At first, the sailors aboard the ship were all baffled. What was so special about this new ensign that the captain was willing to put so much effort into training him, practically becoming his full-time sparring partner?
Even back when they had served on battleships, noble children from influential Kingdom families sometimes came aboard for internships and training, but they had never seen anything like this.
For a time, the sailors buzzed with speculation.
Until one day, Evan and Gell simultaneously used the Secret Esoteric Truth of White Sail Swordsmanship, Sword Form Drifting Skiff. The two turned into afterimages, chasing and fighting across several lifeboats as though their feet never touched the ground, yet the boats did not so much as sway.
Only then did the crew suddenly understand. Their distinctive and formidable swordsmanship said it all. Evan was no child of the elite as they had imagined—he was clearly the captain's own junior family member.
By then, Evan had long since stopped caring what the crew thought. After two weeks of high-intensity training and constant tense combat, his physical attributes had improved by leaps and bounds. He was not far from the true limits of humanity!
However, during this process, Evan discovered the secret behind Uncle Gell's swordsmanship system. Like his own, it had initially been built upon White Sail Swordsmanship. A person's swordsmanship style could vary in countless ways, but the style of the foundation laid when first learning the sword was difficult to erase.
There was no need to say it—this had to be his father's doing. The fact that his father had taught Uncle Gell the family's Extraordinary swordsmanship, passed down for nearly two hundred years, was enough to show just how close the two had been.
Yet before breaking through to become a Formal Knight, Uncle Gell's foundation had quietly shifted from the agility-focused White Sail Swordsmanship to the straightforward, strength-oriented Faletis Sabre Art.
Having experienced it firsthand, Evan felt that White Sail Swordsmanship should have been far more effective than Faletis Sabre Art in terms of improvement. Why had Uncle Gell abandoned the easier path for the harder one, forsaking what was near for what was far?
With doubts in his heart, he asked Gell directly.
"Haha, don't blindly trust common sense and experience, Evan! White Sail Swordsmanship is indeed a very powerful Extraordinary swordsmanship, but swordsmanship has compatibility with its user.
"If our physical fitness could be quantified, then although my agility is decent, my highest attribute is strength. Advancing into the Extraordinary through Faletis Sabre Art allows me to make better use of that advantage."
Gell did not feel that revealing the foundation of his Extraordinary power to Evan was inappropriate at all. He continued, "And you don't think the part they taught you at the training camp was the entirety of Faletis Sabre Art, do you?
"There are many strong people in the navy, and many use this Military Swordsmanship. After continuous revision and development by masters throughout the generations, its potential is no less than that of the thoroughly refined White Sail Swordsmanship."
Name: Gell Cowper Gender: Male Military Rank: Colonel, Captain (Silver Wing, Third Fleet of the Faletis Kingdom) Class: Peak Formal Knight (Extraordinary Second-Order) Attributes: Constitution 4.5 Strength 4.8 Agility 4.3 Intelligence 1 (the limit before the transformation of life's essence is 1) Skills: Faletis Sabre Art (Advanced Version, Mastery) White Sail Swordsmanship (Mastery, supporting breathing technique, swordsmanship, potions) Navigation (Master)
Staring at Uncle Gell's attribute information, Evan nodded. He was right—his primary attribute really was strength.
Growing more animated as he spoke, Gell directly taught Evan the advanced version of Faletis Sabre Art as well, allowing him to choose for himself when advancing into the Extraordinary.
Besides that, taking advantage of this rare period of calm, Gell also selected the essential techniques from Cesi Scimitar Art, which was widely circulated among pirates, and Rose Swordsmanship, the Faletis Kingdom's Court Swordsmanship, and taught them to Evan as well. Even if Evan might not devote himself to mastering them, at least he would not be caught off guard when encountering them in the future.
Grateful for Uncle Gell's wholehearted guidance, Evan trained even more diligently. In truth, with Data Vision, he had an exceptionally clear understanding of his own path.
Military Swordsmanship could serve as support, while Cesi Scimitar Art and Rose Swordsmanship could serve as references. But his foundation still lay in White Sail Swordsmanship. After all, agility was his highest primary attribute.
During this period, there was another piece of good news. Evan's experiment had failed when he operated it ashore, but with the help of the ship's cook, the beans he had later brought aboard finally produced results.
"Mm, not bad. This is it." With a faint sweetness and a crisp texture, and no signs of poisoning in Data Vision, Evan confirmed that the development of bean sprouts had succeeded!
It turned out that with only suitable beans and fresh water, one could harvest large quantities of Vitamin C-rich bean sprouts in just a few days. They were not only delicious, but also a life-saving remedy for seamen.
Sure enough, when the crew ate this novel vegetable at dinner afterward, they praised it again and again. They strongly requested that the cook replace one of their usual main dishes, boiled salted beans, with this delicacy called bean sprouts.
When animals in nature developed physical problems, they would instinctively eat things completely outside their usual diets—for example, carnivores eating grass, gorillas eating clay, and so on.
That was because such things, absent from their normal diets, contained trace elements their bodies desperately lacked.
Humans, the most intelligent of all creatures, were naturally no exception. Their craving for fresh vegetables was also an alarm signal sent by their bodies.
"Mister Evan, do you know what your invention means?" Ordinary crew members might not have had much vision, but Martin, the ship's doctor, who was especially sensitive to such matters, sought Evan out himself and grabbed him excitedly.
In this era with Extraordinary Power, people had already become aware of the existence of scurvy, and they had vaguely realized that fresh fruits and vegetables could protect sailors from the disease.
But under the conditions aboard a wooden sailing ship, storing enough fresh fruits and vegetables to supply the entire crew was simply unrealistic.
Beans, which were easy to store and could be turned into vegetables through brief cultivation, were a perfect match for ocean voyages! Countless sailors who needed to drift at sea for four or five months would be saved by this small invention.
And Evan, as the discoverer of this vegetable, would surely be recorded in naval history as it spread.
"Doctor Martin, I authorize you to promote this discovery freely. You can spread it through your own channels and benefit more people." Evan had expected that reporting it to the Kingdom would certainly earn him a reward, but at most it would be an impractical title. He had no intention of taking the path of farming for reputation. In this Extraordinary world, strength was the foundation.
Moreover, he knew many ways to supplement vitamins during long voyages, such as pickled vegetables, malt, or simply adding lemon juice to cane liquor. He just did not know whether people of this era had already discovered these methods, so he told Doctor Martin all of them at once.
Evan did not yet know what kind of help these ordinary, seemingly worthless pieces of "common knowledge" from his memories—and the fame that came with them—would bring him in the future!
"Your Excellency Evan, you truly are a genius! I am a member of the Kingdom Royal Medical Association. Please allow me to write to the gentlemen of the committee on your behalf and explain these great discoveries of yours. Countless seamen will remember your achievements!"
"Well..." At this point, the ship doctor blushed slightly, looking as though he wanted to say something but hesitated.
"Of course, you may put your name on the paper. The position of second author must be yours, Doctor Martin!" Evan knew exactly what this kind of professional wanted, and generously granted him authorship.
"Thank you, sir. Leave it to me. I'll write it. I'll handle it properly!" Doctor Martin replied in such ecstasy that he was nearly incoherent, then rushed back to his cabin to write the letter.
Sure enough, even in a world where Extraordinary Power clearly existed, desire was still one of the driving forces behind human progress.
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