Chereads / Pickaxe and Table / Chapter 10 - A year later

Chapter 10 - A year later

"hmmm it appears that I have peaked"

John was flexing his body outside his home, doing body building poses and acting like he was a Joestar. It was already about a year since John arrived in this unknown world and he had changed a lot since then.

His body was a slender piece of muscled artwork, he was still thin but no one would look at him and call him boney. Muscular proportions were symmetrical and his complexion tanned like golden olives. He wasn't overly muscular since he could still scratch the center of his back he was flexible as well. With that kind of body,not even John escaped the grasps of narcicissm. John's small muscles were not just for show, he had the the sterngth of a proffesional strongman all over his body. This meant that he could carry and run with over 200 kgs strapped on his body. Not only was he strong, his speed was nothing to be scoffed at. His maximum running speed was 12 meters/second, 2 seconds faster than his former world's fastest man.

But the changes in one year wasn't limited to John's body. His original Cobble and dirt home was converted to a 50 sqm. polished two stories high stone tower with tinted glass windows and stone tiled roof. John mastered sculpting within a month and had he craved patterns outside the tower walls, carvings of him fighting dragons and giant monstrosities. It was just for art but anyone seeing these carvings would be in awe of the person in the carvings. The tower entrance was a vertical square with a concave top, framed with polished stone at the sides. The interior part of the the walls were lined with stone bricks and on four corners of the circular tower were pedestals of which stone gragoyles rested, watching the center of the room.

The tower floor was similarly made of stone but was carved in elaborate patterns of spirals. Deep grooves spread accross the floor twisting and splitting before they reached a series of steps leading to a throne. The stairs that led to the throne was riddled in words going in multiple directions. It was a biography of John's life before he was sent to this world, written just in case he forgot.

The stone throne was large enough for three people to sit on. Just like everything in the tower it was sculpted in stone but resembled the iron throne(from GOT). The backrest had a depression where John could relax on and it was designed to look like a conglomeration of multiple swords. John however placed a giant stone sculpture of a pickaxe in the center that completed the aesthetic of the back rest. The armrest had a head of a tiger on one side and a wolf on the other, both rearing their fangs as if roaring. Under the animal heads were skeleton carvings that were kneeling and raising their hands over their skulls as if burdened by the weight they carried. It was a throne fit for rulers or John, who just felt like it.

Of course all the elaborate designs and sculptures of John would be rendered useless if they couldn't be seen.To give light to the masterpiece, John placed a Giant hole in the wall behind the throne and covered it in red tinted glass. There was also a green tinted window at the center of the roof. Light would pass through the tinted glass casting shadows insides of the tower producing ominous vibes.

John would occasionally sit on his throne spouting phrases like,

"It is I... lord buthole kekeke"

"bow before me mortals!"

"the princess has long been dead brave knight! your journey was for naught!"

"No lucas, I am your father!"

*jumps to the bottom of the stairs*

"NOOO~!"

needless to say, John made full use of his vocabulary during the lonely nights in the tower.

John was currently standing proudly naked standing above a wall of sandstone. The sandstone wall encircled a radius around his tower, a small defence should he get invaded. He once tried to leave the island but when he reached the black mist he would always circle back to where he entered. He realized that it was currently impossible to leave the island. He only resorted to bolstering his defences.

Now the question one may ask, "Why was John's tower empty? shouldn't their be more stuff inside since he spent a whole year in the island?" or maybe even "why is John naked?"

First let us answer the last question, John was naked because he was used to it. Living in a place where no one could see him also contributed to it, and it was also his way of feeling free within the confinement of the mist. But all these would stop today.

You see, about a month ago poor John was trying to mine for iron but failed and almost buried himself. In his anger he started spouting curses and indignation against the world. The key point here was when he uttered the words

"...cking hell! why can't I mine! am I not in the overworld!.."

when the word overworld was uttered something clicked inside of John. Just like the time he discovered rapid eating, John felt his instincts direct his actions. He opened his mouth and said....

Anyway, back to the current time. John placed everything in his inventory, two sets of modified stone tools and stacks of building materials just in case he needed them. He then wore the clothes he used to wear when he awoke to this island, A white shirt, black underwear and grey sweatpants. John equiped his modified stone armor. The current stone armor provided protection for his chest and head, and it was enough for now.

John definitely needed whatever he could use where he was going. He looked back at the Dark greyish tower covered in some moss. The moss failed to cover his carvings of his imaginary battles with monsters. Next, he looked at the sandstone wall he painstakingly built. The last thing he looked at was a dirt mound, his first home.

To be perfectly honest, John was happy to be brought to this world. Everything was new and fresh. The sun was bright but not hot, the wind was strong but not freezing. Even the fish he ate came in different forms and-

"holy shit! the fish!" John's eyes widened as he remembered something important.

John jumped from the wall and ran to the fishtraps. He was too late, a war was already happening at the traps he didn't destroy. Sparks of electricity and small explosions occured in the small area. This was one of the reasons why John wanted to leave. The animals were mystical. At first he thought the electric fish was just like electric eels from earth but he was wrong. Many species of fish could use electric impulses and some could control small rocks while others created tiny underwater explosions.

John feared the existence of humans who managed to survive animals who studied in hogwarts, perhaps they too had powers.

