Now that he had a lot of time on his hands thanks to severing his work contract and not needing to visit Grace for another day, Sigmarus laid in his cot reading through the Freedom Technique in more detail with his eyes closed. The words and images which had been penned onto the pages of the original book flashed through his mind as though flickering across the inside of his eyelids. The further he read into the technique, the more his forehead wrinkled. All he could do was sigh at some of the things he discovered upon deeper inspection.

On one hand, there was an entire set of basic exercises detailed within which could aid the flow of origin energy within his newly formed meridians and spirit veins. On the other, he discovered that he had been hasty in forging spirit veins and meridians with only his initially vague understanding of the process. Beyond those two issues, everything past the first chapter of the book was locked out to his mind until his perception reached a certain level. The second chapter alone required one hundred perception according to the apparatus.

On the bright side, the first of the nine chapters of the Freedom Technique covered everything he needed in order to progress through the five fighter ranks of the so-called Mortal Stage. For the most part, he didn’t understand many of the differences between the ranks, but they certainly sounded overbearing.

Yellow, Black, Earth, Heaven, Great Heaven… They don’t seem really different in power, but the names of the fourth and fifth levels are so overbearing. Why aren’t their names more grounded when it’s called the Mortal Stage? Luckily, the book made it all easier to understand. I’ll have to use a lot of the origin energy I absorb to strengthen these new spirit veins of mine, though.

Groaning due to his previous foolhardy actions after first receiving the Freedom Technique, he crawled out of his cot and decided to start practicing the first physical exercise detailed within. The title of the exercise was Giju. Although the original language for the title was completely foreign to him, the description explained that the exercise formed self-imposed shackles referred to as locks which one could then break free from. There were thirteen movements in total which spread the practitioner’s energy to all the bones and muscles in order to strengthen them over time beyond limits.

Keeping the images for the exercise in mind, he planted his feet on the hard floor. Then, he extended his hands out straight and formed loose fists. From there, he needed to move the origin energy within himself into his fists to form the first lock.

He closed his eyes and focused inward with his perception. Even now, the strange sensation of feeling beneath his skin through a sixth sense felt weird, but he was starting to get the hang of it after a week and a half of practice. Under this strange replacement of sight, he tried to move energy to his fists. At first, nothing happened, as expected. Because of his inexperience, it took almost a full minute for the energy in his body to lurch into motion and crawl through his spirit veins and gather in his hands. Once enough gathered, the minute amount of energy in the atmosphere of his room rushed over as well. Everything after this was completely unfamiliar.

Despite knowing what to do thanks to the explanations and pictures from the Freedom Technique, actually performing the creation of the first lock proved difficult. He struggled for several minutes while focusing with full effort on forming a chain-like wisp of energy around his hands. The energy itself rebelled against his wishes as though trying to follow its own will and flow freely in the air again.

Huh. I guess it’s a bit like me, isn’t it? Wanting to go about freely despite being held down. Maybe that’s what this whole exercise is about?

While pondering about it, he noticed that the external origin energy finally started to form the first lock as though it knew his intentions. The description of Giju said this would happen, but actually experiencing the tickling sensation of the energy wrapping around his skin filled him with wonder. It was both weird and fantastic at the same time.

Refocusing on the exercise after that brief distraction, he slowly clenched his fists, and the energy followed suit by closing in around him and pressing against the skin of his arms. Once it reached the point of visibly pushing onto his skin, he pulled his fists back toward his chest with his arms crossed over each other, dragging all the collected energy along with them. The moment his fists tapped against his bare chest, the energy rushed around his torso like invisible chains. They didn’t dig into his skin, but he could feel the cool touch of the energy brushing against him thanks to his perception.

Would I even be able to feel this origin energy if I didn’t have the perception stat? He wondered.

Since such a thought didn’t really matter, he tossed it away and heightened his focus again. The energy quickly wrapped around his torso and back to his fists to form the first lock. Now, it was time to break the lock. According to the drawings, he needed to extend his fists outward against the restriction of the lock enough to change which arm was crossed over the other, then repeat the process nine times before it could be broken.

The moment he tried to extend his arms, he broke out into a cold sweat. He could barely budge them against the restriction. Although the amount of effort he exerted was low, he immediately discovered an unexplained difficulty of the exercise.

And this is just one lock? How hard is the thirteenth going to be?

Shaking away his worries, he narrowed his eyes and worked up his morale as much as possible. He breathed deeply a few times before nodding to himself. He then pushed against the lock with all his strength. Every single muscle in his upper body trembled. Origin energy pulsed out from his spirit veins and into all his muscles and bones. Even his leg muscles quivered under the effects of the exercise.

Exerting all his strength, he gradually pushed back against the lock and extended his arms enough to shift which arm was in front. Even then, he couldn’t rest, and continued pushing against the lock as it forced his arms back against his chest. Quivering from exertion, his face quickly reddened, and his breathing turned rough. Maintaining proper breathing for the exercise became a near impossible task.

The moment his fists tapped against his chest again, he breathed deeply and thought, One rep done…

Completing the nine repetitions of the first lock was quickly turning into the most daunting task of his entire life.

Almost an hour after starting the Giju exercise, all the origin energy around him dissipated and he collapsed on the floor like a crash test mannequin. He could no longer maintain the locks. His mind felt like a melted puddle and his body felt like boiled jello. Lead colored sweat gushed out of his pores, forming a nasty puddle beneath his trembling body. It smelled worse than a dead man’s piss.

In between ragged and unsteady breaths, he furrowed his brows and thought, I didn’t even reach the second lock.

Unable to think anything else, he put all his energy into catching his breath. During his feeble recuperation, several silver screens materialized in front of his face.

[You have completed 1/13 of a low-grade exercise.]

[Strength +2, Endurance +0, Dexterity +2, Agility +2]

[Strength and Endurance are maxed out for your current level. Excess will be divided by 3 and added to experience.]

[Experience +2]

Through weary eyes, he slowly read each of the notifications. By the time he reached the end, his lips curled up ever so slightly. Although he failed to finish most of the exercise, he was satisfied with this result. It gave him hope for leveling up in the future. Unfortunately, there was a warning in the book that told him he could only do the Giju exercise once every three days if he wanted to avoid internal injuries.

Sitting up, he dismissed all the screens and started the meditative portion of the exercise in which he could use the remnant origin energy obtained in the exercise to either strengthen his body, spirit veins, or meridians. From what he could tell during his practice, the meridians were similar to lymph nodes, but served a purpose he didn’t understand yet. The spirit veins connected them to each other. For now, all he needed to know was that he needed to strengthen them in preparation for whatever came after the Mortal Stage.

During the next few minutes, he directed all the remnant energy to his meridians, gradually strengthening them. If before they looked like globular amoebas to his perception, now they looked like miniature boiled peas.

Better than nothing, I guess. I’ll do the veins next time. Hmm?

In the corner of his eye, he noticed a flashing icon on his wrist-com indicating that he had received a message. Who would send him anything, though? Was it spam?

Barely standing up on trembling legs, he stumbled over to his nightstand and opened the message.

{Sigmarus. This is Duke. I’m giving you the contact info of two of my closest members who are going to show you the ropes around here. For now, it’s just some basic stuff. Their names are Shad and Torin. If you can make it over to the gym tomorrow at 5 p.m., they’ll teach you how to keep yourself from dying around here. Shad’ll beat your ass if you don’t make it. I recommend trying to stay on his good side since he has a short temper.}

After reading the message, Sigmarus deleted it, set a reminder, and muttered to himself, “Guess I’m going to the gym tomorrow, then.”