Sparring Partner

The detached courtyard was fairly spacious, and the house was large enough for two people. There was no need to worry about them getting in each other's way. Outside the courtyard was the beach, more than enough for Evan and Gary to fool around with training or practical combat drills.

What satisfied Evan most was the separate little attic at the top of the house. Opening a small door led to a balcony covered in ivy, lush and secluded amid the bustle, with a unique elegance to it.

He planned to turn it into his own Dispensing Room. Besides being an Apprentice Knight, Evan was also an excellent pharmacist and could prepare many Assistance Potions to suit his specific needs.

Moreover, the elderly landlord couple lived next door with their grandson. When the two of them were away at sea, they could help keep an eye on the place so it would not fall into disuse again.

"Not bad, Gary. What do you think?"

"Hehehe, I'm fine with anything." Having already decided to mooch off Evan's house, Gary naturally had no objections.

"Then let's prepare the contract." Evan clapped his hands, finally settling on where he would live for the foreseeable future.

Soon afterward, with the clerk's help, both parties signed a lease. At a monthly rent of one Silver Bull, the two of them officially settled down in Gabreid.

Evan would cover the one Silver Bull rent, while Gary would provide the labor—clearing the yard, cleaning the house, and buying daily necessities. They each had their duties, so Gary was not entirely taking advantage of Evan.

From what Evan had learned, an ordinary sailor in the Third Fleet currently earned around three Silver Bulls a month, equivalent to one Gold Lion. As a reserve officer, Evan earned five Silver Bulls a month. One Silver Bull equaled a hundred Copper Fuls, and in terms of purchasing power, one Copper Ful could buy roughly two Barley Breads as staple food.

For crewmen, they really might have to rely on their monthly wages to get by and could not spend lavishly on daily expenses. Officers, however, had a generous system for distributing spoils.

The Captain took one quarter for himself, while the ship's officers divided another quarter among themselves. Naturally, the actual arrangements were not quite so crude and straightforward, but officers did indeed have plenty of extra income.

Then again, without sufficient rewards, how could they attract talented people to join the navy and risk their lives on the dangerous sea?

The Faletis Kingdom could not possibly have risen to become one of the Tulip Alliance's leading naval powers in just a single generation otherwise.

Declining the landlord couple's invitation to dinner, the two found a restaurant and ordered a huge spread of vegetables, properly satisfying their grease-weary stomachs.

Back in his hometown, Gary had often spent an entire month gnawing on potatoes and never thought going without vegetables was a big deal. Evan was different. Retaining the habits of his previous life, he had always tried his best to maintain a balanced diet.

Fresh vegetables became scarce after going to sea. Short cruises like those aboard the Silver Wing were manageable, but if they ever undertook long ocean voyages without adequate supplies, it would become a serious problem.

Although humans in this world were generally much stronger than in Evan's previous life due to the influence of mysterious factors, diseases like scurvy still existed. Limited by relatively backward medical conditions, falling ill at sea could be fatal.

It could be said that personnel losses at sea, especially during long-distance voyages, might be even more severe from illness-related noncombat attrition than from combat casualties.

So before returning home, Evan took a detour to the market and found several kinds of beans that looked most like soybeans and mung beans from his previous life, buying a large bag of each.

He planned to try growing a dish that had been extremely common in his previous life. If it worked, leaving aside whether it could benefit seamen, his own stomach would suffer much less.

Furthermore, the Kingdom had always had laws rewarding inventions that advanced navigation technology. If he truly achieved his intended goal, he might even gain both fame and fortune.

Neither of them had friends in this city. Fifteen-year-old young people from small towns had yet to experience the city's glittering nightlife. For the next two days of leave, they stayed home obediently and worked out.

The beach beside the house was their ready-made Training Ground.

The breathing exercises, weighted training, diving, swordsmanship, and most of the other training routines Evan had consistently practiced in Leopold could all be accommodated here. Now that the two pushed each other, the results were even better.

After the fierce battle with the sea monster and several meals of sea monster meat, Evan discovered that his physical fitness had changed once more.

Name: Evan Garratt

Gender: Male

Military Rank: Warrant Officer (Third Fleet of the Faletis Kingdom, Silver Wing)

Class: Peak Apprentice Knight

Attributes: Constitution 0.91+0.02

Strength 0.88+0.01

Agility 0.93

Intelligence 0.9

Skills: (Omitted)

His Constitution had increased by 0.02, while his Strength had risen by 0.01.

He had originally believed he had reached his limit. Yet after leaving Leopold, including the recruit training period, only a little over three months had passed, and his rate of progress was no slower than when he had been in the early and middle stages of Apprentice Knight.

Could combat be the shortcut for Extraordinary persons on the Knight's Path to improve?

Evan was tempted. He decided that once he returned to the ship, he would ask Uncle Gell to give it a try. Evan felt that Uncle Gell would not refuse such a request.

In truth, aside from Evan's exceptional talent, Data Vision allowed every training session to produce the best possible results. From the age of eight until now, fifteen years old, his unremitting cultivation had already laid an extremely solid foundation for his body.

