Ken walked through the dense forest of pines and spruces and examined his surroundings. The vegetation was visibly altered when compared with his memories and Ken found several pnts he couldn’t even identify which amazed him. His qi perception revealed that the fauna’s saturation of qi varied widely: from nearly imperceptible, to striking levels. He had no clue what caused such variation, as even after a decent exploration, he couldn’t spot any patterns. Ken halted his journey when he came across his target. A perfectly sized pine branch with a solid amount of qi. Ken confidently scaled the tree. Even though it was made additionally challenging by the ax head grasped in his left hand, he reached the perfect branch and took a minute to find a position with good leverage. His awkward hacks with the ax head separated the limb easily. Body cultivation is amazing! Ken ughed as Sunny grabbed the branch and paraded it around as if he had done something.
Making sure to avoid the silly beast below, Ken dropped the metal chunk to the ground and scampered back to the forest floor. After winning a tug of war match Ken obtained the branch no worse for wear. The ax head had retained its edge well, and easily and he was able to make short work of carving a rough handle. It was a rush job, but it would get work done. The fresh pine wood exuded a thick and incredibly sticky sap. After securing the head on the handle, Ken rubbed sand into the sap, removing splinters and creating a better gripping surface. He created a belt from vines with a loop to hold the ax, and gathered his bow, arrows, and cookware. Sunshine and rain followed him when he left the clearing and began methodically searching for food.
The first area he checked was the forest south of his small clearing in between his clearing and the stream. He noted the various strange pnt species, and the higher density of trees. Despite the flourishing of the pnts, the animals were strangely absent. The only creatures Ken spotted were insects, and small birds. Ken didn't see a single sign of the normal small mammals that normally were prolific in the area. Ken found a few unknown berry bushes, and put the berries into his pot. He didn't have high hopes for them, since the birds seemed to avoid them, but he knew how to handle unidentified foods.
He quickly moved to the vicinity of the stream and walked along it for several miles. Sunny led the way diligently sniffing and exploring, while Rain checked in from her prowling intermittently. Overall, their behavior seemed unchanged from the past. After the first greeting his companions had reverted to their normal behavior, and so had Ken. It felt amazing to be with them, and out trekking through nature. Ken felt a keen sense of belonging. Their enhanced abilities to communicate with him only brought them closer, but they had understood each other for years already.
After walking about five miles, Ken stopped by a small pool in the stream. He had spotted another fish, and this was a good spot. So far, besides his berries and fish, he hadn’t spotted a single thing worth eating. It was worrying. The forest used to have signs of all types of mammals, mice, moles, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, elk, deer, bears. The rgest animal he had seen, besides his friends of course, was a fish. Where the hell are all the animals? Ken stood on the river bank and watched the fish. If food was this scarce the water would be his lifeline.
While scanning the waters, Ken spotted Rain further downstream. She was crouched on top of a log that protruded into the water. Ken smiled. His Analyze skill had rated his and Rains hunting skills on the same level, which honestly didn't surprise him at all. She was a menace. Well the race is on. Ken thought approaching the stream slowly and readying an arrow. He had to be judicious with his shot. If he missed, and hit a rock in the bed, it could ruin his arrow, and he only had seven. Every one is precious. Ken had chosen this spot because the streambed was mostly cy with fewer rocks. Spotting his prey and finding a shot was natural for him, and Ken let his muscle memory guide him through the shot. The fifteen yards between him and the fish made missing impossible. A spsh startled him, and the fish darted away. Ken looked over to see Rain swimming back to his log with a fish in his mouth. Damn. Ken watched the cat drop the fish on the shore and tenderize it a bit before chowing down with a smug expression. He went back to finding his own meal. By midday, he had caught two decent sized trout and Sunny had somehow caught and consumed a rge frog.
Ken quickly gathered wood and made a fire on the shore to cook his fish. Once he had that going he turned to the berries. He crushed one of the small magenta orbs between two rocks and dabbed a small dot of it on the back of his wrist. After waiting for a few minutes and not feeling any sensations, he washed it off. Ken repeated the test with two more berries before moving on to pcing a small dot of berry juice on his tongue and swiftly spit it out. Ken ate his fish quickly and gave some to Sunny before continuing his journey south towards the stream. At this point he was no longer denying the fact that he wasn’t going back. There was nothing tying him to isotion or that small clearing. Ken was going on a journey south, one that would probably st a long time. He was as prepared as he was going to be.
