CH 6: The Raijin Family

"Yes, it has, Mother," I responded with a gentle smile. If it wasn't for my upgraded acuity, I would be blushing like crazy. But I held myself back. She is my mother after all.

Mother was surprised at my response. "You recognize me?"

I chuckled. "I can't forget my own mother, now can I?"

She released her hug and pouted. "You don't have any reaction to a beautiful woman like me hugging you?"

"Why would I get flustered when my mother hugs me?" On the outside, I was perfectly composed, but on the inside, I exhaled in relief. I don't know how long I could have withstood her attack.

"Well, how about if I do thi–"

Before she could do whatever in god's name she was thinking about, the door to the room burst open.

A tall man with short black hair and golden eyes ran into the room toward me and my mother.

"Kaiser! You're finally here! I've been waiting ages for you!"

As he got closer, he jumped with his arms extended toward me.

I quickly sidestepped the attack, leaving the man to fly past me and crash into the ground.

Mother sighed. "Dear, could you greet your son like a normal person?"

The man on the ground quickly recovered and stood up straight. "How is that not normal? I was just giving him a hug!"

"How is jumping on him normal?" She asked. "Introduce yourself and let Kaiser choose if he wants to hug you or not."

'You didn't let me choose!'

The man grunted. "Fine," He said and turned to me. "Nice to meet you, I'm your father, Augustus Raijin." He smiled with his bright, white teeth and opened his arms. "Hmmm?"

He gestured for a hug and I indulged him.

We embraced each other and I chuckled.

"Nice to meet you too, Father."

Augustus' embrace was very solid, hinting at his strength.

"See, Aileen? There's nothing to worry about." He said with a teasing smile.

She puffed out her cheeks and turned away. "If your 'hug' connected, we would have had to take him to a healer."

Father released me from his embrace. "Oh, he's not that weak. You're not weak right, Kaiser?"

I scratched my cheek. "I don't know. I don't have anyone to compare myself to."

"Give me your best handshake, son." He reached out his hand toward me.

I took his hand in a firm grasp and he began to squeeze a little harder every second. I reciprocated the grasp, trying not to falter under his strength.

"Oh? How's this possible?" He asked. "You just awoke! How can you be this strong?"

Mother walked over and made us stop the handshake. "Stop harassing our son, Aug. He just got here."

"Hm, fine." He said begrudgingly. "But I'm still surprised."

I looked at my two parents who I'd just met.

'They seem like nice people. Weird, but nice.'

I cleared my throat, making the couple focus on me.

"Thank you for the warm welcome. I was a little nervous before coming here. But you've eased my worries."

The two of them smiled and exchanged a look between each other that I didn't fail to notice.

'Seems like that's what they wanted to accomplish.'

My mother reached out and took my hand. "We're glad. We've been waiting for this day for 18 years, so we were nervous as well."

Father patted my shoulder and walked towards the door before stopping and turning around with a bright smile.

"How about we show you around the house? There are some people who want to meet you," He said.

I nodded and Mother led me to the door, keeping her hold on my hand. Again, I had to stop myself from blushing.

'This is too much for me. If I was only Kaiser and not half Lucas, I'd be fine. But the half of me that's Lucas is freaking out!'

As we walked out of the circular room, my mouth went agape.

Outside was a very large complex with multiple white and gold towers with large halls connecting the buildings. There were a lot of potted plants and overhanging vines everywhere, adding to the immense charm of the humungous estate.

"Wow, what kind of nobles are we?" I said, astounded.

My parents both chuckled.

"Perks of being a duke, I guess," said a woman's voice to the right.

Down the hall, a woman with long, flowing black hair and golden eyes was walking toward us. She was wearing a form-fitting dark blue dress that was hard to look away from.

'Do these people have the genes of gods!?'

"Phiona! I was wondering where you were," Father said. "Come meet your brother!"

Phiona came up to me and gave me a slight curtsy. "It's good to finally meet my younger brother. My name is Phiona."

I returned the gesture with a bow. "It's also nice to finally meet you, sister."

"Oh, you can be more familiar than that!" My mother said. "Give each other a hug!"

'I can't handle this! I might explode!'

"Mother, can't you tell he's uncomfortable? I'm just giving him some time to get acquainted first." Phiona said.

Mother looked at me with a frown.

"I'm sorry Mother, this is a lot to take in."

Mother smiled softly in understanding. "That's alright. We haven't had any of our children born without mana, so this is new to me."

"Your older brother is away at the moment, so you'll have to wait to meet him," Father said, alieving the atmosphere. "How about a tour around the main house? Phiona, do you mind?"

