Serum

After that day, Dirk no longer fought against the suffering. 

He no longer avoided it. He accepted it as a fact of his life. 

But he did fight. He fought against the people and things that brought him suffering. Through that adversity, he would become better. He would reach higher and higher until the problems of today couldn't hurt him. 

Suffer now so you can suffer better later. Gray told him that, and Dirk began to truly understand that statement. 

He had to fight now, fight against the pain, so that he could bear it in stride down the road. For a while, Dirk had thought that he could avoid the pain, and that would make things easier. But now he realized that since it would always be there, since it would never go away, he was the one who had to become stronger. 

Granted, this new mentality didn't make the process much easier.

*Crack!*

"AGH!"

Every day, Dirk was dragged off by Deliha, chained up, and given another slice of hell. Due to him causing Asura displeasure, Deliha was out for his blood and screams. It was her job to break him, and she began taking that job seriously. 

*Crack!*

"Ahh!!"

Dirk's voice became background noise to the people of the town, his screams like the calls of a bird that everyone came to ignore. Nobody even stopped to watch him get whipped anymore, even though it was a rule. It just happened that often. 

*Crack!*

"Ugh..!"

But that didn't mean people didn't notice the changes when they came. At some point, the screams became quieter. The roars died down, and the cracks of the whip were unaccompanied by that familiar exclamation. People were confused when they heard the whip cracking and no scream afterward. It was almost like someone was swinging a whip around for fun. 

*Crack!*

"..."

And when they went to go face that incongruity, they gazed upon the red stone platform, and they saw a man standing tall. 

*Crack!*

"..."

Dirk's face grimaced when the whip tore into him, but he remained standing and silent. When Deliha got pissed off, she would launch the whip out at his legs and knock him to the floor. But he would always pull himself back up. 

*Crack!*

It had been 6 months since Dirk hardened himself, and 10 months since he had entered this hell. Ever since he made his decision, he had been whipped almost every day. It was only ever so occasionally that Deliha didn't show up, giving him a rare moment of rest. In the past 6 months, it had happened only 3 times. 

In those 6 months, the only thing Dirk did other than go to class and eat was take the monthly tests. As for the fighting competitions that happened every 3 months, Dirk didn't fight in those. Instead, he was whipped in front of the entire town, perhaps as a show of humiliation. 

Dirk had passed his months like that. Wake up from recovery, go to class, eat, and get whipped. It was routine, but Dirk wasn't just idly going through this cyclical schedule. 

The first thing Dirk had done was change up his situation a bit. How pathetic was it to return to a patch of dirt in an alleyway? There was also the only pair of shorts on him that had been soaked by blood several times over. Dirk decided to change that. 

So he found someone, or more like a group of people. There were many that had attacked Dirk his first month here. His AI remembered those faces. And now, he was coming back to return the favor. 

After a few short fights and a couple deliveries to Fingers, Dirk had himself a new pair of shorts. He also got himself a small room inside an apartment building. Whenever he wasn't recovering, he was in here. 

Inside the room was nothing more than a crappy mattress, a chair, and a wooden bin. And in Dirk's eyes, the wooden bin was the most valuable item. 

With that, Dirk called upon a magic that he learned long ago. Chore magic, magic that was so simple, even if you didn't have the attributes, you could perform it. After a bit of concentration, Dirk was able to conjure a blob of water. Like that, he repeatedly cast this tiny magic to create dozens of blobs of water, filling the tub. 

And he took a bath. He got rid of all the dirt and dried blood on him. He cleaned himself and his clothes up. When he was out, he looked relatively fresh. His shorts weren't soaked in blood anymore, and he didn't feel like a dirty pig. 

From then on, Dirk would clean himself up after all the whippings. After recovering, of course. That was another thing he got himself to do. Dirk no longer spent 8-10 hours in Fingers' room. After recovering enough, he would leave for the apartment. It usually took 5 hours to recover, and Dirk would be fatigued when he left early, but with this he had some free time. 

And with that free time, Dirk's mind focused on the future. His advances in power, his plans of action, how he would fight. 

