Serum

"I was training."

Dirk wiped some sweat out of his eye as Rita stared at him weirdly. 

"Why?"

"Because... Duke Hillshire said I shouldn't neglect training. I want to make my muscles stronger."

After thinking for a split second, Dirk gave her that reason. He didn't need to say much else. The excuse of listening to the Duke would probably be enough for both her and his parents to accept his odd behavior. 

Rita nodded.

"Oh, alright."

"Actually, I was going to ask you something. Would you like to train with me? I know you don't have an affinity for Anima, but it isn't good to have a weak body. We can learn to fight and defend ourselves."

"Hmm..."

Rita went silent and crossed her arms, resting her chin upon her hand. She had also heard what the Duke said when they were at his residence last. Even their father, who was only a mage, trained his body sometimes. No matter what, training was good for you. Rita knew this. At least, Dirk thought she did. 

"I don't know. Training is hard. Besides, I don't want to look like that. You can barely walk too."

Rita shook her head as she watched him struggle over to the bathroom. His muscles were so weak that his steps were labored. That combined with the dripping sweat wasn't exactly good at convincing her. 

Expecting such a response, Dirk let out a faint sigh before shrugging his shoulders. He couldn't blame his sister for being a kid.

"Eh, alright. Well, at least think about it. You can either train with me or help mom in the garden. If you want to train with me, just come to my room after school."

"Okay!"

"Then I'm gonna wash up. Tell mom I'll be down there in 10."

Dirk waved, prompting Rita to nod and turn on her heels. He turned on his bathtub as the door clicked shut.

10 minutes later, Dirk was walking down the stairs into the dining room. His mother and sister were already digging in, and his place had a prepared plate of food. Surprisingly, there was a larger portion. 

"So you're training huh?"

Cecilia spoke as he emerged. He wasn't sweating anymore, but she could tell that he was weak. He struggled to even get himself into the chair. 

Dirk didn't show any surprise as he picked up his fork.

"Yes, mother. I wanted to follow Duke Hillshire's advice and train my body."

"Mm, that's good. If you're going to train though, let me teach you. I don't need you hurting yourself trying to figure things out."

"...Okay."

Dirk hesitated, but eventually just nodded. He shouldn't even know what training was, let alone how to do it. He had no grounds to reject, so he could only accept despite his unwillingness.

'I doubt this world knows how to train the body better than Earth. Do they even have an anatomic model of the body? Sigh, oh well. That reminds me, I should get those books from Rita.'

Dirk exhaled as he resigned himself to fate before remembering the textbooks Rita brought home.

Hearing his assent, Cecilia smiled in satisfaction. 

"Good. If you start training now, you'll be a strong boy come time to enter the Academy. And since you want to go down this road, you should stick with it. Mother won't let you quit so easily."

"I understand."

"We'll start training after school. Every day except for two rest days. Be sure to get plenty of sleep as well. You need it to heal and recover."

"Understood."

"Mm. Then eat up. I'm sure you're hungry."

Cecilia ruffled his hair. The next moment, Dirk felt his stomach cry out for food. There was literally nothing in it, and he felt like he could eat an entire cow. He quickly devoured the slab of juicy meat on his plate, after which a maid brought him another large serving. He went through all of that as well, stuffing himself to his limit before finally setting down his utensils. 

"Strong men eat big meals."

Cecilia chuckled seeing him eat so much. When Dirk finished, he was about to turn to Rita to ask to see her books, but then he remembered that he still couldn't read.

'Damn. I need to learn this language quickly.'

He huffed inwardly, frustrated. He kept forgetting that he was still only a child, and this was a different world. 

...............

The night passed as Dirk went to bed early. He had considered waking up early to do his own workout outside of what his mom planned, but he wanted to see what she would have him do first. Who knew, maybe she had a developed method of training.

Though, there was also the fact that he could barely move upon waking up. His muscles had been so exhausted that they were stiff as rocks now. It took several minutes just to sit himself up.

