72: Chapter 52 Letter (4k) 72: Chapter 52 Letter (4k) Half a month later.
In the woods near River Valley Town.
The morning breeze, laced with a hint of chill, swept through, causing the oak branches to sway, and the lush green leaves to rub against each other, producing a gentle “sasha” sound.
Leaves leisurely fell, swirling and floating down.
A burst of dark brown gleam suddenly erupted from somewhere beneath the tree, vanishing in an instant.
The leaf, floating unpredictably under the influence of the invisible air currents, was spinning in the air one moment.
The next moment, it was pinned straight to the rough tree trunk by a warm yet sharp sword tip.
The powerful force transmitted from the sword made the towering oak seem as if it had suffered a heavy blow.
The tree trunk shook violently, shedding countless leaves.
With effort, the sword tip was pulled out from the tree trunk.
Xia Nan casually flicked a sword flower and sheathed the wooden sword behind him.
Now, since he returned to River Valley Town after completing the task, another fifteen days had passed.
To some extent, these days were almost the most relaxing and joyful time since he crossed into this world.
While sleeping, he didn’t have to worry about being clubbed in the head by a green-skinned rat popping out from nowhere;
While walking, he didn’t have to fear suddenly being turned into a stone statue.
Every day he ate and drank at the inn, not exactly a feast every meal, but far more comfortable than living in the wild.
Of course, he hadn’t retired yet.
Xia Nan certainly couldn’t completely slack off.
While relaxing body and mind, he also proceeded with the plan he previously laid out in an orderly manner.
First of all, the Green Pine sword sheath he had ordered from the blacksmith was completed.
Made of rock carbon steel, it’s entirely ash-black, simple and low-key.
While fitting snugly the sword, it also effectively disguised the material of the wooden sword.
Every detail perfectly met the requirements he had previously put forward.
Xia Nan was very satisfied with this.
It’s worth mentioning that during this period of adjustment, he also gained a certain understanding of the only “blue equipment” he had on him.
In terms of sharpness, Green Pine was slightly inferior to the Beheading Longsword, merely the level of ordinary metal weapons.
In terms of sturdiness, it wasn’t particularly outstanding either, although he didn’t test it under high intensity due to concerns about damaging the blade, but the feel from use seemed only slightly better than ordinary standard weapons.
It’s apparent that the reason Green Pine could reach the “Blue Rare” quality on the attribute panel
was due to its two damage entries against “Undead Creatures” and “Snake and Scorpion type enemies”.
In other situations, Xia Nan still used the Beheading Longsword as his main weapon.
Then, there were those two battle skills.
While it wasn’t to the extent of having gained nothing, the progress was not quite satisfactory either.
He had good aptitude, proven in both actual combat and battle skill training.
The two battle skills, Front Thrust and Block and Slash, he picked up very quickly.
Within just half a day, the training methodologies recorded on that thin piece of paper were firmly mastered by him.
But strangely, unlike the feeling during practice of Vortex Slash ingrained in muscle memory from his predecessor, where every move was mechanically precise and stable,
While training these two battle skills, Xia Nan always found something odd.
Either the force was too brief, lacking explosiveness, or the balance was unstable, causing the body to tremble.
Every training session brought new issues.
The key was that he couldn’t find an appropriate method to solve them.
After finally correcting the initial flaws through extensive practice, new problems emerged, rendering previous practices futile.
It was like plugging holes, one after another, never to be fully resolved.
This made Xia Nan wonder if these seemingly simple battle skills were actually those “dubious goods” circulating in the market.
After all, his predecessor also trained day and night, diligently for years, to almost reach full level of Vortex Slash.
“Let’s practice diligently for a while longer,” Xia Nan thought in his heart, “If things remain this way after some time, I’ll try switching to two different ones.”
Having concluded the morning’s training,
Xia Nan didn’t head back to the inn right away but took a detour to the “Rock Hammer” Blacksmith Shop.
The metallic hammer struck heavily upon the heated melted steel.
Muscular biceps swelled and pulsated, as sweat accompanied by sparks flew off like stardust.
Thick smoke rose as the red-hot iron was submerged in water, producing a piercing sound.
Not until the entire process finished,
did the brawny man finally take a breath.