Dao 3 Chapter 9 (Patreon)

“You’ve labeled them all?” Tami asked, surprised.

“I share the booklet with my dao companions. All of our dao are labeled so we can share.” Dar replied.

Her surprise continued as she flipped through the pages. “How many dao companions do you have?”

Cherry, Sasha and Mika were his dao companions, but he realized technically he could toss in the two maids. “Five.” He said, hoping to curb her surprise.

“Neko will be six.” The cat girl said proudly.

“You will be.” Dar promised. He had no issue bringing her into his harem; it was only a matter of timing. When she’d been hurt by the ettercaps, he had realized just how tightly she fit in with his family. How much she filled a space that they needed. But with everything happening, he hadn’t been able to give her the attention she deserved.

Neko gave him a toothy smile, showing off her sharp canines, while she pushed back her shoulders and thrust her chest out.

He rubbed the top of her head and smiled as he gave her back her typical catchphrase. “Neko is the best.”

She curled into him, pressing her head against his chest and rubbing her cheeks against him.

Tami sat opposite of them, an eyebrow raised at the display.

But Dar didn’t care what she thought. He just shrugged it off and flipped through Tami’s own book of dao with his free hand while he continued to pet Neko.

He couldn’t help but notice as Tami carefully turned the pages of his own book, marveling at the dao characters, and using a hand to smooth out each page reverently.

It must have been a bigger deal than he realized to share it with her like this.

Her own book was filled with neat, crisp lines of her own dao characters. They weren’t labeled, so Dar was working on instinct, but he wasn’t looking for something specific.

Instead, he was searching for a feeling. He was learning to trust his instincts. His dao path seemed to beckon him to grow his daos of dim and quiet into a dao of shadows, and to create that greater dao he needed one more. What that was, he wasn’t sure.

But he let the gnawing hunger for the dao of shadows guide him as he flipped through Tami’s book. He neared the end of the book, nearly giving up, when he found it.

The dao character leapt off the page, and he felt like it was within his grasp almost immediately. “This one. What is it?” He turned the book around for her to see.

“Lesser dao of concealment. My family often functions as scouts, given our speed. That dao pushes awareness away from us, sort of like a camouflage, only far more subtle.”

“This one then.” Dar didn’t hesitate. The way his own dao path was drawn to it was enough; he just wanted to know what he was dealing with.

“Sure. Uh. This one.” She held up his own book, pointing at the dao of hard.

“Easy enough. If you bring ink, I’ll just write it in the back of your book.” Dar offered.

Tami bolted out the door in an instant. She was unnaturally quick in her movement, and he could feel the static of mana lingering in the air. She’d said her family was fast, but after seeing it, Dar wanted that one too. “Here.” She thrust a quill and ink pot into his hands.

Dar quickly etched his dao character on the first empty page of her book. “Would you like me to label it?”

“No. It will be the only one I don’t know.” Tami said quickly, watching him with bated breath before taking the quill and putting her own dao character into his book.

“That speed you just displayed. Any interest in adding that to my book as well? Maybe another has caught your eye?”

She paused. Apparently that dao was worth far more to her. “Speed is a greater dao. I can offer you acceleration, one of the lesser dao that makes it up? For…” Biting her lip, she flipped through his dao book again. “This one?”

“Dim for acceleration. I accept.” He gestured towards the quill still in her hand, and she jotted down another character in his book before handing the quill to him.

Dar could give her one of the many fruits to give her dim, but she had nothing of equal value to trade him. Even if she gave him her entire book, his secret and his fruits were more valuable.

“Anything else catching your fancy?” He asked, hoping to trade more for what would make up speed.

Tami bit her lip as she flipped back through his book. Then she put it down with a sigh. “No. I think those two will give me enough to work on for quite some time.” Apparently, she was going to hold that speed dao close to her chest.

But Dar didn’t blame her. He remembered fighting the mantis devils. Speed could be quite dangerous, but it was quickly made less valuable the second others also had it. It made sense she’d protect it.

Giving her his best smile, he didn’t mention that it wouldn’t take him too long to be able to master the two she’d given him.

“Thank you for this. But I think it is best we turn in for the night.” Dar wanted time to pour over his own dao.

“Will you be okay with just the one room?”

It had a couch and a bed, though Dar suspected the girls would pile in with him. “It’s fine.” He knew for sure that Neko was going to crawl in bed with him, regardless.

Giving a nod, Tami clutched her book to her chest and left.

Neko continued to press into Dar, nuzzling for more scratches. Dar obliged her. “Amber, Marcie, I am going to work on this dao and try to form the greater dao of shadows. No disturbances, understood?”

“Yes, milord.” Amber’s face was serious.

“Neko, I need to meditate. You have your own dao to work on, don’t you?”

She sighed, pushing her head in one more time before sitting up straight. “Yes. Why can’t we cuddle while we meditate?”

“Because…” He didn’t have a great excuse. “Another time we’ll try. Right now, we both need to focus.”

