Slowly a blurry view became clearer and clearer. “What the fuck just happened?” Delton said as he used his hands to push himself up off the floor. His hands slipped causing him to crash back down onto a pool of liquid.
"Ugh! Is this all my sweat?” Delton felt the liquid and noticed that his entire body was completely soaked in the sweat.
After cleaning up the pool of sweat and changing into a new set of clothes, he drank three glasses of water, right after another. He then looked at the clock to find that only a half hour had elapsed. Beginning to stretch, Delton showed a look of surprise.
He then performed a simple set of jumping jacks. “That’s weird. My muscles aren’t sore at all.”
Preparing a mat under his feet and a towel on the couch, Delton visualized the image of Lucius and his mother for a couple of minutes. Then, he started the first set of movements prescribed by the morning training exercise, but this time at a slower rate.
After finishing the first move, sweat poured down his body, as if all of his pores had opened, and his veins bulged out, as if his blood was pumping at an incredibly fast and powerful rate.
Without stopping, Delton finished the first set of movements, only to find his view getting hazier and hazier with each move. He then performed the first couple of moves of the second set, then passed out.
He woke up again, exercised, then passed out a couple of more times before stopping. While finishing another glass of water, he muttered to himself, “Looks like the first couple sets of movements have to deal with stamina. If I could practice and visualize those techniques while also visualizing that kid and his mother, I should be able to perform the first part of the morning training.”
Getting up off the chair, Delton made his way to a fresh mat in front of the couch. Before starting another set of training exercises, his stomach growled.
Glancing at the time, Delton sighed then placed on his hoodie, going out of his apartment. With a bit of difficulty, he pushed open the door and saw that there was trash littered in his entranceway. Furrowing his eyebrows, he then walked out of the apartment complex to find lots of trash and graffiti of Liar and Drunk by the entrance of the complex.
He also saw a group of reporters, who at the sight of him, took several pictures and made interview requests. Without hesitation, Delton walked back into his apartment, then tapped his temple, “Prepare two servings of lunch and make the protein not fish.”
"Your food will be ready in five minutes. As this is not breakfast or dinner, credits will be deducted.”
Delton threw himself on the chair by the dining table, and started to read more of the articles related to him.
He also watched several interviews of manufacturers in those articles. A middle-aged man spoke, “That kid Delton gave us hope. But when faced with the consequences, he backed down like a coward. He could even be a spy, planted by Mom Sol, to egg us on.”
Another interview with a young man around Delton’s age went on, “Delton gave us the stupid idea, that while we are young and Firsts, we could stand up to those large corporations. Just a coward and a liar.”
Delton gnashed his teeth and closed the video, “What the fuck is wrong with these people? Fuck you, Jucor! Fuck all of them! I’m just a First.”
Even though the food had grown cold after watching all of the interviews, Delton ate all of it with overacted gestures, grumbling throughout the meal. Gulping down two glasses of water, he smashed the glass down the table. However, he did not hear the heavy thud that he was expecting, instead he heard the sound of glass shattering.
Looking down, he stared at his hand, which had a couple of cuts from the shards of glass; a voice echoed out.
"Credits will be deducted to compensate the breaking of the drinking glass.”
Seeing the number deducted in his view, Delton sighed. He cleaned up the wound and placed bandages on. Then, Delton took several deep breaths, as he tried to visualize both the image of Lucius and his mother as well as the several stances of the training exercise.
A shock went through his body, as he clung onto his head for a couple of minutes, panting heavily. “My mind felt like it was being split in two, just then,” Delton dryly said. Visualizing the mother-son pair again for a couple of minutes, he shook his head.
This time, only visualizing the morning training exercise, he performed the first couple sets of movements, without trouble. His body, now covered in sweat, went on to perform the next sets of movements, fully using and stretching each and every one of his muscles in the process.
His body collapsed after finishing the previous sets, “Holy shit, were those kids demons?! All my muscles are sore now.”
Recuperating again, he sat down cross-legged. “I just completed the first movements of the Flexibility set. Stamina, then flexibility. Those are the first two thirds. The last third’s probably power.” Delton talked to himself as he visualize the kids performing the last sets of the exercise. He saw the sudden eruption of energy with each movement. “This shit’s gonna kill me. However, visualizing the exercise also helps me perform them.”
After regaining enough energy, he continued to practice until evening.