The plan to relocate was hastened as soon as John made the assumption. Luckily he was ready to go. Moving away from the water battlefield, John took a deepbreath and said in a tone deeper than his already deep voice,

"Generate seed"

A transparent square appeared in front of John, in the center was a small white cube that slowly grew in size pixel by pixel until it filled the square. Suddenly a bright explosion occured infront of John that covered him making him squint his eyes under the stone helmet.

A few seconds later John dissapeared from the island leaving a lonesome grey stone tower that didn't know when its owner would return.

______________________________________________

Atop a tree was a monke- no, John who was merely adopting the strategy of a supreme creature. The last time he came to this place he was swarmed by a flock of chickens one meter tall. John attacked a lonesome chicken because he had bot tasted one in days. He did not expect the chicken to survive a blow on the neck and call allies to gang up on him and peck him to death.

hmmm? Where was John you ask? You may have guessed it already but he was currently in the overworld. The starting world in the game. A place filled with resources, beautiful biomes and monsters. The first time John arrived in the biome he immediately started hitting a tree with his stone axe. He didn't know if his axe was weak or the tree was strong but it gave something enough time to hit him in the head and kill him.

Apparently dying in the overworld transported him back to the last place he was in the island and he could do this multiple times. He didn't know what killed him but he suspected it was skeleton archer since they dealt the most damage in the game.

The second time he was more careful but he mistakenly got close to a pair of cows when he was trying to get his bearings. The cows were huge and filled with muscles brimming with power. John was decimated within seconds despite his strongman strength and it took him a few days to shrug of the feeling of getting crushed in the skull. The third time was his longest time spent on the overworld, it was his fault that he underestimated the power of chickens.

He was now on his fourth try, prepared and cautious. This overworld was abnormally strong, the supposed to be easy to kill animals were now buff and could kill him in seconds, one could only imagine how strong the monsters were. John's plan was to stay in above trees and collect wood after that would he descend down and dig a hole to sleep in. He noticed how realistic the world was but game physics applied, he was standing on a leafy branch and the branch held his weight despite it being only 2 inches thick.

Hitting the tree he was on was an ardous task. The ethereal cracks he would see when harvesting a material were riddiculously small on the surface he was targeting. Perhaps materials and tools were weaker in the island than those that were on the overworld. The tree he was perching on was a meter thick and 15 meters tall. If it wasn't for the cracks, John would have thought he wasn't doing any damage. With perseverance and 4 minutes of repeated hits on the tree trunk , John saw a cubic outline appear on the part he hit before a wood popping sound echoed. The wood was absorbed in his body. The top part of the tree he cut from stayed suspended in the air, a feature he half expected to happen. From the meter length and radius wood he made a wooden axe.

The wooden axe he made felt heavier and sturdier than the stone axe he made in the island. The harvesting of wood went faster than before and John collected 4 blocks of meter² wood. He was ecstatic and made a shovel for digging, he left the island at noon and time in the overworld was parallel to the time in the island. Night was approaching and it was time to execute plan "dig a tunnel". Surveying the landing area and it's vicinity, John found hostile creatures nearby so he jumped down,

The fall felt.... shorter than expected as John fell quicker than normal. His knees and ankles also slightly felt uncomfortable during touchdown. It was clearly a sign that John became heavier, but the only changes he after climbing was collect wood.

A Lightbulb lit up in John's head. He dug down a few meters away from the tree since roots existed in this overworld. Since the ground was being affected by ingame physics it didn't collapse. after clearing out a diagonal path to 2 meters below the surface, John went in and covered the entrance while leaving a small hole for air to come in. John placed a furnace down for light and looked at the wall of dirt. He wanted to confirm his Theory.

Using his shovel he broke of square holes a meter in width and length while focusing on his body. After completely digging out a 4x4x2 meter room, John was sweating buckets. Apparently anything he collected in the overworld and placed in his inventory had their weight affecting his body. Assuming that 1meter² of dirt weighed 15 kg, John was currently carrying 480 kg of weight on his body not including the wood he harvested and the dirt he got from making the pathway.

Was John angry or dissapointed at his current state? of course not! This feature offered a lot of possibilities. John hadn't reached the limits of his strength, he was strong but the overworld offered a new training method for him.

The item's weight was spread across his body, even lifting his hand was difficult. This meant that his body was in a constant state of flexion just from standing and movement would destroy his muscle fibers from eccentric and concentric movements. He would be working out every muscle and bone at a speed none has ever experienced. With the correct nutrition and progressive overload John would become the true definition of "built different".

The journey of John's supraphysiological body had suddenly become longer. He was fantasising about the strength he would have to carry 64 stacks of materials in his inventory slot. John did a quick calculation in his head. If 1 slot in his inventory could contain a stack of 64 similar materials and he had 27 slots, with the material being dirt the theoretical weight he could carry was 25,920 kg!

A whopping 25 tons of weight! that was within the weight of giant trucks and that wasn't the limit. what if he had gold blocks instead, how many tons would that be?

John snapped himself out of his meathead dreams, those goals were to far in the future. He was already struggling to carry 480 kg, he dropped half of the dirt to the sides of the room and started doing body weight excercises like squats and push-ups. He could only do one rep each before he broke down and his hunger bar was depleting rapidly. Luckily he had 3 stacks of different fish species in his inventory that he could eat. For a few hours John would repeat the routine of work, eat and work, maybe drink as well. He could sleep but sleep was for when he was mentally tired and right now, he was high on testosterone.