Chapter 256 - Improving From The Inside Out (1/2)

Laz's internal alarm was rather reliable. It usually woke him up at dawn every morning without fail and this morning proved to be no different. What was different was that Laz's memories of the previous night were very vague after he got done helping Abraham.

As such, when he woke up, he found that there was an arm laying against his c.h.e.s.t, surprising him. More than that, when he tried to move his body a little, he found out that there was also a leg that had intertwined with his, causing him to be locked up and unable to move without first moving the leg.

Feeling a soft, warm burst of air hit his face, Laz turned his head and noticed that Julia was in bed with him. Knowing this, he quickly figured out that they must had passed out after assisting Abraham. As such, Julia ended up crawling into bed with him and using him as her personal body pillow which she was hugging tightly.

Laz felt a bit awkward considering the circ.u.mstances. Perhaps if he had been younger and more daring, Laz would have tried something. He wasn't a saint after all. But sometimes things weren't as simple as black and white.

Sure, Julia was a beautiful woman and Laz wouldn't deny this. But Laz didn't have feelings for her in that way and he didn't think she had feelings for him either. As such, seeing her cuddled up next to him, Laz didn't really have a reaction.

At first.

The problem was that as Laz tried to pry himself out of her embrace, Julia latched on tighter and wouldn't let him go, causing him to remain trapped. Laz's hope was that he could escape without waking her and thus avoid an embarrassing situation. For the moment though, that didn't seem possible.

Laz decided to change his approach. Instead of freeing himself all at once, he tried moving bits and pieces of himself out of her grasp. An arm here and a leg here while sliding himself sideways seemed to work the best. Just when Laz felt like he might have gotten free, Julia grabbed him and pulled him tight against herself. She even ended up l.i.c.k.i.n.g his cheek while softly whispering, ”tasty.” Laz really wondered what kind of dream she was having.

If all of that wasn't bad enough, with his moving around, his one hand had ended up stuffed between her legs, in an area that was far warmer than others.

At this point, Laz only had two options. One, he could continue to try to struggle loose. Or two, he could wake her.

Consider the kind of predicament he got himself into the first time, Laz decided to wake her.

”Ahem,” Laz cleared his throat.

Julia responded by snuggling up closer to Laz.

”Ahem,” he tried again. This time, Julia started stirring a little bit.

Laz didn't move and instead just looked at Julia's face. Just as she was about to open her eyes, Laz turned his head and closed his own eyes, pretending to still be asleep.

Maybe it was a cheap way out of the situation, but Laz was trying to save Julia from embarrassment as well. After all, she had been a big help to him the night before.

When Julia fully opened her eyes, she immediately noticed Laz laying there with steady, measured breathing, causing her to be confused. After a few moments of confusion though, she quickly figured out what had happened. Just as she was about to scream, she covered her own mouth to stop herself after removing her hands from Laz's body.

After taking a few deep breaths, Julia calmed herself enough and noticed that she was still wearing clothes while Laz was still dressed in what he was wearing the night before. It was easy to tell that they had both just gotten tired and fell asleep unintentionally. Thinking about everything that had happened, Julia couldn't help but take a quick moment to observe Laz's 'sleeping' face with a smile, something that Laz had never really seen her do before.

After that moment, Julia started to uncover herself and tried sliding down the bed in an effort to not disturb Laz. It was at this moment that she accidently rubbed herself against his hand, almost causing her to yell out again in surprise. Luckily she stopped herself again in time while spreading her legs and gently moving his arm. After another moment, she was able to get herself down to the bottom of the bed and get free. She stood up, walked towards the door and quietly whispered ”thank you,” before heading out.

Laz's fake sleeping didn't fool her in the slightest.

As the door closed, Laz opened his eyes and sat up, rubbing his head while laughing.

'Either way, looks like everything is good.' Laz looked over at Abraham and scanned him with his spiritual sense before confirming that everything was ok. Abraham's breathing was normal and his body seemed vigorous and full of energy. In fact, it looked like he had already made his way into the mid stage of the awakening realm considering the amount of energy in his body.

Laz was presently surprised.

And also a bit worried.

Abraham wasn't like him and Laz didn't know what his situation was like. Now that he was an infected, his life would change in ways that he couldn't imagine.

But no matter what, at least he was still alive.

Laz was thinking about going out to do some exercises when he suddenly decided not to. He realized his head and his heart weren't in it today. So much had happened yesterday that Laz was just a jumble of thoughts and feelings that he didn't know what to make of it.

Laz tried several different things, deep breaths, calming thoughts, even humming to himself. But he still found that he couldn't settle his thoughts. It was like trying to contain an explosion using your hands. No matter how hard you tried, you would fail.

After a while of nothing, Laz decided to try something else.

Laz started circulating his infinity technique, causing the sparse energy in the air to flow towards him at a faster rate. Normally, Laz circulated it as regularly as breathing, but there was a huge difference in effect when he focused on it.

As the energy swirled around and went in and out of his system, Laz noticed that a few of his own energy pathways weren't as normal as they should be. Having not done this in a while, Laz had not noticed that there was some room for improvement, especially after the experience he had with Abraham and Sarah.

Seeing this, Laz got to work right away, using his black flame to remodel the pathways that seemed to have been stressed, blocked or even just irregular. Laz was able to feel the effects of this as he continued to circulate the energy around. Even change made the flow easier. Every smoothed path, every adjusted pathway, every part that Laz changed around caused the energy flow to increase it's speed. In the same way that the fastest path between two points is a straight line, the changes Laz made caused his energy to be able to flow through his body in a much faster way.

Before he started, even when focusing, Laz was at most able to circulate the energy around his body about 10 to 11 times a minute. As he worked though, the time it took for one full rotation decreased, allowing him to circulate fully more times per minute.