Chapter 13: An Interlude

Michael was back at it again, stretching into unbelievable positions, shifting his weight around trying to achieve control over his body for any situation. He continued this for many hours, his mind and body in complete synergy. He would occasionally become distracted when a beat of a good song dropped, but otherwise his concentration was superb.

Michael sighed heavily and looked outwards, the small animals scurried around the flora. The beautiful landscape brought Michael's mind out of its hyperdriven state. It had been three days and he had begun to feel a hunger, it was not for the delicious food from his past life, but for an ethereal energy vital to living things.

He lifted his body from the cushioned flooring and willed his vital energy reserves to nurture his sore muscles. Although the Mother Box could heal him, it did not achieve the effect of the Runic Blood Pattern in increasing his strength.

Michael walked out of his room and walked towards the garden. His father had returned yesterday with the corpse of a Stone Mount Bear and he had already refined it and separated its useful body parts. A large vat full of its blood was placed in the patio area, just before the overgrown garden. The vat was, just like the crystal bowl, an artifact that could maintain the vitality stored in the blood for a long period of time.

Walking through the corridors, Michael didn't forget to bring Fernando along.

"How is it going?"

Michael looked at Fernando inquisitively, he looked to be in a good mood, a sign of a productive training session.

"After following the little diagrams that you drew on the booklet, I feel that I can control my strength a lot better. I have been able to handle the eggs in the cooler without any of them breaking so far. I think I'm ready to increase my strength again."

Fernando looked excited at his rapid progress.

"Woah there cowboy, I think you're getting ahead of yourself there. That crazy increase in your strength is not replicable. It was because the Runic Blood Pattern had merged with you that you gained so much strength out of the blue. It revitalized and changed your body's composition somewhat resulting in the initial growth, it will also allow your body to supersede your previous limits, but it will only get you so far. Your body can only grow so much in a given amount of time. You would have to empty your possible vital energy reserves, refill them, and then repeat the process over and over to increase your strength."

Fernando looked a little down as he was told the cold harsh truth. Although everything so far seemed like it came out of a fairy tale he was in the real world. Gaining strength wasn't easy, nor was it fast.

"Alright, alright. Let's fill up, we'll be increasing our training regiment and you'll be with me for the coming days. Don't worry about the blood, my father said that he'd be filling this vat up every two days."

Michael was appeased, Arthur was fulfilling his duties pretty well. He would have to return the favor. Being in debt left a bad taste in Michael's mouth.

"Look, place your hand in, use the meditation technique and connect to the pattern. You'll sense a desire to consume this blood, just let the pattern do its thing and that's it, pretty easy right?"

Michael and Fernando sunk their hands into the murky blood. They both winced a bit, unaccustomed to this dense, sticky liquid. A suction force appeared in both of their palms as the blood sank to three quarters of its initial volume.

They lifted their hands and only a slight residue was left at their wrists. Michael rubbed it off on his pant leg, and Fernando followed.

'Good, it seems he doesn't have the complete mentality of a leader. There is still hope.'

Michael walked towards his room. Compared to his humble beginnings there were many more weights. Carved dumbbells with plates the size of millstones piled at the left most corner. This room was initially very large and even with all those weights it still wasn't cluttered.

The next few days were eventful. Since they now both ran off their vital storage, they did not have to consume food or rest nearly as much as before. As long as they had a constant supply of vital energy they ran like machines. Thanks to Arthur's recent refilling of the vat, the day that they lacked vitality was not anytime soon. Their bodies would fall to the breaking point and then they would be refreshed and healed in a matter of minutes.

Michael was quite surprised the whole time. He had been dropping nuggets of advice here and there while separating their positions. He would talk to him as a small brother of sorts, making sure he didn't get the wrong idea that they were in an equal position. Michael began to like the fellow's resilience and it would be a pity if he began to show rebellious traits.

About another week later.

"Fernando, how do you feel?"

Michael looked towards Fernando's panting body. He was in a bad position, his ribs on his left side were mostly broken. The pigment of the skin had become a sickly red and he most likely had internal bleeding.

"Yeah, just give me a second."

Fernando spoke through shallow breaths. His eyes remained amiable the entire time and it seemed that this was a common occurrence. Due to their healing factor, they had been sparring all out. Their every attack held a resounding force, steel would easily bend. In fact it was surprising that a human could survive those strikes, but they could, the beating they could take was at a disgusting level.

Michael was not unscathed either. His jaw was out of place, bruises painted his face, and his left arm hung limply at his side. Michael readjusted his body and sat in a lotus position by Fernando. He had grown accustomed to this seating method, the discomfort had already disappeared.

"What do you think? Are you ready to go out? My father said that he can let us out to hunt in a couple of days. We can just pass by your home on the way to the Evergreen Mountain. He said that the Academy has already taken care of the Rank 2 Elven Matriarch so it'd be pretty safe for people at our level to wander a bit."

"Yeah, let's pass by my home. Just you wait, I know you said the food here is gross, but back at my town we have a spring berry juice that is to die for. It's sweet and slightly tart, trust me its delicious."

After the conversation, they both seemed to be in high spirits, their moves became more and more lethal as they didn't know how to properly manage their emotions. Thoughts about their trip drove them to workout even harder.

The night before they were scheduled to leave, Arthur came to their training room and paid them a visit. He had forged some slim gauntlets made from the skin and bones of a Stone Mount Bear, a beast native to the Wild Stone Mountain Range. Although they could just hunt here, the lack of diverse wildlife made the adventure incomplete. His father was the one to actually bring up the idea, he wanted his son to experience a bit of the world.

The other items he handed them were two leather pouches that could hold about a liter each. This blood was a bit different as it was from a Rank 1 Magus level creature he had hunted during one of his outings. With this amount, they would be able to refill their reserves twice as the blood was more potent. Blood like this was much more expensive as well, the costs were really not ideal as it would take about 3 entire Rankless creatures to equal this sum of blood in their hands. It was simply convenient, and well they had Rank 1 Magus as a close ally, they could really act with such wealth.

After explaining the uses for the items, Arthur handed them a bag of coins and walked towards his room. Michael and Fernando went to theirs respectively and slept a bit, the next few days were going to be exciting.