Ken hugged his animal companions close and stared at the woods. He was overcome with the feeling of deja vu. They were familiar but remarkably changed. The nearby stream, his cabin, and the multiple other structures he had made such as an outdoor kitchen and the trine were all gone. The trees were different too. They were still the same firs, spruces and pines with a few others thrown in; only far rger than they were previously, twice as big at least. The most stark difference was the climate. Ken was used to dry and cold weather. It was totally backwards now the thick fog clinging to the damp forest floor and a mild but comfortable heat was in the air. If not for a strange lumpy mound in the exact pce where his cabin had once been, it would have been hard to convince himself he was in the same pce at all.
Sunshine and Rain seemed content to y against him as he kneeled in the grass. I’m sure they’ve been through a lot. Were they always intelligent enough to communicate, and just didn’t have a functioning nguage, or did cultivation increase their intelligence? Ken felt emotional. Although he knew for a fact that they had souls, he had always viewed them as his pets, which now just felt weird. They could talk, and undoubtedly had their own desires and personalities. How were they any different from him? To call them pets now was not something he was comfortable with. They’re my kids? Adopted? It seemed like that was good enough for now. Ken was interested to understand more about their experiences in CCC, but all three of them needed time to get their bearings, and figure out the next steps they needed to take. Ken had a sudden thought, and tried to analyze the kids, using the five aspects and categories. Even though these two were beings that Ken was more familiar with than most, he was surprised when the feedback from his mental efforts resulted in two retively complete status sheets.
Personal Status: Sunshine Enderson
Level: 3 (Soul: 2 Mind: 1 Body: 3)
Race: Ancient Pack Hunter
Qi Domain : First- Drawing Stage
Skills: Tracking (Novice 1)
Talents: Unknown
Gift: Extrasensory Perception
Aura Marks: Unrestrained
Personal Status: Rain Enderson
Level: 3 (Soul: 2 Mind: 2 Body: 3)
Race: Ancient Pack Hunter
Qi Domain : First- Drawing Stage
Skills: Hunting (Novice 3) Meditation (Novice 2) Analyze (Novice 1)
Talents: Visualization
Gift: Unknown
Aura Marks: Stealth, Predator
Besides their status, mass and base capabilities mattered a lot. Rain weighed maybe 60 pounds max, and sunny about 100. Even though they both had a level three body cultivation, their raw strength could by no means overpower him. Although he wanted them to grow and cultivate to the height of their potential, it was reassuring to Ken that he was not going to suddenly find himself on the menu for all manner of cultivating wildlife. There was still one creature that Ken had to be absolutely wary of, and that was bears. He shivered at the thought of running into a high level bear.
Ken felt the distinct absence of his bow, knife, and axe which he never left his cabin without. Not to mention he was butt naked. He knew how to skin an animal and make rawhide, but that was a far cry from clothing, and would take at least a week. His old process might not even work at all with the insane amount of moisture in the air, requiring him to make a room with a firepce to dry out the hides. Additionally he doubted his ability to kill anything worth making leather out of with his bare hands. Bears. He needed a weapon.
Ken got up and walked over to the ruins of his old home and began pulling away chunks of sod with his hands revealing some rotted logs. Sunshine was eager to help in the excavation process while Rain was content with watching silently. The half of his cabin that had previously held his stores of dried meat and forage was almost totally disintegrated. It was the kind of decomposition he would have expected to find after years, not months. The other side of his cabin had somehow seemed to age disparately with some logs remaining intact.
Ken’s first find was his cast iron pan. It was covered in rust and pitted, but if he scoured it with sand it was most likely functional. Worst case scenario it was still metal, and could be broken and sharpened into a cutting tool or melted down. He found his cast iron cooking pot as well, with a simir amount of rust. While hefting it out of the dirt and rotting wood, Ken marveled at his new strength. The rge pot including the lid weighed at least thirty pounds, but it felt effortless to lift. Ken had lugged this pot between the stream to his cabin hundreds of times as the two gallon capacity was enough water for him and his animals to drink for the day. He reckoned he was two to three times as strong. The progressive ramping of his physical training during CCC had him constantly struggling, but now with a benchmark to measure against, he was astonished at how he had grown.
His success at finding useful items in the ruin of his house gave him hope. He scoured the remainder of the room as he and Sunny made short work of the ruin mound. When Ken unearthed a four foot long leather case he held his breath in expectation. It looked new. The leather case looked exactly like the st time he’d seen it, and it was clean. Ken only had one answer: Qi. He had found that the vast majority of his belongings had decayed into scrap, so the fact that the case shed the dirt on its cover as he pulled it out seemed par for the course. Ken opened the case and subconsciously used Analyze.
Artifact Status- Maclura Pomifera Recurve Bow (Relic)
Level: 2 (Soul: 1 Mind: 0 Body: 4)
Qi Domain : Base - Saturating Stage
Skills: Meditation-(Novice 1) Marksmanship (Novice 1)
Talents: Unknown
Gift: Unknown
Aura Marks: Resilient, Infant Nascent Soul
Ken gaped at the status. Bows can cultivate too?! He realized how little he knew about the world of cultivation. In the back of his mind he had been pondering as he dug through his old home: rebuild or relocate? Rebuilding his house and facilities here would take months for his previous self, and even with his enhanced body, without modern or even archaic tools it would take longer. Somehow seeing his bow helped him make the decision. The world was so different from what he knew. It was time to explore again. His hermit life had to end, because the new world would pass him by. How much would his understanding of life, and existence change as he learned and experienced new things? It was a thought that made him nervous. Change had a way of getting under his skin. It would be so easy to live and cultivate quietly in the woods for many years. Ken had no perception of his new capabilities. His body, mind, and soul had undergone massive changes, and he had access to qi. Besides filling himself with energy, he had no idea of what he could actually do with qi. He needed to re explore his capabilities, and that of the world around him.
The bow was brilliant, and the case held seven arrows, and implements for cleaning. It was his most valuable and prized possession. More than that, it was assurance that he and his would not starve, which removed a weight from his shoulders he didn’t even know he was carrying. A woof from Sunny broke him out of his trance, and he looked over to see that the golden retriever was holding a steel ax head in his mouth that had a remarkably low amount of rust. Analyze didn't work, but Ken didn’t mind it. The difference between having access to a metal bde, and having to make due with a piece of sharp rock, was life changing.
“Good Boy!”
Sunny wagged his tail furiously and dropped the steel in Ken’s hand. After securing food, and making a handle for the ax, he would set off following the stream as far south as he could. The entirety of civilization y south of him, and if he traveled far enough he would eventually end up in what used to be the midwestern USA, where he was born. Along the way he would need to learn more about himself and try to figure out how to continue his training and cultivation in the absence of a personal trainer, as well as help his pets however he could.
With a mission clearly defined, Ken grasped the ax head.
It’s time to hunt.
