Chapter 1511 (2/2)

It felt extremely refreshing to leave a growling mutt on the ground behind him.

Similar to Raymund, most of the other recruits didn’t experience such an embarrassing collapse once they were prepared for the sudden increase in gravity. Eventually, all of the recruits followed Heiffal through to find several massive metal logs that they would be required to carry around the arena twenty times today.

The solid bars of metal were two meters long and half a meter thick. As Raymund considered his bar, he felt like he was an inspect toying with the tool of a giant. For someone his size, and he was one of the tallest of the recruits, it was difficult to manage.

The additional weight of the metal log didn’t mean much, especially at first. The recruits stayed in a relatively tight pack as they jogged around the arena. The bar was heavy, but these were all recruits that were billed to be elites; they had experienced training in the past that had pushed their physical limits. But very quickly, that small additional weight they were forced to haul around began to add up. On some of the recruits around him, Raymund saw more and more sweat dripping down from their brown. Gritting his teeth, Raymund held the rather unwieldy thing above his head as he loped forward, even as his shoulders began to throb in pain.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chosen of the Vulpine Godhead (Ru) has grown to Level 226!

Certainly, the benefits from such training accrue very quickly, Raymund reflected as his increasingly murky and exhausted mind tried to ignore the growing pains in his neck and shoulders. His legs continued to pump as he ran, seeming an independent existence to his fading intelligence. Next to him, Benjamin jogged along while trying to find a grip that kept the relatively larger pillar balanced above his body. Yet… if this is to be the daily schedule…

Congratulations! Your Skill Chosen of the Vulpine Godhead (Ru) has grown to Level 227!

Very quickly, Raymund’s body began to creak in protest from even this brief amount of physical exertion. His capability that had even impressed Techetadore meant nothing here. Somehow, the extended chain of his image flowing through his body and working his completely drained muscles was some of the most agonizing training he had ever engaged in. Because his muscles were completely devoid of Stamina the entire time, each exertion was akin to an exertion that occurred when his musculature was just a single second away from failure.

This training occurred in the ideal, and most painful, circumstances possible. That was why the results were so immediate.

Very quickly, his confused body pulled at the surrounding life energy to try and develop his physical form in a new direction. As such, the Skill Levels came quickly. But after only four steady circuits around the four hundred meter track, Raymund was approaching his limit. Gradually, the speed of his steps began to slow as the weight he was carrying grew greater and greater.

Not that it really mattered. Most of the other recruits were also hitting a similar wall. In fact, he could be relatively proud of the fact that he had lasted longer than most. But Raymund couldn’t help but notice that Benjamin was steadily leaving him behind as he was able to maintain the same pace.

Suddenly, Raymund Ballast felt profoundly alone. His only companion was the sound of his lungs expanding and contracting. His nose twitched as a large drop of sweat fell off of his face.

As his mind became foggier, the metal pillar he carried began to swirl together with the sense of helplessness that had mired Raymund’s heart since Techetadore had disappeared. Obviously, with the people of his world starving, he couldn’t remind idle when his own brother, the youth he practically raised and guided, had vanished into the depths of the Nexus. Yet similarly, he couldn’t escape the sense that he was so far from finding any meaningful information regarding his brother.

Raymund’s legs continued to churn, carrying him forward. Even if he were to perform well in this battle against the Nether, what then? Would that really give Raymund the tools to find out what had happened to his brother?

The constant need to do had kept Raymund moving so far and let him ignore the deep flaws in his methodology. But now, with his high brain function being steadily stripped away by exhausting training that was clearly designed to tear him down, the dark fears of his heart were slowly surfacing. And when he faced them, he just wanted to collapse.

Quit.

A voice seemed to speak directly to Raymund at his most despairing and he almost listened to that voice immediately. But his ears twitched. So he raised his head and did his best to focus his cloudy eyes on the source. Heiffal was standing above a recruit that Raymund didn’t recognize on the other side of the track. Despite the fact that Raymund felt like he was also near his physical limits, he continued forward until he was within earshot of the Overseer.

The recruit was clearly a tiny individual, wearing her wrinkled grey skin like a too-large rain poncho. She was currently struggling to manage to shift the metal pillar off of its body so she could regain her feet once more. What struck Raymund most about this hazy picture was how much the recruit was struggling.

Meanwhile, Heiffal continued to speak. “I’ll let you in on a secret: all individuals possess small choices in their lives. Currently, you can quit or get back up. I recommend you quit. Your body is inept, your image is ungainly and vague, your potential is lackluster, and you don’t have the capacity for the hard decisions that are required from soldiers. So quit.

“Because even if you keep going, your decisions won’t meaningfully change. That’s the problem with small actions- they inevitably lead to the next small action. You can never escape the present. Five seconds from now, you will still have to choose to endure this agonizing training or quit. Ten minutes after that, when you still haven’t finished your required laps, you will face the same choice. And this entire time, the pain of continuing will increase. Nothing will have changed except you’ve forced yourself to endure for longer than you needed to. So quit now.”

The wrinkled woman groaned and collapsed weakly, unable to shift the metal pillar from on top of her. Seeing the treant finally cease struggling, Raymund’s feet slowed. He wondered if she had suffocated beneath that pillar. When he arrived at the fallen recruit being largely avoided by the other exhausted recruits, Raymund paused and set his pillar down. He knew that it would be so easy to quit at the moment.

His body felt light. The right side of his neck, where he had rested the pillar for his first few circuits, tingled.

Yet his body reached down to help lift the pillar off of the fallen recruit. This new variety of exertion caused different muscles to protest, leading to Raymund’s assistance being much less helpful than he had planned. But his mind was so exhausted he could think of no plan but continuing to strain himself lifting one end of the metal pillar.

Then another recruit stopped. A red-skinned woman with no mouth but six eyes set down her own pillar and lifted the other end. Together, they rolled the pillar off of the short and wrinkled recruit.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Overseer Heiffal shrugged. Raymund nodded at the woman and then heaved his own pillar back onto his shoulder. While it was sitting on the ground, the thing seemed to have doubled in weight. At the last moment, he realized he should switch it to the other side of his neck.

But it was too late. The pillar had come to rest and Raymund’s trembling arms would hear nothing of shifting the pillar when it was already so securely settled. So Raymund could only sigh and continue to run.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chosen of the Vulpine Godhead (Ru) has grown to Level 228!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Chosen of the Vulpine Godhead (Ru) has grown to Level 261!