Chapter 26 - Maxed Out 

He reached the gym shortly, setting the weights to a comfortable level before running some laps around the park. He ran at a steady pace, making sure he didn't tire himself out too early.

Upon closer inspection, Delta noticed that the weighted clothing had a small display that told him the weight of the clothes in kilograms, and they currently read 5kg on each limb and 10kg on his torso.

This was rather surprising, as although he was expecting mana to make him stronger, he hadn't expected it to make carrying 30kg at this age so easy.

He had also noticed that he had a lot more stamina than he would've expected from someone his age, making him realise just how powerful these stat changes were.

A few laps later, he finally heard the notification he was waiting for.

[Strength + 1]

[Agility + 1]

[Endurance + 1]

His stats now read:

[Stats:]

[Rank: Initiate I]

[Strength: 7]

[Agility: 8]

[Dexterity: 9]

[Vitality: 8]

[Endurance : 8]

[Intelligence : 9]

[Magic: 9]

Delta instantly felt a rush from his stats being raised. It felt as if his body had been restricted from some kind of restraint, and was now more free than before.

He deactivated the weights for a bit so that he could see the improvements, and he was now running at the same speed as some of the Olympic athletes back on Earth.

Enjoying the wind blowing on his face, Delta reactivated the weights, now putting 7.5 kilos on each limb, and 15 on his torso.

Instantly, he felt himself slow down to a level far slower than he had been at before.

'I guess the differences aren't that great, huh…'

Thinking to himself as he ran, Delta pondered something that had been bugging him for a while.

If everyone was able to raise their strength this easily, why couldn't the higher level fighters become strong enough to lift buildings or something, especially since there were clearly many more levels ahead of him?

He couldn't go and ask one of his instructors, however, as he didn't think anyone had the same system-like ability as him, especially since his ability had come from the supposed 'Will of the Galaxy'.

These thoughts constantly on his mind, Delta continued running, feeling himself become slowly more powerful as he did.

If anyone had seen Delta training this way, they would be shocked, as training this way would normally exhaust even the mightiest soldiers, since the body would run out of energy before it was able to adjust to the increasing weights the way Delta did nearly effortlessly.

The reason for this, however, was because Delta was constantly inhaling and absorbing energy from the air around him, turning the magical energy naturally found in the air into his own and strengthening his own mana core and body at the same time.

This meant Delta was naturally regenerating as he trained, allowing his body to keep making minor adjustments as he drove it through a workout that would destroy the body of any other student.

After running a few more circuits, Delta could really feel the burn in his muscles as he forced himself to keep going.

He kept going for nearly half an hour, finally reaching a level of comfort with these weights as he had with the previous settings.

Surprisingly to Delta, he was still breathing at a normal speed, not even slightly short on breath even though he had been running for a while.

His muscles, however, were burning as they were damaged by the weighted runs, being ripped apart and rebuilt stronger repeatedly.

The sensation was a strange one, with his limbs feeling like there was a nest of ants crawling around inside him, yet also like his muscles were being welded together from the inside.

Delta kept forcing himself through it, his mind focusing on the benefits that would come about his struggles and the boost in power he would receive.

Paying him for his troubles, another notification went off in his head.

[Strength + 1]

[Agility + 1]

[Endurance + 1]

[Vitality + 1]

Sighing in relief as he felt another wave of strength coursing through him yet again, Delta opened his stats once more.

[Stats:]

[Rank: Initiate I]

[Strength: 8]

[Agility: 9]

[Dexterity: 9]

[Vitality: 9]

[Endurance : 9]

[Intelligence : 9]

[Magic: 9]

'Just strength now', Delta thought to himself, stopping his long run and deciding to simply lift the weights instead.

An untrained adult male can bench press about 65 to 70 kilograms, however since Delta was nearly twice as strong as the average male, he found after some experimentation that he could bench press 110 kilograms with relative ease, and could do 150 for a few reps.

As for the weights, he simply split them between both arms and lifted them up and down whilst laying down on the field. To any spectators, he would look rather foolish, however, Delta couldn't care less for what the people thought, so long as he could use them as a shield later on.

Midway through his workout, he felt his CT buzzing in his pocket. At first, he was planning to ignore it, but after it kept buzzing for a solid 10 minutes, Delta finally decided to take it out and see what it was.

He opened up his CT, checking the notifications on the lock screen. Overall, Delta had been surprised at how similar these were to the mobile phones he had seen when he was young on Earth, however, he still hadn't figured out any correlations between his old and new world that could explain why some things were so similar.

Diana: 'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'Hello'

'I'm gonna keep doing this until you reply'

At the end of these messages, it simply said 99+, causing Delta's jaw to drop at how immature she was.

At the bottom, Arthur had said 'Diana made a bet with Arlo that she could get you to come out with us. You might get a few messages.'

"..."

Delta put the device on silent before continuing his workout, lifting the weights until his arms felt like they had died, then lifting them some more.

It began to reach a point where Delta's muscles weren't recovering as fast as he was lifting, and he was really struggling to lift the weights.

After a few more reps, Delta was on the verge of collapse, but then he heard a sound he had been waiting for.

[Strength + 1]

This last point had been significantly more difficult than the others, and Delta was surprised he had managed to persevere through it.

He felt his arms recovering surprisingly fast, and he realised that this was because his body was being invigorated by the magic he was breathing in with every breath.

Exhausted, Delta slumped back, laying down on the ground as he breathed deeply.

[System congratulates User on maxing out every stat at this rank. The User can now Rank Up. To begin, please press 'Rank up' on the banner in the stats menu]

Judging by the previous occurrences Delta had had with the System, he would probably have to sit down when he did this.

[System would recommend sitting in the bathtub]

"..."

Delta headed back to his room, finding it empty as the others had gone out for lunch. He stripped down to his underwear, making sure to lock the door before getting into the bath, settling himself down comfortably before opening the Stats menu and pressing the button.

Pain encompassed Delta's whole body, making the pain he had felt before feel like a simple itch. It began at his core, feeling like his insides were being ripped out and stabbed with thousands of knives. He could feel every single individual part of his body start to burn and convulse, shaking violently as he began something like a spasm.

At first, Delta could feel the forces of his core moving chaotically, increasing in strength as they crashed into each other. He looked into his own core, floating in the abyss he had become accustomed to as he watched stars and meteors violently crash into each other before sending waves of energy everywhere, rushing into Delta and scrambling his focus, removing him from his core.

The sensation grew, spreading through his bloodstream and 'infecting' every part of his body, setting it alight with the poison of pain that he had first experienced in his core before it moved on like an infection.

Delta shut his eyes and tried to force himself through the pain, counting up and down and tensing different muscles to take his attention away from the pain.

After a few minutes, the thing Delta had been dreaded most arrived. The pain reached his heart, constricting and manipulating it, threading condensed mana into his bloodstream. Delta clutched his heart, choking slightly as he struggled not to pass out.

He kept struggling for a few minutes, growing fainter every second, but he wasn't able to resist the pain, falling unconscious amidst the process of ranking up.