Having free time was… alien. It wasn’t just wrong, it was so abnormal I didn’t know how to react. Hell, the first thing I’d done the moment I’d escaped the sewers had been to throw myself right back into training. Because I needed to, because I wanted to.

  And now I had to take a break. Not a two day break of floating in a tank, but a real, actual week’s worth. It was such a drastic change that I tried to remember the last time I had absolutely nothing to do, which was when Ragual was…

  I smiled bitterly.

  That hadn’t been a break. I’d barely been stable, my body had been broken up, and I was stressed and filled to the brim with worry. I may have eaten, slept, and stayed in a bed but I’d been a horrible wreck outwardly and inwardly.

  So before that…

  God, it had to have been years ago. When I was on the streets, I was just surviving day by day. Getting food, begging for money, rummaging in the trash, buying alcohol or trying to steal it. Okay, that wasn’t it either.

  What about further back? The time I had before I’d turned into a homeless vagabond. I…

  I blinked.

  Did I do anything?

  It was all just anger or depression or spending most of my time working or training. The few times I had spent not doing that was… empty. And that was… all I did for years and years. Was it even my fault entirely? Having to spend four out of seven days working ten hours… you might as well be half dead to the world right? What was the point of money if you sold so much of your life away for it? As long as you work in the day, the whole day is basically wasted anyway. Not that I did much with the remaining three days… I should’ve just gone to live out in some wilderness somewhere…

  Which would’ve killed me, because my power level would still be stuck at [1].

  God, I have lived miserably.

  Well, well no more! I had the opportunity now to do… something at least, right?

  Yeah, yeah! How frequently would I ever get this chance again? I had to make sure I did as much as I could this week. I may never get a break again, for years. This week… I had to spend it doing all the good things I had missed out on in my anger and despair. To actually live a little.

  I frowned a little at that.

  Living in a city meant needing money. That had been thoroughly beaten into me over the course of my years here. How much money had Master even given me?

  Quickly checking my old bank account using my Vambrace, I navigated to what Master had sent. Bio signatures sure made modern banking easier than ever. It used to be a flat zero and it was a miracle I had never borrowed or gone into debt. But now it was-

  “100,000 Zeni?!”

  My mouth dropped open. The standard for rent in a shitty place was 500 Zeni a month. The minimum wage was about 2500 a month so…

  He’d casually give me over three years’ worth of money as pocket change?!

  What an insane old man! How rich was he?! Was this the benefit of living for a long time?

  I stared at the money. I hated the whole civilization that had made capitalism and working a thing but money was still… money let you do things. It let you do a lot of things. With this… I was definitely not going to waste my break! I was going to spend this week doing all the things I had never done before, that I could never do before, that I had missed out on!

  I was going to spend this money to its utmost!

  ******

  “Two scoops please.”

  “Of course.” Came out a surprisingly feminine voice. Odd for a male rock golem.

  The ice cream vendor gave me a double ice cream cone. His small shop was right outside the Dojo basically. The combination of strawberry and chocolate, simply enjoying a nice ice cream while walking around a city…

  I smiled sadly.

  Maui would’ve loved this. He always loved exploring and trying new things, especially food, more than I did. Suma would’ve definitely gotten a double chocolate and made fun of Maui looking like a tourist as he glanced at everything and everywhere.

  I shook off the morose thoughts, focusing on the world around me. It was strange. Normally, I had trouble seeing a lot of people’s power levels but now… I could see everyone’s. Well, almost everyones and I made sure to stay very far away from those I couldn’t. The weirdest part was how… weak everyone felt.

  I’d dreamed of this day, in many ways. Where I’d walk around and be one of the strongest creatures there. I had felt an inkling of it in Ragual’s village but this felt more… more. Like it was far more impactful. I wasn’t the strongest around, not by a long shot, but I was stronger than most. In a wild city of power that I’d lived so much of my life in… it felt more meaningful than anything else I’d experienced so far.

  I looked down at my body. Broken down, remade, healed back together. Lost parts of me made anew. My power level altered me in ways that reached all the way down to my core essence. I was so different from who I had been. And it wasn’t just my power level, but in so many other ways. It was an existence I couldn’t have imagined bearing only eleven months ago. I had changed, so, so much. It had nearly been a year and I’d changed beyond my wildest dreams.

  A Mutai with only my power level would lose against me.

  A Mutai with only my power level and training would still lose against me.

  It wasn’t just those sources of strength that had altered… it was also my mind. My soul, my core. I kept changing, experiencing new things, growing as a person in so many ways. These experiences may be shaping me, but they were also adding to me. Maybe even multiplying me.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  Meeting Ragual, meeting Vincent, experiencing life or death so many times, clawing my way out of the sewers, breaking past my limits through rage and hard work… and now ice cream.

  I smiled as I bit down.

  The most recent change was perspective.

  I could feel it in the back of my head, all the information I’d pulled from Master’s training. From the little I knew and understood about the Demon Style. I could see how some people moved without any training and how some moved in a way that had to be decades of work. I’d have to fight far more people to become an expert or a Master myself, I was still very far way away from those lofty heights. But still, it was like night and day compared to before.

