Crow sighed and mumbled something unintelligible under his breath. The ax head was cheap and dull but the handle was specially crafted by Chug. The belly of the ax had Chug's signature engraved into it. Crow picked it up and grunted using all of his energy to hold it. His knees started to buckle under the weight of the ax and dropped it.
"This is way too heavy," Crow said, panting and falling back on the bed.
"Scratch lesson one, first lesson! It's time to work out."
A bright green HUD appeared after Chug said this.
𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓: 𝐀 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏
𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐘
Crow accepted the quest, rolling his eyes and grumbling.
𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓: 𝐀 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏
𝐏𝐮𝐬𝐡-𝐔𝐩𝐬 (𝟎/𝟏𝟎𝟎)
𝐒𝐢𝐭-𝐔𝐩𝐬 (𝟎/𝟏𝟎𝟎)
𝐒𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 (𝟎𝐤𝐦/𝟑𝟎𝐤𝐦)
𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭: 𝟏 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝:
+𝟏 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡 +𝟏 𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
𝐏𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐊𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐮𝐠'𝐬
'𝘈 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵? 𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘬𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵? 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘵.'
Crow immediately started working out beginning with the pushups. After ten pushups he was exhausted and had to sit down. Chug handed him breakfast and gave him a few words of encouragement.
"Listen, Crow, you aren't going to be able to do this all instantly. It takes time."
"I'm not sure I exactly have time"
"Of course you do. Set a schedule"
"Right."
"It sounds dumb. But that's what it takes to get to the top. Work to your strengths"
'𝘔𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩𝘴!'
Crow grinned from cheek to cheek and finished breakfast. For the next hour, he did stretches and mumbled about when to schedule his workouts. In the morning he did five pushups and five sit ups before breakfast. After breakfast, it was an hour of stretches followed by a 2.5km sprint. He ate lunch and took a thirty-minute break while watching Chug woodwork. After the break, there were 5 more pushups and situps. Before dinner, he would do another 2.5km run and then finish off the day with 5 more pushups and situps. He did this every day for the entire week taking one day off from running. Finally, it had reached the last day of the quest.
"I'm going for my final run of the day"
"Don't die," Chug said mumbling. He was barely paying any attention to what Crow was saying. Crow was used to this because Chug was working on a new figure almost every day. Crow climbed up the ladder to the exit of the cave and lifted the small camouflaged trapdoor. He did a small stretch and started his final run for the quest. A storm was brewing over the indigo forest and the wind picked up speed. Leaves were flowing through the first as the wind tore them off branches and it started to rain.
'𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘶𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯. 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯..'
Crow arrived back at the trapdoor to Chug's home soaked and exhausted. A bright green HUD appeared in his face once again.
𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓: 𝐀 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏 - 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄
+𝟏 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡! +𝟏 𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞!
'𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺'
Crow opened up the trapdoor and climbed back inside.
"Chug! I'm back!" Crow got to the bottom of the ladder and turned to see Chug with a sword to his throat. Holding the sword was a man with long pink hair wearing plate armor. Crow glared at the man and he smiled back at him. Chug had his hands up, shaking, and eyes closed with tears starting to build up.
"Hello, one that got away." the pink-haired man said.
"Let him go," Crow said slowly, inching toward the ax.
"Why would I do that? It's a monster" he said patronizingly, "But if you're willing to give up yourself for your friend here. I'll let him go"
"Crow you ca-," Chug started to speak as the blade was pushed closer to his throat. Crow gulped not knowing what to do still inching toward the ax. He was breathing shallowly and barely maintaining his composure.
"Fine," Crow said, raising his hands in the air, "Let him go first."
"Good little Crow, now come here." he pushed Chug to the side. Chug fell to the ground, scraping his body on the stone and letting out a muted scream from the pain. Crow hesitantly walked forward while staring daggers at the person. He was grabbed by his hair when he reached the man and pulled slightly to the side.
"I would say sorry about this but I'm not. It's just a game overall," he raised his sword towards Crow's neck. Crow closed his eyes accepting the fate that was about to become of him when a loud high pitched scream came from the other side of the room quickly moving closer. He opened his eyes to see Chug with the ax barreling towards the man. Chug smiled at Crow as he swung the ax at the man just missing and grazing his cheek.
"Oh no! You missed." Crow was tossed to the ground and when he looked up blood was splattered over the back side of the wall. Crow's eyes widened partly in fear and partly in anger. His body started to shake as he'd never felt before and clenched his jaw. He charged at the man and tackled him to the ground knocking his sword away.
"Crow my friend, you seriously can't be angry! You saw, he tried to kill me!" he pushed Crow off of him slamming him into one of the shelves with Chug's figures all tumbling to the ground. Pulling up the sleeves of his shirt and tying his hair into a ponytail the man got into a stance. "Oh, how rude of me, I'm Damien, Top 50."
Crow froze on hearing that. Damien grinned and walked slowly toward Crow. Crow was still frozen in fear and panicked. Before he even realized a fist was streaking toward him. As it landed he jolted backward falling onto his backside and crashing into another shelf. Damien laughed as he punched and blood started to gush from Crow's face.
"Come on little birdie! Fight back!" another punch struck as more blood flowed from his nose.
'𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦.'
Punch after punch Damien kept going at him. Damien sighed as the blood kept gushing from Crow's nose, some of it getting on Damien's shoes as he picked him up.
"You're disappointing. Just die already." throwing him at the kitchen area and picking up his sword Damien paused and looked at the barely conscious Crow. "I'll find you again, little birdie."
Crow looked at Chug whose head was separated from his body. He crawled weakly over to the body, tears, and blood leaving a trail behind him.
"I'm... s-sorr-." Crow fell unconscious on top of Chug's body.
(CH3 End)