章節 2: CH2: Gardening
At age 6, my qi control finally crossed into the intermediate stage. I felt my power surge, and it was easier than ever to summon my qi and move it around my body. For the first time in this new life, I had a respectable reserve of qi enough to flood my body with it even if it did nothing to raise my strength. It was just saturation to get my body used to the power. Qi burns were a real problem with qi enhancement. If I got my body used to qi early, I would have fewer burns later.
There were a few things I could do at intermediate that I couldn't before. I picked up a stone and used qi to make it hover over my hand. The little stone shook for a couple of seconds until my reserves petered back to a flicker. For days later, that was my practice once in the morning and once at night after my reserves recovered. It exercised more control and let me strain my reserves in only a few minutes. Every session would net me 0.1% towards the goal of the next stage. After a month, I could hold the rock up longer than just a few seconds.
We went to school, and I met the girl who would become my best friend, something more, and a traitor. Miko was her name, and I chose not to write her last name. For a bugger-wiping 6-year-old, she was quite the tomboy her love of games and collecting rare bugs caught my attention. She enjoyed wedging between Tsukune and me, and I didn't mind the company. My brother wasn't terrible to be around, but he was little frail.
"I'm not trading you back the Alakazam; it's mine now." She stuck her nose up as the link cable dangled between us. We were seven and both highly addicted to pokémon. I had traded my Kadabra in confidence that she would trade it back as we agreed. Unfortunately, that proved to be wishful thinking.
"Come on, guys, don't fight. I could trade you my Kadabra for the ratatta she sent you. That way, you could both be happy." Tsukune said.
"It wouldn't be my Alakazam."
"Why don't you trade me your haunter for it? I think I would rather have a Gengar anyway?"
"Why did I agree to trade with you?" I asked her.
"Because I'm the one with link cables. They came with my Gameboy. It isn't my fault you're too trusting, and it's just a game?" I wanted to slowly levitate a rock at her. It would be easier to throw one, but the look on her face at seeing a floating rock would be worth it. Just taking her Gameboy and forcing the trade was an option.
I growled under my breath, and she huffed out loud. "Fine, I'll trade it back for my ratatta, but you better come to my birthday party," Miko said before we traded back for my baby.
A year later, I had finally left the intermediate for the apprentice level. With the new rank, rocks became significantly easier to levitate. I could even move multiple rocks simultaneously, and one of my old skills came back to me.
Qi Enhancement: Beginner 10%
Pushups, gods bless pushups, squats, and other body exercises; they were just what I needed to force my muscles to adapt to qi enhancement. Finally, at age seven, I had begun getting stronger again. Still, I was limited in my growth without the resources available to even poor farmers in the other world. Unfortunately, there were no pills to bump up my stats, but I had a plan.
I made a proposal to our mother with all the elegance of the most intelligent 7-year-olds. "No, you can't have a calf or a chicken; we can't afford one, and where would you put one in your room. You do know they poop a lot, right." Mother said.
Yes, I did know they defecated; all animals did that, but I needed to force qi into it from an early age. Then, with some, after it reached maturity, we could butcher it, and I could raise my qi levels. An idea struck me.
"What about fish?"
"You will forget to feed it; remember your Tamagotchi." How could I forget? I doomed the digital beast to starvation surrounded by its own feces. Perhaps I was a bad pet owner.
"What about a plant?" Mother raised an eyebrow at that.
"Well, you need to learn some responsibility, and it wouldn't take up too much space. What did you have in mind?"
I thought about it for a moment then it came to me. "Blueberry, I want to plant blueberries."
At the end of the week, I had the potting soil, the pot, and a packet of seeds. It was good that blueberries liked some shade. The sun rarely peaked through our window. So I filled the little seeds with all the qi I could, then poked them in the soil and poured water on top of them.
Tossing qi into some seeds normally wouldn't work without complicated runes to control the energy, but I had a hack. Moreover, my qi had a single unique trait. So while I could learn how to manipulate fire, ice, and lightning with my qi, it was fundamentally best at stimulating growth.
A few weeks later, small blueberry sprouts poked out of the soil, and I drenched them with qi saturated water. I could feel them turn my qi into their own power. The sensation of another source of qi was amazing, and I didn't know what they would do for my body. I also noticed something interesting; they gathered the dark substance into themselves. No other plant I ever sensed could do that.
Several weeks came and went, and the blueberry bush grew rapidly. I pushed qi into the plant as often as possible, and soon it began to bud. The long sturdy stock of the plant grew taller and closer to my bed. Soon those blueberries would bloom. I opened my window and set it outside on the plant holder attached to the window seal. Once outside, the blueberry bush grew faster than before. Insects of all kinds visited the plant though most of them perished. The qi empowering the blueberry plant and the dark influence had changed it. While its flower bloomed, insects became stuck to them and were quickly devoured. Roots poked out of the pot and wrapped around the window seal potholder. A few crept along the holder, attempting to get back inside. Still, I wasn't worried until it started eating birds.
