Dirk decided that he would attempt a destruction cycle. Learning the resonance was rather easy and only took a couple minutes, so he moved on to the hard stuff.

Dirk sat at the chair of his desk with the book in front of him. Ava was sitting on his bed messing around with the mana around her, training her technique. Suddenly though, Ava could see the Anima around her fluctuate a bit, and she turned to Dirk.

Dirk moved his hand over his forearm. He decided to destroy a section in the shape of a band going around his forearm. He could then move up and down his limbs, doing one ring at a time.

After moving the Anima over his forearm and concentrating it around it, he made it resonate. The Anima fluctuated much faster and much more forcefully than the light resonation he did to saturate his body, and with it, he was hit with a wave of horrible pain.

"Argh!"

"Dirk?"

Ava's eyes went wide when she heard him shout. Dirk ignored her though and concentrated on his arm.

'Damn! That hurts!'

He cried out in his mind. His teeth were gritting and his body was trembling a bit. The pain caused by the resonation made it feel like each of his cells were being burned alive. Except, Dirk had actually been burned before, and this pain was much worse than that. He couldn't understand how such pain was being caused.

Except for that one shout though, he didn't make a sound. He was quiet as he trembled in his chair, his eyes slowly rolling back. Ava got worried and walked over, but when she did she was horrified.

On Dirk's arm, there was a band of skin around the forearm that was cracking and disintegrating with black and red cracks. The hair had already disappeared, and now the layers of flesh were being broken and somehow skinned away. It was already raw, and the cracks were getting worse by the minute.

"H-hey! Are you okay?"

"I'm... Fine!"

Dirk barely spat his words out between gritted teeth. Ava just stood there, watching the skin on his arm get worse. She knew he wasn't fine, but those words told her that this was on purpose. At least, she didn't need to call for help. Yet.

The process to destroy the skin lasted around 10 minutes, after which Dirk stopped. He took slow breathes as the pain instantly lowered.

The forearm now had a band of dark red cracks and raw skin. One could even see some of the muscle underneath. It looked like someone had burned the skin with a torch and then skinned the charred surface. It was not pretty.

As he was calming down though, Dirk suddenly shot out of his seat and ran to the bathroom. Ava could hear the sounds of vomiting not long after, and she ran over. After going inside though, she stopped, looking at Dirk who was trembling while hugging a toilet bowl. She remembered how he would hold her hair back when she was throwing up and wanted to do the same for him, but he didn't have long hair to hold. After a second or two of thinking though, she kneeled next to him and rubbed his back in an attempt to comfort him.

After several minutes, Dirk finally pulled away. He took slow, controlled breathes as his body regained its calm.

"...Are you okay?"

Ava asked again, and Dirk nodded.

"Yea... My body isn't used to intense pain and it was shocked a bit. I'll be fine."

Dirk spoke as he looked at his arm. Back on Earth, he had plenty of experience with pain and knew how to push through it. Here though, his body hadn't experienced that yet, and he needed to teach it how to suppress instincts like throwing up. Not to mention, this pain was arguably worse than anything he had ever experienced. Luckily, this destruction and torture was a good tool to increase his tolerance. He could get used to pain again.

'Interface.'

[Awaiting orders.]

'Check my wound.'

Dirk gave a command to his AI. Every injury was automatically detected and dealt with, but he wanted a report on this new kind of wound.

[Unknown classification of wound around the forearm, similar to burns and radioactive destruction. No signs of random mutation. No risk of cancer. Nano-repair bots currently sealing and promoting healing. Estimated time to heal: 6-9 weeks. Note 1: Intake of nutrients recommended to help promote healing. Note 2: Anima assisting in promoting healing and repair. Note 3: Recommend acquiring medical serums to accelerate healing process.]

'Huh, so you know what Anima is.'

Dirk pondered seeing the notes. It surprised him that the AI could detect the Anima's involvement in healing. The second surprise was the time to heal. Around 2 months wasn't bad, but it was still quite a while. It looked like the destruction dealt thorough damage, and Dirk wouldn't be able to move as quickly as he thought. He doubted if he could destroy all his skin before he entered the academy.

'Well, getting done my feet and hands will be good enough. Then I won't be kept from doing anything. Though, I don't think I'll be able to get any medical serums to help with the process...'

He sighed when he thought about the serums. Back on Earth, the nanites had supplies of serums to take care of anything. Some serums would protect his body from chemical attacks, and others would accelerate healing. However, he didn't have any of that now, and he was sure that this world had nothing like the serums. He didn't know where to even start in finding something that could help him.

