BornAndTorn 33 Hitting With Rock Bottom

After waking, up a wave of confusion hit me, where is the usual splitting headache, nausea, the feeling of your stomach churning? I felt weirded out waking up normally, there was no feeling of exhaustion, no injuries that needed be taken care of. It felt like I was in a normal body for once, but after remembering all the things that happened to me by now, I quickly erased any notion of such thoughts out of my brain. Shaking my body, I do not notice anything different, everything still felt the same as usual. Though after trying to stand up and wanting to take some steps I found myself unable to even take a single step forward.

Responsible for my current situation was 2 thin threads, that were coming out of my 2 hands, they were connected with 2 rocks, even though those rocks were just as big as a typical soccer ball, they still were much heavier. Moving every muscle in my body, I still find myself unable to even move a step forward. I can already imagine the gloating expression on the ant queen. I told you so, your idea to use rocks in a manner like that is just a pure waste of time. See, I am grateful, that you prepared and split the who rock into suitable pieces of rocks for me. But did they have to pick stuff with such a high density? This feels like pure iron. Moving towards one rock, I try to lift it up. I was able to lift it up, by using both arms and even then just barely. 40 Kilogramm, are these ants mental, even with an improved body, how am I supposed to work with that.

Since it dawned on me, that I would not be able to move very far in the near future, I began to search my surroundings. What I noticed left me quite baffled. The ground was covered with little ants as far as I could see, each and every one of them was looking at me as if they were expecting from me. After letting go of the rock I have been holding, it crashed into the earth. But the ants were not scared at all. Some ants began to crawl to me and into my mouth and soon after I felt refreshed once again. Having done their job, the ants left my mouth again and crawled into the horde of ants again.

The realisation struck me full force, seems like I am expected to train till exhaustion and then the bugs bring me nutrition to fix my muscles and bring my body back to its full capacity to once again train till exhaustion. I have not done anything yet and the whole body began to s.h.i.+ver regarding the upcoming training session, I would rather refer to it as training torture.

It is not possible to escape from this situation unless I get strong enough to be able to carry those rocks with me. That marked the beginning of my h.e.l.lish training torture.

At first, I started by switching between push-ups and lifting the rock with much struggle over and over again. Due to my prior training session, I was barely able to do 15 push ups in a row, which seems like an impressive feature given that I am still in the body of a baby, but given the task that is looming in front of me, numbers like that are just pitiful. Push up after push up, pitiful attempts to lift and hold the heavy stone pa.s.sed until a small mistake took place as I was unable to hold the rock and it slipped out of my hands cras.h.i.+ng my right food. Looking at the b.l.o.o.d.y stump that once was my right food, I felt perplexed I was expecting a much more painful sensation, instead, I got nothing. Using the moment, to fix my muscle tissue and the exhaustion in my body, I noticed that my foot was fixed as well It even increased slightly in size.

Having found a new a way to further strengthen my body, I began to inflict serious injuries to my feet over and over again, until they were not crushed by the impact of the stone. In the meantime, I was able to increase the number of repet.i.tion up to 40 and I was able to pull one rock in a fluent manner. To increase the difficulty I decided to only use one arm for push-ups now and to lift the stone with just one hand.

At first, it felt like I was beginning where I started because my form and the number of repet.i.tion was abysmal, it felt like all the strength I had, was just a mere illusion and I was once again forced to face reality, that by no means I am yet to face this world head-on. So I continued to train, switching between the arms, further strengthening them. Then I began to put a rock on my back and continued my push-ups exercises. The struggle and continuous tearing of muscles began anew. If I fell down due to total exhaustion, everything got healed again and I started the routine again. As I was able to do this with 2 Hands, I began to switch between the 2 arms. Then I started with 2 heavy rocks on my back and the ordeal happened once again.

To be able to fight with those 2 rocks I need to strengthen my legs as well, that lead to me lifting the rocks and trying to move with them. Although I was barely able to move with them, I continued to do so. After exhausting myself numerous times that way I began to do squats and to jump after each repet.i.tion. Further increasing the likelihood of my being able to actually fight with these kinds of things. I was switching as fast as possible to try and get more endurance that way.

