Chapter 289: Basics and Aptitude

According to the custom of inspections, the most important part of this event was having lunch with the young militiamen present. Of course, such an action had never occurred in the past history of Bolerum Territory; back then, even the distinction between the standing army and the militia forces was not very clear. And George’s current action was merely copying what he had seen in the media before he crossed over.

Although the militiamen and instructors were very satisfied with the food before them, eating heartily until they were covered in sweat. This also caused a strong body odor to permeate the entire training ground, but fortunately, George, who had experienced military life, did not feel any discomfort regarding this situation.

However, for George, who was very particular about food, today’s lunch seemed a bit bland. As the saying goes, it is hard to please everyone; if a dish is too specifically tailored to one person’s taste, it might be repellent to others. Moreover, this kind of large-pot cooking could not be overly refined; rather than making it delicious, it was better to say it was just easy to swallow.

The period after lunch until two in the afternoon, when the sun was fierce, was a short rest time for most militia trainees. However, for those seedlings favored by the instructors, they were currently receiving specialized instruction under the shade of the trees.

This could be called an alternative small-class system: it broke the traditional pattern of the large drill ground and adopted group teaching methods. It broke the traditional teaching method of marching in step and adopted layered teaching methods. This made communication between teachers and students more effective, uncovering their own advantages, and implementing open and creative teaching; it could be said to be a necessary means of teaching in accordance with their aptitude at this stage.

After all, sometimes the natural talent between people really cannot be compared, and the gap in the willingness to practice hard among those children who were not yet fully grown was even more obvious. Although it is said that children from poor families mature early, children are still children after all! It was precisely because of these various reasons that the gap among the same batch of militia trainees was also quite obvious.

In the Bolerum Territory of this world, although it was not naked social Darwinism, specialized arrangements for the advanced to lead the backward were rarely seen. And for the instructors, every young militia trainee who could officially pass the assessment and enter the army represented extra income for themselves.

Such an incentive system made the instructors appear more dedicated to those sharp little kids. Sometimes, material rewards were also very necessary. However, because the treatment in the Bolerum Territory army was generous and the future was promising, in order to squeeze through this threshold, besides the truly outstanding trainees, there were also a certain number of people with connections.

However, George obviously turned a blind eye to this phenomenon. After all, what he needed were qualified soldiers, so as long as they could pass the conscription project assessment, George did not want to consider what had happened before; after all, there was no absolute fairness in this world.

Rational use of all existing rules was not an unacceptable thing. But he would never allow any errors in the assessment checkpoint; as long as this bottom line was held, the combat effectiveness of the army would not have problems.

It was precisely for that foreseeable beautiful future that these little kids executed the instructions of their respective instructors without complaint or regret. They seriously corrected every posture pointed out by the instructors, not complaining even once when their arms, waists, and legs were knocked black and blue by the instructors with thin wooden sticks.

Because before this, they had already learned absolute obedience to their superiors, which was also part of the assessment and training. Moreover, they believed that under the existing system of the Territory, although George often did not explain anything to them, what he wanted them to do was definitely the best choice under the existing conditions. And the smartest thing they could do as apprentices was to discard their own irrelevant thoughts and just follow the other party’s instructions.

And George was also watching the practice not far away with great interest, although those were just the simplest move patterns. Although there were more changes compared to collective training, in George’s eyes, they were just the basics of the basics.

In fact, as long as there were changes in the swinging of a weapon, it was considered the prototype of a move. And after being summarized by predecessors, many fixed usage patterns would be formed, which were moves.

However, moves were not indispensable things; they were just a path to lead people into the door, and once inside, one could naturally do as they pleased. But before entering the door, one must use weapons honestly according to the moves, which could save those novices from taking many detours.

Naturally, different weapons had different moves, and the moves taught by the instructors at this stage were all very simple.

For example, the sword moves for the two-handed Greatsword were simple chopping and thrusting; there were no tricks at all, winning entirely by momentum and heavy force. It was precisely because in the dense environment of the battlefield that ordinary tricks would lose their original value and meaning.

The training for the Spear was thrusting and swinging retraction; the key to the former was the loose grip in the final stage, because the charging cavalrymen were often iron cans wrapped tightly. In order to reduce the burden on one’s own arm while blocking the opponent, this was necessary, and the latter was indeed to effectively pull out the weapon to prepare for a second attack.

These were the basic moves in the military, concise, to the point, to kill the enemy at the fastest speed, or to be killed by the enemy. However, these were their capital for survival on the battlefield; even if these things were the most boring and tedious, there were people willing to spend a lot of time training with dedication every day.

