After walking for a while, Tom decided that he might as well turn this traveling into training. Because, the last time, his body had recovered stupidly fast, so he was pretty sure that the recovery speed was much faster inside the Secverse. So naturally, the gains he could make should come much easier if only he remembers to train.
So Tom started jogging while using the rock as a dumbbell and training his upper body with it. At least it was good training, or at least that was how it felt, as he could feel how his whole body was in a fire after just half an hour.
He stopped to rest and sat down by the river, placing the core next to himself. He was so very curious about it, and now that his body had forced him to stop, his thoughts drifted back to the core, as he wasn't distracting himself anymore by pushing himself forwards. But the problem was that he truly needed the credits, so he didn't dare to examine the core. Well, maybe just not too deeply, as he knew that he would get drawn in by his experiments. He still remembered what had happened to the last core he started playing with, as it had diminished in size at a record-breaking pace.
But he just couldn't stop himself. It was right next to him, waiting for him to take a little peek. He slowly placed his arm on the rock and focused his mind on it. It was like a switch had been flipped, as he could see a deep concentration of brown energy inside the rock. He could also feel how the energy was, searching? He wasn't sure what it was doing, but that was the first thing that came to his mind. The core's energy spread a bit away from the surface of the rock, curiously touching everything it was in contact with and then receding, like the thing it touched wasn't something that it was interested in.
Tom just couldn't help himself. Once the energy came in contact with his arm, he focused his whole mind on it and used his willpower to force the energy to enter his body. And to his surprise, after a short mental tug of war, which felt more like he had used his will to carry a heavy weight while someone else was trying to pull it in another direction, he managed it.
Once the energy entered his body, his control over it increased. He could feel how there still was a link between the energy and the core. So Tom focused his mind on it and crushed it. Influencing the energy was much easier now that it was inside his body.
"Now what?" Tom wondered. Yes, he had finally gotten some of the energy under his control, but what could he do with it?
"Tom, you need to sell this! So this is the only bit of energy you are getting from it!" Tom lectured himself. He knew that he was so close to crossing the point of no return, where his curiosity would take control. Tom also realized how much he resembled an addict at the moment. Constantly giving himself more and more leeway until it would come down to," well, I can always get another core."
But before Tom could decide how he was going to use the energy, he realized more than half of it had disappeared. Tom focused on it and noticed how it was going into his tired muscles.
Tom just watched in fascination as the energy slowly entered his muscles. However, the amount of energy was too little, as he couldn't feel any difference. If he focused on the muscle and tried his best to notice something different. Then he might have felt something, but he wasn't sure if that wasn't just the placebo, as he wanted to feel somehow different.
"..."
"I can always get another core," Tom said to himself. Deciding that just maybe he should listen to his impulses more often.
Tom placed both of his arms on the core and started a mental fight with it. After fifteen minutes of struggling, he could feel how his mental exhaustion had reached a critical point. So he stopped drawing in the energy, as he had fainted far too many times during this week, one could say that he was almost an expert at it.
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However, Tom was extremely pleased with his gains. He could feel how the energy was all over his arms, and as he didn't wish to only feed his arms, he spread it all over his body using his willpower. To his immense pleasure, this time he could feel how his muscles were getting less tired, and they clearly welt much more compact? powerful? He wasn't exactly sure what the feeling was, but he was sure that it was a positive development.
Tom noticed as his body started feeling better and better, as the energy absorption rate started visibly slowing down.
A while later, Tom noticed how his insides were starting to burn as the energy had nowhere left to go, so it started affecting everything around it. At that moment, Tom realized his arms were starting to get heavier, and he admitted to himself that he might have been a bit rash.
His mind ran through multiple scenarios on what was happening to him, depleting even more of his already spent willpower reservoirs. He came to the conclusion, that previously his body had needed to feed his muscles' energy to make them recover. But now that they had recovered, the energy was affecting everything aimlessly. Tom tried to force it to stop, but apparently, he couldn't force it to go against its own nature.
"Well, either this works, or I am toasted..." Tom thought as he picked the core up and started exercising with it. At first, it was pure agony as his body felt twice heavier than before, and all his joints felt ridiculously stiff.
After who knows how long just endured the pain and forced his body to continue moving. Tom started finally noticing that the pain had stopped worsening, and maybe it was even lessening a bit?
That gave Tom all the hope that he needed. He started running while doing all kinds of arm moves with the rock, lifting up above his head and rotating from side to side. He had no idea what he was doing, nor did he care. The only thing he wanted, was to make his body as tired as possible, as fast as possible.
Tom had no idea how long he had been running when he finally stopped. He had followed the river the whole time, but otherwise, the environment around him looked completely foreign.
His body hurt all over, he was exhausted beyond belief, and the only thing he wanted to do was rest. But the pain in his body wasn't the one he had felt before, it wasn't on fire, nor did it feel any stiffer or heavier. No, it was the pain you feel after a good exercise, times ten, but at least it was a familiar kind of pain.
Tom parked himself next to the river and started drinking, satisfying his thirst. After that, he stood up, held the core up, and logged out.
Firstly he checked what time it was, and his phone showed six pm. It had been over six hours since he last logged off." I spend over four hours just exercising..." Tom muttered in disbelief. He couldn't think that even in his wildest dreams, he would be capable of doing something like that.
It had felt like he had drugged himself with some experimental growth hormones. They had given him unimaginable amounts of energy, that he had to burn or be burned from the inside out by it.
Tom could also feel how his head was still killing him. He had used his mental energy every now and then to move the energy to muscles that felt too tired to continue moving and forced the energy into them. And then he had repeated that action too many times to count.
Tom forced himself up from the bed, took rye bread out from the freezer, and started eating it frozen. He had no energy to make anything, so he made do with what he had.
While he ate. He decided to check if there had been any updates about tomorrow. So he took his phone out and entered the Empire net, and sure enough, there was a post from the Glatians pinned to the top of the browser.
"Tomorrow at nine am, the traders will arrive, and most packages will be delivered by ten.
Secverse will also open to the public at nine am. We hope that you treat it with the seriousness it deserves. More information about it will be made available once the game opens up.
We wait with great anticipation to see what you make of yourselves, once you finally get your hand on Empire tech. And we wish the best of luck on everyone's ventures, as your true integration to the greater Empire truly begins."
Tom felt how tired he was, set an alarm for eight am, as maybe he could collect something valuable during the last moments before the Secverse fully opens. Then he fell onto the bed, exhausted yet still extremely excited about tomorrow. Maybe he could finally get to know more about the Secverse.