For the next ten minutes, Severin did nothing but squats and push-ups.
Nothing fancy.
Just the basics.
And honestly, he didn’t mind.
He liked exercising. There was something satisfying about feeling his muscles work, even if 5X gravity was making every movement much harder than it should have been.
After finishing his last push-up, Severin sat back on his heels and wiped the sweat from his face.
"That should be enough."
He looked around the room.
There was plenty of equipment to choose from.
"Let’s try those."
He walked over to one of the resistance machines and sat down.
The moment he grabbed the handles, the machine came to life.
RESISTANCE: 10
Severin pulled.
Easy.
He increased it.
RESISTANCE: 20
He pulled again.
This time, he could actually feel the resistance.
"Better."
A faint smile crossed his face.
He settled into a steady rhythm, pulling the handles again and again.
Under normal gravity, this wouldn’t have been anything special.
Under 5X gravity, though, even a simple exercise like this was enough to make his muscles work overtime.
And Severin was perfectly fine with that.
In fact, he was enjoying himself.
The small metal ball continued floating nearby, quietly watching him.
Its blue runes occasionally flickered.
They weren’t ordinary runes.
They were Anti-Runes, designed to suppress and regulate magical energy. They helped keep the MagicTech inside the room stable, preventing its various magical systems from interfering with one another.
The ball itself was part of the Academy’s MagicTech system.
It was directly connected to the Aethryndian Academy’s AI, allowing it to monitor the room, control the gravity, manage access permissions, and keep track of Severin’s condition.
Severin barely paid it any attention.
He had already gotten used to being watched by machines.
After finishing another set, he stood up and looked around.
His eyes eventually landed on the treadmill.
"Hmm."
He walked over.
"Running should be fun."
The treadmill activated as soon as he stepped onto it.
TRAINING MODE: STANDARD
The belt began moving.
Severin started walking.
Then he increased the speed.
A little faster.
Then faster again.
Soon, he was jogging.
His expression changed slightly.
"Yeah..."
He could feel it.
Running under 5X gravity was completely different.
Every step felt heavier than it should.
His legs had to work much harder just to move normally, and his breathing quickly became rough.
But instead of slowing down, Severin looked almost amused.
"Not bad."
He increased the speed.
The treadmill responded.
Severin leaned forward and started running properly.
His footsteps became heavier as he settled into a rhythm.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Sweat quickly covered his forehead.
His legs were burning.
His lungs were working overtime.
Yet he couldn’t help smiling.
This was much more like it.
He didn’t care about some fancy training method.
He just liked pushing himself.
As the minutes passed, something strange happened again.
The gravity hadn’t changed.
The treadmill hadn’t slowed down.
But Severin’s body was beginning to feel less overwhelmed.
His breathing became steadier.
His steps became more natural.
Even the heaviness in his legs wasn’t as bad as before.
Severin noticed immediately.
’Oh?’
He glanced down at his legs.
’Already adapting?’
A small grin appeared.
His body wasn’t suddenly becoming stronger.
It was simply getting used to the stress.
The more he pushed it, the more it adjusted.
Severin looked at the treadmill’s speed display.
Then he increased it again.
The treadmill sped up.
His body immediately protested.
Severin laughed quietly.
"Come on. Don’t give up on me now."
He leaned forward and kept running.
He was just enjoying his workout.
And judging by the grin on his face, he had no intention of stopping anytime soon.
Twenty minutes later, Severin finally stepped off the treadmill.
He didn’t even bother trying to stand properly.
The moment the belt stopped, he walked two steps before dropping onto his back and letting his body hit the floor with a dull thud.
"Haah... haah..."
His chest rose and fell rapidly as he stared at the ceiling, trying to catch his breath. Every muscle in his body felt like it had been squeezed dry, and his legs were so heavy that he couldn’t even be bothered to move them.
"Damn..."
He wiped the sweat from his face with the back of his hand.
"Running at 5X gravity for twenty minutes... who came up with this stupid idea?"
’Well it was yours truly me.’ He made a playful remark to himself.
Severin closed his eyes for a moment and took another deep breath.
The pressure of the room was still weighing down on him, but compared to when he had first entered, it no longer felt unbearable. His body had adjusted enough that he could actually rest under it without feeling like he was about to pass out.
That realization made him sigh.
"Still..."
He turned his head toward the floating metal ball.
"Why can’t I increase the gravity?"
The metal ball remained silent, its blue Anti-Runes glowing softly as it continued monitoring him.
Severin frowned.
"Come on. Ten times wouldn’t hurt."
He knew that was wishful thinking.
