15. The love of Gogo
There is a refreshing breeze in the morning on the grassland. The fresh air with the aroma of grass will make me feel relaxed and happy. In the morning, there is a lot of humidity in the grasslands of Star Lake, and the temperature of the lake water is slightly warmer than the air on the surface, so there is a mist steaming upwards, and standing on the high slopes looking out over the grasslands is like a wide cold wonderland. At this time the mountains of the Pai plateau are hidden in the fog in the distance to the south. The morning breeze drives the fog up from the grassland like a great river flowing westwards. At this time, the grassland is covered in snow-coloured silence, the distant mountains are clothed in the colour of the morning sun, and the buttermilk-white clouds on the sky become flame-red, the whole grassland is a peaceful scene.
There is a time in the morning when one is most awake, near the dawn. Gogo asked me to meditate every day during this time to sense the trajectory of the magical elements in my body, telling me to look for the relative movement between the magical elements present in my body as much as possible, telling me that perhaps that was at a certain point, that if the magical elements in my body were like a star map, then this point would be the core of the entire universe, where the best place to gather magic would be back. If a human mage who has awakened the magic pool, then this point is what is called the magic pool, and the magic power in each person's body would then orbit around their own magic pool. The first assumption that Gogo makes is that the magic element in my body without a magic pool is also moving slowly in my body. The second assumption is that the movement of the magical elements in my body is in a regular cycle. The third assumption is that if the first two assumptions are valid, then it is possible that there is a core point inside my body, a core point that Gogo defines as a 'pseudo-magic pool'. It does not have the ability to gather store refine and strengthen the magic in my body, but it is supposed to be tangible.
We had met before, but I hadn't paid much attention to this muscular man, except that he resembled an American movie star I had liked before, who had gone on to become a governor. I had always thought that this kind of guy would be a bit of a bully to make himself look cooler, but in fact this strong man, who was the main tamer in the Windchaser Adventure Group, was an honest man who didn't say much.
The moment before I met him, I was playing a little game of fingertip training in the tiny tent of my sister Gogo, guiding a magic force about the size of a candle flame on my fingertips, bouncing and tumbling between my fingers, just like I used to do in my study sessions when I was in school, when the magic force was like a beneficial life force. I was so focused that I didn't notice anyone coming. I had hidden in Sister Gogo's tent to avoid being disturbed when the curtain was gently lifted, revealing Sister Gogo's snow-white face and giving me a wink.
But I looked silly at this point, like a pervert with a hand fetish. A pervert with a fetish. Sitting cross-legged in the tent, with one hand outstretched, staring stupidly. I didn't expect Sister Gogo to bring an outsider at this time, so I couldn't react on the spot. Sister Gogo beckoned to me gently and said, "Come out quickly, I've found a physical fitness teacher for you, you can call him Qiang Bach from now on!"
After that night, Sister Gogo treated me like her own brother, not only taught me some magic knowledge in private, but also paid attention to my daily life, she even used her extra shirt to change my underwear, and said that boys wearing leather trousers directly on their bare legs would affect that in the future, I almost fainted from shame. She didn't even alter the lace on the collar and cuffs of the shirt, she just made it smaller and put it on me, and the white trousers were even more pathetic, they were made short and looked like tight legged six-packs, I felt a bit silly like a white chicken on an assembly line.
Strongbach was a little curious about me, and I was about him. He was a good two metres tall and the biggest man in the whole caravan. On the day of the hunt I had seen him in full black iron battle armour, carrying a square shield the size of a door panel in one hand and a fine one-handed hammer at his waist, a handsome mess on a gubbly horse. At the moment he was just wearing simple leather armour, the strong bronze muscles of his arms exposed, the biceps of his arms there thicker than my waist.
"Brother Strongbach!" My good manners and understanding were as famous throughout the caravan as the secret orcish seasoning Kurtz possessed, and even Uncle Anlu, the most despised fat man in the caravan, would smile his meatloaf-like round face like a bun when he saw me. Naturally, I didn't dare to be too casual in the face of the number two man in the Windchaser group.
Strongbach gave me a polite nod, his bright eyes turned to look at Sister Gogo and asked, "Your brother?"
It was a classic tale of inter-ethnic affinity and friendship, a love-hate relationship between a kindly old orc with excellent medical skills and an abandoned orphan. The loudmouth of Tia would not have held back. The question was just to confirm once again the attitude of Gogo's sister towards me, knowing that it was much easier to help a poor little boy than Gogo's own brother.
"Your brother too!" Sister Gogo's tone was slightly cold and direct, her eyes locked with Strongbach's, waiting for his promise.
These two had an adulterous . I finally knew why Tia avoided Sister Gogo and feared her like a tiger. Jumbach rubbed the tip of his nose with his thick fingers a little helplessly, and after only a moment's thought he simply agreed, saying to Sister Gogo, "I know, I know what I should teach him."
