Ackster mustered enough energy to pick himself up off the ground and gather the goblin corpses.
His body had been working hard, burning calories and tensing his muscles since he first put on the weighted suit. Ackster ate like a monster, even if all he did was injure himself a little since Strong Body took the food he ate to fuel his body's recovery. Now that he had driven his body past its limits and broken down his muscles, some of which he didn't know he had, his body needed to refuel so that he could heal and grow stronger.
It was a shame that the food closest to him was goblin meat, but Ackster didn't have a choice. And as long as he had Iron Stomach and Poison Resistance, everything would be alright.
'At least it's fresh.'
Ackster tried to look at the bright side as he ate the raw goblin meat like it were chicken wings.
Ackster ate until he was full and then some. But, despite goblins being scrawny creatures, there was still some food left, even if the revolting meat could hardly be called food. He hadn't had as much trouble eating it before Wilma took him to a restaurant where he could eat as much delicious, truly delicious, food as he wanted. But he still managed to force it down.
While he would have just wanted to leave the remaining goblin corpses behind and get going, Ackster knew better. He couldn't just leave food behind when he could use it to fuel his ever-hungry body.
However, since he was covered in a layer of protective clothing that made it difficult to injure himself unless he took it off, Ackster only had two real ways to boost his body's metabolism so that he would be hungry enough to eat the rest of the goblins.
Ackster could either break his own bones by beating himself up. Or he could exercise, which would train his body in a more old-fashioned way.
Although Ackster really wanted to get skeletal reinforcement skills, breaking his bones now would be too much of a hindrance to his progress. It would delay him for too long when he could be training his muscles using the weighted clothing.
He risked increasing the gap between his muscular and skeletal strength even further, but he could already feel the strain on his spine and joints, so the training equipment was burdening his entire body, not just his muscles. Ackster would simply have to break his bones in situations where he could wait out the time needed to recover without losing much else, such as right now, where he could be fighting wearing the equipment instead of lying around and waiting for his bones to piece themselves back together.
Ackster started doing jumping jacks, pushups, and any other strenuous actions he could think of.
Without the suit, none of it would even be enough to tire him in the slightest. Yet with it, Ackster felt his muscles grow leaden in a matter of singular counts. Thankfully, thanks to Strong Body and the supply of food, he was ready to continue after only a short break between each set.
Once he had finished all the goblin corpses and left only bone, he continued moving deeper into the forest in search of greater prey.
The goblins were great, considering how much the suit weighed him down. They let Ackster experience fighting with it in a contained environment. Thanks to the training equipment's defensive properties, he was never in any real danger.
However, safety wasn't conducive to his development, so Ackster would have to look for something that could at least reach his unprotected head and force him to take that into consideration.
Against the goblins, he had only needed to bob and weave with his head while keeping his arms somewhat raised to thwart their strikes toward his head. It was too simple, even for someone as untrained in actual combat as Ackster.
If he wanted the explosive growth he craved, Ackster would have to continue risking his life, even while wearing the training equipment. For that, he would need stronger opponents, which he would find further into the woods.
Ackster wasn't dissatisfied with what he found.
At first, he only found another group of goblins. But, as expected of something further from signs of human civilization, they were stronger than the first group he had found.
The new group of goblins wasn't necessarily smarter, but they were slightly taller, slightly stronger, and carried slightly sturdier wooden clubs.
'Seriously, where do these clubs come from?'
Of course, one on one, Ackster would have won with one strike.
But goblins weren't infamous for their individual combat capacity. It was their numbers and reproduction rate that made them the pests they were.
Ackster went into the battle with a similar strategy as the previous go. He carried himself defensively, ready to react to the goblins' attacks with his arms raised. He let them hit him before he landed heavy fist after heavy fist on their heads if he could, their bodies if he couldn't.
However, he might have underestimated them a little too much. Or maybe he overestimated himself after seeing his gauntleted fists pulverize the goblin skulls.
One of the goblins managed to take advantage of the tumultuous battle and launch an attack from behind that Ackster only noticed once the club had crashed into his skull and sent him stumbling forward.
Thankfully, the training equipment's weight also made him harder to topple as long as his center of gravity didn't stray too far from his center of balance.
Ackster quickly raised his arms, both to cradle his head due to the pain and to protect it from another strike.
However, doing so exposed the rest of his body to the goblins' attacks. It wouldn't have been a problem, considering his suit's defenses. But while his outfit could block strikes to some degree, it didn't have perfect impact nullification. The blows still hit him, and so did the force behind them.
Since he was already stumbling, one stray club landing on the back of his knee was all it took for Ackster to propose to one of the goblins itching to tear his throat out and smash his head in.
'Shit.'
His head was in perfect position for the goblins to go for a home run.