A Year Later

Time always slipped quietly by before one noticed it. A whole year had passed since Aeneas came to Tinos.

"Awwooo—"

Another unknown beast howled from the Hilrute Mountains.

Upon closer inspection, a child barely 1.4 meters tall had sent a three-meter-tall Silverback Gorilla flying. The gorilla's body was covered in sword scars and bruises from punches.

Although Aeneas wanted to walk the path of the swordsman, half his time was spent training his martial arts.

That was because Aeneas believed martial arts were the foundation of everything. Only when his body became truly powerful could he build a solid foundation and break through to higher realms beyond the swordmaster level.

Obi-Wan felt that Aeneas was being half-hearted, but this was ultimately the path Aeneas had chosen. He had no intention of forcing Aeneas to do something he did not want to do.

Besides, Aeneas had never slacked off in his sword training. On the contrary, his swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds in just one short year. He had gone from a complete novice who knew nothing to someone who could now hold his own against Obi-Wan.

Every sword strike saw through a weakness and killed in a single blow!

The two of them sparred with each other. With a swordmaster like Obi-Wan willingly acting as his training partner, of course Aeneas's swordsmanship had improved by leaps and bounds!

Moreover, over the past three months, aside from the necessary training to improve in various areas, Aeneas had begun shifting his focus toward actual combat practice.

Training existed for the sake of battle. From the very beginning, Obi-Wan had set Aeneas the goal of defeating the beasts in the Hilrute Mountains.

Now, Aeneas was challenging the kings of the Hilrute Mountains one by one.

"Whew—ha!" Aeneas plopped down on the ground and panted heavily. "After fighting you for two whole months, I finally defeated you today!"

Aeneas looked at the unconscious Silverback Gorilla.

"I thought my actual combat ability had improved significantly after a month of fighting ordinary beasts, but I never expected a single Silverback Gorilla to be this difficult to deal with!" Aeneas reflected.

After beginning his actual combat training, he first sought out ordinary beasts. The result delighted him—Aeneas could basically knock one out with every punch. Even the ferocious tigers of his previous life were completely helpless before him.

The humans in the pirate world simply could not be judged by common sense. After honestly completing a month of wilderness survival, Aeneas began challenging the kings of the Hilrute Mountains.

After investigating, Aeneas gradually figured out how power was divided throughout the Hilrute Mountains.

The forces here were not human territories carved up among different factions, but the domains of the enormous kings of the forest.

They were the Silverback Gorilla, the Terror Black Bear, and the Deadwood Vulture!

The three kings of the forest divided up the Hilrute Mountains. All the beasts followed one of the three great kings. The Silverback Gorilla and the Terror Black Bear were longtime rivals—whenever friction arose over territory, they would fight.

Their battles often ended without a victor.

The Deadwood Vulture, meanwhile, controlled the skies. With virtually no natural enemies, the Deadwood Vulture had reached a terrifying length of twenty meters.

That size was perfectly normal in this world. Even humans could grow to ten meters tall, let alone animals.

The larger they were, the stronger they were. The Deadwood Vulture was the king of kings. If the Silverback Gorilla and Terror Black Bear had posed any threat to it, the Deadwood Vulture would probably have directly ruled the entire Hilrute Mountains.

That was also why Aeneas had never seen any living people from Tinos appear in the Hilrute Mountains.

"With beasts like these around, what human would dare come here?" Aeneas suddenly recalled the first time he had seen the Deadwood Vulture. At the time, a figure had appeared and cut it down with a single sword strike!

Obi-Wan!

That had strengthened Aeneas's determination to become stronger. He wanted to become as strong as—no, stronger than Obi-Wan! Stronger than anyone he had seen in the original story!

There was also the matter of the lottery.

Aeneas had already lost any fondness for the lottery.

"In an entire year, I only drew three silver rewards?" The more Aeneas thought about it, the angrier he became. "Basically ninety percent of the bronze rewards are completely useless!"

"What kind of ten-percent chance is that? Do they think they can fool a ghost?" Aeneas cursed the lottery system as usual. He drew every day while fuming, and eventually grew used to it.

During his first battle against the Silverback Gorilla, Aeneas had suffered quite a bit because it was completely different from what he had imagined. These special creatures were practically invincible overlords in the jungle.

Moreover, these kings of the jungle actually possessed combat awareness and techniques. They did not feel like beasts to Aeneas—rather, they felt like humans wearing the skins of beasts.

"No wonder Uncle Obi-Wan had me use these beasts as opponents." Aeneas looked up at the sky and rubbed his stomach. "Ah, I'm hungry. I have to cook again. I really miss the days when Uncle Obi-Wan was still here. I wonder how Rami is doing..."

It turned out that Aeneas had been alone for quite a long time.

Half a year ago, a female pirate named Stephanie had stopped in Tinos once. She was also the herbalist known as "Herb," and was said to possess remarkable medical skills.

Obi-Wan had brought Rami, whose health was growing weaker by the day, to Stephanie for treatment, but the results were far from ideal.

Moreover, so as not to interfere with Aeneas's training, Obi-Wan had said a simple goodbye before taking Rami to sea to search for the herbs Stephanie had provided. He hoped they could alleviate Rami's condition.

So in the end, Aeneas still did not know what illness Rami had.

Obi-Wan had merely told Aeneas not to worry and promised that he would return within half a year. He hoped that by then, Aeneas would have defeated the two great kings of the Hilrute Mountains.

The two great kings did not include the Deadwood Vulture. The Deadwood Vulture was unusually powerful and elusive, and Aeneas did not even have any effective means of attacking airborne targets, so it was not among his objectives.

Aeneas returned to the room, where he was now the only one left, and looked at himself in the mirror.

"A year has passed, and I've grown this much taller!" Aeneas sighed. This was also the first anniversary of his arrival in this world. "I've grown thirty centimeters in a year. At this rate, I might be over two meters tall by the time I'm seventeen."

What man did not want to be tall and imposing? Who wanted to make himself short?

Still, Aeneas would be troubled if he grew into a five- or six-meter-tall giant. Fortunately, there were no signs of such abnormal growth for now.

"Keep it up!" After finishing his meal, Aeneas would spend the afternoon searching for the Terror Black Bear.

"I've already defeated Little White. You're next. Let's settle this once and for all, Little Black!"

As Aeneas ate, his fighting spirit burned ever brighter!