"And that's it!" Reynold shouted with laughter when he saw Nick punching the last piece of debris into a house wall.
Since Nick hadn't managed to make the majority stick to the walls, he just punched and kicked the debris into the walls from melee range.
As soon as Nick was done, he fell onto his back.
He didn't lose consciousness, but he still felt like he couldn't stay on his feet.
His entire body was burning and aching, and the heavy weapons Reynold had given him felt like they had fused to Nick's body.
For over three minutes, Nick couldn't even be bothered to think about anything.
He was just too busy trying to survive and breathe.
When Reynold saw that Nick's eyes regained focus, he walked over and squatted down beside Nick, smirking at him.
"Tough, isn't it?" Reynold asked.
Nick was so busy breathing heavily that he only nodded several seconds later.
"Training as a Zephyx Extractor is different from training as a normal person, Nick," Reynold said with a chuckle. "The more Zephyx we have, the quicker our regeneration becomes."
"As a Peak Newbie, you should be able to recover from something like this within 24 hours or so, which is just perfect for our training tomorrow."
Nick breathed heavily. "Is… training like this… very important?" he asked through gasps.
Reynold nodded. "Yep. Zephyx is our source of energy, and it also increases the power of our bodies."
"However, the increase is based on our fitness."
"For example, Manela is very fit and quite big, but her physical power can't compare to mine."
"Even though the inherent strength difference between sexes becomes less important the stronger we get since the average density of female muscle increases to almost the same density as male muscles, men still tend to train their bodies with more fervor, on average. Obviously, there are exceptions, but on average, that is still the case."
Nick furrowed his brows. "Are you sure?" he asked, slowly sitting up. "This doesn't seem like Manela. Maybe she just prioritizes flexibility and speed over pure strength due to her weapon."
Reynold laughed and shook his head a bit.
"That's an excuse and does not represent the truth. While it is true that an excessive amount of muscle can slow you down, that excessive amount of muscle must truly be excessive."
Reynold lifted his right arm and flexed it, showing his bulky muscles.
The next moment, he relaxed it and moved it over his shoulder.
His other arm also moved behind his back but from below.
After turning around, Nick saw what Reynold was doing.
Right now, Reynold's two hands were holding each other behind his back, one coming from above and one coming from below.
Almost all humans could do something like that, but for someone as muscular as Reynold, this was special.
Then, Reynold did the splits, eliciting a shocked expression from Nick.
"Lastly, our weight barely increases as we grow more powerful," Reynold said as he almost seemed to teleport into the distance.
"Even though I obviously weigh more than Manela, it's, at the absolute most, 100 kilos, and that's being extremely generous."
Reynold grinned. "And what's 100 kilos for a Veteran?"
Nick couldn't find a counterargument.
"But then, why doesn't she train like that?"
Reynold laughed loudly.
"Because she doesn't want to look like me," Reynold shouted.
Nick just looked at Reynold for a while.
That's it?
That was the entire reason?
"It's understandable, though," Reynold added. "There are a couple of female Extractors in Kugelblitz that have bodies very similar to mine, and damn, they're scary."
"If you were to see them, you would immediately think they are men, but the fact that they are women makes this so much scarier."
"Not in a negative sense, of course. It's just that being willing to sacrifice your outward appearance for power to this degree shows a terrifying amount of dedication and willpower."
"They are like iron soldiers, and you can tell their fanatic dedication to becoming stronger just from looking into their eyes."
"I mean, I want to become stronger as well, but damn, I can't compare to them."
Reynold laughed some more.
"I still want to live a little, you know?"
Nick furrowed his brows.
It sounded believable, but he still wanted to ask Manela in a couple of days.
"Anyway, enough talking," Reynold said. "We are over."
"Over?" Nick asked.
"We've been here for three and a half hours," Reynold said.
"Oh," Nick answered. "Sorry."
"Nah, it's fine," Reynold said with a dismissive wave. "We're just going to rectify that tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, you deal with the second house in two and a half hours. With your experience from today, this should be doable."
Nick took a deep breath.
Sure, he would definitely be faster tomorrow, but nearly an entire hour faster?
That would be brutal.
It would be just as brutal as today.
"Not surprising that you thought I would only hold out for ten days or so," Nick said with a sigh.
Reynold laughed loudly.
"We're going to turn you into a bronze titan!" Reynold shouted as he slapped Nick's back.
"You still have a bit of growing ahead of you, and if you eat enough while training hard, you should be able to squeeze a couple more centimeters out of your body!"
Nick hadn't really thought about it before, but now, he realized that he would enjoy being taller.
"Thank you, Reynold," Nick said as he stood up. "You taught me a lot today."
"No problem, boy!" Reynold shouted with a loud laugh. "I'm going to make a man out of you!"
Nick also laughed and nodded.
"Anyway, gotta go. Work calls!" Reynold said with a wave before he jumped into the distance.
"See you tomorrow!" Nick shouted after him.
For a bit, Nick just watched Reynold jumping into the distance.
He was very impressed by Reynold.
He was outstanding in basically every department.
'If the thing with Horua and Pator hadn't happened, maybe I would have become someone like this in the future,' Nick thought.
'But now…'
He could only sigh.