Chapter 482: Darling of the New Generation
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
It was dawn. The empty land in front of the Rhino Bar's doors was filled with the sound of people making noise.
That empty piece of land had some rocks, scarecrows, and simple weapons for training like shooting targets. Old Barton wasn't greedy. As long as it was a customer of Rhino, one could use it for free. Sometimes, when he was free, he would give a few pointers.
As for ambitious adventurers, they never even thought about ever getting to sleep through the night till the early morning before they had to be demobilized. Life wasn't a game. In reality, there weren't people who just got by finishing off missions or freaks who randomly got exp by hitting monsters... Alright, there was always one bug that existed.
Cough, as for most people, fighting and the sudden appreciation of life were definitely a turning point. However, on the battlefield, just how my lives could one risk to seek the sparks of improvement? What was more, since one came to the sudden realization, one naturally needed to have accumulated enough for it to have any meaning; and, those realizations naturally needed to have been previously taught and cultivated.
Although mages needed sufficient time to sleep, it became a habit for them to analyze magic every morning at their prime state, while most priests would respectfully pray to the Gods at daybreak. This act of "giving their respects" was like a Godly power they craved. However, every judge of law was different. Law professions didn't need to greet Wumianzhe in the morning and report to him in the evening. All they needed to do was to study and have faith in the law—that would be enough. In actuality, this was more like mages who majored in "intelligence".
But one shouldn't assume that priests' prayers were troublesome or anything, because they were extremely relaxed in contrast to other professions.
The sound of recited statutes came from the goblin room on the second floor of the bar. As Thor continued his adventure, he realized that he was lacking, so he didn't waste any time.
Judging from the lamp that was extinguished at three or four in the morning, the goblin judge who embarrassed himself the previous day seemed to feel a sense of bravery after feeling ashamed.
The law job class members were similar to the mages who only relied on their knowledge from books and theories. Mages had to use tests to prove their own theories, and experiments to prove their own conclusions. Law professionals also needed to handle cases and enforce regulations with the law. They had to turn empty statutes to actual verdicts and use their actions to carry out their own interpretation of the law.
Of course, mages could search for other people's test reports and judges could search a collection of cases, but personal experience and reading data were two different things entirely. In order to reach the peak, one would need to be as patient as water slowly piercing through stone one step at a time. There were no shortcuts. Back in the day at Sulfur Mountain City, the strongest individuals of the Four Halls were still working side jobs as judges and taking cases every day.
Moreover, soldiers, knights, and holy knight-type combat professionals had it harder. They would always sharpen their sword skills and train their bodies. Three days without sword practice would leave them out of touch, one week would cause them to fall back, and half a year would deny half their skills. If they wanted to improve one step at a time, they had to go practice their sword skills in an empty place every morning before dawn. That was the model example of a soldier.
Of course, when it came to Adam and Margaret's level, combat skills and sorcery had already become a natural instinct. There was no need for them to grind every day anymore. But, perhaps because of their nurtured habit, there wasn't a single day when Adam and the others neglected their practice. Their everyday fundamental training of several million sword swings were equivalent to a month's worth of practice for regular swordcasters. Roland, that b*stard, would be the only one who would sleep till noon.
Mary woke up rather early, but it was just to move her body a little and practice waving her sword a little before heading back to her room.
After all, despite the word 'sword' being in her title as a Four Elemental Swordcaster, nobody expected her to have incredible sword skills. The four's strength came from their use of many types of sword seals.
For an emerging profession which made something from nothing, seven years was considered the fastest time for one to expand and grow.
Back in the old days, Roland saw the potential in this profession, but it turned out to be an incomplete one. Now, countless successors had refined this dual-magic and martial arts profession without considerably high requirements.
From the very founding of the four elemental sword seals, there had now been over thirty types of common practices. This new profession also had their own direction in which they wanted to advance, and created a load of Gold-ranked common practices to get promoted. For example, they concentrated on research into some type of elemental sword seal to greatly advance in rank. In battle, sorcerers like those possessed swordcasting-like techniques for spirit sword seals. They used combined magical sword skills of magical-type soldiers to take out the enemy's exorcist swordmen.
