While waiting for the job, Vic used his remaining money to have some weights made at the blacksmith's shop. Back home, he made an adjustable weighted vest, leg weights, arm weights, and the like.
Then he used stones in the forest to make barbells, dumbbells, a simple cable machine, and other training equipment he would need later.
With the mayor's help, the milk delivery job was quickly settled.
Vic and Rebecca's lives became stable.
They got up early and reported to the milk factory, collected the milk and delivery addresses, then ran their delivery routes.
If delivering the milk alone wasn't enough exercise, they would start wearing weights while working.
Once the milk was delivered, they went home to eat, then spent the morning training their strength and speed before going home for lunch.
Their mornings were basically devoted to stamina, strength, and speed training.
After eating, they skipped their naps and went to the quiet forest, where they sat in the shade and meditated for two hours.
The afternoon was devoted to practicing the fundamentals of swordsmanship, with Rebecca learning under Vic's guidance.
There were only a few basic sword techniques, so Vic required Rebecca to practice them over and over, performing them thousands or even tens of thousands of times every day.
Vic believed that reading ten thousand books made one's writing inspired, and that practicing the sword was no different. After thousands upon thousands of swings, one was bound to grasp its true meaning.
Half a month passed like this.
Rebecca had a decent talent for swordsmanship, and her basic techniques were now all up to standard. Next, she just needed to practice them more.
Vic progressed faster. On the very first day, he perfected every movement. This body had given him a huge surprise.
As he practiced his sword techniques, his body would constantly correct his movements.
The same was true of his workouts and runs. Every day, he ran farther and lifted more than he had the day before.
His strength, speed, endurance, and recovery ability grew day by day.
His insights into swordsmanship and martial arts also deepened during meditation.
It was as if this body had a proficiency system. His efforts would not go to waste; as long as he worked hard, he would make progress.
"So this is my real cheat!"
When Vic learned that his body had this talent, he knew that his path of cultivation already led all the way to the heavens. All he had to do was keep moving forward and steadily climb.
Vic could almost see a straight road leading upward, with several branching paths along it.
But there were closed doors on those branching paths, and keys were needed to enter them.
What Vic had to do was find those keys so he could reach the peak of each path, one step at a time.
Devil Fruit development aside, that requires imagination and physical ability. I haven't encountered one yet, so it's hard to say.
But there are still plenty of powerful people in this world who don't rely on Devil Fruits.
All the other systems besides Devil Fruits are tied to the body, and they can all be strengthened through training.
When I have time in the future, I can also go pound some mountains, cut some steel, and so on.
From then on, Vic trained even harder.
Since none of his efforts were wasted, the time needed for each part of his training would be shortened.
He divided up his daily schedule more precisely, and used the extra time to practice the blade techniques and martial arts from his previous life.
With so much exercise, ordinary food could hardly meet his body's needs anymore.
He needed large amounts of meat to make up the difference.
So his milk delivery wages were no longer enough to cover his food expenses.
Vic then used the time after breakfast to help load and unload cargo ships at the docks.
That way, he could save some of the time he spent exercising and earn some more money too.
Vic thought of catching small animals in the forest to help put food on the table.
But the two of them were still too young, and they hadn't trained for long enough. They simply couldn't catch those small animals.
Not only were they slower than the animals, but the creatures would also run away before they could get close.
The larger animals didn't run, but they ate meat too. Going after them would just be serving themselves up as food.
Even the town's professional hunters didn't dare provoke them. Bullets couldn't pierce their hides.
In the end, Vic realized he needed to make use of his talent.
He went to the blacksmith's shop and had the old blacksmith make a batch of throwing knives according to his drawings, then practiced with them like mad.
Two months later, they rarely went home for lunch.
Vic had become very skilled with his throwing knives, hitting whatever he aimed at.
The two of them now ate prey brought down with his throwing knives.
Vic occasionally went into the sea to catch a big fish for a change of diet.
The two of them now sparred several times a day, testing their physical skills against each other and clashing blade against sword.
Rebecca was usually the one attacking. After giving her enough practice, Vic would defeat her in a single move!
