Free Web NovelChapter 47: Chapter 47 Training continues.
She pushed herself up and walked toward the wall, positioning her back firmly against it.
There was no need for the system to explain this training again.
Wall sits.
Long duration.
Ivy slowly lowered herself into position, her thighs immediately protesting as tension built up in her muscles.
At first, it felt manageable.
It’s just standing, she told herself, swallowing hard. I shouldn’t get tired from this... right?
But seconds stretched into minutes, and the strain intensified.
Her legs began to tremble.
Her breathing grew heavier.
Her muscles burned.
She wasn’t allowed to adjust her posture....not even slightly. One wrong movement, and she would have to start all over again.
So she endured even as her body screamed.
Even as sweat trickled down her temples.
{Thirty minutes more, Host.}
Ivy clenched her teeth, her vision starting to blur.
Thirty more minutes...?
Her thighs felt like they were on fire but she kept going.
{Twenty minutes more.}
"Oh... just ten minutes left..." Ivy whispered hoarsely, trying to motivate herself. "I can do this... I have to do this."
Her voice barely held conviction, but she forced herself to keep going.
Time crawled.
Every second felt like torture.
Ding!
{One-hour wall sit completed.}
Ivy collapsed forward slightly, gasping for breath as she struggled to remain standing.
{Congratulations, Host.}
"Finally..." she muttered weakly, her legs trembling violently.
{Next is holding weights, as you already know. There are two five-kilogram water kegs. You will hold them without dropping.}
"I know..." Ivy replied with a tired sigh.
She walked over to the kegs, gripping their handles tightly before lifting them.
The weight dragged at her arms instantly.
{Stretch out your hands, Host. I will begin the countdown. Once you hear fifty, you may drop them. If you lower your hands before then, you will restart.}
"Yeah, yeah... I get it," Ivy said, though her voice lacked energy.
She raised her arms.
They immediately threatened to fall.
Her muscles screamed in protest.
But she forced them to stay up.
{1... 2... 3...}
The pain started almost instantly.
{10... 11... 12...}
Her arms began to tremble.
Not violently but enough to make her worry.
The strain spread to her shoulders... her neck...
"This is... fucking painful..." Ivy groaned under her breath, sweat forming on her forehead.
Her grip tightened on the kegs as her breathing became ragged.
{20... 21...}
"Fuck....I can’t do this anymore!" she cried out.
Her arms gave out.
The kegs slipped from her hands and hit the ground with a heavy thud.
Ivy immediately clutched her arms, wincing in agony.
She could barely feel them anymore. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
{Mission failed.}
{Host must start over.}
"Shit!" Ivy cursed, frustration evident in her voice. "Can I just do this tomorrow? I still need to prepare my children for bed!"
She shook her aching arms, trying to relieve the numbness.
{Once the Host begins training, it must be completed.}
The system’s voice remained calm and unyielding.
{It could have been postponed if you had not started. However, since you have already begun...even after failure....you must repeat it until you succeed.}
Ivy let out a long, exhausted breath.
"Damn it..." she muttered, staring at the kegs on the floor.
Her arms still throbbed.
Her body begged her to stop.
{Hurry up, Host. You still have the third stage of training. Do that, and then you can retire for the day.} freewebnoveℓ.com
{The apocalypse... the monsters wait for no one.}
"Oh yeah, yeah I know," Ivy muttered under her breath, her voice hoarse and strained. Her grip tightened unconsciously as her thoughts drifted, unbidden, to her children.
Their faces flashed in her mind....fragile, terrified, depending on her.
That alone was enough.
With a shaky inhale, Ivy bent down and picked up the keg again. Her fingers trembled as she adjusted her hold, then slowly stretched both arms outward, locking them in place just as the system had instructed.
{1... 2... 3... 4... 5...}
At first, it was manageable.
But only at first.
By the tenth second, a dull ache began creeping into her shoulders.
By the fifteenth, it spread....sharp, burning, relentless.
By twenty...
Ivy could barely feel her hands anymore.
Her fingers had gone numb, stiff like they didn’t belong to her body, yet she refused to let go. Her teeth sank into her lower lip, hard enough to draw blood, as she forced herself to endure.
{20... 21... 22...}
Her legs, spread apart just as the system demanded, began to tremble violently beneath her weight. The strain crawled up her calves, coiled around her thighs, and dug deep into her core.
Every muscle screamed.
Every nerve begged to stop but Ivy didn’t.
"Not yet..." she whispered faintly, her voice cracking.
{40... 41... 42... 43...}
Her vision blurred.
Dark spots flickered at the edges of her sight as tears welled up uncontrollably in her eyes. She blinked rapidly, trying to force them back, refusing to let them fall.
Just a little longer...
Her arms felt like they were being torn from their sockets.
Her shoulders burned like they were on fire.
Her breathing grew ragged, uneven, almost desperate.
You’ve survived worse even though you later failed all thanks to that scum ex husband of yours but then you survived lots of disasters in the apocalypse. Ivy reminded herself as memories came crashing in....
The people she couldn’t save, her children....
That single thought ignited something deep within her, something stronger than pain, stronger than exhaustion.
Determination.
{48... 49... 50...}
