Chapter Sixty Six

Joe woke again early in the morning several hours before the sun would rise. It was too early, again, but he really couldn’t get himself to sleep long enough anymore. He’d recovered his sleep deficit and was now back to sleeping how he should have been had he been back on Earth. However, here, he had an extra ten or so hours a day more than earth, if he was guesstimating the time correctly. He sighed, not really pushing to go back to sleep as he knew he was too wired and awake. While he wouldn’t be able to do any physical exercise, he could spend time working on all his magical skills. Although, ironically, his effort to emit mana still forced him to do his weird full body spasm, tensing everything, which left him almost as exhausted as many other forms of exercise.

He went through his variety of magical exercises, emitting mana until he was empty of MP then began working with manipulating the points, working both on their movement as well as their … what would you call it? Their constitution? Their… physicality? Are they physical? Joe lost himself in thought as he tried to find a word to describe working on the physical aspects of the points such as its strength, capabilities, or skin… skin? Is that a good word?

He continued practicing manipulating the points while his mind wandered about what he could define what he was doing. I’m going to have to figure what I’m doing to these points and maybe define specifics. Joe continued on his alternating practicing between emitting mana and manipulating the points. It was while he was emitting mana that an idea came to him as he watched his MP drop to zero. SP and HP were essentially a system granted external buffer to actual health and stamina. He’d already seen it work both. When he cut himself, he suffered no harm as the damage was applied to his HP. When he exercised, he felt no exhaustion. Neither damage or exhaustion affected him until his HP and SP were at zero. Then… MP? Do people have a natural mana reservoir just like SP?

Joe’s eyes narrowed with thought as he watched his MP drop to zero and made a rapid decision to try forcing mana emission even after he dropped to zero. As soon as he hit zero with his MP, a feeling of overwhelming exhaustion and pain hit him again. It felt much like the exhaustion he experienced from pushing himself too far in a strength exercises with the typical noodle like exhaustion but it was somehow affecting something else. It was some muscle or organ that was pushed to exhaustion almost immediately as it had never been exercised before in his life. Joe grunted, fighting through the pain and pushed until he couldn’t anymore, not because of the pain but because of literal exhaustion. That feels really really weird. Donno if I'm gonna get used to the idea of another muscle I've never used.

After he relaxed his efforts, he found himself collapsed back in the bed panting rapidly, even though he wasn’t sure he really needed the oxygen. Whatever it was, it was mimicking physical exhaustion in some way as well as mental exhaustion. It was incredibly hard to describe.

He panted, laying quietly in bed until the feeling of exhaustion retreated a bit and allowed him his mental and physical capacity to act. He took a few more breaths before looking at his status, finding his MP not even recovered yet, still flashing red. Must be the same as the other pools… I need to recover my personal mana before the system mana recovers. Which was all just fine with him, as he found the experience uniquely overwhelming. He took a deep breath, then turned to working with his points again, manipulating them. He had a lot longer to work with them as his MP took quite a bit longer to recover.

When it did so, however, he immediately began working on emitting mana again. However, there was a twinge, somehow, somewhere in his being that he couldn’t readily identify. It was a feeling of strain in the same place that he’d felt the exhaustion previously and while it cramped, it wasn’t an overwhelming pain that warned of undue harm, so he continued. Once again, when his MP dropped to zero, the exhaustion returned with a vengeance, doubly as tiring as the mana organ cramped and his entire being burned with overextended effort while he pushed himself. He didn’t last nearly as long and collapsed once again in exhaustion. He took a bit longer to recover, panting heavily in bed before immediately returning to manipulating his points as he waited for his MP to recover.

Joe repeated this cycle as long as he could, shifting between exhausting all of his MP, system and personal, and manipulating his points in any way he could. However, after each time draining his MP, he found himself growing ever more and more exhausted until he fell back to sleep sometime in the early morning. The next thing he knew was being roused by Kilniara slipping into the bed beside him. He jerked awake then moaned in utter pain, his body wrung out in exhaustion in a way reminiscent of what he felt after any bulking up exercises. He was sore, utterly and completely sore, but not in his physical body anywhere. It was something else that was aching so completely.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

When he moaned, Kilniara jerked back, worried, “Oh! Are you OK? What’s wrong?”

“Just sore.”

“Oh. Yeah! I’m sore as well… not as much as yesterday… I’ve never felt that way before. It’s so painful! This... Is this normal for growth?”

Joe chuckled, then groaned as somehow the laughter juggled his mana organ, exacerbating his soreness, “Haha.. yeah… ooOooh! Ouch. Ok.. no laughing. But yeah, working out makes the body sore like this, but makes it stronger and stronger. It looks like doing this with mana also does the same thing.”