With his belly full Ken set his pace and continued downstream. As he walked he would intermittently sample the berries. He incrementally increased the time he held the bits of berry in his mouth, and eventually swallowed a piece. Further testing would wait till the morning. If Ken had no adverse effects, he would eat a whole berry in the morning. If by tomorrow evening, he continued to have no negative effects from eating them he would consider them safe to consume in small amounts. It was a rough test, and imperfect, but it was the best he could do. He couldn’t ignore potential food sources with food so scarce, and he chose to trust in the resiliency of his level three body.
When the sky began to darken enough to start impairing his vision, Ken simply picked a spot and sat down. He had thus far seen nothing that would lead him to think he couldn’t sleep on the forest floor in total safety. The fish he had eaten this afternoon had sustained him throughout the day, and he didn't feel the least bit hungry. He didn’t really feel tired either. He had spent three months living according to thirty hour days full of intense focus and exertion. Hiking through the forest with his dog felt like a vacation. Ken’s sleep had been definitely assisted by EIS during closed cultivation, it took a while for him to fall asleep on his own.
Ken awoke in darkness. His qi sense showed nothing troubling in his surroundings and he felt his awakening was natural. Although the darkness was off putting, he felt awake and refreshed. Sunny was still sleeping beside him and Rain was undoubtedly out terrorizing something. He didn’t feel like trying to navigate in the dark, so he turned his focus inward and examined himself. His three main apertures and twenty seven additional meridians drew a small but noticeable amount of qi continually without conscious effort. The qi was dispersed into his entire body primarily through blood vessels. Ken examined his meridians. They had very limited uniformity and varying sizes, but Ken went over each one hoping to gain some familiarity with his new inner workings.
The most uniform and symmetrical meridians resided in his limbs. He had two meridians in each forearm. They were both inside the wider part of his forearm close to the elbow, and they had formed a connection. A small tendril of qi reached out from each meridian and formed a small knot where they met. Second tendril reached from each of his forearm meridians towards the closest meridian group in Ken's upper arm. The tendrils only reached slightly past his elbow, but he could tell from his limited observation that eventually all his meridians would connect together.
The two meridians in his upper arm had already reached each other and the rger meridian in the middle of his shoulder forming an acute triangle. Two tendrils traveling down towards those originating from his forearm were close to forming a connection uniting his entire arm just above the elbow.
The meridian yout of his legs closely resembled that of his arm, with two meridians in close proximity in his upper calf, and another triangle formed by the two meridians in his upper thighs and one slightly above each hip joint. They were rger than those in his arms, and more spread out, but simirly close to completing all their connections. His shoulder meridians were both sending tendrils to the sizable meridian at the base of his skull that he determined was embedded in his brain stem. The only remaining qi node was in the center of his forehead, his mind aperture. It connected solely to his brain stem meridian, and had the thickest connection knot in his entire body residing in the center of his head. His brain stem would eventually connect to not only his mind and shoulder apertures, but also the one at the base of his throat.
His torso held eight meridians: base of throat, heart, lungs, upper spine, dantain, liver, lower spine, and one near each kidney. His dantain was attempting to form a connection to every node in his torso as well as the two in his hips, and the only one that remained untied was the longest tendril that was headed past the connections with his heart, lungs, and upper spine and continued towards his neck. It was noteworthy, because it was the only qi tendril to bypass closer connections to directly connect to another node, as all his other meridians, had not created tendrils that reached past other nodes to contact others. Overall his connections were close to being completed, with only his throat meridian having no established connections, although in the future it would create direct connections with his brainstem, upper spine, heart, lungs, and dantian.
Ken practiced the yoga poses accompanied by his visualization and breathing techniques until the sun rose. Although he didn’t cause any new connections to be formed, he could feel the tendrils making progress. It was only a matter of time. His soul and Insight were a different story it seemed. Keeping his soul isoted in a stagnant environment had not done much for his progress towards his personal goal. Although he had removed the blockages that were once holding him back, he had a keen awareness that no amount of qi cultivation or physical exercise would help him break through the barrier of the First Domain of Soul. He needed… something else.
Ken stood up and stretched. He popped a berry into his mouth and chewed slowly before swallowing. Not feeling any particur sensations he roused Sunshine from his beauty sleep, and made a chirping sound that would alert Rain if she was in earshot. He gathered his things and continued his journey, opting for a brisk job over yesterday's purposeful hike.
The day's journey following the river took him past the previous location of the closest town. Either its location had somehow shifted, a possibility Ken wasn’t ready to dismiss, or it had been indiscriminately erased. Ken couldn’t find a single sign of previous habitation by anything rger than a sparrow. Dense empty forests remained unbroken by any signs of civilization. Ken felt the hubris at the huge amount of time he had spent avoiding people, and the fact that as soon as he went looking for them, there wasn’t a soul to be found.
