The foolish Grappler Chapter 12

A.N: Hello sorry for the long wait I have been busy and unfortunately, I will be getting even busier soon with university again. However, I will strive to insure that I get at least one chapter out a month even though my chapters aren't really worth a month of wait I hope you continue to read even if you are not invested in the characters yet.

Something that has been brought up is that they fear Adorno will get too strong too quickly and I want to put any worries away such a thing will happen. While of course, Adorno will be getting stronger as he is finally training, he won't ever be broken. It's already hard enough to write normal fight scenes let alone one involving an overpowered character. Along with this, a question was brought up asking if this is a 'this bites' situation. One which the bodies of humans from earth and One piece are different in what they can do. While I haven't read 'this bites' I can confirm that this is the case however this doesn't matter due to the game system and Adornos Hanma blood. What are the differences I won't say here as that's a bit of a spoiler.

Another thing that needs to be said is this story and maybe the others will be cross-posted on Achieve of our own. Why I am bringing this up is that that version will be different as AO3 allows for adding links to music and such which is something I think I can increase the reading experience. Yet this doesn't change anything here as I will be posting here first.

"Whack" "AHH", I lurch upwards after feeling something thwacking my stomach hard, causing me to jerk up, launching the book resting on my face.

"THE HELL" I yell in response, I believe justified after being so rudely awoken.

"Get up boy we got training to do, you can't remain an uncut gem forever you gotta cut off the rough and now is the time we will do so. So eat this and after that meet me outside when you're dressed." Sensei stated as he pointed to my breakfast on the table. I gladly took to it with gusto while he went to the bookshelf to pick a book out and then leave through the front door.

Now having a moment of time to think and for the sleep to leave my brain, I realised that this was what I should be expecting from now on. I should say goodbye to sleeping in and likely any chance of a peaceful morning. Then something caught my attention as I was eating; it was the daily quest notification. It looks like yesterday's one, so there's nothing to comment on there. Seeing as I was about to start training, I think the first option, which was about physical exercise, was the safest bet.

Now seeing that was finished, I should hurry; I tried to eat as fast as I could manage without making any mess on the floor, which surprisingly wasn't too hard for my sleep-riddled mind to do so. I guess I was starting the day well so far; I hope this is a sign of what today will be like. After I finished my meal, I quickly got dressed in some of the spare clothes that Mrs Kennedy was able to find me back when I was at her house recovering from the fight, along with the running shoes I got as a reward for hiking from the city.

***** Running Shoes *****

Rarity: Common

Durability: Fresh

Bonus: None

Description: Feels comfortable while running while giving good support to ankles and feet. It will automatically change to your size of feet.

Sadly the running shoes didn't have any stat bonus; they were just well-made running shoes in my size. They were pretty comfortable, so I wasn't that disappointed that they didn't have a stat bonus or an increase in speed.

So after I was ready, I was finally ready to face this training that I was going to go through; sure, it would be challenging, but I could push through it. Otherwise, there really isn't any hope for me to make a living in this world. I would be forever doomed to be insignificant, and more importantly, I would let her down, which is unacceptable. I did so in one life, not this one too.

"Come on, Adorno, it's time to face the music; it can't be that hard, right?" I spoke to myself to help physic myself up for whatever I would see once I opened the door. After one more deep breath, I mustered all my courage and opened the door.

What I saw when I opened the door threw me for a bit of a loop. There on the ground was a small wooden row boat. It didn't seem to be able to fit more than two people, one to row and the other to guide. Even more confusing was at the front of it was a pile of rope that was connected to the front of the ship, likely for dragging it.

The odd thing wasn't that it was on land or about 10 feet away from the door. It was that Sensei was sitting in it with a long stick of some kind. If I had to guess, it had to have come from his fishing gear that I saw in his cabin, however, without any line or gear on it, just a regular thin wooden pole. Quickly putting one and one together after watching so many anime, I realised what my so-called 'endurance training' would be, and all I hoped was that this boat was a lot lighter than it looked.

"Um, sensei, is that what I think it is" I questioned, pointing towards the boat even though I had an excellent feeling precisely what it was.