Kilniara stayed silent for a bit before continuing, “I don’t know if I want to.”

“Really? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it really is good for you.”

“Good for me? This pain? Ha!”

Her good natured response made him smile as well and he nodded, “Well, you… we are lucky. We have the healer every day now… so the soreness will no long be much of an issue.”

She smiled brightly at that, “True! OK… with a healer, I am willing. Especially if he heals immediately after.”

Joe grinned, saying nothing but concerned that immediate healing might actually erase the benefits of exercise. Maybe… gonna have to test? Somehow? Hmm… gonna have to think about HP as well… that does weird healing stuff, too. But… shouldn’t she have felt this before? Maybe as a kid? Right? System’s … not hmm… well, Garnedell has his, so… Joe turned to Kilniara.

“You’ve never felt sore like this before?” Joe asked with some concern and confusion.

“No. It’s… really painful.”

Joe grunted softly, “Huh. Not even when you’ve run out and played with friends or worked really hard?”

Kilniara thought for a bit before nodding slowly, “Well, I guess when I was a child, I did feel sore like this a few times, but not often.”

“A child?”

She nodded, “Yeah. Before my Coming of Age.”

“Before the blessing?”

“Yes.”

Joe pondered for a bit before nodding, “Well, I guess that would make sense. Takes a lot less power and effort to let the beings build their own body up before instigating the system, I guess… maybe?” But what is going on with Garnedell’s status then… SP seems to definitely affect him… should I test HP, too? Easy enough to check… is it just… ooh… maybe a slow change!

“Did you get any scars as a child?”

Kilniara paused at that, eyebrows knitting, “I… do not think I did.”

“Your brother?”

Her pause was longer, and reply less certain, “Nooo? I don’t think so?”

“Cuts? Bruises?”

She thought for a bit before finally shaking her head no, “No? I … don’t remember many.”

“Any of your friends?”

“No.”

Joe trailed off in thought, his mind wandering over the ramifications of what he heard with Kilniara. They’re… level one… how are they having the HP to heal scars like that… Maybe… healing for damage like… but… muscle growth is still damage… did the system make an exception for that? But then… well… adds to the deliberateness of the system… this thing didn’t naturally form. Still… Kilniara allowed him his space to think and simply cuddled a bit more deeply into his side. Joe wandered around the idea for a bit before he brought himself back and glanced down at Kilniara.

“I’m sorry. I distracted myself.”

Kilniara smiled, laughing softly, “It seems to be who you are.”

Joe grinned, hiding his embarrassment a bit but unable to hide the blush, “Yeah. I guess. If I get to be too much, elbow me and wake me up.”

Kilniara looked up at that and seeing his smile brought out her own, if slightly delayed in concern, “You sure? My elbows are pretty sharp.”

“You know what, you’re probably right, but Acokzau arms seem pretty weak to me,” Joe joked back.

Kilniara’s eyes widened at that, shock evident on her face as her mouth dropped open before she smiled, “Really!? Really!? You’re going to go there! You… that’s… You!”

Kilniara trailed off, uncertain how to respond but obviously having fun as she tried to keep her laughter under control and bring her indignation to the forefront. Joe didn’t allow her a chance and continued.

“All spindly and weak,” Joe said as he mockingly wavered his arms in front of him like a weak child, “Barely can keep them straight or hold up anything!”

Honest anger began to subtly seep into her face as she pushed her chest up off of him and looked down at him, “Well… you… you… you have legs like … like… like noodles! Spindly stalks of hay!”

Joe actually laughed loudly at that before groaning but his joy in the moment proved too infectious and he continued laughing and moaning at the same time before finally responding, “You… got me … there… Ow! Guess I couldn’t get away from you easily if you chased me down!”

“You better believe it!” Kilniara firmly said, but with a Mona Lisa smile gracing her lips, her anger obviously gone when she realized he was honestly being humorous.

Joe brought a hand up to her cheek and caressed it, “I don’t care about your spindly arms! It’s who you and your people are,” Joe shrugged as he continued, “It doesn’t bother me. I’m only teasing… is … is teasing OK for your people? Mine often do so as a way to joke and have fun with one another… a way to enjoy each other.”

Kilniara smirked at that before nodding, “We tease as well. I’ve just never had anyone tease my Acokzau form’s arms.”

Joe’s confidence surged and returned to his teasing nature now that he knew she was accepting, “Well… I don’t think teasing anything else about your form is very smart. Everything else about your original form would pretty much kick a bases rear! The only thing I think I’m better at than you would be arm wrestling!”