The Card Apprentice

Chapter 126: Resistance Training

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Chen Mu devoted all his strength throughout a week to the breath control training. He tried to repress the powerful side effects during the seven-day training process. But because of the continuous vomiting, his physiological functions continued to drop, until he looked entirely emaciated. Although he hadn’t ever looked obviously robust, that kind of emaciation gave the sense of being frail. When Mark Victor saw Chen Mu’s sickened state he wouldn’t continue. After giving him some words of comfort, he took a commission for himself. That would require probably three days before he could return.

During that week, Chen Mu would regularly vomit upwards of seven times each day, sometimes to the point of collapse. Then he would grit his teeth and continue on. Time was too important for him, and the more he dragged things out, the smaller his chances for success became.

Chen Mu squinted his eyes to consider the inhuman suffering of those few days and sighed to himself that he would have to tough it out. While his body was rapidly emaciating, his temperament had sadly also started to change. His once clear eyes had dimmed under a layer of darkness. He had become accustomed to the dark at an alarming rate, with darkness no longer the least bit strange to him. On the contrary, he felt more and more as though he liked to be in the dark, and that it made him feel more comfortable. Probably even the demonic woman wouldn’t have expected him to have made such rapid progress in that direction.

Darkness provided a kind of atmosphere which he had already gradually started to like.

Though it was a huge price to pay, he also reaped great rewards, being able by that time to enter the state of breath control within three minutes; if he were given only three minutes, he could enter the state. He was pretty satisfied with that time.

And under the condition of using breath control for a straight seven days, he had gotten his duration in the state of breath control up to three minutes, with two and a half minutes generally being no issue at all.

Two and a half minutes, or one hundred and fifty seconds, would normally be considered a very short period of time. But to Chen Mu, a lot could be accomplished. If those hundred and fifty seconds in the state of breath control were used amid blades flying, it would be enough to change the situation. He had tried using the skills he had learned from Mark Victor while in the state of breath control, and no matter which one, the power was beyond anything he’d had before. This gave Chen Mu a lot of confidence.

Chen Mu didn’t practice breath control during the three days that he still had, since the side effects had become too intense for his health. Chen Mu restrained himself since their power was so shocking,. If he were to train without restraint he wondered if he might die before being able to leave the base. What he needed was to leave safely, and not to die in the middle of training. Those three days gave his physiological functions a chance to recover.

And he still had a job on his hands to make a card for Bo Wen. He already had the basic draft for that card, and he could probably finish it once he had completed the resistance training with Mark Victor.

That time was also just right for him to quietly leave. But being able to exchange for that “weak water” set of pens before leaving the base was something that he was naturally excited about. So, he went right into using those three days to make the card. Time was something he couldn’t waste.

Apart from that, he also harbored a dream. After he left the base he would have very few chances to run into Mark Victor again, and the promise he had made would grow more and more distant, reducing to nearly zero in practical terms. Chen Mu was full of gratitude and respect for Mark Victor. He had given every skill that he knew without holding anything back, which had cost him a lot of effort. Having become used to the ups and downs of human life, Chen Mu still couldn’t help a surge of warmth every time he thought of it. So, he hoped that before he left he could provide Mark Victor with some small gift.

After the three days went by and Mark Victor had completed his commission, that also meant that Chen Mu’s resistance training would officially commence.

In the training room the two figures moved like lightning, flying around the space.

Mark Victor’s speed wouldn’t be considered too fast, but he was unusually slippery, with inspired directional shifts. Chen Mu didn’t have any way to chase him and during the first day of confrontation with an ashen face and head, never mind striking any blows against his adversary, he couldn’t even put a stain on Mark Victor’s clothing.

It was a good thing Chen Mu had a lot of tenacity and kept up his courage despite setbacks. He also kept a level head, since for him to be defeated was nothing out of the ordinary. And since it was so normal, he wouldn’t become discouraged.

Since the resistance training had commenced, Mark Victor hadn’t given Chen Mu any more pointers. What he demanded from Chen Mu was that he find his own way.

Chen Mu had no alternative but to use his own brain, believing that for Mark Victor to do things that way had some certain purpose. So, Chen Mu would fight during the day, and closely review and then summarize all his experiences at night. Then he would try again to see if there were other ways that he could progress.

And then the next day he would be able to test out the feasibility of the methods he had thought of the night before or find where they could be improved.

If there were still any time, he would continue to complete the card for Bo Wen.

By then it was the fourth day, and he had started gradually to get used to Mark Victor’s inspired rhythms in changing direction. Chen Mu’s close-range dodging and evading results were also outstanding, and as soon as he had gotten Mark Victor’s rhythm, the scene of battle would transform.

Of course, Chen Mu had no chance of defeating Mark Victor at that time, though he could already keep pace with his adversary’s person. And unlike at the beginning, he could easily shake off his adversary during their shifts in direction.

He played the excellent maneuverability of the ‘big mud fish’ to its fullest, and he was also getting more and more practiced in that kind of flight. By the sixth day, he could be biting Mark Victor’s tail like a shadow.

Not for the first time, Mark Victor sighed, “You are simply a natural close-combat card artisan. I really have no idea why you started out as a card master.”

Since he couldn’t shake off Chen Mu, the combat between them immediately transformed. Chen Mu had also started to understand Mark Victor’s tough attacks, and to avoid hanging up in the midst of battle, Mark Victor dared to maintain the power of his twisted spinning thorns at about thirty percent, putting Chen Mu into a bad situation.

The chances for the two of them to dodge and to shoot were too few for the circumstances. During those few days, Chen Mu felt that he had completely remolded himself, with his movements finally displaying the qualities of a professional card artisan. He made no superfluous motions, which was forced upon him by the terrifying power of Mark Victor’s twisted spinning thorns. Not only were the attacks powerful, they were frighteningly quick, and the slightest pause or hesitation would cause the thorns to precisely fill the gap like a python smelling blood. There was no place for any high hopes that it would miss or ignore any errors.

Chen Mu’s nerves were kept in a high state of agitation, not being able to let loose for an instant, since in front of an ace like Mark Victor, any laxity would be extremely dangerous.

Compared with Chen Mu’s plight, Mark Victor was naturally more relaxed and leisurely, calm under pressure. But under his calm exterior, he was astounded.

Chen Mu showed a potential he had never seen under such training pressure. He saw something like what is called genius in Chen Mu! Those so-called young geniuses that he had encountered previously could only be considered shoddy fake goods. Apart from his gifts, what Mark Victor most appreciated about Chen Mu was his calm and his resolve. He could seem like an iron man, running without tiring or flying through the skies. And, he would make the most appropriate response in every critical instant. He couldn’t believe that such calm could manifest itself in some novice who had only been studying close-combat for twenty or thirty days.

And what really surprised Mark Victor was that close combat card of Chen Mu’s – the bipolar thunderball card. Five creature-like little thunderballs full of spirit. When he first saw them, Mark Victor didn’t pay much attention. But during the resistance training to follow, he was really surprised! Whenever his energy spines would just about approach Chen Mu, like five little demons those five thunderballs would suddenly pounce. And then that perfect five-sided light shield would appear in front of his energy spines, abruptly blocking them.

Mark Victor immediately increased his attack frequency without imagining that those five little demons would speed up right along with him.

Even while the thorn shuttles were falling like rain, the light shield would keep right up with them, emerging in an endless stream, with the dense popping sounds falling from midair annihilated into raining shards of light.

The more he fought the more alarmed he had become the first time he had encountered that strange close-combat card. If he wanted to break through the defensive perimeter formed by those five small thunderballs, he would have to increase the attack power to its highest level of about sixty percent. Maybe then he could break through that perfect five-sided energy shield, and cause some damage to Chen Mu.

He could clearly see that Chen Mu still wasn’t quite familiar with using that card. He believed that as time went on and Chen Mu became more familiar with the card, and as he became more familiar the composition of its energy, the power of that card would be greatly enhanced.

A youth of genius using a magical close-combat card was a combination which filled Mark Victor with expectation.

He really looked forward to Chen Mu’s first battle, and to his brilliant future. He looked forward to him being before the world, using his amazing talents and power to conquer everyone!

He really believed that this sallow-faced youth was worthy of such anticipation.

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