Shizukana Gake, The Great Plateau

Month of the Garuda 33, 172 ,328 DE

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Using an open hand, I slap Aoi all over, anyplace where she has muscles, ligaments, or tendons over her bones. Even though I barely use a tenth of my strength, her skin quickly turns bloody red, and he flesh bruises. After almost five minutes of abuse, tears run down her face like a waterfall, and blood runs down her chin from where her front teeth dig through her lower lip.

With her fists clenched, Sato Maki glares at me. Hate and anger sour her scent.

When Aoi is about ready to collapse, I pick her up and head for the back room of the training hall. Sato Maki trails along behind.

In the middle of the back room, a coffin-shaped metal tank stands a hundred and eighty centimeters high. Made from steel made from Black Iron, an Elemental metal, the tank's dull black surface reflects almost no light. Once sealed, the tank can be pressurized to more than five thousand atmospheres, but even I cannot take that kind of pressure. At least, I cannot take it yet.

I set Aoi down on the meter high platform next to the tank, and pick up a contraption Old Man Jones dubbed the iron gill. Through a combination of membranes and pattern sigil, it separates oxygen from liquid.

A pattern sigil is more or less a spell pattern inscribed into an item that maintains itself by drawing on the Mana, Psi, or Ki in its environment. Old Man Jones showed me a few methods for inscribing pattern sigils into living creatures, including sentient beings. Doing so gives the creature the ability to use the spell or technique from the inscribed patter.

The pattern sigils in the iron gill are simple and require almost no Mana to operate. The iron gill is designed to work forever. At least, so long as the pattern sigils are not damaged, it should work forever.

"Take off your fundoshi, and stick this in your mouth. It's an iron gill, and as long as you breathe through it, you can breathe under water." I hold the iron gill out to Aoi.

Aoi looks up at me and displays a cooked gin. "Aoi hurts. Pervert Master needs to strip Aoi."

Stuffing the iron gill in Aoi's mouth, I pull off her fundoshi and drop it on the floor..

Pulling the iron gill out of her mouth, Aoi frowns. "Aoi's mad. Pervert Master didn't grope Aoi."

As I raise my hand with my middle finger chambered to flick her, Aoi clamps both hands over her forehead. "No flicking! Groping! Groping! Aoi wants to feel Pervert Master's hands fondle her all over."

"Just who in all the hells is the pervert here? You should call me Upright Master. And call yourself Pervert Disciple rather than Aoi."

Sticking the iron gill back in Aoi's mouth, I pick her up and dump in the pressure tank. As her head pops back out of the medicinal fluid, she angrily mumbles unintelligible words around the iron gill, but I shove her head back under.

"Stay submerged. I'm closing and pressurizing the tank. Circulate your Yuan Qi; the Academy's basic Cultivation method is good enough. You just need your Yuan Qi to keep moving."

Ignoring Aoi, who glares at me from beneath the surface of the medicinal fluid, I close the lid of the coffin-shaped pressure tank. After starting the gas-fueled steam engine in the corner of the room, I turn on the pressure and air circulation pumps. Using crystal knobs set into the top of the tank lid, I set it for a two hour cycle.

Standing near the door, Sato Maki stares at me, looking as though she has no idea what to make of the scene she has just witnessed. The odor of confusion filling her scent just reinforces the impression.

I repress an urge to frown. "I'm keeping her in there for two hours. You can go home if you don't want to wait. The pattern sigils in the tank will automatically open the lid if she shows any signs of being in danger."

With a doubtful expression, Sato Maki looks at the pressure tank. "Will this really make Aoi stronger?"

I snort. "No. I just get off on torturing cute little girls that are in lust with me. The more I hurt them, the more fun it is."

Shifting her stare to my face, Sato Maki frowns. "It's not lust. You're ugly, but you're the only person other than me that has ever stood up for Aoi. Even though you're cruel, you're paying attention to her. You see what she's like. She's odd. She's never had a single friend."

After pausing for a moment, Sato Maki looks at the floor between us, where Aoi's fundoshi lies in a heap. "She thinks she loves you. No. Maybe she really loves you."

"I do not dislike Aoi, but I can never give her what she wants. I have enemies, who would kill me and anyone close to me just for being born who I am. She would always be in danger if I kept her close to me.

"She has an exceptional talent for Alchemy, but in this kingdom, because she is commoner, she will never get anywhere. I will make sure she has the strength to get into a superior Cultivation College, one that will value her for her talent instead of looking down on her for being a commoner. Whether or not she can grab her future will be up to her."

