Growth

Months later.

Gray Eagle Camp, training grounds.

"Clang—clang—"

With dozens of warriors watching, a man and a woman demonstrated swordsmanship, their clashing blades creating ringing sounds and flashing sparks.

The man was a young man around twenty years old, with neat short brown hair. His light and clean-collared shirt made his sword swings look quite graceful.

He was powerfully built, but the red-haired female warrior opposite him was even taller, at least a head taller than him.

The difference in their strength was as apparent as their physique. The female warrior was at ease, easily blocking all attacks, and occasionally counter-attacking lightly, which would send the young man into a flurry.

A moment later, both simultaneously sheathed their swords.

The female warrior turned to address the crowd, "Did you all understand the demonstration just now?"

"We understood!" most of the warriors replied.

There were also some hushed discussions: "Their movements were a bit too fast, I couldn't see clearly..."

"I remember this kid was an alchemist? It's really strange for an alchemist to come practice swordsmanship every day..."

"Hmph, he's clearly here to see our Instructor Cassandra!"

"When Cassandra isn't here, Gagnor also comes here to practice swordsmanship, didn't you know?"

On the other side, Gagnor was sitting on the ground resting, reviewing his status panel.

[Holy Name: Adakonyanus Sanderan Alexstrasashen]

[Level: 3]

[Constitution: 17/34]

[Spirit: 24/34]

[Strength: 20/34]

[Intelligence: 24/34]

[Agility: 23/34]

[Experience: 257/1200]

[lv4 Herbalism][lv4 Archery][lv4 Swordsmanship][lv4 Feign Death][lv2 Hunter's Tools][lv2 Skinning][lv2 Arcane Wisdom]……

[Status: Returned Youth (Remaining 9 hours)]

……

Over the past year, Gagnor had lived a very disciplined life. Although there was still a gap compared to his envisioned plans, it could be considered the most fulfilling year of his life, both past and present.

With the boost from Returned Youth, a year of discipline had brought about a sea change in Gagnor.

This was first reflected in his attributes.

Through natural growth, his Constitution and Strength increased by 4 points, Agility by 3 points, and Spirit and Intelligence by 2 points, with all attribute caps increasing by 3 points.

Including the increases from skills, Gagnor's attributes gained a total of approximately 30 points!

It was worth mentioning that when a skill reached level four, it would provide an additional point of attribute growth.

For example, Swordsmanship increased Strength for the first three levels. At level four, in addition to Strength, it also increased Constitution by 1 point. Feign Death at level four also additionally increased Constitution by 1 point.

Herbalism at level four additionally increased Agility, and Archery at level four additionally increased Strength.

Among all attributes, Strength saw the most significant increase without a doubt.

Gagnor's Strength was originally at a normal person's level. Now, his Strength even surpassed that of many Level Two Warriors. Every time he wore his alchemist robe and won arm-wrestling matches against warriors, he garnered astonished glances.

However, even with both hands, he couldn't budge the strong arm of Cassandra, the Vice Commander and chief instructor of the Gray Hawk Mercenary Group.

It was precisely in these strength comparisons with Cassandra that Gagnor realized a problem.

It was best not to let Strength exceed Constitution, otherwise, one could easily injure themselves, ranging from strains to fractures in severe cases.

Similarly, Intelligence should not exceed Spirit, otherwise, one could easily overexert their mind, leading to depression in mild cases, or madness in severe ones.

Beyond attributes, Gagnor's greatest gain was undoubtedly the change in his physique – his height had increased by more than ten centimeters, making him a "tall person" overnight.

After a while, Cassandra announced the end of training, and the warriors gradually dispersed from the training grounds.

Then she looked at Gagnor, "You should have passed the recent Warrior's Guild assessment smoothly, right?"

Gagnor stood up from the ground and took out his iron Level One Warrior badge. "Yes, Instructor."

Cassandra smiled, "In reality, you already possess the combat ability of a Level Two Warrior, but the Professional Guilds are always fixated on their assessment standards."

She changed the topic, "If I recall correctly, your main profession is Alchemist?"

Gagnor nodded, "Alchemist and Hunter. Both are Level Two."

In the past year, besides various disciplined practices, he had also participated in many professional guild assessments. Now, he had official badges as a Level Two Alchemist, a Level Two Hunter, and a Level One Warrior.

He also wanted to obtain a Level One Mage badge.

But that was clearly much more difficult.

He had mastered quite a few spells. The Blood Magic Notes contained tricks and first-ring spells, all of which he had learned, excluding the black magic itself.

However, these spells were somewhat inconvenient to display, at least not for assessment. After all, his definition of "not black magic" and the Mage Guild's definition of "not black magic" were quite different.

In Gagnor's opinion, as long as it didn't involve human sacrifice or corpse-eating, it wasn't black magic. What was wrong with playing with a little blood?

Cassandra mused, "Are you interested in combat?"

After a brief hesitation, Gagnor nodded.

Cassandra continued, "Next month, the mercenary group will have a defensive mission. Lucius, I, Night Owl, and most of the soldiers in the entire group will be participating. Would you like to go? Of course, war is always dangerous."

"Instructor, may I ask the location and the enemy for this operation?" Gagnor thought for a moment.

"Presto Keep," Cassandra replied. "The potential enemies are Viscount Uris and the Wolf Hunt Mercenary Group, but the situation is still a bit unclear. In the best-case scenario, there might not be any fighting... Once we're there, you can continue your work as an apothecary, making potions for the defending soldiers, or you can participate directly in the defense as a combatant."

In the past year, Gagnor had barely fought. Besides growing stronger, he had only been focused on making money.

Now that his growth phase was over and he had earned a considerable amount of money, it was time to participate in some battles.

After all, leveling up was the most important thing, and the fastest way to level up was through combat.

"I want to go," he said.

Cassandra nodded. Before leaving, she remembered something else. "Do you have a Holy Name related to physique?"

"Yes," Gagnor nodded. At eighteen years old, he had grown more than ten centimeters taller, and anyone could guess that it was a blessing from a Holy Name.

"Do you have one too?" Looking up at Cassandra, who was still more than thirty centimeters taller than him, he couldn't help but ask.

Cassandra smiled slightly. "Two."

With that, she strode away from the training ground, each step covering a meter...

Later that day, Gagnor, as usual, went to the Black Gold Corridor. He handed a large leather bag of potions to the Potent Potions Expert and received ten gold coins in return.

The Sith Dragon Potions business was doing quite well, with no shortage of buyers, especially the improved yellow Sith Dragon Potions. The price had even increased recently, allowing Gagnor to earn dozens of gold coins over the past six months.

From the perspective of an ordinary person's life, this was practically financial freedom. At least when eating at the Eagle and Whistle Inn, he no longer bothered to check the prices.

"The business will have to be paused for a while. I'll be leaving South Sea Town soon," Gagnor said.

The Potent Potions Expert seemed to have guessed something and asked, "Are you going to Presto?"