"Yonathan!!" The boy yelled at the top of his lungs. Exhaustion could be heard very clearly in his voice. He was barely even able to pronounce the old man's na properly between his breaths. "Did I make it?!"
"..." The old man stared blankly at Arthur as if he were seeing so kind of alien. This was the first ti in a very long ti that he was truly and utterly speechless about sothing. Even his mind refused to comprehend what kind of monstrosity he had just witnessed.
'This kid… Is he even human?'
Yonathan knew very well how hard this process was. Each lap would double the difficulty from the previous one, and by the 50th-60th lap, the body would've already reached its limit, and every single lap after that, the only thing one could use is their will. No amount of stamina or strength could accommodate sothing as taxing as this… Only sheer will could push soone to pull it off.
Yet, this boy didn't simply do the 100 laps, and he didn't simply do them in a ridiculous ti. He had done 150 laps… Fifty more than the initial goal. That number was sothing only Yonathan could understand.
'Each lap after the 100th lap would be harder than the 100 laps combined… And yet, he did 50 more… What kind of monstrosity is this?' He shuddered.
"You did, child. You did finish… Better than expected." Eventually, the old man replied while trying to keep his tone calm as usual.
"Is that so…?" The boy muttered as he felt relief wash over his body. Looking up to the dark abyss above, he felt all the exhaustion and pain return as strong as ever, if not stronger. His eyes squinted, and he stopped breathing for a mont.
'I don't know. I really don't know how I… Finished… I just walked till my legs felt like they were about to explode.' He mused as a smile appeared on his face. Even through all of that pain, he felt a deep sense of accomplishnt wash over his mind.
He was happy, very happy. This was by far the hardest challenge he had faced, and those last laps felt like the worst hell in this world. He didn't even know where all that will and desire ca from, but Arthur felt proud of himself for being able to achieve such a thing.
'I want to cry. Good work, Arthur. You deserve a pat on the back.' He smiled.
"Can I get these things off of now?" Arthur asked.
"Go ahead." The old man replied.
"Thank you."
Saying that, Arthur slowly lifted his exhausted hand, only to feel it drop to the ground again. He couldn't even raise it a few inches, and he certainly couldn't move his fingers. He tried to do it again, only to fail miserably.
"Umm, can you guys give a hand here?" He asked.
"..."
A few seconds later, two n approached him and started deactivating the stone discs and pulling them off his body. Almost imdiately, Arthur felt as if his entire body had been pulled out of the at grinder it was in.
All the pressure that constantly crushed his body vanished, and it felt as if he had suddenly gained wings. Through his exhaustion, he moved his hand to stand up.
"Huh?"
However, funnily enough, his hand moved way faster than he expected, and it hit the ground at an awkward angle. 'What the hell is going on? My body is so fast! I feel like I can fly!'
Although his legs were still shaking, Arthur felt like he was completely weightless. His body felt like it was just air, and he could easily move it as if it was air. Still, he carefully planted his quick hand on the dirt and stood up.
Surprisingly, he faced no resistance going up. It was as if gravity didn't work with him anymore.
"Hahaha, what the hell?! I'm really light!" Jumping in the air, Arthur could easily reach several ters in the air without much effort, and this was all when his body was still very exhausted. He couldn't even imagine how better he would be once he recovers to his peak.
"Yonathan! I'm really feeling so much faster! Did I already learn Exo-Burst?"
"No, not yet. You still have several other steps to achieve." The old man said.
"So, what do you think of my performance? Did I do well?" The boy asked as he approached the man. He popped a stamina potion out and drank it quickly to recover so energy.
"Do well?" Yonathan raised an eyebrow. "You have finished the task in 7 hours."
"7 hours?"
'That felt like a week.' The boy mused. 'But it's quite good that I did it in less than a day. I will make it back to the surface as quickly as possible.'
"Hmm, well, that's not bad. How long does it usually take for one to finish 100 laps?" The boy asked casually. 'Considering my talent, I assu it would take them maybe a day? Yeah, a day sounds very reasonable.'
"Usually… For average talents, it takes several days."
"Several days?!" Arthur blurted out. "Man, that's way more than I expected. What about good talents?"
"A good talent would usually finish in two days."
"Two days…"
"As for the great talents, they would take a day to do it. The extrely rare talents half a day and there is only one single person in history who did it in less than 10 hours. Well, now it's two people."
"..."
"..."
"Wow, so I did do very, very well." Arthur smiled as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Indeed." The old man replied in a mysterious tone. "Well, take an hour break, and then we will continue with the next steps of your training."
"What? No need for that break. I can still con-"
Before Arthur could even finish the sentence, Yonathan pushed his cane into Arthur's chest gently. That small push made the boy stumble back and fall with a dazed look.
"You can't even stand up properly. Resting is as important as training, so don't think it's useless." He said before he turned around and walked back inside, leaving Arthur sitting there.
When the door closed, the boy arched his neck down. "Man… That old man is really rude." He muttered. "I guess I can use this ti to take a breather. I'm feeling quite exhausted."
Pulling out a mana and stamina potion, Arthur chugged them eagerly to recharge his tired body. After that, he laid there on the dirt to rest as much as possible. His mind recounted everything that had happened to him during the training.
Especially when that illusion of Isla appeared in his vision. Her words were still replaying in his head again and again. As much as he knew that they weren't real and that it was simply his mind telling him cruel things to make him stop, he still found them to be quite thought-provoking.
'So that's what my subconscious mind thinks of Isla. It's a little annoying.' He blinked. 'I didn't think I would have such negative thoughts plaguing my mind, and I didn't know it.'
A//N: Thank you all for the gifts, golden tickets, and PS. Let's keep it up!
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