Chapter 5: Workout
Grrr.
I guess now is the time for a little snack.
I close the door and make my way downstairs towards the kitchen.
“Reminder, don’t forget your luggage at the door” I tell myself. Then I flicked on the kitchen light.
On the countertop next to the oven was a message. In Writing. Not too many people even use paper anymore unless for something important. Any type of information can be found if a person looks in the right places.
Skimming the note, I see at the bottom ‘Love Christine’. I take a deep breath and prepare myself because I have a gut feeling a specific part of me will not like this.
The letter read, “ Hey Ray, I know it has been a long time since we spoke and I have not been myself as of lately.”
I read each and every word slowly. One part of me felt indifferent while the other was gradually being frustrated.
“Look, it’s not you but me. And I lied about being busy, I just did not want to go with you on vacation. I’m sorry.”
Damn! My anger begins to boil inside but I forcibly calm myself down and read on further.
“You going on vacation gave me time to think for myself.”
If it was not for me, your husband would have been dead. And so would I if I did not overdraft on my soul to save this body.
“We truly had something special and I love you I do. It’s just that— “ Nope, it is settled. I will continue to get pissed the more I read so I resume reading in anger. “— you don’t make me feel like me any more. I mean my god Ray the last time we did it was four months ago.”
AAAAHHHHH! I SHOULD HAVE ERASED YOU AND SAVE MYSELF THE TROUBLE!
Damn. That guy really loved her. It PISSES ME OFF I cannot cut the connection between me and him.
“Patience Ray, you need to be patient.”
I forced myself away from the note and sat down in the living room.Then I begun to regulate my breathing sucking in a deep breath of air to exhaling for twice as long. I maintained this state until the emotions boiling inside cooled down. Before that, this technique was used to master one’s inner state and not be bogged down by their emotions. This world refers to it as meditation but it is more of lesser importance here. In my past, practicing this technique effectively was the prerequisite to controlling mana.
Regardless, I struck fortune this time. What I believe to be a world scarce of mana was duly wrong. I never took the time to properly meditate on my recent experiences. I became shortsighted.
From what seemed like an eternity spent crossing the afterlife to facing the maelstrom, saving this man’s body and soul, enduring the stimuli of a new world, and experiencing another man’s wife leaving me deeply impacted me. I refer to her as someone else but that person is now apart of me so she should be ours.
Anyone would need time to collect themselves. I do but before I can, the rest of the letter needs to be read.
I prepared myself again. I know this would make me angry but this is the new life I accepted and resumed reading.
“Ray, I like you but I don’t love you anymore.”
Nothing to see here, just anger and utter disappointment. Looking back at it, Christine would refuse every one of Ray’s advances with an excuse. Either she was tired, not feeling well, frustrated, all kinds of excuses. Clearly, her love had extinguished a long time ago. Alas, I continue reading.
“Look, I just need some time apart to get a handle on things.
Love Christine.”
Love my ass. My anger ignited once again begins to boil boil fervently but I hurried to the living room, sat down, and begun to meditate.
Inhale deeply… Exhale twice as long. I repeated several times before I truly felt calm again. The anger was still there but my resentment begun to grow. Not only towards Christine but my family too. My employer treats me better than this even if I was not paid.
I meditated even more.
Time flew by past then the morning rays begun to seep past the window blinds. I advanced towards the window and peeked through the blinds. Slowly, as I moved around, I caught a hint of a big red sun approaching the horizon.
My stomach growls loudly. I begin to cook up a quick meal. Lean beef with a small patch of white rice and some greens on the side. Ever since Ray was 17, he moved out the Junior home to Wenyuela after passing the EOA or End-of-Adolescent testing. In Wenyuela, he got a simple job arranging shipments and supplies for Vital Industries which payed for his expenses and food. Thanks to that, he learned how to cook relatively simple meals which he still does now since Christine cannot cook.
Ray always told himself that he would start losing weight by first changing his diet. After long hours spent looking at what he should eat and their proportions, he finally decided on the diet he needed. The only problem was he never did it because he was either too tired, too much to worry about, or too whatever.
I will do it for you and show you a body unlike any other. Lies, this is being done for myself but you can enjoy it too. Also, I have my motives t good body is the other prerequisite to controlling mana so I have my reasons too.
After the meal, I begun to meditate once again. Just like before, I perceived the mana around me. However, my perception of mana at the moment is inadequate for my goals. No need to hurry as everything will come in due time I know for certain but this is good. I feel my perception of mana slightly rise after each section.
With the rest of the day to myself, I went to go change into suitable outfit for my next task. Buying appropriate athletic gear and getting into shape.
As I was about to leave, my phone vibrates. Not an emergency message this time so I check to see the recipient. It's my mother.
The message reads, “Come home, we need to talk.” Ray got messages like this a lot since he moved out. Every time he would show up later and it was never for a good reason.
