Victor was mesmerized, immersed in the sensation of his body through his spiritual sense. He felt a constant surge of power coursing through him. It was as if some restrictions within his body had been lifted, and a power deep within him had awakened. This power was slowly stimulating his body, nourishing it from the very core.
This power couldn't be explained solely by the so-called superpower he had in mind – his innate talent. It was creating changes in his body in a much different way, but he had no idea what it was. However, it wasn't difficult to understand that this change was positive. Since it was to his benefit, Victor decided to stop thinking about it. He lacked sufficient information, and what had happened had happened. He could only accept it as it was. He withdrew his spiritual sense and awoke from the intoxicating feeling of power in his body.
A few minutes later, he pushed all these scattered thoughts to the back of his mind. He focused on his increasing strength and his body. The change was quite significant, and Victor still felt like he was dreaming.
Victor was ultimately quite pleased with the strange fruit. This fruit had considerably strengthened his body and perhaps even awakened his innate talent, which might not have existed before. It had also caused other changes in his body that he couldn't yet define, but he decided to examine them later when their effects became apparent.
The strange fruit had provided him with what he needed most: a strong foundation. How far he could go from there depended on his efforts. Victor didn't think he was inferior to anyone in terms of effort and diligence, but a lack of opportunities had limited his hope. Now that he also had an opportunity, he was even more motivated in terms of effort.
The canoe within the blood seed had already begun to change the trajectory of his life. Now, he was impatiently waiting to start the stances with more motivation. While thinking about these things, he suddenly realized he was still naked in the bathroom. He chuckled to himself for a moment and then got out of the bathroom and dressed.
His body was several times stronger than before, and he first needed to adapt to this strength sufficiently. He went outside and began to do his old routine movements. He jumped and ran a few times. He did different movements and tried to feel a sense of control, even if superficial, over the increased power. He didn't stop until he fully found this feeling in his body.
This feeling didn't exactly indicate that he had mastered the increased power, but it was okay as a start. Apart from that, there was nothing else he could do for rapid adaptation. He had neither sufficient equipment nor a martial art he could use for this. Therefore, he could only manage in this way.
In fact, if he spent more time with the increased power, he would quickly get used to it, and his body would again find the correct sense of power usage. However, the solstice was very close, and there was nothing he could do but try to get used to this power quickly by taking such detours.
After finding the feeling of power to some extent, he slowly sat on the ground, wiped his sweat, and rested for a few minutes. Although it seemed like a strenuous exercise, the exercises he did were nothing extraordinary, so he hadn't expended much energy and still felt very energetic. The strange fruit had replenished his energy reserves and also compensated for the deficiencies of his malnourished body. He felt much more resilient than before.
If he had done the same exercise before taking the fruit, he would have been out of breath long ago and would have had to sit down for half an hour to rest. Now, he barely felt tired; he had only sat down out of habit. Victor felt that the fruit might be much more valuable than he thought, and the few books beside it were probably not ordinary things either. However, there was no possibility of benefiting from them now; he could only leave them in his space ring to collect dust. Victor sighed and stood up; even though those books tugged at his heart, he had to ignore them for now and focus on his own development.
After all these events, he now needed to start practicing, but when he looked at the blood seed, there was no dark energy left in it. He sat back on the bed and practiced the basic breathing technique for five hours, filling the blood seed. It was already evening, but Victor didn't care. He got out of bed, stretched, and quickly went out the back door. With his body in such good condition, he was eager to practice the stances.
He quickly began to take the first stance position according to the stances Uncle Muhtar had taught him. He was standing with his feet shoulder-width apart, firmly planted. His toes pointed forward. His back was straight, and his shoulders were upright. He slowly raised his open hands in this position and fixed them at shoulder height by bending his elbows. He took a few deep breaths and completely emptied his mind. He recalled the rhythm of his breath in his mind and began to adjust his breaths accordingly, and within a few minutes, he was completely absorbed in the rhythm of his breath.
When he began to perform the breathing rhythm and stance correctly, he realized that he could hear the sound of the blood flowing in his veins and feel the movement of his blood. In this way, his perception had increased, and he had begun to feel and admire the trajectory and flow of the blood that filled his entire body, giving him life and nourishing him.
Blood was in a constant cycle within his body. It was produced, carried nutrients, nourished the organs, became impure there, was cleansed, and returned to where it started. Meanwhile, it was secretly affecting his body. Although he wasn't entirely sure about this effect, he had to admit that blood was quite mysterious.
