The only good news is that unlike the last challenge when he had to pay attention to his footing and balance, he only had to muffle the sound of his feet on the ground. Even with the increased difficulty of higher speed, he was able to complete the challenge in a week.
The challenge continued with the same enemy but this time a strong wind was added to it, to increase the difficulty. This wind was much stronger than the one he faced previously and he had to run in the opposite direction of the strong wind. The effect of effect the wind was stronger than simply throwing him off balance, this time the wind will try to pull him backward and negate his forward momentum.
He still had a flat surface which made easier it easy to martial the full power of his legs but running like a brute will create negative results. Opposing the wind will be counterproductive, instead, he must weave through it, go with the flow and minimize drag. Controlling the body to do exactly what you want wasn’t difficult at this point, the difficulty lay in sensing the subtle flows and Eddies within the wind and directing the body to take advantage of it.
So the trainees are forced to sense something that their eyes and their ears cannot sense. The last challenge forced them to use their divine sense. This time they must accept the inadequacy of the other senses themselves.
Their eyes and ears have failed them, so they do not have a direction. Without direction, there can be no efficiency. Only when the beginning and the end are known can a straight line towards the destination be achieved.
This sort of thing isn’t a challenge for Soverick. His powerful perception gave him an edge in this aspect. With it, he was able to perceive the wind and complete the challenge in just a day.
The second to the last challenge was running on water. Gone was the steady flat ground, this new enemy was unsteady and unreliable, and it is still an understatement to call it that. It was an upgrade on the mud challenge. He had to combine all his previously acquired knowledge to achieve running on it. He would need the equal force dispersal of the no footprint challenge, the quick muscle manipulation of the running on mud challenge, balancing techniques of the small pole foothold challenge, sensing the flow of force of running against the wind challenge, and the silent walking technique to achieve running on water. Only when he could sense the instability in the flowing water surface and take advantage of it to create sufficient pushback can the challenge be overcome.
If he had the mana body he will easily achieve this. He could try to cheat by using his powerful mind to create thin platforms on the surface of the water to run on. He could also create some simple ice spells with his spirit. He would freeze the surface of the water and use that instead. There were a lot of ways to achieve running on the surface of the water without stressing his body but decided not to use them. The possibility of being caught cheating was high, and he came here to learn. If he was going to cheat, he might as well give up and go home.
It was more difficult than he had expected. Still, he didn’t give up. He continued trying even after failure upon failure. He continued trying since he knew it was possible, as long as he learned from his past mistakes he will succeed in time.
It would have been easier if he had a teacher here to point out his mistakes. Unfortunately, he had to adapt to the difficulty all on his own. The challenge aims to break the bad habits of the body and achieve greatness. Everyone’s body is different, so the method of achieving intimacy with it is different. If he hadn’t achieved an understanding of his body through the preparatory stage, then he would have to achieve it now.
An individual with a mana body can easily achieve running on water but that didn’t mean the Individual with the mana body understood his or her body. Others would have stopped for a while and tried other training regimens to refresh their outlook but he persevered. His perseverance was finally rewarded with success after a week of continuous effort.
“Yes, I did it,” Soverick shouted.
He felt a fulfilling sense of achievement when he realized he was running on water, so much that he shouted. His shout distracted him and he fell into the water. That didn’t dampen his happiness though, he was too exhilarated for that. There are just some things that can able an Origin happy. He tried it again and again before deciding to move on to the last challenge of footwork training.
The last challenge is a simple test of speed. He is required to achieve double the top speed he could reach in the preparatory stage. If his footwork training is truly perfect then it would be easy for him to complete it. It was basically a confirmation of the difference between his former method of moving his body and his current method.
He walked out of the room as he always did after each challenge. Wendy was still waiting at the door with the tray of memory crystals. It had been his only company throughout the short weeks of non-stop training. He locked the door behind him.
“Are you ready for the last challenge already?” Wendy asked.
Soverick nodded. His body wasn’t tired because of the vitality surging within it. His mind was too powerful to tire because of something like this. It was just physical training, not spiritual training but his mind was probably taxed more than his body. But it still isn’t enough to tire him out. He doubted his mind can be made weary by anything less than his divine ability. The last time he tried his divine ability, his soul shrunk.
“If you complete this quickly enough you will have created another record,” Wendy said.
Soverick shrugged. That wasn’t his aim, it wasn’t his objective. It just happened because of his excellence. It is practically a must for him to create new records with all the advantages he had so he wasn’t impressed by that. He was more impressed by the fact that he was able to learn something new and overcome his weakness.
The color of the door had turned to blue. He focused on his wrist logger and selected the next challenge. The wrist logger beeped in his mind indicating that his selection had been confirmed. He swept the door with his divine sense and it turned to green. He entered it to find a new track path. The body of water he used for his previous challenge had disappeared. It was replaced with a track 10km in circumference. It is here that he will test his improvement in speed.
He gathered his courage. He could already feel the adrenaline coursing through his body. His heart was beating faster either due to fear or anticipation. He still couldn’t control the glandular operations of the body. It was more complicated than simply nerve manipulation of the muscles. He will have to wait until he had a full mana body to eliminate it.
“No use wasting time then.” He said, then he started to sprint.
Everything just felt right as soon as he started running. He used everything he had learned about proper movement techniques to his advantage.
The major obstacle to achieving high speed is momentum conservation and drag created by pushing against the air. Whenever a runner steps on the ground, they lose some of their momenta to balance themselves. There is a need for proper and stable footing to create more momentum that pushes them forward. His lessons in balance and silent walking helped to almost eliminate this loss in momentum. His lessons in mud running helped to increase the burst of momentum above what he normally achieved. His greatest enemy is still the drag which he would have to reduce to minimize his loss of speed.
His wrist logger beeped to notify him that he crossed the 300m/s speed requirement and the fact that he had completed the footwork regiment in 14 weeks. But he didn’t stop, he continued to push his body to his limit. It took a while but he finally got tired of running. He fell on the track to rest his body. In a couple of minutes, he will be back in top shape and ready to tackle another challenge. It was the blessing of having high vitality.
A few minutes later he stood up and left the training room. The door closed behind him.
“Congratulations, Soverick. You have created another record. You completed the training for footwork in 14 weeks. The last record was 42 weeks.” Wendy greeted him.
“Thanks,” Soverick replied detachedly.
“Only 4 more training regimens to go. Eye to body coordination, dodging and perception, blocking and parrying, and the obstacle course.