'I miss my little repair bots...'

He sighed as he struggled to move to the bathroom. He took half an hour to soak in hot water, loosening his muscles, after which he went and clothed himself. By the time he was dressed in normal clothing, breakfast was prepared. 

He and Rita were soon back at school. Like the day before, Ava wouldn't go into the classroom and waited for him with her parents. When they were sat down, school started, and the teacher began his first lesson. 

"Alright class, today we'll be going over the introductions for your books. This year you're going to learn how to read and write, as well as the basics for math. We're first going to start with the alphabet. Now, take out your Language book."

The teacher directed everyone, and all the kids pulled out their textbooks from their bags. Most kids had left their books at their desks overnight, so nobody forgot anything. 

The lesson started and went until recess. During the lesson, Dirk learned the alphabet and some pronunciation. He first documented everything with the AI before focusing on memorizing everything. This wasn't his first time learning a language. He had learned several others on Earth, so he knew well the process involved in learning another. 

Recess came and went, and after another lesson where they learned numerical symbols, lunch came. 

Dirk focused entirely on eating during lunch. He was hungry and his body needed all the energy and nutrients it could get for recovery. While he had progressively gotten less sore through the day, everything still hurt. This food that had some mana in helped mitigate that. 

While he ate, he also played with his magic, working on the trick Rita showed him. Since the food had some mana, he decided to drain his mana pool. Even disregarding the extra supply of mana being fed to him, Utilizing his mana to its limits was a way to improve himself. He took every opportunity to do so since he didn't have anything better to do.

By the end of lunch though, Dirk hadn't made much progress. For some reason, he could never get past more than a revolution and half with the dark ball of wisp. While his control was slightly better, that wasn't enough. It definitely wasn't on par with Rita who could play with it like a toy. He constantly messed up and had to retry, his sister watching his every failure.

He didn't mind too much though. He wasn't one to brood over failure. He was taught that, if you failed, you got your ass up and sought to either make it right or ensure that you wouldn't fail again. There was no use for apology or sulking. This mentality made Dirk mostly numb to failure. Especially for things like this, he simply didn't care about failing. He would just give it his best, doing everything in his power to succeed in one way or another. 

When lunch ended, everyone went back to class for a few more hours. At 4 o'clock, Dirk's mother was there to pick him and his sister up. She spoke to them on their way back.

"Rita already knows this, but just so you know in the future, I'm not going to be picking you guys up every day. The driver here will be doing so, so don't always expect me.

"Understood."

Dirk nodded in understanding. It was a simple drive to and from the house, so it wasn't like he was going to fret about his mother not being there. She likely had better things to do anyway.

AFter Dirk nodded, Rita raised her hand.

"Hey mom, can I go and play at Tess's house?"

"Today? Sure."

"Okay! We planned to go in an hour. She said I can eat dinner there."

"As long as you're back before 10. Miss Sanala will go with you too."

"Alright!"

Rita smiled. Miss Sanala was the head maid of the house, similar to Butler Gordon at the Duke's house. While Dirk didn't have much interaction with her, she often helped the other family members with things like dressing, cleaning, and in general any tasks they needed to get done. 

The three arrived back at the house, and surprisingly, they entered to see their dad snacking on some fruits in the dining room while reading his book. The book was a very fancy one, and apparently a magical one as well. Even now, Dirk could see mana fluctuating off of it. Their father was often seen reading from it, whenever they did see him. 

"Home early?"

Cecilia walked up to her husband, exchanging a kiss. 

"No, I'll be heading back out in an hour. Just wanted to check on my kids. So, how's school?"

Ryker turned to Dirk, who simply nodded to him.

"It was good. I train my magic with Rita during lunch."

"Train your magic? How so?"

"Like this!"

Rita perked up and raised her hand, creating that wisp and making it fly around her body. She had gotten better at that, the display surprising Dirk. It looked like she hadn't shown him this before so as to not put him to shame.

