The Grueling Training at Nartica
The noisy time flowed on once more. One day, Cheon Mari handed me a note, saying it was time to go. The small square paper had an address written on it. When I asked where this place was, she answered, “Nartica Corporation headquarters address.”
It was a moment I had been waiting for, yet one I wasn’t happy about. The moment I had wanted to face but had forgotten out of anxiety had finally arrived.
“Come to the entrance here by ten tomorrow morning. I’ll be waiting inside.”
Still, it was an opportunity that would never come twice. No matter how difficult it was, I had to endure. I steeled my resolve, imagining ordinary fitness training, and took a taxi the next day.
The destination was the outskirts of Sariwon Special City. A place where land was cheap yet reasonably flat, and where guilds and corporations that frequently used World Gates were scattered. Just as manufacturing companies occupied vast tracts of land with their factories and idle sites, companies tied to World Gates built sprawling complexes centered around their headquarters. Nartica was no exception.
When I stepped out of the taxi, the scene before me was a strange hybrid between an industrial park and a city. Countless massive buildings and employee residences stood alongside supporting infrastructure. Naturally, there were plenty of people moving about. The small-to-medium guild I had visited on a school picnic back in elementary school wasn’t even a quarter of this scale. Only now did I understand why Cheon Mari had openly mocked me back then.
Slowly, carefully, I looked around and headed toward the entrance. As expected, the security guards refused to let me through. They simply repeated variations of “This isn’t the place for kids,” “Do you have an invitation?” and “This area is dangerous—go home.”
Just as I was about to call Cheon Mari, I felt a strange, squishy sensation against my back. Before I could turn around, weight settled on my shoulder and an arm looped around my neck.
Piggyback. Ah, fuck.
“Gyaaah! You crazy bastard!”
“Come on~ Let’s go inside~”
Cheon Mari had snuck up and climbed onto my back. I screamed and tried to shake her off, but she clung like gum and wouldn’t budge. The more violently I resisted, the faster my stamina drained. My rodeo-like struggle ended in defeat. In the end, I bent forward slightly, hooked my hands under her thighs, and carried her properly.
“……”
The security guards watching the scene wore faint, amused smiles, as if observing children playing house.
“Oh, right. I should show them this.”
Cheon Mari pulled a card from her pocket and presented it. The guards’ eyes widened before they bowed deeply.
“Ah! We’ll open the gate immediately!”
The entrance opened, and we stepped inside together. While I walked straight ahead without knowing the destination, she grabbed my head and pointed.
“That way, that way.”
She directed me toward a massive building that looked like a research institute. Across from it stood a gym-style structure crowded with people in workout clothes. Thinking she had misspoken, I asked if she meant the gym instead. Cheon Mari shook her head and told me to head to the research-institute-looking building first.
Half-doubting, I approached it—only to see the sign: Special Training Center. It wasn’t a research institute after all.
Inside, more guards demanded identification. Cheon Mari handed over the card again. Their gazes toward me turned strangely sympathetic before the door slowly opened, as though they pitied a poor soul they couldn’t bear to watch.
Honestly, even I thought I looked pitiful. Betrayed by my kindergarten childhood friend, and now stuck with a new friend whose personality was completely unhinged.
“Elevator! Second basement floor!”
“Y-Yes, yes~”
Despite Cheon Mari’s minor collision with the elevator ceiling, we reached the second basement floor. Following her instructions, I kept walking until we arrived at a small-scale gym.
“……? Wouldn’t it be better to just go to a regular neighborhood gym?”
The equipment was varied but limited in quantity—clearly meant for testing or measurement rather than accommodating crowds. There were no trainers in sight either.
“Mari, I get that you’re trying to put me through strength training. Is there really no fitness trainer?”
“Fitness trainer? Why would I need one?”
I’m the one training you anyway.
A chill ran down my spine. It felt like the road to the underworld had arrived right in front of me. As if confirming my fear, Cheon Mari finally climbed off my back.
“There are workout clothes in the men’s changing room. Go change and come out.”
After I changed and returned, Cheon Mari had also changed. She laid out a mat on the hard floor and pulled a book from the corner shelf.
[How a Marine Corps Veteran Builds a Hunter’s Body in Record Time]
The title alone was ominous; the cover was worse. She opened the book on the floor and began copying the plank posture shown inside.
“This is this one…… Ah, like this.”
