your crafts in order to purchase the raw materials to make more things.


    If he was not good at making things then he would be unable to afford to keep working stalling his progress through the tiers. That was one of the benefits of combat Talents. Even if you were crap, you could always fight the weakest of monsters relying only on your Talent, which was free, and then sell the monster corpses.


    Now Blake did not need to worry about subpar crafting results. His Talent would make sure that he was skilled in the tools of his trade so he could make at least basic items to a satisfactory level. With his new chisel in hand, he got to work.


    When he started digging the shallow pit for his bed, Blake did not use his chisel. He didn¡¯t want it to break on the simple stuff. It was only after he had carved out the rough shape with random stones lying about that he brought the chisel out. He used it to smooth out the edges of the pit and pry out any rocks sticking up.


    Once done he began gathering leaves for the bed. He was more selective this time with his selection of leaves. His ingrained knowledge of the leaf bed-making process gave him a good idea of what types of leaves he wanted. He avoided anything with sharp edges and focused on leaves with a consistent round shape. As he plucked them from the trees he placed them directly into his newly dug pit. He didn¡¯t want to unnecessarily ruin them by throwing them into a pile.


    With each leaf, Blake carefully placed it in an interlocking pattern along the edges of the pit and only then began to stack them. Leaf placement wasn¡¯t something he had thought about at all on his first attempt but the information he had gained showed him the effect that the random placement he had previously had on the results. The Talent did not tell him what the perfect placement pattern was but he tried to deduce it from the information he had gained.


    This was a potential positive to making mistakes on my crafts, Blake thought. If he had made the leaves uniform the first time he would not have gathered nearly as much information from the attempt. It was only the random placement that had allowed so many different patterns to emerge for him to analyze. There were so many patterns, in fact, that he was unable to properly process them all. He would have to practice with his Talent to help better internalize the flood of information it provided him.


    When the bed was finished Blake was surprised at how much new information he had gained in regard to how to sleep. There wasn¡¯t much in terms of the crafting process itself as he had mostly been refining what he had already done but the difference in the quality of this bed must have been a much more significant jump than he had expected. He hadn¡¯t gained nearly as much information on the use of a shiv on his second attempt.


    It was a great night¡¯s sleep.


    Now he was out in the forest in search of water. Blake wanted to make a second attempt at his healing salve to help with his sunburns but his mouth was dry so he needed another source of moisture. He also wanted to drink something so his mouth wasn¡¯t dry. It was uncomfortable.


    Blake had decided that now that he better understood how his Talent worked he needed to focus his efforts rather than completing whatever thought entered his head. He knew himself well enough to know that would still happen to some extent but at least trying to focus on something might let him discover something new about his Talent. His goal? Comfort. The sunburn and thirst were the most immediate and obvious sources of discomfort. Once he was done with those he would think of something else.


    ¡®Maybe some form of entertainment?¡¯ Blake thought.


    He was enjoying his crafting more than he had expected but he kept finding himself reaching for a phone he did not have. He wanted to read or watch something. He was used to being able to scroll through chat rooms and forums. Having any information he wanted at the tip of his fingertips. Now he couldn¡¯t even look up the circumference of Earth if he wanted to.


    Crafting was also too draining to do constantly. He had pushed through yesterday only taking a break for his nap when his body would not go on but that was not sustainable. He needed something to do when he took a break from crafting. Something mindless.


    As he walked Blake thought over what he could make or do to pass the time between crafts. He hadn¡¯t even really realized it but somewhere along the way his mindset had shifted from trying to get to civilization as soon as possible to setting up for the long run. A whisper at the back of his mind encouraged this. He didn¡¯t need the trappings of civilization. At least not one built by others.


    It took a couple of hours before he found a stream. Looking back and forth across the running water Blake was confused. The land was completely flat from what he could see but the water was moving at a decent pace. He took a moment to sate his thirst. Not having a cup, a goal for later, he dunked his head in to take a sip. It only took a couple of mouthfuls to be fully satiated. He only needed enough to resume saliva production.


    Once he had finished his drink Blake began to follow the water upstream. So far he had seen no variance in the terrain beyond his little glade. Everything else was flat ground with grass and trees. No matter how far he moved upstream there was still no change. After another half hour of trying to find the source of the current Blake shrugged his shoulders and gave up. He chalked the whole thing up to weird spirit realm crap. If there could be a fake sky why not an originless current?


    As he walked back towards his glade Blake thought over the next step in making a healing salve. He needed tools. The information he had gained on his first attempt showed how his poor handling of the plants had destroyed any potential value they might have had. Only one had any real reaction and it was one he had failed to smash at all. Really it was just a normal leaf wrapped in green gunk.


    So he needed tools. A pestle to process the leaves and maybe a bowl to help contain the salve? Blake needed to contain the water so he decided that yes a bowl would be useful. Maybe even two, one for the salve and one just for water so he didn¡¯t have to keep walking back and forth from his glad to the stream. Now that he knew where it was it was only a ten-minute walk away but he was lazy.


    Before turning from the stream towards his glade he bent down for another sip of water. That was a mistake. Before he knew what was happening a sharp pain pierced Blake¡¯s leg as he was attacked from behind.

 Chapter 5

    Blake screamed in pain. He was no stranger to pain but that was emotional pain. Physical pain he discovered could be so much worse. Whoever said that emotional pain was worse had never experienced true pain.


    Blake flailed in panic. He felt his foot connect with something. A soft thud could be heard behind him. Blake fell into the stream of water he had been taking a sip from. The water was shallow but in his panicked state of mind, he didn¡¯t process the fact that he could just not inhale the water. Instead, he started to drown as he tried to break the water in.


    There was another flash of pain as something stabbed his naked rear. Instinctivly, Blake rolled over to protect his butt from more attacks. This had the positive side effect of getting his mouth out of the water allowing him to breathe. He coughed up water from his lungs just in time to see a blur of white as something charged at him for a third time.


    Blake lashed out with his uninjured leg getting another hit on his assailant. This time he could see as whatever had been attacking him went flying into a nearby tree hitting it with a dull thud. Breathing heavily Blake waited for it to get up. The forest stilled as his attacker lay still.


    It took another minute for Blake to realize it was not getting back up. He was still breathing heavily but at least had some control of his body. Slowly standing up he winced. His leg and butt were both injured on the same side. When he tried to move it was more of a stumbling shuffle.


    Had he been able to see himself from the outside Blake would have thought himself a zombie. He had already been dirty from days in a forest without taking care of cleanliness but now he was caked in mud from head to toe. His face was pale from terror and his eyes bloodshot, tears streaming down his face. Combined with his shambling walk he truly gave the impression of an undead on the hunt. A slow, painful hunt.


    Reaching the body of his assailant Blake got a look at what had attacked him. It was a rabbit. A bunny really. It had pure, white fur and a fluffy tail. It was large for a bunny, though, at what he guessed was over two feet tall. He didn¡¯t have a way to measure it to be exact. If it wasn¡¯t for its size and the sharp horn sticking out of its head Blake would have thought he killed the wrong creature and the monster was still out there.


    Blake was confident it was dead after looking at it. Its collision with the tree had caved in its chest killing it. Blood pooled around its body staining its fur. The horror of it all made Blake turn around and hurl, or try to hurl. His body had nothing in it. He had not eaten anything since he had arrived in the spirit realm leaving him dry-heaving trying to empty his stomach of nothing.


    Blake recognized it as a rabbicorn. He might not have spent much time training his combat skills, only doing the bare minimum required by the school, but his knowledge of monsters was deep. A rabbicorn was one of the weakest monsters out there. It still took him down, Blake realized. His embarrassment overcame his fear for the moment bringing color back to his cheeks.


    Had everything gone as Blake had planned a rabbicorn might have been the first monster he fought anyway. It would have been in a much more controlled environment but he was now realizing what a mistake it was assuming that he wouldn¡¯t need combat training once he got a Talent. Had it been anything but the weakest of weakest monsters attacking him he might not have survived.


    Rabbicorns were only prominent in tier 0 realms and even then only in low-density regions. While each realm had a tier representing the overall strength of the creatures and materials of the realm it was also broken down into regions with their own strength rating. That rating was the mana density of the area. High-density areas brought about natural treasures and monsters more often than those at a low density.


    Stronger, more aggressive monsters tended to prefer the higher-density regions leaving only the weakest creatures, relative to the realm¡¯s tier, to the lower regions. Monsters like the rabbicorn. Any weaker monsters that made it into higher regions were just prey to the native monsters.


    Tears still streaking down his face Blake grabbed the rabbicorn to bring back to his glade. It was difficult with his injured leg and not helped by his whole body trembling. The adrenaline, which he hadn¡¯t even realized was rushing through his veins, began to fade and weakness assaulted his body. He barely made it back to the glad before collapsing.


    Blake woke sometime later with his whole body aching. While he had made it back to his leaf bed his body had been too weak to make proper use of the bed. His bed-using skills were useless if they couldn¡¯t be utilized. On top of that was the bruising that was becoming clear across his body. The rabbicorn had only gotten two hits off him, the rest was from his own flailing and rough tumble to the ground. Reaching up he found a large bump on his head. Must have been the source of the headache trying to kill him.


    Sitting up, Blake glanced at the sun trying to figure out how long he had been knocked out. It had been late evening when he had been attacked but the sun was now high in the sky. Had he slept until noon the next day? He stood up surprised to find that while his rabbicorn-induced injuries on his leg and butt still hurt, they were not as inhibiting as they had been the night before.


    Blake couldn¡¯t get a good look at them due to their position and all the dirt, mud, and blood covering his body but he could see that at least his leg injury was already scabbed over and probably on its way to being fully healed. He had heard that healing was accelerated in the spirit realm but had never considered how that was. Seems it was just natural healing but faster. No magical glow involved. He was a little disappointed it wasn¡¯t faster but he couldn¡¯t complain. Too much.


    That¡¯s when Blake heard a loud growl. He jumped in fright turning around in circles trying to find the source of the noise. He didn¡¯t want to get ambushed again. Unable to see a monster approaching, he quickly dashed for the spear he had left leaning against a boulder at the edge of the glade. He had made the mistake of not bringing any weapons out with him the day before and did not want to fight unarmed again.


    Once the spear was in hand Blake felt much more confident. The knowledge of how to fight with it was brought to the forefront of his mind preparing him to attack. He didn¡¯t have much skill with the spear given its rather low quality limiting the amount of information provided by his Talent. It was still enough that he would be more prepared for a fight. Had he even one of his many shivs the day before he might not have had as much trouble with the rabbicorn. The skills provided by his Talent came with muscle memory that would have helped despite his panic.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Confidence brought clarity to Blake¡¯s mind and then embarrassment. The ¡®growl¡¯ had been his stomach. He hadn¡¯t been hungry since arriving in the spirit realm and had already been on edge making him jump to conclusions. He had been panicked and ready to run from his own stomach.


    Despite knowing he was in no immediate danger, Blake did not set down the spear. Any source of comfort was welcome at the moment. Now he had to wonder why he was hungry. While in the spirit realm, you didn¡¯t require food or water. Sure water could help with a dry mouth and was nice from a comfort perspective but it wasn¡¯t needed. Same thing with food. There were many people with Talents that could make food they cooked and provide bonuses. Also, food just tasted good. It was definitely one of those comfort things for most people.


    It took a bit before Blake realized why he was hungry. Food and water weren¡¯t required but only in normal situations. There were spells that caused dehydration in enemies that could only be cured by drinking water. Blake was experiencing something with food. Conservation of mass still applies fully to the spirit realm. Healing his injuries didn¡¯t just create new skin, muscle, and blood out of nowhere. His body needed food, and now that he thought of it water as well, to replace what he lost to his injuries.


    The problem for Blake was he didn¡¯t have a source of food. He could go to the stream again for water but food was going to be difficult to get in the short term. But, that wasn¡¯t necessarily true. His eyes drifted to the corpse of the rabbicorn. People ate rabbits all the time, right? It had always been too expensive for him but he had heard classmates talk about it. He wasn¡¯t hungry enough to eat it raw but if he could figure out a fire? He could try and cook it.


    Leaving the corpse where it was for the moment Blake worked to create a fire. He started by rubbing two sticks together. He kept doing that for five minutes before stopping to reassess. He was getting nowhere with this. There wasn¡¯t even enough of a result to get information from his Talent. He just looked like an idiot.


    Taking a step back Blake thought for a bit about what he needed to do. In the modern era, ¡®archaic¡¯ skills such as hunting, gathering, and firestarting were not taught. What was taught was everything STEM and spirit realm.


    He didn¡¯t think he needed anything spirit realm-specific but the science behind friction, heat, and fire was all helpful. It only took a moment for him to remember the specifics, the benefit of going to a school with a principal that had a teaching Talent passively enhancing learning for everyone in range.


    There were three things that would affect his creation of a spark. Speed, pressure, and airflow. With his current method, Blake was pressing down with one stick onto the other before running the first stick along its length. This provided plenty of pressure and airflow but the speed was rather lacking. He needed to increase the speed of his movements.


    No, not his movements. There was only so fast he could go after all. What he needed to do was limit the amount of space he had to traverse. Running the length of a stick provided too much time for it to cool down before he went over the same spot again.


    Blake glared at the sticks. Shorter sticks might help but he wanted constant pressure applied. He began to pace back and forth while thinking of a solution. He was so focused on his thoughts that he completely ignored the pain radiating from his wounds. He was twirling one of the sticks when he realized his own stupidity. Rather than lengthwise why not use the tip?


    Excited by the idea Blake immediately put it into practice. He had to find a fatter stick to act as the bottom to keep a better hold on it but then he began to twirl the top stick down into the bottom one. It immediately caught on the bark and refused to move. Unlike when rubbing the sticks lengthwise Blake did not have a good enough grasp on the stick to push through the obstruction and rip the bark off so he had to take a moment and prepare the bottom piece of wood first.


    Like he had done when making his shiv and spear, Blake used a rough part of a boulder to shave off pieces of the wood. Rather than stop at the bark, he kept going till it was as smooth as he was going to get it. For the stick that would be spun, he worked the end into a point like he had done with his shivs. He didn¡¯t think that size would matter for this so he wanted to reduce the amount of effort he put into it if at all possible.


    Once done Blake took a break to catch his breath. As he sat down he was surprised as his Talent activated giving him insight into the tools he had just created. He should have known that they were considered completed crafts but for some reason hadn¡¯t thought it would be considered completed till he had a fire. Then again it worked off his own thoughts and he thought of the tools as completed.


    Blake¡¯s arms were tired and sore. He hadn¡¯t recovered much from the day before and had been pushing himself to make this fire. It was rather intense work. There was a feeling of warmth in his muscles that helped comfort Blake but he couldn¡¯t bask in the feeling for long. His hunger and fear of the approaching dark pushed him forward. He was honestly happy that the physical effort had such a positive feeling. He had never been one to work out but maybe he was now? Something to think about later.


    If he tried again Blake believed that he could make much better tools than he had previously but he didn¡¯t want to spend the time to do so. He had only an hour or two left of sunlight and making the first set of tools had already taken an hour. He also suspected that should he succeed at making a fire he would have much more insight into how to improve his wooden tools.


    Once again he began to rotate the stick into the block of wood. As he began to work on it he felt like an idiot. Previously he had been grabbing the top of the stick and twisting it. Every time his arm was too far he would turn it back. It was straining his wrist and not very fast. His Talent now told him to just rub the stick between his hands.


    Pressing his palms together around the stick he quickly rubbed them while pressing gently downward. Not only was this much faster and consistent but it also put a lot less strain on his body. He didn¡¯t know how he hadn¡¯t thought of this before.


    Five minutes later there was still no fire. Taking a break to rest his arms Blake studied his tools for any sign of what went wrong. He didn¡¯t have a second to ponder the question before his Talent activated providing him with information. He smiled realizing he had succeeded.


    At some point during this attempt, a spark had been formed which was enough of a reaction for his Talent to activate. He now knew how to better make a spark in the future and also what went wrong that the spark had not turned into a fire.


    He needed fuel and more air. To get the air he would have to move the point of contact to the edge of the block. This would make keeping it stable more difficult but the new information and skill from his Talent would help. For fuel, he needed loose plant matter. It was only a matter of minutes before he had a pile of dead and dry plants below the block ready for a spark to light the flame.


    His fourth attempt was more difficult as the stick kept slipping off the edge. He eventually got it after 20 minutes of practice creating a small spark. It fell towards his pile of fuel but went out before reaching it. Blake wanted to cry. Moving the block to be directly on top of the pile he tried again.


    It took five more tries before the spark caught. He had problems with airflow, fuel position, and other things during each trying preventing any real flame from catching. Luckily there was enough for his Talent to provide information on exactly what was happening each time. The sun was setting by the time he had a fire ready. Not wanting it to go out he quickly fed it more fuel.


    Blake sat happily in the grass watching his fire. He could survive. It might be difficult and there was sure to be more close fights but if he could make fire despite knowing nothing about the process beforehand, he could find a way to keep himself safe.

 Chapter 6

    With a groan, Blake stood up from his seated position on the grass. The sun had already set but he needed to cook the rabbicorn tonight. It had already been sitting out for a day and if he had been on Earth he would have already thrown it out but the spirit realm was not Earth and he was desperate for sustenance. His body had already healed most of the damage from his fight but the healing was slowing down as he got more and more hungry.


    Blake had lived alone since he was twelve and knew how to cook. He wasn¡¯t an expert chef or anything but boiling your own rice, noodles and grilling chicken was cheaper than relying on premade meals every day. His landlord had given him free rent and some spending money for doing basic repairs and maintenance on some of his properties but it was by no means enough to eat out every meal.


    Cooking rabbit over a fire was not something Blake had done before. His cooking skills were for a modern kitchen with a stove and oven. He might have lived in what the landlord called a storage room but Blake was no animal. Except now he regretted not even thinking about how to cook without modern appliances.


    Hoping his Talent would help with cooking he decided to start with only a piece of the rabbit. In theory, once he had cooked it and considered it done he would get feedback on his actions. He could then take that into account before cooking the rest of the rabbit.


    Blake immediately ran into a stumbling block. This rabbit was not from a grocery store having been processed and ready for him to cook. There was fur and bones and organs that he didn¡¯t know what to do with. He didn¡¯t think he would be able to do this part piecemeal so his Talent would be no help here. At least next time he would be more prepared. Hopefully.


    Blake didn¡¯t want to think about what would have to happen for him to be cooking another one of these. The fight was still too fresh in his memory.


    Taking one of his wooden shivs Blake got to work removing the meat of the rabbicorn from the rest of its body. The skin was surprisingly tough breaking one of his shivs before he fully cut the skin open. Using his hands he ripped what meat he could get out of the corpse and placed it onto a large leaf he had prepared beforehand.


    It was gruesome work and Blake knew he was missing the majority of the potential food but he couldn¡¯t bring himself to care at the moment. His body was still covered in filth from the fight and the blood and guts from the rabbicorn hardly added much in comparison. As far as he could tell he didn¡¯t screw up the meat he had managed to collect too bad. There was way too little to his hungry body but he was too tired to care by that point.


    If there was too little food then that was tomorrow¡¯s problem. For now, he focused on cooking some of it. It was taking all his willpower not to eat it raw. That or to curl up into a ball and sleep. It was late at night by this point and his body still felt like crap following the fight. It was only his fear and hunger keeping him awake at this point. He constantly felt like there was something watching him from the darkness but the fire he had made brought a semblance of comfort.


    Taking one of his spears Blake impaled some meat on the end. The meat having been torn out from the rabbicorn¡¯s body by hand was not intact and struggled to stay on the stick but it was good enough for now. He stuck the spear over the fire letting the meat cook.


    Blake didn¡¯t know exactly how long he lasted but eventually, his hunger won out and he grabbed the meat off the spear and shoved it into his mouth. The outside was burnt and ashy but the inside was still raw. It was absolutely disgusting but in the moment he didn¡¯t care. He devoured the food so fast that the information from his Talent had only just finished filling his mind.


    Blake paled a little at what he learned. The meat had gone bad of that there was no doubt. His Talent only gave him information on his craft and how to use it so he didn¡¯t know how his body would react to it but he could guess. Still, he was hungry. Glancing at the rest of the uncooked meat he grabbed his spear to cook some more.


    Blake didn¡¯t spend much time trying to learn from the knowledge his Talent provided so the rest of the meat wasn¡¯t much better off than his first attempt. That was a weakness of Blake¡¯s Talent. It gave him detailed information on what he had done and how his actions influenced the result but it didn¡¯t just hand him the answer. It was no cheat to immediately become good at whatever he did but rather an advanced observation tool for his crafts.


    Of course that only applied to half his Talent. The other half of the information provided, the part that told him how to use his built items, did give him specific information and skills. It was just highly dependent on how good he was at making things.


    Soon after finishing his meal, Blake collapsed into his leaf bed. He was asleep before hitting the ground.


    * * *


    The following morning Blake woke up covered in sweat. His sleep had been plagued with nightmares making him feel exhausted despite having slept until the sun was high in the sky.


    The most prominent dream in Blake¡¯s mind had been one that he had had for years only now with a new twist. He was twelve and in the car with his parents driving somewhere, he didn¡¯t know where. Everyone was happy and laughing at something when he heard a loud crash.


    The car came to an abrupt stop and a rabbicorn the size of a person jumped through the front windshield impaling his mother. It quickly pulled back and stabbed his father as well before he could react. It then gave him a smile with a mouth full of sharp teeth and blood. The smile did not belong on a rabbit¡¯s face even if it was a monster version. That was when the nightmare ended just to be repeated again and again.


    Turning to the side Blake retched everything he had eaten the night before. Unfortunately, he was still in his leaf bed which was inside the small ditch he had made to keep its shape. The vomit did not make it over the edge and came back down to cover his body.


    Blake tried to stand but stumbled back to the ground as the world spun around him. He tried two more times before giving up. He lay back in the grass staring at the sky. At least he was out of the puke-filled trench that was his leaf bed. Despite no longer moving his head felt light and dizzy. The sun was shining brightly on him and he could feel its heat but could only shiver.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    ¡®What is happening to me?¡¯ He thought before it occurred to him. Food poisoning.


    He had known last night after his Talent had activated that the meat had gone bad but had eaten it anyway. Raw too despite his efforts to cook it. It was no surprise that he was incapacitated now. Sure, he had hoped that being in the spirit realm would prevent such a thing from happening but no luck.


    At least he wasn¡¯t hungry anymore and his wounds were fully healed. It seemed what bit of the food his body had absorbed was enough for him to recover. If he hadn¡¯t been in the spirit realm things would have been much worse.


    His mind was fuzzy from the fever slowing his thoughts to a crawl but he still grew bored as he was unable to move or do anything. His bored mind quickly turned to dark thoughts as his nightmares came forth. He couldn¡¯t remember much by this point as he had never had the best memory for this kind of thing but he had noticed that his memory overall had improved since arriving in the spirit realm and that included his nightmares. Not great.


    He kept thinking about his fight with the rabbicorn and how close he had come to death. When he was thinking about it objectively it wasn¡¯t that close, the two wounds he had suffered were not even half an inch deep and it had taken somewhere between ten and thirty seconds between each attack, adrenaline messed with his sense of time making exact measurements of such things difficult.


    Blake¡¯s mind did not want him to think things through objectively, especially not in the state he was now. His nightmares teamed up with his fever making him see things in the trees around him. He felt ants crawling across his skin when there was nothing there and voices in the wind. Fever dreams had never been a thing he had experienced before and had always believed it to be an exaggeration at best but he had been wrong. Reality seemed to twist around him to bring terrors to life.


    As night set darkness overcame everything. The fire Blake had made had gone out sometime the night before and he was not in a state to remake it leaving him without the comfort of warmth or light. His bed was still ruined and he had no energy to make another leaving him to fall asleep on the hard dirt with eyes in the dark waiting for a sign of weakness.


    * * *


    The next morning Blake woke up feeling sore but whole. His sleep was little better than the previous night but his fever had broken letting his mind at least try and make sense of things. The hard ground had done nothing to help his aches and pains but there was nothing he could do about that now.


    Before Blake had been attacked he had been making a priority list of what to craft. His focus at the time had been around comfort and entertainment. He no longer deluded himself into believing that was a good idea. He was in pain and had been in more pain the day before. Comfort didn¡¯t matter if he kept taking injuries such as these. Really, personal defense could be seen as a form of comfort from the perspective of not feeling like he was going to die.


    Blake needed to build a base. A place where he was safe and could sleep without worry. Hopefully, that would keep his nightmares at bay and let him relax. Nothing else mattered in the face of self-defense.


    Gripping the spear he had come to carry around since he had arrived back in the glade following his fight Blake began to gather longer sticks and branches. He wasn¡¯t comfortable going far from the glade so he stuck to the immediate area. Surviving in the wilderness might not have been something that he was familiar with but he had seen plenty of shows set in medieval times. The defenses of their castles and fortresses were something he could try and replicate to a limited degree.


    His first defense would be a series of sharpened wooden spears stuck in the ground that would surround his glade. These spikes would impale any larger monsters that tried to get close. Smaller monsters such as the rabbicorn would be able to get past those with ease which was where his next layer of defense would come into play. He would dig a trench and fill it with even more spikes. The rabbicorns would have to jump into the trench to get across and would impale themselves on the spikes.


    After that, he was thinking a wall or maybe surrounding himself with wood ready to light on fire to burn his enemies alive. He wasn¡¯t sure yet but he couldn¡¯t help but let out a dark chuckle at the thought of rabbicorns writhing in pain as fire burned away their precious fur.


    Blake knew he wasn¡¯t mentally healthy. He really did. He had only just started to relax following his introduction to the spirit realm when he was attacked. He just couldn¡¯t bring himself to care. So what if he wanted to burn things alive so that they could feel his pain? They deserved it!


    Blake spent the day making his wooden spikes and sticking them in the ground. Before the day came to a close he spent some time remaking the fire. He was running low on fallen sticks in the local area as he wasn¡¯t willing to go far from the glade but that was a problem for later. Once the fire was remade he also made a new leaf bed close by.


    As he collapsed into his new bed he couldn¡¯t help but lament that he was covered in various disgusting substances. This new bed would be little better than his old one by morning. He just shrugged at the thought. Who cared? He was alone out here with no one to see or smell him.


    The next morning Blake resumed his work on base defenses. His body felt mostly recovered by this point and he suspected that the lingering pain was psychosomatic rather than there being something actually wrong with him. He had more nightmares but other than being tired there were no consequences.


    He was hungry again as what nutrients he had gotten from his rabbicorn meal had been used to finish healing him but it wasn¡¯t so bad that he had to search for food immediately. Since he didn¡¯t have any more injuries to recover from Blake¡¯s hunger wouldn¡¯t get any worse and he could survive a little discomfort after the last few days. He felt that he had a much better appreciation for people able to withstand pain without a complaint. Had there been anyone with him they would have had to endure his constant whining.


    Blake had mostly surrounded the glade with spikes the day before and was quick to finish up. Before he started on the trench behind the defensive spikes he decided to make something to help him dig. He couldn¡¯t create anything really helpful but he wanted to see if he could create something focused on digging so that his Talent would increase his skill at the task.


    He had previously created a chisel to help create the leaf beds but that was meant for more detailed work such as shaping the final design. The trenches¡¯ exact shape didn¡¯t matter so the chisel had limited use outside of removing stones that might be in the way but as that wasn¡¯t its purpose it wouldn¡¯t be much help.


    Blake decided to create something like the chisel but more focused on removing big stones and digging up compacted soil. His physics classes shined in helping him come up with a design. His main goal was to create something that could apply more force to the ground than he could with his hands.


    The sharpened tip of the chisel could help break it up but didn¡¯t provide any extra force. No, what he needed was one of the most simple but useful tools ever invented, a lever. By extending the handle to create a lever he could multiply the force of his efforts by quite a bit.


    In the end, Blake created a tool that was essentially a spear with the tip of the chisel rather than a sharpened point. It was flat with rounded edges on the end so that it wouldn¡¯t break as easily but would still pierce the ground.


    By focusing on how he wanted to use it he got exactly the kind of skills he wanted out of his Talent. He now had a better idea of how to pierce the ground and leverage the long handle to pull out heavy rocks. The tool was not well made and was only marginally suited to its purpose so Blake didn¡¯t get much from his Talent but anything was better than nothing.


    Now it was time to start digging.

 Chapter 7

    It took Blake three days to finish the trench and fill it with more spikes. Despite creating his elongated chisel tool to help dig he was only able to get two feet down before the ground became too hard to continue digging. He was relying mostly on his hand only using the digging tool to help break up the soil.


    It was hard back-breaking work. Blake had never been someone who worked out. He did his mandatory physical training as required by school but although it was meant to prepare someone for combat in the spirit realm you had to actually care about your physical abilities to get much out of it. He had always thought of himself as more of a mage than a fighter.


    He regretted that attitude now. His fear of being attacked drove him to push himself far beyond what he would normally be able to do. Had he not feared for his life he would have given up, or at least procrastinated, within the first hour or two of work. Instead, he worked himself until he could move no more before taking a break. The moment he could he got back to work.


    Blake knew intellectually that he couldn¡¯t actually die in the spirit realm, at least not at his level. Should he take fatal damage his spirit would return to his body to recover. It would reset his tier and take time depending on his tier before he could return but it wasn¡¯t the end.


    As you rose through the tiers your spirit became more and more connected to your body making dying in the spirit realm worse. Injuries would start to cross over and recovery could take years at the higher tiers. At tier 0, however, Blake would take at most a month and his body would be completely fine. The most he had to worry about was mental scarring and a weakened Talent upon his return to the spirit realm. His Talent would be locked until he returned to the spirit realm after dying.


    Despite this being the case Blake was terrified of the thought. The pain of his fight with the rabbicorn was still clear in his mind. No matter the reality of the situation his emotions were a firm drive behind his actions. As he completed more and more of his defenses his nightmares did ease back somewhat as he felt more safe.


    Besides having completed his initial defenses so fast there was another benefit to having worked so hard. Blake found that he had grown noticeably stronger since arriving in the spirit realm. This wasn¡¯t just the normal growth you would see on Earth when putting in hard work but something supernatural. If he hadn¡¯t known better he would have thought that he had been consistently going to the gym for months from how much he had grown.


    Blake¡¯s body had hardened removing the thin layer of fat that covered his body. He had never been fat and chubby by any means. He had looked quite thin in fact, but what meat he did have on his bones was not muscle. Now he had bulked up somewhat with clearly defined muscles and abs. He was very excited by the abs.


    Something he had noticed as he pushed his physical body was that a subtle warmth had suffused his muscles. This wasn¡¯t the warmth of an overworked body but rather the supernatural warmth he felt when he had first arrived in the spirit realm as well as every time his Talent activated. The warmth seemed to be a sign of the spirit realm improving him. That suggested to Blake that his Talent was improving him in some way beyond the information gained. How? He wasn¡¯t sure. It might have just been what allowed his future crafts to be slightly better without needing to improve his crafting skills but his instincts were telling him that wasn¡¯t it, or at least that wasn¡¯t all it was.


    Done with his work on the initial base defenses Blake collapsed into his leaf bed. He was still dirty but had gotten used to the smell of being covered in grime so he didn¡¯t bother to create a new clean bed every night. He was tired enough from creating the defenses that it wasn¡¯t worth the effort. He did start a fire to ward off the darkness. It helped his mind settle enough to fall asleep. A benefit of pushing so hard was that he was too tired to let his worries keep him awake.


    That night was the most peaceful sleep he had gotten since the rabbicorn attack. He still had nightmares but they weren¡¯t so bad that he woke up screaming, or at all. Getting up for the morning Blake had to decide what to do now that his initial defenses were done. When he had completed the trench his Talent had activated but the information he had received did not give him any obvious way to improve it.


    With no clear task in front of him, Blake found his mind starting to wonder and he felt that he needed to do something to help him stay away from dark thoughts. He chuckled at the realization he had become one of those people who felt the need to be constantly doing something productive. He had never thought he could be such a person.


    Before the rabbicorn attack, he had focused on the idea of creating entertainment and comfort so that he could laze around and not do anything. That idea now sounded torturous to him. He still liked the idea of comfort but entertainment so he could laze around and not do anything productive? That was no longer something he desired.


    Since nothing came to mind on what to craft Blake decided to try something else out that would help him no matter what he decided to do later. He was going to workout. Not having any workout equipment and not finding the need to make any he dropped to the floor and began doing pushups. He was surprised to find that he could complete 30 without much effort. Before entering the spirit realm he might have been able to do five on a good day.


    Switching between exercises Blake did a variety of body weight workouts such as squats, handstand pushups, and pull-ups using a sturdy tree branch. It took an hour to work up a good sweat. At that point, he stopped thinking that was the end of what he could do that day. It was only natural that working out every day or two should be his goal so he was surprised to find that after half an hour his body was fully recovered and ready to go again.


    That supernatural warmth had suffused his body already subtly improving him. Blake was not in touch with his body enough to tell how much he had improved but he knew that he had. For the first time in his life, he was excited to workout. It was a great way to distract his mind and unlike on Earth, there were immediate improvements to motivate him.


