I continued lying in the bed for a few more minutes, until I could release enough focus from my heart to move again. I tried to say something to Master, to indicate that I was ready, but all that came out of my throat was a croaking sound. Master looked down on me, and I heard the woman laugh for the first time. It was just a snort, but I still counted it. She went through her bag, while she asked, “Can you read and write? You will not be able to speak for a while. At least until you figure out how to use your vocal cords and the associated muscles.”

  I remembered that the god had said that I would be able to do so, so I just nodded while I stood up from the bed. I was extremely shaky on my legs, since I had to manually perform all the small balancing acts the body made and took the notebook from Master. She also handed me a small cylinder and explained, “Put a bit of your earth Qi inside of it, and you should be able to write.” She then extended her arm to support me in my attempt to walk.

  I took the cylinder as well and put them both into my robes, which had been changed into my normal ones. We then slowly began to walk out of the door which led into Master’s yard. I leaned heavily on Master, as I slowly remembered how to walk properly. I had trained this before, it just felt more intense now and I was distracted by keeping my heart beating. I still had trouble keeping a steady pace, although the heartrate was thankfully low and didn’t cause me to feel stressed.

  Master and I went through the streets of the sect making our way to the alchemist’s pagoda. I tried to talk while we walked, without much success. We caught a few glances, as I stumbled like a drunkard through the streets mumbling incomprehensible things. I wondered if Master made sure that the alchemist would be there. Though, considering that she had enough time to change my clothes, I assumed that she did contact him as well.

  We simply walked into the laboratory of Evael as soon as we reached his door. I guess that Master has no need to be polite. I suddenly wondered, if I had such a need, or if politeness was simply a remnant of my past world. I quickly focused back on the present, when I forgot to let my heart beat for a brief moment. My eyes wandered across the room, quickly spotting Evael as he prepared what looked like a bathtub made out of stone.

  The bathtub was filled with a dark red coloured liquid, which smelled like a mix of disinfectant and melted sugar. Master led go of me when we reached the bathtub and coughed slightly to make our presence known, “I will leave her in your care. Miranda, come find me after you are done here. I have a new mission for you.” I nodded, while my mind wandered to the elder who was supposed to teach me. Did she forget about him?

  In the end, my trust to her won and I chose to ignore the issue. Evael spoke up as soon as Master left the room, “Get into the tub. This will clear out all the remainders of the poison, and pretty much everything else you don’t need. It will be a bit uncomfortable and can hurt. Sadly, there is nothing I can do, since it would neutralize any pain medication.” I began to undress slowly, since it was still hard to do, as he rummaged around the piles of herbs. He continued, “I will need to be present through the whole thing to dispose of all the waste from your body and refill the bathtub. But don’t worry I am not interested in children, so you can...”

  I had already fully undressed and was on my way into the bathtub when he turned around. I heard him mutter, “I worried for nothing.” As I slid into the bathtub, and felt the strangely warm and viscous liquid, did I consider his words. Did he really see me as a child? Was Master the same? It made sense, when I considered that they were most likely over a few centuries old, but it still felt wrong.

  The liquid soon covered my entire body with the exception of the head. I felt a slight bubbling coming from the liquid around my body. The temperature didn’t rise instead, the liquid just seemed to react to something. Evael sat down next to the bathtub and began to scribble something into a notebook. He said, while barely paying attention, “You can breathe in the liquid, so put your head down as well. And do try to keep your eyes open. It will make things a bit faster.”

  I let the rest of my body sink under the surface of the liquid. The liquid was surprisingly see-through. I then carefully forced my body to take a breath, even though my instincts were screaming against the decision. I seem to have taken a habit of ignoring them, since I came here. The liquid barely had a taste, as it flowed over my tongue into my lungs. I didn’t get any reflex to cough or to gag as it made its way inside of my body. I smiled, since that had been the first obvious advantage of having perfect control over my body.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  This thought had distracted me long enough to not notice that my lungs had been filled by the liquid. I could still feel as if I was breathing normally, so I tried to relax, only to notice that I had to individually let my muscles relax. It was a strange experience, but it felt nice.

  I felt myself sweat after a while. It took me a few moments to figure out that I was not sweating sweat, but most likely the poison in my body. It was another strange experience, as I felt my attention no longer being pulled by every single stimulus my body was experiencing. I could still feel every single part of my body, if I focused on it. It was as if my mind was being freed of a mist that had clouded my thoughts with constant expressions and feelings.

