“This type of training will be called warm-ups, and they must be done before every session every morning!”
Rick then went to show all the Goblins present a few short and simple stretches while doing his best to explain that the purpose of said stretches was to loosen up the muscles within their bodies.
That then led to the squad captains, Jaba, and of course, all the unevolved Goblins, wondering what muscles were.
Rick was forced to pause his little demonstration to begin another long period of explanation, but this time regarding Goblin biology.
Rick only knew about the basics when it came to human biology, so he was completely clueless about the anatomy of Goblins.
‘Velora, do you know anything about the insides of a Goblin?’
[I have no information regarding the anatomy of any creature. Perhaps opening up a willing Goblin will provide more information.]
‘What the hell do you mean, a willing Goblin?!
‘Do you think anyone is just open to dying for the sole reason of being cut open for research?’
[I suppose an unwilling Goblin will work just as well.]
‘You're no help at all sometimes! Wanting me to murder Goblins all willy-nilly!’
[Knowledge is important.]
‘Whatever you say. I just have to wing it like always.’
“Alright, so you all don’t need to worry about this whole muscle thing just yet, but I’ll explain it a little to give you guys a rough idea of just what we are working on.
“So, everyone and everything has muscles. All of us here, the Horned Rabbits we kill and eat, and almost every creature you will see once we venture out deeper into the forests and world.
“The muscles are under our skin, and it's what we use to move our body parts around when we do anything. Training, fighting, cooking, muscles are a part of it all.
“The best thing about muscles though is that we can train them to get stronger, much, much stronger.
“But although muscles can get stronger, we still have to take care of them like you do with your weapon. Doing all those stretches I showed you every morning will help to keep your muscles in the best condition possible at all times, so make sure to do it.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Now there’s a bunch of other stuff we can do to take care of our muscles but just worry about stretching for now. I’ll teach you all about that stuff later.
“Are there any questions so far?”
“Yes, so has the training we’ve been doing so far been useless?”
“Good question Jaba, but no. The training you’ve been doing so far is very important and we won’t stop. We’ll only improve on it.
“This type of training helps to improve a specific thing to do with our muscles, called muscle memory.
“That just means our muscles and our entire body will remember the movements that we practice a lot, so everything we do in training will become a lot easier to do in an actual fight.
“I’m sure you all have probably already noticed that, but does that answer your question, Jaba?”
“Yes it does, but I have one more. If those stretches you showed us earlier are for keeping our muscles in good condition, are there different ones to strengthen our muscles?”
[It is now 1400. By the way, I hope you are paying attention to your own explanation about training.]
‘You hate me, don’t you?’
[Of course not.]
‘So, you say.’
“To answer your question, yes, there are others. It’s the ones I asked you about before all this. Push-ups and sit-ups are just two of a whole bunch of other types of things we can do, but we’ll start off on just those two for now.
“If there are no other questions, then I can show everyone exactly how to do them and we can begin a small training session with them before you guys go hunting for rabbits.”
- ??
After going through another headache-inducing explanation for all the Goblins, coupled with some ridiculing from Velora, Rick began his workout demonstrations once again.
He did his very best to maintain proper form during his push-ups and not forget to emphasize the need to keep their body in a straight line all the way through.
Rick made sure to tell them to go all the way down without touching the ground and then to go all the way back up.
Though the whole going all the way down thing was a little challenging for the unevolved Goblins because of their potbellies.
Next, he showed them how to do a proper sit-up with the help of Jaba holding his feet down. This one was much easier for the Goblins to replicate.
Once Rick finished giving his demonstrations, the Goblins all gave the workouts a try, while he was there to point out any mistakes in their form and help whenever needed.
Jaba and the squad captains picked up on it as fast as you’d expect, and Geedi even went as far as doing push-ups till she couldn’t move her arms.
Her determination and drive seemed to know no bounds.
Rick was a little worried about seeing that for his own particular reasons, but in the end, he used her as an example for the others to know when to stop and take a break.
The unevolved Goblins needed a lot more attention from Rick while doing the workouts, especially the push-ups, mainly due to proper form.
Of course, Rick was very helpful during the process, and it didn’t take long for every Goblin present to get used to the different workouts.
Rick also reminded the squad captains to relay the information to the four Goblins on guard duty.
It was a very productive experience for both Rick and all the other Goblins, including Jaba and the three squad captains.
Of course, Velora reminded Rick just how much of a productive experience it was.
Much to Ricks’ dismay, of course.
Once the Goblins finished getting used to the workouts, they all set off as one sizeable group to go hunt in the nearby forests for the seemingly never-ending supply of Horned Rabbits.
They were probably one of the few creatures who grew faster than Goblins.
Rick was the only who stayed behind, while Jaba himself went out with them to supervise. Only one of them was truly needed for that.
Rick then went back inside the cave to do some research into the Earth Golem corpses and to take a look at a couple of unevolved Goblin statuses.
It was forever a busy road on the way to a Goblin empire for Rick and his Tribe.