A Hand-Woven Universe 48 48. Undiscernible Feeling

After that experience on the cliff, Noone's perspective shifted slightly in small unnoticeable ways. Although he had always been secure in himself, the more he thought about what he experienced the more apprehensive he felt. He didn't believe that there was some destiny for him like the stories in the library he would read with Liter.

So, as much as he could, he attempted to put thoughts of what it all meant out of mind.

Thus, he spent the next six months in a battle of harmony. He attempted to synchronize the conscious and unconscious portions of his mind. The part that was him, and the part that was his bloodline. Since his first experience, he had gradually become able to slip into that trance at will. However, each time he did, it threatened to take over his body. At first this was fine, but now that he knew there was something to it – it left a bad taste in his mouth. Thus, all he could do was to try and reconcile these two sides.

He knew if he could achieve that state of perfect synchronicity with his body, while not losing himself to the mindlessness… he could achieve all new heights with his strength.

While climbing, he would feel the pull in the back of his mind – asking to take over for him. Instead of just giving himself over to react unconsciously though, like a leech he worked at learning from the unconscious trance-like state.

It was a mentally exhausting process; his body could barely keep up. Compartmentalizing his mind between conscious and unconscious left him with severe headaches at the end of each day.

But he did experience results.

Over the first few weeks he managed to move his body with the efficiency of his trance-like state. Like instructions being read to him, he would quickly react to the quiet urgings in the back of his mind. Left arm 3 inches right. Right foot 10 inches up and heel left. He moved faster. His mastery of his center of gravity became stronger.

Noone's conscious mind was syncing up with the quiet portions of his awareness. This continued until eventually he noticed he was reacting to the quiet urges even before he thought he could feel them.

It had become simultaneous.

The most important experience he gained though was the constant optimization of his physical body. He noticed at the end of the day that not a single muscle was left unabused. Everything from his head to his toes was sore. But in the mornings, he would feel completely rejuvenated.

Noone was no fool, he could clearly understand where these benefits were coming from. But what he didn't understand was where he was getting the energy to support this growth.

He couldn't absorb or even feel the energy of the universe like the rest of Tapestry. There were no power lines in his body that shone with attuned energy. Thus, he could only speculate at what cost his gains were coming from.

He would look down at the back of his hands often. Although he couldn't tell for certain, he had the feeling… that there was some qualitative change coming from his veins. Even his bones themselves seemed to be stronger.

His speculations were only exacerbated when attempting to utilize the sun-stones.

Normally holding the sun stones in his hands - Noone would focus a small portion of his life energy through his body from his core. This piece of life force would then be channeled through his palm and into the stone.

This was the skill he had gained after years of accidental discoveries.

The power of his life force was enough to trigger the sun-stone. After which it would absorb the miniscule amount of attunement energy from the air around it - becoming self-perpetuating until deactivated or burning out.

But Noone noticed since he began to climb… activating sun stones seemed to take more time.

After experimenting for a while, he realized that he had life force in abundance, but moving it at will had become increasingly difficult.

It was similar to how pulling a minecart over smoothly paved stones was easy, but moving it within the mines was considerably harder. His life force – as far as he could tell – was fine. But moving it around took much more energy than it had before.

This made Noone extremely apprehensive. However, without knowing the exact reason there was nothing he could do. Whatever damage was there was already done. Even if he attempted to stop the trance-like part of his mind, he wasn't sure he could anymore.

Once a wheel gets rolling, it was exceedingly hard to stop.

Six months passed, without much change. The majority of Noone's growth came from the first month of climbing and experimentation. After that, it just became easier and more comfortable.

Noone continued each day unabated, sending small stones and dust falling down the cliff side. Noone's clothes had become various shades of grey from the constant abrasion against the stone walls of the cliff. His initially orange shirt was now bleached white and scuffed black. The constant exposure from the salty humid air and sunlight had begun to take its toll.

One thing Noone was thankful for, was his pack which his senior miner had given to him. Despite a multitude of abrasions and scrapes, it was still holding up just as well as it had since his fight with the bird in the clouds.

Not just his pack, but all of his tools as well despite needing minor sharpening occasionally continued to hold up against the constant use.

It would not have been impossible for Noone to scale the cliff without these tools, but he dreaded to think about how miserable it would be.

Whether or not it was on purpose or merely a side effect of spending so long climbing, Noone had not only optimized his body for climbing, but everything in between as well. He ate exactly how much he needed to eat and drank exactly as much as he needed to drink. Sleeping too, was optimized. By this point he would often go days of constant climbing, and sleep for a several hours. Then repeat.
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The weirdest thing, he thought, was how no matter how long he climbed for he would feel the same amount of exhaustion and soreness before sleeping every time.

As Noone moved swiftly up the cliff face, his eyes were glued to a section of cliff still a thousand meters above him. An unusual frown could be seen on his lips.

Although he had synchronized his mind with his body, he could tell that there was still something in the back of his mind vying to draw him into a total trance.

It did not feel malicious, Noone examined, but what worried him… was it got stronger as he climbed higher. Six months ago there was no feeling like this, but it had begun a few days prior and was now a constant feeling. Noone had become very careful to take short breaks throughout the days to reaffirm his mindset.

Whatever waited up ahead – whether it was something calling out to him, or his bloodline calling out to something - he wanted to be in peak shape when he got there.

Noone would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit excited to see what was ahead. Noone had freed up a lot of headspace since synchronizing his body with that unconscious state. So, he had done a lot of thinking in the past months.

Whether there was something out there or his bloodline seemed like a trivial difference, to Noone, the consequences of each held completely different meanings.

If there was something out there drawing his consciousness towards it, even overriding his awareness… there is a good chance it could be dangerous. This was why Noone was doing everything in his power to stay aware and awake.

However, if it was a subconscious portion of himself reaching out, resonating with something in the cliff, then there is a chance it could be a boon. If he was so lucky, then it would only mean good things.

However, Noone had no choice but to play it safe. He thought back to his time in the mines. Back then when he slipped into that trance, there was no draw to anything like there was now. Thus… it very well could have to do with proximity. If it was something in his unconscious mind and body, it would make sense that it constantly improved his strength and capability.

Chapter end