Luke found himself in the center of an underground chamber. It had been just over a week since the beginning of the holidays.
The room was rectangular and nearly dark. In each corner, there was a torch with a faint fire that barely helped to see.
In any case, the lighting in the room was of no use to Luke, as his eyes were covered with a black blindfold.
The walls of the chamber were made of massive stone blocks, each one pierced with a series of small dark holes. It was difficult to determine exactly how many there were, but their design suggested a complex network of hidden traps.
In the deathly silence of the room, Luke heard a click, like some kind of mechanism activating. Suddenly, a soft yet threatening hum filled the air as a wave of arrows was shot from all directions.
A normie would be dead with so many arrows, no matter how good their reflexes were, but Luke had extended his dominion, and his reflexes were superhuman.
Without needing to see, his body reacted instinctively. He leaned to one side, then made a quick, low spin, dodging the arrows that passed inches from his skin.
Then he jumped sideways, evading several arrows. He didn’t move much from his spot, but he managed to dodge all the arrows without a scratch.
‘That was easy,’ Luke thought, shaking his hands.
He was training in an underground room of the Addams mansion. His goal was to improve his reaction time and reflexes, as well as to ensure his body could keep up with his perception speed.
He wasn’t using his observation haki or pseudo precognition, as this ability doesn’t work with traps because they have no intentions or emotions. Therefore, Luke had to rely on his extrasensory ability.
To dodge the arrows, Luke extended his dominion, though not completely. He only covered the underground chamber.
At other times, he had expanded it much further, even reaching a range of 25 kilometers, but with such a wide radius, the information became overwhelming, and it was very demanding to maintain.
Detecting thousands of people, creatures, or objects at that distance generated an uncontrollable flow of data that his mind wasn’t yet prepared to process fully.
That’s why, in this type of training, he reduced the extent of his dominion to just a few meters, limiting it to the room he was in.
By reducing the extent, the amount of information decreased, allowing him to focus more easily on the immediate objects or threats.
The information came to his mind more clearly and concisely, enabling him to process it more quickly.
Additionally, this helped him train his ability to handle the received information more effectively. Instead of covering a vast territory, which gave him a panoramic view of everything happening kilometers around, he now focused on a small area and the specific movement of the arrows flying toward him.
He could concentrate on detecting details like the speed of the arrows, their trajectories, and the angles from which they were fired.
“Round one finished… Round two will begin in fifteen seconds,” said a monotonous voice that echoed in the room.
Luke recognized the voice. It was Wednesday. She was in charge of manipulating the traps in the walls. He focused on counting mentally, but to his surprise, after ten seconds, arrows began to shoot out at high speeds from the holes toward him.
‘That cheater!’ Luke thought as he slightly turned his head to dodge an arrow.
Two minutes later, the arrow barrage ceased. This time, Luke found it harder to dodge the arrows, which were more numerous and faster than in the previous round, but he still didn’t get a scratch.
“Hey, that wasn’t fifteen seconds!” Luke complained, his voice echoing in the room.
“In a life-or-death battle, you can’t trust everything you hear. Round three starting now,” Wednesday said, her voice sounding from all directions. As soon as she finished speaking, a large number of arrows shot toward Luke again.
The rounds continued. Each time, more arrows shot out from the holes at increasing speeds. In one round, the arrows were on fire or poisoned.
Luke was no longer as relaxed as in the first round. He was already sweating and pushing himself to the limit. Several arrows even grazed him, tearing his clothes and making small cuts on him.
Finally, in round twelve, he had to use his telekinesis to stop several arrows; otherwise, his brain, his leg, and his left lung would have been pierced.
“Game over,” Wednesday said.
Luke fell to the ground, exhausted, breathing heavily and feeling a burning sensation in his cuts. He had a cut on his right shin, his left forearm, and both shoulders.
Suddenly, one of the cobblestone walls in the right corner of the room began to tremble, emitting a deep crack. The stone blocks slid to the sides, revealing a hidden opening.
Wednesday calmly emerged from the passage and walked toward Luke. In one hand, she carried a small first aid kit.
She approached Luke without haste. When she reached his side, she knelt down and opened the kit. She took out a couple of gauze pads and an antiseptic solution, and began cleaning his wounds.
Luke let out a faint grunt of complaint at the burning liquid touching his wounded skin, but he didn’t complain.
