Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Getting Stronger

Book1, Volume 5

Chapter 42

The sunlight shone through the window lighting up the bedroom, the brightness slipping past Michael's closed eyelids. “Ugh” Michael squeezed his shut eyelids tighter, wanting to keep the light out but it was too late, “M'kay... fine... time to get up.”

He tried to lift his hands to rub the sleep from his eyes but only his left arm was free to move. He felt a warm comfy weight lying across his chest, the right side of his body, and his legs as something soft was pressed up against that side of his body, pinning his arm to his side.

He opened his eyes, squinting as the light shone in, and blindly felt atop his chest with his left hand. He patted a soft slender arm that was draped across him, turning his head as his vision cleared and was welcomed by... cuteness; Laying next to him, using his shoulder and body like a pillow was the bunny girl with her bunny mask now shifted over to the side of her head allowing him to get a good look at her now maskless face.

Her face was that of a little girl covered in velvety spiln fur the color of a full blue moon. She had a little bunny-like nose, a smattering of silky whiskers, and her cute mouth was slightly opened as she gently breathed. Her breath smelled of sweet flowers and berries. Her soft hair was dark as night, styled like Edward Scissorhands with thin flexible silvery twigs blended in.

She was wearing a dark full-body nightgown. “Aw... so cute,” Michael said as he lightly lifted his upper body and head to look down at his body, seeing the little bunny girl's bent leg lying atop his own legs. “I hate to wake you but there's a lot to do in order to get ready for when trouble comes knocking so...”

Michael gently shook the bunny girl while calling out “Wake-y, wake-y...” The bunny girl's doe eyes slowly opened as she lifted her head off Michael's shoulder. Her vibrant rose pink eyes stared at him for a moment or two, then widened as she jumped off the bed.

Turning her back towards Michael she began to fumble with her bunny mask as her nightgown magically transformed into her usual dark full-body coat.

Bunny mask in place, she turned back towards Michael who smiled at her. “Good morning... hmm... well I don't quite know what to call you since I don't know your name... or even your language,” Michael said as he slid his legs over the edge of the bed, lifted his body into a sitting position, stretched, and then looked down at the hardwood floor below, spotting his shoes.

He fluffed his orange autumn-hued hair out making doubly sure to cover his ears. Satisfied, he hopped off the bed, slipped on his shoes, and grabbed his belly pouch off the bedside table. He turned to look at the bunny girl as he buckled his belly pouch. “Well... the color of your clothes, hair, and face reminds me of the night so how about I call you... Lun...ori? Yeah, Lunori... what do you think?” Michael asked with a smile. “Is it okay if I call you Lunori?”

The bunny girl clapped her small hands while nodding her head up and down as 'tootle-tu' sounds escaped her upturned lips. She quickly made her way around the bed and hugged Michael. Her bunny masked face came up to his nose, but her wooden ears and puffy hair reached over the top of his fluffy head.

He gently patted her silky hair, lightly bending a few of the thin soft silvery branches interwoven within. “Mmm... thank you Lunori,” Michael said as he stepped back after the hug. “Well, we have much to do and I'm not sure how much time we have to do it in so what do you say we get started?”

Lunori nodded with a 'toot-tootle-tu!' and they made their way out of the bedroom and into the bathroom. It was only at this time that Michal noticed that the faucet on the sink was a flower with a curved cyan hued stem and a crystal blue petaled tulip head. It had long leaf handles on either side, one side for cold water and the other side for hot, and was powered by oryn energy which, according to Michael's Oryn Spirin Eyes, flowed directly from the treehouse; The treehouse gathered energy from the ley lines in the ground and the atmospheric energy in the air outside.

These treehouses are amazing. Michael washed his face with cool water and then stepped aside. Lunori handed him a soft spiln towel and then proceeded to wash her face as Michael dried himself. By the time Michael had finished drying his face, Lunori had already finished washing and drying her own face.

