Once more I opened my eyes to pain, though my injuries were not severe and were already mostly healed. Thinking back on it, though there were many risky moments, like when Shaeula attacked with her wind-weasel snakes, I had suffered surprisingly few injuries. Maybe I’m more cut out for this than I had thought? I then laughed, shaking my head wryly. No, I definitely wasn’t some natural-born prodigy at combat, luck had definitely played a part, though my planning was also important. If I can just eliminate the lucky part from my battles with even better planning and preparation I can really make something of myself. I can’t rely on luck to survive, like now, or that day back then…

After making myself some breakfast I considered my plans for the day. I wouldn’t be doing any chakra exercises, as Shaeula made it clear I wasn’t following the correct route for developing them. I guess that was reasonable, as I was going by internet guides for a subject that was based on theory. I wonder if all those popping sensations I felt were signs of damage to my network? It sure would have been nice if Exposition-san gave me a decent hint on how to develop safely…

Instead, I would be building up my aether naturally, which would likely take three or four days and take me to the weekend, which was the start of the summer break for students. Still, there would be no break for me. I could knuckle down and really grind out the work I had left, and I would certainly have to keep up with my physical conditioning and combat training.

The next few days passed quickly, I had almost cleared the debugging work Hayato-san had sent me, which was surely pretty much at a world record pace. In addition I had got a firmer grasp on some basic spear moves, in addition to starting to practice some slightly more advanced techniques, though I wasn’t having much success with them yet. I was doing these with my new training spear, which I had finally ordered. The cost hurt a little, but I was making an investment, and it definitely felt more realistic. Other than my workouts I exchanged a few emails with my group of ex-work colleagues about how their portions of the projects were going, as well as a few more with my sister, who was elated that her summer break had started and was already bugging me about when I was going to visit.

Still, as the evening sunset leaked a ruddy light through my window I could feel the churning of aether in my body, enough to enter the Boundary. Closing my eyes I concentrated, and my consciousness shifted, and I was awake in the Boundary once more, next to my Territory Anchor in the heart of my realm.

Checking my stored ether I was surprised to see that it was just a little over nine thousand! Based on the production of my Territory and its two Ether Spires alone it should have been somewhere between five and six thousand, so the rest… as I pondered Shaeula suddenly appeared in my room, followed by her Kamaitachi.

“Welcome back, master.” She said, eyes fierce. Man, being called master makes me itch.

“You don’t need to call me master, you know.” I replied to her. “But it is good to see you again.”

“Well, you did not grace me-me with your name, did you master?” she said, a touch coldly.

Yep, definitely Tsundere. If she wanted my name she could have just asked without this delightful show of tsun. “Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. My name is Oshiro Moonstone Akio.”

“Moonstone?” she nodded. “An auspicious name, for the Seelie are favoured by-by the moon. I shall call you Moonstone from now on.”

I couldn’t help but wince. Please don’t. “That’s a middle name. Here in Japan you would usually call me by my family name Oshiro, or my given name Akio. That would probably be better.”

“Hmph, as you wish. I shall call you Akio then, since you so-so dislike being called master.”

“On another note, my supply of ether is a bit higher than I thought it would be. You must have worked really hard.” I threw in some praise, figuring it was the best way to soothe her tsun mood. Still, it was deserved if they had managed to gather that much so quickly.

“I am pleased you noticed. I withdrew some of the forces keeping Grulgor’s trolls-trolls pinned down by the river. He is not-not the quickest of thought, so-so it will take him some time to notice the pressure has been lessened. With these-these we managed to secure the areas as you desired, as well as seize some buildings from the-the surrounding lands.”

No wonder that I have so much ether then, buildings are a pretty good source of it if they are occupied. “Well, recruiting you seems to be a great decision.” I praised her some more. “Did you find anyone else willing to join us?”

“I did-did consider your suggestion carefully, unfortunately we found none worthy of joining us, so we dealt with them harshly.”

That wasn’t quite what I asked. Oh well, there probably would just have been more horrible bugs and stuff like that. What I don’t know about I can’t regret. Steeling myself I smiled again. “Oh well, I’m sure it couldn’t be helped.” It would only take a little more ether and I could commence the upgrade, which would then add all the Territory Shaeula had cleared and the newly captured buildings to my control, which would be a modest boost… but I wasn’t sure that was the right call at this moment… “When you do great work like this, how can I be dissatisfied?”

“Hmph, of course you cannot be-be. I personally cleared out many buildings and wiped out all-all pests that I found.” She puffed herself up proudly. Behind her I could see her sickle-weasel snicker silently. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Well, with the resources you have gathered we can put the first stage of my plan into action.” Over the last few days I’d been giving the path forwards a lot of thought, and the conclusion I had come to, based on my RTS-playing days, was to broaden my ether base as much as possible. After all, early resource advantage would only multiply over the long term. Of course I wouldn’t be able to neglect defences as well, but with Shaeula and her weaselkin I should be all right for now. I did definitely want to enlarge my Territory and please Shaeula, but that would also make it harder to defend, so first I had to make sure our foundations were rock solid.

You have queued an upgrade of an Ether Spire Rank 1 to Rank 2 at the cost of 7500 ether. This will take five astral days for completion.

