After Raviel reached home the first thing he did was—turning on his laptop and doing some light research on this new world of his, as he felt some things were missing from the novel's information, after some time with a sigh he turned on "Arctic" to see the time....
"[3:46 pm].... guess I can check out the gym and this body's abilities today.....
Haah! This whole shit is gonna be damn tiring"
Running his hands through his white hair, he moved towards the wardrobe. Within a few minutes he changed his clothes into some serious-bodybuilding type fit, with a black full-sleeve compression shirt and black pants that highlighted his already lean muscular physique.
As the elevator door opened on the ground-floor with a,
chime~
When he walked towards the reception-quarters, the warm sunlight entering through the big european style windows on the white and golden walls eveloped his figure gently in the sunny evening.
Behind the large counter with golden veins on it, sat a brown-haired woman reading something on her tablet, the moment her eyes met Raviel's she froze,
"Ah— s-sir good evening" she stammered, cheeks flushing pink as her gaze flickered— above just barely enough to see his face,
"How may I help you, sir?"
Raviel smiled politely,
"I was just wandering where the gym or training area might be?", he said with a gentle smile on his face,
Seeing that smile of his the receptionist blinked twice before fumbling on her tablet,
"O-oh! Yes sir, the zym.... I mean the gym is integrated with with training chamber and is just beside the elevator on the first-floor with green neon-strips on its doors,
"Thank you" he said simply turning his back,
"Ofcourse sir, have a— uh— g-great workout"
Raviel shook his head as he pressed the button on the elevator,
__________________________________
The gym was sleek with many modern equipments, half of them did not make any sense, as for what purposes were they built for,
Raviel headed straight to the mats, he started off with low-intensity workouts— stretching, warming up, and a few sets of light pushups.
As he switched to sit-ups and squats his thought drifted back to his world,
The late-night calls from Max, his grandma forgetting the difference between apple juice and cider, and them...
He swallowed them back, feeling little bit tired from the workouts,
"Get over it, you dimmwit" you are here now, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to go back, unless you grow stronger"
He increased the pace to divert his mind elsewhere from his inner turmoil, he was now doing pushups, pullups, burpees with ten-times the intensity, untill he collapsed doing each of it unknowingly till 1000 times,
As Raviel lay sprawled on the cold mat, his sweat turned it wet, lying on his back he pulled up his wrist and turned on Arctic, with a lazy swipe, he pulled up a holographic-screen which hovered above his vision.
Let's see, what is this world's new normal" he muttered tapping on a Awakened topics section,
Immediately a flood of thumbnails appeared on the screen—A ranked individuals sparring and duel clips and some fights with low rank abysswalkers.
Raviel clicked one video randomly with curiosity,
The projection expanded—two fighters stood opposite to each other on a ring, their movements were fast as one of the fighter used fire to blind his opponent while the other used the frost to vaporise it, it was happening so fast that it was getting harder to see them but the playback speed saved raviel.
He recognized the way they fought as some of them used fast jabs, hooks— knees and elbows to brutally finish their opponents, and it looked eerily.....similiar to MMA and Krav-Maga back in his previous world, and why did he recognize them quickly,
It was because he was a big fan of modern fighting games with real-life mechanics,
Raviel's lips curled into a grin, " Heh so they mix martial arts with mana, but honestly it looks way too cool"
His gamer instincts took over him, as he started to analyse those fights to pick out a common pattern out from them,
As the holographic screen played the videos, a thought struck him sharp, like it was waiting at the back of his mind,
"Mindlock" he whispered...
[MINDLOCK ACTIVATED]
His pupils dilated as the world shifted from colourful to images of black and white television, and every heartbeat felt like a pattern
He stood up with mechanical precision
No hesitation, uncertainnity and unnecessary doubts just his maximum focus on the task which he was going to perform.
He walked straight to the training dummies at the far corner of the trianing room , his steps were measured and battle ready while his eyes looked detached, cold and analytical.
Then without a word—he struck on the training dummy,
The first punch landed measly with little power behind it, then another, and another,
The punches kept refining themselves over the course till the echoing of the dummies could be heard in the emptiness of the room,
By the hundredth blow, air rippled from forces and mana trailed heavily on his fists as they followed his motions.....
On the one-hundred twentieth strike something clicked inside him like a missing puzzle piece
A surge, deep within.....
Dark compressed fire that looked like distortions of gravity on his fist with lightning covering their exterior enveloped his fists,
He paused for few seconds with an expressionless face,
"....Interresting"
He muttered his voice devoid of any excitement or emotions,
Without any further wait he drove his fist again into the dummies but this time two strikes were all it took to make them go down.
BOOM~
Then the world snapped back, like somebody plugged it back in,
[MINDLOCK DEACTIVATED]
As soon as he heard the voice his head felt heavy and his vision got dizzy, and his body betrayed him,
"Ku...eek! Probably the damn side effects"
A dry chuckle left his mouth as his lips muttered low to himself,
-— t-thisbody can't really be weak can't it, with the type of shit I am pulling off, right?"