On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Twenty-Four

I opened my eyes once more to pain. Damn, I’m getting used to this. Blood was smeared down my chin and across my upper chest. Luckily there wasn’t a large amount, but any blood from within surely wasn’t good. My bruises ached a little, though nowhere near as fiercely as they did within the Boundary, but the greatest torment was coming from where my lunar Chakra was located. Assuming it really exists, of course.

Shaeula had certainly tried hard, and had been a good, if relentless and uncompromising, teacher, as connecting up my other Chakra nodes had gone relatively smoothly. Even now I could feel the first stirrings of warmth filling my root Chakra, and I wasn’t even meditating. However, her insistence on the eighth lunar Chakra had left me badly injured. Still, if we judge purely on results it wasn’t a failure…

Whether or not she had awakened a latent eighth node we all possessed, had created it from scratch or just caused some damage to my body, it would become clear in time. Getting up I went over to the window and drew the blinds. The bright early-afternoon sun shone brightly through my window. Glancing at my digital clock it was just gone two in the afternoon. Quite some time had passed in the Boundary, and that was reflected to an extent back here. Still, I was in there for more than two days in objective time, definitely. I’ve never spent so long in there before, but time does seem to run at roughly a rate of two or three times faster there. I’d now made more than a half-dozen trips into the Boundary, and I was starting to get a handle on how it worked.

As my muscles shifted the bruises ached. I didn’t feel like exercise or combat training in such a condition, so since it was the afternoon I decided to eat lunch and then do some debugging. After that I would do some light stimulation of my newly linked Chakra network, and see how things progressed from there. After having some food I settled into work, and for the next few hours I rushed through the debugging, completing task after task. As the light of the evening started to turn orange with the setting sun I finished for the day, letting out a satisfied groan.

“If this keeps up I’ll be done by the end of next week. That’ll be an easy month ahead of schedule. Hayato–san will be very surprised.” In this business it was more common to overrun deadlines, not complete work so far in advance. It would certainly help him out a lot. And of course it’ll earn me some sweet money. My expenses will all be well covered and I’ll have cash to spare…

My stomach rumbled again, so I decided to have some dinner and wash it down with a couple of beers. Luckily I had some suitable leftovers so it didn’t take long to put something together. Once I had finished up the beers it was fully dark, the silence of the night heavy in the still hot air. “Oh well, time to do some light Chakra training.”

I settled down into a comfortable position, trying to ignore the pain around the lunar Chakra. My bruises had faded away during the day and no longer hurt, a fast recovery. As I began to channel the aether around me into my base… no wait, now it’s the root Chakra isn’t it? … Anyway, now I gathered it in my root Chakra it quickly spread upwards, bringing the comfortable feeling of warmth. As it reached my lunar Chakra the pain intensified, causing me to break out in a sweat, needles of agony spreading from my back to my whole body.

“Damn, this hurts…” I muttered, but I continued moving aether, and it spread upwards through my throat, third-eye and finally to my crown. When it reached my crown my body suddenly felt as if I was immersed in a boiling shower, warmth cascading down my body. As it flowed the pain from my lunar Chakra diminished, fading to a manageable ache. I was buzzing with energy, in such a short time I had gathered as much aether as I would during a whole days’ effort before.

“This is so much easier…” I crowed, and as I did silvery letters suddenly sprang into my vision, causing a small drop in the aether inside me.

Your Class, Fae-Bonded, has increased from Level Two to Level Three.

Huh? I was momentarily stunned. When I last looked at it my class was still at level zero! I didn’t remember doing anything to level it up. Concentrating hard on the term ‘class’ using my bracelet that Exposition-san bestowed upon me I tried to find out more information. More aether drained from me, and words flared into being.

A ‘Class’ is gained by meeting certain criteria, the Astral energies within you resonating with some circumstance to create a unique result. They have a set number of Levels, usually ten, though classes with more Levels do exist. To level a Class, unlike your basic Level, you must gain in areas that reflect the nature of your Class. Classes provide benefits in unique areas, based on their nature. All Classes will also raise their possessor’s ???????.

Damn, more unknown text. I definitely needed to raise my appraisal skill levels. I wasn’t sure what I had done to raise my Fae-Bonded Class, but based on the fact that it went up as I was channelling aether I had a few ideas.

After a little more exercise my lunar Chakra began to ache savagely again. Taking that as the signal I’d done enough I decided to go to bed early and carry on tomorrow.