"Impressive! Although it's basic, it's amazing that you can do that. What tier are you at?"

"Tier I! I advanced not that long ago."

"Good job! Hm, I guess since you're there, we can teach you chore magic?"

"What's that?"

Rita tilted her head confusedly, and Ryker assumed a lecturing stance.

"Chore magic is magic that anybody with a modicum of mana can perform. They consist of 4 extremely basic spells. The first is the water ball, then the breeze spell, then dirt sweeping, and finally the spark spell. All the maids use them every day."

"Hmm... But I can't use any of those. I only have an affinity for the dark element!"

Rita spoke with a lightbulb moment. Ryker chuckled at her. 

"No, you can do it. It's just that you can only use those absolutely basic spells since you only have the dark attribute. Anything more is impossible. Even Dirk can use the Breeze and Water Ball spells even though he has neither the air nor water attribute. However, it takes more energy than normal to cast something that's outside of your affinity. Your mother only has the earth and dark attributes, but she can create a tongue of fire."

"Indeed."

Cecilia nodded and brought up her palm. A spark ignited and turned into a small flame the next second. Dirk's eyes lit up, remembering seeing this spell as a baby when she cooked. Many of the maids used the flame to quickly heat up stoves or ovens for cooking as well. 

Could he actually use magics of other elements? Dirk activated his senses that could see the mana around him, but he could only see the dark, earth, and fire elements, alongside Anima. Outside of that, he could only see some other kind of faint fog. There was something there, but it was almost indistinguishable. Did that fog contain the water and air mana?

Looking closer, he could indeed see a slight difference among that fog. He could sense moisture from some, and a breeze from others. It was barely noticeable though, and he wasn't sure if he was seeing things wrong or not.

"Chore magic is really easy once you learn the spell. Everyone knows the spell too. It's no secret. Should we learn it? I can teach you guys the spells before I have to leave."

Ryker patted Rita's head as he looked toward his wife. She shook her head though

"You go ahead and teach Rita the spells. Dirk and I actually have some training to do."

"Training?"

Ryker was surprised and turned to Dirk. He nodded alongside his mother.

"Dirk has decided to heed Hillshire's advice and train his body. I didn't want him hurting himself so I'm going to teach and train him. Today is our first day."

"I see. You've chosen to tread a rough path, son. I wish you luck in your endeavors."

Ryker patted his son's shoulder as if he were going off to war. Cecilia just rolled her eyes though before smacking her husband.

"I'm not gonna kill him. Just go teach Rita. I can teach Dirk the spells after our training."

"Sigh, alright. Just let me see my son in one piece when I come home again."

"If you don't get out of here then you won't be leaving in one piece."

"Alright then Rita, it's time for our first lesson!"

Ryker chuckled as he pulled his daughter along. Cecilia shot him a glare before turning to her son. 

"Change into lighter clothing and head to the garden. No shoes or shirt."

"Understood."

Dirk nodded before spinning on his heel and heading upstairs. For some reason, he reacted strictly when he heard his mother's commanding tone. He started having flashbacks to boot camp.

..........

"Since you're only 6 years old, you obviously won't be capable of amazing feats of strength, but you should have decent stamina. We'll be training everything from your running stamina to your strength and endurance. This involves many things like movements that require you to exert exploding strength and others that require you to exert medium strength over time. I'll also help with your flexibility, an essential trait that will prevent injury and enhance your agility..."

After Dirk made his way to the garden in his shorts, his mother began briefing him. She had also appeared in activewear, the clothes outlining her strong but slim body. 

Dirk just stood in place with a rigid at-attention stance as she spoke. Nothing she was saying was anything new to him, but that was irrelevant. He silently took in every word she said. 

"Now, I'll show you the workouts you'll be doing. And since you'll be training your body, I guess I might have to go out and buy some potions. We'll see how you do though. For now, just watch me closely."

Saying that, Cecilia proceeded to drop to the floor, entering pushup position. She showed him exactly what to do, going so far as to explain the angle his elbows should be at. Then, she flipped over and went into a situp position. 

