26 A night of boredom

Harrison got off his bed the moment he opened his eyes and acknowledged the +26 energy window so it closed. Checking his energy it was at 55 units. As he got dressed he thought about what he could do while everyone else was asleep. The downstairs library seemed like the only option of spending time usefully.

'I haven't really slept for four days. I wonder how long I can take this and how am I even lucid at this point.' He sighed as he moved downstairs.

He met some servants running about that he greeted but otherwise the house seemed empty. Shalmoon probably still has not returned from the meeting and Sheina has excused herself to her quarters after dinner.

As he contemplated which book to pick to learn from he opened up his skill list to check which ones were near the threshold where he could get attributes.

Lumberjack : Level 6 | Carpentry : Level 1 | Masturbation : Level 1 | Archery : Level 10 | Swordsmanship : Level 10 | Mathematics : Level 10 | Fitness : Level 5 | Swimming : Level 1 | Masochism : Level 1 | Firebug : Level 1 | Cooking : Level 1 | Meditation : Level 1 | Running : Level 5 | Herbology : Level 2 | Geography : Level 5 | Zoology : Level 8 | Polyglot : Level 1 |

As he looked through them he noticed his cooking skill stayed at level one.

'Is it because I didn't cook it myself? No pain no gain? Is it because I didn't cook myself I get no benefits. Damn you System.'

There was a smirk on his face as he thought how stingy his system was.

Trying to decide what to do next was making his head hurt because all his skills were far away from the threshold except zoology which only gave wisdom as a bonus and he had enough of it for now.

In the end he found another bestiary and gave it an analysis and clicked the learn button.

Soon the knowledge was inserted into his brain and it was of far greater volume than before.

Zoology skill LVL. 9 acquired.

Zoology skill LVL. 10 acquired.

Bonus Wisdom +1

Zoology skill LVL. 11 acquired.

Zoology skill LVL. 12 acquired.

Not enough energy.

Looking at the book with an amazed expression on his face he deciphered the symbols for derun beasts on its cover. Opening it up he saw monsters of all shapes and sizes illustrated with some not even having illustrations only rough mentions of people seeing them.

What he found weird was that there were more of them than the first group and by looking at their appearance they were more fearsome. From fire breathing lizards to birds that can lift a cow.

'I need to ask Sheina and Shalmoon about derun beasts.' He thought to himself.

He checked his energy and there were only 11 units left.

Not feeling sleepy at all and since it made no sense to try learning anything more in the library he went outside. The two moons were bright in the sky as he came into the backyard.

The cool breeze was blowing as he started doing pushups on the lawn.

Fitness skill LVL. 6 acquired.

Not enough energy.

Not enough energy.

Not enough energy.

Not enough energy.

After he was completely exhausted from the exercises he closed his eyes and dozed off.

Hearing the ventilators he knew he was back and in the darkness what greeted him was a

+26 energy notice followed by a few others.

Fitness skill LVL. 7 acquired.

Fitness skill LVL. 8 acquired.

Fitness skill LVL. 9 acquired.

Not enough energy.

He went from 31 out of 105 units of energy back to 7 units but he made an important discovery. Even if he didn't have enough energy to produce the effect it would accumulate and deploy as soon as it can.

As he closed all the message windows he went into the familiar darkness and the only sound being the ventilator. By now Harrison was sure time doesn't flow when he is not mentally here except for the time that passes before he crosses over. Using the drugs again could be fatal so he opened up the books.

His language skill was good enough now to understand the illustrated books for children perfectly so he quickly skimmed them after confirming that fact. Next up was the swordsmanship for beginners book which also left nothing new for him to explore, so after reading it for a while all he got was being bored.

He looked at the two remaining books in the inventory. One was about herbology and the other one was for meditating. He decided on meditation since the herbology one only gave him wisdom, however nonsensical this may sound.

As he started reading the overlaid translation by the system it was somewhat understandable. There were still pieces missing here and there but he could make sense of it now. It talked about gathering spiritual energy towards your root cell. Your root cell is something like your dantian which is located on humans close to the navel.

It also explained why. When a human egg is fertilized on a woman the root cell is formed which connects to the uterus of the woman through the umbilical cord so the dantian is always close to the navel. The energy stored in the root cell is depleted as the normal sustenance is not enough in the planes without spiritual energy and the cell division is halted as the cells lose that ability eventually.

