Chapter 34: Chapter 34

If it were the Ron of the past, he truly wouldn’t have been able to completely control his body, but now, everything about this “Ron” body was laid bare on the surface of his true form, the Light Orb!

Even before today, he had already achieved the control of his body through Secret Patterns, and the 【Comprehensive Body Refinement Technique】 was the most classic application of this.

Ron’s understanding of the human body was limited, and Secret Patterns were relatively abstract, but the transcendent Knights of this world had long since prepared ready-made cases of combined force for him.

From the First Sword Stance to the Twelfth Sword Stance of the Ice Sword Art, every single one was a combined force!

Although this might not necessarily allow him to learn how to completely master his body, experiencing it more would definitely make him stronger than others. More importantly, he had already found the method to convert the state of the Sword Stance into a Secret Pattern program!

This meant that he didn’t need to be like others, who could only undergo strengthening during the afternoon Sword Stance training each day; this would immensely increase the speed at which he acquired power.

As for becoming a Formal Knight.

After understanding that he could become a Formal Knight with just the First Sword Stance, and that a Formal Knight achieved in this manner could still turn back to make up for their “foundation,” Ron’s view on Formal Knights changed.

It was no longer some sort of grand achievement, but merely a single stage on the path of transcendence.

…

Spending the better half of the night, Ron finally organized the 【First Sword Stance】 Secret Pattern program, similar to the 【Comprehensive Body Refinement Technique】.

In terms of Secret Pattern complexity, it was not more complex than the 【Comprehensive Body Refinement Technique】, yet it could bring transcendent power to an ordinary person.

“Perhaps bringing over some of the whole-body force fist techniques from my homeland could also become a source of transcendence!”

It was just a pity that Ron had rarely cared about those things in the past; at most, he would look up some surface-level information when writing web novels.

Because of his transformation, he still retained clear memories from back then, but that tiny bit of surface information was far from enough for him to research a new “Sword Stance.”

As for this 【First Sword Stance】 Secret Pattern program:

“Should I try it out right now?” Ron hesitated slightly.

He remembered when he had privately tried the Ice Breathing Technique earlier; because he didn’t know about the existence of the Fire Concealment Method, he had wasted an extremely precious vial of Ignition Potion.

If he privately experimented again, would it also conceal some unknown cost?

But after hesitating for just a few seconds, Ron made his choice:

He had to try it!

If his research was correct, then he could obtain the strengthening speed of a Formal Knight level while still in the apprentice stage. This was something no one could resist, and of course, it included Ron.

Even if he had to pay a certain price, it was completely acceptable.

…

Having made his choice, Ron immediately sprang into action. He sank the majority of his consciousness into “Ron’s” body, leaving only a small fraction of consciousness in his true form to execute the Secret Pattern program.

Executing: 【First Sword Stance】!

The moment the program activated, Ron felt an incredibly intense urge. He subconsciously thrust his right hand forward, and an even stronger sensation washed over him.

“Yes, this is the feeling!”

Ron was currently lying on his bed, but he felt as though he might fly up and crash through the roof at any moment, soaring straight into the sky. This was the combined force tendency of the First Sword Stance!

At the same time, waves of burning heat quickly radiated from his right hand, right leg, and spine. It felt as if his muscles were burning, yet also as if his body was rapidly growing.

Originally, the state of the Sword Stance could only be experienced for slightly longer with the help of an instructor. Now, Ron didn’t need anyone’s help at all; he could maintain it for extended periods all on his own!

This was an ability exclusive to Formal Knights!

Of course, this was from the perspective of maintenance time. If speaking in terms of effects, it was still somewhat lacking compared to a Formal Knight.

After all, the current 【First Sword Stance】 Secret Pattern program was derived from the state of the Sword Stance that Ron had experienced over the past two days with the instructor’s help, not the instructor’s own state as a Formal Knight.

There should be a certain gap between the two.

However, through researching the Secret Patterns from the Light Orb’s perspective, along with his continuous familiarity with the Sword Stance state itself, Ron believed that he would definitely be able to advance the Sword Stance state achieved by this Secret Pattern program to be identical to that of a Formal Knight.

It might even surpass them!

Taking it a step further would be an enhanced version of the 【Comprehensive Body Refinement Technique】 combined with the Sword Stance. Ron looked forward to this immensely.

…

Soon, a new day began.

The morning training proceeded as usual, but the afternoon featured the addition of Sword-Holding training, which the instructor had notified them about yesterday. After understanding the essence of the Sword Stance, Ron also formed his own understanding of the Sword-Holding training.

Just as he had thought, it was about using training to let the apprentices become familiar with their own bodies and the swords in their hands!

The Sword-Holding training was divided into two parts. The first part involved holding the sword while standing still in the postures of the Twelve Sword Stances. Without the requirement to maintain the Sword Stance state, those twelve movements were actually very simple.

Today, they only practiced the First Sword Stance.

The second part of the Sword-Holding training was also related to the Sword Stance; it was the follow-up action to the Sword Stance, which was drawing the sword. Since today’s still Sword-Holding practice only covered the First Sword Stance, the sword-drawing portion also consisted of only a single straight thrust.

The instructors set up twenty racks at the edge of the training ground, distributing them to each squad. A piece of gray cloth was hung on each rack, and the cloth was covered in densely packed grids. The intersecting row and column of grids at the very edge were also marked with numbers.

With the bottom-left corner as the starting point marked “1,” the grids to the right and above each increased by “+1” per grid.

Upon seeing this training facility that resembled a Go board, Ron almost immediately guessed the content of the sword-drawing training.

Sure enough, after completing the still Sword-Holding training, Instructor Morris notified the Blood and Fire Squad to assemble in front of the grid cloth, and then randomly called on Ron:

“Ron, you come and demonstrate for everyone.”

“Yes, Instructor.”

Ron stepped forward with his sword and glanced at the instructor. Then, Morris issued the command, “Draw sword, 【1, 1】!”

“Swish!”

Ron thrust his sword out, striking the bottom corner of the gray cloth. Due to insufficient force and the fact that the training sword was unsharpened, the tip of his sword only pushed the gray cloth up by about an inch, but he could see clearly that he had stabbed crookedly.

The 【1, 1】 grid was obviously the easiest position to distinguish, yet he had still missed the mark, stabbing into the 【5, 6】 position.

Even though he tried to convince himself that the grids were quite small and the deviation wasn’t much, Ron still felt somewhat ashamed.

Following that, Morris also picked up a training sword. He asked Ron to step to the side and call out the positions for him, preparing to demonstrate the ideal result of the Sword-Holding training for the Blood and Fire Squad.

Just like how the territory’s Chief Instructor Pierce had demonstrated the Twelve Sword Stances for everyone on the first day.

“Ron, I’m ready. Call out the numbers whenever you’re ready. Everyone else, watch my point of impact.” Morris stood with a composed posture, holding the training sword, on the verge of unleashing it.

It seemed he had directly achieved the state of the Sword Stance.

Seeing this, Ron couldn’t help but feel a spark of curiosity. He wanted to know exactly what a Knight could achieve. Speaking of which, ever since his transmigration, he had only seen two Knights fighting each other on the day he joined the Territory Guard.

The strength and speed displayed by those two Knights had indeed shocked him greatly, but having seen excavators and ridden high-speed trains, mere strength and speed were not enough to make him acknowledge that as transcendence.

And now, he could finally witness the true foundational ability of a transcendent Knight!