Over those 6 months, Dirk forced himself to fight in some way. When Deliha came to grab him, he actually started to fight her. It would result in an extra beating, but how could he care about such little pain? He did it to make the process of getting him to that platform all the more difficult. He no longer just followed them. Even when the guards were chaining him down, he was fighting them, throwing out surprise kicks and jabs. 

Other than that, he began to fight his own secret battle. Dirk turned to his traced runes, and he studied his ass off. He accumulated his mana heart of fire and lightning, making it stronger. He also resumed his blood destruction. He wanted to finish it. 

And he made no excuses. Even with the beatings, Dirk was destroying nearly 30% of his blood supply every two weeks. It made him much weaker, and his days became that much more difficult to trudge through. But he did it anyway. He was like a machine that would run even on dry fuel. 

But his body had adapted. His AI had learned how to seal off the blood vessels in his back and limbs, preventing tons of blood from spilling during the whipping. That helped Dirk recover faster. And along with his blood destruction, he was able to increase his strength. 

And that wasn't all. Although Dirk knew that the chances were slim, he started working toward something. 

He began formulating a way to escape. 

Dirk refused to believe that there was no way out of this place. This wasn't a prison, but a training ground. People had to come in and out, and Dirk highly doubted that Asura conjured a portal every time someone needed to enter or leave. So there had to be an exit, and Dirk was going to find it. 

Not only that, he was going to either sneak or fight his way out. So he began making preparations to do so. 

He planned his routes, and his AI got a read on every guard and their patrol routes. He began following these guards and staff members, seeing where they left to when the day was done. He also prepared some small weapons. He used metal magic to conjure some blades that he stashed away and a few other small tools. 

He learned everything he could. But learning guard routes wasn't enough. He needed distractions, diversions. He needed chaos to cover his path. So for this, he turned to alchemy. 

It wasn't really alchemy, not like what Ava did. Dirk had long started to learn about poisons and tools that assassins used. And surprisingly, one of the tools was bombs. The bombs weren't powerful since they were only made with black powder, so it was used in the form of smoke bombs and such. But Dirk had his modern knowledge. 

He knew how to synthesize bombs, and this place has all sorts of chemicals in stock. So Dirk started snatching some. 

A dash of sulfuric and nitric acid, plus a bit of sweet glycerin, and Dirk was able to gradually synthesize a sizeable amount of his own nitroglycerin. He carried out the synthesis in his apartment room over a fairly long period, and the process almost resulted in a massive explosion, but he was careful enough and succeeded in making a small supply. 

He then created bomb capsules and detonators. And during this time, he simultaneously planned their positioning. 

Thankfully, this entire town was in a cave. It wouldn't take much to collapse certain parts of it, and Dirk could shake off pursuers rather easily with a well-timed detonation. Thus, he formed his plans, everything taking shape in his head. 

But that wasn't all. In this world of magic, simple stealth techniques weren't enough. People could detect you through aura alone. So Dirk needed to learn magical stealth. And that was why he put most of his study time into comprehending the runes behind the book Theory of Stealth. 

Truly, once Dirk began comprehending those runes, he realized how profound it was. It covered all aspects of what stealth was. From your effects on the surrounding mana to the sounds your feet made against different materials. It even talked about aura and how it was released from the soul. When you sensed someone's aura, you were sensing the state of their soul. Apparently souls had something like fields of power around them. Aura was these fields, and it could be strengthened by both someone's Rank and Tier. 

So the book talked about retracting aura, pulling back that soul field. It was extraordinarily complex, so much so that the same information was written down in all the elements. Dirk worked on comprehending this single section for all his elements. This was actually the advice of the book. It spoke of the association between attributes and the soul, and that learning stealth in all the elemental runes would help one learn it better. Though, when it spoke on the nature of the soul, things got vague. Dirk guessed that was some high level information not contained within low level runic pages. 

Still, for the current Dirk, it was his most valuable information. He studied and studied, comprehending all kinds of information about the concepts behind stealth as a whole. 

