"I…" I begin to say, panting whilst sweating all over. Thank God I don't have a shirt, or else it would be clung to my body like glue, "Really need to work on my cardio…"
It took me an hour and thirty minutes to get up here.
Lifting up the weight of my body was the easy part.
The hard part was the continuous motion of moving my hand up and down for ninety minutes to crawl my body up.
This… Could be pretty good training.
I could gradually decrease the amount of Rotten Chi I use to climb as my physicality increases…
It's low weight, high reps. Good for muscle growth.
Plus, whilst it is difficult, it isn't difficult enough for me to not do it.
If I think of it as a form of training, I could even consider it fun.
Again, it took one hour and thirty minutes, approximately, to get up here.
Using the formulas from earlier, that's 90 minutes. At a rate of 0.1 Multiplier Loss per minute, I'm at 1x…
Which doesn't exactly seem right. It felt more like 2x in all honesty.
Actually, it would be 1x normally. But that's because my Passive Rotten Chi amount froze at 20% during the time I was climbing…
Since Rotten Chi is Chi infused with impurities caused by negative emotions, then maybe the fear, worry and anxiety about falling when I had when my Passive Rotten Chi dropped to 20% cause my regeneration rate to increase beyond 3% per minute to 4% per minute, essentially putting my Rotten Chi in a feedback loop of decreasing and increasing…
The formula was right, but instead of per minute, I should change it to per Passive Rotten Chi remaining.
It's a mistake on my part. It isn't based on time, but the amount of Rotten Chi I have dormant in my body.
However, with a 3% per minute regeneration rate, I'll be back to full in a little less than half an hour.
26.66 recurring minutes exactly, but thats not all that important.
Talking about formulas, I still feel iffy about the fact that I don't have a formula for the calculation for my exact multiplications…
It's kinda hard to do it mentally…
I pause.
"It's geometric." I mumble to myself, "IT'S A GEOMETRIC SEQUENCE!"
My heart starts to thump.
It's so obvious.
How did I not realise?
I guess I just kinda forgot.
f(n) = f(n-1) + A*1/2(^n-1)
With f(1) being equal to A!
That's just me saying A excitedly, not A factorial.
A=10 in my case.
But all these words do is simplify the equation, it does the same thing, no shortcuts in it, meaning I still need a calculator.
But as I look at this, I realise something.
It's Zeno's paradox. A mathematical expression for it, sure, but it's still a variation of it.
If we switch our thinking from the beginning to the end, it becomes obvious.
Instead of what we have been doing so far, we look at it knowing the end point.
Say we have a theoretical point.
We'll call this point X.
And we go halfway to that point. That halfway point is our new starting point and go halfway yet again.
No matter how many times we repeat this process, it's IMPOSSIBLE to ever reach Point X.
But this also means if we take our calculation, and see what the difference is between f(1) and f(2), which in this instance, the difference between 10 and 15 being 5, means that we have the halfway number between the unreachable number, the asymptote, is double that number.
But if we look closely, 5*2 is 10. Which is A. Meaning that the Asymptote is in actuality, A*2.
Which is 20.
Meaning that no matter how much Rotten Chi I use, I will never truly reach 20x. Merely something infinitesimally close.
At least without the means described previously. Either more Rotten Chi or better Rotten Chi Manipulation.
I regenerate 3% every minute.
But any amount below 4% simply doesn't give me a boost. I'm guessing because it's too little to cause resonance.
However, there's no harm in using that 3% then. Which means I can use that 3% to practise my control constantly, until I'm able to do it unconsciously. Then I'll be able to fight better, since I won't be splitting my focus.
But that's all beside the point.
Right now I need to find a city.
I've regenerated back to 50% Rotten Chi, so I squat down, pumping Rotten Chi all through my body to leap up and get a good lay of the land.
I launch up over the canopy and…
Yep.
Nothing.
Civilization needs fire and flames, if there are none then I'm fucked.
Then again, it makes sense.
From what I remember, the Air Nomads were, well, Nomads.
They were self sufficient and isolationist.
I saw the edge of an ocean far beyond my sight.
It seems that this place is kinda small comparatively. There probably wouldn't be any people other than the Air Nomads.
Which means I first and foremost, need a boat.
That should be easy.
Probably.
With my physical specs, cutting down trees for wood and managing to make a decent raft should be easy…
And so a few days went by.
I foraged for edible mushrooms to feed myself, and descended the cliff for water to save my thirst.
I made a mental layout of the map in my mind.
I'd need this to be about two meters long and one meter wide.
A small dinghy but enough for open seas, at least until I reach some form of land.
