The Beast and the Sage

Levi spent the rest of the first day thumbing through the 'discarded' books he'd found.

The Anarchist Cookbook: Post-System Edition was a complete wash for him. It had plenty of great material. Some of the things in it he'd even thought he'd actually be interested in learning.

However, the overwhelming amount was involving what some may consider 'more questionable' alchemy and use of herbs. Much of that was stuff he'd consider beyond the skills of anyone who didn't specialize in those things already.

He could choose to tuck it away and learn what he could when he had the time, but Levi decided he'd give it to Grace instead. He was already on her good side, and whether it mattered or not, she was on his. It was probably better to build on that relationship than to squander the opportunity with selfishness that would barely benefit him at all.

A Brief Introduction to the Esoteric Realities of a Post-System World was a wash for him, too. It was actually even less useful for Levi. Skimming it, he definitely knew it hit on things that could and would change the way a person used mana, if not even more. But it was like reading a textbook far beyond his comprehension.

And Levi had tried to understand the text earnestly. But he just couldn't quite get there. He'd reread something four or five times, and then his mind would wander. It was just way beyond him.

He tucked that one away, hoping he would run into someone who could make good use of it at some point. He would either use it for trade or give it away to someone he liked. Either way, he put it out of his mind and tucked it into his pack, too valuable to throw away but too useless to worry about.

But, The Essence of You: Why What's at Your Core May Be All You Need was something he knew he could use.

After initially thumbing through all three books, he took some time to read The Essence of You.

It was primarily a guide to meditation to find the 'core of your being.' It was very short in comparison to the other two books. And it never specified what the core was. While skimming for the reason it was 'all he needed,' he found nothing except dodgy references back to the meditation techniques and how it would reveal what he was looking for.

It felt like reading a self-help book that would have never been published.

It was, without pulling punches, fucking awful. And if this was a pre-system world, Levi wouldn't have used its pages to wipe his ass unless he could shower right after.

Yet, Levi could not help but feel there was something to the book. The entire thing felt like a riddle he almost had the answer to. He constantly felt one thought away from understanding.

He decided to actually attempt the meditation technique, rather than puzzle out what it was in the text the he was missing.

Sitting down, he began the breathing exercises, focusing on a steady constant rhythm. Once he'd settled into that, he focused on the next part. Piece by piece, he focused on his body, from the tips of his toes to even his face.

After he'd clearly focused on a piece of his body, becoming extra-aware of it, he would relax it until he could remove his focus with that piece remaining relaxed. That part took a while.

He had to start over multiple times, and certain things gave him a lot of difficulty. He had the hardest time with his jaw, which tended to clench during concentration.

Eventually, he felt he had it down enough to proceed to the next part. This was rather nebulous. You were supposed to shift your focus inside yourself to find an inner energy. The guidance of the books said to allow yourself to be open and that any energy you found was okay for this purpose.

Once you located an inner energy, you had to follow it until you found the Core.

There were further instructions, but Levi had barely made it past relaxing his body. He certainly wasn't feeling any inner energy.

After a while experiencing nothing but failure, he decided to give it a rest until later. He was still convinced he had found something worthwhile, but that forcing it was just not going to work.

As he opened his eyes, he realized the sun had gone down. That meant he'd been meditating for hours. It had seemed only 30 minutes at most.

Levi smiled. He was onto something.

Fortunately, the moon was full. He had just enough light to build a fire. He'd collected flint earlier, for this purpose.

He knew how to make a fire, but he leaned on the system skills he'd been granted to do it. He used his own knowledge to build up tender and wood, but when it came to actually lighting the fire, he pulled out the flint and just thought about it.

To his surprise, the knowledge was there, and even as his hands did the work, he understood what they were doing. Automatically.

Before long, the fire was burning nicely. It wasn't a blaze, and he didn't want it to be. He just needed a small fire for some heat and light.

He considered looking through the Tomes on Mana Infusion and Identify, but his brain was too fried.

Instead, he looked over the forms of Tai Chi Chuan and the slow sets. It had been a long time since he'd practiced it.

