Early the next morning, or rather, in the pre-dawn hours, the training grounds were already packed with new recruits.
When Aiven arrived here half an hour earlier than usual, he was truly startled by the scene before him. Evidently, having never really struggled in the mud in both his lives, he underestimated their yearning for swordsmanship, or rather, for changing their destiny.
In fact, almost every country on the continent has its own Military Swordsmanship, but aside from the straightforward commonality, each has its own emphasis.
As a maritime power, the Military Swordsmanship of the Phaletis Kingdom was targeted and refined based on the characteristics of its users, making it highly suitable for naval combat.
Because the weapon most suited for this swordsmanship is the Navy Saber of the Phaletis Kingdom, a single-edged long straight blade that can be used for thrusting and chopping, even navy greenhorns can unleash considerable destructive power after short-term training.
Therefore, it is more appropriate to call it "Phaletis Saber Technique" rather than "Military Swordsmanship."
When Aiven arrived and distributed a wooden training saber to each new recruit amidst their eager gazes, he then had them form neat platoons, and the swordsmanship training officially began.
At this moment, no one questioned whether Aiven, who was a fellow recruit like them, had the ability to teach them. Although Eugene wanted to slack off, he didn't want to shoot himself in the foot; through the publicly demonstrated sparring with Aiven in the past two days, he utterly conquered the recruits with his exquisite swordsmanship, making them already aware of the vast gap between them.
Naturally, by this time, no one raised doubts against Aiven.
The instruction began with how to hold the sword.
It was then that Aiven realized the task wasn't as difficult as he thought, nor as tedious as he imagined.
"Hold the sword firmly, but don't grip it too tightly, or your arms will quickly fatigue. Only when slashing and blocking do you need to grip tightly. Mastering how to relax your hand after completing a maneuver is an art, also known as the 'soft hand.'
This is a necessary talent in learning swordsmanship, which makes your hands more agile without becoming tired or stiff."
"Loosen up a bit more, and even more."
"Don't keep your arms too rigid, and don't fixate your eyes on the sword."
After going around to ensure everyone was holding the sword correctly, Aiven continued explaining the three defensive techniques in the Phaletis Saber Technique:
high position defense, Outer Guard, and Inner Guard.
Out of a certain personal interest, Aiven directly called up Gary, whom he had known first and was closest with, to assist him in the demonstration.
"Boss Aiven!" Standing at the front of the line, Gary called out to Aiven, feeling somewhat awkward under many watchful eyes.
Despite Gary's tough and large appearance, he is actually the same age as Aiven, even a month younger. After enlisting with Aiven, it didn't take long for him to be completely won over by Aiven, who was far superior in all aspects, and started to tag along.
Nevertheless, in others' view, Gary was more wrapping his arms around a major pillar than tagging along.
Sometimes even simple-minded people have their survival wisdom!
It's based on this very call of "Boss" that Aiven decided to start helping him change his bashful nature.
Indicating to Gary not to be nervous, Aiven began to demonstrate and explain one move after another.
"High position defense can be used against all slashes to the body and arms, positioning the sword in optimal defense of the head and feet. When the opponent's sword comes attacking, you only need to slightly raise or lower your hand to block it."
"When the hand is on the right side, it's called Outer Guard, and when it's on the left side of the body, it's called Inner Guard. In these guard stances, although one side of the body will be exposed to the opponent, you can't expect the enemy to only attack when you've set your posture, which is why each defensive stance must be mastered!"
"Gary, high position defense..."
Snap—
Snap—
Consecutive moves with wooden swords, having Gary practice each defensive stance three times before stopping.
Only then did Aiven explain the key points of the "defensive techniques": all guard stances must be performed using the strong part of the sword body, which is the unsharpened part near the guard, commonly called the "Strong Sword Body," corresponding to the sharpened tip part called the "Weak Sword Body."
Previously, in his battle with Black Bear Billy, Aiven had used his "Strong Sword Body" in close combat to twist away his opponent's saber.
He only explained how to attack at the end of the course, which is both simple yet complex.
Thrusting and slashing are the most fundamental maneuvers, but they can only be refined through day-to-day rigorous practice to form muscle memory; there are no shortcuts to this.
Yet, Aiven also imparted his personal insights into swordsmanship to the recruits, hoping they would benefit.
