Chapter 137

Once they were sure that everyone was along for the journey, the group of five departed north from the copse of trees that they called camp. To get back onto the road, they had to cross a small creek, but that was hardly an issue. From there, it was pretty much a straight shot north until they merged back with the Queen Elizabeth highway, making navigation at this point easy. The only value that Nat saw from the maps at this point in time was to give them an idea on where all of the towns and hamlets that dotted the roads lay. After all, there was a significant lack of monsters outside the boundaries of the towns. The small complex where they fought what they were now referring to as the goblin shaman had been an outlier, but generally they felt safe from monsters out here. No, the real threat, as shown by one dumbass hick named Eugene, turned out to be their fellow man.

However, since they knew that no other settlements lay between them and Red Deer at this point, Shannon pushed everyone to train as they travelled. It was kept light enough so they would not slack on their vigil, but just barely. She had them do lunges for a while, while holding kettle weights in either hand. After that it was followed by them doing high-knees with every step. Sure, their overall travel time was hindered, but only slightly. As time went on, they kept relatively on track for what they expected to get distance wise even without the exercising. Some of the canines who had been with them longer, such as Shadow and Sol, came out and joined them in these routines. However, just as Shannon had predicted, they were unable to keep pace with everyone while doing this. They had not put the extra time into working on their shifted forms and getting adept at using them, so they were still slightly clumsy. It did not even take half-an-hour for them all to call it quits and go back to their workouts inside the Soulscape.

Nat was worried on what this would do to their morale and determination, but a simple peek into the Soulscape proved her worries were unnecessary. They were all still working hard, throwing themselves at harder and harder exercises just to get more strain on their bodies. After all, their muscles healed ridiculously fast, which was probably gave Spirit his boundless stamina and endurance. Unlike all of the others he had rarely stopped moving. There were even tales of him running in his sleep, his paws desperately trying to find something to run on as he slept on his back. The fact that he was already at this point because of all of that seemed to inspire the others.

As they went forward, they had longer breaks from Shannon's workouts compared to the day before, but they were still expected to keep walking after all. During those longer breaks, Nat worked on her understanding and growth of her energy. She had recently emptied it down to nothing quite a few times, mostly at the behest of her spartan personal trainer/wife, but it had come with unexpected benefits. At least, to her they were unexpected, as Shannon claimed to have believed that it would work that way. She had just kept it secret so as to judge whether or not there was a noticeable difference from Natalie's side. The energy itself seemed to behave as if it were a muscle. To build up muscle, you had to use it, and it would break and heal over and over. Except every time it healed, it became more and more resilient, causing the person in question to be stronger.

Finding out that Shannon had been secretly working on improving her energy filled her with mixed feelings. One the one hand, she felt used, as if she was a guinea pig being examined to see if there were any changes. On the other side, she felt amazed at the depth of Shannon's planning. Not only had she been training her lover physically, but equally all around. If it was a week prior, Nat could not have imagined being able to actually shift all of the canines at once, but now she able to do it, albeit briefly. That itself showed a great deal of personal growth. However, confirming this did have some side effects. Now knowing that her plan was fruitful and helping out, Shannon started to push everyone harder. Of course, this was after a bit of instruction was given to the wolves.

It turned out that they could manipulate the energy inside their bodies as well, except they did not generate any. Instead, they basically had a battery, and if they wanted more, then it was just as simple as heading in and out of the Soulscape. Their training was enhanced dramatically, and their breaks shortened down. Instead, they would be pushed to their limits before quickly making their way through Nat's Soulscape, recharging them for more of the work. It was grueling, especially since Nat was having her reserves emptied as fast, if not faster than her compatriots in suffering. However, her reserves were depleted then ignored until they returned to full. Shannon had reason to believe that letting it go back to full each time would be more beneficial than using it as soon as she got it. Regardless, Nat's brain did not feel like putting up any fight with her partner and just followed what she was told for the moment.

After another uneventful day of walking and exercising, the sun started setting in the west. However, it was not all sunshine and roses, as now was a massive upper body workout for another hour. This was mainly due to the fact that almost all of the training during the day was either for their lower bodies or their energy reserves. Very little focus was done for their arms and torsos, so the four 'Over-Achievers' struggled through the last bit with the last reserves of stamina they had left. Meanwhile, all of the other canines came out and were critiqued by Shannon's scathing gaze. She picked apart what each of them had done, and pointed out where they went right and where they went wrong.

All in all, the day proved fruitful. For the three canines that were outside with Nat and Shan, their time to use and manipulate energy was lengthened by a couple minutes. When they had issues doing it for more than three minutes when they started, that showed a ridiculous amount of growth. As for the ones training inside the Soulscape, Bryden showed the most personal growth. Physically, he was catching up to where Natalie was, and not at a slow pace either. Figures, the strongest carnivore would be born through tilling a field for plants.

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Selvaria, Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Jacob, Onean, Neal, Sebastian, Ethan, Sir Hellington, Adam, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!

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