The silver plasma elixir tasted briny and felt oily as it slid down his throat. His normal senses could easily trace the path of the liquid as it passed through, coating every surface on its way. Its calm energy immediately penetrated his organs and bolstered their strength without his conscious direction.

Volithur began to practice body enhancement, inhaling the energy into his soul and exhaling it forcefully into his small intestine. A major portion of the energy followed his willpower and bonded permanently to his target. Perhaps twenty percent escaped into his blood to wander about his body. But the eighty percent that remained proved more than sufficient.

In ten minutes, his stubborn intestines fully saturated. By this point, the copious amounts of energy from the elixir were reduced to only a quarter of the original amount. The energy was so much more eager to join permanently with his body than the other elixirs he used that he knew it would not linger much longer.

Volithur hurriedly infused his liver, then continued on to his pancreas. He had successfully completed enhancement of the digestive system! There was now only perhaps five percent left of the elixir’s original might. He could pick a muscle to focus on at that point, but he worried about unbalancing his physique if he ran out of energy before he could saturate antagonistic muscle groups. Such an outcome, while temporary, would cause serious coordination issues.

So he used the energy on his spleen instead. The organ recycled red blood cells and played a critical role in the immune system, so it would provide him plenty of benefits. More than energizing his muscles, even, if his priority was health and longevity.

Shortly after his spleen saturated, the elixir vanished from his senses, completely absorbed.

In the aftermath of the experience, Volithur sat in contemplation. Less than an hour had passed and he had almost effortlessly passed through the most difficult stage of body enhancement. Most difficult for him, at least. All because of the Marshal’s unexpected sentimentality.

At times, he found it difficult to remember the searing hatred he once felt towards the soldiers. They destroyed his home city. Only a small contingent from the fifth household were present on his home world, so the odds were good that none of the people he had come to know were directly responsible for the death of his parents.

Those justifications had not been enough to assuage his hate in the beginning. Over a year had passed now, and when he thought of the people he lived and trained with, his thoughts were no longer tinged with rage. He now yearned for recognition and opportunities and resources.

The Marshal’s kind gesture was deeply meaningful to Volithur, and it shattered the last remnants of spite towards the soldiers in his heart. He could not hate them any longer. That seemed a betrayal of his parents, his friends, and every innocent life that had been lost, but the guilt he felt could not reawaken his anger.

Without any conscious intent, he had moved on. His sight had become so fixed on his future that there was no longer room in his life for the baggage of his past. Volithur accepted the development with as much grace towards himself as he could muster. If he wanted anything even approaching a good life, he had to surrender the resentment for good.

The next day, he discovered how significant his gains from the elixir had been. The twenty percent of the cosmic energy that had escaped his control had not been wasted even if it didn’t go where he directed it. The energy had found its way into every tissue in his body that had not already been fully saturated. That included muscles, nerves, skin, sensory organs, and more. Even if a firm weld of soul and body had not been achieved in those tissues, they had gained significant benefits.

Volithur didn’t beat anyone at sparring. Far from it. When he demonstrated an improved ability to handle himself, his opponents turned up the heat. They picked him apart with precise, powerful strikes until Instructor Lisbet called a halt to weaponless sparring. As always, Volithur was shown a couple of solo spear drills to practice before the rest of the class did more advanced training.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He did a quick inspection of his arms and discovered barely any traces of the beating he had been subjected to. There might be some minor bruising from treatment that a day before would have left him almost too sore to move. Further, the overall boost to his constitution would make his future efforts at body enhancement faster. He estimated his remaining body mass to be already a quarter of the way towards full saturation.

During classes, Volithur used the cosmic water to follow the directions from a body enhancement manual intended to increase physical performance as quickly as possible. The first muscles targeted were stabilizers. They were small in mass, so could be saturated quickly, and their enhancement would enable the primary moving muscles attached to the joints they stabilized to be fully engaged. It rapidly unlocked the full level of strength already possessed by a body.

He began with the muscles forming the rotator cuff of the shoulder. It took him five days to complete those. The next area of concentration was the hip stabilizers, which were comprised of the various gluteus muscles. Those took him only two days because his weekly dose of tea powder elixir provided ample energy to finish the job.

Then came the trunk stabilizers, which included all of the muscles around the mid-section. The manual insisted that the spinal erector muscles that inserted onto the spine be enhanced first, which just so happened to be a long series of tiny muscles – exactly playing to Volithur’s main strength in body cultivation. It seemed like he had barely started on them and suddenly he was done already. Abdominal and oblique muscles were next, but they took a full week to complete, using up his daily vials of cosmic water, the weekly elixir, and every bit of energy stored in his soul.

The results were worth every bit of investment he had made. During morning movement training, he felt strong and flexible and stable in the stances in a way he never had before. While sparring, he managed to land a few hits powerful enough to rock his opponents – then promptly received his comeuppance for daring to escalate the intensity of the fight.

After achieving his goal with the stabilizer muscles, Volithur switched to a different manual that emphasized combat durability. The initial emphasis was placed on the neck muscles so that shock from blows to the head could be absorbed instead of allowing the head to whip back and forth with traumatic impacts to the brain. Then the focus would shift to the major muscles of the legs as those provided a lot of the power for strikes on top of their contributions to mobility.

Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of muscle mass to saturate. Progress proved very gradual.

Meanwhile, Volithur found himself despairing about the upcoming academic competition. Lydia was an absolute brat who could not conceive of her inadequacies in the debate event. He wanted back in the cosmic chamber of the Evergreen Institute so badly. The trip there would be an absolute waste of his time without that reward. And the daily bribe of cosmic water from the Head Scribe would end as soon as their trip commenced – Volithur felt some surprise that the Head Scribe had not cut him off already now that the family knew he would be on the team.

The single deviation from the normal routine of his life was the arrival of a gift to the barracks. A cask of rum had been donated to them by Thassily. From the letter that accompanied it, they knew it was from the first batch he had made on his own and that he was quite proud of it. The quality of the product… well, it was easy to understand why Thassily’s father-in-law had not objected to giving away a cask. It was rough stuff indeed. Though that did not deter the soldiers in the least.

Many toasts were made to the departed Thassily, wishing him great fortune and the wealth to afford such generosity on a regular basis. The Sergeant stood guard on the cask, stopping soldiers from partaking when they reached their limit. He eventually waved Volithur forward.

“Ward Harridan, take a more active role in the task set before us. Not only is this cask from your good friend, you are one of the few here with an enhanced liver.”

Volithur filled his mug and sat beside the Sergeant, pumping his aura as he sipped.

The Sergeant smacked the table. “Drinking, Ward Harridan, is traditionally not done at the same time as cultivation. You can do neither justice when you attempt both.”

“Sorry, Sergeant. I want to build up enough cosmic energy so that I can complete my neck muscles tomorrow.”

The Sergeant waved his concerns away. “A night off will not harm your progress. The life of a soldier is a difficult one. That’s why moments like this are so important. I order you to have fun, Ward Harridan.”

“As you command, Master Sergeant,” Volithur said with mock formality.

Then, sitting with the Sergeant, he became ridiculously drunk.