Chapter 54: Extreme Training! (5000 words)
2015-02-08
Author: Zhu Sheng Floating Tower
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(Beginning of the third day of quitting smoking. Coughing up thick phlegm in the morning, feeling a bit of withdrawal symptoms. Quite uncomfortable. A new update today.)
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Under the blue sky.
Soren stood on the Dragon Head Warship, looking a bit gaunt but emanating a powerful aura. He held a curved blade in each hand, his body slightly crouched like a taut bowstring, with his back to the others as if listening to something. Behind him was Adele Isabella, the red-haired pirate woman, moving quickly and skillfully, also wielding two blades, constantly changing her position around Soren, seemingly looking for weaknesses and opportunities to attack.
Time ticked by!
As if sensing no obvious openings, the red-haired pirate woman suddenly shouted and lunged forward, swinging her dual blades toward Soren’s shoulder, while the other blade aimed directly at his throat.
Clang, clang!
Soren reacted in an instant.
His curved blade transformed into a flash of cold light, deflecting Adele Isabella’s attack while counterattacking with a backhand strike. She evaded with exceptional agility, but as she did, she slashed horizontally towards Soren’s abdomen. At that moment, Soren’s movements appeared to falter slightly, allowing the red-haired pirate to graze his abdomen and cut through his clothes, leaving a line of bl**d. However, he showed no hesitation, instantly rolling to evade and slicing towards Adele Isabella’s ankle.
Clang, clang!
The sound of continuous parries rang out as Soren retreated three steps, another line of bl**d appearing on his shoulder.
…
On another warship.
A man with a scarred face observed the battle happening on the nearby Dragon Head Warship with a look of astonishment and confusion. “Is Your Grace letting that woman win? Otherwise, how could the Throat Cutter fail to defeat a woman with such a foul temperament? I feel like she isn’t even that much stronger than us!”
This man was a pirate leader.
Soren had selected some of his surviving subordinates based on their skills and promoted them, all of whom had risen to the status of minor leaders or higher.
“No.”
Beside him stood a half-elf, also watching the duel on the Dragon Head Warship, and said flatly, “The Throat Cutter is not holding back against Adele Isabella.”
“How is that possible?!” the scarred man exclaimed, “Don’t think I’m clueless just because I’m not as capable as you.”
“I participated in the battle against the Swamp King and personally took down five enemies. The Throat Cutter’s strength is simply beyond what that red-haired woman can withstand. If he wasn’t holding back, he could probably take her down in three moves.”
The half-elf glanced at him, still calm, and stated, “He is indeed not holding back.”
“He’s just been fighting with his eyes closed!”
Fighting with his eyes closed?
Upon hearing the half-elf’s words, the nearby minor pirate leaders fell silent, each peering over to see. The two ships were still a considerable distance apart; others could only see Soren engaged in combat with the red-haired pirate woman but failed to notice that he had been fighting with his eyes shut. Only the half-elf, with sharper perception, noticed that Soren had never opened his eyes.
“He’s really fighting with his eyes closed!…”
A fierce-looking bald pirate scratched his head with a hook and exclaimed incredulously, “The Throat Cutter is actually this formidable even with his eyes closed!… Is he training some kind of powerful combat skill?!…”
No one replied.
Because the others also couldn’t understand why Soren would fight Adele Isabella with his eyes closed.
Clang, clang!
Another round of clashes commenced.
As Adele Isabella’s series of attacks ended, both fighters stepped back. The red-haired pirate noticed Soren make a gesture, so she immediately halted her plans for further attacks and stood quietly in front of him, waiting. This combat training was already the third time. Initially, she thought he was joking, but later realized he was serious.
And he really had the ability to engage her with his eyes closed!
—”Blind Fighting!”
Soren took a breath and slowly opened his eyes. He glanced at the red-haired pirate woman and nodded slightly, saying, “Let’s stop here for today.”
After speaking, he picked up a towel to wipe away the sweat and bl**d from his body.
The battle was real!
Soren had accumulated real wounds, though they weren’t too severe. He was someone who believed strongly in gaining experience through real combat. Training could only yield the greatest enhancement in real battle; as for the injuries, that was a trivial matter since he possessed powerful regeneration abilities. The fleet would take another five or six days to reach the Seaweed Islands, and he wasn’t planning to waste this time. He trained with the red-haired pirate woman daily to enhance his other specialties.
Because, during this time, Soren had obtained quite a bit of specialty information!
A row of data floated before him:
“Combat Insight!”
“You have successfully activated a special combat skill!… You have gained insights during battle!…”
“Through repeated training, you have mastered a new combat skill; you have gained partial information on 【Sword Intent: Whirlwind Dance】!…”
…
“Combat Insight!”
