Small Scale Training

Julian arrived inside a wide and empty white room, surrounded by nothing but walls and ceiling.

"This is the training room.", Intellus' body appeared beside him. Julian tried to look for Avina-2 but Intellus interjected, "If the successor is looking for that little robot, I have sent it to do something else."

"Oh, okay then.", Julian answered blankly, "This is where I internalize my newfound strength?"

"Correct.", Intellus's eyes blinked and a dummy robot with a similar body to him appeared not far away from where they were standing, "To start off, the successor will have to initiate combat against this dummy robot. Be careful as it can be quite challenging to fight against it."

The information of the dummy robot appeared on Julian's VNI. He was amazed by the extensive capability of this dummy robot based on its material composition.

AR-CD-199. A Tier 1 Generation 99 automated robot designed for combat specialization, under the training subclass. Created from a combination of darksteel alloy, an unidentified material called 'living metal', magnetic ostrium, and a lot more, its capabilities and strength were no less than a peak Stage 1 evolutionary creature.

Julian found the power measurement arbitrary and confusing but not for long.

'That living metal thing seems to be unknown. Its data might not be available in the database.', he stroked his chin in interest, "Hmm… I am not sure if I can take that robot down. Can't we use another?" As far as his combat addiction behavior went, there were just some battles that could not be purely won by craziness alone.

The darksteel alloy used to create this robot was a combination of strengthened steel and some solution called dark aqua solution. The strength and flexibility of the alloy itself far exceeded most of the materials that the Federation was using on its mecha suits.

Based on this information alone, how could Julian fight against it barehanded? He might as well charge out there and fight the animals. He'd get the same results.

Intellus shook its oval metallic head, "That is not possible for now. I need to test the successor's strength before I can set up a proper training plan."

Julian took a deep breath and started executing a set of warmup exercises, "Okay, anything else you want to tell me?!"

"I will be sending a weekly plan for the successor to follow. It is highly advisable to act in accordance to my arrangement, but the successor can also choose to do his own desires."

"That works for me. I'll look at it later.", Julian cracked his knuckles and ripped off his white t-shirt, exposing his average-looking tanned torso.

He charged at the dummy robot who remained idly standing in place. When his fists were about to land squarely on its chest, the dummy robot moved. It tilted its body sidewards and slapped his striking hand away.

Through the momentum, Julian put his left hand into the ground and borrowed the force to send a forceful kick with his right leg. Shockwaves could be seen from the tip of his toes.

The dummy robot bent its body backward and somersaulted away from Julian's range. He charged again and struck repeatedly without pause.

'You think you're fast, then I'll go faster than you!'

Julian's frequent attacks hastened so much that only afterimages could be seen from his body movement. His eyes became bloodshot as he aimed for the space where the dummy robot would soon evade, 'See how you can go away this time!'

Full of excitement, he poured more than half of his strength into this palm strike. He then noticed that his palms struck the air, 'Wh-what is that?!'

The robot's quick tempo suddenly slowed down, as if time had been distorted with. His eyes further widened as his mind was struck by a distant memory.

…

Federal Year 2980.

School Arena.

Graduation Battle Ceremony.

Adorned in a black and white battle dress. Her movement was smooth and dynamic. Then her body's tempo shifted to the extreme and Julian's fist couldn't help but graze past her body.

Shocked, Julian could only watch as her battle staff fell onto his face, ending his journey in an anti-climactic order.

…

While he dazed at the sudden revelation, his hand passed through, and the dummy robot finally sent out a quick palm strike, hitting his right arm; followed by another palm strike below, hitting his chest.

The two attacks destroyed his rhythm as he staggered backwards. The dummy robot charged and continued its barrage of attacks.

Julian hastily defended with all his might, blocking palm strike after palm strike but he couldn't keep up with the robot's extremely strange and dynamic tempo.

'This is just like what happened back then!'

He ducks and plans to launch a sweeping strike with his right leg, but the robot simply ignored it and launched itself into him. The robot grabbed his shoulders as it flipped in the air. When it landed back on the ground, the robot lifted the dumbfounded Julian and smacked him into the floor face-first.

A metallic clap resounded, and the dummy robot jumped away, standing blankly in place. Julian sprawled on the floor, still immersed in his daydream, 'Don't tell me that person is…?!'

"I can sense that the successor is undergoing a terrible nostalgic experience.", Intellus glanced at him and wondered the reason behind it. "Do you want to rest for now?"

