Volithur lost all sembnce of coordination once he completed enhancement of his hamstrings. His tailbone had become permanently tucked and the fronts of his hips ached from fighting the tension. The situation made walking painful and effective fighting impossible. He took a lot of damage during weaponless combat training before Instructor Lisbet pulled him aside several days into the experience.

  When she learned that the reason for his performance had to do with body enhancement and not distraction over his engagement, Instructor Lisbet dismissed him for one week to fix his issues. She didn’t have much sympathy for him, but she did express concern that he would gain bad movement habits if he trained too much with compromised hips.

  The time freed up went directly towards fixing his issue. He abandoned the body enhancement manuals he had previously been basing his pns on and found another that was more suitable for someone with tight hamstrings – which, apparently, was him. He couldn’t directly follow the manual since he had done hamstrings too soon, but he cobbled together a new pn based on the insights he gained into functional anatomy.

  His first priority was the iliopsoas muscles along the front of the hips. Then he could tackle the quadratus lumborum along the lower back. Then he could attack the quads, starting with the rectus femoris. Driven to alleviate his issues, Volithur’s progress was rapid, but it initially exacerbated the problem more than it helped. The muscles of the human body did not function well with the types of imbances he had introduced. He didn’t have an entirely accurate measure of his body enhancement results, but he estimated he tripled the strength of any muscle he targeted.

  When the clerk delivered Volithur’s weekly tea powder elixir, he finished the iliopsoas in a single session. That instantly relieved most of the strain he had felt. Volithur no longer had trouble standing, walking, or moving. He did, however, feel a constant ache in his quads from the extra work they were being forced to do.

  All of the drama of his muscles made Hector wonder if the flood method might be superior to the cold forged method of body enhancement. It might require more resources, but at least its practitioners would be fully functional as every part of the body grew in strength proportionally.

  Still, the unexpected problems he encountered helped to keep him from stressing overly much about his upcoming nuptials. Volithur on occasion would begin to panic when he thought about the wedding ceremony. He didn’t feel comfortable being the center of attention, didn’t trust the nobles to not mess with him, and couldn’t help but worry Khana would change her mind.

  He managed to get an evening pass to visit Thassily by asking on a day the Sergeant seemed favorably disposed. Volithur eagerly sought out his friend, who engulfed him in a bear hug and spun him around while ughing. The two of them chatted over gsses of spiced rum while Thassily told a horror story of soiled diapers, interrupted sleep, and competition for breast suckling.

  “Please tell me you’re not drinking milk from your wife. That’s just a joke, right?”

  Thassily only ughed. “Don’t kink shame, Harridan.”

  “What is it like being married?”

  “Wonderful, horrible, and everything in between, my friend.” Thassily scratched his neck as he pondered his words. “I would much rather live the life I had pnned back home. This, though… it’s better than being a lowly soldier under a war hungry noble. Still. I work one job in the day. Then bor in the distillery in the evening. Then deal with a wife and child when I’m exhausted. I should still be doing kid stuff, Harridan. Spending time in the arcade with my friends, watching that ‘Space Adventures’ show on television, dating lots of girls. That’s the life I want. This is just the best I can do here. I need to keep reminding myself that every other option is worse. Enough of my compining, though. How are you doing?”

  Volithur sighed. “I love her. I’m just not sure marrying a noble is smart.”

  “Oh, it’s definitely not smart. You should have knocked up a commoner to get away from nobles, not become in-ws with them.”

  “I’ve done a lot of body enhancement. They advanced me to the intermediate skill group.”

  “Way to go, Harridan! Nobody thought you had any talent, but you’re proving us all wrong.”

  “Only by lying,” Volithur muttered.

  “It’s one tiny lie,” Thassily shot back.

  Volithur snorted. “I can tell that you’ve been away from the fifth household for a while. Anything said about the Lord General is serious. He’s like a god to them and I’m ciming I have his favor. It’s a huge deal. Khana thinks marrying me is going to elevate her status.”

  Thassily gred at him. “Don’t ever speak your schemes out loud, Harridan. I know the risk you took and I think it paid off. You’ll slowly be forgotten over the next few years and then you’ve gotten away with it. They will probably keep you on as a soldier, either in house or pass you off to the city militia. Khana might resent her reduced status in years to come, but if you set yourself up properly with her dowry you will live better than most around here. Now, enough serious talk. Your best friend is a distiller, so take advantage of the fact and drink up.”

  Volithur went back to the barracks with a tiny barrel to share with the soldiers. They drank the barrel dry, alternating between toasting his upcoming marriage and menting that he couldn’t carry a bigger barrel. The easy, shallow camaraderie somehow made him feel more lonely than usual. It was like they were all pying parts in a theater production rather than authentically interacting.

  The day after visiting with Thassily, Volithur received a visit from Master Corey during breakfast. The Sergeant gave Volithur a nod as the rest of the soldiers left for morning training, tacit permission to be te.

  “Ronda accepted my proposal, Ward Harridan,”an effervescent Corey told him when they were alone. “I wanted to thank you for your assistance. My beloved tells me that you have never spoken to her in person for so long as you have known her, but passed a message through Khana praising my good qualities. Much as I’d like to think myself charming enough to succeed on my own efforts, the aid of a loyal ally should always be rewarded.” Master Corey pulled a vial that Volithur recognized to contain blood boiling elixir.

  Volithur stared at the vial. “Master Corey, I did not speak on your behalf because I sought rewards. You got the family to approve my marriage. That is a greater kindness than I can ever hope to repay.”

  The older boy smiled. “Ward Harridan, as a son of the third child of Thrakkar Shaocheth I have all the cultivation resources I could ever need. If we were at the main household, I would pce a silver psma elixir in your hands. Here the best reward I can give is cold tea water mixed with botanical extracts.

  “My kindnesses may have been rger than your own, but my means are also far beyond yours. I want you to accept this elixir as a token of friendship. The fates know you need to take every advantage while you can. Soon enough someone with more authority than sense will come along and undo my mother’s policies. She always intends to keep a close eye on the auxiliary households, but she is exceptionally busy running the Lord General’s commercial enterprises.”

  Volithur accepted the vial and bowed. “Thank you, Master Corey.”

  Once Corey took his leave, Volithur drank the elixir and went outside for the morning exercises. He had only missed the warm-up and soon was sweating. The blood boiling elixir burned inside him and Volithur absorbed the cosmic energy into his soul and redirected it roughly towards the quadratus lumborum muscles of his lower back. He didn’t have the ability to finely manage the process while in the middle of a workout, but so much of his body tissues were already enhanced that the inefficiencies weren’t terrible. Any organ already brought up to the full saturation of his current soul level was incapable of absorbing more, so it couldn’t ‘steal’ energy intended for elsewhere.

  He made it through sparring without event, the lingering strength of the elixir countering the muscle instabilities still pguing him. Then he went to cultivate by himself. There were only two weeks to go before he would be a married man.