21 Stairs?

Nio looked at Liam's frowning face and only found displeasure. 'Why wasn't he satisfied? Or what was wrong?' He didn't understand. To him, it looked like Liam was much stronger than the two-legged ones on this planet. Shouldn't he be satisfied?

Liam grumbles something that Nio couldn't hear. Then he picked up the corpse and started to make his way back to the tree. On his way back he picked up fallen branches and stumbled on a plant he recognized.

"Why did you look So disappointed when you killed that peSt? The two-legged ones here can't do Something like that, especially with one move," Nio had been impressed with the skill and stealth he could display.

"It was too easy, I thought that it would be a challenge to kill this one," he said as he pulled the corps from his back. The corps was as big as Liam, but he carried it with ease. On his way back he pondered about it and got a little stumped. Why were his movements so light, his body didn't feel as heavy as it was before and his speed had increased.

"Hmph! What did you expect? You rouse three levels with that core you refined," he said like it was something he should know, but had somehow forgotten about it.

Only he didn't know about it. He was new to the energy gathering.

Liam scratched his head and looked up at Nio, with a confused expression.

"It has levels?"

"As much as I have figured out, yes!"

This left Liam a little shocked. None of this information was available at his home. That was just because very few only practiced it and those few didn't share, even in the family. After all, power is the only thing that makes a difference in how you used it.

"So... umm, can you explain it to me?" Liam asked hesitantly. This was information and he needed it, but if Nio didn't want to share, he could do nothing about it.

"Hmm, how should I put it," he took a moment to think, "You know there is a difference in species too," he elaborated but then continued, "Think of it like stairs. Every step is necessary to reach a landing point. To get to the next step or the next landing, you have to accumulate energy in yourself by gathering it at your core. Right now it is not that hard for you to get to the next step with the core energy that you refined, but the higher you get on the stairs the more difficult it will get. To use the same analogy, the width, and length of the steps and landings increase."

"So, are you saying I'm on the first stair and the fourth step?"

"No, you are on the second stairs and the fourth step," he corrected.

"What? How can I already be on the second one?"

"You can't gather energy without properly preparing your body. The first stair is when you cultivate your body until it is ready, before that you wouldn't even feel the existence of this energy, and if you tried you'd probably just explode."

Liam shudders in response.

"That's..." he had no words. He couldn't even describe what was going on inside him. After some time he recovered and asked a question.

"Can you tell me where you are on that stairs?"

"Well, I'm a beast after all and my journey is a little bit different, but I'll use the same concept. I'm on the fourth stairs and on the seventh step," he said rather proudly.

"Hah! So high, do you know how long the stairs are?"

"Nope! No idea," he casually said as if he didn't care.

"Okey, that was... enlightening," he searched for good words and sighed. 'I have a long way to go,' he thought as he picked up the corps and went to the fireplace to start cleaning and dicing it to prepare it for use.

He took the skin of the corps as cleanly as possible and put it aside. After that, he started to clean out the insides and separated the edible parts. Without any ceremony, he took the innards and tossed them out of the protective barrier. He didn't much like the smell it produced. If he had looked up, and seen Nio, he'd see a disgusted look like the one he made when they first met.

After that, he started to prepare the meat. Some of it went to sit on top of a rock that was exposed to the sun all day long. But as it was nighttime right now, it would have to wait until the sun rose. Quite a lot made it to the rocks as it was better to store dried meat than cooked one.

Liam didn't have a large pot, so he used one of the scales, balanced somehow on top of the coals that were hot, and soon some of the meat started to sizzle as the tiny amount of fat and water come out of the meat. He only had a small amount of seasoning and it was quickly diminishing. He needed to find some more and quickly now, as he had a new reason for use.

It took him a while to deal with all that meat and once it was done. The sun was coming up. He chose to fill his stomach with the cooked meat and the full dose of that tea he had made last time. He was out in a blink of an eye.

Nio, couldn't sleep and only watched what the two-legged creature was doing. He was fascinated, but he had feigned sleep all this time. He didn't want to be disturbed by him and he didn't want to disturb him. He just watched and wondered what he was doing. Some things he understood but others he didn't.

Just as the sun was rising he saw something different.

Liam had asked him not to do anything, but as he saw the thing approaching. He was getting restless and wanted it to go away. Like the creature was disturbing him on a different level. He didn't fancy eating it. If he wanted he could eat the meat the two-legged one had brought back. But that thing didn't sit well with him.

He looked on, trying his best to stay still and not attack it.

A minute passed in such tension, he looked at the Black Menace that was approaching, and couldn't understand what it was thinking. It had an expression on its face that didn't look very natural or was it? At least he hadn't ever seen a Black Menace with that kind of expression. It even looked like it disregarded his presence upon that tree.

The Black Menace then took up its position right next to Liam. Nio was very vigilant and somewhat disturbed by the scene.

But it also didn't look like it wanted to do something to Liam.

Why was he even concerned about what it did to Liam?' he thought as the sun and leaves started to react and give off their aroma of Daylight Dreams.