And with that the majority of the ether that we had collected was gone. Still, I was limited to two Ether Spires and it seemed the maximum level of each spire at a level one Territory was two, so I had limited ways to improve my ether accumulation rate. Still, the sooner I upgraded them the quicker they would pay for themselves and start generating profit. Then I could upgrade my Territory to gain access to more and higher-level Spires, further snowballing the early gain.

“All right then.” I said, having finished the first order of business. “I think it’s time we sorted out my woeful chakra network, right?”

“Very well-well.” Shaeula said, her eyes suddenly glowing with fierce amber light. “I shall correct your many-many shortcomings. Do not blame me-me if you find it difficult or painful.”

“I am prepared to receive your instructions, honoured teacher.” I said gravely, bowing to her. That threw her for a second, and once more the Kamaitachi giggled silently.

“Very well. We shall begin-begin. Firstly, draw aether into your root chakra node at the base of your body.”

Guessing that this was what I knew as the base chakra I did so, feeling warmth slowly increasing within me. I received a satisfied nod from Shaeula in return.

“Good-good. At least you can do that. Now pass it upwards in a single stream to-to your sacral chakra.”

Doing as she asked I concentred hard, feeling the flow move upwards. As I did so I heard her make a loud sound of disapproval.

“Pathetic.” She snorted. “Your flow is not following the main-main circuit at all, it meanders like a stream. No wonder you struggle-struggle so hard. Now move it up to the solar plexus chakra.”

I began to sweat as I pushed the aether up to the third pool of warmth I usually felt. It took nearly an hour, but finally I felt the warmth there increasing. By this point though, Shaeula was pacing restlessly, uttering low growls under her breath.

“Useless-useless!” she barked. “Worse than I thought. Your flow is almost entirely missing the main circuit, and if you-you run your flow through the minor network it will break down over time. Now, up to the heart chakra.”

Damn, I’ve never really managed to make my aether go that far. Oh well, here goes… For several hours I toiled to move the flow further upwards, only succeeding in feeling several of those uncomfortable popping sensations, which caused her to frown balefully. After quite some time she sighed and put an end to my struggles.

“Awful. Terrible. Pathetic-pathetic!” she barked. “If the body is a great tree you are trying to support all its weight through the branches, rather than the main trunk-trunk. Forcing it incorrectly just causes the flow to get twisted. Without all eight chakra establishing the flow, all-all that happens is your lower chakra pools energy, and it is like a lake that overfills and floods, ruining all-all in its wake.”

Eight chakras? No, that wasn’t important right now. “So, what can I do to fix this?” I asked.

“You need-need to use the main trunk.” She came closer to me, causing me to flinch back a little. This caused her to scowl dangerously so I allowed her to close right up to me. She placed her paw against my lower body, which caused me to quiver under her touch. She may be female but she’s a weasel. Nothing to be alarmed about. I am calm. I am calm. Repeating that mantra in my head I tried not to react as she flicked out a claw and traced a path slowly up my body a few inches to the sacral chakra. Her claw slid further up, past the solar plexus, up to the heart and it then traced a more irregular route around my body to my back, to a place above the heart. She then moved her claw around to my throat, up to my forehead and then to the top of my skull.

“This-this is the way your energies should flow.” Shaeula said. “If you direct your flow through these pathways your circuits should-should balance.”

“All right… but I’m finding it a bit hard to concentrate right now.” A weird scent of fur and girlish sweat was tickling my nostrils, and I could feel her breath on me. As she saw me flinching backwards she let out another one of her trademark long sighs. Looking at me with disdain she spoke.

“I believe you are a male-male, correct? Show some pride and dignity.” Stepping back she raised one hand and a swirling cloud of green energy formed. “We-we can do it this way.”

I twitched as a gentle crawling sensation moved up my body along the line she had traced earlier, between the root and the sacral chakras.

“If you-you move your aether through this pathway your sacral chakra should stabilise. Now begin-begin.”

It was still pretty hard to concentrate, but I closed my eyes and tried to direct the flow along the path her wind was tracing. It was really difficult, as it kept trying to go down the pathways I had already created. As I struggled I heard Shaeula bark “No-no, follow the pathway.” And I reeled as a sudden blast of air whacked me around the shoulders. My eyes snapped open and I saw her glaring at me, both hands raised.

“Do-do it right!” Shaeula snapped. “No excuses.”

Rubbing at my aching shoulders with one arm I proceeded to begin a hellish few hours of training, regularly interspersed by beatings with wind. My whole upper torso was bruised by the time I finally managed to connect the two by the proper pathway. At Shaeula’s brief words of praise I sunk to the ground, exhausted.

“So, can you feel-feel the difference?” She asked, and I concentrated. I could feel the change, the two chakras, the root and the sacral were both synchronised, pulsing gently in time with each other, sending a steady flow of aether between them. It felt much stronger and also… somehow calmer… than my previous efforts.

“I can. It definitely feels stronger and more stable.”

“Good-good. Then, get up. You have no-no time to be resting on the floor. You need to link to the solar plexus chakra next.”

I let out a low groan. “Can’t I take a break? I’m exhausted both physically and mentally.”

“I did-did say I would not go easy on you. The only way you will succeed is through pushing-pushing yourself.” She shot me down coldly.

“All right, all right.” I think she is enjoying this. I struggled to the sitting position and began again, a line of wind connecting the next two chakras…