Chapter 14: A New Day

The next morning.

Theo absentmindedly stared up at the ceiling.

“…”

He laid there, motionless. A certain feeling of numbness touched his fingers and spread through the rest of his body. He woke up five minutes ago, but the desire to get up and move never once reared its head. It was as if nothing else in the world existed except for the patches of dust that clung to the ceiling fan.

In Mistelhan, he was used to sleeping in late and waking up early. Back then, he averaged three hours of sleep a day, with the rest of his time consumed by either training or battle. At some point, the lines between the two concepts blurred, and his life simply spiraled into an endless cycle of chaotic routine.

Truthfully, Theo figured that he would retain a bit of that habit of his. After all, out of the many things that he picked up from that world, a good sleeping habit was one of the few useful ones. To his surprise, the desire to wake up early and be a productive member of society was nowhere to be found. Instead, he felt as if his limbs were encased in a vat of cement. A wave of lethargy washed over him.

After thinking about it for a few minutes, he chalked it up to the change in environment. Plume was a considerably peaceful place, especially compared to Mistelhan. Plus, his bed possessed just the right mixture of comfort and nostalgia to keep him shackled like a prisoner in a dungeon.

He was seriously in danger of sleeping in for the whole day.

Theo wrinkled his nose. Eggs, bacon, and the aromatic scent of coffee. The smell wafted through the room like a slow-acting aphrodisiac. After a few more seconds, he finally pushed himself forward and sat up on the bed.

He looked around his surroundings. Sunlight seeped in from the glass window. The room was empty and the spot next to him was vacant. Aunt Lynn was gone.

“She’s probably the one cooking…” He mumbled to himself, as he stretched out his limbs and yawned. A second later, he grimaced.

His left arm had gone numb. He remembered that Aunt Lynn slept on his left side, and had used his arm as a makeshift pillow throughout the entirety of the night. Theo sighed. “This body really is way too weak…”

The desire to grow stronger once again ignited. Like before, he did not expect to return to his peak, but even the slightest improvement was better than his current self. The shortcomings of his body grew more and more apparent the longer he stayed on Plume.

A good example was the fight with those Thugs last night. He had wasted so much time and effort just to deal with a disorganized group of less than ten people. Even though he had technique and experience at his disposal, there was a limit to the things that he could do, given the strength of his body.

He was lucky that the opponents from last night were at a level that he could handle, but what would have happened had they pulled out a gun? What if instead of ten, there had been twenty men there? He could not avoid sniper bullets, nor could his body resist the explosive strength of a rocket launcher. Even just a slightly more trained thug with a bit of martial experience would have put him in a dangerous situation.

Of course, a few of these examples were a bit extreme, but the more he thought about it, the more uncertain he became of his future.

His current body was simply too inconvenient for his liking.

“As expected, no matter where you go, strength is always important.” He nodded to himself. Whether it was the strength to defend your ideals, strength to protect your loved ones, or simply strength for the sake of strength, strength was the key. “But what’s the best way to get stronger?”

As he was contemplating the issue, his door suddenly swung open. To his surprise, Shirley had barged into his room.

“Shirley?” Theo looked up at her with wide eyes and a weird expression on his face. Today, she was wearing a pale green sweater over what looked to be a set of pajamas. Her hair was a bit messier than normal, and instead of the rounded spectacles from yesterday, she had on a pair of glasses with a black-rimmed rectangular frame.

Why is she here? Don’t tell me she really did sneak into my room last night? He thought about it for a moment, before he immediately shook his head. Last night, he had slept in the same bed as his Aunt Lynn. If Shirley really had sneaked in, then she would have surely seen him under such compromising circumstances. If that were the case, things would have been a whole lot more chaotic this morning.

“Why are you here?” He straightforwardly asked.

“I… I told my parents that you came back yesterday, and they pushed me to visit.” She spoke up, her cheeks slightly blushing in the process. “They said that you should visit them sometime soon. They want to see you too.”

“Your parents…” Theo vaguely remembered them. In his memories, they did not stand out as much as Shirley or Aunt Lynn, but they were without a doubt, good people. Since Theo was their daughter’s closest friend, they obviously treated him quite well.

He bitterly smiled.

