James spent his days reconstructing and reforging his body, almost every waking second being full of pain. It had gotten to the point that he was contemplating the meaning of life, the meaning of pain.

He almost even started enjoying the pain, partially. In his mind, distorted by the pain, the very concept of pain was starting to become equated with progress and success. A sort of Stockholm Syndrome linked to the idea of pain.

He still wasn’t a masochist though, that’s just not who he was as a person. At heart, he still hated pain and loved comfort. But for the sake of his friends, and for the sake of the world, he knew he needed power. So he put himself through whatever it took, without complaining.

Luckily, his friends wouldn’t just let him suffer without reprieve. Lunaris convinced Ruppus to incorporate James in her healing practice. Every hour, she’d use the excuse of training in order to heal James and apply all kinds of buffs on him, even pain dampening.

Helios didn’t have talent at healing, but he wanted to help James just as much as Lunaris. He too convinced Eruditus to incorporate James in his training.

Helios’s training was focusing on his tanking abilities, so he tried to also learn and strengthen his abilities that could help James. Auras that gave party buffs, barriers that affected the whole group. Helios insisted on learning any skills that could help James.

He even went so far as to learn pain redirection, which could transfer a portion of James’s pain to himself.

“What the hell?!” However, Helios had underestimated the level of pain James was experiencing. James had become quite proficient at managing his pain, he grew accustomed to it from all the sacrifices he went through. And he had also developed specific skills to diminish the pain he felt, like [Split Mind].

So when Helios tried to redirect just a small percentage of the pain onto himself, he immediately fell to his knees, barely clinging to consciousness.

“Guess that’s a no go.” Helios laughed awkwardly. He already respected James greatly, and he loved him like an actual brother and best friend. But he now gained a new level of respect for James.

Helios was a warrior through and through, so pain was quite a normal thing to him. But what James was inflicting upon himself was the very definition of abnormal.

But more than respect, he felt regret. He didn’t want James to go down this path anymore. He wanted to see his cheerful friend taking it easy and enjoying life.

Helios clenched his fist in anger. “We’ll get that bastard, buddy. And then you’ll be able to take it easy and change your build entirely, into something easy and without downsides. Maybe we’ll even be able to live a relaxed, comfortable life without having to fight at all.” He declared almost inaudibly, too embarrassed to shout it out loud. But he meant it. Nothing would be nicer than to just read books and go fishing every day with his two best friends, forgetting about all of this Darkness business.

As she was healing James’s body, Lunaris could gauge his pain with her hands. She felt the same anger as Helios, inadvertently making the same promise to herself. She wanted nothing more than to slow down and see her friends relaxing and not feeling the need to push themselves so hard.

James didn’t utter a single word of complaint though. He wanted peace and quiet more than anybody. He wanted to just laze around the house with Lunaris and Helios, reading books and playing games all day long. He could spend his days like that for years, or even centuries without getting tired of it.

And it was possible! He knew it was possible, he could envision it. He saw himself possessing tremendous power, so much power that the Darkness and all its agents weren’t a threat anymore.

But getting that kind of power meant putting up with a lot of pain. As much as he hated it, as much as he wanted it to stop, as much as he wanted to just gain power by training in comfy ways that he made up on the spot – he’d put up with all this torture and much more, because he knew it was the only way to make his dream come true. His dream of seeing his friends happy, worry-free, with their world completely safe, and the enemies that threatened this tranquility defeated.

In comparison to the sweetness of that dream, this pain was nothing. Well, not nothing, it hurt like hell, and he was still a lazy loser at heart that hated every second of this. But he really wanted to build a nice little utopia where they could laze around and take it easy, and that was enough to make him put up with this insanity.

Through the haze of pain, the days passed blended together. Before long, a month and a half had passed. Helios and Lunaris became much more proficient at their respective roles. They even managed to combine parts of their training, bringing out the true synergy of a tank and healer.

Meanwhile, James had been reconstructing his body many times every single day.

Finally, after a month and a half, he could take a fully powered punch from Bacchus without feeling a thing. They had pushed this training method as far as they could, to the point that the improvements were getting smaller and smaller with each cycle of reconstruction. But it was enough. Even though they had reached the point where the diminishing returns made it inefficient to keep training like this, they were quite satisfied with the results.