Facing those youths who were shedding their blood and sweat, George showed a satisfied smile. Although such movements appeared quite crude, they had been passed down for thousands of years without being discarded, so there must be an important reason.

Because take the use of the Greatsword as an example! As long as they completed the first stage of training, then next they could learn how to use the weapon in their hands to block and deter the opponent’s attack. And then they could even know how to lower the weapon’s posture to lure the opponent into attacking. And when the opponent attacked, they could quickly raise the weapon to counterattack—this was usually called the Fool’s Guard.

After learning these defensive moves, there was the most famous offensive method, the Half-Sword: the user held the middle part of the sword blade and performed a powerful thrust or kill at a short distance. This could be said to be using the sword as a short spear to launch short-range attacks on enemies within close contact distance.

The entire system was usually linked together and progressed step by step. Although it was often not as fast and powerful as those secret transmissions, its excellent adaptability and almost non-existent cultivation risks were the guarantee for large-scale military training.

Like those routines of advanced martial arts distributed on a large scale in the military that George saw before crossing over. In this world, it was basically unworkable. Leaving aside the issue of the outflow of these martial arts moves, just wanting these mud-legged people to fully understand the meaning within was not something that could be done in a day. Moreover, it was not true that profound moves and techniques could handle everything.

Just like the common killing swordsmanship in the army, in order to avoid the hindrance of the opponent’s armor during the attack process. Often one slash would chop off half of the enemy’s head, or directly decapitate the opponent’s head.

Moreover, if facing an enemy wearing heavy armor, usually only piercing and blunt damage could have the due effect. At this time, one could only ignore the opponent’s flaws and not care about the opponent’s weak points, just swinging out one’s maximum attack power with all one’s might to hit the opponent.

Even if the opponent relied on armor to survive, the attacker hoped that the huge impact could also disrupt his rhythm, or even knock him to the ground, thereby removing the threat he was about to face. At this time, it could be said that life and death were often on a thin line.

But when it came to George’s choices, there were many more. Needless to say, one sword to cut off the opponent’s head, whether it was one sword thrust to cut the opponent’s throat, or one sword to pierce his heart. According to his standard, if one point of force could be used, he would never use a second point; intuitively speaking, it was indeed more exquisite and profound than the basic swordsmanship circulating in the army.

However, such a fighting style was not something anyone could use; although George had been working hard in this direction, he had not seen any results for a long time. Knight Val had once told George that unless facing an opponent with a huge difference in strength. Otherwise, to truly achieve such success, one often had to be a Master at the peak of Bronze.

However, the cultivation of the Steel Soul Style gave George a shortcut. If the original mental changes only allowed George to face the enemy’s offensive more calmly. But it seemed because of the compatibility with the Steel Soul Style, George had already broken through the barrier of moves in front-line martial skills.

His spirit and body were gradually merging into one, which made him highly concentrated in battle. Because of confidence, training, and clear spirit, it could be said that his nerve reaction speed was adjusted to several times or even higher than that of ordinary people. So under this condition, it looked like there was an illusion that the flow of time slowed down. The obvious thing was that the movement was slightly faster than normal.

However, such an ability seemed to slow down the flow of time. In essence, it had nothing to do with influencing time; it could only be considered as strengthening one’s own acceleration ability. But on the battlefield, George’s keen spirit could be reflected in his body. He could always maintain tense nerves, allowing him to better face attacks and threats, and deal with enemies with more ease.

It could be said that only now did George rely on this special ability to initially achieve his original goal. And the use of this ability also had considerable limitations; once overused, one’s own nerves would not be able to withstand such severe torture and collapse. The best result was paralysis of hands and feet and convulsions of the body. In severe cases, it might even cause short-term paralysis. It could be said to be just like the rage of a barbarian warrior in the early stage; every use had to be timed accurately.

As for those ordinary soldiers, if they took George’s path. They would lose their lives the first time they stepped onto the battlefield due to delaying the fighter opportunity. Moreover, the army in this world needed to face not only Humans but also shouldered the task of fighting against many unscientific beasts. At this time, brave attacks, swinging out the kills with all one’s heart and strength were the key.

And for monsters like “Black Pudding” which had no weaknesses all over their bodies, not to mention George, even Knight Val could only use violence to crush them with force. From this, it could be seen that the seemingly crude moves in the army were the real cure-all. Even a Noble junior like George had often used those things to lay the foundation in the initial stage.

‘I hope that among these young people, there really will be a few little guys who can break through their own limits! After all, war could break out at any time in the next few years, and I don’t know how many of them will be able to survive to the end.’ Turning around to leave the training ground, George could not help but sigh with such emotion.