He recalled that sometime after Shirley and him entered high-school, the way her parents addressed him had abruptly changed. Instead of the usual kiddo or pal, they often called him ‘son-in-law’. He knew that they were joking around, but the underlying implications still remained. Back then, he could only shake his head. ‘What would they have done if their precious daughter had brought home an actual boyfriend?’ Although he wanted to say something along those lines, the image of Shirley with another man made him uncomfortable, so he remained quiet.

The most jarring thing about the whole incident was that aside from blushing even more than usual, Shirley made no attempt at stopping them.

Seeing Theo’s thoughts wandering, Shirley hastily changed the subject. “E-enough about that, I came up here to wake you up. Aunt Lynn’s already got breakfast all cooked up.”

He nodded absentmindedly. “I’ll be down in a bit.”

Shirley stopped in the middle of the room, and slowly surveyed the surroundings. From the carpeted floor, all the way to the bedroom window, she inspected every nook and cranny like a devoted health inspector at a high-class restaurant.

Eventually, her eyes stopped on the bed. Shirley furrowed her brows.

“Did you let Aunt Lynn sleep in your room last night?” She suddenly asked, her voice just a little bit accusatory.

Theo subconsciously tensed his shoulders. Being the target of such a probing glare, he couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty. In fact, he felt like a husband whose wife had just caught him sleeping with a mistress. For a moment, he thought about lying to her, but he immediately rejected that idea.

“Yeah, I did.” He spoke after a few seconds of hesitation. “How could you tell?”

She scoffed and glared at the innocent face Theo was currently making. “The smell, obviously.” She gestured to the room. “The smell’s not too strong, but it’s definitely there. The smell of alcohol.”

“Oh…”

Now that he thought about it, the smell of alcohol was kind of a dead giveaway, what with the fact that there was only one alcoholic in the household. Still, for some reason, he did not want to openly admit this fact, at least not so easily.

“But how do you know that it didn’t smell like this before yesterday?” He argued. “What if Aunt Lynn was here in my room before then?”

She stared contemptibly at him. “Who do you think cleaned your room while you were away? The most Aunt Lynn does is prevent herself from making a mess. As for cleaning, you know exactly how bad she is at that.”

Theo smiled awkwardly. In the first place, why are you cleaning my room? He did not have the mind to ask this question out loud, as he worried about the sort of trouble he might stir up. In the end, after giving it some thought, the only thing he could muster out in response was a corny compliment. “You’ll surely make a great wife someday.”

Shirley’s cheeks visibly flushed. Her lips trembled, while an incoherent string of syllables leaked out from her throat. Seeing her distressed expression, the flames of temptation ignited within his heart.

He couldn’t help but add in, “… as long as you learn how to cook that is.”

Her face immediately twitched. He knew of this. Theo had touched upon her reverse scale. If there was one thing in the world that would set Shirley off more than anything, then it would be commenting on her abysmal cooking skills. It’s not that she never tried to learn, but Shirley Polaris physically, mentally, and spiritually cannot cook. It’s reached a point where he actually started to believe that she might be cursed or something.

Her cheeks bloated up like a puffer fish. She looked angry. No, she definitely was angry. For a moment, she scanned the room for something to punch, hit, throw, really anything that might allow her to vent out her stress. After a few seconds, she saw a pillow a couple of feet away from the bed. She reached for the pillow, before she threw it at him with full force.

Theo made no attempt at dodging, and the soft pillow hit him square in the face. During the moment of impact, he reflexively flinched. The next time he opened his eyes, Shirley was already making her way out of the bedroom.

“Get dressed already! Breakfast is almost ready.” She angrily shouted at him, as she closed the door behind her.

After a few seconds of silence, Theo let out a quiet sigh. “Why bother waking up so early? Isn’t today a Saturday?” Still, no matter how much he complained, it was already impossible to change anything.

He got up and stretched his body. Theo looked into the closet for something to change into. In the meantime, he also returned back to the topic from before and began brainstorming of ways to improve his current strength.

He recalled the training method that he had utilized back on Mistelhan. It had given him outstanding results, but replicating such a magic based training method would be relatively difficult here on Plume. Primarily, the problem lay in the fact that his current body could not perceive even a strand of energy.

In that world, training started with rousing a human’s latent potential for growth and evolution. To do that, the residents of Mistelhan had devised of a method to essentially jump-start the body through the introduction of foreign energy. This way, the practitioner not only gets introduced to what malleable energy feels like, but they now also have possession of a drawable source of energy, which they can use for future training.

