Learning and Exercising

"Huh?" Cain couldn't really understand what Somer meant.

Somer paused, "Wait, you did it without noticing? Hah! That's either great talent or Twilight's gift showing its worth, or both." he said with a hearty laugh as he leads Cain from the building back towards the city center.

"I told you you'd have access to a portion of your uniqueness once you awakened, and you chose to be a golem right? Take a moment to feel your body."

Cain was confused but followed along, at first he didn't notice anything but upon pressing hard on his skin he was met with much more resistance than before. His temperature seemed much higher than before but it wasn't even noticeable at first and taking a peek under his shirt there was something that looked like a silver ball bearing embedded in his sternum.

"This is... I'm already a golem?"

"Bingo," Somer chuckled, "And it seems to have come so naturally to you that you recreated your body as it was. Of course, it will be much harder once you have a real body and have to manipulate materials. Let's head back home first, then once you get some practice in you can go back to the clothing district and try forming different outfits, it should serve as good practice."

Cain continued to inspect his body as they walked, even his clothes seemed to have become a part of him. His sense of touch seemed to have dulled slightly and his sense of smell was nearly gone, but everything else seemed to work just fine. On the way back they stopped for some food at a place that was based on some highly advanced world that had a variety of nutrient pastes drizzled over thick meat. Thankfully his sense of taste was still there but instead of getting full like before his body seemed to convert the infused food directly into energy.

The rest of the day was spent analyzing what his body could do, which of course included going and drinking. Somer went with him this time to celebrate his Awakening, and by the time Somer passed out Cain barely even had a light buzz. Instead of getting drunk normally he seemed to get some sort of high out of all the energy in the infused booze, causing him to become happy and loud. Thankfully the shabby bar had even better soundproofing than the crystal room so only the drunkards and the bartender had to listen to Cain's much too loud singing along with the jukebox.

Once again Cain had to carry Somer home and this time he didn't even feel like he had a person on his back as he made a brisk pace back to the Administration building. He threw Somer into the main bedroom and flung himself to the guest bed across the hall and fell asleep quite fast.

This time his dream was strange, it involved Twilight and Godfort battling atop a dragon flying high in the sky and went on to other nonsensical scenes.

-~-

By the time he woke up, it was the middle of the day and Somer was already downstairs and it sounded like he had another group of arrivals. Even with sleeping in his clothes, they weren't wrinkled or anything as they were made out of some sort of fossilized cloth, but the bed seemed to dip a little where he was laying from his increased weight. Cain did his stretches and wondered how many times he's going to wake up and hit a new record of 'feeling better' before making his way down.

He stood by the side as Somer finished up and shooed the group away. He looked at Cain with a toothy grin, "You're finally up, kid."

Cain nodded, "I'm surprised you don't have a hangover," he said as he sat down on a bench to the side.

"Hangover? You've been asleep for four days, if a hangover lasted that long I would never drink again."

Cain paused, "Hmm, now that you mention it I feel sluggish if only a little bit."

Somer stood up and patted Cain on the shoulder, "Then let's go gets some food, it's lunchtime."

After lunch, they sat in the Administrative office discussing Cain's uniqueness and the proper course for training. The training menu that was decided would be on the days that he was not working he would head to the clothing district in order to mimic different styles of clothing and armor for a few hours, then head over to the much smaller weaponry district that supplied those who fought outside the vacation zone to try forming his arms into weapons for a few hours. After that was sprinting around the outer circle until he almost ran out of energy, then go eat until recharged and begin strength training. While he couldn't actually build muscle or stamina he could get used to moving in different forms and figure out how to shape himself efficiently. He tried to mimic some of the monsters in Lapis' books in the library but with just a two-dimensional image it was hard to get it right.

For days when he worked, he would stay sitting in the chair while working on more minute sculpting and often scared the new arrivals when they saw portions of his body morphed in various abstract or intricate ways. As he trained and learned new designs his soul's recovery kept gaining pace with every passing day, and once again time passed by as Cain got lost in his routine.

One month passed by, and Cain could fluently change his outer appearance.

Another month, and he could efficiently change his limbs into various tools and weapons.

A third month and he had control of his senses, able to increase or decrease up to a certain margin.

By the fourth month, he had memorized almost all of the clothing in the massive south-western district, even the ones he wouldn't be caught dead wearing.

Halfway through the fifth month, Somer pulled him aside, "Kid, the higher-ups have confirmed that your soul is more than fit to transition to your new life."