Swordsmanship Instructor

Early the next day—more precisely, in the early morning—the usual training grounds were already packed with recruits.

When Evan arrived half an hour earlier than usual, the sight before him truly startled him. Having never truly struggled in the mud in either of his two lives, he had still underestimated their desire for swordsmanship—or rather, for changing their fate.

In fact, nearly every nation on the continent had its own Military Swordsmanship. Beyond the shared traits of being plain, direct, and practical, each had its own particular focus.

As a great maritime power, Faletis had modified and refined its Military Swordsmanship specifically around the characteristics of its users, making it highly suited for combat at sea.

This was because the weapon best suited for this swordsmanship was the Faletis Kingdom's naval saber, a long, straight, single-edged blade capable of both thrusting and slashing. Even inexperienced sailors could wield it with considerable lethality after a short period of training.

Therefore, rather than calling it "Military Swordsmanship," it was more fitting to call it "Faletis Sabre Art."

After Evan arrived, he handed each prospective recruit a wooden training saber beneath their eager gazes, had them form neat ranks, and officially began swordsmanship training.

At this moment, no one questioned whether Evan, who was a recruit of the same batch as them, was capable of teaching them. Although Eugene wanted to slack off, he had no intention of dropping a stone on his own foot. Through the public sparring matches with Evan over the previous two days, he had not only completely conquered the recruits with his superb swordsmanship, but had also made them understand just how vast the gap between them was.

By this point, naturally no one raised any doubts about Evan.

The instruction began with how to hold a sword.

Only then did Evan realize that this task was not particularly difficult, nor was it as dull as he had imagined.

"Hold the sword firmly, but do not grip it too tightly, or your arm will tire quickly. Only when slashing or blocking do you need to tighten your grip. Knowing how to relax your hand after completing a movement is an art, also known as Soft Hand.

"This is a necessary talent for learning swordsmanship. It makes your hand more agile while preventing fatigue and stiffness."

"Loosen up a little. Loosen up more."

"Do not stiffen your arms too much, and do not keep your eyes fixed on the sword."

After making a round to ensure everyone could hold their swords correctly, Evan continued explaining the three defensive forms in Faletis Sabre Art:

High Guard Stance, Outside Guard Stance, and Inside Guard Stance.

For a selfish reason, Evan directly called Gary—the person he had known earliest and gotten along with best—forward and had him assist with the demonstration.

"Boss Evan!" Gary called out as he stepped before the formation, clearly at a loss under the gaze of so many eyes.

Despite Gary's rough, towering appearance, he was actually the same age as Evan, even a month younger. Not long after enlisting alongside Evan, he had been won over by Evan, who surpassed him in every aspect, and became his little follower.

However, in the eyes of others, Gary was less a follower and more someone who had latched onto a powerful backer.

Even a dull but honest man had his own wisdom for survival!

That single "Boss" made Evan resolve to help him change that shy temperament from now on.

Signaling that Gary did not need to be nervous, Evan began demonstrating and explaining one move after another.

"High Guard Stance can be used against any slash directed at the body or arms. The sword is also positioned perfectly to defend the head and feet. When the opponent's sword comes in, simply raise or lower your hand slightly to block it."

"When your hand is on the right side, it is called Outside Guard Stance. When your hand is on the left side of your body, it is called Inside Guard Stance. In these two stances, one side of your body will be exposed to the opponent, but you cannot demand that an enemy attack only when you have assumed the proper posture. Therefore, you must master every defensive stance!"

"Gary, High Guard Stance..."

Smack—

Smack—

The wooden swords clashed as Evan launched attack after attack. He did not stop until Gary had used each defensive stance three times.

Only then did Evan explain the key point of "defensive techniques": every guard had to be performed with the strong part of the blade—the unsharpened section near the guard, commonly known as the "strong blade." The sharpened portion near the tip was correspondingly called the "weak blade."

During Evan's earlier battle with Black Bear Billy, he had used the strong blade at close range to bind and knock away his opponent's saber.

Only at the end of the lesson did he explain how to attack—the simplest, yet also the most complex part.

Thrusts and slashes were the most basic techniques, yet they could only become bodily memory through arduous practice day after day. There were no shortcuts.

However, Evan also passed on his own insights from practicing swordsmanship, hoping the recruits would gain something from them.

