The villages surrounding the sect were completely silent, apart from the sound of animals grazing in the distance. Lena remained quiet as she restored balance to her internal energy, and the group made their way out of the sect’s territory. The moon was high in the starry sky when Micro finally stopped to look around, and Lena stirred from her trance.

  “Worry not for me, young master,” Lena said with a tired voice. “It is not my first time recovering from a hero’s summoning, though I am surprised to see you in such good condition.”

  “It seems like the chaos energy is what the magicians use to steal energy from cultivators, somehow…” Micro replied. “But the dog in my soul just eats it all.”

  “You are immune to the effects of chaos, because of a dog…” Lena said with a sigh. “And have you stopped walking because…?”

  “I was just thinking it would be nice to let the children rest a while,” Micro replied, adjusting his grip on Kolt and Kira, both of whom were still fast asleep, draped over his shoulders.

  “They are certainly weak. Very well,” Lena agreed. “This is as good a place as any. Do not be guided only by worry though, young master.”

  “Worry…” Micro repeated with a heavy sigh. “That sums it up nicely.”

  Lena looked at him knowingly while he seemed to become stuck thinking about the word. Eventually, she cleared her throat to snap him out of his confused state.

  “It is natural for humans to feel fear, but it is helpful to understand its source,” Lena said with a conviction which reassured Micro, if only a little.

  “I never felt scared before I came here, or anything at all…” Micro replied.

  “You are uniquely fortunate to have known a life completely free of fear. Fear can bend and break even the strongest of us,” Lena continued. “But you are human now, more or less. You should seek to understand what you are capable of, as well as your limitations.”

  “I’ve been able to feel a lot of things, but when Nora sent that new soul down here…” Micro’s voice quieted as he recalled the sensation. “I couldn’t control my body anymore. I couldn’t organize my thoughts. Is that fear…?”

  “Before such power, fear is a natural response,” Lena nodded her head. “At least for the young.”

  “Do you not feel fear, Lena?” Micro asked.

  “I am not so old and wise as to be completely free of fear’s grasp, but it is not something which hinders me. Rather, you might say it accompanies me,” Lena explained. “You possess a human mind, for better or for worse. Its strengths are yours to harness, but its weaknesses are yours to overcome.”

  “You can overcome fear?” Micro gasped. “How?!”

  “Oh, dear child…” Lena chuckled at his bright expression, then shook her head. “No advice of mine will be of practical use to you. You cannot climb a mountain before you reach its base. And no other can climb it for you.”

  “So many mountains…” Micro sighed. “I think I understand though. Thanks, Lena.”

  “It is my pleasure.” Lena smiled more widely than normal, though she quickly regained her composure. “I have spent so many years overseeing Azar’s growth. I must admit your willingness to improve yourself is quite… refreshing…”

  Micro recalled Azar’s aggressive demeanour and frowned, but he was brought back to the present by the sound of Kira’s voice, a faint whimper escaping her mouth as she stirred, unable to wake.

  “Can you watch them for a little while?” Micro asked while lowering the children to the ground as delicately as he could. “I’ll gather some sticks.”

  “Sticks?” Lena asked. “For what?”

  “To make a fire,” Micro answered. “The old man always felt refreshed after relaxing by a fire. Maybe it’ll help.”

  “Fire does serve as a catalyst for some cultivators…” Lena nodded. “Perhaps the mundane will benefit in a similar way…”

  “I’ll be right back then,” Micro said as he ventured toward the forest’s edge. The area where they walked was largely dusty and barren, but the forest remained in sight to the east like an ominous wall of evergreen.

  “Avoid stumbling into a dungeon on the way,” Lena called out to him and she settled down to meditate. “At least none greater than amber level…!”

  ~

  Micro took a deep breath as he stepped under the cover of the forest’s tall trees. The refreshing smell of plant life was a welcome departure from the dusty plains he’d spent the day walking across. He began to pick up any dry stick he could find, but he hadn’t gathered many before a noise caught his attention. He began bracing himself for an unknown enemy’s attack, but he was relieved to see the noise was caused by several small rocks moving nearby.

  “Just some gravel golems…” Micro sighed. “I wonder why they always look so busy.”

  The rock-like creatures were no taller than one of Micro’s tires, and their movements seemed slow and clumsy, but he recognized a sense of urgency in the way they worked at whatever they were doing. He couldn’t see them well through the leaves and brush, but he recalled his newly acquired Amber Water Spirit Vision Skill, and was shocked at the clarity with which the scene of the busy creatures emerged from the darkness despite the distance.

  With a better view, he watched them quietly for a while, curious about their nature and activities. He followed one gravel golem in particular as it waddled away from its group on short, rocky legs, and watched in surprise as it suddenly began digging. Its tiny hands were more like decorative bumps on the side of its round body, but it scooped up dirt with ease by using its mouth as a shovel. Micro was most surprised by the fact that after scooping up a mouthful of dirt, it didn’t spit it out elsewhere. Instead, it swallowed bite after bite of dirt and rocks, chewing it energetically before continuing to scoop up another mouthful.

