The Martial Unity

The habilitation training began immediately the next day.

Rui was immediately thrust into training regiments that honed his accuracy and precision. Despite the suit reducing most of the power he generated so that it resembled his old body, he was still unaccustomed to his new body.

The differences between his old and new body were greater than he had expected. The relationship between how much power, speed, and durability he had had fundamentally changed. His power decreased slightly while his speed had increased slightly compared to his old body.

This was not an enormous difference, but it was enough to throw off all of his movements. What had fundamentally changed was the ratio between the power output of his muscles and the mass of his body. The raw speed of a Martial Artist depended on how much power their muscles generated with respect to how much they weighed. It was this ratio that mattered.

Someone capable of generating a vast amount of power would still be average in speed if they also weighed a lot.

Currently, his body had evolved in precisely the manner needed to ensure that there was an equal weightage between power, speed, and durability. His old body had placed a little bit more weight on power and durability compared to speed.

Due to this, he had found that his timing for all complicated maneuvers was too late. Since his movements were proportionally quicker, he was still acting on his old speed where he was slower.

This was one of the biggest errors in his muscle memory that messed up his accuracy a lot. He had to throw himself into extensive repetitive training all over again. Getting rid of the muscle memory from his previous life fully had taken a long time of extensive training. Thankfully, it wasn't the same case for his current muscle memory. Squire Gerd subjected him to a light hypnotic suggestion that allowed him to replace old muscle memory with new muscle memory quicker far quicker than was humanly possible.

"This technique 'convinces' the subconscious mind to let go of the past and accept the future." Squire Gerd explained. "Thanks to this you're able to unlearn the tendencies from your old human body and create new ones for your Martial body."

Rui nodded. Of course, from a scientific perspective, this explanation made very little sense and was inadequate. However, Rui had hypotheses on the mechanics of the technique.

('Enhanced neural plasticity is probably the answer.') Rui mused.

Memory as a neurological phenomenon was the result of a biochemical trait of neurons known as neural plasticity.

Neural plasticity was the ability of the neural networks of the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned. These changes range from individual neuron pathways making new connections to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping.

From what Rui could see, Squire Gerd had somehow enhanced the neural plasticity of the part of his cerebellum that was responsible for muscle memory. A fascinating technique that allowed its target to unlearn past habits and gain new habits quicker as a result.

('It's also why Squire Fernin is extremely strict during training.') Rui mused.

Although this technique was a boon to Rui, it was also risky. Mistakes and flaws were costlier because he replaced old tendencies with new tendencies, all new tendencies, including the flawed ones with mistakes. If the flaws were allowed in, then he would not be able to get rid of them, not without undergoing the whole procedure all over again.

Thus, the standards he was held to were extremely high.

"Part of the reason I was chosen as a Squire habilitator was because of extraordinary vision, allowing me to assess the accuracy and precision of your movements on a microscopic level." Squire Fernin told him. "I can see every mistake, flaw, and shortcoming in every single one of your movements thanks to that and my experience and training in this matter. Currently, your maneuvers are infested with mistakes, as is to be expected. I will be correcting each and every single one of them during your habilitation phase."

Many of Rui's training sessions were consumed simply by Squire Fernin fixating on merely a handful of Rui's mistakes. Only after Rui performed with accuracy and precision that satisfied him, was he allowed to even begin the repetitive training to burn the accurate movements into his muscle memory.

One of the particularly annoying obstacles in his way was the difference in the center of gravity between his old and new body. His body was heavier, but the mass was not distributed in the exact same way as with his old body. His bones and muscles were disproportionately denser, causing a change in the center of gravity of his body as a whole.

This affected his dynamic balance; the ability to maintain balance during curvilinear motion.

He would often trip and lose balance every time he performed complicated whole-body maneuvers due to this.

In fact, in the first couple of days of his training, he wasn't even able to perfectly somersault consistently. An embarrassing thing for a Martial Artist of his caliber to accept. Yet it only fueled his motivation to grow and regain his motor capabilities.

"Calm down." Squire Fernin told him. "Your current state is frustrating, however, it is entirely normal. Your rate of growth is fascinating. Your brain and mind are soaking up your training at a speed I have never seen before."

Rui didn't even bother trying to explain it. He couldn't.

"In fact, that isn't the only oddity about you." Squire Fernin stroked his white beard. "Your raw physical parameters are greater than what should be possible. You're stronger and faster than someone who underwent the all-rounder evolution process should be. It's truly bizarre, I have never seen a Martial Squire start off from such a high starting point. You do live up to the rumors, Rui Quarrier. Who knows to what height you'll rise if this is where you begin."