Chapter 12: Combat training

He followed his instincts and using his experience in practicing Rock fist, made slight changes in the rapid fist.

He could feel that there was an increase in strength but the speed of the fist is reduced.

'Seems like I thought too highly of myself. It's better to honestly practice now. These trials can wait for the future after I have gained some expertise.' Allen thought to himself.

In this way, Allen started training his combat exercises for the first time. He took breaks in regular intervals so as to not to overly constraint his muscles and occasionally shifted to the other two exercises.

When was not clear about certain things, he would either approach his friend Randal or his instructor Alkom. He spent all the afternoon practicing and made significant improvements.

By the end of the day, his status looked like this:

"Host: Allen Mackrel ( Amos Redcloud)

Strength: 297kg ( Muscle refining, 7% absorbed)

Martial arts: Spirit suction exercise( Not initiated), Body cleansing exercise ( 86% proficiency), Enhanced body cleansing exercise (84% entry level), Rock fist ( Not initiated), Rapid fist (88% proficiency), Muscle coat (75% entry level), Balance foot (75% entry level).

Bloodline: Fire Bird ( weak, inactive)

Energy points : 1.1251 EP

Wealth: 5,000 rups, Grandmaster level virtual experience card (90/100),Void eater bloodline( cannot be refined)."

'As expected, flawless grade points really did wonders to my body.' Allen thought to himself.

Previously, if he tried to control a certain part of his body, he would have some trouble achieving the desired effect. The flawless grade potion, in addition to cleansing his body, had improved the overall compatibility between his various body parts.

It's as if the nervous system is custom designed with his musculature. just like pairing a perfect software and hardware to produce a perfect computer.

His body responds excellently to his commands. Though it is not to the level of controlling each muscle perfectly, he could feel his improve in control every time he stimulated his muscles.

He noticed how big an advantage this is while practicing the combat skills. He had confidence that just with some hard work and training, he could rapidly increase his expertise and even reach Grandmaster level in them.

Looking at the setting sun, Allen left the high school in a bright mood while pedaling his bicycle.

...

Soon, a day passed in training and it was the time to meet Randal at the Giant eye consortium.

During this time, Allen kept himself busy by practicing the Body refining and combat training.

The 3 sessions of muscle refining had contributed more than 80kg to his strength and he also made significant progress in the combat exercises.

In his status panel. the three exercises became Rapid fist (90% proficiency), Muscle coat (84% entry level), Balance foot (84% entry level) from Rapid fist (88% proficiency), Muscle coat (75% entry level), Balance foot (75% entry level).

As low leveled exercises, even though they aren't much, they are the only ones he could rely on right now. He also hoped that after obtaining enough energy points, he could perfect them or evolve them using the system if the cost is not high.

...

The Giant eye consortium is located in the most prosperous street in the Agar city, The beach road.

Agar city is bordered by wilderness in the south and an ocean in the east. Though the waters are shallow and the coastline extends only along a distance of 10 Kilometers, The monsters in the ocean are of myriad species and it is tough to estimate their danger level.

So, the coastline is bordered by various organizations according to the government regulations and will act as the second line of defense in conjunction with the border security. In the same way, the wilderness border is taken over by the military and other powerful organizations.

It took Allen a journey of 30 minutes through road taxi. He could have shortened the time by taking a Maglev taxi but in order to save his already thinning wallet, he could only opt for the road taxi.

The Giant eye consortium is a big building occupying a 100mX50m building. The gate itself spans around 10m and is as high as 10m truly making it a Giant gate. There is a Giant eye projected on the giant gate which gives anyone a feeling of being watched while standing in front of it.

Looking at the time it was about 7:45PM. As he was early by 15 minutes, Allen started observing his surroundings while waiting for Randal.

The first thing that attracted his attention was not the Giant buildings in his surrounds but the beautiful ocean with faint moonlight shining on it. Though he was nearly half a kilometer away from the ocean, he could clearly see the blue horizon in the faint moonlight.

It was said that the oceans are far more dangerous that the wilderness and there are some terrifying existences that even the peak powerhouses of the world are unwilling to confront.

Thinking about these things while enjoying the cool ocean breeze, soon 10 minutes passed and suddenly there was a Maglev car with the logo of a Giant eye printed on it that came to stop beside him.

Randal stepped out of it and soon after the pleasantries, they started walking towards the gate. After a 2 minute security check and some explanation about his identity, they went into the consortium.

Almost every item in the consortium screamed money and high-tech at Allen and he felt like a country bumpkin visiting a spaceship.

After a 2 minute walk through numerous gates and corridors, soon they stepped into a large room with thick walls located in the basement of the consortium.

There were around a dozen cylindrical pods that looked like electronic coffins neatly arranged in the room. Each of them is marked with a serial number and almost all of them are closed except number 06 and number 10.

Beside one of the cabins, he could even see an electronic screen displaying a person locked in combat with a 3m tall ape in a jungle. The ape is very violent and is attacking recklessly while the person could only dodge and could not fight back at all.

" All right, Allen! Get into Virtual simulation cabin number 06. you have 2 hours to hone your combat. I hope you will make good use of it." said Randal while walking towards cabin number 06.

Allen hurriedly followed him.

Following his instruction, he soon got into the virtual cabin and with a series of clicks, he was soon fixed to the machine with numerous sensors to take his data and his head was covered with a weird helmet.

10 seconds after he got into the machine, he lost his consciousness and he appeared in a room with nothing but white walls.

Suddenly there was a sound, "Hello user, this is your virtual assistant, V-SB06. Requesting you to select the opponent and combat arena so that you can start the virtual combat."

With that, there was a virtual pop up screen from which he could select his opponent and combat arena. There were a variety of selections which refreshed his view.

Though he was surprised at the novelty, he didn't want to waste his precious 2 hours and opted for jungle combat and random opponent based upon his data.

Surprisingly, he was tagged with a white ape which looked similar to the one which he just viewed in the other screen but only a little smaller than that.

After choosing to start the combat, there was a countdown of 10 seconds and the surroundings slowly started changing from a white room to that of jungle.

In front of him, there was a white ape the size of 2 meters. It was jumping on its 4 limbs and its movements are fast. Its jumping from trees that are more than 10 meters tall and disappears from his view between the branches in the blink of an eye.

Allen took a deep breath to calm down the nervousness and started paying attention to its every move.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of branches behind him and awkwardly ducked down and rolled sideward.

Just as he got down, there was a white flash and the ape appeared at its previous position while swinging his fists at the ground.

Seeing that it missed its target, it started snarling at him with its yellowed teeth and started thumping its chest as if to intimidate him.

To be frank, Allen was really intimidated. but after remembering that this is a virtual simulation, he got back his courage and shouted back at the ape like a caveman as if to cover his embarrassment.

This angered the ape and he threw himself at Allen and swiped its claws at his torso. Allen could only raise both of his hands like a cross guard in a hurry and the claw landed on his hands.

The impact made him stumble on his feet and by the time he got back to senses, there was another claw already waiting for him.

Helplessly, he could only raise his injured hands again.