Chapter 433: The Gathering
"My training?" Jill asked, thinking about when she ran behind Laz in the van.
"Oh. Right. The running thing. Well... you will run. Actually, we both will. But that wasn’t so much about training your body as it was to train your mind. But now it’s about your body." Laz said, handing her a bag.
"How does that help me? I mean... I have abilities right? Can’t I just use those?" Jill said, thinking back to when she took out those two perverts. With the strength she was able to use then, she was stronger than even those full grown men, or so she thought.
"You’re thinking about your fight?" Laz said, pulling out a pop up tent and letting it do its thing before staking it down.
"Yes."
"You’re not stronger than those guys. They just took you too lightly and underestimated you. In truth, in a contest of strength, they would have been stronger."
"I don’t..."
"You don’t see how strong you can actually be? Thinking that if your energy got stronger, your abilities would be stronger and so on and so forth. So why focus on your body when you can just kill more chosen and get stronger that way?" Laz said, sounding like he had read her mind.
Jill was startled at how much his words reflected her thoughts.
"There are two reasons to work on your strength. Number one, the stronger the container, the more it can hold. Right now, your container is about average for you level and realm. Average is nice, but only nice. If you want to keep growing, then you need a stronger vessel to hold that power."
"Ok," Jill responded since what Laz said made sense.
"And number two... how strong do you think I am?" Laz asked with a smile.
"Uh...." Jill didn’t answer right away. She had seen Laz without a shirt thanks to his showering the other night and knew his body was tight and toned, something that even gave her pause for a moment despite her extreme dislike for males. But even then, Laz wasn’t huge like a body builder and he wasn’t too tall either.
"Ok. Better question. Do you think I am stronger or him?" Laz said, pointing out a guy who was showing off by lifting two women by balancing them on one massive hand each. The guy was built like a tank, huge and solid. He looked to be almost 6’5" tall and his arms looked as big around as Laz’s head.
"Uh... him... for sure." Jill said, taking a look at the small giant.
"Hey. Buddy. You looking quite buff there!" Laz said, walking over without a care in the world to the guy who was obviously showing off to the group who had formed around him. In Laz’s mind, his strength was pretty good considering his level was around the late realm of condensing. If he was able to make the leap, his strength would sky rocket once he set foot in the foundation realm.
Of course that was a big if as Laz could sense his base wasn’t particularly solid.
Seeing Laz act this way, Jill had a bad feeling and wanted to run over and drag Laz back before he got the attention of everyone, but it was too late.
Seeing Laz approach him, the big man set the two woman down who laughed and went back to their seats.
"That’s right. It’s part of my bloodline, this godly strength," the man said, thinking Laz was a fan.
Laz smiled at his comment but didn’t say anything. In truth, even a regular human who worked out enough could do what that big, bald man had done. It didn’t mean much for sure, but then again, the woman he lifted weren’t just stick thin models either so there was something to be said about that.
"Nice. Well. I’m not just here to say how awesome you are. See... I’m traveling with my sister over there and after seeing your strength and making fun of her cooking, my sister told me that if I don’t try my best to beat you in a strength challenge, she was going to be in charge of the cooking for the rest of the trip..." Laz said with a sad sigh.
"Uh.. I don’t see..." The big, bald man was confused for several reasons. First off, it sounded like Laz wanted to challenge him. Second, what was wrong with his sister wanting to cook for him. And finally... why was this his problem? Did he need to fight every guy who came up to him cause of a sibling fight?
"I know what your thinking brother. But please? I mean... who do you know that would want to eat instant ramen and boiled hotdogs for several days straight...." Laz said, his voice trailing off.
"That’s not...."
"Right? That’s not normal... So anyway. Thanks for helping me out. So like, I know lifting girls is fun and all, but I got to dial it back cause like... she’s my sister and all. Don’t need her ratting on me to the folks. Hey, would you look at that?" Laz said, pointing out an old, beat up and broken down tractor. The thing was rather massive and entirely made of metal, the kind of thing that one would see in a museum and not sitting in a farmers field left abandoned.
"Alright. So how about we start with this, ok? And after this we can move on to bench pressing cars? We’ll start with the smaller ones and work our way up. I see someone brought a yeetyeet truck so that can be like the grand finale? Sounds good? Ok, I’ll go first." Laz didn’t even let the big bald man speak and instead led the conversation on his own as was his plan. Laz knew the man couldn’t life the tractor, much less the truck. But Laz also knew that no one else here knew that and since he was just trying to prove a point to Jill, there was no reason to embarrass the guy.
Laz walked over and grabbing on to the side, left arm up on the hood and right arm under the engine block, Laz lifted the old, rusted tractor up over his head, held it in place for a few seconds and even gave it a once up and down before setting it back down in what would have been it’s final resting place.
"Whoo. That thing is heavier than it looks. Jeez," Laz commented, wiping the non existence sweat from his forehead. Laz then turned back and looked at the big man expectantly, only to find the man staring at him with his mouth open and his legs shaking.
The man was too scared to even move, causing Laz to sigh. He hadn’t expected the man would react too well, but when it came to saving his face, Laz had hopped he would at least be able to respond and come up with some sort of excuse in which Laz would readily take and return back to Jill.
Sadly though, the big, bald man didn’t even blink. Of course, neither did the audience, leaving Laz with a bit of a problem.
"Oh. I get it. This is way to under the level for you. Hey. It’s ok man. I get it and I thank you for not wanting to embarrass me in front of my sister. You’re a true gentleman," Laz said, reaching out and shaking the man’s hand which was pointing forward at him while also being frozen.
Laz then walked a few steps, turned and waved then turned around and continued walking back to where Jill was waiting, her mouth also hanging open.
"Be careful something doesn’t fly in there in take up residency," Laz said with a chuckle.
"How....?" Jill finally asked.
"That is what I’m going to show you."
...
"Red... Hey Red."
"Yeah boss?" Red said, turning his attention away from the massive tent they were setting up as both men turned their attention to Laz lifting the tractor.
"Holy shit..." Red said, barely able to find words.
"Could you do that?" the blonde haired man asked.
"He might be able to drag it but something that big and heavy? No way can he straight on lift it above himself," a girl said, her voice coming from the other side of the pickup they were driving.
"Hey.. did he actually lift that told piece of junk? Move your naked ass to the side girl and let me see," came another voice.
"He’s already walked away so there’s nothing to see," replied the first girl.
"Would you both finish pissing over there and come help us get this shit set up?" Yelled the blonde haired man as Red was struggling to keep the tent from collapsing.
"What realm do you think he’s in boss?" Red asked, throwing the tent poles aside in frustration.
"I don’t know. But with your girl’s ability, he could be a great help to us," the blonde haired man responded before sitting down and opening a beer.
Seeing this, Red did the same while almost feeling pity for the poor guy for getting the boss’s attention.
