Serum

Since Dirk had the rest of the day to do as he wanted, he didn't hesitate as he buried himself in the books. 

First, he decided to go through the extra books that the Duke insisted he read, just to get them out of the way. And after reading both the Mana techniques and Anima manuals, he nodded as if his expectations were met. 

'They seem like watered down versions of the best two. The Duke wasn't lying when he said that the Anima resonance technique is the ancestor of all other Anima techniques. They're all loosely based on the resonance technique, made to be less painful but also with lesser benefits. As for Mana techniques, those all follow a system of cores to some extent. And the Mana Heart seems to be the best implementation of that logic.'

He thought as he closed the last book. He then looked toward the two metal books with high expectations. While he wouldn't use the other techniques, he had documented every page just in case. 

His hands dove toward the Anima Resonance Destruction Technique, and the heavy cover was instantly flipped open. He read through the first section. 

'The Anima Resonance Destruction Technique is a method by which the trainer integrates Anima with his body. The technique involves taking direct control of Anima and imparting specific frequencies to it. When the frequency matches the part of the body that one wishes to enhance, that part of the body is destroyed. In the process of both destruction and recovery, Anima is fused with the body. This technique is based on the logic that Anima is inherently rejected by and harmful to any living being's body, but only until a certain threshold, after which it becomes beneficial. This benefit is the foundation of all body refinement.'

Dirk read through the first section, and he felt enlightened. 

The book did exactly as it described. Dirk would have to take control of Anima and then give it a certain frequency. In the case of the second section, which involved destroying the skin, he would have to match the Anima to the frequency of the skin. The Anima would then destroy the skin on every level. Through this, two things would happen. 

During the process of destruction, the skin that wasn't destroyed would absorb Anima and become more resilient. Basically, it was like survival of the fittest for his skin cells. After that, while the rest of his skin healed, it would absorb lighter amounts of Anima. After all, the body absorbed Anima while recovering. These two processes worked to infuse Anima into the body. 

There were different frequencies in the book, and each frequency was targeted toward a part of the body. There was a specific order that the book insisted he followed though. They were as follows:

1. The Skin
2. The Blood
3. The Muscles
4. The Bones
5. The Organs
6. The Brain

Each section would increase your overall rank by a whole level. Finishing the skin section would raise you to the beginning of the 3rd Rank. And at the end, when you finished the Brain section, you would be put at the beginning of Rank 8.

Dirk was stunned seeing this. None of the other techniques would bring you so high. This one seemed to be a straight path to the top. However, that path was a tortuous one. Anyone who believed they would simply become the most powerful human by following this manual was a fool. 

This technique involved literally destroying yourself. The skin section was tolerable. It was merely the skin after all. Even the muscles were rather easy. But the vascular system? The Bones? The Organs? What were you supposed to do when enhancing the heart? If you messed up, you would easily kill yourself. The best case scenario was crippling yourself. Everything beyond the muscle section was extremely dangerous. Training this technique was not at all smooth. 

But Dirk was drawn further and further into it as he read. He realized that he could solve the biggest problems put forth by this technique with his own cybernetic enhancements. The only thing he had to push through was the pain. It was like this technique was made for him. 

Eventually, Dirk had totally documented the book with his AI. To start training this, he would have to learn how to impart frequencies onto Anima, a skill the book called Anima Resonance. After that, he just needed to begin his cycles of destruction. He didn't decide to practice this technique quite yet though, instead jumping into the Mana Heart book. He was just as excited about this as he was about the Anima manual. 

Having already read some of it, Dirk was able to quickly gain an understanding of the process. There were two main components to this technique: the Mana Heart and the Mana Lungs.

These two components could actually be considered one and the same. The Mana Lungs were merely a technique that enabled the user to effectively intake mana from the surroundings, allowing them to accumulate. In other mana techniques, meditation was the way to intake and accumulate mana. 

Dirk read through the Mana Lungs technique. It said that its focus was intaking mana along with your breaths. Of course, this wasn't normal breathing, but breathing with the soul. However, focusing on intaking mana with your normal breathing would help with developing the technique in the first stages.  

Practicing this technique was actually the first step in the process. Only after you could breathe mana could you move on to accumulate your first mini heart.

To develop the mini-heart, one had to accumulate one of their elemental attributes in their chest. When you followed the technique, it would create something like a core of mana. You would do this for all attributes. For Dirk, he would need three. 

