The next morning, when Issho woke up and went outside to begin his usual horse stance meditation training, the System’s voice suddenly echoed inside his head.
“The conditions for horse stance training have changed.
Until you reach the Knight level, the required gravity has now increased.
From now on, you must perform horse stance meditation under two times gravity.”
The voice paused briefly before continuing.
“But do not worry.
The benefits will also increase.
Your blood point gain will increase by 1.5 points, mana by 0.15 points, and Observation Haki range by 150 meters.”
As soon as Issho heard this, he became slightly stunned.
However, after thinking about it carefully, he also felt that this was somewhat expected.
After all, his body had already become far stronger than before after stepping into the Trainee Knight realm.
Naturally, the previous level of training would no longer be enough to push his body properly.
The stronger the body became, the harsher the training needed to be.
And the more strenuous the training was, the greater the rewards would naturally become as well.
Although the increase was not exactly double, even 1.5 times improvement was already an enormous gain.
With this in mind, Issho immediately entered his horse stance and activated his gravity ability.
Instantly—
A terrifying pressure descended upon his own body.
Two times gravity.
The air around Issho immediately became noticeably heavier.
Even the faint movements of wind around him seemed slower and denser.
A slight distortion quietly formed around his body, almost as though the surrounding space itself had subtly bent inward.
Issho’s muscles instantly tightened under the pressure.
His legs sank slightly deeper into the ground while his breathing became heavier almost immediately.
Veins subtly bulged across his arms and neck from the sudden increase in strain.
Issho could clearly sense the heaviness pressing down on every part of his body.
It felt as though invisible weights had been attached to his limbs.
Nearby, Donny, Alex, and Martha were busy doing their usual work around the courtyard.
Occasionally, one of them glanced toward Issho out of habit, but none of them paid too much attention.
After all, they had already become accustomed to seeing Issho perform strange training every morning while holding his horse stance for long periods of time.
To them, today simply looked like another normal training session.
If they observed carefully enough, they might have noticed the faint distortion in the air surrounding Issho.
They might even have sensed something abnormal about the pressure around him.
But none of them focused on it deeply.
So nobody realized what was truly happening.
Meanwhile, only five minutes into the training, Issho was already panting heavily.
“Hah…
hah…”
Sweat quickly formed across his forehead while his muscles trembled under the pressure of doubled gravity.
His body felt incredibly heavy.
Still, Issho could tell that his physical body itself had not yet reached its limit.
His muscles still possessed enough endurance to continue.
The real issue was something else.
His mana.
The consumption of mana required to maintain two times gravity was far greater than before.
And after merely five minutes, Issho could already feel his mana reserves rapidly approaching their limit.
While using his gravity control ability, not only did Issho’s stamina act as a medium, but his mana also functioned as one.
The mana flowed together with his blood throughout his body, supporting the activation of gravity manipulation itself.
So naturally, under the strain of maintaining two times gravity, Issho could clearly feel that his mana had almost completely drained.
“Hah…
hah…”
Issho slowly sat down on the ground while calming his breathing.
Sweat dripped down from his forehead while the muscles in his legs trembled faintly from exhaustion.
The pressure around him gradually disappeared after he deactivated the gravity field.
As he quietly rested there, Issho could already feel the mana inside his body beginning to recover at a noticeable speed.
This was one of the major advantages possessed by Blood Forged Knights.
Because mana directly circulated together with their blood, their bodies naturally absorbed mana from the surroundings at a much faster rate compared to ordinary knights.
The process was somewhat similar to osmosis.
The air itself contained natural mana particles.
As Blood Forged Knights breathed, that mana would continuously enter their body through respiration and then naturally merge into their bloodstream, slowly replenishing their depleted reserves.
Although the recovery speed was not absurdly fast, it was still far superior to ordinary people.
With Issho’s current mana capacity of nearly 1.2 points, he only needed around five minutes of rest to mostly recover his exhausted mana reserves.
The moment his mana recovered sufficiently again, Issho immediately stood back up.
Without hesitation, he entered the horse stance once more.
Then—
Gravity descended again.
The pressure instantly returned onto his body like an invisible mountain.
His muscles tightened heavily while the air around him subtly distorted once again.
Issho gritted his teeth slightly and maintained the stance.
Time slowly passed.
Soon enough, his mana reserves approached depletion once more.
So he rested again.
Then once recovered, he resumed horse stance meditation again.
Mana depleted.
Rest.
Then again.
Again.
Again.
