Chapter 2

Book1 - Chapter 2: Knight Training

"Lord John is going to train in public today?" A squire seating under the shadow of a tree asked with some expectation in his heart.

The group turned around after noticing his words to look at the father and son duo and hope started to build up in their heart. It wasn't common for them to see a knight as powerful as John giving instructions.

A voice however made the hope in their hearts dissipate.

"That shouldn't be the case." Turning to look at the one who spoke, a sense of admiration flashed in their eyes.

Zack was considered to be the most promising squire of this gen's batch, he had been training for just two years, and even though he started later than his peers and was also older by a year compared to the second oldest squire, he had already surpassed them all and even acted as a good senior, helping them on their training and giving guidance to whoever asks for it.

"Senior Zack! Do you know why they are here?" Someone asked.

"Hm... seeing how one of the Knights Professor left in such a hurry, I believe our Lord is preparing to train his son."

"Eh but..." The squires looked at each other and shook their heads. "Wasn't the little brat completely aversed to sweat and pain? I remember seeing the lord begging but even that wasn't enough to move the kid."

"That might have been the case, but he's still just a kid..." Zack curled up his lips. "Now that a year has passed he might have completely changed his opinion of the matter."

The squires nodded in realization. "Senior Zack sure is wise!"

Shaking his head, Zack stopped paying attention to those juniors of his and watched silently as John Farlier began lecturing his son.

* * *

Leylin had a serious look on his face, it wasn't always that he saw his father with such a stern expression. Despite having never faced something similar in his life before, he felt an invisible pressure weighing down on him as if invisible boulders had been placed on his shoulders.

"First, the basics..." John explained to Leylin that every Knight technique was graded in a specific way. To begin with, they were all separated into three major realms, low, middle, and high, and each major realm was subsequently divided by lower, medium, and upper grade.

The technique their family inherited was acquired long ago during a war, and it was also a big secret that couldn't be spread outside of the family, those who could learn it and even seen it were all technically considered to be a Farlier.

Their technique was one graded at Upper middle grade, and could easily make a person stronger.

The problem with those techniques is how crude and limited they are, the progress gets slower the stronger you get until a point of stagnation and it's said that only those Upper high-grade knight techniques can barely allow a knight to compare with a magus that's just beginning his path.

This information was mind-blowing for the Leylin who had just watched his father cut through a big rock the size of a millstone with the slash of a sword, if that wasn't considered strong enough to face magi, just what exactly was the limit of magic? A small bud of fear towards mages was then born in his heart along the tacit understanding between him and his mind to never offend a mage unless he was 100% sure of being able to deal with the aftermath.

Watching his father showing how each movement was done in conformance to the cross-blade technique, his system kept notifying him of two skills improving at the same time.

[Being taught by John Farlier, Cross blade technique proficiency raised by 10%]

[Being taught by John Farlier, (Human) Swordsmanship proficiency raised by 10%]

Unlike previously where his proficiency only raised by a mere 1%, it was now being increased ten times faster!

He wondered if this would allow him to reach 100% proficiency in something for the first time, reality, however, poured a bucket of cold water on his face half an hour later.

[Proficiency of skill Cross blade technique can't improve beyond the proficiency of the teacher, the host needs to train by himself.]

A similar notification about Swordsmanship had also appeared, now he had two issues at hand...

How to raise those skills beyond the 50% limit, and the meaning of 'Human' behind the word Swordsmanship.

He had to admit though that his knowledge of the things he was getting taught was already very high, whether or not it was thanks to the system, even though his proficiency was supposedly at the same level as his father, he was sure that he could see flaws in his stance and movements.

As he analyzed the flaws, his system once again sent notifications.

[Cross blade technique proficiency raised by 1%]

[(Human) Swordsmanship proficiency raised by 1%]

Seeing how progress was once again being made, he felt like his understanding of the system had improved.

To increase the proficiency of his skills past a certain level he has to actively look for the problems using the knowledge he got with his improved learning ability granted by the system and manually fix the issue...

This, however, meant that he wasn't just getting better at X skill, it meant that after a certain threshold of proficiency he was actually improving it and making it something else based on the original's foundation.

