All three stood, duplicating Joe’s movements, which were yoga forms modified to be even more extreme in strength development. He began and they followed through, burning through their stamina much more rapidly than Joe. All three stopped before allowing their SP to run out and collapsing, but they all seemed surprise by how difficult it was. Joe nodded upon seeing their form, happy to see it decently done.
“Good job. Now take a rest and I’ll let you know the next and when to continue.”
Joe’s stamina took another couple minutes to empty before the remembered burn returned, and Joe smiled, even sighing slightly. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that I’d never really been stressing my muscles, although given the way they’re collapsed on the ground, I wonder if I burned through my stamina points rapidly while I was killing slimes back at the village. Probably didn’t even notice. Hmm… they’re going to have to learn how to fight without stamina either… if I remember… they quit on the goblins as soon as they felt the burn… which isn’t that good.
Joe didn’t actually get in that good of a set as he simply waited for the other three to stand, rest seeming to have returned them back to decent readiness. Joe smiled seeing them standing, sweat just beginning to form on his body but he didn’t continue, simply shifting to another stance.
“Now try this.”
The other three nodded, Zilnek adding in a small groan. Didn’t they get their SP back? They’re… moving fine… As before, their stamina emptied rapidly and they stopped before running dry. However, since Joe’s hadn’t had a chance to recover, he was immediately using his personal strength and not the system’s substitute. The shift to a new stance freed him from straining his current set of muscles, but didn’t allow his stamina to recover. Now, I’m finally exercising… going to have to burn it all off first, though, so I can exercise all my muscles correctly.
Again, all three rested, with Zilnek’s growling anger only growing. Joe looked on with some concern but wasn’t sure how to respond, not understanding why he was so angry. He continued his own form, finally feeling the burn proving the exercise worth it. He held it long enough to actually be meaningful but ended up ending and moving to the next form quite a bit sooner than he wanted as the other three had rested enough and were standing again.
Joe smiled and nodded, offering them encouragement, “Just so you guys know, I’ve been without stamina now for the last three forms. You can see that my strength is still strong and I’m able to hold easily enough. I am working hard,” Joe pointed to the sweat forming with his free arm before returning it to its proper position, “but I’m able to do it without being bothered by it much. This is what I want to offer you. If you guys do this regularly every day, this is what you will gain.”
That statement made all three open their eyes wide in surprise.
“You didn’t rest!” Kilniara gasped out, realization hitting her hard.
Garnedell glanced at Kilniara before nodding, “He didn’t recover his stamina!”
Zilnek’s anger, for the first time, faded away quickly, interest now showing. He didn’t say anything but began to nod. Joe smiled, grateful that Zilnek had broken out of the seeming emotional loop he was stuck in. He allowed them another few moments of rest before shifting to another form. All the previous forms had been some balance but mainly leg strength forms, so he changed to something that burnt at the core, dropping to the ground.
“Let’s try this now.”
All three quickly followed suit, encouraged and burning with excitement. As before, the three dropped out quite quickly, about the same time and in the same order as before: Zilnek first, followed by Kilnaira quickly after, then Garnedell almost a minute later. This lined up pretty much with his expectations, as Zilnek had the lowest and Garnedell the most SP, almost double of Kilniara. With the extra time to rest on the systems help allowed Garnedell to start his actual exercise a couple dozen seconds later, giving him a later start time.
Joe watched carefully, but didn’t really say much anymore beyond telling them when to start the next exercise. Joe’s concern grew when he realized that despite Zilnek’s initial excitement, his anger returned quickly and Joe found himself wondering what was going on. When they finished their round of exercises, Joe himself came to a rest, sitting with them.
All three were not sweating at all but were groaning in pain. Joe frowned. No sweat… so not using their body… right? But… don’t want to push them too much. Maybe. Joe paused for a bit, giving them a bit more rest. After they had rested enough, Joe gave them another few moments before standing and beginning again, this time starting first to allow himself to burn through his stamina points first. After he’d reached under a hundred stamina, he started them again.
“OK. That was the first set. You need to do all these exercises three times each, so just watch me the next two times. You really don’t want to push yourselves too much. After this, I’ll be done.”
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Garnedell listened and questioned, “Can we just do it with our SP, so I can practice?”
Joe considered that, “How do you feel?”
“I feel sore, but I am able to still move easily.”
Joe ground his teeth in thought before he nodded, “Just be careful not to do too much. You should not empty your SP any more today. You are going to be much sorer than you realize tomorrow… so please be careful.”
With this said, all three nodded, Garnedell exited and Kilniara nodding eagerly. Garnedell and Kilniara dragged themselves up, and Zilnek followed after with encouragement from this sister, but was obviously skirting the edges of his patience, and Joe offered him extra encouragement, promising the end results and painting visions of what those results would gain him. However, Joe’s efforts proved ineffective and when they’d almost made it through the second set, Zilnek’s stoked anger into erupted.
“Reeaaarrrgh!” Zilnek screamed in rage, collapsing from the form they were currently doing, barely remaining on his feet as he staggered around the yard. He turned on Joe and began screaming in uncontrolled rage, without thought or coherency as meaningless noise erupted from Zilnek’s mouth
All three spectated in shock without really understanding what to do, retreating from Zilnek. After a moment of shock, Joe immediately tried to calm him down, but proved unable to do so. His exhaustion proved the only ally and his continued uncoordinated flailing sapped him of the rest of his energy and he collapsed to the ground, growling in rage.
