"How do you feel? I added 3 milligrams of Dragon Sun Grass juice today. It is specifically designed to neutralize Shadow-attribute energy. It must be agonizing, yes?"
Gavaqi clutched his notes, eyeing Li Xi with cold confidence. According to his experimental projections, Li Xi should have been convulsing. The frog, Lilith, flicked her tongue rhythmically, the laboratory filled with her wet echoes.
Li Xi's face was ash-gray, his hands constricting around his stomach. Cold sweat poured from him; his gut felt as if hundreds of saw blades were jaggedly rotating inside. He was severely poisoned, yet he remained upright—a significant deviation from Gavaqi's expectations.
As an experimental subject, he could only adjust his magic power according to Gavaqi's parameters, meticulously sensing the toxic rot within his veins. Li Xi began to channel his energy, and the Shadow beneath his feet surged. However, the Shadow appeared sickly and lacked its usual lethality.
"The Shadow power has atrophied by roughly 2.5%," Li Xi reported, his voice strained. Gavaqi was busy cataloging the data with a somber expression. "Also, the pain has lessened slightly. My body is developing a toxic immunity. Increase the dosage by 1% next time."
Li Xi then directed his energy toward the runes superimposed on his abdomen—the Gravity Rune Array. As the magic surged, it felt as if a mountain had collapsed onto his shoulders. His spine began compressing, and he let out a muffled groan. Even at one-times gravity, his poisoned body could barely endure the pressure. The Shadow beneath him instantly receded, its aura flickering.
"Under gravity, the toxicity reaches 150% of the standard level," Li Xi gasped. "Organ damage is at 15%. I will lapse into a coma within ten days... and perish by twenty."
Before Gavaqi could respond, Li Xi cut the application, his body sinking into the floor. He vanished into the darkness of the latrine, leaving only a gurgling sound behind. Lilith croaked in confusion. Gavaqi didn't look up; he merely made a note to replace the catalyst with Holmium Stone tomorrow.
Li Xi remained in the shadows, hiding his worry. He had learned Gavaqi's disposition over hundreds of sessions. As long as the data was precise, the Wizard was lenient, allowing Li Xi to perform minor drudgery or read from the lower shelves.
This was the difference between Guru's rough methodologies and Gavaqi's fine-tuned torture. While Guru broke the body, Gavaqi's poisons stimulated cell activity, screening out weak tissue. After a year, Li Xi's physical fitness had improved, but he was perpetually in a condition of near-death. He could not yet maneuver under triple gravity; the day of his departure felt impossibly distant.
Li Xi knew Guru hadn't checked on him because a one-year interval was but a blink of an eye to a Second-Level Wizard. To these long-lived beings, decades were mere footnotes.
When not on the table, Li Xi scoured Gavaqi's private library—a repository of Apprentice-level lore. Gavaqi offered no free mentorship, adhering to the law of equivalent exchange. Thanks to his early conditioning on Earth, Li Xi taught himself.
"A Body Refinement Apprentice must shatter their shackles to reach Level One," Li Xi muttered, reading the ancient texts. But his dilemma was unique: his anatomy was not native to this world. Perusing the second-floor archives yielded only vague phrases about "sublimating the bloodline."
This lack of direction made his heart throb with anxiety. He suspected the Wizards had a plan for his advancement, but he refused to be a puppet moved by invisible strings.
"How did your people advance?" Li Xi cautiously whispered to the 'Old Grandpa' in his mind while Gavaqi was occupied on the fourth floor.
"Our ways are different," the voice replied. "We simply pursue the extreme. The closer you are to the limit, the higher the chance of sublimation."
Another year passed. Li Xi was now a man who could drink venom like water.
"The Fu Lou fruit is excellent," Li Xi said expressionlessly after a recent dose. "My Shadow power is suppressed by 50%. My combat power is effectively neutralized."
"50%?" Gavaqi erupted into a frenzied laughter. "The experiment is a success! I expected this to take a decade!"
Gavaqi examined Li Xi's ravaged body with newfound glee. "You're lucky, boy. You'll be leaving this tower in three months."
Li Xi looked at him, stunned. He still hadn't mastered the gravity requirements of their original agreement. But the realization hit him like a cold wave: his utility had peaked. He was finally being relinquished.