Hector hit the streets with a sigh. His bed called to him though it was only mid-afternoon, promising it would be just as good to think about humility and charity instead of acting those virtues out. He stamped down the zy thought. He would cultivate through his actions.
To that end, Hector walked towards a nearby slum. He’d passed it often on the frequent runs around the block he did before his delve with Conrad. A slum in Promise City didn’t present quite like what he’d been familiar with back on Earth. Violence was rare anywhere on Union Central and was never done for money. That would be counterproductive in the extreme as the System would levy instant harsh fines for attempts at theft.
The poor also weren’t permitted to panhandle around the city. Funds simply didn’t transfer if they made a nuisance of themselves. They thus congregated in special public parks denoted by the sigil of a figure on its knees holding both hands up. Where better to practice charity than in a park devoted to the concept? The main charity was of course the fact that the homeless could squat here overnight without being hassled. But they were also permitted to beg assistance within that space.
Hector grimaced as a new thought occurred to him. How did he avoid becoming a holier-than-thou self-righteous prick? His practice of humility had better be effective if he didn’t want to start thinking of himself as a saint in human flesh helping the unfortunate members of society. He shook his head. One problem at a time.
Walking inside the park, Hector saw dejected people lounging on the grass and on the stone benches. Hardly anyone noticed his presence. Those that did dismissed him as uninteresting. There was no need for them to fear violence from someone with money, after all. With the System watching, Hector had too much to lose to be a true threat to people like them.
He strolled the park for a time until he saw a woman cradling a young child beneath a scraggly tree. She carried an endless sadness in her eyes. The hollow cheeks of her child gave him enough context to understand her circumstances. Promise City did so much so well, but it still managed to fail those at the bottom rung of society. No doubt the people who managed the city thought of it as a machine. They couldn’t dare make poverty too comfortable lest more people allow themselves to fall into it.
That was the kind of callous view Hector wanted to combat in himself. He could spite the same attitude from city pnners at the same time as he trained his own moral convictions. The mother looked up in arm as he approached. Her concern faded into confusion. “I am sorry, sir, I do not deal in the flesh.”
It took a moment for comprehension to dawn. Hector shook his head. “I don’t want anything from you, ma’am. I wish to offer charity.” He brought up the System interface and indicated he wanted to transfer a thousand credits to the woman.
Her jaw dropped. Even in her surprise, she managed to accept the transaction in the blink of an eye. “Thank you, sir! Thank you so much!” She set her child down to bow from her knees.
“Please don’t debase yourself, ma’am.” He walked away, confident she would find a good use for the funds. He now had to perform an act of humility. After a bit of pointless walking, he decided that his next task required some self-reflection and research.
First: what did he think was beneath him? He’d always been willing to jump in and help the workers beneath him as a manager. When was the st time he did simple bor? Certainly not since he became the savior of an entire pnet. Hector rented time at a computer b and found small jobs avaible in his area. He signed up to be a fsh borer and immediately found notifications popping up in his interface. Hector focused on one and saw it was to deliver a container of food to the person who ordered it. The Union Central equivalent of a Door Dash Driver. That was exactly the type of thing he thought beneath him. Perfect.
Hector stopped by a local pick-up eatery, waited in line, and received a rge order. He then found the address indicated. The streets and alleys were numbered in systematic fashion, making the process simple. The apartment building admitted him due to the System knowing he had business there. Then he rode an elevator to the appropriate floor. Per the instructions, he knocked at the door and waited.
A young Jinn man pulled the door open. He yanked the bag from Hector’s hands and began to double-check the contents. After satisfying himself, the man smmed the door without ever looking Hector in the eye. The disrespect was palpable.
“I guess I found my new side hustle,” he muttered to himself as he walked back to his hotel.
The next day began a new routine. Cultivation remained the main part, of course. His primary need was to increase his energy reserves. He rode the circumnavigating train for mental cultivation around the dungeon. He drew power from chaos for long hours at the start and end of his days while in his capsule. He worked his aura on the rooftop and also while out and about practicing his virtues.
He spent some time in the gym and went on runs, but Hector found himself drifting away from the fitness goals that had dominated so much of his life. There was so much he needed to do and he’d finally accepted a truth that had been staring him in the eye for quite some time now: the reason he’d invested so much time towards physical training in the past was no longer valid.
After a shower, he gave more than a cursory gnce at the face in the mirror, noticing that he was overdue for a haircut. As he looked, though, he saw a strange effect of his hair coloration. The usual grays were there but with a strange caveat: The discoloration did not reach all the way to his scalp. The roots were dark, proving that his hair no longer came in gray.
A detailed study of his face revealed that the age lines were less noticeable than they had been in over a decade. With a critical eye, he studied the lines of his physique, hunting for the usual problem areas. The love handles that got a little too squishy if he strayed on his diet. The hump in his upper bank that appeared when he wasn’t careful of his posture. The asymmetry of his shoulders. None of them were in evidence.
Though he hadn’t suddenly gained the appearance of a young man, Hector looked no older than forty and felt closer to twenty. The march of time had halted for him. That alone would not be enough to justify scking off on his exercise routine. Combined with the fact that he saw negligible benefits from even the most intense exercise, though… what was he doing?
