Street Cultivation, page 25
"Oh dear, it seems that's doing a number on you. We need you to be able to shrug off pain like this, okay, dearie?"
"Okay." Rick used the last of his strength to flip her off.
Then he fell unconscious to the sound of the old woman chuckling.
Chapter 33: Side Effects
He'd expected it to get easier, but it never did. Rick stared at his seventh pill for a long time, trying to psych himself up to take it. Sometimes he tried to tell himself that it wasn't that bad, but he never really believed it. The pain from each one was just as agonizing as the last.
Keeping the pill held in his palm, Rick went through his full set of meditation and exercises again. Partially to delay, though he justified it by thinking that his motivation to do all that work would be significantly reduced after so much pain. Just enduring each one of the pills felt like all the work he should need to do for a day, but unlike his other work, he couldn't choose to stop the pill half-way.
Finally he forced himself to swallow it quickly. It didn't kick in right away, but he just lay down on the couch and waited for it.
Sometime later he found himself staring up at the ceiling. He hurt all over. Well, not precisely all over, more in all of his inner parts. Usually he was bruised everywhere, but his skin felt fine. It was more like he had twisted every muscle in his body. For a while he thought about how exactly he hurt, then he fell unconscious again.
When Rick woke up the second time, he had a feeling that something was wrong. It had never been this bad before, or this long. But had it been long? He wanted to get out his phone to check, but his arms wouldn't cooperate. Again he faded out.
The third time he ached a bit, but the pain was gone. There were also the sounds of movement and someone humming. He'd have panicked if he hadn't recognized Melissa's voice a second later. That was good, because getting up quickly might have split his head in half.
"Oh, you're up!" Melissa's head popped over the back of the couch. "You didn't seem well, so I decided to make you soup. I mean, it's ramen, but soup feels like the thing to make."
"Thanks, sis." He sat up, very slowly, and realized that he felt okay... except for a growing discomfort with how much time had passed. "How long was I out?"
"I have no idea, but I got home about 30 minutes ago."
He swallowed, trying to remember the exact time he'd gotten around to taking the pill. That meant he'd been barely conscious for several hours. Was something wrong with him, some unintended consequence of the pills? Granny Whitney had implied that it should feel the same every day, but she might have lied. Given the pain, that might have been a necessary lie.
Eventually Melissa brought him a bowl of soup. It was simple, but it felt good to get something hot in his stomach. He supposed that was a good sign, given that if his insides were in terrible shape, eating something would have made things worse.
Soon after, Melissa dropped down onto the couch with a bowl of her own, steam from it fogging up her glasses. "I thought about moving you to the bed, but I wasn't sure I could lift you. I was sure if I tried, I'd end up dropping you and whacking your head on something."
"I'm okay... there's no need for that."
"Yeah, but I'm enjoying it. It's nice to take care of you for once." She grinned, but then her expression became more serious. "Are you okay? Anything strange going on?"
"It's just those pills." He gestured at the unmarked bottle with his spoon. "They're involved with training, but they're pretty unpleasant. I don't recommend taking one."
Melissa's eyes went wide. "Do you mean that I shouldn't have eaten them all while you were asleep?"
"Ha. Ha. But seriously, people said good things about the work I've done on my foundation, and that's largely thanks to you."
"Oh, good. I'm not saying I'm sitting around moping about it, but I do wish I could do more to help you sometimes. Glad I didn't cause any harm somehow."
"If anything is causing harm, it's these pills. But I'll deal with it." Rick ate in silence for a while, watching himself carefully for any signs of something wrong, but he felt better the longer he was awake. "So, has anything special been going on with you lately?"
"Nothing actually special, but I do have one thing that's very, very 'special' if you know what I mean. It's amazing, you'll love it."
Melissa set aside her bowl and hopped up, running over to her backpack. She pulled out a DVD case and thrust it toward him like it was some great treasure. Rick blinked as he looked over the over-dramatic cover, poorly dressed actors horridly edited into random position. And based on the title... "Fist of the Sublime? What is this?"
"Basically the worst movie ever, or so I hear. They apparently had zero special effects budget, so they just got the best lucrim-users they had nearby - who weren't very good - to pretend to do all the fights. I hear you can see stuff catch on fire in some scenes. They actually end up getting arrested at one point, so a scene just cuts off abruptly and then starts again in a completely different location." His sister's eyes sparkled. "It sounds amazing."
"Heh, that does sound fun." He turned the case over to see if the back side mentioned how long it was, but it only talked about the "fist-pounding action" in oddly inconsistent fonts. "You're wanting to watch it sometime? How long is it?"
"About two hours, I think. I actually don't have time to watch it tonight because there's a ton of homework I've gotta do. But we can find the time, right? You're not too busy to manage a movie?"
Rick blinked, wondering if he really did seem that busy. Between work, training, and his matches, perhaps he was. Immediately he decided to make time for the movie, though it was just a question of when. "Let's definitely find the time. Friday evening I have to work late, though."
"Ugh, your job is the worst. Next week is going to be really busy for me, so it probably needs to be this weekend or the next one. I suppose you have to work both of them?"
