The next day the first thing I did was to check my internal state. I could not believe I had broken through like that. It was quite astonishing to myself too… I always thought that I came to terms with everything and was at peace… But it seems I wasn’t truly. That was also the first time I experienced the great benefits of a major state of mind improvement. I wasn’t even sure how to describe what happened…

  If I were to simplify it then think of thoughts like capsules. Each thought retains and consumes a certain amount of shen. Worries however act like dams. They turn from small capsules into great backholders because they were continuously growing and fermenting, chaining themselves into any other thought remotely related. So long as such worries, even if unrealized by the person, existed, the shen would grow harder and a big portion of it would be maintained unusable.

  In other words, my shen didn’t surge suddenly, it was just freed up. Now I understood why the yogis talked about severing connections. All forms of emotions and attachments acted the same. However I did not want or plan on dehumanizing myself for that path. For better or worse even the shen caught in emotions memories and worries could be integrated in the golden embryo once it was formed and ascended in the upper dan tian. With my aether nourished and refined jing what reason did I have to fear shortage of shen? Perhaps I could shatter any and all expectations and limitations were I to do it, but that path went against my own heart and will.

  What was I without those that accompanied me? What was I without emotion? What was I without my worries? Of course I had no reason to worry, but no worry means I’d lose part of what made me myself. I was capable of doing and learning so much exactly because I worried for my future. For the countless ifs. To leave that behind would be to turn myself in a fool and fail to see the truth of my self. Abandoning the self was highly praised in many religions and traditions however it is the self that makes us us. Without it then what was a human? A vegetable or a rock.

  In my eyes shattering the ego was not the path. It meant becoming indistinguishable and average. Aligning the self or ego with virtue however… Regardless, I had my own room now, my room that was part of the house… Ha, How everything could tie back into this philosophy… But it was not surprising considering my parents wouldn’t be able to get intimate with me there. This trick done by my parents however brought privacy not only for them but for me too. It was a perfect way to keep myself out of sight while I performed exercises unusual in this world… Or perhaps, unusual for a kid, that never came in contact with them, to just know and do.

  I got out of bed and stretched. Then I started doing exercises. Pushups, crunches, sit-ups. I was already much better than in my past life in terms of agility and ability to do these exercises. I wouldn’t say I was stronger, after all size and mass were a problem. Obviously if I used aether my past self would be obliterated with but a sneeze.

  Despite all this calisthenics were a skill that developed strength proportional to body size and weight. I could even do the planche now for short durations, but pain was an inevitable consequence... This was of course with no aether enhancement. I still struggled for some reason to do a back lever, but other than that I could pretty much do anything. It was probably a result of my over reliance on inner vision. Since now I developed it purely through meditation it wasn’t connected to my kinesthetic awareness that much. At first I was worried that all the effort would impede the growth of my bones and cause trouble in my joints, but by just slightly using jing, qi and aether to flush the bones, muscles and tendons that worry disappeared. Additionally I was doing heel jumps to promote the growth and strength of the bones and stretched a lot to maintain tendons. I used shaking motions to gently decompress the joints so overall I hoped I was going to be fine from this perspective.

  Soon I moved outside to continue so that I wouldn’t wake my parents since there was still about an hour to sunrise. I started doing my heel jumps. Soon they were done. Now came the challenging side. I put myself in a pushup position and rotated my hands outward so that my fingertips pointed to my legs. I let my body lean forward finding the point of balance on my arms and slowly raised my legs. As soon as I did sharp pain assaulted my senses from my hands. I steeled myself and held on for six seconds. Then I crumpled up and fell to the ground.

  I raised myself in a seated position to adjust my breath. I left myself to drift into meditation my mind wandered briefly over the vessels and meridians then started to follow them and probing the walls to look for branches. The stronger the shen and the sharper it could become the more such branches one could find. Once the first direct rays of dawn brushed me I opened my eyes and headed inside. I pulled some leftovers from yesterday and quickly ate. Then I similarly prepared food for my parents to find ready to eat. I used my aether to probe in their room and seeing that they were still asleep I decided not to linger anymore. So I decided to leave and head for the forge. I quickly looked for my new hammer, admiring the craftsmanship again, my heart filled with happiness while my mind replayed the events of yesterday. I left as soon as my mind returned to the present and made my way quickly to the forge.

  Unlike yesterday the forge’s heat was strong today even at this hour. After all, letting the fire go out would result in a lot more energy consumption and a drop in efficiency. Yesterday was one of the monthly cooldowns and also the reason why everyone could be there when I received the hammer. The oppressive smell of smoke was strong as there was little wind today.

  I enhanced my body and entered the forge. I didn’t know if master Fjorn was up or not. Most probably Stig was the one overseeing things now. The light inside was dim. This was so that one could notice more easily how the heat was spread and any imperfections in the metal while it was still hot. There were several beams of light formed by using mirrors with the windows that caused well placed spotlights were cold metal could be analyzed for imperfections all the while maintaining a darker interior. It was a great show of ingenuity and something that I myself would have never thought of doing. Other than that most of the light came from the forges and the flames inside.

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  I noticed Brynjar inside wrestling with a pitchfork... He was straightening a stubborn tine at the moment. It was still visible where it bent unnaturally.

  “Hey! Shouldn’t you be heating that first?” I said feeling a bit confused. Brynjar shuddered and his arms jolted from the pitchfork.

  “Damn, you scared me. Look doesn’t it look good now? It’s straight and soon I’ll have it bent the same as the other teeth. What do you mean heating it?”