This is the Western Air Temple.
Which means if I travel east, I'll be able to get to land.
I can tell which way is east using the position of the sun….
This'll take time.
To compensate for the extra weight from food and water, I'll need to employ old man Archimedes' Principle.
I'll also need storage containers for them.
Clay would be my best bet. If I find mud and get some natural clay, I should be able to do this…
And it'll also help with waterproofing to actually USE Archimedes' Principle properly.
But before ALL of that, I need to find a river. I remember spotting one not so far from here a while ago.
Lo-and-behold, it was there. A river rushing at a trillion miles per hour, or whatever.
Now, I'm going to be honest with you.
I've always wanted to try working with clay.
I mean, I bought some when I first moved out, but I've been so preoccupied with work that I never got the chance to use it.
I start a fire pretty easily, using my enhanced strength to brute force it.
I grab a few sticks to use as a method of keeping it fueled before cracking my neck.
I walk forwards, bending over at the river and using my fingers to press and prod on the muddy shores.
I kept pressing down, moving along when it felt normal, till I found something different from the typical mud feeling.
Now, you probably already know this, but clay is just mud. Mud with particles a certain size, yes, but still mud.
If I feel a bit of resistance with a texture somewhat similar to viscous playdough, then I know I've found the right thing.
Even more so if I can grab a small clump and shape it into a worm without it falling apart.
"Clay is a natural material that's surprisingly easy to find. There are two main types but the one I've got is called Secondary Clay. Composed mostly of Feldspar, a mineral that makes up nearly 60% of the planet," I think aloud, before correcting myself, "Or rather, 60% of Earth… I'm not sure about this place, but I'm assuming it's a number vaguely similar to what I just said."
Scooping up some clay, I find a relatively flat rock nearby and place it there.
I took a few more scoops till I had a relatively big mound of clay.
"The first thing to do is remove anything that's been mixed in," I say, spreading out the clay as thinly as I could on the slab. Picking out the small pebbles and stones that soon showed themself, as well as small twigs. Anything that could cause air bubbles needs to be eliminated.
After the tedious process, I was left with much less clay than I began with…
"Time to do that a hundred more times…" I groan and repeat the process a few more times. Eventually getting a sizable amount of clay. No rush, I've got all the time in the world to be honest.
"And you're done! Clay is pretty easy to make… Well if you're lucky. Which I was. It's hard to find naturally processed clay, or wild clay, and initially I was just looking for some clay stones I could process myself. There are two ways to process clay, the dry way and the wet way. But we don't need to worry about that since I seem to be pretty blessed…" I muse, stretching my arms as I hear a few cracks. Shit I've been sitting around for hours…
Before I do anything else, I run and take off my red fabric belt and use it to pick up a ton of sand back at the beach before getting back.
This sand will be used as a temper, which will help the clay resist the heat shock and, hopefully, stop it from cracking.
And before you ask, yes all the containers in the Air Temple are broken. No, I'm not going to bring the shards with me. It's honestly faster to just make it by scratch here than running back and forth with clay shards every time I need more.
They must've broken the pots in case someone was hiding in there, or they got broken during the chaos of the genocide.
Now it's time to shape it. I'm gonna make a few bowls first, just to test everything out before upscaling it later.
I take a deep breath, cracking my knuckles as I prepare for the gruelling work of, well, working with clay.
Making them isn't the hard part, after all I don't give a damn how it looks, as long as it can hold things, it's fine.
But the kilning process… Doing it over an open fire in these conditions is going to be damn near impossible.
But not impossible. After all ancient civilizations have been doing it since the dawn of time.
Actually, when done over an open fire it has a special name. Earthenware.
Taking a chunk of clay, I shape it into a small crude bowl.
I know this isn't going to work first try.
Which means I need to give myself as many attempts as possible.
Once I figure out the trick to it, I can simply repeat it on a bigger scale.
I can always get more clay so I've got as many attempts as I need.
Again, I go through the tedious nature of repeating myself. Making as many small bowls as fast as I could
To reduce the chances of cracks whilst putting it over the fire, they need to be completely dry and without air bubbles
If I make it about a quarter inch thick then it'll have an even lower chance of cracking
After about an hour, I had managed to create 10 bowls, with some leftover clay to spare
I had made it much faster than initially expected…
Do I have some sort of learning buff? No, it's too early to tell. It might just be because I was engrossed in working and the time passed quickly…
My hands were completely muddy, but I couldn't care less at the moment
Gently dropping one of the bowls into the fire, I wait
"Sadly, most of the process is just waiting for the bowls to actually fully harden…" I say to myself, taking a stick and balancing it on the top of my lip
"Might as well forage some food…" I mumble as the stick fell to the floor.
