Chapter 132: Gurney Fizzlebottom
"I-I can’t run anymore..." Paul gasped before collapsing onto the ground.
After the initial five laps, Bromwen had witnessed the seemingly endless stamina of Caelum and Bonjour.
Feeling slightly irritated by their enthusiasm, he promptly assigned the rest of the class an additional fifty laps.
The result, most students collapsed before even reaching the halfway mark.
Some were lying on the ground gasping for air, while a few had even started crying from the sheer brutality of the training.
Yet amidst the exhausted crowd...
A certain hidden gem unexpectedly emerged.
A rather chubby student continued running despite his trembling legs.
His breathing was ragged, his face had turned completely red, and sweat poured from his body like rain.
Even so, he refused to stop.
It was as though countless horrors from endless worlds were chasing him, ready to devour him the moment he slowed down.
"Hu... Hu..."
Suddenly, a strange warmth spread throughout his body.
His speed unexpectedly increased for a brief moment before all his strength left him at once.
Thud!
He collapsed flat onto the ground, staring blankly at the sky.
"Hu... hu..."
Bromwen immediately walked over as a broad smile appeared on his stern face.
"Your name is Gurney Fizzlebottom, right?"
The exhausted boy could only nod weakly.
"Not bad! You actually awakened your Aura Seed this early."
The surrounding students stared at him with wide eyes.
An Aura Seed!
That was the first step for anyone walking the path of a warrior.
It marked the moment one’s Aura truly awakened within their body.
’If I remember correctly he’s from a simple commoner family.’ Caelum glanced at Gurney while continuing his run.
Bonjour, who had also heard Bromwen’s words, silently increased his pace.
Gurney Fizzlebottom was a rather unique existence within their class.
At first glance, his appearance made him look like the stereotypical rich and spoiled fat kid.
Ironically, he actually came from an ordinary commoner household.
Seeing everyone’s expressions, Bromwen raised his voice.
"Take this as motivation! If he can awaken his Aura Seed, so can the rest of you!" he paused before amplifying his voice with Aura.
"And even if you plan on becoming mages, improve your stamina! Otherwise, one day an assassin will quietly sneak behind you before you even notice!"
His harsh words immediately reignited everyone’s determination.
Many students had yet to officially embark on the path of either a mage or a warrior.
Watching one of their own classmate reach such an important milestone in life, naturally filled them with motivation.
"Congratulations!"
"Well done, Gurney!"
"Hmph! Congratulations, Gurney Fizzlebottom... but you’re still one step behind me!"
Some sincerely congratulated him while others couldn’t resist showing off while running past him.
Meanwhile, Gurney simply lay on the ground, staring at the sky with an indescribable expression.
Caelum slowed slightly as he passed by.
"Congratulations."
He offered a small smile before continuing forward.
At their age that was enough for Caelum to consider Gurney a friend.
Soon, sweat and tears covered the training ground.
After everyone somehow completed the initial training or survived trying, they slowly gathered back into lines.
The next phase of their physical training was about to begin.
***
"I guess your bodies have warmed up enough now!" Bromwen shouted as he reached into his pocket and took out a magic artifact.
It looked like an ordinary black crystal sphere.
The students curiously watched him.
"Now we move on to stretching exercises!" Bromwen announced proudly.
"A true warrior cannot spend his entire life with a stiff body! Flexibility is just as important as strength and of course..." A grin spread across his face.
"These won’t be ordinary stretching exercises."
As he spoke, he activated the black crystal.
A massive magic circle spread beneath everyone’s feet, its intricate runes lighting up one after another.
The surroundings blurred and the training grounds disappeared.
The next moment, the students found themselves standing inside a strange jungle.
Towering trees surrounded them, but what made them truly peculiar were the large human-shaped hollows carved into their trunks.
Each hollow depicted a different posture and some folded into poses that looked impossible for a human body.
Bromwen spread his arms proudly.
"These are Flexibility Trees!"
"The hollows will automatically guide your posture and even help correct your movements however..." His smile became particularly evil.
"If you repeatedly fail to maintain the correct posture, the gravity acting on your body will continuously increase and the longer you struggle, the heavier you’ll become until simply holding the pose becomes a challenge."
Many students immediately swallowed nervously.
"And this revolutionary training method was personally perfected by me!" Bromwen added with obvious pride.
To demonstrate, he casually rotated his neck.
His head continued turning until it rotated almost a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
"Kyaaaaa!"
Several girls screamed in fright and even quite a few boys instinctively stepped backward.
"B-But sir... your neck!"
One student pointed at him with trembling fingers.
Bromwen casually twisted it back as though nothing had happened.
"Quiet!"
His booming voice silenced everyone instantly.
"This exercise is specifically designed to give the human body flexibility comparable to cats and slimes. Someday, that flexibility might save your life in battle."
He pointed toward the countless trees surrounding them.
"Now stop standing around! Find the nearest posture and fit yourselves into it!"
The students exchanged uneasy glances.
For some reason, none of those poses looked remotely human.
The first to try and test them was the courageous Paul (?) who was encouraged by his friends to fit into those flexibility trees.
"Come on Paul! You can do it!"
"Yeah bro!"
"Can you all stop pressuring Paul?" Loreal added from the side but none listened to her, making her somewhat angry.
Anastasia simply told her to ignore them.
Paul’s glasses flashed with an unknown determination, but it cooled off just as quickly as a kid’s resolve after spotting chocolate or rather misery.
"Ahhhh! Noo! Mommy!" Gurney Fizzlebottom yelled, as he was positioned in a weird posture that made his whole body ache.
Apparently, awakening his Aura Seed had inflated Gurney’s confidence just enough for him to make a bad decision.
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