He wanted to improve. That was a fundamental pilr of his personality. The gym no longer served the purpose of improvement. It was a nostalgic endeavor. Such things couldn’t hold his attention long. Leaving Earth behind seemed simple in comparison to the emptiness he felt at the removal of his lifelong hobby.
In theory, cultivation took the pce of his physical training. His physical form was welded to the body aperture of his soul. Going forward, the path to strength and vitality was through advancing his body enhancement. As far as the psychological satisfaction he derived from straining his body… he’d have to figure something out.
Hector returned to the high end Xian shop to buy some items from the shopkeeper. He found himself welcomed much more warmly this time. “Are you here for more wine?”
“No, sir. I hope to purchase other items. I hear fat, yeast, and salt are good for body enhancement.”
“How very convenient. I have a number of ‘body packs’ in stock. There is a jar of rendered fat, a mixture of salt and yeast stored in waxed paper, a mix of tea powder and sugar crystals, and a vial of green juice. Just a thousand credits per box.”
“How rge are the portions?”
The man ughed. “Good question. Not as rge as you’d like is the answer. The ingredients aren’t sold separately in my shop. There are other specialty stores that deal in Xian resources, but they rarely stock body enhancement items.” He pulled open a cupboard and Hector saw that the shelving extended far deeper into the wall than he’d expected.
When a body pack was in his hands, Hector studied the items. The jar of fat was no rger than what Jen’s fancy face cream used to come in. The portion of yeast and salt would only halfway fill a salt shaker. On the other hand, there was a lot of green juice and he could make a lot of tea with the other ingredients. He felt the cosmic energy coming off of the items, so they were definitely sourced from Tian. “How many do you have?”
“So you are interested. Well, I normally limit purchases to two per patron. I’ll let you buy a third body pack if you order a honey pill. Those are moving slow.”
Hector blinked in confusion. “What is a honey pill?”
“They’re a common product in the nation of Zing, though not much used in Amarat. The cheaper ones are composed of honey, mulberry leaf, and sesame seed. They offer a good blend of body enhancement and body cultivation. They sell for two thousand each. The more expensive ones are of honey, cannabis leaf, and a blend of mushrooms. Those sell for five thousand each. I highly recommend the second variety while living in close proximity to the Arahants as we do on this world. The particur ingredients allow a physical pill to strengthen the mind.”
“And if I purchased both pills, could I get two extra body packs?”
The shopkeeper stroked his chin. “First demonstrate your worthiness. Create a barrier of your aura. Hmm…. Not terrible. Now use your domain. Ah! Excellent technique. Have you done anything with your externality yet?”
Hector thought it would be exceedingly suspicious if he revealed his transit sphere. Those were typically not trained until someone reached level six. “Not yet, sir.”
“Call me Master Sirius. What is your name?”
“I am Hector, Master Sirius.”
“How do you earn credits, Hector?”
“Delving, Master Sirius.”
The shopkeeper hummed in appreciation as he began pulling items out. “Excellent. It’s eleven thousand credits for the four body packs and two honey pills. Don’t take the pill in the red bag unless you are in a safe pce. It’s quite psychoactive. Do be sure to visit me often. I appreciate your business. Should you continue growing stronger, maybe you will appreciate a trip to Tian.”
Hector resisted the urge to snap a bow at a sharp sixty degrees. The mannerisms of the Amaratti existed within his mind and being around this man made them want to come out. The speech patterns and social cues were triggering the instincts of a dead man. Instead, he used the local style. “Have a good day, Master Sirius.”
Then it was back to his hotel to consume the first of his purchases.
The whole point of his visit had been to get fat and salt and yeast, yet Hector found himself fascinated by the two pills he’d purchased. They were resources from Tian, but not the nation of Amarat. Hector certainly didn’t consider himself beholden to the traditions of any particur nation.
So he took the first pill. Not the psychoactive one. That he pnned to take only after he retired to his capsule for the night. The pill took time to metabolize, so there was no instant rush like with the liquid elixirs. About half an hour ter, though, Hector found a nice trickle of energy becoming avaible.
Sitting in the rooftop garden, Hector pushed the energy towards infusing his skull. He then opened the first of his body packs and withdrew the green juice. It hit his tongue with a bitter vileness that almost made him spit it out. Hector swallowed instead and repced the cork on the vial, aware that he would not have the fortitude to immediately take another sip.
Then the rush of energy hit and Hector decided the taste hadn’t been so terrible. He pushed the sudden influx to his skull and it went easily. Almost eagerly. Having more knowledge of nutrition science under his belt than Volithur ever boasted, Hector knew that calcium was plentiful in both leafy greens and sesame seeds. That probably helped with infusing his bones.
He uncorked the green juice and threw back a big gulp, swallowing before he could regret it. Oh, he regretted it. The stuff tasted more bitter than the most undrinkable IPA and was cloying like perfume sprayed in his mouth. His eyes watered in reaction. And the damn green juice was only half consumed.
Hector worked on enhancing his skull for hours. He cked the fine sense of Volithur, so he was slow to find the contours of the bones, but he also was much better at impressing the energy onto the physical structure, so he wasted less energy overall. That didn’t mean all that much when it came to upgrading his skull to level five.
The entire vial of green juice on top of the pill only got him a quarter of the way to his goal. When the energy boost was entirely gone, Hector ate a meal in the cafeteria and prepared for bed. It was time to see what the other pill could do for him.
