Chapter 339: Competent Knight

Chapter 339 A Competent Knight

This matter could not be kept a secret, for even if the people in the martial arts arena were to keep silent, the old friends "watching the battle" from here would spare no effort to broadcast it far and wide.

Friends advanced in years were like Viennese soybean paste; the longer they aged, the easier they turned bad.

One elderly man spoke while stroking his own chest, saying, "This one called Karen is rather interesting. He is clearly very adept at close-quarters combat, yet he managed to completely deceive that old fellow Levin."

"Indeed. Levin was right about one thing; this kind of person is the last one wishes to see in an opponent's lineup, yet the one most yearned for on one's own side. I like this kind of young fellow who uses his brains."

"Have you all noticed? He is highly skilled in spellcasting. The spells he deployed exceeded the realm of a normal Inquisitor, not only in efficiency but also in intensity. No, it is a realm that a normal Inquisitor simply cannot reach at all."

"I noticed. I moreover noticed that he did not use his full strength; he was somewhat restrained."

"With steady and solid steps, he backed Levin into a corner, and finally flattened him with a single strike of his sword. He even calculated the counterattack of Levin's guardian beast. When would someone use this kind of combat style? Only when he knows clearly that as long as he makes no mistakes and takes no risks, he can win with absolute certainty.

He was facing a vice-commander, mind you. Even if retired, even if his strength was restricted to a certain tier, but this kind of mindset, tsk tsk, whose child is he?"

"He is a true talent. In the past, that old thing Levin always liked to say that those who emerged from the Knights' Order would not possess obvious shortfalls like outsiders. It seems to me that this one called Karen is the one who truly has no shortfalls."

"Right, Piro, you already taught a class yesterday. Do you have any impression of this student?"

Piro scratched his head. "What was his name again?"

"Karen. The surname is Silva."

Piro shook his head and said, "No impression. I wouldn't be as shameless as Levin, personally taking the field to duel students when a lecture can no longer continue, ho ho."

"Then when I teach my class tomorrow, I must pay close attention to this lad."

Piro smiled and said, "I advise you not to waste your effort. The intention from above is very clear; this batch of young people will have specific arrangements, you cannot dig him away."

"It matters not if he cannot be dug away. The older one gets, the more one finds those young so-called geniuses unpleasing to the eye. It is rare to see an interesting one."

"True, we have seen plenty of geniuses, but how many of them can live to our age?"

Piro silently picked up his teacup and took a sip of tea, feeling somewhat regretful in his heart—regretful for his own stinginess yesterday, having given only a single coin.

...

Although the teacher had been flattened, today's curriculum, in truth, had only just begun.

Karen placed the greatsword back beside the weapon rack, without hanging it up.

Because according to the prescribed procedure, he might have to pick it up twice more.

Subsequently, Karen stepped back into the formation and spoke, "When everyone receives the teacher's guidance next, you must pay close attention to the response methods the teacher chooses during combat. The teacher will let you make the first move, and then seek an opportunity to break your move and launch a counterattack against you. Therefore, do not choose a combat style of going all out; you must leave yourself a way out. You must believe that on the same level of physical strength, it is impossible for you to defeat the teacher.

Thus, the longer you can endure, the more you can learn from the teacher."

The team members around him nodded one after another, and even Muri's squad over there was listening.

Levin suddenly felt that this young man, who had looked somewhat unpleasing to the eye since entering the door, was now growing more and more pleasing, and the words he spoke became increasingly comforting to hear.

"Next," Levin shouted.

Muri did not hesitate and went up directly, choosing a short blade and a shield.

Looking at this configuration, Levin spoke and asked, "Of the Benda family?"

"Yes."

"Mobiten, what is he to you?"

"He is my grandfather."

"Good, I understand."

The Benda family was known as the number one guardian family of the Church of Order. Their family held a hereditary mission, which was to protect the Grand Pontiffs of past generations, serving as the captain of the Grand Pontiff's guard.

