Mark of the Fool

Chapter 326: A Moment of Tension

Alexs physique transformed.

By day two of his gruelling training, blood magic, and mana manipulation regime, his strength had shot past Khaliks, much to the princes horror.

This is it Khalik sat on the floor of the gymnasium with his head cupped in both hands. Alex had just pressed four hundred and fifteen pounds. the natural order of the universe is undone. Up is down. Red is blue. Cats are hyenas, worms are dragons... This is the end.

Its not the end, buddy. Thundar patted him on the shoulder. Dont take it so hard. Third place in the cabal aint too bad. I mean, Alex was in third place a couplea days ago and now look at him!

The minotaur burst out laughing while Khalik slowly looked up at him.

Thundars glee faded; the look on the princes face was flat, like he was seeing a dead body.

Wh-what is it, the minotaurs eyes darted back and forth. Youre looking at me like I was in my coffin or something.

Mark my words, Thundar, son of Gulbiff, Khalik pronounced like he was an oracle predicting the very doom of the world. What has happened to me can happen to you.

The minotaur glanced at Alex whod sprung up from the weight bench, stretched his chest and was scurrying over to the kettlebell stand like an excited child. There was indistinct muttering coming from his mouth, and a wild look in his eyes as pumped biceps flexed when he rubbed his hands together.

Thundar looked at those thick arms. Humans cant get that strongcan they? Not without life enforcement or some crazy magic or something, right?

Khalik glanced at Alex who was swinging a massive, iron kettlebell like he could pitch it clear across the room. Does he look crazy to you?

Yes, Thundar said without hesitation.

Is he using magic to make himself stronger?

I-in a way.

Khalik grinned evilly. Then prepare yourself because soon, it will happeeeeeen to yoooouuuuArgh!

Thundar pushed the prince over.

The next few days were spent in Thameland which put the training routine on hold. Research on the dungeon core remains was progressing steadily and Professor Jules seemed to have recovered from the explosion.

Something shed been working on had her looking like the cat whod swallowed the canary and she was humming to herself a lot. Whatever it was, she wasnt telling anyone, only saying vague and annoying things like; all will be revealed in time. All Alex and his teammates could do was wait.

The days in Greymoor passed uneventfully, and in no time, Alex and his friends were back in Generasi, training hard. By their third training session, Alexs numbers had exploded:

375 435 lbs. - bench press.

690 800 lbs. - deadlift.

650 755 lbs. - squat.

305 350 lbs. - shoulder press.

1500 1800 - push ups.

The path to transformation hadnt been painless, however. His body was paying a price for its new strength and as it grew, it ached from micro-tears, hunger andafter the third sessionstabbing pains in his bones and connective tissue. The power in his skeletal muscles was ramping up so fast, that the strength of his bones and attached structures couldnt keep up.

If he kept increasing weight without taking care of the structures supporting his muscles, hed end up doing himself more harm than good.

He needed a solution.

Using Warp Flesh, he expanded its power to cycle currents of energy through bone and connective tissue, hyper-stimulating them. That meant less mana for his muscles, but better to slow a bit for now, than spend months on crutches or in traction.

He also stretched longer and increased what he ate for bone building, and soon, his body reached a better balancethough it wasnt completely pain free.

Apart from school, Shales, and his other responsibilities, the rest of his time was spent lying down, nursing bone-deep soreness. Being bed-bound meant he had to rely on Theresa and Selina to bring him foodwhich, when it was Theresa, wasnt without its own little perks.

Hey, are you feeling any better? Theresa asked one evening, tapping on his bedroom door frame. She carried a heaping tray of food one-handed like she was serving the taproom in a tavern, and for an instant, Alex was hit with nostalgia.

He remembered the times the huntress had helped out in the common room of her familys inn in Alric, and how popular those evenings were. Not because of what some of the leering patrons had hoped for: that the detached innkeepers daughter would suddenly become bubbly and warm while serving them.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Shed tried to show a bubbly side to her personality whenhelping out, but she was so terrible at it, it would often draw snickeringwith attempts to hide the laughterfrom the regulars.

Alex never bothered trying to hide his amusement, and hed often paid for it.

Now though, her smile was fond and genuine as she placed the tray by his bedside then put the back of her hand on his forehead. Youre warm. Are you sure youre not sick?

Not even a little bit Alex said weakly. Im just closed for renovations. Painful, painful renovations.

Aw, she said, kissing his forehead. I hope the pain goes away soon. I dont like seeing you like this.

Hey, its no worse than when you were throwing up all that black stuff whenWait, wait, wherere you going? Come back here.

Theresa was straightening up when she paused. Im not going anywhere yet.

Come back down here.

She raised an eyebrow. Whatre you up to?

Come oncome heeeere.

She sighed, leaning down; Alex crunched up and kissed her inviting lips. There. Theres a proper ki-. Ow! Ow my abs! I shouldnt have done that!

