The very next day, Robin quickly called the others to go to Lola’s house. Like most houses today, they come with basements which are generally for training equipment for young people hoping to become heroes.

In Lola’s house, this is no different but now everything was moved aside and standing aside for what was currently inside the basement.

“You're serious…” Robin said in shock by the sight.

Barrels upon barrels each with a diameter of at least 1 meter were all over. Only one was small but that barely entered Robin’s eye compared to the huge barrels with hundreds of liters of different creams, oils and lotions.

“Why are the barrels so huge?” Robin asked the succubus.

“This is my personal storage of goods. After I was branded with the servant contract by my master, I also brought my own slave imps who make my things to the area around the cave master’s portal opens at. Afterwards I went back and brought my things over. Since you all want these to sell, I have already had my slaves start cultivating the plants within a relatively fertile area near our region. Oh, while I did say this was my stock, this is just one barrel of 45 different products I personally made.” she said.

“This is overkill…” Milo muttered from higher up the stairs.

“We need to get these outside, I want to check their effect on me first.” Robin said excitedly.

“I knew you would want to so I already prepared a small pouch of each product.” Yez replied with pride.

They left the basement and walked to the kitchen where 44 pouches and 1 small pristine jar was located.

“What is with that one?” Robin asked, looking at the jar.

“This is the greatest cream recipe we have obtained from our sovereign clan’s collection. It is also the most difficult to produce. It uses the oils of over 5 different fruits.” Yez said.

“Oil of five fruits… that doesn’t sound difficult to obtain.” Robin said.

“The process involves crushing the fruit, seeds and all, boiling it, extracting the pulp and squeezing the juice out through 10 increasingly thin filters. The last one you have to time it just right, you can only use the juice extracted within a specific time frame after being squeezed out. Afterwards you let it rest while gathering a full cauldron of the same filtered juice and just this juice before boiling it again. Then it is stored in a special jar made of cooled magma from a special volcano rich in the demon world’s world power. As the juice ferments, oil splits and gathers on top. It is fermented for exactly 2 earth weeks, we extract the five different oils and boil it together. This boiling will cause all remaining impurities to start to appear and congeal. You humans possess a toy called a lava lamp, this is the best comparison to what happens within this oil. The impurities slowly congeal into a gel and we remove these as they become solids. When the final last bit of impurity is removed, a magical change happens and the oil radiates a magical light and starts to transform energy in the surrounding into life force. The amount is miniscule though but for us succubus, it is just the perfect amount to reduce our need to feed by almost 50%.” Yez said with a proud expression.

The children were amazed by the overly complex method just to make some body oil.

“Let's leave the best for last then.” Robin said.

He was actually a bit expectant hearing that the oils somehow gathered energy. He knew that life power and other energies had a major effect on the body. Something like life force everyone possessed but only those with powers related to them could directly use it, actively. Still it did not mean that a person without those abilities couldn’t stimulate their own. To date, it is impossible for someone without a power related to an energy to obtain an energy, even more, a person without any powers cannot get any energy but there are some energies that can be trained but not actively used.

For instance chi, inner force and other bodily energies usually found in chinese martial arts movies all exist in the human body no matter what kind of person. Through research, people with these energies actually discovered methods to stimulate and grow this. Normal powerless people can also learn and these energies get amplified but not anywhere near the degree of someone with actual powers. They would at most grow to the level of at most a vigilante and never surpass that. They also are unable to use the many features related to that energy, it is simply martial arts and an energy related to the body meant to heavily grow the power of a person's body.

Also, a curious thing was found in people with powers. They actually can’t activate energy they don’t have directly associated with their powers. There is actually a genetic blockade preventing any person with no relation to any form of energy from learning, even stimulating martial arts to train it.

It almost felt like a kind of natural balance to keep people from abusing themselves to expand their own capabilities.

It is one reason Robin goes to the gym to train his power instead of searching for martial arts and learning to use chi or something.

Focusing back on the test, Robin picked up the first one and just squeezed out a little bit of cream and rubbed both hands.

He felt nothing strange like the time he had kitchen oil poured on him. Just to say, he has tried kitchen oil as well.

“Nothing.” he said.

“Don’t forget to activate your hardening.” Shoji reminded him.

