84 Bony growth

Weird sounds rang out and travelled through the air. These weird noises were a high-pitched cracking resulting out of the simple exercise I was currently conducting. Despite the harsh conditions affecting my training, It felt rather good to train once again.

But something felt wrong, I could not lay my finger on it yet. I got the feeling, that I could not achieve my goals by following the path I currently treat.I could ignore the cracking noises stemming from the outside pressure but once my bones were showing signs of breaking I had to stop.

Building my muscles becomes impossible if my bones cannot stand the force exerted onto them. Doing push-ups seems pointless with my arms being broken. I had to find an approach to fix this flaw, just breaking my bones seems out of question. This process would take too long and intentionally limiting my ability to flee from any kind of danger is stupid. If that is unavoidable, I should at least try to minimize the impact of my self-harm.

I do not have much time to ponder on this matter, as I do not know the true extent of pressure I will have to face in the future. It is still on the rise at the moment and if I take too long to come up with a solution it might already be too late.

Muscles strengthen by wear and tear, or simply said through movement. This concept does not apply to bones. But both of them go hand in hand as the stress bones face can be spread around the tissue or muscles surrounding it.

The bones are designed in a way that enables them to carry the human body weight and still be flexible enough to support a diverse set of movements. This is accomplished by joints, tendons and the ligaments surrounding them.

What I have to strengthen is the top layer of these bones, as they are responsible for carrying the burden. The density of these bones depends on the concentration of minerals. mainly calcium.

On Earth, there was a method used by kickboxers called shin conditioning. The idea behind it was to injure the top layer of bones and cause a lot of small injuries on it. With the passage of time, these gaps were healed and the new strengthed bone was injured in the same manner again. By repeating this process the bones got stronger and stronger.

The main problem with this method was, that it would take a lot of time and effort to produce good results with it. This did not concern me, as my partner in crime could speed up the healing process. The downside here was, that I did not know exactly how it would react, upon noticing the trend. I doubt, that it would do something detrimental to my fighting prowess. With my lack of knowledge of fundamental laws of this world, I have to hope for the best in this regard.

Since the forces that exist on Earth do not necessarily apply to this world as well. Because magic, is not an explanation I can accept with a sane mind. There are still several points I could not confirm, that would massively impact my future development. I know for certain, that my development requires a massive amount of nutrients, but to what extent does it depend on the quality of the nutrients?

Would it be helpful to consume a lot of stones because of the minerals inside of them or should I prefer monsters because of the magical parts in their flesh? But with everything in this world seemingly being a depiction by magical particles does this distinction even matter?

Personally, I would say, that if I am capable of absorbing magic particles and turning it into the necessary energy then there is no notable difference.Circumstantial evidence suggests, that there is no difference between these materials at all. My ants do not care about such trivial things, they just eat what's in front of them.

The next thing to pay attention to is the supply necessary for my development. As much as I just want to start and get stronger, it is unavoidable that I have to gather the resources. For the time being, I do not have the ant army supporting me. Until they are active again I will have to prepare it on my own. A few ideas came to mind, but I should refrain on testing them out as time was of the essence here.

The next concern was the equipment I had to work with. The only thing I could use to strengthen my bones were trees in my surroundings and judging by the weak frame I had no high expectations of them to last long. But for the time being, they are enough to increase the strength of my skeleton at by a margin. Solutions for this problem can still be thought off while I am busy strengthening the bones.

With the path set out, I decided to start by seeking the nearest tree and throwing kicks and punches at it. I made sure to hit it with as much as force as I could muster without breaking my bones, otherwise, it would be truly pointless. To maximize the effect of the training I targeted every part of the body. For certain body parts, I was forced to resort to self-harm. There was no other chance if I wanted to strengthen my rib cage for example.

These vicious attacks landed on the tree, but the tree did not show any indication of being affected by my attacks. It felt like my bones would break much sooner than the tree. Is this new durability a side effect of the new mana density?Out of sheer curiosity, I used my full strength on the tree, but even this attack with everything I got, only lead to a slightly louder noise on impact. My worry about the equipment was gone for good.

While my supportive muscles are strong enough my bones are not enough to safely endure the strain that comes with fighting. This discrepancy was a ticking time bomb if I did not act on it, that is why I made sure to cover every inch of my body in this "treatment". Bashing my head into the tree over and over again was part of this procedure as well.

It did not take too long before the tree looked like it came straight out of a horror movie with all the bloody imprints on it.

I used the situation to my advantage and held my bloodied arm into the water in order to catch some fish. It did not take too long before multiple fishes had bitten in my flesh. With one swift motion, I had secured the nutrients I need.

After this short interruption, I resumed my practice and the sound of cracking bones accompanied it Any outsider might find this noise a bit disturbing but for me, it was pure bliss. As long as I still hear this sound, I know I am doing alright, Repeatedly injuring my bones was a bit boring at first because I had to pay a lot of attention to not missing out on any body parts. I did not want to end up likeAchilles with his heel.