"This weekend is busy except for Saturday morning. Next weekend I'll get off by Sunday evening, but..." Rick checked his phone and noted the reminder. "No, I have to meet Emily then."
He realized that was a mistake the next second, but it was too late. Melissa drew both hands to her mouth in mock surprise. "Oooh, Emily. I don't even know who that is, so I'm going to assume the worst possible things!"
"Yup, it's definitely whatever you're imagining."
"How scandalous! I think I might faint!"
Rick rolled his eyes. "Really, it's more training. This upcoming tournament thing is the entire reason Granny Whitney is pushing me through all this. If we win, then I can pay her back and we'll finally be even. Then the two of us can make our own decisions and figure out where we want to go."
"That sounds nice." Melissa drew her legs up against herself and wrapped her arms around them. "Are you completely sure that she'll let you go, after the tournament? Is it possible that she'll go back on her word or rope you into something else?"
"Yeah, I've thought about that, but I hope not. Everything with her is a double-edged sword, but she's not completely unreasonable. From what I've seen the reward for this event will be pretty substantial, plus I think it's an ego thing for her. If I help her win and surrender my winnings, she has no reason not to be favorably inclined toward me."
"Hopefully so."
"I do want to watch this gloriously dumb movie, though, so let's figure out a time." Rick thought about his schedule again and sighed. "And I might as well just preempt you on the joke, because the reason we can't watch it Saturday morning is my meeting with Lisa."
Melissa shed her concern and punched him playfully on the arm. "You literal canine!"
They took it easy the rest of the night, chatting with each other before they had to get back to their work. Melissa stayed close to take care of him if anything happened, but he felt better now that he'd gotten through the effects of the pill.
The fact that the seventh pill had been worse made him anxious about the eighth one. Just in case, he took it while Melissa was home, but this time he didn't fall unconscious. It did seem to last longer than the first six had, however. He also thought it might have been more painful, though that might have been just his imagination.
While doing his work, he did his best to look up what he could about the pills. There seemed to be several different formulations, which made it much more difficult to know for sure. Almost everyone seemed to say that this type of training was dangerous, which wasn't exactly comforting. The only people he found who approved of its use said that it was good for "cleansing spiritual toxins" and sold the pills for hundreds of dollars each, which just made him more anxious about it.
After that, the next pill was worse, he was sure of it. When he trained that day, he had significant muscular fatigue in his core. So it was getting worse.
But what could he actually do about it? If Granny Whitney wanted to kill him, she could find an easier way. If she had malicious non-lethal intentions, she would certainly have a way to find out if he was obeying her instructions. And if she was telling the truth, then taking the pills could actually save his life later when he fought an opponent who did damage to internal organs.
In the end, there wasn't much he could do except push forward and hope he wasn't moving toward a dead end.
Chapter 34: Public Park Training
The plan was to meet Lisa at one of Branton's public parks for their informal sparring sessions. Rick sat on the bench by their usual place, looking around and trying to remember the exact name. It was named after a famous duel between two grandmasters, he was pretty sure, but the name escaped him. Everybody usually just called it Eastpark, for the uninspired reason that it was the easternmost of them.
Dressed casually as he was, he looked like many of the other people in the park to exercise. Yet he didn't feel the same as the people he saw, even if many of those going past had generation rates of 40,000 or more. They might outclass him in lucrim generation, but he was starting to realize how that measurement was only of limited use. Since so few shielded their lucrima, he was able to get an impression of them.
A woman jogging along had an impressive 60,000, but over half of that was consumed by her inefficient foundation. At the other end of the park, a man smoking a cigarette had 50,000, but his cores were a wrecked mess. When a pleasant-looking couple walked past with a stroller, Rick was surprised to see that they had over 40,000 lucrim in demonic bonds.
They were all just trying to get by in their own way. It was remarkable how people with so much more strength and money than him could still be struggling, but apparently that was just how life was.
Still, it was a relief when Lisa appeared beside him. Not only was he glad to see her, the lucrima aura around her was much more pure and stable. Even if she wasn't a fighter by trade, he'd bet on her over most of the people they'd seen in the park, even those who were sparring.
"You ready?" Lisa hopped back and forth a bit. "I jogged over here, so I'm restless."
"Sure, we can start now."
They headed off the main path and away from the family areas to begin sparring. Everyone could use the public parks for training, and since it was a nice day, many were. Mostly not seriously, and there was a couple being unnecessarily flirtatious as they did their exercises.
Thankfully, Lisa dropped into a crouch and came at him seriously. He removed such thoughts from his mind and just focused on sparring, which helped clear his mind. Lisa had stopped lowering her generation rate artificially, since it wasn't needed for him to keep up anymore. That meant some of her blows hurt a lot, but he'd faced worse.
As they moved they actually tore up some of the grass, however. That was one of the things that could get people kicked out: the authorities didn't want people having huge brawls that destroyed half the park. The general assumption was that if you were that powerful, you could afford a proper training facility. Unfortunately, he and Lisa might be getting into an uncomfortable zone between those two.
