The smell of blood strongly permeated the surroundings. Some of it belonged to Fuzz, but most of it was from other creatures he didn’t recognize. In turn, they seemed unfamiliar with him and had not regarded him as a threat. And now he was eating them.

Well, some of them. His stomach wasn’t so large that he could eat the thing with the razor sharp scales and the bird with lightning claws and the swarm of vermin. And he wasn’t sure if the tree had been trying to eat him or not but it released something that smelled bad so he dug it up from the roots and tore it apart.

He returned to his den for the night. Another sunset was coming, and he preferred to stay inside at night when he had the opportunity. Humans didn’t go out much at night, and he was looking for his pack. So far, he found no trace of them.

Fuzz supposed he might have been a tiny bit hasty with the whole ascension thing, but Alva was thinking about staying behind. Fuzz didn’t want to have to choose between parts of the pack, and he was fairly certain she had been worrying about him, so he didn’t want her to hesitate. He hadn’t considered that he might be the one to end up alone, but it certainly seemed to be that way.

He began to lick his wounds, starting with the ones that were easy to reach first. Some were more difficult, but with a little bit of effort he could contort his body and extend his tongue slightly to reach anywhere. His back was obviously the hardest. But since he didn’t have someone to properly stitch up his injuries, he needed to do what he could. Licking them made them heal faster, along with circulating his energy. And this new energy… was very powerful. It was clearly much more effective here than around their home, where people only had what they brought with him. Fuzz hadn’t realized how much he pulled from the surroundings when he did everything, but it made sense. Surely some of the others knew that, but Fuzz knew he still wasn’t as smart as a human. Well, not all of them, at least. Kids weren’t very smart.

After he finished with his wounds, he began to gnaw on a nearby bone. He wasn’t sure what it was from, but he had found it near his first den in this place. He’d been working on it ever since, but felt he’d made no progress. If he bit any harder he’d snap his teeth, and without the humans and their medicine he’d never regrow a tooth. But it felt good to test himself, and to think about what sort of great beast could have left behind something so strong.

Den after den he had searched around, looking for humans. Sometimes he found them, but they were never the right humans. Large cities were rare, but if any of his pack mates had been in one he would have smelled them. They were not, so he avoided them- and in turn, the humans left him alone. Maybe they didn’t even know he existed. It was a problem he didn’t have any way to communicate, but writing was difficult and he imagined anyone who wanted to attack him wouldn’t wait for that.

If he were to judge, Fuzz had covered half a continent by now. Someone had said that maybe continents could be bigger or smaller, but he only knew what was familiar from back home. He wondered what to do if he finished this continent and found nobody. Should he swim? Try to catch a human boat? Neither seemed like good options. He could swim just fine, but sleeping was a problem at sea. He needed to sleep to rest and recover. Plus, seawater didn’t taste good and everyone said he shouldn’t drink it.

The next morning Fuzz was off again, planning to scout the area to another direction of his new den. He thought there were some interesting scents in that direction, though he couldn’t tell exactly what they might lead to. He could see snow covered mountains in the distance, and though he couldn’t spot any human settlements on them maybe he could see some from the top. Yes, that was where he would go next.

-----

“Are you sure you wish to be the one to make the first attempt?” Anton asked.

“Of course,” Lev said. “This is the best moment. Besides, we both know nothing is stopping either of us from trying.”

Anton sighed, “Up until now I have been following information left by those who came before. Some things were pieced together into a more suitable form, and techniques were rearranged… but it was nothing new.”

“Very few things are ever new,” Lev pointed out. “Every new discovery requires knowing what came before. This too is the same, except instead of drawing upon an energy source far away, we are connecting to one closer.”

“You spent too much time with Master Varela,” Anton said. “You sound like an old man.”

“I am an old man. Over a hundred.”

“I might give it to you if you had a single wrinkle or gray hair,” Anton countered.

“How about a bad back?” Lev grinned. “But enough talking. You’re here, and this is the perfect season. Grandfather Willow is just budding for the spring, and is nice and calm.”

“Good fortune,” Anton said as Lev took his position next to the tree.

“Everyone!” Lev projected his voice to all of those watching- everyone from the Grasping Willows who could possibly be present had come, as well as many others who were on good terms. “Today you will bear witness to my next step in cultivation… or my demise. I’m sure we all hope it will be the former. Everyone from the Grasping Willows, watch carefully. Though I imagine none of you will have the opportunity to do the same as myself I am certain you can gain valuable insights.”

Everything else that he planned to say had already been said. As much as possible his affairs had been settled. More than any other recent advancements, there was a real risk of death when trying something completely new. Or at least, new to their understanding. Perhaps something similar had been attempted upon another world- or with the Grandfather Willow itself. Either way, they had no record of it.