  This pleasant feeling of clarity returning to my mind didn’t last too long, as the dark red liquid began to pull more out of my body than just the poison. It still didn’t hurt, but it was unpleasant to feel fat being pulled out through your skin. To feel the contents of your stomach and intestines being pulled out through every small opening that they found. Then my eyes began to hurt slightly as small specks of dirt and residues were being pulled out.

  The whole procedure lasted around forty minutes before I felt the liquid being drained. I sat up and wanted to cough to get the liquid out of my lungs. Only to feel it get slightly more viscous, taking on a slime like feeling. It was a horrid feeling that created a level of panic in me that I had never felt before. The feeling continued as the now slime like liquid was being pulled out of my stomach and lungs. This luckily, went by rather quickly and I was left without any of the liquid inside of me.

  I felt empty.

  I had no other way to describe the feeling. I looked down on my body and saw a lean body, with muscles which were pressed tightly against the skin. The muscles all looked bigger than those I ever remembered having. It seemed like the training I had received had been successful. The second thing I noticed was that I was hungry. I looked around while taking a breath, since I had almost forgot to do so. This turned out to be a mistake as it reeked of excrements and chemicals. Nothing was left of the slightly pleasant smell of the dark red liquid.

  “Your body is now ready to be modified. I made sure to remove more than usual, so you can have more creative freedom.” Evael’s voice rescued my mind from the stench, though I didn’t completely understand what he meant. He must have noticed my confusion and handed me the notebook Master had left me. I wrote down, “I am supposed to do body modifications now? Master had not informed me of this, and I have not prepared for it.” It didn’t take me too long to write, even though I had to remember how to hold a pen again, simply because my body could move at inhuman speeds.

  The old alchemist glanced over the note and said, “Oh, I didn’t mean now. Just come by when you want to actually modify it. Think about it, I will make you go through the purification when it is time again, so your body is in perfect condition.” I then tried to stand up, which was now thankfully easier than before the purification. I carefully made my way out of the bathtub. I was about to get dressed when Evael pointed me to another bathtub, filled with water.

  I remembered that it was probably not just the liquid that reeked and that it would probably make things harder for me, if I tried to interact with people while smelling this badly. I cleaned myself in the bathtub and when I wanted to get dressed again, did I see myself in a mirror the alchemist had provided. It was only now that I realized how much I had already changed.

  Black hair that had lost its luster and was obviously unkempt, framed an unhealthy looking face. My cheeks were fallen in, apparently since I had lost the fat in my body. The only thing that didn’t make me look sickly, was the lack of eyebags. Then my gaze wandered downwards to my torso. My chest had almost completely disappeared, and I could now easily pass of as a man. My build was now lean, and the muscles were easily visible under my skin.

  The same could be observed on my backside and legs. The fat had been removed and only muscles, which were obviously bigger than anything prior, remained. I was surprised how little I cared about these changes. I didn’t feel any horror or sadness about having an almost entirely new body and losing anything that could remind me of my past life.

  I put on my robes and made my way out of the laboratory, after making sure to properly say goodbye to the alchemist. I had decided that I was not powerful enough to be respectless. On my way to Master, did I test out my flexibility, since the training was supposed to help with that as well. The flexibility in my arms had not changed much, but I could finally properly stretch my legs high enough to perform kicks. I began to jog to Master’s compound and enjoyed the feeling of the strength in my legs and the speed at which they carried me.

  I quickly arrived in the trainings field and found Master. She was reading something a letter or something of the sort and immediately noticed me when I came in. She looked at me and seemed to think about something. She then said to me, “You next mission would be to hunt a spirit beast.” She handed me a sealed envelope and continued, “Give this to the same mercenary guild as last time. A team will find the beast and lead you to it. They will not interfere with the battle no matter the outcome, so don’t expect them to do anything.”

  I wanted to know what the beast would be but realized that Master must have purposefully withheld the information. My best guess was that it was to help me evaluate enemies on the fly without any knowledge beforehand. I took the sealed envelope and wanted to make my way to the guild again, when Master interrupted me one more time, “Try to come back fast if possible. There will be an event between the different sects in a week, and it should be helpful to you.”

  I nodded and hurried to the get all the resources I would need for the trip, which mainly meant restocking on nourishment pills. I then jogged down the mountain, while I popped the first of the Qi pills I had looted of the bandits into my mouth. I felt the Qi dissolve in me, and it was finally not being consumed by the immediate need to heal a wound. Instead, I slowly integrated it into my muscles.