When the training session finally ended in the early hours of the morning, I could barely drag my boots across the stone corridor.
My hips were popping with every step, and the tendons in my ankles felt like they had been stretched over a burning wheel. I stumbled into my dark, stone room, collapsed onto the narrow wooden cot without even taking off my jacket, and passed out the second my head hit the rough pillow.
[Innate Trait: [Endless Resilience Lv. 1] Active!]
[Overnight Tendon & Joint Micro-Tears Repairing...]
While I slept, my glitched trait went to work. It quietly stitched together the torn ligaments in my ankles, realigned the cartilage in my hips, and flushed out the lactic acid built up in my thighs.
When I opened my eyes at dawn, the agonizing throbbing was gone, leaving behind only a deep, dull stiffness that reminded me I was still very much human.
Master Vane stood at the center of the obsidian pit. His grey-black coat was buttoned neatly, and his pale, viper-like eyes held no malice or anger—only a cold, unreadable neutrality.
He didn’t carry his black needles today, his hands folded loosely behind his back.
"The Foundational Sinuous Step allows you to slide across the ground without friction or sound," Vane said, his raspy voice even and measured. "It is effective for approaching a target in a straight line or a wide curve. But in a real fight, a straight line is predictable. A trained archer or a battle-mage will simply place their spell where they know you must arrive."
He unclasped his hands and stepped onto the oiled glass surface.
"The Intermediate Stage," Vane continued, "is called Angular Vector-Snapping. It is the art of altering your momentum mid-glide at ninety or one-hundred-and-eighty degrees without losing speed, without stopping, and without making a sound."
Vane demonstrated.
He glided forward across the oiled glass at blinding speed, a silent shadow moving in a straight line. Then, without his feet lifting or his upper body leaning, his entire frame suddenly "snapped" ninety degrees to the left.
There was no skid. No sound of boots scraping against oil. One millisecond he was moving north, and the next millisecond he was gliding west at the exact same velocity, his body appearing to flicker like a glitched frame in a video.
My eyes widened slightly. "You didn’t decelerate at all."
"Deceleration is death," Vane said, walking back to his starting position with that same stoic, emotionless expression. "To execute the Vector-Snap, you must do two things simultaneously. First, you must momentarily dislocate the leading ankle joint to allow the boot to rotate beneath the body’s momentum. Second, at the exact millisecond of the turn, you must release a micro-burst of Aether from the opposite heel to cancel the lateral inertia."
He looked at me. "Now, begin."
I stepped onto the oiled glass, drawn dual katanas in hand.
I initiated the Foundational Sinuous Step first, shifting my center of gravity down into my lower abdomen, letting my weight roll along the outer edges of my boots. I glided across the glass, gaining speed.
Then, I tried to snap ninety degrees to the right.
I dislocated my right ankle, but I failed to release the Aether micro-burst from my left heel.
My body’s forward momentum completely overruled my foot’s direction. My right boot caught the glass, my leg twisted at a sickening angle, and my entire body went spinning out of control across the slick floor.
BOOM!
I crashed shoulder-first into the obsidian wall at the edge of the pit, my left katana flying from my hand.
I lay in the oil, gasping as my shoulder throbbed with pain.
Vane walked over to the edge of the glass, looking down at me with a calm, analytical gaze.
"You released the Aether from your calf instead of your heel," Vane explained. "Releasing it from the calf pushes your weight upward, breaking your connection to the floor. The micro-burst must originate from the center of the heel plate to push your momentum sideways while keeping your sole flush with the surface. Stand up and repeat."
I pushed myself up, my shoulder popping back into place thanks to [Endless Resilience]. I retrieved my fallen katana, wiped the oil from the grip, and stepped back onto the glass.
I glided forward. Inhale. Hold. Exhale.
I reached the turn point, dislocated the ankle, and released a tiny burst of Aether from my left heel.
THUMP!
The burst was too strong. Instead of a smooth vector-snap, the Aether exploded outward, shattering the oil layer beneath my boot and launching me sideways into a pillar.