She then pulled open the mirror, revealing a built-in wooden cabinet, and grabbed a bottle that seemed to be made of hardened sap and leaves. She removed the wooden cork as a scent of honey and mint lightly perfumed the air; She took a swig and passed the bottle to Michael as she swished the liquid about in her mouth for about 10 seconds before drinking it.

Well, when in Rome... Michael took a swig and found the taste quite to his liking as he handed the bottle back. Finished, they went into the kitchen where Michael sat on a flowery padded wooden stool at the kitchen island watching as Lunori cooked them a small fragrant breakfast of two slices of meaty mushrooms with a sunnyside up blue egg atop a stove that used Sunfire flowers as burners. Ah! Those flowery burners look a lot like the King Protea flowers I've seen online... if only these Sunfire flowers truly existed in our world. I bet the number of kitchen fires would go way down.

Lunori lifted the cooking pan and put the cooked food on two small flowery plates, pushing one of the plates in front of Michael along with a wooden thorn-tipped fork. She then opened the Earth Flora Fridge that was cooled on the inside with icy blue Wynbella flowers and took out two Kokinuts.

Michael's eyes lit up as soon as he saw the chocolatey drink headed his way. Well, I wasn't planning on eating since I don't really need to here but it would be rude of me to refuse... so... Michael wiped a small dribble of drool from the corner of his small upturned mouth with the back of his hand.

'Tootle-lee-lu,' Lunori whistled lifting her fork towards Michael and then started digging in. This looks and smells much too tasty to pass up. Michael took a bite of a slice of mushroom Mmm, tastes lightly of smoked ham... and so tender. Now to see what the blue egg tastes like... Michael broke open the light blue egg yolk, dipped a piece of mushroom into the creamy liquid making sure to get some egg onto the fork as well, and put it in his mouth. Oh wow... the egg tastes like sweet cream cheese... mmm... so good together...

Lunori was happy to see Michael's smiling face as he ate all the food on his plate and then drank his Kokinut.

“Thank you Lunori!” Michael said as he got up off the stool.

Lunori nodded with a 'Tootle-tu' and took the dishes to the deep sink, turned on the flowery faucet, and proceeded to wash the dishes while Michael made his way over to the living room. He stood before the bay window looking out into the village thinking about the task ahead.

“Anari, I have a question about getting stronger... well about training and its effects on stats.”

[ Yes, go ahead Wylla. ]

“Well, this world seems so... real. It has me wondering... in our world if we want to get stronger we'd work out at the gym or some other place and increase our strength... so I wanted to know if doing such training here would raise our stats?”

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[ That would only work for those who haven't reached the max stats for their species/race. For example, the max strength, athletic, and constitution stats for elite human athletes in your world is 8 across the board. Once you have reached 8 stat points in each attribute you won't be able to increase it through training.

To break this limit, you would then need to Tier Up. You can also use magical items or eat certain foods or drink alchemic potions or cast support spells and such to raise stats; Most of these only increase your stats while wearing them while most foods, spells, potions, and such provide temporary buffs. Still, there are some rare foods or one-time use items and such that do provide permanent stat increases like those you received from the Oryn Tree. But good luck finding more of them. ]

“Hmm... if that's the case then what's the point of training?”

[ If one doesn't train then when a situation arises one won't be able to act. Think of it this way, what's your favorite sport? ]

“Martial Arts competitions.”

[ Okay. Say you have two martial artists in a bout. They are the same in every way physically but one trains every day and spars while the other lounges around and plays games. Who do you think will win the bout? ]

“I think I understand now... Thanks, Anari.”

[ You're welcome Wylla :) ]

Michael felt Lunori by his side as she took his hand looking at him. He smiled and nodded; “Okay, looks like it's time, can you lead the way Lunori?”

'Tootle-tu!' Smiling and with a spring in her step, Lunori led Michael to the main courtyard which was now clear of the bonfire and was buzzing with activity as over 4 dozen spriggankin awaited his arrival.

