Chapter 3

Drops of sweat dripped from his forehead, as he tried to push his body off the ground. You could clearly see the struggle on his face, as he pushed further and further up, until his arms were finally straight. But then, he would only lower them again, letting his face rest just above the grassy ground.

As he was doing the push ups, Atsutaka looked at him, his mouth agape. Not because he had realized the true genius of Shin, not because he realized that he had found a disciple like no other, but because Shin was clearly struggling, even though he had only done four push ups…

“Jeez, kids these days, you can’t even do ten push ups? You’ve only done four, but you’re already sweating?” He unwittingly ridiculed.

“Heh, you’re going to need some work,” he continued. Then, Shin finally fell to the ground, not able to do another push up after the fifth. He moved his head towards Atsutaka, and said,

“I’m sorry, Master, but it’s so hard. My body can’t handle it.” Atsutaka just continued to look at him, pitifully. He had never seen someone this weak. Even a child would be able to do better.

“Sigh, there’s nothing to it. We’re just going to have to train your body up. First we should work on your stamina, so you at least will have the energy to do my exercises. Then we’ll work on strengthening every single muscle in your body, without exception!” He said feverishly, rather excited at the aspect of training his own disciple.

“Eh? Every single muscle? Will it be hard?” He asked, a bit nervous at the certain hell that was awaiting him.

“Hard? It will be absolutely hellish! You will want to quit and escape, you might even come to contemplate suicide, or even try to escape, which, in itself, is certain death,” he said with an amiable smile, completely betraying the words he just spoke.

“But don’t worry, I won’t let anything like that to happen, even if I have to tie you up,” he continued, this time with a laugh.

“Eh? Are you serious?” Shin asked with a slightly panicky expression. “Completely,” Atsutaka answered.

“NOW GET RUNNING!” He suddenly shouted, as he suddenly whipped out a whip, and started whipping at him furiously, causing Shin to immediately bolt.

“Y-y-yes!” He screamed, then started running in the opposite direction of the lashes from the whip. But he was out of luck, as Atsutaka took chase, and kept lashing with his whip.

“Hahaha, one improves fastest when facing a dangerous situation! This way you will be able to use your full potential as you run! Like this, I can guarantee that you will be able to do a hundred push ups, within the month!” Atsutaka said excitedly, while Shin ran for his life, not even sparing the energy to say a single word.

After a whole thirty minutes, Shin was still running as if his life depended on it. His clothes had even gotten torn, and there were several hints of blood on his back. Every time he started to slow down, he would suddenly,

“Aaaaaaaah!” He would scream in pain, as the whip lashed at his back, causing another red line of blood. However, even though the whip was ridiculously quick, it never caused any serious wounds, and only caused a slight sting, and maybe caused Shin to stumble a bit. It seemed like Atsutaka was even skilled at using the whip.

Another half of an hour passed, and Shin had been running for an entire hour. By this point, he was running purely on the fear from getting hit from the whip. However, even then, he couldn’t hold on any longer, and finally collapsed to the ground. However, contrary to his expectations, he didn’t get hit by the whip.

“Hahaha, you have quite the willpower there, being able to run for an entire hour, before collapsing. Impressive, impressive. Now, how do you feel?” Atsutaka asked.

“I can’t move my body, you demon,” Shin said, looking at his new Master, as if he was a demon, straight from hell. Indeed, he might as well have been, because this felt like pure hell. He was sore all over his body, and his back stung like a bitch.

“Now, now, don’t worry. I’ll have you moving again in no time,” Atsutaka said, as he moved towards Shin. Then, he started grabbing him all over, and squeezing. He squeezed quite tightly. As Shin was screaming in pain, his body continued to crackle for half a minute, before it stopped.

“Gah, you demon what did you do!” He screamed, as he jumped up from the ground, flailing his arms at his Master.

“Ah, I can move,” he suddenly realized. “Indeed. I just massaged your muscles and bones. Alright, now we’ll rest for five minutes, and then we’ll run back!” He said with a huge smile, very much in contrast with Shin’s current expression.

“W-wait, we’re not done?” He asked, his voice shaking. “What, done? Of course not, we still need to get back, do we not? Don’t worry though, it will be impossible for you to keep the previous speed, so I’ll allow you to reduce it with a whole ten percent! I’m feeling quite generous today, you see,” he said with the same amiable smile that truly betrayed his true intentions.

