From that day forth, Dirk went on to officially train the Mana Heart technique and the Anima Resonance Destruction Technique. In fact, that very day he went and read up on the first section of the Anima technique.

In his room, Dirk opened the heavy metal book. The other books had been taken by his father back to the Duke's. Dirk turned the page to arrive at the first section.

'The Anima Resonance technique...'

This was the technique whereby the entire manual was based upon. This technique would require him to make the surrounding Anima resonate with the different parts of his body, something that would cause the Anima to destroy it. This would both make his body stronger and increase the Anima levels within him, thereby increasing his Rank.

The logic was that Anima was inherently harmful to and rejected by the body. This was why Anima destroyed the body when the two were fused. However, there was a small chance that the Anima would fuse with the body and coexist with it, making it stronger. It was this small chance that paved the foundation for all body refinement arts. Without it, Anima would simply be a poison that killed all living beings.

After Dirk read through the first section, he decided to give things a go. The first thing he had to do actually wasn't to go straight to destroying the skin. The first part of the Anima Resonance technique was the foundational skill that let one absorb and accumulate Anima. It said that he needed to reach the beginning of Rank 2 to be capable of destroying the skin, otherwise the Anima he could wield would be insufficient to do any direct harm.

This foundational skill required him to control Anima and flood his body with it, holding it in and letting the body absorb some. This would be sufficient to push him to the beginning of Rank 2. Of course, it wasn't a painless process. The book said that he would be hit with waves of sickness and weakness after each absorption session. For those with weaker constitutions, they could be bedridden for several days after doing a single session. It was obviously a long and slow process.

Dirk was still confident though. His nanites did both repair and maintenance, meaning not only would he not get sick, but any tiny wounds would be quickly healed. It could also store plenty of energy that would keep his body rejuvenated. With this, he could reach Rank 2 faster than any normal person.

Dirk was eager to quickly start and get to Rank 2. The reason was because he wanted to finish destroying his skin before he entered the academy. It would be a reassurance to his parents if he could do that.

Since that was the case, he got started right away. He followed the directions in the book and grabbed control of the Anima around him. Anima appeared to Dirk as a translucent fog, like a combination between steam and heatwaves. This slightly invisible liquid flowed around him constantly, just like mana.

His mind grabbed ahold of the liquid, and it quickly flowed into his body. Dirk's body was like a vessel being filled as the liquid flooded every corner. With this though came a dull pain. Every single cell in his body felt like it was under pressure. He started to understand how this worked.

Dirk filled up his body with all the Anima he could comfortably, not pushing himself to the limit like with the Mana Lungs technique. This by itself didn't do much. However, the next moment, he targetted all the Anima in his body and made it fluctuate slowly. This was a very light form of resonance, one that targeted the entire body simultaneously. With this came a burning and tingling pain. All his cells were being slightly harmed. While it wouldn't kill them all, it would definitely hurt as his body fused with some Anima.

Feeling this, Dirk got worried for a bit. If his entire body was being harmed, would this have lasting effects? Would his brain be injured? There were plenty of systems in his body that could be debilitated because of this.

He didn't stop though. He was worried, but there was a section in the book that said nothing would be harmed should one carry out the training properly. This technique only enhanced, and besides the mind numbing pain and recovery, there weren't any permanent prices to pay for training this technique. The book even talked specifically about the reproductive systems and how they wouldn't be affected, instead being enhanced. Dirk had initially glossed over that seemingly meaningless paragraph, but he couldn't help but think back to it as he felt the pain throughout his body.

Testosterone was good for a man's growth! This was an undeniable fact. Dirk didn't want anything untoward happening to that particular system in his body, and thankfully this technique had been tried and tested, so his worries were mostly dashed.

Dirk simply sat in his chair and endured the pain. It wasn't unbearable, just uncomfortable. He felt like he was getting bitten by fire ants all over. Honestly, it was only a bit worse than when he intentionally fractured his shin bone.

However, he had to endure for a long time. The book told him that he should only stop when he couldn't hold in the Anima anymore or if blood seeped out of any orifices. Withholding so much Anima was indeed taxing on his mental energy, but he could still last for a good while. His training with Mana Lungs was actually starting to show its fruits even though he had only trained it for a week.

When about half an hour passed, Dirk was finally starting to feel drained. However, he could still keep going. It was only until 10 minutes later that he tasted blood in his mouth, causing him to instantly let the Anima inside him pour out.

Dirk touched his tongue, and a drop of red was left on his finger. The book said to stop when he saw blood, so he had likely reached his limit.

"Interface."

[Awaiting orders.]

"What's my body look like?"

[Scanning...]

Dirk could feel the nanites in his body heat up a bit before calming down. The AI soon came back to him with a report.

[Light but widespread damage to all internal systems. Damage is microscopic in scale. Nano-repair systems are currently repairing. Estimated time to heal: 15 hours.]