  “Brynjar, you oaf! It’s about the structure of the metal within. If you don’t heat the metal then you leave it strained and it’ll bend easier and faster next time. Heat helps reform the structure.”

  “But if I heat it I’ll have to redo the quenching too… That’s hard for pitchforks cause I keep messing up the timings… The teeth are to long and thin and harden to much when I do it…”

  “That’s no reason to do a bad job. Besides if Fjorn or Stig will be the ones to take care of it next time it comes for repair you won’t escape a beating…”

  “Phaaaa… If I ask them for help with this little thing, I won’t escape one either way…”

  “Then I’ll try it. My heat sense is better anyway. I might manage.”

  “If you say so… Tell me when I should take out the pitchfork head from the fire too then.”

  “Already planned on that.”

  Brynjar took of the head from the pitchfork right after. He threw inside his forge one more hand of charcoal. After a bit he put in the pitchfork head and we waited our eyes on the forge. Some time passed and he wanted to pull it out.

  “Wait. Only the tips are at the required temperature… The bent part is lower where there is more metal.”

  He grunted in response and we waited. After about 5 minutes he pulled the pitchfork head out. He quickly finished shaping it on the anvils rounded head then plunged it deep into oil.

  “Now quick!” He pulled out of the barrel the pitchfork head and left it on a wooden table. “No put it in the forge to burn off the extra oil. Plunge and pull don’t hesitate.” He did as instructed and soon we had a burning pitchfork head. The flames quickly died out and he placed it on the table again.

  “Now we wait…” I hoped it all went well or he might resent me for putting him at risk. After all now there would be a problem with the entire pitchfork head if it wasn't done correctly… It didn’t take long and the head cooled enough for testing. Brynjar grabbed it barehanded and put force on it… Not enough to damage it but enough to test its elasticity and endurance.

  “This… is quite good, better than mine.” He said with a hint of surprise in his voice.

  “You probably failed before because you didn’t burn the oil off. If it stays on, it will keep transferring heat faster by evaporation…”

  “There’s such a thing?”

  “Mhm… But you got the right attitude to question it only after doing.”

  “I wonder how you think of all this…” He didn’t quite finish as noise from outside drowned-out his words.

  Oh brother… If he knew that I was taught all this over the course of four years, having to wake up before the sun rose… But he wouldn’t understand, after all leaving the village every morning to reach the nearest big city and return by evening is beyond what the people in this world could imagine. Besides most in that university went for the degree and forgot most of what they were taught by the time they stepped out the door gates of the university. Again, here, in these times when knowledge decided whether one would be able to feed himself and a family this could not be conceived. What could be said was that I was slightly more diligent and learnt better so I managed to maintain the teachings in my memory.

  With this our discussion concluded and I went to check out the noise of people outside. There were about 30 people each carrying a plow. They carefully placed them outside next to the forge on a stone platform. The plows were already clean contrary to my expectations. The metal blades shined under the morning rays and their worn look was apparent. Scratches and dents covered the blades of the plows. I saw Aldric amongst the people and I went to greet him.

  “Good morning Chief Aldric, did you rest well?”

  “Ah Cato, you’re here. I couldn’t quite sleep last night after the show you made. It filled me with so much energy that it feels like I’m the seven year old that broke through.” He answered with a laugh.

  “I’m sorry to have troubled you.”

  “Not at all. Do you know how amazing your breakthrough is? In a place like this it’s normal for a genius or two to be born, but you shatter even the concept of genius. Even not considering your young age. You practiced aether for only what a bit more than six years and got this far. Do you understand the significance of this?”

  “Kinda… But I don’t see the way it influences you or the rest… Rovandel already receives a lot of attention due to master Fjorn and all the retired adventurers. Funding is not a problem and with so many powerful figures gathered, people would flock to move here if you allowed it. After all safety is a most sought commodity…”

  “Yes but until now we merely benefitted from the gathering of such people. Now we have our own local born genius. It’s a change in perspective.”

  I shrugged and went for the plows. I started disassembling the blades from the wooden frames. A bit of carelessness caused by how dull and seemingly worn out the plow blades looked I cut myself.

  “How are these so damn sharp.” I exclaim with my voice strained from suppressing a string of curses while I held my hands together. The cut was in between my thumb and my index finger and went pretty deep.

  I inhaled sharply three or four times and then used my aether to not only stop the bleeding but also to flush out all blood in the proximity of the cut and to gather some water over my wound and wash it. There was no anti-tetanus in this world so I had to be quite ruthless even if the pain grew sharply due to this way of treating it. Forcefully leading the blood out and then moving and rubbing water through the cut to ensure no contaminant remained was making everything way more painful. Compared to death by unrestrained muscle tensing, this was much better.

  “Idiot! Who put you to touch those by yourself?” Asked Fjorn that only just arrived. “As for the sharpness… Those are my masterpieces, of course they remain sharp no matter what. It’s based on the aether flow during smelting and forging. I keep it at a sharp angled v shape through the entire process. This makes it so even when the material breaks it remains sharp.”

  My eyes darted to him. This guy still had the time to strut so leisurely and boast while I was in pain. Was he unaware of how dangerous cuts like these were? But his words revealed a very important detail about how aether shaped objects… Something which at that time seemed like a curiosity, yet it laid the foundation for a future most couldn’t even dream of in me. I couldn’t help but be excited thinking of everything this old man will teach me!

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