Ken and company continued journeying for several days until the ndscape began to change. He observed the qi density increasing the further south he traveled, and eventually the stream he was following fed into a rge pond. The terrain past the expanse of water turned hilly, and Ken spotted his first specimen of megafauna, a rge bird of some kind circling a hill far in the distance. Ken had continued to catch and eat fish and drink from the stream every day before he slept in the evening, despite not even feeling the slightest pinch of hunger or thirst. He only required around five hours of sleep each night, and spent an equal amount of time meditating in the dark each day. Sunshine and Rain were perfectly happy with the traveling lifestyle. In the back of his mind Ken was reminded of the fact that neither him, nor either of his companions had excreted waste at any point. He didn’t even sweat any more. It was mildly worrying, even though he had not experienced any of the symptoms of the internal build up of waste, causing him to assume that it had something to do with his level of qi saturation. Ken had yet to encounter anything that had signs of a simir amount of qi to himself or his fellows, who all remained at the Drawing Stage.

  Ken’s connections had continued growing, and visibly increased in size and length overnight as he slept. His connections were all complete besides the lynch pin of the entire system, his throat meridian which still had no connections. Its tendrils progressed at a snail's pace, although Ken could tell that first connection would soon be made, as a result of the constant progress made by the thick tendril coming from his dantian. Despite being the furthest away, his dantain had the richest qi and its tendril had already crossed the majority of the distance to its goal of uniting his body's qi network.

  Although his internal situation was progressing well, he was faced with logistics problems in the outside world. To continue traveling south towards the increasing qi density and hopefully people, He would have to leave the lifeline he had traveled with for almost a week, and his food source: the water. He’d finished the berries days ago, and had yet to spot any more obvious foragables. He could pre-cook fish and carry it around for a few hours journey at most before it would be sketchy to eat which wasn’t an even remotely reasonable food safety net. Spotting the rge bird in the distance gave him hope. The diet of most rge predatory birds was mostly edible by humans, and if it was a carrion feeder, that was even better, as it meant the local ecosystem was producing enough waste to sustain rge organisms. However, Ken wasn’t willing to bet his ability to eat on one bird sighting. Additionally, the hills would make traveling markedly more strenuous, possibly requiring him to eat more than previously acceptable.

  To this end Ken decided to stay in the vicinity of the pond while conducting experiments to determine his body's needs. He performed strenuous exercise during the day, scaling nearby cliffs and hills, running, and various bodyweight exercises and continued his normal rest and meditation at night. He didn't forget to set aside some time to practice speaking society standard with his animal tag-a-longs. Ken trained vigorously for an entire week without food or water before feeling mild hunger pains on the eighth morning. He also observed that the overnight growth of his qi channels had noticeably slowed during his abstinence. Based on these findings, he decided to take a day of rest, and eat well, before heading into the hills. If he managed to travel for three days without finding a relevant food source, he would have to backtrack here, regroup, and find an alternative.

  After a day of rest, and discussing the pns with Sunshine and Rain, who had limited thoughts on the matter and were more concerned with finding something different to eat besides fish, they continued on, traversing the hills at a steady pace. Ken had to admit that with his new bodily prowess, running over the hills and valleys was quite a pleasant change, and the constantly shifting scenery was delightful. Over the first two days of travel, the hills grew in size gradually, eventually coming to the base of a mountain range visible in the distance. The new environment housed a greater variety of animal life, and on the third day, Ken spotted evidence of wild mice, a raccoon-like paw print, and a small nest of grass snakes.

  Ken awakened in the predawn darkness to find the corpse of a rabbit with half of its head missing, still warm, and lying inches away from his face. No doubt the work of Rain, huntress extraordinaire. Although the delivery method left much to be desired, after he got over his fright, he was thankful for the food. He surmised that Rain definitely didn't want to go back because of his own inadequacy at hunting and had decided to make sure it wasn’t an issue.