    Like that, a day passed. Blake worked for an hour then took a break to recover. It didn¡¯t always take only half an hour to recover. As the day passed it took more and more time so that by the end of the day he was no longer able to recover within three hours and called it a day. He was disappointed that he couldn¡¯t workout infinitely but had seen clear improvements by the end of the day and suspected that in another day or two, he would have to come up with exercise equipment if he wanted to keep improving. He could work on his endurance to an extent with just his body weight but he didn¡¯t weigh enough to keep increasing his strength indefinitely.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    While he was feeling more comfortable now that he had defenses set up, Blake still made sure to light a fire before the sunset. It still brought him a sense of safety and there was no reason not to besides the dwindling supply of fallen branches within his immediate area. He was going to have to start removing branches from the trees directly soon.


    He lamented his lack of an axe as being able to cut down trees would be quite helpful. If he had access to logs he would be able to create a real wall behind his trench. Right now there was a short dirt pile created from his digging of the trench. It could only barely be called a wall.


    Blake had tried to create an axe from wood but his Talent had made it clear after his first attempt that the wood was just not strong enough. He needed to figure out how to use something other than wood. If he could use stone that would be great but so far any attempt to break stone had been met with failure. He wasn¡¯t strong enough. If he could push his exercise enough working with stone might become feasible.


    The next morning Blake resumed his workout routine. He was surprised to find that despite bulking up with muscle his hunger had barely increased. He couldn¡¯t help but think how inefficient growth must be on Earth for this to be all the food he needed to grow so much stronger. He did learn something unfortunate about his future plans, however.


    Despite getting a full night¡¯s rest and much more growth in his strength now that his body had some time, he still required more than half an hour to recover. It was only 45 minutes so it was better than it had been the night before but it wasn¡¯t as much as he had been hoping. This meant that either he hadn¡¯t waited long enough before going at it again or the stronger he grew the longer he would have to wait before working out again. He hoped it was the first option as the second could ruin his plans to workout until he reached the maximum potential of his body.


    With nothing he could do about it, Blake continued his routine. It wasn¡¯t until the afternoon began to set that something changed.


    Blake was walking around the glade catching his breath following another intense session. With his increased strength the workout sessions had extended to almost two hours now with three-hour breaks.


    Blake heard a rustle from a bush just outside his barrier of spikes. He froze in fear watching the bush. A rabbicorn hopped out and lay eyes on him. The moment it saw him it charged. This one was slightly smaller than the first one he saw but no less terrifying to the man.


    To Blake¡¯s surprise, upon reaching the barrier of spikes the rabbicorn attempted to jump over them rather than move between them. He had assumed the first layer of defenses would be useless against the smaller creatures which is why he had made the trench in the first place.


    Instead, the rabbicorn had jumped right onto one of the spikes. Its chest was impaled as it slid a good foot down the spike. Blake stood still, his breathing coming in small, irregular, gasps, as he watched the rabbicorn struggle to escape while bleeding out onto the spike. Five of the longest minutes in Blake¡¯s life passed before the rabbicorns struggling stopped. He didn¡¯t dare move for another five.


    Finally shaking off his shock Blake crept forward, spear held tightly in his hand. Reaching out he poked the rabbicorn with his spear. It didn¡¯t react. He poked it again and again. With a bit more force he stabbed the rabbicorn through the head just to make sure it was dead. The skills he had gained with the spear from his Talent made it easy to take a proper, if unpracticed, form for the stab.


    Now confident that it was dead Blake was stunned. He had created these defenses for exactly this kind of attack but despite being proud of them he had never truly believed that they would stop a rabbicorn. He had built up these creatures as horrible monsters capable of overcoming even his best efforts. He had killed the first one with an accidental weak kick, sure, but it had badly injured him first.


    Now staring at how easily it had died with no effort on his part beyond creating the spikes in the first place he couldn¡¯t help but recall what these creatures really were. The weakest type of monster possible. They were used as easy prey for beginners with combat Talents. Completely harmless by most measures. Except he had been harmed by them which had twisted his viewpoint. He had ignored what he had learned about them previously, almost seeing them as a completely different kind of monster.


    In a daze, Blake removed the monster from the spike and carried it over to the fire pit. He was hungry and the rabbicorn had already proven to be edible. Technically. He had gotten food poisoning last time but he was pretty sure that was because it was left in the open for over a day before he had consumed it. This time he was going to cook it immediately.


    Since he had gained a better idea of what he needed to do to extract the meat after his last attempt Blake spent some time creating a wooden knife with his focus on it being a skinning knife. It would help him cut open the rabbit even if it was crappy and improved his skill at skinning. In addition to the information on how he did the last time he got to work.


    It was still a messy job but his Talent told him he got at least half the meat this time and it wasn¡¯t pulped. It stuck on his spear much better this time. Once he had gotten the fire started he stuck the meat over it.


    Like with the previous rabbicorn, Blake didn¡¯t cook it all at once. He wanted to improve his cooking skills as he went. Last time he had been too hungry to do that to any measure of success but he had the time to try again now. His first attempt was little better than the previous rabbicorn. He didn¡¯t want to have raw meat on the inside so he kept it over the fire longer than before. This left it burnt and disgusting but at least he had gathered a different data point than before.


    With information from both undercooked and overcooked meat, his second attempt of the night went much better. The outside was still burnt but the middle was almost perfect to Blake. He liked his meat medium rare and the meat was more medium.


    He only had enough meat for one more attempt so he decided to try something a little different. To help it cook more evenly Blake spent some time preparing the meat beforehand. He stretched it out making it thinner before sticking it over the fire. Taking a bite he moaned in satisfaction. If he had an actual stove he could have done better but it was delicious to him. If only he had some seasonings.


    Blake threw the body of the rabbicorn to burn it to ash. He had done this to the body of the first rabbicorn as well to help clean up. It was like a trash can for his little campsite. He had been surprised to find the horn of the rabbicorn didn¡¯t burn and was curious if the same would hold true for the second.


    Blake stuck his spear back into the fire to burn off the remnants of the meat from it. He only kept it in there for a short time before pulling it back for fear of it catching on fire. It was wood after all. Examining the tip for damage he was surprised to find that its shape had warped slightly and changed color. It would have made sense if it had burned a little and been covered in ash but this was a change to the structure of the wood itself.


    Since he had not intended for anything to happen as he wasn¡¯t crafting anything his Talent did not activate but Blake swore to explore what was happening the next day. He would make a new spear and stick it in the fire as part of the crafting process so that his Talent would give him information on how it was changing.

 Chapter 8

    Blake looked down at his newest spear with a smile on his face. Sticking the wood in the fire ended up being a very useful for sharpening the point. The heat of the fire made the wood condense as the moisture that was in it evaporated. This made it harder and sharper than he could have done otherwise. Sharpening wood against random stones did not lend itself to well-sharpened tools.


    There was a downside. Two actually. The wood was more brittle than it would be without the fire treatment. This was an acceptable tradeoff to Blake as his main concern was dealing the initial damage. He had lots of spears that he was using as defensive spikes and they were not too difficult to make. His Talent also reinforced any spear he made to a limited degree.


    The other downside to Blake was that he now had to go through all the wooden tools and spikes he had made in the last few days to give them fire treatment. It would be annoying but worth it. He also found that his Talent gave him a small upgrade to his use of spears after creating a fire-treated spear. Since it wasn¡¯t a direct upgrade he wondered if it wasn¡¯t so much the overall quality of what he made but his understanding and variations he had made with his crafting.


    That would make more sense as it would be hard for there to be an objective ¡®best¡¯ version of a spear. What would that look like? Was a longer handle better? Was he supposed to make them better for throwing? No, to Blake the idea that it was based on the variation and effectiveness of the traits that a spear possessed. That meant creating spears for different purposes would give him the best return for his skill at crafting.


    While working on upgrading his wooden tools Blake pondered on his Talent further. If variations of a craft helped upgrade his skill at using an object as well as his Talent¡¯s ability to reinforce it then where did it end? At what point did a variation of an object become something unique upon itself?


    His spears for example were originally the exact same as his shivs but with a longer handle. He had since changed the tip slightly so there were sharpened edges rather than just coming to a point but that didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t crossover. The only thing he could think of that separated the two enough to be different crafts was his perception.


    When first testing out his Talent Blake had already proven that he needed to focus on what he was doing and the idealized version of his goal for his Talent to work. When he had thought of a spear as a hammer during the crafting process the skill knowledge he had gained had been related to his idea of what a hammer could do.


    So did that mean he could enhance his skills with a spear further by creating a shiv and seeing it as a spear? Could he trick his Talent into upgrading multiple skills by creating the same object multiple times with a different ideal object in mind?


    Blake hadn¡¯t finished upgrading all the spears yet but he was eager to test out his new theory. He hadn¡¯t been excited to use his Talent since the first rabbicorn attack and had been using it with mechanical efficiency to give himself a sense of safety but a spark of the excitement he had when first arriving in the spirit realm burned in him.


    To start he created a new spear with a focus on it being a shiv. All he was creating was a shiv with a long handle. This was not a spear. He had to remind himself a few times that it was not a spear as he could feel his Talent begin to shift in the wrong direction.


    He didn¡¯t know when he had become so aware of his Talent but it was useful. It wasn¡¯t so clear that he could pinpoint exactly what it was doing or even what exact image it was using for his craft but it was more like proprioception, the innate sense most living creatures have of where their body is in relation to itself. It was vague but still a real and useful sense.


    Once his elongated shiv was complete Blake was ecstatic to find that he was right. By focusing on this new creation as just a variation of a shiv his skill at using a shiv had increased. He hadn¡¯t tested it yet but given what he knew about his Talent he felt it was safe to assume that the reinforcement that his Talent provided to his creations had also improved for shivs.


    Blake quickly moved on to a shiv-shaped spear. He thought of it as a pocket spear meant for quick stabs and slashes when a larger spear failed. Just as with the elongated shiv, the pocket spear gave him an increase in his skill with a spear.


    By this point, Blake believed to be on the level of someone who had trained under a master for a couple of weeks. That wasn¡¯t much in the grand scheme of things but he knew instinctually that he had no innate flaws with spearmanship which was why he had the idea of being trained under a master. He wasn¡¯t developing any bad habits with his skills.


    Something else he had noticed as his skills advanced was how it interacted with the crafting information component of his Talent. As he learned to move with the spear he also became more reliant on knowing his weapon intimately. He was still a beginner so it didn¡¯t change much beyond his comfort with it but he felt that would change as he advanced. Everything from the weight to the texture contributed to how well he could use a spear and he knew everything about his craft perfectly.


    Blake was starting to realize that viewing his Talent as four different abilities was a limited point of view. So far he thought of his Talent as three components; the information on the crafting process/result, the skill in using whatever he created, the warmth that he believed to be an improvement directly to his body in some way, and the reinforcement of whatever he crafted so long as he had made the same type of item before.


    Blake had now seen the skill and information components enhance each other in two different ways. The first was what he had just discovered, that his skill with something was reliant on how well he knew his tools/weapons. The other way was something he had discovered when he created his first tool meant for crafting. Knowing how to use a crafting tool enhanced how well he could make something which combined with the knowledge of the exact results of his actions made him a better crafter in a compounding loop of improvement.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Since the skill and information components worked so well together Blake guessed that the body improvement also fed into this in some way. His best guess was that the warmth of improvement was related to the muscle memory he gained with the skill increases. Perhaps it was increasing his nervous system for more exacting movements? He had never been too interested in human anatomy his focus always being more on monsters and what parts of their bodies were valuable.


    The only part of his Talent that he didn¡¯t understand, at least in relation to the others, was the object reinforcement. Neither his knowledge of an object nor his skill at using it related to this mysterious reinforcement. He didn¡¯t believe the improvement of his body had anything to do with it either as the actual result didn¡¯t change just its strength. It also wasn¡¯t magic as far as he was aware as that required mana and he could sense nothing of the sort. Magic Talents were supposed to give you an innate awareness of mana and its use but he had no such thing.


    Experiments complete Blake resumed the task of fire-hardening the defensive spikes. Despite their use being different he did make sure to conceptualize them as spears. The skill of using spears was useless for these but his Talent reinforcement of them, no matter how small, was helpful. The sun was setting by the time he finished.


    In no time at all a fire was started and Blake sat down to relax for a moment. Every day he became faster at starting a fire. He was proud of the progress he had made. He only sat down for a few minutes before the itch to do something returned. The combination of growing up in a society where instant gratification was always available and his subconscious fear of an idle mind pushed him to do something.


    Blake realized he hadn¡¯t worked out in a while. Had this been the day before he could have fallen asleep already despite it still being relatively early in the night but he lacked the physical exhaustion to do that now. He immediately got to work, pushing himself until he collapsed. He got two more workouts in before falling asleep. He couldn¡¯t be sure of the time but he suspected it was near midnight.


    The length of his breaks had continued to increase now starting off at an hour and ending around two and a half despite only going a few times. It was strange to Blake since he felt physically fine faster and faster but had the sense that he couldn¡¯t improve until that break time was over.


    The next day he decided he needed to test what was going on with his physical training. Why did he get the sense that he had to wait? His test was quite simple. After working out once, rather than wait until he felt he could train again he only waited until his body recovered before going again. Nothing bad happened while going through his exercise routine but he found that the comforting warmth of his body improving was not there.


    Exhausted after his second workout of the day he also found that since his body didn¡¯t have that warmth to improve itself it took longer for him to feel better. It was like he was exercising back on Earth. He did not like that.


    Blake waited until he felt the exercise would work again before continuing. He was worried when it didn¡¯t come back when he had expected between one and one and a half hours. It took three hours from his second workout before he could go again. He spent the time making extra spears, shivs, skinning knives, and other various tools. He had no use for them at the moment but he also had nothing better to do.


    He was concerned that his baseline wait between exercises had increased so dramatically but found that the break between the third and fourth rounds of the day was only two hours. There must have been a penalty for pushing himself before fully recovering.


    Blake hadn¡¯t spent much time thinking of the future since the rabbicorn attack, not much before that either since coming to the spirit realm, but he was starting to think about how to advance himself. His base defenses were great but they weren¡¯t a long-term solution. He had to leave the area eventually. He had to figure out how to reach tier 3 within a year or he would be heavily fined and have to pay increased taxes until he reached tier 3. Without access to a body storage facility for long-term stay in the spirit realm, he would only be able to work during his sleeping hours.


    So to improve himself enough to be comfortable leaving his little home he needed to plan things out. Having to be careful with when and how much he worked out complicated things. Making things could be very physically demanding. His initial physical improvements had come from his crafting efforts after all. If he wasn¡¯t careful would crafting increase the downtime on exercising?


    Crafting and exercising were really the only two ways he had to improve at the moment. Being physically stronger would let him travel farther faster as well as put more force into every attack from a monster. It was also important if he wanted to keep pushing his crafting. He needed to figure out how to use stone for tools but he lacked the strength to do anything with that at the moment.


    Crafting on the other hand made him more skilled with his tools and weapons. It also provided him with some unknown enhancement to his body. He was pretty confident at this point that it wasn¡¯t strength or endurance. Exercising had given him a good idea of how strong he was as well as where the supernatural warmth gathered when improving his muscles. The warmth from his Talent was more focused on his brain and something else throughout his body. This further reinforced his theory that it was improving his nervous system.


    Blake decided that before falling asleep he needed a training plan. His best bet was to balance crafting and exercise as much as possible but there were problems with that. Crafting only improved him when making something new and there was only so much he could do within a short period of time. Crafting also risked detracting from how much he could exercise.


    On the other hand, more exercise meant more physical which could open up new avenues of crafting speeding that up. If he only did exercise though large chunks of the day would be wasted as he waited between rounds of intense training.


    He needed to experiment and craft something that would not be physically demanding so that he could exercise as often as possible but didn¡¯t waste time being unproductive. Breaks were fine but three hours of doing nothing was not.


    Blake¡¯s mind drifted to the various ideas he had over the last week for things he could make when one stood out to him. When he had first been attacked by a rabbicorn he had been working on a project. A healing salve. He had wanted to be able to make various salves and tinctures to help with the sunburn he had at the time. He idly noted that he no longer had a sunburn despite being in the sun more than before.


    Herbalism was a craft that required little to no physical exercise beyond the initial making of tools. It was going to mostly be experimenting with various plants to see how they reacted together. It would be time-consuming but also good practice at using his Talent to push his crafting skills further without outside support. If he could invent salves from scratch only relying on the information provided by his Talent he would have much more confidence in being self-reliant.


    It was the perfect craft to do while waiting between physical training rounds. Heck, if he could create a healing salve maybe he could decrease the down time between rounds. If only he wasn¡¯t so afraid of leaving his glade.

 Chapter 9

    The next morning Blake started the day with a quick workout. Well, quick wasn¡¯t exactly right. It took nearly two hours to build up enough of a sweat that he felt he had reached his limit before needing a break before going again.


    He was starting to run into a wall with his physical training routine. At this point, he was close to the peak a human body could reach without the power of the spirit realm. Body weight exercises just did not do enough for him now. He needed exercise equipment if he wanted to keep pushing his body.


    Blake almost started working on that right away but he didn¡¯t know how to make weights with the tools he had now. He needed rope or some form of adhesive to bind things together to create something heavy enough to be useful to him. Unfortunate as it would have been the perfect excuse to delay his excursion outside the defenses of his glade.


    Looking down at himself he couldn¡¯t help but sigh. If he could bind materials together he would also be able to make clothes. After being in the spirit realm for¡­ Blake paused for a moment as he had forgotten how long he had been there. It didn¡¯t matter but highlighted that he had been there a while and had gotten used to having no clothes. That didn¡¯t mean it was comfortable, far from it, but at some point, his subconscious mind had given up being embarrassed at being found in the state he was in.


    Since he was on exercise cooldown for the next while Blake began to prepare for his trip to the stream of water. He needed that water for his attempts and herbalism. He also planned to clean himself off a bit if he didn¡¯t find anything dangerous nearby. He was still covered in the mud, blood, viscera, and vomit of the days since his fight with the first rabbicorn.


    Before heading off he needed a way to store the water and bring it back. During his one and only attempt at making a salve, he had used a small stone to carve a divot into a fallen log to help keep everything together and not falling off the edge.


    What Blake did now was the same thing taken to the extreme. He used a stone to carve into a log hollowing it out. He would then carry that log to the stream and fill it up. It was not an easy or quick task. He had to be careful not to overstrain his muscles in fear of increasing his workout cooldown making him take frequent breaks. If it hadn¡¯t been for his diligent efforts to increase his strength he doubted he would have been able to complete it at all, let alone within the two days it ended up taking.


    As he wanted to take advantage of his Talent, Blake had to maintain focus on his task during the entire duration of its crafting. That was hard enough to do for so long and the mind-numbing boredom that was repeatedly scraping rock against wood did not help matters. Luckily he had become much better at maintaining his focus since arriving in the spirit realm.


    He had even attempted meditation a few times, a nemesis of his, and found that not only was it much easier to fall into and keep but it also provided the relaxing relief from his jumbled thoughts that many school counselors had told him about. Meditating had always been stressful to him so he had believed those counselors to be, well he didn¡¯t want to say ¡®stupid¡¯ but lacking in intelligence felt too soft.


    Blake was starting to struggle to keep track of time. When first arriving in the spirit realm he had a good sense of how long a minute and hour was. He had spent enough time around clocks and in classes with set time periods. All his measurements for how long he worked out or took a break were based on this intuition of time.


    The problem was that the longer he went without a concrete way to tell time the harder it became. What was the difference between one or two hours when you were doing the same thing the entire time? He could try to tell time by how often he could exercise but that was taking longer and longer.


    Blake decided that he needed to change how he thought about time until he found a better way. So now he measured in cycles and days. A cycle was just how long it took for him to exercise and then the accompanying break. Sure it was inconsistent but it accurately reflected how he was separating his actions for the day so what did it matter if it didn¡¯t fit with some exacting measurement? No one else was there with him that he needed to sync his actions up with.


    The second day of carving into a log to craft a rough container passed with only three cycles. His physical growth had mostly plateaued now. He struggled to push himself hard enough to trigger his growth and something else was happening too. Blake couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it but he felt like he was pushing up against some wall.


    Had he reached some sort of cap on how strong he could become while tier 0? He didn¡¯t think so but maybe it was a soft cap and he just had to push harder if he wanted more strength. If he knew how to advance to tier 1 this wouldn¡¯t be a problem but for now, he was stuck at tier 0 and had to make the most of it.


    Even if he did know how to reach tier 1 he wasn¡¯t sure he would go for it. While he didn¡¯t know how to do it he did know that reaching tier 1 meant going to a tier 1 realm. A higher-tier realm would have stronger monsters and a more unforgivable environment. Since he couldn¡¯t be sure that he would land in a tier 1 realm with human civilization he would likely be putting himself in more danger instead of less by taking that avenue to get stronger. It was a moot point until he knew how to ascend.


    The day after finishing his rough container Blake only put a token effort into his morning exercise before heading out. Since he wasn¡¯t really growing anymore he decided to not work so hard and only worry about maintaining his strength until he found a solution.


    He did not want to admit it to himself but this was the exact attitude he had back on Earth that led to him being so skinny and weak. Well, not exactly as he hadn¡¯t even been worried about maintaining a small amount of strength but the thought process was the same. He didn¡¯t see any immediate benefit so he he did not want to put in the effort to keep moving forward one tiny step at a time.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Blake set out from his glade at a sprint. In his right hand, he carried a spear the height of his body. His left arm and hand balanced the log-turned container on his shoulder. He couldn¡¯t help but grin as he moved through the forest despite his terror leaving the comfort of security that was his glade.


    Both the log and spear were heavy, the log obviously more so. Had he been on Earth Blake would have been surprised had he lifted the log at all let alone sprinted with it. He moved at a speed that he hadn¡¯t felt before without being in a car. There wasn¡¯t enough room in the glade to run anything more than a short dash.


    So entranced was Blake at his newfound physical prowess that he tripped over his own feet that he faceplanted into the ground at speed. His container and spear went flying as he slid face-first through the dirt. Not his most dignified moment.


    Face red, more from embarrassment than damage, he quickly scrambled to grab his spear. He did not want to be separated from his weapon while outside his defenses. Collecting his spear then moving and grabbing the log he moved forward once again. This time he did not move as fast as he could. He had learned his lesson.


    As he moved Blake focused on the placement of his feet so that he didn¡¯t trip again. Fearing an ambush he also worked to stay aware of his surroundings. It was difficult splitting his focus like that. He had always been scattered-brained and had difficulty focusing but that was more flitting from one thought to another rather than thinking of two things at once.


    As he worked to split his focus he found himself falling into the semi-meditative state that he did when crafting with his Talent. He couldn¡¯t think of it in the moment but he would later realize how much of a boon learning to do that was. He hadn¡¯t thought of it as something useful outside of his Talent and had only seen the benefit it tangentially had with his efforts to meditate.


    He only tripped twice more before reaching the stream. Given he had been actively trying not to trip over his own feet and had been moving below his maximum speed, Blake was quite embarrassed. The constant exercise had made him more in tune with his body than he had ever been but his strength had grown faster. Perhaps it was the enhanced growth of the spirit realm or maybe he was just untalented at physical movement.


    In his mind, Blake began planning an obstacle course he could setup in his glade. Since he wasn¡¯t working to improve his strength at the moment an obstacle course would allow him to maintain his strength while improving his control so he didn¡¯t feel like such an idiot when running.


    Having arrived at the stream Blake spent a moment looking around and listening for rabbicorns on the hunt before leaning down to stick his log-turned container into the water. He had already confirmed via his Talent that it didn¡¯t have any cracks or holes that would leak water so he wasn¡¯t concerned about that.


    Once that was finished he spent but a moment contemplating whether he had time to wash off. Still not hearing or seeing anything he decided a quick dunk wouldn¡¯t harm anything. The stream was deep enough for him to cover his whole body if he lay down in the middle. Calling it a stream might not have been fully accurate. It was more like a creek. About ten feet across the center of the creak came up to his waist.


    The water was cool to the touch but not freezing as Blake entered the creak. He quickly shuffled to the center, careful not to slip and fall. He dunked his head under the water and as he came back up his heart began to beat rapidly. A sense of dread filled him.


    His grip tightened on his spear as he dashed out of the water. He didn¡¯t know what was coming but it wasn¡¯t good. He only spent a moment grabbing his log full of water before running as fast as he could back to his glade.


    Despite not being able to focus and moving as fast as he could he only stumbled once and caught himself before falling so only a little water sloshed out of its container. Arriving back at his base of operations he dropped the log to the ground losing a bit more water. He spun around spear held tightly between both his hands.


    His eyes scanned the forest for threats as blood pounded in his ears. There was no sound besides his own breathing making the pounding of his heart audible.


    Blake did not know how long he stood there searching for threats before his heart rate began to drop. The adrenaline that was pumping through his veins began to fade and he felt lightheaded. He slumped to the ground tired from his sprint and extreme vigilance.


    While he had been waiting for something to pop out and attack him his exercise cooldown reset meaning he had been in a state of panic for hours. While it messed up his measurement of time, Blake couldn¡¯t bring himself to go through an exercise. It took a monumental effort of will to start the fire before he sat down and tried to meditate.


    He didn¡¯t know what was going on but he did know that his head was not on straight. He needed to get his thoughts in order if he wanted to figure out what had happened. Unfortunately, his mind had not recovered from his panic and he struggled to meditate at all. Eventually, he gave up before lying down in his leaf bed staring up at the sky.


    The sun had begun to set and the sky was covered in bands of color as the night overcame the day. There was still an artificial feel to it that Blake couldn¡¯t quite get over but it was better than nothing. He had heard of realms that were just giant caves leaving people in perpetual darkness or, if they had a source of light, a ceiling of stone. By that measure, an imperfect sky was much better.


    The stars had only just started coming out when Blake fell asleep. His nightmares were worse than they had been in days waking him up multiple times throughout the night. Each time he woke up he stoked the fire to keep him going. Its orange glow brought him comfort in the darkness.


    The next morning Blake woke up groggy. His mind was more settled now but he still didn¡¯t feel like exercising. He spent the morning doing a whole lot of nothing. He did get some comfort by drinking some of the water from his log container but he didn¡¯t want to take too much as he needed it for his herbalism experiments and he had no desire to leave his glade.


    By noon he was stable enough to try meditating again. This time it worked well enough for him to try and analyze his own actions. The day before had not been normal. Nothing had been normal since arriving in the spirit realm but his response to nothing had been the real problem.


    One moment he had been dunking his head in the water the next he was sure he was about to die. Honestly, he was lucky he had been thinking well enough to grab the container of water before leaving. He had been so sure that something was out in the forest about to pounce on him.


    Thinking back on it there had been nothing that gave that impression. Sound had been consistent and he had spent time looking for monsters before entering the creek so unless it was something other than a rabbicorn, an ambush predator of some sort, there was no way he had missed a monster only to detect its existence while underwater.


    This led to one conclusion that Blake really wanted to ignore. The mental trauma from the first rabbicorn attack, and maybe even before that when entering the spirit realm, ran much deeper than he first thought.

 Chapter 10

    Acknowledging that he wasn¡¯t ok and that he would need to put in the effort to balance his mental state helped Blake calm down. He was by no means stable but he was no longer despondent. The sun was starting to set by the time he exited his meditation.


    He had been at it for half the day and was proud of himself for going for so long. Meditation had always been difficult for him, more so in his damaged mental state, but he had persevered. While he struggled with fear and panic, not every change to his mind since arriving in the spirit realm was a bad one. He found it easier to focus on himself and push through difficulties. Blake took note that he needed to remind himself that once he had conquered his fears he could only come out better for it.


    It was too late for him to start his herbalism project so instead Blake decided to get a round of exercise done before going to sleep. He hadn¡¯t done anything productive that day so he felt the need to do something before he settled down. While he hadn¡¯t physically exerted himself the mental strain of the day combined with his lack of sleep the night before made him exhausted and his attempt at exercising a slog.


    Blake woke up the next morning not remembering going to sleep. He was in his leaf bed so he had clearly dragged himself there but he wasn¡¯t sure if he had completed his workout or not. On the bright side, he was too tired to dream so he had a wonderful night¡¯s sleep. Glancing at his fire pit he found that there were no smoldering coals.


    He must not have lit a fire the night before. Blake had tried to keep a smoldering fire going at all times as it was easier to maintain a fire than start a new one. It wasn¡¯t too time-consuming a process now that he was stronger and more skilled but combined with the sense of comfort a fire provided him there was no reason to let it go out. For him not to have stoked it the night before he must have collapsed into his bed without a thought in his head.


    Blake spent the morning exercising. He couldn¡¯t help but shake his head at how long it took. He had started as the sun rose and by the time he had finished, it was high in the sky. He had already decided not to worry so much about his physical training until he had better equipment, focusing on maintaining his strength, but he might have to take that a step further and only workout once a day. Maybe even every other day.


    Training complete Blake turned his mind towards herbalism. He knew absolutely nothing about how to approach herbalism and only a basic idea of what could be done. Herbalism was the craft of mixing plants together to create various useful substances. It was not popular as those who had a herbalism Talent wanted to expand their Talent into alchemy which was far more useful and popular.


    While herbalism was focused on the process of caring for and combining plants together, alchemy was a magic discipline that allowed for more powerful and varied effects. Alchemists used ingredients of all sorts, not just plants, and combined them using a combination of traditional and magical methods. However, alchemy required mana which Blake did not have.


    Mana was an energy unlocked by certain Talents to power abilities. Mana was the defining characteristic of magic and the key difference between magical and supernatural abilities. A supernatural ability, such as Blake¡¯s Talent¡¯s ability to enhance the properties of whatever he created, did not require any resources and was often passive in nature. Magical abilities, sometimes called spells, consumed mana in return for more active, powerful effects.


    Blake had heard of people unlocking mana outside of their Talent but it was considered the domain of the rich. It took expensive natural treasures and training to accomplish. A natural treasure was any energy-dense resource found in the spirit realm. The higher the realm the stronger and more common the treasure. In a tier 0 realm, Blake would be lucky to find a natural treasure in the most dangerous location of the realm and its effect could very well be useless to him.


    Of course, if given the opportunity, Blake would unlock mana in a heartbeat. He might not get the special spells that a magic focused Talent provided, and he doubted his Talent would be easy to upgrade given its already massive scope, but many types of crafting utilized mana and he believed that his Talent would synergize well with it even if it ended up not working directly.


    For now, Blake how to make do with mundane crafts. Since he didn¡¯t know anything about herbalism he was going to have to rely heavily on his Talent to learn. He considered it a good stress test of his abilities. Normally discovering and researching a new field of science, magic, what have you, would require meticulous testing and recording of what was happening to narrow down what was happening.


    Research took days, weeks, or years of effort to slowly narrow down the variables of an experiment to determine what was happening and even after a conclusion was reached there was always the chance it was wrong. Research could be as much guesswork and luck as it was logic.


    Blake¡¯s Talent removed the vast majority of that. He had no need for measuring or recording equipment as after trying something his Talent would tell him exactly what happened down to the atomic structure if he focused hard enough. There was no guesswork or inaccurate readings on what was happening leaving him confident in his results.


    He would still have to put together all the information he gained and come to a conclusion on how to do something but at that point, it was more of an engineering project than a scientific one. He would need to piece together his knowledge into a cohesive whole on how things worked if he wanted to make the best craft possible.


    To start his adventures in herbalism Blake decided to get some tools ready. His last attempt had shown him the difficulty in preparing his ingredients to be mixed and wanted to head off any potential problems he may have. First, he upgraded where he was going to be mixing and preparing his ingredients.


    Last time he had a shallow indent into a piece of wood that he used to keep his spit and leaves together. This time he took that wood and expanded the indent into a proper bowl shape. It would now work better to hold the water he had collected in combination with ground-up plants.


    In chemistry class, he had often used a mortar and pestle when preparing ingredients. Herbalism was more mystical than scientific but he decided he wanted the same tools. The wooden bowl, if a carved-out circle in a log could be called that, was his mortar. Now he just had to make a pestle to help grind the leaves, roots, flowers, and stems of plants into a more powdery substance to make mixing it easier.


    To make the pestle Blake found a short stubby stick. He used a rough stone to strip it of its bark before he began to shape the end into a rounded knob. He removed the bark so that there were fewer contaminants in his herbalism experiments. He had to admit it was kind of a joke considering how many other sources of random contaminants there were in his makeshift setup but he felt that a piece of bark falling into his mix was too easy to prevent not to do so.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Tools complete Blake received a burst of insight on how best to utilize them to grind down his ingredients. They were low quality with lots of irregular surface area on both mortar and pestle which would make using them difficult and tedious but it would do for now. With the skill that his Talent had given him, he would be able to avoid the worst of the burs by being careful about where and how he pressed down with the pestle.


    The first ingredient Blake prepared for his first experiment was some of the leaves from the surrounding trees. They were the easiest ingredient to come across for him, a close second being the grass of his glade, so he felt it would be best if he knew what he could do with them as soon as possible. Using his mortar and he ground them up until they were a fine, well not powder, his tools were crappy for that, but tiny pieces. None were bigger than a centimeter and many were smaller than that.


    Since he didn¡¯t want bigger pieces if he could help it, it took Blake a long while to prepare his leaves. It was past noon and his exercise cooldown had reset. He didn¡¯t worry about the workout but he did hope that the grass would be easier to prepare. It did start smaller after all.


    It took just as long. Apparently, starting smaller didn¡¯t help much when trying to keep the volume of ingredients prepared about the same. He just had to do more grass to match the amount of leaves.


