Marvelous Martial Arts (A Marvel Story)

It took a month for Doom to deliver on his promise, which was astonishing enough on its own. Mason was 99% certain Doom did not have a gravity room prepared already, so he had managed to craft it in a single month.

Only as he received it did Mason realize Doom had not used technology, but magic instead, to create the Gravity Room. Probably out of spite, to show what Mason was missing out on by refusing to take up his offer to learn magic.

Too bad for him, Mason only cared that he had gotten his Gravity Room, and it was an excellent one at that. Gravity inside could be reduced to 0.1g and go all the way up to 1000g, meaning it would be useful for a while.

It was also quite inconspicuous, only taking the form of a seal on his wall. When activated, it would expand into a door, although Mason suspected it was more of a portal than an actual door.

The Gravity Room improved Mason’s training tremendously, despite only using 2g on himself. With his current physique, Mason could train under 5g momentarily, but that would bring little improvement.

The thing about the Gravity Room, and which made it so good for his training, was that unlike training with weights, the increased weight was experienced by all his body, not localized areas. This meant that his body was not only heavier, but that his heart was under twice the normal stress, that his lungs had to make twice as much effort to breathe, and that his blood would naturally pool in his extremities. And that was with just 2g.

Even while under ‘only’ 2g, if he wanted to stay inside for any extended periods of time and not suffer hidden injuries, circulating his Essence throughout his body was paramount. This meant that while under increased gravity, not only was Mason’s training more effective, but he was also forced to use his Essence in a nearly constant manner.

Finally, it also accelerated the cycle of destruction and rebirth taking place within Mason’s body. To grow stronger, a muscle had to be destroyed and rebuilt, which was normally something that took a long time and had diminishing returns over time. That was why bodybuilders did not turn into giant monstrosities. Not naturally at least.

Mason had limits too, of course, but ever since he had reached this awkward state between Body Refinement and Awakening realms, the limits of his physical body had been pushed. This Gravity Room would help him reach these new limits faster.

And while on the subject of improvements, his studies of the Fire Dao unfortunately remained fruitless. The frustrating thing was that he did not even know what he was doing wrong, and Izo’s notebook hardly helped as, in his own master’s words, ‘the Dao is to be felt, not explained’.

That sounded an awful lot like a skill issue to Mason, but the problem remained the same. Honestly, he knew that he was being unreasonable. Although his Breath was making little progress, his Essence was already improving rapidly, and the Gravity Room would only make the process faster.

As for his Spirit, it was already as strong as it could get, quite possibly matching that of a Peak Awakening Grandmaster, so he only needed to find the opportunity to awaken it, and he would be set.

Besides, it was not like his Breath was not improving. Although Mason still failed to grasp the Fire Dao, the numerous bouts of meditation and Dao-seeking also constituted a form of training.

A part of his discontent came from his approximate knowledge of the future and the dangers the world would face, but the bigger part of it was simply his ego. He was a genius, and he liked it. Getting stuck on something like this, especially this early on, felt maddening.

Thinking about this, the only thing on his mind at the moment was to rush into the Gravity Room and train, but he did have a student to teach.

In the end, Mason had not needed to advertise his dojo, since Doom’s tuition alone was more than enough to fund him. Mason was sure Doom had tampered with the Gravity Room and installed countermeasures and spying contraptions of some sort while building it, so he felt no guilt fleecing Doom for every lesson.

Not that it really mattered to the guy with virtually endless money.

Mason joined Doom in the dojo below, and looking at him kneeling on the futon, he asked, ”Are you really going to keep training with the armor on? You’re making things harder for yourself.”

”The armor does not come off.”

Mason rolled his eyes, but said nothing more on the matter since this was not the first time they had this argument. He sauntered in place as he warmed himself up, saying, ”And stop being so stiff, you’re giving me cramps just looking at you.”

Doom, who was sitting like a monk, spoke with a voice akin to steel, cold and sharp, ”Have you no discipline?”

Mason snorted, suddenly sending a lightning-fast kick at Doom’s mask. Doom reacted instantly, leaning back to dodge, and replicated with a sweeping kick. Mason chose against dodging it, infusing Essence into his foot instead as he met Doom’s leg.

Doom was strong, and his armor was no joke, but he was the one pushed back with that exchange as Mason continued sauntering in place, saying, ”My master would have liked you. But you’ve asked for my teachings, not his, so loosen up.”

Doom stared, but he started imitating Mason nonetheless, sauntering as well. Grinning, Mason said, ”The truth is, you’ve probably trained for far longer than I have.”

”I’ve trained for more than three months, yes.”

Doom was clearly showing off, acting like he knew everything there was to know about Mason. He ignored the cold remark, explaining, ”Not to toot my horn, but you very likely can’t replicate my training, so we’ll have to go another way. And since you won’t take off your armor, and I could use a punching bag- I mean, a sparring partner,” Doom ignored him, ”we’ll start with some fighting.”

One moment he was there, speaking, and the next he was right in Doom’s face, his hand forming a dragon grip, aimed at the holes in the mask.

Doom snarled, forgetting where he stood for a moment as he attempted to swat Mason’s hand away, even breaking his stance. Although surprised, Mason still acted on it, Essence moving down his leg as he sent a flying knee strike into Doom’s solar plexus.

Doom did not even see it coming, blinded by his own arm as his body was pushed back, his breath halting for a moment.

Mason stopped there, silently circulating Essence around his knee to avoid bruising. He might have become stronger, but striking titanium still hurt, though he would never show it. It would make Doom far too pleased with himself.

Placing his hands in his back, Mason looked at Doom, who was panting now, and said, ”You’re stiff, armor or not. Alright, don’t move.”

Mason pointed a finger at Doom, infusing his Essence into it, thus making it glow with a bright, yellow luster. Doom breathed unevenly, still recovering from Mason’s earlier strike, and watched as Mason tapped his finger on his Three Treasures.

Mason was doing to Doom the same thing Izo had done to him when he first started training under him, stimulating Doom’s Three Treasures with his Essence. This allowed him to form a faint, temporary connection with him and feel the state his Three Treasures were in.

Doom’s Three Treasures were surprisingly developed and balanced, but still remained well within normal human parameters. Mason half expected one of his treasures to be abnormally advanced due to his magic or some other bullshit power, but he stood corrected.

Still, that made things easier for Mason.

Seeing that Doom was still staring at him, Mason admonished with a click of his tongue, ”Close your damn eyes and circulate your Chi.”

Doom silently followed his instructions, while Mason sat back, thinking. Having a student of his own represented an opportunity for him.

Mason followed the doctrine of internal alchemy, or Neidan, because it was what his master had taught him. However, within his notebook, Izo had admitted that it was only one interpretation of cultivation. He did not use the term, which was foreign to him, but he got the meaning across well enough. In reality, humanity had quite a few schools of cultivation, each borrowing naming conventions from each other and mixing everything up.

When Mason had called his internal energy Chi, he had actually been technically right, as some called it as such. And now that he had a student, that he could be considered a proper master, it was up to him to decide the naming conventions.

For the Three Treasures, Essence, Breath, and Spirit were just fine to him; they made sense. What he liked less, however, was that in traditional Neidan taught by his master, there was no difference between the Treasure and the energy it held, leading to confusion. His Essence carried lifeforce, which was also called Essence.

From now on, the energy of Essence was Chi, the energy of Breath was Divine Sense, and the energy of Spirit was Spiritual Energy.

Author’s Note: I have nealry caught up with NovelPhoenix, finally. Once I do, the update schedule will synchronise and become one chapter a day.