He was ready to say something elsebut one look at her face made the words die in his throat. She wore an expressionone similar to when she was on a long hunt

similar, but also, very different. It was more intimate, but just as intenselike the way shed looked at him on the beach that night in the rain on their very first proper date.

Alex dropped his eyes down, checking her body language and

oh boy.

Tension filled the room suddenly, fuelled by unspoken words.

He was abruptly very conscious of how much his body hurt. How helpless he was right now, and Thundars teasing about ropes came to mind.

And then, just as quickly as the tension came, it was gone.

Rest up, Alex. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. When you get betterwe really, really need to go on another proper date. Its been too longand too few.

As she left him alone in his bedroom, Alex strongly considered abandoning his training routine, but that wasnt his brain working... and it was short-term thinking.

Hed thank himself once his transformation was complete. He was close.

Simmering beneath the aches and pains, a well of energy bubbled. A growing source of strength, sturdiness, stamina and flexibility pushed him on.

Even the night before their return to Greymoor, Alex got in another gruelling training session followed by two hours of Rejuvenating Slumber which gave him enough recovery time to step through the teleportation circle to Thameland refreshed.

Neither he nor Theresa said a word about that moment the evening before, but from the probing way Khalik was eyeing the two of them, it seemed he suspected something had happened between them.

And it might have if Alex had been able to move more than six inches without dying at the time.

That conversation was not one he was ready to have with the prince, but he was lucky since there was so much to do in Greymoor to keep everyone busy, that there wasnt much time for conversation. Using magic, the expeditions seemingly endless tasks had moved ahead by leaps and bounds, and what looked like months of work, had been completed when Alex and his friends were back in Generasi.

The encampments earthen wall had been partially replaced by stone, and another wallforming part of one of the castles outer wallswas almost a quarter complete. Earth mages were digging a moat around it, beginning the first true fortifications. Within the camp, several areas had been cleared out: construction had begun on the castles out buildings, and the demand for stone was higher than ever.

Watcher Shaw was waiting to brief the new shift as soon as they arrived, and after the briefing, Khalik and several other earth mages, accompanied by their guards, had immediately departed for the moors.

A few expedition members watched them leave.

and so did the birds.

The researchers made their way to the research tent for Jules briefing on their progress with the dungeon core remains while Alex fought the jelly-like feeling in his legs.

Professor Jules had great news to share.

She announced that the dungeon core remains data sheet was completeor as complete as it could be right now. Shed once said that no data sheet was ever truly complete, as time and science marched on, thered always be something new to discover, even about old substances.

For now, though? Theyd learned almost everything they could about the dungeon cores material. Yet, their current knowledge still raised new questions.

and didnt answer certain ancient ones.

For the life of me, I cant establish where it came from, Professor Jules said, squinting at the data sheet and scratching her chin.

Despite the explosion, it seemed no one had been scared off by the blast and quit the team, everyone was at the meeting, a little more nervous, but still there.

Usually, you can generate a hypothesis of a substances origins once you have a data sheet, Jules went on. If two substances have very similar properties, then they could come from the same place. Its not always true, but it can give you something to go on. Up until the explosion occurred, I would have guessed the core remains had come from similar realms and planes where one would find chaos essencebut the reaction of the two substances coming in contact was so violent, it would be impossible for them to co-exist without constant destruction resulting.

She tapped the data sheet. And there are no other substances we know of that have similar properties. The conductivity, the malleabilityits all over the place.

Someone cleared their throat and all heads turned to the small form of Carey London. As far as I know, we Thameish have tried time and again to determine the origin of our ancient enemy, with nothing but disappointment to show for our efforts. Perhaps the king would know more?

If he did, hes not telling, Professor Jules sighed, glancing at the data sheet another time before putting it down. Well be in two teams today. The first team will come with me: weve found that by cutting the sample sizes of chaos essence and dungeon core remains into smaller segmentsand cutting them really smallweve gotten the energy output down to manageable levels. At least manageable enough so that it wont destroy our equipmentor us.

She gave her new golem a cautious look. The professor probably wasnt eager to see this one melted down. That said, we wont be taking any chances doing that kind of experimentation here. Weve taken additional precautions and built a secondary test site about a mile west of here, complete with an observation bunker to view the explosion from. Again. No chances. Ill be picking the team very carefully.

Her eyes swept her researchers. The second team will stay here: we have the data sheet completed now. Its time to see what it can do. I already have some ideas for how we can apply it, but first, I want to see a few applications. It wont pay to not impress our guests.

Murmurs went through the assembled group of researchers.

Which guests? Isolde asked.

The Heroes, for one, and representatives of King Athelstan and Court Wizard Errol as well, Professor Jules said. We promised to share our information and findings with our allies. And so we shall. A light note entered her voice. Lets make sure we dont look like weve been twiddling our thumbs all these months!