Chapter 62: Tempered Bones (1/2)
Gravis sat in his cave and consumed the first Bone-Pill. Compared to his time when he had tempered his skin, he didn't do any additional training while consuming the pills. There were multiple reasons for that.
First of all, back then, he had tried to cut the consumption of Skin-Pills by one pill, since he had seriously lacked money. The other reason was that it was quite hard to temper bones with training. Theoretically, he could punch and kick the cave walls to temper the bones in his limbs, but what about the ones in his torso and head?
Instead, he stayed in the cave and consumed one pill every few hours. He felt his bones slowly growing more durable, and every increase only fueled his hunger for power. This time was different from when he had tempered his skin.
Over the last three months, he had grown used to his isolation, and his new short-term goal was getting back to his family in his homeworld. If he came back to his homeworld, he would no longer feel isolated and alone.
He would have his father, his mother, Orpheus, and potentially other family members. Gravis may be alone in the lower world, but not in his homeworld. It might look dark and isolated here, but he only had to get through this, and everything would resolve itself. He only needed to break through the firmament of the lower world to return.
Greed and motivation drove Gravis to continue tempering his bones. Every increase in strength brought him closer to his goal.
Day turned to night, and night turned to day again. After a full 28 hours, Gravis had finished tempering his bones. He felt their vitality and their incredible hardness. He was sure that he would not be able to break his bones, no matter how hard he tried.
Bones were, by nature, harder than skin, and this also translated into tempered bones and tempered skin. Gravis' skin was incredibly challenging to break already, but his bones were multiple times harder. Over were the times, where he would have to deal with a broken shoulder in a fight. Because, seriously, it was always the shoulder that broke.
A medium-grade demonic beast may break his skin and sever his muscles, but it would have significant difficulties in breaking the bones. As long as the limb was not severed, Gravis could regenerate.
Gravis smiled in happiness. He had realized that his increase in strength was not worthless like he had thought back when he tempered his skin. With every increase in power, he came closer to his goal in fighting Heaven and, more importantly, he came closer to returning to his family.
He no longer feared the isolation because he had a goal in mind. It might still hurt in the future to deny a friend his deserved friendship, but he could deal with it. With enough willpower, he could get through all this and reach his goal.
Gravis smirked a little. ”Forneus said that when we tempered our skins and bones, some of our muscles latent potential would release itself. Our body would no longer keep a ”limiter” to not damage itself. Every part of my body, except my muscles, is tempered, and my muscles can't hurt me anymore, no matter how hard they try. Let's see…”
Gravis stood up, reared back, and punched with his full power at the cave wall. The cliff trembled, and he created a hole in the wall. ”Just like I thought. I've had tempered organs and blood for so long that the true natural power of my muscles already rivals others' tempered muscles,” Gravis smirked to himself.
This was the reason why he wanted to temper his bones this badly. If his bones only increased his survivability, it would not help much in fighting middle-grade demonic beasts. He might survive a hit or two, but he would still have huge issues in actually hurting them.
With tempered bones, he finally had a framework that could use the full power of his muscles. His skin would not break by the muscles' pressure. His bones would not crack by the muscles' power. His organs would not get squished by the muscles' movement, and his blood was able to provide all the nutrients the muscles needed to go wild.