Chapter 54: Remarkable Results
"When fag a more powerful, downward ssh, how should you brad defend?"
Old John scratched his head, adopting a defeah some uainty in his voice.
"Uh, like this?"
Matthew g him, with his data dispy meticulously rec the form. He turo Ange and said:
"Lower your ter of gravity slightly, step back with your left leg, bend yht knee frip your on firmly, raise your shield with both arms, and a slightly..."
Ange, realizing what Matthew was aiming at, silently reflected on his instrus as she jotted them down.
As Matthew eborated on each defeance, he tinued with the question:
"When an oppo attacks you from behind with a quick thrust, how do you defend?"
Hearing this, Ange promptly demonstrated the appropriate defense from behind Old John.
Realizing the situation, Old John expertly rolled forward, quickly regaining his footing and positioning his twi a diagonal guard.
Every muscle movement and the purpose behind each motion were carefully noted by Matthew.
After half an hour of questioning, Matthew had drained Old John of all his defensive maneuvers.
Matthew held a Shadow Crystal in one hand and a defearaining manual iher, handing both to Ange:
"Over the hree days, study and memorize these moves whenever you have time. Rest for half an hour now."
"Afterward, I’ll assign you some special training."
With hope shining in her eyes, Ange began to suspect the lord's iions.
Regardless of success or failure, Ange decided that this knowledge should remain a closely guarded secret.
In a world where learning to read was costly, suowledge could bee the foundation of a family's legacy.
Ange felt a deep gratitude for Matthew's trust in her and silently vowed not to disappoint him.
Half an hour ter.
Having recovered her strength, Ange approached Old John.
This time, though armed with a sword, she only defended, carefully mimig each of Old John’s moves.
Old John swung his bde down, and Ange parried, sparks flying from the csh of sword and shield.
Ahstood the blow, stepping back half a pace as she heard Matthew’s voice of approval:
"That defense was executed perfectly."
Matthew’s certainty stemmed from seeing a floating prompt above Ange's head that read, “Defeance XP +1.”
Soon, Ange cycled through all of the defeances.
Matthew quickly pointed out any fwed movements, and Ange sought further guidance from Old John while adjusting her notes.
Ange corrected each mistake, and her defeance progress steadily increased.
By the time she had mastered every move, only two hours had passed.
During a break, Old John hastily ate some food to recover his strength, mumbling in disbelief:
"She's improving way too fast..."
Old John had spent years refining his defeahrough tless battles.
Now, Ange had grasped its essen just a few hours, leaving Old John with an almost surreal sense of disbelief.
Matthew patiently helped Ah her summary.
The first attempt was always the hardest, but with time, Ange would beore and more profit.
The day quickly passed.
Old John, panting and exhausted, paused his movements. Ange, her steps steady, saluted him with her sword. Notig the sadness in his eyes, she whispered:
"This is likely just the lord's experiment..."
Old John, who hadn't fully grasped Matthew's iions, suddenly realized something. But before he could ask further, Ange had already turo leave.
Matthew calcuted that Ange’s progress had reached 45% by the end of the day.
Over the wo days.
Matthew tinued doting and refining Araining process.
Defending against two attackers took Ange five hours to meet the required standard, bringing her progress to 70%.
Defending against three attackers, however, only took her two hours to plete, and she hit 100%!
By the afternoon of the third day, Ange had successfully mastered the Defeance feat!
The tinuous practid familiarity gave Matthew more fiden spreading the knowledge of feats.
Of course, all this progress came with a cost!
Matthew never sidered himself a benevolent figure, and he khe y of implementiain safeguards.
After mastering her first feat, Ange romptly assighe task of learning another basic feat.
Within three more days, Ange had successfully acquired the "Veteran of the Battlefield" feat, signifitly boosting her bat prowess.
Her rapid progress left Old John, who rivy to the inner ws, utterly dumbfounded.
Each day, Old John trained with renewed vigor, determio push his body to new limits.
At the same time, he intensified his training of the soldiers under his and.
He was eager to make them stronger in the shortest amount of time.
During this week.
The soldiers were far from idle.
With ample foorous training, generous pay, and fierpetition, they had undergone a dramatic transformation.
The total number of soldiers had increased from 105 to 150.
The number of warrior-css professionals had risen to 40.
Among them, 15 had advao 2nd-tier, with Leon being the first.
But the real progress wasn’t just in their heir coordination in formations had improved tremendously.
As they marched through the vilge in perfeison, heading back to the barracks, they were greeted with cheers and praise from the vilgers.
The sight of their disciplined ranks evoked a sense of awe, almost addig to those watg.
Even Matthew, ever critical, couldn't deny that the soldiers' training had yielded impressive results.
But this progress had its price.
With soldiers and vilgers eating far more than before, food ption had tripled, not to mention the hundreds of hungry kobolds.
In just one week, a tenth of the food Mattheurchased from Adam Smith had been ed.
After all, with a vilge popution of 2,000, supp 200 professional soldiers meant that most resources had to be bought from outside.
The only person growing increasingly ed was Ralph, who was stantly busy.
Watg the territory's funds dwindle, Ralph couldn't help but feel anxious.
Even though he khe lord had stockpiled a batch of alchemical potions, he still worried about whether Adam Smith could sell them quickly enough to exge for the mueeded gold and resources.
Strengthening an army came with a hefty price tag!
FAL
