The days passed quickly for Volithur, with good food, lots of private time with his wife, and a fair amount of cultivation. Though he felt he’d earned a break from his leveling efforts, there were two facts that forced him to continue his obsessive energy gathering. First, he needed to have some energy reserves when he returned to training. Following his advancement, his soul had been drained of any free energy. Sparring without any energy would be exceedingly unpleasant.

  The second fact proved an annoyance. His daily consumption of body enhancement resources robbed his soul reserves. The pernicious phantom siphoning happened automatically. Volithur dutifully fought against the draw by replenishing his soul for several hours every day.

  Then it was back to training. Volithur received an enthusiastic beat-down from the intermediate skill group as a perverse ‘welcome back’ gesture. As terrible as the experience proved, he afterwards found himself happy to be back. He’d somehow transformed from a soft child into a warrior happy to be clobbered in training.

  Within two weeks, he was no longer losing the spars. His energy reserves hadn’t appreciably risen in that time. His flesh drew a constant stream of energy from his soul and he found himself needing to use his aura to block particularly fierce blows. He overcame the energy issue through sheer physical might.

  Without any conscious effort on his part, Volithur’s body enhancement markedly improved. Strikes hurt a little less. He reacted slightly faster. His muscles generated a bit more force. It was a subtle, across-the-board improvement. He questioned the Marshal about why the resources weren’t used in place of the cold forged method.

  “Because of costs, Ward Harridan. The family might be able to easily afford the purchase of butcher trimmings, but the individuals here cannot afford the energy to make use of them. Everyone besides yourself requires a generous helping of elixirs and time in the cosmic chamber to afford the personal costs of such resources.”

  “But Master Marshal, the cultivation resources are considered garbage on Tian. Couldn’t they give everyone all the tea powder they wanted?”

  The Marshal laughed. “Why would they do that?”

  Volithur blinked, not sure if it was a trick question. “To strengthen the household and the army?”

  “The family sent here are being given a last chance to prove themselves. They are not going to be showered with resources as a reward for being barely competent enough to avoid disinheritance. The resources sent are intended to identify anyone with potential and ambition. As for the army… they don’t want commoners and petty nobles to become powerful enough to challenge the representatives that the lords have stationed here. Anyone who reaches level six is either recruited back to Tian or entrusted with significant power in the household.”

  Soon, Volithur found his afternoons occupied with personal sessions under the Sergeant. They went through numerous line drills, partner drills, and target practice drills in their two hours together. As brutal as the morning sparring could get, the Sergeant managed to make his training harder. Volithur was pushed in body and mind to perform up to the impossible standards set for him, even without needing to expend any cosmic energy or take a single blow.

  When two months had passed since the end of Volithur’s seclusion, the Marshal’s special requisition from the Main Household arrived. His morning meal of fat, washed down with salty and yeasty water, was joined by further unwelcome additions. Bone meal, minced garlic, blood pudding, and green juice. Volithur almost suspected he was being punished through unpalatable foods.

  The bone meal, to all appearances, was powdered animal bones. Its lack of appeal came from its texture and the difficulty it posed to swallowing. The minced garlic was excessively oily and fragrant. The blood pudding almost made him vomit every time he ate it. And the green juice was the most bitter concoction he had ever encountered. It was made from grass, of all things.

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  Most annoyingly, Volithur found his energy reserves exhausted after the first time he consumed the extra resources. He barely held his own in sparring that day, unable to power his aura for even a moment. The Marshal pulled him out of the group class after that, using the time to personally train Volithur once more.

  The Marshal also began supplying elixirs to Volithur. A tea powder elixir was provided every morning with his resource-rich breakfast and cosmic water was provided during his dinner. Volithur cultivated like a madman trying to keep up with the demands of the automatic body enhancement process, but he never managed to get ahead for even a moment.

  Fortunately, his training didn’t demand any expenditure of cosmic energy. The Marshal sparred him at a rapid pace every morning but pulled every strike that landed so that Volithur never had more than slight bruising. The Sergeant didn’t spar him at all, only forced Volithur into ever more precise postures during endless drilling.

  It took two weeks for the special resources to be used up. Volithur wanted to celebrate the fact that his nasty breakfast had been cut in half, but then the Marshal presented a reward to him.

  “Master Aria sent a silver plasma elixir for you,” the Marshal announced. “Cultivate all this morning to build up some energy reserves and then consume it. You have the day off otherwise.”

  Volithur glanced around for the waxed paper that usually held his fat. “I don’t have to eat anything for breakfast?”

  “If you don’t object, we’ll resume fat, yeast, and salt tomorrow.”

  Volithur raced back to the banquet hall to consume a breakfast that wouldn’t turn his stomach. Then he dutifully cultivated in an attempt to catch up with the demands his meal from the previous morning had placed on him. Though he worked until noon, he never managed to reach that goal.

  Paranoid someone would take away the silver plasma elixir, Volithur chose not to wait any longer and drank the liquid down. It felt like the elixir evaporated as it entered his body and dispersed throughout his entire form. In fifteen minutes it was gone.

  He didn’t notice any difference until he returned to his cultivation and saw his energy reserves once again begin to increase. That was a welcome change. The Marshal sent Volithur to the intermediate class the next day with the command to defeat every one of his training partners in sparring.

  With a little bit of cosmic energy in reserve, Volithur managed to achieve the goal set out for him. Using strict form, quick footwork, lots of strength, and a bit of aura blocking, Volithur tore through everyone in class. His efforts weren’t without cost as he found his soul starved of energy. Still, Volithur had to struggle not to smile too much at his achievement. His achievement might be based mostly in superior body enhancement, but he had beaten all of his peers in consecutive matches.

  Then the Marshal forced Volithur to move over to where the beginner class trained. Over the next twenty minutes, he sparred every one of those students in two-on-one weaponless matches. Even without the use of his aura, Volithur managed to put down every one of the beginners. Little Nero, who had beaten Volithur bloody two years ago, couldn’t land a hit on him even with a partner helping out.

  The magnitude of his improvements really hit home then. He was even more superhuman then the Xian who had effortlessly manhandled him when he first arrived at the Fifth Household.

  The Marshal nodded in approval. “Excellent job, Ward Harridan. And excellent job to all of his training partners who helped him improve so rapidly.” Without missing a beat, the Marshal turned to the Sergeant. “Whether or not he is ready, Ward Harridan will be joining the advanced class starting tomorrow.”

  The Sergeant dipped his head in respect. “Good job, Ward Harridan. We will skip our session later today so you can recover enough to use your domain.”

  Volithur’s grin faded. He had intended to train his domain more but it had always been too wasteful a use of cosmic energy given his other priorities. Now he would be called upon to use his domain in sparring when he barely had the coordination to lift a pebble. He wouldn’t have enough energy to practice before the following morning, either.

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