Robin nodded and in moments, his skin from his hand to his elbow became black and swoll up to twice the normal size.

He kept it for ten seconds as he felt the cream and undid his power to not harm himself. They waited another little bit before Robin felt an itching.

“I feel something similar to the time I had kitchen oil on me. But it’s more itchy.” he said and gave a rub on the spot where the cream was.

They walked over and frowned and soon Robin saw why. His skin was a bit irritated like a rash had formed so going to the sink, he washed off with soap and to their surprise, not even a minute later the rash went away.

“Your body is really weird, you know that.” Milo said after seeing that.

“Zip it.” Robin retorted back.

They continued and with little success until the 40th packet which was an oil.

He smeared just a little and activated his power.

“AHH!” he shouted painfully and they ran over. When they looked they found that the area with the oil was tightened and didn’t swell like the rest causing extreme pain from the dividing line. Robin’s arm was cramping after that and it took half an hour and some ice to help him relax.

The 41st wasn’t as bad and actually did what he most wanted.

“This is… this is awesome!” Robin said as he watched his body calmly absorb the cream while his arm was hardened. Furthermore, the cream replaced the lost moisture by many times the amount of water he needed.

They saw him able to hold the transformation without withering and Lola was very happy for him but Milo was cold headed, “It is good but from what we can see, the consumption rate is rather high. How hard is it to make this?” Milo asked.

“It takes a few herbs and one fruit oil and two fruit pulp to make it. The difficulty is about a third of the final one.” Yez explained.

Robin also looked at it but he made sure to put this aside because it was a major breakthrough for him. If this could be modified just a little, maybe it could improve greatly and make it possible for him to use a long term hardening over the constant consumption of fluids.

The next two were actually failures and didn’t even itch or anything which surprised everyone.

Finally the last one. Yez carefully undid the jar seal and opened the top. Everyone gasped when they saw the creamy glowing oil in the jar.

“Woah, this is awesome.” Robin said and stretched his finger and just poked the top bit with half the top digit of his index finger.

That said, to the shock of everyone, his entire finger turned red after only two seconds and he pulled it out quickly screaming.

“Ahh! Hot! Hot!” Robin shouted.

He felt paralyzed by the pain.

“Robin, quickly use your hardening!” Yez suddenly shouted.

Everyone was surprised and Robin collapsed on his back while his right hand turned black but to their surprise, the oil instantly got sucked into the skin and half the index began to release a faint shine of polished rubber tires.

What was even stranger was Robin calming down instantly and looking at his hand. “It feels cool now…” he muttered and seemed like he was looking through his own skin. “My finger feels like it’s been plugged up, even though my entire arm feels dry and growing dryer by the second, my finger is going down at less than a tenth of the pace.” he said.

His arm went back to normal and they saw that his finger had a layer of gloss on it but as he rubbed it, they discovered that it wasn’t the oil residue but his actual skin that was shiny as if it was polished.

Robin was transfixed on that finger but soon Lily floated over and to Robin’s fear, she had a knife in her hand.

“Kid, do something for me. Make a small cut on the finger that had the oil put on and draw some blood and do the same to any other finger without.” She said.

“Why?” Robin said fearfully, hiding his hand behind his back.

“We originate directly from imps. Imps have an innate connection to blood and we can tell countless details about a person through a drop of blood.” Lily explained.

Robin was still a bit fearful but after a short while he took the handle of the knife and carefully poked his index and drew some blood while scowling at the pain.

That said to his shock, Lily went right up to the wound and licked it and amazingly, not only did the blood vanish but the wound did as well as if it was removed from existence.

She gestured for him to continue and he did so and like the first, she licked the opened wound before floating into the air and closing her eyes for a long time. Finally after almost half an hour she woke up.

“I think I finally figured out why your ability is as it is and what is happening.” Lily said.

“What?!” Robin asked excitedly to get a proper answer.

“Your body doesn’t have as strong of a natural water retention ability.” She said confusing everyone with this phrase. This made her reword her phrase, “Your body is unable to easily hold water when you harden. It is like you open a drain which is why you lose so much when you use your hardening ability. This is very likely because part of the ability went to your sister and this part of the ability is in her DNA.” Lily explained.

