||Adam's POV||
"Good! Now Squats!"
Miss Estrid yelled at me after I did 10 pushups. It's quite hard do it with just one arm, but I can manage.
"Miss Estrid, I think I'm sick. My body feels heavy!" I complained, still dizzy from those 10 push-ups.
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you. This dimension is called Jotunheim, and the gravity of this place varies by altitude. As you get closer to the ground here, the gravity gets stronger, which is why there's a lot of flying creatures in this dimension. We have millions of layers of clouds before you reach the very bottom and at the very top (not that there's any 'very top') are floating islands. We descended just a little bit from this mountain (which is close to the 'very top'), so the gravity here should be at least 2x stronger than the gravity in Midgard-"
That makes sense! So that's why I couldn't move in that cliff last time! (Still have no clue what Midgard is though.)
"-That's not how you do a squat. Do it again and properly this time! You still have 10 more reps to go and 2 more exercises!"
"WHAT!"
Miss Estrid hit me with a sharp glare that made me shiver.
"No complaints."
"Y-yes ma'am"
I'M SERIOUSLY GONNA DIE!
(Much later in Adam's room...)
I'm dead. I can't move my entire body. I'm so dead.
Why you ask?
We just did multiple different muscle exercises with 10 reps each. Combine that my heavy weight and the multiplied gravity, I'm just done.
{Tap~ Tap~ Tap~}
The sound of Miss Estrid's footsteps approached the room, triggering some sort of trauma from me. Who wouldn't get traumatized from all that hellish training?
What's more dreadful is that, we'll do this for five years?"
"Hello Adam." Miss Estrid greeted with her usual stoic face. "Are you done resting?"
"Not yet ma'am. Can I get an extension-"
"No. Let's go now. We have no time-" she interrupts.
"But-"
{Glare~}
"No buts."
"... Yes."
She's so scary!
The hellish routine continues. Each week, she would descend gradually from the mountain and increase my reps. She also gave me weights and added more muscle exercises. My usual sleep of 8 hours shrink to 6 hours, to 4 hours, to 2 hours, to 30 minutes. I can feel my body aching from all over, hindering my sleep. What is this training?
(After a year- somewhere in the mountain-)
I've made decent progress. The huge cave looks pretty far from my perspective, directly implying that I'm pretty far below here. The kids who are meditating in distance look like mere pebbles to me. During the course of a year, I managed to descend up to 10 layers of clouds from this mountain. Seriously, how tall are these mountains?
All of my physical work-out made me lighter compared to normal. From a fat boy, I've turned into a muscly guy. Good thing I'm not too bulky because it would look weird.
Miss Estrid supervised me the entire time, and looks like she isn't just sleeping on me either. I'm glad that she puts this much work for me even though I know that she's also doing this for herself.
"Alright, that's enough." Miss Estrid shouted. I stopped from my push-ups and stood up to face her properly.
"Am I ready now?" I asked earnestly.
"Strip." She asked with a straight face.
{Awkward silence~}
"U-um, pardon?"
"Strip."
"What exactly do you mean by strip miss?"
"Take your clothes off. Now."
"O-okay..."
I quickly undressed myself of every clothing, leaving only my boxers. My buff body was laid bare in front of her, slightly trembling due to nervousness (and excitement). Honestly, what am I expecting here exactly? Am I this much of a degenerate?
"Hmm-"
She went closer to examine my body, ogling at specific parts of my body from front to back. Sometimes she would touch it, and my self-restraint would get weaker and weaker every time she would.
The most difficult part was her inspecting the lower part of my body and touching it. She would start from my heels and make her hand crawl all the way up to my torso, making me shiver due to an electric jolt that coursed through my veins.
After the longest 5 minutes of my life, she nodded her head and stood up to face me, still flustered because of her touch.
"Yep, you're ready. I know you went through all of this, but this is just the easy part. Adam, are you willing to go through this?" she asked.
"... Yes." I brushed all my weird feelings after hesitating for a little bit. I didn't spend that hellish year just to chicken out on the last minute.
"Good. You're a brave guy, I like you." she pats my shoulder.
"T-thanks Estrid." I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment (She told me that she prefers being called without honorifics). Goodbye naughty expectations.
We walked back inside of our cave and went further than usual. The path we were walking went darker and darker until I couldn't see anything. Good thing Miss Estrid was holding my hand the entire time, otherwise I would be lost already due to the multiple pathways inside this cave.
The ambiance of this cave kept me entertained while strolling. I could hear multiple animals sing and cry. There's drops of water everywhere, as if it's mildly raining. I could hear a loud waterfall getting louder and louder. It looks like there's a light at the end of the path getting brighter and brighter. Are we approaching it?
"We're here."
She said after we eventually stopped at a beautiful waterfall that seems to flow from the very peak of this mountain.
