18 Chapter 18- Flex until it's a Second Nature

The sun had just set and the sky was already dark. On a big ground with patchy grass, Oliver was sitting crossed-legged.

While sitting barechested his eyes were closed, while there was a big frown on his forehead. Sweat was continuously powring down his body as he twitched time and time again.

"You need to focus. Focus on every single fiber of muscle. Control them, use them to your liking. Don't let your body control you, control your body instead. Only when you are able to use every single muscle to your obedience, will your body truly be under your control."

This was the first day or more accurately the night when Olson started teaching him how to use weapons. But when they come to the backyard Olson instructed him to keep his sword away and to sit bare-chested again.

He told Oliver that the first thing before mastering a weapon is mastering one's own body. Only when you can master your body, will it bring out your full potential.

So he told him to concentrate, on every single muscle one by one and try to contract and expand it 'manually'. Instead of subconsciously moving his muscles, he should be able to move his muscles to their full extend consciously.

At first, Oliver thought this to be bullshit after all who could do something like that. But only when Olson showed Oliver, by moving each muscle individually, even the ones that are not usually used in daily activity, did he admit that as crazy it sounds, it was true.

"Don't try to run before you can even crawl. Start will the muscles that are easy to use. Start with your Biceps Brachii, Brachialis, and Brachioradialis. These are the upper arm muscles used to flex your arm at the elbow. Try to slowly take control of them one at a time. And try to contact them individually."

Olson explained while pointing at the muscles that joined from the shoulder to the elbow joint and a couple of different areas around the joint.

Oliver slowly started to contract the Biceps Brachii. He first tried to feel the muscle from over the skin. Only when he got a general idea did he started to slowly contract it.

Centimetre by centimetre, inch by inch, he put all his attention into trying to contract the muscle. But then suddenly...

"aaah" Oliver grunted and extended his arm in pain. This was the main reason for him twitching over and over again while practising body control.

Whenever when started to make any progress his muscles would cramp up and he had to extend his arm to ease the pain from the cramp.

"It's just some pain don't be a sissy. After all, these are the major muscles that we use all the time. If you get scared just from this much, I say you should forget about being a body cultivator."

Every time Oliver stretched his arm due to the cramp Olson would say something similar to this. But Oliver knew that the path in front of him was much harder than this so he would not take what Olson say to his heart. But that didn't prevent him from becoming angry.

' Fuck, if I don't contract my muscle in the next 15 minutes this old man will chew my brain off with his constant bullshit..... Fuck it, I will just power through the pain, and then let's see what happens.'

{Oliver I think that you also need a better visualization of where and which muscle is it exactly that you need to contract.}

'Listening to you, you must have a solution?'

{Yes, I can just control the motor nerves that supply stimulus to biceps brachii muscle by passing an electric current through it. I will also make it strong enough so that you are able to feel the exact anatomical positioning of the muscle.}

{But a warning that this will cause your muscle to contract instantaneously and will lead to a cram which will cause much more pain than previous cramps.}

'It's fine, do it.'

As soon as he said that, his arm jerked at the elbow and got cramped. But it didn't fully flex, as only one muscle was used to flex.

'aah, keep it going for 3 more seconds. I need to get familiar with the positioning and length of the muscle.'

{1}

{2}

{3}

After 3 seconds Oliver's arm went back in a relaxed supine position.

He took a deep breath and tried to remember the exact location of the muscle. Only after a minute did he open his eyes again and started to contract the muscle again.

Getting a clear picture of the exact muscle did help him a lot as this time he contracted it much faster.

After a certain point, the muscle cramped again but he kept pushing through the pain until the muscle was fully contracted.

Then he slowly started relaxing the muscle till he was back to the original position.

He kept repeating the same exercise and each time it became easier. Each time there would be lesser pain and a smaller cram.

Only after 8 minutes later did he stop when he was fully capable of controlling his biceps brachii.

" Hmmm good, it seems that you are fully able to control your biceps brachii now. Then move to your next muscle, Brachialis. We will only stop when you are able to control all the muscles at least once in your both arms."

