Chapter 84: Extreme Training

After a day of rest, both Tina and Perrin had fully recovered.

Perrin had taken the potential potion and learned the Skyward Slash. Jia Zhengjin had specially crafted a complete set of iron armor for her as well, ensuring she was fully equipped.

Early in the morning, Buddy was instructed to gather all the town guards. Everyone donned their full sets of iron armor and lined up neatly before him.

“Good morning! Did everyone sleep well last night?” Jia Zhengjin asked.

“We slept very well, thank you for your concern, Lord Keen!”

“It’s just that the house feels empty without any furniture.”

“Lord Keen, our families should arrive at the village outside the Magic Beast Forest today. May we go fetch them when the time comes?”

“Yes, yes! After packing all day, our families must have brought everything they could!”

The town guards all chimed in, their main concerns revolving around their yet-to-arrive families.

“There’s no need to worry!” Jia Zhengjin smiled, “Of course I won’t stop you from picking up your families. I’ll even have Wolf escort you the entire way. After all, the roads in and out of the Magic Beast Forest are still rather dangerous!”

Hearing this, the town guards were completely reassured. “Long live Lord Keen!”

“All right! Now, on to serious matters,” Jia Zhengjin’s gaze swept over them, and the guards instantly fell silent. When he was sure no one would interrupt, he continued, “While you all rested last night, I specially summoned a camp for you! From now on, whenever you have free time and no tasks, you’ll train in the camp to improve your strength!”

“A camp?”

“Lord Keen said he summoned a camp?”

“What kind of camp is it?”

“No idea!”

“As expected, Lord Keen must be an incredible spatial magic master!”

“He must be!”

The guards began whispering among themselves again.

Jia Zhengjin saw their misunderstanding but didn’t correct them. “Now, everyone follow me!”

He led the town guards to the site of the camp.

“Wow—! Isn’t this our town guard camp?”

“It really is! It looks exactly the same!”

“And the layout inside is identical!”

“Everything here is brand new, that’s the only difference!”

“How did Lord Keen do this? Amazing!”

“This is wonderful! I was worried we wouldn’t have a proper place to train our swordsmanship!”

“Now we can rest easy!”

The town guards cheered and rushed inside, looking around the familiar environment and searching for differences.

“Lord Keen, this…” Buddy stood by Jia Zhengjin, barely able to believe his eyes.

After the guards entered the camp, the number of reserve guards changed to forty-nine, and the number of elite guards became three.

Jia Zhengjin thought about it carefully; these three elites must be Perrin, Buddy, and the one who learned Sweep yesterday, Robbie.

Seeing the confusion and doubt on Buddy’s face, Jia Zhengjin smiled. “There will be many more things to astonish you in the future! This town guard camp, aside from providing a place for training, can also do even greater things. But it does require a lot of gold!”

“Lord Keen, could you show me?” Buddy asked eagerly, his curiosity piqued.

“Certainly!” Jia Zhengjin turned and said, “Perrin, draw your sword and step onto the training ground!”

“Yes!” Perrin immediately drew her sword and strode to the center, striking a battle stance.

Jia Zhengjin selected Perrin’s name in the virtual window and chose Extreme Training. “Begin! Train as you usually do!”

“Yes!” Perrin performed several basic slashing, thrusting, and slicing moves. Yet nothing happened.

“Hm? What’s going on?” Jia Zhengjin was puzzled—there was no effect?

[Message] The selected target’s strength is nearly equal to the Town Guard Captain—no further breakthrough possible!

It seemed that after giving Perrin the potential potion and letting her learn Skyward Slash, she had mastered skills reserved for the Town Guard Captain. The camp now classified her at the captain’s level, prohibiting further breakthroughs.

Jia Zhengjin was at a loss, so he beckoned Perrin back and turned to Buddy. “It seems her strength has surpassed the threshold. Buddy, you try!”

“Yes!” Buddy didn’t hesitate, drawing his ornate sword and stepping into the spot Perrin had just occupied.

“Go ahead!” Jia Zhengjin told him. “Try training.”

As he spoke, he selected Buddy’s name and clicked Extreme Training.

Swish, swish, swish! Buddy performed several practiced moves.

[Message] Training failed! Please have the target use their current strongest skill to complete the training!

“Uh...” Upon seeing the notification, Jia Zhengjin finally realized what went wrong. He quickly told Buddy, “You have to use your strongest skill!”

Buddy hesitated. Aside from the captain, the strongest skill any town guard could master was Sweep, and that was all he knew. So he had to use Sweep directly?

Jia Zhengjin saw Buddy’s questioning look and nodded. “Begin!”

“Yes!” Buddy raised his ornate sword, gathered his strength, and unleashed a full-force Sweep centered on himself.

Boom!! The sword energy formed a circle around him, striking the ground with great force. Yet the damaged ground immediately repaired itself, as if nothing had happened.

“Incredible!”

“No wonder he’s Lord Buddy!”

“His Sweep is almost on par with the captain!”

“Lord Buddy is so cool!”

“Look, the floor repairs itself!”

“So we can train however we wish in the camp without worry?”

“This is fantastic! Amazing!”

The town guards were thoroughly excited. Since arriving here, they had witnessed many wonders in a short time.

[Message] Buddy’s Sweep skill experience increased by 1%. Current training progress: 79%. Spent 10 gold, 10 stamina!

“Well?” Jia Zhengjin asked.

Buddy frowned in concentration, then said with some uncertainty, “I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but I feel my Sweep has improved just a little.”

His senses were quite keen. Jia Zhengjin smiled. “Try again!”

“Yes!” Buddy used Sweep again. “It really does feel like I’m improving!”

“You can sense such subtle changes? Excellent!” Jia Zhengjin laughed. “Can you manage twenty more Sweeps?”

“Twenty?” Buddy considered it. “It’ll be tough, but I think I can do it!”

Without further ado, he started performing Sweep repeatedly. By the twentieth time, he was utterly exhausted and collapsed, but his eyes shone with delight and he looked at Jia Zhengjin in disbelief.

[Message] Buddy’s Sweep skill experience is full—bottleneck broken!

[Message] Buddy has reached the strength of a Town Guard Captain and learned [Skyward Slash]!

[Message] Would you like to designate Buddy as Town Guard Captain?

What luck—a breakthrough on the first try! Jia Zhengjin immediately selected [Yes].