“With repeated battle training, your combat skills have gradually improved!”
“You have gained partial information on 【Dual Wielding Defense】.”
…
“Combat Insight!”
“With repeated battles at sea, your combat ability in a marine environment has increased; your balance while countering ship instability has improved.”
“You have gained partial information on 【Sea Combat】.”
…
“Combat Insight!”
“With successive training sessions, you have comprehended special combat skills.”
“You have gained the specialty 【Dual Wielding Combat】!…”
…
“Combat Insight!”
“Through honing yourself, you have grasped some special combat techniques.”
“You have gained partial information on the specialty 【Blind Fighting】.”
…
In total, there were five notifications.
It was likely because Soren had recently focused on accumulating experience, all the skill information emerged in one go today.
The most critical was the specialty 【Dual Wielding Combat】. Soren had already received two pieces of information about it; mastering this specialty cost him a considerable amount of energy. Then there was the information about 【Sword Intent: Whirlwind Dance】, which appeared because he had carefully observed Adele Isabella’s combat style and learned the technique she used for the whirlwind dance. At this rate, he should be able to learn it in no time.
Then came the specialty 【Dual Wielding Defense】, which had been mentioned once during the battle against the Swamp King.
Its current emergence was unexpected.
Thus, Soren’s main purpose for this training was to master the specialty 【Blind Fighting】. He fought with his eyes closed to practice this technique, but this also reduced his ability to gauge his opponent’s position, forcing him to switch to a defensive style of fighting and discover enemy positions through their attacks before launching a counterattack. As a result, he unexpectedly honed the combat skills of 【Dual Wielding Defense】 without having received any information on 【Blind Fighting】 yet.
“Finally mastered 【Dual Wielding Combat】.”
Soren looked at his data and let out a long sigh, “I’ve mastered 【Dual Wielding Combat】. Next, I should be able to increase my profession level and further enhance my specialty capabilities.”
Specialty points are incredibly valuable.
If time allowed, he would prefer to train the relatively simple foundational specialties himself and then use specialty points to enhance them. Otherwise, wasting specialty points on basic specialties would be a pity; after all, some specialties could be mastered through increased combat experience. It might also be that his combat experience was deepening. Possibly due to Soren’s recent accumulation of experience to a certain extent, the speed at which he received information notifications had notably increased compared to before, and the effectiveness of training on some foundational specialties had improved significantly.
“Ah!”
Just as Soren was preparing to take a break, enhance his profession level, and contemplate which specialty to progress further, a commotion suddenly broke out on a nearby cargo ship. Followed by the shouts of sailors and some chaotic noises. The sounds made Soren furrow his brow, and then he lightly jumped, landing directly on the deck across the sea.
Something seems to have happened over there!
Soren had no choice but to temporarily abandon leveling up his profession to come and see. After all, there were no battles occurring at the moment.
“What’s going on?”
He landed on the deck, glanced at the sailors in front of him, and spoke in a deep voice, “What’s happening? Why all the noise?!”
Upon hearing Soren’s low voice, the sailors on the cargo ship visibly shrank back in fear.
The name of the Throat Cutter could silence a child’s cries in the Southern Coast region, and upon seeing Soren, they were obviously a bit frightened, but one bolder sailor spoke up, “Your Grace!… Down below… there’s a slave who is ill!… We’re worried it’s a contagious disease!…”
“We were going to toss him into the sea, but another slave is stubbornly protecting him and won’t let us near.”
Illness?
Upon hearing this term, Soren couldn’t help but be taken aback!
Encountering a disease at sea was no joking matter; even professionists sometimes couldn’t withstand them. In maritime conditions, infectious diseases were indeed a nightmare, likely leading to the infection of everyone aboard the ship. Therefore, when faced with such situations, people generally tossed the infected individual into the sea, especially if it was a slave infected with disease. To prevent the others from being infected, they might even execute the infected slave.
The medical skills in this world weren’t that great!
Doctors excelled at treating sword and blade injuries, and when it came to treating diseases, aside from divine techniques, only druids were somewhat proficient in herbal medicine.
In this situation.
The most common treatment for illness was to endure; whoever could endure would survive, and those who couldn’t would perish. Although priests could cure most diseases, ordinary people couldn’t afford the exorbitant costs. Even priests of benevolent deities wouldn’t heal others without compensation because there were too many suffering people in this world for them to assist.
“Take me to see!”
