Chapter 182: I Am Indeed a Genius

Chapter 182: I Am Indeed a Genius

Kunxi, seated in his wheelchair, reached out and slapped the table,

shouting:

"There are many funeral parlors in the Church; what is the advantage of yours?"

Karen looked around at everyone and smiled:

"For group buys, I can offer a discount."

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Karen's decent reply won him the unanimous praise of the entire table.

A barrage of rough curses, within this particular circle, was the most beautiful form of compliment.

Subsequently, dishes were served one after another, and everyone began to chat while eating.

The pace of the dinner was much faster than imagined, because

Gerei approached once more, executing the exact same parry followed by a swift upward thrust of his spear. Caren was thrown to the ground yet again. Gerei could have used the opportunity to deliver another strike straight to his chest, but he stayed his hand.

"Peige?" Gerei looked toward Peige.

It was glaringly obvious that this practice session had been Peige's idea.

Peige, in turn, looked over at Fannie, who was also standing nearby. After all, Peige had never actually seen Caren fight.

"This isn't even training anymore," Gerei said. "I don't even know from what angle I should be communicating."

Fannie was at a loss as well.

"You can use spells. Let us try again, if you trust me."

"Alright."

Caren chose to trust. When someone was willing to teach you, hiding your cards would be bad form. More importantly, he trusted the atmosphere of this squad.

[Blade of the Dark Moon]!

A crimson mark manifested upon Caren, enveloping the blade at the same time.

Seeing this, a faint black luster also surfaced upon Gerei's body.

Then, Gerei began stepping toward Caren again, but halfway through, he halted.

A set of blue armor had materialized over Caren, its form dynamic and shifting.

"I was afraid that if I fell a couple more times, I wouldn't be able to walk," Caren explained.

Gerei shook his head. "Splitting your spirituality to defend while attacking is a foolish endeavor. It diminishes your offensive capability and fails to provide the best defense. You must learn to switch between them in the blink of an eye as the tide of battle changes."

"Understood, I will keep that in mind," Caren replied with a serious nod, proving he had truly taken the advice to heart.

Yet, Caren did not dismiss the Armor of the Sea God. There was one thing he could not tell Gerei outright: his spiritual accumulation was profoundly deep, and he did not care about this minor diversion of energy.

He feared that speaking the truth might backfire—for instance, by making Gerei feel that he was simply being provocative.

However, because Gerei had never seen Ophelia fight, he did not recognize the spell Caren was employing. This was only natural; certain spells simply did not circulate in the outside world, and the clerical circles were not entirely populated by individuals possessing Hoffen's vast erudition.

Gerei initiated his advance once more. This time, Caren did not rush to strike. As Gerei's long spear swept forward first, Caren, empowered by the boost in speed, bared his blade in an instant.

"Clang!"

Caren's sword was still blocked by Gerei.

Yet Gerei discovered that this ordinary spear of his, despite being enveloped in his own power, was already beginning to melt.

Gerei swiftly retracted his spear, intending to thrust Caren away first. In the next breath, however, Caren spun around, catching Gerei's spear once more, and immediately pressed his frame backward.

Sparks cascaded from the friction between sword and spear.

Perceiving Caren's attempt to close the distance for hand-to-hand combat, Gerei promptly delivered a kick toward him. His foot failed to shatter Caren's armor, and not even the concussive force managed to pass through; instead, Caren's armor seemed to snare his leather shoe.

The distance was sufficient.

With his back turned to Gerei, Caren held the sword in his right hand and slammed his left palm against the pommel. The blade shot backward, aiming directly for Gerei's chest.

"Hum!"

The pendant on Gerei's chest flashed, releasing a green light that intercepted the long sword. Gerei himself seized the opportunity to press the spearhead downward, striking heavily against Caren's shoulder.

"Thud!"

Even with the protection of the Armor of the Sea God, Caren still felt a tremor reverberate through his entire body, forcing him down onto one knee.

Meanwhile, Gerei distanced himself from Caren, taking several consecutive steps backward.

Below the ring, Peige and Fannie exchanged glances. They could perceive that Gerei had been overconfident moments before, and that he had been left disheveled by the exchange.

Caren stood back up. Before he could speak, Gerei spoke first, his voice laced with irritation:

"Were you faking it just now?"

"Hmm?"

