Chapter 2
"Okay, what the hell is going on? I've been running around the forest for three hours and I don't feel even the slightest bit hungry or thirsty." Kaz said to himself as he stopped on a rock to examine himself. He had been running around the forest near his new cave house for the past three hours looking for water and a food source, and on top of that he had been unconscious for at least nine hours before that, and yet he didn't feel hungry or thirst at all.
'Maybe it's the effect of whatever that healing power is, or maybe it's a separate ability entirely. I guess it doesn't matter for right now because even if I don't feel the need to eat or drink, I am not going to take any chances.' Kaz thought and was going to move on, however, he then noticed something in the distance, a lake.
"Hell yeah! Water has been found! But there is no way that I'm drinking stagnant water, so now I just have to either find a small stream or make one myself. After that, I have to make a fire to boil it, and then- Damn, I also need something to hold the water in too don't I? Okay, so I just need to make a pot with wood. But how do I get wood?" Kaz then looked down at the rock formation he was on, spotting a relatively flat, small rock and picking it up. He then went and grabbed a branch and some long grass nearby.
'I need to make a hatchet first, then I can get wood. Then I'll also need to make a knife to carve the wood. After that, I can make a wooden bowl. Wait, I can just use clay for that cant I? Okay, so Ill make the tools then use them to carve out a fire pit and a tripod to hold the clay pot of water above it. Then I can make the pot and fill it with water, boil it, then Bam! I have clean drinking water. Well, mostly clean... it'll be clean enough to probably not die from it.' He finished his thoughts and set out to work.
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After a few hours, Kaz had made the hatchet, the knife, the firepit, and the tripod just at the foot of his cave. He had even collected the clay. Now he just had to make the jar and let it bake in the sun for a while. He couldn't recall how long it took to make a clay pot this way, but he still had other things he had to do, so he didnt mind if it took a while.
On his way home, he had found a berry bush and collected using his gi to carry them, so there was no issue with food. Speaking of the gi, Kaz had found that apparently the gi has some type of auto cleaning function, because just thirty minutes after he woke up the blood stains on the gi had disappeared, and there wasn't even an odor left behind. On top of that he had confirmed with his new knife that the gi seems to have a high level of resistance, because the cloth didnt show any reaction at all to being stabbed at with full force. Granted, it was just a primitive cave man knife that it was stabbed with, however it still should have at least stretched a little. He didnt know how far this resistance would go, but he also didnt want to be in a situation where he would have to find out.
Now all that was left to do was fix his cave house up a bit, wait for the clay to dry, and train a bit. He was in the middle forest of a possibly magic forest, so Kaz didnt want to take any chances and stay weak. He was unnaturally lucky after finding edible berries and water, and on top of that he had found a great place to live, so he wasn't going to take it for granted. He finally had the chance to fulfil his dream of becoming like the people in anime who were full of discipline, and he wouldn't pass it up for anything.
'Okay, so Ill start off with doing some of the basic martial art training that I saw online, then Ill hold a horse stance for as long as I can and repeat until I cant move my legs. When I reach that stage, I will do four rounds of the Wim Hof Method and then move onto pushups on my fists. For now, these should be enough to strengthen me from this sorry state that I'm in. I do need to be careful with the pushups though, martial arts training in a childs body isn't to big of a deal, but athlete training like that would weaken my muscles instead. And I also don't know what the effects of the Wim Hof Method will be on a child either, so I need to proceed cautiously.' He thought as he put his hands up to guard and started shadow boxing.
He may be in a different body now, but as it was a childs it only had slightly more stamina then his old body, so he was only able to shadow box for a full minute and a half before he gassed out and fell back onto the floor, panting. After a few minutes he stood up and got into a horse stance. The horse stance is done by standing with your hips in line with your knees, and your knees parallel with your feet. The feet have to be facing forward, and if someone were to put a long rod or stick onto your lap, it shouldn't roll off. The back should be straight and the arms can be either to your sides, or straight out. Kaz did his best to maintain perfect form for as long as possible, however he was only able to make it to about fifty seconds.
