Stellar Echo: Heart of the Myst

"Wait... How long have I been 'training'?..."

As the question left the boy's lips, everything suddenly started to make sense in his head, so he couldn't help but verbalize his thoughts.

"Have I been 'training' for so long that my things ended up being washed away by the water, erasing all traces? But that doesn't make sense. If that had happened, it would have taken me too. The logs and bamboo were well buried in the sand; it would take considerable force to move them! Besides, I haven't eaten or drunk anything all this time. I should be dead if that were the case..."

Still incredulous, the boy carefully examined his body, quickly noticing something obvious. Not only did he not look like someone who had been fasting for days, but on the contrary, his body looked too healthy, almost to the point of exaggeration.

The muscles on his body were now incredibly defined. Although he had always been slightly muscular thanks to a lifetime of hard work, those were work muscles, not the vanity muscles of a model that now he has.

Moreover, his tan, the result of years of working under the sun and heat, had completely disappeared, leaving his skin so white and flawless that it would shame a baby. To top it off, all the wounds and scars scattered across various parts of his body were gone, even the calluses on his hands had disappeared.

"Great, now I'm a pretty boy. But what a fucking disgrace!!! Even my calluses are gone, damn it! If the old man saw me like this, he'd stomp me into the ground for being a useless, pretty boy who has never touched a shovel in his life... Sigh Good thing no one else is here, or I wouldn't know how to go out in public..."

The boy's face displayed an expression hard to describe, combining amazement, disbelief, and a bit of resentment, as he clenched his right fist. Shortly after, in an attempt to release his frustration, he kicked a nearby rock with his bare heel. Instead of feeling the normal pain that would accompany such an action, the rock broke.

"WHAT?!"

Absolutely astonished, the boy immediately crouched down and picked up one of the pieces of rock, examining it closely and quickly realizing it wasn’t brittle.

"This can't be..."

The boy muttered incredulously and quickly approached another rock of similar size, which he punched with his right hand, applying about the same force. Just like the first rock, it also broke.

Amazed, the boy quickly looked at his knuckles, noticing that although there was some damage, there were no traces of blood or anything like that. Still not believing what he was experiencing, he looked around for a stone about a meter in diameter, determined to try something different.

Since he finished his 'training’, the boy had noticed something a bit strange. Not only could he feel the warmth beneath his navel with perfect clarity, but it also felt 'hotter' and somehow 'larger'. Although it was difficult to put into words what he was feeling, he had a peculiar idea in mind.

With this strange idea, the boy quickly tried to direct the 'warmth' to his arm, which he managed to do with incredible ease. Before he realized it, he felt the warmth covering his entire arm. Without thinking much, he hit the rock with all his might, causing it to shatter into pieces.

"I'm a damn superman!!!! HAHAHAHA"

Completely lost in his new discovery, the boy spent several hours searching for rocks and destroying them, testing the 'warmth' and his new super strength in various ways, until he suddenly felt hungry and thirsty again. This forced him to look for a small palm tree with some coconuts. But at that moment, inspiration struck him.

"Wait... if I can hit so hard with the 'warmth', or maybe I should call it 'chi', I should also be able to run and jump quite well, right?"

Without further delay, the boy directed his 'chi' to his legs and started running, achieving an astonishing speed, more like a car than a person. This allowed him to cover a great distance in a short time until he stopped in front of a rather tall palm tree.

"Hmmm, considering my strength, I should adjust the amount of force I use to jump..."

After making some speculative mental calculations, the boy increased the amount of 'chi' in his legs and jumped to reach a coconut, easily grabbing it. He quickly pulled it from the palm tree and braced himself for the impact of his landing. Contrary to his expectations, he felt no pain or discomfort despite taking the full impact of his fall without cushioning it in any way.

"Well, now it's more than confirmed, this world is strange. What I just did defies the laws of physics in more ways than one. My body shouldn't be able to release that much force, and the minor damage I sustained from hitting the first rock has already disappeared without a trace."

