Five hours had passed since Magister Mulligan had brought the Human in a pocket dimension meant for training him with a Master-Class Golem.

The look on his face has changed – there’s fear in his eyes still, but they have changed too.

Magister Mulligan had fought alongside some of the greatest [Heroes] of Vanedeni history. He had seen great promises nipped in the bud too. Never before had he witnessed a Joey Luciani, though. The young man had tackled the problem at hand with an unorthodox approach: weights. Lots of weights to train all his muscles almost one by one in small increments.

But if he’s unable to withstand unbearable pain…

That had been the shared characteristic among [Heroes] he had known and himself too. Everyone had been an absolute freak, talented beyond belief and with enough willpower to shatter mountains with bare fists.

Joey Luciani was… whiny. Extremely whiny. Not only had he been coerced into this whole ordeal by himself after refusing it for the majority of his life, but he had also shown as much hesitation as anyone right before crossing the threshold of complete refusal.

Magister Mulligan truly believed that Joey Luciani had been on the verge of giving up at least three times by now.

How many more times will he be there, in front of the precipice, and still decide to go forward?

The old man did not have an answer. Obviously, he had seen the greatest fighters go through incredible ordeals and tribulations. But never before had he witnessed them having to fight this hard against their own mind.

Now, his disciple was looking at the runes he had inscribed onto his body. Every part of him was completely red, and even though he had made incredible progress, it was still not nearly enough to wield the sword.

His gaze…

Joey Luciani had been staring on and off at the runes as if he could glean something from them. What, exactly, had eluded even Magister Mulligan?

An insight, perhaps? He did create an enchantment out of no formal knowledge. But those runes are effectively the highest Tier 7 enchantment I could muster. I had to drain many reservoirs of Mana to inscribe them onto his body. What is he even looking at?

…

All my muscles are piping hot—I must admit, the fact that I’m redder than the nicest bell pepper in Whole Foods kinda makes me look like I’m about to activate my gear 2nd. Or, like a sunburnt German tourist.

That said, you know how people say that when the going gets tough is when the tough get going? I think that it is extremely corny to say something like that— actually, it's much worse than corny; it's simply not true. When the game gets hard, most people, if not everyone, get going. However, a bunch of those who got going will simply die. That’s the nature of life.

I am sprinting around the colonnade, with every step being a stab of pure pain running through my body, with my entire body being redder than Heinz’s ketchup. I am getting stronger, faster, and more resilient by the second—but it’s an excruciatingly slow process. Strength, as a reward, is not even remotely greater than pain as a price for it.

Even breathing hurts—my diaphragm muscles are working overtime and growing stronger as well. But when your entire existence is pain, who the hell cares about strength?

That’s why I try to distract myself. I could focus on the exercises more to optimize the crap out of them but guess what—I am cheating thanks to magical runes. As long as I don’t faint or die, that’s as good as it will get. I’ll take a free mind over the 0.3% increase in efficiency.

If anything, I wish I could still listen to podcasts, honestly.

But back to the naïve notion of ‘no pain, no gain.’ Like, I’m not saying it’s not true, ok? You obviously have to put a great deal of work into stuff, and that is going to come with all sorts of pain and difficulties. You would be a jackass to think even remotely otherwise.

Heh, fuck it, I think to myself, ignoring the impulse just to let my thoughts float in the air. I really need to focus on this.

And so, I activate [Deep Focus] to scrutinize the runes on my arms as I keep running.

I’m sure Magister Mulligan is wondering why I am staring so intently at these scribbles all over my body. It’s not like I can see anything of what they are actually doing. I’m sure that the magic they contain is layered so deep they are probably influencing my very DNA. This guy is so damn powerful, and it still took him more than an hour, and God knows how much Mana, to inscribe this all over my body.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

So, yeah. I’m not looking into the effects. I am confident about it in my mind but not stupidly so.

I might… I take a big breath before continuing. I might be special, but I am not delusional.

What I wonder about is something completely different: What can the runes really do? I have enchanted a bread mixer with very little effort, and that is basically already the blueprint for a possible revolution in the food world and, why not, also other things, like transportation. Well, I don’t exactly know about transportation because there might be a lot of additional costs in terms of Mana, like in cases where you must fight the attrition of bad roads and stuff like that. But let’s assume for a moment that it was enough to at least put every other bakery in Amorium out of business – isn’t that something, considering we are talking about a few cheap runes? Magister Mulligan inscribed runes onto me. Hell, I didn’t even know that was possible. If putting runes on people is already on the table, what else could be there?

My mind is fully focused on that question.

What else is there?

“Magister Mulligan, can I ask a few questions?” I huff and puff as I come to a stop and run to the center, where the man is standing still.

