Chapter 61: Future Goals
In early December, the sun in the sky shone obliquely, and the wind from afar brought a slight chill.
In the woods full of fallen leaves, Xilutiya stood with her eyes closed, holding a sword in one hand while the other hung empty, her fingertips drooping from the sleeve opening, slightly spread, as if she could sense the breeze passing between her fingers.
A blunt-tipped arrow shot out from the distant forest, rushing toward this maiden. The sword blade in her hand rotated from bottom to top, drawing a circular arc, precisely striking the incoming arrow.
However, this was only the first time. Afterward, arrows attacked again from different directions, with varying angles, sometimes even two directions shooting arrows simultaneously.
Xilutiya moved her feet, and the sword in her hand followed with rotations, slashing apart the incoming arrows one after another, and becoming increasingly proficient.
After a long time, the arrows stopped shooting, and several familiar figures emerged from the woods.
Karen approached the maiden with a longbow in one hand and looked at the scattered arrows on the ground.
“A total of 30 training arrows, all dodged and parried by Tiya.” She was somewhat curious.
“Did Tiya learn the ‘listen to the wind and discern position’ ability?” It was an ability of the hunter class.
“No, but when I advanced to ‘First Order·Emerald Honey’, I gained enhancements related to perception.” She opened her eyes to answer, then picked up the arrows on the ground around her, packing away those that could still be used.
Mike looked at the broken arrows at this moment. He picked up one and observed the break; the cut surface was quite smooth, indicating that the sword user’s skills were exquisite, with no issues like improper blade alignment even in rapid reactions.
He gained new cognition regarding this maiden’s sword technique skills.
“Tiya, can we have a spar?” He felt itchy, eager to try.
Previously, it had always been theoretical guidance from her, but the two had never truly practiced in actual combat.
Before Xilutiya could answer, Komiya jumped over and loudly stopped him.
“No, Mike, you’re now ‘First Order·Blood Law’, with such great strength. What if you injure Tiya?” She felt that a girl’s appearance was most important; if she got injured in such training, it would be too regrettable.
“How about I use a thick wooden sword.” Mike thought for a moment.
“A thick wooden sword probably won’t work either.” Komiya spoke again.
“Don’t you remember that spar with Suolin? You two broke the wooden swords right at the start.”
With the breathing technique cultivated to the third stage, combined with the power enhancement from ‘Blood Law’ nature, Mike could now easily shatter a cow’s skull with a full-force punch. Komiya’s worry was not unfounded.
“Sigh, if only I had sparred with Tiya before advancing.” Mike spoke with regret.
Hearing their conversation, Xilutiya thought for a moment and shook her head slightly.
“Probably not today; I don’t have a suitable weapon.” The short sword she had been using before was given by Captain Frien, but now it felt somewhat light for her and was no longer sufficient.
Under the enhancement of the breathing technique’s third stage, an ordinary iron sword could easily break in intense combat, leading to accidents.
“Now that you mention it.” Mike looked at the shabby iron sword at his waist and also felt it was time to replace it.
His iron sword was relatively thick and solid; to put it bluntly, it was just a lump of cast iron barely shaped like a sword.
Because it wasn’t expensive to make, he didn’t feel heartbroken when it got nicks from chopping; he would occasionally sharpen it and continue using it makeshift.
“What about you, Karen? I see that your white ash wood longbow is also a bit old; do you want to replace it?”
“I maintain it pretty well, so no rush to replace it.” Karen shook her head.
“What are you all talking about?” At this moment, Komiya approached with Regas, placing the held arrows together.
“I’m thinking about replacing weapons.” Mike placed his hands behind his head.
“Weapons?” Komiya looked at Mike’s shabby iron sword and couldn’t help covering her mouth to laugh.
“Wow, this thing is lucky you use it without feeling embarrassed, hehe.”
“That’s how it is being an adventurer; you have to economize on everything.” Mike shook his head nonchalantly.
“If it were a good sword costing over 50 silver coins, using it for hunting and all sorts of odd purposes, it would be ruined beyond use in less than a month—that would be such a waste.”
“So general adventurers prepare several weapons: cheap ones for odd jobs, and real ones for life-or-death fights.”
“Brother Jieluo’s sword is entirely crafted from black steel, not only exceptionally heavy but also extremely sturdy; ordinary steel can’t damage it.”
“Black steel, huh? That stuff isn’t cheap.” Komiya remembered something.
