Standing at one side of the courtyard, Roya narrowed his eyes.
Once he had gripped Engetsu, he suddenly swung his sword.
At an astonishing speed that was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye, he struck twice through the air in rapid succession.
At present, Roya had only completed the preparatory training of the first stage, but the Sword Pressure produced by his swings had already begun to take shape.
When he unleashed his full strength, he could now produce a faint but clearly visible Flying Slash.
The range of a Flying Slash was directly related to its strength.
For a Great Swordsman like Mihawk, the range of his Flying Slashes was enough to span an entire island.
At that level, the Flying Slash had practically condensed into a tangible form.
As for Roya, although he could now release a Flying Slash with a single swing, its strength and degree of compression were still insufficient.
After extending less than a meter, the Flying Slash would dissipate into the air.
Shing!
Shing!
As Roya swung his sword, two faint Flying Slashes suddenly burst from the tip of Engetsu.
They tore across the ground in front of him, leaving behind two cracks roughly a meter long.
“Did I fail?
Again!”
A glint flashed through Roya’s eyes as he swung his sword once more.
If the two slashes could completely merge, the resulting Flying Slash should become a single attack.
Its range should also far exceed one meter—at the very least, it should reach two meters.
Everything was difficult at the beginning.
Roya had never expected to succeed on his first attempt.
After all, this training in merging sword strikes was genuine physical training.
Unlike mental cultivation, it wasn’t something he could simply comprehend and complete in a single step.
Shing!
Shing!
Two more Flying Slashes shot forward.
They merged ever so slightly in midair before ultimately carving a crack somewhat longer than a meter into the ground.
“They merged a little?
Again!”
Shing!
Shing!
“Still not enough.
Again.”
Roya continued swinging his sword throughout the courtyard.
Before long, the ground was covered in one trench after another, with some of them even forming deep channels.
At this point, