Rui gritted his teeth lightly as pain flowed through his veins, simultaneously, several syringes piercing into his limbs, injecting another liquid seemingly, having a cooling effect on the pain sensation, lessening it as time passed.
Soon, it was entirely gone, causing Rui to heave a sigh of relief.
"Squire Quarrier, the procedure has been completed, we will be unshackling you. However, the chamber will remain closed for a while as per protocols. As long as you can demonstrate that you have sufficiently high control over your new state, you will be released."
"Understood," Rui replied.
CLACK
All of the mechanical shackles opened.
('Fifteen percent less effort than usual,') Rui noted.
He exhaled before sitting upright slowly.
"Woah," Rui muttered.
He felt much lighter than before, though nothing too debilitatingly different.
After all, this was an overall fifteen percent boost, not a fifteen percent boost in every single physical parameter identically. The difference was manageable.
Rui turned slowly, as his feet touched the ground. He exhaled before getting up on his feet with as little effort as possible.
('This isn't that bad,') Rui realized as he landed on his feet just fine.
STEP
He carefully took a step forward.
VRMMMM
The operating table disappeared into an opening in the ground that promptly closed to serve as ordinary flooring, giving Rui more space.
The chamber was just large enough to allow him to test elementary control.
STEP
He took another step forward.
STEP
STEP
STEP
"Oh this is easy."
Of course, he could feel that he wasn't nearly as comfortable with his body as he normally was, but his motor controls were largely retained because the effort he put in wasn't too different from what he needed to, and what he normally put in. He was stronger, but within reason where he would retain all of his muscle memory as long as he got used to his new body.
"You are showing good hand-eye coordination, the fact that you haven't made a single imperfect movement thus far is a very good sign of control. Still, you will be guided out of the Martial Union in a different route to minimize risks. Good luck and goodbye, Squire Quarrier." The doctor bade him.
"Thanks for the treatment doc," Rui called out.
VRMMM
A door opened in the wall on the other side of the chamber, it was a hole in the ground that led straight down.
Rui shrugged, jumping down.
THUD
There was a path that led to the exterior of the Martial Union complex, with a pair of Martial Squires guarding the opening out.
They did not say a word to Rui as he walked out.
Rui, for one, felt amused. He had basically taken something of a secret route out of the Martial Union complex. He walked over to the closest gate carefully before exiting the branch office entirely.
Rui recognized the risks of sky-walking immediately after the procedure, but he couldn't care less, he just wanted to see what the difference would be like.
"Woah."
He unsteadily rose into the air as he pedaled against the atmosphere. Sky-walking required skill to leverage the power of the Martial body to apply Newton's third law of motion to generate a constant but low thrust to increasingly escalate into the sky.
Rui could truly test how far he was from his normal degree of comfort, familiarity, and accuracy he was by sky-walking.
"Not bad at all," he muttered as he increasingly regained all of the finesse he had with sky-walking
WHOOSH
He managed to nail a somersault midair.
"A few rough patches here and there, but not bad at all." Rui nodded.
The few awkward motions could be fixed quickly enough, there was nothing glaringly wrong, and Rui was becoming more proficient by the second, reaching very close to his previous level of accuracy and precision.
There were only a few minute problems that could easily be fixed in a short amount of time.
"The benefits far outweigh the downsides," Rui grinned as he enjoyed the feeling even lighter than before.
He could feel that his body was much more powerful than before while still maintaining the physical configuration of his Martial body. He would not dare purchase a potion that disrupted the parametric configuration of his body, and he highly doubted whether the Martial union would even offer such potions to Martial Squires in the first place.
The martial Union, of all organizations, would know the importance of not selling products that would disrupt the parametric configuration of the Martial bodies of Martial Squires. This was something that could ruin their future Martial Path, thus Rui had been very stringent regarding this issue, going to great lengths to ensure that the potion would not affect his configuration in any way.
Rui inhaled deeply, before opening his mouth lightly.
THWOOM
An incredibly charged and powerful Sonic Bullet blasted across the atmosphere at an incredible speed.
"Nice," Rui nodded, satisfied. The attack was definitely more powerful than what he would have been capable of prior to the Benetein Blood potion being administered to his body. "The boost in power alone is worth it.
He faced down, looking at a distant rock in an uninhabited area a great distance away. His eyes narrowed as he executed the ODA System, completing the calculation rapidly before a small, but potent, Sonic Bullet was launched out of his mouth.
THWOOM
BANG
The Sonic Bullet struck the target head-on, blasting the rock into smithereens before digging a hole more than a hundred meters deep.
"Its potency has also increased," Rui nodded, satisfied. "Executing the ODA System has also grown a little easier."
This meant that he could push the boundaries of the Pathfinder technique beyond what he already thought was possible.
"Man, if only Senior Ceeran was here to see this." Rui smiled, he could easily imagine the passionate long-range Martial Artist growing excited at the improvements in his execution of the technique that Rui just made. He would definitely have called Rui back to test his limits again.