    Once he had finished preparing the grass he was too excited to prepare any more ingredients for the moment. He wanted to run at least one test before the day ended and if he spent time on another ingredient that wouldn¡¯t happen.


    For this first test, all he was going to do was going to do was mix some of the ground-up leaves and grass together with some water. Blake looked back and forth at his log full of water and his mortar. Now, how was he going to transfer the water? The piece of wood he used as a mortar was too big to be dipped into the log and the log was too large and heavy to tip over a little to pour the water into the mortar.


    In the end, he had to spend time to break off one end of the block of wood holding his mortar. He was careful not to break any part of the wood that surrounded the indent that was his mortar but it was stressful work. Blake was ok with this kind of stress. There was no fear of a horn up his butt with this kind of stress.


    Even with the wood block smaller it still didn¡¯t fit fully in the water container but he could get a corner in and get a small amount of water. Enough that he could begin his experiments. Once he had water he added the leaves and grass. He had prepared enough of each for multiple trials so he only took a small pinch of each.


    Using his pestle Blake ground and mixed the ingredients into a green goopy paste. He couldn¡¯t help but compare the result to a giant booger. Before he began to mix the ingredients, he had spent some time coming up with the ¡®goal¡¯ that he would focus on for the purposes of his Talent. He decided that his focus would be on the idea of it being a salve without being any more specific.


    When he had been experimenting with his Talent a few days ago he had discovered that how he perceived things mattered more than the actual result. When he had thought of his shiv as a spear his Talent had classified it as a spear, if an unusual one. His hope with this herbalism experiment was that by classifying his goal as a salve that did something, every experiment he did would fall under one umbrella so that he wouldn¡¯t have to run the same experiment multiple times with different focuses to make sure it had no effect.


    This was something he had noticed about his Talent, specifically the part that gave him information on his craft. No matter what his goal was Blake would receive detailed information on how all components of the craft interacted with each other and how his actions influenced these interactions, however, his intention for the craft influenced what information he got external to the craft directly.


    For example, his leaf bed. The basic information on density, springiness, water retention, and a million other things were all provided no matter what the goal was. Since it was a bed, however, he also got information on how it affected sleep and, more specifically since it was his bed, how it affected his sleep.


    A salve was meant to affect what it was rubbed on and Blake needed to understand what would happen if he wanted to make anything. Rubbing unknown substances on his skin to see what would happen was a good way to get covered in rashes and maybe even poison. That was also an imprecise way to determine what was happening in comparison to his Talent. His Talent didn¡¯t provide as detailed information when it came to external reactions of his crafts but it still gave a good idea.


    Blake wondered if there was a way to make the experiment itself the craft. He decided it wasn¡¯t worth the effort and potential failure at the moment. Better to test one thing at a time.


    So in the end the image of his completed craft Blake focused on was a salve that affected whatever it was rubbed upon. It was hopefully enough to activate his Talent while not pigeonholing the feedback he would receive.


    Leaves and grass-finished mixing Blake took a moment to process what his Talent was telling him. As expected, the combination did absolutely nothing. In fact, despite his best effort, he found that only a small portion of the ingredients had fully mixed. He wasn¡¯t sure if this was due solely to his crappy tools or if most mixtures were only partially successful. If he had the opportunity to use his Talent with better equipment he would know more.


    It would explain why the skills provided by Talents could make such a difference in the effect of crafts even before supernatural and/or magical effects were taken into account. If there was lots of lost power on a scale too small to detect to the naked eye only the enhanced ability of a Talent might be able to overcome that multiplying the efficiency of the craft multiple times over.


    Blake knew that there was a grading scale for how good an item was and was thinking this was what caused such a difference in quality to make such a scale necessary. There were two components to measure an item¡¯s effect; tier and grade. Tier was the tier of the realm the ingredients were taken from. It could also be seen as the energy density of an ingredient.


    Transporting materials between the spirit realm and the physical realm was difficult so most magical items on Earth were instead materials that had been infused with large amounts of energy over time. That was why the government put in so much effort to force people to tier 3. Higher-tier individuals produced more mana that was released from their bodies into Earth¡¯s atmosphere. This mana then passively improved everything on Earth while also providing a clean energy source.


    Blake always found it odd that despite most people never unlocking mana everyone produced it but who was he to question such a thing? Mana was not native to the physical realm so only those who had entered the spirit realm produced it. The energy density of materials were then judged in comparison to materials from the spirit realm to determine what tier they were.


    The grade of an item was the interesting bit. The grade was said to be how much of the materials¡¯ potential a craftsman brought out, which made a lot more sense to Blake now. In other words the stronger the item with the same materials the higher the grade. A high-grade tier 0 item could be many times stronger than a low-grade tier 1 or even tier 2 item.


    Grades went from A to F. There was the potential of S, SS, or even SSS items but that meant surpassing the natural potential of the materials through the use of a Talent in combination with a perfect craft. Blake¡¯s memory got a little fuzzy at this part as he had never been interested in crafting before but he believed that A-grade was considered a perfect craft as it could be accomplished without a Talent although with great difficulty but an S-grade required a Talent.


    He was pretty sure that most A-grade or even B-grade items were made due to Talents enhancing the result of a craft rather than the actual craftsmanship.


    While this was all interesting to note it didn¡¯t matter much to Blake at the moment since he had no one to sell his wares to so there was no need to have his items graded. Perhaps to see how well he was doing it might be useful but he didn¡¯t understand how the grades were determined well enough to grade his own items.


    With his first experiment done Blake decided he was finished for the day. The sun was setting and he needed to get a new fire started soon. Tomorrow he would be able to really get started with herbalism now that his preparations were done.

 Chapter 11

    Blake yelled out in frustration. His latest attempt at a salve had failed once again. He had been working on his herbalism experiments for three days now with little to show for it. He had been combining plants in various combinations with the ingredients prepared in different ways. Some he ground down as he had done with the tree leaves and grass, others he juiced for whatever liquid he had.


    The closest he had gotten to a salve that could be considered useful was when he had pulped a plant that looked like aloe and combined it with the tuber of a strange plant he had found growing at the base of some of the trees. He was confident he could cook the tuber if he had a way to boil water but for now, its only use was his herbalism experiments.


    Combining the two with a hint of water created a substance that excited the cells of an organism in some way but Blake was missing a key ingredient to direct that energy into increased healing. Or poison. At this point, he would accept poison as at least it meant he had a working reaction.


    Blake needed a break from his experiments. Over the last few days, he had been working out once in the morning but had otherwise been completely devoted to his research. His mind was more steady now and having a goal helped leaving him with more energy in the day now that he could sleep.


    Stepping back from his latest attempt at a salve Blake turned towards another project he had been thinking about; An obstacle course. He had discovered while traveling to the river that his strength had increased too fast to maintain control of. He had never been the most coordinated person but it had only become worse despite his growing awareness of his own body.


    Blake wanted to create an obstacle course to train his control over his own body. Exercise and physical exertion in general helped connect the mind to the body to increase the awareness of your own strength but the enhanced growth of the spirit realm threw this effect out of balance. He needed to increase the mind-body connection without increasing his strength for a time.


    He didn¡¯t have much to work with so the course was going to be rather basic. To start he dragged logs and large stones to act as hurdles to jump over. He positioned them so that for some he could jump between them. This meant he had to decide to jump over or on top of each obstacle at speed.


    Between some of the hurdles were tree branches that he could swing on to get his arms involved in the practice. Blake was starting to get excited by the training course now and took it a step further. Using one of the largest fallen logs he had he set it vertically so that he wouldn¡¯t be able to jump over it.


    Instead, Blake used a small stone to carve a target into it. Now as he ran past it he could practice with his spear by attacking it at speed. While his Talent provided him with the muscle memory and instincts to use the spear it did not provide help to combine it with other skills such as the parkour he was trying to develop.


    Course construction complete Blake looked around proud at the simple but hopefully effective creation of his. He was surprised when his Talent suddenly activated. He hadn¡¯t even noticed when he had fallen into the focused trance needed for his Talent while working on the training course. It had quickly become a habit to do so after so many days of creating a variety of objects.


    Blake¡¯s Talent gave him the muscle memory to overcome each obstacle. He had a good idea of how to swing using the tree branches to get between two hurdles and how to best optimize a running jump. His jack slackened. Did he not have to use the course for it to provide full benefits because of his Talent? Even his skill with the spear had improved with the inclusion of the target dummy.


    Excited to see how effective his Talent had been at training him to use the course Blake quickly shot off to run through the course. He quickly learned when he tripped over the second hurdle that his Talent did not make him an immediate expert at parkour. He had the muscle memory and subconscious knowledge of someone who had run the course a hundred times but since he didn¡¯t consciously know and understand what he could do he couldn¡¯t bring his skill to bare.


    This was a weakness in his Talent-gained knowledge that Blake hadn¡¯t even realized was there. So far he had only ever used tools after gaining the skill in them and they were always simple enough that he would have figured out most of what they had taught him on his own within a short period of time. There was no reason to spend time and explore everything his Talent had taught him for those.


    The only skill he had been constantly working to expand but had never used was that of the spear. He had been constantly refining and iterating on his spear design since he had arrived in the spirit realm but had never used it in an actual badly.


    He had incorrectly assumed that when the time came he would be able to use it with ease. After all, the first skill he had gained was how to use a bed which he had no problems with. It was only now that he thought about it that he realized that he had never needed to understand the skill consciously because it was only ever applicable while asleep when the subconscious mind was fully in control.


    Very concerned about his lack of control over his skills, especially with the spear, Blake walked over to the training dummy, spear in hand. Standing in front of it he gripped the spear with two hands and stabbed at it. He hadn¡¯t even begun the motion before he knew it was wrong.


    Taking a moment to analyze the feeling his muscle memory and instincts were telling him, he adjusted his stance slightly before trying again. And again. And again. It took five times before he felt that he was standing correctly before he stabbed forward. He still felt there was so much wrong with the motion but was having trouble picking out what.


    He worked on the single simple stab motion for ten minutes before stepping back to reassess what he was doing. He was making steady progress but he felt there was something fundamentally wrong with his approach.


    If there was one thing Blake had learned about his Talent, and himself for that matter, it was that focused, intentional thought could make all the difference. In other words, he needed to meditate. Sitting on the grass Blake closed his eyes as he focused on his last attempt to stab the target. He let all extraneous thoughts go and let his attention narrow to a single simple motion.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    It still took him a bit of time to fully fall into this state but it was much quicker than ever before after all the practice he had gained. It was funny to Blake that one of the most impactful factors that sped up the process for him was that he no longer cared how long it took. No longer being able to tell the exact time, or being on a strict schedule, made him feel more relaxed and free.


    Who cared if it took him a day, two days, or even a week to fall into meditation? There was nothing waiting on him, no appointment he had to keep. He could sit there for all eternity for all it mattered.


    That wasn¡¯t necessarily true. He had a year to reach tier 3 so he couldn¡¯t languish forever but even that wasn¡¯t the end of the world for Blake. From what he understood of spirit walking, the term for entering the spirit realm while your body stayed behind, you couldn¡¯t be forced out of it. The body storage facility would be unable to do anything but maintain his body as doing anything to damage his body would cause them lots of trouble for little to no gain.


    Normally staying in the spirit realm to hide from fees and taxes did little as the government had plenty of people in the spirit realm that they could send after people. Killing someone in the spirit realm was the only known way to force someone¡¯s consciousness back into their body as was supposedly quite painful and mentally damaging. In conjunction with the heavy fines that would be levied against the perpetrator, it just wasn¡¯t worth it.


    For Blake things were different. He was not residing in human civilization. He didn¡¯t even have a way to get there at the moment. Because of this, there was no way for him to be arrested and even if he was he had enough of a defense he would at least be safe from spiritual execution. At most he would have ever-increasing fines back on Earth and maybe some jail time for not trying to exit the spirit realm. Of course, he didn¡¯t know how to exit the spirit realm without dying so that was a no-go anyway.


    These were things that Blake had thought through before but for now, his focus was on analyzing his spear technique. It took a bit of time but eventually, it clicked for him and he was able to better access and sort what he had learned from his Talent. It was strange how easy it became all of a sudden, almost as if this was what he was always supposed to do to integrate the skills gained from his Talent.


    Bringing his focus back to the outside world, Blake stood up and repeated his stab at the training dummy. Unlike before he was conscious of his movements and what he needed to do. The first thing, and most difficult thing to recognize, was that his grip on the spear was wrong. Adjusting that he then repeated the stabbing motion again.


    He iterated on his attack for the next half hour as he integrated everything he had learned from his Talent. By the time he was done, it still wasn¡¯t perfect but that was more due to the underdeveloped skill being provided from his Talent rather than unintegrated knowledge.


    Blake repeated the process of meditating and integrating his skill with the spear for many different movements until he felt he had a solid grasp of everything. He then tried to combine the individual movements into a cohesive whole but ran into a problem. He needed a real opponent to provide the correct pressure for it all to work. Attacking a log just didn¡¯t provide the right feedback to make it all work.


    More comfortable with the spear than ever before, Blake moved on to the obstacle course. Just like he had done with the spear he started by separating it into individual movements. He jumped one obstacle at a time, swung on one branch, etc. Only once he understood each part of the course did he work to bring it all together.


    Unlike with the spear, the training course was sufficient to help Blake make his movements merge together. It took three days of effort but he was finally able to sprint through the course every time without fail. He even got his spear skills involved to a degree, attacking the dummy as he ran past.


    It felt like a long time coming to Blake but without his Talent, it would have taken many times longer to accomplish. While most of his focus had been on the obstacle course for the past few days he had not completely stopped his herbalism experiments.


    He was close to a breakthrough and now that he had finished his training with the course he turned his full attention to his research. Two long days of trial and error later he had done it. He had created something using his herbalism skills.


    To his surprise, his first successful creation was not a salve like he had planned. This was actually one of his major delays. His imagined goal when testing things had been to create a salve so he wasn¡¯t getting the right feedback to fully understand what was happening. It was only after gaining a better appreciation for the effect of meditation in conjunction with his Talent that he had gained while training in spearmanship that he had an epiphany and what he was making.


    He had made an adhesive. He had ground up resin and then combined it with pulped aloe-like plant and a couple of other things to create an adhesive that dried within a few minutes. Resin by itself could be considered an adhesive but it wasn¡¯t as strong as his new glue and he didn¡¯t have a way to easily bring it to a liquid-ish state.


    He didn¡¯t have any good storage containers so any adhesive he used had to be able to be liquified after creation since it would harden sitting in his little bowl. For his glue, he was able to grind it back up and mix a little water with it to make it ready to be applied to whatever he needed. From his testing water by itself didn¡¯t remove the glue so he wasn¡¯t worried about getting anything accidently wet and falling apart.


    Now with a way to stick things together he could create more complicated crafts. The first thing Blake thought of was exercise equipment. He had been planning to wait until he figured out how to make things with stone but he no longer had to. By gluing wood together he would be able to create heavy enough objects to exercise with.


    The next morning Blake got right to testing his glue. The simplest test he could think of was gluing a buch of sticks together into a bundle. He quickly ground down and prepared the glue he had made last night since it had hardened overnight. He then took a small stick and used it as an applicator for the glue.


    He didn¡¯t want to get any on his hands as he wasn¡¯t sure he would be able to get it off. Sticking one end of his applicator in the mortar where the glue was he began to use the applicator to, for lack of a better word, pain the glue onto a bigger stick. Once done he quickly stuck another stick on top of it and held them together.


    Not wanting to risk it not working because of something he did he just sat there applying a small amount of pressure for a while. He fell into a medatative state as he did so, clearing his mind. After he felt enough time had passed he opened his eyes and released his hold on the sticks.


    Holding onto them with one hand he swung the sticks around a big smile on his face. It had worked. The two sticks stayed together. Exicitedly, Blake began to glue more sticks onto the bundle. Eventually it reached a point where it was difficult for him to easily lift but he kept adding to it.


    It was only when he struggled to lift the bundle with both arms that he stopped. He had done it. He now had a piece of exercise equipment and could resume his physical training. Soon he would he unstoppable.


    With a grin on his face Blake set to work making everthing else he thought he would need.

 Chapter 12

    With a grunt, Blake pressed the barbell off his chest. The barbell was a bundle of sticks glued together with rocks in between. His first attempt at a heavier barbell had involved sticking larger boulders on each end but the glue wasn¡¯t strong enough. Adding lots of smaller stones within and around the wood worked much better by maximizing the surface area for the adhesive to stick to.


    It had been a week since Blake had made his first piece of exercise equipment. Over the following couple of days he had made some more items and resumed his exercise routine. With the proper equipment Blake was able to complete a round of exercise in about half the time while pushing hard enough to grow his physical might.


    Now able to continue his physical training Blake had fallen into a routine. First thing in the morning he worked out. That was followed by a session of herbalism then around noon another workout. He would then spend time going through the obstacle course and training his skills. He wanted to keep the balance between strength and control which meant doing parkour was very important.


    As the sun began to set he would do one last round of physical training before setting up his campsite for the night. Before falling asleep he made sure to meditate. Meditation had become an important daily practice for Blake as it helped him keep control over his own mind while enhancing his connection between mind, body, and Talent.


    After four days of this the bundle of wood that he had been using became insufficient for Blake to use for physical training. That was when he added in the stone to increase its weight further. He also had to drop the noon training at that time as the cooldown period on physical exercise had increased to much. He expected that soon he would be down to only once a day, maybe even less.


    While getting physical training in was becoming exponentially more difficult the gains he had shown were well worth the effort. Blake had never been one for pre-awakening factoids but he believed he was now at the peak of what a mundane human body could do. It had been many years since awakening had been the norm so his only comparison was to those who had reached at least tier 3. By those standards he was still weak but right now, with how fast he was growing, he felt superhuman.


    Blake was confident it would only take a day or two more before he felt confident working with stone. He wasn¡¯t sure how normal human beings had discovered how to use stone tools so long ago. Maybe humans evolved to be physically weaker? He didn¡¯t know but he at the very least required super human strength to break apart the rocks.


    Part of growing so much stronger was that his body had become the epitome of fit. There was no fat to be seen and his muscles were large without bulging. His methods of exercise were rather balance leaving him well proportioned throughout. This meant he could run through his obstacle course with just as much ease as before with no concern of being too inflexible.


    He had run into a problem with food. The change to his physical shape required substinence. While he had been attacked by a rabbicorn once it had been at the begining of the week and would have been rotten by the point he had needed food. Like the other rabbicorn to attack his glade it had fallen on the first spike it had run accross. Blake had been asleep at the time and not even noticed it till morning.


    To manage his food situation Blake had come up with a solution via herbalism. He had found a combination that was not poisnous and technically edible. It was absolutely vile tasting and provided little in the way of nutrients but in the spirit realm that didn¡¯t matter. All that matter was that it could be digested giving him the mass needed to grow.


    Speaking of herbalism, Blake¡¯s skill at predicting new combinations had greatly grown over the week. Every combination of ingredients he tried gave him detailed data points on how everything interacted allowing him to better understand what was needed to create a viable result.


    One of his greatest achievements was substance that could be used to fight mild poisoning effects. Blake¡¯s Talent did not give him enough information to understand how effective it would be but it would have an affect. He made a couple doses of that a soon as he could, the memory of food poisoning clear in his mind.


    He also created a salve that sped up the healing process of small cuts and wounds by around 10%. Blake did not have any way to tell exactly how long the healing process took and wounds were hard to measure for comparison but he had plenty of opportunities to test it after he decided to up his parkour training.


    Blake knew that he would eventually have to leave his glade again. He might safe where he was but over many nights of meditating he had come to accept that help wasn¡¯t coming. He needed to get a better lay of the land to understand whether there even were any other humans in this realm because if not then he had to find a way to ascend.


    So he needed to be able to scout the area, preferably fast and stealthy. He did not want to be caught unawares outside his glade. To that end he decided to try something that he had seen on tv. He was going to run across the branches of the trees. By staying off the ground he could avoid most types of predators.


    In theory his strength and running speed being above the normal human limits while still having a normal amount of weight would allow him to do so. In reality he face planted on his first jump between branches. And on his second attempt. And the third.


    After quite a bit of practice he could jump between branches but that wasn¡¯t running. It was slow and loud and highly dependent on there being branches capable of supporting his weight nearby. Blake would continue practicing but was starting to think there was a reason he had only seen it on tv and never heard of anyone actually running among the treetops to travel.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    It was the constant cuts and bruises from this training that allowed Blake to test his healing salve so many times. He was proud of the fact that despite the pain he hadn¡¯t stopped. After being attacked by the rabbicorn and then having the worst case of poisoning he had ever heard of his pain tolerance had drastically increased.


    Combined with consistent meditation to process everything and he was almost thankful for the hardship he had endured. Almost. It might have greatly increased his pain tolerance and will but he was still struggling with the trauma. He expected he would be for many years to come.


    Finished with his night time workout Blake set up his camp for the night. His nightly routine involved starting the fire, setting up his bed, then meditating. Starting the fire took less than a minute at this point. A combination of practice and physical might made the whole thing a cinche.


    Preparing his bed took Blake a little longer. As the shape of his body had changed with exercise his bed had also needed to change. He had made the whole thing wider and adjusted the leaves to provide padding in the correct places. It was still a bed made out of leaves so there was only so much he could improve but he had grown used to it and barely felt the discomfort of sleeping on the hard ground each morning.


    Bed prepared, Blake sat down in the grass in front of his fire to meditate. Sometimes he would let his mind wander to a degree not forcing his thoughts to focus on anything specific but tonight was diffrent. He had noticed something strange the last two nights while meditating and wanted to try and figure out what it was.


    As Blake fell into a meditative trance he focused on the memory of the strange feeling. At the time it had felt like a pressure on his mind, a wall almost. It was such a strange phenomena that he had fallen out of his meditation and lost the sensation. He had failed to regain it at all that night.


    The next night he had tried again to no success. It was only after giving up and instead turning his attention to his training and better assimilating everything that the feeling had returned. This time he had not lost it immedietly and tried to figure out what it was. He only managed to keep it for a couple seconds before it faded again however.


    Tonight he was trying again but had a diffrent in mind than the night before. Instead of trying to focus all his attention on the barrier to bring it up he instead split his focus. One part of his mind was still on finding the barrier but the other was on assimilating the experiences of the day. It took a while but he was soon met with success.


    The barrier returned more clear than ever. His focus was shaken for a moment making the feeling waver but he quickly adjusted and kept part of his mind on his experiences for the day. Feeling a barrier with his mind was a strange experience. It was a similar feeling to trying to solve a complex math problem and being completly unable to even start. It was somehow more physical than that though.


    Blake could almost see the barrier in his mind. An imposing wall that repulsed all who approached it. It was somehow related to his analysis of actions throughout the day so he tried to trace the connection. It was only as he was about to give up for the night that he felt it. As he was thinking of optomizations for his attempt at tree running tommorow the barrier weakened slightly.


    If he hadn¡¯t been so focused on it he would have missed it but it definetly weakened. Blake had nothing else to analyze for the day so he would have to stop for now but swore he would come back to this the next night. He hadn¡¯t the faintest clue what was happening but it felt important.


    Two days later he had made no progress figuring out what was happening and had given up on it for now. It was still growing slightly weaker each day but at this rate it would be weeks if not months before coming fully down.


    Blake didn¡¯t put much thought into that at the moment, though, since it was finally time to try and make stone tools. He didn¡¯t have a fancy plan. All he was going to do was use his enhance strength to smash rocks together and hope for the best.


    His goal was to create a knife. A stone knife would be useful for many things but most important for him was it would enhance his wood crafting. Being able to properly carve wood rather than just repeatedly rubbing it against rough stone would make all the diffrence.


    Blake grabbed two pieces of stone the size of his hands. He arbitraly designated one as the knife and began to smash the other stone into it with all his strength. To his suprise both stones broke in half.


    Blake sat there staring at his hands stunned. He had been worried that he still wouldn¡¯t be strong enough to carve out the stone but he had clearly over done it. These were not particularly hard pieces of stone, their weight telling him they were not dense but that had been the point. He had been doing everything he could to ensure he could break off pieces of the stone.


    Trying again, Blake grabbed two more pieces. This time they were heavier for their size and he didn¡¯t use his full strength when smashing them together. It took a few tries to figure out exactly how much force to put into each swing but then it worked beautifuly. The stone he was using as a hammer was quickly breaking apart but the other stone was taking shape.


    In the end another stone had to be used to finish creating the stone knife but it had worked. He had a stone knife. At least a knife head. Blake intended to glue a stick to the blunt end to use as a handle. The knife was not particularly sharp but it was a stone tool.


    Since he considered the wooden handle a key part of the craft, Blake¡¯s Talent had not activated yet. In a rush to better understand how he did he quickly made a handle for it and glued it on. As his Talent activated Blake sighed, a big smile on his face.


    There were many things he could have done better from the angle of each smash to what stones he used in the first place but it had worked. He also had to figure out how to sharpen it but he had an idea for that.


    One of the key pieces of information that Blake learned was how the shape of the stones involved influenced the distribution of force across the object. The stone he was using as a hammer was most effected by this as it was the one Blake did not want to break. If he had to guess based on the information he had recieved combined with his prior knowledge of physics from school he needed a more rounded, smooth stone for a hammer.


    Essentially, he needed a river stone. The smooth surface would also be useful for trying to sharpen the knife. He could run the edge along the river stone to gradually sharpen it. There would be limits, it was still stone after all not metal, but it would far surpass anything wooden.


    The only problem was getting one. He would have to return to the creek to do so and his last trip had not ended well. The combination of meditation and increasing physical strength gave Blake confidence in surviving a monster attack but he was more fearful of a panic attack. His fear would be the most dangerous thing out there for him an he wasn¡¯t sure he was ready for that.


    Blake stared down at his new knife. The surface was pockmarked and rough, the edge dull, the end wasnt even pointed, more rounded, but it was proof he was advancing. He was improving himself one step at a time whether that was through his body or the weapons he carried. He could do this.


    It was time for Blake to return to the creek. Again.

 Chapter 13

    Before heading to the creek to grab smooth river stones and refill his water trough Blake had some preparations to make. First was upgrading his spear. While he could not make sharpened stone at the moment the ¡®blunt¡¯ stone blade on his knife was still better than any of his wooden tools and he wanted that on his spear.


    Making a stone spear was the exact same as making a stone knife. Blake created a stone blade by smashing two rocks together then glued the blade onto a piece of wood for a handle. The only difference was that the handle was one of the longer sticks that had been one of his old spears.


    Blake was surprised by how much of an upgrade he got to his spear skills from his Talent after making the spear. It was clearly considered a big step up. He had gotten a skill dump following the knife¡¯s creation but it was the first of its kind so he had nothing to compare it to. For all he knew at the time that could have been the bare minimum amount of knowledge required for a knife.


    Now he knew better. After making a single dull stone spear his skill had almost doubled. It was enough of an improvement that Blake decided to take the time to make some variations. This included things like different spear lengths and differently shaped spearheads. Many were not practical but they provided him with an expanded skillset.


    Just like he had done when discovering how he could make a shiv a spear and vice versa, he made a knife that he conceptualized as a spear for his Talent. By the time he was done experimenting with spear variations, he had more than 15 of them.


    He made one more of the standard spears after finishing them all so that it could get the maximum reinforcement possible from his Talent. It was still a small effect but it was becoming noticeable. If Blake had to put a number to it he would say there was a 2 to 3 percent increase in effectiveness. This meant it cut better, was more stable, and kept an edge better. Anything that could be considered key to the spears¡¯ quality was marginally improved. He couldn¡¯t wait until everything he made was immediately twice as good.


    With all the spear skill gains, Blake had to take the time to train. Having such large improvements so fast made integrating all the potential take a while. He had to meditate and separate out each bit of knowledge before applying it which grew exponentially harder the less of his instinctive skill he consciously understood.


    After four days of crafting and training, Blake had to finally admit something to himself. While there were benefits to all his training over the last few days that wasn¡¯t why he was doing it. He was avoiding going to the creek. ¡®Training¡¯ was just a good excuse. During evening meditation he set himself to leave first thing in the morning.


    First thing the next morning Blake stood up and¡­ changed his mind. The morning was for exercise after all. Everything else could come after. After exercising he had to spend some time on the obstacle course. It wouldn¡¯t do to have trouble balancing because he had neglected his parkour skills. Just like that, he came up with excuse after excuse until the sun had set.


    Blake wanted to smack himself. He had sworn the night before that he would go to the creek today yet had then spent the entire day doing everything he could to not head to the creek. He swore again to himself that he would head out the next day but again when the time came he found something else to do.


    Like this many days passed. Blake had already been struggling with tracking time and being in a haze of procrastination only made things worse. He wasn¡¯t knocked out of his cycle of self-recrimination until another rabbicorn assaulted his base. He was awake during this attack but unlike the previous time he had been awake during a rabbicorn attack, he did not freeze. Well, he didn¡¯t freeze for long.


    Stone spear in hand he moved toward the rabbicorn before it had a chance to impale itself. Blake did not get a chance to reach it before it had moved past the first layer of spikes. That was a first. The previous two rabbicorns had impaled themselves immediately. Still, when it reached the trench it hopped in only to be impaled by one of the spikes at the bottom.


    The rabbicorn died soon after its impalement. With a practiced motion, Blake stabbed his spear downwards impaling the rabbicorns head directly. Using the spear he levered the monster off the spike and brought it over toward his makeshift table. It was a flat boulder that he had moved closer to his fire and spent time cleaning off. He had set logs around the table as seats. He didn¡¯t have any reason to have more than one seat but it felt wrong for there not to be seats surrounding it.


    After setting the rabbicorn down Blake did not set to skinning it like he would normally. This time he grabbed his water trough and moved to leave the glade. A combination of his studies before entering the spirit realm and his experience so far told Blake that monsters took time to respawn and for a short while, there would be nothing to fear.


    Each region had a preset set of monsters that were spawned within it. Over time it would replenish them to that level but would never surpass it. Nothing stopped monsters from wandering outside their home region but that didn¡¯t cause more monsters to spawn. Of course, it did have to be taken into account that any monster leaving their home region was liable to get killed by higher region monsters which were typically stronger and more aggressive.


    A region could vary widely in size, shape, and energy density. Based on the small amount of travel Blake had done he suspected the region he was in was many miles big but couldn¡¯t be certain. Regions varied in their energy density and it was supposed to be clear when crossing regions but he wasn¡¯t confident that he would have detected it when he moved between regions so he might have traveled across many on his first day in the spirit realm.


    If he did not that meant that he had miles of space where it seemed only one rabbicorn spawned in. Since it had just died he had a short while before another rabbicorn spawned. If he moved fast enough to get water and river stones there would be no danger.


    That time limit was enough of a kick in the pants to get Blake moving. Despite his fear, he only hesitated at the edge of his glade for a moment before setting off at a sprint. Since his last journey, Blake¡¯s body had surpassed normal human limits. On top of that he had trained to use his body so there was no stumbling, falling, or having to slow down to keep his balance.


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    Blake sped through the forest with his water trough under one arm and a spear in his other hand. He had run out of water days ago putting a halt to his herbalism experiments so filling the log he had turned into a water container backup was just as much of a priority as getting river stones.


    Without water, he could make no more glue and without glue, he couldn¡¯t attach the stone tool heads to handles. He also wanted to try and make clothes using the glue but would need to find a more flexible glue formula for it to work. Right now his glue was quite stiff which was great for tools, weapons, and most other things but sometimes flexibility was useful. Like with clothes.


    Blake could imagine it now. A bunch of leaves and grass glued together into a shirt and some sort of pants. Maybe a skirt. It wasn¡¯t very manly but would be easier to make and anything was better than the nothing he had for the past¡­ he wasn¡¯t actually sure how long. Had he been here for a month? Two months?


    These idle thoughts distracted Blake long enough to reach the creek. Once there he quickly dropped the trough into the water and went in search of smooth stones he could use as hammers for making stone tools. It was surprisingly difficult to find any that were of an appropriate size. Most of the stones Blake found were either much too large or small enough to almost be called sand.


    He did succeed after a short while, however. Dumping his small collections of river stones into the now filled trough he set back for his glade. His heart was beating heavier by the minute as he kept waiting for something to go wrong. It was becoming more and more difficult to hear his surroundings as blood pumped in his ears and his vision narrowed.


    Despite his constant expectation of disaster, Blake made it back to the glade safe and sound. He slumped to the ground, heart still racing. While a rather short trip Blake felt exhausted. He took a sip of the water he had collected before deciding to take a nap.


    Overall his need for sleep had reduced since arriving in the spirit realm but it was nowhere near eliminated. Unlike back on Earth sleep did nothing for his body. Just like with food and water, his body did not require sleep to function. He still needed to sleep though.


    His mind was the weak point in this equation. There was no chemical reason his mind needed sleep but there was a level of mental strain that only sleep could help with. Blake had heard that some people, especially at higher tiers, could meditate in the place of sleep but that just sounded like sleeping while sitting to him. The whole thing with meditation was focused so as to clear the mind. After a certain point that was sleep.


    Blake dozed off and didn¡¯t wake until the sun had almost set. When he had made it back from the creek the sun had just reached its zenith so he had slept away half the day. He felt much better so it was worth it but he couldn¡¯t help but lament how long he had been out.