  “I wonder where it all goes…” Micro wondered aloud as the creature continued to fill itself with an impossible amount of dirt. He looked around again, and noticed he could also see the flow of energy in the world around much more vividly than before. The individual elemental energies stood out to him easily now, while they had all blended together before.

  “I wish I could use the skill with both eyes…” he sighed as a small pain formed behind his left eye when he tried to activate the skill. “Oh well. I have a lot of skills already…”

  He returned to gathering sticks and storing them with his storage skill, throwing handful after handful over his shoulder into the small portal which opened whenever he willed it to. As he began to think about what else he might store in the dimensional pocket, Micro suddenly realized it had become hard to keep track of all the Core Cards he’d acquired, especially since he’d mastered so many in the middle of a fight recently.

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  Though the cards filled his mind with knowledge, he felt uncomfortable not knowing the extent of his abilities in his new body. He stopped by a tree after collecting what he estimated to be one truckload of wood, and closed his eyes.

  “Let’s see…” Micro mumbled as he began to relax, enjoying the cool breeze of the humid forest. He entered a trance, and found his core glowing brighter than ever, still radiating an amber light. Entering the garage where his soul resided, he was pleased to find the dog sitting calmly on the roof of his truck, several specs of chaos energy evident on his nose.

  “Thanks for eating all that chaos up for me,” Micro said to the dog.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  The dog didn’t reply, but its tail continued to wag energetically as Micro walked around to the bed of the truck.

  “Alright, let’s organize these a little…” Micro said as he looked down at the cards messily gathered on the bed. “The old man would never let things get this disorganized.”

  After spending a moment sorting through the cards, sliding them around on the truck bed while being careful not to lift them off the surface of his soul, he arranged them by colour and took a moment to look at them more closely. The dog turned around and looked down at the cards, apparently amused by them.

  “Are you interested in cultivation too?” Micro asked the dog. “These are my core cards, but there are a lot more to find.”

  The dog seemed keen to listen to Micro’s explanation, or perhaps it simply enjoyed Micro’s company, so Micro began to introduce the cards one by one. First, he counted up the jade coloured cards on the left.

  “I have eight jade Core Cards, huh… Doesn’t seem like a lot,” Micro thought for a moment, then smiled up at the dog and continued. “Do you want to hear what they’re called?”

  The dog barked in reply.

  “Okay!” Micro continued, pointing down at the eight jade cards. “There’s the Turtle Art, the Armour Trait, the Spirit Taste Skill, the Spirit Wave Skill, the Storage Skill, the Spirit Hammer Skill, the Mycelial Art, and the Charm Skill.”

  The dog seemed to be most interested in the Mycelial Art card, and barked down at it several times.

  “You can’t eat that, okay? I’ll feed you some real mushrooms one day!” Micro laughed. “The Mycelial Art is useful for refuelling though, so I’ll take you to the dungeon where I found it one day too, if you’re interested.”

  The dog barked again, apparently interested in the yellow cards.

  “These are amber Core Cards. They’re a bit more potent than the jade ones,” Micro explained. “So far, I’ve collected the Spirit Shield Skill, the Sleepless Trait, the Spirit Vision Skill, the Poison Skill, and two Serpent Art cards. The Serpent Art cards are from two different elements, but you seem to like chaos energy the best, huh?”

  The dog barked several times and began drooling at the mention of chaos. Micro wiped the wet patch it made on the bed with his sleeve, then looked down at the Poison Skill card again with a complicated expression.

  “This Poison Skill isn’t as scary as it sounded, actually. You can make all kinds of poisons with energy, but not all of them are dangerous,” Micro explained to the curious dog. “Spirit Vision is a very useful skill! I’m glad I finally mastered this one.”

  Micro pointed at his good eye and looked up at the dog. It barked excitedly as his eyes began to glow.

  “I can even tell what people are feeling now, kind of. The energy around people says a lot about how they feel, though Lena’s is usually too calm to read well…” Micro scratched his head, and his attention fell on another interesting card. “The Sleepless Trait… Now that I think of it, I haven’t been sleepy at all since I mastered this one, so I guess it’s working.”

  Micro had enjoyed dreaming the first few nights he’d spent on this new world, and he wondered if he’d miss sleeping, but a strange ache in his shoulder brought back another memory that had begun to haunt him. He was confident that avoiding such nightmares for the time being would be worth it.

  “Anyways, let me know if there are any Core Cards you want,” Micro said as he reached out to pet dog’s head. “Although we really do need to find you a body first… You need one of those, so you can make your own core.”

