We spent the next three hours in the gym doing all sorts of exercises, enhancing our physiques as much as possible while also channeling Mana and letting it travel across our bodies to increase their power and at the same time, buff our own Magic Circles as well.

Jenny was dying most of the time, she was in terrible shape, even some plus sized people around the gym that came to lose some weight were doing much better than her… She was a bit embarrassing.

“Uuugghhh… Geeehhh… Hahhhh… N-No more… please… Urgh…” Jenny was gasping for air, her entire body covered on sweat, her pale skin had become completely red as her face looked almost as if it was melting.

“Gosh, you’re in really bad shape, girl.” I sighed. “Well, let’s go take a shower and get going to Lily’s house. Let’s have something to eat there too before going for lunch at home.”

“Okaaayy… F-Finally… You set me free from this torture…” Jenny dragged herself to the bathroom where we took a quick bath before regrouping with Mark in the entrance.

However, we found out he was suddenly surrounded by a lot of other new gym bros, that weren’t the nice type, most of them were annoying thugs that came to the gym just to pick up girls and barely exercised.

“Can’t you introduce us to some of the chicks you get along, bro? You literally are stealing them all, man.”

“Yeah, what the heck dude?”

“They’re only my girlfriend’s friends and my coworkers.” Mark sighed. “Sorry but I doubt they’ll ever want to get along with guys like you anyways.”

“What did you said, shithead?”

“You think you’re tough because you go to the gym?”

“We can beat the shit out of you any time!”

“I don’t think that people so confident of themselves would ever say things like those out loud.” Mark sighed. “I’m going now, take care.”

“Wait a bit you piece of shit!”

One of the three guys suddenly grabbed Mark’s arm, trying to drag him back.

However, Mark quickly grabbed his arm back and twisted it behind his back so fast the thug was shocked, screaming loudly.

“Aarrrggh! W-What the fuck?!”

The other two thugs quickly tried to hit him in the face, but Mark simply placed their friend in front, lifting him off the ground, the punches ended landing on his face instead…

“Argh! W-What the fuck you shitheads?! Let me go!”

“Sure, you can go.”

Mark quickly threw the guy into the floor and then gave him a kick in the back, throwing him away into an alleyway. The other two thugs were so scared over his own strength that their legs began to tremble.

“T-This guy’s not human…”

“A-An awakened?! F-Fuck!”

The two quickly ran away, while the third one that Mark threw away ran as fast as possible without even looking back…

Whew, I can’t say that was a good thing, but it was still pretty damn cool!

“Mark! What happened?” I ran to his side with my friends.

“Oh? You’re out.” He smiled gently. “Ah? Just some weird guys that tried to assault me, I threw me away. People always says that Canada’s crime free, but there’s always thugs like these anywhere.”

“Hahh… Just please don’t get involved in fights, even less street fights!” I said. “Don’t abuse your strength against powerless people. I almost pity the idiots…”

“Hahaha, sorry about that. Next time I’ll just walk away if that’s reassuring for you.” He sighed. “I just got… a bit annoyed, they wanted to hook up with your friends, and you, and they were really nasty. I hate the kind of guys that just treat women like an object they want to possess… Reminds me of the asshole of my father.”

“A-Ah, I see… Sorry if I ended bringing some bad memories.” I said. “Let’s talk about that later if you want.”

“Sure.” He sighed, giving me a gentle yet tired-looking smile.

“Elayne why are you being such a drama queen? There’s thugs everywhere nowadays! He did a good job! If some thug comes to you, you beat the shit out of them and then you show them the Glock when they threaten you! That’s what my husband taught me.” Rita nodded. “Nicely done, I didn’t thought you were that type of guy, Mark, I guess I can leave Elayne to you without worrying.”

“Hahaha, it was kind of cool~” Lily giggled. “Thankfully the young lads I meet up with are all decent men. I would never get along with those thugs.”

“Damn boss, didn’t thought you had it in you.” Jenny joked about it. “Anyways, can we go now?! I want to get these damn magic powers asap! I want to zap some bastards!”

“No Jenny, you can’t use them on people, try to just keep them for monsters, alright?” I asked her. “If you ever do something bad with them…”

“I-I was just joking! I’m a good girl.” She sighed, crossing her arms. “Geez, are you a bit tense today, Elayne?”

“M-Maybe…” I sighed.

I guess she wasn’t wrong, I’ve been thinking about a lot of things, which makes me feel a bit anxious and nervous… But I should just unwind eating some ice cream on Lily’s house.

“Well! Let’s go to my home, I’ve got some ice cream for everyone!” Lily seemed to have read my mind or something.

“Sorry about that again…” Mark apologized once more. “I didn’t thought things through too much.”

“Well, it’s fine~” I sighed. “You were kind of cool… But don’t let that get into your head, alright?”

“Hahaha, alright.” Mark laughed along with me.

We made our way back to Lily’s house on his car, and then while having ice cream, we quickly prepared everything for Jenny. By now, the lazy Great Spirit had finally woken up from her slumber, and while yawning, she helped me out on building the magic circle and everything, while trying to use materials compatible with Jenny.

We decided to buy some compatible materials on this world’s magic item and materials shop, using a few thousands of dollars I didn’t mind spending, and then some from Arcadia.

FLAAASH!

“Uwaaaah! W-What with this power?!”

Lily was left flabbergasted once she awakened a Magic Circle.