"It's a rowboat if you couldn't tell; I use it sometimes when I want to go and fish off the coast. However, since I rarely do so, it mainly stays on land so I thought today would be a good time to get some use out of it." He calmly explained as if he wasn't in a row boat on land. That's not normal, right? It's not just me that thinks that, right?

"Oh great just what I thought it was, um how is it going to help me train Sensei" I further questioned my Sensei hoping this was just a joke brought on by Sensei.

"As I said before you're an uncut gem that's stuck in the rock, the first phase of your training with me is to knock all the waste and unwanted parts off so then we can work on more difficult stuff. This was easier than I was going to do but thought I should at least ease you in on the first day". He eagerly replied

"But how is this going to help, am I meant to bring to the sea and row it?" "Oww," I interrupted Sensei, which proved to be a mistake as an instant after I said that, a sharp pain was felt on my forehead. When my hands reacted to move to my face, they caught something as it was falling. When I looked at it, it obviously was a small rock.

"I was about to get to that student, remember this, patience leads to a long life while impatience leads to a quick death. So don't interrupt me unless you wish for that quick death." He was clearly not impressed that he was interrupted.

"As I was about to say this morning, endurance training will take the form of you tying the rope harness at the front of the boat to yourself. Then you will run at your fastest speed which you can go while dragging this boat along with you. You will follow the marks and my directions to lead you along the course that I have memorised and the end of which will be right where we started. During the training should, I feel like either you are not giving as much as you could or do not answer a question I ask to my standards. I will flick a stone at you as you have experienced," explained Sensei, finally telling me what I had to do so I could do it.

"Well, I guess there's no rest for the wicked, I guess (Sigh)", I mutter to myself as I walk towards the boat and pick up the ropes; it didn't take much time for me to figure out the right way to wrap the rope around me so it wouldn't fall off mid-run.

Ok, this seems simple; just do a circuit while pulling the boat and the old man. Is that really a bright Idea? Won't it be bumpy and uncomfortable? It won't hurt to give it a go, so I finally did a few stretchers I knew from school and started.

***** Three Hours later *******

IT WAS HARD; there's no other way to put it; getting up the speed and then maintaining that speed was so tricky that I can't even describe it as it wouldn't give it justice. Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, the boat would dig into the dirt, or it would snag on the root of a tree or something to that effect. Plus, being pelted with little stones didn't help much or being asked questions on books you haven't even finished.

All of this really caused my body to feel the strain I was putting on it, and for some reason, It wasn't bothering me that much, which I guess is something I can only celebrate right now. When I finally returned to the cabin after the first lap, I fell to my knees, exhausted. I somewhat felt like I had just come back from the capital. In contrast, Sensei calmly stepped out of the boat and walked over to me with a bottle of water he gave me.

"Now you know your limits as they are now. That is key, as one must know where the first step is to know where the last step comes from. Hence I have shown you a baseline of what you can achieve so you can look back and acknowledge your progress. Now that your breathing has caught up with you, it is precisely that which will be the first technique; breathing is by far one of the most important systems in your body."

"Um *puff* I think *puff* I can breathe *puff* already, not trying to *puff* be rude or anything", I responded in between breaths of my lungs despite the need for oxygen.

"Oh you know how to breathe then why are you so winded right now, it's not just because you're overweight seeing as you were handling the beginning of the lap quite well, it was when you passed the third way mark that you began to decrease in speed and control. Then by the final third you were completely out of energy and breathe that you barely made it back. If you truly could breathe then this wouldn't be as taxing on you. Now get up, your break is over and follow me. Our first task today is to see if we can't get you to increase your breathing. If you could then you will be able to run further and faster, lift more weight, do more training each day, speeding the process up by a large margin." Explained Sensei as he began to walk towards the forest.

Seeing that, I got up and quickly followed him to a small clearing not far from the cabin. It had a surprisingly well-made set-up as I could recognise a fair amount of equipment from a gym that I was dragged to, but oddly all of it was made from wood here. There was a bench that I could do weights on, and then there was what I could tell was a log hanging from a branch while being covered in an old comforter that was making a makeshift punching bag. I don't know how effective that comforter is at softening the blow when you're striking a log, but maybe I am wrong; hopefully, I am wrong. Overall, I am sure I will be using a lot of things here, so I should get familiar with them.

