“Halt!” Said a man standing next to a blue shimmer in the air. “If you are unable to turn off your senses of taste and smell, then I suggest you turn away and avoid puking your guts out. Literally.”

  “What are you handling that requires such a warning?” Alexandra asked.

  Then the inside of the shimmer blossomed into flames.

  “Something that’s as stable as quicksand in a dust storm and smells even worse.” The guard said.

  “Okay, we’ve been told that you know where we can find the Devil’s Curs corpses,” Kenny said.

  “Unfortunately, I don’t know any stable ones.” The guard shook his head. “However, we did figure out that they only spawn in areas that have at least a hundred Hatchet Hens, and that their internal organs rapidly lose stability after death. So your best bet for finding a stable Devil’s Cur would be to venture outside the town. I suggest you check out the Darman Hot Springs to the northwest. We haven’t sent any scouts yet, so you get first pickings.”

  “Ah, thank you so very for the information,” Kenny said. “Ket’s hope that it stops spawning new monsters at the Banshees.”

  The guard laughed as the two of them walked away.

  “I believe we’re going to need better transportation than walking on foot,” Alexandra said as they reached the city’s edge. “Especially if we need to haul resources or other people.”

  Kenny blinked and rubbed his chin before his feet bulged. His shins grew small spikes and connected before the board fell to the ground and extended backward into a large two-person sled like he saw on the Winter Games race course.

  Or at least the hull of one half.

  “I think I can, I just need more materials,” Kenny said as he reabsorbed his experiment.

  Alexandra glanced at the direction they needed to go, “We have like ten or more hours before nightfall. We can do a detour to get some trees for you.”

  Kenny blinked and facepalmed. “I can just make a tree backpack and grow myself some biomass directly.”

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  He then shook his head and turned his feet into Threads, razor-sharp blades that speared the ground and scythed up the grass around his feet. The Threads visibly gulped down the harvested grass and pumped the contents into his torso before his hair turned green.

  Kenny tilted his head before he smiled. “Ah ha! I can grow biomass the traditional way! Although it will take a week for this grass to mature to the equivalent of a Hatchet Hen. I think I’ll define that amount as a Biomass Point or BP for ease of conversation.”

  Alexandra politely clapped.

  Thus, half an hour passed as they walked over to the hot springs. In a significant dip in the ground, more like a small canyon, was a bubbling creek that pooled into several small ponds full of golden-green water.

  Unfortunately, there was a horde of Hatchet Hens, and thankfully, a few of the Devil’s Curs. Even more luck manifested in the lack of Greedy Bulls.

  “Alright then, let’s see if you can manage to make a Qi Pulse,” Alexandra said. “First off, we must establish your baseline amount of Qi. Sit down, cross-legged on this pillow, close your eyes, and focus on your stomach. Then tell me what you see.”

  Alexandra pulled a purple seat cushion from a brown ring on her right hand. Kenny obediently followed her instructions. In his mind’s eye, there was a small orange bead that floated in a black void. It felt like the comforting warmth of the dawn and a campfire.

  “Now open your eyes with the bead still in your sight,” Alexandra said.

  Down below, Alexandra saw another Devil’s Cur crawling out of the shadows. The Cur shook off imaginary dust before it growled and bolted out of the valley towards an unknown destination. She opened a notebook and jotted down the time and direction that the Cur went.

  Kenny saw the bead floating between the two of them.

  “Okay, next bring it to your right hand, and divide the bead until you can’t anymore,” Alexandra said.

  The bead split into ten, then twenty different parts, and looked like a rose in bloom if each petal was hovering apart from the rest of the flower. Kenny then told how many petals he had.

  “Take five of the petals and place them into your vitals, draw your spear and place five more petals in the spear, then raise your hand to a Cur and push the remaining ten out of your palm,” Alexandra said.

  Kenny’s heart, brain, lungs, and stomach had petals assigned to them, and the petals grew vines between the organs before they spread throughout his body, sheathing his entire body in a protective layer of Qi. Three of the Spear-petals went to the spearhead, and the other two went to the shaft. Again, the petals grew vines between themselves and enhanced the spear.

  The remaining petals joined together in a small ball that twitched as Kenny selected his target, and the Qi changed from orange to blue as it exited his physical palm, darting across the landscape and hitting the Devil’s Cur in the torso.

  The Qi popped like a wine bottle being uncorked and singed the flesh of the Cur.

  Though some profane intelligence, the Starspawn instantly looked right at the two humans and howled as they charged the intruders.