"Yes, don't resist." Toivo informed sternly as he showed examples of the exercises in front of Asahi.
"In this challenge, you will do two-hundred of those same exercises called push ups. Not only that, you will then do two-hundred sit-ups, and finally five-hundred pull-ups. This will be your third and final challenge. The one to effectively boost and amplify for the final exam. It might take a few months, so..."
Asahi's gray eyes rounded in shock.
"Five months?! That's way too long."
The old blue-haired man crossed his arms and released a chuckle of glee.
"That's how you develop. It takes time. Everything that changes takes time. Now, get up into the stance. I want to see you perform before I leave."
After he heard, Asahi forced himself into one of the postures on the floor, enforced his position, and displayed himself with a bright smile.
"Like... this?"
Toivo knelt down and patted his back, confirming with a wide grin.
"Heh heh, yes. Also, one more thing, you don't have to do them all at once. Do one practice, individually… THEN you may progress. Understand what I have shown you?"
Asahi coughed nervously, pressed his hands against the red carpet, and slowly pushed his body down, replying.
"Yeah, I do. O… Okay."
Toivo took a deep sigh, stomped his foot on the floor, and shouted as he slammed the door.
"Also, you will not be able to leave this room UNTIL you have done at least one of those three exercises."
(SLAM)
"HUH?!"
As silence followed after he had heard the door slam shut, Asahi grasped onto his determination, followed the stances Tovio showed him, and began his long exercise.
Even though he endured a gauntlet of pain when it came to the zombies and the dummies, now Asahi realized he would be forced to do these drastic and repetitive stunts to boost him. At least it would be enough for him to grow stronger, physically.
As he started doing several push-ups automatically, Asahi questioned while his eyes focused on the door.
"What does this have to do with magic, or in all… training?"
* * * * * * *
Meanwhile, inside a vast library of several bookshelves, a crimson-haired maid and an adolescent girl had sat among a desk, studying and observing each and every letter within the tall, brown hard-back book.
Much like Asahi's daunting challenges, this education practice was just as hard for Chloe, mentally.
Throughout these three days, she had been studying and practicing in this library for several hours straight.
No breaks. Just studying.
Nonetheless, as that seemed rough, at least a payoff was given in the long-run.
"Alright, now read that paragraph."
"O… Okay. It says…" Her brown eyes trembled as she saw the strange symbols aligned in a stanza among the page. "It says…"
The crimson-haired maid snapped her fingers.
"Just speak. I know you can understand me."
Chloe nodded and gulped down a breath of anxiety.
She felt uneasy with the silence that had surrounded her from the nauseating green of the wood placed among this library, but still… she kept her anxiety at bay and revealed as she read the language carefully imprinted onto the book.
"It says, the brilliant blue bird flew into the pond and grabbed a stick. Is that what it says, Realma?"
The name that Chloe mentioned was directed to the short crimson-haired woman who wore round, circular glasses, and a fairly tight uniform. Her skin was clear as the sky, and her purple eyes were like the violet flowers that scintillated under the sunlight.
As judged from her relatively lenient posture, it could be seen from Realma that her intelligence had highly surpassed everyone in the mansion.
And yet, despite that teeming intelligence, the woman still chose to work here instead. After a long silence, she looked over to the otherworlder and replied as she heard the effort-filled grunts coming from outside the wall.
"Indeed. You're doing an excellent job, Chloe. For an otherworlder like you, you are blessed with a great mind for expanding so quickly."
A faint red, embarrassed blush emerged from the round face of the girl.
"T-Thank you."
* * * * * * *
Returning back to the room, Asahi was talking to Telos as he had accomplished fifty-seven push-ups in one fleeting moment.
"...that's all.... that I have experienced."
(HEAVE)
"Hah, to be honest... the zombies were the most painful challenge for me. I..." He exhaled heavily as he pushed his body down the floor. "I almost thought I was going to die. I'm grateful for what this man has done."
As he collapsed onto the floor and took a breather, Telos' voice shifted to an unforgiving pitch.
(I understand. I can't believe you forgot about everything. Now, switching topics, do you even remember what happened back in the mountain? You were supposed to go in training, not... go through whatever this is.)
A confused expression dawned on Asahi's sweaty face as he pressed his hands and moved his body up and down in a linear movement.
"Huh? You were watching me the entire time?!"
(Of course, what else am I supposed to do? Sit here, and do nothing?!)
"Well… I guess so. I completely forgot. Sorry."
Telos sighed deeply as he saw Asahi finally complete all one-hundred push-ups. While he watched, he pondered something.
