Stellar Echo: Heart of the Myst

(It worked!!! But this is exhausting; I won't last more than a couple of minutes. I have to give it my all!!!)

The boy acted as if nothing had changed, dodging the cuts at the last moment by making large leaps from one tree to another. But after a couple of jumps, he drew his machetes in mid-air, and as soon as he touched the next branch with his foot, he strengthened it with his 'chi' and used all his strength to launch himself towards the wolf while dodging a cut.

Seeing the boy's action, the wolf showed no reaction and simply sent a cut with its claws to intercept him. But instead of the boy being cut in half, he somehow managed to pass through the cuts by moving in a strange way, leaving the wolf surprised.

After using ethereal movements in the air that used the resistance of the wind to change his position just enough to dodge the second cut by a minimal margin, the boy came like a bullet in front of the wolf, who, despite being surprised, still reacted in time.

Noticing that the wolf intended to dodge, the boy quickly spun in the air while extending his machetes, once again taking the wolf by surprise and managing to land two incredibly powerful slashes on the beast's neck, nearly severing the head from the body.

A few moments later, the boy landed on his feet and tried to maintain his balance as he slid across the ground due to inertia, simultaneously checking the wolf's condition with his 'chi' sphere, allowing him to notice the wolf's head falling to the ground, making him release a sigh of relief.

The small sigh the boy released acted as a signal for his body, as moments later, the 'chi' sphere disappeared, and he collapsed to his knees on the ground, breathing heavily, drenched in blood and sweat.

"Damn. I'm exhausted. I haven't felt this way since I discovered 'chi'..."

Despite his fatigue, the boy didn't dare to rest and, with pure willpower, as he had no strength left, quickly took out his knives and began skinning the wolf, making sure not to cut the pelt. However, due to his condition, large portions of flesh and fat remained attached to the pelt, but he didn't care and continued.

The boy quickly skinned the wolf, although due to his lack of strength, the 'chi' hardening of his knives failed several times, causing him to damage the pelt in a few places. Even so, he finished, but just as he was about to leave with his loot, he noticed something moving in the wolf's stomach, which made his eyes widen in disbelief.

"It can't be..."

Without stopping for a second, the boy quickly threw the pelt on the ground and opened the wolf's stomach, releasing a wet and translucent bubble, inside which a couple of small creatures were entangled, their fragile bodies still wrapped in the innocence of a life not yet lived.

"Shit!! It wasn't that she was playing with me; she couldn't move well because she was about to give birth. I really screwed up this time..."

Evidently upset, the boy looked at the two newly 'born' pups on the ground while his mind engaged in a furious debate about what to do. Although part of him wanted to run away because it would be the easiest and safest option, he couldn't bring himself to let the pups die after having killed their mother.

The reason the boy couldn't abandon the pups wasn't because he was an animal lover or had a particular affection for animals. The truth was that for his father, it was a taboo to hunt a pregnant animal, and the only time in his previous life that he did so by mistake, the old man had hit him quite hard and then took care of bringing them to a veterinarian and raising them until they were big enough to go on their own.

According to the old man, that was his way of apologizing to Mother Nature, something the boy honestly thought was stupid, but he not only didn't dare to say it out loud, but also would never disobey him. Even though this was a new life, respecting his parents' teachings made him feel like they were still with him somehow, which was quite comforting.

(Well, even if I do the same as the old man and take them with me, it's not like they could survive. I've only cared for cows and dogs in my life, and I have no way of feeding them properly...

But at least I should try. Even if they die later, I'll still respect the old man's teachings by doing my best to keep them alive and raise them to 'apologize to nature' or whatever...

Yes, that sounds like a good idea, and I'd better do it quickly before something else terrifying like that she-wolf shows up...)

After making his decision, the boy immediately began to carefully extract the puppies, each about 60 cm long. Despite being newborns, they were already the size of an average adult German Shepherd and had a similar weight.

Once out of the amniotic sac, the puppies revealed fine, wet fur covering their bodies, one with silver fur and the other jet black. They began emitting faint sounds, almost like protests, as they squirmed uncomfortably.

Without a moment's hesitation, the boy picked up the rolled-up pelt of the she-wolf from the ground, then carried the puppies over his shoulders while fortifying himself with the last 'drops' of 'chi' he had left to be able to run at full speed towards his camp.

...

...

...

Several years have passed since the boy hunted the pregnant she-wolf, and many things have changed in that time. Firstly, next to his wooden cabin, there are now two 'dog houses', each over 5 meters tall, made of logs.

