SSSSS-Rank: Negative Leveling

The cart was hidden in a narrow, rocky crevice, one of the many that crisscrossed the desolate plains like scars. Three days had passed since they left Outpost K, three days spent moving only at night and hiding during the day.

Luthra was in the middle of his morning routine. The first twenty thousand push-ups were complete, and he was now moving on to squats, his movements so fluid, that they seemed to ignore the laws of fatigue entirely.

Rebecca, who had been asleep under a pile of blankets, sat up and rubbed her eyes, a yawn stretching her small face. She watched him for a moment, her head tilted.

"Hey, Luthra. Are you a machine? You never stop moving."

'I have to. The system's timer is a constant pressure. I need to be in peak condition when the framework is complete.'

"Training."

She crawled out from under the blankets and walked over to him, standing a few feet away and mimicking his squatting motion, her small legs wobbling under the effort.

"Is this how you get super strong? By bouncing up and down a lot? Can I get super strong, too?"

"This is just the warm-up."

"The warm-up?!" Rebecca stopped bouncing, her eyes wide, "You've been doing that for an hour! I thought this was the main event!"

He did not reply, his focus absolute as he continued the motion, each squat perfect and identical to the last. Rebecca watched for another minute, then her expression shifted to one of determined concentration.

"Okay! I'm gonna do it, too! I'm gonna be super strong and then I can help you chop off that Silas guy's head!"

She stood next to him and began to squat, trying to match his pace. For the first ten squats, she was surprisingly good, her small body moving with an agility she did not know she possessed.

'Her mana circle, even dormant, must have given her a better physical baseline than a normal child.'

But after the tenth squat, her form began to fail. Her knees started to buckle, her back curved, and her movements became wobbly and uncoordinated.

"Hah… hah… This is… really hard," she panted, her hands on her knees, "Are we… almost done?"

"Forty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty to go."

Her face fell, and she promptly collapsed to the ground in a heap, "No way! I can't do that many! My legs feel like jelly! You're a monster!"

He finished his fiftieth thousandth squat and transitioned seamlessly into one-armed handstand push-ups against the canyon wall, his body a perfect, straight line of disciplined power.

Rebecca rolled over onto her stomach and watched him, her chin resting in her hands.

"Why do you train so hard, anyway? You're already the strongest person I've ever met. You beat up all those bad guys without even trying."

"Because I am weak."

"Huh? You're not weak! You're like, a superhero!"

'She doesn't understand. This strength is borrowed, a leak from a sealed power I don't control. My body, my will, this is all I truly own. It is the only thing I can make stronger through my own effort.'

The system screen flickered in his vision.

[System Notification: Synthesis of [Negative Void Combat Arts - Stage 1] is 82% complete. Estimated time remaining: 19 hours, 4 minutes, 21 seconds.]

'Almost there. I just need to hold out for one more day.'

Rebecca, having recovered some of her energy, got to her feet and tried to imitate his one-armed handstand, placing one hand on the ground and kicking her legs up into the air. She immediately lost her balance and tumbled sideways, landing in a heap with a small 'oof'.

She sat up, rubbing the back of her head, "Okay, maybe that one is for advanced superheroes. Do you know any easier moves? Like, one where I can just lie down?"

He wanted to ignore her, to let her wallow on the dusty ground until she got bored and went back to chewing on dried meat, but a spike of annoyance cut through his fatigue.

'This kid is going to get herself killed, and her whining is giving me a headache.'

He stopped his one-armed handstand push-ups, dropping to his feet in a single, silent motion. He walked over to where Rebecca was still lying on the ground, poking a small, iridescent beetle with a stick.

"Get up."

"Huh? Why? I'm busy. This beetle might have treasure."

"You wanted to train. So we're going to train."

She scrambled to her feet, her previous exhaustion vanishing as if it never existed, "For real?! Sweet! So what's the plan? Do I get to punch a mountain? Or wrestle one of those giant sand worms I read about? I'm totally ready!"

He said nothing, instead pointing a thumb toward a large, jagged boulder resting a few dozen feet away. It was about the size of a small cart.

"First rule of getting strong," he walked over to the boulder, bracing his feet against the ground, "Don't die."

He kicked it.

The massive rock lifted from the ground, a spinning, clumsy projectile that soared through the air directly toward the spot where Rebecca was standing.

"Holy shit! You're trying to kill me!" she shrieked, throwing herself sideways at the very last second. The boulder crashed into the canyon wall behind her, the impact shaking the ground and sending a shower of smaller rocks clattering down around her.

She sat up, her face pale and pointed a trembling finger at him, "That wasn't training! You're a psycho! You just tried to murder me with a rock!"

"A real enemy wouldn't have used something that slow," he stated, already walking over to an even larger boulder, "The world doesn't throw warnings, it just throws rocks. Get used to it. Now get up, this one's bigger."

"No way! Absolutely not! I'm not playing this stupid game anymore! I'm going back to the cart!"

He ignored her, placing his foot against the second boulder and applying a bit of pressure, making it groan against the ground.

'She has potential, I felt it when her mana went wild. But it's buried under… all this noise. She's all talk and panic. That's how you end up dead.'

"Fine, if you won't learn how to dodge, you'll learn something else," he let out a sigh that was pure frustration, walking over to her and grabbing her by the collar of her new tunic before she could run, "Lesson two is learning how to fall."

He started to spin, holding her out at arm's length. Her small body became a blur, her protests lost in the rush of wind.

"Whoa! Hey! Let go of me! This is way worse than the rock! I think I'm gonna be sick!"

He spun faster and faster, a human centrifuge built of pure, exasperated annoyance, and then he simply let go.

Rebecca sailed through the air in a long, screaming arc before landing with a loud crash in a large, thorny bush a hundred feet away.

She emerged a moment later, covered in scratches, leaves, and a furious scowl, "I hate you! You are the absolute worst person in the entire history of the world!"

"Now, the real training begins."