    The plan had been to cook the rabbicorn upon his return but Blake wasn¡¯t sure if it would still be good after being left in the sun all day. He decided to cook it anyway. His Talent would tell him after he finished cooking whether it was safe. He was craving food so if at all possible he wanted to eat.


    He wasn¡¯t hungry per se, a barely edible combination of plants had covered his needs for muscle growth, but he wanted to taste something, anything. Blake took a moment to try and use one of the river stones he had just collected to sharpen his knife. With a proper knife, he would be able to do much better with his skinning job.


    While he saw a bit of improvement to the edge of the knife it would take a long time, time he did not have if he wanted to cook the rabbicorn before it was completely rancid. The stone knife was still more than sufficient to drastically improve his skinning job. The fur wasn¡¯t in the best state but unlike all his previous attempts Blake thought it could still be used.


    He might not need to make a grass skirt if he had fur. Looking at the fur Blake sighed. That wouldn¡¯t work, at least not with the rabbicorn fur. The monsters were only one to two feet tall and did not have enough fur for proper clothing. Maybe if he had a sewing kit he could combine furs together to make something suitable but as it was a speedo was the best he could do with the fur that remained undamaged.


    Blake decided that he would at least try and make something with it if only for practice. He enjoyed crafting but had grown tired of the same two types of crafts he was doing day in and day out. He was either making a salve or a pointy object. There was little variation beyond his new expansion into stone tools.


    Meat extracted Blake got to work cooking his meal. This time, to further his cooking skills, he varied the thickness of each slice he cooked to test out what was best. With a knife, no matter how dull, he was able to get more exacting shapes rather than the jumbled mess he got when pulling the meat apart with his fingers.


    Food complete, Blake analyzed the information his Talent gave him. While not as bad as his first meal, the food had begun to go bad. If he ate it there was a decent chance he would get food poisoning.


    The cooked meat didn¡¯t smell bad to him, the opposite in fact. That made it difficult to throw away without even trying it. Blake glanced over the wooden container holding his anti-poison goop. He needed to test it out at some point, right?


    The memory of his last bout with food poisoning was clear in his mind as he took a bite of the food. He only planned to take a nibble but the next thing he knew it was all gone. That couldn¡¯t be good.


    Worried that he had made a horrible mistake Blake went to sleep after burning the remaining guts of the rabbicorn. He wondered if there was something he could use those for.


    Blake woke in the middle of the night, stomach rumbling. Oh no. One of the benefits of being in the spirit realm was that there was no need for toilets. If it was edible the body could perfectly absorb it without loss.


    On one dark night, Blake learned that was not the case when it came to food poisoning. He didn¡¯t even get the chance to take the anti-poison goop before his bowels decided to empty themselves. For once, Blake was glad he had no clothes to wear. He doubted he would have had time to take anything off.


    He would need a new bed. He was lucky that his beds were small trenches as he could just bury the evidence of his misery come morning but in the middle of the night, he had no time to appreciate such things.


    He didn¡¯t have much in him so Blake had a chance to consume some of the goop soon enough. After a few minutes, he started to feel better and was about to lay down before remembering he did not want to use his bed. Light was beginning to crest the horizon so he decided that he was up for the day.


    Turning towards the pile of dirt that he had made from the various pits and trenches he had dug Blake began to fill in his old bed. As he was working he felt a warmth begin to suffuse his body focused around his intestines. Having become very familiar with the sensation Blake couldn¡¯t help but grow.


    The spirit realm was enhancing his body after his fight with food poisoning. Blake had become addicted to the feeling of growth and knew that, despite what most would consider common sense, he was going to poison himself again. Intentionally.


    Who knows, maybe with time he would become immune to rotten food and would be free to store rabbicorn meat for weeks at a time before consuming it.


    Blake sighed again. This was gonna suck.

 Chapter 14

    Time blurred for Blake as the days then weeks passed. With smooth river stones his stone tools jumped forward in quality allowing for sharp edges and more refined surfaces. It was a time consuming processes for each blade and they would dull quickly but it was worth the effort for a man without any pressing deadlines.


    Blake glanced around his glade proud of what he had accomplished. It looked nothing like it had when he had first begun experimenting with stone tools. Before it had been a fire pit surrounded by random stones and sticks. It was more disaster site than home base. Now a small log cabin sat in the center of the clearing.


    After creating upgraded spears and knives Blake had turned to two other tools he had been missing but unable to make with only wood; a shovel and an axe. He had no need for the shovel at first as his biggest digging project, the defensive trench surrounding the glade, was already done but he predicted it would be useful eventually.


    The axe he made was immediately helpful. He was able to cut down trees giving him access to the wood he needed to keep his crafts going. He had run out of suitable wood for his fire in the immediate vicinity and had set to only burning a small fire when going to sleep before he had the axe. Now he had plenty of logs prepared to keep his fire going at all times should he so desire.


    The logs also allowed for larger construction projects. When he had been procrastinating going to the creek in search of river stones, Blake had created a couple of small shelters using what leftover sticks and leaves he had left. These were little more than leanto¡¯s unsuitable for habitation.


    Had the weather not been perfect all day and night since entering the spirit realm this might have been a problem but instead the enviroment made such experiments just that; experiments. The crappy shelters provided no defensive value and were too exposed to the elements to prevent rain or wind from assaulting him in his sleep had that been a concern.


    With proper logs, Blake was able to really get into construction work. While making tools and salves provided a quicker return for his effort there was something about making something bigger and grand that was satisfying to Blake in a way he couldn¡¯t properly express. He would never turn his back on the pursuit of advancing his toolkit but he felt truly passionate about these larger construction projects.


    Working to build a log cabin reminded him of working on Old Man Gu¡¯s properties. After his parents had died Old Man Gu had given Blake a job in return for housing and a food stipend. Blake had been in charge of doing maintenance and repairs for the old man¡¯s various properties. The old man had invested heavily in real estate in his youth and retired young living off of the rent of his tenants.


    Blake¡¯s first attempt at the cabin had failed. He had taken a pile of logs and stacked them horizontally on top of one another. Between each log, he had applied glue but the adhesive Blake had invented had not been up to the task. He only got three logs high before it broke apart.


    On his second attempt, he instead tried to line them up side by side vertically. He had then glued them together to form a solid wall. The wall ended up having many gaps in it allowing the elements through defeating the purpose in Blake¡¯s mind.


    While trying to seal up the gaps with glue, leaves, and sticks the wall had fallen on him. He had little trouble escaping as his strength had long surpassed human limits by this point but the pain had been enough of a shock to delay him for a minute resulting in additional damage to his body and a disturbing revelation.


    While being crushed under the wooden wall the warmth of supernatural improvement had buried into Blake¡¯s bones and organs reinforcing them. Had he not become more familiar with getting hurt since arriving in the spirit realm he might not have noticed but his body was becoming more physically resilient by the moment.


    The improvment was slight, too slight to be of value at the moment, but it showed Blake how much more he needed to learn about the spirit realm. He had already found that food poisoning was also strengthening his body.


    He had never considered himself a masochist but was it masochism if it prevented future pain? From that day onward Blake had added intentionally damaging himself to his daily routine. He never took it very far mostly tying it to his exercises. Whenever he lifted something he let it crush his body for a short while before lifting it up.


    Only once did Blake trigger a training cooldown for his physical resilience. He had once again been trying to run across the tree branches but had fallen onto one of his spears impaling his leg. The pain had momentarily overwhelmed his mind, the injury being much worse than the, in comparison, tiny pricks from the first rabbicorn attack, but he had quickly settled himself and pushed through.


    To provide the substance needed to heal his leg Blake had eaten some rabbicorn meat he had been leaving out to rot. A rabbicorn would attack every once and a while and he had made a habit of letting it go a little bad before eating it.


    His physical resilience training had gone into cooldown following his leg injury so he had been surprised to find that the food poisoning still provided improvement. Blake had been getting better at detecting the supernatural warmth and had started dividing the improvements into categories. He had been sure that physical resilience and immune system had been one and the same but apparently, he had been wrong.


    It was while progressing his immune system that Blake had his first use of his new shovel. Latrines. He had never dug or even used a latrine before but there was a first time for everything if he didn¡¯t want to keep having to make new beds.


    After his second failure to make a log cabin, Blake failed two more times before coming up with the design he used now. The first key advancement that allowed him to finish the cabin was twine.


    Blake found that by running a knife along a young sapling he could get a thin enough substance that it could be used as twine for tying things together. By itself, it wasn¡¯t very strong but when combined with glue it made all the difference.


    Tying logs together before gluing them made all the difference. He was able to make fully stable walls that didn¡¯t fall apart at the slightest breeze. There were still two problems. One was that the wooden walls still did not provide adequate insulation from the outside.


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    Making glue was a time-consuming process and Blake couldn¡¯t justify making enough to fill the plethora of gaps between logs. This let air flow easily through the walls. The other problem with the walls was keeping them upright.


    Blake had two ways of lining up the walls. He could do it horizontally where the logs were stacked on top of each other, or vertically where they were side by side. Neither method prevented them from falling over and he found it impossible to attach them together.


    The glue would stick to a degree but the angle was all wrong for twine. Without the twine to support the glue the walls did not have a strong enough bond to keep standing when lightly pressed. This was where the next of Blake¡¯s ¡®inventions¡¯ came into play.


    Blake found that by burying part of each log the walls would stay mostly upright. Any leaning was handled by tying the walls together. Being more steady in the ground meant that tying twine between the walls worked better keeping the whole thing together.


    There was still the gaps to take care of, however. To handle this Blake ended up having to take another take to the creek. He only hesitated for a moment before going this time having faced his fears once already. At the creek he refilled his water trough, a much nicer container now that he had a proper knife to carve with, and went in search for clay.


    Gathering enough clay to fill in the gaps ended up taking multiple trips but he had decided it was well worth the effort if it meant that he could finally finish the cabin. Blake knew that clay could be easily shaped and made into objects but it required extreme heat. He had no way to apply that heat to his cabin so he was going to have to survive with a not-so-hard substance.


    Because it was not heated into a more hardened substance that could stick to the logs well enough to defy gravity Blake ran into the problem of all the clay he applied to the cabin falling soon after application. To stick the logs into the ground and keep them upright he had the walls vertical. This meant there was nothing supporting the clay.


    He needed to come up with a design that kept the wall upright while remaining horizontal. In the end that meant setting up four additional logs to act as ¡®posts¡¯. These logs remained vertical and were placed on each end to hold the wall between them. The wall was tied to these posts to be held upright while the wall itself was horizontal keeping the clay attached.


    Only the posts were dug into the ground. With that the walls were complete and only the ceiling remained. And the door. Blake had forgotten to add a door and had to chop his way in after it was created. He refined the hole he made into a proper doorway after the fact but took note to keep a door in mind for future construction projects.


    For the roof, Blake covered the ceiling with large branches. On top of the large branches, he put progressively smaller sticks until topping the whole thing off with a combination of leaves and a thin layer of clay.


    Blake was proud of his creation. It had taken weeks of effort and even after it was finished he still had to make adjustments based on the feedback from his Talent but it was worth it. He, alone and without help, had created a building. The start of any civilization.


    Between attempts at building the cabin, Blake had made another staple of civilization. Clothes. He had never succeeded in creating a truly flexible adhesive but had gotten something good enough to not snap off if he bent too far.


    Using some of the fur from the rabbicorns Blake made a crude belt. He had never realized how much effort went into preparing leather and he still didn¡¯t think he did it right. By comparison, the shaping of the belt was easy.


    It had taken days of practice and multiple rabbicorn corpses to become skilled enough to strip the fur from the skin without undue damage and that had only been the start. He had found that some chemical process was needed to prevent it from rotting.


    He had created something during his hermalism practice when some urine got into the mixture. It was not only urine and had been an unforgettable night where he learned that moderation of food poisoning was the key. He should not have been pushing it as heavily as he had been.


    After that horrible accident he had found that urine in conjugntion with some of his other plants could produce a substance that helped prepare the skin to be used as leather. He had also learned that while he did not need to urinate while in the spirit realm, had he the desire he could it just required him to begin drinking water in normal quantities.


    In the end, he was left with a strip of crude leather that he had glued together into a loop that he could use as a belt. He had then glued on more strips of leather around the loop to create a sort of curtain of leather. It hid nothing and was no more than a nuisance but it was key for his inspiration on how to finish it.


    To connect the pieces of hanging leather together into a sort of skirt, Blake had glued leaves between them. The leaves were more flexible than any adhesive he had made so far and more easily folded than the leather giving him freedom of movement.


    Blake now wore a dress that looked like a patchwork of leather and plant life because that¡¯s exactly what it was. He didn¡¯t have a shirt yet but that was on his short list for future projects.


    With clothes, sort of, and housing Blake was starting to feel secure in his new home. His defenses had already proved effective against the local predators and now he had security from the elements if that ever became a problem. Now he just had to figure out where he was.


    Blake knew it was only a matter of time before he had to properly explore the realm. So far he had stuck to his glade and the creek, and the creek was only following a rabbicorn attack. Going out in search of civilization and/or a way to advance beyond this realm almost guaranteed conflict.


    Because of this Blake had prepared weapons and tools for his excursion. He may have over-prepared to a degree but his strength was beyond human so carrying heavy things was not a concern.


    Over the weeks the cooldown between physical training had continued to increase. He could now only work out every two to three days. Blake got the sense that he was nearing the peak of what he could achieve physically while at tier 0.


    Blake had continued meditating daily and had drawn a correlation between his theoretical peak physical ability while tier 0 and the mysterious barrier. The more he meditated the more clear that barrier became and he was starting to see it as less of a barrier and more of a chain holding him back. Maybe multiple chains.


    As he improved himself these chains loosened. This was the sensation he had previously attributed to the barrier weakening. Why he thought it important that he was being held back from behind rather than ahead he wasn¡¯t sure but it was.


    As Blake reached further along his physical potential the more the chains slackened. There was the distinct sense that he was about to reach a tipping point where they would no longer be able to hold him back from whatever was ahead.


    The whole thing was strange to Blake and he was almost convinced that he was going crazy from isolation. He had been in the spirit realm for months now without any human contact. The chains kept becoming more clear, however. It wasn¡¯t just the chains but also the supernatural warmth he associated with growth.


    Blake was starting to gain a sixth sense of something out there and it reminded him of an article he had read on the powers of the awakened. High-tier people were said to have, what the article called, a spiritual sense.


    What tier exactly this sense manifested and how it worked could differ from person to person but it was generally agreed that it started at tier 4 at the earliest and only for those with a magic Talent. Blake was tier 0 and his Talent was not a magic Talent, that is it didn¡¯t use mana. If what he was feeling was indeed a nascent form of spiritual sense then something was either wrong with him or the article misunderstood what spiritual sense was.


    Since he wasn¡¯t sure which and wasn¡¯t confident in his mental state until he had confirmation he wasn¡¯t crazy Blake decided to wait until he had reached the tipping point with those mental chains. If it was some unknown spirit realm power he was close to unlocking he wanted it before having to fight monsters.


    For now, however, Blake was going to review his preparations to see if there was anything he could improve upon while waiting to reach whatever it was he was waiting for.

 Chapter 15

    Blake glanced at his collection of weapons. The addition of stone had made his weapons truly dangerous. Previously his wooden tools had only been slightly better than wooden clubs, he had been unable to sharpen them to any useful degree.


    With stone, he could now make blades with properly sharpened edges. The edges didn¡¯t hold well and of course, metal would be better but with his superhuman strength behind them, they could break skin with ease. He had tested this on his own body as part of his physical resiliency training.


    Variations of knives and spears were his primary tools of choice but he also made some attempts at swords and one strange weapon he called stone claws. The stone claws were not practical or of much use but it had been a fun experiment.


    To make the stone claws, Blake had started by making a wristband in a similar manner as he had done to make the leather belt. Once he had done that he had glued on blades of stone to align between his knuckles. Each blade was a ¡®claw¡¯ that could in theory be used to cut something.


    The claws were too loose to damage anything without being pressed back and even if they were Blake couldn¡¯t make them too sharp or risk cutting himself. It was still an enjoyable few days of experimenting.


    The swords were impractical for a completely different reason. They were too heavy. For the knives and spears the stone blades were at most the size of his hand but for the swords they were multiple feet long. His supernatural strength was enough to swing them about but he couldn¡¯t move them with any finesse making them nothing more than a vanity weapon.


    Despite the clear downsides he had made more than ten of them of different shapes and sizes. Stone swords might not work well with his current strength but he was getting stronger by the day, or every few days at this point with the exercise cooldown. Even if his physical strength was to stop progressing there would come a time when he had access to metal and could make proper swords.


    The skills gained from making a variety of swords would only reinforce his swordsmanship for the future. With that in mind, he had made some swords made of wood as well using a stone knife to properly carve them out. Not just swords either but all his weapons and tools had gotten improved wooden versions.


    Blake might not have planned to use wooden spears anymore but by refining his existing designs with a proper knife to carve them he was able to upgrade his spear skills further with only a little more work.


    Adding stone blades to his weapons was not the end of his upgrades, however. Whenever he got a new rabbicorn corpse Blake had been burning whatever he couldn¡¯t use in his fire to help clean up the campsite. Everything was able to be burned to ash, including the bones, with one exception, the horns.


    For whatever reason the horns had never burned in the fire and when removed from the pit the next day, Blake found that the horns were untarnished. The tips were still sharp enough to pierce his skin with ease despite his resilience training. It was the perfect material for a spearhead.


    The horns were a foot long making them unsuitable for a knife and too short for a sword. A spear on the other hand was perfect since he could adjust the total height of the spear by just changing the handle length.


    Blake went through many of his river stones sharpening the edges so that it could be used for slashing as much as stabbing but it had been worth it. The horns were capable of holding a much sharper edge for far longer than stone could. It had taken a week to make one spear from a horn so he had only made two but the benefits from his Talent were immense.


    With the one creation, Blake¡¯s skill with the spear had more than doubled. This was after it had already doubled following the creation of his first stone spear. It was hard to get an exact reading on how skilled he was at the spear without other spearman to compare himself to but Blake estimated that he was now on the level of someone who had been practicing under the tutelage of a master for 6 to 12 months.


    The increase was so big that Blake was tempted to try and make a knife out of one of the horns but that would require breaking a horn in half which he imagined to be a time-consuming process to get right. On top of the time it would take to sharpen the edges into a proper blade, he didn¡¯t believe he would have time before he left on his expedition.


    One thing that the jump in his spearmanship had shown Blake was that despite constant effort on his part to synchronize his mind with his body by running his obstacle course it was not enough. His body had long surpassed normal limits but he wasn¡¯t using anywhere near its full capacity. The only time he brought his strength to bare was when crafting with stone tools. Smacking stones together was an easy way to use his full strength.


    Meanwhile his movements through the obstacle course had become rote with little improvement. He was in no danger of tripping over himself but he wasn¡¯t speeding up to the degree he thought he should be. His knowledge of spearmanship had also shown him that his combat movement was lacking.


    Blake¡¯s Talent taught him how to stab and slash with his spear but it also informed him that there was more to fighting than just how well you could apply your weapon to your enemy¡¯s face. He had to be able to move while staying aware of his surroundings and his opponent¡¯s movements.


    He wasn¡¯t completely helpless when it came to combat movement. A good attack and/or block with the spear required a strong stance but moving around mid-battle to get in an attack was completely missing from his knowledge base. Blake only knew that he did need to learn it to maximize the effect of his spearmanship.


    The obstacle course helped to a degree. It taught him parkour and constant use let him stay consistent with his movements but until he could take advantage of all his strength and speed in every movement combat would be him making perfect attacks followed by minutes of frantic movement trying to get into position for another attack.


    To advance his movement training Blake decided to go full Indiana Jones and add traps to his obstacle course. One of his first traps was swinging blades. Twisting twine together to make rope, Blake attached stone blades to the end of these ropes. The ropes were then tied to tree branches above and between his obstacles so that the blades could swing back and forth.


    The blade pendulums could not maintain their momentum for too long so he set up a board that he had to pull on as he passed that would release the ropes and start them swinging. The swinging blades added an element of randomness to the course forcing Blake to pay attention to his actions.


    This one trap saw Blake begin to noticeably improve again. Part of this was the skill boost from his Talent. This was the first creation he had made that moved on its own which gave him a new set of information he had not had before on kinematics. He had already known intellectually how kinematics worked from high school science but the Talent made that knowledge much more ingrained.


    While the knowledge of kinematics was mostly incomplete since the pendulums were so simple it did make Blake better at predicting movement. On top of that was the skill bonus from the creation. He had noticed that while tools and weapons provided skills on how to use them, training materials gave a boost to the skills they were meant to develop.


    He still got information on how to utilize training materials but since there was so little to do with them besides train that component was mostly inconsequential. The skill that the swinging blades provided Blake was increased observation.


    This was the first skill he had gotten that did not come with any muscle memory. Instead, Blake found it easier to take notice of his surroundings and pick out small details. As a first creation and a simple one at that, the skill did not improve things much but there was one unexpected benefit.


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    The increased observation applied to more than his physical senses. After finishing the swinging knives Blake found it easier to locate the mental barrier while meditating. This helped convince him that he wasn¡¯t hallucinating, there was something going on there that he needed to understand better.


    It was this improvement that actually led him to recategorize the sensation from a barrier to a chain. Hoping to better understand the phenomena Blake tried to come up with other crafts that might improve his skill at observation.


    One attempt had been a bow and arrow. It turned out that twine was not a flexible material and was a truly useless bowstring. The wooden part of the bow at least looked nice. In the same vein, Blake made javelins.


    The javelins were the same as the spear except without the intent to slash. His best javelin was actually an unmodified rabbicorn horn attached to a wooden handle. Making javelins did not provide an immediate benefit but upgrading the training course to accommodate them did.


    The first addition was more swinging ropes except this time they did not cross the course. Instead, they ran parallel to the course and had small wooden targets attached. Along the edge of some of the platforms, Blake had stuck javelins into the ground that he had to grab and throw at the targets.


    It was a difficult exercise that saw him quickly having to improve his aim. The new addition to his course improved his observation skills but not as much as the swinging ropes did at first.


    The skills required to successfully hit the targets might be different from dodging knives but Blake¡¯s Talent was first and foremost a crafting Talent. Since the principles involved in the crafting process were so similar there was little improvement. It was more the pendulum¡¯s relation to the training course being different that saw no improvement at all.


    Wanting to push his observation skills further Blake added another twist to the course. Instead of sticking the javelins in the ground to grab as he ran by he attached them to even more ropes.


    The javelins came swinging in and he had to grab them from the air before tossing them at the targets. He did this all while moving. There was a much bigger jump in his observation skills after this addon.


    In theory, the basis of the craft was the same as his previous two obstacles. It was just another pendulum with something on the end. In practice designing the swinging javelins was much harder. The placement was much more important when he had to be able to track the weapons and grab them from the air.


    If Blake placed the javelins in the wrong place it could make it impossible to maintain a steady flow through the course. The training course was first and foremost for improving his ability to move so adding an obstacle that made him stop defeated the purpose.


    It took multiple tries before Blake got the javelins placed just right so he could grab them while moving and didn¡¯t have to wait for them to be within arms reach. The many different factors that went into creating the obstacle provided Blake with the insight his Talent needed to boost his observation skills much further.


    It was following this upgrade that Blake¡¯s understanding of the mental sensation evolved to how he saw it now. It was not one chain but many. The specifics of each chain still eluded him but it was becoming clearer by the day.


    He had even noticed that the warmth of supernatural growth was improving him in some way while he meditated. It was confusing to Blake as unlike all the other growth he experienced the warmth was not applied to his body or mind. Something else was being improved but he didn¡¯t know what, just that the warmth was being applied somewhere that was still intimately him.


    Following his upgrade to the training course Blake¡¯s biggest problem was integrating his various skills together into a cohesive combat style. He had seen experts fighting before, combat was a popular elective in modern schools, but he didn¡¯t understand everything that went into it.


    Connecting movement with spearmanship with observation wasn¡¯t easy. Blake needed either consistent combat to help force everything together or a teacher who could show him the way. His Talent was of no help with this since he didn¡¯t have a way to create training equipment for it.


    A training dummy made to help spearmanship helped Blake a little but the information he learned was mostly how he had discovered he needed to get better at movement and observation in the first place. Blake really did not want to learn how to fight rabbicorns on the fly but it was looking like that was the only option.


    While waiting to reach the tipping point in his physical training Blake continued to practice his combat. Even if he couldn¡¯t form a cohesive combat style any improvement was better than none. He also started working on a knife using a rabbicorn horn.


    Snapping it in half in a way that didn¡¯t render it useless was just as difficult as he had predicted. His first attempt was just to do exactly that, snap it in half. He lay it between two boulders so that the middle was hanging over nothing. He had then stomped on it to break it in half.


    The whole thing had become a jagged mess that was of no use to Blake. Now he was taking it slow and carving it down the middle using one of his river stones the same way he shaped his stone tools. He just repeatedly hammered down, chipping away at it.


    Finally, after finishing his exercise routine one morning, he felt a shift. He didn¡¯t immediately recognize what had happened since he wasn¡¯t meditating. Blake had never felt the chains without focused meditation before so the fact he could sense anything told him whatever had happened was important.


    He immediately fell to the ground and searched for the chains to identify what happened. At first, nothing seemed different. The chains looked the same to Blake. He couldn¡¯t exactly see them but the feedback he received from them had begun to take on a clearer mental image as time had passed.


    Over half a day of intense focus passed before Blake picked out the difference. One of the chains had changed. Now instead of just pulling him back, it was pushing in equal measure. It wasn¡¯t enough for Blake to escape the chains hold like he had expected but it did loosen the hold they had over him enough for him to sense what they were holding him back from.


    The chains were preventing Blake from ascending. The specifics eluded him but Blake could clearly sense that if he were to break free of the chains he could ascend to the next realm. That threw everything he understood about ascending into question.


    Blake had not known how to ascend but his impression had been that it was a matter of getting to a certain place or maybe defeating a certain monster that was the key to ascending. That had been part of his motivation to go on an expedition in the first place. He was going in search of a way to ascend.


    Ascension was supposed to be what improved your Strength and any training done to improve yourself in a specific tier was just for that tier. The only benefit that could be carried between tiers was if training allowed you to improve your Talent on ascension.


    The idea that training was the way to ascend was alien to Blake. Why wouldn¡¯t they tell students this before reaching the spirit realm? Surely understanding how to train quickly and effectively could only be helpful. Wasn¡¯t their whole thing that everyone needed to reach tier 3?


    Blake couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this was an unknown phenomenon and there were other, easier, ways to ascend. Maybe it was known but was ignored in favor of methods more effective for large groups of people?


    That made sense to him. If there was another way that was quicker and easier but required a group of people it made sense that it was prioritized over the slower method that required personal dedication to achieve. Had he not been forced into it by his circumstances Blake doubted he would ever have trained to the extent he had.


    This method of ascension would also be difficult to discover for the vast majority of people. Not only did it require training that was considered useless to most people but it also required extensive daily meditation. Calling it daily meditation was almost an understatement.


    Blake spent hours each day focused solely on meditating but the nature of his Talent and the long-term isolation led him to be in a state of pseudo-meditation most of the day. It was easier to let time pass him by without paying attention than to feel the passing of each passing second when every day was more of the same.


    There was something else that Blake had almost missed being so focused on the implications of this method of ascension. He had clearly reached a tipping point on one of the chains. The others did not provide the same push forward that this one did.


    Blake had already theorized that the supernatural improvement of the spirit realm could be broken up into distinct categories. He had seen this in the distinct cooldown periods for different kinds of improvement.


    The chain that was now pushing him forward must represent his physical Strength. Blake tried to feel out what the other chains represented.


    Despite his efforts, he couldn¡¯t get a good sense of what they were. Blake couldn¡¯t even tell how many chains there were. What feedback he did get helped him sort the chains into three groups. The first group was the physical. This was the group where the Strength chain lay.


    Blake was mostly confident that both physical resilience and immune system chains also lay in this grouping. Getting feedback from this was a strange sensation. It was more similar to an emotional response than anything concrete.


    The next group Blake would categorize as mental. It brought to mind memories of the improvements triggered by his Talent. At least the ones centered around his brain. Some of his meditation improvements lay with this group as well but most of the warmth for meditation growth was related to the third group.


    The third group was weird. Blake wasn¡¯t sure what to call it but it was definitely tied to the non-physical improvements of meditation. It wasn¡¯t tied to anywhere he could clearly sense he just knew it was there. This grouping was somehow related to that unknown part of him.


    With his breakthrough complete Blake now had a decision to make. Did he still go on his expedition or did he keep training until he could advance?

 Chapter 16

    Blake decided that he would still go on his expedition but would delay it a few days. Even if it was possible to ascend by training hard he wasn¡¯t there yet. Who knew how long that would take or if it was even possible to accomplish with his current training methods.


    That was the reason he was delaying his expedition. Before reaching the tipping point in his physical training the cooldown period on exercising was up to three days. He expected it would be even worse now. By waiting for his expedition, Blake was getting a read on how difficult it would be to continue increasing his Strength.


    The cooldown increased exponentially if he pushed himself too hard which would be a concern when traveling. He might need to run from an angry monster, climb up a cliff, or something else equally demanding. Since he couldn¡¯t tell exactly when he pushed too hard it would be next to impossible for him to judge accurately how long his training cooldown was now.


    Three days passed quickly with no signs of change. Blake continued his daily meditation practice and had actually added another round of meditation in the morning to take the place of his exercises.


    It was clear to him that developing his spiritual senses would become increasingly important if he wanted to ascend. Meditation was a key way for him to improve that. It also helped that while he didn¡¯t fully understand what was improving something was advancing while he meditated. Spiritual senses might be what the supernatural warmth was upgrading but he felt it wasn¡¯t that, at least not only that.


    After the fourth day passed with no sign of the cooldown dropping Blake became worried. He couldn¡¯t sit around forever hoping it would become available again. He knew it was possible to enhance his Strength further, the chain was still there, but it might require natural treasures that he had no way of identifying.


    On the seventh day, it clicked into place. He could train again. Blake had been about to give up if it hadn¡¯t become available within the next day so he was overjoyed it finally had. The past week hadn¡¯t been a complete waste, he had kept himself working, but it could have been better.


    Careful not to strain himself too hard Blake avoided any task that he hadn¡¯t done before in case it increased his training cooldown. He also avoided the training course for the same reason. Instead, all his time had gone to simple crafts, meditation, and a round of food poisoning after another rabbicorn attack.


    The knife Blake had been making with the rabbicorn horn was now finished. It had taken almost two weeks, twice the time of an equivalent spear, but since he only needed one it was worth it. Carving wood, skinning animals and many other tasks became many times easier with a better knife.


    Before heading out Blake decided to knock out a round of exercising. If it was going to take longer and longer between rounds he need to make sure to be as prompt as possible. It was going to take ages to max out his potential already.


    There was a problem, however. No matter how hard he trained Blake could not trigger the supernatural growth he was used to. He worked himself to the bone, physically exhausted to the point he couldn¡¯t stand, and still no supernatural warmth.


    Concerned that he might have been wrong and was still on cooldown Blake fell into meditation. His senses confirmed once again that his cooldown was over. Despite having pushed himself so hard he hadn¡¯t even triggered the cooldown. That was almost stranger than having no supernatural growth. Intense exercise had always extended the cooldown when done too soon, to be able to push himself so hard with no cooldown was weird to Blake.


    Despite wanting to spend more time experimenting with his training and trying to trigger growth Blake knew deep down that there was nothing he could do for the moment. There was something he was missing and waiting around was just a waste of time. He had delayed his expedition enough already.


    With a heavy heart, Blake set out to explore the realm. He brought with him one of every tool he had made with the exception of the stone claws. Those were more detrimental than helpful. Attached to the leather belt that was the top part of his skirt Blake glued a small loop of leather to attach his knife to.


    On his back, Blake had a hollowed-out log the size of his torso filled with his variety of tools and in his hand was his spear. The log was kept attached to his back via two loops of leather wrapped around his chest.


    The log had been more time-consuming than difficult to hollow out. Since he didn¡¯t plan to store any liquids in it there had no need to prevent holes. To make the whole craft easier Blake had chopped the log in half length-wise before carving out the two halfs. He then glued the whole thing back together along with some twine wrapped around it to keep it steady.


    Blake left the clearing he called home at a light jog. While it was a light jog for the current Blake the Blake that first arrived in the spirit realm would have called it an all-out sprint. He moved quickly through the forest for hours without a hint of exhaustion.


    One of the benefits of his physical training that had been hard to see within the limits of his glade was his endurance. Blake didn¡¯t know if his capacity for exercise had just grown to the point where he had to fall alseep well before his body grew tired or if he was actively recovering faster than his body spent energy to move but at the speed he was moving he felt no need to stop for a break.


    Running like this was actually quite peaceful to Blake. He found himself falling into a meditative trance only a small portion of his mind keeping track of his movement and surroundings. His movement was a little awkward as he had to keep shifting his head so that it didn¡¯t get hit by the stone heads of his tools.


    The log he used as a backpack wasn¡¯t big enough to hold the tools in their entirety so instead only their handles rested inside while the, often very sharp, heads of the tools stuck out the top banging into him. Moving in a way not to jostle them had taken some getting used to.


    In his half-meditative state, Blake kept working to improve his perception of the chains holding him back from ascending. If he could identify what each chain represented he would be able to train more effectively. Right now he had no way to continue his physical training which meant his primary avenue of growth was cut off.


