Chapter 13: Defeat and Progress

For the next half a minute, Allen didn't even get a moments respite and could only block the claws coming at his way.

The pain setting in the simulation cabin is so real that tears started coming out of his eyes. In his panic, he couldn't even execute the combat skills he learned.

He wanted to use muscle coat to reduce the damage and gain a bit of time so that he could think about his next action but when he was trying to execute the skill, there was a sharp pain in his hands from the injuries left behind by the sharp claws of the white ape.

In his frustration, he could only exert all his force in his legs and jump backwards. He did a flip in mid air and readied himself for using rapid fist by stretching his hand backward.

But, the white ape followed him like a shadow. The white apes are a jungle species which are well known for their speed. They lack the strength to one shot their enemies in the same realm but they can slowly kite the enemy to death.

Allen also felt this. But, he didn't have an option. If he only concentrates on the defense, he will be slowly consumed to death anyway.

So, he wanted to trade injury for injury.

This time, when the white ape was attacking him, He ignored its claws and swung a rapid fist at it.

But, he misjudged its speed and his which was supposed to land on its head only landed on its shoulders.

To his disappointment, The ape didn't miss its target and tore a large chunk of meat near his neck.

He panicked and coupled with his struggle in breathing air, it didn't take long for the ape to land a solid hit on his head and that's it. There was nothing else.

The surroundings froze and the colors started fading away and everything became white in 2 seconds and a familiar voice greeted him.

" Hello user, your match has ended. You can restart the same scenario or select a different opponent. Please make your choice." notified the virtual assistant V-SB06.

Allen didn't make an immediate response but closed his eyes and recalled the fight again in his mind. In reality, The fight didn't go as easily as he expected. He thought that even if he couldn't defeat an opponent of the same level, he could at least fight back but the result was a crushing defeat.

He had a hard time even laying his attacks on the opponents. He made some discoveries after the fight.

Firstly, Muscle coat restricts the body movement. While using muscle coat, the muscles of a particular potion needs to be hardened.

The more strength you concentrate there, the more hard they become. But after hardening, the muscles doesn't go back to normal instantaneously. During practice, he didn't notice this time lag but during the combat with white ape, it restricted his movements a lot.

This made him realize that it is very tough for him to use muscle coat against an agile opponent with his current expertise.

Another drawback is that it takes a lot of energy to maintain it and the muscles are easily exhausted with prolonged usage. So, he couldn't use it continuously or just harden his whole body.

He could only reduce the activation time and area by using it just before the attack lacks on a particular part of the body.

Secondly, as a newbie to combat, he is seriously lacking in areas like observing the opponent and estimating the opponents rhythm. This makes it hard for him to estimate the timing of the attack and land a blow.

Finally, the flow between combat techniques. There is nothing much to say. he couldn't shift between the combat techniques as easily as expected during high profile movements.

Having said that, the previous match was not without its gains. If he did such mistakes in the wild, he would be dead a thousand times.

Now, all he had to do was concentrate on these mistakes and try to make up for them as soon as possible. That became his goal.

So, Allen decided to restart the same scenario again and started fighting the ape again and again.

Initially, he could not even hold on for a minute but after around a dozen tragic endings, he soon adapted to the opponents rhythm and could sometimes avoid the attacks at a hair's breadth and tried to counter attack now and then.

After every game, he took a minute contemplating his actions and whether he could have done better on certain aspects.

By the end of 2 hours slot, he could on for a total of 5 minutes under the brutal attack of the White ape and even injured it severely just before his death.

After the end of 2 hours, there was a loud beep and his conscience once again returned to his body and he felt a wave of exhaustion mentally. The machine and the sensors disengaged themselves and soon he was free to move again.

The cabin door was opened again and he slowly climbed onto the seat and walked out. He felt dizzy and almost lost his footing but was caught by a firm hand.

"Don't worry. As this is your first time, you will feel a mild head ache and dizziness. After you rest for a while, it will be fine." said Randal while helping Allen slowly move out of the room.

Allen could only nod and said nothing else. He slowly sat on the bench outside the room and closed his eyes. Unknowingly, he drifted into sleep.

By the time he woke up, he was near the entrance of his house. Randal brought him here in a Maglev car.

After dropping him off and checking if he was okay, Randal drove back to his home after saying goodbye.

Seeing that the lights are on and the door was not locked, Allen knew that his mother was still awake and was waiting for him.

Looking at his tired look, she was very worried and kept asking a lot of questions. After figuring out the situation and confirming that it was only a temporary exhaustion, she helped him to his bedroom and watched him go to bed.

....

The next morning after waking up, Allen felt refreshed and started following his daily routine.

Except, unlike other days, today his mother kept nagging about the affairs of yesterday's exhaustion and it took him all his effort to convince what he said was true.

Soon, another five days had gone by this way. With the help of the virtual combat, this time had been the most fulfilling period of his life.

Everyday, he could increase his strength through body refining, improve his expertise in combat techniques in the afternoon and improve his combat consciousness and application of combat techniques by fighting in the Virtual simulation cabin.

Talking about fighting, He finally defeated the white tiger on the 3rd day after achieving mastery (95%) over the Rapid fist. The thing is that the strength of the ape kept updating everyday with the increase in his strength and only after obtaining enough combat experience and improving his response time did he finally defeat it.

After defeating the ape, he kept challenging various other monsters that are commonly available in the wilderness near Agar city and kept honing himself against different kinds of opponents.

This is his current status.

"Host: Allen Mackrel ( Amos Redcloud)

Strength: 566kg ( Muscle refining, 95% absorbed)

Martial arts: Spirit suction exercise( Not initiated), Body cleansing exercise ( 86% proficiency), Enhanced body cleansing exercise (85% Proficiency), Rock fist ( Not initiated), Rapid fist (96% proficiency), Muscle coat (88% Proficiency), Balance foot (86% Proficiency).

Bloodline: Fire Bird ( weak, inactive)

Energy points : 1.1251 EP

Wealth: 4,500 rups, Grandmaster level virtual experience card (80/100),Void eater bloodline( cannot be refined)."

He had almost completed the transformation of his muscles and in the next session during the night, he should be able to complete the muscle refining and start the bone refining process.

As it's weekend today, Allen had nothing to do and decided to go to the city hunter's office. He had to apply for the certificate of a hunter so that he could go and hunt outside the city.

His strength had already exceeded the 500kg limit set the city government even though he is still in the muscle refining realm. It's not like the city government cares about your realm. They only care whether a person can display 500kg of strength.

After all, some people like to hide their strength for various reasons and the government can't be unreasonable and ask them to reveal everything about them if they want to hunt.

After having breakfast, with an excuse of going out to meet a friend, Allen slipped out of his house.

After booking a land taxi, he went to the city hunter's office. It took him around 10 minutes to reach the city hunter's office.