After his talk with the husband and wife, Lumberling made his way across the village until he reached the open training ground.
The thundering rhythm of fists and bodies colliding echoed in the air. Rows of soldiers, bare-chested and sweating, took turns slamming their forearms, shoulders, and chests against one another.
The dull, meaty thuds of impact were followed by grunts and sharp exhales, the discipline of the Bruteforce Body Cultivation being drilled into every soldier.
"Again!" Grokk's voice roared above the noise. He stood at the center, towering over the recruits, his massive arms folded as his sharp eyes scanned their movements.
"Don't flinch! Pain is only weakness being crushed out of your flesh!"
The recruits, once timid villagers, now moved like hardened warriors. They stomped the ground in unison, striking each other again and again, their cries rising with every impact.
The original forty-nine guard unit had now swelled to a hundred and thirty-two.
