I Hate Systems

Chapter 24: Skipping

Around thirty minutes after he began his meditation, the servant arrived, bringing in a skipping rope. It was what he had requested her to make. All it needed was two wooden handles and a heavy rope. He made the rope heavy to train his wrist.

And as for the handles, he asked them to be shaped just like an Armament. He had done this simply for one reason: To get accustomed to the weight of the Armaments and increase the strength in his wrist, especially its capability to exert force while rotating.

And, what best way to train it other than skipping? Compass Carburettor intended to increase the weight of the rope and the handles later once he got used to the current weight.

Grabbing the skipping rope, he began to skip. At the start, his jumps were as high as 10 centimetres. He made mistakes too, ones that caused him to flinch when the rope hit his feet. But, he was only skipping slowly now, to avoid serious injuries.

He had only skipped when he was a child, so he had lost touch completely with the sport. And now, as he continued to practice, he got the hang of it soon enough. His improved physique and his exceptional control over it helped immensely.

Cognition—Level 9!

Five Senses—Level 10!

Dexterity—Level 8!

Dexterity to move his hands and feet accurately, Five Senses to feel every action he did at greater precision and clarity, and Cognition to understand and absorb the experience and grow spontaneously.

They worked in a cycle, bolstering each other to create a synergic effect that allowed him to master the craft within a couple of hours. As it was something he had done in childhood and was just one exercise that he had to repeat in a loop, Compass Carburettor got the hang of the rhythm soon after.

Now, the gap between his jumps and the ground was only wide enough for the rope to pass through. And, as he continued to do it, his speed increased as soon, only the whistling sounds of the skipping rope cutting through the air resounded, creating a tune that was rather pleasant to the ears.

For the next two hours, he skipped nonstop, finally arriving at a halt as he was drenched with sweat, feeling tired. He still had enough stamina to skip for another two hours, but decided otherwise for the time being.

He then felt his stomach, feeling a mild hunger, ‘Good, the food’s fully digested.’

He could feel the Darlac in his body was slightly more now, ‘It’s not enough. My body’s not accustomed to producing Darlac yet. I first have to achieve it so that my body would be able to easily convert the energy from the food into Darlac. I have to assimilate with it even more.’

Compass Carburettor held the basic Armament in his hand, closing his eyes as he felt a prickling sensation on the back of his hand. It was the trigger for activating the only state in the Armament. As he focused on the part where it pricked, he could feel the Armament unleashing a suction force that tugged at his Darlac.

As the Darlac continued to be pumped through his blood, it was influenced by the suction pull. Once the Darlac arrived at his heart, instead of proceeding about through the numerous arteries, all of it only passed through the artery heading towards his right hand.

Once it reached the end of the hand, splitting through the numerous blood vessels, the Darlac exited through the pores on his palm, flowing into the basic Armament. The Armament absorbed the Darlac and condensed a knife on its front.

Compass Carburettor felt as if his entire being was getting sucked into the Armament. But, before he could orient his thoughts or get used to the sensation, the knife flickered before vanishing. Panting, he thought, ‘I think I lasted around 4-5 seconds this time.’

He slumped on the bed, panting as he felt his vision blurring, at times failing to register what he saw in his brain. Shaking his head, he panted, taking in a deep breath as he could feel his clarity of vision returning.

But, he was still exhausted. Unwilling to waste his time, Compass Carburettor got up, grabbed his skipping rope and began to skip nonstop once again, starting slow as he soon returned to his top speed, noticing his vision firming while the hunger in his stomach continued to increase before rumbling.

After an hour of skipping, he stopped, placing the skipping rope as he opened the room’s door, looking at the servant as he asked for food to be brought in and some change of clothes, “Bring me lots please. I’ll be training many times per day from now on.”

“Yes,” The servant did as she was told. Once she brought in another set of clothes, Compass Carburettor took a bath and changed into the new set of clothes, eating the food that arrived right on time.

Right after eating, he looked at the time on his watch, “I’ll repeat in cycles of four hours. Three hours of skipping, 30 minutes of meditation, less than a minute to maintain the Armament’s activation, and the reminder time to eat and take a bath. I’ll modify my schedule once the Armament’s activation duration increases beyond twenty minutes.”

Compass Carburettor slept on the bed, closing his eyes as he immediately fell asleep. Three hours of sleep was enough for him per day. But now that using Darlac exhausted him even deeper, he resorted to this plan. By splitting his sleep into multiple batches, he was getting 6 hours of sleep in total.

But, this also meant he was able to train fully fresh six times every day. His sleeping efficiency was high, rather, it was higher than what he had accounted for. After all, he woke up within forty minutes after sleeping, feeling completely fresh.

Laughing, Compass Carburettor got up and began to skip, training his wrists to get used to the action while making his legs more spring-like. He realised that making his legs have more springing power would only be beneficial in the long run.

So, he might as well do that since the action of skipping trained the respective muscles anyway.