Tea fiasco over not much happens so Jason turns in early, wanting to get some time to cultivate outside of the game. With a warning to the others, he lies back on his sleeping bag and logs out.

Waking up in the pod is as discordant as always. “They really should do something about the design inside these things”, Jason muses. Of course, that isn’t really an option, every surface designed to facilitate the signal transfer. If they left the head out, it might be possible, but all the connections, especially the ones for the eyes, are quite finicky.

Jason stands up with a groan and stretches. “Whew, my body feels better than when I left the coffin last time. If anything, irl cultivation might catch on even if it only reduces that nonsense. Be a lot easier to hop out of them if you didn’t need a good few minutes for your body to feel human again. They try, but there is only so much electric stimulation and the various other tricks can do for the body. It might keep the body in decent shape, but that’s it. Though now that I think about it, this might be because I spent the extra money for better care? Meh, next time I come out should tell me one way or another.”

Out in the living room, he finds a nice surprise. His punching bag has been changed out for a better if slightly used one and there is a small note on it from his mom.

Yo,

Noticed you started kicking butt even harder. Here’s a nice mil spec special that the company gym was planning to replace. Should be fine for you, but some of the securabots wouldn’t be able to use it anymore. Can’t have those guys pull their punches when practicing. Whenever you get a couple hundred gold, maybe slide them my way to pay back the expense of making people look the other way?

Chao,

Your Favorite Mom

Jason snorts, “and you’re also my least favorite mom as well. You’re my only mom after all. God, already in debt for hundreds of gold and I didn’t even mean to be.” He pulls the bag to the center of the room. Though unlike last time, he struggles with the bag. It might be the same size if not smaller, but the thing weighs four or five times as much and the old one was already heavy. No picking it up for Jason any time soon.

Jason cracks his knuckles and goes through a stretching routine to warm up. That done, he punches the bag to test it.

“Oh, Golly Golly Googly Moogly! Gah, this sucker’s hard!” He shakes his hand as the two front knuckles turn a bright red.

“Guess I need to work my way up to use this thing properly. Time to try a stomp, the foot is generally tougher after all.” A little more careful this time, he stomps his foot down on the bag. Lack of pain convinces him to stomp it again harder. Then harder again and again until he is using his full strength to pound away at it.

“Memo to self, I need to work on my fists.” A quick check of the clock shows he spent a little under seven minutes. He doesn’t have much time, only about 48 minutes total so he can only shrug. Next time he can practice war stomp, but for now he wants to cultivate.

After pushing the bag back into its corner, he sets an alarm, sits down, and calms himself. Breath in and out, in and out. Jason falls into his meditation and is ready. The surrounding power has more fire in it. This distracts him for a moment until he realizes that given the time the actual sun is up outside.

That out of mind he breathes out and then pulls in without breathing. The power all around him streams into his collected whirlpool in the pit of his stomach. Today it is easier as he already has a base sum of power to work with. Only a couple times does he have to stop so as to prevent one of the corrupting powers from entering him, but overall a successful session.

30 minutes pass by and the alarm goes off. Another minute is spent on assuring his gains wouldn’t fade away and Jason is ready to head back in. NeoRealm is calling. Though just before his pod puts him under a stray thought crosses his mind. How close is his mom watching him for her to have known about the punching bag? Like seriously, it might have been a while for him in the game but it wasn’t even a full day outside.

Back in game Jason turns that thought over in his head a few times as he relieves Courtney and takes over the watch. He doesn’t get much of a chance though as only a handful of minutes in the party is attacked. The three ghouls from earlier hadn’t actually left, instead choosing to follow them. Only attacking now that it was deep into night and the sun wasn’t restraining them anymore.

Jason Shouts an alarm to the other two and Rosha wakes up easily enough. Courtney however must have logged off by the empty look in her eyes. Still, a healer at three quarters strength than no healer at all.

Jason and Rosha stand to the sides of Courtney next to the fire. The ghouls might not be afraid of it, but they were weak to it. Their skin though not as dry as a mummy’s was much better preserved than a zombie and so lacking that half rotten liquid defense.

Two of the ghouls attack right out while the third holds back. That last one is clearly the one Jason had downed early as while up and about there are clear signs of damage on its head from his attack.

Combat starts with a wide swing of Rosha’s staff to force them back and give the party some space. The two ghouls, irritated that their attacks were so easily fended against, mocks the group. “Can you even fight with your healer so out of it? Aren’t you going to go crying to your parents while you and your soulless companion there die by our claws?”