Chapter 8: The True Breakthrough
Items purchased from the Trading Market could be placed in or taken out of the inventory at any time, which was incredibly convenient.
Shane first took out the tachi, "Masamune."
He drew the sword from its sheath.
The long, slender blade gleamed with a frosty luster in the daylight, yet it maintained an astonishingly thin curve. He held it up before his eyes, examining it closely. The color of the razor-thin edge was graded, shifting from a deep-sea indigo near the hilt to a nearly transparent, pale white at the tip.
He finished the rest of his cola in one gulp, tossed the empty can into the air, and with a slight flick of the blade, effortlessly sliced it into several pieces in an instant. The afterimage of the blade's tip left a trail of silvery light in the air, like a fleeting firefly.
"A fine sword," Shane said, his eyes filled with admiration.
The weight was perfect, and it felt excellent in his hand. The blacksmith in the town next to his village was quite famous in the nearby islands. Back when he was obsessed with sword training, he had gone to visit with great excitement. But every single sword there was worlds apart from this one.
He sheathed the blade.
Its length wasn't a problem. His body was just entering its growth spurt. Once he grew a bit taller, it would be a perfectly fitting sword for him.
Placing it back in his inventory, Shane then opened the two Six Powers (Rokushiki) manuals.
The moment he opened them, the random selection was completed. The results displayed were "Shave" and "Iron Body."
"Good luck."
The boy's mood became even better. Of these two techniques, the former focused on movement while the latter enhanced defense. They were exactly what he wanted most right now.
With a thought, he first opened the Iron Body manual.
Manual-type items unfolded directly before his eyes, just like the system panel. He could flip the pages with his thoughts, much like an e-book. The text descriptions were extremely detailed, even providing step-by-step breakdowns of each move. For some of the more obscure parts, a blurry, deep-blue humanoid figure would appear beside the text, demonstrating the move with precision, making it incredibly intuitive. His ability to quickly master the Breathing Fist was also partly thanks to this teaching method.
"The entry barrier isn't high, but mastering it will still require a lot of hard work."
After roughly Browse through both manuals, a glint appeared in Shane's eyes as he made an estimate. His current physique was a massive improvement compared to when he first started practicing the Breathing Fist. Coupled with the special effect of the Breathing Fist that quickly dispelled muscle fatigue, his progress in martial arts would surely be far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Even with a conservative estimate, he should be able to master both techniques within a year.
"Within a year..."
Shane shook his head slightly. In the past, he would have been very satisfied with this speed. But with the great weight of Arlong pressing on his mind, his progress had to be faster. Much faster.
Fortunately, his luck this time was excellent, and he had managed to get a usable buff item.
His gaze fell on the last item in his inventory, his eyes filled with an irrepressible sense of anticipation.
He had never owned an item to assist his training before. The strength he had now was purely the result of his own muffled, head-down hard work, one step at a time.
Now, it was time to get a taste of a speed hack!
Half an hour later.
In a large, empty cabin on the lower deck.
Shane looked around and nodded with satisfaction. This place was originally a backup armory. Because the Garter's route had been relatively safe in recent years, it was left empty and untended, covered in dust and cobwebs.
When Shane had found Garter and asked for a room to practice his martial arts, the old man had immediately thought of this place. He promptly called for help to clean it up and even brought in some sandbags and scrap wood, which he tied into simple training posts with hemp rope.
He even had mirrors, water, and towels prepared, and forbade any other crew members from disturbing him. Shane was genuinely touched by his kindness.
"Let's begin."
Shane carefully placed the Statue of Heracles in a corner, then let out a long breath and began to jog in circles to warm up.
After warming up, he didn't immediately start practicing the Six Powers. Instead, he chose to continue practicing his Breathing Fist. After all, he could already vaguely see the bottleneck for this technique. If he could break through to the Master level sooner, the combat power it provided would be far greater than that of a beginner-level Rokushiki user.
Time flew by.
In the blink of an eye, six days had passed. The Garter sailed steadily on the ocean, bathed in the afternoon sun. The route was indeed safe enough; they hadn't encountered any more accidents or any pirate ships flying their skull-and-crossbones flags.
In the cabin below deck.
The continuous sound of thump, thump, thump echoed. A strong figure weaved back and forth between the wooden posts and sandbags. The wooden floor was covered in wet patches of sweat.
"One thousand nine hundred ninety-nine... Two thousand! Stop!"