There was a gentle breeze rustling the leaves of the great tree as Lev sat with his back against the base of the Grandfather Willow. The process began slowly, Lev’s energy synchronizing to that of the Grandfather Willow. Slowly he began to infiltrate his energy into the wood of the tree itself, while at the same time connecting smaller roots to his body as he had done once before.

His own energy continued to find its way up the tree and down the roots, spreading throughout every part. It split into the dangling branches and became thinner and thinner. Then the feeling of Lev’s energy began to fade away, and instead Anton could only feel the Grandfather Willow.

Minutes turned into hours as Lev sat in front of the tree with a peaceful expression on his face. Nobody dared disturb anything, but even Anton couldn’t feel anything happening any longer. At some point, Lev would exhaust himself and whatever he was doing would fail. Unless…

Lev’s eyes fluttered open. There was no trembling of the earth, no clear or obvious change of any sort… except as Lev picked himself up- nearly literally since half of his limbs hadn’t worked in decades- the energy that did so came from all around instead of inside Lev.

“Well,” Lev said peacefully. “I’m not dead. So I think that went quite well.”

Lev was soon inundated with congratulations and questions. Had he succeeded? That he was able to answer with a resounding yes. How strong was he? Unfortunately even Lev himself was unsure of the change. Whether it brought greater power than ascension or less, he could not say. But at the very least, his path had not completed at the pinnacle of Life Transformation.

-----

Anton had been very patient in absorbing the various insights of those who achieved ascension. He hadn’t wanted to waste a single bit, to miss a single strand of comprehension. He started with the oldest of them and worked his way forward. There had been Rahayu, Matousek, and many others- ending with Lev, though it was technically a different process.

There were a few important things Anton realized as half-thoughts flashed before his eyes. He already knew he could not ascend traditionally. Fleeting Youth had barred that path from him, a path of stolen power that took from a future that he could have once had. He didn’t regret it, as the ability had saved his own life many times- and that of others- but if it was possible the numerous insights would have made ascension almost easy. All it took was a century of work to get where he was, both his own hard work and that of many others. But the last step, at least, could have been rather simple. The other thing he learned was that the Vessel of Insights was clearly not powerful enough to contain insights on the level required. Though it still managed to take in some key details, much was lost. In a way, it was most impressive it had provided use for so long. Now it was time to pass it onto someone else… past time, perhaps.

He couldn’t think who it should go to. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anyone he thought worthy, but instead there were simply too many. Though he would want someone who was willing and able to share those insights with others. Half of the time Anton had used the insights to help others around him without learning much of direct use to himself. That was better than selfishly discarding anything he couldn’t use for the sake of his own time, and the cooperative aspect had made the world what it was now. Which was… still not embroiled in large scale civil war, at least. The feelings of being on a precipice remained, however.

Since he wasn’t ascending, Lev’s insights were actually of more use- though there were very significant differences between what Anton was going to attempt and that. Yet in some key ways, they were the same.

Anton was finally ready, but he needed to wait for… something. He wasn’t sure exactly what, but he would know when it came. Until then, he would wait. He looked up at the sky, taking in the warmth of the sun. He hoped he did not have to wait overly long, but it was possible the opportunity simply wouldn’t come in his lifetime. If so, he would be disappointed… but would simply have to move on.

-----

“You are not offering prayers, sister?” one of the others who had signed up for the bandit hunting mission asked Alva. Her name was… Vari, maybe.

“Prayers to who?” Alva asked.

“The Saints, of course,” Vari said as if it were only natural.

“For what?”

“Protection.”

“Are they going to come with us?”

“Of course not. This mission is beneath their notice.”

Alva frowned, “Then why bother, if they aren’t going to protect us?”

“Because it is proper. You should at least thank them for protections in the past.”

“They haven’t protected me from anything,” Alva pointed out. “They just sit in their towers doing nothing.”

Vari looked disappointed, but not angry. “They protect us every day. From the wind and rains and the disasters of the world.”

Alva had the feeling she wasn’t going to get anywhere, so she didn’t bother mentioning that a house did just as good at those things. “I see,” was all she said in reply. She was more interested in someone else she noticed. Chikere had shown up again, and though she was restraining herself, Alva at least recognized the familiar energy. And the swords, though it was weird there were only two of them. What happened to the other fifty that she usually had hanging around?

Normally she would have just gone up and said something, but the fact that Chikere clearly noticed her but didn’t approach meant that there was some reason for it. Alva honestly had no idea what, but she should be able to figure it out. Before that, there were bandits to kill and merit points to gain. She needed to start building up some local currency and to be able to manage her own supplies somehow. Everything was so expensive, but with a lot of rich cultivators competing it kind of made sense. Or maybe it wasn’t so expensive. She’d know after this mission, based on the rewards… but she had the feeling she’d have to save up for a while to get anything particularly useful, whether it was medicine or cultivation aids or equipment.