Luke flew through the air above the city, among the few other mages capable of long-distance flight willing to reveal their abilities publicly. In recent weeks, the skies had never been fully clear and Luke wasn't exactly sure why, but he was willing to use the obvious freedom of flight to his advantage. He figured he could fly across the united states and still have a few miles left in the tank, at least when going relatively low speeds. Going too fast too quickly would disproportionately eat at his magic capacity, making him fall short.
That was slowly changing as he trained his physical body. The lengths of his individual training sessions were getting longer and longer as he needed more and more exercise to affect his body. With the extended period between breaks, he had an entire extra exercise potion stored up for the future, just as he'd planned originally. It was still going to be months yet until he had two full extras at once, but he could comfortably bench 100 for a little under 2 hours, now, before fatigue finally caught up with him.
He was pretty sure he would never reach three full potions, as he only rationed 15 for his entire 2ish years left on earth.
The durations of his training sessions meant he had to buy his own equipment, as no gym would allow him to stay from dawn to after midnight. He would also need to get an extra rest potion soon, something he hadn't even considered originally. He didn't think he'd be able to train for as long as he did before he started, thinking he'd max out at 30 minutes of continuous exercise.
If it weren't for Rhonda's potions, he was sure he wouldn't even be 5% of the way to where he was now, even with Shoeberts's help. The amount of extra time he could train because of her potions was not to be understated. He still took a day every couple weeks off to go hang out with his freerunning group, though the original point of him joining up was no longer relevant. They mostly hung out out by the river, climbing trees and swinging across the river and other events mostly teenagers enjoy doing out in the wilds.
They'd even begun building their own frerunning course out across the river from camper's original little setup. They didn't want to work too close to his stuff, though, out of respect, so it was a little bit of a walk after swinging across the river to get to.
After they'd learned of Luke's magic capacity, they became significantly more bold in the tricks and heights they were willing to go, confident in Luke's ability to catch them should they fall. He was not quick enough, yet, to catch them from falls that could break their necks, should they fall completely wrong, but when they fell from leg-breaking height, he was able to slow their fall enough to at most spraining a tendon or two.
Not an enjoyable experience, mind, but much better than being fully incapable of walking or using an arm until a bone was fully healed.
He was also making headway into his main focus of healing, so he was capable of healing a few cuts and scrapes. Healing was expensive, though, and complicated. Keeping the massive spellform that's needed to even just mend a bruise in his head was something Luke struggled with. It was like memorizing an entire 53 move game of chess, and then needing the ability to write out the board state from any random point in the match, rather than play it out from the beginning. At least when playing it through from the start, you could use the current state and a mnemonic for the next.
It was something you could do, but something that took considerable effort and concentration. He would need to get faster at constructing the spellform in his mind if he were to ever use it in combat. And even then, if he managed that, he needed to expand his magic capacity considerably if his plan to stall out for years is to work. It was already one of the largest, but healing a cut coordinator got after a particularly nasty fall, going from mid-thigh to his hip, required almost all his magic capacity.
In a few weeks, he should start obtaining Rhonda's magic capacity potions, which should fix that problem.
The problem was he wasn't sure anyone could have a magic capacity large enough to replace his entire body, should he be decapitated before he could escape his bindings. If anyone could do it, he was confident he could do it. He'd gone from a slightly overweight factory worker to someone who could lift freight transport vehicles with nothing but his mind in only 5 months. He still had over a year to get even better, there was no doubt in his mind that, if it is possible to get a magic capacity large enough to heal decapitation and keep going in 2 years, he would do it.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
His thoughts were interrupted as he finally reached his destination: Rhonda's shop.
He landed softly, making sure to not hit any pedestrians on his descent, before walking inside, where Rhonda was simultaneously walking out of the back of the shop with his potion in hand. She looked frustrated.
"What's wrong?" Luke asked as she placed his potion on the counter.
She huffed before saying, "There's a few kids causing trouble around here, recently. Broke into a Subway, threw the ingredients all over the place and made themselves some sandwiches without paying, and disappeared as the cops tried to get them, among other, similar chaos. So far, they haven't hurt anyone, but I'm pretty sure they heard of my shop and are staking it out to be next. I've seen the same few kids walk by five or six times a day for the last week, always looking inside the shop as they do.
"The loss of my stock and/or ingredients would set me back years and the orders I'm filling by weeks. I've already put in some security wards, but I'm not sure how much help they'd be. They're not exactly well tested against actual criminals, yet," She said, tapping the counter in thought. "All my magical skills aren't for combat, I wouldn't be able to protect my store against any real attempts at intrusion. If some strong guy came in and started getting handsy, sure, I could telekinetically throw them across the street. Kids with actual combat spells? No chance."
"I'm not super combat oriented myself, but I have one of the largest magic capacities I know of. I could move my exercise equipment over here and work out here to try to deter them. At minimum, I'd be here to help in the case they actually try anything," Luke offered, putting his hand on top of his potion.
After a few seconds of thought, Rhonda responded, "I'm not certain it would deter them, and you might scare away new customers. You're not exactly the friendliest looking guy, especially now that you've put on all the muscle you didn't have the first time you came in here. Almost all my business is repeat customers, anyway, so I guess that wouldn't be much of a problem. I could also explain my processes as I'm working, since you also want to get into potioneering to give your absurd plan that much of an edge, anyway.
"Sure, bring it over. There's not much room in the back, but unless it's a whole gym worth of equipment, you should be able to fit it in the front."
"It is kinda empty in here," Luke said, grabbing his potion. "Decorated, but the walk from the entrance to the counter is quite long."
"Yeah, I used to have some shelves with pre-made potions out front, like a proper store. Wasted a lot of time and money making potions that didn't sell, so I gave that up. Some woman brought her little kid in, once, and the little booger knocked a whole shelf over. She paid for it all, but she and I were both unhappy with that. Helped make my mind up on moving to commission only."
"Ouch. Actually, I think I'll leave this here," Luke said, letting go of his potion. "Since I'm coming back, anyway, and I'll need my exercise potions here, I might as well leave this here. Oh, speaking of, I might need a rest potion. My sessions are lasting too long, it won't be much longer before I need the extra wakefulness to continue my work outs."
Rhonda blinked a few times at that before saying, "Wait, huh? I know my exercise potions are top notch, but I don't think they should be able to get you that kind of endurance all on their own, especially not in only 5 months. I don't know much about physical training, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't have that kind of endurance, even with my potions, for another few years."
"Oh, that's because I had Shoeberts crafting my training regimen. Judging by the look on your face, you don't know who that is. Was, I guess. He was the number one personal trainer, got multiple people to world record levels of strength in a bunch of different kinda of weight-based competitions. Bench press, dead lift, various strongman competitions, and a bunch of similar feats. I hired him to help me along. If it weren't for you and him, I'd be nowhere near where I am now. He released a book right after he died - taken by the fraxions - that describes exactly how he did what he did.
"I've since used it a few times to make minor adjustments on his final plan for me, though I'm not an expert like he was, so I've avoided too many modifications. Great guy. Claimed he'd buy humanity as much time as he could, then managed to stay conscious a full second longer than any normal person after his decapitation. It wasn't much, but I won't forget his work and now that I think of it, I'm wasting the time he bought me. I'll be back with all my stuff," he said before rushing out the store.