With the passing of time, I was forced to realize, that my bones took way longer to harden than initially expected. Training my muscles was almost imminent but in this case, I do not feel any improvement even after 30 minutes of effective punches and kicks.

A possible explanation might be the fact, that I had trained some parts of my body in this fashion back then. But this seems unlikely because with all the bones I have broken over time, I did not see any obvious improvementsAt most, it was so minimal that I did not even notice it.

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Lucky enough, the outside pressure had stabilized and reminded me of the day, when I used the pressure of the Earth to strengthen my body over and over again. This option is out of the question for the moment, because if the outside world is already this strong I do not want to know, what kind of terror is looming under my feet.

As of now, my body was just too weak on its own. I rely too much on the advantages, that my partner brought to me. If my first line of defence is breached than my body is most likely done for.

My exoskeleton is made of the substance similar to chitin and can only be strengthened to a certain extent, I might want to look into alternatives sooner or later. A feasible option would be to reinforce it with other substances. I have to be prepared for the worst.

If the monsters are that strong and tenacious already, then the players are walking nightmares. Even the weakest fool, would be able to take me out now. It hurts to say these words, but they would do so with ease.

While I do have to prepare for the worst, there is a certain idiom that fits quite well in this situation. Good things take time to ripen. As much as I want to hurry up and make the most of my limited time, if I take shortcuts here, it will end up biting me in the ass sooner or later. I know my luck, I surely will happen.

But this chain of thoughts did not deter me from punching and kicking the tree over and over again. When I took a break, I either trained the body parts I could not reach with my first method or decided to fish for some nutrients in the sea.

The sky had already darkened and the night was approaching but sleeping was out of the question, as it was just not necessary anymore. The last time I slept, was then my injuries forced me to recuperate. I am just glad, that I do not feel any symptoms of insomnia, because if being on the verge of death is my requirement for good sleep than my future is anything but rosy.

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My not so rosy future started with the same routine I followed religiously. Slowly but surely I got accustomized to the sounds I produced through my training. Listening to music was a sure way to alleviate the boredom, that came up eventually. I did not know exactly how much time had passed as the day and night cycles were random at best.

I was not too sure, whether my training brought any advantages at all, the pressure was still as heavy as before and the noise my bones produced would not be deemed healthy by anyone hearing them.

At least I had become proficient in my daily routine, but that is the only perk, that came with it. With no sign of effect in sight, I decided to test the limit of my current bones to try and see exactly what I can afford to do and what not.

Getting in position, I took a deep breath before throwing a barrage of punches and kicks putting all my weight behind them. The sound of bones breaking could be heard with each movement, but strangely I could still continue without my bones hindering me. I must have looked visibly confused after stopping because I heard a voice again, that I did not think I would ever hear again.

" You lousy brat, you finally realized it? Your bones are not breaking, they are being shifted.You are currently taking the next step to evolving your body. Your old set of bones was not durable enough to carry all of your weight. You do not have to worry, the rest of your body stays in its rightful place. For now at least." it continued without giving me a chance to complain.

" No I have not been sulking, neither have I been scheming to take revenge. I am here to tell you, to stop your current training. Your skeleton will need some time to settle in its new positioning. To make sure, that you do not do anything dumb, I decided to slip a strong sedative in your bloodstream, that should take effect right now.

I prepared for the worst and closed my eyes reflexively. But against my expectation, the world did not turn black and I did not lose my consciousness, I was played like a fiddle by this fucker. I felt the anger rising inside of me, but I forced myself to calm down, as I still could exploit him to take revenge for this cruel prank.

His laugh filled my head and I could basically feel his gloating tone.

" Sorry, I had to. But I did not tell you a lie there. I seriously slipped something into your bloodstream. This is not a cruel prank but done as a precaution because for the next few hours you are better of being unconscious, that is for your own good. "

But as the minutes passed and nothing changed, the mood turned more and more solemn and my tenant started to speak once again.

" I am not going to hold a big speech now. The next few hours will be a living nightmare for you. As you might now your bones are being shifted in your body. This procedure causes every muscle and ligaments to move as well. This process is the easy part.

That was the first time I heard its voice that serious. It felt like it took pity with me as it spoke those words.

"The troublesome part starts with the converted mana particles embedded in your flesh. These mana particles are in an unstable condition and will cause a lot of injuries in your body once your muscles get ripped apart due to the shifting. I will not be able to help in this process, as the process demands all of my attention in order to not kill you on the spot."

While I was still busy realizing the meaning of the words it just had spoken. The trouble had started already as I fell backwards not being able to move a single muscle as my whole body convulsed.

" I am truly sorry."

Was the last thing I heard before the start of the living nightmare