Lunori led Michael over to stand at the edge of the crowded courtyard in front of the shrine. From the crowd stepped forward two spriggankin, the cute little autumn-hued Ferrewl and the large shaggy Ogen whom Michael had rescued from the Witch's cage.

The big lumbering Ogen gently patted Michael on the head and then moved to stand behind him as the cute fluffy Ferrewl wrapped his waist in a hug while making soft rolling cooing sounds. Lunori raised her hand and 'Tootle-lu-lu' as all the spriggankin quieted down and shuffled about allowing the shorter spriggankin to stand in front with the tallest Ogens standing in the back.

Freed from the Ferrewl's hug Michael faced towards the fluffy assortment of spriggankins and spoke “Hmmm... I'm not sure if you'll understand me or not but my name is Mich... (No... if I use my real name my family and friends might watch this on the Livestream so...) ... err... Wylla. I was given a mission by,” Michael turned to the side, gesturing with his hand towards the beautiful statue in the shrine “the Goddess Sylvenori. She said a great danger will soon be coming and asked me to help you prepare for it. To train you so that you'll be able to protect yourselves and your loved ones.”

The crowd made a musical calliope of sounds and chirps as they nodded their heads towards one another and then back towards Michael. Well... it seems they understood what I said in one way or another so that's good. Smiling, Michael continued.

“Each morning and each afternoon I will place lessons here to learn within the spell flower taught to me by the Goddess. Please work together in small groups to learn the lessons contained within and be sure to give one another space to practice so that you don't accidentally hurt each other.

Since I'm not sure how much time we have before the danger arrives I've decided that the morning lessons will be focused on defense, the afternoon on offense, and then later we'll add sparing so... the first day's morning lesson will be stances and footwork. And the afternoon will be basic kicks, punches, eyes and throat strikes.”

Michael then closed his eyes as the energy within him flowed into his mind taking the shape of a Rosebud. He then recalled lessons from his sensei showing him stances and footwork; He pushed those memories into the Memory Rosebud Bulb but felt he was missing something... Ah, there's also magic here so maybe if I also share my Orchid Butterfly Steps memories they'll be able to learn it or use my memory to make their own type of steps spell? Well, couldn't hurt to try...

Nodding, he recalled the feel and movement of the energy within him when first cast the spell and transformed into his Butterfly form and pushed them into the bulging Rosebud bulb. Satisfied, the energy flowed from his mind through his body down his arms and out into the air through his cupped hands.

Michael's face was lit up from the crystal ball-sized Memory Rosebud Bulb that floated above his cupped hands as he looked over the crowd of eager faces. Hmm... there's so many of them... I think I have enough energy to make a couple more...

A few moments later, 3 ethereal spell flowers were floating 3 feet above the ground in front of the shrine. “Okay everyone, please line up in one of three lines and take turns touching the Rosebud Bulbs. Once you have learned the lessons contained within form groups and find a place where you can practice for a couple of hours. Then rest and return here refreshed this afternoon.”

Michael, now low on Oryn energy, stepped back to stand beside the shrine as the smiling and chatting spriggankin formed lines and proceeded to follow his directions.

Just as Michael was about to wander about to watch the various groups practicing, a very old looking spriggankin in dark feathery forest hued robes and a gnarled Nightwood Staff in hand approached him. Her black and gray spiln hair was long, flowing down her hunched back, and had little Starlyng flowers growing within. Her face was covered with a raven mask as she looked at Michael with her bright silver eyes.

She smiled and gestured for him to follow. Curious, Michael nodded and hurried to her side as she led him to the edge of the village where 3 young spriggankin were each standing before a tree of their own.

The old raven chirped and all 3 spriggankin turned their way and immediately bowed their heads in reverence. The old raven tapped the staff on the soft ground with a few thwumps and chirped some more words as all 3 spriggankin nodded their heads with smiles.

The thin dark Talric spriggankin then walked towards Michael, held out his clawed hand, and gave him a gentle nod. Well, I'm not sure what this is all about but only one way to find out. Michael then took the Talric's hand.