After several painful months, little Jody had fully refined his skin with astral light. The astral particles were no longer capable of corroding his skin, and he could readily absorb them. More months passed, and he had done the same with the power of twilight. When he spent fifty twilight stars to improve his physique, he didn't realize it would be such a continuous process. It was well worth the resources.
By doing so, he realized that twilight was somewhat of a highly concentrated form of astral light. It just had some other components that Jody couldn't recognize. Of course, origin existed within all things, but why did something else about twilight seem familiar?
Anyway, Jody's body no longer rejected heavenly power in the slightest. He wouldn't have to suffer such torture twice if he chose to refine another sky power. Now that he had a foundation, it was time to rush into the first stage of Titanic Rage officially.
Thanks to his Titan teacher's memories, he had a mental outline of every stage of the Titanic Rage Law and a thorough understanding of the first five stages. It was as if the elders of the Titan Clan personally taught him these principles. In the first stage of Titanic Rage, the Wimpy Man Physique, there were seven levels of completion. Jody could advance in level by washing the spiritual points of the surface of his body with twilight, cleansing the impurities within.
However, Jody only had a limited number of twilight stars, so he used astral light for this next instance. It was the initial stage, so it should be fine.
This would unblock the spiritual passages behind each position and let the astral energies slowly fuse with him. It wouldn't be too late to merge in twilight after finding a way to obtain more stars. Aiguilles are spiritual points that link physical strength to the spiritual energy network inside the body.
This process transforms the aiguilles into astralis, making them more power-based. Unlike spiritual points, astral points could store a set amount of astral force and distribute this mighty force to the corresponding energy passages in the body. Regular aiguilles would be completely shattered by the raw power of astral force. For every astralis created, Jody would gain fifty pounds of physical strength!
At level one, this might not sound so amazing. However, at level two, that would be equal to 100 pounds of additional strength at each astralis.
Since every astralis flooded the body with strength, that equaled 200 pounds in total. Level two would be 450 pounds, and it just kept increasing! By the third level of the first stage, Jody's physical body would be strong enough to withstand a head-on collision with a car with minimal damage. Besides, with the astral forces he absorbed daily constantly transforming his body, his default physical capabilities would also be slowly enhanced with each level increase!
This was nuts.
Jody was tempted to spend more twilight stars but had recently realized their value. He couldn't squander them recklessly without having a twilight source.
Unfortunately, tempering the body wasn't so simple.
Any Titan Clan member at the peak of the first stage already had the strength to rule a country on 21st-century Earth with an iron fist! Who would fight him? You could only shoot him. Even then, he would need to be bombarded with a massive missile. Only a deadly missile could possibly kill weaker Titans.
"Wait a second…"
On this night, little Jody was clad in his signature cute little white and gold clothes while sitting in the lotus meditation posture his father showed him.
"How intriguing? It seems the Titan Clan members only have seven aiguilles, but with my mind's eye, I see I have twelve. There are extra points in my hips and ankles compared to the sky-slaughterers. I don't have to stop at level seven. I can advance straight through level eleven…and this is because I'm a hero and not a sky-slaughterer."
Jody gasped, and his blood began to boil a little as his heart raced in excitement. If one were to look deep in his eyes at this moment, they would see a tiny green flame flicker for an instant before vanishing.
Jody was unaware of this as he marveled over the possibilities. Didn't this mean he would have an advantage from the very first stage over even young Titans of the same rank? With more power at his base, wouldn't he advance by leaps and bounds once he had a weapon class?
While it was confirmed that by doing so, it would take Jody a lot longer to reach the second stage, at the peak of the first stage, he would possess more than double the strength of the seventh level. Plus, since his body was different, it was a more considerable risk not to formulate all twelve astralis. This was important because the first stage was building a foundation for transforming the body into a Rage Sovereign physique!
He could build up heavier and higher, in theory, with a firmer foundation. To him, it was like comparing someone's blueprint for a house to his design for building a skyscraper! They were simply on two entirely different levels.
