Alex descended the tree and mentally prepared himself for his first training session in this new world.
The God had told Alex that he should destroy his body as thoroughly as possible with training and then use meditation to enhance his body with Mana.
Nothing out of the ordinary would happen if someone told something like this to a newbie regarding sports.
Why?
Because if someone didn't have enough experience in physical exercise, their willpower and resistance to physical pain wouldn't be strong enough to really damage their muscles.
When a newbie regarding sports trained until they couldn't anymore, their muscles wouldn't receive too much damage since the body's self-preservation instinct kicked in. The person would feel like they couldn't continue, but someone that had trained themselves for longer could go further.
Alex was a bit apprehensive about the God's words.
Alex had trained his body to such a degree that he had even managed to join the biggest MMA organization in the world.
It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that Alex had once had a body that was normally only seen on TV, and, well, it made sense. After all, Alex's fights had also been broadcast on TV.
Because of that, if Alex decided to go all-out with his training, he had the willpower to actually train his body until even his tendons snapped.
Of course, he had never done something like that before since it was stupid beyond belief to do that.
'But this world is different,' Alex thought as he scratched his chin. 'If the Mana in the atmosphere has some kind of healing and strengthening effect on even tendons, training until my tendons snap might actually have an even greater effect.'
Alex looked at the forest with a conflicted expression.
'Yet, what if Mana actually doesn't help in healing such injuries? What if it helps, but it takes several days for it to heal something like that? I would be helpless during that time.'
'I mean, I could try it in a village where I'm safe, but here? Not sure.'
Alex sighed.
'I should start slowly. Let's first get an above-average workout in. Let's go until I would be wrecked with soreness for the next couple of days.'
Alex mentally prepared himself for training, something he hadn't done in a long time.
Alex felt himself become more energetic and powerful as his brain sent signals to his body to prepare itself for a stressful time.
Then, Alex did something surprising.
He took off all his clothes.
'I will be plenty warm when I train, and I don't want my clothes to reek of sweat.'
Alex made several of his joints crack as he jumped up and down a bit.
'Alright, let's go!'
And thus, Alex's first training session began.
He took about ten minutes to warm up by running, jumping, falling to the ground, standing up, pulling himself up on branches, and doing lots of other things.
Alex hadn't trained in a long time, but as soon as his training actually began, he felt like no time had passed since his last session.
'Usually, I would only do some muscle groups, but today, I'm doing all of them!'
Alex grabbed his sword and used it as a make-shift weight. After all, it was quite heavy.
He put it on his shoulders, stood on the tip of his toes, went back to standing normally, went back to the tip of his toes, and so on.
This trained the calves.
Then, he did squats with the sword.
This trained the thighs.
Alex was experienced enough to know what kind of movement would train what kind of muscles.
Since this was an intense training session, Alex planned to make it a really long one.
About one hour after Alex started training, the rain had arrived.
Alex ignored the fire and the food. If the fire went out, it went out, and the meat could still be eaten when it was cold. It should be cooked by now anyway.
However, Alex grabbed his bag and cleaned it.
After that, he dug a small hole in the form of a bucket and put the bag inside it.
He had remembered that when his healing potions broke, they had made the back wet, but most of the liquid had still remained inside. This meant that the bag could hold water to some degree.
Alex's clothes had been put at a relatively dry place on his tree.
It took an entire 90 minutes until Alex had finished training his legs, and he already felt quite a bit of soreness. This was the point where he would normally stop training his legs when he had been on earth.
For safety's sake, Alex also stopped training his legs at this point.
He had to check the usage of the Mana first.
Next, Alex trained his arms and shoulders.
As Alex continued training, he felt some kind of primal feeling.
He hadn't been sure where that feeling had come from initially, but he quickly found out.
He was training in the wilderness, away from any kind of responsibility, family, public image, work, and so on.
Only the rain drenching his body and the rough wilderness surrounded him.
He had to do nothing but train.
Training was his only responsibility.
Nothing else mattered.
There was no job he had to go back to.
There was no money he had to worry about.
He didn't have to wake up and go to work.
pᴀɴdᴀ nᴏveʟ He just had to grow more powerful.
In Alex's mind, the training seemingly transformed from an exercise into some form of spiritual cultivation.
Alex felt like this was the most primal and most fundamental truth of the world.
Just power, nothing else.
After 90 minutes, Alex was done with his arms and shoulders.
Lastly, Alex focused on his abdomen, chest, and back.
This took 60 minutes.
Then, Alex was finally done.
He had trained for four full hours, and he felt as alive as never before. These new surroundings had given Alex an incredible boost in energy, and training under the rain had been a bit weird at the beginning, but Alex had grown to love training in the rain.
It kept him cool, and the sensations of the raindrops had been almost hypnotic.
Alex took one more deep breath as he slowly cooled down from his training.
A couple minutes later, Alex realized that his mind wasn't as focused anymore.
He hadn't eaten much since yesterday, and he was severely dehydrated.
Alex checked on the bag and saw that it was full of water.
Sadly, the water wasn't pure at all. It had a brownish tint to it.
'I can't be choosy now.'
Alex drank the brownish water. It definitely wasn't tasting good, but the cool sensation of the water running down his dry throat was great, nonetheless.
Then, Alex went over to the fireplace.
The fire had long been extinguished, and the meat was dripping with water from the rain.
However, Alex still grabbed the meat and consumed it.
It was missing a lot of seasoning, and it wasn't cooked well, but eating it like this awakened a special, primal feeling in Alex.
Surprisingly, the meat tasted rather good!
It was quite tough, but it had a really strong taste, similar to game.
Alex could have finished all of it, but he stopped himself.
It was important to not overfeed himself, or his concentration would wane while meditating.
After Alex was finished eating and drinking some more, he sat down near his tree and put the sword beside him.
Then, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the surroundings.
Surprisingly, the sound of the rain wasn't distracting. In actuality, it was helping Alex in getting in tune with his surroundings.
After some minutes passed, Alex felt a kind of mysterious force in the air, and he was sure that he had never felt anything like this on earth.
This was new.
This had to be Mana!
Alex concentrated on the Mana and tried to pull at it with his mind.
It took some getting used to, but after around half an hour, Alex had become quite good at pulling the Mana into himself.
Alex imagined himself as a black hole that pulled everything in its surroundings into itself.
He had to absorb everything that touched him.
The earth, wood, air, and other forms of matter didn't move, obviously, but since Alex's mind was able to manipulate the Mana to some degree, the Mana flowed into Alex's body.
As soon as the force entered Alex's body, he felt his muscles become warm but not hot.
It felt nice and relaxing.
It was like Alex was taking a bath.
Like this, three more hours passed.
The sun went over the horizon, and by now, night had arrived.
Alex opened his eyes.
He had to be careful now.