Wednesday continued without saying a word. She had never treated someone else’s wounds, nor her own, since the times she got hurt were few. But her precision and execution were
good.
After disinfecting the wounds, she applied ointment to the more serious ones and covered them with bandages, finishing the treatment. From one of her pockets, she took out a small bottle a few centimeters tall. Inside the bottle was a bright green liquid.
“Take this. One of the arrows was poisoned,” Wednesday said, extending the bottle toward Luke, who looked at it with disgust. He had already tasted that flavor, and it was anything but
pleasant.
“If you don’t take it, get ready to use the bathroom several times tonight,” she added, and Luke, with no other option, quickly took the liquid.
“Am I getting better?” Luke asked after the horrible taste of the liquid faded.
“Yes,” Wednesday replied, not looking directly at him, as she was ensuring she tightened the
last bandage she placed on him.
“What did the device show?” Luke asked, intrigued.
The room Wednesday emerged from was a control room that allowed manipulation of the traps and had a measuring device. Surprisingly, the Addams built this room for training, not
for torture.
“Your reaction times are between 50 and 55 ms,” Wednesday said, finally meeting his gaze.
Such a time was superhuman compared to normies, who average between 200 and 250 ms. A talented and trained normie, like a fighter jet pilot, has a reaction time of about 100 ms. Luke is significantly superior in this regard, and all the outcasts are as well, with their bodies exceeding those of normies. However, Luke, with his clairvoyance, has an advantage in this area, though that doesn’t make him the best.
According to Edgar, werewolves and vampires have very good reaction times on par with or
superior to clairvoyants.
Additionally, the outcasts have another advantage compared to normies. Their bodies can respond almost instantaneously to stimuli.
An average human has a reaction time of approximately 250 ms to a visual stimulus. This time includes not only the perception of the stimulus but also the processing of information by the brain.
Once the brain receives the signal, the time it takes for the body to react varies depending on the action. For example, moving a limb in response to a stimulus may take between 150 and
250 ms.
For more complex movements, such as jumping or aiming a weapon, the reaction time can extend even further. In total, this means that an average human could have an effective reaction time of up to 500 ms for actions that require movement. Considering that an average arrow can travel at speeds of between 50 and 70 m/s, if it is 20
meters away, this implies that the time it takes for the arrow to reach the target would be approximately 80 to 130 ms. Therefore, a normal human, even the most trained, would not be able to dodge an arrow; their brain can process the information, but their body cannot react quickly enough.
In contrast, Luke has a reaction time of between 50 and 55 ms. This means that his brain can process the threat almost instantly, and his outcast body can start to move in about 20 or 10 ms. This allows him to anticipate and dodge such arrows, unlike normies.
“Am I far from dodging bullets?” Luke asked, looking at Wednesday, who is very good at calculating, unlike him.
“A 9 mm bullet can reach a speed of 350 meters per second. That equates to about 57
milliseconds from the moment it is fired to when it hits. Your brain can see and process the information about the bullet almost instantly. However, your body isn’t fast enough to dodge it,” Wednesday replied.
Luke understood why he couldn’t dodge it. His body took about 20 milliseconds to move, plus the 50 to 55 ms of reaction time he had, which amounted to about 70 to 75 ms. However, if he detected the killer intent of the gunman, he could dodge the shot.
Nevertheless, if he used his telekinesis, he could stop the bullet or hundreds of bullets with a simple thought before they reached him, without needing any other ability. After that conversation, Luke was about to get up to leave the room, but he noticed Wednesday frozen in place. Their training was already over. Wednesday had also trained earlier, and her reaction time was incredibly good despite not having clairvoyance. “What’s wrong? Do you want a kissing session in this beautiful place?” Luke asked with a slight teasing smile as he looked at Wednesday.
The room had poor lighting, a musty smell, and mold, with dozens of arrows scattered on the floor, some of them with blood belonging to Luke and Wednesday. Wednesday’s face remained impassive in response to Luke’s comment. She thought it was a good idea to kiss in this place, although she wouldn’t call it a kissing session.
“I want to talk to you,” Wednesday said in a serious tone, though her tone always seemed
serious.
Luke noticed the slight difference and, with curiosity, sat back down beside her on the cold
stone floor.
“What’s up?”
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