Time passed.
I failed the first time I tried.
And the second.
And third.
The next ten times I failed too.
I managed to gather some food, I succeeded in a small scale one. Tried for a larger one. Came back down to the temple for a water refuel.
And again. Weeks pass. Time goes by.
Step by step by small step.
I'm neither God nor a Genius. I'm smart, a bit more than most. A lot more than most, actually.
But I can't use that intelligence to magically get the things I want.
But I can use them to take steps towards goals and slowly reach them.
I found a rabbit. Skinned it. Had the blood drain. Cooked it.
First meat in a while. Good stuff.
This place isn't swarming with rabbits, meaning that this place has something in the ecosystem to keep these rabid breeders in check.
A predator.
I'll have to be more careful.
A few days passed.
I had a success.
I replicated it on a larger scale. It worked on the first try, thankfully…
As if. It worked on my fourth try, but we don't talk about that. Everything is the first try if I don't tell you about it.
In the meantime I had been getting myself some basic stone tools.
Flint that I sharpened with a stone to make a makeshift axe. I underestimated the fragility of flint, the axe is way too weak to use on an entire tree, just branches is my limit...
Unless...?
I close my eyes and try moving the Rotten Chi out of my body towards the handle of the axe, up through the grain of the wood and straight into the flint.
I reel my arm back and swing at a nearby tree.
A deep gash. I pull out the axe... Now time for the moment of truth...!
Not a single chip on the blade.
Seems I can cut down trees after all.
Take the long logs, cut off the branches, take off the bark and cut it into planks as straight as physically possible. Take some vines, use the sharp end of the axe to shred it into threads.
Take those threads and spin them into sturdy hemp rope. Take that hemp rope and use it to attach the makeshift planks together and create a frame for a small canoe.
Take the canoe and cover it with clay. The buoyancy of wood is not enough to rely on when I'm transporting rations as well as myself.
Too much weight, like I said.
If I displace water though, I can make use of old man Archimedes' Principle to create more buoyancy.
The magnitude of the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the liquid displaced.
It's the same way large boats work.
However, this only works if there's no water inside the boat.
Thus the need for clay as waterproofing, even if it adds a bit of extra weight.
Using the wood as the frame, I can cover the holes with clay and bits of twine.
And when I heat it up evenly using my fire…
"We get an Earthenware Boat." I sigh, collapsing on my bottom.
Or, that's what I like to say. I haven't even put it on the fire yet. What i have done is made a smaller replica to see if it would even work.
A small boat, about twenty centimeters wide and fourty long.
I had heated it up, placed it in the stream and it floated.
I stay silent as I watch this, before my fist clenches and I pump it slightly at my side.
Now time for the full scale version. I need multiple fires. I've had a lot of experience over the past few weeks... Weeks, huh? Oh yeah, it's nearing around a month since I came here...
Whatever, not the time to go get sentimental all of a sudden.
I need it to be evenly heated, and it's size calls for multiple fires... and that's not even to mention the few days it'll take to dry and the fact I have to not let it get hot enough to burn the wood... Though the clay covering it would act as insulation of sorts to stop that, so it may just be an unneeded worry.
It took a bit of trial, and a lot of being carefully, but eventually I had managed to do it. Two weeks in total for that part, but no matter.
I had also used some cloth I had collected from the Western Air Temple and made a mast. Not a big one, but enough to catch the wind as I row with my paddle…
Two and a half months.
It took me two and a half months to do all that.
I sped through it quickly, but it was an incredibly long winded endeavor. Not to mention the fact that I had to make some extra stuff.
It doesn't look good. Not good at all. But it works… Hopefully.
If I could coat it in lacquer, I would, but unfortunately we have none.
And if it doesn't work I can always just die in the water and cuss the ROB out for giving me such a shitty start.
I let out a slightly self deprecating laugh before slapping myself.
Okay. Focus up.
Collect rations. Harvest as many edible mushrooms as you can, smoke them using fire to kill off bacteria and stuff them in my jar. Don't collect any water.
Actually, do. Collect basic amounts of water. Enough to survive on, a small jar, much smaller than the food jar, but thats fine. I can refill it with sea water and have it distill at sea slowly. I'll ration the water initially to make it last though. Too much weight isn't a good thing. And water is HEAVY.
Especially in large quantities. The weight stacks up fast.
Now for the moment of truth…
Let's hope this works…!
I push the Earthenware Boat out onto the ocean.
And…
It floated.
Well… I guess thus begins the One Piece arc.