Sweat poured down his forehead as the tension in his body reached a very high level.
He began to perform the fifth movement, but suddenly collapsed to the floor in pain.
Every corner of his body was burning with pain!
"What's going on?"
His body was sweating from every pore without exception.
His face turned extremely red, and even began to turn purple.
Both knees on the ground, he tried to adjust his breathing despite the pain.
After half an hour, the pain finally reached his tolerance zone.
"Damn, that really hurt!"
Looking back, Adam was still in a cold sweat.
And at the same time he began to wonder what could be causing it.
"I guess it must be because my body is too weak." he muttered in deep thought.
Apart from that, he couldn't think of any other possible reason.
After all, all these movements required a certain amount of strength and stamina to perform.
Otherwise, anyone could start practicing the body-forging method before waking up.
But this was obviously not possible.
At the very least, it was necessary to undergo the awakening in order to obtain a minimum physique corresponding to the requirements of the body-forging technique.
And this theory also applied to the other movements of the technique, which required both mastery and more strength and endurance than the first movements.
Since it was logical that if movements allowed you to improve faster, they also imposed a heavier load on the body.
"Has it ever happened to someone to master a move but not be able to use it?"
"Unless you're an ancient warrior, master or grandmaster, and have been reincarnated, it's impossible isn't it?" wondered Adam, laughing.
He was laughing because he was proud!
In the history of mankind, this must have been the first time anyone had found himself in this situation!
And yet it had only been 1 month since he had arrived in this world!
"What a pity there's no guinness world records book in this world, otherwise I'd have already put my first name in it.
After he'd finished joking and waited a while, he resumed training, but consciously stopped at the fourth movement of each set.
Then, at the end of the3rd set, he was finally able to make an estimate of his future progress.
"At this rate, I should be able to reach the2nd rank of apprentice warrior in 5 months," he thought with a mixture of happiness and bitterness.
He was happy because normally it would take him a year to reach2nd rank, but the worry was that there was the tournament in 3 months!
"The only solution would be to master a fighting martial art before the tournament starts...But where can I find martial arts?"
"Even the cheapest ones, which are rank (E), cost at least 1000 Kada..."
Of course, Adam also thought of the pills that could speed up cultivation, as the rich did.
"But cultivation pills cost so much..." he sighed outside in the cool night air.
"It takes at least 3000 Kada to get a bottle of 30 pills to take every day before training..."
"And even if I had a bottle, it would only buy me a month, and I'd still be late for the tournament."
Then Adam shook his head.
"Forget it, and just train diligently."
After firming up his resolve, he did 2 more sets and felt that his body's limits had been reached.
So he simply left to take a shower, then switched on his desk lamp and began to review a few cultural lessons.
Adam opened his textbook on "Martial Strategies and Internal Energy Management", an imposing work with pages yellowed with age.
Words written in dense ink seemed to dance under the flickering light of the lamp, but Adam gritted his teeth.
Fatigue was not going to get the better of him.
He turned the pages until he found the chapter entitled "Managing Breath in Hostile Environments".
This subject, though arduous, was crucial in a world where monsters populated areas outside protected cities.
Indeed, despite the alliance that had existed between humans and animals during the invasion, the animals had never seen humans as their equals.
To them, they were just cattle needlessly occupying space and resources.
It should also be noted that many of the beasts had not awakened their intelligence, and that, on the contrary, the energy of the rift had driven them mad.
Just like the beasts that had attacked the city the night before.
Outside the cities of the Kingdom of Keria, the environment was populated by monsters hostile to humans.
In this context, when Keria warriors went out, they had to master not only brute force, but also impeccable management of their energy.
Adam read this carefully; for him, it was important to establish a solid cultural foundation right from the start.
Especially as it was knowledge that might prove necessary in the contest.
Fortunately, his predecessor was a hard worker, so with his residual memories, he was a pretty quick learner.
The diagrams in the manual described how to balance the flow of energy in the body while fighting under pressure.
For the moment, Adam had no knowledge of this famous energy, but he learned that as soon as he broke through the4th rank of warrior apprentices, he would be able to bring forth a strand of it.
This energy enabled a4th-rank apprentice warrior to seriously wound a3rd-rank apprentice warrior with a single punch.
But that was just a wisp.
If the3rd-rank apprentice warrior managed to dodge, then only fighting skills and a slight physical difference remained to differentiate them.
And by breaking through each rank, the energy stored in the body didn't increase enormously, unless a large kingdom was broken through.
Hence the importance of using these strands of energy judiciously, and being sure to hit the opponent when used.
After an hour of study, his eyes were stinging, but he determinedly pursued another subject: "Weaknesses and anatomies, 100 common creatures to know."