Qi Control: Apprentice 12%
Qi Enhancement: Intermediate 1%
Qi Gardening: Beginner 20%
Monster Taming: Beginner 10%
Body workouts stopped being effective after my rank-up. My blueberry bush was a monster and had managed to fill its pot with the skeletons of birds and rodents. We didn't need a cat; it wouldn't let a single rodent escape it. There were apparently holes all around our apartment where its roots easily slid through. Not one noticed because the gods' damned thing learned how to alter the color of its roots to match its environment. I still pumped qi into the thing, and it was getting playful. It acted like a cat rubbing its roots against me even when I wasn't feeding it qi. It seemed to know more than it should because when Tsukune came around, it pretended to be just another plant.
Weeks later, all the flowers fell off it, and the fruit grew rapidly. Clusters of the blueberries formed larger than grapes that almost seemed to grow. More birds swooped down after it than ever, only to meet grizzly fates. With little effort, it could move its roots like whips and split a bird in two. After observing it, I noticed tiny eyes at the end of its stems. The blueberry plant could see, and for all I knew, it also had a brain.
My mother walked in after my vain workout sessions, and blueberry quickly buried the skeletons in its pot; the moment, I felt nervous. Mother brought a pale with her, and I knew what she would do next. I couldn't just stop her from picking them; I wanted to do the same thing. She opened the window, and I braced myself to save her. Her hand reached out, and I feared the worst blueberry's root whips could do some damage. Instead, she plucked a blueberry off, and nothing happened. Relief flooded my veins, and blueberry seemed to lean in to help my mother collect its fruit. Already I could tell it was getting ready to grow new blueberries. With the amount of qi, I fed it every day, that probably wouldn't cost it much power.
Blueberry Plant PL6
Mother PL2
Arakan PL8
I plucked a blueberry from the bucket and popped it in my mouth. The sweet flavor was nothing compared to the qi flooding my system. The increase was small but permanent. It was just what I needed to game the system. More qi equaled more training time.
After filling up the bucket, she left blueberry with only a handful. More buds appeared, and in a few weeks, there would be more.
I rubbed blueberry's stem, and the monster rubbed back against me like a cat. Despite how dangerous it could be, I trusted the monster plant. From that point onward, every morning, I had blueberries and refilled the bucket every two weeks. My qi reserves doubled 3 times that year.
At 8, Mother sent a pie to father's meeting, and he got a promotion. With more money, we found a larger apartment. I bought an aquaponics aquarium and some fish with my saved-up allowance. Every few months after that, I bought another one and kept the window open. After saturating the water with qi, the fish changed quickly, growing larger and more aggressive. Blueberry took one tank over while I grew carrots and red chili peppers on another.
My qi had grown by leaps and bounds. I had more power than I knew what to do with, but my qi enhancement hadn't moved much.
Qi Control: Apprentice 30%
Qi Enhancement: Intermediate 5%
Qi Gardening: Intermediate 40%
Monster Taming: Intermediate 14%
Body workouts weren't cutting it anymore, and my father wouldn't let me get a gym membership. However, I needed a way to stress my body out more, so I signed up for a mixed martial arts class. On the first day, while surrounded by my peers of various ages, I was introduced to a man who wasn't human. My sensei moved slowly, almost methodically, as he surveyed each student until his eyes landed on me.
"Why do you want to be here, young man? This gym teaches you how to fight; it isn't for defense or show."
I thought about lying about some ideal nonsense I saw on TV or from a game, but there was only one answer. "I want to get stronger."
"Why, and don't lie?"
"I believe there are monsters in this world, and I don't want to be vulnerable to them. So, I'm here because I'm afraid."
The man who wasn't human grunted. "Good enough, I'm Sensei Sato; if you try hard here, you'll have nothing to fear." So that day, we were taught how to punch something without hurting ourselves too much. Before, I had always fought like a brawler but learning under Sensei Sato changed me for the better.
Still, that year my qi enhancement only gained a single percentage. Fighting normal kids my age didn't do enough to make many gains. So instead, I used my time to get my technique down, and Sensei Sato ironed out the flaws in my fighting style.
Then I felt the dark presence over the horizon awaken, and I thought I had failed for a few minutes. Somehow it was put back to sleep, but I never forgot its power. I needed to get stronger.
…
We stepped off the bus, and a bike-riding pinkette rammed into me.
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