  And I could see… that my special ‘Talent’ meant more than just what it gave me. Even if it gave me so much in the realm of combat, it also changed how I thought. It was the source of my changing perspective. You don’t see and learn without seeing the shadows. Experience… was probably one of the greatest teachers of all. I may not be able to pull from everything and apply it to combat but that didn’t matter.

  The man who only kicks and punches alone in the woods but had never seen a water park or turtle assassin, never been to a proper gym or had to run for their life… they simply wouldn’t be as well rounded. It’s a lot of different experiences that make up a person. It applies to more than just fighting.

  That was the key. The value of a well lived life. Seeing a million things and experiencing a million more. Despite Master’s words, it was clear from his Style alone. It wasn’t made purely through combat. Some of these insights, some of the way things worked, some of these meditations I was going through and ideas I was exploring and experiencing, they were like shadows on the walls of greater concepts.

  The blood control… it almost screamed of healing in some way I couldn’t put my finger on.

  The deflections and blocking had a hint of… almost sportslike. Like a gladiator or, or a boxer? Something about them made them feel that way, especially the elbow blocks.

  We didn’t have no technology growing up. I remembered a small handheld game device my parents had gotten me. It was simple and pure. You had a virtual friend and you walked around and the more you did, the more ‘experience’ your friend got and well, that was it. But he got so happy every time his power level improved and his form changed a bit. I’d carried him with me all over the island when I was like five until his power level hit max. It was common in games, to mirror life like that.

  But experience wasn’t just a magic energy you got from killing monsters or something that made you grow stronger. It was experience. Living a life.

  That was real life, growing stronger through actual experiences.

  Whether it was growing as a person, expanding my worldview, or simply enjoying maybe my only week long vacation in the next few years of my life, I had to make the most of this before I was put back in a well lit hole and told to fight till I die again.

  I finished off my strawberry and chocolate ice cream, continuing on my way. My clothes were still sadly weighted, even though I’d ‘found’ normal clothes for me in the room I went to. The boots hadn’t needed replacing and they helped me trudge through the snow.

  It was winter again now, almost a year since I’d first joined Master. Vega City didn’t get a lot of snow but when it did, it was ice cold. I saw different children out and about, playing with their families nearby. I passed by a park, a small three eyed child throwing snowballs at a treant child with four branch arms. A pair of statues made out of marble, both incredibly attractive males holding hands, watched on. Ah, a nice family of four.

  There was more than a few scenes around like that.

  I smiled at them and they waved. I waved back. I approached the two husbands, smiling happily.

  “”Merry Rabahgahdan!”” They said as soon as I got close.

  I froze in my tracks.

  Oh.

  Right.

  The Winter Solstice. The time period where it was coldest in the year. I’d missed a lot of holidays during my training and time in the hospital but, the Winter Solstice… it was one of the most famous ones. Everyone and every clan, family, and race had a few different holidays or other ones they didn’t celebrate at all. But, whatever word you used for it, the Winter Solstice was special.

  Rabahgahdan, Vegamas, The Winter Solstice, The Cold Times, Android Sparks, etc etc.

  Almost everyone had a version of it, mostly because the cold sucked and there was a turning point where it stopped getting colder. Most people celebrated that day.

  “Is that today?”

  “Yes! You didn’t know?”

  “Ah, I’ve been… busy.”

  They just laughed.

  “We get it. I’m Free and this is my husband Add.”

  “Hello.” Add said.

  “Hi. Merry Rabagha- Rabahda-” I smiled sheepishly. “Merry Winter Solstice.”

  They both chuckled, thankfully.

  “Let me guess.” Add said. “You’ve been busy training?”

  I blinked at that.

  “How did you know?”

  He shook his head like the question was ridiculous.

  “You’re young yet you’re so powerful of course! Results like those only come from hard work and those that work hard rarely take a day off voluntarily. Wait, let, me guess, it wasn’t voluntary was it?” He smiled as if he already knew the answer.

  I simply laughed.

  “My Master told me to take a week off or well… more like he said he needed a week off.”

  “Good!” Free said. “You young ones should be experiencing more of the world, not cooped up in some Dojo or Gym all day. What’s your Dojo? Is it one of the famous ones?”

  I thought about it… and immediately decided that if Master was any sort of famous…

  “No. No, I doubt that. It’s a smaller one.”

  If anything, Master’s Dojo might be horrifyingly infamous at best…

  “Ah, well that can be even better.” Add said. “We spend a good portion of our time in a family Dojo along with a few others. Gotta keep building that power level right?”

  “Wait, you all do?”

  “Of course, why?”

  I looked at their children and then back to them, thinking.

  “I just thought you’d be busy parenting I guess?”

  “Oho! But training together is parenting. The best way to protect your children is to have them learn to fight you know? Now I know a lot of families here in this city may have forgotten and got comfortable but the outside world can be dangerous! Why…”

  “And another thing!” Add interjected. “So many people leave their family out in the cold in that regard. Why, it’s practically heartless and morally irresponsible! Why…”

  I smiled as Free and Add talked my ear off about the proper way to raise a family, their eyes never leaving Cindy and Wilbur. Yes, this was exactly what I needed. These types of experiences, these types of things, learning and growing from all around the world.

  I had to be strong but the truly strong… I think they had to have a place in their heart for joy too.

  Patreon (20 Advanced Chapters)

  Discord (Get notified via ping when a new chapter comes out!)