The former focused their efforts on researching even higher sword seals. They always carried multiple micro-energy batteries and their magical swords would grow several troughs, which were more useful than "Olivia's box" and "Sword seal modules". The latter specialized in using various types of combined sword seals. They would always carry multiple magical swords for them to use all different kinds of magical sword skills.
In comparison to traditional mages, swordcasting techniques might have been simpler and shorter in attack range. However, they were able to cast spells. Yet, besides the rather low mage's threshold, the real reason of its rapidly spreading power was mainly because it was a gold-using job... Yes. It was a gold-using job that wasted more money than mages. As long as you had money, and had enough "Olivia's boxes" and "Sword seal", you would be the king of combat with unlimited firepower.
Exorcist swordsmen needed to be more steadfast on their road to maturity. They especially researched various types of techniques of using sword seals and powerful "magical sword skills" which were composed of combined sword seals. Perhaps the effects were slow-acting in a short amount of time, but before a truly powerful person, they were considered to be greater than an exorcist swordsmen.
The most powerful exorcist swordsman was Cohen, who was said to have already joined the ranks of Myth. He even fought SemiGods and was able not to be defeated. He was seen as the most successful person among the younger generation of all lands.
Incidentally, Roland was extremely confused when he read the news at the time. Besides "My disciple finally surpassed me on this path. I'm really happy", he felt "How did he surpass me so quickly? How am I meant to act cool in front of him ever again?"
Anyways, back to the main point.
The most obvious advantage of the four elemental swordcasters' lead in this generation, and the reason why they were fundamentally and rapidly accepted by the people and various countries, was their good compatibility with the magical machinery of the new generation.
Every swordsman carried different types of little tools, so as long as they stabbed the magical sword into the magical machinery, they'd be able to control it like how one would control their own arms. This was something a pilot couldn't do no matter how much talent he acquired through training.
Because of this, the four elemental swordcasters couldn't do without using those magical swords as a controlling device to pilot different types of magical machinery. However, as giant battle machines were expensive and limited to military usage in some countries, professional pilots were still few and far between. They would always choose specially made magical swords and serve in the military.
It could be said that however strong the four elemental swordcasters were, it had nothing to do with their physical form. Instead, one had to count how many sword seals they possessed, how many magical sword techniques they learnt, if they had enough sword seal modules and Olivia's boxes on their body, and whether they carried different types of new battle machines.
Mary had already reached the Gold rank, but just looking at those three magical swords sockets, it was easy to tell that she was a swordcaster who mainly used high-ranking sword seals in battle.
From head to toe, her equipment was expendable. Under the current circumstances of not knowing the enemy's whereabouts, real combat training was in actuality a rather meaningless way to waste energy beforehand. It was also a way to easily expose one's hand.
Diana also got up really early. Before it was bright outside, she started early sword training on an empty plot of land. As an anti-holy knight, they lost practically all their superpowers. All they could rely on was their resolute willpower and the sharp sword in their hands.
For anti-holy knights, willpower couldn't become one's protective armor; it also couldn't change the sharp blade of an attack. However, it could turn the opponent into a mortal just like themselves. In the end, the one who'd conquer would still have to rely on their sword skills.
In some sense, this was a highly difficult profession which only martial experts had the confidence to advance in. Naturally, if your fighting skills were awful, you could put on heavy armor and fight a battle of endurance with the enemy. However, it'd be difficult to win or lose as the hard training one had to go through was mostly ruined from the start.
But Diana was clearly the former as she was an expert in sword magic and an outstanding almost-sword-saint.
There was a dark cloud between the wave of the silver white longsword. There was a faint trickle of blood upon the sword's blade. A standard enchanted mithril heavy sword was just a magical sword that whistled in the wind.
It wasn't as though they fell into darkness, but the anti-holy knight carried the god-loathing curse which had special effects. All their weapons and armor would be gradually dyed black to represent the fallen.
When Diana waved her sword, there were still some dark clouds surrounding the silver armor. But because of the armor's special design, the dark cloud was like hovering clouds wrapped around the key areas. It seemed fairly visible and oddly beautiful, with a mysterious elegance. That curse seemed to act as a strange ornament.
