The next day was calm and clear, but as I did my morning exercise, a flight round the tower, I could see dark clouds seeming to boil on the horizon.

“Looks like we're in for a storm,” I commented to myself, then turned and saw the 250m tall lighting rod that was my tower.

“Oh s**t.” Then I thought about how hard the obsidian was, and of its boosted regenerative abilities. “Actually, it'll probably be fine, and there isn't really anything I could do about it anyway.”

I went back inside and got breakfast ready.

“Looks like we'll have a storm later today,” I commented to Tear over breakfast. She flinched. “What's wrong, scared of the thunder?” I teased her.

“Yes I am,” she admitted.

“What really?!” I asked, surprised.

“What's wrong with that?” she demanded sullenly.

“Nothing at all. I'm just surprised, and kinda happy, that you actually told me rather than keeping it to yourself.”

“Hmm,” she replied and seemed to gain a lot of interest in her breakfast.

“If you keep eating like that without exercise you'll get fat,” I said.

“I think climbing the 950 stairs to my room several times each day counts as exercise,” she said, not looking up.

“Are there really that many steps?”

“Yes, I counted them,” she said. I thought I could detect a note of bitterness in her voice.

“Ah, sorry about that, it always seems shorter for me,” I apologised guiltily, realising that she had had to do that even when recovering from malnutrition.

“Well it would be easier for you, you monster,” she replied, which I felt was a bit unfair.

“Right. For that you'll be undergoing my 'Body Activity Course for the Out-of-shape or Nutrition-lacking',” I said, and she just gave me a look, which turned into irritation faded as mental gears turned and she realised I was serious.

“Can you at least call it something else?” she complained.

“Nope! BACON it is and BACON it shall stay!” I replied, clearing away the dirty dishes and heading down the tower, Tear tagging along reluctantly.

For her first proper BACON session I just tested Tear's current level of fitness with basic exercises. The catgirl completed most of them fairly easily (with continued complaints about the acronym), but kept shooting pensive glances at the dark clouds on the horizon.

“Relax, they won't reach us until later,” I called reassuringly, “we have plenty of time for BACON.”

She groaned, but continued doing squats. I had had Gavin, the tailor, make her a set of exercise clothes; a narrow form fitting (though there wasn't much to fit round) tube top that exposed her navel, tight unrestrictive shorts, and gladiator-style sandals with leather straps that wrapped several inches up her legs. The outfit exposed her body somewhat, allowing me to see she'd filled out properly, no longer painfully thin, merely slim, but still rather short, though as she was 16, I didn't think that would change much. In all, she looked much healthier compared to when I saw her naked on the day we first met. Good diet and ridiculous mana saturation were the perfect things to help the malnourished; who knew?!

As Tear was doing her exercises, I was pondering how I myself could get a decent workout. The problem was that I was too strong. It was too easy to lift the materials I had at any reasonable size.

After about an two and a half hours of Tear performing various light exercises, during which I had gone through the majority of materials in my world storage, I called out “One more set of press ups and sit ups, then we'll do a cool down, stretch out, and go and get cleaned up.”

Tear said something rather rude which I felt was rather uncalled for, but did the exercises and stretches. I had also been doing some more vigorous exercise than usual, so I joined her in the stretches, then we both headed to our respective sides of the pool to wash off in the warm water.

“You know,” I called over the wall separating the two sides, “swimming is an excellent exercise for lots of muscles.”

“No, just no,” Tear called back firmly and I laughed.

“For now at least,” I replied ominously.

I walked back up the stairs to the dining hall next to Tear, made lunch, ate lunch, then spend most of the rest of the day in the library, only coming out to make a few modifications to the tower and to cook dinner a little early. I went for a simplistic option with heating up some soup from the game and adjusting its flavour with various vegetables and herbs and spices.

As we climbed the stairs to bed, Tear took my hand with her smaller one. I looked curiously at her for a moment before deciding that she was anxious about the looming storm. I squeezed the small hand reassuringly and we climbed upstairs together.

I changed into my nightclothes and waited for the storm to hit.

Suddenly the tower shook violently and I sat up sharply, activating my depth vision to look through the wall, just catching the sight of a lightning bolt striking the forest around the base of the tower.

I relaxed a little and lay back, staring up through the ceiling to the spire, using my binoculars to extend my depth vision.

Soon enough another bolt struck, a thick, blinding pillar connecting the sky and the side of the spire, causing the entire tower to shake and rumble. The lightning seemed to pool onto the obsidian for several seconds before deflecting off into the forest, reminding me of that one scene in Star Wars where Yoda caught and threw back Dooku's force lightning.

Another strike did the same, as the bolt deflected off I could just about feel that some mana was being drawn from the obsidian of the tower into it. After several strikes, I soon realised I couldn't see a bolt falling anywhere else in sight.

Shortly after the eighth bolt shook the tower, Tear came into my room, shivering violently through her thin white nightdress.

“Scared of the lightning?” I asked gently and she nodded then blanched as another bolt struck.

“It's ok, come here,” I said calmingly, patting the bed next to me. Once she had come closer, I held the blanket up for her.

Timidly, she got into bed next to me and I embraced her gently, my chin against her forehead, and smoothed the back of her hair soothingly. Another bolt struck the tower and she tensed, blocking like a statue in my arms. In time, her body softened as she relaxed into sleep.

I knew firsthand what a comfort being held like this as, when I was a child and had been scared by a nightmare, my parents would do this for me, then when I was older and they were away working I would do this for my little brother.

Suddenly I realised I viewed Tear as a little sister, even though I’d only known her for a few days. It was amazing how quickly she had become like family to me.

As I lay in bed considering the young catgirl in my arms, I continued watching the lightning striking the tower through my binoculars, holding them with my free hand, and noticed something odd. After almost a dozen strikes, part of the lightning was being absorbed by the obsidian, and by a dozen, the lightning was absorbed smoothly and quickly into the tower with not even the slightest shaking. I wondered what effect that would have on the tower, but at least the shaking stopped, and I could sleep peacefully.