Billy could not feel any joy at completing the quest. He knew that Lorna would be back but the cost was immeasurable. He checked the party interface. Lorna’s icon was now greyed out. With a weary spirit he picked up Lorna’s spear and trudged back to the cave.
By the time he had returned Su Li had untied Trevor and Yuki but the two were still unconscious. He looked them over, but other than a few cuts, bruises and bumps on their heads they did not look critically hurt. Their stats seemed stable which seemed like a good sign.
“Lorna?” Su Li asked.
Billy just shook his head. He looked around the cave and headed into the shadowed alcove that the shaman had been lurking in. There was not much there except for a mouldy bed roll and some bronze coins. Where the hell had they got a bread roll from? He could not imagine them baking bread. The coins were square with a circular hole in the middle. He doubted they were worth much but it was better than having no money at all. It also promised that there might be somewhere to spend money. Maybe there was some sort of civilization somewhere. He also picked up the sceptre, thinking it might help them unlock the mystery to the use of magic.
Trevor and Yuki soon roused from their unconscious state. Billy allowed Su Li to fill them in on what had happened. Both were very groggy and could not remember anything after being attacked.
They decided to head back to their own camp. While the cave would provide better shelter from the elements, none of them wanted to stay in this place.
It was a slow journey back to the camp. Trevor had trouble walking straight and talked about how blurry his vision was. Billy was worried about a concussion, but it was not like they could check his brain. Yuki seemed to be the better of the two. She was, however, very quiet and unresponsive to questions.
While they walked Billy kept an eye on their surroundings but for once it was quiet. They returned to the camp to be greeted by Lorna dressed in a robe.
“What took you so long?” she demanded. “I gave up waiting and ran here.”
Trevor hurried over and gave her a big hug, followed by Yuki.
Su Li merely nodded and then grinned. “Let’s dance?” she said, and then giggled.
Even Billy could not stop himself from grinning.
“It was all I could think of,” Lorna said, her cheeks slightly flushed.
“Better than Billy’s ‘Welcome to the party, pal!’” Su Li said in a low gruff voice.
“You didn’t?” Trevor said.
“Hey and what about… 'That is my Billy! Leave him alone.'” Billy said.
Su Li flushed.
At first, it was just Trevor who laughed out loud but then they were all laughing out loud. The tension that had tied up Billy’s shoulders slowly disappeared. After a while the laughter subsided and they looked at each other.
“I don’t understand why we are laughing,” Yuki said finally. “Why is funny about what Billy said?”
This just set Billy, Lorna and Trevor laughing again while Su Li and Yuki looked at them if they were crazy. Billy would not be the one to tell them about a movie from before they were born – in fact he was the only one here alive when the movie was released - a sobering thought.
***
While the others tied up the camp and Lorna kept watch, Billy took some time for himself. He again looked over his status screen and menus. He was now level 1 with 58 hit points and 99 stamina points. Just Lorna he too had 4 unassigned stat points. They would have to work out how to use those. There were also the 2 skill books rewarded by completing the quest.
He looked at the list of available skills.
[Analyse item – find the hidden properties of items.]
[Frenzy – boost speed and strength for 5 seconds. Suffer a 20% drop in all stats after the 5 seconds is over. Cooldown: 2 minutes.]
[Improvisation – make basic items from unusual materials.]
[Stealth – hide from enemies. Reduce the possibility of detection by 20% for 2 minutes or stealth is broken.]
[Tailoring – make basic clothing from raw materials.]
[Tracking – find the tracks left by enemies and friends. Everyone loves a stalker!]
An interesting list. He already had [stealth] as did Su Li so he dismissed that immediately. [Analyse item] could definitely be useful as could [improvisation]. [Frenzy] was a double-edged sword and did not appeal to him. Still, it would be a group decision to make. Even though he was the party leader he knew decisions made with the help of the others would serve them better.
He went over to talk to Lorna. They have not had a chance to talk since they returned to camp and he could tell something was bothering her.
“How’s it going?” He asked her.
She looked at him and smiled. “Not too bad, considering.” She looked away and stared at the trees for a few minutes as if looking for answers. “Don’t die, Billy! It is not just pain – something else happens. I can’t explain it but I feel less. It is like I lost a part of myself.”
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Billy nodded. “I expected something like that. Not everything comes back.”
She sighed. “Some of my memories seem hazy too. And I lost 50XP.”
“Su Li reached level 1,” Billy said. “That’s three of us. I hope we can figure out this unassigned points business. Oh, and then there are the skill books.”
He explained to her the options. She too was undecided. She was keen on [improvisation] and [tailoring]. But there did not seem to be much point in tailoring without the right materials. Still her thoughts were that improvisation might help make up for the lack of suitable materials.
“You know that is the other reason we should avoid dying. If this carries on we are going to be going around naked.”
She laughed and punched his arm. After a few minutes of silence, he excused himself. He wanted to try meditation again as well as his cleansing exercises. He needed to balance himself again. Once more in battle he had just rushed into a fight. Without Su Li there he would not have defeated the shaman.
He was also a little excited about using meditation again. He felt he was close to reaching some sort of understanding – a breakthrough that would help them all.
