Strong Body Strong Mind

Huff...

Huff...

Brak!

Ramero falls to the ground, panting for his life after doing a few sets of physical exercises. 'For God's sake, how can this body be this weak? That Knight's Rancor poison really does wonders to me' he thought while trying to catch his breath.

Expecting to get at least nearing ten, turns out he manage to do only two push-ups and squats.

Despite his best effort his arms and chest muscles are throbbing just from doing one push-up, the second rep is hazardous to do. His legs are also in a similar condition, they gave up right after he did the second rep.

It was definitely the Knight's Rancor poison's doings, he curses the person that poisoned him.

After resting for quite a while he kept doing the exercises in order to get the first reward, that is the only thing he can do right now. But he doesn't mind doing this, the first step is always the hardest and he doesn't have other things to do anyway.

With that, more than an hour passed as Ramero falls to the rough ground once again.

'I finally did it... that's so damn hard to do' Ramero thought while gasping even worse, he finally manages to do 10 Push-ups and 10 Squats leaving him with only running 1 kilometer. If he did that then he would gain the normal rewards.

Now that he only needs to run 1 kilometer, Ramero frowns as he's currently in this cramped cell.

Ramero roughly measures the length of the walls and guessed that his cell is probably around 9 meters square. Counting inside his head, he needs to run about 84 laps before he completes the 1-kilometer run.

But there's one slight problem, his eyes are already blurry due to exhaustion.

Leaning back against the wall behind him, Ramero closes his eyes to rest his body for a bit, 'I can probably push through this 1-kilometer run, but there's no water and I might get dehydrated at this point.'

Although he can force his body to run, he would feel terrible after he finishes the quest.

Ramero contemplated whether he should proceed or be grateful and called it a day, but then the system answered with a box-shaped message appearing in his vision. It made his eyes light up bright in response.

[Finishing the Strong Mind Strong Body first quest will reward Rejuvenation to the host]

[Rejuvenation will recover the host's body to the maximum, the host will not feel exhausted or in bodily pain and also be given sufficient nutrition to grow stronger. In a sense, the host would be able to get stronger faster]

Upon reading this, Ramero got a newfound hope as he now can push himself to the limit.

With this rejuvenation that would be rewarded to him in completing this set of exercises, there's no need for him to be afraid that he would be too exhausted. Knowing that this place is a Gladiator School, he might need his strength but that doesn't matter anymore.

Although he was quite tired already, he started running around the small jail cell.

It's quite easy to reach 10 laps and twenty laps around the small jail cell, Ramero managed to get that in a few minutes, but it increasingly gets harder. Not only that, but the air inside this underground place is stuffy making it hard to breathe properly.

Ramero fought all of that with nothing but his mentality, he's determined to finish 84 laps.

Needing a heavy break here and there and even went asleep for twenty minutes or so due to his body limitation, he finally nearing the end goal and by now he was already wobbling and on the brink of collapse.

'Come on... 4 more laps' Ramero thought, trying his hardest to move his burning and sore legs.

But remembering the time he was trained by the instructor back in his home world to the point of feeling like he was about to die, this is nothing for him as he steadily adjusted to his new body. Slowly, his new body is responding to his strong will.

Going through the last four hazardous laps, he finally finished it and instantly falls to the ground.

[Run 1 Km - 1/1!]

[Congratulation on completing the Strong Body Strong Mind Main Quest! The host has the normal rewards for having to rest in between and received 10 Points, 10 Exp, and Rejuvenation]

[10 Points will be instantly deducted to pay the host's debt]

[Remaining debt: 49,990 Points]

Ramero that saw this notification smiled triumphantly, 'I managed to do 1, nice...'

Just as he was lying on the ground with pure exhaustion and his face is very pale due to forcing his body beyond his limit, a warmth emerge all over his body like a soothing hand caressing his entire body. It feels comfortable and pleasing.

In a minute, his body started steaming as Ramero feels better and better by the second.

Upon another minute he's already standing back on his feet with his eyes opened wide, he gazes down at his body in absolute shock. Raising one of his hands, he clenched it a couple of times as the exhaustion disappeared completely.

'Nomos, how in the world did you manage to do that...?' Ramero mutters inside his head.

Everything that is happening around him is still like a dream for him, the fact that he got transferred into this body, gaining a system that almost feels like a game, and feeling many miraculous things that he thought were not possible.

Ramero finds it hard to believe this, but he experienced it first hand and he can't refute it.

[The system is bound to the host's body and thus can perform many things at the cost of completing quests and spending points, it's advised for the host to quickly grasp the situation to maximize the situation]

A smile crept onto Ramero's face as he read through the system's message.

'For all the years I spent in my home world, I always wanted to become physically monstrous like Charlie that can take out people with his bare hands in a gunfight but I can't. I also wanted to prove to my family that I can be a great person, but I can't, my home world is revolved around money and there's no place there for someone like me that strive for individual prowess'

'But right now... with this... I can do all of that!' Ramero exclaimed inside his head.

