The yard was quite spacious and the house was large enough for two people to live in. The beach was just outside the yard, which was plenty of space for both exercise and combat training for Alvin and Gary.
The most satisfying thing was that there was a separate attic on the top of the house, which led to a balcony covered with creepers when one opened a small door. It was a lush and quiet place with a different kind of elegance.
Alvin planned to turn this place into his own dispensary. Alvin was both an apprentice knight and an excellent pharmacist. Many supplement potions could be made to suit his needs.
Moreover, the elderly landlord and his grandson lived next door, so they could help look after the house when they were at sea.
“I like this, Gary. What do you think?”
“Hehehe, I am alright.” Gary had made up his mind and had no objections.
“Then let’s prepare the contract.” Alvin clapped his hands and confirmed his residence.
Then, with the help of the clerk, the two parties signed a lease agreement. At the rent of one silver cow per month, Alvin and Gary officially settled down in Gabred.
The rent of one silver cow was borne by Alvin, while Gary was responsible for labor work such as cleaning the courtyard, cleaning the rooms, and buying groceries and household items. Each of them divided the work between themselves.
As far as Alvin knew, the monthly salary of an ordinary sailor in the Third Fleet was about three Silver Bull Coins, which was equivalent to one Golden Lion Coin, while Alvin’s salary as a reserve officer was five silver bulls per month. One Silver Bull Coin could buy them two loaves of barley bread, the staple food of the crew.
While it might be true that the crew had to live on their monthly salary and could not afford to spend a lot, the officers had a generous spoils of war system.
The captain got a quarter, and the ship’s officers got a quarter. Of course, the division was not so straightforward, but the officers did get a lot of extra money.
On the other hand, how could talented individuals be attracted to the navy and embark on dangerous voyages without enough benefits to entice them?
The Kingdom of Phaletis could not have risen to become the premier sea power of the Tulip Alliance in just one generation otherwise.
Politely declining the invitation to have dinner with the landlord and his wife, Alvin and Gary found a restaurant and ordered a large assortment of vegetables to cleanse their greasy stomachs.
In his hometown, Gary used to eat potatoes for a month straight and didn’t think it was a big deal to go without vegetables. However, Alvin was different. He kept the habits of his past life and always tried to make sure he had a balanced diet.
The shortage of fresh vegetables on the ship was fine for short cruises like the ones they were going on with the Silver Wing, but it would be a big problem for future longer ocean voyages.
The human beings in this world were generally much stronger than the ones in the previous world because of the influence of mysterious genes, scurvy, and other diseases still existed. Limited by the relatively undeveloped medical supplies, if one fell sick at sea, it could be fatal.
It could be said that the loss of personnel at sea, especially on ocean voyages, was even more serious than the loss of combat personnel due to illness.
Before returning to his residence, Alvin made a detour to the marketplace and found several kinds of beans that looked like soybeans and mung beans from his previous life.
He was ready to go back and try to grow a vegetable that was very common in his last life. If he succeeded, it would not only benefit the seafarers, but also his own stomach.
The kingdom had always rewarded advanced nautical inventions. If Alvin could achieve his goal, he might become famous and earn a fortune.
Neither Alvin nor Gary had any friends in the city, so they did not have the chance to experience the bright lights of the city. For the next two days of vacation, they stayed at home and exercised.
The beach next to the house was a ready-made training ground for them.
Most of the techniques that Alvin had been training persistently in Leopold, such as breathing, weight bearing, diving, and fencing, could be satisfied in this area.
After a battle with a sea monster and a few sea monster meals, Alvin found that his body constitution had changed again.
Name: Alvin Garriott
Gender: Male
Status: Warrant Officer (Third Naval Fleet of Silver Wing of the Kingdom of Phaletis)
Rank: Peak of Apprentice knight
Attributes: Constitution 0.91+0.02
Strength: 0.88+0.01
Agility: 0.93
Intelligence: 0.9
Skills: (NA)
His constitution had increased by 0.02 and his strength had increased by 0.01.
He initially thought he had reached his limit. He did not expect his improvement to be equivalent to when he was at the first phase of apprentice knight after he came out of Leopold and went through three months of recruit training.
Could it be that combat was the shortcut to reaching the Extraordinaries?
Alvin was somewhat impressed and decided to ask Uncle Gull to give it a try when he got back to the ship. Alvin felt that Uncle Gull would not refuse his request.