After leaving Leopold, the several perfectly timed bouts of practical combat he had experienced were like a forging hammer, gradually tempering Evan's iron billet into refined steel. That was why he felt his progress had been so rapid lately.

Meanwhile, under Evan's constant one-on-one guidance, Gary's Constitution finally broke through the innate value of 0.7, taking the first step in using the Knight training method to improve his physical fitness.

When it came to a knight's inborn talent, Gary might actually have been stronger than Evan in some respects.

After all, someone who could reach the late stage of Apprentice Knight through natural growth alone was truly frightening. Unfortunately, he had never received any guidance while growing up. If he had enjoyed the same learning conditions as Evan, he might already have become a Formal Knight.

The uneventful leave passed, and the two returned to the Silver Wing to resume their patrol duties.

In the meantime, Evan took the initiative to approach the captain and request practical combat training.

As expected, Gell agreed readily. During noncombat hours, Gell was not all that busy as captain, and there were no entertainment options aboard the ship anyway. Being able to train Evan suited him just fine.

They did not choose the deck as their Training Ground. Even Evan had already become a minor superhuman who had reached the Mortal Limit, let alone Gell, a genuine Extraordinary Knight. If they were allowed to train freely on deck, the destructive power would be too terrifying.

The Training Ground itself was easy enough to arrange.

They lowered several lifeboats and tied them together with ropes, forming a "Training Ground" spacious enough for the two of them to maneuver. Even if they made mistakes, no one else would get hurt.

"Evan, use every method you have and attack me with all your strength." Gell was still dressed in a neat, crisp field-grade officer's uniform. He casually held a longsword in one hand and stood at the bow of a lifeboat as he spoke calmly.

Though he felt somewhat underestimated, Evan knew Uncle Gell was qualified to say such things. He did not dare be careless in the slightest, silently drawing his sword and taking the highly aggressive Sail Raising Stance.

At this level, there was not much difference in lethality between practice swords and real swords. To let Evan experience enough pressure, Gell directly demanded that they train with real blades.

The gap between them was too great. He was confident he could control the situation.

Clang—!

Amid flying sparks, Evan, who had launched the attack, was sent flying directly away. He twisted around in midair, planted both feet against a lifeboat to borrow force, then leapt again through the spray.

Raising his sword over his head with both hands, he delivered a powerful Jump Slash.

Clang—!

Gell still caught it one-handed, then used his guard to knock Evan flying with the momentum.

In truth, Evan's current fighting style was vastly different from his previous agility-oriented swordsmanship. Because what he wanted to improve now was his physical fitness rather than his techniques, this head-on fighting style was more conducive to experiencing the use of knight-level force and sensing subtle changes through physical confrontation.

Gell neither approved nor disapproved of Evan's attack style. He merely suppressed his own strength to the limit Evan could endure, giving him genuine and powerful feedback.

Evan would have to comprehend everything else himself.

In fact, during Data Vision's process of quantifying his attributes, the list ultimately displayed before Evan was only the stabilized result.

During training, it continuously fed back the effects of his exercise. Even if data beyond three decimal places could not be displayed, Evan could still sense the trend of the changes.

0.93+

0.93+...

"Effective!" Evan rejoiced inwardly. In true battles before, they had mostly been life-or-death struggles, leaving him no energy to focus on subtle changes. Now, in this absolutely safe environment, Evan had finally discovered the secret behind changes in his physical fitness.

His physical fitness was like continually filling a wooden barrel with snow. It looked full, but in reality, if he pressed down harder, he could still pack in quite a bit more. He could not perform that "pressing down" on his own and had to borrow outside force. Uncle Gell happened to be the best source of that force.

With Data Vision confirming his guess, Evan became even less restrained. He aimed to compact this barrel of snow to its limit in the shortest possible time. Presumably, the moment it underwent a qualitative change into ice would be when he completed his Extraordinary Transformation!

Clang, clang, clang...

This was no time to cherish his sword. Evan's attacks became far more direct, abandoning every unnecessary movement and the flowing grace of White Sail Swordsmanship, leaving only increasingly fierce head-on clashes!

Even his swordsmanship style gradually shifted from "White Sail Swordsmanship" to "Faletis Sabre Art," desperately squeezing out his stamina and potential.

"Hah—!"

Bang—

He was knocked flying.

"Again!"

"Again!"

"..."

And so, Evan's incredibly fulfilling life at sea began.

He continued learning sail handling and all kinds of practical navigation skills aboard the ship, and whenever Gell had time, Evan pestered him for practical combat training.

Keenly sensing that Evan had reached some kind of critical point, that the true summit of the apprenticeship period was almost within reach, Gell set aside some unimportant work and specifically made time to remain with Evan in that tiny "Training Ground."

With Gell, the "Gold Medal Sparring Partner," doing everything he could to help him make the final preparations before his transformation, Evan's physical fitness and swordsmanship improved rapidly.

Evan felt that he was already very close to that limit...