Time Capsule [2]

In this chapter I will be starting to abbreviate mana grade into M.G. Why? Because it is so damn annoying writing it out. Please do throw me a comment if you think it is coherent or not.

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"Huff, huff, huff..."

'This is so hard...'

After 10 hours of repeating the sequence of;

[Absorbing mana in the air -> Trying my hardest to endure the torture, stabilizing my condition -> checking my overclocked mana grade -> moving around until my body starts to break down]

I was now in a pretty bad state, lying on the floor trying my best to catch my breath. Even if the system in the time capsule could restore my virtual physical condition, it didn't help me with my mental exhaustion.

'Five more hours... I need to be able to assimilate with at least one specific rank before I run out of time...'

Naively, I had been thinking that I would be able to get two or three mana ranks down before I was done here. As it turns out, there were a lot more variables to my overclocking than I thought.

The amount of energy around me, how much I opened my mana receptors, what mentality I had. With all of these and more always being relative to the time I spent in osmosis.

My status panel had given me some pointers as to what the different ranks would feel like, but it had taken me a little more than half my allotted time here just to get some sort of sense of it.

As there was even a small spectrum between an immature [Lower] sub-rank and a [Lower] sub-rank that was about to break through to [Intermediate], it had taken much longer than I previously thought.

At this point, I had figured out that if I acted with a lot of finesse, it was a lot easier to be accurate with my Art, but in turn, I would have to sacrifice time and stand completely still. After trying it like this a couple of times, I had a lot more success but it just didn't feel worth it.

'I can't let myself become a sitting duck just to activate my art. That will get me killed in no time. No, I have to keep on trying while moving my body, even if it is harder.'

With that thought, I had opened the controls and made a huge track field emerge, as well as some dummies. The process of my thinking had been that I would be starting with just running while executing my Art, as to later moving on to try and use it while battling.

I was still in the process of running, having not been able to get to M.G. rank II [Higher] with a high enough success rate for me to be to feel comfortable raising the difficulty yet.

As stated before, trying to keep repeating this endless process of torture had led me to feel incredibly torn. At the same time, my psyche appeared to have gained a lot more tolerance to the pain, as it got less and less debilitating. Now, I could at least run with a rank II [Higher] without many problems, given the fact that I managed to accurately overclock to it.

The first time I had tried to execute my Art while jogging around the track, I had lost control and everything had turned black for me. When my eyes opened again, I was met by a large, floating, warning screen in front of me.

*WARNING! THE STUDENT'S VIRTUAL BODY PERISHED. IF THIS OCCURS ONE MORE TIME THE STUDENT WILL BE FORCEFULLY EJECTED TO PREVENT MENTAL DAMAGE*

Yeah, I had somehow managed to kill myself. As scary as it was, it only led me to get even more focused on reaching my goal of being able to control my [Overclock]. In here I could experiment as much as I wanted but in the real world, things wouldn't be so forgiving. Thus I had gained another reason for wanting to be able to accurately assimilate to at least one specific M.G. rank.

'Let's do this again, shall we?'

"Control panel up."

My reliable old friend appeared.

"Reset physical conditions."

Instantly my body could move again. Standing up, I stretched a bit to try one more time.

Parallel to each other, I began moving around the tracks while at the same time executing my art. Feeling the mind-numbing pain rise, this time something was different.

This time, with my body once again thinking I was a complete bastard, I could almost instinctively sense when I had assimilated enough power. Ending my absorption, I brought out my status panel.

===Status===

Name: Miren Porter

Rank: II

Strength: I

Speed: VII

Stamina: III

Intelligence: III

Mana grade: II [Lower] -> II [Higher]

Charm:?

--> Inherent Disposition : [Boundless]

--> Battle Arts:[Overclock]

--> Elemental affinities: [Lightning]

==========

'I did it. I think I finally know how it's supposed to feel now...'

Continuing to run around the track, there had also been another effect as a result of using my Battle Art. Although I should be shouting with excitement because of my achievement, my body just kept running in apathy.

During my time at the academy, my previously cynical mind had started to change into a warmer one, with me obtaining joy in socializing and having fun with James, Sarah, and Brad. Something I genuinely liked. I felt no sense of enjoyment trying to portray a stereotypical, antisocial edge-lord.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, as my mind tried to desperately numb the agonizing torment my body had to go through, it was also numbing my other emotions as well.

****

Having concluded my, somewhat successful, training session, I had left the building having accomplished reliably raising my mana sub-rank to [Higher].

Walking to the cafeteria, to refill my brain with nutrients, a text showed up on my DAD.

*Yo, Miren! Do you want to hit the gym with me before we go to dinner?*

'Seems like James is also fine today. If he is fine, the others are probably also fit-for-fight then, as he was the drunkest out of all of us.'

*Sure, but you realize I'm really weak right? It's not like I'm going to be able to spot you or anything, but if you still want to, what time?*

I texted back, thinking that if he wanted to lift weights before dinner at 6 pm, it should probably be around 3 pm. This would give us enough time to train for about two hours, before hitting the showers and heading out to eat without having to rush.

As it was now 11:32, I figured I had more than enough time to eat and then go back to my room to relax, as well as to leave my daggers. Unfortunately, my conjecture quickly got blown to pieces by another text.

*Oh, that's no big deal! I just thought it would be fun to train with someone for a change. So far I've had to train alone as neither Brad nor Sarah wants to train with me (｡•́︿•̀｡). Let's meet at the gym in an hour then! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ*

'What's up with all these oddly intricate emojis?! And an hour? Wouldn't that mean we are gonna train from 12:30 to 17:30 if we are gonna train until dinner? That's five hours!'

