Emperors War 84 A Tough Decision

After sending the letter to Sneed to deliver to Alex, Aker felt a sense of vindication he hadn't felt in the last two years. Even though he was confident in Alex's personality, namely his cowardice, there was still that sliver of possibility that Alex would act against his established modus operandi.

Aker had considered this possibility and thought that after sending the letter he would feel a tinge of regret. Even as he was compiling the letter, he would contemplate on how idiotic his choice was. He realized that on the surface his decision was a completely hotheaded and dare-devilish maneuver.

Despite that, he never considered not sending the note for a second. He had already made up his mind that Alex would live and breathe misery every day of his life even if it meant that Aker had to live looking over his shoulder. If he was looking for the easy way out Aker wouldn't have chosen to head off to war in the first place.

After finishing up his letter, Cap escorted Aker to his room on the ship. Already Cap and Vance had explained that they were headed to a planet known as Dilnara in the Telarus system. If they were traveling by way of the X-2 Shuttle Dilnara would be roughly a month or two away. However, as they are traveling using the X-1 Jumper more commonly known as the "garbage can" it would be a year.

Cap had also filled Aker in on the fact that Sneed had implemented the design for the converter that Aker had thought up and that had shortened the travel time down from almost two to three years to the one year they were expecting.

As soon as Cap escorted Aker into his room she let him know if he needed anything where to find her and then left him to get familiar with his new surroundings.

Cap left and shut the metal door on her way leaving Aker standing in a ma.s.sive room by himself. Vance and Cap had the ship refit when it was at the transfer station turning the previous four small rooms into one large room.

As Aker watched the door close, he couldn't help but have a sudden feeling of being trapped. He immediately ran over and turned the handle. Upon turning the handle, he pulled the door open and to his relief it opened without any problems. He shut it and opened it four more times as though making sure that there wasn't some trick. Finally, after five attempts he felt relieved, 'I'm no longer locked in a room without the ability to get out' Aker felt a wave of serenity wash over him.

Even as he was leaving The Pit, he had a heightened sense of alert as he was focused on taking not just the new sites in but the reaction of the people around him as well. Aker had developed the ability to keep a calm demeanor even when he was panicking on the inside from his time in The Pit. As he never wanted to give those people who bet against him or the people from The Pit who tossed him away the satisfaction of seeing him scared, nervous, or afraid, he learned to remain externally indifferent.

It wasn't until after Aker was able to check that the door wasn't locked and he wasn't trapped that he felt at ease.

Finished testing the door Aker couldn't help but gawk at the sheer size of his new room, it was at least eight times larger than his prison cell. In the back corner away from the bed was an area for him to train with his swords, knifes and throwing darts, however, to his surprise there were also staffs, spears, halberds and sabers for him to practice with lined up as well.

One of Aker's lingering regrets of being in The Pit was not having enough s.p.a.ce to practice all the different weapons he wanted to try. Looking around Aker couldn't help but smile as Vance and Cap had considered this for him and gave him enough room to practice to his hearts content.

As Aker walked up to the weapons with the idea that he would get a feel for them he couldn't help but notice that the gravity had increased significantly.

"Looks like Vance also brought along the gravity stone, from the feel of it I would say its set to at least 3.5 times normal gravity, maybe it's even at 4 times."

As everything had moved so fast Aker had never even thought about the gravity stone and he probably would have forgotten about it at least for another day or so. He was grateful to Vance who had not only not forgotten the gravity stone, but already had it setup for him in his room and ready for him to train. Aker had come to enjoy practicing and living under the pressure of the extra gravity and was proud of having conditioned himself up to now 3.5 times normal gravity.

Aker was startled as his eyes moved through the room and landed on a bed. It had been a couple of years since he had last put his head on something soft, so he wanted to give it a try. As he laid down, he felt that it was too soft, he started to feel as though he was sinking into it.
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He immediately jumped out of it and laid down on the ground. The entire room was made of metal and the ground was no exception. It felt cold to the touch as he ran his hand across it.

After contemplating for a moment Aker grabbed the blanket and sheets that covered his bed and tossed it on the floor. After spending so much time sleeping on his beast blood stain stone floor, he just didn't feel comfortable on an actual bed.

Aker sat down and began focusing on drawing nature particles in. For the first couple of minutes there was nothing. As he looked around the room it seemed that the entire area was devoid of nature particles. He focused on slowly drawing nature particles and after a couple of minutes he could see white specks floating in the air. Initially there were only a couple, but as time slowly pa.s.sed the room became more and more dense with them. Finally, after roughly ten minutes Aker was absorbing nature particles at a rate he was used to.

When Aker first saw the white nature particles, he had thought that the normal colored particles would show up, he attributed the white particles to being in the void and darkness of s.p.a.ce. As the room filled with the white particles there was no sign or indication of the other elements.

'What element do the white particles represent? I've never heard of white nature particles before.'

Aker thought back on all the conversations and books he had read and couldn't remember even the slightest mention of a particle that could be construed as white.

Aker who had broken through both the Body Conditioning Bones and Blood yesterday was now ready to form his Source Core. He had asked Vance about the process of forming the Source Core and Vance told him he would explain it to him after he broke through Bones.

Vance never expected Aker to break through both the Bones and Blood levels at the same time and as such figured he had plenty of time to explain to Aker the process for forming his Source Core before he would be ready.

Initially when Aker first absorbed the white nature particles, he was nervous as he wasn't familiar with the element type. After absorbing the white nature particles for a few seconds and seeing there was no issues Aker relaxed and began absorbing as he normally would.