    Without physical training, he had to reach the tipping point in the other chains if he wanted to ascend. Right now he had four types of training besides physical exercise. One was his immune system training. He had continued to give himself food poisoning and could now consume meat that had spent a day in the sun without problem. It was disgusting but he could do it.


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    The second kind of training was his physical resilience. Stabbing, bludgeoning, and other forms of self-harm had gradually hardened his body against harm. This shows much less obvious improvement but Blake suspected that had more to do with how weak humans were to that type of thing rather than his training being insufficient.


    The growth he had was clearly scaled off of his base potential. His body naturally had the ability to fight off germs so the supernatural growth had no problem enhancing his ability to do that. The human body was not able to resist a stab wound however so the supernatural growth did not immediately provide him the ability to do that. It might eventually happen but it would be a much longer road.


    The third form of training Blake did was meditation. This enhanced his mind as well as something more nebulous that he couldn¡¯t identify. The final type of training was his Talent.


    Blake didn¡¯t know whether it was something his Talent did specifically or if it was just a byproduct of the strain his Talent put on him but every time it activated the warmth centered around his mind and then spread through his body via the nervous system.


    The specifics didn¡¯t matter to Blake. Training his mind without his Talent would have been the most difficult part as whatever meditation did had minimal effect on his mind at best. With the Talent expanding his mind Blake was starting to see noticeable improvement.


    The most obvious component was his memory. Despite the sheer amount of information provided by his Talent Blake was still able to recall almost everything he had learned since arriving in the spirit realm with perfect clarity. Some details overlapped and blurred together but only in the earliest memories before he had improved his mind much.


    Memory was a hard thing to measure so Blake didn¡¯t know how he compared to an unawakened human but if he wasn¡¯t at the peak of normal human potential he was close. He didn¡¯t think for a moment that he was in the supernatural realm yet, however. He had heard of people with photographic memory and he was by no means at that level in terms of detail.


    The other component of his mental improvement that Blake had noted was his ability to process information. When he had first used his Talent it had taken a few minutes to process everything from even the simplest of crafts.


    Now his more complicated creations that his Talent provided him with much more information on could be processed within half a minute. If he were to receive an equivalent amount of information as his first craft, the leaf bed, it would be a matter of moments to process and sort through.


    This wasn¡¯t just helpful for working through the information provided by his Talent. When going through his obstacle course with the new swinging traps, Blake found the improved processing efficiency made all the difference when it came to mentally mapping out his path forward. His Talent-provided observation skills were enhanced by the growth of his mind.


    Meditating in a potentially dangerous environment might not have been the best idea but Blake couldn¡¯t regret it when he noticed the shift only because he was meditating. The sensation that he had begun to associate with his spiritual senses picked up a shift in the atmosphere.


    Blake was immediately on high alert. He scanned the surroundings for danger prepared for a monster to jump out at him. Slowly, he crept away from the nearest bushes into a more empty area to get clear sight lines.


    It took a moment for him to realize what had happened. He had crossed over into a different region. Realms were broken up into regions that denoted monster spawning patterns and energy density.


    So far Blake had only ever stayed in the region he had started in. Now he had crossed into a new one. Those who had already awakened said that crossing into a higher-density region was obvious so it must have the same density as the region he had started in which was a relief.


    The region Blake had lived in until now was the low-density region, the weakest possible. The scale was; low, medium, high, and peak. Monsters and other sources of danger scaled with the region¡¯s density so crossing over to a medium-density region could spell disaster if he wasn¡¯t ready.


    It was interesting that he had been able to sense the change between two low-density regions at all. Typically it was only through the change in density that it was possible to detect the borders of a region but apparently, spiritual senses could do the same.


    The question for Blake was whether or not to keep moving forward and if he did was meditating on the move a good idea. Different regions usually had different kinds of threats so there was something to say about staying with the dangers he knew.


    On the other hand that might not apply between neighboring regions of the same density. He hadn¡¯t known it was possible to detect such a thing so maybe it wasn¡¯t common knowledge and everyone would just assume they were one region.


    Blake decided to keep moving forward. He was already terrified. What difference did an unknown danger make to a known one? He didn¡¯t even know that much about the danger of his starting region.


    That just left whether or not to meditate while moving. Trying to meditate took away from his awareness of his surroundings but that only applied to his mundane senses. Blake did not have a firm enough control of his spiritual senses to use them without at least half meditating and it was those senses that let him detect the change in region.


    Was knowing when he changed regions worth potentially missing something with his mundane senses. His first instinct was to say yes. Knowing if he had crossed over to a high-density region could save his life.


    As he thought about it, however, Blake changed his mind. Information on spiritual senses was not common knowledge so it must be obvious when crossing into a higher-density region. Meditation wouldn¡¯t be necessary in that case. His meditation training even when not actively doing it would probably provide a boost to make it even easier to sense anyway.


    If he only needed to meditate to sense a change between equal-density regionss it was no longer worth it. Blake had already decided that he didn¡¯t care if he wasn¡¯t in the same region anymore only if the area was going to be more dangerous so why would he risk being snuck up on for information that didn¡¯t matter.


    Deciding to pay more attention to his surroundings and not meditate, Blake set off at a light jog once again. Despite being in a new zone the surroundings stayed painfully consistent. Endless forest surrounded him in every direction with no sign of anything different.


    There were no mountains in the distance or the sound of running water just trees, trees, and more trees. In hopes of not getting too lost Blake paused every now and then to carve arrows pointed back toward his glade. The uniformity of his surroundings would make it easy to get lost.


    As the sun began to set Blake stopped for the night. Before setting off he had planned how he wanted to approach his exploration. One of his decisions was to go in a straight line until he could no more, whether due to running into a higher density zone or the edge of the realm.


    Another decision he had made was that while he could get by sleeping on the hard ground in the dark after running through most of the night he wouldn¡¯t. Blake had enough mental anguish going into this trip, he did not need to add more.


    So every night, the moment the sun began to set, he would stop. There would be no running in the dark or sleeping wherever he could. Instead, he spent the time needed to get a fire started and create a leaf bed.


    It would take too long to make a leaf bed to the standard he did back in his glade but Blake still made something that would be better than the hard ground. A proper stone shovel made all the difference in his digging speed letting him finish the bed quickly.


    The axe Blake brought provided him with plenty of well-prepared fire wood and a place to sit by the fire. He also spent time creating a ring of defensive spikes around his campsite. With a rabbicorn horn knife to help make the pointed ends of the wooden spikes it took less than an hour to prepare.


    He was now defended enough to kill a rabbicorn. If anything bigger wanted to attack him in the night they would at least be delayed long enough for him to wake up. Unlike back home, Blake did not dig a trench behind the spikes. It would have been too time-consuming to accomplish. The spike barrier was thicker to compensate.


    Before going to bed Blake spent time meditating. The day had gone well, better than he had expected, but he still felt scared away from his glade. Meditation helped him calm down for the night while being productive for his training.


    Meditation done Blake lay down in his bed. Tomorrow he would continue his journey in search of civilization or, if that wasn¡¯t possible, a way to ascend should his current methods of training prove insufficient.

 Chapter 17

    The sun was at its zenith the next day when something finally changed. The forest was still spread in every direction but from one step to another Blake felt the air become heavier. He felt like the world was attempting to restrain him and his movements.


    He suspected he knew what was happening but didn¡¯t take the moment to verify through meditation as his attention had been caught by something else. The forest ahead of him had darkened. It wasn¡¯t some magical darkness that bent the rules of reality, it was more an eery silence and trees more dense blocking the sunlight.


    It might have been his imagination but Blake thought he heard a wolf howl in the distance.


    ¡®Nope!¡¯ Blake thought and turned around without a second thought.


    He was confident in his intuition that what he just experienced was a higher density region and likely not a single increase from low to medium but rather a larger jump to at least high maybe even peak. Without more reference points he couldn¡¯t be certain.


    Meditation might have let him get a better feel for it and at least confirm that it was indeed a higher region and not his imagination but he did not under any circumstances want to take his attention away from his potentially very hostile surroundings.


    Even after exiting the higher region, Blake did not stop. While monsters spawned based on their region they were not limited to that region there was just no reason for them to leave usually. Humans were one of the few things that could encourage a monster to leave their region for another. If he stayed too close to the higher region he risked being spotted.


    Only once he was certain that no monsters from outside his current region could spot him did Blake stop moving to contemplate his next actions. He had been under the, apparently, incorrect assumption that he would have to fight before ever reaching a higher rarity region and even then the region would only be medium density.


    His plan had been to set up a forward base to not only mark out the border of the medium-density region but to also have a safe place to rest between short excursions into the higher region looking for answers.


    There was no way Blake was going into anything higher than a medium-density region as he was. He wanted to fight some rabbicorns before even that to get more comfortable with combat and to help bring his various skills together into something more cohesive.


    Seeing as he still needed to mark where the higher density region was Blake decided to continue with his plan to make a forward operating base but instead of using it to launch excursions he would instead leave it behind for a while to continue his journey in search of a monster to fight and a medium density region to explore.


    Blake had already decided on how he was going to design his secondary bases before leaving his glade. The primary purpose was to have a safe place to rest his head each night so they would get defenses on nearly the same level as his home base.


    His home base had the cabin and a small wooden wall that had been added behind the trench and spikes but those made little difference for the amount of effort required so for his forward bases there would only be spikes in front of a trench that was filled with more spikes.


    Blake had also decided to add another layer of spikes behind the trench that had not been part of his original home base design as it was so time-consuming to make at the time. Now that he had a proper knife, wooden spikes were a matter of seconds to construct.


    Using a stone shovel, axe and a rabbicorn knife made the work go quickly. This base was bigger than the small camp he had made the night before so the work was not yet done as night fell but it was well on its way. As he worked Blake reviewed his plans for the rest of the base.


    Besides defenses, there were a few more things Blake needed from his secondary bases. The simplest was a bed and fire pit. Those were a mainstay for any place he was staying the night. The fire pit would be a little more fleshed out than at his temporary camp and the bed would be made to a higher standard but otherwise the same.


    From there things diverged from his temporary camp. This base was meant to act as a marker of what was ahead, the higher region, so it needed to be easy to find. As it was everything he made was low to the ground and difficult to find. So to help him find his way back Blake was going to make something he had seen in a museum that ancient civilizations used to make.


    A totem pole. He could have just used a tall log stripped of branches but it would be easy to confuse with any other tree so Blake was going to carve figures into it. While his justification was practical in reality he thought it would be a fun project. It tapped into his enjoyment of working on larger projects.


    There was another more mystical reason to do so. Blake had always wanted to get a magic Talent and had done lots of research to that end. One of the things he had learned about was the nature of mana, or at least the theories that existed.


    Prior to the discovery of awakening and the introduction of mana to Earth magic was thought to be a myth. Stories existed of it of course but no actual magic. However, after magic was proven to exist many of those stories, especially the older ones that modern ones were based on, were reanalyzed.


    Mana might not be native to Earth anymore but was it always that way? Many old stories and oral histories talk about magic in a way that lines up with the most basic forms of magic that exist nowadays.


    Magic Talents come in a large variety of forms but pure mana Talents, that is those that use mana not aspected to an element, have many commonalities between them. Pure mana Talents more often than not are based around rituals and symbolism. This matches up with many old stories of magic.


    If mana really did exist on Earth in the ancient past then totems could very well have been a method of harnessing its potential. Blake didn¡¯t know anything about how that would work as the few Talents he had heard of that used totems were reliant on abilities that seemed pretty specific to them.


    Making totems was going to be more a hope for good luck than anything else but maybe his Talent would help him. After the theories involving magic always existing came to pass many had taken to wearing and/or utilizing items and doing rituals that had been culturally significant in history.


    The idea was that maybe a Talent wasn¡¯t required for basic magic. It had never been definitevly proven to work but evidence suggested that it could at least influence Talent evolutions into being more mystical in nature.


    The next day after finishing the defenses Blake got to work on the totem. Since symbolism was generally accepted as the common factor to ¡®old¡¯ magic, as it was called, he spent some time thinking over what he wanted to carve into it.


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    Blake had cut down the largest tree he could find with his stone axe and was striping it of branches and bark as he thought about his options. The totem was meant to act as a guide so maybe a lighthouse? But that would only take up the top part. What else should he add?


    While he thought it over he finished preparing the log. No matter how he tried to think through it he couldn¡¯t come up with any other good symbols for guidance. Perhaps if he had spent more time studying ancient cultures he might have been better at symbolism but he hadn¡¯t so he wasn¡¯t.


    Blake gave up on trying to come up with something. The top was the only part that mattered anyway. The whole point was to make the totem distinctive from the surrounding trees and the top was the only part that could be seen from a distance.


    Taking out his rabbicorn horn knife, Blake got to work carving into the top. His fingers were nimble but firm as he worked to carve away the wood. His Talent had progressed his knife skills upon finishing the rabbicorn horn version giving him excellent control over the knife.


    Supernatural Strength combined with the high levels of control to make him great at carving into the wood. The real limiter was Blake¡¯s artistic skills. It was like drawing. Putting pencil to paper was easy. Control over the pencil might vary to different degrees but overall was standard. Putting the image you had in your head though? That was a completly diffrent skill.


    Since arriving in the spirit realm Blake had been working hard to make his imagination reality, that is what crafting is after all, but while he could make things functional there was an artististic touch he was missing. His tools had not allowed for anything detailed until recently so all his practice with crafting had completely dismissed this portion of design.


    It didn¡¯t help that his Talent did nothing to support his skills as an artist. Muscle memory and a detailed understanding of your actions had nothing to do with a clear, concise, and vivid imagination. Really, imagination was the determining factor when it came to how well Blake could use his Talent.


    Everything else he could possibly want was provided to him in the form of his skills and crafting knowledge but if he had no direction what was the point? His experiments with herbalism were a great example of this.


    He did not know anything about herbalism before using his Talent but Blake had a clear idea of what he wanted. His imagination of what could be allowed his Talent to guide him to the how. As long as he was creative in what experiments he did there was nothing stopping his knowledge of herbalism from matching, if not surpassing, that of someone with a focused herbalism Talent.


    Unfortunately, despite how crucial it was to Blake, he was not a good artist. He knew he wanted to make the totem resemble a lighthouse, he could imagine a lighthouse in his mind, but it would not coalesce.


    Days blurred by as Blake worked to carve into the totem. Multiple times he cut off the top of the totem to restart. He even had to find a new log once as the first one had become too short for its intended purpose. He was so entranced with his work that for a time he forgot the reason he was doing all this.


    In the end, he had succeeded in making a symbolic light house. It was not pretty, or even accurate, but it was still clear. There were four rounded columns that held up the roof of his little light house. The roof was rounded and Blake had used a river stone he had brought with him to sand it down to be more smooth.


    In between the columns, at the center of his little lighthouse, was a flame. It looked cartoonish, like a water drop with multiple tips, but it was recognizable to anyone. Along the columns that supported the roof were small swirls and patterns to give the whole thing some more depth to its design.


    It wasn¡¯t much but Blake was proud of how far he had come from his first attempt. Originally it was going to be a box with square columns holding up a flat ceiling with something inside, probably a smaller box.


    Taking the time to round out his construction and properly make something to represent the light had been a decision that Blake hadn¡¯t even consciously thought about. He had become absorbed in his work on a level he would not have been capable of prior to entering the spirit realm.


    This level of devotion to one activity was a learned skill he had had to acquire to keep himself sane. He had no access to electronics and the endless media content the internet provided so he had learned to take pride and joy in his crafting. It was a shift in his personality he hadn¡¯t even realized was so large until working on the totem.


    He was in the middle of an expedition to explore the unknown and his goal was to find monsters to fight and map out the realm, stopping for days for a spur-of-the-moment whim to perfect a craft of his was unlike him. Time had lost most of its meaning a long time ago but this was another level.


    And he didn¡¯t regret it one bit. What did it matter if he took time to make a more complete totem than he had originally planned? Nothing was waiting for him or pushing him forward because of a time limit. Blake had long given up on making the one-year deadline to make it to tier 3.


    Daily meditation, which he had kept up even while working on the totem, let him put aside small worries like fines that would have to pay once he found a way out of the spirit realm. It wasn¡¯t like there was anything he could do about it so why did it matter?


    Analyzing his own thoughts shocked Blake. The shift in his attitude and personality had been so gradual that he hadn¡¯t even noticed. Maybe if he had been interacting with people the contrast would have made it more obvious but as it was he had been caught unaware.


    Blake was meditating as he realized all this so he felt when it happened. One of the chains holding him back from ascension reached the tipping point and began to push as much as it pulled. Just like when he had done the same thing with Strength, Blake gained a much clearer sense of what the chain represented.


    The best way Blake could describe it was insight, or maybe Affinity. It represented his ability to sense the world as it is and as it could become. Basically, it was his spiritual sense. The chain was part of the third group of chains that he hadn¡¯t been able to create a label for. It didn¡¯t affect his physical form in any way making it hard to detect its growth without his spiritual senses which Blake found ironic.


    The next day Blake finished the totem and, along with the insight into his craft and skills to use the totem, he crossed the threshold for a third chain, or stat as he was beginning to think of it. This time it was for the group of stats that he had categorized as mental.


    With this stat he now had an understanding of one in each of the three categories that he could identify; body, mind, and unknown. Blake really needed to come up with a better name for the third category. Maybe spirit since spiritual sense was part of it? But then again all these stats were technically affecting his spirit as he was in the spirit realm.


    The newest stat was his Memory. Since many parts of his mind were upgrading all at once when his Talent activated Blake hadn¡¯t been able to separate out different forms of mental growth but now he knew one of them. The memory stat did exactly what it sounded like, it enhanced his ability to remember information.


    Blake would definitely start labeling his memory as superhuman at this point. His memories were always vivid, he suspected that was more an imagination or creativity thing, but they were perfect and complete for the last few weeks.


    Improving his memory didn¡¯t let him remember things he had already forgotten so it helped moving forward otherwise he would have been able to remember perfectly even farther back. While discovering a new stat was exciting something else drew Blake¡¯s attention.


    When his Talent had activated for the totem he had learned, or at least confirmed something groundbreaking. The totem could channel mana into a magical effect. At least it could in theory. Blake didn¡¯t know what he was missing but his totem did nothing, he only knew it could be something more because of hints within the crafting information and what the skill was trying to teach him.


    Since the craft was considered a failure and incapable of doing anything Blake¡¯s Talent provided little in the way of skill and what he did gain was disjointed and to incomplete to put into practice but he could recognize what it was. The skill was for a type of ritual.


    Blake really wanted to get to work on another totem right away to try and get it working. He didn¡¯t have access to mana and this might be a way to do so without expensive natural treasures that required an expert to prepare. He stopped himself though.


    There was something missing with his craft that would take a while to discover. Even completing one totem had taken days and discovering anything with his Talent required a lot of iteration.


    Blake had become less tied down by time and urgency but that didn¡¯t mean he was willing to give up on his current goal just to satisfy a new fascination. First, he would complete his expedition to an extent that he didn¡¯t feel he had cheated, and then he could explore totems and old magic to his heart¡¯s content.


    Mind made up Blake fell into meditation. It was already late so why not delay until the morning? It gave him plenty of time to analyze his new stats some more.

 Chapter 18

    Blake stared down at the corpse of a dead rabbicorn. It had impaled itself on one of his defensive spikes he had set up for the night. It had been three days since he had left his new forward base and he had kept up his search for rabbicorns to fight to no avail yet now there was one and he didn¡¯t get a chance to fight it before it killed itself.


    While travelling Blake had found two more higher regions. One was at the same density as the first he had found while the second was close enough to his home region that Blake felt confident calling it a medium density region.


    Not wanting to get lost in crafting quite yet, Blake did not spend the time to create secondary bases to mark out the borders. Instead, he climbed the tallest tree he could find and quickly carved into the tops to make crude but recognizable shapes.


    Curious as to whether or not they could be considered totems Blake had attempted to activate his Talent on them. It failed. The information he got back was very clear that it could not in any way be considered a totem. It did however confirm that what he carved was important to the function.


    It could have been the symbolism of the carving or maybe there was a universal language he needed to learn, Blake didn¡¯t know. While walking Blake spent time reviewing what he knew about totems from his research of old magic on Earth.


    Blake immediately wished that he had the superhuman memory he now had when studying magic on Earth as only small snippets of information stayed with him. The main thing he remembered was useless to him as it was reliant on a specific Talent.


    There is a famous awakened that went by the name Totemic Shaman. She was a powerful individual said to have reached tier 10. Her talent allowed her to create totems from mana that had various effects from shooting beams of lighting to enhancing mana regen.


    The fact that the effects were active and immediate told Blake that her form of totems was completly diffrent from what his Talent was pushing him towards. His were likely to be based on long rituals which lined up with ancient civilizations on Earth. He suspected that if he succeded in making totems they would have abilities more in line with passive effects and blessings.


    Until he had the chance to sit down and experiment with totems Blake wouldn¡¯t know anything more. So he kept walking. Another three days passed and Blake found himself back at his base, the glade he called home.


    He did not intend to arrive there. In fact, he had been sure he was no where near there which was concerning. The forest was so uniform that he must have gotten turned around and walked in a curved line rather than the straight one he had thought he was.


    Knowing that he could not trust his sense of direction and having found rabbicorns difficult to locate Blake decided a change in method was due. He had another plan that he had originally discarded because of how time-consuming it would be.


    The plan was to find a border between regions and rather than setting one simple marker if the density changed he would instead walk along it marking it every few feet with sticks shaped into poles. To mark out borders between same density regions Blake would have to maintain meditation the whole time.


    This would take a long time to acomplish to any degree. Spirit realms were not infinite and lower tier realms were smaller than higher realms but even a tier 0 realm could be anywhere from 100 to 500 miles across.


    If the realm Blake was in leaned towards the larger side he estimated that even moving as fast as he could with his superhuman physique it would take ten or more days. To be moving at a relative crawl in circles to mark out the borders of the regions.


    There was a reason to mark out the borders of regions besides making navigation easier. Monster spawns depended on regions and there was a cooldown on how long a monster took to respawn after being killed.


    By marking out each region Blake could optimize his hunt for a fight. He could hunt for monsters one region at a time. After killing the monster, or monsters depending on region density, he could move on to another region while waiting for the first to respawn without fear of accidentally staying in one region too long and missing the opportunity to hunt.


    Before leaving the glade again to resume his expedition Blake took a day off to do a little crafting. He began working a totem pole for his main base and thought he would try his hand at making animals for the carvings since from what he remembered that was the common thing to do back on Earth.


    He only got a small amount done before having to force himself to leave again. Blake didn¡¯t even make it to the border of his home region before he was attacked.


    To stay aware of his spiritual senses so as not to miss the regions border, Blake was half meditating as he walked. He might have noticed the rabbicorn earlier had he not been but he still had time to jump out of its way as the rabbicorn charged him from a nearby bush.


    Landing on his feet with ease Blake turned to watch the rabbicorn and froze. Memories of his first fight with a rabbicorn flashed through his mind. The pain of the rabbicorn stabbing him in the butt. The terror and helplessness of the situation.


    The rabbicorn circled around to make another hopping, charge at him. Blake snapped out of his state of terror to jump out of the way again before thinking better of it and going for a more controlled side step.


    The rabbicorn once again charged passed but Blake couldn¡¯t help but notice it was¡­ slow. He had plenty of time to think through everything he was doing before the rabbicorn could respond or make another attack.


    Blake was reminded that rabbicorns were known as great training monsters since they of no danger to even an untrained child. If he hadn¡¯t been suprised by that first rabbicorn it would have been completly unable to do anything to him.


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    The horns were sharp, sure, but the rabbicorns lacked the Strength and speed to do anything with them. Confidence growing, Blake gripped his spear and slid into the fighting stance he had been practicing for weeks. As the rabbicorn circled around for yet another, identical, attack Blake stabbed out with his spear.


    His eyes closed a moment before the spear made contact. His fear, despite being weaker now that he found the rabbicorns less threatening, overwhelmed his mind for a moment. He didn¡¯t want to see the rabbicorn escape his attack and return its own. Blake had no urge to face his own death.


    There was no dying, however. No pain of a rabbicorn horn stabbing him. There was only a soft thud. Peeking one of his eyes open Blake found the rabbicorn impaled on his spear. The spear was run straight through its chest and it struggled futilely to escape its death. Seconds later it fell limp as it bled out.


    Blake let out a loud cry of triumph. If asked in the future he would say it was a manly roar that was most defenitly not accomponied by a small jig. It was. It most certainly was. He had defeated his first monster without the use of traps.


    It had taken days of searching to find something to fight and was preceded by weeks, if not months, of training to make him stronger and more comfortable with a spear but he no longer had anything to fear from the rabbicorns.


    He wanted to fight another immedietly but it had taken a week to find this one so it was unlikely he would be able to anytime soon. Instead he set off to begin marking the borders between the regions.


    Blake had technically met one of the goals of his expedition by killing a rabbicorn one on one and could justify ending it there to go back to his base and do some crafting but he didn¡¯t get everything he wanted out of it.


    Facing his fear of rabbicorns and fighting, in general, was only one of the things Blake hoped to get out of his fight. The other thing was he wanted to forge his disparate skills into a more wholesome combat style. The rabbicorn had died in one hit giving him no time to do that.


    Fighting more rabbicorns would let Blake get used to applying his combat skills but he would need a more difficult opponent to push his skills together. He would need to enter a medium-density region. It was the only place with stronger monsters. Well, there were the high and peak regions but Blake didn¡¯t even entertain the thought.


    Weeks passed as Blake marked out the borders of the low-density regions. Once or twice a week he would fight and kill a rabbicorn. He no longer froze up when fighting but they kept ending in one strike. He did try to extend the fight a couple of times but even a grazing hit was enough to debilitate the rabbicorns making them useless to train against.


    While marking out the border of the low regions Blake continued his training. Unfortunately, like when Strength reached its threshold, the memory and affinity stats could no longer improve no matter what he tried.


    He hadn¡¯t spent much time on crafting so memory wasn¡¯t pushed but to keep track of the regional borders Blake was constantly meditating and stressing his affinity. Nothing changed. There might have been ways to continue improving his affinity in the higher regions but while he was more confident in his combat skills he had avoided leaving the low regions. He hadn¡¯t even marked the higher region borders.


    It was only after finishing with all the low region borders that he was pushed forward. While the thought of fighting stronger monsters terrified him, Blake couldn¡¯t help but admit that he was excited to fight in the medium region.


    Combat had always been Blake¡¯s plan for supporting himself. Before awakening, he had dreamed of having a magic Talent that he used to blast away monsters. It wasn¡¯t until he had actually had to fight monsters that he realized something about those dreams.


    In all the dreams he had he was always safely away from the monsters. There was no tension of the fight, no pressure to improve. Instead his imagination had him using an overpowered Talent to overwhelm his opponents.


    To a Blake who had spent months training every day and working hard to improve his combat abilities that was nothing but an impossible childish fantasy. Sure, there might be people who could coast by on a Talent perfectly suited to killing monsters but they would always be weaker than someone who put in even a modicum of effort to get stronger.


    Blake wasn¡¯t even sure he would like to have a Talent that could overwhelm monsters so easily. Pushing himself to improve had become a part of his personality, something he took pride in. The idea that he didn¡¯t have to train to improve his Strength and overcome challenges was anathema to who he was now.


    Talents were supposed to be a reflection of who someone was but when Blake had gained his he hadn¡¯t felt it. Sure it was a cool ability but he wanted magic not a manaless crafting Talent. Now though he could see. This drive for independence and self improvement had always been a part of him it had just taken being isolated in a forest full of monsters for months to discover.


    His Talent was perfect for him. The more he pushed his crafting skills the more he grew. The skills his Talent gave him were the perfect foundation to push even more. Everything about his Talent was about maximizing how much and how effectively he could improve himself.


    Knowing that with time he could create magical effects with totems meant that even magic wasn¡¯t off the table for Blake. He would just have to work for him. That suited him just fine.


    Blake¡¯s Talent, in return for not giving anything upright, had the potential to do anything. The only limit was his own imagination and will. He would not stop, could not stop improving. It was a part of him now, a fundamental aspect of his personality brought to light by his Talent.


    Blake was meditating when he came to that realization. Vowing to himself to keep pushing forward despite the effort was a tipping point. With a click, he felt another stat reach a threshold. Feeling it out he classified it as Will.


    Will, the mental strength to push through the hardest of lifes trials. It was part of the third grouping of stats that Blake had tentativly named spirit. With two chains now identified he could see there was only one left in that grouping. He still couldn¡¯t tell how many stats were in the body and mind categories but they felt the same size as spirit so he suspected they would have three as well.


    Despite knowing there was only one more stat within the spirit category Blake could not identify what it was. He could see it was underdeveloped compared to all his other stats. The force the chain that represented the stat was exerting to keep him in this realm was equal to what he could sense of both the body and mind categories combined.


    He suspected that he hadn¡¯t trained this stat at all. While traveling Blake had continued to train his physical resiliance which he was all but certain was a body stat. His Talent kept pushing his mind forward as well. Spirit was the one category he did not understand well enough to train.


    It was only by chance he had stumbled upon affinity while trying to deal with his own trauma by meditating. The Will stat was the accumulation of his experiences in the spirit realm so far. Neither was something he had gone out of his way to train.


    Whatever the third spirit stat was he would have to hope he discovered it eventually. If not than he might need to find another way to ascend. Blake didn¡¯t think he would need to fully develop every stat to ascend to tier 1 but he didn¡¯t know how many would be needed.


    He also suspected there might be other benefits to developing his stats prior to ascension. He had nothing to base his theory off of but he was hoping that a higher affinity might give him a better idea of the benefits to developing his stats.


    New stat unlocked Blake set out for one of the medium realms he had found. In his time marking the region boundaries he had discovered multiple so he went to the closest one relative to his home base.


    It was time to fight stronger monsters.

 Chapter 20

    Blake stared down at a hole in the ground. It was approximatley three meters across and had two rabbicorns hopping around it. This was the regions rabbicorn den. It was not his first time seeing it, it took less than a week to locate, but this was his first time doing so with the intention of scouting.


    It had been month since first arriving in the medium region. During this time Blake ramped up his training to push his stats as high as possible, as fast as possible. Every day he pushed his training to the limit. This meant a combination of meditation, Strength training, and beating himself up throughout the day.


    Despite the potential dangers, Blake kept a constant state of meditiation going all day long. This left him less aware of his normal senses since despite all his practice it still wasn¡¯t easy, but his Affinity was growing faster than ever before.


    Of all his stats, Constitution was growing the fastest. Unlike with the others, Constitution had three avenues of growth that were only a mild struggle to push to the point of cooldown. He let rabbicorns attack him for physical resilience, ate raw meat left in the sun for days for his immune system, and never stopped moving between sun up and sun down to strain his endurance.


    As his Affinity grew Blake was able to keep better track of his stats and their relative values. Because of this, he knew that his Constitution was nearing its next threshold. It would take only a week or two more to hit it. Unfortuntately the rest of his unlocked stats were at least a month away.


    Blake was debating whether or not to clear the den out before or after his unlocked stats reached the second threshold. On the one hand waiting was the safest course of action. By his estimates the second threshold representive somewhere between a 25 and 50 percent increase.


    It was a struggle to get an exact number of the chains. Strength, which he used to determine stat growth, didn¡¯t seem to start at what he would consider zero. For example, for the Strength stat, the pull the chain applied to Blake only started to decrease after he was able to exert what he would consider supernatural strength.


    This led him to believe that it was based off his natural potential and it was only by breaking the bonds of natural reality that he could ascend. The question was; what were the normal limits of humanity? Without that refrence point he could only make a rough estimate as to the threshold limits.


    The reason Blake was considering attacking the rabbicorns prior to maxing out his stats was because of a discovery, or rather two discoveries, he had made that should have been obvious in hindsight. His Affinity had improved in leaps and bounds, it was a close second to Constitution in terms of growth, and with it came insight into his growth.


    Despite constant meditation Blake still couldn¡¯t identify the remaining stats but he was able to get a much more accurate reading of their growth than before. His unlocked stats were more clear but his mental view of the locked stats was enough for now.


    Of course, this only applied to the two stats he was able to isolate, the remaining body and spirit stats. There were at least two mind stats remaining and Blake was unable to untangle them.


    Constant meditation meant that Blake always had at least a hint of his attention on his stats so he noticed when the stats began to vary what was, at least from his point of view at the time, randomly.


    Part of Blake¡¯s stay in the medium region had been spent marking the borders. He had never marked the borders of any regions except where two low regions met up. This had been a safety precaution that he threw out the window as his confidence in fighting rabbicorns grew. He never spent time in the high and peak regions he found but he marked the medium regions borders with them.


    While doing this he noticed that the speed his locked stats grew dropped when in the low region. Since Blake didn¡¯t know how to train them they were already growing at an infitesimel pace but they became even slower when in the low regions.


    While he could only train past the first threshold while in a medium or higher region that didn¡¯t mean there were no benefits to stats below that threshold. It turned out he could speed up his training by training in a higher region.


    This was the first discovery he made that led Blake to consider attacking the den earlier than he had originally planned. He had all but given up on reaching tier 3 by the time his first year in the spirit realm was done.