However, Sensei didn't bring me to any of the obvious things; he instead brought me to a sharp pole in the ground, which I couldn't understand the use of right away.

"Now face me, good now listen to me as I will explain what your first lesson will be covering and that will be breathing as it is one of the cores and foundations to all martial arts. To use one's body effectively they must breathe however what most people do is focus on the action not the need. Your body doesn't need your chest muscles to expand your lungs which draws air into them for you to breathe what it needs is air. The action is only a means to an end and I can see your questioning where this is going and it's quite simple. I am going to teach you this breathing method that will allow you to unleash your power and stamina. To allow you to intake the most amount of air to fuel your body."

"So this is a special way to breathe?"

"Both yes and no while this method does involve a particular way you can breathe to increase your air intake, however your breathing is a system that's bigger than just the intake of air. Answer this can you breathe if you close your mouth and nose?"

"No you can't, you could only hold your breath well unless you do something dumb like stab a hole into your airway. But that's definitely not the answer right?"

"You're right, that's not want I mean, when someone holds their breath right, they just stop breathing or at least that's what most think but that's not exactly the case. As your lungs continue to take in the air in the lungs to your blood where it's taken to where it's needed. While this supply is limited as you're not taking in more air you don't stop until you run out which is when your body forces you to open your airways for more air. I see your beginning to understand where I am going with this: how breathing is more than just the intake of air, it's how your lungs intake the air, how the blood transports it, how much control your mind has over your body to stop it from involuntary acting and much more. The method that I will be teaching you has many parts to it and today we will be focusing on the air intake into the lungs, however eventually we will cover how you can control your body more than you could think you can. Down to how much air your lungs absorb and completely stop your subconscious from taking a breath."

"Ohhh ok I get that this would be beneficial however how do I do this?"

"Here allow me to provide a physical demisation on this first you start at the nose…( one explanation later)…..then finally by breathing out you can start the process again from step one. If you can pull this off then you will be able to run faster and longer than others with less pain during it." Sensei then provided an in-depth explanation of the first step of the method. He explained it in such detail that it seemed like it went on for an hour though that's likely an exaggeration.

However, once he believed that I had a good enough understanding of how to do it, he said that I had to practise it under stress, which is why he brought me here. He then told me to get into a wide squat at ninety degrees, like I was sitting on a chair with feet pointed forward, thighs parallel to the floor, and the back straight. My arms were by my sides, bent at a ninety-degree angle with both clenched fists pointing forward. He said that this Horse Stance was a stance I would become quite familiar with. I seemed to be able to handle it fine; weirdly, I have good knee flexibility from how I often gamed with one leg crossed. However, I was still tired and sore from endurance training.

"Now that you have the right form, you are now to focus on your breathing, ensuring that you maintain doing it correctly even when strained. It's important to eventually be able to do this subconsciously so that your mind isn't burdened with it, however you're nowhere close to that stage. Now that you're still I can begin explaining the foundation of meditation , as you don't seem like the person to be interested in it , however, being able to mediate and calm one's mind is a skill that can determine either if you will live or die." After saying that, Sensei talked about how to meditate while I was in this squatting position; however, something I noticed as he was explaining was that as I kept going, I realised I wasn't anywhere near as out of breathe then I thought I would be holding this squat plus my legs actually started to feel slightly less painful, how that could be I don't really know but damn if I am not shocked just having an introductory lesson on breathing can make such a difference.

"Boy, are you listening to me?" Sensei broke me out of my thinking, and I scrambled to find the part of my brain that was listening to him; sadly, it wasn't effective.

"Um that managing your breathing is a way to calm down and be one with your surroundings?" I nervously answered the first thing that came to mind.

"Ha, well done" Wait, I got it; damn, I didn't really think I would- before I could finish that thought, It was interpreted by a heavy smack to the top of my head, nearly forcing me onto my ass.

"Ah, the fuck sensei did you really have to hit that hard" I complained, having broken my stance to nurse the bruise that I am sure is forming on my head.

