The Two Week Curse

by Michael Chatfield

  “Oh God.” Erik’s eyes teared up a bit as he realized how awful he smelled.

  He found a layer of grime on his skin. “Wait, the showers should be done by now!” Erik said.

  He moved to the window and saw that the shower block was complete. He saw lights in the other districts as people were working to build bathrooms.

  Erik quickly left the Village Hall and went to the showers. He looked over the building. There was a note on the wall, telling people how to act and use the showers.

  Erik went inside and found the showers there. He turned one on; it was cold, but the water was refreshing and clean. He didn’t care. He jumped in and washed off the grime, quickly jumping out to wash off and back in, dancing around as he had a brisk but fruitful shower.

  He was shivering by the end but he felt a lot better after he had his first shower since arriving in the Ten Realms. “It’s all about the little things.” Erik got dressed and walked outside, warming up even though the sun hadn’t come over the horizon.

  Seeing he had some time, Erik thought about going and seeing Rugrat, but a thought hit him.

  “I’ve wanted to adapt the growling elbow technique. Since I’ve got some time, I should try that out instead of bugging Rugrat. If he needs me, he can message me, and Blaze should be fine in training the heavy infantry.”

  Erik headed off toward the storage area, where there weren’t any lights on. He found an empty area that had plenty of room for him to move around in.

  Erik threw a few elbows. A growling noise came from his body as Mana was directed through his body before he unleashed it.

  He did it a few more times, imprinting it all on his mind.

  Then he tried to do the same thing with his right knee. It took a few tries but then a growling could be heard as he struck out. The dust around him was disturbed once again. He did it again and again until he had a complete grasp of it. Then he did it with his other knee. It got easier each time.

  He didn’t feel the least bit tired as he controlled his breathing.

  The growling elbow basically compresses and expands the Mana in my Mana channels to increase the power of each blow. It’s almost how muscles and tendons expand and contract to allow movement.

  Erik had an idea. Instead of moving onward, he threw a few elbows, tracing the different muscles, tendons, and systems that he used in moving his elbow. Then he started to trace it and move his Mana according to that expanding and contracting. It went on for ten minutes. There was no roaring, but Erik’s body glowed with Mana slightly as the wind was stirred up violently.

  His elbow shot out. The power had increased greatly, but it was completely silent now.

  Erik’s eyes remained closed as he started to move through different fighting positions. He traced out the different body systems that were working together, building up a greater image in his mind. It was much more in-depth knowledge than he had even cared to understand about the human body when he was being taught to be a medic.

  That was theoretical; with this, he could see a direct use and benefit from learning it.

  Erik’s body started to glow. The power in his body increased as his physical and Mana systems worked together. It was not a simple increase of one plus one, but a multiplicative effect.

  Erik stopped sometime later, letting out a hiss as he retracted his Mana. Fighting this way, he burnt a lot of Mana in a short period of time. It also had a toll on his body. Mana, after all, was a form of powerful energy. His body could accept a certain amount into specialized systems, but too much for too long and the other systems that were not meant to handle Mana started to sustain injuries and fail.

  Erik could heal himself, but then his Mana usage would soar.

  Although Erik wished he had been able to do more, the gains he’d made weren’t simple.

  “Well, I guess I should call it the Mana amplification fighting technique. When I temper my body, it should be able to handle more Mana running through it, allowing me to use it for longer and decreasing the Mana needed. Also, my base Strength and Agility should increase.” Erik clenched his fist. Slight blue tracings could be seen inside his fist if one was to look closely.

  He released it as the sun started to fall on Alva Village.

  He heard yelling over at the barracks and moved to check on it. Erik didn’t go inside the barracks but went on the wall to look inside.

  He could see four groups of people who were being marched around the barrack’s training area. Guards were yelling out orders and correcting people.

  There was a group that was lined up. The village’s barber shaved off their beards and cut their hair down to military regulation.

  There was still a long way to go. Erik watched without being seen, unconsciously entering stealth, as he viewed the different groups.

  One was coming back from the showers, to get issued their kit; another was heading off; another was at the barber’s; and the last was getting their group to march properly. There was not a second to be lost and even marching to the showers was an opportunity to learn.

  Erik knew that it wouldn’t be easy on them and that a number of people would probably fall out. Right now they didn’t have time for feelings; if they left, then Blaze would talk to them before they left. But if they were here, there was no mercy waiting for them.

  Erik could hear ringing from the smithy as he went down to the barracks.

  “Sa-lute!” the guards yelled out. Clearly Blaze had been teaching them more than just marching and how to use different weapons. He’d only had them two days but he’d whipped the guards up enough so that they were a few days ahead of the recruits. Thankfully they didn’t need as much sleep so they could be trained and train at the same time.

  The guard slammed his fist to his chest. Erik returned the salute as the guard leader yelled out, “Eyes front!”

  The trainees were all confused as the guard walked away. As soon as Erik stepped into the smithy, he could hear the guard going off on them.

