“Faster! Don’t let up or you won’t make it in time!” Vivian bellowed, not a hint of mercy in her voice.
Elias wished he had the energy to complain—or the line of sight to glare at her—but he didn’t. He could only swallow his frustration and run faster, just like she’d told him to.
He doubted she’d really follow through on her threat to withhold a recovery potion if he failed to finish the full twelve kilometers in under an hour, but he couldn’t be sure either. It’s not like she hadn’t done it before, claiming he hadn’t “put in enough effort to need one.”
The potions accelerated natural recovery manyfold, allowing people to push beyond safe limits during training and achieve miraculous gains. Perfecting one’s foundations without them was possible, but it took years, sometimes decades, of strict discipline and careful dieting. Most people trained their bodies up to a certain threshold before turning to the expensive potions to buy time once their progress began to slow.
Elias' lower lip had gone numb about five minutes ago, and his left arm was starting to feel cold.
He really wanted that potion.
“Come on! You’re almost there and you only have three minutes left. You won’t make it in time if you stop to vomit again. Put your back into it!”
Elias wanted to cry at the injustice of it all. Just last week, the requirement had only been ten kilometers in an hour. His attributes hadn’t even improved that much yet!
“Eight! Seven! Six! You need to actually get inside! Four!” Vivian bellowed.
Elias collapsed onto the soft tatami the moment he crossed the dojo’s threshold, wheezing into it for several minutes. The only part of his body still moving besides his lungs was the left side of his lower lip, which had started spasming at some point.
He suspected he might’ve had a minor heart attack.
When Elias finally felt like he could drink something without throwing up, he stumbled over to where his mom had left his well-earned recovery potion. The red, syrupy liquid looked tantalizing inside the small glass vial.
He chugged it.
“Good job, Eli. Twelve kilometers in just under fifty-five minutes. It’s like you’re a new person,” Vivian said with an encouraging smile.
Now that Elias' lip had finally settled down, it was his right eye’s turn to twitch. He started laughing hysterically.
He’d been tricked.
“I still had five minutes!? Why did you tell me I was running out of time?” he snapped.
Vivian looked at him, amused and unbothered, as if the answer were obvious.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Because I wanted to push you harder. These potions don’t grow on trees, you know. You need to get as much benefit out of them as possible, and a little more effort translates to many times the result.”
“I know how the potion works. But I had more time! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!”
His mom had the audacity to laugh right in his face.
“Good! That means I did my job well. Now stop whining, Eli. You’re going to be fine. This is nothing compared to the times we raised your Vitality through training alone. Your body’s capable of more—it just hasn’t grown into its new capabilities yet. With the potion, you’ll get the benefit of months of training in days. Or would you rather waste months in training?” she said, crossing her arms and lifting an eyebrow.
When she saw he wasn’t going to answer her rhetorical question, she added, “That’s what I thought.”
“You still lied,” Elias mumbled in a final act of defiance.
Vivian just rolled her eyes and tossed a towel at him. He was still dripping with sweat.
Elias wiped himself down as best he could and began to stretch now that the training session was over. If it hadn’t been, he never would’ve had the courage to complain. He’d learned that lesson the hard way years ago.
Vivian didn’t tolerate hesitation or defiance during training.
After stretching, Elias took a long shower, the hot water soothing his still-sore muscles. As he dried off and the bathroom mirror began to clear, he caught his reflection.
He blinked in shock, then gaped.
He was still scrawny, but his chest looked noticeably broader, and his muscles were slightly larger and more defined. He even seemed a bit taller. Overall, he looked healthier and stronger than ever before—all after a single training session.
If he’d known the results would be this dramatic, he would’ve run like his life actually depended on it.
This was amazing!
Hours later, Elias was still giddy over how much his body had changed in such a short time as he ate dinner. He made a few remarks about needing to eat a lot so he could grow, earning amused compliments from his parents. Even his sister noted that he looked better.
Thankfully, Isabela had tired herself out after eating so much ice cream that afternoon, making dinner a much calmer affair than lunch had been.
Elias felt Kitty brush against his leg, only then realizing he hadn’t seen her all day. He mentally shrugged. She was probably off napping somewhere around the house.
When no one was looking, he sneakily fed her a piece of his chicken, using the moment to give her a few quick pats.
After dinner, Elias went up to his room to sleep, only to find his stolen backpack and energy card sitting on top of his bed. He rubbed his eyes a few times in disbelief, but the items didn’t vanish like a mirage.
“Your robber turned himself in this afternoon,” Vivian said suddenly.
Elias spun around. She was leaning casually against his doorframe, an amused smile on her face.
“A police officer came by to return these while you were in the shower.”
Elias laughed with joy, jumping in place and pumping his fists to celebrate his good fortune. He’d gotten his stuff back!
Most of what had been stolen he could’ve lived without, but his energy card was different. Without it, he’d have to keep stuffing his pockets with every energy crystal he gathered, and that would’ve been a nightmare.
But when he opened his backpack to check its contents—Elias froze.
Vivian immediately burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter as Elias pulled the first item from his bag. She was soon joined by Peter, who popped out of thin air, already laughing as he leaned on Elias' shoulder.
In Elias' hands was a single boot.