Sixteen
 

“This rune is about healing muscles,” Alice carved the rune into the loamy soil and Kon leaned over to study it. It was a series of gentle, sloping lines around a circle , meeting near the middle.
“That’s just for healing muscles?” Kon said in minor disbelief. Alice hadn’t been the most adept teacher he’d ever heard of. Great with practical experience. Terrible with theory.
“I mean…no? It’s part of my Regrowth rune and it encapsulates the power of healing. We’re going to place the node in your quadricep. It’s one of the largest muscles and you're going to think about healed muscles while you place it. Now, this is not a healing rune per se. It’s very, very, very weak. Even if you do the oversized node again and manage to not blow up, this thing will only allow you to heal minor wounds. Like what you get when you work out,” Alice said the last part with a nasty smile that sent a shiver of dread down Kon’s back.
“The first, network right? That’s a core and it’s corresponding nodes are called?”
“Yup. Nodes connect to a core to form a network. A series of connected networks form a web.”
“So, my first network is all about letting me train longer and harder and see better results?”
“Yup. Standard practice. Build your base nice and sturdy. By the time you finish your first web, you'll be a monster.”
“Let’s do it then. How many of these cores should I use?” Kon looked over to the pile of cores he’d collected from the acid hounds. There weren’t as many as he had from the first batch of monsters he’d killed, but they were a bit bigger on average.
“I’ll stop you before you blow up. With the first node so big you should try to make them close to the same size for the network. It’ll be helpful in the long run.” Alice clapped him on the shoulder then sat down across the cave from him as Kon settled down and grabbed the first of the cores.
The graceful lines of the rune fragment stared at him and he tattooed the fragment into his mind as he thought over and over what the rune’s meaning meant to him. This was a training aid, a way to rebuild muscle faster and stronger than before. Alice’s explanation of what the rune was supposed to do had been a bit more vague than the last time she had done it as well.
“Is she trying to make me do another oversized, broader rune fragment?” Kon thought about that for a moment before banishing that thought and every other thought other than healing muscle.
“Muscles get microtrauma from exercise. When healing it adds muscle protein and that stimulates growth. New muscle is bigger and stronger.” Kon went through the process a few more times, knowing it was a dumbed down version of a complex biological reaction he didn’t have the education to fully know.
“Muscles Heal.” The first core vanished in his palm instantly and Kon’s eyes closed as he pictured his left quadricep with the rune fragment hovering over it. It was wavery, thin, and transparent. The second core strengthened the image and then the third and fourth made it appear in his mind’s eye to be real. Coree after core was absorbed as an itch infected his body.
Muscles roiled beneath his skin as the rune fragment sank into his leg. Cramps crushed him and stole his breath as the muscles locked and released in beat with his heart, the pain threatened to break his concentration, to ruin what he was crafting. Kon held on, persevered as his fingers scraped over the final core and bled it dry in a second. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
His body glowed a healthy red, the color of vitality and life, and Kon gasped as his eyes flew open. Alice was still sitting across from him with only a single raised eyebrow to show her surprise.
“I think you are the biggest hole I’ve ever met,” she said. Kon was gasping, body slick with sweat as he flopped down bonelessly. He ached everywhere.
“Huh?”
“Your ability to absorb rift energy and hold it. It’s insane. It just pours into you. You’re a hole.” Alice’s explanation made sense even it there was a hint of degradation to it. Kon bit back a reply as he focused on keeping his breathing steady and slowly shaking his body limb by limb.
“What are you doing?”
“I hurt. That was like a fully body cramp and it burned and itched too. Just trying to stretch out,” Kon said. He didn’t like how thin and tiny his voice sounded. A piece of meat smacked him in the face and he sputtered as juices ran into his mouth and eyes.
“Eat. Then we get to see how you did,” Alice said as she rose up. She rolled her arm back and forth in a circle and Kon started to eat the E-Grade meat quickly as he realized what was about to happen.
The dense energy hit his stomach and his rune lit up with familiar warmth, spreading energy across his body. Kon closed his eyes and felt the spread of the energy, a warmth that spread out of his stomach and across his body. Instead of sitting there, over his skin, it began to sink and fill his muscles.
Thousands of little aches disappeared as the golden energy he pictured was consumed. Kon stretched out and felt great as he finished off the steak, juice leaking down his face as he groaned in pleasure, the pain of the day having vanished.
“Alright, keep those sounds to yourself. Now, punch me!” Alice barked the last part out and Kon crossed the distance instantly. A roundhouse kick aimed at her temple was dodged, his four rapid jabs were blocked, a stomp to the instep was countered, and then the flash of energy dissolved.
Kon gasped in surprise as the energy was completely gone in a fraction of the time as it usually was. Alice just laughed at him and threw a lazy haymaker that forced him to duck. Lazy to her was still nearly faster than he could react.
“Issue with those big nodes is they’re real energy consumers. Especially active ones. Get used to it.” Alice threw him another piece of meat and they repeated their encounter over and over again until Kon grew used to the rapid fall off as his body consumed the rift energy in moments.
“No longer stopping dead still when you run dry. Minor improvement.” Alice proceeded to attack, slowly and methodically, and Kon was forced on the defensive. She would strike, telegraphing her movements until he could read them without her telling him. Then she would be a bit more subtle as she ramped the difficulty up.
Kon hit the ground with a thud and whimper when she finally let him stop. She hadn’t broken a sweat and had begun to look bored as there was nothing Kon could throw at her to slow her down.
“No,no,no! On your belly, press-ups. A hundred right now!” Alice barked in his ear and Kon rolled over and started to do the exercise. At twenty-seven his arms folded inward and no amount of grunting, straining, or praying could get him back off the cave floor. Kon lay in a puddle of his own sweat and burning muscles and decided it was perfectly fine to fall asleep like that.
Alice grabbed his shoulder and jerked him upright, holding him up as his wobbly legs struggled to remember to support him. She kicked his legs wide and then pushed him down till he was at a ninety degree angle. Her hand kept his back straight and then she left him there to stand in front of him.
“This. When you’re exhausted and ready to quit. When your body refuses to keep moving. This is when you die. This is when your enemies stab you or shoot you or blow up your shit. This is when the rift beasts overwhelm you. It doesn’t matter how good your armor or weapons are if you can’t keep fighting. Even when you’re exhausted and ready to fail.” Alice cocked her head, face serious as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Your mind must be the master of your body. You must force yourself to move even if your arm’s have been cut off. Even when you're bleeding out and your guts are on the floor. A Knight’s mind and willpower are their greatest weapons. Forging it is not easy, but we’ll get there.”
Her foot whipped around and Kon hit the ground hard as his feet were knocked out from under him. Burning, limp, weak arms pressed himself back up and he forced his burning legs to get back into the stance she had knocked him out of.
“Mortals can’t train like this. Their bodies will break. We don’t have that problem. It is our minds that will crack first. On a world like this, with power in every tree and monsters to consume everywhere? I’m going to forge the greatest weapon humanity has seen in generations.” Alice spoke quietly, so softly that Kon could barely hear her over his laboured breathing.
“Now, tell me Kon. Are you going to break?”