There was nothing to be done about it. The talent of Vic's body was simply that unreasonable.
Every time, Rebecca would mutter, "Freak."
Under Vic's devilish training and his complete domination of her, Rebecca's improvement was plain to see.
Several ordinary lions and tigers had already died by her sword, and their meat and hides had all been sold in town.
The meat they ate at home now all came from large ferocious beasts killed by Vic!
Once, after eating meat, Vic discovered that animal meat contained a substance that could improve a person's physical condition, strength, recovery speed, and so on!
Vic discovered that the higher an animal was on the food chain, the more of this special substance it could provide.
Only then did Vic understand that there was a reason people in the pirate world had such freakish physiques and powerful recovery abilities.
Something existed here that was like the spiritual energy in a xianxia world.
Vic called it "Primal Spirit."
After learning this, Vic was no longer afraid of getting hurt and specifically sought out more powerful beasts to challenge.
Fighting beasts improved his real combat ability, and killing them and eating their meat improved his physical condition. It was killing two birds with one stone.
After making quite a bit of money selling beast meat, Vic and Rebecca stopped delivering milk.
They mostly ran around the outskirts of the forest, wearing weights and weaving around various obstacles.
That also let them practice reacting under stress at high speeds, which was especially helpful in real combat.
Vic kept working as a porter, mainly to gather news that fishing boats brought back from outside.
Eight months passed like this.
In the forest, Vic, who had grown quite a bit taller, stood to one side, watching Rebecca fight an animal that stood nearly two meters tall and looked like a hippopotamus.
Although it looked like a hippopotamus, it wasn't slow at all. Its eyes were bloodshot as it charged wildly about.
The animal was called a Giant Hippopotamus Beast, a name given to it by the town's hunters.
It was hard to wound with blades or swords, and bullets couldn't pierce its thick hide. None of the town's hunters had ever brought one down. Its strength ranked somewhere in the middle among the creatures in the forest.
Yet now it couldn't even touch the hem of Rebecca's clothes. She darted from side to side like an antelope, her blade clanging against the Giant Hippopotamus Beast.
"Rebecca, are you a blacksmith? What are you doing, hammering iron? Since you can't do anything to it, why aren't you looking for its weakness to attack?" Vic shouted.
Rebecca didn't answer. She just kept changing positions and attacking. A quarter of an hour later, the Giant Hippopotamus Beast finally fell, unwilling to accept defeat, and Rebecca was left panting from exhaustion.
"Rebecca, when you meet an evenly matched enemy in the future and can't finish them off quickly, you need to look for openings and weaknesses to attack."
"If you can't find a weakness, stop fighting and leave the battlefield as soon as you can!"
"But what if the enemy keeps chasing me and won't let me leave?"
"Then it depends on how much endurance each of you has. That's also why I make you train your endurance.
"Sometimes there won't be just one enemy. Pirates won't play fair.
"They'll all attack together, or take turns wearing you down. So every bit of extra endurance gives you a little more chance to survive. Sometimes, life and death are decided by whose endurance lasts longer!"
Vic thought of King Luffy's great battle against Kaido of the Four Emperors. If King Luffy hadn't kept getting back up, there was no way Kaido would have lost.
Kaido had fought so many battles from beginning to end. He was undeniably tough, hard to beat down, and had incredible endurance!
So Vic decided that his own endurance could never fall short of Kaido's in the future. It was also something he had always stressed to Rebecca.
Rebecca's running distance and the weights she carried had kept increasing, as had the time and weight she put into training with dumbbells, barbells, and the cable machine!
During combat practice, Vic also pushed Rebecca's willpower relentlessly, nearly driving her mad.
"But what if my endurance isn't as good as theirs?" Rebecca asked again.
"Then you have to defeat your opponent before your endurance runs out."
"You can choose to break through your current level and defeat them. People have done it before, quite a few of them, and some have even awakened Haki."
"Or you have to be faster than them, so you can shake off the enemy before your endurance runs out.
"That's also something we practice regularly, so keep working hard, Rebecca-chan!" Vic said with a smile.
Rebecca pursed her lips. "You have an answer for everything!"