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Return of the Fallen Volume 5 Chapter 36

Author: Blue_Rat

ch36

“First, let’s start with something simple. You have fine control over your body and should know your muscles well. Pick up that rock.”

Glacious pointed at a nearby green rock, one that was half the size of the first he lifted. Kazuki squatted down and wrapped his arms around it before slowly lifting it up as he stood.

“Urr. Now what?”

Glacious pointed to the end of the field, a spot around 200 feet away.

“Take a walk, here to there and back again.”

“Shouldn’t I do something a little more comprehensive? No offense but just walking around with a heavy object will not do anything drastic to my body.”

“You think so?”

Kazuki nodded.

“Tell me young Kazuki, can you lift a mountain, can you part a river with a mere wave of your hand. Who here is the expert and who is the learner?”

Kazuki sighed inwardly before turning and walking away.

“Right right I understand. Hopefully, you can fill me in when it’s all over.”

“It’s not as complicated as you may think. There’s no hard mystery when it comes to improving the body. Your body like mine is made up of flesh blood bone muscle and so on. In order to improve muscle, first, you have to break them down. When your muscle fibers incur damage or injury the body repairs them making them stronger, which in turn increases the mass and size of them, leading to greater and greater strength. The fastest way for one to start building muscle is through strength and resistance training. This method you are personally going through will break your body down in no time and the quicker you break, the quicker we can build you back up.”

Kazuki didn’t expect Glacious’s method to really be the simple tried and true strength training. He found it kind of funny that this was the method one of the strongest beings in the world used.

(Who would believe if I told them a dragon carried rocks to grow so strong?)

Kazuki’s thoughts were only carefree for a few minutes before he realized things were not so simple. The rock he carried was about half of his max that he could lift. It neard 3.5 to 4 thousand pounds. This was incredibly heavy but as long as Kazuki circulated his ki he could handle it. If it was just this, he could carry the dark green rock for a few hours but Kazuki learned quickly this was not the case.

Every step he took, the ground beneath him would dimly glow and he could make out a few inscriptions written beneath him. The inscription had a few things linked together but the main thing he understood from it was [Gravity]. This one word repeated the most. With a single step forward, the weight of the rock would go up or down varying on certain factors he didn’t understand.

Not only that but it didn’t spread out the weight evenly. So one moment the weight would increase on the entire left side of the rock and lighten on the right and the very next step it would do the opposite or maybe nothing at all or maybe increase the weight on one side even more and lighten the other side by a small margin again.

Because of this, Kazuki had to constantly readjust his balance, putting more strain on certain muscles more than others. With the gravity switching to the other side, Kazuki had to once more readjust but this time faster, or the grip that just changed one fail him and the rock would fall. This made carrying the rock incredibly difficult and made it more like carrying a living creature that was fighting to get out of his hands. The difference between carrying an object that didn’t move and one that did was like night and day.

Kazuki had only traveled around 100 feet by this time but he was already sweating like a mad lad and his breath was becoming increasingly labored.

*Huff Puff*

At this point he was still managing but as soon as he crossed the 150-foot mark, the dim glow from the inscriptions lit up brightly and the rock in his hands tripled in weight.

Kazuki felt the rock come loose from his grip and felt his knees buckling. He tried to hold on with everything he had but three times the weight was impossible for him. Just when he was about to drop the rock, the ground dimmed and the rock lightened to a tenth of what it was. Kazuki caught himself and almost did a weird lunge because of this but he recovered just in time.

His steps paused as he looked back at Glacious.

“What?”

“The rock tripled in weight but just before I lost it the weight dropped drastically. What does this do for me?”

“Oh that, that’s just something that builds your muscle limit. By increasing the weight to something you absolutely can’t handle for an instant it helps to test as well as increase your overall limit. You see just now that was clearly past your limit yet you were able to hold it for a split second. Everyone has that within them. A single moment when you are able to exceed your limits. It comes when you least expect. My training field is different though. It pushes you and pushes you and just when you don’t think you can handle something, it forces you to handle it. Keep going, the funs only just begun.”

Kazuki heaved a heavy breath and cautiously took another step. The weight increased again but this time it only went back to half his max. It was still difficult but nothing compared to what happened a moment ago.

Kazuki didn’t quite get Glacious explanation but in the end, Glacious was the expert and he had the body to prove it.

Kazuki grit his teeth and took another step. The end of the field was only another 10 feet away. 9,8,7. The weight continued to shift in his hands and by now, Kazuki’s heart was beating like a mad drum. 6,5,4. He was so close now he could almost taste it but his legs were shaking as though there was an earthquake. Not only that but his back felt as though it were on fire and for some reason, even his neck was feeling strained.

3,2,1. Kazuki stepped out of the training field and his arms were inadvertently thrown upward due to a lack of a gravity inscription. The rock in his arms became unbelievably light as though it were a feather and flew up along with his arms. The rock flew nearly a hundred feet high before deciding to fall back down. Kazuki was too tired to even contemplate whether or not the rock was actually that light and didn’t even dare try to catch it just in case.

*Bang!*

The rock fell a few feet in front of him and left a small crater in the ground.

(So it’s still heavy, even outside the training field.)

Kazuki went over and attempted to pick it up and it surprisingly came up with ease. It was nowhere near half his max but still, this dark green rock was not ordinary. It was only half the size of a head yet it still weighed at least a thousand pounds outside the training field.

(Inside it weighs almost 4 thousand pounds but outside the field, it’s only about a fourth of the weight, how weird.)

Kazuki was lost in thought wondering how the rock weighed that much even outside the field when Glacious called out to him.

“Young one, what are you dilly-dallying around for. You do realize you’re only halfway done with the first trip. Have you already forgotten, I said from here to there and back? You’ve gone from here to there, and now you still owe me a back. Come on, get to it. The sun has barely been up but you’ve got a long way to go.”

Kazuki’s first thought was more of a scream in his mind. He looked at the 100 feet from where he stood to Glacious’s side and it resembled a million miles. Kazuki’s entire body was aching and he had only made it halfway and this was only the first try. Looking down at the rock in his hands he recalled Granny masters training back on earth. He wondered just who of the two between Glacious and his Granny Master. Seeing Glacious’s smile and looking at the rock in his hand there was no doubt, Granny Master was crueler.

Just thinking about her training and Kazuki felt a chill run down his spine. Right after he couldn’t help but think how she died and hatred began to burn in his heart. Kazuki shook those thoughts away and sucked in a deep breath of air. Gritting his teeth he took a step back into the training filed. As soon as he did, the rock in his hand went from around 1000 pounds to nearly 4000 in an instant. Kazuki’s knees bent slightly but he held on. Slowly but surely, he took a step forward, and then another and then another.

(This is nothing compared to Granny Master’s training. One step at a time, that’s all this is, just a single step followed by another.)