Yun didn’t know where to start, but he knew the basics. He needed food. Lots of meat that could sate his hunger in case he needed to use his skills. He also needed shelter. He turned his senses outwards, and looked around for signs of life.

“No sign of any animals here. There are none within a hundred to two hundred yards.” He saw a hill in the distance. “Perfect to set up a camp with spikes to keep away the bears and boars.” He had enough food for regular work, such as cutting down trees with his axe, but not enough to power the skills to make it easier to cut them down. Unless he found a way to be in complete control of his abilities, his family would be in danger from only his presence.

He still remembered what he did to that bear.

Military camps were usually simple in nature. Tents, guards, patrols, and hard to approach terrain. The hill looked perfect from his vantage point as he could see anyone who approached the hill, and he could fortify it.

The first thing he did was verify the location of water in relation to the hill.

“Better scout it out first.” When he got to the hill, he was surprised to find it had the first thing he needed. A small creek had burst from halfway up the hill, out of a small pile of stones.  It ran down the side, and seemed to follow the contours of the land to flow towards a river in the distance. “The hill must have a water vein in it. Probably a ledge of stone and it followed the vein to run uphill. Must be an underground river nearby too. Better get to work.”

Yun laid the pack on a stone, and took his axe with him. He needed a large amount of poles, but there was no bamboo in this maple forest. It bothered him to his core to cut down hardwood trees, as he was from the twenty first century of Earth. Clear cutters had decimated huge stands of hardwood trees and only replanted quick growing spruce or pine. The result was an unbalanced forest where a mixed one used to exist. That allowed pests unique to spruce and pine trees get more firmly established. The results of human greed could be seen almost everywhere.

“Looks like I’m sleeping in a tree tonight.” He groaned as he carried the last few poles onto the hill. “I spent all day collecting the poles and now have no time to set up the spike walls.” He took his pack, and with a rope through the straps, he climbed a large tree. He pulled up his pack, tied some rope between a couple of thick branches, laid out some split bamboo he carried in a roll on his pack, and tied them to the ropes. This would allow him somewhere to curl up and fall asleep.

Yun dug around in his pack for some dried meat rations, and chewed it while he looked outwards. Then he closed his eyes and smiled sadly.

“I miss my new family. Even you, you imp.” He spoke softly as an image of those impish eyes sprung into his mind. Then an image of his sister from Earth came to his mind. “I miss you too, sis. Maybe the gods of this world will bring you here one day, and we can meet again.”

Yun closed his eyes again, and turned his senses outward. That is when he felt a sense of shock. The entire forest shimmered with white and red energy.

“Is this Qi or spiritual energy I read about in those online novels? And why couldn’t I see it during the day?”

No matter how clear his mind was, or how much he tried to draw in the energy he saw, it would not move, or coalesce inside his body. When he was finally too tired to keep trying, his mind only barely registered that there was a rich vein of energy that ran from near the top of the top of the hill, and ran down the side.

The very place that the small creek ran out of the hill.

“It's taken me two days to get this camp ready! Ugh!” He rolled his eyes as his own scent slipped into his nose. “Just another hour or two, then I can bathe!” He just finished the trench around the top of the hill, had pounded several posts into the ground at waist height, and tied rails to those posts. Most in this country would not recognize this method, and neither would some historians.

There were wooden palisades that the Vikings used to use, while others pounded wooden poles into the ground at an outward angle, then they sharpened them. This prevented a cavalry charge, but that wasn’t his goal.

He also tied a rail at knee height, and put these kinds of rails all along the trench. Since the trench was on a hill, there was a dirt wall behind the knee height and waist height rails. He pushed sharpened stakes into the dirt wall, and tied them to the knee height rail. Then he pounded poles into the dirt wall, tied them to the rail, and sharpened their ends.

“Ugh, I easily underestimated this work!” The rails, and spikes were now in place. Wolves could not push into the camp under the spikes, and bears could not get through the multitude of spears that now faced outwards. To get in and out without harm, Yun made one spike wall movable on one end, while the spears were not driven into the ground at the entrance. They butted against some split rails so they wouldn’t get pushed in when the gate was closed. Yun also had two tree branches that were about four to five inches thick, with a ‘Y’ joint at one end. He reinforced this with some leather cord, and made sure it wouldn’t split in case of an attack by a large wild animal.

“Bath first! Tent later.” At least that is what he knew his sister would tell him if he was at home right now.

“I never thought a bath could feel so good!” Yun said softly, though he wanted to shout out loud as the water poured over him. Using a pail, he poured water over his head, a short distance away from the creek, then returned with another full bucket. He then took a small sachet his mother had given him, pulled out the husk of a soap nut, and began to clean himself with it.

“Back home, I would never have tried this, but they’ve used these for thousands of years. Better for the world around us then the chemicals I grew up with. I wonder how they used to make soap back in the olden days.” Unfortunately for Yun, he didn’t come to this world with a cheat item, a system, a spiritual space, or a pocket dimension. His limited knowledge of technology wouldn’t help him, and his modest bit of knowledge on ancient cultures only helped him to assimilate to this one more easily.

“Maybe I should have kept a journal, or studied more.” He finally poured the second bucket over his head and sighed happily. Each time he did this, he felt more invigorated, and more energetic. It was as though the last few days of hard work had not happened. His sore and aching muscles stopped their complaints, and his fatigue almost fully vanished.

Then he frowned slightly.

“The water is not cold. I don’t think I have ever felt like this after a bath.”

Yun thought for several minutes, more than a bit confused about this situation. He couldn’t figure out why he would feel this way as he was sure he didn’t have a skill to heal himself.

He closed his eyes, and focused his senses outwards. He didn’t want to be taken unaware, for which he was glad he did. Just down the hill, two large bears quickly approached his camp, and they didn’t appear friendly.

“Really?” He yelled. “Ah fuck!” This was first time he swore since he arrived here. His sword, his spear, and his axe were all back within the camp.

He had no choice but to stand his ground and fight two enormous bears that looked far larger than any he’s ever seen.

“Big fucking grizzlies! What have you two been eating! Or should I ask who!” He yelled in anger. Just before the bears arrived, Yun calmed himself, and took a battle stance. He had no way to get back into the camp to retrieve his weapons, but there was one thing he knew.

“The hand can be a blade if covered by the spirit!” He drew his focus to his hand, and his legs. Just before the bears rose up to try and swat him to death, he activated his skills. Ghost Steps followed by his father’s skill, Bloody Edge.

He sidestepped passed the first bear, and drew his right hand along the bear’s ribs as he passed. The bear seemed to scream like an animal whose leg just had a trap snap closed on it. Yun could not focus on it. If the blood splatter was any sign, most of the bear’s organs should be shredded.

Now that he was within range of the second bear, he called upon a deep pool of reserve energy that he didn’t know he had, zipped passed the bear at three times a human’s top speed, while his left hand carved a deep chasm through the bear’s chest, heart and lungs.

That was when Yun blacked out.