And he worked on the things he read. The book was almost all theory, not applied spell formations. So other than basic spells for masking the sounds of his feet and body and techniques on how to move through the atmosphere silently, Dirk had to learn how to apply this theory by himself. Especially when it came to aura retraction. There weren't any spell formations, only runic outlines. 

Luckily, Dirk had time. He was patient as he focused on expanding his arsenal, working on both his own abilities and plans. He observed the guards over long periods of time, and he created a totally complete map in his head. Through this, he was able to find two locations that might be the exit. 

So before Dirk went all in, he did some infiltration. He picked one of the places, and he moved into it. It was a tunnel that led to other tunnels after passing through a staff area. Dirk went as deep as he could while observing everything around him. 

And then, he made it to the end. It was a large room, one that looked similar to an office. There were bookshelves and a window that looked down at the entire town. 

Only, Dirk froze when he entered. At the back of this room was a desk, and a blindfolded man sat behind it. 

"Have you come to pledge your loyalty?"

Asura sneered when he saw Dirk in the doorway. Dirk also panicked, but not for long. As if he resigned to his fate, he began looking around to map the place out. 

When he took his eyes off Asura though, the man appeared next to him. Asura grabbed Dirk's chest, his fingers piercing through muscle and grabbing his ribcage, and slammed him to the floor. 

*Boom!*

Dirk's body was shaken by the impact, and blood poured from his mouth as Asura leaned over him. 

"What do you think you're doing, Harbinger? Trying to escape? Sorry to disappoint, but there is no exit to this place. Nice try though."

"Hak!"

Dirk choked as Asura grabbed his neck. Then, he dragged Dirk all the way back to the town. 

"Deliha!"

"Sir!"

At Asura's call, Deliha quickly appeared. She saw Dirk who was being choked and smiled a bit. 

"This little bug was wandering where he shouldn't. He will need 100 lashes as an apology. You will also need to increase the guards on rotation. There isn't an exit, but we can't have people going where they aren't supposed to."

"Understood!"

Deliha nodded before grabbing a whip. It was the level 8 whip, and she quickly went to work. 

Then, Dirk grit his teeth through the 100 lashes. Halfway through, he came close to death since he also had internal injuries, but it wasn't anything a dark healer couldn't fix on the spot. With that quick recovery, Dirk was forced through the rest. 

By now, Deliha had already begun to activate the magic behind the whips. There was fire magic, ice magic, and metal magic within the whips that gave various effects. Sometimes, Dirk's skin would be incinerated, or frozen, or slashed by hundreds of tiny blades. Deliha used it however she liked. 

Still, Dirk's tolerance had risen to level 8. Even Deliha was shocked by it. But level 8 still put him on the floor, so she stuck with it. 

Like that, Dirk was sent to Fingers after having passed out. 5 hours later, he woke up with a groggy head. By now, Fingers never messed with Dirk since he was such a frequent patient. There was the possibility that Dirk would attack him during any one of his hundreds of visits if he tried something. 

Dirk left after waking. The first hour after becoming conscious was always the hardest as he felt all the stinging and soreness of his body, as well as the immense fatigue. But by now, after a bunch of blood destruction, his recovery ability was top notch. The only thing he was disappointed by was the fact that his blood destruction took so long to complete. Perhaps it was because of all the time he spent without doing any cycles, as well as all the blood he lost, but he definitely lost progress. After 6 months though, he had regained ground, and felt almost finished. 

Arriving at his apartment room, Dirk sat down on the torn mattress. Sighing, he looked inward. 

There was one other thing Dirk had come to find after making his decision 6 months ago. In fact, it came only a day afterward.

Dirk had felt his soul take on form. 

Back before he had been taken, Dirk already discovered the phenomenon of something inside his soul taking shape. Now, that was much more pronounced. Over the last 6 months, Dirk had felt as if his soul was actively building something inside of it. It wanted to become something more. 

This was the stigma that Cecilia had told him about. Dirk could instinctively feel it. It wasn't far from forming. He was a bit excited by it. 

