Chapter 26

Once I could run according to Master Izzy's specifications, she took the opportunity to fill me in on the full potential of the training program.

"I wish I could have started training you sooner," she said. "But once we get you through Regionals, I can give you a more complete training program. Hopefully, you'll win and get the time dilation formation. The Guidance Hall is an offline application, so you can utilize it along with the formation for longer training sessions. I like to split the training ratio into quarters—a quarter each for physical, mental, spiritual, and ego training. But we can't do that if your sessions are too short. It won't be effective."

"Spiritual?" I gasped out as I ran. My feet made a steady slapping sound on the treadmill. Master Izzy didn't like that I made noise while I ran, but I wasn't skilled enough to use advanced techniques. "Ego training?"

"Don't worry. I'm not looking to convert you from whatever style of worship you follow. When I say spiritual training, I mean training in what your people call the arts. I noticed you picked up the Bardic Empathy skill, so we'll start with music. As for ego training, that's a bit more complicated. If everyone has an angel and a demon whispering on their shoulder, then a healthy ego hears them without allowing them to rule your decisions. I guess you can consider it morality training or maybe free therapy? The point is to understand that it's okay to be selfish, but too much can be destructive. And it's okay to be kind and help others, but there's a point where that can also be destructive. It's all about balance and properly evaluating your self-worth."

"Isn't... that.... mental... training," I panted.

"Mental training focuses on your IQ. I'll be challenging your perception skills, concentration, fortitude, and giving you timed challenges to strengthen your problem-solving ability. You won't see much of an improvement at first, but a stronger mentality will help in other areas."

She reached out to slap the emergency stop on the treadmill, finally ending my run. "Don't cool down," she warned. "We're just moving over to the pommel horse. We're going to practice what your people call parkour free-running. I want you to vault over the pommel horse twenty times. You can use the springboard for the first ten, then I want you to go over it with your own power."

"Can I touch the pommel horse as I'm going over it?"

"Of course. I don't expect you to fly. The experience will be the greatest teacher here, so I'll only give you one piece of advice. Don't try to leap over it like hurdles. We'll get to those after you've had some time to strengthen your legs."

She was the boss, so I didn't argue. Following her instructions, I ran and hit the springboard beside the pommel horse and—

My gut smacked into the side of the wooden contraption. I grabbed the metal bars on the top of the pommel horse to pull myself over, but it wasn't graceful at all.

Master Izzy groaned. "Forget the pommel horse and come back. It looks like we'll have to start with something even more basic."

She made me run through the equivalent of a training circuit. Her voice was like a constant whip correcting my mistakes, although she never once raised her voice. Under her tutelage, I did ten sets of squats, nine sets of sit-ups, eight sets of push-ups, seven sets of pull-ups, six sets of leg raises, five sets of mountain climbers, four more sets of squats, three sets of jumping jacks, two sets of triceps dips, and one set of jumping rope.

Although I tried, I didn't actually complete the desired amount because a single set of anything was a hundred repetitions. If I stopped early, it was counted as starting a new set. I didn't make it to a hundred reps even once.

I couldn't even finish off the workout with jumping rope, which shocked me. I thought jumping rope was easy. Kindergartners could do it. I did it all the time when I was younger. When did it get hard? Why couldn't I seem to get the timing right? Seriously—I could only do five jumps before the rope hit my ankle?

I disappointed myself with that one. It had to be the jump rope's fault. I wasn't used to the length. I could do better if the rope was longer or heavier or something.

"That's enough," Master Izzy said. "I have a good idea of your capabilities now. From now on, I advise you spend fifteen minutes on a row machine each day. If you do it here in the Guidance Hall, then either row for an hour or raise your feedback settings to a hundred percent. Actually, in your place, I'd raise it to a hundred and ten percent. Your body can take more than you're willing to give it. It looks like the first thing I need to do is work on your mentality—"

My alarm went off, notifying me an hour had passed since I entered the training app.

"Sorry, Master Izzy," I said with a grin. "It's time to go to school. I'll log in again later... maybe."

"Maybe?" she repeated, her voice dropping an octave for some reason.

I shrugged. "This has been helpful in teaching me the right form to exercise, but I don't really see how it's going to help me win the Tournament. Thank you for your instruction, though. I won't say it was fun but—"

"Come back tonight," she demanded. "I'll be better prepared for your next visit."

I thought about it. While I didn't really see the point of working out in a full immersion gym, there had to be some benefit. The app obviously had some connection to the Martial Tournament, too. Otherwise, the trainer wouldn't be programmed to think she was a cultivation Goddess. Maybe I was missing some hidden feature that could help me win.

"Okay," I relented. "I'll come a few more times. Goodbye for now, Master Izzy."

"Wait! You should—"

I returned to my system lobby, then checked my messages. I had a bunch from the guys. They seemed excited over their experience under the sea and claimed they wanted to continue exploring the Lagoon and surrounding areas. According to a message from Harris, it was the first time in weeks they'd managed to leave a town without running into any Guild shenanigans.

Shey messaged, "One day without a death. It's a new record!"

Casper sent me a sales report for some reason. It had graphs and lists I didn't care about. The only thing that mattered was his summary that said, "The current value of Jayladon Typhoon's consignment is estimated at 378,002g. All members agree this, in combination with his donation of 15,000 ancient coins, is a sufficient buy-in for equal shares of the party's earnings. Welcome to the party, Jay."

I calculated the trade value of the gold and ancient coins to discover I'd essentially given them six hundred dollars!

I spent a few minutes being mad at myself. If I'd worked harder, I could have sold all those goods and coins myself. Then I'd have six hundred dollars in the bank.

It didn't take long for me to pull my head out of the clouds and remind myself it wasn't so easy to make money through gaming. If I'd tried to sell those goods, I would have probably sold them at a loss. That was assuming I found a buyer at all. There was a reason I'd been selling everything to NPCs.

"Whatever," I grumbled. I wasn't really in the game to make money anyway. It was just a nice side bonus.

I closed the messaging app and logged out completely.

As my senses returned to my body, I immediately felt something was off. My limbs were stiff. When I reached up to open the gaming capsule's hatch, my muscles cried out.

What the—

It felt like I'd overworked myself and went to bed without stretching first. Was this why Master Izzy had called out to me when I was leaving the training app? Was there some kind of cool-down process I missed?

As I climbed out of the capsule, I gritted my teeth at the way my body screamed. If this was how a mild workout felt like with only fifty percent feedback, then what did an intense workout at hundred and ten percent feedback feel like?

Part of me was scared to find out while the other part admitted it was curious.

"I'll have to be careful not to work myself to death," I said to myself.

My body felt a lot better after a hot shower. I didn't usually take showers in the morning, preferring to take them after my afternoon workout in the garage, but I could barely move.

By the time I managed to get dressed for the day, my parents had already left for work. I decided to use one of the few benefits that came with being an honest and responsible kid with decent grades.

I called my mom. As soon as she answered, I said, "Can you call into school for me today? I don't want to go."

"Are you sick?"

"No, I just don't want to go today. I want to play hooky, so call in for me. I'll go tomorrow."

My mom chuckled. "Okay, sweetheart. I'll tell them you have a stomach ache. Do I need to come home for lunch?"

"Don't bother. I can order something. Have a good day at work."

Once I hung up, I walked into my room and stared at my gaming capsule. I had to ask myself. How much of an 'M' was I?