********

Waking up after a short sleep, I was feeling a lot better so I proceeded to resume my morning routine of physical exercise. The bruises had gone and I was only feeling some discomfort from the lunar Chakra, so I did my usual muscle-building training, followed by some spear practice. I then decided to go for a run to work my body thoroughly. After missing yesterday’s workout I was feeling a little out of sorts. I’ve joined the world of the fitness fanatics it seems. I couldn’t help but smile wryly. Still if everyone had a way of measuring their progress and such great rewards for doing so, the world would be full of fit people and obesity would be a thing of the past.

Jogging through the early morning streets I saw people going to work, or walking their dogs. Crossing the street to avoid them I cursed the fact such… animals… were popular. I’ll never understand the appeal of dogs, I guess that is understandable, after that time…

Since it was now summer break there weren’t many children around, so everywhere felt less bustling. As I reached the red iron bridge that crossed the river I couldn’t help but slow down. In the Boundary this is Grulgor’s Territory. I found myself thinking of ways to assault the bridge. Not that it was helping much, as in the Boundary things didn’t always look the same…

Picking up the pace I decided to work myself harder, and so for the rest of my run I really pushed strongly, muscles aching and breath coming in hot gasps. As I sped through the streets at a speed that would not be out of place for a professional athlete I noticed the admiring looks of several passers-by. A pair of teenage girls dressed up in the latest fashion pointed at me and whispered to each other, while a tired-looking salaryman gave me an appreciative nod as I passed him at speed. Seeing this just made me want to push myself further, and I sped up, muscles pumping. As I did so I could feel the aether in my body move in response, and before I knew it I was going even faster, the streets a blur, all my aether draining from me, leaving me spent.

Reaching my apartment block I slowed to a halt, doubled over with the strain, taking in huge gasps of air to fill my tortured lungs. Still, for the last sprint I had done a speed that didn’t just match an athlete, it was on par with a top Olympian. Pain was winding its way through my overstretched muscles and I felt like I was going to black out, but I had managed the impossible.

“You look exhausted, Oshiro-san.” At the familiar voice that greeted me I craned my neck upwards to see Hashimoto-san looking down at me from the steps above. “That sprinting you were doing was mighty fast. Have you considered your talents might be wasted on your freelancing? That speed might get you into the Japanese Olympic team. You must have talent, as you were quite a bit slower a few days ago.”

I don’t think I could go this fast without aether, and not without consequence. The pain in my muscles was now being overshadowed by a fierce burning around my lunar Chakra, causing me to tremble uncontrollably. “You flatter me too much. I think this was just a one-off miracle, and I think I’ve done myself some damage. I’ll be taking it much easier from now on.” I forced myself to my feet and staggered up the steps towards my room. “Off to work today?” I asked Hashimoto-san as he eyed me with concern.

“Yes, I have a meeting with the top brass.” Pulling out a ratty cigarrete he lit it and took a drag, sighing mournfully. “Targets, it’s always about targets. Hopefully they won’t chew me out too badly this time. I wish I could get another job, but at my age… it’s too big a risk for me. Employers don’t look favourably on quitters.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” I reassured him, starting to draw in the faint surrounding ether to cycle to aether to try and calm my aching lunar node. As I did so Hashimoto-san shivered, frowning suddenly.

“Are you all right?” I asked, and he responded with a nod, rubbing his arm with his free hand.

“I am yes, I just felt a little woozy for a second there. Probably just the stress. Oh well, I’m afraid I don’t have time to talk all day, Oshiro-san. Take care of yourself, but don’t let this setback stop you. It looks to this old man that you have talent. I wish I’d made more of my talents when I was younger. If you can do it once, even as a miracle from the Gods, with training you should be able to achieve it again, right?”

Leaving me with those words of encouragement he left, and I staggered back to my room. What you can do once you can do again, eh? That’s true. But I need to remember not to push myself so far my body or my Chakras break down.

Taking an energy drink I settled down and continued to cycle energy until my Chakras stabilised, the ache of my lunar node fading. One thing this proved was that I could use aether in the Material world as Exposition-san had promised, and it was as draining and difficult as they said. Finished with my exercise for the day I decided to crack on with my debugging.

********

For the next two days I continued this routine, gentle Chakra-work, physical training and debugging, until on the third night I had accumulated more than enough to enter the Boundary, with far less effort than it usually took. Sending back the finally completed debugging work via email to Hayato-san, finished a couple of days faster than even I thought I would, I awaited his shocked response with a sense of amused anticipation.

Closing my eyes and getting comfortable I let my consciousness drift, and once more entered my Territory…

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