Nourishing the blood with dark energy, then, was nothing more than further nurturing this mysterious aspect of it and trying to make the whole body more compatible with dark energy by affecting it in this way. Although the logic was quite simple, trying to do this without any technique or skill was no different from throwing oneself from 100 meters without a parachute. Any change in the blood could create some unpredictable things and affect the entire body. Therefore, although the logic was simple, no one dared to take the risk.
Victor then wondered how the first techniques had emerged. But again, the same sentence echoed in his mind: he had very little information. No one would tell a villager like him these secrets. Victor cleared his mind again and focused on his stance.
While maintaining his breathing rhythm and stance, the blood seed and heart slowly began to interact. Now, the dark energy in the blood seed was beginning to affect the blood. The dark energy was separating from the blood seed and mixing with the core blood in the heart, starting to affect it. In this way, while the concentration of dark energy continued to increase in the core blood, the normal blood circulating in the body also contained a certain amount of dark energy. However, this change was not something that would happen suddenly and required constant effort.
A qualitative change required prolonged effort. Since the aim was for the body to adapt to dark energy slowly, not suddenly, it inherently carried very little risk with a normal technique. In this way, even if slow, as long as results continued to be achieved, perseverance was not a problem for Victor.
However, this interaction was also quite tiring for both the heart and the body. It created pressure on the body and caused stress. Therefore, after staying in this stance for a certain period, it was necessary to rest and release this accumulated stress from the body. Otherwise, it could leave irreversible wounds on the body and weaken it further instead of strengthening it. Development could only be possible by appropriately combining work and rest.
However, this also meant that he had a limited time during the day to practice the basic breathing method. This time needed to be found by Victor and adjusted according to his body's condition. Victor once again found another difference between himself and others. Most likely, in the city, there were things that would allow one to practice this basic breathing method for a longer time and release the accumulated stress on the body more quickly.
Victor's reason for thinking this way was very clear. At such a slow pace, if there were no shortcuts, all the people who reached the initial blood realm must have been middle-aged uncles. However, this was not entirely the case. Even though he didn't live in the city, it wasn't difficult for him to come across some gossip when he went out during the solstice. Victor sighed and could continue; he also had his own opportunities, and with this opportunity, he could perhaps go much further. There was no need for him to envy others, but it was inevitable that there would be a slight bitterness within him.
However, a few minutes later, Victor felt that he had completed the first stance much faster compared to the information in his mind and that very little stress had built up in his body. When Victor felt that he had completed the first stance, he instinctively took the second stance and began to practice. However, when he moved to the second stance, although the stress accumulated in his body increased more rapidly, this increase was limited, and he completed the second stance after a while as well. When he started the third stance, the stress in his body suddenly increased a lot, and he could only hold it for a short time before having to stop this stance halfway.
Perhaps the fruit he ate had strengthened his body and provided a solid foundation. This was why he had quickly completed the first and second stances. When he moved to the third stance, the accumulated foundation had been completely used up, and development had stopped in the third stance.
Although Victor was quite pleased, when he felt a momentary dizziness, he restrained his emotions and slowly lay down to calm his heart, which was beating as if it would break free from his body. When his dizziness subsided slightly after a few minutes, he glanced at the blood seed with his spiritual sense.
When he looked at the blood seed, more than half of the stored dark energy had been used up and had decreased considerably. Victor didn't know if this was good or bad. Actually, he had no reference point. Even if he did, he probably couldn't refer to it. He had used the foundation provided by the strange fruit, and besides strengthening his body, it had left enough foundation to support him in the third stance. Even the son of the city lord probably wouldn't enjoy such treatment.
A moment later, Victor felt that he was overthinking. If the city lord had a son, he would probably have been fed extraordinary plants and fruits and bathed in medicinal herbs since infancy. His small accumulation might not even be worth mentioning compared to the city lord. Victor might have exaggerated again.
Victor also realized that he needed to give up this bad habit. It wasn't right to constantly compare himself to other people. If he engaged in such a comparison every time, he wouldn't be able to take advantage of the opportunities before him and would constantly be unhappy. Victor repeatedly reassured himself and focused all his thoughts on himself.
When he moved to the third stance, this already indicated that the concentration of dark energy in his normal blood had exceeded 3%. When he looked at his blood with his spiritual sense, he felt the strands of dark energy circulating with the blood flow and slowly changing his body. Although this change was quite slow, it was still there and continuing passively.
Victor had taken the first step and embarked on an extraordinary path. He felt that these ten years had been worthwhile and looked upwards. He had instinctively wanted to look at the stars in the sky, but all he saw was a thick layer of compressed soil. Because very little light came from the tower, this layer of soil looked even stranger. However, he should be grateful. After all, he was protected from the wild world outside and could continue to live, even if unequally.