He reached home before 11:00 AM.
Gideon went straight to his room, closed the door and sat on the chair near his study desk. Unwrapped the scroll and started reading about the Constitution Enhancement Exercise which he has heard a lot about.
This is the most beneficial exercise for humans who are soul integrated, but also the toughest one earning the nickname 'Devil's Exercise'. It is very painful to perform this exercise as it is not related to physical enhancement, but the entire constitution which involves speed, strength and recovery.
He read the scroll for 2 hours continuously before having his lunch which was prepared in the morning and kept on the dining table before Sienna left for the farm.
After lunch, he slept for about 3 hours as he knew reading after lunch is not beneficial and would only be a waste of time and energy.
He woke up after 04:00 PM, freshened up a little and again started reading about the exercise as he wanted to memorize it fully before starting to perform the exercise.
This exercise was actually one of the top exercises which is almost tried by every integrator at least once, but many gave up on performing it because of the pain and strain it gives to the body and mind.
This exercise was actually created when the humans were almost on the brink of extinction which gave them a boost to fight back, but now, after centuries of development where humans had built civilization and safe zones like villages, towns and cities, the necessity to perform this exercise has diminished, so it can be considered that only 1 in a 500 are performing this exercise to gain the boost it gives.
It is an exercise that has 30 steps which would give a temporary boost when circulating the steps. They have to circulate the spirit energy through 30 different spirit veins in their body which are dormant at the beginning which will be very painful.
Completing the 30 steps would be considered as completing 1 cycle which will create a boost star inside the spirit space which will permanently increase the speed, strength and recovery of humans.
The only drawback is until the 30 steps are completed, if one stops in the middle, even after completing 29 steps, will have to start from the first step.
After completing the first cycle, they can continue performing the exercise which will be considered as the first step of the second cycle which will be even more painful than the first cycle which would make most of the intefrators to give up at that time.
He has heard from Henry that he has only completed till sixteenth step of the second cycle while Sienna has completed only till 22 steps in the first cycle which has made him more enthusiastic to perform this exercise and see why it is so special and difficult.
It took him another 4 hours to completely memorize the 30 steps of the constitution enhancement exercise and to gain confidence he can do it without reading the scroll again, but he kept it safe inside the large backpack he got from the adventures association just in case he might need to refer to it in the future.
During dinner, he informed Henry and Sienna about the privileges he got from the association which made them both happy and worried.
Happy that he doesn't have to work hard to get the weapon and armor. Worried that he might start taking dangerous tasks from the association which will make him fight life and death battles which might go bad for him, if he is not careful.
After dinner, he went to bed and slept immediately as he didn't want to start performing the exercise in the middle of the night and decided to start in the morning the next day.
He woke at 5:00 AM the next day, washed his body and went to the garden that was in the backyard of his home to perform the constitution enhancement exercise with his new short sword and wearing his new armor so he can get used to them while performing the exercise.
He at first did some warm-up performing the slashes and stabbing moves he learnt from the basic training that he had in his school while recording himself using his new smartphone. After about 15 minutes, he started performing the constitution enhancement exercise and he felt immense pain immediately. He sst on the ground and dropping his sword because of the pain.
He had never felt this kind of pain and was a little startled to feel it for the first time. Now he realized why the scroll had a tip to perform this exercise while he is training in a harsh environment or when fighting in a life and death battle.
He took a rest for a few minutes while panting heavily with sweat dripping from his body like showering rain.
He checked the recording in his phone and found that there was a slight increase in speed of the sword swing when he performed the exercise even though it was only for about 5 seconds.
He steeled his mind and decided to continue performing the constitution enhancement exercise to increase the speed of his attack which will also directly increase the strength of the attack by a slight margin.
He continued performing the exercise till he was called in for breakfast taking a few minutes of break every time he performed it. He was upset that even after trying for almost 2 hours, he was still unable to complete the first step of the exercise, not even close to completing it.
Henry encouraged him by giving him a soft pat on his shoulder and even Jaice, who was watching him practice from his room, sat on his shoulder and rubbed her beak on his cheek lovingly as if motivating him to continue and not to give up.
Gideon knew it would be hard to perform the exercise, but never expected it to be this hard as he is a farmer and already have a strong body compared to others, even though he looks slim and doesn't have strength equal to his peers.
He wanted to perform the exercise again immediately after the breakfast, but was advised against it as it is not good for the human body to exercise or swim immediately after having food. So, he went to his room and went through the recording of his exercise again and again to figure out where he went wrong, in case he had or to find a way to complete the first step soon.
After resting for an hour, he again went to the backyard and started performing the exercise while Jaice came along with him to the backyard to keep an eye on him. The pain he got while performing the exercise felt like he was getting poked by thousands of needles throughout his body at the same time.
He wanted to ignore the pain and continue performing the exercise which was a hint given to him by his close-combat trainer, but he realized it now how hard it is to ignore the pain that is felt throughout his body which will make him lose his consciousness if he continues performing without the breaks he takes to rest after every minute of performing the exercise.
He wanted to try performing the exercise for more than a minute to see if he could complete the first step, but he goes to the verge of fainting if he continues for more than a minute, but he realized he could endure it if he continued to do it without giving up.
He was not a masochist who likes to feel pain continuously, but he is not someone who would give up just because of the pain he feels while performing the exercise. He decided to continue performing it and stop at nothing, no matter what happens.
He continued performing the exercise daily for almost a month without going out of his house which made Henry and Sienna worry about him, but they did not openly ask about it as they know he will come to them if he needs their help.
Gideon was able to complete 13 steps in the constitution enhancement exercise and is close to completing the fourteenth step in this one month, focusing completely on the exercise, but he can't be a burden to his foster parents and has to earn money for himself and for them.
He left the garden that day with a very satisfied heart as he has learned a lot in the past month.
The main technique being how to infuse his spirit energy into his short sword gaining more sharpness through it enhancing its penetration, but he can only infuse it for only about 3 hours at max before his spirit energy drains.
The other factor he learned is that performing the constitution enhancement exercise does not boost the speed, strength and recovery temporarily, but the adrenaline rush that is the result of the pain is giving that boost to humans.
He also learned that in a battle of life and death, it doesn't just help humans to tier-up quickly, but will also help them to go an extra step in performing the exercise with the fear of losing their life if they don't complete it when facing more powerful monsters in the wild.