Taking out something from his store trip, he looked at it in awe. It was a hand gripping tool, all you had to do was squeeze on it with the appropriate strength and it would build your grip. This was a key thing that Chad had mentioned as grip was one of the most important things about a swordsman, if you couldn't hold the sword, what's the point?
When another hour passed, Joana walked in again. She waved, but Jake was still embarrassed and gave a small wave. With his head down, he sighed, "Man, I've messed it up now, why can't I talk to her like before." Remembering her relationship status with him, his face turned red, 'I can't think like that! She is intrigued by me, I gotta use this for my benefit!' When she came out, Jake already had a plan.
"Joana, come look at this thing I got, it's pretty interesting." Holding up the gripper, he showed it to Joana, "What's it for?" Picking it up curiously she messed around with it. "It's a hand gripper, you use it to build strength in your hands to help carry stuff easier. You should try it while I get my stuff." Leaving it to her, he went to the back. When he got in there he gave a devious smile. The oldest trick in the book, making the weights heavy before showing someone so it makes it look like you can lift them.
That's exactly what he did, he set the weight to a high setting and she's gonna try it herself and realize how heavy it is, only for the hero, Jake to come in and show her how it's done. Of course, there is a slight sleight of hand trick where you make it easier when you hold it because he couldn't do the hardest difficulty right now. Nodding to himself about his perfect strategy, he walked back out of the room.
"Hey Jakey, this is pretty interesting." Joana had a smile as she effortlessly moved the hand gripper. Jake had a floored expression as he watched Joana. She had slim small hands and yet they were easily squeezing the gripper. Walking over, Jake couldn't help but exclaim, "Holy crap Joana, were you always that strong." As Joana handed it over she smiled, "Yeah, I mean in college you have to write a lot of essays." She spoke with a 'matter of fact' tone that made Jake rethink his life.
He once again squeezed the gripper and it was indeed the hardest level. Was she just a monster? After a couple of back-and-forth comments, Jake finally left but was still unconvinced. When Jake left the station, Joana burst out laughing, "You think you could fool me? Haha, well how do you like that trick?" Wiping the tears from her eyes, she continued giggling to herself. Of course, she couldn't do it herself, when she was giving it to Jake, she held it in front of her chest, which inadvertently made Jake avert his eyes. This gave Joana a perfect opportunity to adjust it back to the hard version.
…
Outside the station, Jake had to motivate himself once again that with his stats multiplier, he could also become strong. With that motivation, he returned to the gym to finish his stair climbers.
Walking into the gym, the lean guy wasn't there and was replaced with a middle-aged lady who was painting her nails. She too didn't glance at Jake making him feel like he was the one out of place.
On the gym floor, he was surprised to see so many people here. It was close to 11 PM, and yet over ten people were here doing exercises. "It seems it's easier for others to come after work." Jake could understand the early birds, and the night owls as after extreme practice of staying up late playing games he had unlocked the state of being that could achieve both.
Getting himself set up on the stair climber, he was a little surprised. He felt no soreness on his body even when he started to run. "Perhaps my body is recovering faster because I can grow muscle quickly." Jake didn't think much about it but noted he should go here tomorrow. After about an hour of stair running, Jake finally finished his quest.
While he was running, he took a glance at the rooms in the back and realized they were empty rooms with mats and mirrors within them. Thinking about how he hadn't practiced the Gale Storm Sword today, he had the urge to try it once before leaving.
Picking up his familiar stretching stick, he walked to the backroom. Here, he felt a lot more comfortable due to the absence of other people. It was however uncomfortable that almost every wall around him had mirrors, making it feel like he had many more eyes than before. Doing a few warm-up swings, he would catch himself looking at himself in the mirror from time to time making him cringe.
"Dang, this stupid brain of mine, get rid of the cringe!" Jake felt terrible, he had always had problems with self-confidence and standing out, so doing something as crazy as this in public made his small sense of security dissipate. Gritting his teeth, he took a good look at himself as he swung his sword.
All of the insecurities started to grow as he noticed small things about himself. His pants were a little bit too small, which led to his skin showing sometimes. His sides would shake every time he moved, his big curly hair would fly all over his face. It all felt so nasty to him. This feeling was starting to weigh on him as he got slower and slower. Soon, he just stopped.
"What am I doing?" Sighing, he walked out of the room and threw the stick into the box where he got it. He watched as others had no problem doing wacky exercise and drooped his head, "Wish I could be like that." Leaving the gym, he had a quiet walk back to his house.