She wasn’t teaching from memory—she was reading the book step by step. If it was going to be like this, it would’ve been better to just ask a real trainer or another hunter.
“What are you doing? It’s basic stretching. Hurry up and follow along.”
Still, I couldn’t refuse someone who was genuinely trying to help me. I followed her through the warm-up and stretching. It was tiring, but not impossible. After about thirty minutes of preparation, she had me sit at a piece of equipment in the corner.
Chest press. While seated, you smoothly push the handles outward. Cheon Mari kept correcting my form and set the numbers.
“Fifty reps. Six sets.”
Is this right? That feels way too many. Don’t beginners usually start with less?
Doubts flooded my mind, but I had no choice but to obey. I had come here prepared to endure, after all. Still, after finishing one set my stamina was already heavily depleted. By the time I completed all six, my chest and arms felt like they were about to break.
“Let’s rest a bit before moving on.”
“Haa, haa, haa……”
Can I even keep going? This really feels like my limit.
Pessimistic thoughts kept piling up. After forcing myself through the next exercise, the feeling only grew worse. After just two workouts, my body already felt like it couldn’t function properly. Yet Cheon Mari continued guiding me without pause.
“Mari…… Is this really how it’s done……? It hurts a lot……”
“That’s what exercise is. It hurts and it’s hard.”
But this went far beyond ordinary pain and difficulty. It was agony that tormented every part of my body—an overwhelming sensation for a beginner. Eventually, all strength left me and further progress became impossible. It had only been two hours since we started.
I told her additional training would be difficult. Cheon Mari nodded and helped me off the machine. My guess was that, given my current state, we would skip tomorrow and resume the day after. Otherwise, sustainable training would be impossible.
Just as I was about to lie down on the floor to recover, Cheon Mari supported me and led me somewhere. Since I hadn’t changed back into my regular clothes, we weren’t heading home. While walking down the hallway, one sign caught my eye.
— Recovery Room —
I had hoped it wasn’t our destination, but unfortunately, it was. Inside were tanks filled with blue liquid and people in white lab coats who might have been doctors or researchers. I weakly bowed my head in greeting.
Thud—
I collapsed onto the floor as if thrown. My body no longer felt like my own. It was truly terrible and despairing. Cheon Mari picked me up and carried me forward. Rolling my eyes, I immediately realized where we were headed.
“The tank?”
The blue tank inside the recovery room. A place even fish couldn’t survive felt like a mortal threat to me. I struggled and tried to refuse, but Cheon Mari only spoke calmly to reassure me.
“It’s a top-grade elixir mixture tank. Stay in there for ten minutes and your muscles will recover completely. Most muscle pain and fatigue will vanish.”
“N-No! How expensive is elixir……! Our family’s finances aren’t good enough to use something like this……”
“It’s free as long as you provide research data. Nartica’s foundation is potion manufacturing. Don’t worry about money—just get in.”
“Still, this is too luxurious—glub glub.”
Surprisingly, after about ten minutes inside, my body returned to normal. No—rather than normal, it felt subtly upgraded. The results of the workout had been applied immediately. My brief moment of satisfaction ended when Cheon Mari dragged me back to the gym.
“Alright, let’s do it one more time~”
“Eh?”
Being able to move normally meant I could train again. Once more, I was subjected to pain and exercise. Once more, I collapsed into exhaustion and recovery.
“Where am I? Who is this place?”
“If you still have the strength to talk, we can do leg extensions too.”
Exercise, recovery, exercise, recovery, exercise, recovery, exercise, recovery, exercise, recovery. Tempered in elixir, mind violated by machines. Not knowing whether my brain moved my body or my body moved my brain. No romance, no common sense—only pain. The thought of why I had to go through this naturally arose.
“Wow, your stamina is better than I thought. Then let’s do just one more set.”
“Is this…… really how it’s supposed to be?”
Usually in fantasy novels, pre-training body conditioning involved climbing mountains, chopping wood, eating rare growth items, holding logs, doing push-ups and running. Where did all that go? Why was I doing modern weight training? Even hunter aspirants’ workout vlogs weren’t this intense. Most of them just did some bench presses, sipped coffee while scrolling on their phones, chatted with girls, and went home. Even accounting for YouTube exaggeration, I had assumed hunters trained at roughly that level. Had everything been a lie?
I wanted to scream, but I lacked the strength.
“Kang Si, doing that won’t make your ancestors appear with magic.”
“Gehk.”
Ancestors…… Please help me……