The inheritance of this family went back a very long time. Long ago, an ancestor of the Benda family, in order to cover the retreat for an injured Grand Pontiff, single-handedly relied on a short blade and a shield to block a massive number of pursuers for three days and three nights, ultimately dying of exhaustion.

"State your realm."

"Inquisitor."

"Very well, tier four strength."

The battle between the two sides began.

An excellent chef could make the most ordinary ingredients more delicious, but if you could provide him with richer and higher-end ingredients, he could certainly perform even better.

Levin fully illustrated this point. At the level of tier four strength, he could be more composed, and his composure was built upon Muri's disheveled state.

That short blade of Muri's was originally meant to cooperate with the shield to achieve a balance between offense and defense, but under Levin's offensive, he simply had no way to launch a counterattack and could only engage in passive defense.

But after defending for a long time, he began to falter.

In the end, Muri chose a risky attack. His arm was struck directly by the spear, his short blade was knocked flying, and the spear took advantage of the momentum to drive straight in, knocking away the shield, its point pressing against Muri's throat.

Muri dropped his shield and raised his hands.

Levin withdrew his spear, turned his face slightly, and said, "Next."

"Phew..."

Muri exhaled a long breath. He had originally thought he would become the first target for the mentor to reclaim his honor after losing face, but evidently, the mentor did not use this to vent.

Next, everyone went up one by one. Everyone's realm was basically at the Inquisitor position, with only two people still being Divine Shepherds at present.

If it was someone specializing as a priest, an array formation master, or a spellcaster, Levin would deliberately delay a little time to let them enjoy a few more exchanges of blows, giving them more opportunities for comprehension.

If it was someone adept at close-quarters combat, Levin would accelerate the process without mercy, defeating them in the fastest and fiercest manner.

Like Bart and Ventura, the time they sustained was even shorter than Mars and Blanche, because for them, the outcome of close combat would often emerge very quickly. You simply did not have more opportunities for composed arrangements, because in a team, they were always the people who needed to stand in the first row.

Karen had been watching and pondering seriously all along. Levin adopted a teaching mode identical to training soldiers, which contained many more additional movements and left much more leeway than in actual combat.

This was like reading a very profound book, but with annotations added beside the paragraphs.

When Levin dueled with the close-combat students, Karen would project himself into the close-combat student, thinking about how he should respond to Levin's subtle and ingenious offensives in that situation.

When Levin dueled with non-close-combat students, Karen would project himself into Levin, thinking about how he could exert his own advantages to a greater extent when facing this type of target in the future.

Karen predicted that for a long time to come, his primary combat method would still rely on the Blade of the Dark Moon and the Armor of the Sea God. His combat style was actually very similar to Levin's.

However, while immersing himself in the process of observation and learning, Karen still had to pay attention from time to time, because he was somewhat worried that if he became too invested, he might stimulate the family belief system within his body.

If he were to summon the phantom projection of his grandfather to stand behind him as well, that would be a bit too ridiculous.

Yet even so, when Levin exchanged blows with the students one by one, he always felt a gaze staring at him. This feeling was like when he used to execute missions in the Knights' Order to hunt a hungry, fierce beast.

However, Levin did not attribute this feeling to the students; he believed it should be those old fellows like Piro observing him through some means.

Finally, a round ended, and everyone was defeated by Levin.

However, not a single person was dejected. After the defeated people came down, they were all silently recalling the previous exchange of blows.

After a period of calm, the group suddenly realized that a new round was about to begin.

Then gradually, more and more people began to cast their gazes toward Karen.

The mentor had said before that they would fight three rounds.

Very well, this meant they would be beaten by the mentor for three rounds, but by the same token, the mentor would also be beaten for three rounds in the same way.

Levin did not choose to evade, but directly pointed his finger at Karen. "Karen, it is your turn."

Karen did not refuse either. He stepped forward and raised that greatsword once again. This time he did not perform any more, because his cover had already been blown. Carrying the greatsword on his shoulder as he walked over, he twirled the sword with the momentum, propping up the descending greatsword with a single hand.