Neko bobbed her head in understanding and crawled onto the foot of his bed, padding around for a moment before curling up in a little ball.

Dar watched her for a moment. It seemed far more like sleeping than meditating, but he’d leave her alone.

Taking the book into his inner world, he fell into a trance and found himself next to the little dao tree with the book.

Flipping open the book to Tami’s dao of concealment, Dar focused on the character and let his channels fill with mana. He slowly inscribed the dao character into himself.

He could feel Cherry’s presence hover over him, but she recognized what he was doing and stepped away.

As he cycled his mana for the first time in the shape of the complete dao character, his little dao tree resonated with him.

It was a hair-raising sensation. He felt the vibrations pulsing through him as the mana cycling within him formed the dao character. The vibrations sped up as he increased the speed of the cycles.

It was almost like the dao character was trying to burn itself into him.

Reinforcing himself, Dar grit his teeth, knowing what it would take and ready for the pain. But this time, it never came. Instead, cold certainty trickled through him as he rapidly comprehended the dao character.

It became clear, yet he knew it was concealment. It should have hidden itself more. He couldn’t explain why the character blazed to life in his mind and body, and then, with a snapping feeling, settled into place.

His eyes shot open, and he took a deep breath.

“Welcome back.” Cherry hung upside down from a tree branch. Pink blossoms lingered on that branch.

That branch was the cutting of her former tree. They’d grafted it onto the little dao tree. Given that one part of it was dark, with nearly black leaves and another part was pink cherry blossoms in full bloom among green leaves, the little dao tree was a strange sight.

“How long was I out?” Dar braced for the news that he’d just missed several days.

“Half an hour?” Cherry tapped her lips, thinking.

His mouth dropped open. “What?”

He’d managed to learn that dao in half an hour? The last two times he’d done the process, it had taken at least a day. Sasha was going to be so jealous.

He pondered over what was different. Had his strength made it easier? Was he just better at the process?

He played back through how it had felt and remembered that it had almost felt like the little dao tree had helped him.

“Did you feel anything strange about the tree?”

“It’s always pulsing out mana, but I did feel a particularly strong one when you were working on cultivating your dao.” She swung down from the tree, a vine supporting her, so she landed effortlessly on her feet.

He couldn’t help but let his eyes linger over her petite form. Her green hair was cascading down her back and around her bountiful chest. And she was wearing a diaphanous white dress that was dyed pink along the bottom. Against the backdrop of the tree, she looked even more beautiful.

When he met her eyes and saw the smirk in them, he realized he’d been staring.

“So, I just learned the dao of concealment in that time.” He flexed his hands, feeling the dao within him, ready for use. “But that was many times faster than before. I think it is because the dao is related to the power the little dao tree absorbed from the Mo?”

Cherry’s eyebrows nearly went up into her hairline. “Do you mean you could rapidly ascend to the full dao that the colossal spider had?”

“No, well, at least not right now.” Dar shook his head. “The dao characters didn’t come naturally to me. I had to see it first, but then my meditation exercise just now went extremely smoothly.”

Cherry still seemed excited. “If that’s the case, can you touch upon the greater dao associated with those lesser dao that you have?” She leaned over Dar, her plump pink lips like cherry blossoms in full bloom.

He cupped the back of her head and kissed her lips, much to Cherry’s delight. She squealed and sat in his lap, throwing her arms around his shoulders and pulling him closer.

He’d spent many nights in his inner world making love to Cherry. Her fixation on him as her tree often led to her consuming his time in the most pleasurable of ways.

While she might not claim as much of his waking time as the other women, she had fully lapped all the others when it came to time spent intimate with each other.

She wiggled in his lap, and Dar hated having to hold her still. As much as Dar would happily let himself drown once again in his slightly crazed dryad’s attention, he needed to focus on progressing.

It was with great effort that he pulled away from Cherry, who was running her tongue along her pink lips as her eyes bore hungrily into his own. “I think you were right; the greater dao is within reach.”

“Yes, I think the tree has much more to share with us.” The cleft of her ass pushed back against Dar’s now erect cock. “Maybe we should see what dao you can share?”

“After.” Dao pried the dryad off of him. He knew if they got started, he’d get nothing further done that night.

Cherry finally caved, bouncing on the soft loamy soil under the dao tree before a branch came down and collected the dryad. She disappeared back into the bough of the little dao tree.

Dar shook his head.

Cherry had always had a deep attachment to Dar, begun in a past life when they’d been together. But it had grown far stronger in recent days. He was concerned that he soon wouldn’t be able to give her all the attention she was clearly craving.

But for the moment, she seemed happy, so he focused on cultivating his own dao path.

Sinking once again into meditation under the dao tree, he felt himself rooted in place as the three dao circled in his mind. Dim, Quiet and Concealment. The three dao characters floated in his consciousness; he let them spin and circle each other, trying to find the right way they fit together.