I take a plate of metal and start circling it around my head to get a nice workout for all those muscles I’ll need to wield a massive sword.

“What now, young Luciani?” The old man asks curiously.

“I wanted to know what the limit of these runes was. Like, why doesn’t everyone train with something like this? Is it because they are hard to make or because they consume too much Mana and resources?”

“Both,” the old man starts explaining as his eyes light up—he loves to explain stuff. “In the annals of Vanedeni history, it has always been a common practice to challenge all naturally formed Dungeons and to expand as much as possible. You shall know that before the Ahali came to Kome, the Southern half of the continent was still mostly untouched. See, being a Vanedeni comes with a price. Our population… let’s say it struggled to grow even in times of peace.”

“I mean, if people trained like this, I can definitely see why there weren’t many of them.”

“I didn’t say there weren’t many Vanedeni. But Kome is the second largest continent and the most dangerous one too. All the monsters that roam even close to the cities would be enough to terrorize your average village on Teiko and slaughter several of its inhabitants. Epretos, in comparison, barely has any natural threats.”

I move the weight to the height of my waist and start twisting my torso to work on my abs. I tune out the voice of the old [Archmage] for a second, thinking of what he initially said.

“So,” I interrupt him, “Runes are hard to inscribe and maintain. Otherwise, one could train like this forever?”

“Incorrect,” Magister Mulligan says. “There’s a limit in terms of natural talent—genetics, as your people might call it. This training is meant to bring you to that limit. Beyond that, runes such as these are just an impediment to further growth. You need real challenges.”

“Is that why the Vanedeni mix runes and killer puppets?” I ask with a grimace, frowning in pain at my weak abs screaming in pain from this simple exercise.

“Yes,” Magister Mulligan nods.

“Ok, what about potions and such? Like, why don’t people drink Stamina potions like water when training? Wouldn’t that help?”

“I know you know that muscle grows the most when brought to its limits. This is common knowledge across our worlds, young Luciani. Levels or not, it bears little importance. You need to challenge yourself to truly excel. If you don’t, you’ll soon stagnate. Stamina potions are simply prolonging the distance between you and your limits. But if your true growth is beyond your limits, why would you take a Stamina potion during training? If you are risking your life and you cannot move anymore, it only makes sense. The Vanedeni are not out to kill themselves—even my people drink Stamina potions. Especially during military campaigns or inside Dungeons. But not when training. Do you understand?”

I kind of understood the second sentence, but…

“I’m sparing you the pain of lightning because you are already in enough pain due to the training,” Magister Mulligan says in a dangerous tone.

“Alright, alright. It’s just that I don’t have much time here, right? This…” I bite my tongue, not voicing a concern that has been growing in my chest. Before getting there, I want to make sure I have all the facts straight.

“So, just so we are on the same line completely, runes help me reach some of my… ‘natural’ limits. Potions help you stay away from your limits when your limits can kill you. Is that a good description?”

Magister Mulligan nods as he strokes his beard.

“So, the pain caused by the runes is to be taken as a helping hand? Would this be less effective if the experience was less painful?”

“Yes.”

I fall silent, observing the runes on my body.

One singular thought occupies my mind now.

“Young Luciani, why exactly are you so concerned with the runes on your body? Have you, perhaps, elaborated a new theory or approach that you would like to try? You might be on a deadline, but magical research, especially with my help, can be executed in parallel.”

“Nah, see, it’s not that. What I’m thinking of…” I let my words linger.

“Yes?” The old man asks eagerly, thinking he’ll probably get his hands on some cool new stuff.

“Did all Vanedeni chicks that were super shredded go around with a bunch of cool tattoos like this? I mean, I’m really just trying to picture what that would look like, you know? I don’t know if I can or want to patch things up with Irene, so I was thinking that if these Vanedeni chicks are super fit and tatted, maybe you could introduce me to…”

ZAP!

Magister Mulligan didn’t keep his promise and zapped me unconscious, mumbling some stuff about respect for his people and things like that. But really, did those runes reach all the way down to these Vanedeni women’s feet? I’m not saying that’s super important… just that it would look… artistic. Yeah, artistic. That’s the word.

At the end of the day, I am a fan of the arts. I’m just interested in furthering the collective knowledge of humankind in the realm of art. And you gotta do that stuff directly in the field if you know what I mean.

I get up, my hair slightly charred and smoking.

“Is that why you were thinking about the runes, then?” Magister Mulligan sighs.

I look at him with serious eyes.

“Not just that. I was doing some math. These runes? They are amazing. I can feel my muscles growing stronger in real-time.”

“But?” Magister Mulligan frowns.

“But at this current speed, I won’t be able to wield that sword in ten days.”