After a while, he fell asleep. Sometime in the night, he crawled into the bedroll and pulled the blanket over himself.

________

Paige looked through the eyes of a crow as it showed off in the sky for her, turning and twisting in the wind in the best displays of flight it could manage. It was probably not that impressive as far as birds went, but Paige was flying for the first time.

She was finally using her Ability. The hardest part was agreeing on a trait to trade. She couldn't share more than basic senses with the crows. They'd only been interested in her hands and her hair.

They'd settled on her running her fingers through her hair while they experienced the sensation of touch. For whatever reason, they'd all found the sensation delightful. In return, she got to fly.

They had insisted she could use their eyes at any time, though. They'd still feel her sensations of touch, even if she wasn't running her fingers through her hair. But Paige didn't want to feel like she was taking advantage of them, so promised she'd only do that when it was important.

As far as she was concerned, she'd gotten the better end of the deal.

"Oy, it's my turn, you greedy prick," one of the crows called out from the branches above.

This was at least the 100th time that they'd traded. They'd been at it since yesterday. And honestly, Paige didn't mind.

Interestingly, as the crows traded places, Paige didn't have to do anything. She was glad for that because it would be tedious if she was the one swapping them out every time. In her status window, they were listed as 'Crows' and not individually. For whatever reason, they counted as a unit.

"Hey, crow friends, do any of you know why you are all listed together as my friends, instead of individually?" Paige asked.

"That's easy, love. When you are a friend of crows, you're a friend to us all. Us crows are a network, and we spread the word. That's why you don't ever cross one of us crows, you see. We'll put a target on your back."

"I'm even more glad we're friends, now," she joked. "Hey, do you think I can try something? I don't want to be rude. I'd like to see if I can change which eyes I see through without you all doing it."

After a bit of cawing, the crows seemed to think that was fine.

With focus, she tried to shift her vision. Nothing happened. She didn't even have a feeling about it.

"Well, I guess that won't work. Makes sense, though. I'm supposed to be your friend, not control you guys."

Paige's vision was still seeing out of the eyes of the same crow. He faltered mid flight and then cawed. She couldn't hear it because only her vision was shared.

She heard cawing coming back towards her from a distance until she finally understood. There were several voices speaking over each other, but one of the crows put the general idea plainly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just have her tell us what she wants to see, and we'll pass it along for her."

"Boys and birds, boys and birds, you did it again! Bloody genius," said the nearest crow.

That was also a weird thing she'd noticed. They seemed to keep a single crow close enough to her to pass along messages no matter where the rest of the crows were. She hadn't asked them to do that. They just did.

"So, what do I say? Just whatever I want to see?"

"That's they idea, lass. We'll do our best."

"I want to see water."

After a game of 'telephone' through crows, her vision filled with the aerial image of a creek leading into a fairly large pond. The crow flew low above the water, then landed on a branch at the edge.

"Thank you," Paige said quietly. It was incredible. She felt a trickle down her cheek.

"What else, lass? It ain't no problem, we promise." Came quiet caws.

Paige listed things after that, one after the other. Big rock. Open field. Large tree. Tall hill.

She even went with 'bad squirrel' at one point, just to tease them about their hate for squirrels. The resulting headache caused by a second-to-second perspective change had not been worth it, and she'd struggled not to throw up before asking them to stop.

Then, she thought about the man she'd met earlier. She hadn't even gotten his name.

And, of course, she blurted out, "I wish I could see him."

"Who's that, lass?"

She laughed it off. "Nothing, I was just thinking about someone I met earlier. It was silly."

"Not at all, not at all. It's something us crows are good at. Let us give it a go. I think we all want to impress. Got a good future in front of us with you, I hope."

Embarrassed, but realizing these were just crows, and wondering how well it would work, she gave them Levi's description.

It seemed like there was a lot more cawing than usual to Paige. But after about five minutes, her vision shifted to the clearing she'd been in the day before.

In the center, Levi stood in a weird stance. As she watched, she saw him move slowly through positions. 'Is that Tai Chi?' she wondered. His face seemed so intense. As he moved from one position to the next, his vision stared at nothing, his face without expression, as if his entire focus was on himself.