  “Don’t you know how to salute! What kind of useless creatures are you!” the guard yelled out, berating them and forcing them to complete some repetitive and hellish task.

  Erik was greeted by Rugrat and Taran’s backs as they worked at their anvils. There was a feverish movement to their actions. It was as if they had to work right now or else they would never be able to get it back.

  Erik didn’t say anything as he looked at the drawings over one wall, the lines on Rugrat’s hammer and his anvil.

  There was a pile of pulleys, new bow arms, reload assists, and trigger mechanisms off to one side.

  Erik was a little alarmed at the number of them—over forty sat there. With a glance, Erik could see that the worst ones were at the bottom with the better ones appearing at the top. They were all the same parts, but their quality increased each time.

  Not wanting to disturb them, Erik collected the parts and quickly left. He found one of the guards as he left. “Make sure that Rugrat and Taran aren’t disturbed, and make sure to bring them their meals,” Erik said.

  “Sir.” The guard saluted.

  “Is there something else?” Erik asked, sensing more from the guard.

  “Are they…increasing their skill level?” The guard was embarrassed to be caught, but their interest won out.

  “I think so,” Erik said.

  “Understood, sir.” The guard’s expression became serious in the blink of an eye. If their smiths were able to increase in skill level, then their equipment might improve greatly as well!

  Chapter: Build

  Rugrat looked up from what he had been working on. After he had talked to the trainees, he had gone back into the smithy again. Taran had arrived as soon as he woke up. The two of them had talked for only a short period of time before they got to work. They would glance over at each other’s works, gaining inspiration as they poured out all of their effort.

  They held nothing back as they broke past their limits
.

  The furnace burned red-hot as their hammers struck metal continuously. The very building was stirred up as Experience was drawn in from all around, increasing the strength of their bodies.

  Rugrat had felt Taran break through a number of bottlenecks as he accumulated more Experience and his skill level shot up.

  Rugrat was empowered in this situation. They didn’t need to talk as their minds resonated with each other toward a singular goal, to push the limits of their smithing knowledge.

  Rugrat looked around. He felt as if he were forgetting something. His tired brain started to turn over; as he was about to go back to work, he realized that the sun was coming up. It was time for breakfast. He looked over to the side, where there was a note left behind by Erik.

  “When was he in here?” Rugrat questioned, starting to realize how concentrated he had been on proving or disproving the ideas he had. He picked up the note and read it.

  “Ah shit!” Rugrat put down his hammer and rushed off out of the smithy. Taran didn’t even look up, his eyes glowing as his hammer made the metal sing.

  Rugrat stored his gear. It wasn’t long until he reached the square where people were eating. The spear groups had been served earlier, the village talking about them as Rugrat cleared his throat and moved to the stage.

  “Morning, everyone. I’m here to talk to you about construction, at least the different stages of it and things you should keep in mind when building anything,” Rugrat said.

  This gained everyone’s attention. Erik’s information had opened up a new world to them but Rugrat’s was something that they could see and they had knowledge of.

  He talked about the basics, the need for a good foundation or base, the need to have load-bearing supports, different kinds of roofs and their use.

  He opened up the floor for questions. The different people who had built homes came up with myriad ones.

  To Rugrat, they were all basic, or he could at least give them a general outline. He poured out everything that he had, holding nothing back.

  A lot of thoughtful people wrote down notes. They’d heard of the rewards that the department heads were passing out to those people who were able to do something that could benefit the village.

  There was much to do and there were people who wanted to show off their talent. If they could grab the eyes of one of these people, they might go from Earth to heaven in a single step.

  ***

  Rugrat’s talk came to an end as people started to go off to work. He turned to leave the stage and found Erik standing there.

  Rugrat scratched his head awkwardly. “Sorry I’m late,” he muttered.

  “Way to keep the Mana Lord from me,” Erik said under his breath.

  Rugrat looked stunned before he laughed. “Well, I wanted to leave at least some kinds of secrets from you. So how did you open it?” Rugrat asked, genuinely interested. That was also the other reason he hadn’t told Erik about what happened when someone opened up ten Mana gates; he wanted to see how Erik would open it.

  He was ahead, but only by one Mana gate. It had been incredibly hard for him to get to this point and he wasn’t going to try to open the next Mana gate until he had the power that came with leveling up again.

  Erik told him in detail what he had done, shocking Rugrat.

  “Damn, you’re competitive.” Rugrat sunk into thought. It was actually ingenious, but it put a massive strain on one’s body.

  “So how did you open your tenth and eleventh Mana gate?” Erik asked.

  “Okay, well, I used a drop of my Mana. I took it from my dantian and then I slowly pressed it into the Mana gate. The gate absorbs energy, as we know, so basically I pumped so much energy into that sucker it popped. With the influx, I was able to condense another drop of Mana. I only opened one in a concentrated push. The eleventh one cost me two Mana drops to open and I could only recover one drop—took me a few days to compress another one.”

