บท 6: A Hidden Quest in Plain Sight
"One!"
"Two!"
I counted as I pushed my body against the ground. Goku looked at me curiously and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Five… Huff… Building Strength…"
I answered as my spindly arms trembled under the weight of my body. Suddenly, a ding sounded beside my ear, surprising me.
[Strength +1]
"There is a way to earn extra stats?"
The sweet notification reinvigorated me and spurred me to do more push-ups.
"Six!"
"Seven!"
Goku watched me do two more push-ups. Then he also lay beside me on the ground and began copying my actions. He had started to do push-ups with me!
The young lad started slow and kept with my pace, but he soon got the hang of it. In the time it took me to do one, Goku finished three push-ups, and his speed only increased.
A grin formed on the Barbarian's face, and he looked at me with challenging eyes.
"Fifteen!"
I ignored his gaze and pushed myself up, only to hear another ding beside my ears.
[Strength +1]
I ignored the chime and continued to push my limits. By the time I hit the 20th push-up, my will was still strong, but my arms were as heavy as lead.
I had neglected to train my arms for the past few years; now, they refused to bear the weight of my body any longer. As a result, I plopped on the ground like a salted fish, panting for breath.
Huffing and panting, I looked at Goku with envy and displeasure as he enthusiastically continued to do more push-ups.
When I did not resume doing push-ups even after a few minutes had passed, Goku stopped his exercise and stood up.
He patted his hands and clothes to get rid of the dust and looked at me with a smug smirk.
"That was fun," He said, "Do you have anything else you want to challenge me in?"
His eager smile and excited eyes baffled me. I quickly glanced at the quest and saw the change in the quest.
[Goku, the son of Sorsa the Barbarian Chief, is bored. Alleviate his boredom.
Boredom: 90%
Quest Clear Conditions: Victory or Boredom below 50%
Quest Rewards: Permission to use the Barbarian Training Grounds.]
"Nice!"
I became excited after seeing the changes in the quest description.
I definitely could not win against Goku, but alleviating his boredom was a much easier task.
Just the push-ups reduced his boredom by 10%; It was very likely that the other types of exercises would also reduce his boredom.
Deciding to give it a try, I started to map out an exercise plan in my head.
I had to do the warm-up first. If I did not warm my body enough, my muscles will soon be sore as hell!
What better way to warm up than good old-fashioned jogging?
A plan for exercises soon formed in my head. Now, I just had to execute it.
Before that, however, I had to get Goku to join me. So I egged him on.
"Your arm strength is good, but I can surely beat you at running."
After saying my piece, I began to jog laps around the training ground. I did not start sprinting immediately but maintained my pace, aiming for the long run.
I did not even turn to see if Goku had fallen for my blatant provocation or not.
Apparently, he had.
"Tsk! You are slower than my Grandpa!"
Goku mocked me back as he caught up with me and matched my every step. The young Barbarian endured for half a round; but he could not resist the urge to show off. He suddenly increased his speed and completed the lap.
He maintained the pace, maybe increased it a little, and soon, he was beside me again. As he overtook me, he threw a challenging grin my way and increased his speed again.
This monstrous bastard!
I couldn't help but curse with twitching lips. I moved my legs faster and sprinted with my full strength, but I still could not catch up with him.
Goku grinned, glancing at me, and increased his speed even further, leaving me in the dust.
I completed the 1 km lap a few moments later, and another notification popped up.
[Agility +1]
It immediately rejuvenated my tired bones and muscles, and a smile formed on my face.
So what if I could not defeat that monstrous bastard… As long as my stats increased, he could look down on me all he wanted.
Though I was eager to continue, I was panting heavily in the game and in reality. So, I decided to take a short break.
While taking this short breather, I deduced that I would have to run for another 5km to gain my next stat point in Agility.
I really wanted to continue farming for more Agility stat points, but then I looked at my quest window.
The jog had only managed to reduce Goku's boredom by 5%, stopping at 85%. When I could not catch up with him at my full speed, it even went up by 2%, making it 87%.
Competing in a 5km marathon against this little monster was simply not worth it. I would only be wasting my limited stamina and time.
Since jogging was not yielding the results I wanted, it was time to change the exercise...
Over the next hour, I tricked Goku into doing many different types of exercises. Aerobics, Situps, Pull-ups, Squats, Lunges… I had tried everything I knew and could do.
When we finished, I harvested 1 more Strength Point, and Goku's boredom had reduced by another 40%.
The exercises intrigued him, and they reduced his boredom by 10% on average, but I also realized that Goku had his preferences too. He absolutely loved doing Pull-ups and hated Aerobics.
While doing Aerobics, Goku was not at all interested in the exercise. Instead of decreasing his boredom, the exercise even increased the bar by 10%!
On the other hand, he loved doing Pull-ups so much that his boredom decreased by a whopping 20%!
I guess he loved the feeling of raising his body to new heights after a strenuous effort.
While we took a break; I mean, I took a break while Goku did his 50th Pull-up; I looked at the quest window for any new changes. The details of the quest were the same, but now an option to submit the quest had appeared.
The Boredom Bar was at 45%, barely meeting the requirements to submit the quest, but I was not going to do so just yet.
Usually, these types of quests had a better reward for a higher completion percentage. So, to obtain a better evaluation, I had to try my best to lower the Boredom Bar even further.
I looked at Goku with contemplation, thinking of ways to bring the bar down further.
I already tried telling stories of heroes that I loved in my childhood, but Goku lost interest in them quickly.
It seemed like other than exercise and training, nothing else could affect the young Barbarian's boredom.
I was running out of energy, but I also did not want to submit the quest at 45%.
Even more so when the condition for the best rewards was hidden right there, before my eyes!
Victory over Goku!
I knew that if I could make the young Barbarian admit defeat, my gains would be much greater than simple permission to use the training grounds.
I carefully observed the young Barbarian's buff physique and wracked my brain for an idea. Suddenly, I was reminded of something my mother made me do every morning.
"Maybe that would work…."
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