Beep Beep Beep! Beep Beep Beep!
The ring tone on my smartwatch blared in my room, waking me up from the deep slumber.
I opened my bleary eyes and picked up the call.
"Saras! Where the hell are you? It is almost 7 in the morning. Do you want to miss the last day of the Daily Quest?"
Who else could it be but Stivi? If her loud voice had woken me up from the sleep, then her words wiped off all the remaining traces from my eyes.
I quickly checked the time. 6:50 am. I jumped up from the bed and started to throw on clothes while letting the electric toothbrush do its job in my mouth.
A few minutes later I was dashing out of the house with a toast in my mouth, much to my mom's chagrin.
Yesterday's events had drained me a lot but a warm bath with Body Nourishing Solution and a good night's sleep had done wonders to rejuvenate my spirits.
Soon, I was standing in front of Stivi inside the VR complex, ready to go online.
I could tell she was still a little miffed by my arm twisting behavior yesterday. In fact she made it abundantly clear by ignoring my few attempts at conversation.
I shook my head with exasperation and entered the game.
Yesterday, I had logged off near Luni's tent and that's where my character spawned when I came online. A new day meant a new supply of 5 Jars of Sheep milk was ready.
I quickly collected the jars and set off to the Training grounds on the outskirts of the Village.
Stivi was already inside, chatting with Trainer Basak and Goku while glancing at the gate from time to time. When I finally arrived, she glared at me for a few seconds before resuming her chat with Trainer Basak.
After I had approached the trio, Trainer Basak ended the conversation and assigned us our exercises for the day.
10 Km run, 150 Push Ups, 150 Sit ups and 150 Bench press- All within 1 hour. At the end of the session, my Strength and Vigor had increased by 1 point each.
Now it was time for Yoga.
Goku had already mastered the simpler poses like Head Stand, Forward Bend, Circle pose, Scorpion Pose over the course of the week, a testament to how gifted a Barbarian's physique was.
Today, he was going to attempt one of the hardest poses, the Eight-Angle pose.
This pose was quite challenging as it required your body to bend at eight different angles while resting your weight completely on the palms of your hands. Even after doing Yoga for years, not everyone was capable of executing this pose.
Thus, I was rightly skeptical about Goku's chances of success.
Regardless, I started to demonstrate the pose step by step. I could not pause for long as every movement was just as taxing for me. Still, Goku managed to follow with Trainer Basak's help.
Soon, I was in the position with my body suspended above the ground with only my hands supporting the entire body's weight.
The hardest thing for me was mustering the strength in my arms to support my body's weight but it was quite easy for Goku. On the contrary, he had trouble maneuvering the limbs in place flexibly.
Soon the two of us had successfully executed the Eight-Angle pose. It was at this moment a startling notification for a quest flashed before my eyes.
[You have stimulated your physique to the extreme. A quest has been activated.]
[Quest: Hold the Eight-Angle pose for 90 seconds.]
[Reward: Hidden Stat - Constitution +1]
[Failure: The Quest will disappear.]
After reading the Quest description, my eyelids began to twitch violently.
90 Seconds? The quest was simply impossible to complete!
This pose tested the body's balance, the strength of your limbs as well as their ability to endure the harsh twisted position. Just being able to execute this pose successfully was proof of a flexible and fit body.
Holding it for 10 seconds and above was enough to put your flexibility on the same level as someone who had been doing Gymnastics for 10 years. If one could hold it for 30 seconds in real life, they had potential to be an interplanetary Gymnastics medal winner with little training.
But that was the limit.
Even seasoned gymnasts and calisthenics masters would have trouble trying to hold the pose for a little more than 30 seconds, let alone 90 seconds.
So, it was no surprise that I collapsed before even 30 seconds were up.
[You lasted for 26 seconds. You have failed the Quest.]
I untangled myself and shook off the regret of unlocking another Hidden Stat. My only consolation was that I held the pose for nearly 20 seconds more than Goku.
