Chương 22: Learning

Around the second month of travel Blick had a breakthrough. With a sudden jolt, he realized he had been circulating mama through his meridians without actually thinking about doing it. He was focused on a bright blue and yellow bird that kept landing on his shoulder and eating from his palm. Distracted by the beautiful creature stealing his berries, he hadn't noticed how the soldiers were giving him strange looks, until he did. From what he understood, nobody could feel mana outside their own body.

So the looks weren't from his circulation practice. Being the curious being he was, the best thing to do was ask.

"What do you look for?" He had gotten pretty proficient at the language, but the native speakers still found his word strange. When he asked, one soldier just gave him an odd look while another explained, "Do you see any other birds?" Looking around for a few seconds he realized it was only this particular bird. And thinking back he had only seen this one color bird for about a week now.

"Is this kind different in a way?"

"Where I'm from we don't pay attention to the damn birds." The soldier replied before turning away from Blick indicating he was done talking.

"Now there's a site you don't see offn'" Artemis walked up about that time and nodded a welcome to Blick.

"Ain't seen nobody feeding a yellow belly in ages." Blick needed to understand why this bird was different.

"Why this kind?"

"That'd be because they haven't been used in ages, a couple generations ago they were trained critters, you'd find them as pets. People started figurin out them birds could sense mana and would group around powerful sources. That put a damper on the nobles liken of them. When birds of a bright color started flocking around their carriages as they traveled it signaled to bandits that there was a mana resource inside."

"So they got rid of them to protect themselves from bad men?" Blick looked at the beautiful bird before having a thought and looking back at Artemis with a snap.

"Wait, if they gather at mana sources, then this one is here because it can feel my circulation?" Artemis' eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"You're circulating right now? I just assumed you shoved some mana into them berries to attract it."

"I've been practicing." Can't imagine how many years it takes to learn such a useless skill, Artemis thought to himself…. Unless it's specifically to attract a critter. With a suspicious side eye he made some assumptions and wondered off to make a report.

"So he's training or has a trained bird. Not a clear sign of guilt but definitely suspicious. Good work, keep us updated." With a salute the trainer/spy left the commanders position near the front of the formation. Captain Fitz was curious. As a scout his entire career he had never considered training an animal to carry messages, but thinking on it he could see the potential.

"I want the exterior patrols doubled, have them extend their spread another mile out. Oh, and inform them to keep their eyes up for the yellow and blue birds. Report back if they see them coming and going in any specific direction. They are going to grumble about stupid jobs but make sure they are on board. A bonus to anyone who brings a credible report." The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Blick never noticed the extra eyes on him and he just kept training. One evening he started feeling comfortable with using the reinforcement with his staff so he walked out to the wood to train without bothering others. Within moments of swinging around his stick he remembered how he use to swing around his father's big stick. With a smile he went to the nearest tree and braced for a swing with full power. CRACK. Wow that was loud. Trying it without reinforcing his swing made a solid PAP sound.

Well that means I'm doing something right. Curious about the other uses of this technique, Blick begins testing new ideas. Can I run faster like this? I can reinforce a kick so could I reinforce a step? What about climbing? Could I reinforce my grip and pull? Over the next several hours Blick tried many ideas. Most worked. None were perfect as they would require specific practice to become habit, but he began to understand his limitations. This training in the wood alone became a daily occurrence.

His curiosity led him to new heights. Over the next month of travel he discovered he could jump and run nearly twice as fast. Climbing was intense. He could shoot up a tree. With the grip from his clawed hands and a reinforced pull he could nearly throw himself up half the distance in one go. Running full tilt was the hardest of all. Each step needed to be planned so he didn't roll an ankle or smash a toe on a log or stump. He was thrilled with this newfound strength.

At one point he was trying to lift a large log while reinforcing his core arms hands and legs all at the same time. With mild success he could feel the strain in the handful of muscles he hadn't really needed mana for that specific movement. While setting the log down he had a moment. He was small. Maybe just coming up to his father's knee. Father had signaled for him to come along as they traveled the forest away from home hole. Father carried a large hide sack. It took hours to reach the water spot.

A hole dug deep in the ground and a sack tied to an extremely long vine. Father took a while but he slowly filled their sack with water from the hole in the ground and lifted it onto his shoulders. At the time, little Blick had no way to know how heavy that sack was. He just knew his father was strong. Now, having learned a new technique that required mana, he understood. Father could use mana. Father had a core. That's how father kept the bad predators away from home hole. Things began to click into place.

The animals in the forest being violent and stronger than anything here. The society that learned mana techniques by accident without a language to explain the details. Blick had an idea that maybe his home had a lot more mana available than this place. It made sense. If these people were use to living away from the jungle, and they knew the deeper parts of the jungle had more mana in the environment. They acknowledged that some places could be more mana dense.

And in mana dense areas there was more and larger plants and animals. He could have figured this out when he was pumping mana into the flowers to force their growth. Why wouldn't the extra mana in the area also slowly leak into everything and also force growth. The implications forced him to retrace his steps from the gate in the tree to Nashas village. The villagers seemed more capable on average than the people inside the city he just spent so much time in.

That had to be because they had more stable access to mana. With a new wild idea to test, Blick started searching for a random bug. Plucking a caterpillar off a branch nearby he focused on pumping mana into it like the plants he had regularly done this to. Focusing on growth and stared at the bug as it slowly grew. Then a sudden blue flash happened from deep within the bug. The flash caught Blick off guard and he dropped the little guy.

With a panicked rush he pushed aside the leaves and sticks in the forest floor to find his test subject. The little thing was moving much faster when he did find it. Remembering the shimmery rain he put the pieces together. These creatures were creating a tiny mana core and instinct let them use it. That means some of those larger animals out in the jungle, like the alligator he ate, had to have mana cores. And if they by instinct pushed mana into their bodies to grow then by eating them he had absorbed extra mana.

Everything alive could hold mana. With wide eyes Blick sat on a log to think about this. Everything alive.