When Casmir awoke from his sleep, it was already late in the evening, the sun would be setting soon. Casmir remembered that he needed to meet Elena soon.
"Ugh... so tired... ah, my arm...." Casmir groaned as he tried to get up.
He realised that he was aching all over, apparently his exercises had a greater impact on him than he thought.
He tried to get up but every muscle in his body was aching, he barely managed to sit up.
"How the hell can I meet up with Elena like this..." Casmir said to himself.
As Casmir was trying to think of what to do, the Life Giver Orb sent him a some information, a reminder of sorts.
'Life Giver Orb - Advancement 1
Choose;
Martial Skill – Minor Enhanced dexterity - Expend Qi to enhance the sensitivity of nerve endings for a short time.
Martial Skill – Natural Fire Endowment – Your Qi becomes naturally endowed with fire energy, all your Qi techniques are enhanced by fire energy. Can conflict with skills of an opposite nature. Does not conflict with other Naturally Endowed energies.
Fertility Skill – Vital Energy Healing - Vital Energy can be expended to create a healing energy.
Fertility Skill – Pheromone Sensing – Increase sensitivity to pheromones, also grants knowledge of their purposes.
Body Skill – Minor Body Cleanse – Improves muscle growth and the body's efficiency at processing energy in the form of foods and medicine to 30%.
The Chosen skill will be generated choose wisely.'
'Oh yeah... the advancment..' Casmir thought.
He didn't understand why the Orb had reminded him at this time but as he reread the skills, he realised that perhaps the Minor Body Cleanse could be of use to him, in his current situation.
If it allowed him to process food more quickly then it might allow him to regain his energy sooner, but he didn't know whether to give up the other skills or not.
Casmir didn't care about the dexterity skill, the healing skill or the pheremone skill, he had no idea how useful they would be.
However he had heard about people who had attribute's in their Qi energy, these people were uncommon but not rare, and in the Elemental race for example nearly every person has an attribute. Typically these attribute's could enhance a person's Qi energy in different ways, it would make them stronger and allow them enhanced understanding towards said attribute, however they had flaws, such as incompatibility with Qi energy of opposing natures.
'I know too little about this Orb and Qi energy. I should just take the Body Cleanse. Even if the other skills are better, for now I can't understand them. At least I know that the Body Cleanse won't have any side effects.... probably...' Casmir thought.
As Casmir focused on choosing the Minor Body Cleanse, the Orb reacted, Casmir felt his mind tremble as His body was overcome with a strange feeling.
Similar to how the Life Body Cycle supplied him with energy with he then needed to use up, he started to feel hot everywhere, he felt thirsty and started sweating.
After a few seconds his sweat started to turn grey and Casmir felt like he had a fever, as he looked at his dirty body he suddenly realised he shouldn't be sitting on his bed as this happens.
He quickly ran into the bathroom and started the taps before getting changed and getting in.
Although technology had advanced thoroughly and Casmir's house did have a heated water supply that was only for the kitchen and a few other rooms. Casmir needed divert the heated water supply if he wanted a hot bath and he didn't have time for that.
Cold water rushed over Casmir's body quenching the heat coming from his body and washing away the dirt. Gradually the bath filled up with cold water, it was tainted black by all the impurities Casmir was releasing.
'...so hot...' Casmir thought, he felt very uncomfortable.
Even though the water around him was cold, his body was boiling, his fever like state caused him to constantly hold his head under the tap and dunk his face into the cold water, it felt incredibly refreshing.
After a few hellish minutes, Casmir's body started to cool down and he stopped sweating, his body felt even further drained but also lighter and more flexible.
As Casmir drained away the murky water and cleaned the rest of his body he realised that his skin felt smooth and his muscled felt more flexible and yet tougher.
'I feel so good... strong and yet flexible... my skin feels great...' Casmir thought as he rubbed his body in admiration.