The crow she was seeing through suddenly cawed, though she couldn't hear it. Levi obviously did, and it pulled him out of his focus. She saw him glare up at the crow. So now she'd seen him focused and angry. He was still cute. Maybe more than before.

"The boys are asking if we should...um, shit on him, miss."

"What?" Paige asked, alarmed.

"Well, we ain't proud of it, miss. We ain't no pigeons, you see. But if he did you wrong, we've been known to do the dirty job when the need calls for it."

"No. Please, no. I like him. I mean, I really don't know him. But he hasn't done anything wrong..."

"Okay, Okay. As you say, miss."

After that, she watched Levi for a while, and maybe a little too long after he'd pulled out his new gear. When he started changing, she had far too hard of a time ending her vision through the crow's eyes than she would like to admit.

Paige really needed to figure out why she was acting this way. She knew something was tweaking her behavior, even if it was only a little.

Thinking about it, there was really only one person she could think to talk with about it.

_______

Levi had started his day with Tai Chi. He was terribly out of practice. He also wasn't sure he was ever taught properly. His teacher had been questionable, at best.

His 'master' had literally been the town oddball, who'd advertised "Free Tai Chi Lessons, With Drunken Master."

Levi, having nothing much to do during that time and thinking 'why not?' had used the lessons as just something to do for free.

And though he'd never been quite sure how valid the lessons were, especially when his 'master' would go take very liberal swigs from a wine bottle during short breaks, there were take aways that had always made him appreciate the slow sets. Slow sets were, of course, the slow movements through the forms.

What he'd always found worth taking away from the lessons were the simple principles that could be applied to any martial practice.

Most people believed that slow movements were meant as a form of relaxation and meditation. And they were right. A smaller number realized that Tai Chi was a martial art and thought that the slow movements were to instill the precise movements into the practitioner. And they were right, too.

But that wasn't unique to Tai Chi. Meditation methods existed everywhere. And martial arts, in general, had always valued precise repetition in order to instill proper technique.

But there was one exercise within the slow set his Tai Chi 'master' drilled into him. That was precise muscle activation.

When you turned your body, raised your arm, extended your leg, shifted forward, extended your other fist... with every single movement, you focused on activating every muscle to maximize that movement while keeping everything else relaxed.

From the tip of your toes to the tips of your fingers and even your core, from your bellybutton to your spine, and up your spine and through your back, shoulder, and chest.

And somehow, his master had always known. If he was too tense somewhere, Levi would be stopped and corrected. If he didn't activate the right muscles, he'd be stopped and corrected. If his face was scrunched up in concentration, his master would stop him and make him relax again.

Levi couldn't even understand the sixth sense his master had to know when we wasn't activating the right muscles or if he over tensed muscles that should be relaxed.

But somehow, his master always knew and corrected him.

Levi had asked why they practiced that way and why it was so important. And he'd gotten the answer, without any dodging or bullshit, a straight answer.

When you activate every muscle to maximize the potential of movement, that movement becomes fast and powerful. When you learn to relax all other necessary muscles during that movement, you waste no energy and perserve your stamina.

Pure efficiency of motion.

It was a simple, beautiful truth.

Over time, Levi had done it right, and they'd moved on to more combat related excercises.

But, it was a technique he tried to get back into the practice of now.

He had the feeling that relearning those principles would serve him well no matter what.

But more importantly, if he could understand the use of mana and stamina, he thought there may be a way to implement that very basic principle of efficiency into everything.

Levi had made some decent progress refreshing himself on the forms while going through the slow sets, but the crows were starting to drive him crazy. They just never stopped cawing around him.

So after the last crow had interrupted his final pass through the forms, he decided to call a break, eat some rations, and go over the Tome for Mana Infusion again.

The rations sucked. There was no way around it. But Levi had eaten worse, and he needed to eat. As was a tendency of his, he'd forgotten to eat until then. So, he ate all of it, jerky, bread, and the second worst cheese he'd ever had.

He decided he'd look over his status page and finally check out his starting gear, as well, before attempting to study the Tome of Mana Infusion.