"Remember the vital points of the offensive maneuvers: When attacking, never let your front foot land before your sword reaches its target, and never let the sword tip stray from its optimal attack path!
Only this way, you can hit the opponent faster than him and keep yourself alive."
Holding the sword, attacking, defending, lacking fancy moves common to other sword techniques, Military Swordsmanship is just this straightforward!
In the end, Aiven demonstrated single-handedly showing recruits how to exert force correctly in thrusting and slashing.
Whirl—
Just by casually wielding the sword, it cut through the air, forming a vortex. Amidst the lingering screeching sound, Aiven slowly stepped down from the demonstration platform.
"So powerful!"
"A not particularly strong body has such power, can we do that too?"
"One day, I will be this strong."
Unconcerned about the recruits' stirring emotions, Aiven prepared to teach such fundamental knowledge for three continuous days, then let them gradually turn these moves into their instincts through combat training.
After this, he could review their combat performance to fill in the gaps and even planned to use Data Visualization to make targeted corrections for each of them.
Having been just a commoner in his past life, and still only a fallen noble in name in this life, Aiven had experienced the pain of class solidification. Whether out of sympathy or responsibility as a temporary instructor, Aiven was willing to do his best to help them.
Of course, simultaneously collecting data on each new recruit during this period to enrich the database was undeniably essential. (￣▽￣)／
...
Two weeks later, when Major Eugene unexpectedly appeared from somewhere, he was surprised to find that nearly all recruits at the training camp could demonstrate the Phaletis Saber Technique to some extent.
Although from his knight-level perspective, their moves seemed immature and rigid, far from being applicable in real combat, it could indeed be said to be a solid foundation.
Major Eugene was puzzled: "Are all this batch of recruits so talented? Why didn't I notice it before?"
Once he resumed the rest of the training, he realized it was all an illusion; they were still the same group of wooden heads.
But it was no longer related to Aiven.
During these two weeks of substituting as their instructor, Aiven's attitude subtly shifted from initial impatience to eventual wholehearted commitment. Because in the process of teaching recruits, besides gaining their sincere gratitude, he finally understood what is meant by "teaching and learning benefit each other!"
Everyone's physical condition isn't the same, neither is their perspective on understanding things, nor their thinking patterns; this demands that the instructor must truly comprehend their knowledge to resolve each student's issue.
It was during this process that Aiven discovered his understanding of the two sword techniques he had mastered, "White Sail Swordsmanship" and "Military Swordsmanship," had improved dramatically, even leading to changes in body attributes that hadn't progressed for a long time.
Name: Aiven Galliot
Gender: Male
Attributes: Constitution 0.9+0.01
Strength 0.86+0.02
Agility 0.93
Intellect 0.9
Skills: White Sail Swordsmanship (Mastery, Includes Breathing Technique, Swordsmanship, Magic Potion) Military Swordsmanship (Mastery, Includes Breathing Technique, Swordsmanship, Magic Potion) Archery (Mastery) Grammar (Mastery) Nautical Knowledge (Beginner) Pharmacy (Beginner)
Constitution increased by 0.01, finally reaching 0.91, and Strength increased by 0.02, reaching 0.88. Unlike the arduous breakthrough in White Sail Swordsmanship, Military Swordsmanship easily reached the master-level.
The Military Swordsmanship Eugene taught Aiven covers a full set of swordsmanship, breathing technique, and accompanying Magic Potion, theoretically making it a set of Extraordinary Swordsmanship pointing directly to extraordinary.
This can also be considered a hidden benefit for the Insignia Students.
But after comparing, Aiven found that although Military Swordsmanship is simple and easy to learn, it leans heavily toward battlefield slaughter, lacking somewhat in the crucial aspect of Extraordinary Transformation effects.
Just from the breathing technique comparison, the Military Swordsmanship with only five variations is vastly inferior to the twelve variants of the White Sail Swordsmanship, which is like comparing clouds to mud in literal terms.
Furthermore, Eugene authorized Aiven to directly impart swordsmanship to recruits, yet strictly prohibited him from freely disseminating the accompanying breathing technique and Magic Potion.
It's akin to having "technique" without "method," cutting off almost entirely the possibility for them to directly step onto the extraordinary path from this.