"Hmm, not bad."

Dirk nodded seeing that. Without the bots, he was sure that the process would take much longer.

"I can train this resonance technique in the morning, workout, and then continue training Mana Lungs like normal. The resonance doesn't consume all of my mental energy, so I shouldn't have any conflicts in training. It'll just be another addition to my schedule."

He smiled happily. He had been worried that training resonance would drain his mental energy, and he wouldn't be able to recover before he was supposed to train Mana Lungs. But it looked like there would be no problems since resonance didn't require that much effort. In fact, it would be a good addition to his mental energy training. Like a jog to warm up the body.

With that, Dirk waited until the next day to begin his new routine. The second go-around with the resonance technique caused him to get a bloody nose, but he simply wiped the blood away before heading out to work out. Ava also still continued to work out with Cecilia since she wasn't up to par yet.

............

.......

Time passed and a year went by. During this time, the days seemed to pass uneventfully.

Every day Dirk stuck to his training routine. He was like a robot as he did the same exact things at the same exact times. His improvement was steady and constant.

Ava was also able to keep to her own schedule. The first month of working out was indeed the hardest. But after that, things got much more bearable. And by the second and third month, she was already making gains in both strength and stature. Both Dirk and Cecilia were quite proud that she came as far as she did.

By this time, Ava was now working out with Dirk, and she also worked out two times a day just as he did. While she still couldn't do everything he did, the two were with each other as they did similar exercises. She usually just did half or a third of what he did.

Ava would arrive bright and early, go and run with Dirk in the forest, and then the two would do their exercise before going back to the house and eating. Ava would then hang out with Dirk while he tortured himself with the Mana Lungs technique, always watching as he collapsed and fell asleep for a few hours.

Then, when he woke up, they would go back out and exercise again. Seeing his routine, Ava was baffled and couldn't understand how he did what he did. Little did she actually know about the true pain he experienced on a daily basis. She just kept fighting her own battle though. Unbeknownst to her, she had come a long way both physically and mentally. She was many times tougher in the mind now, and her confidence had grown.

As for Dirk, his steady advancement had finally shown results. First, after training the Mana Lungs technique for so long, he had finally reached Tier I+. He was now only a step away from reaching the second tier where he would be able to finally train the first section of the Mana Heart technique.

With this small advancement he had actually seen an increase in his ability to control mana. He could personally cast the Spark chore spell faster and with more reliability, same with the Sweep spell. He could also cast the Water Ball spell a tiny bit better, but that was still a hit or miss. It was just simply too difficult to cast that spell when he could barely even detect water mana.

Then there was the Air chore magic: Gust. This could bring in a breeze, a simple spell for airing things out. Cecilia had taught Dirk the runes, but he had yet to be able to cast it. Air mana was just like water mana in that it was hard to detect and control. He would probably take a long time before being able to cast it.

Dirk didn't practice spells too much though, saving all his energy for training the techniques. Anima was actually the one that he had made the most progress in. In fact, he had actually stepped into the Rank II- level!

This was the prerequisite level that allowed him to begin destroying the skin. Since he was able to heal fast, he could expedite the process of progressing through the first Rank, quickly arriving at the second. However, even with his speed, it still took an entire year. He was kind of stumped by this. How long would it take a normal person? Probably a year or two longer depending on their toughness.

Either way, he was now at the point where he could officially train this technique. He wasn't quite in a rush though as he had planned to do something with Ava.

...........

Since Ava had come so far, Dirk decided to do some extra work with her. The two always worked out alone now, so he didn't need to worry about prying eyes.

What Dirk was planning to do was to teach her some martial arts. Ava wanted to work on her confidence and strength. Being able to fight was a huge confidence booster. The experience of fighting someone was also a confidence booster.

He wasn't doing it purely for her though. Dirk had always wanted to practice his grappling, but he never had a partner. Now though, there was someone who could solve that problem. She was the same size as him and everything.

And so, when the two went out to the forest and finished their run, Dirk popped the question.

"Hey Ava."

"Huff... Yea?"

Ava spoke as she gasped for breath. Some sweat was already dripping down her forehead, though the morning breeze helped cool her off.

"Would you like to learn some martial arts?"

"Martial arts?"

"Yes."

Dirk took a look at Ava, who was surprised by the question. Both him and Ava were now 11 years old, and they were both about to hit puberty. Ava had already started changing, her arms and legs getting thicker and stronger and her bust popping out a bit. Apparently she was also given an Anima technique, and according to Cecilia, Anima enhanced the body and all of its functions. Normally, a girl working out so hard for so long would make her skinny and not develop as a normal girl would, but with Anima, those detriments were bypassed. Cecilia said that the same thing would go for Dirk, though he didn't have to deal with the same things as a girl.