"Remember the key to attacking: when attacking, never let your foot touch the ground before your sword reaches its target, and never let the sword tip leave the optimal path of attack!

"Only then can you strike your opponent faster and keep your own little life intact."

Holding the sword, attacking, defending—without even the feints common to ordinary swordsmanship, Military Swordsmanship was this simple and direct!

Finally, Evan held the sword one-handed and demonstrated to the recruits how a proper thrust and slash generated force.

Screech—

With only a casual swing, the blade shredded the air and formed a vortex. Amid the lingering, piercing howl, Evan slowly stepped down from the demonstration platform.

"So strong!"

"A body that does not even look that strong can have such power. Can we do it too?"

"One day, I'll be this strong too."

No longer paying attention to the recruits' surging emotions, Evan planned to teach this foundation knowledge for three days straight. Afterward, he would let them slowly turn these techniques into instinct through practical combat training.

After that, he could identify and correct their shortcomings based on their performance in actual combat. Evan even planned to use Data Vision to give each of them targeted corrections.

In his previous life, he had been nothing more than an ordinary nobody. In this life, he was merely the descendant of a down-and-out noble with an empty title. Evan had also experienced the pain of rigid class divisions. Whether out of sympathy or responsibility as an acting instructor, he was willing to do everything he could to help them.

Of course, collecting data on every recruit from the same batch to enrich the database was definitely indispensable as well. (￣▽￣)／

Two weeks later, when Major Eugene suddenly appeared from who knew where, he was surprised to find that nearly everyone in the recruit training camp could already perform Faletis Sabre Art with some semblance of form.

Though in the eyes of a knight like him, they were still terribly immature and rigid, far from being truly usable in battle, they could indeed be said to have a solid foundation.

Major Eugene was left utterly puzzled. "Are this batch of recruits all so talented? Why didn't I notice before?"

Only after he resumed the remaining training did he discover that it had all been an illusion. They were still the same bunch of blockheads.

But that no longer had anything to do with Evan.

During these two weeks of substitute teaching, Evan's attitude had actually undergone a subtle change. He had gone from being somewhat impatient at first to fully immersing himself later on. This was because, during the process of teaching the recruits, aside from receiving their sincere gratitude, he had finally understood what it meant that teaching benefits both teacher and student!

Everyone had different physical conditions, different perspectives for understanding things, and different ways of thinking. This required a teacher to truly comprehend his own knowledge thoroughly in order to solve every student's problems.

During this process, Evan discovered that his understanding of the two sword arts he currently possessed—White Sail Swordsmanship and Military Swordsmanship—had advanced by leaps and bounds. Even his physical fitness, which had not improved for a long time, had changed.

Name: Evan Garratt

Gender: Male

Attributes: Constitution 0.9+0.01

Strength 0.86+0.02

Agility 0.93

Intelligence 0.9

Skills: White Sail Swordsmanship (Mastery, includes supporting breathing techniques, swordsmanship, and potions) Military Swordsmanship (Mastery, includes supporting breathing techniques, swordsmanship, and potions) Archery (Mastery) Grammar (Mastery) Navigation Knowledge (Beginner) Apothecary Arts (Beginner)

His Constitution had increased by 0.01, finally reaching 0.91, while his Strength had risen by 0.02 to 0.88. Unlike the difficulty of advancing White Sail Swordsmanship, Military Swordsmanship had broken through to the Mastery level with ease.

The Military Swordsmanship Eugene had taught Evan contained a complete set of swordsmanship techniques, breathing methods, and supporting potions. In principle, it was also an Extraordinary swordsmanship capable of leading directly to the extraordinary.

This could also be considered a hidden benefit for Insignia Trainees.

However, after comparing them, Evan discovered that although Military Swordsmanship's techniques were simple and easy to learn, it placed greater emphasis on battlefield slaughter. Its most important Extraordinary Transformation effect was rather disappointing.

Just in terms of their supporting breathing techniques, Military Swordsmanship, with only five variations, and White Sail Swordsmanship, with twelve variations, were worlds apart even on paper.

Moreover, Eugene had authorized Evan to directly teach the recruits only the swordsmanship itself. He had strictly forbidden him from casually spreading the accompanying breathing techniques and potions.

It was like possessing the techniques but not the methods. This policy of the naval higher-ups had almost completely cut off their possibility of stepping directly onto the extraordinary path through it.