"I was doing some push ups."
"Push ups? Whatever for?"
"Carroll, would you leave the kid alone? It's about damn time he got some exercise." Vincent swoops in with the save before his son can answer. Nick, seemingly unaware of his mother's concerns, sits down at the table and wolfs down his food.
"You sure are hungry today." She comments.
"Yeah, we went all over town and even went to the Adventurer's Guild."
"You became an adventurer?!"
"No, we just talked to the Guild Master. She's nice."
I'm simultaneously happy that Nick easily handles his mother's question but worried about his ability to read people because the Guild Master was most certainly not nice. I see Vincent sipping tea without a hint of concern out of the corner of our eye and conclude that the apple must not fall far from the tree on this one either.
The rest of the meal is rather uneventful, with Nick and Vincent talking at length about some obscure history book they both read recently, but soon enough we're back in our room.
'Alright, let me bust out some burpees before bed and we'll see how that effects our stats.'
"Will it hurt?" Nick asks sadly.
'Probably yeah, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Trust me though, you'll be really happy with the results.'
"Okay."
As I rise from the notional ocean I've been swimming in for the last hour, I take a moment to check myself over. My arms are a little sore and my feet hurt from walking all day, but other than that I feel great.
"Alright, here we go; Hundred burpee challenge."
'What's that?'
"My brother taught me this, you just do one hundred burpees."
'Your brother sounds like a nice guy.'
"He really wasn't." I push back the swell of rage I feel at the mention of him and get started.
The first ten are easy, the next ten are not. By fifty the room is spinning and I feel dinner trying to make a repeat appearance.
'Are you okay?'
"I'll be fine, I just need to catch my breath."
Instead of resting I take up the plank position and hold it until my breathing slows down. Josh continues to pepper me with questions throughout my workout, but by the time I'm done, I've finished the hundred burpee challenge, did several minutes of planks, one hundred squats, fifty pushups and one hundred sit ups. My brother used to torture my by making me exercise until I threw up under the guise of training, but here I am using those experiences to my advantage. When it came to punishing my own body, I was peerless.
The next morning came the consequences. I hurt. A lot. I could barely roll out of bed my body hurt so bad. On the bright side, my strength went up two points, my endurance three and I even gained a point in resilience. This is getting fun.
"Alright, we're pretty sore after the workout last night but we're already seeing results. I just need you to make it out the door and then you can toss the wheel back my way and I'll deal with the pain again." I explain.
'Okay!' Nick says, trying to amp himself up.
We switch and the kid immediately crumples.
"Ow!"
'I know it hurts but try to hold it together until we get outside.'
With tears in his eyes, Nick stands up and hobbles out the door. He slowly makes his way downstairs and past the kitchen.
"Aren't you having any breakfast?" Carroll asks as she peaks her head around the corner.
"No, thank you."
Nick makes it outside and shoves me back to the front.
'That really hurt.' He complains.
"I know, I'm sorry but I swear it'll all be worth it."
I open and close my hands a few times to readjust to my body, and start walking down the street.
I always hated working out with my brother, there was no goal or reason, only pain. He just wanted me to suffer. But now it felt good. I was growing, changing. What hurt the most in my last life was how trapped I felt. There was nowhere for me to go and no one that could help. I truly had nothing. I'd heard that meaning came from suffering for a purpose but that just sounded like sour grapes; life hurts so lets all lie and say it means something. Now it started to sense. I was moving forward. I don't know where I was headed but I was moving. The world was opening up before me.
'Hey, where are we going?'
Nick snaps me out of my thoughts and I realize I have no idea where I am.
"Don't worry, it's cool, we'll just head back the way we came."
I turn around to head back but accidentally bump into someone.
"Ope, sorry." I look up and see a man in full plate armor.
"Move it, kid."
"Righto, my bad." I look behind the man to see a massive eight legged beast pulling a small carriage behind it. "Whoa, what the hell?"
The guard smirks and looks down his nose at me as he passes by.
'That's a Bovaal. I've only heard of Nobles owning them but they are one of the few animals strong enough to graze near the forest safely.'
"That's a huge-ass monster." I look up in awe at the ten foot tall mammal. It has thick brown fur that looks more like spines than hair, a head with a flat face and two large tusks hanging down to its chest, and four trunks sticking out of its back. The mess of features make the creature look it's straight out of a lovecraftian story.
'They aren't monsters which is why they have those small retractable scythes at the end of their trunks. They wouldn't be able to get enough nutrients to survive just by collecting food with their mouths.'
"What does that have to do with them being monsters?" I ask as the Bovaal walks past me, completely unconcerned by my presence.
'Monsters have Monster Cores which passively collect mana from the atmosphere. This acts like a supplement to their diet so they don't need to eat as much.'
"It's like you're reading straight out of a textbook."
'I really like the one about monsters.' Nick giggles.
The carriage rolls to a stop and a knight in particularly fancy armor steps out and stares at me.
"Time to go." I immediately turn and sprint back the way we came.
'Those guards are wearing different armor than the town guards or knights.'
"Really."
The politics of the town is not my concern, so I whirl around and head back the way I came. It doesn't take too long before I end up back at the town square, the big doors to the Adventurer's Guild looming before me.