So with anticipation, Dirk continued scouting, disregarding Asura's words of hopeless endeavors. He still went to classes and learned everything he could. Over 6 months, he had learned a lot of lethal spells and even his martial arts had sharpened up. He began to get close to forming Aura with his anima, which ironically was called the same thing as soul's aura. Though, Dirk had too much of a hard time with moving anima out of his body, so any results wouldn't come soon. 

Like that, he waited a while before doing some more searching. Since Dirk was able to eliminate one path, he decided to scout the other. 

Only, upon arrival, he saw that there were now guards stationed at the tunnel. After thinking, Dirk just shot straight toward them. He didn't attack, instead dodging their attacks and bouncing off, shooting past them. 

He ran through the tunnel, his only goal to map out this unknown area. Those guards were hot on his tail as he used his full strength to avoid them. 

Then, Dirk made it to the end. And he saw nothing. 

"What?"

It was a dead end. He had run down this tunnel that was nearly 100 meters long. And at the end, there was nothing but a wall of dirt. The tunnel just stopped.

The guards snickered at him who was now cornered. 

"What, you thought the exit was here? Congrats, you found the tunnel that was leading to a new construction site."

The guards just watched as Dirk frowned. He faced the dirt wall as his thoughts spun. 

'This can't be it. Unless there's a secret door in a room somewhere, this is the only place an exit can be.'

He was silent, his gut suspicious of the situation as the guards laughed at him. Then, they walked toward him. 

"Come on. The Bloody Mistress is going to have fun with another escape atte-"

*Rumble!*

A small tremor interrupted the guard. He suddenly saw Dirk use magic to separate the wall in front of him. He was digging through, exceptionally fast too. 

"Damn! 

"Stop!"

The guards shouted as Dirk tunneled through. He created walls behind him as he dug through the ground with earth mana, and the guards were delayed. 

Dirk dug for 20 meters. Then, after separating another chunk of dirk, he saw a clearing. It was another tunnel. 

Dirk was stunned as he pushed through into this tunnel. Then, at the end of the tunnel, he saw light. The light of day.

Seeing that light, Dirk's heart rate spiked as adrenaline shot through his system. Then, his heart rate slowed as he activated his anima. He shot forward right as the guards blasted through the walls he created. They chased. 

He ran toward the light, finding a staircase that led upwards. He shot up the staircase, taking only a few bounds to reach its end. The light got brighter and brighter.

Then, he emerged. 

A bright blue sky, endless trees below him, and the humid air of a tropical climate. Dirk looked around him, and he instantly realized his situation. 

He stood at the heights of a mountain, and around him was a vast jungle extending as far as the eye could see. He could see birds fly along the skyline, ones that were surprisingly large, but Dirk didn't mind it. 

For a moment, Dirk was overwhelmed. He had finally made it out, seen something other than darkness and caves in nearly a year. 

But it was only a moment. Remembering his situation, he took a step forward, about to throw himself off the mountain to escape his pursuers by any means he could. 

Until a hand landed on his shoulder. 

"Amazing isn't it?"

Asura spoke from behind Dirk. Dirk's body felt like it was paralyzed when that hand touched his shoulder. Literally too. It seemed to be some kind of magic that froze him in place. 

"It seems like my guards need more training, but I'll take care of that later. You see that jungle down there? It's filled with some of the most dangerous beasts in the empire, making it perhaps the most hostile environment within its territories and among the world. Even if you escaped from here, the chances of you actually getting anywhere are slim. Especially since we're at its epicenter where the strongest beasts reside."

Asura spoke as he observed the surroundings. Eventually, his gaze landed on Dirk who was frozen under his grip. 

"I tried to hide the exit in plain sight, but who knew you'd just go and dig like a rat. I don't know if your instincts are good or if you're just stupid and lucky. No matter though. Deliha will have fun with you for a while."

Saying that, Asura dragged Dirk back into the darkness. Dirk kept his eyes on the jungle as long as he could. 

Finally, he had seen the way out. He didn't care that he was being dragged back. He didn't care if the chances of him escaping were slim to none. He had seen his goal, and now, he would stop at nothing to get there. 

All the fighting. It really was for something.