Mark had gotten off the carriage with the help of the clumsy maid and was now sitting on his bed.
His posture was straight and his attitude was serious; he was finally going to unleash whatever this new feeling was.
"I'll try to control the range within my room; or I might knock out everyone."
"Alright, here goes nothing."
_Vroom_
A tremor spread throughout his room with Mark as the center; a constant shockwave-like aura was released from his body.
Looking at the slowly vibrating room, Mark was sure this was indeed conqueror's haki.
"I can somewhat control the range; training nothing but observation haki for a decade has made me very adept at grasping distance."
Mark had just unlocked his king's haki; he didn't have a good control over it, but grasping the distance was still possible because of his strong observation haki.
This was why he was confident in keeping the effects to his room.
"Huff"
Letting out a breath, Mark felt the changes within him.
To understand this feeling completely, he decided to keep releasing kings haki for a while longer.
'How long can I release it?'
Mark thought as he steadily kept emitting kings haki, an overbearing aura was constantly covering his entire room.
"I am feeling a bit lightheaded."
"This feels like observation haki overuse… I am losing strength the more I use it."
"Haki is a limited resource after all; I am probably running out of steam while doing this."
Realizing this, Mark stopped releasing his conqueror's haki and took a deep breath.
He didn't want to push himself too hard.
Luffy had shown in his fight against Doflamingo what kind of disastrous things can happen when you overuse your Haki and it runs out.
Mark wasn't about that life; he was the type to take things as they come.
"I see, king's haki is way harder to use when compared to observation haki."
"But I am confident I can use it without much trouble."
Throughout the years Mark had read many books about Haki; he already knew how to use this particular type of Haki efficiently.
There were a lot of neat tricks he could do with King's haki, but before he did any of that, he wanted to do the thing he was waiting two whole decades for.
_Clap clap._
As soon as Mark clapped his hands, the doors opened, and a graceful maid bowed to him.
"Within 10 minutes, I want a steady stream of food to my room."
"Make it meat and vegetables; keep it coming until I ask you to stop."
No questions were asked; the maid bowed again and left the room immediately.
Mark, meanwhile, took a deep breath and prepared himself for the upcoming ordeal.
"Let do a practice run first."
Whispered Mark, as his hair began to flow upwards, his spiky hair was moving like it was experiencing wind currents.
But curiously, his room was without any direct wind; this odd phenomenon was the result of life returning.
"I can perfectly control my hair; this shouldn't be possible; hair has no muscles for it to move, but I know why I can do this, Haki."
Only haki was something which was inside every part of his body; it was an easy conclusion to reach.
Mark kept playing with his hair for a while longer, before he raised his hand and made a claw shape.
_Wiggle_
Immediately his hand began changing; it was morphing to suit the image he had in mind, taking the shape of a tiger claw.
"Thick curved nails, claw-like shape, life return is so damn cool."
Mark smiled and decided to revert his hand back to normal.
It too happened automatically; his body obeyed his command without questions.
Make smiled and simply stopped his experiments because he could feel the maid was back with his food.
Next was going to be a long session.
_knock knock_
"Come in."
Mark elegantly asked the maid to enter.
She pushed the door open, and a chef came from behind her while pushing a cart of food.
"Excellent."
"Keep it coming."
Mark praised their efficiency with a nod; the chef in question bowed with pride visible on his face.
He then left the room to prepare more food; other chefs were also preparing their shares; he too needed to go back.
Mark, meanwhile, removed his upper garments, and the maid swiftly kept them in place.
"Alright, I need to build muscles; life return will do that, and the raw material will be the food I will consume and quickly digest."
Mark's upper body currently didn't have any visible muscles. Physically speaking, he was just a regular man.
He never bothered to train his body, because he knew he would do this when the time came.
So now, Mark was building everything from scratch.
"Let us begin."
Mark started cutting the steak before him and put it in his mouth; chewing it silently, he gulped down the food.
'Life return.'
He willed it to be digested, and in a few seconds, all the food was broken down and absorbed into his body.
'Life return.'
As soon as Mark felt that happen, he willed his body to become stronger.
Yes, his entire body, not just his muscles.
Because here's the thing: from the scholar, he understood something important: balance was essential.
"This way my entire body—bone density, muscle mass, nerve response, everything—will be upgraded."
_Wiggle_
Mark's body soon wiggled slightly, but nothing happened after that, visually at least.
But Mark could feel it; he was indeed getting stronger and better; he was pretty sure his eyes could see a little clearer too.
His observation haki practice had given him the ability to analyze this level of detail.
"Yes, this is the way; it's equivalent to training the entire body with the best possible efficiency."
"Skipping the recovery part and getting straight to the strengthening part."
Mark kept eating, digesting, and willing his body to become stronger by the second.
This process was slower than only increasing or decreasing muscle mass, but this was also better overall.
"Keep it coming."
Mark ordered the maid, and she gave another signal; one more chef entered the room.
'I am going to keep doing this until my body reaches its maximum potential.'
Mark thought while chewing his food.
He could already see the faintest signs of muscle were starting to appear on his arms.
And he could feel his body was now much more dense as well; everything was being upgraded, even his brain.
Mark was walking towards a path nobody in this world had walked before, a path made from ingenious use of life return.
To what extent this will lead Mark to, only time will tell.