Potions that could bring you back from the brink of death, enhance your abilities permanently, increase your lifespan. These were all truly unfathomable phenomena to Rui. It really broadened his perspective on the limits of the esoteric materialistic nature of this world that seemed to have no limits whatsoever!
"None of those are common though. They are extremely rare, so much so that they would be considered National Treasures. My father said that even life-prolonging potions were extremely difficult to obtain even for him, apparently." Kane told him.
('No, regardless of rarity. A potion that can prolong life should be impossible. Aging is an inevitable process that occurs due to processes occurring on a molecular level within our body.')
Aging was primarily caused by the faulty DNA replication during cellular division and replacement. Every time a new cell in the body is born, the DNA it inherited from its parent cell contained tiny new flaws and new gaps, this happened every time cells divided and were replicated. Over a lifetime, these flaws and gaps accumulate in the DNA across the body before one thing or the other eventually leads to a fatal cause of death.
('The fact that a potion can stall this inevitable process means that some esoteric compound within the potion is influencing our body universally on a molecular level!')
He had to once again re-evaluate the esoteric technology of this world. Basic healing and stamina recovery were one thing. Healing from the brink of death, augmentation and longevity were whole other ball-games. He still found Kane's words incredibly difficult to process.
"That isn't it, potions are used a lot in medicine too you know..." Kane added, oblivious of the fact that the impact of such an unremarkable statement was rather paltry in comparison to the thundering revelations he had unleashed upon Rui prior.
"...Are the permanent body augmenting potions you mentioned prior, available on the market?"
"Probably not? Otherwise, I would have definitely gotten my hands on them. But I haven't unfortunately, only temporary-enhancement ones exist. Don't quote me on that though, I just know general stuff." Kane replied.
"I see, that's a shame." Rui could gain a huge boost if he had one of those.
"Well, potions can help you grow stronger otherwise too, you know?"
"Oh yeah? How so?" Rui asked curiously.
"Well, just the rejuvenation potion and healing potions alone increase your ability to train like crazy, honestly I can't imagine training without them, I wouldn't be as strong as I am today." Kane explained.
"True, you could train for far longer, far more intensively with these potions than without."
"Yeah, you can be damn well sure a major proportion of the freshmen in our batch also relied on them for training, so that they could grow much stronger and more skilled than if they didn't."
"No wonder I felt outpowered among them." Rui mused.
"It's also why your performance was quite impressive, when you told me you've never consumed one, I was genuinely surprised. You must have done an absurd amount of training from an extremely young age."
('I can't tell him I've basically been training my entire life.') Rui mused. Every physically intensive activity translated into training as long as it was measured, structured and disciplined. Even though he began actually training exercises at the age of five, he still carefully exercised his body in various physical and performative attributes, he went from barely average in terms of physical talent to well above average in regards to physical attributes such as strength, speed and agility, durability, flexibility etc.
The biggest problem was his performative attributes such as balance and body-eye coordination. The mismatch between the muscle memory of his previous life and his new body significantly hindered him. Overwriting fifty-nine years of muscle memory took him an immense amount of time, until he had finally reached an average standard.
"It's probably also why Fae was particularly impressed and interested in you, you managed to accomplish a lot despite possessing none of the learning, training and growing resources that almost all other freshmen had, at the age of thirteen no less.
"I wonder how strong I would be if I had access to rejuvenation and recovery potions my entire life." Rui sighed. He wasn't one to grow overtly jealous and envious. As severely diseased person in his previous life, he had long learnt that it was toxic and unproductive, but even he had to sigh when he realized what he had missed out on.
"You'd be a monster. Honestly, it's pretty impressive you are where you are, your body is honed incredibly well all things considered. Your performative attributes are pretty meh though. I'd suggest ramping up on training them. We have tons of training equipment meant specifically for those so feel free to use them."
It was a truly tempting offer, as resourceful Rui was, actual targeted-training equipment was far more effective and efficient.
"Thanks, I'll consider that. Will we have access to these potions in the Academy?"
"Yep, you get a supply of them during your stay at the Academy."
"Sweet, I was worried I'd be missing out then."
"Don't underestimate the Academies, they have huge funding, a lot of that goes into training resources which inevitably include potions. Of course, they won't be as good as the ones we have here."
"True... Glad to hear that."
Rui looked forward to begin training with the resources of the Academy even more. He could scarcely imagine how much his rate of growth would skyrocket once he began training with these resources. He anticipated within a year his physical body would be honed and refined unlike anything else. He was just entering puberty too; his body would also be naturally growing to an incredibly high degree, thanks to testosterone. Muscle mass and bone density specifically.
"You also get potions that rejuvenate your mind like a good night's sleep, that's one of the things I regularly use in my training regime." Kane casually dropped yet another bombshell
"You..! How many hours have you trained daily across your entire life?"