Chapter 8: Exercising

I let out a slow breath. There was no time to celebrate. Not now. I had an entire day before meeting her again, and if I wanted even a fraction more presence in front of her tomorrow, I needed this body to be in better condition than it was right now.

This body… was pathetic.

Not useless, but close enough that the distinction felt insulting.

I changed into something simple, something I wouldn’t mind drenching in sweat, and tied my hair back and headed to the courtyard.

The courtyard behind the estate was empty as always, the memories of the previous Cael already naturally adapting to me, the stone tiles warmed by the afternoon sun, the air still enough to feel suffocating.

Good. Heat made training worse.

Worse meant better.

It meant my body would also be trained for resist the heat.

I walked to the center of the courtyard, rolled my shoulders, and closed my eyes for a moment.

“Let’s see how far you can go.”

This body needed to learn.

I picked a spot at the far end of the courtyard, breathed in deeply, and sprinted.

Well, tried to sprint.

My assassin instincts kicked in immediately: foot placement, weight distribution, the ideal angle for acceleration. I could practically feel the ghost of my old body moving ahead of me, perfect, smooth, efficient.

But my current body?

My lungs burned before I reached the wall.

My calves tightened unpleasantly.

My knees wobbled when I tried to pivot, nearly sending me tumbling.

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

But I kept going.

Three laps.

Five laps.

Eight laps.

By the tenth, my vision blurred slightly, and sweat ran down my temples like I’d been thrown into a steam bath.

I had always hated cardio.

[Dark Recovery]

The cooling, tingling sensation rushed through me, temporarily repairing the strained muscles and letting me continue.

It wasn’t just a simple repair spell as well; it was also repairing using my training as a basis, which meant my newly recovered muscles were stronger than before.

My spell acting like an instant power-up.

Twelve laps.

Fourteen.

By the time I stopped, my breath came out ragged, but my body… felt alive.

My legs now already feeling beefier than before, not by much, but it was a good difference.

I could train an entire week’s worth in an hour if I tried, my photographic memory doing wonders.

It even allowed me to solve spell formulas near instantaneously without having to remember each process.

’I should take a break…’

I struggled to think, even with my dark recovery, there was no such thing as free results.

Even if it helped recover my body quickly, it wasn’t instant; the only reason I managed to do more than my body could handle was through sheer willpower and discipline.

But even that won’t matter if my body was starting to shut down, I needed to rest and let dark recovery do its work.

[Dark Recovery]

’Why can’t dark magic have a better healing spell…’

I grumbled. The only way to get a second attunement was either through an item or a breakthrough, and right now, a breakthrough was nearly impossible.

My body would give out before I even surpass the first level of darkness.

Magic in this world had levels; each attunement has five for each one.

Right now, I am a beginner at level one, and a breakthrough would increase it by another.

And until I break through from beginner to novice is when I get a second attunement, but only if I get lucky, most would only get a stronger understanding of their element.

“That’s enough thinking for a while.”

I stood up again, my body feeling capable once more. I’d think about breaking through after my body finally caught up to my skills.

FWISH!

I sprinted once more. Stamina was far more important than strength, which would only come later.

***

“Don’t you think that Master Cael is acting weird?”

A servant spoke, just on the second floor of the mansion, watching through the window.

“What do you mean?” Another servant replied.

“Well… he was always such a brooding child, but now? he seems different.”

The other servant thought for a long while, also looking through the window to see what the other meant, and not long after, found an explanation.

“Must be one of those sudden bursts of motivation.”

“Is that real?”

“I don’t know… my own child, who’s the same age as the young master, also tends to act like that.”

“Enough with the small-talk, we have work to do.”

Rose arrived, shooing away the two servants; she was the head of the servants within the mansion despite her young age.

“Those two… the young master needs his privacy.”

She sighed, closing the curtain before returning to her work.

My sudden odd burst of productivity was now starting to be noticed by the servants, but not by a lot. I still acted a lot like the original. And it wasn’t hard, by all means, I was now Cael Arden in both personality and memory, just with a new addition.

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