The rest of the month was a blur with a few exceptions. Like the stern lecture about training on company time from Sasha. Or the several calls from his mother. And the several times he collapsed struggling for a breath. Maybe it wasn't so much of a blur as it was him trying to make it one. But he had noticed some improvement in that he could now do a full lap around the park without having a fit. He had also found a neat aura technique that was supposed to give you the grip strength to break someones wrist. The gist was that you formed your aura into two cylinders and then squeezed. The repetition would improve both your aura and your grip. It also had the bonus of being inconspicuous enough to do at work. Although a few customers had given him odd looks as he methodically squished aura cans.

Nathan was half way through the work day when he received a phone call from the bank. Feeling warm hope rising in his chest, with equal anxiety and worry, he answered.

“Mr. Nathanial Crest?” Came a male voice through the cheap phone.

“Yes, Nathan is fine though”

“Well Mr. Nathan we have some good news about your fraud claim. After an investigation we discover the purchase to have been shipped to an apartment a few blocks from where you live. Unfortunately there will likely be a long case due to the nature of the elixirs purchased.”

“But I’m going to get my money back right? I’m having to mooch off my parents just to pay my bills.” Nathan really hoped he would have his money back. He would have enough to pay his bills but that money was built up over months of saving. Even with his recent raise from wage slave to slightly better paid wage slave, three thousand teras was a huge amount of cash for him.

“We will try to get your money back as soon as possible but we can’t give you back your money until the case is settled. Also you may have to attend the trial, the information will be in an email” The man heartlessly responded. Nathan wrapped up the call with a few formalities and apologized to the line of people that had built up. A few minutes later he was back to squeezing his aura cans anxiously. After work, which he had gotten off late due to his co-worker showing up late, Nathan went to the park near his apartment to exercise.

Showing up already sweaty due to the run, Nathan saw several people with similar ideas. One man was doing pull ups on a bar of condensed aura, another doing a strange dance-like exercise that mesmerised Nathan. Nathan quickly got to work though, doing push ups and sit ups until his arms felt like soggy noodles and his gut burned. It was incredible to think that weeks ago he couldn’t even run without his asthma flaring, but now? Now he could exercise, maybe not without his lungs blazing but still. He could almost cry with the joy he felt as sweat poured off of him. After his physical exercise was done, Nathan started meditating. For a quiet minute he simply observed his spirits inner workings. Ather from the world around him flowed into his lungs and then to his soul at the center of his body. There it was refined into two separate parts. Nathan focused on the essence streaming from his soul into his body, the refined power that allowed an Enforcer to sprint faster than a car. Nathan simply watched it cycle through his body, some gradually being absorbed into his flesh and bones. As he watched he noticed that he had more essence than usual. Where a thin covering of essence would have been his norm, Nathan now had almost three times that in free essence. He searched for a possible reason as to why. Soon enough he found it, he watched with utter curiosity and fascination as essence slowly emerged from his fat. He had of course known that fat could store food but essence was absorbed when it entered flesh. ‘Of course it is, so when I break down fat cells through exercise the essence gets released too! This means my amount of free essence is going to skyrocket while I work off this weight. I could definitely use this.’ Nathan thought excitedly.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

After a few hours of meditation and practicing the Steel Lung technique he headed home in the dark. Once there he pulled out his phone and started searching for an affordable gym that he could head to. A bit of searching and found one for only five hundred teras a month that still provided private instruction and access to meditation rooms. He made plans to go check it out after work tomorrow, it was thankfully open 24 hours a day. Although Nathan would likely only get a few hours of instruction a day but it would definitely be worth it.

Work the next day had been a bit of a bore, Sasha had a bit of a tiff with one noisy and rude customer but that was the most exciting thing to happen. Nathan all but sprinted to get to the gym, arriving looking like he was leaving the gym rather than just walking in

“Hello sir, how may I assist you today?” asked an absolutely ripped woman with an aura that was perfectly controlled. Nathan couldn’t fathom how someone could still every bit of their aura at once.

“I would like to sign up for the fifth tier membership please.” He said politely, more than a little intimidated by the blond woman’s biceps. She could kill him, Nathan was sure, with a simple punch.

“That’s great just fill this out and you can head right in after you pay you first fee.” She said handing Nathan a clipboard with half a tree attached to it. It took him the better part of an hour to finish, thirty selfies for an ID, and over a dozen paper cuts, but Nathan resolved to make it worth his time. He handed the clipboard with over thirty pages of questions so meticulous that he was sure they could know anything about it him from it. The receptionist looked over the papers for all of a second before taking his card and motioning him in to the gym. Nathan stopped to ask for directions to the trainers before walking into his first day at the gym.