Path of the Berserker

Xi Xha woke early the next morning to continue what we ended up doing late into last night. By the time we finished, she collapsed onto my chest, both of us breathing heavily as the first rays of dawn peered through the windows from outside.

“Ugh, I have to get going,” she said with a groan. “I really do need to teach classes today.”

“Same… well, kill monsters, not teach kids.”

She laughed giving me a quick peck on the cheek while tickling my abs with her fingertips. “Thanks for the great night.”

“Thank you,” I said with a grin. As I watched her getting dressed, I had to admit that Xi Xha was in many ways nothing like the person I expected her to be. My first impression of her intentions when it came to Mu Lin especially. “Hey, thanks for what you’re doing for Mu Lin, by the way. I know you’re taking a big risk by helping her. It’s really nice of you.”

She smiled as she slipped on her underclothes. “Mu Lin’s a smart girl. She deserves a chance at the academy. She may even surpass me. Take care of her for me, out there, will you? She’s so close to being able to pass this exam. I really hope she can focus.”

“Yeah. Timing’s not great for that. Work is picking up like crazy with all the off- worlders coming in for the tournament.”

“I can imagine.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “You really are something, you know that? But who am I to stand in the way of a man and his ambition? Yes, I can help you, Chun. But the most I can give you is a contact. From there you’ll be on your own. Are you sure you want this, though? These can be dangerous people.”

I flexed with [Struggler’s Resolve], showing off my scars while giving her a cheesy grin. “Does it look like I fear danger?”

She laughed with lemonade again, playfully whipping one of her stockings at me. “Give me a few days. I’ll arrange something. I’ll contact you through Mu Lin.”

“Thanks.”

I then thought back to those Fire Bird members and that strange Frenzy I felt coming from them. I still had no idea what it was. Could they have been unkindled? All three of them? Maybe I wasn’t the only Berserker here, but three altogether seemed unlikely. Although I had no idea how likely or unlikely finding another Berserker even was.

I gazed at Xi Xha as she fixed her hair. If there was ever a chance to ask an expert on the matter, now was the time. It was a risk but screw it. I was already risking enough just trusting Xi Xha with the Jianghu connection.

“Hey, have you ever heard of Berserkers before?”

She paused, looking at me bemused. “That’s an odd question.”

I quickly came up with a lie. “A client I was with mentioned them once. I’d never heard of them.”

She chuckled. “I’d be surprised if you had. I don’t think anyone has even seen one of those Daoists in centuries.”

“Centuries?” Perhaps Berserkers were not as wide-spread or well known as I had assumed.

“From what I can recall, yes. They were quite an obscure group. More the realm of myth and legend now.”

“I see. And what’s a Daoist?”

“Sorry. I forget you might not know these terms.” She rushed about, kicking on her sandals. “They’re like… knock-off cultivators that utilize unorthodox practices. Usually form cults and such.”

“Cults. Are they illegal?”

“Illegal? No. Well some may be depending on what they practice. Some artisans are Daoist, but martial Daoists like the Berserkers you mentioned are rare and not tolerated. That’s why the Dynasty put an end to them centuries ago.”

“How would you even recognize one?”

She laughed. “I truly do not know. But I must go.” She leaned down to give me another kiss on the lips. “We should do this again sometime.”

I smiled at her. “Definitely.”

She then gave me a wink. “But next time, let’s just skip the dinner.”

* * *

After Xi Xha left, I meditated a bit on what she’d said. While the warnings from Threja and the orb were quite pronounced, perhaps they were both speaking from a more historic perspective, especially considering how old Threja might actually be. According to Xi Xha, Berserkers seemed more like boogie men from the past. Although knowing that didn’t mean I was going to start advertising my Frenzied Flame, it at least made me feel a bit better that no one would instantly point at me and shout “Berserker” if I pulled off something a mortal shouldn’t be able to do.

Although those Fire Bird members did just that, I mused.

They were able to peg Threja for exactly what she was. Perhaps that had given me a false impression about how commonly known Berserkers were. But after having experienced that strange Frenzy, maybe they knew something about Berserkers. Xi Xha just said they hadn’t officially existed in centuries, but could the Fire Birds be some secret sect of Berserkers?

It didn’t quite gel with my Flame though. First, Berserkers didn’t have sects. And what I sensed was ‘like’ Frenzy, but it definably wasn’t the exact same thing. If Frenzy was wine then what I tasted from them was more like vinegar. The same substance just corrupted. It made me wonder even more exactly what the hell it was.