'Why are we back here?'
"I'm curious if they have anything to help us increase our stats."
'Oh, but wouldn't we have to join to use it?'
"Probably."
'I thought you were going to sign that paper the pretty lady put in front of you yesterday. You were acting weird when you looked at her.'
"Yeah, that was new. Pretty cool, huh?"
'What?'
"Having emotions; it's pretty cool. I kinda forgot what that was like. For the last ten years of my life I'd been miserable, it felt like there was a huge hole gnawing its way through my stomach.
'I'm sorry.'
"Nothing to apologize for. Things are better now."
I walk through the door to end the conversation and am immediately faced with a big crowd. I imagine the treeline ban has lead to a lot of idle hands.
I squeeze past a group of people arguing with each other and find Catherine at the receptionist desk.
"Hi, I'd like to talk to someone again!" I have to shout to be heard over the heavy drone of anxiety in the air.
"It'll be awhile, but I can have someone find you when they have a minute!"
"Sounds good, thank you!"
I move to the table I was at yesterday, which is far away from all the commotion.
The cast is much more diverse than it was yesterday. I suppose the characters that sat around drinking all day weren't the best representation of the adventurers around here. What catches my attention first is the proportion of demi-humans I see. While walking around town, I may see one demi-human for every ten people; here they account for almost half the population. It would seem the demi-humans are a repressed minority around here if what the Guild Master said was true.
The average person's gear is also noticeably shabby. This really reinforces the desperate nature of the business. I'm sure a lot of these people had to skip meals just to save up enough to buy those scraps. I look down at my own attire; a thin shirt, trousers and some leather shoes. I must look completely out of place with nary a speck on me.
The weapons are what I'm really curious about. I spend the better part of an hour looking at everyone's equipment. Unfortunately, I'm unable to learn much about them other than their appearance. Using weapons indoors is probably discouraged.
"It was Nick, right?" The same beautiful woman who spoke with me yesterday approaches me from behind.
"Yes."
"And I'm Ashley."
"Yes, I remember." I manage to maintain my composure, if only because I'm speaking less.
"What was it you wanted to speak about today?"
"Yes, I was curious if you had any training equipment or anything; something to help train stats."
"Oh, yes we do. Although most of our equipment is rather neglected."
"How is that possible? Aren't all these people here risking their lives? Why wouldn't they do everything they can to get stronger?"
"Well, I'm sure they'd like to, but it's a lot of time and effort spent doing something that doesn't make any money."
"That makes sense. Do I have to be a member to use the equipment."
"Of course, it would be silly to let anyone come by and use our facilities."
I cover my mouth as if I'm thinking and speak quietly with the kid. It's technically his body so it wouldn't feel right to sign a contract without his permission.
"What do you say?"
'About joining?'
"Yeah."
'I guess, if you think it's our best choice.'
"I do."
"So, you've come to a decision then?"
I whirl around in surprise to find the Guild Master standing behind me once again.
"Shit! Do you have to do that?" I shout as I pat my chest.
"I just wanted to check on our potential new member, and a noble one at that."
"It doesn't really seem that way, does it?" I deflect her assertion with a non-committal question of my own. I desperately do not want to lie to her after our last meeting.
'My Dad is a Baron but the title isn't hereditary so I won't get the title.'
"I suppose not." The Guild Master says as she paces around me. "Once you sign, you'll be just like anyone else; your prior status no longer matters and your significance will now be tied only to your rank."
"Got it. Could I see your training equipment before I sign?"
"Please follow me." Ashley says as she walks through a door at the rear of the building which leads to a long hallway. I can just make out some of the words on the doors as we pass by; Meeting room, Disassembly, Storage.
The door swings open at the end of the hall and my eyes adjust to the sunlight. A loose stack of rusted weights sit by some rotting benches, a small overgrown track lines the inside wall of the courtyard.
"Awesome! Where do I sign?"
"Right this way." Ashley giggles.
Ten minutes later I'm back outside again, officially a member of the Adventurer's guild.
"Perfect." My body still aches from my workout yesterday but I ignore it and spend the next couple hours demolishing myself. Running laps, lifting weights, running laps with weights, and using the other available equipment to target specific muscle groups.
'Are you okay?' Nick asks as I lay flat on my back.
"You want to know?"
'Um, is it going to hurt.'
"Just see for yourself."
I fall back and Nick pops out in my stead.
"Ow!" He pops up and frowns as he rubs his arms. I watch as he sits up and checks his body over. "It hurts but at the same time, I feel great!"
'Yeah, those are the endorphins. Your body naturally produces chemicals that block pain when you exercise.'
"I want to run some more!" He says as he pops up off the ground.
'Go ahead.'
Nick doesn't make it very far before he's back on the ground again, but I'm happy to see him enjoying himself. It felt like my brain stopped making a lot of the good chemicals while I was depressed, so I'm now reveling in this experience.
The next few days consist of similar workout routines. It quickly becomes clear that the seal on our back worked similar to a steroid as we steadily began recovering faster each day. While performance enhancing drugs help build muscle, their true strength lies in reducing ones recovery period; now someone that worked out four days a week could up that to six days without suffering from overexertion.
"Awesome, let's check our progress! Status!"