Villain With The Strongest System - Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Life Without Touch
Since losing his sight fifteen days ago, Rocky had been using the sensation of holding his sword and the feel of his body to enhance his swordsmanship.

Yet, this method needed a re-evaluation as he found himself deprived not only of his vision but also of his ability to feel and touch.

At first, Rocky fully expected to stagnate in his sword training because of this handicap, however, surprisingly he found a new parameter to focus on after having lost both his sense of touch and vision.

‘Sound’.

Rocky focused on improving the sound of his sword slashes as he cut through the air as somehow when he used echolocation and focused on the different types of air currents his sword caused with every slash, he was able to detect flaws in his slashing technique that he never perceived before.

“Oh-, this is interesting” Rocky murmured to himself as once the idea began to birth in his head he began tirelessly exploring all the avenues, converting his training into an entirely auditory experience.

*Shua*

*SHUA*

*SWUUA*

*SWA*

*SRRA*

He started to differentiate the subtle changes in the sound waves that bounced back to him as he swung his sword.

The high-pitched whine of a swift, accurate slash contrasted with the muffled thud of a poorly executed movement. It was these nuances in sound that guided Rocky to refine his technique further.

He also began to experiment with different types of swords, noting how the material and weight affected the sound of each slash, although he could not feel the weapon in his hands or its weight distribution as he held each sword almost as hard as he could and swung them using muscle memory, the sound helped him realize if he was being too stiff or whether the sword he was swinging was not the right match for him.

A lighter sword produced a sharper, quicker sound, while a heavier blade resulted in a deeper, more resonant echo.

This insight led him to choose his weaponry not by feel or sight, as he once would have, but by the auditory feedback each provided.

Rocky’s journey took another turn as he delved deeper into understanding the air currents his sword created.

He noticed that certain slashes produced more turbulent currents than others and by paying attention to these variations, Rocky began to grasp the efficiency of his movements.

A clean, precise slash resulted in a streamlined flow of air, barely disturbing the space around it, while a clumsy or imprecise movement caused chaotic whorls and eddies. This insight became his guide to refining his technique further, striving for the former with each practice swing.

He worked tirelessly for a few minutes, focusing on the nuances of his movements and the sounds they produced as soon he entered a state of enlightenment and enjoyment.

Rocky learned to adjust his grip, the angle of his attacks, and the timing of his movements to minimize the air disturbance.

This pursuit of perfection was not just about reducing noise but about achieving a level of precision and efficiency that was previously beyond his grasp.

“What a beast…. What a fucking natural genius” is what Nubi murmured to herself in her devil form as she witnessed Rocky’s training from afar.

Had he stagnated after losing his sense of touch, Nubi would not have been too surprised, however, instead of stagnating, his progress seemed to have increased tenfold as what started as normal experimentation of sound, soon developed into full blown sword qi technique.

Rocky’s mastery over air currents naturally led Rocky to the next level of swordsmanship: which was to project a sword slash beyond the physical blade, a revered and complex technique known as “manifesting the sword qi.”

This technique was the end point of the swordsmanship training course that the university wanted to teach its students, however, Rocky mastered it within 16 days of his arrival at the snake-men ancestral chambers and that too without having vision or touch.

Rocky did not know it yet, since he never trained seriously with swords before, however, his natural comprehension of the sword arts was insanely high.

While even the biggest geniuses would have stagnated without the guidance of a teacher if put in the situation that Rocky found himself in, Rocky sailed through these restrictions as if they meant nothing to him.

Him having unlocked sword-qi was something he was not even aware of, as he was only trying to reduce the noise interference so that his sword slash could travel the longest, never realizing that in this pursuit, he had unlocked something truly mesmerizing.

Unlocking sword qi, required not just physical control but a deep, intuitive understanding of the sword’s path and the air it displaced.

While his unlocked sword qi was not strong enough to slice through the practice dummy in the very first session, Nubi could see him achieving it in under a week’s time at the rate he was progressing.

***********

While Rocky’s swordsmanship lessons were enjoyable, everything else felt like a mess to him.

Having lost his sense of touch, he had to constantly make guttural sounds out of his throat to locate his food and eat it, as his noise irritated everyone else at the dining hall, with Leonard even picking a fight with him.

The longer everyone stayed in here, the more insane everyone seemed to become as nobody had any compassion for Rocky having lost his touch and were instead ready to beat him down should he irritate them enough.

The funny part was, Rocky did not even feel anything when Leonard punched him for making too much noise, however, Leonard was taken by his leg by the devil for attacking another resident.

Penance sessions also felt increasingly difficult while physical training and martial arts sessions became impossible to bear.

Rocky could not reject the hollow void his brain constantly felt for having the sense of touch as having had touch ever since he was born, losing it suddenly felt very difficult.

It was like an itch that refused to subside and no matter how much Rocky ran, no matter how hard he punched an object, without any response or stimulus to his brain even if he broke it, or even if his stamina hit rock bottom, he could not feel it which bothered Rocky to death.

He purely dedicated all his mental energy to swordsmanship training, spending even his extra time from 5 to 12 on it as that was the only time in the day where he felt mentally sane and productive, improving his slashing technique with each subsequent training session.

However, living this way had its limits as well.

A couple of days after losing his sense of touch, Rocky felt insane withdrawal symptoms as the lack of stimuli made his brain go insane.

Rocky never even knew how much feedback the body fed the brain on a daily basis via touch, and having lost that stimuli Rocky felt like his brain had started to rot, as his sanity took a hit.

‘Quit….. get out of here, even pigs can’t survive the way we are living….. you tried your best, but nobody can survive this’ Rocky’s inner consciousness told him, however, he wasn’t ready to kick the bucket just yet, as Rocky stubbornly refused to give in to the temptation of quitting midway.