“My dad once followed the merchant guild’s representative to Forging Stone City to negotiate a transaction, procuring two hundred ingots of black steel. They haggled with the blacksmith guild there for a long time and promised quite a few additional conditions before securing it.”
“What was the price?” Mike was somewhat tempted to buy a black steel-crafted sword.
“Very expensive; one ingot of black steel costs about 5 gold coins, and it’s even smaller than my hand.” Komiya recalled.
“If you craft a sword from black steel, even if only for the sword blade part with other steel inside, the price would still be over 6-7 gold coins.”
“That expensive?” Mike wailed; it seemed he couldn’t afford it now.
“In that case, don’t blacksmiths make a lot of money, even more than being adventurers?” He thought of something.
“Of course; blacksmiths are generally the wealthiest families in the village, followed by tailors and physicians.” Komiya touched her forehead and sighed in complaint.
Suddenly, Komiya thought of something and looked at Regas.
“Regas, I think you’d be great as a blacksmith.” Regas had a burly build and great strength, which indeed fit the blacksmith requirements.
Hearing this, Karen and Xilutiya also thought it was a good idea.
“I don’t know too complicated things.” Regas lacked some confidence.
“Blacksmiths probably don’t need to be that smart, right?” Komiya thought for a moment.
“Actually, Regas isn’t dumb; it’s just that…” She glanced at the black-haired maiden nearby; it was just that this one was too clever, making everyone feel somewhat naturally foolish.
Before meeting Xilutiya, Komiya had been known among her peers for her quick mind and good memory.
The group’s topic shifted from spars to suitable weapons, then from black steel to blacksmiths, and from blacksmiths to their respective future plans.
“I’ll become a hunter.” Karen had decided on her future direction from the start.
“I’ll probably become an adventurer, but now it doesn’t feel that strong.” After gradually accessing more knowledge and broadening his horizons, Mike slowly realized that being an adventurer wasn’t such a perfect profession.
“Regas says he doesn’t know, but after hearing our earlier suggestion, he said he’d go to Forging Stone City next year to see if he could learn blacksmith skills.”
“As for me…” Komiya leaned against the tree trunk and thought carefully.
“Actually, I love to play a lot, and I don’t know what I’ll do in the future anyway, so I’ll learn some interesting and useful things first, then travel around.”
“What about you, Tiya? Any plans?”
Plans, huh. Xilutiya leaned against the tree trunk, looking up at the dense leaves in the wind, with a slight rustling sound carried by the autumn breeze.
To be honest, since she had no memories of this life in her mind, there were no particular things she was attached to or cared about.
This naturally lacked some sense of belonging, like a dandelion floating away, but the other benefit was that she had few constraints and could try many things.
Rarely, she now had talents unimaginable in her previous life, allowing her to absorb the many wondrous and fresh knowledge of this world like a sponge, learning various skills.
On Earth, limited by environment, background, and all sorts of rules and restrictions, most people’s lives were far from free and smooth. Many became numb and anxious under the onslaught of various information online; even if they had ideas, it was hard to persist amid impacts from various concepts and realities.
‘What kind of life do I want, or how should every life that must die choose to spend this one life?’ It was almost the root of all doubts.
Thinking of this, Xilutiya shook her head slightly; it was too early to say these things now.
However, since there was a chance to see a broader world and experience more wonders, missing it would be too regrettable.
“I’ll probably study with Scholar Heide and Teacher for a while, and when I’m ready, set off to travel and attempt to further advance my nature phase order.”
“In that case, going to the Secluded Forest seems like a good choice, Tiya.” Komiya reminded.
“That place…” Xilutiya recalled Scholar Heide’s introduction.
It was said that the ‘Secluded Forest’ had outposts set up by many schools, where young people entering could access the entry-level secret arts of various schools. If certain conditions were met, they could apply for the school’s assessment, and after completing various assessments and trials, join the school and access true inheritance.
These transcendent schools were powerful organizations far surpassing nations, with branches across the continent and also backing forces for many countries. When the Regas Kingdom was established, it relied on their assistance.
If not going to the Secluded Forest, ordinary people in the outside world had great difficulty accessing high-rank transcendent knowledge, and what the various industry guilds taught mostly stopped at third order nature.
Analyzing it this way, going there was indeed the best choice; she could also access a broader world.
Since there were no other reasons to reject it, she slowly decided in her heart to head to the ‘Secluded Forest’ as the next goal.
