After muttering those words, Roya’s eyes flickered.
He cast all those speculations to the back of his mind and decisively chose to enhance his Sword Soul once again.
A golden light flashed, and the attribute panel changed once more.
Stage Two: Ancient Sword Soul +8
Attributes: Attack Power +85, Strength +24
Special Attribute: All Things in Creation, Turn to Ashes!
— Sword attacks can freely inflict additional fire damage.
(Evolution Conditions not met.)
Enhancement Energy: 66/90
The increase in Enhancement Energy over these three days had undoubtedly been tremendous.
Not only had it allowed Roya to enhance his Sword Soul directly to +8, but he was already quite close to +9.
“Looks like another half a month should be enough to enhance the Sword Soul to +10.
I just don’t know whether I’ll need to fulfill some kind of Enhancement Condition again before it can evolve to Stage Three.”
Roya looked at the attribute panel and tilted his head slightly as he pondered.
But he quickly put the thought aside.
He hadn’t reached +10 yet, so there was no point worrying about it in advance.
He would deal with it once he actually reached that level.
For now, training was still the most important thing.
After comprehending the state of Focus, Roya’s strength had indeed increased considerably.
But compared with a true peak powerhouse like Garp, there was still a gap as vast as the heavens and earth.
Whenever he thought of Garp, the Four Emperors who ruled the seas, and the Marine Admirals, Roya understood that his current improvement amounted to almost nothing.
He was still an extremely long way from the pinnacle of the sea.
Perhaps after enhancing his Sword Soul to Stage Three, he would finally be able to close that distance somewhat.
…
After crossing the threshold of becoming a Swordsman, the path before Roya had become clear.
It was a path of swordsmanship that could be seen ahead, yet was filled with thorns.
Swordsman.
The term could be considered a realm, but it could also be regarded as a title.
It was an honorific bestowed upon powerful swordsmen.
Although Roya had already reached the starting point of the Swordsman realm in terms of mastery, strictly speaking, he still wasn’t worthy of bearing the title of Swordsman.
Among Swordsmen, strength wasn’t measured by Focus.
After all, every Swordsman possessed it.
What determined the difference between Swordsmen was sword pressure—or, more precisely, the flying slashes produced from it.
The gap between Swordsmen could be enormous, even reaching a difference as vast as heaven and earth.
And this difference originated from the strength of their sword pressure.
A weak swordsman might only be able to cut through a building with a single slash.
A powerful swordsman could split the heavens and shatter the earth with one swing!
Strictly speaking, Roya could already release a tiny amount of sword pressure and produce a faint flying slash.
But the distance his flying slash could travel was still less than a foot.
Compared with the power of the World’s Greatest Swordsman, Dracule Mihawk, who could casually split an iceberg in two with a single slash, the difference between them was simply immeasurable.
Flying slashes originated from sword pressure.
Anyone who swung a sword could generate sword pressure.
By utilizing the state of Focus to condense speed and strength into a single point and then directing that force outward, one could form a flying slash.
The strength and speed of a slash weren’t directly related to the state of Focus, but they were closely connected to sword pressure.
At least before becoming a Great Swordsman and comprehending the true essence of cutting, the strength and speed of a slash were decisive factors affecting both sword pressure and the resulting flying slash.
And while the strength and speed of a slash were decisive factors in sword pressure, one’s comprehension of sword pressure itself was another decisive factor.
The relationship between the two was multiplicative.
If strength and speed were both nine, while one’s comprehension of sword pressure was one, then the resulting flying slash would have a power of nine.
But if strength and speed were both five, while one’s comprehension of sword pressure was also five, then the resulting flying slash would have a power of twenty-five!
In other words, the two complemented each other.
Only when both were developed together could one reach the optimal state.
“However, once someone becomes a Great Swordsman, speed and strength will no longer be the decisive factors behind a slash.
The slash itself will enter an entirely different realm.
I’m still far too distant from that realm.”
When Roya imagined a peak swordsman like Mihawk casually splitting an iceberg in two with a single swing, he couldn’t help yearning for such a realm.
After coming back to himself, Roya continued reading through the swordsmanship manual.
Among Swordsmen, sword pressure wasn’t the only standard used to judge their strength.
Sword Intent was another.
Not every Swordsman could comprehend Sword Intent, but those who could were almost invariably among the very strongest Swordsmen.
Different Swordsmen followed different paths of swordsmanship.
When a swordsman developed a profound understanding of his own path and completely understood the road he intended to walk, his own unique Sword Intent would gradually emerge.