"This is where I train my Hugr and Havir. This place is good because it's somehow calming, and being calm is a start when practicing Hugr."
Now that she mentioned it, the ambiance of this place is indeed soothing.
"So what am I gonna do to awaken my Hugr?"
"Can you see that waterfall?" She points at the seemingly endless stream of water flowing from the very top of the mountain.
"You need to sit right at the very bottom where the waterfall meets the pond."
I sat at a convenient rock that happened to be where the waterfall meets the pond. The strong downpour of water could be felt hitting the top of my head and shoulders, as if it was massaging it. This indeed is soothing.
"Now close your eyes Adam. Clear your mind and concentrate."
"Wait, clear your mind? How the fuck do you do that?" my face crumpled in confusion.
"Either do that or we go home (I'll kill you later for swearing at me)."
"I-I'll try I guess."
I closed my eyes and tried to 'clear my mind'. I have no clue how to do that, but I guess I'll start by counting sheep until that's the only thing I could think of, and THEN break the numbers.
(In Adam's mind...)
"1 sheep, 2 sheep, 3 sheep..."
(After a while...)
"24 sheep..."
Wait. This actually works! This feeling, it's... weird.
"Do you see anything?"
"No, I don't (My eyes are close for fuck's sake). But I also feel anything and I could only hear your voice."
"I'm speaking to your mind directly via Havir (I heard you say that little shit). Don't worry, that condition is the requirement. Now, for the hard part... This is gonna hurt a little-"
"!!!"
My body is aching! What is this!
"I'm injecting Hugr into your body to strengthen it (I did it to you when you were training too). This is for sustaining the damage your body will receive. Now the process of obtaining it is completely up to you. I'm gonna ask you again, do you see anything now?"
"I told you there's nothing because my eyes are..."
{Shine~}
A light showed up out of the pitch black.
"There's a light."
"Do you see anything else?"
"There's a light... and there's people in it. They're... familiar."
"Those are your memories Adam."
"Most of them are blurred, but there's a few that's clear. There's one that stands out because it isn't blurred. Is that me?"
"Unblur your memories Adam. Unlock them."
"H-how?"
"Go there. Explore yourself. The more you know about yourself, the stronger your spirit will be, and so is your willpower."
I charged blindly into the blurred image that's right in front of me and found myself sucked in. Moments later, I opened my eyes and saw a small little village in the middle of an open field filled with grass and some trees.
"This is my home... Are you seeing this Estrid? Estrid?"
She didn't reply.
"Hey '???'!" a familiar voice called. She has a cheerful smile with freckles on her face like Raf. She has a third eye located on her forehead. That's right, she's a triclops. Can't she say my name right?
"What are you spacing out there for? Let's hide before Ryu finds us!"
She forcefully grabbed my little hands and ran away. Looks like this is a childhood memory. I'm still confused about everything else.
"Here! Let's hide here!" she shouts at me after going at a huge apple tree (We're not exactly hiding ourselves with that large mouth of yours right?)
I followed her into the tree. She cuddled with me while giggling a little, peeking behind the huge tree.
"He's never gonna find us!" She laughs. It feels pleasant to see her laugh.
"Wait, why are you crying?" She asked me with a concerned tone.
"Come on, don't cry! He'll never find us here! You're such a crybaby."
"Never gonna find you huh." A young boy dropped from the top of the tree and in front of us. The girl with me shrieked and hugged me tighter. I can't breathe, what a strong girl!
"Look at you lovebirds. You're making me jealous!" the boy smirked at the two of us. The girl's cheeks flushed and threw me away. Is she fucking bipolar?
"How did you find us!" she asked with a frown.
"Even if I closed all three of my eyes, I would still find you because that's just how bad you are Sayaka."
"What did you say to me?"
"You heard me you rat!"
The two of them got into an argument. So these two are my friends, Ryu and Sayaka. They look so great together. A deep sense of nostalgia is filling me.
"Hey you guys! Stop fighting!" A tall man with a deep, raspy voice called out. The moment I saw him, tears fell down from my eyes.
"Eeek!"
"Eeek!"
Ryu and Sayaka shrieks in unison before hiding behind me.
"Your father is so scary '???'!" Sayaka said while shivering.
"Yeah, go deal with him!" Ryu followed.
Oh... That's right. He's my father! I miss him so much!
"Why are you crying '???'? Did you guys bully him!"
"No we weren't! He was crying because of YOU!" Ryu pointed at him.
"Yeah you're too scary! Go away!" Sayaka gestures him to go away.
"Huh!" He blurts out an angry grunt.
"Eek!"
"Eek!"
Ryu and Sayaka hides behind me again.
"Seriously, I don't know what to do with you kids. Let's go '???'. Your mom is waiting for you."
Wait... I'm gonna meet my mom?