    Blake didn¡¯t have a good read on how much time had passed but it had been at least four months and he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it was passed six. He had only recently figured out a way to ascend and it was too time-consuming to ascend even one realm within a year let alone three. But things were different now.


    A lot of the initial time it had taken to reach the first threshold was do to not having even reached the maximum potential of a natural human. Now that he had done that he believed that training in the next realm could occur much faster.


    On top of that, he had already learned how to make and collect tools and weapons. That would save him a lot of time. He would still want to recraft most of his gear after each realm since Talents got stronger with each tier allowing his passive craft boost to strengthen everything more.


    That would still mean cutting out the first few months of his time in the spirit realm. Blake had experienced large delays in his growth because he had needed to grow strong enough to make stone tools. After making stone tools and having glue moving into using beast parts, specifically rabbicorn horns, had been easy while providing a sizable boost to the strength of his equipment.


    Blake would also be faster since he would not need to deal with learning to fight in the first place. He would still train and get better at fighting but that could be done directly through combat, killing monsters, and gathering better and better supplies for crafting.


    There was another factor to the higher realms that Blake hadn¡¯t needed to consider since he hadn¡¯t believed he could make it. Higher realms had a time dilation to them. They moved faster than Earth. Time moved the same in tier 0 realms as on Earth but after that, each tier doubled the speed of time.


    For tier 1 realms every 2 minutes there was a minute on Earth. Tier 2 would be 4 and tier 3 would be 8. That meant that even though half his available time had likely passed that wasn¡¯t the whole picture. Blake would have a similar if not more time with each tier he reached.


    All this wouldn¡¯t matter if he didn¡¯t have a way to speed up his stat development. That would be the real limiter to his progression. Even if he could wipe out everything in a realm that didn¡¯t help if he was stuck waiting for his training cooldowns. That¡¯s why discovering that higher-density regions sped up growth was so important.


    There would still be a limit to how fast he could grow but if he could push himself to a peak density zone he could speed up his stat growth many times over. There was now something tangible Blake could do to improve the speed of his ascension. It didn¡¯t stop there.


    Discovering that higher regions improved the speed of stat growth while important for planning the future it did not provide the immediate benefits he was looking for. Blake dedicated himself to finding more and better ways to train his stats. Every action he took was analyzed for potential training. Did his stats grow faster with that movement? Slower?


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    Blake no longer required meditation to sense if his unlocked stats were growing but he was meditating anyway to speed up his Affinity so he noticed even the slightest improvement which was why only a couple days ago he identified another way to increase his stat growth across the board.


    It took longer to identify not because the increased growth was smaller than crossing over to a higher region but because he had to do so while fighting. Blake was constantly working on meditating on some level. He had reached a point where he could keep a steady enough state of mind that he could be considered meditating even while walking and not lose sight of his surroundings.


    Being able to more safely meditate while moving was a major accomplishment for Blake. He had been forced to way saftey and growth before he was able to do that. He didn¡¯t stop there though. It was even more dangerous to try and meditate while fighting but he tried anyway.


    Blake was confident in his ability to face rabbicorns and felt no fear when trying to meditate while doing so. The problem for the longest time wasn¡¯t keeping his focus on the fight while meditating, no he didn¡¯t even reach that point. The struggle for Blake was meditating in the first place.


    Meditation took a level of calm focus that he could not seem to reach while fighting. He had only recently been forzen with fright, unable to think at all at the sight of a rabbicorn so it was understandable but it bugged Blake. Keeping his thoughts and feelings under control while dodging a charging rabbicorn was no easy feat.


    It didn¡¯t help that Blake had found a way to fight multiple rabbicorns at a time and did his best to do so at any opportunity. For the most part, the rabbicorns spread out when not in the den but they did stay closer together the closer to the den you got. Blake used this to gather multiple rabbicorns together before fighting back.


    Fighting multiple rabbicorns at a time was an interesting experience for Blake. He had not started trying to meditate during combat when he first did this so he was fully focused on the fight but he still struggled to keep track of both rabbicorns at a time.


    His goal was to practice dodging and battle field awareness while integrating them with his basic spear skills. During that first fight he only brought two of them together but one still nicked his leg. It was barely a scratch but it was the first injury a rabbicorn had landed on him since the very first one.


    He didn¡¯t even notice it until after the fight but Blake was still almost sent into a panic attack after realizing one had tagged him. His extensive meditation training kicked in and helped him regain control. It was not something he wanted to keep dealing with but at least it had been decent practice for his Will stat.


    Realizing that repeated trauma was the fastest way to increase his Will was not something Blake wanted to acknoledge. Dealing with his arrival in the spirit realm had gotten him to the first threshold but it was hard to say it was worth it.


    Twice more he took damage as Blake practiced taking on multiple rabbicorn at a time. Each time he took on a bigger group was a new experience. He never was able to gather a group larger than five but the pressure from that fight was enough that he felt his skills congeal.


    It was strange. Blake had been in the middle of his first five rabbicorn fights. He was pressed to keep track of everything around him, he was trying to meditate, and he was struggling to find the opportunity to attack. The different skills he had gained from his Talent were fighting against each other, each was an instinct with its own idea of how to react. Then from one moment to the next everything clicked together.


    Where before there had been conflicting signals from his skills now there was a smooth translation from one to another on how to act. Meditation wasn¡¯t a skill from his Talent so working with it was still troublesome but Blake suspected that it was responsible for making everything work together in the first place. He had unlocked a new stat after that after all.


    The stat was related to how smart he was. That wasn¡¯t exactly right but it was the best way to describe it. Blakes mind felt more flexible, like he wouldn¡¯t discount information he was given should it not match his preconcieved ideas. He could hold more ideas in his head at once. It wasn¡¯t true multitasking but being able to compare four or five pieces of information at once instead of two made drawing a conclusion much easier and more accurate.


    He decided to call the stat Alacrity. He could have gone with Intelligence like in many video games but he felt that that had too many conentations that were not accurate. His increased Alacrity did not make him inherintly smarter, it just meant he had the potential to be.


    Since he was already in a medium region Alacrity never stopped improving even after reaching the first threshold. It did slow down by a significant degree. Knowing what the stat was allowed Blake to target its growth by trying to be more intentional in his analysis of things. It wasn¡¯t much but it helped.


    After that fighting groups got easier and he eventually managed to meditate through a whole fight which is when he noticed that his stats jumped after killing an enemy. The diffence was small, maybe a half percent of what was needed to the second threshold but it was another opportunity to speed up his growth.


    To test exactly what was happening he killed a rabbicorn in the low regions and then one in the medium region he was working out of. The strength of the rabbicorn showed a direct correlation to stat growth. He now had a path that allowed him to speed up his stat growth to a theoretically infinite degree, he just needed enough enemies to kill.


    He also sensed it influenced his training cooldowns in some ways but he failed to figure out how. Knowing that killing monsters, especially stronger monsters, provided him with even further growth than just regular training in a higher region was why he decided to attack the rabbicorn den early.


    It wouldn¡¯t be today, he still had preparations to make, but it would be soon. Killing the sub-boss of the region would hopefully provide him a larger boost to his stats. Once he had cleared the den he would create a base around it. If he could keep control of the area he could farm the monsters that spawned there for stats.


    Monster spawn locations were not exactly the same everytime but they would be generally in the same area. Part of his preperations the last month had been marking out where some of them came into existance so that he could optimize his time.


    If he could control the den, the location of many rabbicorn spawns including the sub-boss, he would have a steady stream of enemies to fight. It would speed up his growth and help refine his combat skills. Once it was secured he could then begin working in a high-density region.


    How well he handled the sub-boss would be the determining factor on how long Blake decided to wait before moving on. The sub-boss would be individually stronger than anything in the high density regions, they didn¡¯t have boss type monsters, but monsters in high regions started to hunt in pairs and triplets.


    Once he was comfortable fighting in the high region he could quickly move on to a peak region where he could maximize the speed of his growth. He might not even reach that point before being able to ascend.


    Blake couldn¡¯t tell for certain but he felt that he was close to being able to forcibly ascend. Each stat that reached a threshold provided him with support to push through. He suspected that unlocking the remaining three stats would do it but even getting some of his already unlocked stats to the next threshold might help.


    He had yet to reach the second threshold in any stats so he couldn¡¯t be certain it would provide another bump to the support he got to help ascend but he hoped it did, he was much closer getting his main stats to the second threshold than he was unlocking the last three.


    Before getting to into planning his assualt Blake wrote out what stats he knew about as a reminder. His memory was good enough to never really forget but there was something about writing it out that made it easier to think through.


    Body


    Strength - 6 weeks


    Constitution - 2 weeks


    Unknown(Control?) - Soon


    Mind


    Memory - 3 months


    Alacrity - Unknown


    Unknown(Speed of thought?) - Soon


    Spirit


    Affinity - 3 weeks


    Will - Unknown


    Unknown - Who the heck knows


    He had three unknown stats but had theories for two of them. His attempts at training them suggested he was on the right path. Blake also wrote down how long he thought it would take to reach the next threshold in each stat.


    The third spirit stat was the real mystery to Blake. It had barely budged and he had no hint as to what it could possibly be. The only improvement he had seen it make was from killing monsters and he was almost positive that was more because of a boost provided to all stats rather than something about the nature of the third spirit stat.


    In the end, there was nothing he could do to find out the third stat but hope that increasing his Affinity would help or that he would stumble on its purpose while working towards his other goals.


    For now, it was time to plan out the specifics of his attack on the rabbicorn den.

 Chapter 20

    Blake stared down at a hole in the ground. It was approximatley three meters across and had two rabbicorns hopping around it. This was the regions rabbicorn den. It was not his first time seeing it, it took less than a week to locate, but this was his first time doing so with the intention of scouting.


    It had been month since first arriving in the medium region. During this time Blake ramped up his training to push his stats as high as possible, as fast as possible. Every day he pushed his training to the limit. This meant a combination of meditation, Strength training, and beating himself up throughout the day.


    Despite the potential dangers, Blake kept a constant state of meditiation going all day long. This left him less aware of his normal senses since despite all his practice it still wasn¡¯t easy, but his Affinity was growing faster than ever before.


    Of all his stats, Constitution was growing the fastest. Unlike with the others, Constitution had three avenues of growth that were only a mild struggle to push to the point of cooldown. He let rabbicorns attack him for physical resilience, ate raw meat left in the sun for days for his immune system, and never stopped moving between sun up and sun down to strain his endurance.


    As his Affinity grew Blake was able to keep better track of his stats and their relative values. Because of this, he knew that his Constitution was nearing its next threshold. It would take only a week or two more to hit it. Unfortuntately the rest of his unlocked stats were at least a month away.


    Blake was debating whether or not to clear the den out before or after his unlocked stats reached the second threshold. On the one hand waiting was the safest course of action. By his estimates the second threshold representive somewhere between a 25 and 50 percent increase.


    It was a struggle to get an exact number of the chains. Strength, which he used to determine stat growth, didn¡¯t seem to start at what he would consider zero. For example, for the Strength stat, the pull the chain applied to Blake only started to decrease after he was able to exert what he would consider supernatural strength.


    This led him to believe that it was based off his natural potential and it was only by breaking the bonds of natural reality that he could ascend. The question was; what were the normal limits of humanity? Without that refrence point he could only make a rough estimate as to the threshold limits.


    The reason Blake was considering attacking the rabbicorns prior to maxing out his stats was because of a discovery, or rather two discoveries, he had made that should have been obvious in hindsight. His Affinity had improved in leaps and bounds, it was a close second to Constitution in terms of growth, and with it came insight into his growth.


    Despite constant meditation Blake still couldn¡¯t identify the remaining stats but he was able to get a much more accurate reading of their growth than before. His unlocked stats were more clear but his mental view of the locked stats was enough for now.


    Of course, this only applied to the two stats he was able to isolate, the remaining body and spirit stats. There were at least two mind stats remaining and Blake was unable to untangle them.


    Constant meditation meant that Blake always had at least a hint of his attention on his stats so he noticed when the stats began to vary what was, at least from his point of view at the time, randomly.


    Part of Blake¡¯s stay in the medium region had been spent marking the borders. He had never marked the borders of any regions except where two low regions met up. This had been a safety precaution that he threw out the window as his confidence in fighting rabbicorns grew. He never spent time in the high and peak regions he found but he marked the medium regions borders with them.


    While doing this he noticed that the speed his locked stats grew dropped when in the low region. Since Blake didn¡¯t know how to train them they were already growing at an infitesimel pace but they became even slower when in the low regions.


    While he could only train past the first threshold while in a medium or higher region that didn¡¯t mean there were no benefits to stats below that threshold. It turned out he could speed up his training by training in a higher region.


    This was the first discovery he made that led Blake to consider attacking the den earlier than he had originally planned. He had all but given up on reaching tier 3 by the time his first year in the spirit realm was done.


    Blake didn¡¯t have a good read on how much time had passed but it had been at least four months and he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it was passed six. He had only recently figured out a way to ascend and it was too time-consuming to ascend even one realm within a year let alone three. But things were different now.


    A lot of the initial time it had taken to reach the first threshold was do to not having even reached the maximum potential of a natural human. Now that he had done that he believed that training in the next realm could occur much faster.


    On top of that, he had already learned how to make and collect tools and weapons. That would save him a lot of time. He would still want to recraft most of his gear after each realm since Talents got stronger with each tier allowing his passive craft boost to strengthen everything more.


    That would still mean cutting out the first few months of his time in the spirit realm. Blake had experienced large delays in his growth because he had needed to grow strong enough to make stone tools. After making stone tools and having glue moving into using beast parts, specifically rabbicorn horns, had been easy while providing a sizable boost to the strength of his equipment.


    Blake would also be faster since he would not need to deal with learning to fight in the first place. He would still train and get better at fighting but that could be done directly through combat, killing monsters, and gathering better and better supplies for crafting.


    There was another factor to the higher realms that Blake hadn¡¯t needed to consider since he hadn¡¯t believed he could make it. Higher realms had a time dilation to them. They moved faster than Earth. Time moved the same in tier 0 realms as on Earth but after that, each tier doubled the speed of time.


    For tier 1 realms every 2 minutes there was a minute on Earth. Tier 2 would be 4 and tier 3 would be 8. That meant that even though half his available time had likely passed that wasn¡¯t the whole picture. Blake would have a similar if not more time with each tier he reached.


    All this wouldn¡¯t matter if he didn¡¯t have a way to speed up his stat development. That would be the real limiter to his progression. Even if he could wipe out everything in a realm that didn¡¯t help if he was stuck waiting for his training cooldowns. That¡¯s why discovering that higher-density regions sped up growth was so important.


    There would still be a limit to how fast he could grow but if he could push himself to a peak density zone he could speed up his stat growth many times over. There was now something tangible Blake could do to improve the speed of his ascension. It didn¡¯t stop there.


    Discovering that higher regions improved the speed of stat growth while important for planning the future it did not provide the immediate benefits he was looking for. Blake dedicated himself to finding more and better ways to train his stats. Every action he took was analyzed for potential training. Did his stats grow faster with that movement? Slower?


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    Blake no longer required meditation to sense if his unlocked stats were growing but he was meditating anyway to speed up his Affinity so he noticed even the slightest improvement which was why only a couple days ago he identified another way to increase his stat growth across the board.


    It took longer to identify not because the increased growth was smaller than crossing over to a higher region but because he had to do so while fighting. Blake was constantly working on meditating on some level. He had reached a point where he could keep a steady enough state of mind that he could be considered meditating even while walking and not lose sight of his surroundings.


    Being able to more safely meditate while moving was a major accomplishment for Blake. He had been forced to way saftey and growth before he was able to do that. He didn¡¯t stop there though. It was even more dangerous to try and meditate while fighting but he tried anyway.


    Blake was confident in his ability to face rabbicorns and felt no fear when trying to meditate while doing so. The problem for the longest time wasn¡¯t keeping his focus on the fight while meditating, no he didn¡¯t even reach that point. The struggle for Blake was meditating in the first place.


    Meditation took a level of calm focus that he could not seem to reach while fighting. He had only recently been forzen with fright, unable to think at all at the sight of a rabbicorn so it was understandable but it bugged Blake. Keeping his thoughts and feelings under control while dodging a charging rabbicorn was no easy feat.


    It didn¡¯t help that Blake had found a way to fight multiple rabbicorns at a time and did his best to do so at any opportunity. For the most part, the rabbicorns spread out when not in the den but they did stay closer together the closer to the den you got. Blake used this to gather multiple rabbicorns together before fighting back.


    Fighting multiple rabbicorns at a time was an interesting experience for Blake. He had not started trying to meditate during combat when he first did this so he was fully focused on the fight but he still struggled to keep track of both rabbicorns at a time.


    His goal was to practice dodging and battle field awareness while integrating them with his basic spear skills. During that first fight he only brought two of them together but one still nicked his leg. It was barely a scratch but it was the first injury a rabbicorn had landed on him since the very first one.


    He didn¡¯t even notice it until after the fight but Blake was still almost sent into a panic attack after realizing one had tagged him. His extensive meditation training kicked in and helped him regain control. It was not something he wanted to keep dealing with but at least it had been decent practice for his Will stat.


    Realizing that repeated trauma was the fastest way to increase his Will was not something Blake wanted to acknoledge. Dealing with his arrival in the spirit realm had gotten him to the first threshold but it was hard to say it was worth it.


    Twice more he took damage as Blake practiced taking on multiple rabbicorn at a time. Each time he took on a bigger group was a new experience. He never was able to gather a group larger than five but the pressure from that fight was enough that he felt his skills congeal.


    It was strange. Blake had been in the middle of his first five rabbicorn fights. He was pressed to keep track of everything around him, he was trying to meditate, and he was struggling to find the opportunity to attack. The different skills he had gained from his Talent were fighting against each other, each was an instinct with its own idea of how to react. Then from one moment to the next everything clicked together.


    Where before there had been conflicting signals from his skills now there was a smooth translation from one to another on how to act. Meditation wasn¡¯t a skill from his Talent so working with it was still troublesome but Blake suspected that it was responsible for making everything work together in the first place. He had unlocked a new stat after that after all.


    The stat was related to how smart he was. That wasn¡¯t exactly right but it was the best way to describe it. Blakes mind felt more flexible, like he wouldn¡¯t discount information he was given should it not match his preconcieved ideas. He could hold more ideas in his head at once. It wasn¡¯t true multitasking but being able to compare four or five pieces of information at once instead of two made drawing a conclusion much easier and more accurate.


    He decided to call the stat Alacrity. He could have gone with Intelligence like in many video games but he felt that that had too many conentations that were not accurate. His increased Alacrity did not make him inherintly smarter, it just meant he had the potential to be.


    Since he was already in a medium region Alacrity never stopped improving even after reaching the first threshold. It did slow down by a significant degree. Knowing what the stat was allowed Blake to target its growth by trying to be more intentional in his analysis of things. It wasn¡¯t much but it helped.


    After that fighting groups got easier and he eventually managed to meditate through a whole fight which is when he noticed that his stats jumped after killing an enemy. The diffence was small, maybe a half percent of what was needed to the second threshold but it was another opportunity to speed up his growth.


    To test exactly what was happening he killed a rabbicorn in the low regions and then one in the medium region he was working out of. The strength of the rabbicorn showed a direct correlation to stat growth. He now had a path that allowed him to speed up his stat growth to a theoretically infinite degree, he just needed enough enemies to kill.


    He also sensed it influenced his training cooldowns in some ways but he failed to figure out how. Knowing that killing monsters, especially stronger monsters, provided him with even further growth than just regular training in a higher region was why he decided to attack the rabbicorn den early.


    It wouldn¡¯t be today, he still had preparations to make, but it would be soon. Killing the sub-boss of the region would hopefully provide him a larger boost to his stats. Once he had cleared the den he would create a base around it. If he could keep control of the area he could farm the monsters that spawned there for stats.


    Monster spawn locations were not exactly the same everytime but they would be generally in the same area. Part of his preperations the last month had been marking out where some of them came into existance so that he could optimize his time.


    If he could control the den, the location of many rabbicorn spawns including the sub-boss, he would have a steady stream of enemies to fight. It would speed up his growth and help refine his combat skills. Once it was secured he could then begin working in a high-density region.


    How well he handled the sub-boss would be the determining factor on how long Blake decided to wait before moving on. The sub-boss would be individually stronger than anything in the high density regions, they didn¡¯t have boss type monsters, but monsters in high regions started to hunt in pairs and triplets.


    Once he was comfortable fighting in the high region he could quickly move on to a peak region where he could maximize the speed of his growth. He might not even reach that point before being able to ascend.


    Blake couldn¡¯t tell for certain but he felt that he was close to being able to forcibly ascend. Each stat that reached a threshold provided him with support to push through. He suspected that unlocking the remaining three stats would do it but even getting some of his already unlocked stats to the next threshold might help.


    He had yet to reach the second threshold in any stats so he couldn¡¯t be certain it would provide another bump to the support he got to help ascend but he hoped it did, he was much closer getting his main stats to the second threshold than he was unlocking the last three.


    Before getting to into planning his assualt Blake wrote out what stats he knew about as a reminder. His memory was good enough to never really forget but there was something about writing it out that made it easier to think through.


    Body


    Strength - 6 weeks


    Constitution - 2 weeks


    Unknown(Control?) - Soon


    Mind


    Memory - 3 months


    Alacrity - Unknown


    Unknown(Speed of thought?) - Soon


    Spirit


    Affinity - 3 weeks


    Will - Unknown


    Unknown - Who the heck knows


    He had three unknown stats but had theories for two of them. His attempts at training them suggested he was on the right path. Blake also wrote down how long he thought it would take to reach the next threshold in each stat.


    The third spirit stat was the real mystery to Blake. It had barely budged and he had no hint as to what it could possibly be. The only improvement he had seen it make was from killing monsters and he was almost positive that was more because of a boost provided to all stats rather than something about the nature of the third spirit stat.


    In the end, there was nothing he could do to find out the third stat but hope that increasing his Affinity would help or that he would stumble on its purpose while working towards his other goals.


    For now, it was time to plan out the specifics of his attack on the rabbicorn den.

 Chapter 21

    To prevent monsters from coming from across the region to reinforce the den when he began his attack Blake set up traps where he had determined they spawned. Spawn areas for the rabbicorns covered a rather large area but by setting up five to ten snares at each location he had determined he was confident that he would at least minimize what monsters were available.


    While doing this he also killed any rabbicorns currently alive. They had a respawn time between three and seven days so only a few of the traps should be necessary. It all depended on how fast he could move through the region to set up.


    Blake had made traps before, pitfalls and spikes were his primary form of defense early on, but snares were new to him. It took him a bit to create ones that he felt were strong enough to hold a rabbicorn and not just break off.


    Twisting his twine together to make sufficiently sturdy rope ended up taking the longest. He hoped that he found a better plant for rope making in the next region as he was reaching the limit of the tree sapling twines potential.


    Starting from the edges of the region he moved inwards. The closer to the den he got the more dense the rabbicorns spawned so he would have to put up with more resistance while trying to set up his traps. Getting experience with the process while only dealing with one rabbicorn at a time helped him move quickly.


    Once he was within a distance he estimated to be a mile Blake stopped setting up traps. He was able to clear out all the rabbicorns within that area fast enough that they wouldn¡¯t have a chance to respawn before he was done with the den, no matter the outcome.


    Blake didn¡¯t bother to group up the rabbicorns while clearing out the den¡¯s immediate surroundings. He had done so in the past for practice but the monsters were slow and it was much quicker for him to make a well-placed strike on each one, killing it instantly, before moving on.


    Over the last month, Blake had counted out exactly how many rabbicorns there were so that he could say with confidence that he had cleared them all out. It had been a time-consuming process as he had needed to injure each one he encountered to make sure he didn¡¯t double-count any.


    Surroundings clear Blake moved to attack the den itself. He had viewed it from a distance while scouting it in the past but he was moving closer than he ever had before giving him a clearer look.


    The den was little more than a hole in the ground, It was two to three meters in diameter and perfectly round. It was positioned in the center of a glade not unlike the one Blake had turned into his homebase. He had found that every region had a clearing like this although they varied in size and relative position.


    Blake left his backpack at the edge of the clearing bringing only his crude clothing and his spear. His spear was gripped tightly in both hands and he took a moment to take a deep breath and steady his mind.


    He would not be meditating during this fight, at least not to the level he was used to. Meditating while fighting had shown to have many benefits to his concetration and level of awareness but despite his practice Blake was not confident in holding the state.  While meditating brought benefits being knocked out of meditation threw him off. It was not worth the risk.


    There were three states of mind that Blake had identified that he typically fell into while fighting. One was what he had dealt with when first fighting monsters. What he called the panic state. While panicking he would flail about with his spear and if he was only dealing with one rabbicorn was almost guaranteed to get a hit. He was also likely to take a hit in return.


    It was a mindless state that left no room for the skills Blake had spent months refining. He no longer fell into this state of mind while fighting but he took precautions before each fight to make sure it didn¡¯t happen again. Mainly, he cleared his mind ahead of time with meditation.


    The second state of mind was his berserker rage. He focused in on his enemy, or enemies, and did everything he to kill them. He wasn¡¯t necesarily angry in this state but he called it his berserker state after the old rpg archetype.


    Blake took an unhealthy amount of pride in having played many ancient rpg¡¯s from before Awakening was discovered. New RPGs were more reflections of reality in the spirit realm than anything creative or unique. Then again, when reality was just as magical and full of potential as the games of old what was the point of coming up with something different?


    The problem with the berserker state of mind was that his situational awareness dropped to almost nothing. He could utilize his skills to the level he had fully integrated but he couldn¡¯t develop them further through experimentation and afterward, he would struggle to draw any inspiration for improvements to his fighting style.


    He remained aware enough to place his feet but would struggle to stay cognizant of the surrounding trees and bushes. He also would get stuck on the enemies he had already identified leaving him vulnerable to an unknown adversary sneak attacking him.


    The final state of mind was his meditative mind. This was the one he aimed for while practicing and was by far the most beneficial and balanced. Meditating while fighting inherently prevented him from panicking while allowing him to focus on his enemies.


    While he was focused on his enemies he didn¡¯t lose sight of his surroundings like with the beserker rage. In fact, meditation increased his state of awareness. This was a big diffrence from his early days of meditation.


    When he had first started meditating shortly after the first rabbicorn had attacked him mediation had been a way to block out everything. His attention had been on not thinking about everything that was happening so that he could calm his body down enough to rest.


    It has gone through many iterations from there. The next change was when he started using it to process his trauma. Reviewing what had happened and reassuring himself that he had done what he could to prevent it from happening again was a source of comfort for Blake allowing him to sleep without fear of nightmares.


    When he began working with his spear Blake had taken another step forward in his use of meditation. He had learned to review his actions just as he had done with processing his trauma but this time it was to identify points of weakness that could be improved.


    This was almost the exact opposite of what he had done before. Processing his trauma had been reassuring himself and building confidence that he hadn¡¯t done anything wrong, reviewing his actions for improvement was pointing out every flaw and saying he did something wrong.


    The other aspect of improving through review was connecting deeper to his subcouncious to become consious of the skills his Talent provided. Blake had to turn his entire focus inwards to sense anything. This was something he learned to do by expanding on his original meditation technique of ignoring everything.


    Ignoring everything Blake would just listen for what his body, ingrained with the skills of his Talent, was telling him. It was by practicing this state for weeks that he first unlocked his affinity. He identified the chains that were holding him back from ascending to tier one by listening closely to his own body, mind, and spirit.


    It wasn¡¯t until he began his expedition beyond his glade that Blake began trying to accomplish the same things he already had with meditation while moving. This required staying aware of his surroundings and not just ignoring everything to listen.


    It was the epiphany that his body, mind and soul were just as much a part of the world as his surroundings were that he was able to meditate without reducing his awareness of what was around him. He would open his senses and let the information come to him without trying to limit it so that he could force one part of himself to be louder.


    Doing that while fighting was another level of difficult but when he did manage to do it he was able to fight on a level impossible otherwise. His awareness was enhanced by meditation now rather than suppressed allowing him to keep track of his opponents and the obstacles that scattered his field of battle.


    Blake¡¯s processing speed was also improved while meditating. Just like when he worked to integrate his skills and improve with his spear now it could be turned to analyze his opponents mid-fight. With his experience fighting rabbicorns, he felt he could almost see the future.


    The three states of mind that Blake identified; panic, berserk, and meditative, were only the extremes. Most fights he only fell partly in each category. While he didn¡¯t panic completly anymore he often had fights where his panic fueled the berskerk state or he would be trying to meditate but fall into patterns more in line with bersker rage.


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    Since he did not want to risk falling in and out of meditation while fighting in the den he instead aimed to keep a controlled berserk state. He wouldn¡¯t be meditating at a level that did much more than preven losing all awareness of his surroundings but such a small amount of meditation would be easier to handle.


    Spending a few minutes to focus only on meditation clear Blake¡¯s mind. His awareness spread from his body. He felt like part of the forest. The boundaries of his body and mind no longer confined to a limited shape but was one with his surroundings.


    This wasn¡¯t anything supernatural or magical just a level of meditation that could only be accomplished by months of almost non-stop practice. Blake didn¡¯t know if it would be possible to reach the same level of skill he had with meditation had he been around other people.


    In the early days any distraction would have thrown him off. Being able to meditate for so long without stop had fundumentally shifted how he thought and intermidant meditation would not have brought the same kind of benefits.


    Ready in both mind and body Blake stepped into the den. The ground sloped downward at a steep slope. He estimated it was around 45 degrees downwards. He didn¡¯t see any enemies in the dirt tunnel but he also couldn¡¯t see very far before the light of the sun disappeared leaving everything in darkness.


    He took a moment to look at that then turned around. A torch would be helpful here. He hadn¡¯t thought of it before since his eyesight was greatly improved since coming to the spirit realm and he had always had at least bright stars to light the way but he couldn¡¯t see in absolute darkness.


    Soon after he was back with a simple torch. Blake had taken a log and cut it to a length slightly longer than his forearm. From there he had roughly cut its width to a size he could comfortably hold in his hand. It was rounded or anything just a bunch of ragged edges.


    Blake then lit the top on fire. If he wasn¡¯t careful he would burn himself while carrying it but by keeping holding it at an angle he prevented ash from falling on his hand. He would just need to drop it before the whole thing burned.


    Blake added creating proper torches to his list of things to do before exploring a high-density region. He began to walk down the tunnel at a slow pace. So far he hadn¡¯t seen any branches in the path but he did not want to be surprised by an army of rabbicorns.


    The chances of there being anything that could be called an army were almost non-existant but there was still the chance. The most likely scenario was that there would be somewhere between 20 to 50 total monsters in the den somewhere and about five of those would be immediatly available to support the sub-boss.


    That did not mean only five would fight with the sub-boss. A common ability bosses¡¯ had was the ability to call for aid from every monster in the den and then, if injured enough, the region. That was why Blake had spent so much time tracking down every rabbicorn outside the den. He did everything he could to minimize the support the sub-boss could call on.


    If Blake wasn¡¯t careful he could engage the sub-boss before he located all the rabbicorns in the den. He didn¡¯t have the luxury of time as he did outside the den. One feature dens had was an increased spawn rate. While outside the den it took at least three days for a monster to spawn to replace whatever he killed, in the den it could take less than a day.


    If Blake decided he needed to leave the den to rest he was almost guaranteed to have all his work undone come morning. If he tried to practice clearing the den by searching for monsters over the course of days and only killing them all once he was confident he had located them all then he risked the rabbicorns from across the region respawning and escaping his traps.


    Heart beating heavily Blake kept moving down the tunnel until he came to a junction. He hadn¡¯t moved too far by his standards but his standards were also very different than they used to be. Increased Strength let him move faster with less effort and he had spent months traveling across a seemingly infinite forest.


    The tunnel by the standards of a rabbit den was huge. Without measuring tools Blake couldn¡¯t be sure but he estimated it was close to half a mile long. The junction was a circular room with five more tunnels splitting off in every direction.


    The room was occupied by ten rabbicorns. Blake¡¯s face paled. This was the very first room. He could understand if one of the deeper rooms had ten rabbicorns but even that would be unusual as ten would be a good chunk of the monsters in the den. For it to be the very first room did not bode well.


    For a smaller den ten monsters would be half of everything in the den. Since dens typically held at least three rooms of escalating strength, Blake was looking at a minumum of 30 monsters though that was probably low balling it.


    Blake had been expecting ten to be the highest number of monsters he would have to face at once. While practicing he had never been able to group up more than five at a time. Each additional monster he fought at the same time had proven to be exponentially more difficult.


    Fighting five rabbicorns at a time was easy enough for him now and fighting six or seven Blake had some confidence of doing that without any harm coming to him but he wasn¡¯t even sure he could kill ten of them with his current training let alone do so without serious injury.


    Blake debated leaving to continue his stat training until at least Constitution and Strength were maxed out but it was too late. Apparently, walking through a dark tunnel with a bright torch was a great way to attract attention. By the time he saw the rabbicorns they had already turned towards him and were preparing to dodge.


    With only a moment to react, Blake dropped his torch. He wasn¡¯t concerned it would go out and he needed both hands to fight with. The chamber was lit with the flicking orange glow of his torch¡¯s fire. Standing in front of it, spear held in both hands, Blake cast a long, menacing shadow.


