Kuweeeeeeeeeeck!!!

◈

“Huok! Huok!”

“Heuk, heuk.”

Luna and I were earnestly running to train our stamina.

While I was happy watching Luna from behind, the fact that my stamina was lower than Luna’s was giving me a huge shock.

Evidence of this was that I was using Stamina Heal more times than Luna.

No.

I clearly understood the difference between F-rank and C-rank from the arm wrestling match, but…

I always thought Luna had low stamina!

I never knew her standard would be higher than mine!

Damn it!

“Phew, Luna. Shall we call it a day?”

“Huh? Um, okay. Jin-sang, today we’ll stop he…”

“My~ Are you going to end already~? That won’t do♡”

A chilling voice came from behind.

“Hieek!”

Reflexively, I hid behind Luna’s back and glanced at the owner of the voice.

“Hello, Jin-sang~ Luna.”

“Ah, B-Bleks! He-hello.”

The owner of the voice was a berserker who, like me, doesn’t have a license but stands on the front lines by casting Heal on himself.

It was Bleks.

Bleks winked at me.

A shiver ran through my entire body.

“B-B-Bleks? Why are you here?”

“Hmm? Well, I heard yesterday that Jin-sang and Luna were going to train~ It was so adorable that I came after my quest to give some advice♡”

“Y-you didn’t have to! Ha. Haha. Hahaha!”

Can’t you just leave?

We’ve already finished our training!

“Heh heh, just listen to my advice once. It will definitely help. Jin-sang, Luna. What kind of training did you do?”

“Um… f-first we did strength training and th-then stamina training.”

“Hmm~ Just as I thought. It seems you haven’t done the most important training?”

Although my body was covered in goosebumps.

I’m still someone who needs to become stronger as an adventurer.

I couldn’t help but be concerned when told I had missed the most important thing.

Especially since Bleks is a berserker.

He must have put in a lot of effort to build such magnificent muscles.

He didn’t seem like he would lie about muscle training.

“What’s the most important thing?”

“Oh my, are you showing interest in me, Jin.sang?”

“Ju-ju-just tell me quickly!”

Don’t lean in and wink like that!

“Heh heh, it’s~ flexibility training~.”

“Flexibility training?”

“No matter how much you build muscle, if you don’t develop the flexibility of the joints that move those muscles, you’ll regret it later. If you make rash movements with a stiff body, you could damage your muscles or get injured easily~.”

“Y-yeah, that makes sense.”

I hadn’t thought to include it in training, but Bleks’ words made sense.

Adventurers have a job that involves intense movements like monster subjugation.

Even if you’re just keeping monsters at bay, you need to respond differently depending on the monster, so having a flexible body to move freely in case of emergencies was necessary.

“It seems you’ve already done strength and stamina training… so I’ll help with just the flexibility training.”

“We’d appreciate that… but why?”

“Because seeing junior adventurers working hard is… so.cute♡”

“Hieek!”

Stop it!

Don’t deliberately pause between words and speak in that seductive voice!

And so, flexibility training guided by Bleks began.

“First, let’s see how flexible your body is. Stand up and try to touch your toes with your hands.”

This is similar to a physical fitness test.

“Let’s start with Luna.”

“Yes.”

Luna immediately bent her upper body and reached her hands toward her toes.

Without any hesitation, Luna smoothly touched her toes with her fingers.

“Ooh.”

“Luna, you can go further down, right?”

“Huh? Yes.”

At Bleks’ words, Luna placed her entire palms on the ground.

Wow. Luna is super flexible.

“Good. You can straighten up now.”

As Luna straightened up, Bleks looked at me.

“Next is Jin-sang, start~.”

“Yes. Heup!”

I bent over, reaching out my hands like Luna did.

But.

Having not been particularly fond of exercise in my original world, and being mostly a homebody except for school, I…

“Hnnnnngh! Ngh!”

Could only reach my shins at most.

Ju-just a bit more…!

Ack! My legs are cramping!

“J-Jin-sang! You can do it!”

“…Oh my, it’s more serious than I thought.”

After Luna’s encouragement.

I heard Bleks speaking in a serious tone rather than a playful one.

After that, Luna and I did the movements Bleks instructed us to do in sequence.

Extending arms fully and reaching for toes again.

Raising legs while standing.

Doing splits while standing.

Spreading legs while sitting and bending forward.

Luna performed all movements perfectly like a gymnast.

I couldn’t even reach halfway.

It clearly revealed that this was the level of someone who hasn’t exercised and has been a homebody.

After completing all the movements, Bleks looked at Luna with a bright smile and said:

“Luna, you did very well. Your flexibility is excellent, to the point where you don’t need flexibility training!”

“He-hehe, th-thank you.”

“On the other hand, Jin-sang…”

Bleks spoke to me in a genuinely advising tone.