In fact, in addition to Alvin’s own outstanding talent, with the help of his Data Vision, he could get the best results from every exercise. He had gained strong foundations from training resiliently ever since he was eight years old.
After he left Leopold, the several battles he experienced were like hammers, training Alvin little by little, giving Alvin the feeling that he had made rapid progress during this period of time.
In addition, under Alvin’s continuous targeted one-on-one guidance and training, Gary’s physique finally broke through the 0.7 value. He was on the first step to improving his physical quality through the Knight Training Method.
When it came to a knight’s innate qualifications, Gary may be even stronger than Alvin to some extent.
After all, a person who could reach the late stage of Knight Trainee naturally was really scary. However, it was a pity that he hadn’t received guidance since childhood. If he had Alvin’s privileges, he might have been a full-fledged knight by now.
…
After the uneventful vacation, the two of them returned to the Silver Wing and resumed their cruising duties.
In the middle of the cruise, Alvin approached the captain and requested to receive combat training.
As expected, Gull readily agreed to his request. As the captain of the ship, Gull was not that busy during non-combat time and there was no entertainment on the ship. Therefore, he was more than happy to train Alvin.
After all, Alvin was already a small superhuman who had reached the limits of mortals. Gull was a real Extraordinary Knight, so training on the deck together would be too terrifying.
It was easy to do it on the training ground though.
By lowering a few lifeboats and tying them together with ropes, they formed a “training ground” big enough for the two of them to move around in. No one would be hurt if they made a mistake.
“Alvin, use everything you’ve got and come at me,” said Gull who was still dressed neatly in his neat officer’s uniform. He held a longsword in his hand and stood at the front of a lifeboat.
Although he felt somewhat underestimated, Alvin knew that Uncle Gull was qualified to say such words, and did not dare to be careless at all.
At this point, there was not much difference between the lethal power of a training sword and a real sword. In order for Alvin to feel enough pressure, Gull directly asked both to train with real swords.
The difference between the two sides was so great that he was confident that he could control the situation.
Clang!
Sparks flew in the air, and Alvin, who had taken the initiative to attack, turned in the air and used the lifeboat to leap up again in the splashes.
With both hands, he raised his sword over his head and made a powerful jumping cut.
Clang!
Alvin was caught by Gull with one hand and was knocked away with his sword.
In fact, Alvin’s current style of fighting was very different from his previous agile style of sword technique. That was because he wanted to improve his body constitution instead of his moves. This hard fighting style was more conducive to experience the application of knight-level strength and feel the subtle changes in physical confrontation.
Gull neither approved nor denied Alvin’ attack method but suppressed his own strength to Alvin’s limit so as to let him experience some real and powerful hits.
Alvin was left to experience the rest by himself.
In fact, in the process of visualizing his own stats with his Data Vision, the final list presented to Alvin was the result after stabilization.
In the process of training, feedback would be given at any time and even though the last three decimal places were not shown, Alvin could still feel the trend.
0.93+
0.93+…
“Effective!” In the past, most of the real battles were life and death struggles, and Alvin did not have the energy to pay attention to the subtle changes. Now, in this absolutely safe environment, Alvin finally discovered the secret of the changes in his body constitution.
His body constitution was like a bucket that was continuously filled with snow. It seemed to be full, but if one pressed hard enough, it could still be filled. The action could not be done by himself and needed some external force. Uncle Gull was the best force.
Alvin verified his speculation with his Data Vision and let go of his hands and feet even more. He strived to reach his limit in the shortest time possible. It would be the moment when he would transform himself to the Extraordinary!
Clang, clang…
Now was not the time to cherish the sword, and Alvin’s strokes were much more straightforward, forgoing all the unnecessary movements and the fluidity of the White Sail Sword Technique, leaving only the increasingly fierce and hard hitting ones!
His style of swordsmanship gradually changed from the White Sail Sword Art to the Phaletian Army Saber Technique. Alvin desperately tried to use all his physical strength and potential.
“Hrrgh!”
Bamp!
He was sent flying in the air.
“Come again!”
“Come again!”
“…”
Alvin’s satisfying journey on the sea began like that.
He learned some practical sailing skills most of the time and trained with Gull when Gull was free.
Keenly aware that Alvin had now reached a critical point and that the real culmination of his apprenticeship was almost upon him, Gull put aside some unimportant work to spend time with Alvin on the “training ground”.
Helping him with the final preparations before his transformation, Alvin’s body constitution and sword technique improved rapidly with the help of Gull, the “gold medal trainer”.
Alvin felt that he was close to breaking through…