Casmir's looks didn't change much apart from removing a few blemishes on his skin, he was still fairly tanned and retained his innocent yet handsome appearance.
Once Casmir had finished admiring his own body, he got changed and entered the space of the Life Giver Orb once again.
He found a new white, round, opaque crystal had appeared inside it, as he expected it represented the new skill.
'Minor Body Cleanse'
However unlike the other crystal's, it showed no additional information and instead of swimming around gently as if alive, similarly to the other crystal's, this crystal seemed to have simply sank to the bottom of the Orb and laid there inert, like a white rock.
Casmir didn't know what to think of it, he soon focused on the Life Giver Orb again hoping to find some change's and as expected, he found some new information.
'Life Giver Orb – Requirement 0/1
Impregnation – 0/1'
Casmir finally understood what the Life Giver Orb needed and why he already had an advancement, it needed him to impregnate people and spread 'Life', so to speak. From this, Casmir understood that the Orb would grant him new abilities to further this goal.
The Orb would give him every incentive to have more children, the idea of which sent chills down Casmir's spine, undoubtedly the Old man from his dream had planned or at least understood this.
Of course, Casmir wasn't opposed to helping his world but he couldn't shake the feeling of being controlled.
After Casmir left the space of the Life Giver Orb he remembered his meeting with Elena. Even though his body was aching at the moment, he had to meet her and so he quickly went to the Kitchen to find some food in the hopes it would give him some energy.
When Casmir entered the kitchen he realised there was already someone here.
"..Hmmm hum hum... Hmmm hum hum.." a lady hummed peacefully.
An older lady perhaps in her 50's was preparing some vegetable's in the kitchen while humming, she had partially grey black hair and a thin figure, she almost seemed malnourished.
"Aunt Linda? Why are you preparing food so late?" Casmir asked clearly familiar with the lady.
Aunt Linda was a chef employed by the Sing family, she had lived here for many years and was familiar with Casmir.
"Oh Casmir, don't worry I'm just preparing some soup for Alice, she's got a fever again and so she has been asleep most of the day."
Alice was Aunt Linda's grand daughter, her parents, Aunt Linda's children, had sadly passed away. It was a large blow to Linda and Alice and it left Alice, who is only 12, with a protracted illness.
"Ah, again?... Aunt Linda are you sure you don't want to take her to a specialist..?" Casmir asked, clearly out of concern for Alice's wellbeing.
Although there were many in the Sing family familiar with the sciences and also doctor's, no one knew how to help Alice. Unfortunately Aunt Linda was quite poor and couldn't afford to visit a specialist, she denied any help the Sing family tried to give her convincing herself that Alice would get better on her own.
"No, No, Alice will be fine she just needs some good food." Aunt Linda replied but Casmir could tell how nervous she was.
"Okay... Well let me know if you need anything... I'm just going to grab some food quickly." Casmir said, although he was concerned for Alice he didn't want to overstep his bounds.
Casmir grabbed an apple, some cooked meat and a small loaf of bread nearby before leaving.
" Hmm hum hum.... she'll get better... she'll be fine..." Aunt Linda said quietly.
She was still convinced that all Alice needed was some good food and a warm bed, she didn't want to bother anyone with her problems.
======
The sun had nearly fully set, the park was quiet apart from the odd chirp of a grasshopper or the occasional mechanical noise from the city.
Casmir was walking quickly along a small mud path leading towards a lake, at the moment he felt very odd.
It had been 5 minutes since he ate the food from the kitchen but he could feel his body silently working away, gradually he felt fresher and more energetic.
Casmir felt confused, he thought the Minor Body Cleanse would improve his bodies use of food by 30%, but this felt much faster than a simple 30% boost.
"Unless..." Casmir stopped for a moment in shock, before quickly remembering the skills description.
'Improves muscle growth and the body's efficiency at processing energy in the form of food's and medicine to 30%.'
