Chris decided going forward, that he would complete the trial on his own with no help from anyone. All he had to do was not use any potions and take small but frequent breaks, he was sure it wouldn't be easy, but it was for the best. He had already picked up training the sword, and he would rather not put it back down so quickly.
He started off slow, he wanted to avoid swinging his sword around frantically, and tiring himself out, "it's not like there was a bonus for going hay wire on a dummy."
Likewise, he started of hitting the dummies shoulder every 5 seconds. He would hit it 10 times and rest for 5 seconds before proceeding. He did this for half an hour and his body got all sore. "
"If I continue at this rate, I would be done in about 14 hours," but his body already hurt like hell.
"Sigh. Damn it. I can't stop now, if I quit at this moment, my muscles will only get even more sore. I need to endure it. I know resting is the ideal thing to do, but I must endure. Sim is cheering me on."
He quickly got up after a minute and began swinging faster than before. He began to swing his sword ever 3 seconds, another motivation was the punishment. The unknown punishment he would have to suffer worried him greatly. If it were the system, he knew it would be a miracle if he came out alive, 'I might as well do my best to not get caught up in all that nonsense, damn it.'
He didn't want anything to stop him on his way to greatness, he swung the sword a few more times with a 5 second rest every minute, and kept at it for a good while.
Chris lasted another 30 minutes before collapsing. The pain that coursed through his body could be described as nothing but raw. He could feel every fibre of his muscles screaming from exhaustion.
His head was throbbing, and his heart felt like it would burst from the flow. He fell on the floor winded. If I continue this way I would be able to finish in 9 hours. "Good, let's keep going," he did a few more stretches, and quickly calmed his aching muscles before he continued.
He struck at the dummy. For every half an hour, Chris had a 5 minute break, he would drink some water and stretch, wipe of some sweat or use the bathroom. He continued this monotonous activity for quite some time.
Furthermore, he didn't bother to look at the ticking clock used by the system to keep time, because he felt, he would be discouraged.
"Damn it, I'm such a p****."
After a long time had passed, he finally did it.
{Congratulations, you have completed the challenge}
{You have swung your sword 10,000 times.}
{You have completed the challenge in record time}
{Due to proper management of your body and health, your swordsmanship is more stable}
{You avoided senseless swinging; depravity of the sword}
{You did not lose to despair}
{Clear time 9hr 45 minutes 23 secs}
{You have claimed the reward, body conscious}
{All stats are increased by 3}
{You have achieved Full growth potential}
{By not mindlessly rushing through the training and taking proper care of yourself, monitoring your state and pacing yourself constantly for optimal performance, a reward has been given.}
{You have allowed your muscles and body to grow evenly, and have reduced strain and damage to your body.}
{Congratulations}
{This is the smartest thing you've done!}
A warm feeling crept up Chris's heart.
Sniff.
His eyes watered, and he began to cry. "I did it. I didn't think it was possible, but I did it."
'Still, why does it feel like an insult?'
{Due to your self-paced swordsmanship, you have developed rhythm; a sense of timing, will you be able to go further?}
{Your endurance had increased by 1}
{You have received 50 gold}
"Ugh. it's giving me peanuts again."
◇◇◇
Chris lay in his bed staring at his window.
{Daily trial}
{Complete 10, 000 sword swings daily}
{Completed 400m run daily}
{Challenge rises as you improve}
"At least they weren't completely jackasses." Chris had finally put two and two together.
'If I perform more that required, will I get a reward,' but there could be a backlash on him, not to mention the daily requirement would raise higher.
'Nothing ventured, nothing gained,' he thought, this was the perfect game to test his theory?
He would do so when he was ready.
Chris looked at sim, she was fast asleep, by the time he was done sim was dying from boredom, she had finished the puzzle, the bone, and the food. She was just yawning, as soon as they came back, she leaped onto her bed and fell asleep.