Another method of training I added was throwing the rocks away as far as I could, until the force was propelling me forward, to counteract this kind of movement I began to try and pull it into the opposite direction, leading to some questioning results. I lost count how often I nearly tore my arm off or learned to fly with a dubious expression on my face or got my skull cracked open because of the rock smas.h.i.+ng back into my face with full force. I seriously underestimated how elastic this thread can be. But even though it did not look graceful, I began to get accustomed to it sooner or later. And on the plus side, my face is so thick now that barely anything can hurt me now, or at least I hope so.

I was switching between all those exercises to strengthen my body all around. I also did Hand-stand push-ups while balancing the rocks on my feet. I trained my abs by doing crunches and smas.h.i.+ng the rocks into my abs with full speed in between different sets. Although blood began to fly around at first, I did not care and continued with the improvement of my body. After doing this continuously, I lost count how often, I did what or how much I was able to do. I just trained till I collapsed and fell over and got back up after my treatment.

I was strangely focussed and caught in this constant training. I did not notice anything else, I did not see the ants anymore, nor I did I take notice of the sky or the air. TIme itself pa.s.sed without me noticing it. There was just my body and those rocks. It somehow felt like, that those rocks that once were foreign to me, became more and more part of my body. It felt like an extension to my arms. Throwing just random punches in the air, feeling the movement of the rocks and guiding them, reminded me of a certain theme song of a boxer running up the stairs. Ironically the name was the thing I am currently pulling with me.

After finis.h.i.+ng yet another set, I finally stopped to admire the results, only to notice that in my trance-like state, several things have gone haywire. While nothing particularly changed, the scary part is what exactly was around me. At first, there were those bugs around me, no big deal at first. But then I began to see into the distance and I still saw an endless tide of ants, what exactly did happen here, something must have taken place in the time I was unconscious. I just noticed that I have begun to just accept the things that were happening around me without even thinking about them. In a world where magic exists, everything seems possible somehow.

Several questions began to flood my mind. How long was I unconscious for, why did the queen produce that many small ants? Why is there no forest around me anymore? How could they guess what the plan for my weapon was like this? Why did this stuff go unnoticed, as far as I can see there is no vegetation left? What happened to my little dumb ants?

As I was moving forward, the sea of ants made way for me. I felt like the bug version of Moses as the sea of ants parted for me. But I had no time to waste thinking about any more fitting comparison because the whole situation was looking like a time bomb ready to explode any second now. I called for the queen ant to appear and she listened to my call for once. Seems like today is my lucky day, I looked at her directly and began to speak to her, I began to question what was going on here. But she just stared at me, yeah those bugs do not speak English or German and I can not speak the language that is spoken here, I even forgot what they called it.

I ordered the only thing I could do non-verbal, I pointed at the ants in front of me and pointed into the distance. As much as they helped me, walking around with them, just gathers more trouble and attention and I do not want to walk around with these ants pointing out my general location. After pointing into the distance in a confident manner, the queen finally got my intention and the sea of ants began to disperse. As more and more ants pa.s.sed, the destroyed forest began to resurface again. At least I have somewhat of a cover like that, even though there is no way I will be able to avoid conflict with those Chosen Children. At least some of them must have noticed the whole s.h.i.+tshow that went down here.

I have zero clues how much area those ants harvested for gathering the necessary nutrients for them and myself but I do want to know how they were able to kill players especially, after all the strange ent.i.ty is only able to change that kind of data, into a substance that strengthens my body. This can only mean the public eye knows of those bugs. As I walked onwards through the forest that was repairing itself visible to the naked eye, I saw an old acquaintance. In front of my eyes, there was a lone wolf, looking at me with gluttonous eyes. It seemed much more threatening before, seems like I was just caught off guard in the last fight and won by a fluke in the end. I have to apologize I promised you a good fight, but right now is not the right time for that. So excuse me, for what I am about to do.

The right hand smashed the forward aiming at the head of the wolf, even though the wolf dodged it with ease, having taking advantage of the forward movement, the left rock is thrown in half-circle accelerating more and more and finally smashed into the hind leg of the wolf crippling it by sheer force. The wolf failed to antic.i.p.ate the trajectory, it did not take notice of the fact the rocks are tied to a thread. Not waiting for the wolf to catch its breath, the right hand began to throw the rock into the air. Taking advantage of the wolf being stunned, I began to pull it down and with the help of gravity. After hearing the noise, of a skull, cracking, I knew that the fight was already over. As a token of respect, I lifted both arms yet again and smashed them down on its head with my full force, giving it a quick death.

