Chapter 3: I Am Knight Lee Han (1)

Early in the morning, when the sun had not risen yet. The time when taverns that were open late had not yet closed and the peasants had risen from their slumber and headed to their farms.

Huff-! Huff-!

Thump-! Thump-!

Thumping sounds echoed through the streets, accompanied with the sound of heavy breathing that totally didn’t fit the time of the day. It wouldn’t be strange if some people thought that there was a horse galloping through the morning.

Especially since the momentum of the man who was running diligently was very unusual, to say the least.

But…

“Sir Knight, are you running today too?”

“What a diligent man.”

“Be strong!”

The peasants, whose daily routine was to wake up early in the morning, cheered for the man’s fierceness, as it took away the languidness that still weighed down on their drowsy bodies.

No matter how diligent someone was, if they did the exact same thing every single day, it wouldn’t be strange if they became mentally exhausted. So, the sight of the man who didn’t show such exhaustion or even a hint of boredom was a great source of joy and stimulation to the peasants.

Especially…

“Oh my, look at that manly body.”

“Aren’t you going to cover your eyes?”

“If only my husband is like that. Hoho.”

“Is he a man or a beast~?”

Even though the women on the streets pretended to cover their eyes, they still squinted at the half-naked man’s body, gawking at everything that he had to offer, rejuvenating their spirits. On the other hand, the men who saw the man’s body would be ridden with envy and get motivated to have a body like him. So, in a way, this phenomenon was beneficial for both men and women.

“Huff… Huff…”

But, the man only greeted the peasants who greeted him with his eyes and he didn’t even try to treat them in a friendly manner. Not because he wasn’t friendly toward them though, but because he was taking his workout seriously. He simply didn’t have the lenience to respond to them.

The peasants also knew about this, so they didn’t think much about it.

“Please eat some of these later!”

Swish-!

Suddenly, one of them threw an apple in the man’s direction. He effortlessly caught it without looking back and waved his hand. It may seem like nothing, but that wave was a sign of gratitude.

The peasant who threw the apple at him smiled proudly.

“What an interesting fellow.”

“It’s rare to see a knight living outside the castle.”

“Yes, it is, haha.”

After seeing him running every single day for three years, uncaring whether it was raining or snowing, there was no way the peasants didn’t wish to cheer on him.

Even though they didn’t know what his goal was…

“He’s definitely going to be a notable person in the future.”

The peasants firmly believed so, but…

“I will…! Definitely…! Resign…! This year…!”

Crunch-!

The man, Lee Han, took a big bite of the apple and cheered himself again today.

His goal: retirement.

Even now, he was still desperate to retire.

Today, too, Lee Han was running. But, he wasn’t just running mindlessly. His goal was to complete a 20km run within an hour. Of course, he wouldn’t just run blindly at top speed for the whole course. Instead, he ensured his stability, running at a steady pace with sandbags attached to both wrists and ankles.

Those sandbags weighed exactly 10 kg each, and they’d increase the amount of strain his body would have to endure. At times, he’d even run while wearing his armor.

Thump-! Thump-!

Perhaps because of that, whenever his body moved, the ground shook loudly and the strain on his body doubled. But instead of paying attention to the strain, he just moved his body again.

After a while, the running portion of the exercise was over, but that didn’t mean he was done with his training.

“Heuk.”

Currently, he was on an empty lot. There was an iron bar located on one side of the lot, and he was holding onto that bar.

“Hmph!”

There, he started to do pull-ups.

To be exact, those were chin-ups.

Assuming a straight posture, he went up and down, again and again, without stopping. His biceps, latissimus dorsi, erector spinae, and countless other muscles were stimulated by this exercise as they trembled.

The more reps he took, the more concentrated he became, and this was something that he aimed to do, as he wanted to feel his muscles’ movements in great detail.

This is my body and my muscles. I need to know about how my muscles work, how they react when they receive a stronger stimulation, and how to utilize all that information. Increasing my strength blindly won’t do me any good.

Even if I can’t move like that monster, all I need to do is build a body strong enough to withstand that guy’s blows!

He had a goal, and that goal never left his mind.

At one point, he climbed up the iron bar again with a 20 kg sandbag between his legs and another 30 kg on his back. Thanks to that, he felt even greater stimulations and dramatic tremors from his muscles.

Creak-!

Even though an object like a bar couldn’t scream, it sounded as if it was as it swayed under the high-intensity pull-ups that continued for an hour.

…Did I mess up somehow? It seems like it bent because I put too much force…

“…I should have put in the right amount of force, hmpf.”

He thought that he already gave enough thought about it, but it seemed like he had been using his power rather ignorantly. So, he decided to relax his grip and hopped down to the ground.

After completing the 90-minute pull-up course, sweat rose from his body like steam due to how hot his body was. Down below, his sweat had formed a puddle as the muscles in his entire body were squeezed to the limit and trembled.

Running without stopping, working his body without resting. This series of activities would inflict a great burden to anyone who had undergone it. No matter how skilled they were, such an extreme exercise would only put a lot of strain on their body.

“Keuuuhh!”