(Why is it that you have visited here? Surely you must have gone with your group, right? So, I can't seem to understand why you're here right now.)
As Asahi felt the veins on his expanding muscles swell from his rushing "blood", he ran over to the pull-up bar among the wooden room, and wrapped his fingers over it. Adrenaline coursed through his heart as Kendra secretly watched him lift his body up and down the sturdy bar.
"So... attractive. No one in Destia could compete with such a beautiful, bright, unique shade of his hair."
Her brilliant blue eyes flashed with thirst, she bit her bottom lip, and her jaw dropped as she saw Asahi's rock-hard rack of abs glisten with the hard-earned sweat, sliding underneath his rock-solid skin.
All of his body, including his feet were already starting to grow and pulsate from the exercises. With the mixture of that and muscles, made the maid drown in amusement even more.
While she watched Asahi's body twitch and harden from the excessive exercise, Kendra hastily turned her head away and giggled, muttering.
"He's so… alluring."
. . .
Two full-days of pure workout and strain had elapsed.
Asahi's body was pushed to his absolute limit; going above and beyond what he was initially assigned. Instead of the hundreds of cycles he was ordered to do, he had done thousands of them.
The workout felt so inhumane for him, that no human would ever put-forth and do this.
"Almost… there."
His muscles were tense, firm, and wrapped in heat.
Layers upon layers of his skin were as solid as rock, bulging heavily and knotting among each flex.
His upper body was bulkier than he could have ever imagined; not to mention, he looked healthy because of the foods he ate before. Due to the leg-exercises, his height had increased and so had the shape of his chin, thus making him look even more manlier than before.
He looked so masculine to Kendra, that each hour she went into that room to check in on him, the more she felt the urge to approach. Not even Toivo could believe the progression, nor the determination that was omitted from the boy.
"H...How much has he been doing this? He looks jacked."
Kendra's face turned pink in anxiety, she fidgeted with her long blue hair, and she stammered.
"He's b-been doing this for two days now."
Toivo's eyes broadened in shock. He couldn't believe it, not even he could recollect his students working this hard. The man quickly erupted with confusion as he saw the white-haired figure pulsate and strengthen with each flex.
"TWO DAYS?! Are you serious? TWO WHOLE DAYS?! I told him to only do a hundred, not this!? This is physically impossible for a human. How is he…"
There were reasons why Asahi's body had developed so quickly.
One was that he wasn't human, but a god; a humanoid that matched the appearance of the primates. Everything, including the body of a god had been significantly amplified and increased, eclipsing the ability of humans.
That was the main reason why many gods have clear skin, beautiful eyes, strong, bulky builds, and all-around, perfect bodies. It's because of that amplification. Gods were like Humans, except way stronger and godlike.
Although they had varied proportions and characteristics, there was one thing that had been shared from Gods and Humans that never changed in this world.
The method of reproduction.
That was the SOLE reason why appearances such as gods were so attractive; it was because they had no other option to reproduce.
If they had found another way, they wouldn't have looked so attractive like all of the Adtraic Family.
All the gods wanted was to produce as many gods as they could, using the law-of-attraction to their utmost advantage so that it could eclipse the population of humanity.
Unfortunately, all of that went into waste as to what happened five-thousand years ago.
Now, few gods are left.
. . .
So when Asahi had blinded and forced himself to do several hours of non-stop exercises, he would never need to drink water as with the amplification of the race of gods, it wasn't needed.
But that never mattered, because as the day forwarded, so did the world.
Telos mumbled as Asahi continued to do more exercises.
(Seriously, I know you want to improve yourself and all, but I think you're forgetting why you have arrived here. I don't understand why you would choose to be separated from your sister after what happened before. I... Isn't there still a person on the loose, not to mention--
'Yeah yeah, I'm sure she's fine. Come on. Just let me do some."
Telos voice lifted loudly.
(YOU HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR TWO DAYS!)
"W-What? I can't hear you."
Suddenly, as Asahi continued to do a hundred-pull ups and felt his muscles ache, five loud knocks sounded behind the front door.
(KNOCK)
(KNOCK)
(KNOCK)
"Huh? Someone's at the door? At this hour?!"
Kendra fell into absolute disbelief as she continued staring at Asahi's body.
"Humph, why now? I…"
While he saw the blue-haired maid race to the door, Asahi paused his exercise and turned over, curious as to why Kendra stared at him like that.
"Huh? What are you doing?"
She replied with a nervous sweat that slid on her face.
"N... Nothing!"