He found a quiet place on the other side of the river hidden from the camp. He did not want to be disturbed this time. He started with the simple breathing exercises focusing on his breathing and his energy flow within his body. He then went through some of the tai chi stances and cleaning movements that he knew, keeping his breathing steady and controlled as he allowed his body to move. A few times he felt he was doing it wrong and had to recentre himself.
Slowly as he adjusted his movements to better enhance the flow of energy within himself he again started to sense those same external energy flows, drifting around his body. The feeling was tenuous but as he slowly moved through his exercises he could feel the energy follow his movements.
Now that he had a regular perception of the energy flowing around him he decided to try to pull some of it inside. He tried to breathe in the energy – just a little bit. At first he struggled to even do that but eventually he managed to breath in one mote of energy. Even though he could not see it the mote shone brightly in his mind’s eye. He willed it to join his internal energy flow – his chi – and move it around his body. For a brief second energy flowed before a powerful surge seared his synapses. He felt as though all of his nerves were on fire. Pain flooded his mind and he collapsed to the floor breathing heavily.
“Too much too soon, Billy,” he said to himself.
To his surprise he received notifications.
He quickly checked his status menu. He now had only two unassigned stat points left. Somehow by doing his exercises he had used two of them. His strength and constitution had increased. Was this cultivation? Had he found the secret to levelling up properly?
Suddenly his insides heaved and he felt himself start to sweat. He fell to his knees and vomited foul smelling black goo. He tried to crawl away from the horrible mess but then he looked at his hands to see a rank black liquid oozing out of his pores. The smell alone made him want to vomit. And then he did.
***
A short time later, Billy managed to drag himself to the river and wash. He did not bother to remove the robe as that also needed a thorough cleansing – it had been covered in blood earlier and now rank black goo. The cold fast fast-moving water slowly washed away the toxins from his body. He was sure that the stains would never come out of his robe but at least it did not smell so bad.
He emerged from the river and went to another clearing. He was dying to share his information with the others. He felt so strong and vibrant. But there was something else he wanted to try first.
He sat on the ground cross-legged and started to meditate – just meditate. He soon reached a point of tranquillity – at one with himself. This time, his sense of the internal mana flows came more quickly – a stronger understanding of what was happening in his body. He felt like he could feel places in his body where the flows were restricted. Reaching out he also could feel the external flows more strongly. He felt he could reach out and touch them. There was a pattern there. He did not try to do anything this time but just followed the patterns and observed the flows. Eventually, the flows seemed to separate.
They were different he realized. It was not just one flow but more a network of energy flows. Some flows followed the movement of the branches of the trees, others followed the soft breeze pushing through the clearing. Different flows for different aspects? What were the different aspects of mana? He felt confident that earth, air and fire were three of them but were there more? Surely water must be one. He tried to sense water mana but he could not differentiate the different aspects except by the way they flowed.
He felt a cool refreshing feeling flow through his mind.
There was no emergence of black goo this time but he did feel exhausted as if he had not slept for days. His status menu showed that he now longer had any unassigned stat points. Somehow, through his tai chi and meditation, he had used the points. He just needed to figure out exactly how that worked. It was limiting if he could not control exactly how the points were assigned.
He looked at his surroundings seeing that the light was beginning to fade. He has not realized just how much time must have passed. He immediately set out to return to camp.
Lorna’s face was frosty when he returned and it did not take much to figure out why. She must have worried about him being missing but did not want to leave the others alone.
“Sorry!” Billy said. “I was just trying to work out a few things. I seem to have managed to assign the stat points that I got for levelling up.”
“Oh?” She merely said. “Food is almost ready. You can tell everyone while we eat.”
When Billy explained to the others while they ate Su Li was the only one who showed any excitement. Lorna was still cold towards him, and he could see thoughtful looks on the faces of Trevor and Yuki.
“I think we need to know more about this before experimenting,” Trevor said, finally.
“We have a way to increase our stats,” Billy replied.
“Yes, but we have no control over how those stats are increased. Will the same result happen for two different people? What if I want to increase my agility? Also, would the same thing work for the next level?”
Billy understood his arguments. It would be better if they could control the improvements.
“In my comics the protagonist can increase their power through training but then has to make breakthroughs which means they increase their understanding of their techniques and their spiritual selves,” Yuki said. “These techniques are usually taught to them by their elders.”
“Well we don’t have any elders here,” Lorna said. “We do, however, have to make a decision about the skills books.”
“I think we should get the tailoring one,” Yuki said unexpectedly. “We can make clothes from animal furs.”
Billy could feel her eying his torn and stained robe. “True,” he said. “But is that a priority? We only get to choose two.”
“The improvisation skill would allow us other options,” Trevor said. “The identify item skill is the only other one that interests me but we don’t really have many items to identify.”
“I think we should wait another day,” Lorna said. “We still need to complete the exploration quest. We can do that tomorrow and also get the others to level up. I will be happier if we all are at least level 1. Plus, Billy and I are close to level 2.”
Billy checked the completion rate of the quest. They were now 92% complete. The only area they needed to investigate was the one were they had seen the level 5 squirrel. They would need to be stronger to face enemies of that level. They could not keep relying on luck.
He nodded in agreement. Tomorrow was another day.