ALL NOVEL Chapter 7: Judgement (Part 1)
3 Years Later
In the family training grounds. Lance was performing a training exercise laid out by his father. He was pulling a rope tied to a pulley system with a fifty kilogram weight on the other end of it. The farther Lance pulled the rope the higher the weight would go. If he could get the weight to the top of the machine. His body should get the fifth and final point of strength he needed to complete the quest his father gave him.
Lance had worn his normal workout clothes today. A white sleeveless jersey with gray shorts along with tennis shoes. Even though he had doubled his stamina over the past three years. Moving that kind of weight was still extremely hard for him. His green stamina bar was also draining faster than it should be.
A year ago his father had taught him how to display certain features on his hud. In the bottom left were two bars. The top one was a red health bar. And below it was a sinking green bar that had just dropped below the halfway point. His father stood by the door at the opposite end of Lance's goal.
He still had more than thirty feet to go. And from the previous times he's done this he knew that the last ten feet would be harder than all the rest put together. He knew once he got around a quarter of the bar. The rope would start to slip out of his hands. And his stamina loss would double from that point forward. If he wanted to finish his goal. He would have to do something…risky.
Gripping his hand around the rope. Lance lowered his body as he lowered himself. Flexing the muscles in both his arms and legs. He pushed his back foot forward. Launching himself at the wall he faced. "Haaah!" His stamina took a dramatic drop. Alongside an increased decline over time. But his jump put him just shy of the wall.
He landed one foot on the ground where the painted line on the ground was. Lance could feel a little slack left in the rope. And he was down to his last tenth of a bar. And he could feel the rope begin to slide out of his grip. Not wanting to spend another day on what he could finish right now. He'd deal with the pain that came with bottoming out his bar.
With one final push. He thrust his body forward head first. The weight hit the metal part of the pulley. And Lance's head slammed onto the wall in front of him. "Ow!" He collapsed to the ground and let go of the rope. He collapsed onto the ground. Coughing as he collided with the floor of the training room.
The 50 kilos of metal began free falling from the height of the roof. Building speed as it fell. The weight slammed down into the hand of Tyrus. Shaking as the heavy object met something more solid than its own mass.
Lance gasped as he laid on the floor. Slowly drooling as he wheezed from hitting total body exhaustion. A prompt came up over his vision.
[Your Strength attribute has increased by one. Your Strength is now 5.]
The sound of chiming bells played in his ear before the next prompt appeared. [Congratulations. You've completed Training Quest five of six. By increasing your Strength score to five before your body naturally came to that state. You have completed this quest. You are awarded the following.]
[166 exp. Continue striving for excellence.]
"Woooo…" Lance let out weakly as he saw that he was one step closer to getting his first level up. With the other four completed stat growth missions. He had accumulated 844 experience. The only one he still had to buff was Charisma. And he'd get his first level up! He felt his body get lifted up into the air by the back of his shirt collar.
"That's enough for today. Your mother will have a fit if you hit your head again." Tyrus brought Lance over to a bench. "Abigail. Bring the tea."
Coming from outside the training room. Abigail brought a fine tea set. Setting it on a table as she got ready to pour it into a cup.
"You've come far in these last three years. Before we move further we'll need to perform a ritual during your next training session."
"A ritual?" Lance eeked out as he took the cup of tea that Abigail handed him. He began drinking it and immediately began to feel better. A notification popped up. [You have drank Tsu root tea. Stamina regeneration increased by 300% for 10 minutes.]
"Yes. Normally by now you would have unlocked some kind of ability. Either you don't have one. Or we will need to give it a nudge."
Lance raised an eyebrow at that. "What's an ability? And why don't I already have one?"
Tyrus waved his hand. "Don't worry about that. We'll go over everything tomorrow. Just be sure to dress your best tomorrow. Not training clothes. Real clothes." Lance gave a nod of understanding. So far he hadn't been led wrong by his father. He was willing to continue following his lead. "That reminds me. My sister and her husband are going on another honeymoon. So your cousins will be staying with us for a few days."
A pit of betrayal formed in Lance's stomach as his father said that. "What? Oh come on! They just stayed last month."
"Don't whine. If any of us could convince Cherely that there was more to life than going on fancy trips. Your cousins might be decent members of the family."
Abigail helped Lance to his feet. "Come young Master. Good hosts never keep their guests waiting."
With a sigh Lance followed Abigail back to the house. The walk through the wide hallway seemed longer than usual. Since he knew what waited for him at the end was another weekend of annoyance. Opening the door he saw a familiar and unwelcome sight. A young man the same age as him. Wearing a miniature version of the robes most of the other Celestial Dragons wore. A white full body robe with a yellow puffed out collar at the neck. His black hair was styled straight up. There was supposed to be a bun at the top. But his hair wasn't long enough for that yet.
Lance let out a groaning sigh as he walked into the house. "Hey Charlos."