Chapter 100: Just Insane Training
The essence of the club training lay in restructuring the body’s muscles.
People often call it “steel muscles.”
But I’d like to call it “the Immortal’s muscles.”
Reto’s goal was to create muscles that, even at their first stage, could react resiliently to physical shocks, remain flexible, and respond rapidly to recovery.
Was I becoming a chira or sothing?
How the hell was I supposed to develop such muscles?
Of course, Reto said it was impossible to achieve through normal ans.
[This must be accompanied by alchemy, shamanism, and magical healing.]
“We don’t have access to any of that, though.”
[Exceptions always exist. You are an exception. Because I am here.]
“So this insane training we’re doing right now…”
[To rebuild, the old must be destroyed first.]
The training was about breaking down my existing muscles and transforming them into new ones with different properties.
That’s why I had to spend the entire morning in the training ground enduring this twisted, muscle-destroying regin.
Bam-bam-bam—!
“…Grrrgh!”
Of course, I didn’t have to do much myself.
My job was to endure the pain and hang on. It was my body, but others were in charge of breaking it.
Surrounding in a circle were five dwarf knights.
All five were third-rank knights, and they used Aura to strengthen their bodies as they ceaselessly pumled mine.
A regular person’s strikes wouldn’t have been effective, so I needed the help of these third-rank knights. Naturally, the clubs they wielded were solid steel with no Aura imbued.
Because I could endure it, it hurt more.
If Aura had been infused into the clubs, I would’ve died the mont they landed a strike.
“Kraaaaagh!”
What Reto demanded wasn’t just taking the hits passively—it was focus.
Endure the pain and track the incoming attack routes with my eyes.
As a fourth-star, if I had been allowed to use Mana, I could have posed a significant threat to them. But using Mana was strictly prohibited during training.
This was a brutal regin that had to be overco purely with physical and ntal strength.
My desperate struggles continued, and before long, I was drenched in blood.
Without Mana, this wasn’t even a fair ga.
The pattern repeated: take the hit, collapse, and rise again.
“S-stop…”
Muttering weakly, I gave a signal for a brief pause. The dwarves, looking sowhat fed up, took a step back, and I crouched on the ground, trembling, waiting for my muscles to recover.
The pain was unbearable.
And yet, it was bearable.
Was it because we had lowered the intensity of the training?
The training stopped just before I hit the brink of death, and the recovery process was quick. Reto instructed to focus on the sensations of my newly healing muscles.
Yesterday, he had push through even while half-dead, forcing to feel the process of my muscles regenerating as I moved. Even the recovery back then had been agonizingly slow.
Thinking about it now, yesterday’s training seed outright impossible for a human.
[Do you feel the changes?]
“I… don’t feel anything.”
[You’re still far from it.]
The newly regenerated muscles were slightly stronger than before, but the changes were so minute that I couldn’t perceive them at all.
This insane training regin, facilitated by Reto’s guidance, was akin to a form of species evolution. It was only possible because of the Ring of Desire and Reto’s presence, but it wasn’t like my muscles would transform to Immortal levels overnight.
The evolution was happening at a snail’s pace—bit by bit, like grains of sand piling up.
Still far from enough.
Which ant I had to destroy my muscles again.
Exhaling heavily, I staggered back to my feet.
“Kraaaaagh!”
My scream, a mix of a roar and a beastly cry, filled the training ground once again.
Honestly, I had thought this training would last three days at most.
Once Fenry regained consciousness, I’d have to focus on future plans instead of training.
But this nightmare of pain showed no signs of ending.
Damn it, Fenry hadn’t woken up yet.
Ten days passed like that.
***
“Why is he going so far?”
Sharbadin sat in a corner of the training ground, watching Arthur’s training.
On the first day, she had been astonished, but now she was so accustod to it that she watched with an air of indifference.
At her question, Natone shrugged his shoulders.
“Does it seem foolish to you?”
“No, that’s what makes more curious. He’s not a foolish person.”
Having returned from his mission at the abandoned mine, Natone had just brought in another knight with a particularly heavy hand, as instructed by Dorneth.
Arthur had requested more sparring partners, and now seven knights surrounded him, relentlessly pounding away.
Only three days ago, they had increased the number to six, and now it was seven. Arthur seed to be adapting at an increasingly faster rate.
Compared to the first day, his responses were visibly improving.
“Tch!”
“Idiot! Don’t get too close—keep your distance!”
“Circle around! Circle him!”
The knights, startled by Arthur’s ferocious counterattacks, hesitated and stepped back.
It was like watching a mindless beast, willing to trade bones for blood—no, willing to trade its bones to tear out its opponent’s throat.
His savagery was so overwhelming that the newly joined knight turned pale and kept retreating.
The training, once one-sided, had begun to shift.
He blocked, evaded, and even attacked now.
Of course, the number of tis he was hit still vastly outnumbered the hits he managed to land.
“In all my years as a dwarf, I’ve never seen training this brutal.”
“Sa goes for elves. I think he’s the only one who could endure it.”
“You think highly of him, don’t you?”
“He’s our benefactor, after all.”
Watching her smile gently as she spoke about him, it beca clear to Natone why Dorneth kept sending knights with particularly heavy hands to train Arthur.
“Kraaaaagh!”
At the sound of Arthur’s beastly scream, Natone turned his gaze to the man in the center of the training ground.
The man he had first t in Laup Forest.
Back then, Natone had been struck by the brilliance of Arthur’s golden aura.
But now?
That image had been replaced by Arthur’s absurd regeneration and indomitable spirit.
