Sierra briefly shared the limited information she knew about Anda Town, and Matthew committed it to memory. Any of it could prove useful in the future.
Once their conversation concluded, Matthew bid Sierra farewell and left Instructor Calm's courtyard.
Walking down the dirt path where leaves had already begun to fall, Matthew didn't head straight home. Instead, he made his way directly toward the eastern end of the village.
The autumn wind rustled, swirling fallen leaves around him. The dirt road beneath his feet felt firm and familiar.
Occasionally, warm greetings drifted over from behind fences or around corners:
“Have you eaten, Matthew?”
“Going to train?!”
“The village will be counting on you from now on!”
Matthew responded to each one with an appropriate smile, but his pace never slackened.
He could clearly sense that beneath the simple neighborly concern, these warm greetings were increasingly tinged with respect for the strong.
A few men returning from the fields stepped aside when they saw him from a distance, and the elderly carpenter stopped his work, smiling and nodding in greeting.
This would have been unimaginable just a few months ago, when he was merely an ordinary, somewhat quiet youth.
Even those who had trained alongside him during the village training now looked at him with reverence.
'Strength is the most direct passport to everything,' Matthew thought as he walked.
'But the reputation in a single village is ultimately too small.'
He suddenly felt a trace of anticipation. When would this fame, born of his strength, cross the boundaries of the village and reach Anda Town, or even further?
Lost in thought, he crossed most of the village and arrived at a relatively secluded clearing on the eastern side.
This was a practice spot he had specifically sought out. Far from the main houses, it was spacious and quiet, with only a few scattered old trees. One of the tree trunks bore obvious slash marks from a sword blade.
Matthew came to a halt and drew the one-handed sword from his waist. The blade gleamed with a cold light under the autumn sun.
He took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and recalled Instructor Calm's explanation of combat techniques:
“Only by perfectly combining life energy with a certain skill can one unleash power far exceeding that of ordinary people.”
“This is what a combat technique is!”
“Life energy should refer to the combination of the energy cultivated through the breathing technique and a strong physique. As for the skill, in my case, it's 【Basic Swordsmanship】.”
Matthew understood.
“I possess both. What I lack now is 'fusion'.”
At this thought, scenes of what he suspected to be combat techniques used by Class holders flashed through his mind.
He recalled the fiery glow that had enveloped Flynn's scythe, as well as the stunning sword strike he had witnessed when he first transmigrated.
“That definitely wasn't a simple reflection. Perhaps it was the external manifestation of life energy driven by a breathing technique, fusing with the weapon.”
“Maybe I should also try to figure it out by aiming for that 'external manifestation'.”
Matthew pondered silently. He then fell into a stance and began to slowly practice the forms of 【Basic Swordsmanship·Practiced】.
At first, he practiced his sword forms as usual, striving for precision and fluidity in every movement.
As his breathing technique naturally circulated, he could clearly feel a warm current cycling through his body in rhythm with his breath, passing through his arms and flowing into the longsword in his hand.
With every strike, this warm current enhanced the blade's momentum as it cut through the air, making the edge sharper and the slashes more powerful.
But it was merely an enhancement.
This effect was still fundamentally different from the “glowing external manifestation” he had imagined or remembered.
It was more like an internal reinforcement, flowing through his blood vessels and muscles, acting upon every muscle contraction and sword strike, rather than condensing into a tangible radiance on the surface of the weapon.
After practicing for a while, Matthew stopped swinging. His longsword pointed diagonally toward the ground, and his brow furrowed slightly as he fell into deep thought.
“That's not right...”
“Could it be that my breathing technique needs to advance another level?”
He then shook his head, dismissing the thought.
“Instructor Calm clearly said that achieving smooth and unobstructed circulation is the threshold for entering the Black Iron Rank. My breathing technique runs smoothly, so I have obviously met that standard. This shouldn't be the obstacle.”
He ruled out the possibility of his breathing technique being insufficient. As for his skill—his swordsmanship—not meeting the standard, that was even more impossible.
This was proven by the surprised look Flynn had shown toward Matthew during their battle. It stemmed not only from Matthew's unusual Strength or breathing technique, but also from the fact that his swordsmanship itself was already exceptionally outstanding.
Thus, Matthew dismissed the suspicion that his skill was lacking.
“It seems there is a barrier to fusion that I haven't mastered yet. I still need to spend time figuring it out.”
Matthew finally determined the direction he needed to work toward.
However, he wasn't worried. If even someone with his aptitude couldn't become a Black Iron Rank adventurer, then the difficulty of this world would simply be absurd!
With these thoughts in mind, Matthew gathered his focus and readjusted his breathing, feeling the life energy that flowed continuously and grew increasingly active within him as his breathing technique circulated.
He no longer rushed to make the energy “manifest externally.” Instead, he focused his attention entirely on the intersection between his sword forms and the flow of that energy.
This time, he followed the series of movements that felt almost instinctive to him, attempting to actively guide the warm current from his breathing technique and channel it along the path of power for each sword strike.
He recalled Instructor Calm's guidance. Perhaps “combination” was not a brute-force infusion, but rather a more subtle “resonance.”
As his longsword slashed upward diagonally, he shifted his mind slightly, trying to make the life energy flowing to his arm perform a tiny “burst” according to the exertion techniques of 【Basic Swordsmanship】 at the exact moment the blade's trajectory reached its peak, rather than simply pouring it in.
Hum—
An extremely faint, almost imperceptible sword hum rang out.
“Hmm?!”
At the same time, Matthew keenly sensed that the air pointed at by the tip of his sword seemed to distort slightly for a brief moment, as if an invisible ripple had spread.
“Did it work?”
Overjoyed, Matthew immediately raised his hand and swung the sword again!
The blade seemed to echo his delight, the sound of it cutting through the air sharper than in any of his previous practices!
However, after this brief moment of joy, Matthew felt a sudden, intense wave of dizziness wash over him.
He clearly perceived that the burst from just now had drained nearly one-tenth of the circulating life energy in his body!
A noticeable sense of weakness and fatigue followed immediately.
“The consumption is this high? And this was only a preliminary attempt...” Matthew furrowed his brow slightly, finding it somewhat hard to believe.
He forced down the discomfort, his mind racing to analyze the sensation from just now.
Rate on N.U.
