A boy with purple hair was gathering skinless bodies on a small platform partially submerged in the river. The platform, similar to the mountain, was made out of corpses. But he wanted to study specific ones with the most damage.
Elias observed the pile he had gathered and sighed, "Whatever horror is waiting for me is mostly using slamming attacks."
Indeed, the bodies had their muscles and bones broken in such a way that only a direct slam into something huge could cause them. The horror seemed to be huge and slam its victims to death.
Some had their ribcages cracked and ribs broken, while some had shattered spines and collarbones.
Elias chuckled as he sat down on a skinless body.
So not only will I have to be fast and nimble, to attack I must use something akin to a spear or sword.
A creature capable of slamming its victim to death would have a thick hide. Only sharp objects capable of piercing and saturating all the force into small parts should damage it.
Elias was not very nimble, nor did he have any sharp blades. He believed that if he were to fight the monster now would be akin to suicide.
Thus he was wandering around the mountain, thinking of what to do next.
Now that I think about it, how exactly did the pond strengthen me?
Elias immediately looked down at his bare body; his muscles did not increase in size or look any different. Intrigued, he went to some dead bodies and picked one up.
He grimaced before trying to laugh at the body and tore it apart.
It is like my base strength has increased. So if I train my muscles properly, will I become stronger?
Ahh how cool it would be if I made a combat system here… or was it called fighting style
He remembered some basic exercises from the tribe but did not think that those from the tribe would suffice.
Elias paced around for a few minutes, immersed in thinking about a possible fighting style and how he would develop it in this river.
A disturbingly sincere laughter echoed around the corpse mountain. Laughing, Elias picked up the corpse of a young man. The corpse only had a cut in the neck and was rather intact; Elias nodded in approval before holding its hand.
It's only meat now… I'll lock the memory if it haunts me. I have nothing to lose after all.
Elias moved its hand, silently observing the whole dead body move.
Elias shook his head and started peeling every small part of fat from the body, not even able to vomit.
He had nothing in his stomach, as he gained energy by absorbing the river itself.
He spent hours inspecting and moving the boy, having it do various actions such as punching, kicking, or even emulating running.
Elias was quite satisfied with the result of his experimentation and threw the body aside. He used other bloodless, skinless bodies to hold the body of the young man before muttering,
"Thank you."
Elias then started doing several stretches, moving his body methodically and carefully. He first stretched his arms in various different ways, feeling his muscles scream under pressure.
He then stretched in a way which made his chest and back strain and open up; and continued stretching every part of his body, every limb and every major set of muscles.
Indeed, he had used the fact that the bodies were skinless and bloodless to his advantage, the bodies revealed each muscle and defined them clearly once he had trimmed the fat.
With each movement stretching or contracting visible muscles he could create a set of stretching exercises to make sure he is nimble and healthy enough to train properly.
"Now let's do this every few hours for days." Elias sighed, staring at the wall of mist. Something told him that this was going to be a long journey.
A purple haired boy was standing on a pile of bodies. He was staring at the mist in front of him, hiding the complete view of the river which was weeping at his feet. His bare body was glistening with sweat as he muttered.
"I want to see it… I want to see the view from the top so bad."
He shook his head and looked at the mountain of corpses
First, I will see the view from the top of this mountain
He went to a skinless, bloodless, and eyeless body — which even had its fat removed now that it served a purpose. He held it in his arms and started studying it again.
He was inspecting its limbs, moving them around and checking for muscles — which muscles contract when the arm rises up, which muscles stretch when it is dropping down.
Why did it lose? Why did it fall?
Elias chuckled as he remembered another fragment of his memories… The sole reason he knew what he was doing was that memory.
Because it was weak.
"Don't get distracted by your desire, dumb fuck," Elais muttered as he focused on learning about the Chinen body and making a set of exercises.
A dozen Dawnlays? Dusklays? Starlays? Moonlays? Well, Elias had long forgotten the date anyway, so a dozen lays had passed by. He did not even know if they had actually passed by since he had no great clouds or stars to check the time.
He was finally feeling confident about the set of movements he had created after learning about the Chinen body, thus he bound the body with other dead bodies and went to a flat surface of bodies.
He had already made proper stretching exercises and had been doing them for a dozen lays along with studying the corpse.
Elias stood there for a few seconds and then started making sophisticated movements. His breathing soon became ragged as sweat started enveloping him.
Due to the movements he had created for exercise and optimal growth of his muscles, just a single set was leaving him exhausted.
He was soon tired. Now in pain as if someone had beaten him with a metal stick. It felt like his each and every muscle was being torn apart and slammed into each other with precise, malevolent intent to cause him immense pain. As if someone had beaten him with a hammer for months non-stop without letting him even breathe.
Every muscle of his was screaming — no, begging in pain. But he did not stop.
Don't give up
Don't give up
Don't give up
Don't give up
Don't give up
Don't give up
I want to watch it.