Chapter 4: Jane's Lack of Coordination

During dinner, Jane's mother spoke excitedly to her about their morning plans. Jane's mother had always been involved in some form of exercise. Due to it being a village, their surrounding area did not offer much in the way of attraction outside exploration of nature and tourist-related activities. The entirety of the village could be crossed within less than an hour's walk.

Jane's mother, Olivia, spent every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning jogging one of the several trails along the outer regions of the two mountains that their village resided between. During her mother's words, Jane only picked out a few key phrases: "head lamp", "5 A.M.", "bought new shoes and clothes", and what gave her the most trouble, "GPS watch to log your workouts so we can compare your pace and distance from now on."

Jane could only smile and nod as her mother commented on suggestions from her father. The more she listened, she was wondering if she had figured these two all wrong. With what she had suspected in this village being a hide-away for supernaturals, she wondered if these two had changed their physical appearance shortly after her birth. It would be a better explanation than being stolen, or my parents being dead and these two being some close friends who decided to raise me. Jane thought.

She only thought this because she was starting to see a resemblance in her own plotting methods taking root as they discussed her future torture. She had to get it from somewhere.

After dinner, Jane hid away in her room. She was ahead, again, in all of her classes. So, no homework for her. She decided to work on Meditation. The books suggested that it was best done before sleep so that the cleared mental state allowed one to better access the subconscious and retain those insights upon waking. Naturally, those authors stated it was not apparent until done repeatedly over months of practice.

Jane finished her preparations for bed and sat down on her floor with her legs crossed and fingers resting against her knees with the palms up and middle fingers touching her thumbs, her back resting against the bed. With her weak body, she wasn't able to sit upright in a still posture without toppling over.

After several minutes of imagining her thoughts that intruded into her mental state being tossed into a river's water that moved away from her, she was finally able to sink into her breathing and enter a tranquil place. This lasted for a couple of minutes before she had an itch.

Jane repeated this entering and exiting her tranquil place for the next few hours before she eventually lasted a full fifteen minutes, to be knocked out of her meditative state by a system prompt.

[table=white]Meditation – Beginner 6Through calming your mind and centering yourself, you've found the benefits of self-reflection and introspection. Stillness brings oneness with the Universe and all life within it. True masters of Meditation can sustain themselves solely on the energy of the Universe.

Each level increase in Meditation brings a 1% quicker recovery rate of Mana per minute while meditating.

Gains towards Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck have a chance to slightly increase while meditating.[/table]

Jane wanted to cry. Sulking in her mind, she directed a thought towards the system. Please only show these prompts after I open my eyes and exit a meditative state.

The prompt flashed twice at her before disappearing. She wasn't sure if the system was laughing or offering an acknowledgement.

It was already near 23:00, and she wanted to try meditating again before her mom interrupted her in the morning. So, Jane went to bed.

~*~

[table=white]Intelligence +1

Wisdom +1[/table]

Jane opened her eyes to see the notification of having successfully raised her stats. She didn't raise another level in Meditation, but did raise her stats. She had spent over 45 minutes in successful meditation, so Jane suspected that after an hour her stats went up by one.

Remembering the percentage rates at a possible stat increase in Yoga, and the similar wording in Meditation's description, Jane suspected that these gains would decrease in frequency over time as her levels raised. Which is likely why the system is so freely tossing them at her as she deduces its operation.

In any event, at least it seemed to listen and not interrupt her with the advancement. This stat growth also made her grimace for what this morning held. It meant that she probably had to exercise for an hour before gaining any benefits. Still, she couldn't complain since a normal person would need to exercise for weeks before seeing even a 10% gain.

Jane got ready in a pair of sweatpants and shirt. It was cool this morning and Jane decided to save her 'cute' workout clothes for the gym tomorrow. She'd freeze in those.

Her mother gave her a banana as she entered the kitchen and wouldn't let her leave until she had at least 16oz of water. When asked why, she was only told, "Because I'm not stopping if you cramp."

The woman was ruthless.

Leaving the kitchen, the two went into the backyard and started stretching. This was something Jane was familiar with now after having read those Yoga books. When her mother noticed that she was doing a few basic poses in addition to touching her toes and rolling her ankles around she asked, "Jane, are you doing Yoga?"

Jane smiled and replied, "I picked up some books from the library. I thought it might help with getting fit."

