Chapter 89: Krakens Approval(?) And New Exercise Partner (1/2)

If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @

[ ]

The link is also in the synopsis.

.

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

.

-*-*-*-*-*-

.

After healing himself off the dull ache in his body, Quinn decided to leave the vault for the day. He felt saturated from the day's work; between dodging the Kraken to get inside, the vault, and swirling inside the maelstrom, Quinn felt that he had his fill of adventure and action for today.

Quinn walked to the tunnel and peered down into the water, and saw the lake end opening. He made a face between annoyance and fatigue and sighed, ”I don't want to fight the Kraken. Not right now.”

He looked back around at the stone cave and wondered, ”Should I take a short nap in here before I go back?”

”Nah, let's just get this over with. The Kraken will just throw me out, which is what I want now,” grumbled Quinn. He squatted down, and slipped down into the tunnel, head first.

While swimming inside the tunnel, Quinn tried to feel the magic behind the tunnel, but it escaped his natural senses. He had no idea how the switch from up and down was done.

'I would need to actively try to cast magic to see what is behind the cover,' thought Quinn as he came 'up' from the tunnel.

The first thing that he saw when he exited the tunnel were big solid yellow eyes staring down at him intently.

'Woah!' exclaimed Quinn, and even though no sound came out, Quinn gulped in a fresh batch of lake water.

The Kraken's tentacles immediately surrounded him. Unlike their previous encounters, the tentacles didn't coil around Quinn, but instead, one of the tentacles came near Quinn and poked him with its tip. The tentacle's tip was so large that it pushed against almost half of his entire body, pushing him to the ground.

Quinn, who fell to the lake bed, looked up at the Kraken, who kept staring at him with big yellow eyes. Then, at that moment, he finally realized how enormous the Kraken really was. In the past, the biggest thing Quinn had seen was a mountain troll, but the Kraken was on another level.

'What? What? What does it want?' thought Quinn as he stared back at the Kraken. 'Does it want to eat me? I'm tired, but bring it on!'

He revved up his magic and readied for another bout. Quinn hoped for the Kraken to give him a ride to the shore. But if it wanted to fight, Quinn was going to give it one.

It turned out that Kraken didn't want to fight because it withdrew its enormous body and assumed a comfortable position. One tentacle wrapped around the tunnel entrance, forming a coiled wall around the tunnel entrance, but didn't block it from above.

'Huh? What?' wondered Quinn bewilderedly. He had no idea why the Kraken backed off after some staring and a poke.

Quinn didn't know that the reason the Kraken had stared him down was because it was checking if Quinn was alright. It wanted to check if Quinn happened to be fine after going inside the dangerous place. After it confirmed that Quinn was uninjured, it backed off and went back to his chill lake life.

The Kraken didn't block the entrance as a show of his intentions; it was going to continue to guard the dangerous place in case another tiny human came looking, but if Quinn wanted to go in, he could go in because as far as the Kraken was concerned, Quinn had made it back alive after going in, so he probably would be fine if Quinn went in again.

Plus, the Kraken was prideful and considered Quinn to be capable. Quinn had successfully made the Kraken move, and that in the Kraken's eyes was a sign of strength. As far as the Kraken was concerned, Quinn was strong and could handle himself.

Quinn stared at the Kraken for a while before swimming away, still not knowing the reason behind the Kraken's actions.

.

- (Scene Break) -

.

”Why are you here again?” asked Quinn, stretching his body for his morning run and workout.

Quinn looked to Eddie as both stood at the starting point of Quinn's daily run route. Yesterday after dinner, Eddie had informed Quinn that he would like to join him for his morning exercises. Quinn, who had been lost in thought, thinking about the third vault, had heard Eddie's words and had absentmindedly nodded and hadn't asked for the reason.

”About that... The Quidditch tryouts are in two months, and I was thinking about joining the team,” spoke Eddie as he awkwardly tried to copy Quinn's stretching movements. ”I want to pass the tryouts so that I can make the bench this year and then play on the field next year.”

Eddie knew that Quinn went for a run every morning and decided to follow him to get fit for the coming tryouts so that he could have an extra edge.

”I see. Quidditch, huh. I know you followed the sport but never knew that you wanted to play for the team,” asked Quinn. He was happy that Eddie decided to do exercise to get fit.

”I wasn't planning on joining the team before, but I decided to give it a try this year. It would be fun to play Quidditch for the house. Everybody would be looking while I play,” replied Eddie, a bright smile on his face.

”... So what you mean to say is that you want to play so that you can get popular and get a girlfriend,” said Quinn, reading between the lines and finding out the real reason behind his friend's sudden interest in playing Quidditch.

