Victory and advancement

At that moment, Dunn's long blade was locked against Henry's steel saber, the two of them straining against each other.

Owen, captain of the [Golden Tangerine], and several sailors had also rushed up to Dunn, swinging long blades, axes, and other weapons at him.

At the same time, a water arrow abruptly shot out of the sea and flew straight at Dunn.

This was water manipulation, an ability of Henry's [Wave Chaser] class, which allowed him to control a portion of water element.

With Henry putting his full strength into it, the water arrow's impact could rival a cannon.

Yet as the blades and axes closed in, Dunn still had the leisure to glance back toward the [Black Pearl].

Good. It was time.

Then Dunn broke into an unrestrained grin, immediately startling Owen and Henry.

Before they could even consider what that grin meant-

Rokushiki: Tekkai!

Clang-

The blades all struck Dunn's body, ringing out with the clash of metal.

Only Henry's water arrow made Dunn stagger.

But it did not cause any real damage.

For an instant, everyone aboard the [Golden Tangerine] froze.

Dunn obliged them by not attacking either.

Although they had only heard of it and never seen it, Owen and Henry, as Professionals, still recognized what the scene before them represented.

"Transcendent constitution."

"Bang!"

While everyone stood stunned, a tremendous crash rang out. The entire [Golden Tangerine] immediately rocked violently, and many sailors fell to the deck before they could react.

"Finally here! You've been shelling us long enough. Now it's my damn turn."

"Brothers, hurry and back up the captain!"

"Charge! For advancement!"

"Kill-"

"Raaaagh!"

The [Black Pearl] had arrived.

A band of murderous pirates rushed aboard, howling.

Driven by their desire to advance as Professionals, the pirates charged like wolves and tigers at the still-dazed sailors aboard the [Golden Tangerine].

Before the sailors of the [Golden Tangerine] could react, more than a dozen of them were cut down.

"Wait, we surren..." Owen, captain of the [Golden Tangerine], snapped out of his daze and immediately tried to surrender.

But Dunn, who had been watching them all along, reacted faster. He planted a kick in Owen's chest, sending him flying several meters and forcing the words of surrender back down his throat.

With Dunn's current combat strength, the battle could effectively have been declared over the moment he boarded the [Golden Tangerine].

But the most important goal of this raid was to let the crew advance.

Although the advancement requirements for the second-tier [Pirate] class were extremely simple,

World origin was not something that could be casually fooled. Once outside interference was involved in a Professional's advancement requirements, the attempt would inevitably be judged a failure.

This was a conclusion reached through countless experiments since Career Cards first appeared in this world.

Although world origin had no self-awareness, it was quite intelligent when it came to judging class advancement.

It was only because [Pirate] was a lower-ranked second-tier class, with relatively lenient advancement requirements, and because plundering itself was a group activity, that unintentional "outside interference" did not affect the judgment. Otherwise, this would have been rather tricky.

Still, although outside interference would not affect their advancement,

advancement could not possibly be judged successful if the person advancing had played no role whatsoever.

If Dunn had unleashed his full strength as soon as he boarded, the [Golden Tangerine] would probably have surrendered long before the [Black Pearl] came alongside.

Once the enemy surrendered, the raid would immediately be judged a success. Even deliberately refusing their surrender for the sake of advancement would be useless.

Because doing so would be judged intentional outside interference.

Then not a single crew member would be able to advance successfully.

Even if his men achieved some results after boarding, that still would not provide much assurance that the entire crew could advance.

So Dunn, who had been keeping an eye on the two Professionals, interrupted Owen the instant he tried to surrender.

Still, the raid ended very quickly.

Although Dunn did his best to delay Owen and Henry's surrender, he could not stop the sailors from surrendering en masse once they saw that all was lost and completely lost their will to fight.

Having stripped the entire [Golden Tangerine] bare, the [Black Pearl] slowly sailed away, leaving only the deathly silent [Golden Tangerine] and a ship full of corpses behind.

Dunn very much wanted to take the [Golden Tangerine] too, but with their current manpower, they could barely operate the [Black Pearl]. They simply had no spare hands to operate a second ship.

Nor did anyone among the crew have the attributes required to advance to [Pirate Captain].

So Dunn and Annie could only regretfully abandon the [Golden Tangerine].

"Hahaha! I'm a second-tier Professional now too!"

"Hahaha! I awakened two class skills."

"What? How come I only awakened one?"

"I awakened three! Hahaha, you bunch of weaklings."

"I awakened four, and I haven't even said anything. What the hell are you showing off for?"

Fortunately, every crew member had met the advancement requirements before the [Golden Tangerine] surrendered.

Although the price was that fewer than ten people aboard the entire [Golden Tangerine] survived, including Henry and Owen.

Thus, after returning to the [Black Pearl], the crew eagerly chose to advance.

At that moment, Henry and Owen, bound hand and foot and kneeling in the middle of the [Black Pearl]'s deck, swallowed in horror at the frenzied scene.

A whole ship of Professionals!

What was their captain thinking?

Wasn't he afraid of a mutiny?!

But when they thought of Dunn's absurd "transcendent constitution,"

they understood a little.

Only a "monster" like that had the nerve to cultivate an entire ship of Professionals.

Only he had the ability and confidence to keep an entire ship of Professionals under control.

Good grief, what rotten luck. They had actually run into a freakish pirate crew like this, a rare sight even on the seas.

"Oh? Why do I remember our dear captain awakening only one ability when he advanced~? No way, no way! Don't tell me our dear captain is the weakest of the lot despite being one of heaven's favored!"

Listening to the pirates below who had successfully advanced, Annie remembered the single class skill she had seen on Dunn's card back then and could not help smiling teasingly at him.

Class skills awakened randomly according to each individual's circumstances when they advanced.

Generally speaking, heaven's favored could awaken every ability of their class.

But there were exceptions.

There had once been a Professional who, decades after a class first appeared, awakened an ability that even the original heaven's favored had not awakened.

At first, Dunn was also a little surprised to hear that these pirates had awakened two, three, or four abilities.

"This class skill of mine is called Tekkai."

"My two are called Soru and Kami-e."

But after hearing what the pirates said next and watching them test their abilities on one another, Dunn understood what was happening.

"Have you considered the possibility," Dunn said calmly to Annie,

"that they've only awakened one-sixth, two-sixths, three-sixths, or four-sixths of a class skill?"

"????"