  ~

  Micro returned to find Kolt and Kira beginning to wake from their heavy slumber, while Blue and Trill had begun meditating peacefully next to Lena. The energy flowing around the three cultivators was reassuring in the open plains as night fell, but Kira had started shivering. Recalling a camping trip the old man had taken his son on, Micro made a small pile of sticks, then began rubbing two of them together. He wasn’t sure exactly what technique the old man had taught his son, but after accidentally breaking several sticks, he was able to produce a few embers by rubbing two larger logs together as fast as he could. He then proudly placed the smouldering log on the pile, it simply sizzled for a while before it was completely extinguished.

  “That…” Kolt mumbled as he watched Micro working.

  “What is it?” Micro asked, happy to hear the boy’s voice.

  “That— That’’s not how you m—m—make a fire…” Kolt shivered and coughed. “Who… who would start a fire like that—”

  “It’s harder than it looks,” Micro said, then placed his hand on Kolt’s chest. He could see that Trill was still unable to supply the boy with energy after the ordeal at the sect, so he tried letting some of his own energy flow into Kolt’s chest. After Kolt’s shivering subsided, Micro spoke with a soft voice. “Do you have any advice?”

  “Get a smaller stick, then rub it on that piece of wood there…” Kolt managed to rise to a sitting position, and pointed at two bits of wood. “And all the wood is damp. Scrape some bark off, there…”

  “Like this?” Micro asked as he attempted to follow Kolt’s instructions. Eventually, a bit of smoke began to rise from the sticks.”

  “Just back and forth, that’s right… then catch the ember…” Kolt frowned. He reached out to take the stick, but couldn’t find the strength to keep his arm extended and soon fell forward onto his face.

  “You just rest,” Micro replied. “I’ll figure this out.”

  Kolt fell back to sleep with a frustrated grunt, and Micro continued struggling to make a fire with the sticks he’d collected. Micro began worrying more about Kira as she shivered quietly on the ground near him, but his efforts remained fruitless.

  “Didn’t I already teach you how to do that?” Blue suddenly asked.

  “Oh!” Micro shouted so loudly that Trill jumped out of his trance and landed behind Kolt. Without wasting any more time, Micro began focusing as much energy as he could in the centre of the pile, and a roaring flame soon consumed the damp twigs, sending a plume of dust and smoke high up into the air. He threw some more wood on top of the fire and then lay Kolt and Kira closer to it, finally content that they would remain warm while they rested.

  “Lucky kid, having a great teacher like me,” Blue scoffed as she closed her eyes to continue meditating.

  “I really was lucky to meet you,” Micro replied as he got comfortable by the fire.

  “I don’t think most cultivators would consider the circumstances of our meeting lucky,” Blue quietly retorted. “Though we’ve had a bit of fun since then.”

  “Will you be able to recover your energy tonight?” Micro asked, noticing Trill had returned to his place near Blue and joined her in a trance.

  “We don’t all have an extra soul running around inside us that eats chaos energy,” Blue spat. “It’ll take a while to clean up. It feels like most of the energy in my core was blown away by a dirty wind, yet again. Are you not going to sleep?”

  “I don’t need to sleep anymore,” Micro replied happily.

  “What?” Blue blurted out, opening her eyes wide in surprise.

  “I mastered the Sleepless Trait along with the some other cards we got from Feng’s master,” Micro explained.

  “What kind of cursed life is that?!” Blue nearly screamed in horror. “I didn’t think you’d actually use that one…”

  “It’s nice though. Sleeping isn’t that fun, is it?” Micro said timidly. “Dreams can be—”

  “Dream what you like!” Blue continued. “A life without naps… That hurts to imagine.”

  “Sorry, Blue,” Micro replied in confusion.

  “Whatever.” Blue shook her head. “Entertain yourself however you like. I have some cultivating to do.”

  Micro smiled and nodded, then leaned back while looking up at the starry sky. He hadn’t spent much time worrying about the stars he could see from the ground on his old world, but a lonely feeling emerged as he looked up at the foreign sky. No familiar constellations could be found, and no planes or satellites could be seen. However, several small flashes of light did catch his eye. Among the stars, brief explosions of various colours blinked in and out of view occasionally. He wondered what they could be, but even with his Spirit Vision Skill, he was unable to make any sense of them, whether they were cultivators fighting or something else entirely.

  “I wonder if they have spaceships here…” Micro wondered quietly. “The old man always enjoyed news about the space station…”

  Despite not feeling the need to sleep, a sense of fatigue eventually found him as he sat quietly, and Micro closed his eyes to join the others in a state of meditation, gathering up the energy around him and circulating it through his body, strengthening his core little by little. However, he spent much of the night distracted by the soul of the dog which resided in his nostalgically constructed core, chasing it around the garage and playing fetch with scrunched up balls of energy.