  “Smart,” Erik said. It didn’t put as much strain on Rugrat’s body and although it was a slower process, it was more stable.

  “You going to try to open another one?” Rugrat asked.

  “I think that if I can temper my body, then it’ll be easier for me to open more gates in the future,” Erik said.

  Rugrat nodded and started yawning.

  “You get back to the smithy. I’ll take people out hunting today,” Erik said.

  Rugrat was about to argue but thinking about the smithy and the work he still wanted to complete, he just nodded sheepishly.

  ***

  Glosil could only look over bitterly at the heavy infantry units. Since this morning, they had been grilled all day long.

  He had been working with the latest group of villagers to be trained with the crossbows. These would be the last groups to come through the basic training. After this, they would focus on raising their own crossbow sharpshooting group. Most of them were hunters or previous guards.

  The heavy infantry groups were being marched out of the barracks, leaving it in relative peace for the day. They would learn how to fight as a unit.

  They didn’t have time to mess around, so Erik and his people would be acting as spotters and scouts for Blaze, sending groups of boars at the groups of heavy infantry.

  This would allow them to grind levels. They’d switch out, taking on waves and waves of boars.

  It was hellish training, but they didn’t have time to be nice.

  Seeing that they didn’t need sleep, when night came, they would be carrying on what the day groups had started: digging and building up the layered defenses around the village.

  This would get them to understand defensive positions and the lay of the land. It could also build up their strength and get them used to the new gear that they had been issued.

  Glosil’s eyes turned to the guard units that were getting ready. There were two guardsmen to ten people. Erik had set off earlier with the advanced group that were meant to be the elite crossbow groups. They needed to go farther to penetrate the boar line and try to hunt down packs of wolves. Glosil was afraid for them, but he knew that Erik had hidden his strength so far.

  The groups and the guards were looking to him, ready to go. They were a mix of emotions. The ones who hadn’t done this before were scared and nervous; those that had done it a few times were more relaxed, apprehensive as they had a realistic view of how things could go wrong but assured in their own skills.

  “Good hunting. See you back for the midday meal,” Glosil said.

  The guards saluted as the newest village hunters looked on awkwardly, unsure of what to do. They moved out toward the gates and onto the wilds beyond.

  Glosil heard people training in the back of the barracks and saw people finishing off the public bathrooms across the city.

  The forest was being cut back still to fulfill their need for continuous lumber. Watchtowers were planned out and the wall reinforced and cleaned up so it was a true defensive structure.

  The whole city had been changed dramatically from what it was before. It was now a well-oiled machine, more military camp than village. He could only shake his head.

  The power of these people—any of them could become main figures in a powerful city in the area.

  None of them thought to leave; this was their home and they had grown closer, working together and suffering through the same hardships as they got together to eat and to build.

  They could see how their village had grown. They had a sense of pride that had been bred into their bones.

  People talked of the showers; they talked of the building on the walls, the logging camp, and the weapons coming from the smithy.

  Glosil felt deep pride looking at them all. He had been brought to the village, a man kicked out of a noble’s family because he had helped a lady who the young master of the house had attacked.

  He did his duty, but he didn’t feel connected to the village. He felt cut off from everyone, b
ut this training—the need for his time and the demands on him—reminded him of when he had been in the royal army, a time when he had purpose, he had meaning.

  Even then the army had bred him to be a fighter. They had built up his body, but they hadn’t educated his mind. A technique book would be seen as a waste on him, but Erik and Rugrat had given him three such books meant to improve his understanding of tactics, how to use his troops more effectively.

  He didn’t look forward to battle, but he felt that they were ready for it.

  He felt the new power within his body. He had finally broken through and reached level eleven. Following Rugrat and Erik, it felt as if anything was possible.

  Even Blaze has come to accept them.

  They weren’t the best leaders, but they looked after their people first and it showed.

  A message came from Blaze, shared to Glosil, Erik, and Rugrat.

  “Heavy infantry units are moving into position. Starting them on drills right now,” Blaze said.

  “Has everyone been issued healing powder?” Erik asked.

  “Yes,” Blaze said, sounding torn.

  “Good. Review with them what will happen if they or the person beside them is wounded.” Erik’s voice was cold.

  “Yes, sir.” Blaze might have hang-ups but Erik’s words were law in Alva Village.

  Glosil could only grimace, feeling sorry for those heavy infantry groups.

  They were only armed with spears, and some had to share one between the different groups as Rugrat and Taran were still building more.

  They weren’t allowed to wear their armor as it might bring on the Red Haze and mess everything up. If the boars got in close, then they’d get hurt and badly. Erik could save them, Glosil had faith, but those wounds might leave scars that weren’t only physical.

  Chapter: Blade Section

  “Your friend is injured to your side!” Blaze yelled out.

  “Inform the second line, continue to fight, don’t be distracted!” the heavy infantry groups yelled out in response.

  “Hu-ah!” Niemm yelled out.