"Umm, do you need anything? I can go get you water."

Ava asked. She knew that throwing up wasn't pleasant, and getting a bit of water in one's stomach could help with recovery. Dirk thought a bit before nodding silently.

"I'll be right back."

Seeing him agree, Ava got up and ran out of the room. Dirk also staggered to his feet, going over to his bed and taking a seat. He meditated a bit so as to take control of his body.

A minute or so later, Ava came back in with the bota bag that he usually used while working out. However, it wasn't just her that came walking in. Cecilia followed behind her and took a look at her son.

Cecilia walked over and saw the wound that wrapped around his arm. Having never actually seen a wound caused by the resonance technique, her face dropped upon seeing how horrible it was. The things she heard about how painful the technique was combined with the sight of it told her that it must have been excruciating. However, this also surprised her. Not only did she not hear any yelling, but Dirk was currently sitting calmly on his bed. Was it not as bad as she had heard?

"...Ava told me you threw up. How's the wound?"

Cecilia asked as Ava handed Dirk the bag. He took a few gulps of water before answering.

"It hurt, but I'll get used to it after a couple more destruction cycles. I'm thinking about targeting my hands and feet soon so I can make them stronger before the academy."

"...I see. Hang on."

After making a decision, Cecilia turned and walked out of the room. Dirk watched her in confusion and drank some more water. Ava stood to the side and couldn't help but stare at the wound. She wondered if she could handle something like that herself.

A few minutes later, Cecilia walked back in. In her hands was a brown case, and she set it on Dirk's desk before popping it open with a click. Dirk looked over and could see several flasks of liquid inside. She looked through the rows before picking one out and moving over to Dirk.

"This is a potion that can accelerate healing. Drink it, and that wound should heal up in about half of the time. Here."

Saying that, Cecilia handed the flask to Dirk. The flask was made of glass, and Dirk could see a green liquid roiling around inside. He accepted it before taking off the cap and sniffing it.

'Hm, it doesn't smell so bad. Almost like tea.'

Surprised, he put the flask up to his mouth and downed everything in one go. When the liquid reached his stomach, his body started to heat up, and he got an alert from the AI.

[Alert! Healing substance detected. No harmful chemicals detected. Isolating substance for storage and direct application to wounds.]

Dirk looked at the notification and nodded inwardly. This was how the AI handled medical serums from Earth. All he would need to do is ingest it and the nanites would absorb the serum, storing it for when he needed it. When he later got wounded, it would apply the serum directly to the wounds, making use of it in the most efficient way.

It seemed like it could do the same thing with this mysterious potion. Dirk was pleasantly surprised as the nanites ferried over the potion to the wound on his arm, applying it and allowing the accelerated healing to occur. One could see the raw skin on his arm turn slightly green, a result of the potion being released into his blood vessels and cells.

Cecilia sighed.

"The next time you do a cycle... just be careful, okay? Especially when you do your hands and feet. Let me know and we can prepare for it. Oh, you can take this potion too. It'll help with the pain."

She plucked out another potion, handing it to Dirk. This one was white, and Dirk didn't say anything as he drank it all too. At the same time, he gave a command to his AI.

'Interface, isolate the potion. It's a painkiller. Store it and don't administer it.'

[Affirmative. Isolating painkiller potion and commencing deep scan of substance.]

With that, Dirk felt the liquid in his stomach disappear, none of it being infused into his system. He didn't need a painkiller, nor did he want it. He could save it for when he absolutely needed it.

After Dirk drank the potions, Cecilia sighed. She didn't like how her son was walking down this path, but she had reluctantly agreed with her husband to let him at least try. If the time came where he couldn't handle it or he messed up, then she could try and get him another technique. That was the nice thing about Anima techniques. One wasn't 100% locked in when they trained one.

Seeing how Dirk wasn't in pain, Cecilia left with the box of potions. She could only wait until the next time he did another cycle. She already made a mental note to ask her husband to bring back some more potions. They had planned to already, but Dirk started faster than they thought.

After she left, Dirk took another look at his forearm. Normally, a wound like this would leave a hideous scar. While he didn't particularly care about scars, he had to destroy all of his skin. He didn't want to come out of this looking like a monster. Luckily, the recovery promoted by Anima would erase scars and blemishes.

'Anima really makes things easy. Only, if the pain is supposed to get a lot worse every level you advance, I wonder how bad it will be at the later levels. It's already enough to hurt me pretty bad. I don't really want to imagine how bad it is when one destroys their bones.'