"Is this highly amusing to you?"

"What did I fake?" Caren inquired.

"You have trained before."

"I have not."

"Then what was that just now? Spells can enhance your speed, attack, and defense, but how could they possibly elevate your forms and execution all at once?"

"Do you mean that move just now?" Caren asked. "You used it moments ago."

"You learned it just now?"

"Yes."

"Do you truly believe I would fall for such a foolish claim?"

"I am really not deceiving you."

"Fine. Then I shall become a bit more serious. You might get hurt because of this."

"The captain mentioned we have a rather important mission coming up soon. Please go easy on me," Caren reminded him with absolute seriousness.

"There is plenty of time for Quincy and the others to stand up from their wheelchairs."

Having spoken, Gerei lunged at Caren once more.

Subsequently, in the next phase of their engagement, the sword in Caren's hand was sent flying. His Armor of the Sea God, after taking three consecutive spear strikes, finally shattered. However, upon breaching Caren's defenses, Gerei did not pursue the attack; instead, he chose to stay his hand.

"I told you before, when attacking, focus entirely on the attack, and when defending, focus entirely on..."

The Armor of the Sea God materialized upon Caren once more.

"..." Gerei.

The previous shattering of the armor was merely due to the short-term offensive damage exceeding its load capacity; it did not imply that Caren's spiritual energy was depleted.

Caren retrieved his sword, adopting a stance he deemed proper, though it appeared thoroughly amateurish to a professional's eyes.

"Again!"

The one shouting this was not Caren, but Gerei.

It was impossible for Caren to utter those words, as he could already sense that Gerei was growing hot-headed, and he certainly had no intention of actively provoking him further.

In the next round of confrontation, Caren endured a little longer, though it ultimately concluded with Gerei thrusting twice into Caren's armor, shattering the Armor of the Sea God once more.

And then,

the Armor of the Sea God appeared yet again.

"Again!"

...

"Again!"

...

"Again!"

...

Geri felt that the Sea God's Armor, which was shattered by him time and again only to reappear each time, was a form of mockery toward himself; yet gradually, he found himself forced to acknowledge the terrifying accumulation of spirituality within this new teammate before him.

By the next time, after he broke Cullen’s Sea God's Armor once more, fatigue began to set in.

It was much like how smashing an eggshell was simple, but peeling the egg itself was far more complex; he had been continuously performing the task of peeling an eggshell on Cullen.

And he also knew very well that the new teammate across from him trusted completely that he would hold back and not harm him, which was why he kept choosing to actively attack and trade blows instead of fully defending, even though choosing defense would have allowed him to hold out a bit longer without exposing flaws so easily for Geri to break his armor.

More importantly, through their repeated clashes, Geri truly discovered that the other party would take the moves he had previously used and deploy them right back against him.

This was not as simple as merely copying a technique, because moves were fixed; when to use them and how to transition between them required experience and awareness as a foundation, not to mention the need to convert between the different weapon attributes of a long spear and a greatsword...

This was not simple imitation, but rather... understanding.

Geri pursed his lips, swallowing a mouthful of saliva; right now, there were only two possibilities: either the other party had been hiding his strength all along and was re-enacting his moves just to play a game with him, or he truly was just learning.

But this speed of learning... Damn it!

"Are you tired yet? Do you want to take a break?" Fanny shouted.

Hearing this, Geri prepared to withdraw his spear.

"I can still keep going," Cullen replied.

"..." Geri.

With no other choice, the confrontation began anew.

Finally, after shattering the Sea God's Armor two more times, Geri felt his spear-wielding arm grow somewhat numb; he was truly exhausted, as this was an asymmetric battle for him, requiring him to expend far more energy just to control his power and offensive momentum.

Furthermore, breaking open the armor on the man before him was becoming harder with each passing attempt.

"I'm tired," Cullen called out.

"Whew..." Geri breathed a sigh of relief internally.

"Can we do three more times?"

"..." Geri.

The third to last time;

Geri and Cullen remained deadlocked for nearly five minutes, the longest duration of any of their exchanges, because both sides were trading blows back and forth, and neither intentionally resorted to pure defense.

Finally, Geri was forced to increase his output, no longer controlling his strength, and violently broke through Cullen's block with a spear thrust, shattering the Sea God's Armor and sending Cullen himself flying.

The next moment, Geri felt a twinge of regret.