But one thing was clear. They must have found a way to mask it somehow. Unless only I could detect it due to my Flame. Something else became clear to me too. While people might not recognize me as a Berserker right away, a guy with no Qi cutting loose like I could, was eventually going to raise enough brows for people to start looking deeper. Plus, if I was going to pull off competing in the martial tournament at anything above the shit-tier league or do anything significant for that matter, I’d have find some way to explain my abilities.

Hell, even last night I’d gotten lucky that those three Fire Birds were less than Foundation Realm. Me knocking one of them unconscious could be explained away. But I wasn’t always going to get so lucky, and my path wouldn’t allow me to back down from a challenge.

As I thought some more, the beginnings of an idea started to take form, but then I realized I was already late for work.

“Shit,” I cursed. I’d have to ponder that some more while on the trail. Right now, I needed to get to killing more monsters.

* * *

Sumatra gave me the usual shit for showing up late, making fun of my new haircut especially. I ignored him with [Indifference] and went straight to work with my three handlers from the day before. Today’s client seemed of the sane variety thankfully. A low-tier Core Realm cultivator from off world who used a spear style she called the Heavenly Lance. When she told me that she wanted something to test her agility, I took her past the swamps to an estuary that was home to horse-sized crabs and man-sized birds.

The birds were for her. They were quick and annoying things, like giant angry seagulls that attacked in mobs. It proved the perfect prey for her, keeping her on her toes with her flashy spear techniques. The beaks and livers were also valuable and once I showed my guys how to harvest them, I set them up in an assembly line to process her seemingly never-ending stream of bird corpses as she went to work. Satisfied they had everything under control, I then skived off to go ‘scout’ for more prey.

When I got far enough away from all of them, I went to work on the crabs.

They were a lot faster than the belrugs and their pincers proved able to pierce my skin after one of them managed to snag my forearm right before I cut off its claw off. I used the opportunity to build more Frenzy from the pain and then utilized that to add to my reflexes and strength.

It dawned on me then that if I were able to use [Iron Skin], I might have been able to withstand the claw attack completely. That got me to focus on developing concentrated Frenzy. Recalling the chapters from Mu Li’s Foundation manual, the process of concentrating one’s internal energy involved a sort of refinement technique. That meant cycling my Frenzy through various meridians and purifying it before eventually compressing it into my Dantian.

I set that as my next goal.

As an hour went by, every few crabs I gave myself a break to try compressing my Frenzy while it was still freshly circulating within my body. Finding a nearby bay-leaf tree, I sat upon the branches in lotus position as I focused on my meridians.

Opening my mind’s eye, I visualized the process of my Frenzy circulating through my body. I imagined it being like heated water running through pipes and as the pipes passed beneath the pores on my skin, the heat was enough to let the bad parts evaporate away, leaving pure concentrated Frenzy behind. After about ten minutes of this I forced it all into my Dantian and imagined the walls of my mystic core squeezing down on it.

Sweat beaded on my brow as I strained with the process, trying to cycle in more concentrated Frenzy to increase the pressure. I wasn’t sure how long I was at it, losing all sense of time as I focused on nothing else. And then with a strange ‘pop’-like sensation, the pressure in my Dantian suddenly decreased.

Shit, I thought. Had I just ruptured it or something?

As I fearfully tested my Frenzy again, I found that everything still worked fine, but where my Dantian had once been full, now it felt like my Frenzy barely filled a tenth the volume it had before. When I sampled it however, it was like taking a shot of straight plum wine.

“Man, that’s powerful,” I said, my eyes squinting.

Had I just done it, though? Had I just made my first batch of concentrated Frenzy?

Hopping out of the tree, I set about fighting a new crab, utilizing my techniques from my stored Frenzy alone. Sure enough, I could perform far more techniques than I could with the small amount of Frenzy in my tank. Once I killed the crab, I used the fresh Frenzy from my [Lust for Battle] to cultivate and concentrated some more.

It was a slow-going process as the crabs took some time to fight and kill. But their quick movements and hard shells forced me to make use of both evasive defensive skills and strong axe techniques to bust open their hard shells. This cultivated both Body Strengthening and Reflex Sharpening at the same time.

Once stored in a concentrated state, I found my Frenzy seemed to be stable within my Dantian. With it now half full, I experimented a bit and found that I could use it normally, greatly increasing the number of techniques I could perform, or I could chug the stuff straight and greatly amplify a single technique.

