I closed my eyes and began regulating my breath to calm my nerves. This was a critical juncture, and allowing nervousness and panic to take hold would result in disastrous consequences. I increased the intensity of my breathing to match my nervous, out-of-control heart rate. Gradually, by bolting down in place and meditating I was able to calm my wandering mind. Unfortunately, my heart was still trying to burst out of my chest. If my heart was given any leeway, it would abandon me without hesitation.

Despite being in a paradoxical state of a nervous heart and calm brain, I decided now was a decent time to think of my next steps.

Before taking any concrete actions, it was important for me to understand why Az changed.

Luckily, it wasn't required to be an expert on soul techniques to comprehend the reason behind Az's transformation. The only major and relevant change in my routine has been the demanding physical workouts every day. On the other hand, you did have to be an expert to understand why these workouts influenced Az. Since this question couldn't be answered by me, I decided to skip it entirely.

The simple and straightforward solution was to put the workouts on abeyance. Should Az return to normal, everything would return to square 1, and I could move on with another plan. Yet, I couldn't- no I didn't want to commit starting over from square 1.

For how long has Az troubled me? For far too long.

I achieved virtually no results in using Az until now. The byproduct of the change is a beneficial one; the muscle pain that plagued me even through my rest days vanished into thin air.

It was obvious my quality of life would skyrocket if I could successfully incorporate Az into my routine.

The tussle between stopping and continuing plagued my mind the entire night, even after I decided to sleep on the issue. It was far too stimulating for my brain, which had been bored to death by the monotony of my recent lifestyle. In a strange twist, this time it was my heart trying to stop my racing brain. By the time I felt an inkling of sleep, the sun began to shine on my face. Knowing I didn't have much time before I met with Joseph, I came to a decision.

"Sorry Joseph, I had a tough time sleeping today and feel sick. Could I take a break for today?"

"Hmm... sure, you've never made excuses before, so I have no reason not to believe you."

With the rest of the day at my disposal, I decided to sleep before I thought any further about my decision.

When I woke up, it was already afternoon.

'Time to figure something out.' I told myself while eating lunch.

The next few hours were spent on my internal debate. Both options had their positives and negatives. Stopping everything meant I had to put my faith in another plan while continuing could lead to unintended effects down the road. In the end, the middle-of-the-road option was most appealing to me because I didn't want to give up perhaps the only chance I had to benefit from Az.

I will continue to work out without using Az for a few days. If there were no physical or internal changes in my body, I would then start to use Az to restore my muscle fatigue. This decision stemmed from the fact that Az in its current state is extremely useful for the future. I really didn't want to waste the potential of Az, especially considering that it was perhaps the only thing I could get my hands on that could boost my physical ability.

I'm ashamed to say it but my plan didn't last long.

The week of buffer intended was shortened into 3 days. after I couldn't overcome the temptation of healing my muscle pain. The blame can't solely be attributed to myself when Joseph replied to my question with a laugh and said "Feeling muscle fatigue isn't a bad thing. It's part of the process that your body takes on while building muscle. Healing it through external stimuli would hamper results."

Technically, since soul techniques are internal stimuli, I'm still following Joseph's rules.

Instead, I decided to keep a strict cap on the amount of times I used Az. For the last few weeks, I let myself use Az twice a day. I used the technique after the morning and night workouts respectively. Safe to say the results were astounding. The amount of free time per day was essentially doubled. Furthermore, the day became much more pleasant. No longer did I have to rub ointment on my hands and legs while spending most of the day in bed reading? While there still wasn't much I could do, going outside was a breath of fresh air. For the first time in a while, it felt like I was truly a person in a fantasy world.

In addition, I also felt like my body was building muscle faster. I didn't dwell too much on this idea though. It was entirely speculation and I felt like it may have been the placebo effect. Plus, I could always confirm Regardless, the lack of a negative combined with the overwhelming positives led to a simple conclusion. Incorporate Az into my routine.

The next few months were no longer as boring as before. Initially only doing it twice a day, the benefits from Az somewhat forced me to increase my usage of it. Now, I used Az whenever I felt any form of muscle fatigue. In addition to using it more frequently, I also experimented with Az itself. Sometimes I increased the intensity of it, while other times I tried to focus it in one area.

Besides the entertainment from my investigation of Az, I also continued to receive letters from Kasa. They were about the same as the first one I received. On the bright side, she recently made some friends. I was hoping that in the next few months, her experiences with her friends would reduce my reliance on her.

Lastly, a few days ago, my routine with Joseph changed drastically.