'That must be it, it increased my body's efficiency TO 30 % not BY 30%, that means my original efficiency at processing food must have been very low..' Casmir thought.
Casmir continued walking as he thought about the skills effects.
In truth, the human body can process food to about 12% efficiency, it might not sound like much but it was fairly decent if one understood the fundamental's.
The Minor Body Cleanse had in fact more than doubled Casmir's speed at processing food, taking into consideration this, the increased muscle growth and his previous period of sleep. It was understandable that his body had repaired itself, allowing him to feel much better.
After a few minutes of walking, Casmir made his way to a secluded pond. There were plenty of tree's and foliage blocking one's sight into the clearing by this pond, it seemed to be a favoured site for romantic escapades.
Casmir focused on what he would say to Elena, he started straightening his shirt and combing his hair with his hands in an attempt to look better, unknowingly he made his hair look worse than it originally was.
As Casmir passed a large bush he finally saw a bench in front of the pond, Elena was sitting on it with a small lantern that lightly illuminated her surroundings.
She was still wearing a nice white dress but she had rapped her hair up with a scarf so that it couldn't be seen, she looked nervous but as she saw Casmir she started smiling.
"Casmir!" she called out gently
Casmir quickly jogged over to meet her, nervous but confident, he knew what he wanted to do.
"Elena... why did you want to meet here?" he asked.
Elena was nervous as she spoke but eventually pointed at the pond, it was dark and there wasn't much light as the sun had faded past the horizon by now.
"Erm... well... you know how I like this place... I wanted to show you something here but.. I..." Elena spoke erratically, clearly she was unsure of herself.
Elena almost seemed sad as she then spoke.
"Promise me you won't be mad.. it's about your childhood..."
Elena had decided after yesterday that she wanted to let go of the burden on her heart, even without Gloria's permission she wanted to tell Casmir his origins and stop lying to him.
Although at the time she was very young and didn't understand exactly what happened, as she grew older she understood the gravity of the situation. She knew that Gloria wasn't Casmir's mother and even though she and Casmir were so close, she kept it from him.
When Casmir heard her mention his childhood he realised what she wanted to tell him, he realised that she must have kept it from him but he didn't feel angry about it anymore.
He didn't want to feel angry about it and hurt Elena, like he did when he shouted at Gloria and upset her.
"I know..." Casmir said.
Elena didn't understand for a moment "Know what?... you... you...."
"It's Okay, Gloria told me... I know she's not my mum, in fact I actually got really mad and shouted at her because of it." Casmir said awkwardly as he felt foolish about his previous actions.
"But I'm not angry about it anymore, I know that you were young and didn't really have a say in the matter. To be honest I feel bad about you having to leave your family." He said sincerely.
That's right, Casmir didn't realise until afterwards but Elena must have had to leave her family behind when she left. Although she may not have realised immediately, after not seeing her family for a time she must have felt abandoned or hurt.
Casmir went on to explain what happened between him and Gloria earlier, he didn't tell her everything to save some embarrassment, just the main points.
Elena was nervous as Casmir explained but she gradually calmed down after seeing Casmir's awkward face, clearly he wasn't hurt or angry because of her. She did feel sad at the mention of her family but she had made peace with it, it was so long ago now that she barely remembered them.
".... Did Gloria tell you everything.... about me I mean....?" Elena asked shyly after Casmir had finished.
Casmir was confused, he thought that she might have misunderstood him, he tried to explain again.
"Of course, she told me how you guided me here and helped raise me. I'm so thankful for that by the way." Casmir said with sincerity.
From his response Elena now knew that Gloria had either intentionally or unintentionally left out an important detail.
Elena stepped back from Casmir before untying her head scarf in order to release her hair.
"Promise me you want laugh.... don't stare either...." Elena said shyly.
"What do you mean..? Why are you..." Casmir watched in confusion.
As Elena released her hair, Casmir eyes grew large as his mouth dropped and their surroundings were bathed in green light.....