When they finished, they dropped onto the grass to catch their breath. Lisa fell back and caught herself with her arms, staring skyward. Rick closed his eyes and took a moment to collect himself before speaking.
"That was pretty good. I know you're not interested in the combat side of things, but you're getting a lot better about counter-attacking. Not much hesitation and over-defending now."
"Thanks." Lisa shot him a smile. "To tell you the truth, I actually put a bit of effort into my combat core. I figure if I spar this often, I should get better at it."
"Hmm, how is your portfolio organized, then?"
"You know, I should just give you access to my profile. Kind of silly that I haven't done it already, given that you're my personal trainer and everything." Lisa tapped on her phone and transferred permissions over to him, so he brought up her profile.
[Name: LisLis (pseudonym)
Ether Tier: 13th
Ether Score: 626
Lucrim Generation: 59,500
- Demonic Bond: 6500
Current Lucrim: (private data)
[LisLis's Lucrima Portfolio
Foundation: 12,000 (Lv III)
Professional Massage Lucore: 31,800 (Lv VII)
Transportation Core: 5000 (Lv IV)
Legacy Core: 6200 (Lv III)
Combat Core: 4500 (Lv II)]
Though he kept a neutral expression, Rick found himself a bit intimidated. Lisa had over 30,000 lucrim invested in her occupation - she was definitely a professional, probably worth more than he was as a trainer. Even adding up all of his combat cores, he didn't have that much in his profession.
The presence of a demonic bond surprised him, but he decided that he couldn't hold it against her. He'd never gotten the slightest sense that she drew off one and she definitely wasn't dependent on it. Perhaps she just had it as a backup source of lucrim or for security. Uncle Frank said that some people viewed them that way, though he thought they were still an accident waiting to happen.
In any case, he realized that he was spending too long staring at her portfolio and she was watching nervously, so he glanced up and smiled. "Not bad. I see it classifies your main core as Level VII - I don't have anything ranked that high."
"Thanks, I've put a lot of effort into it." Lisa shook her head and then dropped back onto the grass with her hands behind her head. "I've been there for a while, though. It seems like it will take a lot of work to break into Level VIII."
"This general 'Combat Core' is probably fine for your purposes. I... actually don't know what this 'Legacy Core' is, though."
Lisa glanced up at him in surprise. "Really? Your parents didn't always bug you to be investing more in your Legacy Core? Mine never shut up about it. Not only is it one of the best ways to leave a Birthright Core to your descendants, it can really improve your health when you get older. I try to put some into it every month, but... well, you know how life goes."
His parents had not exactly been the type to invest money for the future, but Rick held his tongue about all that. When he reached out toward Lisa's portfolio in real life, instead of via the app, he thought he had a sense for it. The Legacy Core was actually similar to Graham's Stake, in that it slowly gathered strength over time. He could definitely see the benefits, though he was a bit irritated that things he'd never heard of were common clichés to people of higher classes.
"Plus, having one improves your ether score," Lisa went on. "It's one of those things people bug you about, but it really does make a difference. I couldn't have gotten my current apartment without a 600+ ether score."
"Actually, I was going to ask you about that, too. Yours is really high... I don't suppose there's any trick to it?"
After looking at him for a while, Lisa closed her eyes with an odd expression. "I'm not sure what to tell you, Rick. If you asked my parents and their friends, they practically believe that ether score is just how good of a person you are. They always told me you just need to be responsible and you'll get a good one. But you're one of the most responsible people I know and that hasn't worked out for you."
She'd put effort into not insulting him, but it still stung a bit. Rick forced himself to focus on her words instead of the gap between them. "My parents never talked about that kind of thing. I... don't think the companies that calculate the score really care about certain kinds of responsibility."
"Yeah, it seems that way."
They had fully recovered by then, so they both got back up. In the time they had been working, the park had cleared out a bit. As they headed back to the sidewalk, Rick found himself wincing and holding his stomach. Just a cramp, or an aftereffect from the pills?
"Are you okay?" Lisa moved up to him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"It's some medicine I'm taking for training. Really does a number on me."
"Oh, I've seen similar things before. I have clients that are just horrible to their bodies, then expect me to come in and make things better like I'm a mystical healer or an actual doctor." Instead of removing her hand from his shoulder, Lisa stayed touching him. He felt warmth spreading from her as she activated her primary lucrim core and he didn't resist. "Hmm, you have a lot of tension and you've been hard on your lucrima. I trust you to know your limits, but... keep an eye on it, or you'll injure yourself."
Rick sighed. "It's about the same as you and your Legacy Core. I always intend to do the right thing, but life keeps interrupting."
Lisa took her hand off his shoulder but stayed close, giving him a smile. "You know, you've been fulfilling your side of the bargain, but I haven't really given you much in return. Literally just one massage for Melissa. Are you sure you don't want one yourself? It'd probably do you some good."
"I..." Part of him wanted to because she was offering a valuable service. Another part wanted to find out how her hands would feel kneading his muscles. But the part that won out was the one who thought it would end up really awkward. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm under too much stress right now. Maybe once I get through some issues I'll have time to relax."