The corners of Sister Gogo's mouth curved upwards in a perfect arc, joy showing on her face for just a moment, then immediately becoming serious, while curtsying to Jonbach in a rather aristocratic manner. Qiang Bach, reflexively, stood straight with his legs together and bent back with one hand on his chest, which showed me that the habits of the commoners were different.
Sister Gogo bent down at me and faced me with one hand propped up on her knee, a moment when the ice melted from her face, and her other hand squeezed my face affectionately, and to be honest, it was annoying to have your face pinched around like dough like that. Only I wasn't in the mood to hate it now, because I inadvertently followed the open neckline of Sister Koko's bent over and saw the two snow-white clusters of peaches hanging on the tree in front of my breasts again, and this time even the flush of bright pink on the very tip of the peaches was clear to see. I hurriedly blushed and looked down at my toes.
"Good baby, you need to learn your skills well from Jon Bach, I know your ambitions, but until then I need you to be able to defend yourself well. I still have to take you to open a little shop selling belt buckles, don't I?" Gogo didn't care about my gaze, but gave a wary glance to Jon Bach, who was also skimming a glimpse of the spring with a quick white glance, scaring this one into looking at his right arm, and I could guess that at this moment Jon Bach was even trying to find a shield to protect himself.
I put a small hand over my mouth, pursed my lips and nodded vigorously, my words slurred: "We'll open many shops, preferably a chain."
"Sell belt buckles and locks?"
Forget it, think what you like! No more explanations.
And so, every day I had a new training program.
In fact, I was doing all kinds of physical exercises with Kuz, the orc boy who would take me for a mad dash around the camp or, with Kulu's permission, jump into the cold lake for a swim every day, me sometimes slacking off on the ice floes in the lake while Kuz speared a few fat mackerel, as that was the only fish in this lake that was bigger. The beasts never bothered to eat the noodle fish that swam through the water as transparent as silk, but I would have liked to try them, but I tried and couldn't catch them. Swimming and running would actually make me strong enough, and once Strongbach understood that, he stopped asking me about my physical fitness. His explanation to Sister Gogo was that the boy was as physically strong as an orc boy, so what else did I need to practice?
According to my physique and the strength I possessed at this time, even if I learned the ultimate killing move, it would only be an itch for an adult. The difference between strength and speed is not a small one. So, this was rejected by Jumbach, but what could he really give me?
The next afternoon, Jambach appeared before me with a small shield in his hand. The shield was more like a large spoon, with an exaggerated curvature and very round, only about forty centimetres in diameter, with a sun-like totem carved into the outer iron, and a light but tough yellow pine hollowed out of the inner hand. It was a bit heavy, but I could hold it, and he had a wooden sword for me.
He told me that he wanted to teach me how to stay alive when I was isolated and not to underestimate the power of a shield, which, when used properly, could deflect an attack from an enemy several times stronger than myself. It is important to get your defensive stance right. In battle, there are many times when a young soldier, in the heat of the moment, forgets the correct posture he has been trained in and, through the inertia of his body and his own subconscious, assumes the wrong position and the enemy takes advantage of it. This is why training children in the correct shield-holding position at an early age is a concept that has been promoted by the Warrior's Guild in recent decades.
Seeing Strongbach on one knee with his right arm holding his shield in a standard stance to defend against a frontal attack. I knew that my day of suffering was upon me again. It reminded me of the military training I used to do at school, when I would stand in military posture and would be made to stand motionless in the sun for half an hour, which was a bit hard. In fact, the reality was far more painful than I had expected. I had to spend about three hours almost every day practising the shield-holding stance, and from time to time the devil, Jambach, would kick me in the body and if I got kicked down, I had to be timed again.
Old Kulu has also been a bit twitchy lately, probably because he doesn't see me being tortured enough, and has simply doubled the content of the herb books I need to memorise on a regular basis. Not only did I need to recite it fluently in both Orcish and Imperial languages, but Old Kulu also started to spot check how well I had completed it.
They were all preparing for the journey into the Pai Plateau, where I had heard there was a damned band of grey dwarf bandits.
And all I could get for comfort every day was a hug from my sister Gogo, and then I had to watch her talk to the devil man Jambach on the side, and pretend to be clueless or outright unaware, I'm not an expressionist, I don't have that much expression, so I finally came up with the trick of just pretending to be asleep.
Perhaps because of me, there was a massive breach in Sister Koko's emotional defences and during this hiatus, their relationship heated up so quickly that they could hold hands and chat without anyone else. At this point, I expressed my utmost contempt for Strongbach, a man who has no understanding of the mind of a woman and is only foolishly defensive. Fortunately there were not many outstanding men in the merchant group, the Wind Chaser squad was a relatively very independent adventuring group, and Sister Gogo was usually a cold face and a noble magician, so who would dare to pester a magician?
I later found out that between the two of them, almost every breakthrough was initiated by Sister Gogo.
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