I opened my eyes, finding myself lying at my work desk in the dark, head resting on my arms. Oh, so it was a dream after all…ouch!

  My thoughts were interrupted by a surge of aches and pains, especially in my shoulder and lower chest. Other pces hurt too, but those were the worst agonies. I flicked on my desk light and then looked myself over, and I could see blood on my clothes. Panicked I pulled my t-shirt off to reveal a series of mottled bruises ay flesh, with a series of what looked like bloody bite marks ay shoulder, which were not deep but were teo the touch. I also had several other cuts and arrays of bruises, a series of decade-old barely visible scars along my abdomen.

  “Not a dream then…” I muttered to myself. “It really happened.” Cheg the cloext to my work puter I saw it was only just past four in the m. I guess time really does flow differently in the Boundary.

  Despite the fact I had been unscious I was feeling bone-weary, so I decided to see if I could sleep for a bit and then I would sider everything that had happeo me ht uhe light of day. As soon as I y down on my futon I drifted off to sleep, my exhaustiing me down.

  ********

  I awoke to light streaming in through the window, the sound of birdsong loud in my ears. Gng over to the clock at my desk, the time was nearing half past ten. I stifled a yawn and dragged myself up, still feeling a few twinges of intense pain.

  “First thing is first, time for a bath.”

  Once I had sluiced off the sweat and blood and soaked my bruises I began to feel a little better. Drying myself off I sat down at my familiar desk and decided that the best way to clear my head was to take a crack at the outstanding work I had left. Once I had dohat. I could sider my options carefully.

  For the few hours I toiled away on my puter, clearing problem after problem. By the time I was do was nearly six in the evening. Still, I was all finished. Wait a minute, I thought I had a couple of days’ worth of work left, what with those new jobs that came ierday. How did I get it all finished, and so easily?

  It seemed that I could think faster and more clearly, easily finding the solution to issues that would have taken some thought before. My hands were faster too, flying over the keyboard and maniputing the mouse with speed and precision. A thought came to mind, ohat was impossible to deny.

  This must be the result of status. I did gain several levels, boosting my physical statistics. If this carried over to the real… Material world as well, then every level is precious, makiter at everything!

  In fact, the wounds on my body seemed much improved too, the bruises starting to fade and the cuts and gouges already having scabbed over. Lifting up my puter I tried hoisting it over my head, and found that, while I still got tired, I was definitely stronger and had more endurahan before.

  The feeling of the heat inside me that I had felt before in the Boundary was barely there, the merest flicker, but I guessed that made sense, as I had ran dry of aether before I was returned here. I guess I will have to build up my supply again. But first, if I was going to make a decision oher to tihe quest to be an Astral Emperor, I would o gather all the facts. It was time for research!

  ********

  Several hours ter I was taking a swig of iced tea and was reviewing the data I had gathered from my i searches. The keywords I used were Astral, Boundary, ether, aether, Silver Cord, node, and Astral Emperor. Not everything had any relevant hits, and nothing was a match, but there were enough simirities on some of the data to be iing. The Astral was described as a world of dreams and imagination, which was quite simir. One would be ected to their physical body by a Silver Cord, which also seemed to match. However the idea that the Astral could affeything in the real world was dismissed as a fantasy. Ordinarily I would agree, but I have proof that is not the case.

  Ether, aether and nodes were terms that didn’t really have any useful matches, aher did Astral Emperor, if you disted some bad fanfi and web novels of course. What I did find iing though were quite a few sources regarding ways to do what was described as ‘Astral Proje’ which was to free the Astral body to roam the Astral at will. This seemed the best lead I had. If only Exposition-san could have expihe process more clearly…

  I took another look at the various printouts I had made, the most relevant was a coloured diagram of what was called the seven Chakras of the body. Apparently one had to follorocess quite simir to what I had been doing iral to raise the energy level of the Chakras to liberate the Astral body. It struck me as worth a try.

  So that was the first part of my pn. The sed was sidering whether to actually return to the Boundary and my Territory. It was too soon to decide, but first I had to fully weigh up the rewards I had gained. Some testing was in order. I would o establish whether today’s boosts to my physical aal abilities were a fluke or not. It was time to work up a sweat!

  I spent the couple of hours doing sit-ups and press-ups, as well as squats and liftis (my puter again, as that was all I really had). The results were pretty good. I had definitely improved in terms of fitness and strength. In fact the gain seemed a lot more than a few pert. My mentable fitness of before seemed detly average, able to do push-ups and sit-ups for quite a while, despite being barely able to do a few before today.

