Ch. 22
Chapter 22: Specialty: Trench Rat’s Bite
After briefly replenishing some fluids, Lance set down the water flask, turned around, and picked up the iron-rimmed wooden shield hanging on the wall along with the heavy training sword.
This sword’s weight distribution was about thirty percent heavier than that of a standard shortsword, designed specifically to better refine force application techniques.
Among the many foundational combat skills available at the time, the reason Lance had chosen “Castro Swordsmanship” at a glance was very simple.
It was an extremely pure sword-and-shield coordination technique.
It did not pursue flashy lethality, but instead placed extreme emphasis on the transitions between offense and defense using the shortsword and shield. Its core purpose was singular: to greatly enhance the user’s survivability.
For someone like Lance, who valued his life above all else, there was no more suitable beginner swordsmanship than this.
Lance walked up to the wooden dummy that had already been battered full of dents and gouges.
His legs bent slightly, his center of gravity sank, and his somewhat sluggish left foot stepped half a step forward, hiding most of his body behind the shield.
The shortsword in his right hand was held behind the side of the shield, its tip angled toward the ground.
This was the most standard opening stance of Castro Swordsmanship.
The lowered center of gravity allowed him to anchor himself to the ground like a nail, making it difficult to lose balance or fall even when struck heavily.
After adjusting his breathing, Lance’s gaze sharpened.
The muscles of his waist exerted force instantly, like a suddenly released hardened bow, driving his entire body forward in a fierce thrust.
This strike had no flashy wind-up. The motion was extremely short, yet explosively powerful.
A sharp tearing sound even cut through the air.
Back during his first battle in the forest, it was precisely this seemingly plain thrust that had cleanly taken the life of that Goblin.
After the thrust, Lance did not pause for even a moment. He quickly retracted his sword and returned to defense.
Then he stepped forward sharply, using the inertia of his body’s momentum to slam the iron-clad shield fiercely into the training dummy before him.
A dull “bang” echoed.
He then swiftly retreated, restored his stance, and began repeating the entire sequence.
Thrust, shield bash, retract sword, return to defense.
Every thrust, every shield strike—he put his full strength into each one.
This kind of high-intensity burst consumed stamina extremely quickly. An ordinary person would likely be gasping for breath within minutes.
But Lance’s abnormal physique began to show its effect. The stamina he consumed rapidly recovered within just a few breaths.
Castro Swordsmanship had originally been created for close combat in narrow environments such as dungeon corridors or tunnels.
Thus, this swordsmanship contained very few wide, sweeping slashes.
First, slashing consumed several times more stamina than thrusting. Second, in confined spaces, a swinging longsword could easily get stuck against walls or be blocked by enemies.
This kind of simple yet vicious thrust, however, could pierce through an enemy’s leather armor in an instant with minimal movement.
The entire training process passed in this endlessly repeated mechanical routine.
This kind of monotonous and high-pressure training placed a tremendous burden on the mind.
Normally, a beginner would begin to lose focus and distort their movements after about half an hour of continuous practice.
But Lance was like a tireless alchemical puppet, maintaining intense concentration throughout.
This too was thanks to his special physique.
【Hvergelmir’s Surge】 granted him not only stamina recovery, but also strong resistance to all abnormal states, naturally including mental fatigue and stress.
Just as the training approached the two-hour mark—
The sweat-soaked Lance suddenly felt a flash of insight in his mind.
At the moment of his thrust, he subconsciously adjusted the angle of force in his wrist.
The training sword, which had been somewhat blunt, this time pierced into the hardened wooden dummy as if cutting into butter, sinking in with a soft “puchi” sound.
It penetrated a full three inches deep, and even required considerable effort to pull it out.
Almost simultaneously, a familiar translucent panel popped up across his vision.
【Castro Swordsmanship Proficiency +1, LV3 → 4】
【Constitution +1, Strength +1】
Seeing his attributes increase, Lance felt a surge of joy.
Sure enough, as the swordsmanship level increased, the related base attributes also grew accordingly.
Although Castro Swordsmanship appeared to focus on agile thrusts, its core force application still relied on instantaneous explosive power.
This kind of repeated burst training, numbering in the thousands, naturally had the most obvious effect on Strength and Constitution.
However, what surprised him was that when the swordsmanship reached the mastery level (LV4), the notification panel did not disappear, but instead displayed another new line of text.
【Through tens of thousands of repetitions, you have completely mastered the secret of twisting your entire body’s strength into a single force and concentrating it at the tip of the sword in an instant. You have obtained the Specialty: Trench Rat’s Bite】
——
Trench Rat’s Bite
Specialty Rank: Common
Prerequisite: 【Castro Swordsmanship】 reaches LV4 (Mastery)
Specialty Effect: All your sword thrust attacks gain an additional 5% physical penetration.
——
Lance looked at this newly appeared entry in astonishment.
He hadn’t expected that reaching mastery level in a skill would condense an additional “Specialty.”
This made him realize that a large portion of a professional’s strength in this world was actually centered around the skills they had painstakingly trained.
Even among professionals of the same level, differences in the number of skills practiced, their levels, and the derived specialties would likely result in vast differences in actual combat power.
If grinding skills could grant specialties…
Then wouldn’t his talent allow him to quickly “grind” out a batch of practical specialties to strengthen himself in all aspects?
Lance subconsciously glanced at the 【Levin Archery】 on his panel.
As long as he trained this skill to mastery as well and saw whether it would grant a new specialty, he could verify this hypothesis.
Thinking of this, Lance felt greatly uplifted, having discovered another safe and stable path to increasing his strength.
“But this 5% penetration…”
Lance stroked his chin and decided to immediately test what kind of difference this bonus would make.
He took a deep breath, raised the training sword in his hand, and thrust it once more toward the battered wooden dummy.
This time, he did not simply pursue strength, but carefully sensed the feedback at the moment the sword tip contacted the target.
It felt very different.
He had originally thought a 5% increase would be negligible, but he was wrong.
This time, the blunt sword still smoothly pierced into the training dummy.
“I understand now.”
Lance withdrew his sword and stood upright, a glimmer of realization flashing in his eyes.
The greatest effect of this 5% enhancement was not in increasing damage values, but in greatly improving the “stability” of thrust attacks.
The biggest drawback of thrusting as an attack method was that when contacting hard objects, it was very easy for the blade to slip or get stuck due to factors such as angle, force, or the curvature of armor.
That was precisely why Castro Swordsmanship emphasized conserving stamina and relying on multiple rapid thrusts to ensure armor penetration.