This resulted in her mother tearing up like she had met a long-lost workout partner. "That's great! I could never get your father to go to a class with me. Some of the ladies in the village meet at alternating houses in an hour on the days I go jogging. I was hoping to talk you into it after your muscles start stiffening up, but now I know you're interested we'll just run an extra kilometer to Berta's."

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"An extra kilometer! Mom, I am incredibly out of shape as it is. Aren't you suppose to start small with jogging and walking and work your way up over a period of weeks before you even do 5km?" Jane cried out in a horrified voice.

"Nonsense. You're my daughter. You'll be running marathons in a month, now stop talking and follow me." With this, Olivia took off without waiting for Jane, at a steady 7:30 minutes per mile pace.

~*~

Jane's hour of pain, as she began to think of it, was spent trailing an ever-distancing silhouette of the woman who was likely a demon and stole her mother's body. Fifteen minutes into the grueling pace, Jane was rewarded with an increase in Vitality. Which was fortunate, because her lungs were frozen and her chest was collapsing.

The slight increase did not help her physique that much, but it did tell her that the amount of effort she put into developing herself set the frequency of stat advancement. This became more apparent after they reached rockier terrain.

The remainder of her run, because it was hardly a jog now, could be summarized as follows: not see tree root, nearly twist ankle, dodge oncoming branch, trip over hidden rock, hop to maintain balance, slip on moss, be chided by evil woman in front, lose shoe and yelled at to keep the pace, whine as rocks tear her foot, repeat.

[table=white]Dexterity +1[/table]

By the time they reached the woman name Berta's house she had gained 3 points, for a total of 12 Dexterity. She thought the System was feeling sorry for her after she lost her shoe, because the gains got slightly more frequent.

While Jane was picking out slivers of rock and splinters of tree bark, a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders. "Well, look what we have here! Olivia, is this your daughter? She'd have to be to be crazy enough to exercise with you!"

Jane got a feeling she was going to like this woman.

Her mother smiled at the figure behind Jane and yelled back, "She had me guessing for years, Bert, but her first time out and she didn't even stop once. And she only lost one shoe!"

Really, Mom! Jane screamed in her mind as she massaged her foot and took off the other shoe to reveal a bruised ankle that she was sure was going to swell. As the shoe came off, Berta walked around and squatted in front of her.

"I know just the thing to help you, girl." Berta said earnestly, rubbing Jane's ankle and looking into her eyes.

"Really? I suppose some ice would be nice." Jane said.

"Psh! It's Saturday, girl. And you're in Berta's house. Ice is for pansies. You're going to join our group for a special two hour Yoga session!" Berta stood up as she spoke and thrust her fist in to the air.

Jane could only groan and be dragged into the woman's large living room where some other women were gathered. Olivia followed along, almost skipping in anticipation. I've been kidnapped by masochists, Jane thought as she suffered in silence.

As Berta left to start the session, Jane took a moment to notice something odd about everyone. They all had unreadable pieces of information above their heads like her parents. Just what is this? She wondered. Everyone here had to be well-above her own level. Even Mrs. Pettigrew was visible. So they must be at least above level 25.

~*~

Jane didn't get much time to focus on her new questions. She spent two hours contorting her body in ways she was sure defied physics. This wasn't any Yoga she read about in books. Lying in a now-cold bath at home, Jane could only shake her head and shudder at what she experienced this morning.

"Still," she muttered to herself, "I did get some good stat increases and three level ups for my Yoga skill."

She opened up her Player Information window and smiled.

[table=white]Player Information:Name: Jane BlackthorneClass: PlayerHP: 110/110MP: 190/190Title: NoneAffiliation: NoneStats:Strength: 10Vitality: 11Dexterity: 14Intelligence: 19Wisdom: 21Luck: 19 (+10 System Access Bonus)[/table]

The only stat she was questioning was Luck. She felt the increase of 5 points odd, and each increase seemed to happen as she was about to snap her spine. Maybe it was the System taking pity on me and trying to keep me functional to not end the fun of watching me suffer so soon. She mused in a macabre humor.

"Well, at least now all my stats are in double digits." Jane confirmed to herself. She was now at least average in all stats for her level, which was still 1. "Still not enough to tell about how people's total level works, since I'm only 57% better than someone with all stats at 10. Yoga is going to be slow in raising Vitality and Strength, but the Gym should help that some tomorrow morning."

Jane could only look forward to what insights the gym workout will bring in how stats are raised with a smile. Which immediately faltered when she realized she was going with her mother.