Growth

A few months later.

Gray Eagle Camp, training ground.

"Clang—clang—"

With dozens of warriors watching, a man and a woman demonstrated swordsmanship, trading blows back and forth. The colliding blades rang out sharply and sent sparks flying.

The man was a young man of about twenty, with neat brown hair. His light, snow-white collared shirt made his swordplay look quite graceful.

He was heavily built, but the red-haired female warrior facing him was even taller—by more than a head.

Their difference in strength matched their difference in build. The female warrior handled the fight with ease, calmly blocking every attack. Whenever she counterattacked slightly, the young man was thrown into disarray.

A moment later, they sheathed their swords at the same time.

The female warrior turned to the others and said, "Did you all understand the demonstration just now?"

"Understood!" most of the warriors replied.

A few others whispered among themselves. "Their movements were a little fast. I couldn't see clearly..."

"Isn't that kid an apothecary? It's strange for an apothecary to come here and practice swordsmanship every day..."

"Tch, he obviously comes to see our instructor Cassandra!"

"When Cassandra isn't here, Gagnor comes here to practice swordsmanship too. Didn't you know?"

Nearby, Gagnor sat on the ground resting while examining 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 Trapping Lv2 Skinning Lv2 Arcane Wisdom...

Status: Return to Youth (9 hours remaining)

...

Over the past year, Gagnor had lived a highly disciplined life. Although he still fell somewhat short of the plans he had imagined, it had nonetheless been the most fulfilling year he had experienced in either of his lives.

With the enhancement from Return to Youth, a year of discipline had brought about earth-shaking changes in Gagnor.

The first changes appeared in his attributes.

Through natural growth, his Constitution and Strength had increased by 4 points, his Agility by 3 points, and his Spirit and Intelligence by 2 points. The maximum limit of every attribute had increased by 3 points.

Including the increases from his skills, Gagnor had gained approximately 30 points in total attribute boosts!

It was worth noting that once a skill reached Level Four, it provided an additional point of attribute growth.

For example, Swordsmanship increased Strength during its first three levels. At Level Four, it increased Strength as usual while also increasing Constitution by 1 point. Level Four Feign Death likewise provided an additional 1 point of Constitution.

Level Four Herbalism provided an additional increase to Agility, while Level Four Archery provided an additional increase to Strength.

Of all his attributes, Strength had increased the most without question.

Gagnor's Strength had originally been at an ordinary person's level. Now, it exceeded that of many Level Two Warriors. Every time he defeated a warrior at arm wrestling while wearing his apothecary's robe, he attracted a wave of astonished looks.

However, even using both hands, he still couldn't budge the powerful arm of Cassandra, the vice-captain and chief instructor of the Gray Hawk Mercenary Group.

It was precisely while competing with Cassandra in strength that Gagnor realized a problem.

Strength was best not allowed to exceed Constitution. Otherwise, it was easy to injure oneself—at best, a muscle strain; at worst, a broken bone.

Likewise, Intelligence shouldn't exceed Spirit. Otherwise, it was easy to damage one's mind—at best, depression; at worst, madness.

Beyond his attributes, Gagnor's greatest gain was undoubtedly the change in his physique. He had grown more than ten centimeters taller, suddenly becoming "a tall person."

After a while, Cassandra announced that training was over, and the warriors gradually dispersed from the training ground.

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

Gagnor rose from the ground and took out his iron Level One Warrior badge. "Yes, instructor."

Cassandra smiled. "In truth, you already possess the combat ability of a Level Two Warrior. It's just that the professional guilds are always obsessed with their own examination standards."

She changed the subject. "If I remember correctly, your primary profession is apothecary?"

Gagnor nodded. "Apothecary and hunter. Both are Level Two."

Apart from all his self-discipline over the past year, he had also taken quite a few professional guild examinations. He was now a formally certified Level Two apothecary, Level Two hunter, and 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. Aside from the Black Magic in Blood Magic Notes, he had already mastered all the cantrips and first-circle spells.

However, these spells were somewhat inconvenient to display. At the very least, he couldn't use them in an examination. After all, there was still some difference between what he considered "not Black Magic" and what the Mage Guild considered "not Black Magic."

In Gagnor's view, as long as it didn't involve things like human sacrifice or consuming corpses, it didn't count as Black Magic. What was wrong with playing around with a little blood?

Cassandra pondered. "Are you interested in combat?"

After a brief hesitation, Gagnor nodded.

Cassandra said, "Next month, the mercenary group will have a defensive mission. Lucius, I, Night Owl, and most of the soldiers in the group will be taking part. Do you want to go? Of course, war is always dangerous."

"Instructor, may I ask where the battle will take place and who the enemy is?" Gagnor thought for a moment.

"Presto Keep," Cassandra said. "The possible enemies are Viscount Uris and the Wolf Hunt Mercenary Group, but the situation is still unclear. In an optimistic scenario, there might not even be a battle... Once you get there, you can continue working as an apothecary and make potions for the soldiers defending the city, or you can participate directly in the defense as a combatant."

Gagnor had barely fought at all over the past year. Aside from growing stronger, he had focused on making money.

Now his growth had come to an end, and he had earned quite a lot of money. It was time to take part in some battles.

After all, leveling up was the most important thing, and the fastest way to level up was none other than fighting.

"I want to go," he said.

Cassandra nodded. Before leaving, she suddenly remembered something. "Don't you have a Holy Name related to physique?"

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

"You have one too?" he asked, looking up at Cassandra, who was still more than thirty centimeters taller than him.

Cassandra smiled. "Two."

With that, she left the training ground in strides a meter long...

Later, Gagnor easily made his way to the Black Gold Corridor. He handed a large leather bag of potions to Potent Potions Expert, then 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. Their price had even risen once in the middle, allowing Gagnor to earn dozens of gold coins over the past six-plus months.

From the perspective of an ordinary person's lifestyle alone, this more or less counted as financial freedom. At least when he ate at the Eagle and Whistle Inn, he no longer paid much attention to the prices.

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

Potent Potions Expert seemed to think of something and asked, "Are you going to Presto?"