“T-ten percent?” Shin asked. Even if he only ran at thirty percent of the previous speed, he wouldn’t be able to make it! But this insane master of his wanted him to run back home, at ninety percent speed? Insane!

“Don’t speak, rest. You’ll need the energy, believe me,” Atsutaka said with a chuckle, before Shin could even retaliate. However, Shin still did as he said, since deep in his heart, the desire for strength and power had already sprouted.

Two hours later, and they were finally back. Shin immediately collapsed, as soon as they entered the clearing. He didn’t even manage to stay awake, and directly fainted.

“Indeed, ninety percent was already impossible from the beginning, but this kid… he actually managed to make it back in only two hours? Just what is his mind made of? He lasted way longer than his body should allow, just on pure willpower. Indeed, I’ve found a little treasure, haven’t I?” Atsutaka laughed, as he carried the young boy, who had come under his care, into the house. He directly threw him unto the second bed, which he had made a week prior.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

‘Time to make food. This kid is going to need a healthy diet, to fuel his body,’ he thought. Indeed, from all the training he was going to do, he’d need quite a lot of food, or he’d simply collapse

“Ah, I’ll make a bear meat feast, before the meat goes bad,” he said, as he took out the bear meat. He didn’t have a refrigerator, or a freezer, so he needed to use the bear meat quickly. Especially since it was the middle of summer, and it was quite hot this time of year.

About an hour later, Shin woke up, to the smell of delicious bear meat, but when he saw his Master Atsutaka, he immediately froze.

“T-the demon!” He said, partly in fear, partly as a tease. “Hey now, don’t call me that. I’m your Master, you know? And you should know, all the pain I put you through, is for your own good. Now, get up, food’s ready. You should be able move on your own, right? I already treated your injuries and wounds,” Atsutaka said.

“Yeah, yeah, I can move. And I was just kidding anyway, when I called you a demon,” Shin said, still rather exhausted, as he got up, and walked to the table. However, when he saw all the food, his eyes lit up.

“Oooh, there’s so much!” He said, excited. “But of course. Your body is going to need a lot of fuel, for all the training I’m going to put you through,” he said, once more causing Shin’s expression to darken. His memories of the last two hours, before he passed out, were not very bright.

“A-are we going to train more, after this?” He asked, wearily. “Haha, don’t worry, you’ll get the rest of the day off. Right now, your body can only handle light training like that,” he said, with his normal amiable smile.

“That was light training?” He asked, rather unwilling to believe it. “Of course, all we did was go for a run. That can’t count for anything but a warm up. But, of course, for the current you, it’s very strenuous, but in a couple of weeks, or maybe months, it won’t be that hard,” he said.

“I-I see,” Shin answered. He found it hard to believe that he would eventually be able to run that kind of distance with ease. Just now, it had caused him to faint, and he even had to be medically treated by Atsutaka, but later, it would be nothing but a warm up? But even then, he didn’t think much further on it, after the first reaction. After all, he only possessed a week’s worth of memories. He didn’t have a sense of what’s normal, and what’s not.

Thus, after eating, he rested, and thus the day passed, allowing the next day of hell to loom over the horizon. And indeed, as soon as the sun rose, he was woken up, by Atsutaka.

“Wake up, Shin, it’s morning. It’s time for training!” He said, as he directly pulled the boy out of bed. Ten minutes later, he stood outside, wearing the usual outfit.

“Alright, let’s begin! Today I think we’ll run for two hours each way!” He said with a smile, and then, out of nowhere, appeared the lashing images of a whip, lashing at Shin’s feet.

“Now, run!” He shouted, excited for another day of torturing his poor disciple. “Ah, I get it, I get it!” Shin screamed, as he immediately charged out, into the forest. However, as he entered the forest, a shroud of darkness entered his mind.

‘Did he say two hours each way? He definitely said two hours…’ Only after entering the forest, did Shin realize what Atsutaka had just said. “Damn it, this is torture!” Shin shouted, still not slowing his speed in the slightest, in fear of the stinging lashes of the ‘Whip’.

