Sold into Marriage

Chapter 8: Blocking

Chapter 8: Blocking
Copyright 2021 by John Wells. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday started the same as yesterday. I was the first to breakfast another cereal day. Jane handed me the mug she had just fixed for herself and made a second one. She told me she placed my dyed shoes in my closet yesterday. Since I did not notice them, I assume she put them away properly. We talked about the opera, in its language. She had seen it in Sydney last year.

Once everyone was present, Dan stated Alex would be my teacher today. Since Jane and I were already speaking in Italian, everyone continued using it. The breakfast and chatter went by fast, so I was back in my room doing math with a second cup of coffee. With the spell helping, understanding was significantly better than yesterday. I had Debbie use both new languages in our conversation.

I could easily spend hours arguing against wasting my time with math that I was learning. Debbie could do it for me faster than I will ever be able to. She will end up with the right answer. I understand that many mechanical problems make use of algebra, so dealing with my vehicles I might need them. But, I do not need to solve them. Yes, I need to read formulas and know I can rearrange them to solve for any variable. But, only those interested in advance math need to understand how that arrangement is done. The rest of us can make use of those experts, existing specialized calculators on the Internet, or a smart AI like Debbie to generate our answer.

Lunch was meatball subs. After lunch, I had Debbie teach me the language Jane used to order our takeout food in Chinese. I let her know I already knew French and figured she should randomly pick a language of the day we will use to communicate out of those that we have used this go around. We also needed to teach me the spellings for the words I already knew. This was a school subject that made sense to me. Being able to communicate with others in their native language seemed very useful for my future.

At two, Alex knocked on the door. Before starting, he asked what day and time it would be convenient for him to clean. We settled on Sunday after lunch. Which was the day and time he had been doing.

Next, he stated our topic for the day: blocking my mind from others. He described how to do it, including how to let one person in while keeping all others out. Finally, he stated how to sleep with the protection in place.

The outer surface of the brain actually has cells that hold energy, hiding the internal energy transfers. The brain stem that keeps the heart beating can also maintain that energy to shield the brain automatically. To break through the shield, you had to drain its energy. Of course, the opponent will re-energize the shield. But, once you break through, you could create a link behind the shield, so rebuilding has no effect. Then, the fight becomes more difficult. Breaking the link is easier the closer to the surface it is. In order to break it, control it because we must break it on the side that made it.

After he told me to start, he hammered on my mental shield until it broke. We repeated this, for days it seemed, before I kept him out for a moment. I was so exhausted I could not speak and could not draw enough power to fix it. Alex laughed, as he told me the secret method of winning, while he rebuilt my energy. Always pull the power from the world, not your body. You can detect the attack and, since the body does not have enough energy to fight it, you must reinforce it intentionally. We left for dinner as soon as I could stand.

I automated the process so every breath also grabbed power to my capacity. By automating, it means making the process automatic without thought. Similar to muscle memory, there is no longer any thought required to go through the motions. Using magic and a few seconds of thought about what needs to be performed, you can automate any task. I next added automation of grabbing more power to reinforce my shield tied to my breath. Followed by automating the power to my brain and muscles for speed learning and I assumed speed reactions or strength to be tested later.