novelraw Chapter 47 : Rapid Advancement
Chapter 47 : Rapid Advancement
Chapter 47: Rapid Advancement! Power of Stacked Waves
“So that means I won’t have to worry about sparring partners anymore.”
Leo felt as if he had suddenly gained an entire training hall.
……
In the town, within a secluded courtyard of Burton’s private residence.
The night breeze drifted gently, causing the candlelight in the courtyard to flicker unsteadily.
Tap, tap, tap, tap…
Watching the horse’s head that had just appeared over the courtyard wall move away, Zoro felt that recently, horses seemed to pass by outside his courtyard from time to time.
At this moment, he sat astride a stone chair, looking at Eddie before him, candlelight flickering in his eyes.
In the open space, Eddie held a black Iron Sword, swinging it with full force. His swordsmanship was proficient, clearly backed by at least several years of training.
However, it was evident that there were still some issues with how he exerted force in his techniques.
“Your swordsmanship is fairly skilled, but you’ve just used a potent drug—your strength has increased too quickly, and your body hasn’t adapted yet,” Zoro evaluated.
“Cousin, please guide me,” Eddie lowered his head, observing Zoro’s reaction from the corner of his eye.
“I’ll tell you some news. The year-end assessment has been moved up, and this time, the rewards are more generous than in previous years. You have one month left.”
Zoro jumped down from the stone chair and slowly walked up to Eddie. “There are only two parts to the assessment. You won’t have time to master the Breathing Technique, but I can help you take first place with swordsmanship alone.”
“Please instruct me, Cousin.” Eddie bowed respectfully.
Zoro looked at this distant cousin introduced by his father. Although he had never met him before, from the very first glance, he felt that Eddie shared some blood relation with him.
Whether it was the prominent cheekbones, or the shape of the brows, eyes, and mouth—there were clear similarities.
This instinctively gave him a sense of closeness.
Since they were relatives, if Eddie could remain in Blackstone City and become a Quasi-Knight in the future, it would also be of help to him.
Zoro harbored a bold plan in his heart. To realize it, he needed to seize every bit of strength that could aid him.
This year-end assessment was an excellent opportunity.
Someone would inevitably take first place.
Compared to strangers who had nothing to do with him, if Eddie could secure first place, the subsequent attention and allocation of resources would also benefit him greatly.
As long as something was beneficial, it was worth attempting.
This was the principle his father had taught him.
Even if it required paying some extra cost in the process, it would be a necessary sacrifice.
“Are you ready?”
Zoro took out a sheet of black paper and a black glass bottle. Inside, an oily substance seemed to churn and boil continuously.
Eddie watched as Zoro approached step by step.
Instinctively, he took half a step back.
“C-Cousin…”
For some reason, Eddie felt that this half-brother of his gave him a strange sensation.
A cold curve formed at the corner of Zoro’s lips. “The great Black God once said, a person’s potential is limited—if you gain more here, you lose more there.
But as long as you are willing to lose, you can gain even more.
So tell me, what are you willing to lose now?
The ability to taste food? Or the sense of smell to appreciate flowers?
Or perhaps… to become one without emotions or desires…”
……
Time passed like a fleeting horse, and in the blink of an eye, half a month had gone by.
The morning sunlight reached the entrance of the Dungeon, only to be completely blocked by the heavy iron doors.
Inside the Dungeon, Leo put down his Iron Sword and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
Looking at the half-dead Blood Goblin before him—
he slowly approached, yet the Goblin showed no reaction.
Leo circulated his Breathing Technique and cautiously moved closer, already stepping into its attack range.
But the Blood Goblin in front of him still hung its head limply, completely devoid of its former ferocity, as if it had utterly lost interest in Leo.
Smack!
Leo suddenly slapped the Goblin.
But it merely lifted its eyes to glance at him, then ignored him again.
“I feel like this guy has been… tamed. Can Beastkin even be tamed? No, not tamed—more like beaten into submission.”
After the first few days of testing, Leo discovered that Lady Manta did not object at all to him “playing” with the Beastkin.
In her words, “Letting them vent their beastly nature is fine, as long as you don’t kill them and affect the freshness of the raw materials.”
So for the past half month, Leo had come every day to grind experience off this Goblin.
At first, the results were excellent. But as the days passed—
the Goblin’s will to fight grew weaker and weaker.
By now, it was like a limp fish, completely devoid of vitality.
‘Looks like even the best sparring partners have an expiration date.’
What he did not consider was—
fifteen days, about six hours of high-intensity sparring every day, without fail.
The Goblin had been bound in chains the entire time, like a puppet.
Just like today—before dawn, Leo had already come to wake it from sleep and force it to attack him.
Even for a savage Beastkin, it now had no desire to attack upon seeing Leo.
“What a pity.”
Leo glanced at the Goblin reluctantly and turned to leave.
During this period, he had noticed that every so often, one or two Beastkin would disappear. He had also run into the female knight named Ross several times.
However, she merely treated him as a servant responsible for feeding and paid him no attention.
Now, among the remaining Beastkin in the Dungeon, only the Level 3 Thunder Lizard remained.
For the time being, he seemed unable to find a suitable sparring partner.
‘I originally wanted to test the third stage of the Tide Cross Sword on it—the Power of Stacked Waves.’
He glanced at his panel.
【Tide Cross Sword Third Stage 1/100 (Special Effect: Power of Stacked Waves)】
Fortunately, last night, by squeezing out the final bit of experience value from this Goblin, Leo had successfully advanced his swordsmanship to the third stage.
Originally, he had come today intending to test the Power of Stacked Waves on this Goblin.
But unexpectedly, this sparring partner had become useless.
Over the past half month, Leo’s greatest gain had been swordsmanship experience.
Additionally:
【Basic Archery (White) Level 2 45/100 (Strength +0.2, Mastery of archery skill, one arrow every two seconds)】
Basic Archery had also advanced to Level 2.
Practicing the Breathing Technique, combined with Blood Core potions and Blackwater Lizard meat—
eating, training, and supplementation—perfectly integrated.
This increased Leo’s Strength attribute by 0.2 and his Agility attribute by 0.1.
In addition, the archery skill provided him with an extra 0.1 Strength.
Now, on his attribute panel:
【Strength: 2.4
Agility: 1.4
Spirit: 1.4】
His Agility and Spirit were now equal, but his Strength had surged ahead, exceeding the other two attributes by a full point.
The most direct manifestation of this was the change in his physique.
His original squire robes had already become tight.
Now, when he tried some of the training movements from his previous life—two-finger push-ups, one-finger push-ups—these were all effortless for him.
He felt that his strength had completely surpassed the range of normal humans.
However, when Leo attempted to perform handstand push-ups, he discovered—
while executing the inverted position, he felt somewhat strained.
It was not due to insufficient strength, but rather an imbalance in coordination caused by excessive strength.
Moreover, Leo felt that his increased muscle mass was not beneficial to his flexibility.
For example, even scratching his back had started to become difficult.
‘Balanced development is still necessary…’
Just as he was thinking this, Leo’s ears suddenly twitched, as if he heard sounds coming from a distant corridor.
In the next moment—
Creak!
The iron door of the Potion Laboratory slammed heavily against the wall.
Lady Manta, who was usually elegant, walked out with a face full of anger.