When I tell you that the blisters on my feet had blisters after that first day of walking for hours on the treadmill, I was not kidding at all.
You see, I'm 183cm tall ("You're a clean 6 foot, Eric!" Alan would say whenever we talked about my height), and at a whopping 135 kilograms (almost 297 lbs), I was securely into the obese category.
Most of that extra weight was spread around my torso and waist, which gave me a sizeable stomach and "love handles", while the rest of that fat congregated around my upper thighs. I was very much in the negative "thick" size more so than the more fashionable "thicc".
More "risk of heart disease" than "curvy", you might say.
I was lucky that I had my phone and earbuds with me because I don't think I would have lasted more than twenty minutes walking without some sort of entertainment to "distract" me from the exercise I was doing.
Even with the music that blasted in my ears (that I struggled to keep in step with for motivation), I still saw glimpses of the funny looks other guild members gave me when they walked into the guild's gym.
After I tested out different treadmill speeds, I settled on 3.8 km per hour. At that rate, I was still walking at a faster pace than my usual walking speed, but it was slow enough that I could keep up with that pace for an extended amount of time.
I sweated a lot.
I'm a bit embarrassed at how much I sweated, looking back at it, but I sweated so much. My clothes were drenched, my hair was matted with perspiration, and even the towel I brought with me was pretty saturated by the end.
Luckily, the guild gym had a little shop near the entrance that sold guild-branded items like water bottles and towels, so I bought one and rinsed some of the sweat on my skin off in the showers.
Surprisingly, I was so exhausted from the exertion that I was too tired to have a panic attack at the stares that I got from other guild members.
As dangerous as it was, I was pretty out of it on the drive back to my apartment, but luckily nothing happened, and as I found myself back on the bed looking up at the ceiling, my body and especially my legs finally started to transmit the pain after being surprisingly numb all this time, I smiled as I looked at the message the System sent me.
[CONGRATULATIONS!
Your Fortitude is improving!]
As I ignored the fact I still needed to have a proper shower since I still smelled of sweat, I swapped over to the quest window and smiled when I saw:
[To improve the Player's Fortitude Attribute, the Player must:
-Run (or walk) 10km — 10km/10km ✓
-Do 100 sit-ups — 1/100
-Do 100 pull-ups — 0/100]
I snickered a little bit when I saw that the System had counted me sitting up as I got out of my bed in the morning as a proper sit-up.
The most important thing that I noticed when I looked at my Status page, was that Fortitude was still listed as "D*". I guess the improvement was so minuscule that I was still considered heavily in D-tier. It made sense considering that my innate limitation for Vitality was so slight that it only went from "D" to "D+".
Maybe I was just destined to be weak.
At least in this prestige.
***
I don't know when I fell asleep, but I forgot to have a proper shower after gym so when I woke up the next morning (I had slept for most of the afternoon and overnight), not only was my stomach grumbling as I was starving, but I also stank.
"God," I mumbled, still half-asleep, "I gotta wash the bed sheets…"
I was pleasantly surprised that for some odd reason, my feet weren't hurting as much as I thought they would.
But that pleasant surprise only lasted till I tried to move my legs to get up out of bed.
I had only done a half-assed job at stretching after the treadmill and thought that the hot water I had used to wash over my body would have been okay to ease my muscles.
I was so stupid.
Both of my whole legs — both of the whole damn things — felt like they were on fire. On the inside. Imagine one of those times when you feel something itching you, but it's under the skin — like way deep — and so you try and scratch the approximate area of where the itching came from, but it doesn't do anything. Scratching the area meant that you've put more focus on the itching so it gets worse and no matter what you do, it just gets more and more unbearable.
Imagine that, but pain.
I had tears rolling down my face — streaming— as my legs protested against the abuse I inflicted on them the day before, and it was a solid five minutes before I realised that this was the exact circumstance that would be perfect for me to try my "Blood Circulation" skill.
As I sat on my bed, my legs hanging over the edge slightly with my feet hovering a few centimetres above the floor (this was the most comfortable position that I found that gave me the least amount of pain), I viewed the Skills tab on the System and saw that I was finally allowed to activate the skill.
I closed my eyes and as soon as I concentrated on activating the skill, I felt the effect.
It was as if I could physically feel the blood rushing up and down my legs. The pain also flared as the circulating blood in the arteries and veins brushed against sore and pained muscles. But after that initial flare, the pain settled to a manageable level.
I was able to concentrate on the skill for about ten minutes but by the end of the ten minutes, I felt a marked improvement in my legs. Yes, the soles of my feet still had blisters that hurt to put pressure on. Yes, my leg muscles still almost made me cry when I attempted my first tentative steps to the bathroom.
But notice that it ALMOST made me cry. That was a significant improvement.
I was gifted with a couple of update messages from the System as well.
[CONGRATULATIONS!
Blood Circulation (LVL 1) — 16.7% to (LVL 2)!
Because of the successful first usage of a meditation-based skill, the Player has also unlocked:
-Meditation (LVL 1)!
Usage of any meditation-based skill will improve the proficiency of the base Meditation skill!]
[CONGRATULATIONS!
Your Fortitude is improving!]
Even though I found it ridiculous that I got the base-Meditation skill AFTER I got Blood Circulation, it still signified a huge event for me since in the previous timeline, I was the famous "No-Skill Player".
Even though they were only Meditation skills, the fact that in this prestige I had any skills at all was a massive improvement overall!
But before I could celebrate, I had to have that long-needed shower.