The m I woke to find my lower body prig with the energy of aether. The flow was not strong, but I could definitely detect it, and it reading throughout me, up to my lower chest. It was a bit like feeling pins and needles, just without that unpleasaion, instead it was warm and somehow rexing.
“I guess the training might be having an effect, that or my Territory is funnelling me more aether.” I muttered, befrabbing a rice ball from the fridge for breakfast. My muscles ached a bit from yesterday’s jogging, but it was not unbearable. Starting the day with exercises in visualisation and theher manipution and trying to feel my Chakras, I passed a quick couple of hours. It was hard to be certain, but it did seem to me that the warm flow of energy was moving just a little better when I visualised it, as opposed to leaving it be.
Ohis was done I sed my emails, and leased to see the first order of work had arrived from Hayato-san. It was a huge pile of debugging a testing, probably enough to st me a solid month or two, normally. I briefly regretted asking for as much as he could give, but I he money, and hopefully with my newly earned Astral empowerment I could whizz through it. There was no time like the present, so I figured I might as well start. Opening up the first of the dots and the debugger, I began to s it quickly.
Several more hours passed as I worked, only pausing to take a few swigs of iced tea every now and then. It rogressing very well, time that I would ordinarily have taken to check terminologies and research libraries unnecessary, as my memory seemed almost effortlessly sharp. My hands flew over the keys, brain w quickly, and I estimated I had done well over a solid days' work already, and to a high standard at that. As I was about to move to another file the doorbell rang.
Opening my door I found it was the courier delivering my fitness gear from Amazon.jp. After exging a few pleasantries I moved it into my room, taking up an annoyingly rge amount of my st floor space. Once everything was unpacked, I decided I’d do a bit more work on my assig, as seeing it made my heart twi the amount I had spent.
I squeezed out another few hours of extremely fast work before I started feelially exhausted. I’d probably done a solid eighteen to twenty hours of work at my prior pa just under six hours. At that rate if I had enough work ing in I could actually earn a det living… and would it increase further as I gathered more level-ups to buff my stats? There would have to be an upper limit though, in terms of how fast the puter itself be used. I wonder just how far I push it. Fourfold the speed, fivefold?
In any case, it was time to have a quick meal and then try out my new equipment. As I started boiling water for a cup ramen, I had ahought. Wasn’t it important to eat the right sorts of food to improve muscles when w out? Damn, I bet the proper food is expeoo…
With a shrug I figured I could worry about that ter. I’d test out the equipment first and see how well I could do. At first things went very smoothly, so I had to increase the weights to a bit past the beginner level. Even this didn’t straioo badly so I increased it a bit further. After an hour or so I was drenched with sweat, my muscles burning, protesting at my hubris.
“Damn, this is harder than I thought.” I gasped, setting down the dumbbells I was using. Though if you looked back at the me of a week ago I doubt I’d have been able to st five minutes with such hard training.
I couldn’t face doing any more work for the day, so I decided to tih my Chakra visualisations. Settling down into my chair I closed my eyes and revelled in the absence of strenuous exercise. After several hours, I had again made little progress, not sure if it was merely my imaginatioher the flow of heat was increasing or not. As I was just finishing up I felt a little popping deep inside of me. I paused for a sed, but couldn’t notiy immediate difference.
Oh well, I probably just imagi. Yawning I headed to bed. It had been quite a productive day, yet also a tiring one.
********
Waking up early again my body was lightly buzzing with heat. It felt nearly as strong as the time a couple of days ago when I had returo the Boundary. Warmth had pooled in my lower body, but was slowly spreading upwards, only to fade away as it reached my upper torso. Referring back to the data I had gathered on the Chakra work it seemed the flow was moviween my upper nodes, but as they were not developed it wasn’t w well.
Still, if I tio gaiher at this rate I should have enough to return to the Boundary today or tomorrow. That’s definitely faster…
Another couple of hours of tough exercise followed, but this time the flow around my base Chakra felt faster. It was still sluggish, but instead to push thick treacle it was now like trying to move water through a pipe that was too small, some would flow easily, but the rest would be backed up. I felt a few more of those weird poppiions, and began to feel a little dizzy, so I decided to take a break.
I went for a jog to loosen up, just around the block, waving to the few of my neighbours I saw out and about. When I returned, having worked up a bit of a sweat, I spent another hour w out with my gym equipment. Ohis was done and I was exhausted, it was time to do some more work. None of my emails were pressing, and after snapping off a quick reply to one my sis had sent asking my opinion on the merits of Tokyo uies, I settled down and began debugging. It’s good to dream, but she really afford it? I had a hard enough time making ends meet, it was a real grind…
Time passed quickly and my progress was swift as ever. By the time I was done, several more solid days’ worth of work had been pleted, and it was still only te afternoon. Since I had worked well, I decided it was time for a treat, so I took a cold beer out of the fridge. I had bought a few pay jog this m, figuring I should return the favour to Watanabe- should the occasion arise. Taking a sip, I sighed in pleasure. My new schedule acked, yet somehow I ended up with more free time than before. I guess that shows how muy time my work usually takes up. Taking a few mulps I let the feeling of te suffuse through me, and then decided to do another workout.
