Most men would feel utterly emasculated when a girl buys them nice clothes and sets them up with a gym membership. Most men would look down on those men who got those perks as well.
But in this world? Seeing a giggling vampire spoiling me and getting me a few sets of clothes, including new exercise clothes only made the workers scowl in just jealousy, as it was clearly me taking the real shortcut in life.
Because as a wise man once said... Marrying a woman a decade older can let you save a decade of effort. Marrying a still young woman who was half a century older let you skip an entire lifetime of work.
If you managed to hook up with a woman who retained her youth and beauty after several centuries of life. You were getting an entire 'empire' of resources. And although Vivian wasn't disgustingly rich.
She had survived for more than a century and laughed at the thought of the cost of some nice clothes. If it wasn't for how the rich and old supernatural beings had horrifically driven up property values for people to buy said properties. She would have bought me my own house.
Instead, she just took advantage of me being a human who had rent allowances because normal humans couldn't be expected to match youkai and supernatural beings who had countless years to save money and resources.
To basically pay my rent for the next decade of my life... Assuming I even remained in that complex for that long.
And here I was. At a supernatural-focused gym at like eight at night with the sun down, so Vivian was more comfortable. And she was pulling me towards a gravity room to train in.
"So! What kind of cultivation art do you practise with?" Vivian asked curiously as she brought up a holographic screen of some sort that displayed... An exhaustive list of ways to modify the room using magical nonsense.
"The Eight-Fold Mantra Path." I said.
And at my words, Vivian paused at that before she looked at me in confusion and other emotions. "It... Almost makes sense with how your blood was so enriching, as the Mantra is well known for making their user's extremely powerful. But you are still a virgin who used the Lust path to fuel the spiritual energy in the blood you gave me."
But I shrugged as I wasn't going to tell her that I had a 'mantra core' that made my practise of the highly volatile cultivation manual much smoother.
Still, she took a breath and asked with more confusion. "Then... What paths are you currently walking? Greed, Pride, Vanity, and Melancholy are for sure out."
I then said helplessly. "Right now, I been mostly just focused on Lust. It's the only thing I CAN practise consistently right now. Vanity, Pride, Envy, and the others all require that I myself can satisfy them with resources, having the strength to hold those resources."
Whereas for Lust... I could literally put on some porn. Climb up the mango tree and spank the monkey meat to get an infusion of spiritual energy into myself
Thankfully, Vivian didn't get weirded out about it either as she just nodded in understanding with a slight blush. But then she took a deep breath and said. "Ok, Jake, as you know with that Mantra technique. Emotions are very powerful, same as desires."
"So... Uhm, while we are working out, you need to keep an eye on me to gain more spiritual energy through the Lust path of Mantra!" Vivian said with a somewhat righteous tone.
And looking at Vivian in her exercise shirt and skin-tight yoga shorts... I could only say helplessly. "That is not going to be an issue."
Vivian flushed and then she turned around and I saw in the wall-mounted mirror that she cupped leaned down a bit to cup her cheeks for a good moment, even as I heard a weird noise from her.
But then after a moment, she whirled around with a deeper blush as she said. "Alright! You go start working out! I am turning gravity up to two point five times gravity!"
And I watched her run over and turn on the extra gravity and as it turned on... I could fucking feel it for sure as I felt my ankles pop and a heavy weight settled on me as I all of a sudden was weighing over six hundred pounds over the course of a couple of seconds.
Then Vivian jogged back over without stress in her motions. "Come on Jake." She said, taking my hand to the treadmill as she continued to speak more seriously.
"Gravity training is very dangerous, Jake, so we can only do it for short periods before we have to let you rest."
I grimaced as I tried to get jogging under the 'weight' of more than double my own body weight. But I asked curiously. "How dangerous? Won't I just get exhausted?"
To which Vivian grimaced and said flatly. "Jake... Life isn't like Drag-So Ball. You are a fleshy human being. Just being in two times gravity for a couple of hours could be life-threatening without the gym's herbal baths and healing array."
She took a breath and then explained. "Even moderately strong humans can't survive three G's of constant Earth gravity for more than thirty minutes. Hypoxia where your heart can't pump blood to your brain due to the strain of the gravity will result in brain death for example."
"This is the case until your body becomes strong enough to actually deal with these issues... Or just have enough raw mana/spritual energy that reality bends to your will and you can still train this way." Vivian said with a helpless chuckle.
"What are some examples of the second option?" I asked even as I could feel the burn around as I picked up my jog into a slow run and began pumping my arms.
Vivian shrugged to my side and then began doing... Very distracting stretches that allowed me to tell that yes. Vivian was indeed not wearing panties under those yoga pants.
"Well, demigods are a prime example. Even demigods who were born of not 'strong' combat gods like Dionysus have divinity inside of them that allows them to tell reality and the world itself to get lost at some level."
Then Vivian paused before she added. "Ah, another example is the Seventy Two Clan's Devils in particular, who are the main warriors of the Abrahamic Pantheon. The scions of Fallen and normal Angels typically follow their parents in doing more 'peaceful' acquisitions of foreign realms, normally."
It took me a minute, but then I asked the pressing question that I had been wondering. "What... What is taking over a realm like Vivian? I hear so much about it, but not any real details and such."
Vivian was quiet for a long moment before she slowly stopped her stretching. She pouted and said with almost a whine. "Jake... I am trying to arouse you so you can cultivate your strength better. Can't you just look at my butt and not ask me about genocide and enslavement of entire worlds and universes?"
And with full-powered autism, I answered proudly. "Rome can not be built on the back of savages without said savages being whipped!"
Vivian's face pinched in disgust as she said flatly. "Shut up, Jake. The Egyptian god's used alien slave labor they took from another realm. But the Romans built Rome on the backs of the Greek God's who divided themselves to build an entire reflective Pantheon. Don't get your history mixed up!"
I wanted to cry... My fat-assed vampire sugar mommy had ruined my previous life's history obsession with this world's hyperactive divinity and supernatural world.
Then I paused and asked Vivian curiously. "Wait, I never asked. But have you been to another world? Is it something only the big factions do?"
Vivian looked at me like I was stupid, which I didn't need, but then she blinked and said quickly.
"I am sorry Jake! I forgot you are an orphan who was left in China! Uhm, yeah, here in America and most of Europe, all you need to do as a human is just register with the Church. And then with their blessing and a small payment. You can get a Holy Cross of Return. And using god's miracles, Yahweh's systems can toss you and a small number of other humans into another plane or world."
Vivian took a breath before she continued. "Using that cross, you can be teleported back to Earth, though it takes like five minutes of channeling to make sure you get back safely. And the church takes a small cut of worldly fortune when you get back, as those Crosses of Return cost conceptual Fortune for Heaven's systems to make."
I slowly nodded even as I pushed myself up on the treadmill as I started to breathe hard. And seeing my strain, Vivian quickly went and turned off.
She then came over and asked quietly. "Jake... Do you want to be an Adventurer?"
An 'Adventurer' is just a much nicer name for a world invader in the end. But I nodded as I said bluntly. "I want worldly fortune. It will help me passively cultivate much faster. And... I can't rely on you for easy resources all the time, can I?"
I shook my head and exhaled. "I am a mostly normal human, even if I am walking the path of Mantra. I need resources to get myself started, and almost all the resources here are already claimed."