  My sister would be so jealous if she knew. She has to do all that training to get good, and I only have to risk my life on… oh wait, maybe training is better!

  The hing to test would be my mental acuity, but the best way to do that would be to try and do more work and see if that was fi the same rapid pace as today. That way I would get paid as well. Money was going to be a real issue moving forward if I was seriously sidering improving my Territory.

  Scrolling through my emails unfortunately I had no more work remaining. That was the curse of being a self-employed freencer. Still, I knew someone who would give me extra work if I wanted, even if I wouldn’t get paid, so I fired off an email to her just as a backup. Putting that aside for now, there was ohing I could test left, and the ohat to be ho I was most taken with. It ractically a superpower!

  Removing a couple of dice from my desk drawer as well as a faded deck of pying cards, I began a lengthy process of rec data. The hours slipped past and before I k, it was one in the m, the streets around me silent. My pen skittered across the page and tallied up the final numbers.

  “On the dice I was sg just under four pert higher on average than mathematically expected, and the same with the cards, high cards were drawn a higher pertage of the time than should be mathematically sound.” The dataset was a bit small, so it was hard to be statistically certain, but it seemed that a point in Fortune was a roughly two pert boost, although without gaining another point and running more tests it was impossible to say if it was a linear process. That was small but would certainly have an effect long-term as more events involving ce were affected. I could sider it simir to a house edge at a o. Small, but skewing things in my favour over the long-term.

  Another iing fact was just how easily I had performed the calcutions. I had always been good at maths, but the speed of my w out was far faster than I was used to. What with all the data taken together, it was hard to deny that I had definitely gained quite the boost to my attributes.

  I stifled a yawn. I didn’t feel too exhausted, perhaps because this was exg, but there was no point tiring myself out. The final test would be to try the methods for Astral Proje I had discovered online and see if that mao raise my aether. I would try the ohat more closely matched what I had been doing and would take it from there.

  Settling down in my chair I closed my eyes and began to imagine drawing energy through my Silver Cord into my Chakras, trying to feel the prig heat of aether. I tinued doing this for quite some time, having little success.

  It was so easy doing it in the Boundary, I guess down here oerial there isn’t much ether around to vert and draw in…

  Still, I wasn’t ready to give up, and tio try and draw iher until sleep took me…

  ********

  I woke up again to the warmth of the early m sun creeping through my window. Looking at the clock I could see that it was getting on for seven in the m. I hadn’t slept much but still felt reasonably refreshed. As I stretched I noticed the pain from my bruises had faded away to almost nothing. The bes of having strengthened my physique, I imagine.

  Today I'll try a new method to accumute aether, and also do as much work as possible to… my train of thought was interrupted by the rig of aether within me, trated around my lower body. It wasn’t the r warmth of my time in the Boundary, but it was definitely noticeable.

  I must have accumuted it ht. My ust pull it in automatically. That was the logical clusion. Still, what I felt was only a puddle pared to the ke of before. I would persist with the trainihods until I found ohat worked. Only when I had accumuted enough aether could I finally make the decision as to whether I should tinue or not.

  “Back to testing then!” I said out loud, spping my cheeks to motivate myself. I quickly made myself a basic breakfast of cup ramen, the breakfast of the lonely single man, and began to trate on my wrist, trying to push the aether there to activate my status.

  It was a strain, the aether not flowing smoothly as it did in the Boundary, rather feeling like trying to push syrup through a straw. I forced my tration to a fine peak and tio imagihe flow, trating so hard that I could almost feel it, and after what seemed like hours, but robably no more thay or so minutes, I could feel a prig warmth cirg to my wrist. As it reached there, a dim silver glow leaked out, and words scrolled ay vision.

  It worked! I celebrated what was clear proof that this was actually happening, and I looked at my updated status with great i.

  [Material Statistibsp;[Intangible Statistibsp;Might42 46Fortune2Fortitude39 43Majesty1Intellect71 75Charm1Resilience67 71??? Acrity47 51??? Precision68 72??? Aether89 93???

  [Material Skills] [Aetheric Skills] White CordRank 2First Node Base ChakraRank 1Crude Aether ManiputionRank 2[Intangible Skills] [Perceptive Skills] Self-ExaminationRank 4Self-ExaminatiooryRank 3

  [Level] 1 3[Territory Rank]0 1