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

When Laz finished with the abnormalities, he realized that he was able to circulate his energy around 30 times per minute, an increase of almost 300 percent. Seeing this, Laz was thrilled.

Take a gun for example. No matter how big the chamber is or the bullet you can put in it, if the barrel of the isn't big enough, you'll never be able to successfully fire the shot. You will always be restricted in caliber of the bullet. In that way, as Laz's foundational center increased in power, although he was able to use the more concentrated energy, he was still limited by how much he could bring out at a time.

But now, having fixed the problem of the pathways, Laz could bring out almost 300% more power.

But Laz wasn't done yet. As he was working, Laz noticed that his black flame truly was designed for this type of work. He could use the flame to slowly mold the pathways, causing them to expand. As such, with bigger pathways, Laz could exert even more power. The only problem was that this would be slow going since he could only do it a little bit at a time. After all, he couldn't just enlarge one part of the pathway while ignoring the same pathway further down. All that would do would be to cause the pathway to burst as too much energy traveled down it.

As such, he was going to have to go slow and work on it a little bit at a time, piece by piece.

Despite having meditated for almost three hours now, Laz was only able to expand about one percent of the pathways safely. He was going to need a lot more time to successfully complete this.

Opening his eyes, Laz was excited about his gains. He realized that he would have to spend more time mediating to improve himself. Perhaps working out made the body stronger, but now he had a way to improve other aspects of his abilities.

Laz noticed that Abraham was still sleeping and checked the time, seeing that it was already past when he would have normally gotten up and started exercising. Spreading out his sense, he noticed that everyone except for him, Abraham and Julia were outside, drinking coffee and talking.

Since he had no plans to work out today, Laz instead decided to hit the shower before making himself a cup of coffee and heading outside. He had been busy lately and hadn't been spending time with everyone like he wanted to. He didn't have a hidden agenda in doing so, he just enjoyed interacting with others after having spent so much time alone. Especially normal people.

After finishing his shower, getting dressed and grabbing his coffee, Laz strolled outside and sat down before noticing that everyone was giving him strange looks, especially Benny and Eddy.

”What?”

”Nothing,” they both responded at the same time, causing Laz to be even more suspicious.

Laz stared at them for a moment with a half smile on his face until they turned away. Laz then looked over at Steph, Madison and Angie. Their reactions were rather similar to Benny and Eddy, except Madison and Angie's faces turned bright red while Steph looked like she wanted to say something.

”Alright, come on. Spill it. What is it you want to say?” Laz had a feeling that it had something to do with last night.

Steph was the first one to speak up.

”We aren't kink shaming here, ok? Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, but none of us thought that you were the type that liked to be dominated, that's all. It's just surprising.” Steph said with a straight and supportive face.

”I'm... wait. What?”

”It's cool buddy. Me and Benny were talking about it too. Like, how do you know you won't like something unless you try it, you know? So we were thinking it might be fun to visit a place that specializes in that and maybe have a bit of an adventure. We decided to invite the girls as well since why the hell not?”

”Because... it's just not normal. That's all,” the apparently reserved Madison said.

”It's very normal,” Steph commented back.

”It is, actually. A talented dominatrix knows just how much and how little to treat a man. There is no need to feel ashamed either,” the normally quiet Angie added on, causing everyone to look at her. Feeling the attention on her, Angie got a bit more red and tried to hide her face in her cup.

”I... I've missed something here, didn't I?” Laz figured they would be scolding him for being loud while 'having s.e.x,' with Julia. But it seemed like they had the wrong impression of what went on.

”No, no. It's nothing. It's nice to see that a strong man such as yourself enjoys being treated roughly,” Steph replied back in a comforting tone.

Laz froze up as understanding dawned on him. He couldn't help but laugh soon after.

”Umm... I think you all have the wrong idea.”

”Hey. It's fine. No need to explain. We are happy you and Julia have your shared interest. But I'm surprised about Abraham though. He didn't seem like the type,” Benny added in, causing everyone to nod their head in agreement.

”He was sleeping with headphones in. I think he went to bed sick and he didn't stir in the slightest,” Laz understood that explaining wasn't going to get him anywhere and could only accept his fate. The only thing he could do at this point was to save poor Abraham's reputation since his was obviously a trash fire right now.

”Ahh...” Everyone collectively nodded in understanding. Apparently it was easier for them to imagine that Laz was the one with the fetish while Abraham was normal.

”Well, next time if you need some space, just send Abraham over to our side of the house. He can always just cuddle up with me since he reminds me of my little brother,” Angie offered in a honest way.

Benny, Eddy and Laz shook their heads at her statement but agreed anyway. No man wants to hear an attractive girl say he reminds her of her little brother and that makes him safe. Even if he doesn't like her in that way, it still hurts the ego.

Just then Julia walked outside after having showered and gotten herself a cup of coffee from the girls side.

”Good morning mistress Julia!” Benny and Eddy said at the same time as though it was planned. Laz couldn't help but spit out his coffee he had just sipped while Angie, Madison and Steph giggled.

Julia couldn't help but look at everyone in confusion.