"Huff… Huff…"
Noah's knees could barely support his weight as he tried his best to catch his breath.
His bare upper body was entirely covered in sweat, and his face was tomato red.
"Huff…" He wiped the sweat off his forehead and walked to take a seat on a nearby rock.
His attention was caught by the sound of an approaching carriage before he could fully catch his breath.
"Peasant boy," The rich merchant called out from inside the luxurious carriage. "Is this the way to the Ona village?"
"Did you not see the sign on the other end of this road, old fart?" Noah retorted. "You should've gone past it?"
"O-Old fart?!" The gray-bearded man was about to step out and beat him with a stick, were it not for his wife and daughter holding him back.
"Come on, let it go, Dad!"
"Tell me, boy. Are you referring to that withering pillar at the beginning of this road?" The wife, visibly decades younger than her husband, asked. "Not much of a sign, is it?"
"It's a sign that there's a village at the end of the road." Noah shrugged. "Everyone knows that."
"Is that so?" The wife scratched his chin. "It looks more like an old, forgotten altar…" She muttered. "Anyway-"
"I'll show you who the old fart is!"
"Get the horses going already!" The wife ordered the servant, and the carriage started moving.
"Rude peasant, tsk." The old fart clicked his tongue as they went past Noah.
'Pretty handsome though…' His daughter thought, pursing her lips.
'Nice body too…' The mother thought to herself. 'When this old wallet dies, I'll definitely get myself a boytoy just like hi-'
"What are you smiling at?" The old man frowned.
"N-Nothing!" The wife coughed.
Noah watched the carriage getting further towards his village, sighed, and stood up, only to lie down on the grass below.
'From start to end of the road is around five kilometers.' Noah thought while watching the sky above. 'Since I ran up and down the road four times and some, that's a little more than 40 kilometers.'
The sun burned brightly, and despite having stopped running, his body wasn't cooling down one bit.
'Why do I have to work so hard… When others gain ten times the strength and endurance just by existing?'
Noah slapped his cheeks, shook his head, and turned over.
"One hundred pushups…" He shouted, and got to work. "Times ten!"
His morning workout lasted another two hours, making it four and a half hours total.
Noah had come to realize that praying wasn't going to get him anywhere.
Since his parents left the village to join the first Nether Tunnel Exploration Team, a tunnel rumored to link the Earth straight to Hell, Noah had been living with his aunt, and life for a single woman with a child wasn't easy, when the child wasn't her own.
Noah's parents had been missing for 10 years, since he was eight years old.
He had lost all hope of seeing them again, but Auntie Naomi still believed it was possible, and when she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly to console him, Noah felt he could almost be convinced.
"Alright," Noah turned in his village's direction. "Next time, I'll try to run a bit further."
His training plan was simple.
Do a little bit more every single day.
Every day, a little bit stronger, a little bit better.
His body and muscles had completely transformed through his training, and it was only a matter of time before someone noticed. Yes, until someone important noticed. Until a God or Spirit noticed his hard work and decided to bless him.
'In reality… I'm starting to doubt that anyone will notice. Maybe the Gods and Spirits are just like people. What they respect is innate talent, hard work, and effort be damned.' Noah shook his head, chasing the thought away.
A negative spiral like that never led to anything good.
'The Gods will notice one day. I'll have all the strength and wealth I desire.' He nodded to himself, burying the anxiety down. 'Auntie won't have to work so much anymore. I'll finally be able to take care of her, the way she took care of me all this time…'
A fuzzy and warm feeling rose within Noah as he remembered his gentle and kind auntie.
He shook his head and-
It looks more like an old, forgotten altar…
The words of the merchant's wife came back to the mind.
Noah turned around and stared in its direction.
"No way," He chuckled nervously with a sigh. "As if Altars could ever get like that."
Altars allowed people to connect with Gods and Spirits, to pray to them, and receive their Blessing.
"All Churches and Temples have a ton of followers… It's impossible to get close to an Altar without paying the offering to the Church or Temple…"
That was the reason why Noah's prayers continually fell on deaf ears.
All Churches and Temples required offerings. In other words, a fee, usually a hefty one too, needed to be paid just for the right to approach the Altar.
Each Church or Temple held one Altar for one Spirit or God, and there was no guarantee that praying to the Altar would lead to a Blessing of any kind.
Most people needed to spend fortunes, visiting different Churches and Temples, praying to different Spirits and Gods, before finally being chosen and accepted by one.
Noah didn't have the luxury. Not even to visit the Altars for which access required the smallest fees(Which were still hefty, all things considered).
He simply couldn't bring himself to ask his Auntie for so much.
On the day of his sixteenth birthday, Noah pestered the town's blacksmith for a week straight, day and night, and was finally given a job.
He had been working there for two and a half years now, and could actually forge a pretty good sword, though his employer would never admit to it to Noah's face.
The pay was good enough, but Noah found himself completely unable to save any money.
Most of it went towards buying treats and gifts for his dear Auntie, which embarrassed her quite a bit, but she was always happy when Noah surprised her after a long day of work.
Bringing a smile to the face of the woman who had taken care of him for the past ten years was more than worth the money.
'Time to get going, or old man Albert will get on my ass again.' Noah sighed as he stretched his arms.
The forge was a good distance away from the village, which was fortunate since it meant spending minimal time around the people his own age, many of whom had been Blessed.
'Plus, since I'll sweat a ton in the forge anyway, I don't need to shower after my morning workouts.' Noah nodded to himself as he walked. 'It's all good really. Albert is getting old. Even if I don't get chosen, I might still inherit the forge and become the town's blacksmith. We get orders from nearby villages as well, so it's a pretty profitable affair…'
All in all, things weren't too bad.
After all, Noah even had a plan B… Until he arrived at the forge, and got punched in the mouth by reality.