Mentioning Ruth made Robin solemn and hearing the words caused an inner rage to burn but after a while it just burned out. He has long ignored the presence of his sister. Even when she comes home and tries to interact he will just leave the house for most of the day when she isn’t noticing and she is unable to find him because he has several places he trains at which she doesn’t know about.

“So what exactly is going on with the oil? Why did it hurt so much?” Robin asked.

“It is because the Life force in your body is insufficient to sustain your hardening power. The small bit in the oil suddenly entering every last bit of your body down to your bone marrow supplied a new life force energy so naturally it will feel like you are burning up. Even those other creams that were irritating your skin were in truth doing the same thing but at a drastically slower pace. Put into simple terms, this is not body oil for you, it is medicine to make up for the weakened life force of your body. Very likely, as long as you keep using this, your body will grow stronger and stronger until the negative effects of your hardening power will finally go away when your body finally adapts and grows into the ability with a healthy life force.” Lily finished.

Robin was frozen in his seat as he digested his words but as he understood, within expectation, just like any person with a disability, tears welled up and he began to cry tears of immense joy. This lasted for almost ten minutes as he let the sorrow out before an intense feeling of desire burned in him.

“Guys! Help me pass this on my body, I want to completely harden this time!” he exclaimed and stood up.

Without much shame, he took off his shirt and pants remaining only in his briefs. Lola shouted at him for being a pervert and ran out but the demons remained.

Yez just laughed and floated over to the jar and touched the oil before pulling out her finger and with it, bubbles of oil began to form.

“Alright, I will help apply it to your entire body, children, help hold him down because he is going to thrash around.” Yez said.

Milo didn’t say anything but closed his eyes for a moment and summoned Bargo. “Help hold down Robin’s legs so that he can’t move around.” he ordered simply.

Shoji on the other hand helped lock down Robin’s hands.

What followed was, without a doubt, the worst pain Robin would feel throughout his life. To him, it felt like having acid thrown on his body from head to toe and he almost fainted several times but the pain would always spike as it hit a new area and would wake him up.

When both his front and back were coated in the oil, Robin’s skin was as red as the demons Lola summoned.

“Alright, it is done, child. You can harden your body now.” Yez said.

Bargo and Shoji let go of his body but Robin was a little unresponsive for a short while before they saw his hands and feet start to darken.

What shocked them all is how the oil suddenly seemed to come alive like a slime. It started to move all over any missed spots or areas that were drying up and began to penetrate his body. The black color rose beyond the knees for the first time since he awakened his powers.

For the first time in his entire life reached full hardening and his entire body began to swell.

Robin would swell to twice his body size and would also be unable to move because his joints were locked but shockingly, what they saw was different now. Although he swelled a bit, his body only increased about 30% in size and after all the oil penetrated his skin and left an amazing glossy shine on his blackened skin, he moved his arms and legs in a disorderly fashion, due to the pain, and slowly stood up.

Robin, in his full hardened state, was already the height of a normal human adult and even his muscle swelling gave him the adult appearance as opposed to the 13 year old shape he actually should have.

The most incredible thing was to come though as he turned and walked to the door and exited.

The others followed him and saw him pull back and punch out.

To their surprise, his arm stretched a full 10 meters, his current normal limit before pulling back with a snap just like a rubber band.

He undid the hardening and looked at his body before punching out to full length. The change was amazing, his arm suddenly lengthened to nearly 25 meters and unlike the previous, hindered control of his rubber control, he actually had greater control of his body down.

From stretching his limbs to acting like a whip and doing many other common maneuvers with his body, he had completely gained what should have been completely natural to him. If he had not cried for half an hour, he would have broken down once more here. Still the emotion was by no means small.

This was what he most wanted, the first proof that he should follow this path to help low end abilities. He was able to deal with his own weakness now and even had full control of his disability making it an ability he could actively use now. If he can cure himself, he can definitely cure other people. His determination to grow on this path only grew greater and greater after seeing this.

“Robin, how are you?” Lola asked.

“Heh, never felt better in my life.” He said and burst out with laughter.

“How did your powers change?” Milo asked with great curiosity about his friend's changes.

Robin smiled and thought about the changes, “From what I can tell, my full hardening is hindered by the oil.” he said.

“Huh?” everyone exclaimed.