Liven spoke up: "One stage."

This was a knight's oath!

Karen opened his mouth to say: "Teacher, my true realm is an Inquisitor, please raise your own strength to stage four."

Bullying the instructor once was enough; for Karen, beating down a Liven who had compressed his power a second time held no real, substantive meaning.

He wanted to learn something, he wanted to find a new sensation here, he wanted to improve himself.

To that end, he didn't mind being beaten down by Liven and getting his clothes dirty.

Liven shook his head and said: "I will not violate my oath."

Karen felt somewhat helpless, but immediately thought of a solution and said: "Teacher, then I will also restrict myself to using only the power of a divine servant, but my accumulated spiritual power is rather profound, so the strength of my divine servant power is also..."

"I understand. The moment you could take the initiative to say those words, I believed you. Moreover, the accumulation of your spiritual power was verified by me personally."

"Thank you, teacher."

"You are very good. I like soldiers like you—clear-headed and enterprising."

Liven swung the tip of his spear toward the ground, drawing a line in front of himself.

This was a form of dueling etiquette between knights, meaning that at this moment, Liven regarded Karen as an equal opponent.

Karen likewise used his greatsword to draw a line in front of himself as a return gesture.

"Pay close attention, everyone. I know that in the last round, when I had you project into his perspective, you all must have enjoyed watching it very much in the end, didn't you? Haha."

All the trainees present smiled self-consciously along with him.

"This time, it's the same. Project yourselves into his perspective, see how he learns and how he responds. What I want you to project into is not his moves, nor do I want you to overvalue his strength; I hope you can see his thinking. Do you understand?!"

"Understood, teacher!"

"Understood, teacher!"

"Here it comes!"

Liven took the initiative to attack, while Karen adhered to his eternally unchanging opening of defending first.

This was a combat habit of Karen's, partly due to his cautious nature that inherently favored control, and partly because his own advantage lay naturally in the mid-to-late stages.

Liven's attack remained sharp, yet Karen's parries also appeared highly methodical.

This scene made Karen feel as though he had returned to the days when he had just joined the Hound Squad, and Mr. Grey acted as his sparring partner to teach him how to fight.

Yet the person before his eyes now was a teacher far more precious and harder to invite than Mr. Grey.

Because Karen had restricted his own power, many spells could not be cast, allowing him at most to wrap himself in a few enhancement spells for his body and speed, so that he wouldn't suffer a loss in the clash due to the disadvantage of his physical fitness.

His body was quite ordinary, but his spiritual power was sufficient, so he could luxuriously and continuously add shields and various attribute enhancements to an ordinary body.

Liven did not deliberately pursue time and speed either; instead, he held back his strikes time and again during the engagement. He knew Karen could perceive how many times he had lost, yet the teaching nevertheless continued.

...

"That old fellow Liven is blatantly holding a private tutoring session."

"Yeah, this guy is truly too shameless."

"When has he ever cared about shame?"

"But looking at this kid's situation, no matter who it was, they would want to discipline and train him a bit more."

"It's just a bit unfair to the other trainees below."

"Treatment is earned through one's own efforts. If you want to receive special treatment, you must possess the qualification to obtain it."

"Has any of you investigated the files of this batch of trainees? Don't bother checking the ones from the Dinge District, I want to know the background of this one named Karen."

"Hey, I just had my secretary transfer the files over from the training base. Let me flip through them for you."

"Good, help us look up this one named Karen, to see who his teacher is."

"Huh, the records show he's an orphan."

"An orphan?"

"His superior is an Inquisitor, and a low-ranking Inquisitor at that."

"He never attended a church school?"

"No. That Ventura did attend one, the little boy from before who converted the pollution power within his body."

"The surname Silva hasn't been heard of within the church, and he hasn't attended a church school; looking at his resume, he doesn't seem to have been raised or educated by a teacher either."

"Could it be that he learned everything on his own?"

"How could he have learned purely on his own? Who could possibly have such a powerful learning ability?"

