When Oli finally woke up early in the morning, he could finally move again, albeit with aching muscles. He slowly unsealed the room and made his way out.
But to his surprise, the moment he unsealed the room, someone charged in and wrapped their arms tightly around him.
"Aaahhh!" yelled Oli, his body shaking in pain. "Mom, please let go, that hurts…"
"What?" She quickly released Oli and saw him drop to the floor, whining in pain. "Oli, what happened?"
"I tried the Infinite Compression art for the first time…"
Ania glared at her son. "When did you get that! Did Rathe give it to you?"
"Mom, stop worrying… You should be glad that I can start it so young, that way I"ll be able to increase my potential."
"But son, you don"t know how painful that art can be?! I"ve tried it myself, but I gave up after completing the second level because I couldn"t take it anymore," stated Ania.
"Seriously?!" Oli was baffled.
Though Ania wasn"t his father, she was still a perennial level cultivator. For her to not want to continue using it… That thought scared Oli for a moment.
"Well… If I want to beat Dad, then I"ll have to use it!" reasoned Oli, reaffirming his determination to get stronger, no matter what it took.
"Fine… Since you"ve already started the process and it"s your own cultivation, I won"t try and stop you. But please, do your best to come home or I"ll worry about you, especially if your practicing that art," complained Ania.
"I"ll try my best, but you already know this will happen again until I finally get used to it."
"Then at least come and get an early dinner before you finish the night with that crazy battle art…"
"Fine." Oli nodded, agreeing that it was a good idea. "Every other day, I"ll come home right after school for a quick meal before I use the Infinite Compression art."
Ania finally smiled, though it was small. "Now that it"s decided, let"s get to cla.s.s. If you arrive early, there"s less of a chance for the other students to see you so weak."
"Right… Then let"s get going!"
At a snail"s pace, the mother and son duo left the academy library and made their way to their cla.s.sroom. As the first ones there, they sat down but also shared a light breakfast that Ania had prepared and stored before going to find Oli.
They were finis.h.i.+ng up the meal as Netra entered the cla.s.sroom, also coming very early.
The night before, she left late at night and waited for Oli to exit his chamber so they could walk home together like they always do. But when his door never opened and the seal never released, she grew worried.
Before she came to the cla.s.sroom, she went to the cultivation rooms.
She was happy to find that he wasn"t still cultivating but now enjoying a quick meal before cla.s.s. It was easy for her to guess that he had only recently exited the cultivation room and his worried mother had brought him breakfast.
"Oli, are you okay?" Netra hurried to his side, taking her usual seat. "You never came out of your room, even when I waited for so long…""You waited for me? Even when I never came out?"
"Actually," Ania chimed in, "she was the one who told me that you were still cultivating late last night. That"s why I prepared this before coming to get you, instead of just searching for you late last night."
"Really?" Turning to see the shy Netra, Oli shook his head with a self-mocking laugh. "Netra, I"m sorry for making you so worried."
"You should be!"
Ania whacked her son upside the head. Normally, it wouldn"t hurt the big-bodied ape at all, but his soreness made him extremely vulnerable at the moment.
"Owww! What was that for?!"
"You made a girl so worried, and she still waited for you. All you have to say is sorry?" stated Ania, looking down on her son.
Still shaking from his aching muscles, Oli rubbed his neck. "Netra, I"m sorry for making you worry. I"ll try not to do it again, but I"m practicing a new battle art. Every other day, the same thing will probably happen again until my body can get used to it."
"Now that you know, please don"t be so worried, okay? Inside the room, my body was just too sore to move. But after some sleep, I"m good as new."
"Really, I wouldn"t say that," added Ania, slapping Oli"s shoulder.
"Oww! Mom, stop it already!"
"What, aren"t you good as new?" mocked Ania, still not too happy that her son was trying such a painful art.
"Oli, are you really okay?" asked Netra.
"Yes, I"m fine, really. It"ll just take some time to get used to the new art," stated Oli. "Once I"m far enough in the art, I may be able to get my earth essence affinity to the perfect level, like yours. So long as I can do that, it"ll be worth it in the end."
"Really, that"s possible?" Surprised, Netra finally smiled. "Then, I guess it"s okay to do something like that… Just be careful and not overwork yourself too quickly."
