Building the World's First Home Gym
The system of working only 10 days a month at the home workshop had finally taken root. The tasks lined up like this: digging clay, sedimentation, mixing and kneading clay with aging, pottery forming and drying, bisque firing pottery, applying glaze to pottery and drying, glaze firing pottery, forming and drying refractory bricks, firing refractory bricks, recovering items from the cooled kiln and maintenance.
One task might span several days, or multiple could wrap up in a single day. By rotating through mass-produced pottery, celadon white porcelain, and milky white porcelain each month, we could sync with trading dates and still have time left over to rest. Overtime was strictly off-limits, and even young Clay could handle this workload without breaking a sweat. Things finally felt like they'd settled properly.
You have to run any system through a few cycles, troubleshooting along the way, before it truly sticks. We'd confirmed it was running smoothly by wrapping up the pottery trade at Bayfort Manor without a hitch not long ago. There was ample room now to slot in the next project on the schedule, but until the following trade, I planned to keep things steady and watch them unfold slowly.
Honestly, there was no need to rush or grind harder. We were already raking in plenty of money, and time was still on our side. Now it was time to tackle the things I'd been neglecting.
One thing I'd come to realize while patrolling outside as captain of the guard: in this world, raw personal strength mattered more than money. Folks living peacefully inside the village wouldn't know it, but beyond the palisade wall, the world was ruthless and unforgiving.
Goblins and wolf packs that kept respawning no matter how many you killed were small fry by comparison. Lone beasts didn't hold back with their sheer size and power—veteran patrolmen in full armor got sent flying like bowling pins from a single paw swipe, and they were fast enough to vanish from sight in a blink if you let your guard down. Luckily, the ambushed patrolman only took a minor beating without dying, and though their hides were tough, they weren't impervious to spears and swords, so subduing them wasn't a huge ordeal.
But this world had magical beasts and monsters stronger than any wild animal. We hadn't encountered any on patrols yet, but rumors said one had appeared in the county recently, forcing the knights to mobilize. It took multiple knights stronger than me to take it down without casualties. Merchants who crossed paths with it on the road had all screamed their last breaths, or so I'd heard.
It didn't concern me right now, but thinking ahead, it felt all too relevant. If I got knighted and stayed under my father, I'd be subduing those things in the frontier. Strike out on my own beyond the county, and bad luck could mean running into one mid-journey. Even settling somewhere offered no guarantee they wouldn't raid.
Monsters in human territory got culled on sight, so you rarely saw them unless you ventured into specific areas. Magical beasts, though—born when normal animals started wielding mana—could pop up anywhere. In the end, I needed to get strong enough to handle them solo if I wanted to survive even the unluckiest encounters.
So how does a knight get stronger? Three pillars: physique, aura, and martial skill. Stronger, faster, denser and more abundant aura, superior technique—that's the pinnacle knight. Simple as that; nothing much to elaborate on.
To improve, you train hard and hone those three. No shortcuts. But solo training had its limits for me. Swinging a sword at empty air only drilled the forms, not much else. My already superhuman body didn't tire from all-day calisthenics. More training time didn't boost aura growth either.
Secret techniques from noble houses could skyrocket aura or skills, but I wasn't in a position to hope for that. I needed another way.
There aren't many options, really.
Thinking back before my body got this buffed post-aura formation, even with aura reinforcing the flesh, physical growth from training hadn't stalled. If bodybuilders from my past life hit biological limits, my ridiculous body still had tons of room to grow. Just crank up the training load, and it'd get stronger.
I had the money now, plus past-life knowledge on building muscle. If I needed to do it, had the time, the funds, and the know-how—why not just go for it?
First up: design the equipment. No fancy machines—just barbells, dumbbells, cable machines, and power racks covered the essentials.
Bars had to be wrought iron all the way. Thick enough for grip without durability issues. Steel was insanely pricey due to smelting hassles, and I didn't need weights heavy enough to snap wrought iron yet. I'd upgrade once I produced my own steel.
To prevent rust on iron bars, oil them up—but bare hands on oiled bars suck, so I added pin holes midway for wrapping cloth into handles. Same setup at the ends for loading weight plates, and the barbell was done.
Dumbbells followed suit, and I even designed a barbell shaped like a longsword, matching its length and grip for sword practice.
Cable machine: simplified to the bone. Village linen ropes couldn't handle heavy loads, so wrought iron wire or twisted wire cables it was. Stiff stuff, so limited to L or U shapes, and big pulleys were a must. Made pulleys from hard oak, reinforced with iron plates, thick 20cm-plus wood frames with grooves for up-down travel.
Drilled holes through pulley hubs and frames for short iron pins to adjust height. Weight plates went in wooden boxes, with a guide frame behind the main frame for smooth vertical movement. This setup could handle a ton easy and do all needed exercises.
Power rack: 10cm-thick wood frame. Reinforced corners with matching beams, J-cups, pull-up bar, safety bars, plate holders all wrought iron rods piercing and pinning into the wood.
Bench: rough wood job, height-matched.
Weight plates: lead was ideal. Cheapest metal, densest by volume, easiest to cast. Mold 'em, melt over a wood fire, pour—uniform plates galore for easy balancing. Square ones for boxes, round ones leather-wrapped to keep soft lead from chipping on impacts.
Designs sketched on boards, quotes from forge and carpenters, orders placed. Familiar faces from repeat business, plus generous pay, meant no pushback.
Minus plates: barbells/dumbbells 10 silver, cable machine 8, power rack 12. Total 30 silver for the lot. Lead plates mostly raw cost since minimal labor—3 coppers per kg, so 200kg upfront (40 silver with fees), more if needed.
Materials took time; 20 days post-order, everything arrived.
Home gym set for the training yard at the manor, not workshop. For longevity, needed a roofed, walled building—convincing the butler was the hurdle. Words failed; demoing the gear got reluctant approval.
Carpenter build: 30 silver.
Floored with crushed bricks and pottery shards from the workshop piles, topped with leftover lime mortar finish. Solid for hundreds of kilos.
Staring at the finished gym filled me with pride. Crude wood frames on white floors, black-oiled iron bars, hefty lead stacks—it evoked modern nostalgia. Probably the world's first gym, right?
Savoring the moment briefly, I stepped into the power rack. Time to benchmark this body's specs and plan the training.