On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Fifty-One

Shaeula and I returned to the Material after several days of time in the Boundary, waking in the early morning. Karen-chan was still sleeping, snoring away, which was good. You know, I’m not sure what would happen if Karen-chan tried to wake me while I was in a higher plane. I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t have to find out.

Shaeula yawned beside me, then spoke quietly. “Working this hard is not entirely becoming of a noble princess of the Seelie, however I cannot deny that the results are worthy-worthy.”

“You are not wrong.” During the gradually diminishing etheric tide we had continued our training with wind and aether as before, working ourselves until we were exhausted. Still, our abilities were improving noticeably, and I felt that much closer to a breakthrough in my skills. It’s close, but I just need something… like an insight… to push me over the edge.

Grulgor and his trolls had fully recovered, and as ordered had recaptured their old Territory and cleared several buildings further outwards from there. They had also battled enemies who had been washed up by the tide, earning us a modest amount of ether in the process. The Rank 2 Warehouse had also finished construction, and so we queued in a Rank 1 Treasury as well to hold the small number of gems and other treasures the kobolds had gathered. It would be a building that looked like a cross between a vault and a treasure chest. It started small, at fifty centimetres a side, but had excellent security options, supposedly.

The other build queue was still filled with the upgrade of the Silo to Rank 3, but it was slowly getting closer to completion now.

Looking at the time it was still early, so there was no point in waking Karen-chan up. Having nothing else to do, I decided to go for my regular jog to exercise my body. I can probably push myself a bit harder at this time of day as well, there should be few people about.

Shaeula saw me off with a little wave, rummaging around for snacks, and I headed out into the warm early-morning dawn. I ran for longer than usual, covering multiple loops of my usual course, running at a breakneck pace, muscles burning, breath rasping in my lungs. By the time I had finished the sun had risen and there were a few people going about their business, even on a Sunday. Opening the door to my apartment I found Shaeula and Karen-chan sitting on my futon, Karen-chan looking hungover and embarrassed.

Turning to me when I opened the door Karen-chan flapped her mouth like a goldfish a few times, struggling for words, going bright red, flushed even to the ears and down her neck. “Uhh… Akio-kun… well, I…”

I stifled a laugh. “Don’t worry about it. You had a lot on your mind. It does good to unwind sometimes.”

“My god, I feel so embarrassed.” Karen-chan almost whimpered. “Showing such a shameful side of myself in front of you and Shaeula. I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole.” She clutched her head in her hands, which I found kind of adorable. The fact that her ample chest is straining against her shirt while doing that is... No, mustn’t think of that now. ”Plus I drank so much of that expensive whiskey… “

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.” I tried to placate her. I wasn’t great at handling panicking women. “If it was a problem I’d have said so, Karen-chan. We are neighbours after all, who both know the hardships of work. We should look out for each other.”

“Neighbours huh?” Karen-chan said a few moments later when her hysteria started to calm down. “If you are able to buy expensive whiskey and sake like that, to say nothing of decent beef, then maybe you’ll be moving out soon and we’ll no longer be neighbours.”

As she talked I produced a glass of water and some painkillers for her, which she took gratefully, having largely calmed down. That was fast. Maybe I’m finally learning how to handle women other than my sister and Eri-chan. “Well, there is a long way to go yet before I would consider that. Still, things are looking up. Who knows, maybe your situation will improve too?”

After having taken the painkillers she gave me a wry, sad little smile. Shaeula saw this, and patted her reassuringly on the back. “If my master says so, then I am sure things will improve for you Karen. It will surely be just a matter of time-time.”

“Thanks for that. I really do hope so.” Karen-chan said softly. “Oh god my head aches. I really did take advantage of your hospitality far too much. I’m going home to bed. Thanks again Akio-kun, Shaeula. I needed to blow off some steam. Maybe next time I’ll return the favour. The booze’ll be cheaper though!” she smiled, but I felt that it was a little forced.

“We should invite Ichika as well.” Shaeula agreed. “I am sure my master will be happy to pay for more expensive alcohol. He would be surrounded by beautiful flowers after all-all.”

Damn, I wish she’d stop calling me ‘master’. Luckily Karen-chan is excusing it as her being unfamiliar with the language, but still… “I’m not sure Ichika would come, she doesn’t seem comfortable with people she doesn’t know.” Or men. “Still, when we get back from our trip I’d be more than happy to bring another bottle of the good stuff to your place, Karen-chan.”

“Oh, you did say you were going home next weekend. But Shaeula is going with you?” she smiled slyly. “That sounds rather more than co-workers to me. Are you sure there isn’t more going on?”

“Positive. With the nature of our work we can work from anywhere. Momentum is going our way at the moment so we want to keep plugging away on the big jobs while we are getting them.”

“I suppose I’ll accept that explanation for now.” Karen-chan kept smiling. “But now I really need my own futon. I am so hungover…”

After exchanging goodbye’s Karen-chan left for her own apartment, leaving Shaeula and I alone.

“I like her. She is rather fun is she not? We should definitely do this again. That whiskey was rather pleasing to me-me. I can not-not deny every day is interesting with you, master.”