"I--"
"Don"t worry," replied Ania, "with both of us keeping him in check, he won"t have any other choice."
"Okay." Netra nodded, happy that Ania was smiling at her and agreed.
"Don"t you think I can handle it?" complained Oli.
"I know you can, you"re your father"s son. But since you"re his son, I also know that you"ll overdo it anyway," reasoned Ania, leaving Oli speaking and making Netra laugh.
Seeing Netra getting closer to her son, Ania sighed and waved her hand. Another plate a warm, roasted boar appeared in front of the fox.
"Here, eat up. You must have left home before breakfast to get here so early."
"Umm… Thank you, Ma"am."
"Please, just call me Ania, Netra."
"O-okay. Thank you, Ania." With a quick bow of the head, Netra hid her delight and joined the two gorillas for breakfast.
After breakfast quickly ended, the other students eventually trickled in. Once they were all there, cla.s.s began as usual.
To the cla.s.s"s surprise, Oli and Netra didn"t directly leave for their cultivation rooms and instead stayed in the cla.s.sroom. However, they didn"t know that Oli just wanted to avoid the cla.s.s seeing him too weak to walk normally and waited till they left to hobbly back to the library.
That day, Oli trained with Netra.
He liked that his cultivation was starting to balance out, and he could also give his body time to rest while doing so.
This same process continued for the next two weeks, But Oli didn"t train the Infinite Compression art before the test day, not wanting to lose his seat because he was too sore to battle.
Since he had waited a few days to use the art, his body had mostly recovered and felt lighter than Oli remembered. The difference was very slight, but it was proof that Oli wasn"t wasting his time with a pointless endeavor.
But before he tried the Infinite Compression art again, there was something else he wanted to try.
Thinking back to his conversation with the late Trada, Oli remembered her question.
"Oli, How much would you like to be human again?"
Though he preferred his life as a gorilla more than his past human life, Oli did like the idea of having a human form. Since Oli would eventually leave the territory to broaden his horizons, he would want a human form to better interact with human societies.
He wanted to learn the differences in human cultivation and b.e.s.t.i.a.l cultivation was. And maybe, he could figure out how they created their own cultivation techniques since they were unable to depend on a bloodline.
With that in mind, Oli spent his next day training alone. He tried to remember how Trada described such a transformation during one of their few chats.
"Just like how you can feel the strength of your bloodline in the heat of battle, you"ll have to be able to feel what a human bloodline feels like," Oli remembered Trada"s explanation. "I can"t quite describe it because I"m not entirely sure what the difference is myself, otherwise I"d have a full human transformation and not just a hybrid form."
Focusing on the innate strength of his blood, Oli tried to differentiate the feel of his current bloodline and his old human bloodline. It was only slightly different, but he could tell that there was a difference.
The b.e.s.t.i.a.l bloodline was more prominent as if his body could explode with overwhelming strength when compared to how his old human self felt.
"Try and subdue your bloodline, letting its strength hide away inside of you. If you can isolate that strength for long enough and you try to activate the innate strength left behind in your blood, then you may be able to take a human form before you break into the divine cla.s.s."
Trada"s reminders constantly filled his head.
Doing his best to suppress his bloodline, Oli struggled to activate the little portion of innate strength leftover.
After a couple of hours, something finally started to happen. However, it didn"t last long. A gut-wrenching pain filled his body in seconds. It was far worse than the infinite compression technique.
The Infinite Compression technique made it feel like his body was going to break apart and put itself back together.
When Oli finally managed to activate the sliver of leftover strength in his suppressed blood, his body was truly breaking itself down and forcibly altering its structure. The young ape, who practiced both the Infinite Torture technique and the Infinite Compression art, couldn"t withstand a minute of that pain.
After he gave up, almost blacking out, Oli laid on the ground. He was just as weak as the first time he had used the Infinite Compression technique, and he only lasted a minute!
With a sad sigh, Oli regretted not heading home for an early dinner. He planned to just try and feel if the transformation was possible.
Though he confirmed it was possible, Oli also learned that he wasn"t ready for it. And now, he would also have to deal with an angry Ania in the morning.