His HP continued dropping and soon he was out, his next punch hitting the tree identical to all his previous punches but drew a hissing grimace from him before a smile blossomed as the remembered pain flooded his senses, an old friend returned, and with it, the sudden startling realization that this was the first pain from exercise he’d felt in … since I came here! I… HP is basically a pain killer and ingrained auto heal! This… Joe smiled at that point and didn’t stop his punching, actually reveling in the memory of the thudding shock wave of dulled pain sliding up his arm. The sudden return of pain was almost shocking, and overwhelming, but he pushed past it as he always had and was soon easily accepting the pain, and with it, a punishing workout that used his entire body as he began to destroy the tree with all his appendages, his fists, forearms, elbows, knees, shins, and feet pounding the tree to maintain his hardened limbs.
Huh… it really seems like this… Wait! Realization hit him and he almost stopped, but then quickly began again when he saw his HP rising again, frustration welling up in him. If I automatically heal, what am I going to do about my calluses and my hardened limbs! My body is going to go soft if I can’t keep training them! Joe grimaced, knowing exactly what would happen, although… would it matter? If I have insta healing with each strike, but… my HP recovery is going to be miniscule… If he wanted to keep his strikes strong and still be able to do minor damage to his own body, and thus keeping his recovery as high as possible… he would need to keep his body strengthened. And I’ll need to figure out how to strengthen the other three as well. If the body… well… maybe the heal counts as normal recovery, forming a callus instead of perfect … no… I don’t even have a scar from the kidney stab from the goblin! It’s healed without any of the benefits, or negatives… but… this is going to suck for training.
His thoughts meandered as he always did when doing his forms or strikes, the comfortable burn of his fists coursing through his body, although he did take a moment every once and awhile to check the state of his fists and legs before continuing. At his next check, he grimaced when he saw the bloody knuckles. Already? I’ve got to retrain so much now. I should have lasted much longer! Joe sighed at the loss of all his training from before but didn’t stop, shifting his strikes from punches to palm strikes as there was no point to continuing to bleed his knuckles. In fact, he’d gone just a bit too far, but he hadn’t expected to have lost so much of his hardening on his fists. They would heal, of course, but damaging them too much slowed down his strengthening regime. Besides, if his knuckles were already this weak, his palms would need development as well.
This time, his thoughts went to other losses he might have, thinking carefully. What else am I missing? I would have thought I would have noticed the lack of pain real fast, but… Hmm… He quickly delved back into his thoughts, dredging up the memories of previous training sessions and quickly noticed something was subtly off. My breathing, steady. The thud of my hands and stinging pain. His eyes flicked to his HP, finding it zeroed out. The steady beat of my heart. Rushing blood in my ears. The steadily growing burn in my muscles and the strai… wait! His eyes opened wide as he began increasing the speed of his strikes and kicks before finally adding in elaborate parries, dodges, flips, and acrobatics that he normally didn’t add to his fist and leg training. I don’t feel… tired! I’ve… Joe’s thoughts continued his rapid movements, but his breathing remained steady and there was no burn in his lungs or the muscles that were rapidly expanding and contracting along his entire body. Sweat did build up, as would be expected, the heat in his body from exercise more than enough to start the process. But, there was no burn of lactic acid build up. No burn of lungs wheezing like a bellows as he pushed himself much further than he usually did.
This doesn’t make sense… unless… is there something like stamina points to? But… I never saw… Joe’s eyes flicked towards his status, seeing his HP flat lined as expected but then found his eyebrows shooting up in surprise as his status seemed to blur and rapidly flutter, something causing a rapid flux of two objects struggling for supremacy of the same space. It continued for a few seconds before suddenly his main status page settled and a new addition was found, resting between HP and MP. SP! Holy… that just happened! What’s going on! That was definitely a reaction… but… Is that normal? Or…
Joe found himself stopping, noticing that his SP was almost at zero as well, and he quickly began his training again and then felt the remembered cherished burn hit his lungs and muscles. It wasn’t the slow build up he was used to, but not anything beyond what he would get with a normal workout. He soon found himself back in the zone with his palm strikes and kicks slamming against the tree even as he smiled in delight. This… this… He laughed out in joy and wildly continued his exercise as his body sunk back into the burn easily and he found himself burning through his natural reserves rapidly as well before he grimaced. Did I lose my endurance as well? Seriously?
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Joe pushed himself just a bit beyond comfort then began his cool down, slowing his movement and returning his body to a relaxed state carefully. As he did so, he grimaced at what he’d lost and almost began to scream in anger at the system that had screwed up his physique. As choice words slithered through his thoughts, he stopped, remembering what had just happened with the SP and went to look at his status again once he was able to shift his cool down to a slow walk around the courtyard.