Sato Maki raises her eyes to meet my stare. Something unreadable lurks in the depth of those obsidian eyes, and odors, which I have never resolved to specific emotions, fill her scent. I have no idea what thoughts or emotions might lie within head.

After a few moments, I turn my gaze to the pressure tank next to me. With everything running, all I can do is wait. I sit cross-legged on the platform next to the tank and focus my awareness inward, following the warm flow of Power, of Trinity, moving through my Body, Mind, and Soul.

* * * * *

Ding!

When the soft sound alerts me that the pressure tank has completed its cycle, I stand and open the tank lid.

Springing from the tank, like a fish jumping out of the water, Aoi wraps her arms around my neck. She spits out the iron gill, which bounces off the metal platform and lands on the stone floor. "That hurt Aoi! Pervert Beast Master is mean!"

"So says the naked girl jumping onto a man and clinging to him. Just who's the pervert here?"

"Aoi's love for Pervert Master is pure. Everything Aoi does is pure."

"Aoi's bruises. They're gone. Her skins looks so soft and smooth. Did her Cultivation improve? What is that tank of your?" Sato Maki's soft-voiced musings and the reach my ears from below the platform.

As I peel Aoi off my neck, the increase in her strength surprises me. At a rough estimate, she should be about twice as strong as before I dumper her in the medicinal fluid. That kind of growth is amazing to say the least. It should have taken several days for her to show that much of an improvement.

Holding Aoi by the back of her neck, I run my hand over the muscles in her torso and limbs, checking their tone and density.

"Pervert Maters' fondling Aoi's body. Pervert Master's groping Aoi's small tits. Pervert Master likes Aoi's small tits. Aoi's getting more excited."

As I spin Aoi so we are eye to eye, she gives me a crooked grin. "Heh-heh. Heh. Heh."

I smack Aoi's ass none too gently. "Now isn't the time to play around. You have weight training, more conditioning, and another round in the tank before we're done."

* * * * *

While staring at the dark kitchen window, I absentmindedly stuff a slice of roasted leg of Striped Forest Cat into my mouth. Aoi and her sister left before the sun had set, but I cannot stop thinking about that crazy girl. I never imagined her Body would response so quickly to my training and condition torture. Body Conditioning is not something that can be quickly completed. It is a process that takes months and years. One could say that it is a never completed, never ending process of physical evolution. Trying to accelerate the process is nothing short of deliberate, methodical torture. Even so, it should have taken Aoi a week or more of daily training to show as much improvement as she showed in a single cycle of being abused and soaked in the medicinal solution. There is something abnormal about the girl, and it is not just her warped personality.

"Not eating your cat? You mus be sick Brat." Old Man Jones' words disrupt my thoughts, as he walks into the kitchen

I glance at Old Man Jones. He has a book in his hands. The characters on the cover are the characters from the alphabet used by the Jewel Kingdoms and the Dunkle Sonne Empire, but I do not recognize the words.

"How much do you know about Body Conditioning and Body Tempering for humans?"

Old Man Jones' single eyebrow raises. "A bit. But I'm not really an expert on the subjects. I just learned enough to build up my Body when I started Coalescing Power. Why?"

"Aoi's strength tripled with just two rounds of conditioning drills, including the medicinal tank at five atmospheres, and one full body weight training session. But that's not the strangest part. Her muscle mass and density did not change in the slightest."

Old Man Jones frowns. "She could have inherited a special Bloodline, but I have no idea what it would be. In the time of the War Masters tens or hundreds of thousands of special Bloodlines were imported into the Great Plateau from who knows how many Realms. The War Masters and their students in the College of the War Masters came from all across the Second Metaverse. War Masters travelled anywhere there an invasion by the Primal Powers. If they found promising students, they brought them back here. The humans of the Great Plateau have too many Bloodlines that could suddenly resurge as atavisms."

Old Man Jones scoffs. "Three-quarters of the geniuses in any generation are most likely some form of atavism. Your little, psycho girlfriend is probably the same, but because she's just a commoner no one ever paid enough attention to her to notice. When the Cultivation Colleges' representatives get a look at her, she'll be probably be noticed by someone."

Dong! Dong! Dong!

Hearing the sound of the bell at the gate of our residence's courtyard, Jones and I glance at one another.

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