Busy days always passed quickly. Especially recently, Broken Halberd Fortress and those Underground Dark Elves had already been in a strategic stalemate. The warfare could no longer be called warfare; in other words, friction was more appropriate.

However, the slowdown of the warfare did not mean that George’s business here changed. After all, mutual infiltration and the hunting carried out by Adventurers to earn bounties never stopped. What really slowed down was only the large-scale confrontation between regular armies.

Relying on geographical advantages and relatively strong industrial capabilities, the Bolerum Territory exported a large amount of finished materials to those Adventurers during this time. Ranging from weapons and equipment to clothing, bedding, and even convenient rations, it could be said to cover everything. Under such a cycle, even after deducting the cost of purchasing raw materials from outside, a large amount of tax and profit still entered George’s pocket.

This made George, who had become a bit short of money due to several large expenses a while ago, breathe a sigh of relief. After all, he had to have enough savings to deal with possible sudden situations. As for the profit of that field hospital in Greywood Town, it could be described as meager, but what George valued more was the growth of those Herbalist apprentices.

Finally, on the twentieth day after submitting a formal application to the Swordsman Guild, a candidate who was said to be suitable came before George. Looking at that middle-aged man named Carlton Salvin, the wind and frost of years had left rich footprints on his face. However, his straight posture and sharp eyes were telling people of his extraordinariness.

The other party said directly: “Lord! May I ask you to walk a few steps first.”

‘I said, this guy doesn’t think there is some defect in my body!’ With a little displeasure in his heart, George still walked back and forth under the other party’s scrutiny.

It could be seen that the other party seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He was obviously observing the standing and movement of George’s feet just now. After all, footwork was particularly important for sword skills; it could be said that a swordsman’s attack and defense were completely reflected in those inconspicuous feet.

A Swordsman could be one-armed; even if the sword-holding hand lacked some fingers, it would not affect his becoming a powerful Swordsman. Even some disabled people with naturally deformed bodies could become Master-level existences, which was recorded in history—but there was never a lame person who could become a Swordsman, unless he could walk without relying on his legs. On the contrary, it was said that some axemen seemed to have such existences.

Before George’s anger dissipated, the other party made another request: “Next, in order to better understand your characteristics, could you please pose a few movements for me to see.”

George first distributed his body weight carefully, establishing a balance and a weird posture. George, who intended to show off, could attack opponents further away than usual through this stance.

Although warriors lacking training and experience would often fall flat on their faces when using this martial skill. But George had enough skill, focus, and elegance to complete this complex movement.

It could be said that George could attack forward like a sliding snake, stretching his body to the limit where he could maintain balance. And his opponent retreated in defeat, surprised that he could reach him at such a long distance.

Although it was only an extra attack distance of 5 feet, it was by no means an easy task to achieve this without completely affecting other movements.

Then George shifted his center of gravity to his back foot, carefully setting up his sword in a ready posture, his muscles twitching slightly as if he were preparing to dodge the next attack he would face. Immediately after, he suddenly leaped into the air, drawing a twisted afterimage, sweeping around him with his weapon like a comet. If there was an enemy there, he might have already suffered heavy damage.

“Very good, this seems to be a bit beyond my expectation. But why do you seek guidance from a Swordsman like me! Don’t you have your own Knight heritage? I chose and thought there was some defect in your body!” Carlton Salvin actually expressed his doubts so bluntly in front of George.

According to this person’s statement, using a Longsword was not a vulgar skill like a woodcutter chopping trees. In his view, swordsmanship was an art, and truly powerful swordsmanship was often the embodiment of elegance.

And a just-right physique was also conducive to the display of swordsmanship and reducing one’s own flaws, so before learning swordsmanship, one must first adjust the body’s posture. Physiques like pigeon chest, hunchback, scoliosis, and bow legs could basically be announced as disqualified by the mentor, so physique was very important.

And judging by the current form, for a Knight like George who had a heritage, they basically looked down on the techniques of Swordsmen. Even regarding the use of the Longsword, Knights had their own way of holding the sword, and Swordsmen had their own way of holding the sword; there was a clear distinction between the two.

Often it was those Knight juniors who had certain congenital defects and had no hope of inheriting the family Knight heritage who would spend a lot of money to hire Swordsmen for guidance. But even for Swordsmen, although the requirements for aptitude were not as high as Knights, there were still certain requirements. What he had just conducted was only the most basic inspection; if even the basic requirements could not be met, this person would turn around and leave even if it meant falling out.