"Terrible nostalgia?!", Julian smiled unexpectedly, "Intellus, it seems that we got ourselves a rival. I don't want to believe but…", he turned around and fervently looked at the dummy robot who resembled a very remarkable person from his days in the Star Sol Imperial University.

"It seems that the successor has found a source of inspiration."

'You call that inspiration?' Julian lightly scratched his reddish cheeks. "Show me the difference between that dummy robot."

"Please wait a moment while I calculate the results.", Intellus' eyes flashed continuously. This scene almost made Julian chuckle, 'AI and their damn algorithms. When will it ever change?'

"I have finished calibrating the measurement of the successor's physical body extremity. Synchronizing data now…"

Julian's VNI reflected his current physical characteristics such as having a body force of 3890 N, a body agility cycle of 2 Az, and little to no gravitational and radioactive resistance, and kinetic barrier.

Meanwhile, the dummy robot had a whopping 15000 N body force, 7.5 Az in agility cycle, 3g gravitational resistance, 1000 rads radioactive resistance, and 999 Kn measurement under kinetic barrier.

Julian's throat tenses up after seeing the huge difference on their physical characteristics, "How did my body force go down to less than 4,000?!"

"That is an estimation based on the dummy robot's special receptors. Since the successor did not manage to land a single hit, this crude estimation may be lower… or higher than your original body force measurement."

Intellus' words pricked a hidden wound on his heart and a sense of urgency rose within, "Tell me how to increase them!"

The sudden change of emotion in Julian intrigued Intellus but it decided not to make a fuss about it.

"The most important attribute that the successor must take note of is the Agility Cycle. You may have noticed the strange dynamic tempo of the dummy robot when fighting it earlier. This is rooted in one's body agility cycle. Consider it a measurement on one's minute body control. In the case of that dummy robot, it is more on their material composition, structure, and programming."

"A higher body agility cycle generally exhibits willfully altering one's tempo and extremely quick omni-directional body movement without being discombobulated or injured in the process."

"To increase it, one must continuously execute physical movement and instinctively feel their inner body moving and reacting. With the help of your VNI, you will be able to digitally observe these 'movements' and greatly assist you on the next step."

"Which is adjusting my muscles, bones, and whatnots. I get it.", Julian smirked to which Intellus nodded.

"Then what about kinetic barrier? Is it a shield equivalent to a psionic's psychic barrier?" Julian was aware of the existence of psychics, or psionics from what his little memory could remember. He had several classmates exhibiting it, proving their strength amongst everyone save for the truly gifted ones.

"The successor is correct. Instead of using one's mind frequency to form a psychic barrier, a kinetic barrier is produced from the extreme vitality emitted by one's body. That is only possible when one has achieved a high measurement of their body agility cycle."

Julian's lips twitched and grudgingly stared at his training buddy, 'Do I have to spend most of my time not hitting this dummy robot?!'

He did not want to feel hitting air again unless someone invisible was there. Regardless, as a highly proclaimed combat genius from the Star Sol Imperial University, missing his attacks proved to bash his unwilling ego.

...

Intellus calmly looked at the spectacle in front of him. One couldn't decipher whether this robot was disappointed with its successor's performance, or the result was a matter of fact that it had predicted long ago.

"Argh!", the dummy robot pushed Julian away again. This time, he was injured on both his arms, feeling the numbness from his shoulders, "I won't be able to continue training at this rate…", he mumbled.

Intellus approached with flickering eyes, "The successor need not to worry."

The ceiling above opened and released a swarm of green mist. The sight of them eased the tension in Julian's mind and even restored a small amount of his spent strength.

"They are the green proto insects. It should help you in your recovery."

Julian was speechless, 'You just want to torture me, don't you?!'

The green proto insects dug themselves into Julian's body which scared him to death, "Hey! What, no!" A haunting memory relapsed on him, but he was instantly woken up by Intellus who stared at him weirdly. "The successor should not compare the green proto insects to the purple ones."

"As if I could forget that in a breeze!", Julian cursed. Why was everything that aided him either robots or insects? How he wished he could go back to that lab tank and 'regenerate' himself back to peak.

"Shall I wipe that memory from your existence?", Intellus said while intently gazing at his head which made Julian shudder. "No! I'm not a damn robot just so you can wipe things here and there! Alright, stop it! I'm good now!"

He shooed the green proto insects away and ignored Intellus, then went back sparring against the dummy robot in a losing manner.

'Everything is not going my way today! I'll mine ores for a change tomorrow!'