If that's really the case... then maybe he can make his family technique comparable to the best Knight techniques in the world!

"Now, I'll teach you the most important part, the technique complementary breathing exercise! It's through it that you will eventually ignite your inner life force!"

Leylin nodded and watched with perfect focus as his father stood in a squatting position with both arms reaching forward while breathing in certain intervals, one could easily notice the pattern of the timing.

[Being taught by John Farlier, Cross blade breathing exercise proficiency raised by 10%]

After listening to the tips and insights on how to do it provided by his father, Leylin was once again meeting the 50% threshold and this made him wonder if it was some sort of human limitation that caused this, or if despite being the strongest member of the Farlier family, his father had yet to really master the family technique...

Whatever the case was, he could only slowly research to understand the issue.

"Now repeat everything for me, I'll correct your mistakes!" Unlike during the breakfast, there was a hint of authority in his voice, it seemed that his father was going all out and doing his best to teach him.

"Yes, father!"

Under the curious eyes of the crowd, alongside the group of squires who stopped just to watch Leylin embarrassed himself, he began to imitate the sequence of movements from the Cross blade technique, slash, thrust, parrying, upper slash, diagonal slash, feigning, etc.

With every movement, his mind went deeper and deeper into the intricacies of each movement, the reason behind it, and the best way to apply it.

[Cross blade technique proficiency raised by 1%]

[(Human) Swordsmanship proficiency raised by 1%]

[Cross blade technique proficiency raised by 1%]

[(Human) Swordsmanship proficiency raised by 1%]

Unconsciously, Leylin entered a strange state where he unknowingly started to shadowbox a clone of himself, and together with it, his proficiency was rapidly increasing.

"This..."

"What the hell!?"

Everyone had a sunken face as they watched with wide eyes, it wasn't that his performance was bad, it was rather too good for one to believe it!

"Sir, have you trained young master in secret?" A knight sneakingly approached John and asked with a low voice to avoid being heard.

John whose mouth could only hang open being unable to carry the weight of such tasty surprise, just shook his head without saying anything.

'Is my son really this talented!?' He was starting to wonder if it was a dream while those around had already paled thinking that they had stayed too much under the scorching sun and had started to see things that weren't real!

At some point, his proficiency raised to a hundred percent, the notification startled him and pushed him out of his trance-like state.

Was that... enlightenment? He had been so engrossed in the search for flaws and possible improvements that he had lost track of time, it was almost as if he had entered a world where only he and the blade existed a world for the sole purpose of improving him...

Seeing the look on his father's face, he was worried that he was getting impatient and started to practice the breathing exercise.

While doing so the first thing he noticed was how much pressure this put on the body, after just a few minutes it felt like every muscle on his body was burning, it felt like his cells were crying for mercy as they begged for a more comfortable position that didn't rely so much on consistent use of strength to keep himself from falling.

While practicing, besides his increase of proficiency, he could also feel something else. It was like an electric current barely noticeable running through his veins, whatever it passed through a lingering feeling of numbness would stay behind and the place felt like it was getting nourished.

Unfortunately, no one could notice those outstanding results with the naked eye, so they felt that he was just doing okay. That is... until the stench came.

"Ugh!" Someone's face became green as he frowned and held his chest.

"Fuck! This smell!" The other who was closer felt like someone had attacked his lungs and threw away all the food he had eaten today.

Leylin who had just achieved 100% proficiency in Cross blade breathing exercises, could only frown when faced with the stench of death.

His body was now covered in a black substance that could be mistaken for toxic waste in his previous life, this was called impurity cleansing, by practicing a breathing technique, the body would be filled with vital energy that would in turn force the impurities in the body away.

But such quantities of impurity were very rare and made Leylin think if maybe he had put everything out in one go.

Looking at his father, he could only beg for help.

"Cough... Liz, take my son to the bathroom and help him get rid of this smell."

The maidservant that had been waiting under the shadows of the mansion nodded and without minding the smell, she hurriedly grabbed Leylin in her arms and took him to the Bathroom.

Thankfully he was still pretty small, otherwise, that wouldn't have been possible.