Jason won’t claim the cliff is perfect for his training. A proper set of gym equipment would do wonders. There simply isn’t a gym in NeoRealm with proper equipment.
Though there are still gyms. In fact, this city has more of them than anywhere else he has been so far. Why? The reason is simple enough. While people don’t bother with stats from training, the training still shapes the body.
And in this city? There are more than a few entities being worshiped who celebrate a sculpted physique. So even if having 10 or 20 innate Strength doesn’t matter if your base Strength was 10. The higher innate Strength person will look stronger.
Plus, there are a few niche but acknowledged benefits to more muscle mass. The best-known example being that having more mass means more staying power. Two guys having the same Strength, but one has legs like twigs?
Well, it isn’t hard to guess who gets pushed around, barring any abilities. Though even then, the extra mass helps. A Qi technique to prevent being shoved around modifies your natural resistance to it and so that match up stays the same if both sides have the same technique.
Then again, Jason has to admit that extra innate Strength doesn’t automatically make you a bodybuilder. As evidenced by the fact he is hauling around meter-square cubes of stone with quite a thin build.
Though the general idea was sound and meant that when players first entered the game, modern exercises and techniques from professional bodybuilders spread like wildfire. And this is the presence of “modern” style gyms. After all, with stats, there is no divide between being the strongest and being a bodybuilder.
Jason tosses his current block off his back and onto the large pile of blocks. Though even the word “pile” sounds a little too organized for this mess. This is a mess created from literal tons of blocks being haphazardly tossed into place. Though it isn’t flat.
Whenever the mess expands out a little too much, some properly strong types will make a game of tossing blocks into the center, piling them up. Though by that point, “blocks” isn’t the best way to refer to them. Sure, some are still block-ish, but many have shattered or at least had big chunks chipped off.
As Jason thinks that over, his block lands on the edge of a previous block and splits in half. Sadly, none of the shrapnel goes very far. While not something he aimed for purposefully, Jason had been getting some dodging practice in.
At this point, he had been hauling rocks for a couple months now, so even that hasn’t been much of a thing. Some people like to put down things like this as unskilled labor, but they’re idiots and ignorant.
A low entry point doesn’t mean there isn’t skill involved. And it isn’t just in how you carry the blocks. Over the last few months, Jason had come to recognize certain faults in the stone and through that, could handle the blocks much better now. Maybe not to the point of being able to pick out a block good for building with or carving, but he could recognize the blocks that would require care when tossing. After all, not everyone was here to train their dodging.
Another month passes, and Jason finds himself standing in front of a full-size cube. You would think almost ten tonnes of weight would last him for a while. And they were, but he could do with a little more weight. A shame they don’t do one and two-thirds meter blocks.
Though that might be a bit much? Adding an extra point one repeating meter doesn’t seem like much, but you’re adding it to the outer edge on every side of a cube. Which adds up to quite a bit more than you’d think.
So Jason was going to do a little “custom” work. As training.
How? Well, Jason planned to make use of his surface-level knowledge of how the bricks would shatter below to try and force it up. With his fists.
It would be good Toughness training. Well, not good, as it would focus on his fists, but it would help.
Jason focused on a point on the block. There isn’t a visible crack where he is aiming. However, the side to the left had a crack that, given his experience, likely continued through the block.
He lowers his center of gravity, braces his body, and punches.
Thud
Jason resets his stance.
Thud
And again.
Thud
Over and over, Jason punches the stone in the same spot. While his body is quite tough, it isn’t on the level of stone yet. Not that upgrading from wood to stone would make punching a rock easy. Rocks can chip rocks.
Jason comes back the next day, and for the first half of the day, carries blocks. It is during the second half of the day that he returns to the areas with full blocks. Though the block he had been working on the day before wasn’t there anymore. Not that he has been expecting it to.
A new full-sized block is picked out. This one has a stress point that hasn’t quite cracked yet, but might have a vein of something underneath to break. Jason once again throws punch after punch. By all rights, his hands should be bruised messes.
Lumps of flesh more tenderized than a steak after being hit with one of those spiky tenderizer mallets. Not once did he pull his punches. Yet his hands are fine.
Oh, sure, throughout the second half of the day, his hands would bruise. Bones would even break. After all, if you hit a stick against a boulder long enough and the stick will break. Jason’s void constitution denies them all. Similar to a slime, if you aren’t dealing health damage, go home.
It takes another week and a half before he makes progress. Day after day of the same routine, of carrying blocks of stone no one irl could lift unassisted and then punching even bigger blocks.