To avoid revealing what she had done, Kendra quickly turned around and raced to the front door to see who it was that was knocking.
(CREAK)
With a soft push, Kendra pried it open, and as the rain and cold mist poured into the mansion, three people were seen standing and getting drenched from the storm.
"Greetings. Is it okay if you can let us in?"
A gray-haired boy, a petite brown-haired woman who had a spoon levitating on her mouth, and a brunette with vibrant lipstick on her mouth. Kendra bowed down and greeted as the three desperately tried to get inside.
"Welcome to the Toivo residence! My name is Kendra. If you all can be so kind, please enter."
The gray-haired boy, Canyon, nodded his head and gave a weak smile at her.
"Okay…"
As the front doors slammed shut, Tovio and a few maids raced down the stairs while they saw Asahi working out in the background. The man greeted as he bowed his head down at the guests.
"Greetings, welcome to my Residence. You may call me, Toivo. What brings you here today, and… what are your names?"
The three revealed their names to be Canyon, Joshilyn, and Brunella.
It seemed to Toivo that they didn't want to waste any time, so as they were led to the dining room, Joshiyln asked while she made a gesture of greeting.
"Have you seen a white-haired boy named Asahi? We've been looking for him EVERYWHERE for the last three to four days. He still has some training to do."
Toivo raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Well, HE has training to do here as well. Actually, he's almost done with it. He's a man now."
Canyon included while he squeezed the water off his thick hair.
"Yeah, yeah, okay. Stop joking around, old man. Have you found another girl named Chloe wandering in here too?"
As silence dawned upon him, Tovio scratched his chin and mumbled to himself as the three awaited for a response.
"Strange, so these three know the two? It's no wonder why they arrived here. Something could have happened."
Before he could reveal anything else, he tried to hide that Chloe was here as well; as he never wanted the group to disturb her learning.
"Yes, I saw a boy you have described come here. I don't remember seeing that girl you mentioned though."
Chloe wasn't who he wanted to disturb, but Asahi was. He was still struck with a wave of disbelief that the boy could still work out after two full days of excessive exercise. Toivo feared that if the young man were to do anymore of those exercises, his body would break.
As the rain continued to prod against the roof, Brunella asked as she fixed her long finer nails.
"Do you know where he is?"
He nodded his head and pointed to the direction of the second hallway.
"Of course, he's right this way. In the gym."
All the group's eyes broadened in shock.
"Gym?! You have a gym?! How wealthy are you?!"
"Very wealthy, ha ha. So wealthy, you can't even imagine."
. . .
Seconds passed, Toivo led the group across the sleek hallway, he fixed his hat, and turned over to the three. Curiosity started to bite him as they slid their feet across the neatly polished wooden floor.
"So, how did all three of you get here?" He asked with an curious tone.
After a second of silence, Canyon couldn't resist replying.
"We arrived here because of an accident revolving around Linuxinia Mountain. It was SO crazy! We were ambushed by this strange lady who wielded magical darkness powers and what not. It was strange actually."
Joshilyn provided a much more formal version of his response and waved her spoon around.
"Basically, we encountered a strange anomaly after we had tried to begin the Adventurer's Guild Challenge. Since then, all of us were separated and so we tried to search for everyone in the group for the last two days. Those monsters that suddenly appeared, gave us trouble, and I fear they may have followed us here."
Toivo nodded in understanding.
"Ah… that explains a lot. Don't worry, this mansion is safe."
Brunella commented.
"I hope you're right. Those mechanical creatures were painful to defend ourselves with."
. . .
As the group heard struggling grunts sound toward their right, Joshilyn continued as she placed the spoon back on her mouth.
"Yeah, It was a struggle for all of us to reunite, so that's why we arrived here. Also, thank you so much for letting us in. We were about to get sick from the cold rain outside."
Toivo smiled and chuckled willingly, happy that he had received at least some gratitude for his relatively "kind" acts.
"You're welcome. It was a pleasure working with that boy. Oh, yeah... I forgot." He scratched his head and informed me about who he was. "I usually allow visitors to enter the house because I'm a teacher and trainer for others. I want young adults to become powerful in magic, so... I devised a training process. Although I have experienced several years of training, Asahi is unlike any of the other students I have encountered before."
Canyon raised an eyebrow.
"R-Really? What do you mean by that?"
Toivo answered as Asahi's eyes widened, noticing who had arrived.
"Let's just say... he has a special determination lingering within his heart. One so strong, it eclipses all the stuff I saw before. I... I don't think he's even human."