    The monsters showed no fear and charged. Blake side stepped the first rabbicorn with ease and it was little trouble dodging the second but then there was a fourth and a fifth. The monsters had been scattered across the room and whether it was intentional or not the staggered timing of their charge made it difficult for him to dodge.


    The first ten attacks were quickly over but Blake didn¡¯t even have a chance to panic before the first rabbicorn was on him again. He was stuck in a loop dodging one rabbicorn after another without a chance to get an attack in. These monsters were fragile enough that even one good attack would cut down their number and give him some reprieve to make more attacks but getting that first chance was proving impossible for Blake.


    Time passed in a blur as he tried to find an out. Escaping through a tunnel was a no go. The only tunnel he knew led to saftey was now covered by a blazing log. His torch had caught completly on fire blocking that avenue of escape. The other tunnels would just lead him to more monsters which was the exact opposite of what he needed right now.


    An opening finally presented itself when two charging rabbicorns ran into each other delaying their attacks. With a moment to spare Blake lashed out with his spear slicing into a rabbicorn that had just passed him. It was not immediately fatal but the open wound on its neck was quickly bleeding out.


    It was no longer able to fight and would die soon enough which was all Blake cared about. With one less monster trying to kill him, he had more space to think. Watching the two rabbicorns run into each other had given him an epiphany.


    Blake didn¡¯t have room to attack even with one of the monsters out of the fight but he could still dodge and now he had a way to weaponize it. His mind working overtime Blake began to analyze the flow of the battle trying to anticipate not the next attack or even two attacks from now but five, ten, twenty attacks in advance.


    If he wanted to get another chance to take out a rabbicorn he needed to create an opening like what had happened before. He needed the rabbicorns to get in each other¡¯s way. They were not intelligent enough to think to avoid that. All they would do is charge in a straight line to attack him.


    Knowing this Blake could dodge in such a way as to maneuver them into each other. His first attempt failed as he had miscalculated the turn radius of the rabbicorns and his second attempt was no better but third times the charm and Blake got three to intercept each other.


    Taking a step back Blake stabbed the butt of his spear behind him. His goal was not to kill the rabbicorn that had just charged passed him but to injure it enough to create more openings. He didn¡¯t stop to verify if it had worked or not before stabbing back forward to impale another rabbicorn.


    Not taking the time to pull the dead rabbicorn off his spear he swept it sideways into the three rabbicorns that had righted themselves and were preparing to charge again. Blake lacked the Strength to take them all out in one sweep but he knocked two of them to the ground. He dodged the third by hopping to the side, turning his body to see how he had done.


    The rabbicorn he had bludgeoned with the butt of his spear had a broken leg and was trying and failing to charge again. The two rabbicorns he had swiped his spear at had fallen in a tangle of limbs and would take a moment to get back up. He also still had the dead rabbicorn on the tip of his spear.


    All in all he had disrupted the rabbicorns¡¯ rythm. They were down to only seven that were in fighting shape and two of them were delayed. From there Blake was able to quickly clean up. Before having the realization that he could use his enemies movements against each other he had already been confident in taking down seven at once so it was easy for him now.


    After the fight was over Blake sat down to meditate. He had managed to keep up a level of meditation throughout the fight to his suprise. He hadn¡¯t planned to but it was the only way he was able to process the rabbicorns¡¯ movements and plan out how to make them run into each other.


    He didn¡¯t need to sit down to meditate but it made it easier if he wasn¡¯t focused on standing. Blake spent a few minutes processing everything that had happened and how he could better integrate his new insight into his fighting style.


    Blake was running into a wall with his improvements to his fighting style and this would likely be the last jump he would see in a while. He had only improved as fast as he had because it was less learning to fight as acknowledging his skills thanks to his Talent. He had already integrated multiple skills together and the most recent insight wasn¡¯t even an improvement to his fighting skills so much as a better utilization of his observational skills.


    With a sigh, Blake stood up. For a moment he debated leaving the den to train before returning but he knew that if he did so it would be as good as admitting that he wouldn¡¯t reach tier 3 before the year was up. Maybe the delay from this one den would be short but if he couldn¡¯t push through now and force himself to grow he would end up delaying again at the next density and the next.


    The jump between regions only increased at higher tiers. Waiting for his stats to develop fully before moving on would become a time-consuming proposition.


    So with a deep breath, Blake chose the tunnel to the immediate right of the entrance and set off.

 Chapter 22

    Blake held the bone of one of the rabbicorns from the first room in his left hand. He had lit the top on fire to replace his torch that he had to leave behind. The rabbicorn bones, when covered in viscera, had proven to be highly flammable.


    The darkness receded from in front of him as he walked down the tunnel. Soon enough Blake come to another room. It was identical in all ways to the first room he had run into except there were only two other exits from this room.


    Ten rabbicorns turned toward Blake to attack. His second battle in the den went much faster than the first. From the very beginning, he maneuvered the monsters into each other through tactical dodging.


    Despite going faster his makeshift torch was down to weak embers by the time he was done. The viscera and bone might have been flammable enough to use for short periods of time but wood was always going to be better. Scavenging through the new monster corpses Blake lit a new torch before choosing a new tunnel at random and moving on.


    The pattern repeated itself with Blake coming to a new room, killing all the monster, then moving through a tunnel at random. He lost track of time while exploring, the lack of a sun making things difficult.


    Not every room was identical but they were all variations of the same thing. A round room of either stone or dirt with rabbicorns filling it. Sometimes there would be boulders, roots, or other obstacles but nothing of value. The number of rabbicorns varied between 10 and 15 per room. Doing more than 10 at a time pushed Blake to his limits even with his newest insight into combat positioning but he never took more than glancing injuries.


    While exploring Blake had hoped to run into a natural treasure or two but had no luck. It did remind him that he had no way to identify a natural treasure unless it was glowing or giving off some other obvious clue that screemed ¡®look at me, I¡¯m a treasure¡¯.


    After crossing three rooms in a row without finding any new monsters Blake realized he was backtracking. He had not planned ahead in his navigation and had been traveling on a whim. This was coming back to bite him as he didn¡¯t know if he had cleared all the rooms yet. If so, where was the boss?


    Blakes memory had reached beyond normal limits and he was perfectly capable of retracing his steps but that didn¡¯t give him a sense of direction. All he could do was point out which tunnels he took and in what order. Forming a map from his memories was a skill that he would have to take time to train. His Memory and Alacrity stats would help but they only represented potential to be utilized.


    At this point, Blake had crossed more than ten rooms and killed over 100 rabbicorns. This scared him. Common knowledge was that a medium-density region should have 50 at most and that was at higher tiers. At tier 0 he should be looking at somewhere around 20 to 30 rabbicorns across the whole den and that included the sub-boss.


    If there were an abnormal amount of monsters in the den what did that mean for the sub-boss? Would it be stronger than what he thought possible? Perhaps it could break the limits on sub-boss abilities and wield magic.


    Blake tried to think positive thoughts. Spawning monster took energy so maybe the sub-boss would be weaker. The energy to spawn all the extra monsters had to come from somewhere and the sub-boss was an easy answer.


    Unfortunetly, Blake was quickly proven wrong. He jogged through the coriddors searching through the rooms as fast as possible for the sub-boss. His newest torch wouldn¡¯t last long and he wanted a fresh kill to make a new torch from.


    Wanting to kill something just to make something from its body would have disgusted Blake before coming to the spirit realm. Now he ran around a den full of dead bodies that he had made, holding a bone he had ripped from the corpse of a monster and was letting the viscera drip onto his hand without a second thought.


    Following his first encounter with a rabbicorn Blake had been too scared to leave his glade and wash up. He had been covered in the blood and guts of that first monster for weeks because of his trauma. That didn¡¯t even mention the puke and crap from his encounter with food poisoning. While he didn¡¯t want to do that again it did leave him immune to the little things like getting blood and guts on his hand for perfectly practical reasons.


    Entering the next room Blake was met with a sight he had been dearly hoping wouldn¡¯t come to pass. The room was the same shape as the others with a flat stone floor, curved walls, and rounded ceiling. It was many times the size of the other rooms, however. The room was filled with rabbicorns and he wasn¡¯t able to get an accurate count within the short period of time he had before they attacked.


    In the center of the chamber was a monster that Blake could only assume was the sub-boss. It looked similar to the other rabbicorns but its lethality had been taken to another level. Over two meters tall the sub-boss towered over not only the normal rabbicorns but Blake as well. Its body was more humanoid in shape with well-defined fingers on its hands and legs that could be used for walking and running as much as hopping.


    Its muscles rippled under its fur and Blake swore he saw a glimmer of intelligence in its eyes. Its eyes were on the front of its face. On Earth, this was the sign of a predator. Prey animals had eyes on the sides of their heads to give them a peripheral view to keep track of predators stalking them. Predators had eyes on the front of their heads to keep sight of their prey. The rabbicorns maintained the side eyes of a normal rabbit but not the sub-boss.


    It still had the white fur of the normal rabbicorns but it was shorter and not as fluffy. It left the monster looking more hairy than furry. On the top of its head, the sub-boss had a horn similar to the rabbicorns but no one would mistake it for the same thing. The rabbicorns had horns around half a foot in length on the high end but the sub-boss¡¯s horn was a foot long.


    The horn glimmered in the light of Blake¡¯s torch. There was a sense of power radiating from it. It took Blake a moment to realize that the sensation was being read through his Affinity. He hadn¡¯t run into anything except region borders that could be picked up by his Affinity.


    That wasn¡¯t good for his chances in a fight but it did tell him that the horn could most likely be classified as a natural treasure. He really wanted a spear made from that horn. Blake could imagine it now. A supernatural spear capable of piercing any target he set his mind to. He hadn¡¯t run into anything capable of resisting his current spear but the benefits provided by his Talent would be great too. There was no way a spear crafted with a natural treasure was not classified as high quality.


    Blake only had a moment to take it all in before the first rabbicorns began charging at him. Taking in the sight of at least 20 rabbicorns charging at him backed by a sub-boss he did the only thing he could. He turned and ran.


    The only reason Blake hadn¡¯t run from his first fight was because it hadn¡¯t been an option. There had been enemies on every side cutting off his route of escape. After that none of the fights had pushed him to the point where he had needed to consider it.


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    That was not the case in this fight. Blake had already cleared out the nearby chambers giving him a route of escape. Only, escape wasn¡¯t his goal. Blake knew he couldn¡¯t take on such a large group all at once so his plan was to separate them out. The tunnel acted as a natural choke point to limit the amount of rabbicorns that could reach him at once.


    Alone that would not have been enough. The rabbicorns could build up speed when charging over longer distances and their horns were still dangerous to Blake. His fights with them always involved him dodging the rabbicorns¡¯ charge and retaliating while their backs were turned. That wasn¡¯t an option in a tunnel.


    Luckily the tunnels were short. Reaching the chamber at the end of the tunnel Blake jumped to the side just in time for a group of rabbicorns to charge passed. The monsters spilled into the room in a wave tumbling into each other in their eagerness to kill the intruder. With the monsters getting in each other¡¯s way for the moment Blake picked off a few from the edges of the group.


    It was only a fraction of the monsters after him but it was a start. With the rabbicorns quickly getting back to their feet, Blake ran down another tunnel to try and repeat what had happened. It was a success but he wasn¡¯t as happy about it as he wanted to be. As he ran out of the second chamber he glanced back to see the sub-boss staring at him.


    Blake thought he saw a little smirk but its facial features were too alien to him to be sure. It walked slowly behind the charging rabbicorns and the monsters around it looked to be getting to their feet faster. That was not a good sign.


    Despite his mounting dread, Blake was able to repeat his performance three more times before anything changed. The rabbicorns¡¯ numbers had been cut down to below half and had the sub-boss not been a concern he would have been able to take on the remnants without resorting to his tactical retreat strategy. That¡¯s assuming you don¡¯t consider dodging a tactical retreat.


    The sub-boss lifted its foot high in the air. Blake got a good look at it to see it wasn¡¯t as big as you would a rabbit¡¯s foot to be on a creature so big but it was still much bigger than a human¡¯s foot and covered in white fur. The sub-boss stomped its foot into the ground with a loud thump. It repeated the action at regular intervals over the next couple of seconds.


    Blake wasn¡¯t sure what to make of that and began moving on to the next chamber. He was already in the next chamber killing off more rabbicorns when he hear it. A rumble shook the earth. It took a moment for him to identify what it was. It was the sound of rabbicorns charging but not the ones he was fighting.


    From one of the side tunnels in the newest chamber, a group of rabbicorns joined the fight. It was a group of ten that had clearly come from an uncleared room. Blake wanted to scream. Not out of fear or panic but rather frustration with himself. He had known that boss-type monsters usually had the ability to call on every living monster in the den and sometimes the region but he had been impatient to get the fight over with and hadn¡¯t done his due diligence.


    Blake had not spent the time to map out the whole den and mark down where the rabbicorns were to make sure they were all dead. No, he had decided that since he hadn¡¯t run into any new enemies for a while it must be safe to approach the obviously different room without preparation.


    Over the next ten minutes Blake continued to lure the monsters into chamber after chamber to pick off the ones at the edge of the group. He barely kept up with the growing horde of monsters during this time. It never grew back into the same size it had been originally but horde got close.


    Blake had several close calls when monsters had come down tunnels he was running down. It was only because the rabbicorns didn¡¯t start to charge before seeing him that he was able to slip between them and run passed. His breathing was coming heavily and his legs felt heavy.


    It took a lot to tire out Blake these days with his Constitution stat but running as fast as he could while fighting for almost half an hour was a stretch even for him. As new groups of rabbicorns came less and less frequently the sub-boss sent out its call again. This time it put more force into each stomp and went on for longer.


    Blake suspected this was to call in the rabbicorns from across the region not just those in the den but there was nothing he could do about it. Trusting that at least his preparations outside the den had been sufficient Blake kept working to clear out the rabbicorns.


    As the minutes passed with no sign of new rabbicorns the sub-boss began to show signs of irritation. The next chamber over, with no signs of rabbicorn reinforcements, the sub-boss took direct action against Blake for the first time in the fight.


    With a speed far surpassing the normal rabbicorns the sub-boss charged at Blake. He only had a moment to feel surprised before dodging out of the way. Unfortunately, the sub-boss was no stupid rabbicorn incapable of doing anything but run in a straight line. At the speed it was moving it couldn¡¯t turn on a dime but it could reach out its hand.


    From its human-like fingers claws extended tearing into Blake¡¯s arm in passing. He let out a scream almost dropping his spear. His Constitution was useless against the sub-boss¡¯s claws. The monster quickly shifted its body to engage Blake more directly not sticking to the rabbicorn pattern of repeated charges.


    Only a few rabbicorn were alive at this point in the fight and both Blake and the sub-boss ignored those that remained. Without numbers, they were little more than obstacles to maneuver around. Claws extended, the sub-boss dashed at Blake.


    Blake hadn¡¯t trained to fight creatures with claws. A major oversight given claws were such a common characteristic of even normal animals let alone monsters. There was nothing he could do about it now while fighting for his life.


    Moving his spear into the way of the claws, Blake stepped back trying to buy some space. His spear worked best when he had room to stab with but the sub-boss didn¡¯t allow him any reprieve. It pushed forward slashing at him with both hands. Wounds began to cover him to accompany the gashes in his arm that the sub-boss had already scored.


    Things were not going well. Blake was unable to get a single strike in while the sub-boss was able to hit him repeatedly. His blocking and dodging skills were enough to prevent the monster from getting a good hit in but the damage was adding up. If he didn¡¯t finish the fight soon he risked bleeding to death.


    Blake felt helpless. Memories of arriving in the spirit realm where he had been trapped in that void for eternity only feeling pain blossomed in his mind. His first encounter with a monster where he hadn¡¯t been able to fight back. The food poisoning that came after which he had been pushed into by circumstances beyond his control.


    ¡®No.¡¯


    ¡®Not again.¡¯


    More memories came to Blake. His months of training and gaining confidence in his Strength. His first fight with a rabbicorn one on one where he had slain it with ease. Traveling the realm marking out regions while pushing his training even further. Entering the medium region for the first time and finding that he was strong enough to not only survive but kick some monster rear.


    Entering the den, specifically, the first room, where he thought he was going to be stuck in a cycle of endless dodging forever but pushing through despite that. He had surpassed his own expectations and maintained a state of calm meditation long enough to come up with a solution.


    Blake¡¯s attention returned to the monster in front of him. He had pushed through, survived, and thrived every challenge put in front of him. By himself. He had built the base where he lived. He had come up with the training regiment that taught him how to fight well enough to take on a medium region alone. He had taken the horns of his defeated foes to craft weapons and tools capable of shaping the world around him.


    With a guttural roar, Blake shoved his spear forward, it was lengthwise to block the monsters claws, before letting it go. Leaning forward he charged shoulder first into the sub-boss tackling it to the ground. The monster was stunned by his actions not moving for a second. That was plenty of time for Blake to go all out with his fists.


    He hadn¡¯t trained with unarmed combat and it was antithetical to his Talents nature but his Strength made up the diffrence. He wailed on the monsters face, punching with all his might. If that wasn¡¯t enough he repeatedly kneed the monster in the chest caving it in.


    By the time Blake regained awareness of his surroundings, the sub-boss was long dead. At some point during their fight, the remaining rabbicorns had disappeared, either dead or having run away, leaving him alone in the chamber. He had dropped his torch leaving him in almost complete darkness but the sub-bosses horn let out a soft glow.


    Blake, covered in gore from both the sub-bosses body that he had mutilated and his own wounds, smiled widely. He had done it.


    Blake then promptly passed out.

 Chapter 23

    Blake woke with a start, heart pounding. The coppery scent of blood sent him into a momentary panic as he tried to process his jumbled memories from moments before passing out.


    He had won. Everything was ok. Blake didn¡¯t know how long he had been passed out from blood loss and pain but if the state of his injuries was anything to go by it was a while. Every scratch and wound inflicted upon him had scabbed over and healed to a degree. He was by no means an expert in spiritual realm healing but if his past experiences were anything to go by it had been at least a day.


    That sent another jolt of panic through Blake as monsters respawned daily in dens but he quickly remembered that once the sub-boss was killed the respawn rate dropped to the region average until the sub-boss respawned in 2 to 4 times as long. That left him with a week before he had to worry about monster spawns.


    The monsters outside the den would also see a drop in spawn rate though the difference was smaller at only a 50% increase in spawn time. Blake looked around at the chamber he had collapsed in. It was a horror show of blood and gore. Monster bodies were strewn everywhere, rotting slowly in the damp underground.


    The dim lighting from the sub-boss¡¯s horn did not help matters. Everything looked worse in dim lighting. Struggling to his feet Blake began to shuffle towards the corpse of the sub-boss. He was too weak and tired, despite his day of rest, to collect all the rabbicorns but he wouldn¡¯t risk leaving the best prize behind.


    If Blake waited too long the corpses would begin to dissapate into the ambient energy of the spirit realm. The rate of dissolution depended on the local energy density as well as the strength of the corpse. The relative strength of the monsters meant dissolution was not much of a concern outside of a den but inside he had three to four days before everything dissolved.


    Any sort of processing, or in some cases just harvesting, prevented this strange phenomena but the process was not well understood. Blake grabbed the knife he had tied to his belt and began to saw into the sub-boss¡¯ skull carving out the horn. The sub-boss was massive and he was in no state to carry the whole thing out so he would have to settle for just the horn.


    As he worked to harvest the monster Blake thought over what had happened. Something was wrong with this den. The number and density of monsters were unheard of for tier 0 and, if Blake remembered correctly, was never seen below tier 6. Information above tier 5 was heavily censored so he didn¡¯t even have confirmation that it was seen there.


    Then there was the sub-boss. Not all bosses were the same but depending on the region¡¯s theme there were certain variations. For a rabbicorn region, Blake had heard of a rabbicorn brawler or a horny rabbicorn.


    ¡®People are so immature.¡¯ Blake thought to himself.


    Rabbicorn brawlers were a rabbicorn evolution that stood at approximately five feet tall as opposed to the basic rabbicorn¡¯s two feet. They have thick muscles that they use to quickly pounce on their opponents before rapidly punching them into oblivion. Brawlers were the most common form of evolution for rabbicorns and could even be seen as the standard monster in higher tiers.


    Technically all boss monsters were just higher tier variants of their region¡¯s monsters but due to either having magic but being too weak for tier 4 and above or some other unique traits, not every boss type is seen as a common monster. Brawlers were one of the few that you were almost guaranteed to run into at some point.


    Horny rabbicorns were a more rare rabbicorn evolution that focused on the use of their horn. This evolution had a couple of variations but the core thing was their horn got stronger and sharper and the monster became more intelligent and capable of strategic use of their natural weapon.


    Horny rabbicorns were the brain to the brawler¡¯s brawn. In some cases, a horny rabbicorn could have magic that was cast through their horn. The weakness of the horny rabbicorns was their physical strength. They were larger than a basic rabbicorn but smaller than a brawler at only three feet tall.


    Sometimes they were more nimble to support the use of their horns as weapons but it was more typical for their horns to be supernaturally powerful and large to make their use easier with a more limited physical capacity.


    Looking at the sub-boss he had fought Blake couldn¡¯t help but wonder what it was. The monster was much taller than him which put it well over six feet tall. That alone discounted both the brawler and horny rabbicorns. This monster had the physique of a brawler but it didn¡¯t come at the cost of its horn which looked developed enough to belong to a horny rabbicorn.


    Heck, it was glowing. If that wasn¡¯t a sign of power Blake didn¡¯t what was. There was a good chance the thing was magical and the sub-boss hadn¡¯t seen the need to use it until it was too late. Blake had been losing the fight until the last moment when he threw himself at the monster in a last-ditch attempt to survive. Why would it have wasted its magic when claws worked just as well?


    The strangest part of the monster was the claws. He had never heard of a rabbicorn with enhanced claws. All rabbicorns had claws but they were short little things meant only to help them move. They were of no use as a weapon.


    The sub-boss had inch-long claws with razor-sharp edges that had sliced through Blake¡¯s skin like it wasn¡¯t even there. This was even more impressive when you took into account his enhanced Constitution.


    The creature was intelligent too. It had waited to engage Blake until he was tired from fighting what he estimated to be around 100 basic rabbicorns. It had kept calling reinforcements to keep the pressure up which led him to make small mistakes and take damage.


    Only when there were no more rabbicorns to throw at Blake did it attack. The way it fought was no less brilliant. It had charged exactly once before concluding it to be a useless method of assault and changing tactics. It had transitioned to unarmed combat if you don¡¯t count claws as weapons, swiftly and not let up.


    It had realized that he needed space to properly wield his spear and had made sure to never give him that space. If Blake hadn¡¯t given up on blocking and/or dodging its attacks the sub-boss would have won. He had to take a direct hit from the creature to secure his victory.


    The sub-boss had proven remarkably resilient as Blake¡¯s hands almost gave out from pummeling it before it did. This was even more clear by the difficulty he was having removing its horn.


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    The strength of the sub-boss greatly worried Blake. He had been planning to speed run the rest of the realm to reach a peak density region where he could rapidly grow his stats but that wasn¡¯t looking like an option anymore. If the boss monsters of peak regions were as overpowered as the sub-boss had been he was going to need to develop his stats more and get better equipment.


    The latter would be greatly helped by the horn and claws of the sub-boss. After finally removing the horn from the monster Blake began working out its claws. As he did so he fell deeper into meditation, mentally falling into the space where he could check the growth of his stats.


    After having to maintain meditation for such a long period of time during the sub-boss fight Blake no longer had any trouble meditating. He had been good before but now he didn¡¯t think that even combat could disrupt his mental stability. That didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t feal panic and fear just that they would no longer overcome his logic to control his actions.


    Reviewing his stats Blake saw at least one reason why it had become so much easier so fast. His Will had reached not just the second threshold but the third. He hadn¡¯t even known that was possible, he had assumed it would take entering a high-density region. Will was proving to be the fastest-growing stat. This was balanced out by being the most difficult to train.


    It had only been a month since it reached the first threshold and it had only shown minimal improvement during that time. The thing was, Will had not ever had a training cooldown. He didn¡¯t have a method to intentionally train it besides living life but extreme moments of stress and internal conflict grew it like nothing else.


    Overcoming the trauma that was his arrival in the spirit realm had pushed it to the first threshold. The second and third thresholds had been driven by his fight with the sub-boss. He had been fighting for his life, on the verge of death, and in that moment Blake had steeled himself and risked everything for a chance at life.


    That moment combined with the stat growth bonus he got from slaughtering monsters drove his Will to such heights. Will wasn¡¯t the only stat to experience such growth. Unlike Will, the other stats were limited in how much training could be done in one session but the growth bonus from the rabbicorns had helped bypass that restriction.


    Both Constitution and Affinity had reached the second threshold where they had stopped. It seemed whatever had allowed Will to surpass the second threshold did not apply to the other stats. While no other stats had reached the second threshold they all saw great improvement including the final spirit stat.


    The final body and mind stats reached the threshold and a little beyond. Blake could now sense exactly what they were. For the body stat, he labeled it Dexterity. It represented control over his actions. This was both fine motor control but also the ability to apply his Strength as fast as possible for speed.


    Now that he knew what the stat was Blake could trace back what training had effected it. There were two main components to developing his Dexterity. First was his Talent. He had guessed there was a physical component to the growth his Talent provided as the supernatural warmth wasn¡¯t just centered around his brain but also spread throughout his body.


    It was the muscle memory of how to use the tools and equipment he made that triggered this growth. Muscle memory isn¡¯t actually memory in the way most people would think of it. In reality, muscle memory is ingrained patterns that are grown into the muscle and nervous system. When his Talent improved his muscle memory it was directly growing the body into the needed shape which in turn improved his Dexterity.


    The other major contributor to his Dexterity was the intense obstacle course training. When Blake had first put his newfound Strength to the test he found he lacked control over his own muscles and was incapable of utilizing the full potential of his body without falling on his face.


    Looking back he could see that this was because of his underdeveloped Dexterity. He had made an obstacle course to practice using his body. This was the most direct form of Dexterity training he had. If he had a more difficult course to train on he might have unlocked his Dexterity much sooner given how much time he worked on his control.


    It went to show that developing his stats was not inherently safe. Blake would have to be careful to keep all his stats up or risk debalancing himself. It brought to mind the fact that he had never heard of stat training before discovering it.


    Was that for his own safety? Did the government restrict information on stats to prevent people from becoming unbalanced? Ascending was said to double your strength each tier did that include his improved stats? If so then any imbalance now would become a bigger and bigger liability as he ascended.


    The diffrence between his stats would essentially double each time along with his total strength which could lead to an imbalance that could kill him. From that perspective restricting information was a mercy. Blake could easily see people, himself included, only training one or two stats that they felt were relavent before ascending.


    From the governments point of view it would be better to have many weaker but higher tier individuals then a society of people who can¡¯t make it past tier 2 because they were unbalanced. Blake shook his head. It was an intresting thought experiment but was irrelevent for him right now.


    He turned his attention to the newly unlocked mind stat. This one was a bit harder to name but Blake eventually landed on Celerity. It was the speed of his thoughts. The higher his Celerity the slower the world seemed to move around him.


    Unlike Alacrity, Celerity did not make him any smarter. It sped up how fast he came to conclusions but it would be the same conclusion no matter how high his Celerity. Alacrity changed his conclusion by enhancing his ability to compare information through multitasking and mental flexibility.


    Blake didn¡¯t have any specific way he had trained Celerity but a lot of little things had contributed to its growth which had allowed it to reach the first threshold. Basically, he thought a lot. It sounded stupid even to Blake but thats what it came down to.


    The more he processed information the better he got at it. This was especially true when he worked to sort through lots of information as quickly as possible. For example, when he worked to analyze the information provided by his Talent.


    When Blake¡¯s Talent activated it provided an info dump that he had to spend time working through. It was too much information for him to understand all at once which is one of the reasons he spent so much time meditating originally.


    Every time his Talent activated Blake spent time meditating and thinking through what his Talent was telling him. It allowed him to identify flaws in his work as well as get a better feel for the quality of his tools.


    This process of sorting through the information to draw conclusions was an excellent exercise for his Celerity. The higher his Celerity the faster Blake could utilize the information his Talent provided.


    There was another method of training his Celerity. Fighting had proven to grow his Celerity at an accelerated rate if he was pressed hard enough. Blake had taken to meditating while fighting to help him sort through everything that was happening and make intelligent choices. This was the work of Celerity.


    By meditating Blake was using his Celerity to its full potential to think through the fight before taking action. In easy fights, this didn¡¯t matter as there was not much to think about but as he fought larger groups of rabbicorns the pressure of keeping track of them all worked his Celerity to the limit.


    Removing the last of the sub-boss¡¯s claws Blake smiled. It had been a hard-fought battle that had left him heavily injured but the gains made it all worth it. He hadn¡¯t noticed it at the time but reviewing his memories of the sub-boss¡¯ death showed him how much of a stat growth bonus it had provided.


    It was significantly more than he could have ever hoped for, at least when compared to the other rabbicorns. Blake had noticed that the more rabbicorns he killed the less bonus stat growth he gained but that didn¡¯t seem to apply to the sub-boss and the difficult fight already provided a significant bonus.


    All together Blake would estimate the sub-boss to be worth around 100 basic rabbicorns. Smile wide on his face Blake hobbled out of the den into the sunlight.


    Yes, it had been worth it. Now he just needed to prepare to do it again in the next medium region.

 Chapter 24

    Body Stats


    Strength - 2nd Threshold (0%)


    - Ability to exert force


    Constitution - 2nd Threshold (0%)


    - Physical resilience


    - Immune system


    - Endurance?


    Dexterity - 1st Threshold (70%)


    - Bodily control


    - Speed(limited by Strength)


    Mind Stats


    Memory - 2nd Threshold (0%)


    - Mental capacity


    Alacrity - 1st Threshold (30%)


    - Mental flexibility


    - Ability to multitask


    - How ¡®smart¡¯ I am


    Celerity - 1st Threshold (20%)


    - Speed of thought


    - Perception of time slowed


    Spirit Stats


    Affinity - 2nd Threshold (0%)


    - Spiritual senses (Still don¡¯t understand this)


    - Other things? Feel like there¡¯s more but don¡¯t know what


    Will - 3rd Threshold (0%)


    - Control over mental state


    - Internal motivation


    Unknown - No Threshold (25%)


    - I wish I knew

 Chapter 25

    Blake crept through the den, torch in hand. He had learned a lot from his foray into the den. For example, torches. He didn¡¯t have a proper torch the first time around and had lost it in his very first conflict. The torch he had now was little better, but he brought multiple and planned to take more care with keeping them close by.


    The biggest change from his first go around was his choice of weapon. Blake had originally chosen a spear as his go-to weapon because it was easy to make with low-quality materials and would be of great use against larger monsters. It also gave him some space from the monsters, which was a necessity when he first started out, if only for his peace of mind.


    It was overkill for fighting rabbicorns, but there had been no problems with the weapon outside the den, so he had stuck with it even if there might have been better options. While in the den, he had found the spear¡¯s biggest flaw. It required a certain amount of room to be wielded effectively that he just couldn¡¯t be guarenteed while in the tight confines of the den.


    He was also constantly surrounded by rabbicorns, making the spear rather difficult to utilize to its full potential. As if that were not bad enough, Blake found that the slow speed at which he could reposition with the spear made it a bad choice for fighting groups of enemies.


    He could slash with the spear to a degree, but the monsters kept getting stuck on the end of the weapon, which took time to remove. No, Blake needed a weapon that could be used rapidly in quick succession and could be used with minimal training.


    Having given himself only a month to prepare, Blake did not have the time to train with his new weapon to the same extent he had with the spear. There were also limitations to the quality he could make with anything but a spear or sometimes a small knife. The rabbicorn horns were just not the right shape for other types of bladed weapons.


    In the end, Blake landed on using an axe. He had already made small hatchets to cut down trees and shape logs with, so he had the basic skills for it. All he needed to do was extend and thicken the handle while making the stone axe head bigger and heavier.


    Shaping the axe head was the most time-consuming part due to its sheer size. A spearhead was no bigger than a hand, but his newest weapon had a blade the length of his forearm. Blake managed to sharpen it to a higher degree than any of his prior stone tools by using the sub-boss¡¯s horn.


    The horn was indestructible to the current him, so he was able to run it along the axe¡¯s edge, using it as a whetstone. The blade would still dull faster than his rabbicorn-based weaponry and was weaker, too, but horn weaponry was overkill for the basic rabbicorns.


    The heavy stone blade, when combined with Blake¡¯s second threshold Strength, could put down multiple rabbicorns in one swing if they were grouped up tightly enough. He had tested this extensively on the monsters that came up from the den over the last month.


    The sub-boss was a different matter. That creature had proven to be far harder to kill, but Blake had a plan for that. An axe would do until then. He had tried dual-wielding axes, but while it would help speed up his potential killing speed, it would take a lot more time and practice to make it a viable option. Time he did not have if he wanted a chance at making it to tier 3 within the next half year.


    Blake entered the first monster chamber, ready to kick some rabbicorn butt. In his right hand, he held an axe, while in his left was a torch. Attached to his plant skirt was a rabbicorn horn knife. Strapped to his back was his sub-boss-killing weapon.


    With a savage grin on his face, Blake charged into the chamber. Giving no time for the monsters to react, he swung his axe towards the nearest rabbicorn. With only a hint of resistance, the monster¡¯s head wasn¡¯t only cut clean off but completely obliterated under the weight of Blake¡¯s Strength.


