Finally Graduated from Naval Academy!

In the 1503rd year of the Sea Calendar, after being forced to spend an extra year at the Marine Academy, Wood finally reached the moment of graduation.

During this year, apart from the sparring session with Gion, Wood maintained his usual low-profile approach.

Through a year of systematic training, Wood had mastered Kami-e, Shigan, and Rankyaku at the Marine Academy.

As for Geppo and Tekkai, Wood had self-taught himself using Kaji's training notes in the back mountains.

Therefore, everyone, including Zephyr, believed that Wood only mastered Kami-e, Shigan, Rankyaku, and Soru among the Six Powers. In reality, he had mastered all of them.

However, even with only four of the Six Powers mastered, he was already among the elite students.

After all, with only one year, Gion was the only one among this batch who had mastered the complete Six Powers.

The girl was quite displeased about being spun around by Wood's advantage of "Soru" during their spar, so her first chosen course was the Navy Six Forms.

During this past year, besides cultivating the Six Powers, Wood had also concurrently studied some martial arts combat skills.

When they first learned that Wood had chosen martial arts instead of swordsmanship, both Zephyr and Gion were surprised.

In Gion's opinion, Wood's actions were completely neglecting his proper duties. At his age, he had already become a Swordsman, which indicated that Wood possessed exceptional talent in swordsmanship.

Continuing to refine his swordsmanship and advancing further in that path was the correct way. Yet, this guy chose martial arts, which had nothing to do with swordsmanship.

The Navy Six Forms were understandable, as abilities like "Soru" and "Geppo" were auxiliary techniques that could be used in both swordsmanship and martial arts.

However, martial arts and swordsmanship were fundamentally different. For a young Swordsman to abandon his prodigious talent in swordsmanship and go to cultivate martial arts – wasn't that madness?

After learning of Wood's decision, Zephyr also tried to persuade him. Zephyr himself excelled in martial arts, but he wouldn't let Wood abandon swordsmanship because of it.

A person's energy and time were limited. Even the most brilliant individual couldn't achieve significant accomplishments in both swordsmanship and martial arts simultaneously.

Rather than trying to do both and ending up achieving nothing, it was better to focus steadfastly on the path that suited him best.

However, Zephyr's earnest pleas ultimately failed to sway Wood. A person's path was their own choice. Although Zephyr felt a sense of disappointment, he had no right to interfere with Wood's decision.

For this reason, Wood, who was a Swordsman yet concurrently practiced martial arts, was considered a fool by everyone.

He possessed outstanding talent in swordsmanship but chose to waste it by learning something he wasn't good at.

At the beginning of the semester, the spar between Wood and Gion had led everyone to unanimously believe that Wood was the strongest among them, second only to Gion.

But after a year had passed, the foolish Wood chose martial arts, which he wasn't proficient in, causing his swordsmanship to not improve significantly. Now, most people's overall strength had surpassed Wood's former level.

In short, Wood, who was originally ranked second in age, had now become just average among the group...

He had a good hand but played it poorly. While most people mocked him, was that truly the case?

That's right, martial arts and swordsmanship were indeed two completely different disciplines, and one person's energy couldn't achieve astonishing results in both simultaneously.

However, Wood was definitely not within that scope, or rather, he couldn't be measured by common sense, because he was a man with a cheat.

A person's energy was indeed limited, but by utilizing the "Life Simulator", every time Wood simulated a life, it was equivalent to gaining an extra lifetime of energy and time.

While ordinary people might not be able to balance martial arts and swordsmanship, for Wood, this was not a problem at all.

Moreover, even while concurrently practicing martial arts, Wood had never relaxed his swordsmanship training. The Wild Boars on the mountain every night could attest to that.

Those who thought his strength hadn't grown were merely projecting their preconceived notions after he chose martial arts, coupled with Wood's deliberate concealment of his true strength.

Wood graduated with a mediocre score and was not directly assigned to a lower-ranking officer position in Kong.

As for Gion, who achieved the top score, she was assigned the rank of Sergeant immediately upon leaving the Marine Academy.

And this Sergeant position was only temporary. With Gion's strength and performance, her rank might see a leap in improvement within just two years.

Smoker and Hina, due to their excellent grades, were also retained this year for officer training.

As they were about to leave the Marine Academy, Gion specifically sought him out and expressed a desire to spar again.

Without a doubt, Wood directly refused this thankless request, stating that someone with his average strength was no match for a genius.

"Although you've wasted a year, your talent in swordsmanship is still outstanding, and you are several years younger than us. If you abandon martial arts and get back on the right track, you still have the potential to catch up to me, or even surpass me!"

Gion wasn't sure why she said these words to Wood. Perhaps it was regret for Wood's talent, or perhaps she had considered Wood a rival during these two years?

"I never said I gave up on swordsmanship. What the eyes see isn't always the truth, Gion."

The moment Wood finished speaking, Gion felt as if a gentle breeze had passed by her. Sensing an inexplicable sense of danger, she had just reached for the hilt of her Konpira knife when she found a sword with a sky-blue scabbard placed at her throat!

Gion was stunned! She hadn't seen Wood's movement at all.

Although her body was unprepared at that moment, the aura emanating from Wood made Gion, also a Swordsman, feel her skin tremble!

The young man, considered a fool by everyone, had not only not regressed in his swordsmanship over the past year but had become even stronger!

"I hope you can keep this a secret for me. I don't want to be assigned to any dangerous positions because of this."

Perhaps it was due to Gion's behavior, which was like that of a caring friend, or perhaps Wood felt that since they would be assigned to different places, there wouldn't be much further interaction between them.

So, Wood inexplicably revealed the results of his year's training in front of Gion.