As soon as he woke up in the morning, Arthur again made his way to the park to do morning exercises.
As Silva said the day before, today's exercises would be to control the body, as well as help with muscle recovery.
"First we will start with a full body stretch. It will be followed by a calisthenics session, to strengthen and help with body control, then a sparring session."
"It must be light ... I think." Arthur imagined his same speech the day before. It was really a mistake to find that.
Silva gave a devilish smile as he laughed: "Yes, it will be light."
So, they started the body stretching session. Arthur had also activated the 'Training' function.
"First of all, starting with the arms!" As soon as silva finished speaking, he made splits, put his hands on the floor and slowly raised his body until he was only with his hands on the floor. When Arthur least expected, Silva made the same move, but the other way around. When his legs finally returned to the ground, Silva stood up and said, "This is your first stretch. Start!"
Still disoriented, Arthur began to do the same. His first challenge was to open a perfect split. Even though his constitution statistic was high, his flexibility was not keeping up with the body's durability and strength.
"Come on! Stop being lazy!" Silva came up behind him and pressed hard on his waist, almost making his tender spots hit the floor.
"Calm down, old man!" Even though the pain didn't even bother Arthur in the least, it still irritated him a little.
Arthur's second challenge was to keep the splits open while lifting his body with only his hands.
Each completed stage would make the next one more difficult, due to the increase in gravity. Arthur had to do this 200 times before he moved on to the next stretch.
Each one was crazier than the other, like being in V for more than 10 minutes, being in a horse position for another 10 minutes. It may seem like a short time, but the gradual increase in gravity made it seem impossible.
After stretching, the calisthenic session was even more difficult. It seemed that the stretches were a preparation for the calisthenics part.
After so many exercises, the fighting part finally started. Arthur's body was already begging for energy, while Silva demonstrated a type of struggle completely without logic for Arthur.
Each attack made less sense than the other, but Arthur continued to try to understand and counter attack with his own strokes. The previous night's training had increased Arthur's range of options for attacking and counterattacking.
But, oddly enough, Silva managed to fight normally, as if that had no effect on him and he already knew Arthur's fighting style. The effect of gravity didn't help much either, since Arthur looked like a normal person executing these strokes, so they were entirely possible to be dodged.
Each of these things done in the exercise really improved Arthur's balance and body control. The final part especially showed him some flaws in the attacks he was making. More and more his fighting style was being consolidated.
After morning training, Arthur worked with Silva and left at night. When he got home, he talked to the computer monster some more before ordering something for dinner and finally going to the building's terrace.
"I really have to find a way to improve Thomas's learning. I can't buy a computer or servers right now, since we're at the hotel. I think with the money I have, I can buy a good house." While thinking aloud, Arthur finally thought of something: 'I think the Arena has something for that? If not, I can work it out anyway. Speaking of Arena, I have to go again to see what that girl wanted with me. '
After organizing his next steps, Arthur finally started training. The difference now is that he turned on 'Training' mode, to make things more difficult. He also started adding more taekwondo and capoeira moves. They are martial arts that require good control of the body, which is what it needs now.
To make it even more difficult and help him practice Rest / Moviment, Arthur activated the 'Furious' and 'Haste' skills.
Thus, Arthur spent his days training and working with Silva for a week.
***
By the end of Saturday, still on the terrace, Arthur was sweating. His body had developed steadily that week, growing stronger and more flexible. His strokes were also full of experience, as well as having a strange flow movement. Anyone who started watching would no longer want to stop.
'I think I can finally ...' Arthur, concentrating a little, took all the strength of his body to his right leg, as well as the surrounding regions. His control over the Force had also gotten a lot better.
Getting into position for attack, Arthur soon made a surprising move.
His rear leg, with no sign of movement, moved forward with force. But, before reaching a certain height, the blow stopped suddenly. He didn't move an inch or so. He spent just a few milliseconds in that position before again accelerating to the speed he had before and finally completing the kick.
It was a perfect kick execution, as well as it involved the basics of the basics of the Rest / Movement principle.
"Aaaargh! Finally!" Feeling a slight pain in his leg, Arthur screamed with joy. After a week of training, he finally managed to master the Outer Layer of the two techniques.
Standing Lake and Flowing River can be divided into three progressions: Outer Layer, Inner and Core. The Outer Layer is about being able to apply the principle by projecting something outward, with the body itself (It's impossible to stop a knife you already throw, for example). The Inner Layer would be the whole body application, like getting your heart to stop beating or getting your blood circulating faster. The Core is already about having completely mastered the applicability of the principle, which is when you can stop everything around you, as well as make it run normally, but the effect cannot disturb Time.
Arthur was still a long way from executing and applying the principle without hurting himself, but how to use it was already completely stuck in his mind and would not come out anymore.