After checking his body's condition and making sure everything was fine and that the lack of pain wasn't due to a problem with his pain receptors, the boy set about rebuilding his shelter and tools. And thanks to his new strength and speed, he finished in record time.

By the time night fell, the boy had several spears, axes, and stone knives, along with a small bamboo hut near the forest. In an elevated, covered area, he had several clay pots drying, so in a couple of days, he would have properly boiled, potable water again, along with a good amount of salt.

"Well, now I have to worry about clothes."

The boy looked at his outfit, which was nothing more than a loincloth made of leaves and tied with some cords. He had removed his torn rags, which left him naked, and stored them in his hut in case they ever proved useful.

"But I should look for a bigger animal. It would be too cumbersome to make clothes from rabbit pelts. Besides, with my new strength, I should be able to venture deeper into the forest. Maybe I'll find decent prey to hunt, but that's a task for tomorrow. For now, let's weave a mat to sleep on."

After a small yawn, the boy took a couple of palm leaves and began weaving a mat by the campfire he had created earlier, which, thanks to his new strength, he could build in an instant with his bare hands. When he finished, he went to sleep in his little hut, with the sound of the waves and the crackling of the fire in the background.

...

The next day, the boy woke up with the first rays of the sun. After eating a coconut, he took a spear and tied an axe and a couple of knives to his waist with some cords, positioning the blades to avoid accidental cuts, and headed into the forest, venturing deeper than he had ever dared before, marking trees to find his way back.

Although he now had a strength that gave him more confidence to venture into the forest, the boy remained cautious, moving stealthily, looking for signs of predators and possible dangers, until he suddenly saw something that left him stunned.

"You've got to be kidding me..." the boy whispered softly in disbelief.

In the distance, the boy could see a large, healthy deer, something that would normally have delighted him. But the problem was that this deer was far from normal. If his eyes weren't deceiving him, that thing measured at least three meters tall, making it practically a titanic monster compared to his small stature.

(Should I attack? On one hand, its hide looks great and would help me not only make clothes but also create many useful things. But that damn size is intimidating...)

The boy weighed the pros and cons of hunting the deer in his mind, and soon his eyes showed a determined light.

(Now I'm a damn superman. I just need to prepare properly to hunt it, and if everything goes to hell, I can still run away.)

Instead of attacking the deer, the boy retraced his steps until he reached the forest's edge, where he started felling a couple of trees and then looked for materials to make better weapons. The giant deer's hide gave him the feeling that it would be very difficult to cut with his current tools, and his intuition was quite reliable, so he decided to prepare well.

After searching for a while on the forest's periphery, the boy found a robust-looking tree, which looked quite similar to ash, though a bit darker than usual. This put a smile on his face, and he quickly ran toward it.

Taking the axe tied to his waist, the boy set about felling the tree, but when he gave it the first blow, the axe in his hands shattered, leaving him with just a piece of wood, and the worst part was that he couldn't even leave a single mark on the trunk.

"You've got to be kidding me! How hard is this tree? Although, well, if I'm a superhuman, it's not so strange that there are super trees or something like that, but this complicates things a lot..."

While considering his options, the boy made another stone axe with some materials he found nearby and the knives he had brought.

"I really want this tree; it will be great for making handles and other things, but my tools can't even scratch it. Should I improve my tools before trying?... No, wait, my skin didn't get a single mark when I covered it with my 'chi' while breaking the rocks. Could I do the same for the axe?"

The boy immediately tried to do so. Although he didn't manage it well at first, after a few minutes, he got the hang of it and was able to cover the entire axe with 'chi'. Somehow, it started to feel like an extension of his body, a strange sensation. But since 'chi' was something he didn't understand, he ignored it and tried to fell the tree again. And this time, the axe didn't break, and instead, it left a large cut in the trunk.

"It worked!!! Hahaha!!!"

Laughing joyfully, the boy quickly finished felling the tree. He then reattached the axe and knives to his waist and strengthened his body using his 'chi', which allowed him to carry the large trunk easily back to his camp. There, he unloaded it and picked up a basket that he slung over his back, heading back to the stream.