  Ken cut the remnant of the rabbit's head off and buried it in the ground before hanging it up to drain the blood. Prepping the carcass and cooking would have to wait until light, so Ken passed the time in his normal meditation. He had an itch to practice his shooting, but he had only seven broadheads, and shooting them into a tree for practice was wasteful idiocy. He could technically carve some blunted target arrows if he had access to something to use for fletching, but making straight wooden arrows with only an ax was sure to be horrifically tedious. Plus he would have to carry them with him and his hands were already full. Ken considered himself more experienced at wilderness survival and traversal than most, but he had never gone in naked without even a bag. It was a logistical nightmare.

  The smell of blood failed to distract him from his normal meditations, which were cut short before sunrise by an uncomfortably warm scratchy lump in his throat. His final unattached meridian had finally connected to his dantain, and indirectly the rest of his torso and legs qi network. The sensations seemed to be a consequence of this connection, and the increasingly powerful flow of qi from his dantain. Ken watched in awe as the remaining unconnected tendrils trailing off of his throat meridian surged in growth and tched onto their counterparts from the surrounding nodes.

  By the time the sun had fully risen, qi was flowing through Ken’s body in a richer, and more robust way than ever before. Ken accessed his status to see if his cultivation stage had progressed.

  Personal Status: Ken Enderson

  Level: 4 (Soul: 3 Mind: 3 Body: 3)

  Race: Primordial Savage

  Qi Domain : First - Refining Stage

  Skills: Meditation-(Intermediate 1) Marksmanship-(Novice 3) Hunting- (Novice 2) Foraging-(Novice 1) Analyze (Novice 1)

  Talents: Language

  Gifts: Insight

  Aura Marks: Third Eye of Insight, Perserverer, Preeminent

  Personal Goal: Reach the First Domain of Soul

  His qi stage was now designated as Refining and somewhere along the way he had increased the level of his meditation skill. He felt he had gained some clues as to the way to progress through this stage, from observing the connection between his mind and brain stem meridians. This connection was far thicker, and uniform with only a slight bulge showing where the knot in the middle of his head was formed. Ken theorized that eventually he would need to develop all his qi channels to a sufficient level. His reservoirs held massive amounts of energy, and as of yet he had absolutely no idea how to use it. While his body drew a decent amount to supplement its processes subconsciously, his experiments at expelling his internal qi, or maniputing the surrounding qi had ended in disappointment. Expelling his qi was impossible, and his external maniputions were limited to pulling the atmospheric qi into his dantain, or just letting it flow in subconsciously. Watching the qi flow through his channels gave him plenty of new ideas.

  Once the uncomfortable sensations from his throat faded, Ken focused solely on drawing as much qi as he could into his dantain in a steady stream. Now that his main reservoir had a deeper connection to the rest of his nodes, the amount of qi he was able to draw into himself increased markedly. The flowrate of the qi in his body quickened, and Ken observed it carefully. Without his intervention, his body’s qi would circute throughout all his meridians and channels, slowly dispersing into his body imperceptibly, maintained by his constant subconscious draw.

  Using his newly increased capabilities to draw qi from the environment started a build up of pressure in every single node. The unpleasant warm itching sensation returned, and quickly engulfed his entire being. Ken stopped after only a few minutes when his channels and meridians grew so uncomfortable he lost his focus. Ken purposely slowed his breathing, and distracted himself by preparing the food Rain had generously provided, as his qi network wound down.

  Ken counted the experiment a tentative success. It seemed at some point due to the subconscious qi flow into his body, his channels and meridians would naturally adapt. It would no doubt be slower than if he stressed the system and goaded it into adapting further and more rapidly. Injuring himself was a concern, and he would have to keep a close eye on his qi network to make sure there were no worrying abnormalities. It seemed like a good avenue for training his meditation and focus, as that had been the limiting factor of his first trail run.

  After eating and sharing his food with a slobbering good boy, Ken felt recovered enough to carry on. With his pot and pan stacked in one arm, and his bow and arrows carried by his other, he continued his journey south, and towards the daunting mountain range.