"Too much Aether," Vane noted from the center of the pit. "You are trying to blast yourself into the turn. The micro-burst is not a propulsion spell; it is an anchor. It cancels the forward vector so the new direction can take over. Reduce the Aether volume by half."
For the rest of the day, I did nothing but slide, turn, crash, and adjust.
By the time the alchemical lanterns in the catacombs dimed for the night, I hadn’t mastered the Vector-Snap, but I had learned how to execute a rough forty-five-degree turn without breaking my ankles. My clothes were soaked in oil and blood, and my legs felt like they were made of bruised meat, but my [Adaptive Resonance] was slowly mapping the exact micro-adjustments my body needed to make.
The next day brought a new layer of difficulty: weapon integration.
Vane stood before me in the pit, holding a wooden training sword. "Gliding without weapons is simple. Your arms are free to balance your weight. But when you carry two katanas, the weight of the steel creates a pendulum effect during the Vector-Snap. If the blades swing even an inch out of alignment during the turn, the centrifugal force will throw you off-balance."
He demonstrated again.
Vane glided forward, pulled his wooden sword back into a thrusting stance, and executed a sharp ninety-degree Vector-Snap. The wooden blade didn’t wobble or drift. It stayed locked in line with his center of gravity, moving through the turn as if it were welded to his ribs.
"Integrate your blades into your core," Vane said, his voice completely flat. "The katanas do not follow your body into the turn. Your core turns the katanas."
I stepped onto the glass, drawing both steel katanas.
I initiated the glide. The oil slid beneath my boots. I raised my right katana into an overhead slash—Pi—and tried to execute a ninety-degree Vector-Snap to the left.
The moment my feet changed direction, the weight of my raised right katana pulled my upper body to the right. My upper and lower body tried to go in two different directions at thirty miles an hour.
CRACK!
A sharp, tearing pain shot through my lower back as my lumbar muscles strained under the conflicting forces. I hit the glass hard, my katanas clattering across the floor as I skidded to a halt against the wall.
[Innate Trait: [Endless Resilience Lv. 1] Active!]
[Lower Back Muscle Strain Repairing (20%... 22%... 29%)]
I lay on my stomach, breathing heavily through my teeth as my trait repaired the torn back muscles.
Vane walked over, stopping a few feet away. "Your trait is quite the blessing. Anyway, you raised the right blade before completing the turn. Raising the blade elevates your center of gravity, making you susceptible to centrifugal pull. Keep the blades tucked against your ribcage during the snap. Extend the strike only after the new vector is established."
I pushed myself up, my back clicking as the muscle fibers reconnected. "Tuck the blades... extend after the snap. Got it."
I picked up the katanas and lined up again.
Glide. Inhale. Tuck the steel against my ribs. Dislocate the left ankle. Micro-burst from the right heel.
FLICKER!
My body snapped ninety degrees to the left. The katanas stayed locked against my core, moving smoothly through the turn without pulling my upper body off-balance. The moment the new vector established itself, I drove my right katana forward in a silent, lightning-fast thrust—Ci.
The steel punched through the air, stopping an inch from the obsidian pillar.
No sound. No skid. No loss of momentum.
I stood there in the quiet cavern, my breathing low and controlled, my blades holding perfectly steady.
Vane stood ten feet away, watching me with his usual emotionless, viper-like expression, he gave a single, curt nod.
"The mechanics are understood," Vane said neutrally. "You have five days remaining to refine the execution until your body performs it without thought."
He then walked away.
I sheathed my katanas, my hands shaking from hours of continuous physical strain, and looked at the dark cavern ahead.
Five more days of tearing my muscles apart and rebuilding them until the Sinuous Step became as natural as breathing.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead, a tired, determined smirk cutting through the dirt on my face.
"Five days," I muttered. "I feel so tired and sleepy... by the way why do I feel Vane was quite nice to me today," with a gleefully, manic smile, I walked toward my room.