Chapter 3 - The Will of survival

After gaining the basic information about his new home, Ulf started to concentrate and think more about the new possibilities. But first of all, he needed to know how to survive in the ancient world, where there are guys with superpowers. The answer was quite simple - become stronger, stronger than others. If it was just a common ancient world, without any special potential, then from his point of view becoming powerful would mean equally having physical, social and economical power.

However, after seeing a demonstration of the tribe's young members' prowess, things have changed. It was clear that in this world individual strength, with no limits, will have immeasurable value. To survive here Ulf will need this power, which would belong solely to him.

First of all, Ulf wanted to feel what kind of power was qi. In this aspect he had kind of cheat - the knowledge from his past world and what he needed right now was the eastern popular method. This was meditation. It is an ancient technique on the earth, which had been developing there for centuries or millennia. At first glance, it seems easy to meditate, but not at all. You need to focus the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness. Furthermore, depending on the duration it's harder to maintain your body posture and mental condition.

The most perfect time for him to meditate was at night when he was alone with his asleep sister. As Ulf was just a baby, it was very hard to meditate, because he always fell asleep. So he wanted to use the cross-legged sitting meditation pose - The lotus position. To maintain this pose, every part of the body had to be active and to use the lotus position Ulf needed to have some control over his body. That's why he has been waiting for a half year.

Now it was time to check up. Hilda had already fallen asleep, so he had some free time from this super active kid. Ulf sat on the wooden bed and started to concentrate. He wanted to focus his mind wholly on his breath. He thought that as qi was in the air, through the breathing it was also unintentionally circulated in his body. It was the only explanation for Ulf, about his body getting stronger much faster than ordinary kids on earth.

Ten minutes... twenty minutes... half an hour... Ulf still couldn't accomplish his Purpose. He had the feeling that was about to grasp something, but in the end, only could sense his breathing and heartbeat. However, Ulf was mentally ready for that, because he didn't have any experience with meditation.

After two hours there was still nothing and Ulf was going to stop and rest for some time, but suddenly, he felt something. It was as if only air was going through his throat and lungs but he faintly sensed that there was something entirely separate. It must have been qi. Ulf couldn't feel much, like oxygen it was also colourless and invisible. Ulf discovered qi only because of its sensation, which it left in his body, after each breach. The feeling was almost unnoticeable, even following two hours of concentration he could barely grasp it, but it was there. He got a weird feeling after each breath, like his body was crying due to excitement, but also calming down so fast. Ulf needed to catch that moment.

It was hard, but Ulf wasn't going to give up : ,no pain, no gain'. this little hard work was only the minimum that he was going to do to become stronger. He was trying to feel sensation in every part of his body. After some time of observation, Ulf found out that, the more he concentrated on his mind, the more qi was centralized there and very slowly, but he could feel that awareness was becoming clearer and sharper. Ulf was able to remember his past life events more clearly and started to think faster.

'Oh, how have I not realized till now, that if I can strengthen the body, the same can be done to the mind?! It's just that these guys here have no ideas about that, but I am different.' - thought Ulf, who was displeased, because of his slowness.

The past half-year was like a punishment for Ulf. Because he is a baby and his consciousness has only started developing. With the help of meditation, he will be able to overcome a huge obstacle, which would bother him at least for the next few years. This was the cause of his struggle to learn the native language.

However, today's realization has changed everything. First of all, Ulf needed to meditate every day at night, to get to know the cultivation energy of this world (qi) better, learn how to control it and also nourish his mind. However the brain is the most fragile part of the human body, even one little mistake may result in a terrifying occasion, so Ulf will need to be extremely careful with each step.

Again half a year later...

Ulf was able to gain many, but also lose some opportunities. Firstly, he felt a big regret not being able to watch the tribe competition. His mother, Inga has refused to allow him, just a one-year-old child, to observe how tribe members beat sh*t out of each other. This somewhat astonished Ulf, because it was the ancient world, where every parent wanted his/her child to become stronger and make their kids get used to brutal reality.

It seems his mother was very different. Ulf felt a bit emotional that Inga had strong motherly love toward his child, but it was also a pity that the lucky chance got out of his hand. If his father was at home, he would still take Ulf out, but that guy still wasn't in. His mother wanted Hilda also to stay in a house, but nothing could stop this hyperactive girl. However, her actions as an already 4 years old child wasn't weird. If he disappeared suddenly, she would cause a huge commotion.

In this half-year, Ulf finally had learnt the entire language of the native people. He could listen to any conversation without a problem and gain various information. First of all, his father was vice-chief and had one of the highest authority in the village. This guy must have been super strong. As Ulf had gained a deeper understanding, he had gotten the vague feeling of how unfathomably strong his father was. Unfortunately, he has never seen Bjorn using his power. The tribe had several hunting groups. Ulf had found out from others discussions that there were two vice-chiefs in the village, so their teams were also stronger than others. It must have been the main reason why Bjorn was often absent from home.

As for qi, Ulf has uncovered additional use of meditation. The increase in his IQ was clear. Of course, the satisfactory result couldn't be seen just by meditating overnight, but after half-year development, his brain was at least five times faster than before. However, by deepening his understanding of meditation, the speed of improvement was getting faster. Ulf has gotten a better feeling of qi in the separate parts of his body, along the way he was also getting more profound knowledge of his body.

Ulf also wanted to gain the surface level of control on qi. He was trying to circulate qi not only around his brain but also in his lower body. Because he couldn't use a physical training method yet, He hoped to use meditation for strengthening his build. Ulf was only one year old but could not only run around for quite a long time but in order to check his power, even secretly lift some unknown object of his mother, which weighed 7-8 kilos. He didn't know what kind of use this item had, but for him, it was usable training material. One lift was the max that he could perform right now. It was clear that Ulf wasn't a natural genius, so he had to make himself be.

Of course, Ulf wasn't going to hide all of his abilities. He showed his mother that could speak and walk around freely two months ago. It seems his walking ability wasn't weird, but being able to freely speak at this age was an exception. Inga - his mother was so shocked and happy. Even that old granny came, who had left Ulf with huge trauma when he was just born. Everyone was so respectful to her. Later, Ulf found out that she was shamaness.

From Ulf's point of view, rather than speaking, if he would show him being able to run for a couple of minutes and lift an object that weighed 8 kilos, they would be more shocked. However, he wasn't going to do that one - because he still needed more information about this world and its people. Second - he wanted to have more free time to develop himself and not to be under everyone's observation. Maybe after a few years, Ulf would show bit by bit his capabilities, but not now.