Chapter 47: No Pain No Gains
Most of the healers and mages that were back from their missions decided to go with Kalli and work on their cardio at the very least.
They didn’t think that they were in bad shape for an average person, with hours on the stationary cycle and treadmill three times a week. But now that they were in an entirely different scenario, that level of "fitness" simply wasn’t going to cut it.
However, they weren’t sure that Kalli’s method was anything more than torture.
As soon as they arrived, she grabbed a set of exercise shorts and a school T-shirt from the supply shelves to change into, and was back out before most of the others had even stopped chatting.
Then, she took out her backpack from whatever hidden space she had for it, and loaded four plates from the weight rack into it, nearly equalling her weight.
Then, she headed for the stair climber.
Kalli stopped to grab a pair of five kilo dumbbells on her way over, and the other students watched in awe as she began slowly walking uphill on the machine.
’[I totally forgot that this body is in terrible shape.]’ Kalli realized after less than a minute on the machine, as she was beginning to sweat heavily already.
But she couldn’t just stop after one minute while everyone was still watching her.
{Activate daily training mission?} Y/N
{Quest issued} 60+ minutes of constant moderate to heavy physical exertion per day has a chance to increase physical attributes at an increased rate.
"Oh, gods no. An ENTIRE HOUR? This quest is too sadistic. Does it count the treadmill? I think I can jog for an hour," one of the boys complained.
"Suck it up, Buttercup. Put in that work, and you might be able to increase all your stats a little. Have you seen how powerful the warriors are? This System definitely isn’t working on the same physical limits as regular training," the tiny female mage next to him taunted.
"Maybe it can make you taller so you don’t have to cast spells from between my legs."
Kalli panted with exertion. "Run as you argue. Don’t waste time when there’s more work to do. We need an hour or more to even count."
Then she had to focus on just continuing to move.
Even on a setting that was barely a crawl, she was already struggling. But with every step, she could feel her body beginning to adapt.
It wasn’t a natural process at all, more like she was updating her physique to a template that the System found appropriate for an Awakened Human. Judging by the gym, nobody had been here since the first day of school, so there was a good chance that nobody had triggered the sort of gains you could get from a constant hour of heavy exertion.
Not that they weren’t working hard. But normally, you would take a break from heavy exertion much more often than that.
At some point, Kalli’s arms simply went numb, and she dropped the dumbbells.
They fell to the floor with a tremendous crash, but with the free weight racks, the treadmills and almost all the machines occupied, they hardly caught anyone’s attention.
Still, she kept her legs moving, and considered dropping her backpack as well.
But she wanted the stamina gains from carrying the extra weight. If the System was going to reward them, she was going to make the most of it. Soon enough, her vision was swimming, and she slipped the backpack off, dropping it into her [Storage Realm] as she continued to trudge up the stairs.
She didn’t remember much after that, just step, step, step.
But the notification from the System brought her back to something resembling consciousness.
{90 minutes of high to extreme exertion recorded. Maximum daily gains awarded.}
And she simply stopped.
The stair machine dumped her onto the ground, staring at the ceiling as she gasped for breath.
She was not alone. Most of the other students had been watching her march like a zombie, soaking through an exercise outfit without even switching machines.
The weight training group had realized that as long as they didn’t rest too long between sets, they were good. 30 second pauses instead of full minutes, and the System kept the count up on their continuous exercise timer.
So, you didn’t have to grind cardio, you just needed to punish your body.
And they had done that.
After a few minutes, Kalli took out a bottle of water from her storage realm, dumped some on her face and drank the rest, then got to her feet. She felt much lighter than before, as if she had lost ten kilos.
Which seemed possible as soaked as she was.
But every part of her body was sore as she returned the weights to the racks and hit the showers, which were a large communal room in the girl’s lockers with shower stalls that lacked doors.
She didn’t know why they had gone for that setup, when presumably everyone would want privacy to shower. Well, more privacy than the divider walls offered.
Still, it was better than the six shower heads around a common pillar she had seen in her past life’s high school years.
Those were a nightmare for every awkward teenager.
Once she was finished and changed back into her new clothes, Kalli headed for the student lounge on the main floor of the dorm building.
That was the easiest spot to find her, without having her sit out on the front lawn, and comfortable enough that if her muscles refused to let her move later, she wouldn’t mind sleeping in this padded leather chair.
It seemed to work for everyone else, as they all passed by her on their way to their rooms at the end of the day, either to shower or to get some sleep before dinner.
But word of the daily physical exertion bonus was spreading, and everyone was planning to find a way to boost their abilities.
They just wished that there was some sort of user manual that came with the System, as Kalli gaining one point of strength and one point of stamina for the day could either be outstanding or incredibly lacklustre, depending on what the points range was.