"It's alright. I'll just get a harder puzzle next time," he had picked a simple puzzle because he didn't want her to suffer much, so he promised himself to buy her a harder puzzle to solve, not to mention,
Sim's intelligence increased by 1.
This was a good day. Chris was satisfied, it was still quite early to go to bed, but he was beat, he decided that the best course of action was to simply go to bed.
It didn't take long before his tiredness, along with the relaxing scent of hay, drove him into the sweet arms of sleep.
◇◇◇
Chris's father Mr Andrews was watering the plants at the back of his house, in the garden area, when Mimi came to visit. It was a garden his wife, his son; Chris, and him, had once taken care of, it held great importance to him.
She had helped him weed the garden, transplant the young saplings, and pick out some pests, they had also applied some fertilizer.
"When will you forget about my son? You should forget about him, your not getting any younger."
His question hit her like a bolt of lightning from the clear blue sky. "How many times do I have to tell you? He isn't good enough for you. Your wasted on rubbish like him. You should be investing your time in other things, than trying to find waste like him, He's probably up to no good somewhere else, he must have run away from you."
She didn't know what to do, she gritted her teeth in disbelief at what she had just heard. She thought, 'Was he not Chris's father? Isn't he concerned about Chris? What happened to him? Why was he doing this? Was it really because of that accident? Was that enough for him to turn Chris into a sinner?'
Ask as she might she could not find the answer.
The only reason she hung around him was because unlike the others who told her to move on, they did not believe that Chris was dead. He was the only one who believed he was alive,' Was this not fatherly love? Have I mistaken his response for something else? Despite that, he asked me to move on? For what? An entirely different reason?'
'I came to rely on him, but he already had no place for me.' She gripped her hands tightly.
Chris's father got up, and left with his arms behind his back. He didn't care how the woman who faithfully stuck to his son's side all this time felt, instead, like a fool, he tried to chase her away.
"I'm sorry, I will never appear before you again."
Then was if Chris came back, would he be abandoned all alone? She couldn't let that happen. She refused to let his words get to her, only to break down in tears when she was alone in the garden.
She gathered her stuff and left, she vowed never to come see him again. She had no need for such a father-in-law, since he didn't know what he was good for.
Furthermore, she had to hurry and find Chris.
It was strange that he wasn't responding all this time.
He might be in a desperate situation, I have to try harder before it's too late.
She had nightmares every night, about finding Chris's body dead because she was too late. She needed to try harder, and even harder, to save the one she loved.
◇◇◇
A month quickly passed by, as Chris performed his trials. He swung his sword a ten thousand times and ran 400m every day, he even became a pro at skipping over rocks required to cross over the pool of lava. Occasionally, he would take a dive and challenged the steps of lava.
He also tried to eat more of the phoenix fish, but his stats didn't increase at all, all that happened was the mini explosion of the fish in his mouth and an ashy after taste.
During his spare time, Chris descended the winding stairs. He went back down to the dungeon, he remembered the stench and how he reeked when he had first pushed open the door. Now the stench was gone, she didn't want to believe such a horrid moment had existed.
'It was worse than the stench of urea, what could have smelt worse, belgh,' he had even bought it at the store, to confirm what it was. It was just a white powder in a leaf, wrapped up nicely into a triangle. Nothing else was discovered.
Chris decided to push the door open. "I might be able to challenge the next floor if I mange to open it," after all, it had been a while and he had no time to dilly dally; except with Sim. His main priority was his escape.
He pushed and pushed, but the door didn't budge. Sim yelped at him, she bit him by the pants and pulled him away, as if telling him to give up. "But Sim, if things continue this way, we might be stuck here for a while."
"Grrr."
Ting.
{The Challenger is not ready for the challenge, a new challenge we be assigned when you are ready}
{May you be Told}
That was two weeks ago, and now, Chris had spent a month here.
He was starting to get the hang of swinging his sword, he had swung at the shoulders, head, torso, and thighs,
Now for the legs.