Chapter 59: Restricted Class At The Gym

Later that day, Ethan made dinner much to Lila’s delight.

She sat cross-legged on the couch with a bowl in both hands, her expression openly offended by how long she had been denied this reality.

Ethan ate more slowly. His legs still reminded him of Coach Merrick’s court every time he shifted.

"I missed this," Lila said with a mouthful. "Cafeteria seasoning tried to kill me. Your cooking is a remedy for real."

"It’s barely been a day..."

"Barely." She pointed her fork at him. "If you ever suggest that place again, I’m burning your clothes off."

Ethan huffed and rolled his eyes. Then he opened the system.

```

[Name: Ethan Shaw]

[Age: 19]

[Awakened Class: Necromancer]

[Rank: E]

[Level: 5]

[EXP: 32 / 700]

[Death Energy: 700/700]

[Control Capacity: 54]

[Undead Storage: Available]

[Stored Undead:]

- Basic Undead (Beowolf) — Rank E [Bef]

- Basic Undead (Beowolf) — Rank E [X2]

- Rank C Undead (Blood Raven)

[Skills:]

- Raise Undead

- Death Sense

- Command Undead

- Death Link

[Undead Legion: 3/54]

```

Thirty-two....

He stared at the number for a second. Before PE it had been twelve. The gym block had thrown him +20 EXP without him using corpses. Just sweat and the desperate need to stay alive.

He looked at it a second longer. Body training also fed the system.

The realization made him happy and uncomfortable at the same time.

He was glad, sure enough that meant he could also level up without repeating the same string of commands over and over again. He was also already dreading the obvious consequence: if physical work also paid EXP, then the correct move was to go back into that hell on purpose.

Lila watched him. "You look like you found money and a death sentence in the same pocket."

Ethan chuckled nervously. "Something like that."

***

He left the next morning when the dorms were still half dark...

Lila was asleep when he left, her face buried in the pillow, and one arm thrown across the space he had occupied.

Ethan just woke up and left. If he woke her, she would want to come. And the first session needed to be about his body failing without an audience who would make fun of him later.

The gym annex was open with its lights on in a single strip over the main floor. The place was quiet and empty, just what he needed.

Ethan called Bef out of Storage.

The Beowolf formed from shadow in a low, silent rush, its green eyes catching the gym light as the link settled. Under any other circumstance, Bef played pet for Lila.

Now he was going to be used as a tool.

"Ten laps" Ethan ordered under his breath. "Inside lane. Go at a speed I can almost hold."

Bef raced ahead and Ethan followed after it.

The first lap was ugly— residual PE fatigue from the previous day layered over the burning pain in his legs.

Bef kept a steady rhythm, same speed, never stopping. A pace that Ethan could only hate and chase.

By the third lap his lungs were already filing a formal complaint. By the fifth, his legs burned.

He didn’t sprint, but Merrick’s warning about dying on lap five sat in his ears louder than he wanted to admit.

He cut the run at eight laps before his form fully collapsed, walked the remaining two, then forced a set of bodyweight squats and planks on the mat until his arms shook.

Bef watched, then lowered its head in shame.

"What’re you looking at, huh?" Ethan said with a dying voice.

If he could read Bef’s mind, he would see how ashamed the beast was of its master.

```

[EXP: +16]

```

Small, honest, enough to confirm the night before had not been a fluke.

He was mid-water break with sweat tracking down his spine, when the side door opened.

Coach Merrick stepped in with a duffel and the same blunt expression he carried in class. He saw Ethan, then Bef sitting neatly at the lane edge and stopped.

For a second the man looked genuinely surprised.

"Shaw."

Ethan removed the water bottle from his mouth. "Coach."

Merrick’s eyes went from Ethan’s wrecked breathing to the Beowolf. "Didn’t think you’d show."

"You were right." Ethan capped the bottle, though his voice was steadier than his legs felt. "Battle power doesn’t matter if my body folds first. I need it strong enough to keep up."

Merrick studied him for a long moment, then grunted as if a box had been checked. He seemed pleased at the answer...

"Then stop training like a guilty man in the dark." He dropped the duffel by the office door. "Legs and lungs first. Core every session. Two hard days, one easier day. Sleep and protein matter as well. If you puke, you went too far too early. If you never hate a session, you’re not working."

Ethan nodded. Those were the kind of instructions gym coaches gave in his old life.

Merrick pulled a thin pass card from the office clipboard and tossed it to him.

"Annex access outside standard class hours," Merrick said. "Staff gym hours included, as long as you don’t get in a third-year’s way and you put decent work in."

Ethan looked at the card, then back up. "...Why—"

"Why am I treating you like a human being? It’s simple. I don’t care about restricted class bullshit. I care if you collapse in a dungeon because you can raise a corpse but can’t carry your own body through a corridor. You showed up at dawn after I called you dead weight in front of your year. That’s enough for me to want to help you. Don’t make it sentimental."

Ethan slid the card into his pocket.

"Thanks coach."

"Good." Merrick turned his chin to the lane. "Then get moving. You’ve got twenty minutes before the next group comes in. Use them."

Ethan sent Bef forward again, and forced his sore legs back into motion. The system’s quiet EXP tick was a secondary reward. The primary one was harder:

Getting his body into peak condition.