“Well, maybe I’ll get another bottle or two to take back home with us. My father would definitely enjoy it. Still, I have to look up some information today for our plans going forwards. What will you be doing?”

“I still need to defeat that boss in the game you bought for me-me.” Shaeula declared firmly. “And that anime I enjoy is airing later.”

“All right then.” I agreed. “Just keep my blessing topped up and I’ll earn us some money while I research. Tell me when you get hungry and I’ll make you a snack, all right?”

Shaeula nodded as she reached down for the controller. This seems a little like a man home alone with his girlfriend… no, definitely not. She is my precious servant and colleague. Shaking off the mildly impure thoughts I had I booted up my computer, opening up the roulette app, as well as my browser.

While I did research on medieval armour, mainly chainmail, scale mail and plate mail, as well as the maths and physics behind them, I continued to gamble away steadily. My luck had ebbed though, and I was quickly around a thousand pounds down. This was a sum that would have broken my heart only a few weeks prior, but now it was merely an annoyance. I continued to research, making notes and working through calculations, settling on scale mail, and as I did so I gambled more, my luck rising and falling. Still, by evening due to the large edge I had from my Fortune and the blessing the losses were reversed, and nearly five thousand more pounds were added to our pot. It might be time to open a third account with a different online casino. Diversifying is important, as my luck is too good…

That night we returned to the Boundary, to find less time had passed than I was expecting. The faster time in the Boundary was slowing down again, the etheric tide diminishing at an increasing rate. Shaeula estimated that in a few days the tide would have ebbed out completely. She also explained that usually after a tide there would be a calm, where the world would be quiescent and peaceful.

Which sounds lovely. Hopefully things should be quiet and easy for Grulgor to handle while we are back at my hometown.

“All right then. We should get down to training. I’m going to be doing something else as well though, during the gaps.” I announced, as I summoned a pile of wyrm scales, teeth and bones from the Warehouse. They piled up in front of me, eliciting a question from Shaeula.

“What are you going to do with those dregs?” Shaeula asked.

“Crafting. My spear has been of great help, but I realised our defence is lacking. I’ll be practising keeping some energy back to work on this while we train in our usual fashion.”

“That sounds rather tiring-tiring.” Shaeula said. “Are you sure you can handle it, Akio?”

“Well, if it doesn’t go well I’ll rethink it. But practising fine control is as important as working with large volumes of wind and aether. Everything we can do to improve ourselves is vital. We have the leeway because Grulgor is with us now, but we don’t know when we will need to fight the Raven Knight.” Ideally I’d like to defeat him before we head to my hometown, but that’s just a wish, not a necessity.

I started the practice, gathering what wind I could from the Silo, and then drawing in as much as I could from the diminishing etheric snow, I began to shape and compress the wind, rotating it while trying to keep the olivine glow as invisible as possible. The task was difficult, straining my mind and my chakra network to its limit, yet it did seem slightly easier than before. I guess all our hard training is paying off. Still, it is unrealistic to expect us to improve our skills too quickly. But every little helps in a life-or-death battle. I know a breakthrough is near, but it just keeps eluding me…

I impressed myself a little at how I accepted there would be more life-and-death battles like the wyrm and Grulgor now. I also wonder at my sanity. For a while longer I controlled the wind, before the strain became too much. Now it’s time to move to the next stage…

Releasing the compressed energy to Shaeula, who tried to take in as much as possible before it was wasted and dissipated, I made sure to retain my grip on a portion of the energy, pulling it back into my chakra network, the wind energy swirling around my heart chakra. Ignoring the prickling burn of my lunar node I began to focus, directing the wind into a thin cutting wire like I had used on Grulgor.

Taking a large scale into my hands I began to cut it with the wire, shaving away at it until I had a small leaf-shaped shard. I repeated this over and over, taking up new scales when each was processed, using aether sparingly to correct the wind when my control slipped. Damn, this is hellishly hard, using a different type of skill to our main training. It would probably have been easier to just use aether alone to do it, like I had with the metal railing from the graveyard to make the spear, but then that wouldn’t have been as effective as training.

My thoughts were interrupted by the Kamaitachi passing the energy over to me, his strength exhausted. I dragged in what I could and continued, sweat dripping from me and evaporating into silvery mist…

********

Looking at the huge pile of leaf scales and thin bone needles I had carved from the bones and teeth of the wyrm, I exhaled a long breath. Shaeula was currently using the majority of the energy we had left, her eyes blazing with amber light. She was holding up well, her control skills far better than when we had first met. Still, I had no time to be impressed.

Summoning the little wind I had remaining I compressed my vibrating wire of wind into a single point, like an oscillating dot. Using this I bored hole after hole into the small leaves. As I did so I threaded them onto the bone needles, forming a layered shape.

The next bit I have to use aether for, as I’m not skilled enough to do it with wind yet. Turning my attention to the pile of wyrm bones remaining I concentrated, picturing the image clearly, turning them into spools of coiled bone wire, just like I had when constructing my spear before it. Using the wire I anchored together the pile of pinned bone leaves, and after much painstaking work I was finished.