“The oil makes it impossible to swell or harden to the same degree as before. It also doesn’t let my joints get locked like it used to so I can move. It also gives me as much elasticity as what I should have and it moisens my normal state and like you saw, my stretching grew even more. Now the strength of my spring punches will more than double due to the huge increase in range. The last thing that changed is that my elastic control increased immensely.” he said with a smile.

The changes seemed simple when spoken but it made a huge difference. Even in hardened move he could use his elastic abilities, this is a huge boon because now his strongest state, despite consuming the oil and his own body fluid still, it was much slower and he could harden his entire body allowing for him to reach a much greater threshold of strength when he puts his full strength behind his punches as opposed to using his original strength for it.

“More than likely, you will completely shock everyone next year in the license test when we go to get the physical.” Shoji said with a smile.

The others laughed.

“You are in for a lot of training though.” Milo commented.

“Oh yeah, I do need a huge amount to be able to finally adapt to the hardened state. That said…” Robin looked at Yez, “How much can you actually make of this stuff?” he asked.

“If I work on it daily, I can make about a jar a day after production begins but only after 2 earth month's because it still uses a huge amount of produce. The excess of the fermented juice after the oil is extracted is used in several other creams though, one of which is the one that most greatly supplemented your body’s fluid needs.” She said.

Robin frowned upon hearing that, he knew without a doubt that this was just the beginning, he could still feel the hardness in his muscles and bones compared to normal and knew this deficiency wouldn’t go away so easily and would need to be treated daily, especially when he needed to train so much.

“How much oil did I actually use to cover my body?” he asked.

“About 10g, the jar in the kitchen holds about 200g in weight of the body oil.” Yez said.

He calmed down after this. The consumption was much lower than he expected but he knew he couldn’t abuse it.

“That is good, if I can have a steady supply then I can continue to grow and adapt.” he said.

At this time Yez showed her true demonic side. “Yes well, that is where the problem comes in.” She said. “The effort I put in is quite high and I naturally cannot do it for free.” She said.

Everyone looked at her and she looked at Lola. “For this, I would like to rewrite the contract for me to obtain at least 1.5% of the life power I produce while training here.” she said.

“Don’t push your luck succubus.” Lily said, a deep anger in her eyes. “1% is the most any servant can obtain no matter what.” She said.

Yez smiled, naturally knowing this fact and was still happy with this because, although the life force they generate is currently a drop in the ocean, it will not be so in the future. Eventually they might even reach a point when they wipe out entire gangs or organizations hidden within the american borders and all this is what demons most want as they absorb and convert the matter of their bodies into life force. It will no longer be a drop in the ocean but a stream of constant flow.

Lola eventually agreed and modified the contract putting Yez at a higher position compared to the others but they did not actually care. The minotaur and tengu didn’t really mind while the Asura didn’t like being summoned if not to fight or hunt. As such, the contract change went without a problem and Yez happily started to work on producing the oil for Robin.

As for the complete container with the oil, it was actually the smallest one in the basement and robin took this home with him.

What happened there was amazing though, he showed off the cure to his powers and the effect. His father broke down in tears that his son found a cure for his disability and their family was extremely happy.

“Son, do you want to transfer to the academy with your sister for professional training?” his mother asked a while later.

“No.” contrary to his mother's expectation, he bluntly rejected and had a sneer on his face. “They didn’t want me when I had a disability so why should I care if they want me now that I am starting to get healthy. I have grown by my own power until now and I don't want them messing up the style I have been training with just because they are ‘pro’ sidekicks to an egoistic braveman!” Robin said coldly.

The two parents sighed at how Robins views his previously favorite superhero but they could not change the past and could only move towards the future now.

They still encouraged him to be careful.

Robin started training soon after by forming the spring arms and legs at full 25 meter length and with his newfound control and was shocked by how easily he could control it. Now that his muscles were fully ‘moistened’ by the oil, he could compress the length down to normal size and even the excess that spills out he could reduce it to almost the natural thickness of his arm. It was only slightly thicker and made him resemble those old cartoons where the muscles between the elbow and hand were bulky while the upper arm was thin.

He also did not bounce around and had much better stability in his body.

This was exactly what he most wanted and so he decided to test his limit with a marathon run before he tested his limits in hardened mode.