Chapter 55 - Hellish Training Program[4]

I dodged the hurdles on his path, as I ran down from the top of the mountain. Treading carefully, I avoided the traps that lay on the path as I followed the route of the ones ahead. It took him around fifteen minutes to reach the foot.

I hadn't kept the account of the time they had been here but he guessed that it may have been more than 3 hours since they started the workout course.

As I reached the foot, I saw that the bottom was cut by a five hundred feet wide river that covered everywhere at the foot of the mountain.

'The instructor must have purposefully kept this part hidden from us or may have entirely forgotten about this place,' I thought, as I ran straight and dived into the river without taking any rest.

Splash.

Some who arrived behind me also jumped into it.

The water of the river was cold like ice, freezing one entire body.

"Huuh" I started to breathe heavily. My body went numb due to the coldness of the water but still, I felt that it was better than hanging on the ropes between the mountains and pushing the boulders to the top.

I started swimming by combining my arm and leg motions in rhythm. My movement was freestyle consisting of strokes with my arm rotating in fixed motion with legs pushing my lower body forward.

I was not a professional swimmer nor did I have good swimming experience except knowing the basics of how to swim which allowed him to avoid submerging into water. So I was in a slightly disadvantageous position than others as I was overtaken by others who were behind me.

Still, I increased his strokes to move forward as fast as possible using the strength he could muster.

I started catching up with those who had gone beyond me and slowly closed behind them.

I could see a boy coming at the distance and he overtook many. His movements were like a professional swimmer and he managed to get at the forefront.

All of them at the front had so much stamina that they didn't pause to catch their breath as they swam while I have to occasionally take a break as I was starting to feel tired after moving my arms heavily.

I looked at others movements and tried to imitate them though I was not able to learn at a glance still it was way better than forcefully doing the forward strokes.

I sped and stopped occasionally to fill up my stock of energy.

I looked around for potential traps as not much was mentioned about this point in the novel and it was skipped but to my surprise, no one had fallen into any traps till now even after it had been more than 20 minutes we all had started swimming.

No screaming, no howling, did the instructor have mercy on us after making us go through hell till the mountains.

Whatever.

Some were thinking of this as competition and trying to get ahead only tiring themselves instead of reserving their strength for the last run after the river.

Lucas started to see the land up ahead.

"Thank God" I breathed the air of relief seeing the land up ahead, at this point Lucas arms and legs were very sore from waving and kicking the water but he wanted to make sure he reached the land before he took a small break.

I arrived at the bank of the river and looked to see the small outlines of students before me dragging their bodies.

I looked back to finally see Fredrick at a distance of two hundred feet. My lips twitched seeing him so close even after falling behind. He must have neglected taking breaks to minimise the time loss.

I dragged my tired body mustering all his strength to move forward.

I arrived in the middle of the forest, an area that looked dense at the sides but very few trees were in front of them with a curved path line. The path of the forest was cleared for them to run through.

The moment everyone got out of the river they started running on the path.

This was the last section one has to pass before arriving back at the starting juncture and also it was our final leap to get out of this nightmarish training for today which has tested the limit of one patient.

The only reason, I was able to endure unlike many early 2 Star because of enduring all day in the dungeons where you have to hunt for hours and sometimes days without getting rest or sleep keeping your alertness to the fullest to avoid any danger.

My decision to join a mercenary and hunt in the dungeon was one of the wisest decisions, I had taken after coming to this world.

Shaking his head to clear unnecessary thoughts he moved forward.

Lucas pushed himself on the path where there were no traps laid unlike the previous ones so he didn't have to be on the edge on this final track and as only a few hundred meters left to end this training he can finally get out from here.

Some of them were walking at this point panting heavily.

Some of them who walked out of the water lay on the ground instead of moving due to their fatigue.

Lucas looked forward and saw Earnest who had a diamond bloodline, who can be said one of the top students in our batch dragging himself putting his hand on the back which must be aching.

Lucas sped up as he saw the finish line with Roy staring at us from the distance while some slowed down in their steps as they were at the limit.

Tap.Tap.Tap.Tap.

Several feet of tapping on the ground reverted which woke Roy from his thoughts as he looked at the faces of the approaching ants who were able to reach this point faster than their peers.

Lucas sped up seeing the plains up ahead as he could see the plain field before him and started sprinting faster.

At this point, Lucas was right beside Parth and both of them shared a brief nod, Parth gave a bump on Lucas's shoulders as they ran forward.

Parth looked back to see Fredrick catching on to them and looked at Lucas's eyes. They both shared the same thought that is to reach the line before Fredrick and ran ahead with the little amount of strength left within them.

While Fredrick saw the silhouettes of Lucas and Parth speeding up, frowned as he understood, both of them sped up seeing him.

However, he could feel himself running out of stamina after he was to start from behind after getting caught in the trap due to his carelessness and as they were already closed to finish like he couldn't overtake them with his power being sealed so he had let them win.

Moreover, he had avoided taking breaks to catch up to others at the front.

Ten feet...

Eight feet.

Five feet.

Two feet.

Finally, Lucas feet crossed the lines and looking for a shade, he laid on the ground with sweat dripping down from his face and his clothes stuck to his body being covered in immense sweat and was feeling sticky.

Lucas wasn't the only one. Everyone who was able to reach here was lying on the grounds panting heavily due to being out of breath.

Lucas was able to finish the course along with the top students and he was among the top 20 students who passed the lines first.

Lucas glanced at others to see many had passed out due to fatigue as they passed the line while those who were lying, were complaining about how tired they were, with the whole of thier bodies aching and that the workout session was too much of torture.

Roy didn't say anything but smiled seeing the students reaching there one by one. Internally he was quite satisfied with their performances mainly the ones who reached first clearing the routine before five hours.

He stood up from his seats and walked towards the ones that arrived.

He stared at them, surveying them and looked around to see students limping toward the finish line as fast as possible even though they were out of breath and were on their last leg.

"Congratulations to you all, who managed to endure this harsh training. Good job," Roy said as he noted our faces one after another.

He gestures to the assistant to remove the bracelets and they went towards each one of us and removed the bracelets

As soon as the bracelet was removed, everyone lifted their bodies and stared at themselves, as they felt their powers being unsealed and the mana that was suppressed in them started to flow within them.

Lucas felt his strength returning to his body and all the injuries and soreness he was feeling at the moment reduced by quite a margin.

The awakened ones have high healing and regeneration which allows them to recover with slight rest.

Now as our mana is unsealed our bodies started to heal and we started regaining our strength quite faster.

Everyone still looked tired but at least they had regained the energy to move thier formerly tired and stiff muscles.

"Here are lotions for those who have suffered injuries. I suggest all of you not take recovery potions to overcome your soreness and let it heal naturally. I am telling you for your good. Now see you tomorrow."

Our mood became heavy thinking about the nightmare we have to go again tomorrow.