《Avatars of Myths and Legends》Chapter 12 – Running
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“What will we do about that boy?” Natari asked her husband Shang as they watched Jin’s trailing figure disappear. For the past few weeks Jin had started helping out with the basic restaurant activities on top of deliveries in their restaurant. At first she was just happy there’s extra help around the restaurant but when she realized how young Jin was, she became alarmed. Her own son was a year older and was still living getting hand fed by her.
“Leave him be, he’s young and going through a few things. It’s good that he’s learning how harsh the world can be earlier than later. I wish I could say the same about our own kid.” Shang said plainly as he focused on cooking. She expected her husband to be more sympathetic but surprisingly he was rather tough on Jin. In reality her husband didn’t dare tell her that Jin is an orphan that is probably homeless and parentless. There were times he was tempted but for some reason, he knew that Jin was going to be a self-made man like him who didn’t need charities. What he needed now was to toughen up.
Back to where Jin was at, he was carrying two large containers of food enough for twenty people! The city of Hollowing Fire designed to be compact even though its area is exceedingly large. This was different from the Golden Thunder City he grew up in where the streets were wide and spacious. It was because of this that personal delivery was much faster than delivery by horse though.
“Are you sure this is the best way to train my body?” Jin said between breathes with much difficulties. The restaurant owned by Shang had two floors, could seat over a hundred and fifty seats and was busy all the time. It was not like the small joint his parents owned back in his town. There were over ten delivery boys and hundreds if not thousands of delivery orders daily.
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“Yes, before you try to run you must be able to walk. Your stamina is extremely poor, we cannot start the real training yet. You can’t even control your internal strength properly.” Prometheus’s regal voice rang out. Jin was expecting to practice the metal element again soon but he was never told to. In fact Prometheus just wanted him to do deliveries until he is ‘passable’.
Jin gritted his teeth as his arms trembled like they were made of noodles. When he first started, forget jogging, he could barely walk to the customers’ homes. There were times he puked or simply dropped everything which meant he needed to go back to the restaurant and start all over. Shang would of course scream at him and even deduct the spoiled food off his wages.
Jin stopped entering the Titan Domain for the full duration shortly after the deliveries started. Now he goes in there for half the maximum time so he has half his internal strength to start the day. The Titan Domain provide valuable mental training. It’s like the shadow boxing boxers do but it’ll never replace real physical training. The titan just wants him to memorize the first section of the metal element of the scripture. Jin didn’t even dare ask how many sections there are.
The simplest way Jin could work out while earning a living was to use his internal strength in his everyday routines. However he had to overcome a very elementary problem first, he had to control his internal strength better. When he just started, he would be alright until the noon when he is completely depleted of any internal strength. Now he can almost make it till the end of the business day.
This was a huge improvement but still far from the first milestone set by his demonic teacher. He needed to be able to run at full speed for the whole day before they could start on real training.
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At first he thought training would be much more fun and the results would show much sooner but he was very wrong, he wasn’t even qualified to start training yet! His determination was tested to the extreme and there were times where he wanted to take a day off. However he does not want to be the old Jin who slacked off anymore. He knew that it was a once in a lifetime fortune that he got two Avatasr of the highest tier and it was up to him to change his own destiny.
Another two months passed and the icy phenomenon known as winter approached. Soft but delightful snow blanketed the whole city as people braced themselves for the cold weather. Jin was busy as ever with deliveries now since customers were more inclined to stay home.
A nimble figure was seen gliding from the rooftops of stores from the marketplace. Utilizing the ice that formed from the melted snow, Jin was utilizing the minimum strength needed to reach his destination. The stamina was there, now he was just polishing the balance and concentration needed to reach his targets.
He was doubting the instructions from the titan from time to time but without realizing it, he was beginning to enjoy running as he slowly noticed the progress he has made. Sure there were times where he fell and injured himself. There were even times where he was late and got food thrown back at his face but he can feel the changes within his body. Getting started was the hard part, now he’s slowly reaping in the benefits. He could even see the outline of his abs forming just from running.
The restaurant owner Shang started to realize how much faster Jin is than his other delivery boys and relied more and more heavily on him to deliver most of their food. Each time Jin got used to one style of delivery, Prometheus would instruct him to deliver with some handicaps. For example he would have to deliver without the lids on the food. This was a huge setback for Jin, he was spilling food left and right. The purpose of this was to increase his control to the next level. This took Jin yet another month to fully master. Each turn had to be done intricately or else the broth of the food would be spilled. Then came variations such as using the left hand only or balancing the plate on his head. Each one seemed more ridiculous than the previous but Jin was whole heartedly doing as he was told.
Just like this half a year had passed for Jin since he escaped to this city. He easily grew half a foot during this time. He more or less has the introductory section of metal. Every night the restaurant owner’s wife would offer him to live at their home but he would politely refuse and secretly sleep inside the restaurant when every worker left. Jin had a suspicion that the bossy owner Shang knows but chooses not to say anything about it.
“Today we’ll be trying something different. We’ll be reinforcing your body with the metal element.” Prometheus’s voice instructed in his mind.
“Really?” Jin was pleasantly surprised since he completely forgot about using the elements after half a year of gruesome running. He only focused on mastering his own puny amount of internal strength when he ran.
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