Screwed by the Bell (2)

The warm mid-morning suns shine down through the chill air. We walk over to the strap-on weights as the wind nips at our skin.

"Alright, let's throw these on and run some laps."

"Laps." Josh nods.

We find the lightest weights we can and line up at one corner of the courtyard. Aside from a small gazebo to 'em house the equipment, it is mostly barren. A lone tree stands in catty corner of our position.

"Remember, this is not a race. I want you to give it everything you've got but don't hurt yourself. This is about slow and steady progress. Make sure to check your stats every day to see how quickly you're growing. Once we've increased our endurance, then we'll be able to train for longer and our stats will go up even faster." I don't actually know if this is how the status works but I want to keep them motivated so I slip in this white lie.

"We get it, can we go already?" Sakura has her hands on her hips as she snarkily shoots down my motivational speech.

"Last one to the tree is a rotten egg!" I take off sprinting with Josh hit on my trail.

"Hey, no fair! You cheated!" Sakura shouts from the back but I laugh and keep running. The cold air stabs my lungs but I keep running. My muscles ache and strain but I don't stop running.

"I win!"

"No fair!" Sakura stomps as she finishes several seconds later. "You're such a cheater."

"Relax, I'm just kidding." We're all a little out of breath so I take a moment to recover. "Now, let's get some laps in."

I start jogging and the kids follow soon after. Sakura quietly pouts at the back but it isn't long before her frown is replaced with agony and exhaustion. We each run, or eventually walk, ten laps around the courtyard and collapse in a heap by the gazebo.

"I don't feel so good." Sakura groans. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"Just stick with me for the next two weeks and see how much you've improved by then. If you aren't satisfied, you can just quit with no repercussions."

"Okay, I will, so you better keep your word."

"But I didn't promise anything." I counter but she doesn't respond.

We lay on the ground and watch the clouds roll by for a long time before running even more laps. I lost count at around thirty. By the time we finish, we can barely stand. Through sheer willpower, we manage to drag ourselves home.

It's just like two-a-days. The next two weeks fly by. Back when I played football, we would do a two-week boot camp to get ready for the upcoming season. Four hours of practice in the morning, a quick lunch, and then four hours of practice in the afternoon. Fourteen days of pure agony. Once, I was so tired I ate nothing for almost a week. I didn't even have enough energy to digest food.

We emulated this gauntlet but with one major difference, the system. Each day we were more energized than the last. Each afternoon we were stronger than we were that morning. Over time our workouts evolved to include more exercises like pushups and pull-ups, but that wasn't the only thing changing.

It started out with me always pushing for more effort, but soon Sakura began pushing the envelope. When I said one more lap she made it three. When I said five more minutes she did twenty. I could tell something was eating at her but I didn't want to slow her growth so I kept my mouth shut. Every session ended with her on the verge of tears, but I pretended not to notice. As weeks in this world are three days longer than those on Earth, we went through a full twenty days of pushing ourselves to the limits.

The day before our first class, the wheels started to fall off. Josh and I arrived at the North gate early in the morning.

"Morning, Josh. How have your stats improved so far?"

"Good." He nods with a warm expression.

"Same here." I smile and excitedly open my status.

Niccolo Drake lv 0

Sponsor: God of knowledge

Job: Commoner lv 0

Possible jobs: Fighter, Librarian

Skills: Stoneskin lv 1

Titles: Index

Unassigned points: 0

Health: 54/54

Stamina: 75/75

Vitality: 20 (+9)

Strength: 21 (+14)

Agility: 14 (+6)

Endurance: 32 (+24)

Perception: 17

Resilience: 7 (+2)

Mana Capacity: 0

Mana Bandwidth: 65

I feel giddy just looking at my improvement. We can easily run ten laps around the palisade and pump out dozens of pushups and pull ups. Even with the inadequate training equipment at our disposal I'm still very happy with our growth.

"Do you still want to do the beginner class?" I beam as I look over at Josh.

"Yes." He nods.

"Great! Then let's warm up while we wait for Sakura."

Right on queue the pink-haired girl appears at the gate. I frown when I notice her looking at the ground with tense shoulders.

"I need you to teach me how to fight with a sword." She exclaims with a shaky voice.

"Of course, though Josh is much better than me so you might want to learn from him."

During these two weeks of training, Josh has only become more prolific in his swordsmanship. Where he used to wait for the perfect moment to counter attack, he now picks apart my defenses in only a few moves. I've been keeping an eye on the condition of his hands, despite his efforts to hide them from me, and reprimanded him multiple times for injuring himself again. His palms are so calloused that it feels like shaking hands with a leather glove. If anyone can teach her swordsmanship, it's him.

Sakura agrees and ask Sampson to let her use one of his training swords.

"Watch my feet." Josh explains.

"Your feet?"

"Your feet show your moves."

"What?"

"If I stand like this then I can only move like this or this." Josh raises his sword over his head and steps forward with his lead foot before showing a couple moves.

"I don't understand." Sakura looks confused but I'm sure she'll figure it out with time so I do some stretches and run a lap around the palisade.

It only takes me a few minutes, but by the time I make it back, Sakura is a puddle of tears. Josh looks at me with fear in his eyes as he struggles to deal the situation.

I motion at him to calm down and slowly approach our newest teammate.

Sakura is still holding the sword despite the fact that her hands have already been rubbed raw. Blood drips steadily from the hilt of her blade. I sigh at the looming mountain of emotions soon to come crashing down on me.

"It's okay if you don't understand what Josh is saying, maybe you could ask Samp-"

"No it's not! It's not okay!" I move closer and gently grasp the blade of the wooden sword she's holding.

I motion for Josh to come over but he just looks at us with the same terrified expression.

"Josh, come here." He cautiously approaches with wide eyes and I wrap his arms around the crying girl with my free hand.

As soon as she feels his embrace, Sakura lets go of the sword and sobs into his shirt. Josh looks at me like I just stabbed him in the back bu I pretend not to notice.

Goddamit