Only after stretching a few times did he relax his body. Seemingly not planning to give his body a moment of rest, he then carried the logs lying around in the yard on his shoulders like a barbell.

Just carrying the 100 kg logs on his shoulders was already a huge burden to his body, but he took it a step further and lowered his posture.

Then, he started squatting.

To train one’s lower body strength, there was no better exercise than that. But, at the same time, there was also no exercise that was as painful as it was.

Lee Han maintained his squatting position for a few seconds before standing up again. At one point, his thighs felt like they were burning, but that wasn’t enough to stop him.

Just like when he was doing pull-ups, he did his strength training as if it was aerobic, while he did aerobic as if it was strength training; a truly ignorant and reckless method that would make even an expert think that he was trying to destroy his own body.

Rumble-!

After 70 minutes of those rigorous, torture-like squats, he carefully put down the log. He’d rather just toss it away than treat it carefully like this, but if it broke down, he’d have to wander around to find its replacement, so he put in that extra effort instead of getting instant relief.

“Cough.”

He let out a series of coughs, feeling a metallic taste in his mouth; proof that he had suffered an internal injury. The training he underwent was so crazy that it was an understatement to call it overdoing it, so it made more sense that he ended up hurting himself rather than not.

Not a single prestigious knight family would train to this level of ignorance. On the contrary, they’d always have a professional healer or a priest on standby, or maybe use their family’s secret medicine to heal their wounds and restore their physical strength.

In fact, his exercise couldn’t be called anything other than self-torture; it was basically just a form of self-harm.

It couldn’t even be called ignorance anymore, just plain lunacy.

However, he didn’t carry out this level of training because he was ignorant, nor had he turned into a lunatic.

On the contrary…

“My resilience is like a real troll.”

He did something so crazy because he had faith in his ability.

At that moment, Lee Han started eating the food in his backpack. He didn’t even think of going to see a priest, instead, he just blindly pushed the food into his mouth.

Chew-! Chew-!

He even went out of his way to give his jaw an exercise. Instead of eating to swallow his food, he ate the food as if he wanted to break it down into small pieces and absorb all the nutrients in the food.

The food he consumed was; 1 kg of chicken—of course, with its skin removed and it had been boiled in water beforehand—broccoli, nuts, cabbages, potatoes and all kinds of boiled and steamed foods.

They were healthy foods among healthy foods.

Of course, they didn’t taste that good. After all, he only added a minimum amount of salt and seasoning to it. Then again, he ate it for the sake of being healthy, not for their taste. Instead of seasoning, he sprinkled those foods with a precious recovery potion.

Crackle-! Crackle-!

It didn’t take long for him to finally recover.

At some point, the tremors in his muscles stopped, and his once pale face began to glow. Although these parts weren’t visible on the outside, his sore knees and internal injuries that made his body feel like it was about to explode anytime were also healed.

His resilience was truly reminiscent of a particularly terrifying monster; a monster also known as the fearsome man-eater of the forest.

A troll.

His resilience was just like that monster’s and it would be correct to assume so, as it was one of the monsters that was captured and experimented on him by the magic freak.

Of course, it wasn’t to the point he could regenerate his head or limbs when they were cut off. At most, it’d allow him to have rapid healing and recovery through nutrients intake and strong tenacity.

If some gym rats were there with him, they’d definitely be envious of this ability of his. After all, this ability would allow him to quickly absorb all the nutrients that he consumed; Everything would be absorbed directly and become his blood and flesh.

It was clear that it was the best ability to build a body because even if he suffered trauma or internal injury, it could be recovered immediately.

“Huuuuu…!”

After confirming that all of his strength and pain had been healed, Lee Han stood up.

He still got three more hours until he needed to go to work. So…

Whoosh-!

Whoosh-! Whoosh-!

He swung his sword.

The Kingdom Basic Swordsmanship; a basic swordsmanship that involved swinging the sword in eight directions in succession. It was a swordsmanship that Lee Han could utilize with his eyes closed by now. Actually, he could even utilize it by simply imagining it.

While swinging his sword, Lee Han did not blink his eyes, nor did he miss the direction that the tip of his sword was moving to. He understood how to wield his sword, how his sword utilized the strength in his body, and what he needed to do to unleash greater strength, destructive power, agility, and so on.

Due to the countless things he had to think about, he practiced his sword techniques slowly from the first step, all while looking for ways to further develop himself.

And at some point…

His sword, a longsword that one could find anywhere, became fast and sharp enough to cut through the wind.

Later on, his sword became so fast that no sound was made as he sliced the wind. Only the silver light, coming from the blade, was visible, indicating that the sword was indeed moving.

Wooosh-! Wooosh-!

Every time Lee Han swung his sword, dust rose up from the ground as his sword left its mark on the ground.

And…

Kwaaaaang-!

When he swung his sword with all his strength, hitting the ground below him, it caved in, creating a small puddle-shaped crater, as if it had imploded.

Rumble-!

The shock wave sent him flying into the sky before falling, grazing and hurting his body.

But…

“…I need to produce a stronger swing than this.”

He let out a frown, clearly not satisfied by this result.

The road to his retirement was truly long and arduous.