Only leaving time for eating, watching his shows, and sleeping, he exercised for the rest of the day. And just like that, another week flew by.
Most of his dreams of Lucius had been uneventful, but when Delton saw the morning training, he also partook in the exercises. “I feel like I benefit more from these exercises in my dreams than the real world.” But Delton found out that when he started to practice the morning after, he did not gain any physical benefits from practicing in the dream.
His friends messaged him again, checking up on him. Delton dispersed their fears, by telling them that he was fine and that he’s sheltered himself in his apartment for the next week.
After finishing up breakfast one morning, Delton prepared a mat in front of his couch. He finished the stamina flexibility sets with little trouble. However, sweat dripped down his body, as he started to perform the power set. Each movement was accompanied with a surge of energy in his body. Erupting with the gathered energy from the mother-son image, Delton felt eruptions and explosions course throughout his body.
Finishing the first set, Delton flung his body to the couch and visualized the mother and son. After a half hour of rest, he opened his eyes and let out a deep breath, “I finally finished one set of the morning training exercise. I’m finally as strong as a five year old,” Delton chuckled to himself.
He turned on the screen to watch First Memories of You and tapped his temple, “Prepare another portion of breakfast.”
While watching the show and eating his meal, he was checking the articles, and found that none of them mentioned him. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he lazed at the couch messaging friends, especially Filian. Since they had reconnected, Delton continued to talk to his friends from school every now and then.
Filian: Hows sheltering down for you
Delton: I should be able to go out now lol
Filian: Haha
Filian: By the way can you believe Moira and Sebaz were in a relationship this entire time
Delton: Come on it was obvious
Filian: Are you serious…I spat out my drink at the revelation
Delton: lol
Filian: In other news seems like another one in our class just broke through to become a Second
Delton: Oh yeah? Who
Filian: …
Delton: Get on with it you dick
Delton: I get enough cliffhangers from the shows you know
Filian: He bragged about it in the group chat
Delton: I had that muted. I don’t want to get spammed 100s of notification every day. Tell me already
Filian: Fine fine. Boring ass. Moncarle
Delton: What
Filian: I know right. I also spat out my drink at that news.
Delton: To think he also passed us
Filian: With him, the number of Seconds from our class now has reached 25%
Filian: At this rate I’ll truly be left behind
Delton: Don’t worry I’ll be there with you haha
Filian: Gotta go to work now tell me what you think about tonight’s shows later
Delton: You got it
After finishing up the show and feeling his eyes grow heavy, Delton took a nap on the couch. Having awoken, he exclaimed, “Fuck! The couch is all wet now.” He took off his shirt, showing his gains from working out all day this past week. Many muscle groups have exposed themselves. Looking at the mirror in the bathroom, Delton could not help but to flex the muscles and laugh braggingly.
Looking through his notifications, he found a new messenger. He took a sharp breath after seeing the name, Jade Noss. Gritting his teeth, he opened the message
Jade: I saw the news and heard you’re using your vacation days. I’d like to apologize for my behavior earlier. Are you free tomorrow for lunch?
Trembling, Delton wrote a response.
Delton: Don’t worry about it. I should be free. I know of a place that would still serve me. Do you like skewers?
Immediately, Jade responded
Jade: Sounds good. Send me the address.
Delton sent the address to Tekle’s food stall, with a stupid grin on his face. He then looked at himself in the mirror again, and the stupid grin got even wider.
Without anything else to do today, he again performed the morning training exercise. After eight cycles of practice and recuperation, each taking an hour. He ate dinner, then watched his shows. After taking a shower, he went to bed and dreamt.
In the dream, Lucius, now a toddler, followed Marcus after morning training and breakfast. Lucius followed him to the wall of the village, which had several white markings on different heights. There was another child, who looked no older than seven, waiting for them. The boy’s black hair now went down to his back, but dirt and caked blood filled it, making him look like a savage. Several cuts and bruises covered his bronze-like body, that revealed muscles, which no kid his age should have had. He had his arms crossed and looked at Marcus with a frowning expression.
Marcus rubbed the back of his head with one hand and, raising Lucius by the back of his shirt with the other hand, said, “Cael! This is my brother Lucius.” Caelus nodded, and Marcus continued, “I want him to take a look at what he needs to beat when he gets to my age.” He turned his head to Lucius and grinned, “I won’t take any less from my little brother.” Marcus laughed, as he set Lucius down, then headed towards a now smiling Caelus.