He found it as he had before, with the new entry for SP added and he flipped through the other pages and even the log entries to find any information, but found nothing to explain what had happened beyond the thing just responding to his thoughts on stamina and endurance. This has never… well… wait, maybe the blessings? They didn’t show up … but maybe I just didn’t get one yet. But… ooh, how about the extra data that showed up after I learned about the differences in the races. I suddenly saw that about Acokzau and humans and how… hmm…
Maybe it’s just a natural growth? The available skills and jobs only show up after I find their prerequisites… but this seems… different. An entire hidden stat? It’s… not like will and derived from other stats. This… I got will when I fought against the dungeon and won. This one, I got just by thinking about it. Does that mean? How about constitution! Give me constitution, baby! That would… or… is that HP? Vitality!? Or… shouldn’t the pools be a reflection of their base stat? Like… constitution with HP, stamina with SP and magic with MP… there is magic… where is stamina and constitution? How about… hmm… I guess endurance … stamina… about the same thing… so that makes sense… but then where is HP’s relevant stat? Shouldn’t it…
Joe’s thoughts derailed with that as he began arguing with himself about the difference between HP and constitution before stopping himself and rapidly going through a list of other possible stats that might be important, shouting out in his mind as many different thoughts as he could, but nothing else occurred; the screen stubbornly unchanging. There were fluctuations, almost as if it was reacting to his thoughts, but there was a resistance that he seemed unable to push beyond.
After a few moments doing this, Joe sighed in disappointment before picking up his first weapon and dedicating himself to his forms. He went through the forms with devotion, which proved easy enough to free his mind to continue considering what other options might be available before giving up and fully focusing on his forms. By the time he was finished, he’d gone through all his forms several times including all the weapons he’d brought down, several extra today as he’d woken quite a bit earlier, before the sun finally started to shine over the horizon.
He finished his workout and went into a cool down and, for the first time on this planet, it was needed as he felt the burn soothe and the return of an elevated but calm heart rate and deep even breaths. His eyes flicked to his status, finding his HP almost fully recovered already as it had the time during the forms practice to begin healing. Although, it was a bit slower than he was expecting. Didn’t expect to bust my knuckles open, either. Really need to get them back into shape!
His stamina, however, was completely depleted and seemed to stay buried at zero, although he wasn’t surprised, if it was anything like HP. If HP recovered faster or slower depending on the deadliness of damage, SP might recover differently depending on how hard he pushed his body; and he’d pushed it a bit harder than normal with his exploration and flashback to pleasant memories back home of his training there.
Joe finally felt his lungs suddenly inflate, a deep breath welling up to fill him before expelling evenly over a long drawn out exhalation; the sign of his cool down now completed.
Heh. Well… that worked out, I guess. Joe smiled as he packed up his things and returned to his room to drop everything off. Finding everyone still asleep, Joe washed off, cleaning away the sweat and grime before sitting on the floor to settle into a meditative rest to return his body to equilibrium after putting it to work for the first time in almost seven months! Man, this system… can be crippling! Gonna have to start… pushing the others to burn their SP at least… start training their actual bodies… huh… He sighed at the idea but firmed his conviction. It would be pretty vital if things went pear shaped.
By the time his meditative rest was complete, his entire body felt much better and his status reflected a return to health, as this planet defined it. His HP was full again, and his SP was just under thirty percent and rising slowly. Hmm… hope it’s full by the time breakfast’s done.
Joe stood after that and settled in his bed, back against the wall as he went back to his thoughts while he waited for the other three to awaken. He was able to meander in his thoughts for an enjoyable while before he heard the other three rouse and he looked up to find them rubbing eyes and standing to prepare for the day. Kilniara came in shortly after and all three soon stood in line ready for their morning training. Their morning fitness went well enough and Joe finished with the training before cleaning himself at the washbasin as the other three finished the last of their forms.
Joe headed out the door, “I’ll get breakfast. Come down when you’re done.”
All three nodded and Kilniara jumped to the basin with a shout, “I’m washing first!”
Both the boys groaned before heading out into the hallway and collapsing onto the floor by leaning against the wall and sliding down to the ground. Joe laughed at them as he headed down the stairs and the boys both grumbled good naturedly at him as he left. When Joe got down into the common room, he was surprised when he heard his named called out.
“Joe! It is good to see you! I wished to congratulate you!” Kukurnal smiled a bit forcefully with a slightly pale face.