"Of course, Father. I'd be happy to show him around," Phiona responded.

"We'll see you later for dinner," Father said as he was leaving with Mother. But he stopped and turned to face me with a smile. "Oh, and get used to this place. It's your home after all!"

…

"Here's your bedroom," said Phiona, opening a door into a large room.

Inside, there were multiple plants at the corners of the room and golden trimming along the walls. The wide windows behind the bed and across from me let in a lot of sunlight, making the bedroom feel open and calming.

"Wow, the design of this place is very pretty," I said in wonder, looking around the room. "Is every room like this?"

Phiona, who was still at the door, watched me as I looked out the windows at the rest of the estate. "While most aren't this decorated, they are quite similar in design."

As I was gazing out of the windows, I saw multiple maids and butlers walking through the courtyards and walkways.

"Someone will come to grab you for dinner later," Phiona said from behind me. "Take this time to rest. There is going to be a very large dinner for you tonight, so be prepared."

The door shut behind Phiona and I was left alone in my room.

"Haah," I exhaled in exhaustion and fell on top of the bed in the middle of the room. "This is crazy. I'm in a magic world and my dad is the duke of an empire."

I closed my eyes and cleared out my jumbled thoughts. When my mind was at ease, I felt a warm sensation moving throughout my body and smiled.

"Heh heh. I can feel the mana!" I exclaimed. "Now how do I use it? Any ideas Emy?"

[The system puts limitations on the freedom of controlling your mana. Because you haven't unlocked any spells, there isn't much use for your mana right now.]

"Which spells can I unlock right now, then?"

[After upgrading your mana capacity and mana control to the first tier, you will be able to unlock the pure mana spells, which are a prerequisite for any other skill tree for mana arts.]

"Oh yeah, I still need to upgrade my mana control."

[Do you wish to unlock tier one of mana control?]

"Yes," I said without hesitation.

With the confirmation, the lukewarm mana in my body started to heat up and move upwards in my body. It eventually reached my brain, which caused an immense pain that I'd never felt before. Even with my pain at normal sensitivity, it was still 10x worse than when I upgraded acuity.

"AHHGH!" I clenched my teeth and gripped my head.

This time the pain didn't only last half a minute but over five! When the pain ended, foam pooled out of my mouth and my jaw went slack.

For a good ten minutes, I was laying there completely catatonic. Eventually, I blinked my eyes and sharply inhaled and coughed out all the foam in my throat and mouth.

"Emy! What the hell was that?! I almost had a seizure!" I said in anger. She never warned me about this stuff.

[You're mana merged with your brain's neurons. This allows you to cast magic with just your thoughts. Your brain was overwhelmed for a short amount of time but the system kept everything in check, so there won't be any permanent damage.]

"Warn me about this stuff from now on! I'm going into this thinking it's just gonna sting a little!"

[Yes, sir. I will try to warn you about the effect of the upgrading process in the future. The good news is that you won't have to go through that anymore. Now that your mana has completely merged with your body, your control over it has gone up exponentially.]

"Thank the lord. I never want to go through that again."

I closed my eyes and felt for my mana. This time, instead of a hazy river of lukewarm mist, I could pinpoint exactly where each particle of it was in my body. Most of my mana was circulating around my brain and my heart, but would also follow my blood vessels and nerve system.

"Show me the pure mana skill tree, Emy"

[Sure thing.]

…

Pure Mana Arts Skill Tree:

{ - Enhancement - }

[By using mana as an energy source, all physical limitations of the body are broken to achieve anything as long as there is sufficient mana to power it.]

{ - Crystallize - } [Locked]

{ - Expel - } [Locked]

…

"This is a pretty small skill tree."

[Even though it is small, these three spells are the fundamentals of every magic. To unlock Crystallize and Expel, Enhancement needs to be unlocked first. Each of these spells costs 5 skill points.]

"Time to level up again!" I exclaimed. "Level five is going to be hard to reach with just training."

[You can use a skill point to gain knowledge on the best ways to exercise. Using that could help you grow faster and more proficiently.]

"Show me."

…

Knowledge Skill Trees:

→Science→Physiology→Gym Freak

Skill Path: Gym Freak

[Using the knowledge of physiology, become a pro at exercise and diet discipline to gain the most out of a workout.]

…

"Sounds good, let's do it."

[Commencing knowledge impartment at the cost of one skill point.]

As I closed my eyes, my consciousness faded.