Dirk was surprised to see many of the same bodyweight workouts from Earth. All the exercises she showed targeted all the muscle groups. While Dirk knew some workouts that were better than the ones she showed, in general, none of her exercises were bad. They would get the job done just as well as his. 

"Alright, I don't expect you to remember all that, but at least you have an idea. Now, start with the first exercise. Let me see you do 10."

Cecilia flipped herself upright after ending with a handstand exercise. She hadn't even broken a sweat demonstrating everything, and there were plenty of exercises. 

Dirk had seen and memorized them all though. The only thing he had to get used to was the different names for each one, but otherwise he pretty much knew them all already. Thus, he quickly dropped to the floor and did 10 pushups. He could feel his previously sore muscles hurt under the activation, but he didn't even think about it. 

"Very good! Now the second. Do 15."

Dirk nodded and flipped over, doing situps.

"Now the third. Let's see if you remembered them all. Having a good memory is important if you want to practice magic too."

Dirk nodded before going on to the next. This went on for nearly 30 different exercises, after which Cecilia was smiling, impressed. 

"Good! I'm surprised you remembered them all! And you were able to do them exactly as I showed you. How do you feel? Tired?"

"I can continue."

Dirk spoke after standing up. He was sweating, but this much work couldn't compare to the intense training he did yesterday. He considered it good enough to get his stiff muscles loosened up. 

"Alright. You looked a bit shaky on some of those though, so we won't do too much. I don't know what you did yesterday, but I want you to recover before we start tomorrow with the real work."

"Understood."

Dirk answered plainly, but inwardly he was a bit surprised. His mother had a good eye if she was able to see his weakness. His muscles were indeed a bit shaky, but that was only because his body had yet to adapt to any form of training. He thought about the reason she had him workout half naked though and understood. 

'She probably wanted to see where I'm at. Getting a good look at my muscles probably did that. If she saw twitching muscle fibers, then she could figure out that I was struggling. Seems like she knows her stuff.'

Dirk smiled a bit. He didn't mind if his mother trained him. If she was capable, then he would just follow her lead. If there was a day that they didn't do much, then he would just do additional work. He rather enjoyed spending time with her anyway. She was nice.

"Hmm, hang on."

Suddenly thinking of something, Cecilia strode off into the house.

That simple action though made Dirk go wide eyed. Not only were her steps fast, but they covered several meters of ground and were incredibly strong. He could immediately see that his mother had some kind of superhuman strength and speed, though he couldn't understand how that was possible. Just her slim body was capable of bursting with speeds faster than world class sprinters? In splits of a second, no less? 

Dirks mind went into a bit of turmoil, and it didn't help when his mother reappeared with speeds even faster than before. She didn't even create any sound, simply zipping to his side with a light step as her body defied physics. In her hands now appeared a book, in which she quickly wrote several lines. 

"This will be your training manual. Every day gets a page. I will create your workouts and you'll follow them. They aren't difficult, so you won't need me to watch over your every move. I will though for the first week, and every week after that I'll watch you once to ensure that you aren't slacking. Now, here's the workout for today. I'll fill in the rest of the week tonight."

Saying that, she stuffed the book into Dirk's hands. He snapped out of his reverie long enough to look at the page, seeing a list of workouts and how many to do. 

"Any questions?"

"...How were you able to move so fast?"

Dirk asked the question he now wanted to know the most. She smiled at him.

"Oh, sorry. Those were just some movement techniques. Who knows, maybe I'll end up teaching you them should you want to learn. You'll have to get a lot stronger though before you can execute them, so be sure to take your workouts seriously."

"...I will."

Dirk nodded blankly. That was a given. But the movement techniques were not. While he didn't have trouble seeing his mother move, it was still incomprehensible for a human to be capable of such instantaneous speed. Just his mother was now faster than any human Dirk had ever seen. 

He was starting to get a glimpse of just how supernatural this world was.