Ramero has spent many days fantasizing about a world where the strong reign, he sometimes wonders how it would feel like to live in medieval times where the strong is respected and given the appropriate rewards.

Now God is smiling upon him, he was given a chance to experience all of that.

Out of everything that he knows about medieval times, Gladiators are the absolute place where the strong is viewed in high regard. Something that Ramero is yearning to feel, and now he gets to experience that firsthand to satiate the fire inside of him.

Because of that, the smile on his face becomes wider and wider the more he realized the situation.

Like an excited kid that has been given candy, Ramero didn't waste any time and immediately went to the push-up position again. Since he got rejuvenation to help him, he decided to spend most of his time finishing this quest.

Just as he begin his push-ups, Ramero widened his eyes when he realized something.

'Wait, I can only do 2 previously. But now I've already done 3 and I feel like I can do two more' Ramero thought in surprise, he didn't expect to get the result this fast. Being used to his normal world, it would probably need a couple of days to gain some results.

But it seems now is not the case, this is his new reality now.

Rejuvenation is probably the thing that makes him progress this fast, and at this rate, he couldn't wait to be at the level of physique back in his home world. Before he died, he can do 40 perfect military push-ups in under one minute.

It's the lowest score in his platoon, Delta who is ranked above him did 60.

Charlie that is the best in term of physicality can do more than 100 perfect military push-ups in under one minute, he's freakishly strong and that number alone reflect how strong he is. Many would probably say it's impossible, but Ramero has seen it firsthand.

Not one bit of luck is involved, it's just dedication to reach the apex of efficient strength.

'Forget being as strong as my previous physique, I can probably reach Charlie's level or even surpass him!' Ramero's eyes glimmer with hope, he then spent the rest of the night training non-stop in order to increase his power.

A couple of hours pass, and Ramero is leaning on the wall.

Ramero has finished the Strong Body Strong Mind Main Quest three times now excluding the first time he completed it and compared to before his strength now increased tremendously. In one go, he can almost do ten push-ups and squats instantly, and only take two breaks to finish the 1 Km run which is a huge improvement in one day.

Finishing two or three more times, he should be able to actually finish the main quest.

Now that he decided to take a break, not because of exhaustion but because he wanted to due to his entire tunic being drenched in sweat and feeling sticky, Ramero decided to see his status window wanting to see his numeric improvements.

~

[Status Window]

Name: Ramero Nil Elsher

Race: Human

Level: 1 (40/100 Exp)

Rank: Infant

Bloodline: Warrior's Descent

Active Skill(s): -

Passive Skill(s): -

Strength: 3 -> 6

Dexterity: 3

Constitution: 2 -> 4

Willpower: 10

Attributable Stat Points: 0

Loan Debt: 49,960 Points

Points: 0

~

Upon scanning his status window briefly he finds that his strength and constitution have increased.

'Despite it looking like a game, if I train hard then I would probably be able to increase my stats. But it should be peaked somewhere or get slower. At some point, leveling up probably will be the best way to increase my stats' Ramero thought before nodding his head inwardly.

Just then a message from the system appears, notifying him of something.

[There are three effective ways to increase the host's stat points. A conventional method such as training is viable, the other two are leveling up and using points to increase stats. The host can use these three ways to increase stats points]

Ramero rubs his chin in thought, he's curious about the third way through the usage of points.

'How many points are needed to get 1 stat point?'

[50 points for 1 stat point, and this cost will increase the higher the host's stats points become]

Although it's quite cheap for one stat point costing only 50 points which means five times completing the main quest, Ramero can only smile wryly and shakes his head. Even though it's cheap, he can't afford it.

With 50,000 Points in debt, he'll be stagnated for quite a while because of that damn poison.

Disregarding the increased cost the higher his stats get, he's basically owed the system 1,000 stat points which are quite painful to think about. '1,000 stats points, how strong will I become if I have that kind of stats points? Can I punch through walls?'

But no matter how much he imagined it, he wouldn't be able to reach that for a long time.

Ramero doesn't feel dejected though since he's quite hopeful with this new life of his, the perfect life he wanted. Having the feeling that tomorrow is going to be a rough day, he decided that he would spend more time completing the main quest.

Just then he heard heavy breathing sounds seeping into his ears.

In reflex Ramero looks back to the wall and finds a small crack there, it leads to the jail cell beside him. It's the jail cell of the man that got whipped, and the heavy breathing sounds are coming from there.

From the sound of it, the person on the other side should be in a lot of pain.

"Hey, you good in there?" Ramero asked, talking through the small crack in the wall.

Out of nowhere, the heavy breathing sound paused for a bit, there were a couple of seconds of uncomfortable silence before the person on the other side replied, "Don't pity me, greenhorn. Your life is going to be way worse than mine tomorrow..."