"Fool I said that ten minutes ago pay attention as I can already see your likely will have trouble with this, I know this isn't exciting but I am helping you build a foundation you can rely on as you progress" He was right there's nothing much to it I should be listening to every word that comes from his mouth it's just I get distracted when I don't have my meds…. Wait, I haven't taken any meds for days. Damn it, I am going to have to think about this later.

"Now, are you listening to me? Good. Learning meditation has many benefits; for example, it can help people lose stress, it can help them control emotional outbursts, and maintain emotional stability. It's also said that some claim it to be a time when your soul, mind and body become one where they entirely overlap with each other, causing the user to achieve inner peace and allowing them to channel their Spirit better than others.

However, that doesn't have much use for you now; which feature of it that will be most useful for you now is being able to enter a zen state. It's one of the critical uses of meditation; it's the ability to enter a state without distractions that allows you to truly feel your body for the first time.

Masters of this aspect are said to be able to feel and control individual muscle fibres, control their hearts, how they heal and many more feats. It changes your relationship with your body from being a passenger who is just along for the ride to the captain who can give orders as they like. Can you see how it can be beneficial"

When he started explaining, I quickly went to my squat again. I started the breathing exercise, all while listening to the best I could to Sensei. Though he brought up some weird stuff in that explanation about meditation that makes it sound like it's able to do everything, which seems a little too good to be true, then again, this is one piece, so I can't say I am surprised. I do have a few questions about this, though.

"Yes sensei I do have some questions though."

"Ask away"

"At the start you brought up that the Spirit, mind and body overlapped when you meditate. Can you explain what that actually means or is it just nonsense?" I just directly ask my first question because if I have to worry about offending him, then we will be stuck here all day.

"Ah you see its a theory from my homeland that people are made up of three parts. The first part and the most understood is the body; it's our connection to this world. It's the main way how our souls and mind can influence this world of ours. When we die its because our body has failed and such releasing your mind and soul. Obviously not much is known about this, however it's said that your mind can finally rest as it enters the imaginary plane while your soul can then enter the cycle of rebirth where your soul will be reborn. If you want me to go into further depth of this I will gladly do so or you can read about it as I have some books on it. It's mainly just a religious belief so it's not really needed in your training. Do you have any other questions?"

"That's a lot to take in, I now have quite a lot more questions but I suppose they can wait." I nervously replied because how else could you answer? I wasn't ever really religious, even though my parents were somewhat. I would think it was clear why when my life sucked so bad that I wanted to die.

"I guess my next question is what is this Spirit you're talking about? How can meditation make it so that you channel your 'spirit' better?"

"Well, what people call spirit changes based on where they learned it from; some of its other names are Haki, Color, Rouyo and many more. It's just that where I come from, they had been using it as a cover for what it really was as the world government worked tirelessly to remove any mention of it from the world. Clearly, that is another failed attempt to join the pile of failures, but that's nothing new for the world government.

However, I got slightly sidetracked as I was saying Spirit is what happens when your soul interacts with either your body or mind. It has many uses that I doubt anyone has been able to master, even half of them. The effects can be simple as creating invisible armour around you, giving you extra protection; it also works to enhance your attacks to do many effects. This is just the tip of the iceberg, so don't be intimidated by this."

"Can you use it sensei?"

"Of course while there are many that are better than me, I am no slouch at it."

So Spirit is just another name for Haki that makes sense. It's happened quite a few times in the manga, likely due to the world government suppressing any information about it. At least he is aware of it so he can teach me, which would be a great advantage to have in the north blue given that Haki, at least based on the manga, was prevalent really only on the grand line, likely due to hosting the strongest of the world breeding an environment that caused more people to learn Haki either by accident or purposely.

"My last question is how long do you think it will take me to learn mediation to be able to control my body as you said."

"Now this is a question that I can't really answer for you as its based on how well you can calm your mind and how well you can control the body. If I would guess it would take at least months at least before you can undertake the first step. Unlike the breathing method I have just taught you which clearly you are having results due to you being able to hold that form for our conversation. It's quite impressive how well you have adopted it normally for trainees. They take at least a week to be able to use it while talking and holding a Horse stance for so long. I must say I am impressed though sadly your in for a rude awakening as when you stop it as you're only using the first step hence when you stop the pain in your legs will start again."