Dusting off the dirt, I stood up and then lent Goku a hand. He grabbed it and pulled himself up.
"Big Brother Samar, thank you for helping me open a new path in physical training. I will no longer blindly pursue strength training but also focus more on improving the flexibility of my physique."
Goku said as he tightly grabbed my hand. His words triggered the quest completion notification for my 7 day quest.
[You have completed the quest Daily Training with Goku.]
[Favorability with Goku +80]
My favorability had reached the maximum number with Goku which was quite unexpected. Over the course of these training sessions, the respect Goku had for me had not decreased but increased instead.
He respected my perseverance and my superior flexibility while I had also come to appreciate the amazing physiques of the Barbarians.
Once I finished checking the notifications, Trainer Samar approached us with Stivi. He gestured us to follow him and led us to the track behind the Training Center building.
It was actually an obstacle course!
There was a pond with numerous stepping stones, a giant wall with ropes, spinning logs that would whack you in the face if you did not duck fast enough and a sandy field to sprint through.
"I have seen quite a few Deathless Beings come to the ground and retreat after suffering just a few hardships but only the two of you persevered."
Trainer Basak said in all seriousness but when he mentioned hardships I could not help but glance at the little tyke standing beside him. I had witnessed and experienced first hand what exactly those hardships entailed. I could fully understand why the other players cursed Stivi and me as masochists and retreated.
Nonetheless, it felt good to be acknowledged; Especially after the hellish training we underwent.
Trainer Basak pointed to the track behind him and said,"This is my last present to you two. You can come here daily to challenge this course. If you can complete the Obstacle course and rank on this Milestone ranking, you will receive abundant rewards."
Stivi and I curiously approached the leaderboard. There were only 10 names on the leaderboard. The names were obscured but their clear times were visible.
No. 10 --- 15 Minutes 03 seconds
"Is this for real?" Stivi exclaimed, taken aback by the shocking time.
The entire course was nearly 5 Km long. An average track and field athlete would require more than 15 minutes to simply run across it. If one factored in the obstacles to be cleared, 15 minutes was definitely an inhumane clear time.
Yet, this was only the 10th position. I dreaded seeing the number as my eyes moved upwards to the first rank.
No. 1 --- 5 minutes 47 seconds
Insane! This was simply an impossible feat. Even if world record holders came, they would find it difficult to enter the rankings.
However, I suddenly realized that Stivi and I were forgetting one thing.
Even though Dreamverse was a Virtual Reality based on physical parameters, it was a game nonetheless. The Stats assigned to a player had to hold some significance beyond just attack damages.
Normally, the Agility stat influences the game character's speed in the VR games. A step by a player could result in 10 steps by the game character if the Agility Stat was high enough.
The key to this was Synchronization between the player and his avatar. If the Avatar had to run 10 Km, the player at least had to run 1km to keep up with it. If the stats or synchronization levels were low, the amount they had to run increased.
This was just my conjecture but there was enough proof to support my theory.
The best evidence of this was that I still could not run 10 Km in real life within 30 minutes but I could achieve that feat within the game. It was because I only needed to run for 5 Kms within 30 minutes.
My clumsy synchronization added on to difficulty but my 17 points in Agility Stat helped me complete the run in time anyways.
Another example was Stivi. She only had 12 points in Agility but she had better physical fitness than me and her synchronization with her game character was also more refined.
Hence, she had to run little less than 5 km to make her character run 10 km despite having lower Agility stat.
In a sense, we had been learning to better synchronize with our Game Avatars over the last few days. The boost in our Stats and physical fitness was just another bonus.
Now this obstacle course would test our improvements. After realizing this fact, the numbers on the leaderboard did not seem so daunting.
I wanted to immediately challenge the course but I was too tired to make a meaningful attempt. Also, there was a Black-Stone Grade Set waiting for me at the Blacksmith's shop.
I could not hold back my eagerness any longer so I decided to say goodbye to Trainer Basak and headed to the Blacksmith's tent.