I woke up in the body of an extremely buff male in a lab coat who was currently reading a scientific study on lactic acid production through anaerobic respiration and how to decrease rates of lactic acid production for longer stamina.

'Seems useful.'

As the man I was inhabiting kept reading, I marveled at the techniques used to increase stamina and minimize energy usage.

'Wow, is this Earth? Because I didn't see anything like this back before I reincarnated.'

[Knowledge impartment can be from any universe. Usually, the knowledge database takes from the most advanced universe on the subject.]

'Emy?! How are you here?'

[I am your assistant, master. Of course, I would be here.]

'Then why didn't you say anything when I was living as Kaiser?'

[I thought that it would be best to not interrupt your first experience with knowledge impartment so that you could get used to the process.]

'Oh, thanks then. It was pretty jarring when I first experienced it.'

As I was conversing with Emy, the man finished the book and went to another room in the lab that had a lot of exercise equipment.

'Here comes the good part!'

…

I opened my eyes in my room back at the Raijin's estate and I slowly exhaled.

"Wow, I basically lived that whole guy's life. Who knew there was a version of Earth with only jacked people who lived in giant gyms and lifted weights all day."

I got off the bed and started to do the unique stretches that I learned. According to what the man studied. Precise breathing techniques could lead to a significant increase in stamina. With long inhales through the mouth, holding your breath for a short amount of time, and releasing slowly through the nose, you can save up to 50% of your stamina when doing strenuous exercises.

After I finished stretching, I started warming up with a plank. The key to a plank is the perfect angle of your arms, legs, and back. By having all of them at the perfect angle and performing the breathing technique, the time of your plank can increase by 5x!

At the end of the plank, when I deemed it was sufficient enough for a warm-up, I got up and started doing lunges. With most body-only exercises, the key is the movement and angles you perform it at. By perfecting the movement of the lunge, and stopping at the perfect angle, its effectiveness in warming up the body is increased ten-fold.

"Alright, I think that's enough for the warm-up."

Even after 30 minutes of warming up, I still hadn't broken a sweat. Everything felt natural to me and was as comfortable as walking. Surprisingly walking can also be a good warm-up as well.

"I'll start with calisthenics first and then move on to legs later."

Calisthenics is the practice of using your own body weight and straining the muscles to hold yourself in certain positions for long periods of time.

I kneeled on the floor and placed my thumb, index finger, and middle finger on the ground. Then, slowly raised my body up, into the air, holding myself up with just three fingers for each hand.

Slowly raising yourself strains the muscles even more and works out every part equally.

As I reached the apex of the position, I slowly started to lower myself to the ground and then back up. By doing it very slowly, it forced the muscles to only constrict and never relax, maximizing the gain.

…

Two hours later, I stood up from the ground. I was slightly sweating but I didn't exhaust myself.

"Emy, can you put my stamina status as a bar in the bottom left of my vision?"

[Yes, sir.]

Over the course of the knowledge impartment, I got to spend a lot of time with Emy. She taught me some tricks I can use with the system to help me.

A light blue bar appeared at the bottom left-hand side of my vision. It was about half empty.

"Man, Rex wouldn't have even blinked with this workout. Shows how weak I really am."

Rex was the man I inhabited for the knowledge impartment. He was a research assistant for one of the most prominent physiologists on Gym Earth (Yes, it was seriously called that). At the end of his life, Rex was regarded as one the most influential people in their world, coming up with many new techniques to improve the body as much as possible.

As I was about to try to find a bathroom to wash up somewhere. I heard very subtle footsteps in the hall outside my room. I was going to wait for a while for them to finally reach the door, like with Mr. Davis but I didn't have to. Almost as soon as I heard the soft footsteps, the door opened.

'They were this close and I only barely heard them?'

An elegant woman in a maid's dress opened the door. She had dark blue hair and black eyes which were covered by round-lensed glasses.

The maid curtseyed and introduced herself.

"Hello, young master. I am Levena, the head maid here at the Raijin estate. I'm pleased to meet you."

I bowed my head and returned the greeting.

"Nice to meet you, I'm sure you know already, but my name is Kaiser. I'll be in your care from now on."

Levena smiled softly. "Dinner is going to be served in five minutes. Please, follow me."

As we headed out of the rooms and down the halls of the huge complex, I closely observed Levena's movements.

'She's pretty strong, isn't she Emy?'

[Analyzing… By my estimates, she should be as strong as Rex was near the prime of his life.]

'Woah, she's a powerhouse! How's a maid this strong?'

[I'm sure you'll be even more surprised when you see your family members.]

'I can't wait!'