The second time that the twin energies of nature and light used Dario’s body as a playground, it was both easier and harder. Easier, because he knew what to expect and switched his focus at the right time to avoid things getting too much out of hand. Harder, because the pain and exhaustion had been building to the point where he was teetering on the edge of passing out.

  His head would flop limply to his chest, only for a flash of pain from his seams to have him jerking awake again with a surprised grunt. The headache had been horrible from the start, but when it got to the point where he thought his brains would turn to mush, he was forced to change tactics.

  Instead of constantly keeping the massive stream of Ki in his grip, he learned to guide it with only occasional flashes of control. It felt similar to guiding a ball along a path only by kicking or poking it regularly, as opposed to rolling it through with your finger constantly on top of it. There would be a spike of pain in his head with each bout of concentration, but that was a great improvement from before, where the pain was constant.

  There was no single, flashy moment to mark the end of his ordeal; the energy was absorbed over time until it slowly reached a point where it was no longer rampaging through his seams. By that time, without spikes of pain to wake him up, Dario had been passed out for a while. When he eventually woke, it felt like he’d been run over by a wagon. A big, fully laden one, the kind that Luca used to bring his trogmeat to market.

  He groaned as he gingerly moved his fingers and toes, then his arms and legs. Every inch of him felt strangely tender, as if his whole body was now as sensitive as those annoying tingly spots on the back of his elbows.

  When he turned his attention inward, the change was unmistakable. His seams felt huge and solid compared to before. He thought they’d be able to hold at least double the amount of Ki, but that wasn’t even the biggest difference. They branched out all the way through his body, stretching into the muscles on his back and even his buttcheeks, a place where he’d never had seams before.

  In the bottom half of his body, where the Ki of plants had twisted through his seams, there was a lingering feel of nature. As he looked himself over while pushing Ki into his eyes, he noticed that those channels had a faintly green hue now. The process of rising to Amber had attuned them, and from now on they would produce a trickle of plant Ki, just as the golden seams in his upper torso and head would generate a small bit of light Ki over time.

  He was committed now. The energies of light and nature would be his tools going forward.

  “No regrets.” Dario smiled as he generated a bright orb of light in front of the palm of his hand, before letting it wink out as he closed it and pushed himself up.

  He let out a pained groan before dropping to the ground again and lying flat on his back with a grimace.

  “Ok, maybe some regrets.”

  After another nap, everything still hurt, but it was just bearable enough that he could move around. The first thing he noticed, though, was that the Ignis Wisp was looking chipper again, its leaves overflowing with that orange glow. It must have taken back some of the excess energy. Since his seams were filled to the brim with Ki, he walked up and fed it some more, which is when he noticed that it seemed to be growing a new stalk, but one without leaves.

  A closer look showed that it was different than the normal stalks through, more infused with different hues of plant Ki. It grew thicker still, the stem morphing into a brownish, knobby bark that was clearly different from the other smooth and glossy stalks.

  Dario’s eyes widened as it moved, pushing out towards him and twisting around before it detached from the Wisp and clattered to the floor. His eyes flicked to the gnarled stalk - no, it was more like a stave - then back to the Wisp.

  “Another gift?”

  He bent down slowly, groaning as he put one hand to his lower back, using the other to pick up the staff. It felt unexpectedly heavy and tough, but still the wood felt smooth to his fingertips despite the many knobs. It still glowed with verdant Ki to his vision and when he drew lightly on it, he felt some kind of resistance.

  Acting on instinct, he then channeled a thin stream of his own plant Ki into it, pushing through the discomfort that caused. Immediately, there was a connection. The staff felt distinctly alive to his senses. As he pushed in a bit more Ki, instead of having a growth spurt, the staff became softer to the touch. Soft enough that he could move it around, pushing more of the wood-like material to one side to create a bulge for striking enemies.

  But then Dario figured out something even better; pulling it out into a wide curve so that it could function as a bow. If he could make it a bit more pliable, with the right string it could make a fantastic bow. Flexible enough to be a staff for close fights, a shortbow or longbow depending on the situation… This could be an awesome tool.

  But the experimenting was taking a toll on his seams and he’d been delayed enough already, so he packed it away and gave a final bit of Ki as thanks to the Wisp, before setting off.

  With his body in this sorry state, it took nearly an hour just to crawl out of the tunnel and move back down the slippery wall. He then inched through the jungle like a decrepit old man, hissing and moaning as he walked, often pausing to lean against a tree to catch his breath. Still, he drew the light away from himself and moved with silent care, eyes flicking around the jungle to catch anyone lying in wait.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  It was only now that he noticed the transition to Amber seemed to have had some effect on his eyes. More than before, the jungle became a tapestry of Ki with all possible shades of green, broken up by bits of violet and brown. Now that every special plant could be a possible treasure or weapon for him, it took a lot of restraint to stop himself from chasing after every bright flare of Ki he could see. But he did follow one, a barely moving blob of dark Ki.

