I started the exercise in the same way that the dark figure did. I shoved one hand in and then out, followed by the 2nd hand. I didn't think much of it before I noticed what was happening to my skin, after couple of shoves.
My hands became very red but not because of heat. It was due to friction. I didn't know what type of thing was inside the basin but not only was it sharp, it also kind of stuck to my hands. Not in a gluey sense, where I would pull out my hand and there would be some of that gravel stuck to my hands. No, it only stuck to me when I tried to shove my hand in and out, it wasn't sticky otherwise.
After about 10 minutes of this exercise, I had to stop. My hands were already bleeding and although this might've been a dream, I still felt pain. I rested for a while but my hands didn't get any better. I gritted my teeth and though 'I'll do it till my hands fall off in that case!".
I shoved my hands into the basin for another 10 minutes. My hands already lacked skin, The pain was unbearable so I stopped. I decided it would be less painful to die than continue with those kind of injuries. I did just that. I went over to the dark figure and tried to kick it. The dark figure stopped whatever it was doing and avoided my kick. The dark figure then punched me and I died, as simple as that. When I woke up, I noticed that I'm still in the dream. I was quite happy about that, this gave me more opportunities to try more exercises.
My hands were also healed and there were no signs of any injuries. That was why I prefered to die, instead of continuing on with that agonising pain. I waited for the dark figure to start the next exercise. I didn't have to wait long, the dark figure finished quite soon. The next exercise started and I had to think about starting it as well.
Soon, a field of what looked like wooden poles rose from the ground in front of me. I thought 'This should be easier than the previous exercise. Right?'. I did the same thing that the dark figure did and kicked at the 1st pole using more than half of my strength.
"Boom!...Creak!...OOOOOOOWWW!"
"What sort of bulshit is this! This is no wood, this thing is like metal!" I exclaimed painfully. My leg was not broken but it creaked in a way that it shouldn't. I kicked wood before, to be precise a whole tree and compared to that pole? Wood was as soft as butter. 'I can't go around kicking that pole like this. If my guess is correct, this is the same type of exercise as the 2nd one. Both train stuff like bones or resilience' I thought.
I used my other leg to kick it with much less power this time. "Thud!" I felt some discomfort in my leg but it was nothing compared to the 1st try. I started kicking that pole as if possessed. 'I need to get used to a certain level of sturdiness, then I can increase my power. This thing actually broke over 50 of them, no wonder I die with one hit from that dark figure' I thought.
I kicked and kicked and kicked, until the pole in front of me disappeared. 'So this is the end of that exercise. Now the last exercise, something I've been waiting for!' I thought and prepared for the 4th exercise. I sat down just like the dark figure and thought about starting the last exercise.
Shapes and objects of different origins started to pop up around me. I focused and tried to memorise all of them. I was doing quite well, until more and more objects started to arrive. Finally, the objects started to change positions. I was totally lost at that point but before I started that exercise, I had a plan. I decided to train this progressively. I memorised about 10 objects out of all visible objects and only tracked their movement. I got lost later and was only able to keep track of 2 objects. I had to start somewhere and it seemed that 2 was my current limit. With time, I would get used to that exercise and the number would increase. I wasn't worried about the weak results.
After that exercise, the cycle started again from the beginning. I tried to find the glass path which was random and my previous progress didn't matter. Then shoved my hands into the basin until they bleed. I did the 3rd exercise the same way, kicking at one pole to increase my resilience and then tried to remember as much as I could in the last exercise. Coincidentally, it was also random and not repeating at all.
I was so engrossed in my exercises, I forgot where I was. I immediately received a clue when I woke up in the morning. I was starving again and could barely move. Although I could die as many times as I wanted in that dream, there were some limitations. Any type of exercise I did or suffered fatal injury, those things consumed my energy. That was the reason why I was always hungry, when I woke up.
I ate something as quickly as I could. I was fortunate enough to have some food stored precisely for those kind of situations. I knew I overdid it in my dream. Next time, I had to take it easy. 'My body needs to adjust to that first, just like in the past. I have to take regular breaks and allow for my body to adapt' I thought.
All the food was gone but I was still hungry. I decided to go hunting right after I trained the diagrams from the Strength Manual. I was surprised that my times got slightly better. Although not much, an increase was always welcome. After my morning training, I went deeper into the forest in order to hunt.
I had to search for a while, it was quiet as usual. After about 40 minutes of searching, I finally found a group of bears. This was a small group of about 6 bears. What shocked me, was the Black Bear amongst the group. 'I think this is 1st time, that I see a variant here. Good, I wanted to test my strength anyway. I wonder if the Black Bear will be able to take my punch!' I thought full of excitement.
I didn't try to conceal my presence and simply walked forwards. The bears noticed me no problem and started running at me. This was their doom. Even if they tried to run, I would still catch up. I ran at a slow pace and didn't release my aura this time. The Black Bear was at the front, I extended my arm and punched with about 70-80% of my strength. I couldn't control it that well yet.
"Booom!"
The same thing happened. The Black Bear's head exploded due to my punch. I was kind of expecting that, I was also expecting the reactions of other bears. Besides fear, they also tried to run away but I quickly caught up and shattered their dreams of freedom. With the meat in my bag, I walked back to my camp.