In the end, the wolves survived, though not in the way he expected. Initially, his first plan was to use his 'chi' mixed with 'natural energy' to delay their hunger. Over time, he discovered that this combination could sustain him for up to three days without eating or drinking anything. However, when he tried this, he ended up consuming almost all his food reserves, so it wasn't the best idea, but he had no better option.

But it turned out all his considerations were in vain because, after giving his 'chi' to the wolves, he started eating some strips of dried meat. As soon as they smelled it, the puppies crawled towards him to snatch them away, despite being deaf and blind at the time.

Although he initially hesitated, as the idea of newborns eating meat didn't seem right, he decided to give them the strips of meat, since he didn't even know if they were mammals, despite looking like wolves, with their mother sending invisible cuts. Surprisingly, they were fine, but he unknowingly created a huge problem for himself.

From that moment on, the wolves began to 'demand' meat and 'chi' all the time, and if he didn't give it to them, they would start whining like crazy. The problem was that they ate a lot, forcing him to hunt like a madman in the forest to get them food, only to be exhausted by the massive amounts of 'chi' they required. Paradoxically, this helped him strengthen himself, and he could now handle the combination of 'natural energy' and 'chi' much more easily.

On the other hand, his ventures into the forest had also increased significantly. After all, he had to hunt large animals to feed the wolves, and deep in the forest, there were giant animals with all sorts of truly terrifying 'magical' powers, to the point where he faced death several times.

But the amount and speed of his 'chi' were not the only things that improved. After the fight with the she-wolf, the boy began practicing with his 'chi’, trying to maintain his 'chi' sphere for as long as possible. Now, he could keep it up for several hours without any problem if he extended it to about 200 meters, and it practically consumed no energy if he kept it at its original 50 meters. This was one of the main reasons he was able to survive.

Another thing he achieved during this time was replicating the slashes that the she-wolf had sent at him. Although it was only about channeling his chi from his machete, which he managed to do in a short time, maintaining its sharpness and extending it in the air like the she-wolf did was a challenge. He ultimately overcame it by using 'natural energy,' mixing it with his 'chi' when sending the slash, in a proportion that took a lot of trial and error to discover.

But that simple attack significantly boosted his killing power. From the moment he mastered that trick along with another he developed, he remained invincible and never again faced death as closely as in the past, exponentially improving his hunting efficiency.

The other trick he developed during this time was born from trying to use the combination of 'chi' and 'natural energy' outside his body for something other than cuts. After almost a year of experimenting, he managed to create a sort of rod resembling crystal out of thin air, which he could move at will with his mind.

Despite how ugly the rod looked, it still left him astounded and filled with expectations. But after testing it a bit, he discovered it was incredibly fragile, unable to penetrate a tree trunk and breaking on contact, which greatly limited its usefulness.

After that, he spent several more months experimenting with combinations until he managed to improve its hardness and shape, to the point where he could create 'crystal' arrows out of thin air and send them in any direction at will. Although they were still relatively brittle, they were lethal enough to kill one of the forest animals if he aimed well and gave them enough speed.

Another thing that changed was his machetes, now made of steel. Shortly after starting to feed the puppies, the copper ones became useless because the amount of ‘chi’ he possessed was several times greater, and he kept breaking them by mistake.

After trying several things, the boy realized that while steel was terrible at conducting 'chi’, it could withstand at least eight times more 'chi’. So, he made steel machetes and plated them with copper, greatly reducing 'chi' loss and facilitating its conduction. Although this combination was still worse than pure copper for conducting ‘chi’, the increased durability made them better overall.

The electroplating process he carried out on the machetes was also a significant challenge, to the point where he had to create a water wheel and a magnet. He made the magnet using a steel ingot, some copper, and lightning, the latter being the hardest to obtain.

During his entire time on the island, lightning had never struck. But luckily, deep in the forest, he found an eagle about two meters tall that could shoot lightning. By using it, he managed to create a strong magnet to generate the necessary electricity with the miniature water wheel he built in the stream.

However, something very sad for the boy was that despite trying everything he could think of, he was never able to replicate the 'magical' attacks of the other animals, which included all sorts of elements like fire, corrosive mist, water, sound waves, light, ice, lightning, etc. In the end, they attacked him with a myriad of things, but apart from his 'crystal' creations, as he liked to call them, and his flying slashes, he couldn't do anything else.