Chapter 7 - Helping those in need

Seth reported to the farm after his morning training, which once again took him doing 3 hours to feel a true push, and he had to look up HIIT programs and compound exercise workouts to truly feel any burn.

But he made it work. Making it to the job site in his flannel and jeans he heard some clicking tongues from disappointment from the females farmers and their daughters. He chuckles to himself as he knows they will like the free show later once he is back out in the fields after he gains a little more muscle. But he will make sure to explain it away using the rest of this weeks hard labor and a great healthier diet to make sure not too many questions are asked about his sudden explosion of fitness.

For now though, he knew he had a job to do. He joined the men in the south field, a rain storm took it out and flooded it in the spring and they had been slowly removing debris, rocks, and trees that died from drowning. But with it being over 20 acres and only having so many spare hands to tackle it a day, progress for the last 4 months has only seen 4 acres of land be restored for planting and crop seeding.

Seth stretched in the truck they rode to the place and a few other helpers in the same truck joined him. Popping joints and flexing their shoulders and fingers to prep them for the coming job. Soon enough they reach the place and all 50 workers line up as they are assingned their ten man teams with a pair of horses or mules each to help with loading the debris into carts to move to the loading truck for the processing center in the next town.

They had 6 hours to work here before the night critters would start to appear so they had to try and clear at least half the acre before then.

Seth grins as he is assigned a ten man team where lots of rocks and dead trees were. The others groaned in annoyance at the amount of work to do in front of them. But Seth was ready for the workout and the growth to his stats he can gain.

They begin to go about things as axes and saws come out to cut up the trees into more manageable chopped up chunks. The men look at the rocks and small boulders an dbegin to gather them into heavy duty baskets on their backs or in buckets to lug to the cart and then have the cart get up to the truck. The only problem is that they didn't have a spare horse or donkey for thier team since the other teams were dealing with larger rocks and full sized dead trees instead of the fallen logs and smaller stumps they had to deal with.

So the men began to chat here and there to best tackle the tasks.

But Seth was only half listening so he knew what to do next. He was already walking around doing deep squat sits to reach down and load his heavy duty back pack with the rocks and lug them around to the next area to clean up.

By the time the other men had noticed his efforts he had already dumped a solid 320 pounds into the cart full of fist sized rocks and even a small body sized boulder or three. They were in awe as Seth was unloading a forth 80 pound load and dropped the bag as the cart was fully loaded at 600 pounds. He carted that heavy rock filled load all the way back to the truck and heaved as he tossed the rocks quickly into the back of it.

Soon he was back and ready for more.

The men saw they had their cart man and began to work harder than before to not be showed up by the new guy. And soon after 3 hours the trees were loaded next and many rocks had been cleared. They were now half way done with the area. Seth was taking a 15 minute break huffing and panting with sweat pouring down his back and arms. His legs shook a bit as his body was already recovering thanks to his recovery boosting skill. His muscles were also feeling the burn as his body adapted to the harsh workout better than before.

He decided to wait until the end of the work day to check his stats but he felt them getting much more toned as the day went on. And his stamina was coming back much quicker than the others.

One of the workers came to sit next to him and smiled at him, Seth smiled back and they got to talking a bit. The man introduced himself, "Greetings mr Seth! I am named Mr. Ryu around here!"

Seth gazed at Mr. Ryu, he was an older man in his late 50s but he was built well. Probably a solid 4-5 in strength stats if he had to guess. He was the only one keeping up with Seths work pace at the moment, but even the well built Ryu was feeling tired from the nonstop pace they had been going at it.

Mr. Ryu explained to Seth why he approached him, "I wanted to check in on you son, not everyone can adjust to this type of work so easily. But you seem to be doing well. You aren't pushing yourself to keep up with the work load right?"

Seth shakes his head, "Nah just excited to do actual manual labor, in the company I worked in I was helping with building regulations, architecture needs, corporate red tape, yellow tape, and so on. It was mentally exhausting, but it felt lacking in a way, like I did things, but never got to see the efforts of all my work."