Instead, I head to my gray little block and ride down to Glenns View athletic facilities.
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Only about ten minutes from my home, I arrive shortly to see three large buildings.
One building customizes and sells athletic wears, my objective.
Another host the gym equipment which is what people primarily come to the athletic facilities for, to work out.
The last is a building larger than the other two combined was built to train Glenns View militiamen to be enlisted into Rhea’s army. Women are allowed too though very few in number among grunts aka infantry.
A planet usually raises their own army and cooperates with Galactic Space Command for a number of projects whether that is infrastructure work on planet or other miscellaneous work outside in space.
As soon as I arrived, I went to the athletic wears building to buy shoes customized for myself. The technology is amazing. You place your feet in a machine then it illustrates an image of the contours of your feet and designs the best shoe for you and the training you do with the best materials you can afford. Literally, the image later gets printed into reality using whatever material you chose. Although, a simple shop like this has the most basic of materials and machines.
Whatever, even basic printed wears is better than pre designed wears by a large margin. Only cost me five hundred UP too. Solid darker colors are cheaper too. I got mine in black.
I put my new pair on. The shoes worked like a charm and before I knew it, I was at the second floor of the gym running on their track. I never knew my feet could feel so good after running.
Too bad I only ran for about two and a half minutes before my breath ran out. I underestimated how big I am but everything in due time. Over the next couple of months, this fat will be butter in the sun.
I moved to the first floor and spot many people working out. Some doing bench press, squatting, weighted-pullups, or even a crowd of people attending an instructor’s class.
As a newcomer to the area, most men noticed me but went back to talking to their friends or focusing on their workout. Women on the other hand looked at me in slight disdain, even those in worse shape than I am! But did not dwell on it any longer since it is a sight they are use to.
As much as Ray looked up certain exercises online, I knew how to do them but this would count as his first time working out…at a gym. Hell, this is my first time working out in a new world and at a gym.
Seriously, majority of the people here are fit and occupy most of the racks for a long time. Especially those bastards in groups taking their time.
I cannot complain though. My first time here so I begin stretching and warming my body up until a bench press or squat rack opens up.
After a while, a woman finishes her squat rack and I walk towards their shortly. She did not put the weight up but it does not seem like a lot so I start with that.
I got into stance under the bar then hoisted it up.
Fuck! What the hell was this woman doing! That mess was freaking heavy. Took every ounce of strength in my body to lower it back onto the rack.
Ok, so a bar is 45 pounds approximately. She had two 45 pounds, one 25 pound, and one 10 pound. Ok, so that adds up to 125 pounds which is approximately a third of my weight. Times it by two then add 45 pounds to it and I just had 295 pounds on my back. And a woman squatted it multiple times fairly easy.
No other way to explain it but you weak as hell Ray. Damn, that means I am weak as hell too.
My legs already hurt from trying to offload that one rep back onto the rack. Hell, can’t even call that a rep too.
“Patience Ray, you need patience” I spoke to myself. And I did, I took all the weights off and begun to practice on my form using the bar alone. I made sure each rep was perfect. I kept my face looking forward, legs shoulder width apart, bar rested on my back muscle under my neck, and squatted until my legs were parallel to the ground.
In total I only did sixteen perfect reps. Despite that, it was only the beginning.
It was a feeling like no other yet very familiar too. As if I had done this in the past before. It is true. I have done this before and I will repeat it again. Although, training my body is not for survival this time. A big bonus I daresay.
After resting, I added ten pounds in total to the bar and rep as many as I can. Then I added twenty pounds in total to the bar and rep as many as I can. Then thirty, forty, and further until I reach a total weight of 120 pounds including the bar.
It was amazing.
My legs that were strained before were pulsating with energy. As if it gained its second wind but I knew it was tired. What I did at the squat rack, I repeated on every other exercise. Work on the form then slowly transition up until I felt close to failure.
I did that with bench press, barbell lunges, incline press, hyper extensions, pull-ups, bent rows, and a lot more. My heart was beating incredibly fast and I felt like I drunk a whole gallon of water. Explains why I went to the bathroom three times.
I hit every muscle in my body that I could then ran on the second floor until my energy reserves ran out. When I finished, I was drenched in my sweat. And when I passed a mirror and seen my reflection, my forehead was shining.
Great. It felt really great.
After running, I went down to the first floor to exit the entrance and some of the guys would look at me and nod. Others when I passed them would greet me.
What surprised me even more was I condensed my workout to roughly an hour and a half. My body has not even adapted yet so total time spent in the gym will decrease.
I exited out to my car all wet knowing very well it was going to smell like me more intensely from now on.
I don’t mind. I went home, ate a couple of meals, studied a bit on what I am working on tomorrow because vacation is over, and went to sleep.
It was a good night's rest.
The only problem was no one told me I was gonna be sore out my ass when I woke up the next morning. Nah, I already knew that.
Thank my luck this planet's rotation is twenty-six hours.