And, of course, his utterly insane training thods.
They were so intense it was almost awe-inspiring.
Was this how monsters who ruled and shook the world were born?
Natone found himself trembling slightly at the thought.
“Why does he want to beco a predator?”
“To survive, I suppose.”
“To survive?”
“The world is divided into predators and prey, isn’t it?”
Predators and prey.
She looked like she didn’t fully understand.
“He stayed in the training ground yesterday too, didn’t he?”
“According to the reports, yes.”
“That ans he hasn’t slept at all.”
In two days, it would mark the fifteenth day since Arthur began training. He hadn’t returned to his quarters even once.
It was shocking to think he hadn’t rested at all.
From morning to afternoon, he trained with the dwarves. By evening, he switched to sparring with so mysterious bow, and by midnight, gut-wrenching screams would echo through the training ground. Rumors were even circulating that the lord’s private training ground was being used to ta a monster.
“At this point, I’d believe he is a monster. How can he endure this training for nearly fifteen days without sleeping? Could you do it, Sir Natone?”
“I’m considered one of the toughest dwarves around, but no, it’s absolutely impossible for .”
The more she learned, the more fascinating Arthur seed.
Compared to their first eting at the altar, he felt like a completely different person.
To survive?
To Sharbadin, Arthur already seed incredibly strong.
***
Crunch—!
“......!”
My forearm twisted grotesquely as I blocked a steel club. A searing pain stabbed through my mind, and my face twisted in agony as I stepped back.
Skin, muscle, and bone—all warped.
My forearm was completely shattered.
This was the worst injury I’d sustained recently.
A training accident.
“You damn lunatic!”
“Grab him! Take him down!”
Fifteen days into the training, a new recruit Natone had brought in made a mistake out of nervousness.
When the recruit, filled with bloodlust, charged straight at , he instinctively infused Aura into his steel club and swung it.
Blocking with my arm had minimized the damage, but if it had hit my head, it would’ve been smashed like a waterlon.
The training was imdiately halted, and the recruit, mumbling “Uh, uh…,” was surrounded and beaten senseless by his fellow knights.
His screams were so pitiful that it looked like he was the victim of a misunderstanding.
Still, I couldn’t help but marvel at how thoroughly they were pounding him.
It was the terrifying result of days spent training to gang up on one target.
I shook my broken arm, but it was completely numb. This injury was serious and would take at least a full day to heal.
Clicking my tongue, I waved the knights off.
Training was over for the day.
“That was close to killing .”
[You sound envious.]
“......”
What could I even say to soone who considered death a blessing?
“Is there even a point to this training? At this rate, I feel like I’ll be taken out with one hit.”
[You haven’t even completed the first stage, yet you have such high expectations.]
“Huh? So eventually I’ll be able to block Aura too?”
[‘Endure’ is the right word. But that will depend on your efforts. At your current level, it’s a distant goal.]
Before the dwarves ended up killing their own recruit, I hurriedly stopped them.
Recently, rumors about these knights—dubbed the Penitent Maces—had spread even beyond the training ground.
Composed of six of Beneta’s finest dwarves, they had gained a reputation as fearso enforcers of justice among criminals and wrongdoers.
Dorneth had chosen them specifically for , but after spending fifteen days perfecting their precision strikes on , their newfound skills were bound to terrify any wrongdoer.
They would leave even hardened criminals sobbing and begging for forgiveness.
Yet these sa knights trembled at the thought of sparring with , wishing for the training to end soon.
That could only an the training was working.
“Looks like I need to visit a healer.”
Today’s seventh Penitent Mace was likely done for after that incident. Judging by the recruit’s vacant expression, he probably wouldn’t show up tomorrow.
As the knights carried their injured comrade away, Sharbadin called out to from afar.
“It’s ti to eat!”
Contrary to Dorneth’s worries, she always arrived with a smile just as training ended, bringing food.
If Dorneth ever saw this scene, he might force Natone back into my training.
After all, Natone was the one who had handpicked the Penitent Maces.
Their leader, the wielder of the most brutal strikes.
***
“Sandwiches?”
“I made them myself.”
“Thanks as always.”
“I brought plenty, so eat as much as you like.”
Sitting bloodied on a mat, I took the sandwich she handed and forced it down.
I wasn’t eating for the taste but to stave off hunger.
Frankly, I was too ntally exhausted to even register the flavor.
More than eating, I wanted to wash up.
The stench of sweat and blood clung to , but I had long since given up on washing. Whenever I did, I ended up covered in blood again almost imdiately.
I had planned to clean up after training, but Reto hadn’t given a single mont of rest so far.
Despite the overpowering stench, Sharbadin didn’t seem bothered. As an elf accustod to blood-soaked battlefields, she quickly adjusted.
“Any news from outside?”
“It’s been pretty quiet lately.”
Chewing on the sandwich, I listened as Sharbadin shared her updates. The quality of information she provided was excellent, clearly thanks to Nella’s efforts.
“Is Fenry still unconscious?”
“It seems she’ll need more elven stones.”
“Is this typical of mana intoxication?”
“Not at all. There seems to be another reason, but Lady Nella seems reluctant to share it. She looks troubled every ti I ask.”
Fenry wasn’t waking up solely due to mana intoxication. Sothing else had changed within her.
I could guess why Nella was avoiding Sharbadin’s questions.
There’s only one topic that a priestess wouldn’t openly discuss.
Divine power.
“It seems Fenry’s divinity has undergone so sort of change.”
My arm was ruined anyway.
It might be ti to end today’s training and check on her at the lodging.
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