After he said that, he then moved faster than I could see as he pushed me onto my ass, not in a way to hurt me, just to get me out of the stance and to shock me out of breathing. While I was about to ask why he did that, I instead clamped my hand over my mouth to stop myself from yelling at the pain in my legs.

WHY THE FUCK DO MY LEGS HURT SO MUCH WHEN A SECOND AGO THEY WERE FINE. Damn it, I find it hard to describe the pain. It's like If I just ran a marathon twice but with no breaks to eat or sleep, just 48 hours of running. How could something like breathing act as a painkiller? When will the pain stop? Sensei knew this would happen clearly, so he could have warned me about it.

"I apologise that I didn't tell you that for beginners who can't control other parts of their breath system that the pain soothing part is only temporary while they engage the method. Don't worry it's only temporary, it should be gone by the time you have finished lunch so we can work on building muscle. Speaking of lunch I believe now is a good time to have it so stay here and recover while I go back and grab some food for us is that good with you?"

"Yes sensei sounds great."

****** Thirty minutes later *****

For the past thirty minutes, I have been just lying on my back, trying to ignore the pain in my legs. I was lying down as it allowed my legs to rest the best. Now that the shock of the pain is over, If I had to describe it, it's a pain you get when you work muscles really hard but dialled up to fifteen. Wait, why does this sound familiar…..

Ah, lactic acid is something your muscles make when they don't have enough oxygen. But then why was there lactic acid when I was supposedly intaking more oxygen through the method he showed me. Ugh, why didn't I pay more attention to biology? It was my least favourite of the many sciences now that's biting me in the ass. Though I guess it's presumptuous of me that I think this world even works based on at least anything that resembles biology from my world.

I shouldn't put much thought into it and just listen to Sensei. I still have the rest of the day to go. How am I going to survive this with no clue? However, my thoughts on how I would survive this hellscape were interrupted by Sensei, who was carrying a bunch of fish and some sticks. I guess this is my lunch?

"Sorry for the wait I had to catch; it took longer than I thought it would. Have you ever had North Cod before? No, well, it's one of the most common fish around here; it's easy to prep as it has a lot fewer bones than most fish and cooks well over just a fire." He said as he walked by me toward the centre of the clearing, which had a small fire pit that I overlooked. Releasing that if I wanted to eat, I had to get, so even though my body protested, I got up and walked over to the fire pit.

I was just in time to see how Sensei started the fire; it looked normal enough, like he was going to twist one stick onto the other with some tinder in between. However, what takes people many tries and a lot of effort, he had the stick between his hands, which suddenly moved, and then the tinder seemingly instantly combusted. Oh damn, he moved the bar so fast it worked on his first go. It looked like it was fake; it was that quick. Well, regardless of my thoughts, he inserted the flame into the fire he constructed while I was getting up. The fire eagerly started going strong, almost as if it wanted to impress its creator. Sensei then took the spare sticks and stuck the fish onto them; they seemed gutted already, so that was good. I don't really want to taste fish guts yet.

"That was impressive, Sensei. I am sure many people would kill to be in the same position as you. Being in a quiet home, able to fish all day, no one around to be loud," I spoke honestly that I did believe many people would pay any amount to live like this for a time. How many retreats were made back on earth for this reason?

"To some this may be great but really this life isn't all you make it up to be, there are some significant downsides to the path my life has gone down." He spoke as he speared each fish onto a stick and stuck them into the ground to cook.

However, at that moment, he felt like he had aged another 10 years, and his vitality seemed to disappear as he stared into the fire. It only lasted a split moment, and then he had his usual smirk along with his back straight and getting much more energetic.

"Well, I can guess it would get lonely just being by yourself though I guess you do have wolfs neck and the rest of the island; it's not like your all alone, just isolated." I realised that I dumbly stepped on a sore part of his past. To remedy this, I tried to say ways he wasn't alone.