The wall, opposite of the village entrance was over five meters tall. Caelus then handed Marcus a stick of chalk. Each of them holding chalk, they jumped up next to the wall, making marks once they reached the highest point of their jump.
"Fuck! I lost again!” Marcus screamed. “How do you jump so high?! Four meters! What is your father feeding you?”
Caelus just smirked and said, “2.5 meters is better than most of the other children.”
“But not better than you!” Marcus picked up Lucius, while grumbling. As they left, he shouted to Caelus, “Wait till next week! If not next week, then the one after that! One day I’ll defeat you, and after that, the next time you see me, I’ll have reached the peak!”
Caelus smiled and chuckled, “I’ll be waiting. Oh yeah. Don’t forget about your training later today!”
"Don’t worry!” Marcus yelled out.
Delton’s view, however stayed with Caelus. The village head appeared, after Marcus and Lucius had left. “What vigor? How good it is to be young. You’ve been training him well.”
Caelus frowned and retorted, “He’s more than halfway to reaching the first limit. I won’t be teaching him anything more beyond that. That path is not meant for him. He comes from a simple family. He should live a simple and carefree life. I’ll go train some more. Don’t wait for me.”
Before his father could respond, Caelus lightly jumped once again, but this time, meters over the wall. With his arms spread out, he embraced the sunlight as it engulfed him. His father looked up, but could not help but to squint because of the sunlight, then nodded his head.
Delton looked with his mouth agape. Still processing what he had just seen, his view changed to that of Marcus and Lucius, who was holding a flower, having returned home.
Tears had started to fall Marcus’ face as he cried onto Lucius’ shoulders. Bawling and incoherent, he muttered, “No matter how hard I try, he’ll always be stronger, faster, better.” Lucius, not knowing what to do, cried as well.
Seeing this, Marcus stopped crying and started to laugh, “What am I doing?” He ruffled Lucius’ hair, causing Lucius to stop crying, causing Lucius to stop crying. “Thanks! I remembered why I wanted to be strong again.”
Tired, Lucius fell asleep. Picking him up, Marcus brought him to their mother, who was asleep, and laid Lucius next to her. Before leaving the room, Marcus looked back to his family and clenched his fists, while smiling.
Delton woke up to find that his mouth was agape like in his dreams, “T-t-that kid’s a monster! Only some Seconds could rival that jump, and even that kid looked like he did it easily.” Looking at his fist, “Could I reach that, too?”
He let out a deep breath, “Stupid. It’s more than enough that I could be seen as fit with these exercises. Haha. Break’s gonna end next week, I wonder if some of them will notice the difference in my body. Hopefully Jade does.”
Performing the morning training exercise, he felt something in his body. He stopped for a while, trying to find the source of the feeling, but shook his head, “Am I imagining things?”
He soon restarted his exercises, but found found the feeling resurface. Instead of stopping, he continued to perform the exercise. The feeling grew stronger and stronger, as if there was a river surging inside his body, becoming larger and faster.
After performing one complete set, Delton found that he could not stop his body from moving, as it proceeded to start another set.
After a couple of more sets, he was finishing the whole morning training exercise that was done in his dreams. Suddenly, the sound of an eggshell cracking echoed throughout his mind. Then, he passed out.
Waking up again to a pool of sweat, Delton sighed, then slowly got up. “The hell was going on with my body.” Pausing for a moment, Delton looked at his body, then tapped his temple, “Perform a full body scan.”
After being scanned a voice echoed out, “Vital si-“
Not waiting for the voice to finish, Delton clutched his ears, “Lower the volume!” Feeling the sweat drip down his body, he muttered, “Has sweating always felt like this?”
Delton took several deep breaths with his eyes closed. His stomach grumbled, but Delton continued to visualize the image of Lucius and his mother as his muscles were extremely sore. He then smelled the scent of grilled vegetables and fish, he tapped his temple and said with a frown, “I didn’t ask for food to be prepared yet.”
"Food is not being prepared.”
Delton’s body trembled as he looked to the source of the smell. He walked up to the wall separating him and the apartment next to his. With a puzzled look, he walked back to his couch, only to see the same young man he had seen a week ago, sitting on his couch and watching the soap operas.
The young man glanced at him and let out a slight smile, “Now, you’re finally as strong as a five year old.”