If you manage to find spiritual energy you can store it in your dantian for future use. You can slow down the consumption process of this energy or even surpass it if you reach a level where the accumulation is faster than consumption and effectively reach immortality of your body .

Harrison could not understand some parts of the text so he imagined what it could be referring to was the dantian and immortality. Those two terms came from his subconscious from too many webnovels he read as a teenager.

He tried feeling for spiritual energy as described in the book and his meditation reached level

3 but before the system told him he was out of energy otherwise there was no effect. He checked his energy and it was 2 out of 105 units.

'I will try it again on the other side.' He decided after closing the book.

Looking at his inventory he only had two units of sedatives left. Calculating the time he figured he spent enough of it to metabolize the drugs so he would not overdose and willed one of the doses into his circulatory system.

Soon he found himself waking up on the grass in the backyard of the Donaron mansion with a message saying +30 energy.

Followed by meditation reaching level 5 which increased his energy and willpower attributes. He looked at his remaining energy and it was now at 23 out of 110.

'I wonder how much energy I will get the next time I cross over?'

He thought to himself before standing up from the grass and walking inside the mansion.

It was still early and all the servants were still sleeping and the mansion was eerily quiet. Harrison noticed his clothes were dirty from sweat and grass.Looking around he quickly made his way into his room meeting nobody on the way there. Once in his room he quickly used his inventory to first store the clothes then store his sweat from his body. He lost five energy doing so but in his opinion it was worth it.

As there was no one around and nothing to do he was bored enough so he started meditating again as described in the book. This time after approximately an hour there was a reaction and he got a notice of plus one energy unit and after a while he got another one.

Harrison remembered that he used more time on Earth doing the same thing and there was no result.

'I guess this place has a lot bigger concentration of spiritual energy than the other one. Whatever, it's a good thing I can replenish my energy doing this.'

As he continued sitting on the bed and meditating he reached level 6 and replenished his energy to 24 units before Englin the steward knocked on his door informing him that breakfast will be served soon and that a servant will bring up a washbasin and towels for him.

"Thank you, Englin." Harrison replied fluently leaving Englin flabbergasted.

Englin just remembered he didn't have the translation sphere as he told Harrison about breakfast and the washbasin.

"You are a fast learner." Englin remarked.

Harrison smirked and replied, "Sheina is a good teacher."

Harrison got out of his room soon after and met with Sheina who was making her way downstairs.

"Good morning Sheina!" Harrison exclaimed with a smile which she promptly returned and wished him the same.

Sheina looked at him with embarrassment before saying in a low voice, "Thank you for dinner yesterday. My father and I didn't have such a delicious dinner for a very long time."

Harrison looked at her with amazement before relying. "It was not really anything special. How come? Aren't you two rich?"

Sheina now felt even more embarrassed but she gathered her emotion before explaining.

"My father is not the owner of this mansion. We just get to live in it as he is the magistrate of this town. All the money he gets is spent for…" She trailed off in the middle of a sentence as if hiding something.

She finally decided to trust Harrison and started to speak again soon after that.

"My mother was abducted almost two years ago. All the money we can afford goes into paying people to find any leads on who abducted her. She was visiting my grandparents when she was ambushed on the road and the whole caravan was murdered. The only body which was not found was my mother's and my father is sure she is still alive."

Harrison looked at the girl who was on the verge of crying. He knew she didn't really like to talk about it but felt gratitude for the trust and care she has shown him so far.

"I hope you don't mind me asking this but how can your father be sure she is still alive?" Harrison asked looking at Sheina wiping off her tears.

"It's because of his ring." She replied.

"Ring?" Harrison asked with an expression of bewilderment.

"When they got married a soul magician used parts of their souls to meld them into their wedding rings and until they are not dead the rings will glow if an incantation is used. It is a common method used by noble couples." Sheina explained or at least she tried.

Harrison took out the second sphere and made her repeat the words he could not understand.

"So, such a thing exists here." He nodded after getting some understanding of the matter.

"I hope I am not costing you too much money." Harrison said guiltily.

Sheina smiled at him before replying, "The servants are paid by the kingdom and you even brought more food than you ate by yourself. Don't worry this is the least we can do for my saviour."

After that they walked to the dinning room where Shalmoon was sitting with a man that Harrison has never met before.