For example, there was the speed-based Sword Intent, which focused on the speed of one’s slashes and made them impossible to evade.
There was also the power-based Sword Intent, which focused on the sheer strength of one’s slashes and enabled them to cut through anything.
These were among the more common forms of Sword Intent.
“So that’s what happened.
Was the ability to inflict additional fire damage that I used before mistaken for an innate fire-type Sword Intent?”
Roya had already begun to suspect this when he heard Garp mention things like being a naturally gifted Swordsman and possessing fire-type Sword Intent.
Now, it seemed his guess had indeed been correct.
After passing the section on Sword Intent, the manual went on to describe the realm of the Great Swordsman.
There was very little information recorded about this realm.
Roya flipped through the section briefly before returning to the portion concerning sword pressure.
The realm of the Great Swordsman was still far too distant from him.
What he needed to do now was train his sword pressure.
And the swordsmanship manual recorded the simplest and most practical method of training it.
Layered Slashes.
Among the Rokushiki, Soru involved rapidly stomping the ground more than ten times in an instant, generating explosive acceleration and movement speed.
The resulting speed was so fast that ordinary people could barely follow it with their eyes.
The training method for Layered Slashes was similar to Soru.
The only difference was that instead of rapid footwork, it involved rapid sword strikes.
If someone could deliver two perfectly overlapping slashes in an instant, causing the two attacks to completely overlap, their sword pressure would naturally become twice as strong, and the resulting flying slash would likewise become almost twice as powerful.
The method of exerting force during a full-power slash was different from that of a Layered Slash.
A full-power slash was simple and brutal: channel all one’s strength into a single strike.
A Layered Slash, on the other hand, required exerting force twice in rapid succession.
Therefore, Layered Slashes weren’t suitable for actual combat.
They weren’t a technique or combat move either.
They were simply a training method, much like push-ups or sit-ups, used solely to strengthen one’s sword pressure.
Training with Layered Slashes could directly increase the power of a full-power slash.
If Roya’s full-power slash currently had a power of one, then once he could successfully overlap two slashes, the power of his full-power slash would increase to two.
After all, being capable of overlapping two slashes meant that the strength and speed behind his sword swings would naturally be far greater than before.
The fundamental purpose of Layered Slash training was to increase the speed and strength of his sword strikes.
“Training with Layered Slashes can not only increase the strength and speed of my sword strikes, but also deepen my comprehension of sword pressure…”
Roya nodded slightly as he looked at the training method recorded in the swordsmanship manual.
“This really does kill two birds with one stone.”
Roya had always preferred this kind of simple and straightforward training.
He disliked things that required endless calculations and schemes.
He preferred simplifying complicated matters.
And if something couldn’t be simplified, then he would pursue enough power to simplify everything.
That was Roya’s philosophy.
Once the courtyard wall had been repaired, Roya began training his sword pressure.
Compared with the somewhat intangible, mental training involved in mastering Focus, sword pressure training was much more tangible.
It was nothing more than repeatedly swinging a sword.
Roya first began with the simplest sword-swinging method recorded in the section on sword pressure training.
Although it was the simplest method, it was also the most exhausting.
He had to maintain a single movement and swing his sword an unlimited number of times until both arms became stiff and sore and eventually lost all sensation, making it impossible for him to swing the sword any longer.
For an ordinary person, such training would have been excruciating.
But for Roya, even the month of hellish training Garp had put him through had barely fazed him.
This kind of training was similarly easy for him.
One thousand swings.
Two thousand swings.
Ten thousand swings…
Roya continued performing this simple movement tirelessly.
He trained until his arms became so sore that they were completely numb and devoid of sensation.
Only then would he stop to rest.
Once he had recovered, he would continue training.
Several days later.
As he performed the simple sword-swinging movement more and more times, the sensation of slashing seemed to gradually become integrated into every muscle and every bone in his body.
Gradually…
At some point, Roya suddenly felt that every time he swung his sword, he was perfectly channeling the strength of his entire body and concentrating all of it into the slash.
Or rather, the posture and movement of every single sword swing seemed to have become…
exactly the same!
“It looks like I’ve completed the first stage of sword-pressure training.
Next is the second stage…”
Roya’s eyes sharpened.
“Trying to merge two slashes into one!”
After sensing that his sword-swinging state had reached the condition described in the swordsmanship manual as the completion of the first stage of sword-pressure training, Roya muttered to himself.
After taking a brief rest, Roya immediately began training the second stage.