But I wanted to do more with it than that.

After taking a break to make a brief check on the cultivator and my guys, I decided to move locations, finding her even more birds to kill. Thankfully they seemed a decent challenge for the cultivator and she was happy to stick with the same quarry.

By the time I managed to get back to crab killing, I was eager to put my concentrated Frenzy to use in the form of a manifestation technique. I spent a good half hour studying the meridian technique for [Iron Skin] from memory and when I figured I had it down, I set up for a test.

Turning to the tree I was sitting in, I focused on a branch that was a good five inches thick. Exhaling, I focused directing my concentrated Frenzy to the heel of my palm. The technique lasted only a second, but it felt like it had worked. There was no visual confirmation of it though, just the feeling of my hand becoming as hard as rock.

“Time to really test this out,” I said, squaring up with the tree.

I leapt into the air, performing [Two-Log Chop]. Mind reeling, I applied the complex meridian sequence to perform [Iron Skin] at the same time. My hand hit the tree and I cried out as if felt like every bone inside it shattered.

“Ah, shit!” I swore, dancing around in a circle while holding my swelling hand. “Dammit!”

What the hell was it with me and trees? I thought. The branch in question looked none the worse for wear, my hand instead taking the full brunt of the technique. Thank goodness I didn’t use [Three-Log Chop]. I focused my concentrated Frenzy on healing as I dissipated the pain.

After twenty minutes I worked up the nerve to give it another go.

One thing was clear, this technique had very tight timing. If I was ever going to make use of it, I would have to be very fast at its execution. That made me think of the value of Mental Quickness as an attribute. If I wanted to be able to perform multiple techniques in quick succession, I’d definitely have to increase my prowess within it.

Once I was ready, I jumped into the air once more, performing both techniques near simultaneously this time. Concentrated Frenzy flowed into my palm and my entire hand went numb just as it struck the tree branch. With a splintering crack it broke in two, not quite a clean chop, but what was left was hanging by only a sliver of bark.

My heart pumped vigorously as the remnants of the technique surged within me.

I looked at my hand, expecting for it to start throbbing again, but there was nothing.

No pain at all.

I smiled with satisfaction.

I could now successfully use manifestation techniques, but more than that, I realized that I had just reached mid-tier in my Foundation Realm training.

* * *

I practiced the technique a few more times, getting down the timing just right before deciding to call it quits for the day. I rounded up my troops and the cultivator, stuffing our backpacks full of bird livers and beaks before heading back for the gate in the mid-afternoon sun.

As I led the way, I thought more and more about how quickly I was progressing, but I was about to hit a wall soon. While I was now able to hack down a tree with a damn karate chop, the more powerful I became the more danger there was of revealing my secret to the world. When I was just starting out my skills could easily be interpreted as just a very strong mortal, but now I was really getting into true superhuman territory.

I would soon no longer be able to progress easily if I couldn’t start acting out in the open. At least somewhat anyway. As we neared the gate my brain was nearly fried trying to think of a solution. How did people even detect various Qi levels anyway? Was it similar to how I detected Frenzy? Perhaps I could ask Mu Lin.

A strong sense of déjà vu hit me as I approached the gate. I recalled how panicked I was trying to hide the new-found gifts I’d just received from Threja, just a few weeks ago. I was starting to feel that way permanently now. Like at any moment I could be exposed.

And then a wild and radical thought occurred.

An idea maybe. But could it work?

As we got inside, I rushed around looking for the only person who could answer that question for me.

“Mu Lin!”

I found her knee-deep in backpacks, stowing supplies for the next day. She frowned when she saw me.

“Dammit, Chun! You made me lose money.”

“Huh?”

“I bet Lee you weren’t going to show for work today, but I guess you just came in late as usual.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that was a pretty wild night.”

“Yeah, it was. Thanks for taking us all out.”

“Hey, are you busy tonight?”

“What, again?” She shook her head. “No way. Go check Lee. I barely dragged myself through work today. I’m going straight home and going to sleep.”

“No, no,” I said. “I want to come over.”

She looked at me like I was stupid again. “What part of ‘going home and going straight to sleep’ did you not understand?”

“Seriously, it won’t take long. I have something I want to show you.”

She furrowed her brow at me suspiciously now but there was some curiosity there as well. “Show me what?”

I grinned, throwing off my uniform. “You’ll find out when I get there. See you in about an hour.”