Shovels In Spades

The family of three and Rose's close friend Vanessa had played games from noon late until the evening when Rose had gotten tired and shooed everyone out so she could sleep.

Just before Daz had left, however, she had told him something very important.

"Tomorrow."

"What?"

"That's when I'll level up Full Boost, my esper power. I can feel it. I've been trying my best to hold back the awakening for months now, but I can't stop it anymore."

"... Your esper power, huh?... Does Maddy know?"

"No. I considered having her help me with her healing powers, but I think her heart would break if she saw me screaming and clawing at my bed like a madwoman."

"Fair. I trust you made other arrangements? I don't have a single ability to heal, not unless you want me to keep Rimmy's main body within 30-feet of you, though I suspect you'll need more direct assistance since you don't have a bloodline, right?"

"Yeah. I found someone else willing to help."

"Good. I'm kinda scared, in all honesty."

"You, the big bad king of New Earth, the recently emotionless son of a world-leading esper and the heir to said esper family, is scared? I'm sure I'll be fine."

"I'm not scared of you dying, I'm scared of you getting smarter. You're already too big for your boots as it is."

"Hey, don't pet me like I'm a dog! Shoo, shoo!"

"Haha, good night, Rose. I love you."

"I love you too, you idiot..."

Daz couldn't help grinning upon recalling the conversation as he sat in his workshop. He had told Madison to go to sleep without him since he would be busy tonight.

His goal in staying up and not visiting Cecil in the dreamscape today was to hopefully learn how to manipulate his internal energy.

Daz would be lying if he said that he also wasn't hopeful of gaining an Ember since anything of permanence would help him greatly against the Truthians up in New York, but for now, internal energy and how to move it was his main goal today since he wanted to help Rose as much as possible during her awakening.

"Thing is, how do I even sense my internal energy?" Daz asked himself.

He glanced up at the rim of his halo only to see a pair of feet dangling over it. "Reika, any ideas?"

'Huh? No. We did not have esper ability on our homeworld. The concept is as new to us as it is to you,' Reika answered lazily.

"Hmm..." Daz tapped the skull on Hamson that represented Mofolo, summoning the soul.

'Do you need something from me, Child of Man?' Mofolo asked in a respectful tone as he appeared like a genie out of a lamp.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about internal energy or esper powers. I need to learn how to manipulate internal energy as soon as possible," Daz explained.

Mofolo held his chin as his large astral body floated there in the middle of the reaper's workshop. 'I am unsure, in truth. I have thought over this matter for some time since learning of these mysterious powers, Child of Man, however, everything that I have learned from following you thus far would suggest that my empire fell long before the Children of Men gained such strange abilities. My apologies. I wish I could be of more help.'

Daz shook his head. "I can't fault you for not knowing something that you had no reason to know."

Reika yawned despite being a soul as she readjusted herself on Daz's halo. 'Didn't you feel a lot of that 'internal energy' when your father helped you during the auction? Maybe you should remember how that felt and go from there.'

Daz frowned. "That's... that's actually a pretty good idea, though I really don't like thinking about him even if to better myself."

'Then stop complaining and get to meditating or whatever, Insolent Fool,' Reika said with plenty of cheek.

"... Have you been hanging around Rose or something? To be spoken to like that by someone who I've promised to help bring back to life... I guess gratitude is dead as well, huh?" That flustered the little demon princess, resulting in a laugh from Daz.

Not long after, he chose to take the soul's advice and he filled his mind with the scene from the auction.

He sat there for at least 30-minutes trying to glean some insight from the memory but Daz was never very creative, so despite how hard he tried, he just couldn't properly mentally recreate the interaction with his father. At least, he couldn't gain anything from what his mind was capable of.

"I have a great memory, so I wonder what's the issue here? Is it my imagination? It's only at times like this that I regret abandoning the Ingenuity stat... It helped a lot with crafting too," Daz sighed.

"Well, it really is a brilliant idea. I can't just give up on it because I'm shit at immersing myself in my own mind. System, can I buy something that'll help me out here?" Daz asked.