Eddie unabashedly put a hand over Quinn's shoulder and gave him a lopsided grin, ”You know me so well. No wonder we are so close.”

Quinn shook his head with a small smile before asking, ”But are you sure you want to join the team? We have the O.W.L.s next year, you know? Will you be able to balance Quidditch and studies?”

”I'll be fine. If I see my grades slipping, I'll have you tutor me. With you helping me out, I'll probably do better than I do now,” responded Eddie and gave Quinn a thumbs up as if saying thank you in advance.

”I'll help you out if you need it, but I'm going to only help you out with the practical side. I'm not good at explaining the theory,” said Quinn, agreeing to help his friend.

Eddie gave Quinn a silent stare before speaking, ”... So what you are implying is that you get frustrated when we don't understand things after you explain them once. In times like those, you probably think of us as monkeys, don't you?”

This time Quinn put his hand on Eddie's shoulder, beamed, and unabashedly spoke, ”You're right! We're close! Come on, give me a hug.”

But Eddie pushed Quinn away with a 'f**k you, stay away' face.

”Alright, let's get started,” said Quinn with a clap. ”I usually run before doing push-ups, squats, and crunches. I finish by skipping rope.”

He pointed at Eddie and advised, ”You should run a kilometer today and increase the length as you progress. Aim for a comfortable three kilometers before the tryouts. I would suggest that you focus more on your upper body because there are a lot of upper body movements while being on a broom. So I'd advise sit-ups, pushups, and pullups. Later on, we can add planks and leg raises.”

”Also, what position are you planning to play?” asked Quinn after he was done suggesting an exercise plan.

”... Chaser,” replied Eddie.

”Great, now, I would suggest that you run at your pace. Don't try a full-on sprint. If you sprint, you'll build up fatigue quicker, and that won't do you any good,” warned Quinn. Afterward, he told Eddie how much he needed to run to complete a kilometer. He then slapped Eddie on his back and ran away.

Quinn still ran a five-kilometer route every day. He hadn't tried to increase the distance because he did more things now, so he just tried to reduce his time and had been slowly getting faster with time.

He usually ran a route that would be exactly five kilometers when he returned to the starting line. But today, Quinn decided to run a route that would have him pass nearby where Eddie was running so that Quinn could see how he was doing.

When Quinn came around the first time, he saw Eddie standing with his hands on his knees, so he raised his voice and called out to Eddie, ”Eddie! Don't stop. If you can't run, walk! Just don't stop!”

Eddie looked up and saw Quinn waving at him as he ran a distance away from him. He groaned and started running because he was embarrassed that Quinn had seen him stop.

When Quinn returned from completing his run, he saw Eddie sitting on the ground, pulling away at the grass.

”Are you done?” asked Quinn.

He hadn't chosen to run Eddie's route five times because he was sure that Eddie would try to keep up with him despite his warning. And as much as fun it would've been to say 'on your left,' as he passed him by, Quinn wanted Eddie to relax and have a positive first day: he would return the next day and keep up till the tryouts and after.

Eddie looked up and nodded as he stood up, ”Yeah, what's next?”

”You will start with pushups,” instructed Quinn before asking, ”Can you do a couple of pushups, or are you a complete beginner?”

”I can do five,” replied Eddie, looking offended that Quinn would even think that he was a complete beginner who couldn't do one pushup.

”Don't give me that face. I was just asking a question,” grinned Quinn before continuing. ”Do three sets of five. Keep your back straight and properly go down. I don't want to see sloppy push-ups.”

Eddie nodded and asked, ”What are you going to do?”

”I'll be doing burpees. They are basically the combination of a squat, kick back feet to get into a pushup stance(high-plank positions), a pushup, return to a squatting position, stand, and end with a jump.”

Quinn showed Eddie how to execute a burpee before both of them started to do their stuff. Eddie did his three sets of five, while Quinn did his three sets of twelve.

At first, Quinn hated burpees because they were tough, but as time went on, they got easier to execute and complete, but that wasn't why he stopped hating them. The results of the burpees made him like doing burpees.

After he was half a month in, doing burpees every day, Quinn noticed that his running had improved. He started running faster without consciously ramping up my speed. His lungs felt clear, and he found him coasting through the miles. A month after adding burpees into his routine, Quinn felt that his strides felt stronger and felt that his breathing was more composed than at the start of the month. To Quinn, who ran every day, seeing noticeable improvement was enough for him to keep doing burpees.

Quinn was done with two sets of twelve when Eddie called to him, ”Hey, I'm done. What do I've to do next?”