Developing these smaller hearts was the first step in raising your tier to high levels. Upon first becoming skillful with the Mana Lungs technique, one would saturate their body with mana until they reached Tier II. Only then would they move on to form their Hearts. Creating a single mini heart with one attribute would raise them to Tier III. However, one would then have to create at least two more which would put them at the mid Tier III range. The book didn't even make it possible for someone with less than three attributes to train this. 

After creating the three hearts, one would have to strengthen them, a process that pushed them to the beginning of Tier IV. Beyond that though was territory Dirk couldn't understand. He only knew that fusing the three hearts would come after you formed all three, but how he would do that, he had no clue. He still needed to become familiar with the first steps. 

Nevertheless, Dirk had already made his decision. He was going to use the Mana Heart technique no matter what. As for the Anima Resonance Destruction Technique, he would do his best to ensure his parents let him train it. If they didn't... He would cross that bridge when he came to it. 

For now, he just started to familiarize himself with the first steps of each technique. Since his nano-repair bots hadn't yet been fully developed, he decided he wouldn't train the Anima technique and just focus on the Mana Heart. He looked at the first section which described the process of using the Mana Lungs. 

'Pull in the surrounding elemental energy with each inhale, and push out with each exhale. During the inhale, you should saturate your body with amounts of energy slightly exceeding your limit. This will cause a sharp pain in your mind. Upon feeling this pain, push out all the energy within your body, effectively depriving yourself of energy. This will cause feelings of fatigue, dizziness, and lower mental energy levels. Hold this state until the point of passing out, where you will then inhale all the energy once more. Repeat this process until all mental energy is exhausted. Note 1: For optimal results, the element for which the individual has the highest affinity should be utilized most. This will not affect future usage of other elements or lopside an affinity. Note 2: When the term 'body' is used, it implies the soul. Mana is not inherently material.'

Dirk read the directions, disregarding that last part. He had no idea what the soul was or how it worked, but he understood what he was supposed to do. He lifted his head and stared off into space, sensing all the different elemental energies around him. Technically, his highest affinity was for the metal specialization under the Earth attribute. But he decided to use the Dark element since he had the most practice with it.

When looking at the elements around him, Dirk could see everything perfectly. When it came to the fire, earth, or dark element, he had no trouble at all detecting each one. They appeared so clearly to him, and controlling them was as easy as grasping it with his hand. This confused him though. Wasn't his Dark affinity supposed to be much higher than earth or fire? Why could he see and control the other two just as clearly? 

This was a question he wanted to answer, but he didn't worry about it much as he pulled in the dark element around him. It looked as if shadows were flooding to him as tons of the dark element was pulled into his body. This was Dirk's attempt at 'inhaling'. 

Soon, Dirk was feeling full. He could sense a limit to the amount of energy he could withhold. Any more than this would be pushing his limits. He disregarded that though as he used his energy to pull in even more. 

"Ack!"

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his head. Dirk was caught off guard as the pain was much stronger than he thought it would be. It felt like a knife was digging through his brain, except the pain went beyond his head. He could seem to feel the soul with that pain, and he felt vulnerable. It was like he had to do everything possible to prevent damage to his soul. It was an instinct that went beyond instincts. 

Because of that, Dirk lost control of the elements within him. The Dark energy spilled out of him unconsciously, and he felt weakened. He slumped back in his chair with a nasty headache.

"Damn... That hurts..."

He groaned a bit, though he was still shocked. It had been a long time since he had felt pain that couldn't be suppressed. He could always maintain control of himself through all forms of torment. But this was a different kind of pain. It seemed like he would have to train up his tolerance. His energy was also drained. 

However, that didn't stop Dirk from continuing. He had done the inhale, so he decided to do the exhale. He forced his throbbing mind to take control of the energy within him and push it out. Fire, earth, and dark energy flowed out of him, and he quickly felt devoid of energy. He didn't stop though until he was close to passing out, just like the book said. 

However, when he was dangerously close to giving out, his mind stopped utilizing energy, thus not expelling any more mana. This led to the mana in the surroundings to flood into his body. The feeling hit him like a truck, a mix of revitalization and overwhelming intake similar to drinking too much water. 