He then took a short break, before reentering the stance, holding it again but this time only for thirty seconds. The he repeated it again for ten seconds, then again for five seconds, and when he tried it for the fifth time he immediately fell over. A master martial artists is able to hold the horse stance for thirty minutes, so Kaz decided that he needs to reach at least ten minutes to feel even remotely safe. Luckily, the horse stance is one of the exercises that can be done everyday and still show benefits, so if he kept this up it should only take him a few moths to a year to reach ten minutes, but that was a generous guess.
After falling on the ground, Kaz then started the Wim Hof Method. Normally to complete this you would need to take a cold shower or ice bath immediately after finishing the technique for it to work properly, however it seemed to be in the middle of the summer and the lake was extremely hot, so he had to make due with just the breathing technique.
The Wim Hof Method itself was very simple and straightforward. You would begin with doing thirty deep breaths in a row, then breath almost all the way out and hold that for as long as you can, then breath all the way in and hold that for fifteen seconds, then you repeat three times, or four if your advanced. The initial round of thirty deep breaths should be done slowly while laying down or sitting in a lotus position. Each breath should begin in the nose to the diaphragm, not the chest, then breath in more to completely fill the lungs, then breath out of the mouth beginning with the stomach. If done correctly your stomach and chest should look like a wave.
Kaz did exactly this. Doing more then three rounds was difficult, however the technique was something that Kaz had been doing for a few years now, and was one of the few things that he did to maintain his health, so doing four rounds, or even five was simple for him. The problem was that he was in a childs body, and he had never researched the effects that this technique would have on a child, so he decided to start out with something that would be difficult, but still not overkill.
"Okay, Now I just have to do the fist pushups. A childs bones should be a lot more fragile so I should do it in the grass." He then climbed out of his cave and started his final exercise of the day, he was already feeling exhausted from all the running around he did(still not hungry or thirsty though) and it was almost night, so he would sleep now. When he woke up he figured that the clay should be done, or close to done, so he could have some water.
So he finished that up, stopping at ten reps, and climbed back into the cave, and falling asleep.
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The next day he woke up at the break of dawn like the day before. However upon waking up he immediately noticed something was off.
"W-What is this? This power!" Kaz exclaimed to himself, causing his voice to echo out of the cave. He looked down an saw that there was nothing different with his body so far, he was still a skinny child, however he could still feel that something was stronger. After thinking about it for a bit, he determined that his breathing and perception were different. He seemed to be able to expand his lungs by a little more then yesterday. Normally this kind of change wouldn't be noticeable, however his lungs seemed to have improved in efficiency by probably about ten percent, however he had no way of knowing if that number was correct.
He also noticed that he could perceive his insides much easier then before. If he focused, he could even faintly feel the presence of his veins and arteries. "I guess this is the effect of a child using the Wim Hof Method, some type of super growth? This is incredible!"
(I don't know how the Wim Hof Method would work on children and I'm not going to bother researching it. But this is obviously not how it will play out. He is receiving this effect because of plot armor and nothing more. If you don't have plot armor then probably do some research before attempting this. And again, I know full well that most of you could have figured that out on your own, but there are a lot of idiots out there.)
When he stood up he tried doing the exercises again (its better to exercise in the morning). This time, he was able to shadow box for a minute and forty seconds, each of his round of horse stances went one minute, forty seconds, twenty five seconds, eight seconds, and even a fifth round of two seconds. When he did the Wim Hof Method it was significantly easier to do, and he figured he could probably go for a fifth round, however he decided that it would be better to stick to just the four rounds for now and only amp it up in a few days. He could only do one more fist pushup compared to yesterday, but that was still a very fast improvement for only one day, so he was satisfied.
"Now that that's done, my to do list for today is to get some more food, finish the clay pot and boil some water, and finally I will start working on my cave. Maybe Ill add a rope latter to get up with a little overhang on the floor. Then Ill find something to make a door to keep the birds out." He then walked to the entrance of his cave and looked out at the forest in front of him. "All right, lets get started."