  He was still moving quietly with light drawn away from him, so when he poked his head around the trunk of a large tree to look at a large hog that was feasting on a patch of mushrooms, the beast didn’t notice him. He looked down at his tired legs, then back at the hog as his lips curved up into a smile. Without anyone nearby to tell him it was a bad idea, he found himself creeping up behind it before leaping on top, clenching his hands tight around two fistfuls of fur.

  The hog screamed like it was being slaughtered before dashing off into the forest, bucking wildly so that Dario was nearly sent flying. But as he pushed Ki through his aching seams, using the newly formed branches through his muscles, he found that was quite a bit stronger than before. Strong enough to stay on top of the panicked beast.

  Unfortunately, that still left it thrashing through the bush in panicked circles as branches smacked Dario in the face. He spat out a leaf before leaning in close to the squealing pig, the musky smell of its fur filling his nostrils. Then, sending his light Ki out in front of it, he wove the illusion of a corridor of trees, surprised at how easily he could handle this amount of Ki. So he expanded the illusion even further, darkening the surroundings and lengthening the corridor of dark tree trunks. Finally, he added a patch of mushrooms in front of a cave in the distance to give it something to focus on, figuring that it should want safety and food right now.

  The hog slowed down, hesitating for a moment, before running off in a straight line. Dario grinned. It was still bucking and squealing, but now it was going where he wanted it to. Orienting on the light of the pillar, he made the corridor swerve to the southwest, always adjusting the illusion so that new trees kept appearing and the cave never grew nearer.

  He cackled with laughter as it followed the turn, racing through the bush. They burst out of the forest after a while, passing a couple of gleaners entering the wilds who let out surprised shouts. Dario waved at them as he rode his wild mount out onto the grassy plains and back in the direction of the desert.

  “Onward, my mighty steed!”

  Unfortunately, while the hog was capable of impressive bursts of speed, like its rider, it did not have great stamina. Still, it was a fun ride and lasted far enough that he could see a lake and desert in the distance before it collapsed, so he clapped it on the side and threw it a few tubers.

  “Thanks porky. See you around.”

  His condition was quickly improving. After continuing at a slow walk for a few hours, the pain in his seams had lessened to the point where he could run Ki through them again without wincing. He pushed green Ki through his legs, instantly noticing how it energized his muscles, then tried a small hop and promptly fell over.

  “Agh. What the…”

  He got up again and jumped straight up this time, waving his arms in the air for balance as he went higher than expected. When he tried to take a careful step forward, it felt like something pushed at his legs as soon as he flexed the muscle, sending him farther than intended.

  “This is going to take some getting used to,” he muttered to himself as he took another slow step forward while green Ki moved through his legs. After some experimenting, he found that moving at a hop-and-skip was easier than speedwalking. Once he got the hang of that, he tried normal jumps, then reduced those down to giant one-legged steps.

  He got lost in different experiments, trying out side-stepping, dodging, even leaping into a roll. Before he knew it, he’d left the lush greenery of the wilds and was standing on dried earth between patches of pale grass, having cleared about half the way to Endanshi. It wasn’t like he’d be leaping onto a building in a single jump any time soon, but he was certainly a lot faster than before.

  Once he felt confident that he could move around without embarrassing himself, he tried the same with light Ki, sending it crackling through his arm as he threw out a punch. But without intending to, he sent out three lighting-fast jabs instead of just one.

  If the growth-aspected Ki of plants brought an unusual springiness to his muscles, then the Ki of light gave it its typical restless, jolting energy. Running it through his arm made him want to move it, or rather, he had to move it, or it’d move by itself.

  When he tried holding it still, his arm would begin to vibrate before jolting left and right. The movement felt as inevitable as a log needing to burn when it was put into a hearth; it would simply keep going until it was all used up.

  He brought out his dagger for the next experiment, but it was hard to control the quick slashes. With his knife arm’s eagerness to keep moving and cutting the air, he nearly opened a gash across his other arm. Light Ki made him fast alright, but also as jittery as a damn squirrel.

  After a bit more experimenting with how the Ki influenced his movements, he brought out the staff again, testing what it could do. The amount of Ki seemed to matter less than the type; the darker green energy that carried the aspect of pliancy would firm it up and make it even heavier, while the lighter green of growth made it malleable.

  He curved and stretched the staff into a longbow, then ran a thin band of green Ki between the two ends, where the bowstring was supposed to go. It took him a while to gather a mix of the aspects of pliancy and growth, finding the former still hard to control, but then he pushed both those energies into a band, slowly drawing it out from one end to the other.

  “Aha!”

  He grinned and shouted victoriously as he pulled at one end of the bow, somehow stretching the magical wood into something that looked more like a string. After attaching it to the other side and playing around a bit, he found it a touch too loose. It would need some more work, but he didn’t have any arrows on him anyway, so he eventually morphed it back into a compact stave before stowing it away.

  Time flew by as he experimented with jumps and steps, lunging and rolling and punching and slashing, until he looked up from one of his rolls and could see the outline of buildings against the clear light of the gigantic pillar.

  He’d made it back to Endanshi. It would only be a few hours now to make it back to the Belt. But first, he had some business to attend to.