Dirk's mind became lucid again, but he struggled to maintain mental clarity. After much of his willpower was expended, he forced himself to inhale once again. Unfortunately, he couldn't bring in that much mana before he seemed to lose all his energy. His mind effectively collapsed from exhaustion, and he wanted to immediately fall asleep.

Surprisingly though, he didn't give in. He suddenly pulled himself out of his chair and dropped to the floor, beginning to do pushups.

It was the oddest thing to do, but Dirk had a certain thought in mind. He needed to boost his tolerance to mental exhaustion and maintain effective combat strength during such times. If he were to fight using magic in the future, then he would no doubt become exhausted just like this. Because of that, he needed to be able to physically operate while mentally tired. His physical body wasn't impacted by mental exhaustion, so he only needed to get used to moving while his mental faculties were impaired. 

Dirk went on and did a few dozen pushups before putting his hands on the floor to do a handstand. He kicked up into the air, but he got incredibly disoriented and fell to the floor. He proceeded to continue and try to get into a handstand, something that usually wasn't difficult, but he kept falling over and over. Finally, after a few minutes of trying, he was able to maintain his handstand for a while. He then went and walked around his room on his hands for a couple laps. 

20 minutes later, after Dirk had done some other exercises, his mental clarity returned. He still felt his head throb, but it wasn't as bad as at first. He sighed as he staggered over to his bed, collapsing on top of it before immediately falling into a deep slumber.

........

*Beep!* *Beep!* *Beep!*

Dirk's eyes flew open as an alarm rang in his mind. He had told his AI to wake him in 3 hours just before he went to sleep.

As he crawled off his bed, Dirk was surprised to feel oddly refreshed. His head no longer had that throb, and his mind was in tip-top shape. He didn't go back to practicing the Mana Lungs technique though. He still needed to do his second workout of the day. 

After changing, Dirk left his house and jogged off to the forest he usually worked out at. In his shorts, one could see the bruises from yesterday's martial arts training. However, they weren't purple anymore, instead almost healed. 

These were the nano-repair bots at work. Since they were only at 30% capacity, they didn't work as fast, but they were still able to heal most injuries rather quickly. Once they were at full capacity, bruises could be taken care of by the hour. This effect would only grow more effective as time passed and he grew. 

After arriving at the forest, Dirk proceeded to do his run. He ran 20 kilometers, exhausting himself before moving on to do more intensive workouts. He did pull ups, situps, handstand pushups, burpees, and many more dynamic exercises. By the time he was done, three more hours had passed, and the sun was almost done setting. 

Dirk didn't stop though and went on to practice martial arts. He walked up to one of the trees he usually used. The bark on either side of it had been torn off, replaced by split dents. This was the tree Dirk used for his kickboxing. While this was one of the softer trees around, it was still amazing that Dirk could damage the tree to such an extent. Something like this was afforded to him who could take the pain and had hard bones. 

Dirk went on to continue kicking it, not stopping until his shins were basically split open. He then went and chopped at it with his forearms, bruising the bones in them. Only when his arms were purple and a bit swollen did he stop. 

With pained steps, Dirk jogged back to the house. Instead of entering in the usual way though, he went around the side and found his bedroom window. He then climbed up the parts of the house that protruded, entering through the unlocked window. 

Dirk then changed clothes before heading down for dinner which he could smell from his room. 

..........

.......

That night, Dirk went and exhausted himself with the Mana Lungs technique once more before falling fast asleep. The next morning, he was feeling rejuvenated. 

He went and worked out bright and early, enjoying the cool breeze and morning dew beneath his feet as he jogged to the forest. During the night, the nano-repair bots in his body reached 68% capacity, making the healing process for his bruises pass even faster. Looking at them when he woke up, he could barely see any damage on his legs or arms. 

After doing his run and exercises, Dirk went back to the house with a sweaty body. This time, he decided not to do any martial arts. The reason was that today was the day that Ava came for the first time. 

In fact, when Dirk returned to the house, Ava had already been dropped off by her parents. He walked in on her and his mother in the backyard. Cecilia was showing her different workouts, and Ava was following closely. 

Upon seeing Dirk though, Cecilia lit up. She waved Dirk over.

"Dirk! Come over here and show Ava these workouts."

Disregarding how tired her son might be, Cecilia had him demonstrate several exercises. He didn't question anything as he dropped to the floor and did what she asked. Ava though was flushed the whole time, both from how tired she was and from seeing Dirk's chiseled and sweaty muscles.