"There's a quote that was popular around my home land when I was young it went to the effect of 'If your lonely by yourself then you're in bad company'. I quite like it myself as it hits on a certain point that is often overlooked by people. Is that the first person you should ever befriend is the man who stares back from the mirror. Because if you can't even have him as a friend what chances do you of having anyone else."

"That's um deep… wait, was that form a poem named the man in the glass because that sounded familiar? Maybe I am wrong" I felt pretty awkward right now as I didn't really expect this to get so deep. However, before my brain could realise what I had asked him, I did as it happened to be one of my favourite poems. It's maybe one of the few reasons after her death that I just didn't give up. So on reflex, I asked if it existed in this world.

"Huh, it was by an author named (insert book name); he was quite famous in my homeland but didn't really spread much to the rest of the world", He answered my question, not expecting it in the first place, so it took him a second to realise what I said.

Realising my mistake, I quickly tried to cover it; how could someone from the north blue, which wasn't wealthy, know about poetry from this place that must be far away. Thankfully it seemed like my warning was unwarranted as he continued.

"Well it's nice to know his work has finally spread out to the world even to the north blue.

It's humorous that I learnt this from my student because what are the chances that we would meet. I guess fate is on our side for which I am happy."

"You're right, what are the chances that I would meet a martial arts master that saved my life by humiliating four guys without breaking a sweat? Then asked for nothing in return then who was willing to take a student who really knows nothing about fighting which is also out of shape. I bet I could count how many there are in the world on one hand and still have fingers to spare."

"Thank you but as I said when we first met, 'Contentment is the greatest wealth' when you get to my age things and objects tend to lose their novelty however the intangibles such as happiness and contentment are worth more than any could pay."

"Makes sense, AH I think the fish are done; they smell great" As I was going to reply, I noticed that the fish was done, so I warned Sensei so we don't get burnt fish as that would not be significant.

"Yes, I believe you're correct; time to dig in, " said Sensei after he noticed I was right; he then showed me how to eat them, then we dug in together; we gave a small talk while we ate, getting to know each other. Mainly me asking about the local area since I would be around here for a while and the books I had to read.

****** Hours later after afternoon training **********

HOLY HELL, he didn't pull his punches after lunch much. The amount of training he made me do was ludicrous hell, I didn't think I could do as much stuff as he made me do, but someone he made it seem just that slightest part possible which got me to give it a go and then somehow I would be able to push through. Sure, it wasn't easy by any definition of the word; it was hell itself; for example, while the log punching bag kinda works, the harder you hit it, the more painful it is. Thankfully I am nowhere near that stage yet.

After that and a quick dinner, we went on another endurance training dragging Sensei. This time it went much better due to the breathing techniques. I was even able to maintain a conversation with Sensei as I moved.

As I lay in pain in my cot, I looked fondly at the day I had. Something that's been rare in this life of mine where something would always go wrong, either with bullying, being unlucky, being awkward with no friends or my strained relationship with my family. Actually, I wonder what is happening with my family;. At the same time, I knew I wasn't really the son they wanted as I never compared to my eldest brother Jackson; then, my little sister showing so much promise at such a young age made me the odd one out. I heard so many backhanded compliments from my family and family friends.

Oh, don't get me started with those, both ones they said to my face or behind my back. But that's in the past; right now, in front of me are endless paths I could travel down, and my challenge is picking the best one; well isn't that easy.

Well time to check my daily quest

Daily Quest Completed

Congrats on finishing your first daily quest; you will receive a bonus as a gift.

1) Surpass your Physical Bounds

How can you become significant if you don't push against the bounds that you reside in?

Well, this is your chance to push past them; in return, your body will become more refined.

Run 2 Km (Completed)

Do 20 push-ups (Completed)

Do 20 sit-ups (Completed)

DO 20 squats (Completed)

Reward: +1 in all physical stats (Str, Vit, Dex)

System Notification

Users' stats and skills have increased due to pushing users' limits.

Gains: +1 Vit, + 1 Str, + 1 Dex,

Skills gained.

Martial Skills: Type body; (Unending Gale Breath) (beginner),

Martial Skills: Type Offensive; straight punch (beginner), Jab punch (beginner),

Martial Skills: Type manoeuvre; Footwork (beginner),