Since he had broken through all five levels of the Body Conditioning and now needed to form his Source Core, he would have thought that his body was already completely saturated and couldn't absorb more. The premise behind the five levels of Body Conditioning was to fill your body with nature particles until it couldn't hold any more. At each level Skin, Muscles, Organs, Bones, and Blood you couldn't move to the next level until the previous level was completely saturated.

Once your skin was completely saturated with nature particles you could break through and spill over into your muscles. As Aker was absorbing the white nature particles his Venas that had extended deeper into each level of his skin, muscles, organs, and bones was filling in areas that had previously not been filled with nature particles.

Most bodies were like a small cup, if you over filled the small cup the water would spill over onto the table. Because his body was beaten and broken so devastatingly and because his bones had the opportunity to completely reform and heal at the same time he was breaking through to Bones, his Venas were allowed to extend into the sub layers of the skin and deep fiber of the muscles that normal magic fighters never have an opportunity to reach.

The human skin is made up of the epidermis which is the outermost level of the skin. Beneath the epidermis is the dermis which contains the tough tissues, sweat glands and hair follicles. The epidermis and the dermis would be the normal saturation of nature particles for magic fighters. However, due to Aker's Venas extending out, his Venas were able to penetrate the deeper subcutaneous tissue also known as the hypodermis. As Aker was absorbing nature particles his Venas were filling the hypodermis which for all other magic fighters was never penetrated and saturated.

Much like the skin had three layers there were also three layers of the muscle fibers that made up the human body. The first layer is the epimysium which is the outermost layer and is responsible for surrounding the entire muscle. Beneath the epimysium is the perimysium layer which groups muscle fibers. When typical magic fighters are absorbing nature particles through their pills, potions and herbs they are trying to fill the epimysium and the perimysium until they are saturated so they can break through to the Organs.

There is a third level of muscles the deepest layer known as the endomysium layer which separates the individual muscle fibers or muscles cells, it also overlies the muscles fiber's cell membrane: the sarcolemma. It is this deepest layer that makes up the muscles one cell at a time.

As Aker was sitting and absorbing nature particles unknown to him his body was filling these deepest layers of skin, muscles, and organs with nature particles.

This was a ma.s.sive benefit of the Venas that Aker had painstakingly created in his body. No other magic fighter would ever be able to find a way to penetrate the deepest layers of the body the way that Aker was now.

Slowly as Aker absorbed the nature particles his body was transforming; his strength was increasing as the very source of his muscles were undergoing a metamorphosis at the cellular level.

Aker who started absorbing the nature particles was surprised to find that his body was still absorbing. He was aware that he had broken through the Bones and Blood levels of Body Conditioning and according to his understanding he shouldn't truly be able to absorb more particles into his body as it was already full.

Aker was not able to peer directly into his body and see his normal bones, organs, muscles and such, however he was able to follow the path of his Venas especially the nature particles as they moved through his body. He had guided nature particles through his Venas countless times and was exceedingly familiar with it.

As he examined his Venas he was shocked to see the many branches that extended out deep into his body connecting it all together. Previously he had one main circular system in his Venas that extended to twelve places in his body.

The twelve locations that his Venas previously connected to were the heart, small intestine, bladder, kidney, gall bladder, liver, lung, large intestine, stomach, chest bones, lower stomach muscles and spleen.

Now as he followed the path there were hundreds of tiny branches that extended into all parts of his organs, bones, muscles as well as connecting to the deepest portion of his skin.

As Aker counted the total small branches, he was shocked to discover a total of three hundred and sixty-one branches in all.

As he moved the nature particles through his body the particles would disappear after following a branch into his body.

'How can my body still be absorbing more nature particles if I have already broken through the five levels of Body Conditioning? In theory I should be able to form my Source Core now but the intention of absorbing the nature particles into the body is to strengthen it. It seems that nature particles are reaching the deepest part of my body. In that case shouldn't I wait to form my Source Core until after I truly can't absorb any more?'

As Aker considered staying at the Body Conditioning Level and continued to absorb until his body was truly saturated, he also had to consider the reciprocal as well. As he was spending time absorbing more nature particles into his body at the Body Conditioning, he could already have broken through to the Source Core.

'I wonder if absorbing more nature particles will actually be worth it. I'm not sure there is any benefit to absorbing more particles and I could already be moving on to the Fire level of Source Core. In the same amount of time I finish absorbing more nature particles until my body is completely saturated, I might have been able to break through Fire and into the Earth Level of Source Core. Who knows how long it will take for my body to finish absorbing and be completely saturated.'

As Aker thought on it, he couldn't shake a single thought....

'The purpose of the Body Conditioning level is not to break through to the Source Core. The purpose is to strengthen the body. Once the body is strong enough you can compact all of the nature particles in your body thus forming a Source Core. To form the Source Core your body must be able to withstand that pressure. I would have to imagine that absorbing more nature particles and strengthening the deepest parts of my body can only be a good thing. First, my body will be stronger than other magic fighters. Secondly, with more nature particles I should be able to make a more dense and bigger Source Core. Only by absorbing nature particles into the deepest layers would my body be able to handle a larger and denser Source Core. I can only imagine there are benefits to having a stronger body and larger denser Source Core.'

Aker had made up his mind, he would continue to absorb nature particles until his body couldn't hold any more signifying it was truly completely saturated and then at that time, he would break through the Source Core Fire level.