Chapitre 28: Within the gravity chambers

How did it feel?

It was as if he were trapped beneath an immense weight, though that might not fully capture it.

A better analogy would be wading through thick water, weighed down by a vest that constricted his chest, making each breath a laborious effort.

It was like navigating a deep sea, with a rope tied around his waist and unseen hands dragging him back, thwarting any attempt to move forward.

Every step was a struggle, akin to a tug-of-war against invisible forces pulling him down.

In this gravity room, every motion was a struggle, transforming simple actions into a near-impossible feat.

Within the gravity room, it was hellish.

There were dummies programmed with certain movements, their every movement enlightening.

What did this mean?...

"Anon, you have a grace-related principle."

Rolan had said to him, "Your whole body is your weapon. But that doesn't mean you should fight unarmed."

Currently, he had on a pair of black gauntlets that were slim fitting.

The fingers were shaped into long and sharp claws.

More noticeably, his footwear wasn't exactly footwear.

Wrapped around his ankle and foot's midsection was some type of bandage that exposed his heels and toes.

Carefully attached to his toes were specially made talon-like items.

Seth had joked, "Oh, that looks cute on you," his smile not quite matching the emotions that flashed through his eyes

Anon evaded one of the practice dummies that slashed at him.

He nodded and smiled.

Every attack, defense, and in general, their very way of moving, all showed the secrets of the grace-related martial art that Rolan prescribed for him; Man Like Beast.

Normally, he'd be like Andrew and Melissa, currently learning the basics of martial arts, but his earlier spar showcased a level of combating ability that graduated whatever the stage of a novice was, in Rolan's mind.

Each practice dummy executed a precise set of movements, with footfalls measured in distance and angles, creating a challenging rhythm.

Adopting their movements was the first goal Anon needed to achieve.

Thankfully, he was able to bring the dummies to a stop and acquire close-up replays via a holographic screen.

He could even magnify any frame up to a thousandth fold whilst also using this technology to record his own attempt and then compare.

There was an artificial intelligence which gave tips if he still couldn't figure it out in an allotted time.

Soon, he quickly mastered the art of movement, highlighting the importance of one's learning ability, as some would take days to achieve the same skill.

But that was just movement.

Merging attacking and defending with his movements in a way that was seamless rather than awkward was many times more difficult.

After all, if he simply attacked as he wished or dodged and defended as he pleased, it would be impossible to transition into the Man Like Beast movements.

Mastering this combat art was making the technique, Man Like Beast, his own style of doing things, basing all his actions and movements around it.

During the height of his exhaustion, the several dummies moved only using the Man Like Beast technique, and encircled him, leading him on by the nose, forcing him to also move that way.

It was just instinctive to dodge their attacks, but unknowingly, because of the location of their attack, it forced him to evade and twist his body in accordance with the Man Like Beast art.

When mastering a technique, it was all about repetition, and ingraining this technique into one's muscles, aka, muscle memory.

When it became muscle memory, it transformed into instinct.

Even when caught by surprise, a person's first instinct would be to dodge and twist their body, following the principles of the Man Like Beast art.

Even in his exhaustion, the dummies pushed Anon to adapt, guiding his movements.

As of now, he didn't have another martial art ingrained in his muscles. However, if he did, even with the dummies moving as they were, his muscle memory would instinctively guide him to dodge according to the teachings of that martial art.

He'd have been in for a much more difficult time.

Even when the dummies guided him by intentionally leaving an opening for him to dodge, he would instinctively evade in a different direction due to the martial art ingrained in his muscles.

Obviously, this was only if he was extremely exhausted and unable to think clearly. More than that, it would reveal his lack of true mastery over the martial art.

Engraving it into one's muscles is the most basic form of mastering a technique.

Evading and dodging into the only available space, whilst maintaining the movement of a technique; this was true mastery.

Anon's training continued.

Because they did not seem to be affected by the gravity within the rooms, and were greater in numbers, they were quite troublesome.

But this was intentional, and it allowed true geniuses to adapt faster to a new martial art.

While this was the case, bringing forth an unforgiving and tormenting session of training, it was even more hellish for Andrew and Melissa, with them not being stellar fighters, though the gravity wasn't as high, it felt even more suppressive to them.

With Andrew's strong body, it hinted at a wide range of paths that utilized many weapons.

In the first hour within the gravity chamber, Andrew fought the dummies bare as they led and guided him, instilling the basics of martial arts.

Thereafter, he was forced to continue fighting, this time, with a detachable long spear and shield.

After forty minutes, Rolan ruthlessly had him spend another forty minutes practicing the basics of dual wielding.

Dual wielding spanned from short spears, to swords, sabers, blades, axes, and more.

Especially for Andrew whose body hinted at having affinity for a more overbearing style of combat like sabers and axes…

Whilst these classes, solely for him, continued, after the first hour and a half, the awakened students had finished their martial art training and began meditating within the gravity chamber.

This was Anon's goal when revealing that he was already a stellar fighter.

Within the gravity room, amidst meditation, sensing stellar cosmic energy was much more difficult.

More than that, commanding stellar cosmic energies became torturous.

In here, cultivating brought a greater strain to Anon's spirit, preventing him from achieving as many tasks simultaneously as he'd normally be capable of accomplishing in the outside world.

But due to this, one's rate of cultivation would be improved depending on how strain the spirit would experience.

As previously said, when a spirit was recovering, stellar cosmic energies would be drawn to it and nurture the spirit.

One must understand that during meditation, it is not possible to command stellar cosmic energy; instead, the energy is drawn to the spirit, seeping in and nurturing it willingly.

The more stellar cosmic energy one could usually command, the more it would rush to nurture their spirit during recovery via meditation.

Due to this, gravity didn't affect the process of recovery.

Since one's spirit becomes exhausted more quickly, leading to a state of recovery more often than during cultivation in the outside world, the gravity room was akin to a glitch in the system, enabling a faster rate of cultivation.

Even within the gravity chamber, Anon's will could command three groups of stellar cosmic energy to move in three different directions.

Though this was a simpler exercise, the ability to perform three tasks simultaneously suggested that, if he were in the outside world and unrestrained by the chamber's gravity, he was very close to completing four complex tasks at once.

And yet, when it came to a bottleneck in cultivation, what did 'very close' really mean?

Very close could mean days, weeks, months, or even years.

Anon subconsciously felt that it'd take him a year or two without any help whatsoever, so that was without any gravity chamber, magic ritual, or any type of treasure.

Finally, one may ask whether practicing like this would expose his current stage.

After all, an above-average newly awakened stellar fighter could barely manage two complex tasks, yet his training indicated he could perform four simple tasks simultaneously.

And one would be correct.

From inside, if Parkinson and/or Rolan was watching, observing through the 'eyes' of their will, then they'd 'see' this.

Naturally, even if the gravity chamber recorded everything that happened within, one couldn't send their will into the recording to investigate.

Since stellar cosmic energies were typically invisible to the naked eye, the strength of Anon's spirit would remain a mystery.