“Don’t waste your breath,” Atsutaka said playfully, as he continually whipped at the youngster. An hour passed, but he did still not collapse. To the contrary, he only slowed down a bit, but he still managed to run, and then another hour passed, before he finally collapsed, however, still awake. Atsutaka was apparently quite good at calculating how much his new disciple could handle.

“See, you managed two hours just fine. Now, let me fix you up,” Atsutaka said, as he moved over to the boy, and started massaging his muscles and joints, and thus, the screams ensued. Just under a minute later, and he was finished.

“Since I’m so merciful, I’ll let you rest for seven minutes this time, since you just ran for two hours,” Atsutaka said, but Shin just continued to lie on the ground, and let the air seep into his lungs. He didn’t want to waste his precious rest on speaking.

And thus, three hours later, they were back at the house, and Shin fainted again. They had been out for five hours, since the return trip took an hour longer. Even then, it was only around midday, so there was a lot of time left.

“Ah, he fainted again… Ah well, I’ll just go prepare lunch. He’ll need some energy for the next exercise,” Atsutaka said aloud, as he picked up Shin, and walked back inside, with Shin on his shoulder. Thirty minutes later, Shin woke up, once more to the smell of food.

Another half hour later, and they stood outside again. “Alright, this time, we’re going to do some strength training,” Atsutaka said, as he walked over to a group of stones. The stones were orderly placed, in terms of size. They ranged from the size of an adult’s head, to almost as big as a boulder, probably weighing hundreds of kilograms, at least.

“Grab any one of these stones,” he said. Thus, Shin followed him over there, and grabbed one of the head sized stones. It wasn’t too heavy, probably weighing around ten kilos, but it was still quite a bit for him.

“Now squat so that your knees are bent ninety degrees, and start walking. For every ten steps, stop and do ten squats. You are not allowed to stop for even a second, if you don’t want to face the wrath of my whip, understand?” Atsutaka explained, Shin nodded profusely. During the past two days, he had developed an immense fear for that whip.

Thus, he squatted down, until his knees were bent ninety degrees, and started walking. His struggle was apparent in his expression, but he still managed to do ten steps, then ten squats, ten more steps, ten more squats… An hour passed.

“Huh, Master, I didn’t expect to be able to do this much. I wasn’t even able to do more than five push ups, the other day, but now I’ve done several tens of squats, albeit rather slowly,” Shin said. Atsutaka smiled in response,

“It’s because of the running you’ve been doing, as well as my massages. They allow your muscles to develop a bit faster, and after all the running, your leg strength has increased. Anyways, enough of this. Go grab another rock, then lie down on that bench,” Atsutaka instructed, as he pointed towards a bench. Shin obliged, and went to grab another rock, then lied down on the bench.

“What now?” He asked. “Now you balance those two rocks on your palms, as you lift them up and down, like a bench press. Stopping for even a second means facing the wrath of the whip,” he said, and then Shin began, still as afraid as ever of the ‘Whip’.

It was a bit hard to balance the rocks and lift them at the same time, so he still managed to drop them a few times, especially after his arms started getting shaky. An hour passed, as he slowly did one repetition after the other, in fear of the whip. When he was done, he couldn’t even lift his arms from exhaustion.

“Alright, that’s it for now. You get to recover until dinner,” Atsutaka said, as he walked inside. Shin followed him inside, not having the spare energy to respond. Inside, he directly dropped unto his bed. Atsutaka had grabbed what seemed to be carving tools, as well as a torso sized rock.

“Huh? Master, what are you doing?” Shin asked, his curiosity spurred. “Stone carving, sculpturing. Haven’t you seen all the sculptures around? I made all those,” Atsutaka admitted. Indeed, there were several sculptures all around the house, as well as outside. There were even other items of art, like paintings.

“I quite like the arts, you see. Maybe I’ll teach you one day, if you’re interested,” he said, as he started carving. “Maybe one day, but right now, I don’t have the spare energy,” Shin said, causing a light chuckle from Atsutaka.

Thus, the hours passed, and they ate dinner. After dinner, Atsutaka forced Shin into another life or death run, as Shin had come to call it, and when they came back, it was already nearing midnight, and Shin was finally allowed to sleep, after his first, full day of training. Indeed, it had been the most exhausting day in his entire life, even counting the life he didn’t remember.