Beginner's Luck: Liminal 4

Fluke's eyes widened at the new stat:

Resonance: 1.9

He had no idea what it could mean but he felt excited to try it out. Sitting up on the bed, he began to try and focus his energy like he had done in his dreams. Letting out a long slow breath, he focused on the sensation in his right index finger. His mind instantly began to feel the slight buzzing energy that was normal for any part of his body. Slowly, he felt that energetic buzz building up and concentrate down in the pad of his finger. The energy began to go beyond just a vibration, now turning to heat, which made Fluke almost panic. Concentrating again, he began to spread his focus to the rest of his hand, the heat now expanding with the electrical energy. Letting the energy swirl in the palm of his hand, Fluke opened his eyes to see if he could visualize what was happening. But sadly, there was nothing to visualize at first. An icon appeared in his masks vision; it was just a simple eyeball symbol. Trying not to break his concentration, he focused for a moment on the symbol and suddenly it was as if he could see so much more of the world.

In his hand was now a swirling ball, no true color to it, but as he focused on his hand it was as if there was a heat mirage bending light around his limb. He felt his heart race, and he watched the ball of energy grow in intensity, which prompted him to spread the energy further to his heart. Then he proceeded to repeat the steps with each one of his other limbs, uniting each of the energies in his heart. Upon uniting the two energies, he felt the sensation slowly rise up his neck and into his brain. The culmination of the resonance occurred when the energy seemed to stop boiling around and instead calmly reached an even state of entropy across his whole body.

Opening his eyes he found new stats before him:

Mind: 1.01

Body: 1.01

Resonance: 1.9

Mask: 1.01

Just the simple exercise of finding and manipulating the resonance energy had caused him to grow. Fluke's mind began to race: if this caused him to grow and improve, what else could cause a change in him? And what would happen when he crossed into a new threshold? Before he could begin to consider the implications, a voice rang out, breaking the silence. Even though he was startled, the resonant energy around him only bristled before returning to its smoothed state around him.

"Fluke! Are you awake yet?" It was the voice of the Librarian. Fluke climbed out of bed and went outside, finding his mentor cooking some meat by the fire. The sight of the meat cooking over the fire made Fluke's body react as if he had been starving. Fluke hurried over and impatiently salivated for the food, lifting his mask before speaking.

"I am awake! I am starving! I realized just now that I didn't eat anything yesterday." Fluke walked around and sat on the reed mat. The Librarian lifted his mask and pulled off one of the hunks of meat that was skewered on a stick, blowing on an end before taking a bite. With a nod, he pulled off a second hunk of meat from the fire and offered it to Fluke. Hungrily, Fluke bit into the meat, though it burnt his mouth he continued eating as much as he could. The burns were finally enough to break his concentration, and he felt his layer of resonance dissipate. While chewing on his on mouthful, the Librarian began to speak.

"The hunters were successful yesterday. They killed and processed a wild boar for us, all while we were busy keeping the Outsiders at bay... Sometimes I envy them... the non-sentients. They get to live their lives without a care in the world." The Librarian tore another piece off and chewed thoughtfully. Fluke felt himself slide into a state of disassociation, thinking on everything from the day before. He stared at the flame, and it put him in a trance like state. They ate in silence for a while longer, just enjoying the simple meal.

Finally, the Librarian stood and stretched. Fluke noted that the man didn't wince in pain at all, and his face only showed minor remnants of bruising. The Librarian walked back to his house and came back holding an axe.

"I took the liberty of checking on our prisoner, and to my delight, your guardian is still faithfully keeping watch. The poor bastard is still bound in the net on the beach. I brought it water, and some meat which it refused to eat. We will have to find something for it to eat if we want it to heal. But that's for later. This morning, we are going to gather resources to build you a house." Holding out the axe handle to Fluke, he helped pull him up to his feet when the boy grabbed onto the end. Together they marched off into the woods, following a trail that slowly turned into an animal trail. After walking for half an hour, they entered a clearing. In the clearing was a simple wooden cart, several stumps, and several trees that were of suitable size.

"I brought the cart after visiting our friends on the beach. This is your first bit of training boy: chop down these four trees." He gestured to the four trees that were each almost a meter across, and roughly thirty meters tall. Fluke looked up at the towering trees, and the daunting task before him. Before he could ask any questions, the Librarian drove the axe into a stump and sat down on the cart. Fluke slowly walked over and tried to grab the axe out of the wood, but it only slightly budged on his first attempt. Changing his grip and pulling with more determination, he felt the axe break free. The tool was heavier than he expected and Fluke felt himself stumble attempting to regain his balance. The Librarian smiled and then came over to coach the boy on his proper form and stance.

Fluke clumsily began chopping at a tree. Every couple of chops the Librarian would correct his form and show him how to angle the axe. The boy couldn't help but notice the difference in the depth and precision of each cut that the older man made. Fluke brought his mask down to look and see if his emblem could help him learn or see anything else. After focusing on the eye symbol in his mask, a number appeared on the tree as the Librarian cut:

973/1000

Each swing from the older man lowered the number by 3. Stepping forward and taking his turn when the axe was offered, Fluke took a good swing at the tree. To his dismay, the number only went down by 1. This was going to take a very long time.

With a nod the Librarian put his hand on the boy shoulder. "Keep at it. I will go check on our prisoner. I will be back with lunch in a couple hours... Don't hurt yourself."