Although Rui wished he could have skipped all the hallucinations based around body types he didn’t care about because he knew they weren’t going to be the ones that would be most compatible with his Martial Art, he did gain some unique experience that he would probably never gain again.
The procedure was extended for days as he was made to experience a variety of body types. He was supposed to experience the body suited to each of the fields he had mastered a technique for. This included power, speed, defense, grappling, and supplementation, among other fields. Thankfully, he didn’t have to experience Martial bodies centered around fields he had never even touched.
He never lost against the hallucinated version of himself. This was a surprising outcome to Squire Luna, it was the norm that the hallucinated mirror version of the subject won against the subject due to a lack of familiarity and comfort with one’s new body in the hallucination.
Rui, of course, had already figured out the reason. Because the hallucination lacked the core of his Martial Art. Without it, it could express only a portion of his true power. Meanwhile, even if he had a new body, he could still use the VOID algorithm to a high degree. The disadvantage he had from having a drastically different body type was not enough to dampen the advantage the VOID algorithm provided him. Furthermore, he could use the same predictive model each time, which meant he didn’t need to adapt or evolve to his hallucinated clone all over again each time.
The predictive model only grew increasingly accurate and precise the more they fought.
The biggest problem was that he always lacked the body that was able to execute all of the adapted counters provided by the adaptive evolution model. He usually made do with his own improvised counters that while perhaps not the best in his current body, was still good enough.
Soon time passed and eventually, they had finally reached the all-rounder-oriented Martial body.
“This is the final body type on our checklist.” Squire Luna informed him. “This Martial body is oriented around placing an equal amount of weight on power, speed, defense, and endurance. With a muscle mass to body mass ratio that perfectly caters to all primary fields equally as well as a mildly augmented healing capability.”
“That’s possible?” Rui wondered in glee. “An increased healing factor?”
“Indeed. Martial Squires with Martial Art focused around endurance often have a heavy focus on regeneration, at the cost of power and speed.” Squire Luna explained.
“At the cost of them?” Rui asked, intrigued. “Why would the increased healing capability come at the cost of power and speed?”
“The reason for that is the fact that an increased healing factor creates an increased consumption of energy and nutrients. This reduces the available energy and nutrients needed for power and speed.” Doctor Herin chimed in, explaining it to Rui.
“Ah,” Rui nodded. “That does make sense. After all, there are constraints to how much stamina can be augmented by the evolution process.”
“Correct.” Doctor Herin nodded. “We improve stamina to the necessary amount without compromising the other physical parameters more important to the Martial Art in question. Endurance-oriented Martial Artists usually improve stamina and healing capability along with toughness to the maximum extent. However, this is not really possible in an all-rounder-oriented Martial body.”
Rui nodded, as several considerations flew through his mind. He had come across a potential solution to bypass or at least mitigate the stamina solution. But he needed to verify it before he could attempt them. For now, he decided to stick to figuring out his optimal Martial body.𝓞𝒱xt.𝑜
The medical team was subjected to hallucinogens once more as he entered a trance-like state. Squire Luna quickly began executing the hypnosis technique, causing him to return to the white world.
(‘Wow.’) He glanced down at his own body. His current body had been the closest to his original body. Yet it still felt mildly different from anything he had ever experienced before. Considering this body was a body that was a perfect all-rounder, it meant his previous body was not perfectly an all-rounder.
This was to be expected, to some degree. Although he had consciously trained to ensure that his body catered equally to all fields of combat, it was impossible to make it perfectly so. If he had had the technology of his previous world, reaching something close to perfectly all-rounding was perhaps not impossible, but in this world with the lack of the technology he was familiar with, with only the resources he had at the Academy, it was impossible to gain perfect balance.
Fake Rui immediately dashed towards Rui after he appeared.
BAM!
He gasped as Rui perfectly evaded a swinging blow from fake Rui as landed his own blow in the latter’s gut. Rui immediately followed up with a barrage of perfectly-timed swings.
POW POW POW!
Each bypassed the guard of his opponent, relying on impeccable timing and placement.
BAM!!
Rui followed up with a Flowing Canon, successfully landing the attack and flinging him away in the distance with a devastating blow.
His performance against his hallucinated clone was domineering, more so than any of their previous fights. Rui had been previously burdened with an unfamiliar and incompatible body in each of his fights that had partially dampened his advantage of being the sole VOID algorithm user. Now, however, there was no incompatibility between his body and his Martial Art.
The gap between himself and his hallucinated self was large. He didn’t even need to exert himself. Fake Rui couldn’t even be considered a modern grade ten Martial Apprentice due to an inability to use the VOID algorithm. He stood no chance against Rui alone.
Alone, that was.
Suddenly, a second hallucinated clone of Rui appeared in Rui’s perception.
(‘Two of them against one?’) Rui was amused at the improvisation on the part of Squire Luna in the procedure.
(‘Very well then.’) Rui nodded. (‘It will allow me to test this body even more.’)