He takes a pause to sip his water then gazes out onto the cleared areas they are done with so far, "But here? I am helping, physically seeing and enjoying the fruits of my labor. I guess a desk wasn't where I wanted to be, I wanted to be physically there to help others in the end."

Ryu nods and slaps Seth on the back, making him grunt from the hit, "I get you! Same with me and my son! He is in another team right now, but he seems to enjoy helping me out here while his brother is living it up in the city with his plushy office job as a civil rights aid, but he is honest work. And well paid as he sends money back every month to help us out. I just wish we could see him more."

Seth nods as someone yells out for them to get back to work as the break was over. Seth and Ryu look to each other and nod as they get back to it. Soon everyone makes astonishing progress against the debris. And by the end of the day a solid 3/4 of the acre they are working on is cleared. A cheer goes up as many people thank Seth for his work as the cart man, and with his constant focus on the rocks, so that they could focus on the trees.

Seth was walking back with his group of workers while chatting up Ryu when a loud crash and a scream of pain was heard.

They all rushed to see what the commotion was about and saw a shocking sight. A large tree that was nearby had toppled over from the removal of a large boulder and had three workers trapped underneath it. The ground was sinking under it as it was soft upturned soil after all the rocks and debris was removed. The tree was slowly sinking in and threatening to drag the men under with it and drown them in the dirt.

Seth raced down with the others but Ryu was faster than even Seth as he yelled out, "SON!!" Under one section of the tree, one of the three men trapped reached out desperately towards Ryu, a late teen who reached up and gasped despite the dirt threatening to fill his lungs, "Dad! HELP!! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

Ryu came next to his son and grabbed his hand as the rest of the team came by and began to try and help lift the tree. The other two men were screaming for help as others tried grabbing them and pulling.

Ryu joined in as he son was trying to avoid drowning in the dirt as the tree slowed its sinking speed to a crawl. But the fact remained that the dirt was still sinking inwards. Dragging the tree and the trapped men in.

Seth was helping and managed to help with getting one of the men pulled out farther so he only had his legs trapped. But it wasn't good enough.

His mind rushed as he looked around trying to find a solution, he wasn't strong enough to make a big difference in lifting the tree despite his training so far. He knew he had to do something other than try to console the trapped men. He looked at the tool cart nearby. Then saw it, someone had brought a machete for branches.

He rushed over and grabbed it. Unsheathing it and bringing it down on the section of tree right near where Ryu's son is. Ryu yelped as the blade bit into the tree by a solid 4 inches deep. Then was withdrawn and cut in deeper. He saw Seth with total focus on cutting through. So he didn't say anything. As the blade got swung around Seth got faster. he focused so hard that soon the blade was a blur as it fell and rose over and over again in a nonstop pattern of death.

Soon enough on the 50th swing where his hands were getting numb an dbegan to get raw skin, Seth heard and saw the result of his mad swings. The tree broke over Ryu's son. The men quickly pulled him up as Seth rushed to the next man who had someone sawing him out, but Seth pushed the saw wielder to the side and hacked the rest of the way more quickly than the saw.

Soon all three men were out after Seth hacked away at each area of the tree they had been trapped under. The men all gave praise to a panting and gasping Seth as sweat poured over him from his swinging rampage.

He grinned as they all got him and the trapped men to the truck to rest up from the event. The ride back was uneventful but a tearful Ryu was thanking Seth over and over even until Seth fell asleep from the exhaustion of the rescue hit him. But he grinned as more good came out of this than he thought.

His stats had exploded from everything going on and his skills reflected that too. Its always nice to know your good deed didn't just save lives, but ensured that you can do it again in the future.

Seth Silverfang

STR: 3.50 ->4.43

REF: 3.30 -> 4.21

STA: 3.00 ->4.55

END: 3.40 -> 4.40

MANA: 0.40 -> 0.50

SKILLS:

Combat:

Katana Mastery: lvl 11 Beginner exp: 3%

gain +11% to damage done with katanas

Support:

Stat growth booster: lvl Max

Double stat growth rate from training

Low Tiered Recovery: lvl Max

Triple recovery rate from injuries and exhaustion

Seth fell into a nice napping state while enjoying the lives he saved and the fruits of all the training he endured today.