Dirk sightly shivered at the thought of pain many times worse than what he just experienced. Sure he was tough and wouldn't let pain stand in his way, but that didn't mean he enjoyed getting hurt. It still sucked, and sometimes he wondered if tough minds were a curse rather than a blessing.

"Alright then. Time for Mana Lungs."

He spoke and got comfortable on his bed. Meanwhile, Ava was stunned. You just tortured yourself with one technique, and you want to do the same with another? Did he even feel pain? She was starting to doubt if he did.

Dirk didn't think much about it though. Things didn't change just because of something small like a destruction cycle. The only thing he did was rearrange his schedule. He no longer needed to do light resonance every day to increase his Rank, but he couldn't do a destruction cycle every day either. He would just have to plan out what areas he would destroy and when he would destroy it. There was one other problem though, and that was his martial arts workouts with Ava.

He couldn't quite start destroying the skin on his feet or hands as that would make practicing with Ava almost impossible. He wasn't keen on stopping the training he just started, so he decided he would just hold out on doing his hands and feet for a few months while they trained. He could always work on other areas.

...........

.......

After that day, Dirk continued to go on with his schedule as normal.

He and Ava would train martial arts every day, and she got progressively more proficient. Her kicks were fiercer, punches were sharper, and Dirk even trained her in grappling, so she was able to do several different movements. After a few sessions, Ava also learned how to be intense with her blows, hitting with the intent to harm. She had been hesitant at first, and it took many beatings from Dirk to pull that ferocity out of her, but she was eventually able to do so herself. Dirk had effectively taught her how to be mean.

This took time though. Dirk trained Ava for 10 months. Those 10 months though were enough to transform her into a totally different person.

Now, Ava could yell, she could hit, she could be mean, and she learned how to stand with her shoulders back and head high. The shyness and pushover attitude she had in school was no longer there. Well, not totally at least. There was only one person that she was meek around, and that was Dirk.

Ava had learned how to be tough in these 10 months, but she had also learned how terrifying Dirk could be. His ability for combat and sheer force of will had baffled her many times over, and she knew she may never be able to catch up to him. It was unreal for a kid such as him to have what he did, but she didn't care how he came to be that way. All she knew was that he could put her on her ass with ease and no remorse.

But she was okay with that. It was tiring, being tough. Sometimes she just wanted to be able to follow someone and be in their shadow, and Dirk was that perfect person. With him, she could simply listen and follow directions. He was direct, calm, and stable. She enjoyed that, albeit unconsciously.

Besides martial arts, Dirk also went on to do some destruction cycles on his feet and hands. He had waited around 5 months, and in that time he did destruction cycles on his arms and abdomen. Each time, the area destroyed was large and the process was extremely painful. Cecilia had been horrified when she saw Dirk's entire abdomen cracked and raw. It almost looked like he had been gutted. Ava almost gagged at the sight as well.

It had to be done though, and Dirk merely gritted his teeth. Each time he did a cycle, the pain got more bearable. And with the potions his parents gave him, he was able to shorten the healing time to about 3 weeks. He was also able to figure out how many cycles were necessary to complete destruction.

In the case of his abdomen, Dirk had to destroy the skin 4 times over. The first time was the worst, but each time after that the pain was dulled. Since some of the skin was enhanced each time, the later cycles would destroy less and less. By the 4th time, Dirk only had a few cracks and tender skin. It only took a week to heal from that one.

It was the same for the rest of the sections he destroyed too. Things would get progressively better after each cycle, making it rather easy on him. However, there was a lot of skin to destroy, and healing still took a good deal of time. While he wasn't restricted to only one section of skin at a time, he wanted to be able to function normally. This meant he only destroyed skin on one side of his body at a time so he could sleep without too much discomfort. He also couldn't destroy the skin of entire limbs otherwise he wouldn't be able to practice martial arts with Ava as well. Plus, his mother would get worried if he did too much, so he held back some.

With all that, Dirk had destroyed the skin of his abdomen, arms, and the tops of his thighs in these 10 months. During 5, he had also decided to destroy the skin of one of his hands. Then on month 7 he destroyed the skin of his other hand. By month 10, he had finished both his hands and was almost done with his left foot.

Those months with only one hand to use was not fun. While he was pretty much ambidextrous, only having one hand was severely limiting. It was difficult to open things, and practicing with Ava became more challenging. It was like fighting her with an arm tied behind his back, something he actually had to do since he would occasionally grab her with the destroyed hand out of reflex. The feeling of raw and cracked skin pulling on fabric felt fantastic. He was pretty sure he pulled off a layer of skin doing that.

