Chapter 8 Yoga Pants

"Eureka!!"

After seeing how clearing the first node increased the flow of mana, Kyle looked at the nodes in his own system and saw that they were filling with mana on their own. This meant they were able to draw mana from the atmosphere without drawing from the main channel, but this posed some new questions. Why do the nodes fill themselves, what is their purpose and what do the sub-nodes do.

Thinking on this for a moment Kyle decided to try something out. In this world humans are able to fight against the demon beasts due to possessing active skills. In the case of sorcerers and mages this was in the form of spells and their special abilities, but in the case of the warriors this came in the form of a physical boost either defensively, offensively or for speed.

Kyle as the scion of the Powell family was given access to some of these techniques. He decided to try the fist fighting technique he had trained in before which was called 'fist of the titan', which boosted the force behind a punch by his approximation to around 300% of the original force, without damaging the fist of the person throwing the punch.

Kyle cycled the means to use this technique without releasing it, to see what changes would occur and he wasn't disappointed. Of the sub-nodes connected to the node in his shoulder, three started drawing mana from his node. As he was drawing this energy from the node it carried on filling but the draw was a little bit stronger than the production of new energy so the node started draining. Keeping this up for around half an hour, the node became about half full. Once the node reached this point the node started drawing some mana from the main channel to maintain itself.

What you have to realise is that you would never normally keep a technique active like this for any length of time, as you would usually channel it and then release it as soon as it's ready. Also due to his nodes clearing the activation time for this technique had changed from 1.5 seconds to 0.5 seconds meaning that he would always have an advantage over other people using the same technique.

Kyle grinned to himself as he now knew that as long as he sorts out his bottleneck he'll be able to resist people several levels higher than him. Pulling back his consciousness he saw his hand was glowing red with black patches floating across it. The depth of the colour indicated he had perfected the activation of the skill. Releasing this technique Kyle's hand and arm started to ache, which must have been due to sustaining the skill for so long.

Using his soul sight on the physical realm to see if he had caused any damage, Kyle looked and saw that there was only a little bruising but this had already started to be repaired. Kyle was curious as to how the damage he'd caused to his arm was already repairing itself. While he watched he also saw the muscles and tendons which had been bruised and strained started to be strengthened as they healed.

"What's going on?" Kyle said aloud while looking at his hand.

Miranda looked at him with some concern and asked.

"What's wrong master? Have you hurt yourself? The trainers always say that you shouldn't hold a technique like that without training your body as it may hurt you."

Thinking about this Kyle realised that this was nothing more than muscle strain and over exerting yourself may cause long term damage if done repeatedly. Explaining this to Miranda she calmed down as she realised he hadn't cut his path short without realising it. Kyle was still more interested in his boosted healing and where it came from. So once again he turned his sight inwards to work out the mechanics to this new ability.

Inspecting the area where the damage was located, Kyle could see the nearest sub-node was continuously draining a small amount of mana from its connected node and was infusing it into his flesh. This in turn was healing and strengthening his arm.

Once the healing completed (which only took about 5 minutes), Kyle pondered on this new found facet to his powers. Thinking about this he decided to do a little experiment. Pushing his mana out of all of his sub-nodes at the same time including those in his head, he let his mana surround his whole body but this time without a specific skill. The colour of his mana came out of his body as a pure white light. This light wasn't harsh however and Miranda who was still sitting with Kyle found it really comforting.

Kyle carried on with this exercise for around 10 minutes, while keeping his soul sight active and monitoring his body for any damage. Once he saw that his body was starting to receive a certain amount of strain he released his mana to dissipate into the air like smoke. Watching how his body reacted, he saw the mana started flowing through his whole body making everything from his bones to his balls stronger, more resilient and better. It was an obvious effect on his muscles and bones as they became denser and more powerful while not increasing their size or weight. In the case of his brain he could see the neurons became smaller and more densely packed but it didn't seem to impede his thoughts and memory, in fact he could think faster and his memories which may be slightly hazy unless he used his soul force to bring them back, became more organised and he appeared to have gained a better recall. This recall was from this new life and his past life, even though he still couldn't remember his personal life. Kyle could only assume his personal memories were now consigned to oblivion.

"Right Miranda we have training to do." Kyle turned to Miranda with a grin on his face which couldn't help but make her start to sweat cold, as this smile was the same smile the chief maid had on her face when she was about to instruct them in the harshest ways possible.

Kyle then began to change the 'breath of Ares' cultivation technique that he had given to Miranda previously, to include loops at every node and extended this to also include the brain which wasn't included in the route previously.

Watching Miranda start her training, Kyle started to piece together a proper training regime for them both. Even though pushing mana through their sub-nodes would improve their bodies without outside influence, he also decided to train by running, swimming, weight lifting and also yoga which he still had memories of from his past life. He couldn't remember why he took it up but he could only register one thought of his past self 'yoga pants'.

In this world people do train physically, however this only extends to some weight lifting and wrestling, there are also the warriors who train with weapons but there doesn't appear to be any systematic system of training. Martial training changes from family to family while the imperial army focuses on heave bastard swords or claymores with no focus on skill rather on pure power and how to prevent that power from damaging the holder.

Deciding he needed more information on this world which was called 'Conomor' his next port of call would be the family library as one of the oldest families in the empire they had records going back thousands of years. The records and books within the empire would usually be written on a special for of paper made from a gyzzick tree. This paper is much longer lasting than other mediums and using demon beast blood as the ink, the records could last indefinitely.

At this point there was a knock at the door. Miranda stood up and went to answer the door. When Miranda opened the door Kyle saw a woman in her twenties with long brown hair and calm eyes. This was Shauna who was one of his mum's personal maids and also her closest confidant. Shauna looked at Miranda then towards Kyle bowing her head in greeting to him.

"Good afternoon young master, at the request of your mother I have brought the training materials you requested as well as a training manual on the basics of arrays for you to read."

Looking at Shauna, Kyle smiled softly as this woman was like an older sister to him. She had come with his mum when she joined his family and there was never a day where she was apart from his mum.

"Thank you Shauna, can you thank my Mother for me as these will be a great help."

"Of course, if you will excuse me."

Saying this Shauna turned around and left to return to his mother. Kyle had already opened up the scrolls related to mage training as there were a couple of these he could compare them and look for differences in their application.

"Well looks like we've got work to do."