Soren was quite concerned about this batch of slaves. These slaves were primarily his labor force for establishing ventures overseas, and if all of them died due to a contagious disease at sea, that would be a serious problem. Upon hearing his command, a sailor immediately bent down and led him down, where the slaves were confined in the cabin. As soon as he entered the cabin, Soren smelled a strong foul odor, causing him to frown slightly. He then saw a large group of slaves crammed into cages, their sleeping areas contaminated with their excrement, creating a completely foul environment.
As slaves, their living conditions were indeed terrible, but this kind of environment was no wonder some of them would fall ill.
“Your Grace!”
The supervisor handling the situation quickly bowed his head upon seeing Soren, then nudged his subordinate beside him, smiling ingratiatingly, “Apologies for disturbing you! I’m truly sorry!…”
“However, there’s a slave here who has fallen ill. I’m worried he might infect others. Initially, I planned to toss him into the sea, but another slave claims his illness is not contagious. This wretched fellow is stubbornly protecting him from us, so I had no choice but to resort to force. Since you’re here, I’d like to ask how you would like to handle them.”
These slaves were Soren’s property.
The supervisor before him was merely acting on his behalf while trying to flatter the merchant association leader. Thus, upon seeing Soren, he intended to inquire about how to deal with these two slaves.
“No!…”
A sturdy-looking male slave raised his head, appearing to have some Northern bl**d, pleading in a dialect-infused voice, “Your Grace!… My brother hasn’t contracted the plague!… He’s just a little unwell!… He absolutely won’t infect anyone else!… I took care of him for three days before we boarded!… He was only a bit weak then!… Look, I’m completely fine now!… He won’t infect anyone else!… Please don’t throw him into the sea!…”
Bang, bang, bang!
The male slave, seemingly of Northern descent, quickly kowtowed, bl**d soon appearing on his forehead. However, he still fiercely protected the young man beside him, seemingly terrified they would take this young man away and throw him into the sea. There are generally no doctors at sea. At most, there’s someone with half-baked medical knowledge; the treatment methods for such diseases are severely lacking. Often, when people encounter diseases at sea, they can only attempt rudimentary treatment and then rely on their overall constitution to endure.
Regarding everything in front of him.
Soren’s face showed no sympathy. He wasn’t a sentimental person; he glanced indifferently at the Northern slave in front of him and gestured for those beside him to pry him off. The slave seemed a bit afraid of Soren but still clung tightly to the young man. With just a glance, Soren saw that the young man he was clinging to had seemingly fainted; the young slave’s complexion was extremely pale, showing almost no hint of color, his breathing very weak, lips unnaturally red, seemingly burning with a high fever, and his skin had an unnatural dark bluish hue.
“Remove his clothes.”
Soren furrowed his brow and instructed the others.
The two sailors beside him hesitated for a moment, then cautiously approached. The slave appeared to try to stop them but was quickly knocked down. They then stripped the sick slave of his clothing. Upon removing the clothing, the sailors staggered back, terrified, because on the slave’s back were over a dozen pus-filled sores the size of fingernails, some already burst, revealing dark yellow pus. There were other smaller sores on his body, but they weren’t as pronounced as those on his back.
“Máng Yì?!”
The supervisor jumped in fright, retreating five or six steps before stopping, his face pale, shouting, “Quick, throw him overboard! Send someone for lime! Quickly sprinkle lime here!…”
“Hurry!… What are you still standing there for?!… Quickly throw that guy!… No, no, no!… Throw both of them into the sea!”
The supervisor appeared to be quite alarmed.
After a while, he remembered that Soren was also present and hastily lowered his head and wiped a cold sweat, saying, “Your Grace! That slave seems to have Máng Yì!… A very terrible infectious disease!… This disease is contagious!… Unless a priest uses divine techniques, ordinary medicine cannot treat it at all!… The infected will end up rotting all over, and the d*ath is extremely gruesome!…”
His words made the nearby sailors tense up, all directing their gazes toward Soren.
It seemed they were waiting for his orders.
…
On the other side.
Vivian’s petite figure emerged from the cabin, dressed in a snow-white princess dress, rubbing her eyes with her little hands, stretching immensely, then looking at the red-haired pirate beside her, asking, “Where’s brother? Why is he missing?”
“Your Grace is on that ship.” Adele slightly bent down and replied.
As Soren’s top pirate captain, she naturally understood the little girl’s importance in Soren’s eyes, even other pirate leaders knew she was significant to the Throat Cutter. Therefore, no one dared to neglect her, especially since Vivian sometimes casting spells would also leave them feeling uncanny.
“Over there?”
The little girl looked up at the sun, then tied her hair up, and then moved her lips slightly as her small body flew up, directly landing on the opposite cargo ship’s deck.
At that moment.
She happened to hear the cries and pleas coming from the cabin below. (To be continued ~^~)
