Taking the drugs

It was about 2 weeks before the public test, 18.05.2034.

While his parents pressured him to look for a good university, Ben went to visit the laboratory of LifeUp, where his drugs had been produced. Arriving there he had a very long and deep discussion with the chemists and biologists about the drugs. He was informed of the effect, the side-effects, the production cost, and all the tests they had done.

"Still, Mr. Lupus we didn't have any chance to test the effect on a living human being. Even though the simulation and rats did prove that it theoretically worked, it isn't guaranteed to work on human beings. We should publish our work and make a study on each of them." A woman with glasses said.

"Don't forget you work for me! There is no need for now. I came here today to test the drugs on myself. So please give me three syringes for Treto SG-1, 31 pills of STON-AV, and as many syringes with SIENA-P7 you have." They wanted to say "no" to their young boss, but his commanding tone coupled with his muscular body made them shut up and move.

´After all, he has given us the formulas, so he should know of the risks.´ They thought.

In normal cases, Ben would have taken the drugs under observation, but he knew how painful and time-consume the process was, so he wanted to do it at his training place.

He just had to prepare some measures for the worst case.

Before Ben went away, he gave them a tube with AND-189 and its formula and gave the order to look how easy it would be to mass-produce the drugs. As the calamity was coming, he should prepare for the new era.

Ben had sent a message to his family stating that he would not come home for the next days, using his friends as an excuse. They probably knew that it was a lie, but what could they do. He was now 18 and could do whatever he wanted. They could just pray to God that he would stay safe.

In truth, Ben didn't see his parent's house as home as he couldn't do what he wanted to do.

In your own building, you could do whatever you wanted. In Ben's case, it was room to train, to learn, and to relax. The fridge was filled with nutrients and food as he planned to stay there for a few days.

Somehow strange. In my last time, I did everything to buy each one of these drugs, but now I would like to not take them. The pain. The sensation. The fear. These drugs were like torture. And now I have to take them all through the next days. Puhh. I can't wait to finally fight monsters. ´

´Status open.´

<0/10>

´I am amazing. How many people could train so hard and long to max out their stats before leveling up? I think these people could be counted on one hand. I am practically a world-class athlete with no weakness. I mean marathon runners and bikers only focus on stamina. Most athletes only focus on some muscle groups, but I have trained my whole body.

I never even thought that I would be able to have an Intelligence of 22. After reaching 20, I thought it was the end, but it seems I had more potential than I thought. Stamina didn't come as a surprise. I always had great stamina, never smoked, and trained a lot since I was a kid. Strength was a small surprise, but taking Creatine and special nutrition made me surpass my limit.

Even my skill list has many different and useful skills.

Open Skill list.´

Knowledge Skills:

-Science

-Parkour

-Survival

-Perfect Evasion

-Computer Science

-Firearm Expertise

-Driving

-Close Combat

Special Skills:

-HSAM

-Vision of Slow Motion

Seeing his hard work made him smile. Then Ben injected in his carotid artery the fluid of Treto SG-1. As the drug was being transported to every fiber of his body, Ben began feeling very sick. He lied down and tried to stay calm. He was sweating like he was in the middle of a workout. Then the pain came. What first felt like ants under his skin was then replaced by his muscles being on fire. The torture continued till late in the night. The next morning, Ben woke up with the biggest hunger and the severest muscle soreness of his life.

After eating, Ben took a STON-AV pill. He couldn't inject again with Treto SG-1 as he had to wait for his muscle soreness to go away.

Muscle soreness is caused by microscopic damage to the muscle fibers. The feeling of soreness comes from the body sending out pain signals.

If you train or use stimulating drugs in a state of soreness, you could damage your muscles so badly that it wouldn't have any growth effect.

The STON-AV pill had as side-effects the loss of appetite and slight fatigue. The body was taking a huge toll, especially the skin. Ben had through the day the strong urge to tear his skin apart. Itching and reddening of individual skin areas was the natural reaction of the body.

Other than trying to eat, Ben hydrated his body every hour to prevent the shedding of his skin. In the following days, Ben injected the other two Treto SG-1 syringe and took the other 30 STON-AV pills, which resulted in a world-shaking change in his stats.

´Status open.´

<0/10>

´It is no wonder why rich adventurers rarely trained and were dependent on enhancing drugs. I mean the speed of increasing stats is so much faster. But they also had a clear weakness, they had a weak will. Even the side-effects of the drugs were often alleviated by anesthetics.

I think that feeling the side-effects is also making you stronger. After that, you won't so easily be affected by pain.´

If you are wondering, why Ben didn't take any of his SIANA-P7 syringes, then you have to understand the different reasons for that decision.

Firstly the ability wasn't a must-have for the calamity and Ben was already overpowered compared to the rest of humanity. If he couldn't survive it with his advantage, he shouldn't have the right to live.

Secondly, losing vitality was a very complex problem. The easy version to explain would be that your body is working slower and slower.

Explaining it more accurately, you have to talk about each part.

With a low Vitality, bones tend to shrink in size and density, weakening them and making them more susceptible to fracture. You might even become a bit shorter. Muscles generally lose strength, endurance, and flexibility — factors that can affect your coordination, stability, and balance.

The most common change in the cardiovascular system is stiffening of the blood vessels and arteries, causing your heart to work harder to pump blood through them. The heart muscles change to adjust to the increased workload. Your heart rate at rest will stay about the same, but it won't increase during activities as much as it used to. These changes increase the risk of high blood pressure (hypertension) and other cardiovascular problems.

Your brain undergoes changes as you lose Vitality, which may have minor effects on your memory or thinking skills.

With low Vitality, you might have difficulty focusing on objects that are close up. You might become more sensitive to glare and have trouble adapting to different levels of light. Loss of Vitality also can affect your eye's lens, causing clouded vision (cataracts).

Your hearing also might diminish. You might have difficulty hearing high frequencies or following a conversation in a crowded room.

How your body burns calories (metabolism) slows down as you lose Vitality. This not only makes you gain fat easier but also makes your body use less energy resulting in not using the full strength and speed of your muscles.

With the loss of Vitality, your skin thins and becomes less elastic and more fragile, and fatty tissue just below the skin decreases. You might notice that you bruise more easily. Decreased production of natural oils might make your skin drier. Wrinkles, age spots and small growths called skin tags are more common.

An embarrassing but important problem is the change in the bladder.

Your bladder may become less elastic with a low Vitality, resulting in the need to urinate more often. The weakening of bladder muscles and pelvic floor muscles may make it difficult for you to empty your bladder or cause you to lose bladder control.

Thankfully, this change would only affect you slowly with a Vitality under 15. So Ben was not at risk.

And finally, Men have a higher risk of impotence the lower their Vitality is.

With all these reasons, It was understandable, why Ben didn't take any SIENA-P7 injections, especially if he didn't know after how many injections he would awake the special skill.

Ben planned to never let his Vitality fall under 15 as Vitality was guaranteed a life without bodily restrictions.

´It is finally time for the calamity. Time to travel to France.´