P: "We still probably need to go inside by more than a dozen meters from here. Try finding another one like this."

Me: "I have walked enough, it's time to try my active skills. Hopefully they'll also increase in level by repeated usages." I said, rejecting her suggestion

Taking a long breath, I whispered, "Wood Flesh!!"

Nothing happened.

Panna interrupted with a sigh, "You'll need Kundalini to use your active skills. And for Kundalini, you'll need chakra centers that will purify and convert the divine Shakti absorbed from the surroundings, into your internal energy. You're putting the cart before the bullocks."

"Can't I get Kundalini in a different way? What about Prana? I have enough of it. Can't I use skills by consuming it?" I said looking at my status which mentioned Prana having 10 stat points.

"You surely want to die!! Don't use your Prana recklessly! Never!!" Panna got agitated, "You'll die if it depletes to zero!!!!"

"What if I keep just enough of it? Teach me how to convert Prana to Kundalini." I kept persuading her.

"Fine, I know you're stubborn. My sap on your left hand will take care of it. Remember to only use skills with your left hand while you're using Prana. I'll work as an intermediary who will manage the conversion. I'll stop the skill forcefully after your Prana reaches 1. Give me your permission." Panna seemed angry.

"Yes, I allow you to take care of the mechanism that you described." I said getting motivated.

"Wood Flesh!" I said out loud as the skin on my left hand turned dark, wrinkly and ugly. I lost all sensations from it and felt like someone had shoved a cricket bat up my shoulder joints. It was inflexible and lifeless. Without wasting my precious time, I started hacking away at the base of the groove. As I succeeded to make a proper hole because of the soft earth, that had been conditioned with the water of the falls over hundreds of years, I used my Bonk! skill to make it deeper.

"Don't use this skill. It takes away quite the amount of Prana. Wood Flesh requires only a little of it to maintain so use only that."

No shortcuts then, I muttered and continued scraping away at the soil from the mountain. I kept hoping to only find the sediments brought down by the waterfall and not hardy granite.

"How far still?" I asked like a little child waiting for a long journey to end. The sun had set two or three hours ago and I heard the distant echoes of a bell ringing back at the Ashrama.

P: "Only a couple of meters. I don't think we can continue any more today. It was foolish of us now that I think about it. We should have gained some Shakti first from the dorm and then come here. But... Whatever. The grass is always greener on the other side. You might have taken two days just to understand how to take Shakti into our body. We'll never know. Let's have dinner and return here. Prana is replenished by taking in life energies from other entities. The fruits here must be teeming with Prana. Hopefully we can recover whatever we have lost fast."

The journey back to the Dining Hall was excruciating. Three hours took away 9 points of my Prana leaving me with only 1. You could say I'm a zombie right now.

"You knew what you were getting into." Panna said with a hint of affection and worry in her voice. "But I loved seeing your determination today. Made me glad being bounded to you."

She's so good with words, I thought, while melting from inside because of her wholesomeness.

"I'll work hard for us, so keep supporting me." I whimpered, soliciting a laugh from her.

"That didn't come out as cool as you wanted it to be." her voice appeared, amused.

"I know, no need to say it aloud..." I said suppressing an embarrassed smile.

I had never felt so famished before. Even Saiyan was surprised as he was the only one who sat both times back at Gurukul to eat with me, and saw me how I often struggled to complete whatever food it was. I had never eaten such juicy fruits before. A single bite from the Apple left my hand covered in juices. I felt a bit guilty eating the mangoes but Panna didn't seem to mind much. The litchees were my favourite. The ones I often had back home had big seeds and little flesh but these were majestic. Nothing came close. I took a glance at my green status screen to see that my Prana was now around 7, recovering two hours worth of manual labor. Raising my hand, I asked for some more litchees as people around me snickered, subconsciously labelling me as a glutton. The boys in the hall were quite agitated, I felt after calming down a little. They kept glancing towards the side where the ladies were sitting.

I found my mind full of thoughts about breaking rocks. You got no time for ladies when you have mining work to do, I guess.

"Did you guys already create your Chakra centers?" I asked Saiyan, wondering what kind of extra training they were doing. Everybody has their own path to follow. Right now my top priorities were finding the hidden Rekha, and learning Charm Creation.

S: "Naah, usually it takes four days. But the seven of us might be able to create one tomorrow. Please try to create one as soon as you can. I think something crazy is going to happen at the Rakshak Vrata ritual. This time both the sixth and seventh graders will be coming to protect us. I'm also getting a weird gut feeling. Something is happening in a place hidden from us. The Asuras might be plotting something. Atleast learn the recovery skill before the ritual as an insurance." Saiyan replied, clearly worried.

We waited for our turn to leave the Hall. Anik and Dweep came up to me asking where I was all this time. They left in a hurry asking me to come to our room if I still haven't found a place.

As I snuck away to my mining spot again, I wondered how awesome it would be to create a Chakra point by tonight.

"I think it will be possible with my help." Panna confirmed my wish. But it will be painful. The feeling of having raw unhindered Shakti rushing into your body will be excruciating, but you'll need to grit your teeth and endure. When I grew my first leaf and felt the Shakti in this world, I also felt like dying but somehow managed to endure. You'll also be able to, so trust yourself." She must have also gone through her own struggles even before she met me.

I again started breaking down the earth of the groove, creating a small cave inside, using up only two points of my Prana. I realised mid way that whatever skills, whatever knowledge I had currently all came from Panna. Without her, right now, I was nothing. She's been working so hard for me unconditionally and without any complaints.

"Thank you..." I whispered under my breath.

Panna stayed quite sending a complex set of emotions through our mental bond. The emotions rolled throughout my body giving me an intense goosebump over my spine and brought tears to my eyes. Were they tears of happiness?

This time I worked for four hours consuming only two of my Prana points. Maybe there is some conversion factor, that keeps getting higher the more you use it.

The cave was vibrating with so much energy that for a moment I hesitated. It was as if I was preparing to touch an electrical wire all the while knowing that it could lead me to my death. Sweat broke out over my body.

"Trust me." Panna whispered trying to console me, "You know that you need to do this. I'll keep you safe."