My logical thinking quickly took control of my concerns.

'No, there's no way someone would lift weights for five hours. He is probably planning to either mix it up with something else, or he wants us to spend some time together after training. It's not like I have any other plans anyway, so I might as well give this to him then.'

With my naive thoughts, not suspecting the harsh fate that I would experience, I hurriedly ate and made my way back to my room to leave my daggers.

****

"Miren! Over here!"

Looking around the modern equipment, and the huge stacks of weights everywhere, James had noticed me and called me over.

Sitting in a more open area, covered with a rubber floor, he had already begun stretching in preparation for our workout. Small drops of sweat had already begun to accumulate, running down from his dirty blonde hair.

"Ah, James. You've already begun? Sorry, I had to eat and drop some things off in my room, so I was a bit late."

"No worries, I just got here as well."

'Then why are you already sweating?'

Not minding his white lie, I positioned myself beside him and also kicked off my workout by stretching.

As we extended and bent our limbs, it was noticeable that even with his, albeit not monstrous like Brad's or Mike's, muscles he was still quite flexible. Having seemingly no issues bending down, grabbing his feet with his hands, his body was perfectly conditioned to move to his will.

Not talking much, we finished our session and James took the lead to a room filled with treadmills.

"Let's run for an hour before we start lifting".

We got on the treadmills and got going. Matching the speed of the running James, which for me was just a little more than a light jog, my brain had found an incorrect confirmation as to why we would need five hours.

'If he starts by running and stretching, he probably ends with it as well. Half an hour of stretching, one hour of running, times two, is already three hours. That still leaves us with the more normal two hours of lifting after all.'

Breathing a bit hard, not completely out of breath but not by any means relaxed, he asked:

"So Miren, do you have a sense of how much you can lift? Even if it might seem a bit rude, as assassin-types rarely focus on strength, maybe you need a workout just to find out what your limits are?"

'He isn't wrong, but why does it feel so bad that he is right?'

"Yea, you're right. I have no idea how much I can actually lift. I came here once before, but at that point, I couldn't lift pretty much anything. Now that I have spent some time doing some bodyweight training, I figured I might be able to lift at least some of these weights or use some machines."

'I also have an ace in my sleeve if worst comes to shove...'

"Oh, then let's use this time to figure out where your strength is at, and then in the future, we can do more structured workouts together!"

An hour quickly passed, and we, of course, made our way to the bench press. Where else would you start?

"We will start by you trying out the big three. Bench press, deadlift, and squats. Between you working out your weights and resting, I will also be training a bit, I am after all also here to train!"

With a smile, he signaled for me to position myself under the bar.

Beautiful as a magical world was and as modern as Kirkegaard was, there was a panel on the side of the bench where you could digitally choose the weight you wanted. After inputting the weight, steel weights would appear on the bar automatically. The problem with this was, the starting weight of just the bar was 80kg. This was more than enough to make me unable to during my previous trip to the gym.

Funnily enough, this also rid me of not being able to spot the golden boy, as one could just reduce the weight using the controls.

"So how much weight do you want?

'He is severely overestimating me, isn't he? Makes sense I guess, as most 10-year-olds can at least bench 60kg or more. It could be said to be quite open-minded of the academy to have this low a setting for its weaker elite students...'

"I will start with just the bar..."

"Oh... Are you... No, go for it!"

Ignoring the stumped James, I put my hands on the bar and the stand automatically disappeared as it sensed someone lifting the bar.

'IT'S SO HEAVY! FUCK!'

The bar started to slowly sink to my chest, probably giving the impression I was acting with precision. The truth of it was, I couldn't handle the weight, and it was slowly pushing my arms down.

'I'm stuck...'

Even with my body-weight training, I hadn't gotten stronger at all. Just like mana, the strength ranks were also a spectrum. Two rank II strengths could differ, with one being stronger than the other. Thus it made sense to me that, after over a month of training, I would have at least gotten a bit stronger. This was not the case.

James finally snapped back to reality, not being able to believe his eyes, and lifted the bar, using just one hand, from my chest.

'I have to use it, I guess...'

As James made sure I was okay, he tried to throw me a bone.

"Ermm! Maybe we should try something else...? With your speed talent, maybe you should focus on running instead?"

"No, let me try it one more time! I can do it!"

"Okay... Okay! You can do it! I believe in you Miren! Prove them all wrong!"

'Why are you so excited, and who are "them all"?!'

Lying back one more time, I started to use my ace. Overclocking myself into an M.G. rank II [Higher], the excruciating pain threatened to make me scream out loud. Thankfully, I had gotten used to it to some extent and could continue to move my body.

Once more I put my tiny hands against the bar, and the stand disappeared.

'I CAN DO IT, I AM THE STRONGEST! I. AM. BOUNDLESS!

Hyping myself up for the incredible feat of lifting just the bar, I slowly lowered it to my chest. James, at my side, looking very ready to save me from facing the embarrassing situation of getting stuck once more.

I put strength my arms and started to raise the bar into the air.

"URGH"

With a grunt, I managed to complete my lift.

"You did it Miren! Amazing!"

Feeling content with my absurdly amazing achievement, we switched places.

"So how much do you usually lift?"

"Oh, as we are focusing on you today, just input 500kg. I'll just go through the motions to get some blood running."

....

"Sure..."

With his tall body lying on the bench, he quickly took hold of the bar. The weights flew up and down, meeting no resistance at any point in time.

'Monster...'

He reinstalled the weights into the reappearing stand and spoke:

"Now, let's do this 4 more times before we move on to the deadlift."