The sound of his counting echoed in the enclosed space. The boy's spine was like the drawn string of a winch crossbow. The moment his fist touched the teak post, he suddenly retracted his force. An invisible ripple penetrated it. Crack! A circular crack appeared on the surface of the post.
"Hah..."
Shane suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot, his entire body emitting white steam. His breathing was heavy, like a bellows. With every inhalation, his diaphragm could sink to twice the depth of an ordinary person's, the muscles between his ribs swelling like a ship's sails. And with every exhalation, his larynx vibrated, the pressure from his wildly expanding alveoli visible to the naked eye.
He closed his eyes to regulate his breathing rhythm, and it took a long time for him to gradually calm down.
When he picked up a dry towel to wipe his sweat, hot steam was still rising from its pores.
Shane tilted his head back and gulped down water. After finishing the bottle, he tossed it aside and wiped his mouth forcefully.
"Awesome!"
The deep voice that came from his throat still felt unfamiliar, even to him. Before, it still had a trace of boyishness, but now it was as if it had skipped the final stage of adolescent voice change and become that of a full-grown adult.
"Six days. It only took six days!"
Shane strode to the mirror, the floorboards creaking beneath his feet. He looked at the familiar yet strange person in the reflection and grinned, his eyes full of delight.
For the past few days, he had spent over twelve hours a day training here. Only he, and perhaps the silent statue in the corner, knew how much hardship he had endured and how much sweat he had shed.
But the results of his training would bear witness to it all!
On the sixth day, today, he had completely broken through the bottleneck. The Breathing Fist had reached the Master level!
The barrier that had limited his body's potential had shattered like a fragile glass container, breaking into a million pieces. Then, it was frantically rebuilt, its capacity far exceeding what it was before, giving him a transcendent feeling of looking down from above, of having evolved into a completely new species.
The change in his voice was one of the significant changes after the breakthrough. It was also the most trivial.
Shane looked at himself in the mirror. His face was still handsome, but his eyebrows were much thicker and his jawline was more defined. His black hair, which had only reached his ears before, had grown wildly and now covered his shoulders.
And his height... he had grown a full dozen centimeters!
Below the neck, his body was a mass of gnarled muscle. His shoulder blades bulged like battering rams. When he spread his lats, they covered half the mirror. The most frightening part was his spine. The thirty-three vertebrae rippled under his skin as if a living creature were hibernating within. When he bent over slightly, his entire spine tensed like a fully drawn heavy crossbow, emitting a teeth-grindingly tight sound.
His body from six days ago seemed so frail in comparison to what it was now.
He stood before the mirror for a long time, just looking himself up and down, like a craftsman from an ancient civilization admiring his own proudest sculpture, never tiring of the sight.
Smack!
He suddenly hooked two wooden posts with his foot, kicked them up, and caught one in each hand.
With a slight exertion of force, both posts were crushed simultaneously, exploding into countless fine particles of dust that rained down.
The boy spread his arms again, freely feeling the immense power surging through his body, a power far greater than before. Unable to suppress his joy any longer, he threw his head back and laughed freely.
"HHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
The laughter shook the ceiling, causing dust to rain down, its vibrations reaching all the way to the deck.
On the deck.
Garter, who was leisurely smoking his pipe while leaning against the railing, felt the violent vibrations under his feet. He recalled that Shane had been eating and sleeping in the cabin below for the past few days and hadn't come up for air once. He couldn't help but feel a little worried.
After a moment's hesitation, he went down the spiral staircase and arrived in front of the backup armory. He slowly raised his right hand.
Creeak~
Just as he was about to knock, the wooden door was suddenly pushed open with great force from the inside, startling him and causing him to take a step back instinctively.
"Hm?"
The person opposite him noticed him and let out a soft sound of surprise.
Old Garter looked up at the familiar face. It seemed nothing was wrong. His gaze moved down. The boy was already wearing his baggy coat, so he couldn't see any changes.
But why did something feel... strange...
Wait!
After a sudden realization, Garter's mouth fell open, and the pipe he was holding clattered to the floor.
When they first met, the boy had been more than half a head shorter than him. How was it that now, he was the one who had to look up?!
"Mr. Garter, what brings you here? What a coincidence."
The black-haired boy before him scratched his head, revealing a shy, youthful smile. "Um, I haven't eaten in a while, and I'm suddenly a bit hungry. I was just about to go to the dining hall. Do you want to come with?"