"I never thought it would have this effect. Is this why they chose this set of armor? It's no wonder these elves are vain to their very bones."
Diana didn't choose the thin sword and the curved knife the elves liked, because they clearly lacked in power. They were unsuitable for knights.
The heavy sword vibrated like rolling thunder. The sword's faint black aura enveloped the blade, vaguely reverberating on the heavy sword. This was the distinct aura which an almost-sword-saint possessed. When she could casually release the aura... that'd be the day she became a true sword saint.
Seeing this, my first reaction actually turned out to be...
"So that brat isn't as young as I thought she was…"
Elves matured extremely slowly. A true qualified soldier needed two hundred years to become one. Judging by past experiences, an almost-sword-saint couldn't mature without spending several centuries unless they were a super-genius. If it was a several century old veteran, their experience or whatever wouldn't be too bad.
Or perhaps, an expert like this was the reason why they dared to take this mission.
In some sense, anti-holy knights and four elemental swordcasters were considered two extremes; one didn't rely on outside objects to the extreme, and the other would feel completely useless if they lost their items.
In these past years, having gone through real combat tests, these two job classes were the best partners on the battlefield.
One had many abilities but was not stable in terms of the instant combustion limit of low-level sword seals. That was their greatest weakness when facing strong fighters individually. The other was unafraid of anyone in one-to-one combat, but their specialized attacks lacked supportive abilities. They formed a natural ability to complement one another.
But because there were increasingly more four elemental swordcasters, the requirements to join the ranks of antiholy knights were too high. The lowest were Gold-rank job class members, and they had to have a good set of combat skills. This combination unwittingly became the unique force of the north. Of course, this had a lot to do with Diana, the leader of the large group of all antiholy knights, who was also the strongest anti-holy knight.
"If that Mary were about the same level, then we shouldn't have to worry about being killed with one slap by those guys from the Death Council."
In that very moment, I lay under that tree, reading the papers whilst contemplating how to tell them about my latest clues. Uh-huh, I definitely wasn't drinking tea and eyeing beautiful women. I was doing real business.
Yes. I did my own investigation the previous day and already made my own discoveries. Although I'm not the Death Council's disciple of the dark cult, I had already stepped on the enemy's foot. As long as I followed the breadcrumbs, who knew? I might be able to be a major help to the case.
"How can I have them unwittingly interrupt the ceremony? Not that I can expose myself. It's so difficult being a good NPC. What a headache! Yeesh… are demons and devils fighting again? Is this the fourth time this year that the Devil Lord and the Abyss Lord are fighting? What a rare piece of good news."
The newspaper headlines remarked on the latest round of confrontation that broke out in the abyss. A certain Abyss Lord was torn apart, and a certain demon boss successfully ranked up in battle.
Now, the most chaotic of all the planes of Eich wasn't the main plane, but the lower plane. The will of the abyss disappeared, which immediately led to loss of control of the entire abyss. Demons and devils already had quite a lot of mutual misunderstandings, and they directly started fighting. As for whether it was a good or a bad thing, nobody could say for sure.
"Even news of the lower plane were gathered, and so quickly too. Looks like I used to underestimate fairies. Perhaps you'll consider working together."
It was worth mentioning that following the development of the Holy War, the fairies didn't care how much it cost them and helped Eich's naturally flourishing press to become even more booming by using Griffins to deliver the latest issue or something like that. Looking back, it was practically too extravagant.
When the magazine which was used as a cover-up actually caught my attention, Diana all of a sudden walked over and spoke with a smile, "Karo, have you not gained anything from observing for so long? Will you train with me when you're free?"
I was stunned at first, but then understood from her humiliated and angry expression. It seemed like I accidentally offended the other person. But as a sly fox, how could I easily admit defeat like this?
"Of course I can. Miss, as long as you're willing to treat me to a week's worth of ale in return. But, I already exchanged my weapons and equipment for wine money, so could you help me buy a set of armor and a longsword? Oh yeah, if you accidentally hit me, can I apply for medical fees and compensation for mental trauma?"