Preparation and Training

It took surprisingly little time to arrive at the hospital. This time, the hospital looked like a normal hospital and not like some Architects drug fueled passion project.

It did not take all that long for him to receive some basic first aid. Just some stitches and nothing more.

When he first got treated the female doctor looked at him with a blaming look. Apparently she thought that with such a severe wound he should have come here sooner and that he had gotten lucky the wound had not gotten infected yet. Seeing that the wound already showed some signs of healing she must have thought he must have had it for at least a few days.

Obviously, this was because the enhanced healing factor he gained after absorbing the mist.

After finishing and thanking the doctor for helping him, he left to get himself a weapon of some kind.

Since last time using a spear had worked out just fine, he planned on getting himself another, just that this one would be more durable.

For that all he had to do was visit the hardware store on the outskirts of the city. Doing so netted him a thick metal pipe about his height with a diameter of about 3cm and relatively thick metal.

Along with that, he also bought a metal cutting saw in order to cut the pipe at an angle to create a sharp point that would easily penetrate whatever creature he would face, or at least be better than a wooden spear.

He did not believe the metal spear would have been able to injure the moths exoskeleton at all, but getting a better weapon would at least mean it would not break as easily.

While these things were somewhat expensive, the saw especially, he could afford it considering his now decreased rent would give him quite the sum of extra budget the next few months.

And besides, his life was too important to shirk on spending a few bucks.

Returning home, he caught some odd glances from the police that were still around the building. However after explaining how he was planning to use it to barricade his door with it, the police although with slightly suspicious glances let him go. They had honestly no right to question him. He had not done anything illegal (in this world at least), so he was not bothered for all that long.

Today there had not been another death, due to him keeping the moth occupied the whole night, so the police believed that their presence had helped in this, keeping the killer away.

After having finished his preparations he just quickly put his house back in order from when he had barricaded himself last night, and after quickly preparing the spear, got to training, lifting the paperclip from earlier this morning again and again, pushing his limits a little further each time.

He honestly had the desire to share his progress with somebody. But he knew that if anyone learned of his ability's it would most likely land him strapped up in some secret government facility. So doing that would not be a pro gamer move.

***

He had been training for about 10 hours without break, though to him it all seemed like it happened within minutes. This is how much fun he was having.

When he noticed the time, he himself was surprised by his uncanny concentration. It was like he cared about nothing but honing his newfound ability's.

Though honestly, who could blame him for it? The constant tangible progress while training those ability's coupled with the novelty caused him to be seriously fixated. It was almost hypnotic constantly something around and letting it drop when the short mini headache broke him out of his concentration.

Instead of just simply feeling painful, the headaches also gave him a feeling of validation, like the pain one felt from stretching their limbs after not having moved them for a long time. Painful but also liberating.

Having made his preparations and used the day to its fullest, all that was left now was to go to the other world to grow stronger. He had already planned on what he would do there and what he would experiment with.

It was only eight pm but still Kalvin was already lying in bed, waiting to fall asleep.

Maybe due to his excitement at what would follow when he finally fell asleep.

It took almost half an hour of counting sheep and drinking a bit of warm milk to finally fall asleep, with the cold sharpened metal pipe on his hands.

Everything turned quiet and soon he was standing in his apartment with the sun shining through the windows along with a blue cloudless sky in the background.

"Guess who's back?" Kalvin spoke aloud with unconcealed excitement in his voice.

With the metal spear in his hand he walked out of the building and onto the parking lot.

Looking at his wound, he felt nothing no tingling or anything of the sort.

"I guess the speed up healing only works while in the nightmare world."

Thinking on how he got pulled into the nightmare world last time, he thought about the moth that had torn the surrounding scenery like it was painted on a canvas.

Thinking like this and concentrating hard, he imagined the surroundings to be like paper. Unexpectedly, it seemed to work very well.

"Lets see if this works." Like he was trying to poke the air with is improv spear (v2) he waved it around the air.

There, the spear got caught on something, instantly ripping the scenery apart.

Behind became visible the city, with its crimson red sky.

Slashing two more times, a big hole formed in the barrier, which he used to cross into the real nightmare world.

He had noticed the moment the barrier was breached, that his wound began tingling once more.

"Wait, this time the barrier was like paper, but last time it seemed like glass. Does that mean I can actually affect the barrier to a certain extend?"

As soon as he crossed the gap, the world covered by the barrier disappeared in its entirety not even leaving a trace.

Briefly Kal looked at the red moon hanging in the sky, mesmerized by its beauty. However he quickly caught himself again and went on to peruse his goals.

Knowing that his healing would be accelerated here, he did what everyone would do. He went to search for a gym. What happened when training, is that muscle fibers would tear, resulting in pain while they were regenerating. Because of the better healing in the Nightmare World, this process should be abele to be drastically shortened.

Obviously, since he had planned for all of this before, he had already learned the location of a nearby gym.

Without hesitation, with his spear in hand, he made himself on the way.

***

It had not taken all that long to find that place. Only about 15 minutes, now that he had a good idea of where he was actually going.

The gym, was located near an open and big street. Though with all the cars and the generally slightly more narrow streets, the location seemed less open than it originally was.

Surprisingly , the door was open. Though the light inside was off, it was still not all that difficult to see inside, with the moons light shining through the big windows.

This was quite advantageous for him, since he would not turn on the lights, since this action could attract attention to his location. He had not heard of any other murders in the city when he read the newspaper, es so he figured that there was no creature like the moth anywhere in the city. Still, he preferred to be prudent, just in case another monster had found its way into the city.

Not wanting to waste anymore of his precious time, he instantly started training.

He trained until his muscles would give out and after a short period of waiting he would once again push them to their breaking point. This he would repeat with all of his muscles until his whole body was tingling.

After the third time, his belly suddenly started growling.

"Guess all that training really makes you hungry. Maybe I should find some stuff to eat."

Waiting for the pain coursing through his body to die down, he very quickly got up and went to a nearby convenience store. There he grabbed a shopping cart, filling it with all sorts of food that was rich in protein.

He was somewhat surprised by the fact that many food items were still fresh. He was not quite sure, how the freezers were still running even though there were no other humans here to keep the energy plants fueled or to maintain them. In general he constantly wondered who had constructed all the structures like buildings here anyway.

Nothing of that really mattered to him currently though. He just continued his training after having eaten some food. Knowing the time in this space was limited(he had set his alarm to 8 in the morning which would leave him with about 11 hours) he did not even attempt to properly cook any of the food.

He repeated the cycle over ten times. Train eat repeat.

While he was waiting for his muscles to recover however, he constantly trained the psychic ability.

By now he was already capable of lifting two paper clips simultaneously. He was so profficient, that he could divert some of his concentration to other things while levitating objects.

Now, even while he was working out, he could train his mind as well.

While working out, Kalvin noticed something strange, everything he would heal, he could feel some kind of energy rushing into his body, changing it on a fundamental level.

While normally, even after 10 workout sessions, the results should not be as noticeable, he was clearly feeling his body change.

It was like the energy was not only helping him to regenerate, but also optimizing his muscle fibers on a cellular level.

He was feeling a rise in his energy. Almost like he had drunk a whole three cups of coffee.

Though the comparison was kind of crude, it fit with what he was experiencing at the moment.

The energy helped him focus his mind and eased the headaches he was feeling.

The moment his body had healed, the energy stopped flooding into his body.

"Its like the energy only responds to injuries or pain."

Wanting to continue feeling that energy and learning more about it, the first thing he did was to train again, to give his body a way to obtain that energy once more.

He was sure that learning more about it would be beneficial.