Iya Continent: Card God

Before the dawn's rays shone, mist enveloped the entire city, and the yellowish glow of the streetlights created a dreamlike atmosphere.

As the largest city in the prefecture, the entire city was already awakening before dawn. People from all walks of life began their day's work in order to make a living. The city gates opened early, and fresh fruits and vegetables purchased cheaply from the countryside were delivered into the city by horse-drawn carriages. Adventurers who had been hunting monsters outside returned to the city excitedly, calculating the final value of their prey.

Everyone entering or leaving the city has their own business to attend to; nobody cares what you're doing.

The strange Linta who ran through the city was completely ignored.

"Eh……"

Linta, feeling sleepy and half-dead, walked to the outside of the solid stone city wall.

The dwarf Jingon Copperhammer chuckled as he drank his hot liquor, "Want a sip? To wake you up."

Linta shook his arm. "Take a sip? That one sip would knock me out!"

Besides, my biggest pain isn't sleepiness, but the fact that my entire body hasn't recovered at all! I woke up this morning in pain after a whole day of exercise yesterday; my whole body aches. And now, I have to repeat that? This is going to kill me!

“Jingong, you didn’t cultivate like this back then, did you?” Linta questioned.

Dwarves are people too, aren't they?

"More or less," Kim Gong said with a faint smile.

Almost? Much less! Linta muttered to himself, realizing that the training he had been receiving was definitely not right.

Jingon took a sip of his drink and explained, “We dwarves start training when we’re just a few years old. You’re different; you’re much older than we were back then, so your training naturally has to be doubled. Otherwise, it won’t be effective.”

Linta's face darkened. "That's not how you double it! I feel like I won't last three days; I'll die."

Jingong reassured him, "Don't worry, Brother Linta, we're friends, I won't harm you. The training plan I've devised for you has been carefully considered."

Linta asked suspiciously, "How many times have you made such a decision in your life?"

“Once,” Kim Gong said sincerely.

Linta's eyes widened. "Just once? Just this once?!"

Kim Gong's big beard bobbed up and down.

Whoosh! The cool morning breeze blew by, but Linta didn't feel a chill. At this moment, he felt as if he were frozen solid, unable to get any colder.

"Stop thinking about useless things! Let's get started. I need to go back and forge it," Jin Gong said.

Linta was stunned for a moment, then came to her senses and asked, "Are you going back?"

“Of course, do you expect me to watch you every day? I still have a lot of things to mint, and those 100-plus silver coins aren’t enough to cover my expenses,” Jin Gong sighed.

Linta knew that Jingon and the others had used the rewards they received from the Herlan family in Shankan City to purchase materials, which he intended to use to forge a weapon of revenge.

“Just do as I asked yesterday. I can’t watch you all the time. You can do whatever you want. It’s your choice, and I respect it,” Jin Gong said solemnly, his face turning serious.

Having said that, he drank his hot and spicy liquor and headed back into the city.

Lin Ta was slightly lost in thought, his mind wandering.

To put it bluntly, the choice is yours. Whether you choose to take it easy or take a gamble is entirely up to you.

"Eh……"

Linta sighed, twisting his aching body, his expression a mixture of helplessness and relief.

"Run, what else can you do?"

Even without Gingon's supervision, Linta still completed the training plan set by Gingon as required. After noon, he went to the shop and repeatedly carried things back and forth. In the evening, with an even more aching body, he attempted to defeat the dwarf Gingon. Unsurprisingly, in his current physical condition, he was easily defeated and fell with a single blow.

The days that followed were a repetitive cycle.

……

One day, Linta woke up and felt that the pain from the previous day's training was gone.

"That's strange? Why doesn't it hurt anymore?"

Feeling somewhat unaccustomed, Linta looked at his own body from head to toe, even jumping up and down and twisting his joints.

“Numb?” Linta murmured.

"Whatever, I'm going to run laps."

Jingong required that he run three laps around the city wall every day.

The air was misty, the grass was damp, and the scent of fresh air filled the air.

For the first time, Linta truly experienced the environment outside the city. In the days before, he had only paid attention to his physical condition and had never realized that the early morning outside the city was like this.

Slightly moved, Lin Ta began running laps around the city.

Through these days of running through the city, Linta has become completely familiar with the terrain outside the city. After many runs, he has discovered the easiest route. He can run it even with his eyes closed.

"As expected, the physical training has been effective!"

Linta was quite pleased. This morning's run through the city, he clearly found that he was no longer out of breath or mentally exhausted.

I completed three laps before the sunlight even pierced the fog. This would be absolutely impossible on a normal day! And afterwards, I didn't feel exhausted at all.

Feeling delighted, Linta excitedly ran back into the city, eager to tell his friend Jingon.

Inside the rented blacksmith shop, the furnace burned intensely.

Jingon was casting the corresponding tools. The iron clamps placed the flattened iron sheet into the water, and instantly a series of "sizzling" sounds erupted, with billowing steam rising and hitting the dwarf's red face.

"what is this?"

Lin Ta's curious voice came from the doorway.

Kim Gong calmly said, "The material of the wrist guards for the protective gear."

"Oh." Linta nodded slightly.

Jingon continued working, showing no surprise at Linta's early arrival; it seemed everything was as expected.

“I’ve run three laps, and I didn’t slack off,” Linta explained.

Jin Gong said, "Starting tomorrow, run five laps. If you finish five laps before dawn, you can start running ten laps. If you can finish ten laps before dawn, you won't need to run anymore."

"Uh!" Lin Ta's heart skipped a beat.

Whether it's five laps or ten laps, you can grit your teeth and finish it. The problem is that you have to finish before dawn. If you have to run at the same time every day, that's ridiculously difficult!

"Not magic or other powers?" Linta asked in a low voice.

"Nonsense, what's the point of training if we're just using it?" Jin Gong said gruffly.

"Eh..." The excitement and joy were instantly extinguished, and Lin Ta felt that the days ahead would return to that unbearable suffering.

"I'll have some breakfast and then come back to move my things," Linta said dejectedly, turning to head into town to find something to eat.

As dawn breaks, the inns and taverns in the city slowly open, offering food ranging from 1 copper coin to 1 silver coin.

As Linta was about to leave, Jingon said, "Starting today, there's no need to move anything."

"Huh?" Linta frowned. "Then what?"

Jin Gong grinned, picked up a large, square sledgehammer, and shouted, "Forging iron!"