This had reassured Dirk. While his book said the same thing, knowing that Anima in general wouldn't bring any harm to systems of the body was nice.

Either way, Ava was increasing in strength and developing quickly. They both were. Dirk now looked like a little fitness trainer. His muscles were bulging out and his body was practically perfect. His handsome face was still a bit pale, but if anything it suited his demeanor well.

Dirk had only brought the option of training Ava in martial arts because she had reached a standard. She was strong and had good stamina, meaning she could handle the work.

Ava thought about Dirk's proposition. She was surprised that he knew martial arts, but didn't really question where he would have learned it from. After thinking a bit, she agreed.

"I guess I can do that."

"Okay. Then we'll start now. First, I'm going to teach you something called kickboxing."

Dirk spoke and walked in front of her, squaring off. He then went on to explain some basics, and after around 5 minutes, he was training her on fundamental movements.

The two did purely martial arts training for 3 hours, and for Ava, it proved to be no less difficult than a normal workout, maybe harder. Thankfully though, many of Dirk's exercises that they both did every day made doing these martial movements easy. After all, many of Dirk's exercises were aimed at maintaining combat ability, so if Ava were to do these, then she would be able to move the way Dirk did.

By the end, Ava was heaving for breath on the ground. Dirk was standing by her, his mind going through the training they did. Suddenly though, he thought of something.

'I should see if I can get some weights. That would let us push our training up a level. Would they exist? Or will I have to find alternatives...'

He pondered and looked around the forest. There were rocks of various sizes, but they wouldn't be optimal for strength training. He shook his head and looked at Ava. She had eventually caught her breath, but as she moved to sit up, she groaned. There were some bruises on her arms, the consequences of taking some light kicks from Dirk.

Training martial arts naturally meant hitting people. Ava had done many repetitions of kicks on Dirk, but when he saw that she wouldn't get intense with her blows, he decided to show her how it was done. Ava was knocked to the ground several times before she finally got the hint and hit Dirk with all her strength. Dirk had even started yelling at her, forcing her to increase her intensity. After putting her under pressure, she would loudly grunt and shout with each of her kicks.

Doing stuff like that was both shocking and embarrassing for her, but she got used to it after two hours. Dirk's beatings also helped her get over it. She would rather yell than get kicked by him.

With that, they completed their first session. Ava still had a long ways to go, but so long as she stuck with it for a couple months, she would get the hand of everything. Her memory was already very good, so that would give her an edge when practicing new movements.

The two headed back to eat after Ava recovered a bit. When they were walking in, Cecilia saw the bruises on Ava and asked about them.

"What happened?"

"...She fell."

"Uh-huh."

Cecilia rolled her eyes at Dirk's response. She knew that he did his own toughness training, and he likely had Ava do some of the same training. Whatever it was, she didn't mind. Both of them trained Anima, and getting tough was good for them. She knew better than anyone how cruel the outside world was. She also knew that Dirk wouldn't lead her down the wrong path. He had already taken himself so far already, so she trusted his ability.

"Well, eat up. It'll help you heal. Just avoid falling too hard. I don't think Ava's parents would enjoy their daughter going back with injuries all the time."

"..."

Dirk froze for a second and pondered before nodding. Ava wasn't like him who could heal quickly, and her parents would have questions if she came back with bad bruises all the time. Cecilia was fine with what he did, but they might not be. Thinking about this, he decided he would need to change up how he dished out 'motivation'.

The two ate plenty before heading upstairs. Ava would often go to Dirk's room and train her techniques. She had gotten a mana technique as well, so that's what she trained while Dirk did his own Mana Lung training. However, Dirk decided to take a look at his Resonance technique this time.

Dirk flipped open the book and went to the Skin Destruction section. While everything was documented by his AI, he enjoyed going through the book. The book was just really cool with its metal cover and seemingly ancient pages.

'Upon learning how to resonate Anima with the skin, one only needs to concentrate the Anima on the portion of skin they wish to destroy. The size of the portion is optional to the trainer, only limited by how much total Anima one can control with certainty. One should only destroy the skin when they are capable of ensuring that no mistakes will ensue. However, note that the speed of advancement depends on how much skin they destroy each cycle and how often they cycle. Destroying tiny portions and recovering for long periods will not advance the trainer quickly. Destroying large portions in several different areas is optimal. Ultimately, all skin must be cycled through to reach Rank 3.'

Dirk read through and understood what he needed to do. After practicing the resonance, he only needed to destroy the skin. However, he had options as to how he wanted to approach the destruction.

He obviously wouldn't go for tiny sections. He was thinking he would do as much as he could. He would do enough to ensure a decent speed of advancement while maintaining his ability to do workouts. While it might take longer, he wanted to carry everything out slowly and steadily. He didn't want to mess up, otherwise his father might ban him from practicing the technique. He needed to show that he could handle the technique.