As Bask saw Rein appear, he enthusiastically waved and said, "Rein, try my cooking! This grilled manic fish, in its original juice, tastes delicious!"
"You know, it also quickly restores physical strength, with an effect almost close to that of ferocious beast meat."
Initially hesitating between eating and not eating, Rein raised an eyebrow when he heard the latter remark. Quickly restore physical strength?
Naturally, he wanted to try it then.
Rein swung his greatsword, delivering a series of precise chops and slices!
Soon, he had cleaned out the meat of three manic fish he had just killed and told Bask, "One isn't enough for the two of us, let's grill all three."
"Impressive!" Seeing Rein's precise swordsmanship, Bask couldn't help giving him a thumbs-up in admiration.
"By the way, Rein, seeing the speed at which you killed those manic fish, you must have completed the third training task by now, right? If so, then you're at the same stage as Frode, ready for the fourth training."
"Oh? Bask, do you know what the fourth training task involves?" Rein casually asked.
As for who Frode was, Rein didn't care in the slightest.
"Of course, it's to kill thirty manic fish in one hour!"
"Thirty?" Rein's eyebrow flicked up.
He clearly understood the difference between ten and thirty.
It wasn't simply a matter of adding more numbers, but a qualitative difference!
If the requirement had been to kill ten manic fish in one hour, that would mean, on average, taking six minutes to kill each one, which would be manageable one by one.
It would just take a bit more patience.
But with thirty, averaging it to two minutes per fish, that meant the previous tactic of attacking them one by one would definitely not work.
Because this would involve luring five or six manic fish with a single bait worm and then killing them all in a short period.
This likely meant engaging multiple fish at once, which drastically increased the difficulty.
"Rein, do you also think it's difficult?" Bask grimaced.
"Anyway, I've been here for a year and a half and haven't seen anyone pass this fourth training task, including Lady Creya, who also got stuck on this one."
"Oh? Lady Creya was stuck on this one too?" Upon hearing this, Rein couldn't help but frown slightly.
"Yes, if I remember correctly, Lady Creya killed twenty-seven in one hour, just shy of completing the task," Bask reminisced with a wistful look.
In his memory, Creya was still the one who had initiated him into knighthood.
Back then, Creya seemed to him an unfathomably powerful figure.
Unexpectedly, he had gradually caught up to, and perhaps even surpassed, her.
That feeling... was quite peculiar.
Rein estimated that when Creya had come to train with Master Ganther, it must have been one or two years ago, and her strength must have been at the level of an official knight then.
So, even if she could execute the sword skill effect 'Precision lv2,' killing thirty manic fish in one hour was still beyond her reach.
The reason was simple: insufficient killing power!
'Precision' enhances accuracy, but it doesn't increase the upper limit of one's killing power.
It's like a boxer whose maximum punch strength is 500 pounds; precision means he can land this maximum force on the opponent's weak spot, but the punch doesn't suddenly become 800 pounds.
However, Rein was confident he could fulfill the task of killing thirty manic fish in the future.
Because, by activating his core skill 'Strength Burst,' he was fully capable of completing the training task by enhancing the upper limit of his attack power.
But the problem was, others didn't have this 'cheat' skill.
Continue your journey at empire
So how did the others do it?
Rein never forgot the reason he came to train with Master Ganther: to enhance his strength, not to show it off.
He wasn't here to boast.
With that in mind, Rein glanced at the system prompt:
[You have trained in Underwater Giant Bear Swordsmanship, comprehension has improved!]
[Your Skill Giant Bear Swordsmanship has improved, Experience +16]
[You have trained in Inner Breathing Technique, comprehension has improved!]
[Your Skill Inner Breathing Technique has improved, Experience +2]
When he saw the experience gain from the Inner Breathing Technique, suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Rein.
He remembered what Master Ganther had said before leaving—"...this will be rather helpful for improving your Inner Breathing Technique."
The master naturally wouldn't say something meaningless.
Moreover, Rein himself could increasingly feel, especially after advancing the Inner Breathing Technique to level 3, that it had some clear synergistic effect with the Giant Bear Breathing Technique.
Rein believed the key to completing the subsequent training tasks under normal conditions likely lay in this Inner Breathing Technique.
After pondering, Rein chose not to complete the third task—'killing ten manic fish in one hour'—within a single day.
Instead, he planned to slow down a bit and focus on significantly improving the Inner Breathing Technique in the coming days.
Subsequently, Rein lived almost like an ascetic monk.
Apart from harvesting a batch of tough sea grass for juice every morning, Rein spent the rest of his time pondering the Inner Breathing Technique.