Joe saw his collapse and finally stepped closer, squatting next to him, “Hey.”
Zilnek looked up at him, anger raging through him and Joe frowned, “What’s going on? Why are you so angry?”
Zilnek frowned but said nothing, simply panting heavily in rage.
Joe’s frown turned sour as he sighed, “Talk to me. I’m not going to let this go. You can’t have a temper if you’re going to learn from me. Anger is a massive liability.”
Zilnek’s frown smoothed and he took a deep breath, settling his anger, and Joe nodded in approval.
“Good. Get it down, grind it away if you need to.”
Zilnek growled a bit and Joe shut up, recognizing Zilnek’s effort and grateful for it. After a few moments, Zilnek finally took a deep breath and seemed back in control. Joe nodded a bit, grateful for his seeming return, but kept himself carefully reserved and physically away from him.
“You feeling better?”
Zilnek looked up at him with a bit of chagrin while smiling sourly in embarrassment before dropping his head while nodding, “Yeah.”
Joe looked at him carefully before dropping a hand on his shoulder, “Glad to have you back.”
Zilnek looked up with some worry and saw Joe’s reassuring smile and began grinning in response, “Yeah… sorry about that.”
Joe nodded, saying nothing as he considered carefully. He wasn’t certain how to successfully confront Zilnek without him feeling like he was begin attacked. He started cautiously.
“So… I’m not really wanting to annoy you… and I’m not attacking you, really. But can you tell me what happened?”
Zilnek stared at him and his smile shifted, become grim before he shrugged, “I… I really… I don’t know.”
“Do you feel angry now?”
“No?”
Joe looked at him carefully, seeing that he was taking it well and he smiled, trying a small joke, “Are you sure?”
Zilnek looked up quickly, staring at Joe but when he saw Joe’s smile, he tremulously returned one of his own before chuckling a bit. Joe released a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad. Can you talk about it? Explain?”
Zilnek began to become agitated and Joe quickly put a hand on his shoulder, “I’m not angry or upset. Nor am I pushing you. If you can’t, that’s OK! We’ll just have to be sure that you know about this so you can try to work to control it, OK?”
Zilnek’s heavy breathing and agitation settled quickly and he began to settle, calming. Joe smiled at him, watching him carefully before squeezing his shoulder and nodding, “OK?”
After his second prompt, Zilnek quickly nodded, “Yeah. OK.”
Joe smiled and laughed, clapping Zilnek’s shoulder and standing, “Do you want to try… wait… let’s… hm…”
Joe fell deep in thought for a bit before making a decision and sitting back down, facing Zilnek and calling the other two to sit down.
“So, are you angry at me?”
Zilnek’s eyebrows crunched down a bit before he shook his head, “No?”
“You sure?”
Zilnek’s eyes darted across Joe’s face, trying to read him and Joe kept his face open and welcoming but neutral to let him make his own choice. Zilnek took a few moments to read him before accepting Joe’s honesty, taking him on his offer, “Yeah, I’m sure. I’m not angry at you.”
“Your sister? Garnedell?”
“No.”
“You’re very certain about your sister and Garnedell.”
“Yeah.”
“But not as certain about me?”
Joe’s observation brought Zilnek up short and he quickly and fearfully looked at Joe but still saw his neutral and welcoming and answered, “I’m really not sure, but I really don’t think I’m angry at you.”
Joe thought for a moment then tried another question, “Are you angry at being told what to do?”
“Ye…,” Zilnek stopped, reconsidering carefully before responding, “Maybe, but I don’t think so.”
Joe thought for a bit more, then tried again, “Then… maybe you’re angry because you feel like you’re stuck or not doing well?”
Zilnek’s face opened up, “Maybe? Almost? Yeah…”
“Something like you’re angry that things are taking too long. Or it’s too hard? Or maybe it’s… not… really your fault.”
Zilnek didn’t really respond until Joe’s last statement and his face lit up a bit and Joe sighed. He didn’t say much, not really wanting to point out that Zilnek’s current predicament was entirely of his own making and only Joe’s forgiveness kept him from going to jail or being enslaved according to the law of the place, if what happened at the previous village was anything to go by. Even if whatever had happened back in their room where Zilnek had somehow gotten the thief job, Joe had already taken responsibility by promising to solve what happened to him. Joe pondered for a bit, wondering if he should bring this up before biting his tongue. While he had been wrestling with what to do, Kilniara noticed and called him out.
“What is it, Joe?”
Joe looked to Kilniara then sighed, “I’m not sure if…”
Zilnek shook his head and interjected, “No, Joe. Please don’t hide anything that would help me. I must know.”
Joe smiled sorrowfully before continuing, “I really am worried about saying anything. Last time, Zilnek ended up somewhere… very very bad.”
This brought the other three up short very quickly and they glanced towards one another before Kilniara stood up and pulled Joe with him, turning to look back at her brother as she pulled him away, “Wait here. I’ll make sure, first, OK?”