But the little dao tree apparently was impatient. The connection between Dar and the tree blazed to life. He felt it just behind his navel. The tree began burning away the three characters, blurring them and reshaping them into something greater. Dar tried to remain still, not wanting to disturb the tree, which was clearly trying to help him.

Shadow. He felt it settle in, awed at the ease.

As a greater dao, it would be able to do far more than dim. Not only would he be able to make something dim by touching it, but he’d be able to pull and tug on shadows themselves, reshaping them around himself and even others. It would be far easier to protect those he cared about and attack more carefully.

With the dao character clear in his mind, he went to work, carving it into his body. He repeated cycle after cycle of the complex greater dao character in his mind as he had with the lesser dao.

It spun itself to life, etching itself into his very being as it flowed through him. Once again, Dar braced for pain that never came. When he’d forced himself to learn granite or combustion, he’d felt his body nearly ripping apart. But again, the pain never came.

This time, it was a cool, dark sensation that he lost himself in as his mind drifted into the very shadows, pulling him out of himself and along for a merry ride.

In darkness he found his home. It melded into him as dao characters lit up on his enchanted body, harmonizing with yet another dao and making Dar once again feel as if he was growing in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

Power came to him as he became one with the shadows. It was not the same overwhelming might that he’d felt with his dao of granite. This one held a more subtle power. Almost omnipresent, or at least the potential to be present, was always there, but it also felt fleeting.

Dar could already feel the complexity of taming the shadows. They were both fluid and static. Impossible to force.

He felt the shadows surrounding his current body. He knew instinctively that they would welcome him, envelop him, and consume him.

Only then did Dar realize the danger he was in.

He couldn’t feel his body anymore as he drifted away, sliding through a world of shadows.

He flitted from one street of Bellhaven to the next as people moved about. Each of their shadows created strange bridges between one alley and the next.

No one seemed to notice him. He was a part of the shadows, being drawn along them, slipping away through the streets like water through a sieve. Dar tried to slow himself down, but his movements continued. He was swept along the path of shadows, being pulled further and further from his body.

Dar began to worry. He needed to ground himself soon, draw himself back, and not let the shadows take him. He didn’t know what would happen if he drifted much further away from his body.

He pulled his attention back to his physical body, trying to reground himself and find his physical form.

He slowly pictured the feeling of his rear pressed into the ground, but that faded quickly as he was once again absorbed back into the shadows. So he chose a stronger feeling, focusing on where the little dao tree’s bark where a piece dug into his shoulder blade. He managed to lean back, causing a spike of pain in his shoulder and grounding himself in that pain. He was able to pull himself back along the shadows, back towards his body.

Inch by inch, Dar remembered his body and where it was, drawing himself back to the world.

When he felt the crisp air of his inner world once again, he drew a deep breath and his eyes shot open. The light felt brighter than before, but he embraced it, using it to help banish him from the shadows.

“Two hours.” Cherry said, sitting down close to him, peering at his face. “You did it.”

“Two hours,” he repeated, breathless from the exercise. It had felt like only moments. “Shadows are dangerous.”

“Yes, they are.” Her face was concerned. “I could feel you slipping away. Much like when I travel between trees.”

Her ability to flit between tries had always mystified Dar. Now he understood it better. “What is that ability?”

“Something I learned to do with many, many years of practice.” Cherry’s smile was victorious. “While I might not be the most powerful spirit I’ve met, I have honed myself on my specialty over a thousand years.”

Dar smiled at the not-so-subtle reminder that gaining power was only part of the equation. Learning to use it effectively was another.

“Can you teach me?” Dar asked. “I want to use this, but I don’t want to get lost in the shadows.”

“Of course, but it is very difficult. I cease to exist for the moment of transfer, turning myself into a plant. Then I let my control of plants carry me through the world and reform myself from a plant leagues away. If you wish to work on it, the first thing you must learn to do is turn some part of you into your greater dao. So instead of turning a fist to mimic granite, you’d become granite. Or have a part of you become a shadow.”

Dar was following, but he had to admit, it sounded dangerous.

While it was simple to describe becoming one with dao, the idea of converting himself to an element and reverting back was terrifying. And it would be difficult enough for a single piece of his body. He didn’t want to think about the effort to do it for his full body.

Fear flickered through him. What would happen if his brain stopped as it became granite and his consciousness ground to a halt? Would he be able to still function?

His mind began to swirl. What about his blood or his tissue? It would cut off the circulation if even just a hand became something else. How was he supposed to practice and learn it without somehow destroying his body in the process?

Cherry kicked to her feet. “I see you understand the difficulty. But that can wait for a bit. For now, I’ll help you take your mind off of it and let you focus on your body.” She crowded over Dar, grabbing his hand and pulling it up to cup her chest, moaning at his touch.

AN - Hi ho, hi ho, its off to write I go, I go. I know the ramp up of a new book can be a little slow. I hope you are all well and I'm just going to keep on hammering the keyboard.