When he arrived at Lucy's apartment, Shaun knew he had a long night ahead so decided he would take a few hour's rest. He showered before dressing his knuckles which were slightly bruised. He smiled knowing he now had an idea of how to accomplish his goal.
Like initially planned he would set small targets and if he did not succeed there was a penalty. This penalty would have to be something that aided in his overall goal. Having taken the classes to aid his combat skills there was now a need to work on his body.
So what better penalty than vigorous exercises? He would do pull-ups, push-ups, ab crunches, and even jogging. Usually, he wouldn't care for such things but with his newfound drive, he now knew it was a must. He then went on to sleep for an hour and a half before his alarm woke him.
"Let's go!" He pumped himself up jumping off the coach stretching. Near the entrance of the apartment, ten pieces of wood were scattered on the floor. It was then that a slight problem arose that Shaun had not considered.
"Damn it, how am I going to keep the board in place when I punch?" He blurted out. At the dojo, he had the old man holding the board while he punched. He then scratched his head while his eyes searched for solutions. Until he saw the window panes. The inner walls of the apartment were made of drywall which wasn't ideal for what he had in mind but the outer walls were brick. Perhaps he could remove the window then nail the board upon that wall. They looked like precise lengths.
He then went into a box that Lucy had left untouched. Inside he found the toolkit that Jamie had bought as a housewarming gift. In it was a cordless drill which was perfect for the task he had in mind. He placed the screw-bit inside and began to remove the window while ensuring that he didn't damage it.
He Knew Lucy would surely kill him if he did. Five minutes later it had been removed and a cool breeze overwhelmed him.
"Wow that's cold, but it will have to do", He then got some wall screws drilling the board against the wall.
"Perfect!" He exclaimed when seeing his handy work. Now there was only one thing to do, break the wood. With that settled he sat down, but this time it was not to clear his mind. Judging by Old Fox's one-week assessment he figured there must be other techniques that needed learning to be successful. However Old Fox didn't know that all his little secrets were now within Shaun's mind.
With a smile on his face, Shaun entered his mind, and there in bronze engraving was the book, "A Master's Path". His goal at the moment was finding a means to break the wood efficiently. He flipped through the book, yet it was a tedious task to read all those pages. A few times he yawned and water fell from his eyes.
Perhaps Shaun's biggest problem was that he saw too much information and with his wandering mind got distracted easily. Which was understandable with there being so many fighting styles, ancient chi conjuring methods, and body strengthening technique. T
hough to be honest some did seem far-fetched. For example, he glimpsed a technique that gave one man the ability to find against a thousand. If such a technique existed, wouldn't that be equivalent or above the supergene of modern times? Yet there have never been any documented cases throughout history.
"Focus Shaun!" He berated himself, but finding what he sought was taking forever and it was something so simple.
'If only this worked like a word document, I could just use a shortcut to find the information I needed', he thought. That would make the process easier. Shaun paused, in theory, this should be a possibility. He did see every word of the book and his ability did allow him to go back in his memory. What if he searched throughout his memory for keywords or phrases related to wood breaking and techniques to aid in the process?
He then cleared his mind of all the previous distractions, even the book itself had disappeared and now there was only an empty void. All his focus was then centered on the phrase, "Wood breaking and techniques to aid in the process".
Instantly within the void, one hundred and twenty excerpts popped up.
"It worked', Said Shaun enthusiastically after seeing all that showed. To think it worked, but still, this was quite broad. It was over a hundred excerpts and would take far too long. Therefore the search needed to be narrowed down. He one more focused on omitting anything with a mere mention or just had the words jumbled on the page. It was then that most faded away and the remaining were only ten.
Now, this I can work with", he smiled before reading each. Of the ten five seemed too advanced for his current stage. Yes, he wanted quick growth but he still needed to work himself up to a certain level. As for the other five, they gave in-depth details on how to accomplish his goal.
He chuckled when making a keen observation, just like he had thought Old Fox omitted key elements. For instance, his stance and posture were all wrong. Even the forming of his fist before hitting the board was incorrect. No wonder the damage to his fist was so extensive. It was all about timing, if he were to form his fist right before impact the force would be more explosive. While the self-inflicted damage was significantly mitigated.
Seeing the flaws in his technique he then adjusted before a long mirror, through this means he would always subconsciously adjust whenever the error occurred. After adjusting he looked at the piece of wood calming his mind once more before punching. BAM! His fist smashed against the wood and instantly improvements could be seen.
"Well it didn't break, ten push-ups", he penalized himself. With every attempt, if the board was not broken he would need to do ten push-ups, this was the deal he made with himself. So like this, he continued through the day and into the night. First, he would meditate, then punch and if unsuccessful he had to do some pushes.
As the hours went by he continued to see improvement while still searching the book for ways to improve. Before he knew it was three in the morning, it had been eleven hours since he started. He was tired, sweaty with his fist bleeding but while his body waded his determination grew.
He looked at the piece of broad which was tattered, hanging on by a thread; it was nearly broken into two halves.
"Still not perfect, huh?" He sighed before removing it, placing the last of what was brought against the windowpane. He then stuck to his penalty doing push-ups, though it was merely ten it felt as though he was doing a hundred.
His body at that point truly hated him as he struggled to push himself off the ground. Nonetheless, he got them done, a grimace could be seen on his face while blood dripped all over the hardwood floors. When he got to his feet his body wobbled but Shaun didn't care, just one more punch.
He then got into a punching stance as his fist clattered against the thick wood. BAM! - His hand went straight through causing splitters to fly everywhere. He grinned before his legs finally gave way. CLATTER! - He passed out cold.