This meditation technique is actually quite effective. The increase in my strength feels minimal, but it's noticable, so with a few weeks or a month of regular practice it should be a notable improvement, something unheard of for an adult Lycan.
Once you're at your peak that's about it. You will gain experience, but your actual power level is basically set. Plus, after 4 hours of mediation I feel refreshed, relaxed and warm all over.
Scratch that, warm all over is from a Bunny sleeping on me on this hammock. I swear this girl has separation issues on a level I've never even heard of. But I'm glad I can spend time with her this week, the groups estimation is that we'll be here at least 5 days to finish up.
9 Days Later
Okay, we were a bit optimistic. The medicinal herbs we found further into the interior of the garden were extremely sensitive to remove and took forever. Some even needed to be processed on the spot, as they would wither almost instantly if removed from the very exacting environment they were grown in.
It's not been a bad time though. There's good food, regular status reports from the base saying the other teams have everything handled and construction is coming along well, and nightly meditation has me feeling better than I've felt in my whole life.
Sleep is barely a thing anymore, much less sleeping in. Half a night of meditation and an hour of cuddling Lala is all I need these days.
Jake and Mary are back to almost functional human beings. Sure they're still disgustingly lovey dovey, but no longer attached at the hip. They're fine doing their own thing all day and spending their evenings together with everyone, chatting around the campfire.
The fire isn't strictly necessary, but it just doesn't feel right to sit around in the dark or set up a whole lot of lights to illuminate camp.
The fire just completes the ambiance.
Everyone has become much closer, even Athena has started to blend into the group, giving up on her disturbing plans for Jurgen in favor of becoming more a part of the team. Donovan and Pascal are practically in heaven, all the new plants, the flowers especially have them stoked to finish and return tomorrow. Plus they found a gardening manual in a shed that covers the proper care of most of the plant species in the garden, giving us not only names for new species, but a method of keeping them alive.
All seems to be well in the world, until the satellite radio in the truck gets an Emergency News Broadcast. A giant portal has opened at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Godzilla wannabe monsters are coming out almost daily and trashing everything they come across, like biological hurricanes. Local forces are doing their best and killing the beasts off, but they don't have anything in their arsenal that can deal with a portal that far under the ocean, or even accurately find the thing to begin with.
Our mood thoroughly dampened, our little convoy returns to base, greeted by members of Athena's former pack in guard uniforms outside the gates.
"Welcome back, security scan checks out, come on into the base" Oh, very professional, they've become real security guards from the pack of lust crazed wolves I first took them to be.
The path to the farmhouse is now a cobblestone road, and the farm house, which only ever served as camouflage for the Safe House underneath has been removed. The garage enters through what looks like a large hill with a pair of giant doors on one side. Presumably it'll be covered in grass or something later. Some of the support towers now have skeletal structures linking them, the first frame of the city itself.
Underground still remains the same, thankfully. After a week and a half of new plants, dirt and work, I'm ready for a proper shower and freshly cleaned clothes. The base is abuzz with news of the Gulf Portal. Word has it that a request was made to send a team of metal specialist earth mages down to help build giant robots. Nobody wants to risk trying anything new and failing their people, so every plan is being drawn from movies and contemporary literature it seems.
But on the other hand, Giant Robots. I mean, could that ever be a bad plan?
I escort the Mages back down to their floor with Lala, chatting for a few last minutes before they need to start writing what is going to be a horrifically long report on the botanical gardens mission. As plants are their passion, and they've got all the details, they got nominated to do the mission report, while the rest of us will just turn in a simple debriefing.
Karl is off to talk to base command, aka harass Narishma.
We came across 3 monsters, 2 minotaurs and a harpy in particular on our way back. According to Karl, that rate of sighting makes their population density near that of the indigenous wildlife. Something is going to need to be done about it or it's going to start getting dangerous in our zone.
He suggests having the combat portion of the corps, as well as the National Guard, which is thankfully still standing in our zone do a full grid sweep of the area and clear out anything that doesn't belong, mapping any new portal locations they find.
The Northern command of the Corps says they're fairing better. As a result of a prehistoric war between the Gods, or so the legend goes, the mana gets unstable once you get north of the 50th parallel in latitude in North America, a fortune Asia and Europe weren't blessed with. So almost all of Western Canada is portal free except for the stable dungeon type portals that have formed near the cities.
What does open, often closes itself within a few hours or days. The government are currently keeping that news to themselves to avoid being flooded with refugees, but the whole supernatural community is eyeing the country as a potential last stand or safe zone if things get bad where they are.
Karl sends us a message on the base app. The grid clear is approved, we've got the rest of the day off and we'll be headed out tomorrow to begin our clear the day after that. As we're all basically government agents at this point, due to our status as Task Force members, we'll be separated to lead teams of locals to clear a set of grid squares.
Well, that's annoying and new.
Most teams will be entirely local, but we'll be assigned to areas that the government feels are 'of concern'.
I decide to run my team much like a basic lost persons search team. My assigned county has no river running through it, in fact it's almost entirely a Native reservation, so they will be my team.
First up I plan a wide sweep by vehicle across the flat lands which make up most of the zone, then a sweep on ATVs or on foot in my case, as I'm faster than that, through every coulee and potential hiding spot. With a thousand people and 1800 square miles to cover it should be plausible.
On my arrival the next morning, the chief has an even better idea. His warriors have been training hard ever since the disaster happened he insists, and now they've got almost 2 months of drills to complement the hunting skills most already had.
His plan is to put a team of 2 every hundred yards North to South across the 30 mile grid, much like I'd planned. Then we'll simply walk the 60 miles to the other side of our second grid zone.
Everyone will be in radio contact, and will almost always be in visual range of at least 2 other teams. When we hit dense woods the teams of 2 will spread out to leave smaller gaps so nothing sneaks through.
That's a bit far for humans to walk in a day, but there's a huge stretch where everything is basically flat grasslands, so we're going to start out with some vehicles, see if we can't shave some time off this endeavor. There's something about these warriors though. I can feel a very faint spiritual energy off of them.
It's like they're trying to be cultivators, but just haven't quite made it to the first step. Maybe I can help that?
I talk to the chief about the value of meditation to keep in touch with the spirits, as both Lycans and the locals do, but I add in the feeling and pattern of moving energy around the body that Karl found. If some of these warriors can manage even a few points worth of movement the energy should start to refine their bodies, right? Well, that's my hope anyways.
It might not make a difference to our search tomorrow, but it might make a difference to them in the coming months.
He's a bit skeptical, but knowing I'm coming from a place overrun with the supernatural, he agrees to give my idea a try, and lets me explain to the warriors how to do what I ask.
A few hours later I can feel that most of the men here have one or two points already partially clear, and the energy is increasing as they go. I prod the last few dozen having trouble with my own energy to at least clear a bit of blockage from their first point, stopping there so my Lycan energy doesn't harm them.
I don't know what'd happen if they circulated it. Now everyone is meditating successfully and the room is flooding with residual power to the point I can feel it.
Mission accomplished, I ask that everyone continues the practice if they can and everyone goes home to settle in for the night.