Guardians Academy

As Cody finished up his lunch, a visitor arrived.

"Someone is here to see Cody." Vera told them, after checking the door.

"Me?" Cody blinked. "Who is it?"

"It's a girl." Vera told him.

"A girl?!" Cyril gasped. "Cody, do you have a girlfriend? Is she at the door?!"

"That can't be!" Cody protested.

"Room, I.D. the visitor please." Vera requested across the table.

"Visitor is a registered Floran, Yvonne Timbers, Sylvan Wood Forest."

"Cross reference with Academy VR?"

"Yvonne Timbers is a Third Sphere student at Sophia Academy."

"Huh." Cyril glanced at Cody. "Did you order anything from today's sales?"

"Order…" Cody thought for a bit. "Wait. I did buy some Calcium Deluxe tablets."

Cyril snapped his fingers. "That's it then. I believe your tablets have arrived."

Cyril and Cody went to meet Yvonne and pick up the delivery. Cody opened the door, and…

"Cody Rivers, right? You have a delivery…" Yvonne held out a box. "I need a hand-scan signature…" Then, she gasped and almost dropped both the box and the scanner. "C-Cyril Rivers?!"

"Hi." Cyril waved. "Any chance you have my parcel too?"

"Uh… parcel…? What parcel?" Yvonne stared at him blankly.

"Never mind." Cyril sighed. "I guess I still have some waiting to do."

"You're expecting a parcel? Then… there's another delivery job due?" Yvonne suddenly sparkled. "I'll do it! I'll go get it right away!"

She suddenly leapt into the skies, blue energy glowing from her feet as she skated right through the air.

"Wait! I haven't… ah, scrap." Cody grimaced. "There goes my box."

"She'll be back." Cyril said, observing the girl on air skates as she vanished around the next Sky Tree. "Just give her an hour or so."

So Cody waited, using Dad's Massage Cocoon while he waited. Covered in soft, quilt-like down and massaged all over from head to toe, he relaxed and almost fell asleep by the time Cyril called and said that Yvonne was finally back with both their packages.

Finally, he collected his goods and signed off on the delivery while Yvonne gazed at Cyril with stars in her eyes and Cyril very politely examined his own package to make sure everything was in there.

Well, whatever. Cody had his Calcium Deluxe tablets now, and eagerly read the instructions.

"Stop. What are you doing?" Vera suddenly grabbed the bottle.

"Hey! Those are good for my bones!" Cody blurted, trying to say several things at the same time and getting jammed.

Surely Vera wouldn't stop him from taking them? As far as he could tell, Vera wouldn't do anything to harm him or his siblings, and would only encourage the usage of things that brought them benefit, even if they themselves didn't enjoy it.

"Tier 1 supplements for physical enhancement…" Vera snorted. "How old are you, Cody?"

"Five and three quarters!" Cody answered.

"And you need Calcium Deluxe because…?"

"I want to get stronger!"

Vera shook her head. "It's not suitable for your age. If you're thirteen and facing a growth spurt, these would be perfect, but right now, you're still building your physical foundations. If you blindly took these all at once, you could develop hypercalcemia. Before you try taking body enhancement supplements, you should first learn to manage your own body's nutrient intake and development."

"Huh?" Cody looked at her blankly.

"You need to tell your body how exactly to use the nutrients you take in. If you just swallow the pills and expect to get stronger just like that, you're going to get yourself sick." Vera told him. "You have to purposefully absorb the nutrients while they're in your stomach, and direct them toward your bones, then focus your cells on using the calcium to strengthen your bones proportionally."

"I can do that?" Cody blinked.

"Not yet, you can't. That's why you need to learn it." Vera told him. "You need to learn how to use Life Force actively, not just passively."

"You're talking about Psuche Activation!" Cody realized. "That's the class I have on Monday!"

"You have already signed up? Then there will be no problems with me teaching you a bit early." Vera decided. "Now, pay attention."

***

Three hours later, Cody was feeling sore both inside as well as outside, except that there was no massage cocoon for the soreness inside.

"This Psuche thing is harder than I thought." Cody grumbled. All he'd done so far today was absorb lunch! His digestive systems would absorb a decent amount normally, effortlessly, but actively using Psuche to absorb absolutely everything was very difficult. Trying to move Life Force was tricky enough; Cody felt like he was trying to swirl water with a toothpick. Trying to use it to absorb nutrients was like trying to suck ice and starch through a twisted metal straw. Hours of effort and he'd only managed to improve his normal nutrient absorption by a bit. He was nowhere near absorbing it all.

Tired out both inside and out, Cody took a break that Saturday to play holographic games. One of his favorites was Battle Fleet Command, where he directed dozens of little starsh.i.p.s in big battles that covered the entire comms room. Another of his favorites was Mecha Knight, a simulation game where he piloted a towering humanoid weapons platform on missions over varying worlds.

Then they had dinner with Mom when she came online in the Sphere. Afterward, she went back to sleep, and they logged out to have their real dinner.

Worn out after a heavy day, Cody slept early that night.

"Good night, Ghost Girl." He yawned, barely waving at her image in the window before he dozed off.

***

The next day was a Sunday. In the morning, Dad brought them to the Prayi church.

It was a new thing, for them. Previously, they went to Tree Song with the New Order of Gaia. But for some reason, Dad wouldn't take them to Gaian activities any more. Instead, they joined the Prayi.

As far as cultures and religious beliefs went, Gaians and Prayi were often at odds. The Gaians believed in the godhood of the planets. Every world was a god, and it was their sacred duty to serve them caringly, therefore, taking care of the environment and the planets themselves was a religious obligation. The Prayi believed in just one God, and that they talked to Him in prayer, and He was supposed to talk back. They were People Who Prayed, thus 'Prayi', for short. That was about as much as Cody understood about either Gaians or Prayi. The point was, Dad said to make friends at the places they went to on Sunday mornings.

Cody wasn't sure how he was supposed to make friends when everyone was usually busy singing or praying, or having classes about being good and praying more. The teachers kept saying they should keep quiet and not make too much noise in class, or when others were praying, or singing, so… basically that meant he wasn't supposed to talk to anyone, right?

Whatever the case, Cody spent most of the time with his eyes closed sitting in a corner, his hands clasped together exactly the way the Prayi kids did when they prayed. The difference was, Cody was busy using Psuche to absorb breakfast. He didn't actually know how to pray, after all. He was new to this whole Prayi thing. They only started coming here a few months ago, after they left the Gaians.

As for why they left the Gaians, Cody wasn't entirely sure. Everyone started treating Dad really badly the last time they went to Tree Song. Some of them even called him a murderer.

Since when was Dad a murderer? Who did he murder? Why would he murder anyone? Cody didn't understand any of it, but whatever. He just sat down and practiced Psuche Activation. The sooner he mastered it, the sooner he could take Body Enhancement Supplements and get really strong. Then Kalen would have a much harder time trying to bully him.

Once he got the hang of it, and learned how to use Psuche to boost his physical strength and speed, Cody swore he was going to get so good at it that Kalen would never dare fight him again!

According to Vera it all boiled down to practice. Lots and lots of practice.

So Cody practiced.