Then, seeing Cullen stand back up, his body once more enveloped in the blue armor, Geri felt his brain go slightly dizzy.

The second to last time;

The two sides clashed in a deadlock for another five minutes, during which Geri let loose a bit of his restraint on three occasions yet still failed to break Cullen; in the end, it was Geri’s spear pressed against Cullen’s armor when Cullen proactively chose to raise his sword, signaling that he had lost this round.

This was the first time since they began fighting that Geri had failed to break Cullen’s armor, even though he won.

The final time;

The two sides engaged in a bitter battle for a full ten minutes!

Geri no longer held back, but his strength was gradually depleting, while Cullen began to integrate the moves and experience he had learned previously, fighting not only with rigorous precision but also with remarkable clarity and order.

Of course, this was also a bit shameless, equivalent to exploiting the advantage that the other party would not truly harm him to wear the opponent down bit by bit.

Ultimately, because Geri’s spear lacked the protective coverage of energy, it snapped cleanly upon blocking a strike from Cullen’s sword; Cullen took advantage of the momentum to slash his blade toward Geri’s neck, and Geri instinctively raised his arm to block.

Cullen flipped his wrist, turning the sharp edge of the blade into the flat face of the sword.

"Bang!"

Geri was whipped entirely to the ground, with faint signs of burn marks left at the point of contact.

Cullen immediately dropped the greatsword in his hand, deactivated his spell, and stepped forward to offer a deeply sincere apology:

"I am sorry, I am so sorry."

Lying on the arena stage, Geri exhaled a long breath and said:

"It is fine, because you have not yet learned how to hold back your strikes."

Fanny and Peg came over; Fanny helped treat some of the abrasions on Cullen’s body, while Peg gave Geri some potions to restore his stamina.

Finishing his treatment first, Cullen walked over to where Geri was sitting and bowed to him with great earnestness:

"Thank you, Mr. Geri."

"I used to think of myself as a genius; later I met the Captain, and I thought the Captain was a true genius; now, having met you, my definition of the word 'genius' has been completely redefined."

"I am truly grateful to you, Mr. Geri."

Geri rolled his eyes at Cullen and said:

"Tomorrow night, right here again."

Cullen’s spirits instantly lifted as he said, "Alright, Mr. Geri."

Geri stood up: "I am going back to rest, I am too tired."

Once Geri had departed, Fanny looked at Cullen and asked, "Geri is an incredibly proud and arrogant person; aside from the Captain, he looks down on everyone in the team, and it was only because we asked him in front of the Captain to give you some guidance that he reluctantly agreed."

Peg, meanwhile, leaned in close to Cullen and took a deep breath.

Cullen sidestepped slightly and said, "It is all just the smell of sweat."

"No, this is the scent of a genius."

"I am not a genius," Cullen stated.

Because this time, while using the Blade of the Dark Moon and the Sea God's Armor... he had sensed a surge of power from his family’s belief system beginning to operate simultaneously, though this power only moved within his own lineage, completely imperceptible to outsiders.

The exact same phenomenon had occurred when he first learned the Blade of the Dark Moon and the Sea God's Armor.

So, this Inmeles family belief system inherited from Dis would only be triggered when he needed to engage in high-difficulty learning, subsequently assisting him in learning and understanding?

Whenever this happened, Cullen always had the sensation that his grandfather was standing right behind him, watching over him.

Because of this, Cullen felt as though he were cheating, and when others referred to him as a genius, he actually felt a bit awkward in his heart.

"Oh, look at you getting all humble," Fanny teased.

Cullen spoke up: "It really isn't humility, I am not a genius, I just have good genetics."

"Damn it!" Fanny.

"Damn it!" Peg.

Fanny asked, "Which genius doesn't have good genetics?"

Huh, that actually made sense.

Cullen suddenly felt that Fanny's words carried a great deal of truth: could relying on genetics even be considered cheating?

If he counted as cheating, then wouldn't all those practitioners of family belief systems be cheaters as well? And those priests who borrowed the power of the gods, weren't they cheating in just the same way?

In an instant, Cullen’s thoughts cleared and his mind became perfectly at ease,

He smiled and said:

"You are right, I am indeed a genius."

There will be more tonight, though it will be quite late; I shall write slowly, so feel free to read it when you wake in the morning.