Training the Hard Way [solo/Training]

Altair had learned from past experience not to get complacent with his physique. He had since been vigilant in his training, and always made time to get in his workout. But lately, it seemed as though his strength wasn’t enough. He had seen various things since his time as a mere shepherd in Balbadd. For instance, two entire races of people whose strength far outmatched his own. The first, was the Fanalis. They were experts of martial combat, and able to break bones with a single punch. He had once seen one bust through the ceiling of a temple ruin after falling a great distance, and had sustained little to no injury from it. The second were the Imuchakk. Giants in every sense, they could shatter entire bodies with a swing of their mighty fists. Even the weaker of the Imuchakk, like Yakuroro, were still formidable opponents. If Altair wanted to keep up in this world, he would need to get even stronger. If he wanted to conquer the dungeon, he would need to get stronger. If he wanted to be of any use to the slaves, he would need to get stronger.

~193/1000~

Altair decided to start with actually toughening up his body by building up his stamina. He spent a while thinking about how he would accomplish this. Then, an idea struck him. What about the sand? It was coarse, loose, and generally unforgiving. They say just walking through sand is like covering twice the distance of walking on a road. It would be the perfect exercise to build up stamina. And so, Altair ran. Every day, before the sun came up, he would run across the dunes until he was exhausted. Every day, he ran farther and farther, for longer and longer. After a while of doing this, it took him until the hottest part of the day after running since morning to get tired. When he was satisfied with his progress, he turned to his upper body. Again, the sand turned out to be a great ally. It had just enough give to take his punches, while still giving him a solid surface with which to work. Every morning Altair would pick a sand dune, and pulverize it until he could no longer feel his arms. He did this for weeks, until he felt he was prepared to start the next phase of his training.

~398/1000~

Now that he had trained his stamina, it was time to start working on his speed. All he needed was a good place to perform them. He searched for an area to suit his needs, and finally found it in the quicksand flats. They say that only the truly fleet of foot can travel over the flats without being devoured by them. But before he was ready to take on this challenge, he started his training in the streets. He would wait until the busiest part of the day and then run as fast as he could through the crowds of people, weaving in and out of them until he reached the other side of the market. This however proved to be rather annoying for the townsfolk, so he was stopped. But Altair was already confident that he could do it. He went to the quicksand flats and took off his shoes. With bare feet, he sprinted at full speed across the flats as though he were running over air itself. His full speed was a marvel to behold, as it far outpaced anything that another had tried before. He ran on the flats until sundown each day, proving to himself that he could go even farther.

~605/1000~

With his stamina and speed training completed, Altair only had one thing left to train, his actual strength. To do this Altair chopped down a tree, cut off sections of the trunk, and tied those sections to his arms and legs. They weighed him down severely, causing his first couple of days wearing them to seem incredibly slow. After a week of just going through his regular routine with the weights, he started to exercise with them. He went back to his old training habits: running on the sand, punching the sand, running over the quicksand flats, as well as the standard exercises. He did this for a long time, until eventually the weights felt like nothing more than his arms would without them. So then he doubled the weight. It wasn’t as hard as first putting on the weights, but it still slowed his progression to a walk. It took a few more weeks of this before he was finally ready to take them off, and try out his newfound strength. When the weights fell, he felt as though his body was as light as air, and he was ready to test himself.

~799/1000~

Altair walked to the deepest part of the quicksand flats, called the Lightning Sand Pits. From his position he could see the other side some one hundred meters across the way. Altair backed up to give himself a head start, and then bolted for the edge. He jumped from the ledge, and landed sprinting. The sand tried to swallow him up, but Altair was too fast. The moment his feet touched the ground, they were already gone, propelling him forwards at incredible speeds. Some of the giant ant lions crawled out of the ground, aiming to grab him with their pincers and devour him. These, he struck with his rod, killing them instantly. Altair dashed from side to side over the sand, running at his top speed the whole time. When he had killed the rest of the ant lions, he finally ran over to the other side, where he fell to the ground, exhausted. He breathed heavily as people cheered. He was congratulating himself in his mind as well. It was truly a job well done to have come this far in so short a time. Altair lifted himself up, and walked home then, ready for the longest nap of his life.

~1002/1000~