"Tock... Tock..."

Piro tapped his pipe, drawing everyone's attention, and then spoke quietly:

"Gentlemen, have you all forgotten? When we were young, we did see such a person."

In an instant,

everyone fell silent.

At this moment, the secretary who had come earlier to deliver the files and was currently pouring tea for the elders present spoke up and asked:

"Are you all referring to the former Grand Priest, Lord Lasma?"

Hearing this question,

everyone smiled.

...

Liven experienced the exact same feeling Grey had felt back then, which was that he could clearly perceive Karen's progress. Karen could quickly comprehend from his moves and immediately replicate them onto his own swordsmanship to exchange ideas with him.

In short, it was a very wondrous feeling; the one teaching felt very comfortable, and the one learning also felt very comfortable.

Even the other trainees watching from below the field viewed it with keen interest.

When it finally stopped, it was because Karen felt he had memorized enough, all of which required proper digestion and was temporarily unsuitable for further stuffing, so he began to retreat and disengage.

Liven had no intention of beating Karen down to reclaim the face lost during the first round of engagement either; he naturally retracted his long spear as well, and the two pulled apart.

Karen took a deep breath, looked at Liven standing before him, and said very sincerely:

"Teacher."

Liven pursed his lips and asked: "Do you want to come to the Knights Order?"

Immediately after, Liven realized he had overlooked the matter of the Holy See's reform, waved his hand and said: "Forget it, we'll talk about it later."

Karen went down, Muri took the field, and the second round of teaching resumed.

After the second round ended, it was the third round.

Karen clashed with Liven once more.

By the time all three rounds had concluded, Liven tossed his long spear back onto the weapon rack, placed his hands behind his back, and faced the trainees before him, most of whom were black and blue.

For a long time, he did not seem to have organized the words that should be said before dismissing the class.

In the end, all he could force out was a single, abrupt command:

“Class dismissed!”

…

“Are we grabbing food?”

Once everyone had left the seafloor and returned to the shore, Muri approached Karen with the invitation.

“Everyone is exhausted today.”

“True enough. Let’s save the gathering for after the training ends; there should be some time left then.”

“Mm, sounds good.”

Returning to their room’s floor, before the group dispersed, Karen addressed all the members under his command: “Everyone go back, take a shower first, then eat. When you’re lying in bed tonight, reflect carefully on today’s lesson. If you have any insights or doubts, you can come and speak with me tomorrow morning. I’ll be up by four, so you can come straight over and ring my doorbell.”

“Understood, Captain.”

“Dismissed. Go get some rest!”

Upon entering the room, Ventura said, “Captain, I will go run a bath for you.”

“No need, a quick shower will do. I don’t feel like soaking today.”

“Understood, Captain.” Ventura went to pour Karen some ice water.

Karen stepped into the bathroom first, showered, and came out. Taking the water glass from Ventura, he walked into his bedroom, lay down on the bed, and picked up the book he had been reading this morning from the nightstand.

He was forcing himself to break away from the state of deep learning; he had no desire to faint from sheer mental exhaustion in a little while.

While others agonized over their inability to fully immerse themselves in study, he was quite the opposite, constantly worrying that he wouldn’t be able to detach himself from that total immersion.

Karen’s thoughts drifted back to today’s mentor, Liven—he was not an excellent teacher, but he was certainly a worthy knight.

…

“Creak.”

The door was pushed open, and Liven stepped inside.

Six old men sat within; some held pipes, some gripped cigars, some held coffee cups, while others cradled tea.

The old men all appeared utterly calm—a calm so profound they might as well have hung signs on their foreheads reading: This is the calm before the storm.

At that moment, Pilo spoke up: “My dear friend Liven, how did your class feel today? Would you care to share with us?”

The setup had begun.

Everyone was waiting for Liven to offer some sort of cover-up so they could make their next move.

Liven, however, simply threw his arms wide open and shouted with a broad grin:

“I have wonderful news for you all! I got absolutely flattened by a divine servant today, haha!”