Ohat had finished I began my mental exercises once more, and after an hour or so I felt that the amount of aether I could visualise moving slowly through my base Chakra had increased. It was a very difficult thing to describe, as I was not merely visualising it, instead it felt like my very sciousness was being directed through my imaging and that there was actual warmth flowing through. Anyone else would probably think I was imagining it, but I had the advantage of knowing what the feel of aether was in the Boundary. While the feelings were definitely vastly more muted here oerial, it was still parable.
With the training came more popping feelings, and this time I felt some higher up in my body as well, and though it was hard to detect, if I trated really hard I could feel the flow of heat moving higher up my body and beginning to pool around my lower abdomen. The total warmth I felt robably enough to ehe Boundary again, should I wish it, but I decided to err on the side of caution.
Fighting that big zombie was a bit too risky for my taste. I have to make sure I have aether for emergencies. I’m getting used to my new life now, so I’d hate to have it cut short by carelessness. I’ve already made a few small mistakes which could have been fatal… no, from now on safety first is my policy!
The day proceeded iy much the same fashion, with me alternating work, physical exercise and visualisation. By the end of the day the warmth around my base Chakra and my lower abdomen was quite pronounced, and trickles of it were moving around various other parts of my body, weak but noticeable. With this extra aether to use in emergencies, I decided it was time to ehe Boundary once more. Fog my aether, my sciousness shifted with a blur and I was standing in the wider Boundary version of my apartment.
My Anchor was still there, now joined by two long, slender silver needles stretg up through the roof. As I watched I could see the faint glow of ether oo the side was a rge white cube, maybe three metres on each side. Looking at it silvery letters scrolled ay vision, prog it a Rank 1 Silo.
Cheg my store of ether I was impressed to find it was a bit over a thousand. It seemed that the Ether Spires really did increase what ether I could gain. I immediately ied it in the Spawning Spire Rank 1, which began to build. I did notice that I had a new option avaible to me as well, Ghouls. I’m guessing that they must have been the zombies I killed the other day then…
Pig up my spear, which had remained with me in my Territory, I exited my apartment and climbed up to the roof. My Territory extended outwards for a hundred metres, only broken up by the buildings within it and the nd surrounding them, which had not been made mine. “First thing’s first. I want to solidate all of the buildings within my Territory under my trol. It seems a bit risky to have gaps like that. Who knows what trouble it could cause?”
Spear in hand I crossed over to the neighb building. It didn’t feel like it was a Territory, but there was some resistao my trol. I booted open one of the doors aered, only to find myself tanged in sticky spider webs. It was rather unpleasant. Cutting through it with the sharp knife-bde of my spear I tinued in, eyes adjusting to the gloom only lit by the strange dark unlight that pervaded everywhere in the Boundary. Swarms of fist-sized spiders scuttled out of one er, making me shiver.
Damn, I hate spiders. Still, better them than dogs…
On the rge web opposite ider of siing scale, the size of a small pony. pound eyes gazed at me emotionlessly, and it let out a long hiss. Several smaller spiders came out from the shadows, still rge but only the size of cats.
I should have saved this oil ter. Readying my spear I leapt to the side as the rger spider reared upwards on its hind legs and unleashed a gobbet of green venom. It sailed past me, sprinkles of it catg me and burning with a stinging pain. Behihe wall was dissolving, acrid smoke rising.
Remaining at a distance suddenly seemed a bad idea. Rushing in I stabbed my spear at one of the smaller spiders, impaling it. Legs twitg in its death throes, poisonous liquid seeped out, causio gag. The sed smaller spider tried to bite me but I pivoted away and brought my foot down hard on its back, shattering its body into hideous goo.
The rger spider was ing for me, scuttling across ceiling webs angrily, spitting more poison. Smaller spiders were apanying it, als small drops of acrid venom. I defended with my spear and dodged the best I could but it was impossible to avoid them all and I was taking damage, my body going slightly numb, warmth within diminishing.
“Screw this!” I decred, elliher. At my will fme erupted, and the webs around me all caught fire. The shrill squealing of spiders surrounded me, as the fist-sized ones dropped to the floor, smouldering. Thick smoke filled the air and the rge spider leapt at me, back legs on fire. It was fortunate I was already moving away from it, as it hit the ground in a squeal of snapping chitin, in range of my spear...
Ohrust and it was dohe spider dying under my blow and turning to ether. The st of the webs had burned away, so I staggered out of the room, coughing out dark smoke and nursing some light burns. My Territory had not quite swallowed up the building I had entered but it was now closing in against the walls. Judging by that, I guessed there were still other foes remaining inside.
Just hopefully not more spiders. While they hadn’t proved that hard to defeat, they were adept at causial damage, if nothing else. Besides, getting hit by a big glob of venom seemed a terrible pn as well. Steeling myself, I moved over to another door and kicked it open, spear at the ready once more…