“My god, you’re like a whole different person!” Bacchus shouted. The usually thoughtful and quiet Bacchus had become incredibly excited. At first, he wasn’t completely sure if this kind of training would truly work. But as the days were passing by, he could notice the transformations every time he touched James.

“You know, I haven’t really had the chance to actually try out this body of mine.” James chuckled as he began sprinting and jumping around, intentionally smashing into walls to see if he would feel any pain.

Even though he looked the same on the outside, nothing about him was really the same. After experiencing so much pain for so long, even his mentality seemed to have changed a bit.

As they were watching him, Lunaris and Helios immediately noticed the small shift in him. There was a nostalgic glint in his eyes, as if he could see through the veil of reality. He always had a bit of a transcendent attitude about him, a tinge of enlightenment and wisdom mixed in with his joviality, juvenility and even at times stupidity. But now, that transcendent wisdom seemed to be more pronounced, noticeable even as he was jumping around like a wild child. Even his frantic jumps seemed to be a lot more calculated, his moves more deliberate.

“Do you notice something different about him?” Helios asked.

“Yes, his aura gives off a slightly different vibe as well. A bit more mature, reminiscent of a veteran coming home from war.” Lunaris answered.

“Ahh, that’s right. I felt a part of that pain, I can only imagine how being exposed to it every day can change a man.”

“I think I heard about such a phenomenon. Such extreme conditions can cause significant shifts in personality. As he was dissociating from the pain, the things going through his mind must’ve had a transformative impact upon him.” Lunaris replied.

“Luckily, he doesn’t seem to have changed much. I still feel the same good-natured person within that aura. I think the only reason we noticed is that we’ve been so close to him for so long.” Helios said as he looked at the three dwarves, who were admiring James’s wild leaps with their mouths agape.

James was zooming through the air at unparalleled speeds, the feeling of his new body being quite intoxicating.

He couldn’t stop jumping around and experimenting with his new body. He even tried piercing his own flesh with an ice bolt, to see just how tough his body had gotten. But the bolt barely even scratched him.

Even though his toughness, vitality and strength had risen considerably, the most exhilarating thing was his speed. He couldn’t get enough of the feeling of zooming through the room, at speeds that would’ve seemed like teleportation only several weeks ago.

Watching him zoom around, Helios grinned devilishly. Just as James was trying to see what was his full speed, Helios moved in.

He reached James in an instant and tapped him on the shoulder. James immediately understood the game and smiled, launching a kick towards Helios.

But before James could even move his leg, Helios was already on his other side, launching a kick of his own. But James wasn’t as slow as he used to be. He immediately reacted, dodging it without even using SARM, and launching yet another kick in response.

“Ohh, I see you’ve progressed quite a bit.” Helios clapped, genuinely proud of his brother. That kick would’ve been impossible for him to avoid just a month ago. But that only made him want to push James more.

They began a game of cat and mouse, kicks flying across the room so fast that the three observing dwarves could barely even see them. Lunaris was watching with a smile on her face, happy that James had finally gotten rid of a big weakness of his.

But Helios was still much faster. While James did make up for his weakness, he was still a deeply specialized mage. Physically, he wouldn’t be a pushover anymore, and he could defend himself for a while even without any magic. But he still couldn’t compete with someone truly gifted in the physical attributes.

Helios was quite satisfied with what he had seen though. At least James’s body wasn’t a liability anymore. He had been growing quite worried, he didn’t want anything bad to happen to James. A weak body was a very big vulnerability. He wasn’t ecstatic about the way James had gotten this new body, but at least that was behind them now.

That being said, he didn’t want James to get too careless due to his newfound strength either. Helios got serious for a second, and launched a kick at his maximum power and speed.

James barely even saw it. As soon as it landed, he was sent flying across the room.

Before James could even get up, Helios was already above him, his sword just inches away from James.

“You’re not the only one who was training hard.” Helios smiled. “Tanks have to train their physical stats as well.” He then extended his hand, helping James get up.

James smiled. He knew that physically he was still not at an elite level, and he wouldn’t dare get cocky within the Stygian city. But when taking his magic into account, now that his body was not a liability any more, he was in a whole new realm of power.