"I'm ready to enter the first stage already," said Jody with an air of heroism. "Originally, I was worried, but my body's recovery speed matches my previous life's speed. That means it will only exceed this standard in the future. In that case, I can be a bit less cautious. Sansa told me that my soul was special…" Little Jody pondered for a moment.
Matters of the soul were utterly foreign to him. It was still difficult for him to focus on some of his more complex inherited memories.
"Forget it. I'll first rush into the first level. That way, I can begin practicing the first set of rage techniques, the fists of rage! By combining this technique set with my boxing arts, I should have some capital to defend myself."
Jody was very anxious to grow strong. Well, suffering one's obliteration can do that to a guy.
Unfortunately, in this life, he was still much too young; he had to take everything slow, or he may end his little life early. Luckily, his abnormal recovery abilities from his last life also seemed to manifest in this one slowly. Hurting himself was, in fact, no longer so easy to do. According to his father, this was due to his origin body being particularly extraordinary.
Without further ado, Jody chose the aiguille in the web of his left hand, between his index finger and thumb. This channel connected to his large intestines, and refining it would drastically increase his bacterial and viral immunity while significantly increasing his pain threshold.
He opened his mind's eye to observe the energies of sky and land before using his Spiritual Sense to create a whirlpool that absorbed the heavenly light into the spiritual point on his left hand.
Through his mind's eye, this point looked like a dark grey wall being attacked by a drill made of starlight. The astral light drill speedily corroded the wall but was excruciatingly painful. The pain didn't come from his hand, but rather, his entire being felt like it was concrete getting jackhammered. After three hours, the slightly lighter grey cloud was nearly one-tenth gone.
For the next few weeks, Jody spent every evening in the same way. It was as if he was replacing sleep with torturing himself. This was, in normal circumstances, not great for his growth. However, Jody only needed to meditate for an hour to recover most of his energy.
Meditation was marvelous.
Finally, an entire month later, while Jody was sitting cross-legged next to his serenity crystal container, his body suddenly shook. Jody vomited the peas he ate for dinner, some foul blood, and black goo. His hand was also covered in a black sticky substance.
These were impurities from the body!
This was the sign that Jody had completed his first round of cleansing and cleared his left web aiguille of contaminants. He eagerly activated the mind's eye to observe. The spiritual passage now appeared to be a white tunnel with a small dark light at the other end. Jody's next step was to refine the spiritual channels with astral light forming astral channels.
"Twilight crystals detected. Spend 150 crystals to refine twilight position?"
[Yes/No?]
Jody felt frustrated as he felt everything stop once again until he answered. He decided yes, and twilight immediately radiated around his body before rapidly sinking in.
As the astral and twilight flowed into his spiritual energy passages, Jody felt a warm current run through his body in various places, mainly up past part of his lower back, all the way to up to his brain. The energy made those parts of his body feel like they were suddenly as heavy as stone. The veins along his arm and part of his back were bulging as if they would burst, the astral energy coursing through him, strengthening and enhancing his blood. Despite feeling heavier, Jody didn't feel weighed down.
This weight felt to be a part of him and easy to manage. However, his arm was on fire, and felt like it was about to explode. Jody grimaced and utilized the energy circulation method recorded in Titanic Rage. Three more hours passed, and Jody's eyes suddenly lit up.
"HOH!" Jody's little voice suddenly sounded ancient and powerful as he stretched and shouted out.
A wave of air pressure spread out from his body, knocking all his constructed toy block cities and rock men into pieces and dust. The Serenity Crystal container, however, didn't budge.
"Keep it down, baby! You don't need to play so loud. Oh my, it's late, why are you still up? I'm coming in, it's time to rest." Jody heard his mother's voice from outside the room right before he passed out on the little twin bed.
Isis thought it was odd that she suddenly felt a slightly dominant aura before it vanished. Origin Body or not, how could her son possibly release an atmosphere? Quickly linking that with the sounds she just heard, Isis swiftly sent her Spiritual Sense into her son's room and let out a small scream in horrific surprise. Her figure blurred as she immediately rushed to his side, pulling out her serene sound mirror.
"Osiris, get over here, now!!"