“It’s really serious. If you continue adventuring activities like this, it’s certain that you’ll get badly injured. Let’s do proper flexibility training.”

“…Yes.”

I couldn’t refute that.

“Plus, when you raised your leg, you couldn’t maintain it for long, right? Your leg strength is also quite lacking, so you need to work hard on strength training too.”

“Yes…”

Luna was able to maintain her leg in a straight line while standing.

I could barely maintain an L-shape for a moment.

Ah, so embarrassing.

“Heh heh, but don’t worry, Jin-sang~. People like us, healing magicians, are the most suitable for muscle training!”

“Huh? Really?”

“Of course~. Others would have to rest due to muscle soreness after training… but we can treat ourselves, get rid of the muscle soreness, and get results quickly.”

“Ooh!”

“And.did.you.know? Flexibility can become almost like a professional’s in just one day.”

“Wow! R-really! Really?”

“F-for real?”

“Absolutely! …But what’s ‘for real’?”

“Ah, it means ‘really.'”

“I see! Of course it’s for real!”

Bleks, you’re surprisingly good at playing along.

“But how does flexibility increase so suddenly?”

“Huhu heh, I’ll let you experience it. First… let’s try doing the splits while sitting? That would be best to start with.”

“Okay.”

Flexibility increasing immediately…

How does it really increase?

It’s hard to believe, but I couldn’t think of any particular reason why Bleks would lie to us.

As instructed by Bleks, I sat on the leather cloth, spread my legs as far as possible, and leaned my upper body forward.

Urgh!

This really pulls on my thighs and hip joints.

“Bleks… I’ve d-done my best. What do I do now?”

“Heh heh, just maintain that position, Jin-sang~.”

I felt a large hand touch my back.

Without looking back, I could tell it was Bleks’ hand.

“I’m going to start the flexibility pressing now. Are you ready?”

Hmm…

Ah!

That’s it!

It’s about repeatedly stretching in a short time while casting healing magic!

Pressing firmly, and when it starts to hurt, immediately casting healing magic to remove the pain, and repeating it!

Right, right.

In that way, flexibility can be developed quickly!

Heheh, I figured it out quickly without Bleks having to explain it~.

“Yes, I’m ready!”

“Alright~.”

Good. When it starts to get difficult, Bleks will tell me to cast magic on myself, so I’ll prepare…

“Heup!”

CRACK!

“Kuhup!”

It happened so suddenly.

With a strong impact on my back, my entire upper body was pressed against the floor, and.

The sensation of something tearing or snapping in both hip joints came the next moment.

“KUWEEEEEEEEEEECK!!!”

An intense pain overwhelmed me, and I let out a sound like a pig being slaughtered.

“J-Jin-saaaaaaaaaang!”

Luna’s scream entered my ears, but I couldn’t pay attention to it.

“Heuk! Heok! Heuk! Heuk! Heack! Hueeeeeeck!”

I couldn’t breathe properly because of the immense pain.

Die die die die die!

I’m going to die!

It hurts so fucking muuuuuuuuch!

“Jin-sang~ Can you hear me?”

Why why why why why why!

I trusted you I trusted you I trusted you!

You betrayed me you betrayed me you betrayed me!

“If you can hear me, use healing magic right away. You don’t like pain, right?”

The moment I heard those words.

I realized that I had forgotten to use recovery magic because of the extreme pain.

“He-he-he-heal…”

Woooooong!

With difficulty breathing and barely able to exhale properly, I somehow managed to use Heal.

“Heok! Heok! Heok! Heok!”

With the pain gone, I could breathe properly again.

“Heup! Gulp!”

After steadying my breath and swallowing, I asked Bleks:

“Wh-why! Why did you do this, Bleks… wh-what did I do wrong!”

“Th-that’s right, Bleks! Wh-why would you do this to Jin-sang!”

“Oh my, did it hurt a lot? I’m sorry~ But this is the fastest and surest way to develop flexibility~.”

“What nonsense is that! It hurt like hell!”

“Jin-sang, you can speak so roughly? Huhu, how wild~.”

Snap!

Filled with anger, I raised my upper body and shouted at Bleks:

“St-stop joking around!”

“Hyah♡”

SQUISH!

“Wuot! Kuhup!”

As I raised my upper body, Bleks pressed my back again, pushing me against the floor.

“Wh-what are you doing nowwww!”

Are you planning to give me that fucking pain again!

“J-Jin-saaaaang! B-Bleks! St-stop it! Let Jin-sang go right now!”

“Heh heh, Luna. Stay still for a moment.”

Speaking calmly despite Luna’s protest, Bleks called out to me.

“Jin-sang.”

“What!”

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”

“…Huh?”

It really doesn’t hurt anymore.