Oliver just nodded and started practising the next muscle obviously with the help of Arthur. Even though most of the work was done by him but Arthur prevented all the time that would have been wasted finding the right muscle through the method of trial and error.

Two hours later you could see Oliver still sitting barechested in the centre of the backyard. And Olson standing right over his head monitoring every move he made.

Although Oliver still had a tense look on his face but he did not spasm like before.

Off and on you could see his thumb jerk towards the base of his smallest finger and then after a second's pause slowly go back to its original position.

After a minute of jerking back and forth of the thumb, the movement became much smother till it seemed natural in the end.

" That was the last muscle of the hand Opponens Pollicis. This completes the upper limb. Tomorrow we will do the lower limb muscles."

"In the next five days we will take a part of the body... the lower limb, the chest and back, the abdomen and pelvis, and the head and neck in the last and practice the muscle control of each. Only after the fifth day will we start mixing up the contractions of different parts and muscles to create a fluid motion of the body. That will last for at least two weeks until it becomes second nature to you. You need to practice body control till you move your body consciously and fluidly."

"Yes, master," Oliver replied in understanding. As much Olson pissed him off sometimes, he always knew that he had good in his heart for Oliver. So never did he take anything Olson said to offend him seriously. In fact, he deeply respected him for how much he was doing for him.

"Go now have a hot bath and soak your arms in hot water before you go to sleep. Hot water will help your muscles relax and prevent excessive lactic acid to build up in your body."

"And remember to practice muscle contractions as much as you can tomorrow. Except when you are practising the Supreme way of Shiv of course. That will only distract you from doing either of the things."

"Hmm, good night master."

"Good night Oliver."

............................(Transitioning).............................

And this is how Oliver's days went. In the morning he used to cultivate after which in the afternoon he used to study all kinds of things from Olson and in the night he used to practice body control.

But Oliver even tried to maximize the time in between as well. You could see different muscles slithering, contracting and relaxing continuously when he was doing other things. Like when he was talking a shit his arm muscles and chest muscles and especially his abdominal muscles would contract and relax. This not only helped with body control but also helped his bowel.

When one day Olson got surprised to see Oliver's progress, he asked him how he was practising. To which Oliver replied in all his honesty about how he had been multi-tasking.

"Hmm good, you have already started putting it in practice. Keep it up maybe we can move on to the next part of your training faster than I planned," said Olson with an impressed expression.

Days went by and Olive had finally completed his body control.

Only after making sure that Oliver had all the things natural to him did Olson decided to move on. Although Oliver would slip up here and there sometimes, even Olson knew that these errors would only be removed with time and lots of practice and conscious attempts.

After around 3 weeks of the start of body control practice did Olson finally allowed Oliver to start his weapons practice.

When Oliver was about to go to his room to pick up his sword did Olson threw a whip to Oliver.

Oliver caught the whip and observed the dark whip which was around 5 feet in length in a daze. He noted that the tip of the whip was a bright silver blade that matched the metal handle perfectly.

Oliver looked to Olson with a confused look.

"Tell me Oliver why do you use a sword?"

Oliver got even more confused by the question, but after a second of thinking he replied

"I think swords are easy to use and they are good for cutting and stabbing."

"Yes that's is right but how do you know that a sword is the most suited weapon for you?"

This time he took a long time to think about it but came up with no answers.

" Well, it's fine. From now on try every weapon you can get your hands on. Use it till you have at least a basic mastery of using that weapon and then move on to the next weapon. Try all common and exotic weapons."

"Don't worry you will get everything you need here after all we are blacksmiths."

"In the end, not only it will help you to be able to use any kind of weapon in extreme situations, but it will also help in finding out which weapon is it that suits you the most."

"From today onwards you try each weapon we have in our stores. Use that whip then try a spear then try a bow then try gauntlets. Practice everything till you are satisfied, only then we will move on to the next phase of weapons training."

"OSS!!" yelled Oliver with enthusiasm.