The restriction wasn’t there because the Academy wanted to make things difficult for him. There was a very simple reason behind it.
Most people couldn’t adapt to gravity the way he could.
Even at 2X or 3X gravity, an ordinary student needed considerable time to get used to the increased pressure. Pushing someone into a higher gravity before their body was ready could cause serious physical problems, and the Academy couldn’t simply allow students to experiment with it whenever they felt like it.
But Severin was different.
His Adaptation Talent was making his body adjust far faster than normal.
What took other people weeks or even months could potentially take him only days.
And that was exactly why the restriction annoyed him.
"Such a waste..."
Severin sighed and looked back at the ceiling.
He understood the Academy’s reasoning, though.
There was no way for the school to create a rule specifically for someone like him when, as far as they knew, there was practically no one else who could adapt to gravity at this speed and then use that adaptation to strengthen their body.
From the Academy’s perspective, giving him unrestricted access would be completely unreasonable.
If some idiot saw Severin training at 10X gravity and decided to copy him, they might end up seriously injuring themselves.
So the Academy had a progression system.
Students were gradually given greater access as they became stronger and proved that their bodies could handle it.
For most students, full access to the gravity facilities would only come much later.
According to the Academy’s standard regulations, starting from the second year, students could fully utilize the gravity rooms without the same restrictions placed on first-year students, provided they met the necessary requirements.
Severin knew that.
He just didn’t like it.
"A full one year..."
He clicked his tongue.
"That’s way too long."
He stared at the ceiling for another few seconds before sighing again.
There wasn’t much he could do about it.
Rules were rules.
Unless some special circumstance came up and the Academy made an exception, he would have to make do with the maximum gravity currently available to him.
Five times.
Severin slowly raised one hand and clenched his fist.
Even after all that training, his hand was barely trembling now.
A lazy smile appeared on his face.
"Well, five times is better than nothing."
He let his arm drop back onto the floor.
Besides, he had only just started.
If his Adaptation Talent continued working at this speed, there was no telling how strong his body could become before he finally got access to higher gravity.
Severin closed his eyes again.
"Guess I’ll just have to make the most of it."
For the moment, lying on the cold floor and catching his breath was enough.
Severin rested for another few minutes before getting back on his feet.
The next two hours passed in a simple rhythm.
Train, rest, train again.
He moved from one piece of equipment to another, working his arms, shoulders, back, and legs. He tried the resistance machines first, slowly increasing the weight whenever the current setting started to feel too easy. After that, he moved to a leg-press machine, then a rowing machine, followed by a few other pieces of equipment he had never used before.
He wasn’t following any complicated routine.
He simply trained whatever felt like it needed work.
Whenever his muscles became too tired, Severin would sit down for a few minutes, drink some water, and wait until his breathing settled before starting again.
"Haah... much better."
He wiped his face and stood up.
The strange thing was that the longer he trained, the more comfortable 5X gravity became.
It was still heavy.
It was still putting enormous pressure on his body.
But it no longer felt impossible.
His movements had become smoother, and the trembling that had been present when he first entered the room had almost disappeared.
Severin noticed the change but didn’t think too much about it.
’I’ll worry about how much I’ve improved later.’
Right now, he just wanted to keep training.
He finished with another round of resistance exercises before finally stepping away from the equipment.
His entire body was exhausted.
"That’s enough."
Severin glanced toward the small metal ball floating nearby.
The blue Anti-Runes around its surface were glowing faintly as it continued monitoring the room and his condition through its connection to the Academy’s AI.
He looked toward the wall.
The clock displayed the time.
7:00 PM.
Severin blinked.
"Already?"
He hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
Then his stomach answered for him.
Grrrrrrr...
Severin looked down.
A second, even louder rumble came from his stomach.
"...I’m starving."
He laughed quietly and rubbed his stomach.
Now that he thought about it, he had eaten lunch hours ago, and since then, his body had spent an enormous amount of energy adapting to the gravity and recovering from the strain of his training.
No wonder he was hungry.
"Guess my body wants payment."
He picked up his towel and wiped the sweat from his face.
With his Adaptation Talent constantly forcing his body to change and adjust, simply eating normal amounts of food probably wasn’t going to be enough.
He needed proper nutrition.
Plenty of it.
Protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, minerals—everything his body could use to replenish the energy it had burned.
Severin glanced at the door.
"Food first."
There was no point in training more if his body didn’t have the energy to recover.
Besides...
His stomach growled again.
"...Definitely food first."
With that, Severin walked toward the exit while picking up his coat, already thinking about what he was going to eat.