Core [IV]

Lucian spent the remaining night hours drinking from the yellow fruits and studying how the psyons flowed through his body and into the Core. After the initial depletion, it took tens of the fruits to stop the headache, and he had to eat many of the spicy red fruits to please his aching stomach. He didn't attempt to direct the energy again, opting instead to practice creating smaller pathways for the Psyons before he killed himself.

"Raijin, how do you do it?" Lucian asked, stroking the creature's fur. "You're a rabbit, so it's not like you learned from anyone."

He let out a deep sigh and stood up. Dawn would be coming soon, and he'd spent the entire night studying his Core. Luckily, now that the bridge had been formed, the energy acted as a form of adrenaline. Though he didn't believe it would be healthy to use it constantly, he didn't feel it would be terrible to use it throughout the day.

Lucian hopped to his feet, a pile of yellow fruit skins falling from his lap and startling the poor rabbit. Raijin hopped off into the brush of the [Zolith] Tile and disappeared. Lucian watched the rabbit go with mixed feelings. He'd become quite attached to the little guy, and he was beginning to feel lonely when Raijin was out of sight.

"Ahh, pull yourself together," he slapped his cheeks gently and turned away from the hedge. There was plenty of work to keep him occupied for the day. He needed to brain the skins, go through the tools and materials he'd found in the cave, investigate the two new unexplored Tiles, and fit in his altered workout routine. Defenses needed to be set for the next wave, and he needed to expand his shelter.

With the addition of the new tools, creating a fledgling forge wasn't out of the question, but he needed a space to set it up. If he could start metalworking in the future, then he could start building a proper structure.

"Progress begets progress," Lucian mumbled as he planned out the day's routine. He would start by pulling down the dried hides, scraping off the fur, and washing and prepping them to be brained. The preparations alone would take all morning and most of the afternoon. He would break around lunch for his daily exercise before returning to the hides, where he would have them brained by dark and allow them to soak in the mixture overnight.

The following day, he would start smoking them after he awoke and then explore the [Orelia] Tile in the afternoon. Lucian was looking forward to a proper bath. He wasn't sure what kind of diseases could be caught in this place, but he felt he'd already pushed his immune system far beyond the limit. His only consolation was his belief that the [Initiate] Microlink would stave off any basic sicknesses, though he really couldn't be sure.

These thoughts continued to run around Lucian's mind as he worked throughout the day. He worked hard, and by the time noon came around, he'd managed to scrape the hair off of all but one of the hides. The ridiculous sharpness of the bone blade made de-hairing the pelts an easy task.

Before his daily exercise, Lucian spent half an hour memorizing the path the Psyons naturally took within his body when he wasn't manipulating them. Step one of his new routine had him attempting to recreate those paths in one of his hands. As expected, he was mostly unsuccessful, only managing to properly control one tine path to his index finger.

The following hour wasn't as tedious. He spent the first half doing crunches, pull-ups, push-ups, and stretches. During the final stretch, he jogged around the open Tiles. Lucian would loosen and tighten the bridge to his Core every two minutes, alternating between using the energy during sprints, and relying on his own body while jogging.

He could feel that it was an effective method for body training, but he couldn't sense any changes in his Core. The bridge between it and his body was relatively easy to control, but the exercises hadn't gotten him any closer to willing the Psyons to do as he pleased.

Manipulating the paths worked, but it was no different from putting traffic cones on the highway. Lucian could try to force the cars to go in the direction he pleased, but the drivers still had their own will and would deviate from time to time.

Once he was finished exercising, Lucian scraped the hair from the final pelt and washed the skins in the running water on the edge of the [Orelia] Tile. As he worked, he peered into the closest tunnel, trying to pick out any possible movements behind the waterfall. There was nothing.

"Is it possible that the Tile is only rated so highly because of its beauty?" Lucian wondered. It didn't seem likely. The Galaxy was vast, and he refused to believe that a few waterfalls and some flowers would match the most beautiful planets in existence. The description of the Tile also stated that its waters could assist in unlocking the [Initiate] Microlink. Still, he'd yet to sense anything different about the water on the outer edge. "Well, maybe I'll find some clues tomorrow."

Lucian picked up the cleaned skins and carried them off. He prepared his other materials and finished braining the hides, rolling them tightly so that they would absorb the preservatives overnight. After storing them safely in his shack, he gathered up all of the scraped off fur, planning to use the material to make rope and twine, as he'd done before.

Once the work area was cleaned, Lucian nodded in satisfaction and proceeded to lay beneath the stars. The sky was clear, and he could see the thousands of the sparkling balls of light in the distance. He smiled sadly as he reminisced about his wife and children, wishing that he could share the view with them.

"Just a few more weeks, and the baby should be born," he whispered. "I hope that he's healthy..."

Lucian raised his hand toward the skies and looked at the stars through his outstretched fingers.

"Goodnight, Sarah."

"Goodnight, Lucas."

"Goodnight, Julia."

*******

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