To achieve this result, they used something called a mana stone. In Mistelhan, mana was what they called the malleable energy that the planet naturally exuded out. Of course, there were other types of energy, but mana was regarded as the most easily accessible. A mana stone was a crystallized shard of mana. They were quite popular in both military encampments and wizarding academies. In fact, some kingdoms did away with their intermediaries and simply used mana stones as their sole currency.

The reason why it was such a popular ‘starter’ was due to the fact that mana stones not only possessed quite a bit of manipulatable energy, but also because said energy was rather mild and gentle, especially compared to a few other alternatives.

If he wanted to train using a similar method from his past, then he needed to get his hands on a mana stone. Unfortunately, in a place like modern Plume, finding such a thing was like searching for gold at the end of a rainbow.

He felt a bit troubled by his situation.

Two options lay before him; find a new training method or find a replacement energy source.

As his mind churned, his eyes wandered. Eventually, he stopped at a wall socket. Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

“Electricity is also energy… although it’s a bit chaotic, as long as I prepare… I can do it… I can definitely do it….” He continually mumbled to himself, as a plan slowly began to form. Of course, it wasn’t really a plan, but more like a rough outline built around one spontaneous idea of his.

“First of all, I need to make a runic circle…”

Speaking briefly of the magic on Mistelhan, there existed two primary systems of standardized magic. The first system was called Inner Circulation. Inner Circulation was all about self-strengthening and placed its primary focus on the utilization of the essence that one’s own body produced. It was a popular system of magic that was practiced not only by spellcasters, but also by the knights and warriors of Mistelhan.

If Inner Circulation acted as the primary system for training, then Outer Casting was widely acknowledged as the best auxiliary system in all of Mistelhan. Its practice was not as widely spread as the former, and it was also considerably more difficult to learn, but it had its own inherent strengths.

Its greatest strength was the fact that one could practice Outer Casting regardless of a person’s magical power or sensitivity to mana. Outer Casting depended on a person’s mastery of the arts, and not their arbitrary strength or potential. Unironically, this was also the primary reason for the system’s unpopularity.

Inner Circulation strengthened the body, and could even elongate the natural lifespan of a person. In comparison, Outer Casting left its practitioners untouched.

In essence, Inner Circulation could turn humans into superhumans, while those that practiced Outer Casting remained within the ranks of the ordinary.

Theo was a rare individual who practiced both disciplines

Given his current situation, Outer Casting was the only option out of the two, as it allowed a completely ordinary person to utilize a few no tier spells. Unfortunately, Outer Casting had too many weaknesses, of which greatly hampered its viability as Theo’s primary mode of combat. There was a reason why the discipline was eventually phased out in favor of its superior counterpart.

Also, he still did not know whether the magic of Mistelhan worked on Plume. After giving it some thought, he shrugged his shoulders. There was no harm in trying.

“First of all, I need something to act as a medium…” He muttered to himself as he briefly surveyed the room.

Outer casting relied on the power of a mana compatible medium. For Inner Circulation, the medium was the practitioner’s physical body. Outer Casting practitioners did not have this convenience, hence the role of the medium. During most circumstances, this medium would take the form of an artifact or magic item, but temporary consumables would work just as well for his situation.

A high schooler’s bedroom did not really give him a lot of options, but lucky for him, Theo knew of something that was readily accessible even to a poor schmuck like him.

He bit down on his thumb until it bled. He looked at the wound with a bitter smile on his face. “The blood of a virgin… good thing gender doesn’t really matter.”

Once a sufficient amount of red stained the end of his thumb, Theo then drew out an archaic circle on his bare abdomen. After a few seconds, a complicated structure featuring a variety of geometric shapes covered the entirety of his front torso.

Theo was satisfied with his work and immediately lowered his shirt, before he walked over to the nearest electrical socket. He squatted down next to it and stared for a long time. Eventually, he took a deep breath and stuck his finger inside. At first, nothing happened.

Theo frowned. He thought for a moment, before he wettened the tip of his finger with saliva, and stuck it back inside the socket. Almost immediately, a sharp jolt washed through his body. The smell of burning flesh filled the room. A short spark knocked Theo off his feet. A crackle of electricity buzzed through his hazing eyes before he abruptly passed out.