“Gaius, you need to leave for three months?” asked a teary-eyed girl.
He nodded. “Make sure to go for classes, okay? Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it.”
Extending a hand, he wiped the corners of Nakama’s eyes, and then walked towards the designated tent. Even without looking back, he could sense her waving continuously, and he smiled sadly.
It wasn’t impossible to live a normal life here. But crisis bells had been ringing in his heart ever since he learnt about the situation here. This world, no matter how one put it, was far easier to navigate if one had strength. This lesson he was going to was the first step to gaining strength. There wasn’t any fancy reason to it — he wanted to live a life free of coercion and fear. Sacrificing his personal comfort, especially at the beginning, was inevitable.
“Looks like everyone’s here.” Instructor Aziz looked up as Gaius drew near, creating a small group of twelve children. “Our training regime is very simple. For the first week, we’ll be focusing on building up your stamina. See that assembly space there? We’ll be running around it.”
As he led the way towards the giant rectangle space, Aziz continued speaking. “The minimum anyone must have if he or she is to survive in the wilderness is the ability to keep moving with purpose. What we’re doing for this whole week is to make sure you have at least the ability to keep moving. Am I clear?”
He frowned at the silence. “When I ask a question, I expect a reply. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Instructor!” Gaius and company replied together.
“Excellent.” Instructor Aziz pointed at the giant rectangle. “One lap around that rectangle is roughly five hundred metres. We’ll be doing at least ten laps at a jogging pace.”
“Ten?” A boy, slightly shorter than Gaius, spoke out.
“Do not question my orders, trainee.” The instructor grinned. “But here’s a catch. Whoever does all ten without falling behind me gets meat for lunch.”
The group bristled, and Gaius found saliva in his mouth. He hadn’t eaten much in the way of meat for the past few days. The largest morsel of meat he had was at best the size of his index finger. Like he’d expected, meat wasn’t something the camp would give to freeloaders like him.
“Well then, let’s start. I’ll give you kids a thirty second head start.” The instructor walked to the back of the group. “Three, two, one…go!”
Wind whistled in Gaius’ ears as he broke into a moderate jog, smirking to himself as the other kids broke into a full-blown sprint. He had enough experience on Earth to know that sprinting at the start was not conducive to what amounted to a quarter-marathon.
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He did, however, feel somewhat bad about using his personal experience to gain unfair advantages. But that feeling lasted for mere moments when he considered the meat at stake.
When was the last time he’d went on a jog? The blood pounding in his ears, forcing a regular breathing pattern…they seemed so natural to him, as though as it had been a routine that he had stuck to for years on end, only to stop for some reason.
In. In. Out.
Don’t overexert when breathing.
Raise your feet just high enough, but not too high.
The run was an impromptu exercise, so warm up the muscles as you jog.
Thoughts like these ran through his mind as his legs moved, and even without acting consciously on them, the body adjusted automatically. For a moment, Gaius was perplexed. He had thought that most of the memories of his past life no longer existed, but if guidelines for his habits and daily routines were able to surface, that could only hint at one thing.
He was just unable to access them for now.
He just needed to stir up these memories by engaging in activities he might have done in the past.
“You’re quite interesting, boy.” A loud voice broke Gaius’ reverie. “The other trainees broke into a sprint immediately, but only you jogged from the start, running the risk that I might overtake you. Why?”
Gaius turned his head slightly. A few metres behind him was the instructor, walking slowly in fairly large paces. “Sprinting takes a lot more on the body. I would avoid it where possible.”
As he spoke, he adjusted his jogging speed, making sure to match Instructor Aziz’s. Motioning towards the boy at the head of the sprinting pack, Gaius added on, “That boy there is already feeling quite a lot of fatigue. It’s unlikely that he’ll be able to do all ten rounds at all.”
“At least there’s someone in this group who has experience.” Gaius didn’t look behind, but in his mind’s eye, he could picture the Instructor shrugging. “Looks like you might be the only one who gets meat for lunch.”
Gaius exhaled a puff of turbid air, and fell silent. Speaking too, was draining on the stamina. Time slipped by as he kept his attention on his legs, making sure that his breathing did not falter.
By the time the sun started to rise, only Gaius was still jogging, maintaining a distance of five metres away from the walking Instructor. The others had fallen behind long ago, and if not for the threat of withholding lunch, they might not have continued to run at all.
His breathing was ragged when he finally finished his tenth lap. His legs weren’t listening all that closely either, and the sounds of blood rushing through his head had blocked out chirping birds who were observing the ongoing exercise.
Instructor Aziz had a thoughtful expression on his face. He didn’t expect a slum kid to know how to run for long distances. Most of them, as exemplified by the other kids, were able to sprint quickly. Those who weren’t usually died of starvation eventually, unable to steal food or compete for scraps. There was literally no reason for street children to run long distances either; not with a starving body.
It seemed that this…Gaius had a rather special background. Aziz shook his head as the last girl finished her tenth lap. None of these would matter here, a place designed to train warriors. Not anymore.
After checking that she was still conscious, he moved on to introducing martial arts. Time was of the essence.