He was currently sitting on the ground, crossing his legs; The sage was seated behind him, holding the chest plate. He wanted to turn back and see what she was doing, but every time he tried, she grabbed his head and made him look ahead.
"Unless you want me to snap your neck, I suggest you keep your gaze forward."
He sighed in frustration and kept looking ahead, humming quietly to pass the time. Eventually, she set down a piece of wood beside him and put her hand on his back.
"Bite into that; I don't want you accidentally biting your tongue and dying. Before you even bother asking, It's going to hurt... It's going to be the worst pain you have ever felt."
She spoke in a severe tone and stern tone as he gulped nervously, and he picked up the wood and bit into it. He tried to give her a thumbs up but suddenly felt groggy and stiff.
His body felt like it had frozen over; he couldn't move or even speak. Which was good, considering that if he could, his screams would be the only noise he would make.
Her hand had gone through his back and was touching his soul. The pain coursing through his entire being was unmatched. It felt like burning hot rods were placed inside his body; he wanted to scream or even pass out not to feel the pain. Sadly, neither happened, as it felt like hours passed.
However, only a few minutes had passed as she held onto his soul and the chest plate. She used her body to establish a rope between the two, using a small part of his soul to make that link as she waited till it was set correctly before pulling her hand out of his back.
As soon as she did, he fell on the ground and squirmed in pain, biting onto the wood with all his might. His screams were at least muffled so he wouldn't scare anyone who might hear, although he would have preferred to have died right now.
He would have loved to say he remained dignified in his painful endeavor, but sadly, he ended up passing out.
He woke up as the sunlight hit his face, he had been tossed outside her home it seems. His body felt sore, but he at least didn't feel like dying at this point. The chest plate was beside him as he took the time to put it back on.
While putting on the chest plate, he had noticed something terrifying... He stunk to high hell, and he had been sweating quite a bit. He just had to hope that the sage hadn't noticed or hopefully hadn't smelled it.
"You finally woke up; you won't be getting any benefits from binding that chest plate to your soul till at least 1 or 2 weeks. It might be longer, but it shouldn't take more than a month..."
He flinched and looked back at her. She was standing in the doorway with a neutral expression. He felt glad to know she hadn't found out, as a smile crept up on his face.
"There is a lake west of here; go clean yourself up. You stink... Also don't forget to be careful, if that chest plate is ever destroyed the soul bond will be broken. It will cost you another hundred gold coins to fix it."
Like that, all hope of him saving face was shattered, and he dejectedly nodded. Getting up and walking off to the west of the forest, he knew what lake she was talking about. He had skipped rocks there before his dad had left.
He shook his head to clear his mind, focusing on what he needed to do now.
I need to start gathering chi, or what I did is going to end up being useless. First, shower and then start working on that. He took off in a sprint, and the month's deadline she gave him was a bit disheartening. He needed the soul bond to take effect before then; he had no way of completing the first step to ascension before the month ended, and he needed every advantage he could get.
As he arrived at the lake and took everything in he felt strangely at ease, he looked into the water at his reflection and failed to notice anything different... He did feel different, though; it might just have been his mind playing tricks on him.
He began removing his boots at first when a strange sound made him look up at the lake. At first, he didn't see anything, just a few Lily pads, flowers, and even frogs. He was about to look away, and when something shiny caught his attention again, a slight shine came from the end of a frog's tongue. At first, he thought it might have caught a coin or maybe just a shiny piece of metal, but as he looked deeper, he saw that the tongue of the frog itself was golden.
He jumped to his feet and around the lake, trying to get closer to the frog, his gaze locked onto it. He had gotten lucky, that frog had started it's path into ascension. Judging by how golden the tongue was the frog had been gathering chi for at least a few weeks, animals usually had a part of themselves become golden as they began their path to ascension, unlike humans who gathered chi near their hearts. They usually gathered it into their most used tool. For any animal with fangs or claws that usually became golden, since the frog's only tool was its tongue, it had focused its chi gathering there.
He had to be careful, as he got closer to the frog it leapt from Lilypad to Lilypad. He slowly leaned down and walked into the water. He was going to have to wait for his clothes to dry later, but it didn't matter if he could catch the frog.
He slowly got deeper into the water and began regretting wearing the chest plate; it was making it much harder to move. He didn't let that stop him as he tried reaching for it, only for it to jump and move. Every attempt to grab it the frog got further and further away.
He noticed that his closest attempts at catching the frog were when it was catching food for itself, so he got as close as he could without startling it and waited.
He didn't know how long he waited, but as soon as he saw the tongue of the frog fly he reached for it. He did managed to catch the frog in the end, But the gauntlets weren't really made to be gentle and he had stabbed into the frog with the claws.
He didn't care though, he had caught the frog... Besides he was gonna have to kill it anyway. His stomach was already dreading what was to come as it growled.