Luckily, those days had passed. Not luckily though, he was now struggling to live normally with a destroyed foot. This was where he was at on month 10.

"Do you need me to-"

"No, I'm fine."

Dirk put his hand up, interrupting Ava. They were in his room, and she was offering to help him move downstairs to eat. Ever since he had done cycles of destruction on his foot, she had done some caretaking. It was the same when he was down a hand. She just helped out where she could to make things easier for him. And while he appreciated it, he didn't really like being taken care of. He would make it work one way or another.

Dirk launched himself off the bed and landed on his right foot. He then hobbled out of this room and down the stairs to the dining room. Ava followed closely behind, watching out in case he tripped so she could catch him.

He soon got down to the kitchen and sat himself down. After Ava sat with him and food was served, Cecilia came walking in.

"The academy will be accepting in two months. Are you ready?"

She asked with a smile. Dirk was the last child to leave the house for the academy, and in these years prior, he had done a lot that would give him an edge. His physical fitness was unmatched, his pain tolerance was unbelievable, and he currently trained two of the best techniques in the world. Seeing how he was also Rank 2, his progress proved to be quick.

None of her children had ever been so ready to enter the academy, so Cecilia was very excited to see her son enter. If it had been up to her, she would have sent him two years ago.

Dirk nodded as he stuffed some meat into his mouth.

"I'm not sure how much more I can prepare. If I had knowledge about what they did there, then I could do more."

"Don't worry, that question was rhetorical. You're definitely ready. What's your Tier at? How has training your Mana Heart technique been?"

Cecilia asked, and Dirk thought for a second before his profile popped up.

|Profile|

Name: Dirk Strider

Species: Human

Tier: I+

Rank: II

Attributes: Fire - 71% (Lightning - 89%), Earth - 88% (Metal - 93%), Dark - 92%

Traits: Cybernetic Enhancement, Adaptable Genes, Pure Soul

Skills: A.I. Interface (Grade 7)

He looked at his status and nodded. Having destroyed a lot of his skin, his rank was halfway to rank 3. He had also never skimped on his Mana Lungs training, but that progress was slower and he had yet to reach Tier 2. He could feel close though. He felt like he was on some kind of cusp, and he knew it wouldn't be long before he reached the next Tier.

"I'm at Tier I+. My training is slow but steady."

"Training mana isn't a quick process. It's important to make sure your foundation is solid at each level, otherwise you'll be more prone to failure. A mistake while training or advancing could end your career or life, so never rush things."

"Understood."

"Good. You know, Rita is very excited to see you. They've all grown up, and you'll be the last one to enter. Let's see, Rita is 16, and you're going to be 12. Ethan is 18, and Viola is 20. Half my kids are grown ups. Gosh, I feel old now. You growing up makes me feel even older."

Cecilia spoke nostalgically, though Dirk didn't understand why she felt that way. From the time he was born to now, he had never seen Cecilia age at all. She looked like a woman around 28 years old, and not a year older. He didn't even know her actual age.

"...Mother, how old are you?"

"Are you really asking me my age?"

Cecilia narrowed her eyes at him a bit after he asked his question. Seeing that, Dirk shook his head, causing her to chuckle.

"Huhu, fine, I'll tell you. This year I turn 61. Your father is also 86 I believe? He's an elf hybrid so he ages even slower than I do. Sometimes I get a little jealous of his hair. It's so much silkier than mine. And then he has the audacity to cut it short."

Cecilia complained a bit, but after hearing her age, Dirk was stunned. 61 years old? His father, who looked no older than 30, was 86? They should be getting wrinkles and white hair around that age. How did they still look 25?!

Dirk sat there staring into space attempting to figure out how that was possible. Cecilia saw his conflicted face though and answered his question.

"The higher power you achieve, the slower you age. Anima, especially, slows your aging to a great degree. I doubt your father will keel over for another 500 years. And while humans don't have such natural lifespans, someone like me will easily live for 400. I shouldn't see gray hairs until I'm 300. Even then though, your father will still look young. I'm thinking I'll have to drag him to the grave with me when my time comes. Can't have him touching other girls out of loneliness."

Cecilia frowned as she ruminated about the future. Meanwhile, Dirk was stunned even more. He had a hard time wrapping his head around the concept of living for hundreds of years. One could see civilizations rise and fall during that time frame. It was a surreal thought.