Chapter 71: Slow Progress Is Still Progress

Summer had honestly thought she would be able to learn how to swim in a minute.

Unfortunately, swimming turned out to be much harder now that her body no longer had a built-in way to keep itself afloat.

"You need to use your legs," Ilya reminded her. "Just kick the water."

Summer, meanwhile, kept bobbing up and down on the surface like she was losing a fight with the lake. "I’m trying—blurp blurp—my legs won’t—blurp blurp—just shut up!"

Ilya immediately reached out and caught her by the waist before she could sink again.

"Stop fighting the water," he said.

Summer wiped the water from her face and glared at him. "I’m not fighting the water. The water is fighting me."

She took a deep breath and reminded herself why she was even doing this in the first place.

The water was freezing, strange things kept brushing past her legs, and she looked like a complete beginner even though she used to be an ace back in her old world.

"Okay. Okay." Summer added with determination, "Let me try again."

Ilya moved his hands from her waist to her hands. "Alright. I’ll hold onto you for a while. Just focus on kicking the water, and don’t panic. I won’t let you drown."

"No. No." Summer looked at him seriously. "Let me drown. Don’t save me for maybe three minutes."

Summer realized that she probably couldn’t do it well because she didn’t have any pressure pushing her.

After all, most of her training in the past had always been based on pressure and the fear that she would die in a painful way.

Drowning was also painful, so in Summer’s mind, if she truly believed she was about to drown, then surely her body would figure out how to swim.

"No," Ilya said firmly. "The water is cold. You could get hypothermia if I leave you under for too long. Your lungs could also get hurt if you breathe in too much cold water."

Summer looked at him in disbelief. "I thought you were strict."

Ilya clearly had not expected to end up with a trainee who wanted him to be even stricter.

"I am strict," he replied. "But being strict doesn’t mean I have to push my trainee to the edge of death every time I teach them something."

His voice softened slightly. "Slow progress is still progress."

The frown on Summer’s face deepened.

That way of thinking still felt strange to her because all of her old instructors had only cared about fast results, no matter how painful or dangerous the process was.

Summer lowered her eyes to the water. For a moment, she did not know what to say.

Ilya noticed the change in her expression, but he did not push her to explain anything. Instead, he simply tightened his hold on her hands.

"Try again," he said. "This time, don’t think about drowning. Just think about moving forward."

Summer took a deep breath before saying, "Fine."

"Kick from your hips," he reminded her. "Not just your knees."

Summer tried again. At first, her movements were still messy, and water splashed everywhere around her.

But she kept trying over and over until, little by little, she finally managed to stay afloat without Ilya holding her hands.

"Now try to swim over here." Ilya moved about two meters away from her. "And put your goggles on. Don’t hurt your eyes."

Summer pulled down the swimming goggles that had been resting on top of her head and started trying to move forward.

However, after a few moments, Summer felt like she had not moved even an inch, and it started to frustrate her.

"Calm down," Ilya reminded her again. "Push the water with your palms. Don’t move them the other way."

Summer finally stopped for a moment and tried again.

This time, she stopped fighting the water and let her body move with it. She followed Ilya’s instructions carefully, kept her movements steady, and before she even realized it, she had already reached him.

"I did it!" Summer said happily.

Honestly, she had not expected the training to work this well without needing to nearly drown first.

"Yes, you did well." Ilya smiled and gently patted her head a few times. Then he added, "Now that you can swim, how about we go back to our original plan? You swim halfway across the lake."

Summer looked past him at the wide stretch of water. She was still a little unsure, but after a moment, she nodded. "Let’s do it!"

In the end, Ilya swam beside her the entire way.

Unlike Summer, who still lost her rhythm from time to time, Ilya moved through the water with almost no effort. At one point, he even turned onto his back and kept swimming without making much of a splash, as if he were simply floating.

About twenty-five minutes later, Summer finally reached the middle of the lake.

Several floating buoys had been placed there, so she quickly grabbed onto one and let herself rest.

"Are you alright?" Ilya asked as he checked her vitals through his terminal. Summer had already given him access to them.

"I just need to catch my breath for a minute," Summer said.

She placed one hand against her chest and slowly tried to control her breathing. Her whole body felt tired after swimming for so long.

After all, swimming and running used the body in very different ways.

She was not even sure she still had enough energy to swim all the way back to shore, especially since it would probably take her another twenty minutes.

"Here, use this," Ilya said.

He pulled a small orange float from a compartment in his metal arm. After tugging on a short cord, the float quickly expanded.

He handed it to Summer right away. "Hold onto this for now."

Summer immediately wrapped both arms around the float.

The extra support helped, but her arms and legs still felt heavy from the long swim.

Ilya watched her for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Let me help you go back."