The ant queen suddenly appeared and was collecting some brain matter of the wolf. If I had to take a guess, the parasyte is currently getting samples again, but alas that is not my problem. I waited for a bit, but then whistled at the queen, which looked at me in an annoyed fas.h.i.+on, but unwillingly jumped onto my shoulders again, enjoy the scenery.

I have nearly every problem solved, I can defend myself, at last, have a way to constantly improve myself with these ants, yet I do lack one thing. I still haven't found a way to cover my private parts. Seems like it is my fate to fight and die as an exhibitionist. The wandering Pervert. I could only stare down in shame, sighing about how unfortunate I was. The queen ant, looked at me and without missing the opportunity brought me something, that I did not expect to exist here. It was a real pair of jeans, a real pair. I wanted to embrace the queen for her generosity, but upon me approaching the queen, she retracted the jeans and refused to hand it over to me.

Seems like there is no free bread, even in this world. So I waited for her to stand her conditions. Upon noticing that I understood, she just did one thing, she spits out the small pieces of the wolf she collected before. All I should do is collect more samples, then we have a deal. I nodded at her and without missing a heartbeat the brain matter was slowed once again and the queen disappeared into my mouth before I even could realize what has happened. Putting that felt oddly familiar, but I could not pinpoint what exactly felt so familiar. It felt like a second layer of skin.

I was grateful, that I am not exposed anymore, but the speculation that the knowledge of my previous world, got into the hands of that ent.i.ty. At least I hope, he was only to see into my lingering wishes. Otherwise, I am afraid, that if that ent.i.ty, becomes an enemy at any point in the future, my demise is already set in stone by then. Wait if I remember correctly, at first he did not buy my story of being from a different planet, so, for now, it seems that I am safe, but I have to be careful what to tell him.

Moving forward, it is time to collect some samples for the queen, maybe I will even get a t-s.h.i.+rt that way.

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Not even 5 minutes later, a group of 3 female girls appeared. They seemed to be worn out.

" I have no clue for how long we have been searching already, we have been killing these little ants for days and yet there was no end to them, but then suddenly they disappear from the face of Earth as if they had not even existed in the first place. How convenient. So now everything returns back to the way it used to be is that not totally great. All that struggle and we have not found a single trace of the bug-boy. At this time even another player here would be a G.o.dly gift in my eyes"

Claudia said sarcastically, stretching her weary bones. Instead of an answer, she saw that Samanthas expression turned serious in the blink of a second. Samantha gestured the two of them to be quiet, as she slowly closed in on a wolf, that looked to be sleeping in the near distance. After slowly stalking it, she began readied her magic and was aiming at its lying but soon she retracted her spell. With a solemn expression, she began to look at the corpse of the wolf. The wolf was in a near perfect condition if you disregard the missing head and the totally disfigured hind leg.

" Claudia, I have good news, this wolf did not die to another monster. Its wounds are way too focused. If a monster kills another monster you can see traces of a fight happening. But just by looking at this corpse, that both wounds are vulnerabilities of the wolf. Even the blood itself has not dried yet, that means we are pretty close to whoever killed this beast. But I have to advise you guys to be careful, these wounds do not look clean, so it's unlikely that bug-boy killed that thing. No, it was killed by pure and raw violence. That means, that the perpetrator is either a player that reinforces his body with magic, but those kinds of monsters take decades to train to such a level to be that capable, so we can safely ignore that option. That leaves us with only one conclusion, we are nearing something pretty dangerous."

So stay together and be wary of any change, we have to be really careful in front of such a being. Dear sisters, the endgame of our Hunt has started, let us kill that d.a.m.n thing and then boast about it. IF you want to reach a good ranking, killing such a creature will surely you net you the very first place in the ranking.

Erasing the current feeling of uneasiness that came up after a.n.a.lyzing the corpse of the wolf, they began to search their surrounding for their prey in antic.i.p.ation.

It would not take long, till the found the next lead and they came closer and closer...