Like this, Issho continuously repeated the cycle over and over.
Each repetition pushed his body and mana slightly further than before.
The courtyard floor beneath his feet had even become slightly uneven from how long he continuously maintained the stance in the same position.
Eventually, after repeating the cycle enough times, Issho finally completed today’s quest.
Immediately, the familiar system notification echoed inside his head.
“Blood +1.5.”
“Mana +0.15.”
“Observation Haki +15 meters.”
As soon as the notification appeared, Issho immediately felt a warm surge spread throughout his entire body.
It was a strange yet satisfying sensation.
Warmth flowed through his veins while his body felt slightly lighter and stronger than before.
Even his senses seemed to sharpen faintly.
The sounds around him became a little clearer, the movement of air slightly easier to perceive.
Issho slowly exhaled while feeling the improvement settle into his body.
After finishing this quest, he moved on toward his other two daily tasks.
First came swordsmanship training against Fujitora.
For an entire hour, the sound of sword clashes continuously echoed again and again while Issho challenged the overwhelming shadow figure standing before him.
Every exchange refined his instincts further.
Then after completing that, Issho moved toward practicing the Six Powers techniques.
Shave.
Iron Body.
Moonwalk.
Tempest Kick.
Paper Drawing.
Finger Pistol.
One after another, he continuously trained all six techniques while applying the insights he had gained yesterday.
After finishing the swordsmanship training, he received swordsmanship insights once again.
And after completing the Six Powers training, he once more gained insights into the Six Powers techniques.
Both rewards continuously improved him bit by bit every single day.
His swordsmanship became sharper.
His understanding of blood circulation became more refined.
His control over his body improved further.
Even the flaws in his movements gradually reduced with each passing day.
And like this, day after day quietly passed for Issho.
Although his life was exhausting and filled with constant training, Issho himself felt unexpectedly fulfilled living this way.
Five days quietly passed like this.
At around evening, after waking up from his short rest following training, Issho slowly walked toward the courtyard while breathing in the fresh evening air.
The temperature was cooler now compared to the afternoon, and the faint warmth of the setting sun fell gently across his face.
Even though he was blind, Issho could still feel the direction of the sunlight through the warmth touching his skin.
The courtyard was quieter than usual.
Then suddenly, Issho heard Martha’s voice near the backyard gate.
There was clear worry in her tone.
“James, you were saying that you know where my husband and son are?
Where are they?” Martha asked anxiously.
“They should have returned by noon, but it is already evening and they still haven’t returned.”
Issho’s attention immediately shifted toward the voices.
Martha was speaking to James, a man who had recently started coming to the restaurant regularly to eat.
For almost a week now, he had been visiting frequently enough that everyone there had become somewhat familiar with him.
However, today Martha’s voice carried obvious unease.
Her husband Alex and her son Donny had gone earlier in the morning toward a village near Sidian County, a territory under the rule of Baron Leopold Montagu.
Alex had previously gone there once before as a cook during the birthday celebration of the Baron’s daughter.
At that time, while leaving the mansion the following day, Baron Leopold Montagu had personally offered Alex vegetables, chickens, and other farm products from one of the villages under his control at very good prices.
Normally, Alex purchased such supplies inside the county itself at prices nearly ten percent higher.
So naturally, receiving goods directly from the Baron’s village at lower prices was a very profitable opportunity for him.
Because of that, Alex had agreed.
And this morning, he had gone there once again with Donny using an ox cart to purchase vegetables and other supplies for the restaurant.
By all calculations, they should have returned by noon.
But now it was already evening.
And they still had not come back.
The faint sound of Martha’s nervous breathing could be heard clearly even from a distance.
Then James finally spoke.
As soon as he heard Martha’s words, a smile slowly appeared on his face as he said calmly, “You don’t need to worry about anything.
Your husband and your son are both perfectly safe.”
For a brief moment, Martha seemed to relax slightly after hearing that.
However, James then paused before continuing in a strange tone.
“For now.”
The moment those words entered Martha’s ears, her breathing visibly became hurried.
“What do you mean ‘for now’?” Martha immediately asked in panic.
“Where are my husband and son?”
Issho, standing quietly in the courtyard, slightly narrowed his brows after hearing the shift in the conversation.
Meanwhile, James calmly replied, almost as though he was discussing something ordinary.
“As I already said before, they are completely fine,” James said.
Then a faint smile spread wider across his face.
“And currently…
they are with the Iron Horn Bandits.”