_____

Name: Levi Jimmer O'Hare

Age: 31

Class: The Insatiable Sage

Level: 1

Experience to next level: 50/150

Base stats:

Physical Strength = 5

Physical Proficiency = 5

Mental Strength = 6

Mental Proficiency = 5

Spiritual Strength = 5

Spiritual Proficiency = 3

_____

It was simple and slightly empty. The stats, as well as their distribution, were interesting. He understood them well enough.

Then Levi moved on to his gear.

Opening his welcoming package, he found five health potions, three stamina potions, and three mana potions, along with his starting gear.

Unpacking his starting gear was interesting. He'd expected a robe and a staff, perhaps.

What he received was a far more specific and a somewhat odd collection.

Tunic of The Insatiable Sage - A linen tunic designed to be loose and flexible without an excess of fabric. -10% to stamina expenditure.

Trouser and Leg Bindings of The Insatiable Sage - Linen trousers designed to be loose and flexible. Accompanied by light and flexible leather lower leg bindings. -5% stamina expenditure. +5% balance and footing.

Supple Boots of The Insatiable Sage - Extremely flexible and light, lace-up leather boots. Stitch down. +5% balance and footing. +20% noise reduction while sneaking.

Levi chuckled at the "stitch down" part in his boots' description. For years, he'd only buy stitch down boots. It was out of necessity rather than aesthetics. His feet were extra wide, and he'd found the soles of any footwear that wasn't stitch down would break loose after only a couple of months, no matter how much he babied them.

Shin Bracers of The Insatiable Sage - Hard leather shin bracers designed to absorb impacts and turn away blades. +10% damage reduction when executing blocks. +5% effectiveness to deflecting attacks.

Forearm Bracers of The Insatiable Sage - Hard leather forearm bracers designed to absorb impacts and turn away blades. +5% damage reduction when executing blocks. +10% effectiveness to deflecting attacks.

Small Boot Dagger of The Insatiable Sage - A double-edged dagger with a 4" grip and a 5" blade for utility purposes. Balanced for throwing. Indestructible.

Levi had to laugh at the boot dagger, too. He'd always wanted one but had never gotten around to buying one. And, he had a habit of abusing the knives he did have by throwing them for fun, which inevitably ended in breaking the tips off of even some of the best knives he'd had. It wasn't anything to do with him trying to be a badass, just pure boredom and stupidity.

For the little dagger to be balanced for throwing and indestructible was just more evidence that this set really was tailor-made for Levi.

Silk Sash of The Insatiable Sage - This sash is made of fine and sturdy silk. Promotes the learning of Skills and Abilities.

Heavy Cloak of The Insatiable Sage - A heavy cloak of mixed materials, capable of covering the entire body. This cloak is waterproof. This cloak greatly retains heat and keeps out cold. This cloak may be used to create a small A-frame tent.

Levi looked at the gear.

The tunic and trousers were an almost olive green, though it leaned towards a more vibrant color. The sash was a burnt gold in color, but had a sheen, with the light catching parts and making it look a bright true gold and the darker shadows an orange brown. It reminded Levi of two-tone car paint.

All of the leather was a matching rich brown.

He changed into the new gear, except the cloak, because it wasn't cold out. He picked up the dagger, which had what appeared to be a walnut handle with a mono-steel blade, and tucked it into his boot.

Levi had to admit, he felt awesome. And the clothing and boots were the most comfortable he'd ever worn. He wished he had a mirror.

He stood just smiling for a moment.

But without any more reason to delay, he sat down and gave studying the Tome of Mana Infusion another try.

After about 30 minutes of bashing his head against a wall and making no progress at all, he gave up. It wasn't that he didn't understand the text, just that most of it required at least the basic understanding of how to feel and manipulate your mana. No matter what he tried, it just wasn't coming to him.

He needed help. Considering he had a book he needed to give her anyway, Levi decided he'd go talk to Grace about it and see if she may have an idea. If nothing else, maybe he'd be able to brainstorm, have another nice conversation, and pass along the book he had for her.