    With a twist of his wrist, Blake¡¯s Dexterity let him twist the momentum of the swing into the next monster. With Celerity acting at maximum capacity, he watched as the rabbicorns began to charge toward him. He deftly stepped out of their way and cleaved through another rabbicorn.


    Within short order, the room was cleared. Blake couldn¡¯t help but let out a laugh at the ease at which he had killed them all. He had been certain of his own demise the first time through, and even though he had eventually won, it had taken a long time.


    Blake would have been surprised if it took even a minute this time. A combination of higher stats, practice, and a proper weapon made all the difference. He hadn¡¯t even put his torch down. His control over the situation let him carry it through the whole fight.


    Pulling out his knife, Blake began to carve into the wall he had entered through. Not having any particular interest in creating unique names for each chamber and tunnel, he was just going to label each one ¡®A¡¯ through ¡®Z.¡¯ Outside would be ¡®A,¡¯ so the first chamber was ¡®B¡¯. Next to each tunnel, he would label which chamber it connected to, while on the floor of the chamber, he would put the chamber¡¯s designation.


    With the entrance and chamber, both labeled Blake labeled the first tunnel he was going through before moving on. Once the next room was cleared, he repeated the process of labeling the chamber and the tunnel he came through. Rather than going through another tunnel off of chamber ¡®C,¡¯ he returned to the entrance, chamber ¡®B.¡¯


    From there, Blake took a second tunnel. To keep things a little simpler, he was going to mark every tunnel in each room before moving to a new chamber. So once he completed marking all chambers off of ¡®B,¡¯ he moved into room ¡®C¡¯ and repeated the process.


    The methodical process of marking each room took more time than the actual clearing of each room. It was even slower than his first run-through, and by the time he had marked and cleared all but the boss room, the first monsters were respawning.


    He was more confident in his ability to take on the sub-boss, but Blake still didn¡¯t want to risk the entire den¡¯s population of monsters coming down on his head all at once, so he left to take a break.


    The staggered respawning would be too difficult to keep track of, so Blake took a day off to let everything respawn. During that time, he took a plank of wood and carved out a map of the den into it.


    The next day, Blake returned to the den. With everything mapped out, he was able to quickly and efficiently clear all the monsters from the den, with the exception of the sub-boss room.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    ¡®I should have done this his first time around, but, well, live and learn, I guess,¡¯ Blake thought.


    Rather than charging right into the final chamber axe in hand, Blake attached the axe to a loop on his belt. From his back, he unslung his plan to quickly kill the sub-boss. A javelin made from the previous sub-boss¡¯s horn.


    Javelin in hand, Blake charged into the room. Once again, the basic rabbicorns were caught off guard and had no time to react before he began to attack. Unfortunately, the sub-boss was not so unintelligent and had heard him coming.


    With a yell, Blake threw the javelin with all his might straight at the sub-boss. It might have been aware he was coming, but it was clearly not prepared for the speed of the weapon launched towards it. It couldn¡¯t dodge out of the way before the weapon pierced its body with ease.


    While it had failed to dodge the attack, it did shift far enough out of the way to prevent its immediate death. Combined with its inhuman levels of vitality, it stayed upright, glaring at Blake. He let out a groan in frustration.


    Hours of practice had gone into practicing javelin throwing, but without more complex moving obstacles, there was only so much Blake could learn to adjust for. He had hit the sub-boss, sure, but he had been betting on one-hit kills so that he could quickly clean up the rest of the monsters without concern.


    With the sub-boss still alive, Blake would now have to be cautious while fighting the basic rabbicorns. Even a hobbled sub-boss could prove deadly if he underestimated it. The large monster began stomping its feet to call all the rabbicorns to it. Unlike the first one, it did not start by calling only in the den and then later move to the rest of the region.


    Unlike his first clear of the den, Blake did not kill every rabbicorn outside the den but was rather relied on his base defenses. Any rabbicorns that tried to come to the sub-boss¡¯s aide would find themselves facing a trench full of wooden spikes.


    No, clearly, this sub-boss understood the danger it was in and was going all out from the beginning. If that had been all, Blake was still confident in moving through the basic rabbicorns quickly with his axe before finishing the monster off. It might have been standing, but its injury prevented it from moving with the ease it was used to.


    Instead, Blake got confirmation of one of his theories about this powered-up variant of a rabbicorn sub-boss. It did indeed have magic. The first one never had a chance to use its magic after it had become necessary, but this one did. Its horn¡¯s subtle glow began to intensify.


    The light surrounding it looked like it was bending as it gathered on the tip of the horn. Moving quickly, Blake grabbed his axe and began carving a path towards the sub-boss. He wasn¡¯t fast enough.


    Blake was halfway to the sub-boss when it finished its working of magic. A projectile that looked to be made of solid light shot from its hard at him. He was lucky that it did not truly move at the speed of light and instead was moving at a speed more reminiscent of an arrow.


    The effectiveness of his Celerity was on full display as Blake dove out of the way. The bar of light impacted his side, throwing him to the ground. He cried out in pain as he felt his right side burn from the projectile energy.


    The basic rabbicorns pounced on his fallen body, determined to rip him apart. With a roar, he threw them off and leaped back to his feet. No longer caring about the rabbicorns and the multitude of wounds they inflicted on him, Blake charged the sub-boss.


    He would not let it get another shot off. A look of panic crossed the giant rabbit¡¯s face. Blake couldn¡¯t explain how he understood the monster¡¯s facial expressions if he tried, but the fear in its eyes was unmistakable. The intelligence it possessed almost made him hesitate, but his right side still burned in pain from its magic, keeping him focused.


    The sub-boss released another strike moments before Blake reached it. It didn¡¯t have as much time to charge this one up, resulting in a dimmer, slower attach, but the distance was also much shorter. It took him in the shoulder, but other than stumbling a little, Blake showed no signs that it affected him as he swung his axe at the monster¡¯s head.


    That was all it took as its head caved in from the blow. It didn¡¯t pop as the weaker rabbicorns had, but that was to be expected given its enhanced Constitution. Taking only a moment to confirm the sub-boss was down for good, Blake turned around to face the remaining basic rabbicorns.


    A short time later, Blake was the only remaining thing alive in the chamber. It could be argued that monsters were never truly alive in the first place, but that was just semantics. He collapsed to the ground in pain. His entire right side was burned from the first magic attack, and his left shoulder was little better.


    Blake might have pushed through the pain while fighting, but that didn¡¯t mean he wasn¡¯t badly injured. His third threshold, Will really came through when keeping him focused during battle. His battle meditation had barely flickered despite being even more injured than he had been after his first boss battle.


    The only reason he hadn¡¯t passed out this time was because the fight was so short. Well, that and his injuries were more in the form of burns and bruises, not so much as jagged claw wounds that caused blood loss.


    Blake let out a self-deprecating chuckle. ¡®And here I thought the second time would be easier¡¯


    With a sigh, Blake focused in on his stats. He needed to know if it was worth it after all. He was surprised to find that his stats were actively growing as he watched. Apparently, the stat bonus from killing the sub-boss didn¡¯t occur all at once and was rather absorbed over time.


    He had passed out for an indeterminate amount of time following his first battle, so he had never noticed. Hoping to learn more about the strange phenomena, Blake focused in on the chains he visualized when checking his stats. He tried to trace where the growth was coming from.


    If he could identify what he was getting from the monsters he killed that helped him grow his stats, he might be able to better optimize his training, cutting down on how long he delayed ascending.


    After a fight like that, it was tempting to ascend immediately just to get the doubled strength boost. Or would it be Strength? He wondered if his stats were what was doubling with each tier up or if there was something else to the process.


    With a shake of his head, Blake turned his attention back to his growing stats. Alas, he was unable to detect what was happening. Perhaps once his Affinity reached a higher threshold, or even after ascending, but for now, he could only watch the stats grow and try to draw conclusions from that.


    A moment later, Dexterity reached the second threshold. With that, only three stats could still be trained within a medium-density region. Alacrity, Celerity, and the mysterious third spirit stat. Blake was interested to find that the speed they grew increased once Dexterity maxed out.


    Whatever benefit he was gaining was clearly divided among every stat that could still grow. Though, as he had previously noted, it wasn¡¯t divided evenly. How much he used a stat during the fight influenced how much it benefited. Celerity was the clear winner in this regard as it outgrew both Alacrity and the third spirit stat.


    The third spirit stat grew by far the least. Even after Dexterity stopped taking up a chunk of the potential growth, it did not show much improvement. That didn¡¯t matter too much to Blake as he now had a way to force its advancement to the first threshold.


    As long as he delayed moving to a high-density region, he could max out Celerity and Alacrity so that all that extra growth went to the unknown stat. It wouldn¡¯t matter that he didn¡¯t use it during a fight, as it was the only available candidate for growth. Once it reached the first threshold, Blake would be able to tell what the stat was by applying his Affinity to it and then use that knowledge to train it intentionally.


    The stat growth tapered off after a few moments. None of the remaining stats reached the second threshold, but Celerity was close. Very close. In the pooling blood of the rabbicorns, Blake wrote out his current stat thresholds and, for those not maxed, how close they were to the next.


    Strength - 2nd


    Constitution - 2nd


    Dexterity - 2nd


    Memory - 2nd


    Celerity - 1st (90%)


    Alacrity - 1st (75%)


    Will - 3rd


    Affinity - 2nd


    Unknown - 0th (40%)


    It was good progress. Now, he just had to clear dens as fast as possible to cap out his remaining stats.

 Chapter 26

    Despite feeling a sense of urgency to ascend, Blake did not go in search of a new den immediately. His second sub-boss fight had left him too injured. Luckily, Blake had never stopped experimenting with herbalism, even if it had fallen to the back burner.


    One of his original goals of herbalism was to create a healing salve for the sunburns he suffered when first arriving in the spirit realm. They had long since disappeared, which he now understood was because of his increased Constitution. Despite that, he came up with a burn salve.


    While sunburns were a problem of the past, Blake could still burn himself with fire and had used that to test his salve while training his Constitution at the same time. That was paying back in spades with the magically induced burn wounds.


    Normal wounds healed within a week in the spirit realm. That was even faster when Constitution was taken into account, as basic rabbicorns could only deal superficial damage to Blake by this point. The burns, however, lingered until the healing salve was applied.


    Blake couldn¡¯t understand why. His Talent gave him an in-depth understanding of how the salve worked as well as a decent idea of how it interacted with the human body, but nothing suggested it was capable of removing a magical affliction, and a magical affliction was all it could be.


    If there was one thing Blake considered himself knowledgable about pre-awakening, it was magic. Magical afflictions were a subset of magic spells that left lingering effects on your opponent. Wounds that refused to heal under the normal enhanced healing factor of the spirit realm were a staple of the spell class.


    Honestly, Blake thought he got off easy. Magic afflictions were very dangerous to even those who were prepared. He had heard of a curse, a kind of magic affliction, that made everyone forget about the person afflicted. They could still have conversations with people and act normally, but the second they stopped talking to someone, they were forgotten.


    Even after the curse was broken, no one¡¯s memories were returned. They had been permanently excised from their friends and family. An affliction like that¡­ actually wouldn¡¯t do much to Blake. He had been a loner long before entering the spirit realm, and it wasn¡¯t like there was anyone to remember him here.


    Even after applying the healing salve, it took time for the burn to fade. Blake spent the time training and practicing his crafting. More totems were added to his growing collection as he tried to create some effect. Any effect.


    Javelin practice was of utmost importance to Blake as he hadn¡¯t forgotten that had he killed the sub-boss in one blow, as had been his goal, he wouldn¡¯t have been burned. He made a second javelin with the new sub-boss horn so that in the future, he had a second chance in case he missed.


    Blake wished he had someone to teach him how to use magical materials, but for now, the horn was little better than a hard, sharp object. Even people without a magic Talent could craft using magical materials to create amazing items, but he lacked even a basic idea of how to go about that. If he had known the basics, he could have relied on his Talent from there, but no such luck.


    After two weeks, Blake was mostly healed, and the den¡¯s sub-boss had respawned. He knew because the basic rabbicorns began to exit the den more frequently and in larger numbers. With two javelins strapped to his back, axe in one hand, and a torch in the other, Blake descended into the den once again.


    Having done the grunt work to map out the den, his previous go-around, Blake was able to quickly and efficiently clear every chamber before moving on to the sub-boss. This time, while he still failed to kill the sub-boss in one blow, Blake was able to take out the big bad with his second javelin before any magic could be launched.


    The death of the basic rabbicorns quickly followed with Blake not taking a single injury. It was almost anticlimactic. A quick check of his stats showed Celerity reaching the second threshold with Alacrity teetering on the edge.


    Blake was already experiencing diminishing returns from the death of the sub-boss¡¯s death. He had seen this happen with the basic rabbicorns, where the more he killed, the less his stats improved, but he had hoped that that wouldn¡¯t apply to boss types. Apparently, it did.


    Altogether, it took Blake less than half the day to clear out the den, with the rest of the day spent harvesting the bodies. After the first time, he cleared the den, he had gained more rabbicorn horns than he knew what to do with. Now, on his third fourth, if you include the run-through without killing the sub-boss, Blake had no idea what to do with so many horns.


    He would need to come up with something to do with them. Well, he didn¡¯t need to, but it would be a waste not to. The only thing he could think of besides making various types of blades was trying to grind it up for his herbalism.


    Including beast parts, especially magical beast parts, would actually make it alchemy. Herbalism was the study of plant growth and its effects. What he did was an edge case of the field, but since he hadn¡¯t found any need to grow plants, the mixing of plant matter to create salves was all there was to herbalism for him.


    While he was curious as to the alchemic properties of the horns, Blake had to prioritize maxing out his stats so he could advance into the high-density regions. The next morning, he set out at a fast jog towards the nearest medium region he had located.


    While a fast jog to the current him, the Blake that had first arrived in the spirit realm would have called it an all-out sprint. The kind of sprint that was only possible over a very short distance. Now, it was a fast jog, and he could keep it up for hours without feeling any strain. A benefit of having high body stats.


    While Blake had previously located other medium regions, he had never explored them in depth, so he didn¡¯t know where the den was. It took him a day of looking before finding it, but once he did, he went in without pause.


    Blake had left his medium region home base because it would take two weeks to respawn the den, and he had no interest in waiting that long. Despite that, Blake took the time to map out the new den before attacking the boss.


    This den was much smaller than the first one he cleared, but it was still bigger than it should be based on conventional knowledge. Five rooms in a sequence, each filled with at least seven rabbicorns, greeted Blake.


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Blake was a little upset at the simplicity of the whole thing. The other den had close to twenty rooms with at least ten rabbicorns per room. By comparison, this one was a walk in the park. Even the sub-boss was easier.


    Rather than the super sub-boss that Blake had been facing, a variant he had started calling a savage rabbicorn, the sub-boss of this den was clearly a brawler type. Rabbicorn brawlers were the most common evolution of rabbicorns.


    On their hind legs, they stood about five feet tall. Their hands were comically oversized and perpetually clenched into fists. Rabbicorn brawlers only had a small nub for a horn rather than the elegant foot-long horns other evolved rabbicorns had. Even the basic rabbicorns had longer horns.


    Rather than charging at their enemies to impale them on their horns, brawlers used their fists to bludgeon people to death. For Blake, that meant the sub-boss could not fight back when he launched a javelin at it. Whether because this sub-boss was slower or because of sheer luck, it died in one hit.


    Blake found that the sub-boss provided more stat growth than the savage rabbicorn did now, but it was less than the savage rabbicorn had the first time. From his understanding of the process, that made sense. The rabbicorn savage was stronger than the brawler, which was the key factor to stat growth.


    Alacrity did not tip over the second threshold from the boss fight, but that night, while meditating, Blake was able to push it there. That left only the last spirit stat below the second threshold. Over the next week, he cleared two more dens, trying to push the stat higher.


    One was a brawler, while the other was another savage. There was a clear correlation between den complexity and sub-boss type, as the second savage sub-boss had a den just as large and complex as the first, while both brawlers had comparatively smaller dens.


    After the non-stop fighting, Blake decided to take a break rather than move on to a fifth den. It wasn¡¯t just exhaustion from the constant fights but also frustration with this last stat. Despite being the only stat left, it didn¡¯t grow at anywhere close to the same speed his other stats had.


    Blake was missing something because his current understanding was that all stat growth was being directed towards the only stat left, yet that was clearly not the case. If it had been, the final stat would have long reached the first threshold, probably even the second.


    At the moment, it sat at approximately 75% of the way to the first threshold. That might seem like most of the way, but its growth was only slowing with each boss killed. Blake didn¡¯t even think it was entirely because of the diminishing returns from killing the same thing. Something else was at play.


    Blake needed to clear his mind with some good, honest crafting. That always made sense. He very much did not think about the confusing puzzle that was totems and old magic. He had some alchemy experiments to conduct with the rabbicorn horns.


    Not just the horns, either. The rabbicorn brawler dens didn¡¯t have sub-boss horns as natural treasures and instead had a strange glowing root that grew in the boss rooms. Blake had harvested one from each of the dens, so he had two to play¡­ work with.


    Given the limited supply, Blake decided to work on the horns first. He was only using the basic rabbicorn horns as he still couldn¡¯t damage the rabbicorn savage horns. Perhaps if he used them against each other, but it wasn¡¯t worth wasting two of them for alchemy experiments when he had other materials to work with.


    Arriving back at his base, he got straight to work. Picking up a stone mortar Blake had prepared ahead of time, he began to smash one of the basic horns to pieces. It was difficult work, but over the course of a few hours, the horn was ground up into a fine dust.


    Ingredients now prepared, Blake began to combine the dust with some of his successful experiments. This was a combination of healing salves, adhesives, and a few different colors of paint. It wasn¡¯t true paint, but Blake had been working on creating colorful substances he could use for artistic endeavors.


    The results were¡­ disappointing. The dust either didn¡¯t do anything or was actively detrimental to the final result. The only exception was one of the adhesive recipes, where it became stronger but not due to any magic but rather good old-fashioned chemistry.


    The thing was, the information about his product that Blake¡¯s Talent provided had gaps. He had already noticed that the information he got was more incomplete than he had originally assumed when he first unlocked his Talent, but the gaps were both bigger and stranger this time.


    Normally, the gaps were a matter of scale and scope. Blake did not receive information on the atomic structure and only the most basic understanding of the molecular makeup of his work. The focus was more set to the size of a cell than anything smaller.


    The scope was also limited to the craft¡¯s internal mechanics. External reactions, such as the effect a healing salve would have on a body, were minimal at best. It was more impressions telling Blake that it was a healing salve rather than a breakdown of how it healed.


    This time, there were further gaps in his knowledge, but they applied on a more wide-ranging scope. Blake could understand how the structure of the dust interacted with the other ingredients, but that was it. There was something missing from it. Something chemical or¡­ magical.


    ¡®Ah, that¡¯s what it is.¡¯


    Alchemy was the study of magical ingredients, but Blake couldn¡¯t use magic. If the rabbicorn horns interacted with mana, he must not be able to sense it. An unfortunate limitation but one he had been mentally prepared for.


    Realizing that his lack of magic was limiting his ability with alchemy, Blake decided to leave his more rare ingredients for later. He didn¡¯t want to waste the magical potential of the roots just because he was impatient.


    Instead, Blake turned his attention back to totems. His Talent had already hinted at it being a route to magic, and he had to hope it would give him the insight needed for his alchemy. He glanced around at the totems he had already completed.


    There were more than 20 of them of all different shapes, sizes, and of different symbols. Blake had been hoping to stumble upon the missing key to old magic but was having no luck. Despite his failure, he had come to enjoy the artistic skill required for the work.


    His most recent work had all been centered around rabbicorns. It was a cathartic contrast to his constant killing of the creatures to immortalize their existence through his carvings. They weren¡¯t terribly realistic, but that was more due to Blake¡¯s art style than lack of skill.


    Sitting down on his carving chair, which was just a tree stump, Blake got to work on a new totem. This time, he didn¡¯t stop with the carving. He grabbed the ¡®paints¡¯ he had prepared via herbalism and some good old-fashioned digging for colorful dirt. Clay was a great earthy red color.


    The white fur of the rabbicorns was hard to reproduce, so instead, Blake was going for a more classic rabbit look rather than the bunny type that rabbicorns were. The brown fur that rabbits had was much easier to reproduce.


    Finishing off the painting, Blake took a step back to admire his work. This was his first attempt at adding color to his totems, so it wasn¡¯t great, but he felt it was still better than nothing. The log he had carved the rabbicorn into was two feet across and three feet high, so it was huge, but he put a lot of effort and detail into it.


    Even rough fur had been carved into the wood with painstaking care. The size of the initial block of wood limited Blake¡¯s options when it came to the horn, so instead of a full-sized one relative to its frame, he instead created a small nub similar to that of a rabbicorn brawler¡¯s horn.


    Done with his latest attempt, Blake sat back down and studied the information downloaded to his brain. He was shocked to find that it was coherent. At least, mostly. Painting the totem was a big step in the right direction, and he could now tell why that was.


    Symbolism. Blake had always known symbology was a defining characteristic of totems, but he had underestimated its impact on magic. He now knew that by painting the totem, he had brought it more in line with the image of a rabbicorn. The symbolism was more clear and, therefore, the craft of better quality.


    Painting wasn¡¯t enough by itself, but Blake now had a direction to his work. He no longer had to flail around blindly, hoping something would stick. He needed to improve how symbolic his totem was.

 Chapter 27

    Blake stared at his newest totem in frustration. This was his third one after he had discovered how important symbolism was. He had made no improvements. That wasn¡¯t wholly true. The painting had become more precise, and his paint colors were better, but his Talent didn¡¯t provide much more information for such small improvements.


    At this point, Blake had to decide whether to once again delay his research into old magic to go on a den-clearing spree. His original plan would have had him leaving after the first totem, so he had already delayed by a week.


    If his third spirit stat had been growing at a consistent rate, Blake probably would have set out without a second thought, but the significantly diminishing returns on his stat growth soured the idea to him. Another option was scouting out a high-density region.


    High-density regions did not have the dens of medium and peak-density regions. Instead, the monsters of the region would be spread out evenly across the area, similar to the format of low regions.


    Scouting, therefore, meant checking what type of monsters he would be facing as well as how big a group they traveled in. Peak and high-density regions had a different monster type than the medium and low-density regions. Typically, the monsters were more pack-oriented and traveled in groups, which added an extra level of difficulty to the whole thing.


    Blake thought about his options for only a moment before deciding to stay and work on his totems. Magic would be a game-changer for him. Right now, should he fail to take out a sub-boss with his first two javelin throws, the ensuing fight would leave him badly injured.


    With magic, Blake could overcome his range deficiency. He could imagine it now. He would walk into a boss room and start blasting out with fire and lighting, laying waste to everything that stood in his path. The sub-bosses wouldn¡¯t stand a chance.


    Apparently, his dreams of being a powerful mage combatant weren¡¯t as dead as Blake had believed. The only difference now was he was casting through the use of tools rather than free form. He could live with that.


    Looking at his most recent creation, Blake decided to try something else to increase the symbolism. Right now, the horn of the rabbicorn was little better than a nub due to the limited size of the log he had carved it out of.


    Knife in hand, Blake carved the nub out of the wooden rabbicorn, leaving a hole in its head. He then took an actual rabbicorn horn and stuck it in the hole along with some glue. He held it there while the adhesive set, then painted over any glue that leaked out the sides to try and keep everything consistent.


    There, now, the recreation had a proper horn. Blake smiled widely as his Talent activated. It had worked. The horn had tipped the creation over the edge into a working totem. It wasn¡¯t just that the horn was there but also that it was an actual rabbicorn horn and wooden recreation.


    Blake could better see now that the final missing link was just that, a link. The carving had looked like a rabbicorn, and he understood it to be a rabbicorn, but it didn¡¯t have any actual link to what a rabbicorn was. The horn acted as that connection.


    The totem did not yet do anything. It had to be activated through a ritual. Unfortunately, Blake did not know what that ritual entailed exactly. When the skill component of his Talent activated, he was not given information on what he needed to do for the activation ritual.


    This was different from Blake¡¯s typical skill gain. For weapons and tools, Blake gained muscle memory and theoretical knowledge on how to most efficiently move to create his desired effect. There were, of course, different styles of combat that existed, but his Talent focused on the fundamental principles that let him utilize those styles, assuming he knew any.


    For the activation ritual, Blake was not given any muscle memory or instruction on how to complete the desired effect. Instead, his Talent interacted with his Affinity to teach him what to look for when creating the ritual. This didn¡¯t directly grow his Affinity but was more of a different way to view and use it.


    The theoretical component told Blake what his goal was. The rabbicorn horn acted as an anchor for the totem, but it was yet fully linked to the concept of a rabbicorn. The activation created that link while also guiding what effect the totem would have.


    Due to both the low quality of the totem and Blake¡¯s lack of understanding of old magic, he would be limited to weak, passive effects within range of the totem. Guiding the exact effect was beyond his means for now, but Blake could at least guide it away from passively enhancing all rabbicorns in the area.


    Instead, Blake wanted some form of physical enhancement. Using his Affinity, he needed to seek out items that aligned with that concept. Already, Blake could feel feedback from items all around him. He had never succeeded in using his spiritual sense to detect anything but energy density and natural treasures, but now he could get a faint sense of what an object could symbolize in a ritual.


    The specifics were limited to rabbicorn totems, but now that he knew how to make a functional totem, Blake could make more for different types of symbols. For now, though, he wanted to activate his first totem.


    Walking around, Blake picked up one object after another, focusing on his spiritual sense to detect any resonance it might have with his new totem. Rabbicorn bones and horns, as well as bladed weapons, all had some level of resonance. He didn¡¯t have any fresh rabbicorn corpses; otherwise, he suspected every part of the body would work, too.


    The horns and blades didn¡¯t give Blake a sense that they would help align the totem to a body enhancement effect, so he left those, but he spent time collecting discarded bones. Since that wasn¡¯t going to be enough by itself, so he went to the den¡¯s entrance and cleared out any rabbicorns that had gathered.


    Blake expertly harvested their bodies, splitting them up into separate components that he could use in the ritual. He was surprised blood had a distinct resonance from other components such as muscle, heart, and brain.


    Rabbicorn heart, blood, muscle, and bones were all gathered together for the ritual. There, Blake paused. He had picked out what he wanted in the ritual, but¡­ now what? It took a decent amount of time delving into his Talent-granted activation ritual skill for him to come up with a direction to go next.


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    In the dirt surrounding the totem, Blake drew a circle. It was no more than three meters across, but he had to redo it a few times until it was perfect. The circle wasn¡¯t necessary, but it helped him position the ritual ingredients correctly, which did have to be in a circle.


    Blake evenly spaced them out, not caring to place them in any particular order. Once placed, he felt out with his spiritual sense again, checking for anything out of place. There was nothing immediately wrong with it, but there was a sense of discord across the circle.


    This puzzled Blake as he didn¡¯t know what could cause such a thing. The key to the ritual was resonance, which was why he had picked the ingredients he had, so discord could not be a good thing. Focusing on his Affinity harder didn¡¯t make any difference, so he fell back on trial and error.


    Grabbing two ingredients, Blake swapped their positions in the circle. The discord got worse, but that was a good sign, as it meant he was on the right track. The position mattered, and he just had to figure out what went where.


    Sometime later, the discord was fully silenced, leaving only a harmonic balance between ingredients and totem. There was still one problem. Blake could sense what direction the totem¡¯s effect was leaning with this ritual, and it was heavily in favor of a rabbicorn-specific effect.


    That made sense, given only rabbicorn parts had been used, but nothing else had resonated correctly. Blake wasn¡¯t sure what to do. If there were other types of monsters in the region, he might have been able to hunt them down for parts, but there were only rabbicorns.


    Pacing back and forth, Blake thought through the problem. He needed an ingredient that could represent the body without feeding further into the rabbicorn theme. Looking down at himself, he had a stroke of inspiration.


    He needed something from an animal, and the only animal here outside the rabbicorns was himself. Now, he wasn¡¯t going to use his organs and/or muscles for the ritual; he didn¡¯t want to die, but his blood was easily replenished. It would also create a connection between him and the totem that wouldn¡¯t be possible with any old animal parts.


    Blake dragged a knife across the palm of his hand and then squeezed it into a fist, causing blood to drop down onto the ritual circle below. Since he wanted his blood to be just as important as the rabbicorn ingredients, Blake walked around the circle to cover all of it.


    By the time he was done, Blake was beginning to feel a little woozy. His Constitution didn¡¯t give him more blood it, at best, let him regenerate it faster, so losing so much blood so fast left him feeling ill.


    Despite wanting to begin the ritual immediately now that he had all the components in place, Blake had to take a moment to sit down and recover. The enhanced healing factor that was the spirit realm on top of his Constitution meant he was back on his feet soon enough.


    He regretted cutting his palm for the blood. Media always made it seem like the correct way to draw blood outside of proper needles, but all it did was leave him with a hand that he couldn¡¯t use. A small cut on his arm would have been so much easier as long as he avoided any veins.


    Blake circled the ritual circle one final time, feeling out the resonance for any instabilities. Not finding anything wrong, he activated the ritual. Activating the ritual was both simple and complex at the same time. To activate it, Blake reached out with his will and sort of urged it forward.


    It was easy and simple since Blake knew how to do it thanks to his Talent, but without it, he would have been completely lost on what to do. Even a verbal explanation would have been insufficient as it required manipulating a part of himself he had never used before.


    It was the spiritual part of himself that Blake could feel growing whenever his Will and Affinity stats developed. The fact that it wasn¡¯t only Will and Affinity made him excited. Was this related to the third spirit stat?


    Blake was proven right only a moment later when he felt the third stat grow. It was only slightly, as he hadn¡¯t done anything that he found difficult, but having the first signs of what the stat could be was monumental to him. It was even more exciting that the stat was related to magic. Would reaching the first threshold with the stat give him access to more direct forms of magic?


    There was no time to contemplate it further as the ritual took place, drawing Blake¡¯s attention away. The ritual ingredients around the circle glowed lightly for a moment before dissolving into nothing. It was a strange visual effect that made it look like they just ceased to exist rather than having been turned to ash or some other natural effect.


    Nothing seemed to happen for a moment until Blake¡¯s Talent activated, flooding his mind with more information about his new totem. He was interested to find that while he had gained insight into totems after completing the wooden figure, it wasn¡¯t until activating it that the information was complete.


    He hadn¡¯t even realized the information was so incomplete. There had been small gaps he had noticed, but he had just taken that for magical phenomena that his Talent refused to expound on like with alchemy. Now he knew that while some of it was indeed magic, he couldn¡¯t sense there was more to it.


    For whatever reason, Blake¡¯s Talent was willing to give him information on mana. As far as he had been aware, mana and magic were interchangeable words for the same thing, but his understanding was clearly wrong or, at least, incomplete.


    Blake now knew that the totem passively drew in mana to power its effect. Once the mana was inside the totem, it was transformed through a process that he couldn¡¯t fully grasp. This was the part of magic that his Talent couldn¡¯t help him with. All he knew was that something was either added to the mana or it was changed in some way to make it usable for the totem.


    The mana was then spread back out in a spherical shape, giving off a passive effect. The passive effect was tied to Blake both through his blood as well as a more ephemeral connection that was once again obscured from him. This meant that he was the only one to benefit from its effects, even if others were within range.


    The passive effect itself was quite useful, if a bit limited. While within ten meters of the totem, Blake would see a boost to his endurance. This covered everything from being able to workout longer to needing less sleep. The boost was small at only five percent, but this was his first successful use of magic.


    Blake¡¯s mind raced with ideas. As it stood, the totem was only useful while he resided within his base, but if he could find a way to extend the range, it could make a big difference when it came time to explore a high-density region. He would just have to set up a totem at the border of the region in that case.


    And then there was the variety of effects that he could potentially get just from a rabbicorn totem. Blake still wouldn¡¯t be able to specify exactly what he wanted to happen, but the extra information he got from activating the totem gave him a better idea of what was possible.


    Every aspect of the physical stats could be boosted with a rabbicorn totem. The buff wouldn¡¯t extend to an entire stat, but it would be things like the endurance boost, which could be considered a sub-stat of Constitution. It wasn¡¯t a stat developed independently, but its exact effects could be measured out separately when something external came into play, like a totem.


    Mental stats were a no-go, as were Will and Affinity, but there was some resonance with his third spirit stat. Likely because he didn¡¯t know what it was, yet his Talent didn¡¯t provide any information on how it could be improved, but he did get more confirmation that it was related to magic.


    Such an effect would likely rely on using a magic sub-boss¡¯s horn, and he wasn¡¯t willing to experiment on an unknown quantity at this time, but it had interesting implications for the future. The question was, what should he do next? Did he experiment more with totems to make their range longer with more powerful effects, or did he make one last push with rabbicorn sub-bosses before moving onto a high-density region?


    It was a difficult decision, but one Blake knew the answer to. He just didn¡¯t want to accept it. Despite the potential of the totems, they would not provide him with the quick powerup he had wanted. He needed to turn back to his stat advancement and make a push for ascension.


    The totems hadn¡¯t helped with alchemy either, which had been his hope. Using magic for alchemy might have made an immediate impact. For now, it was back to clearing dens.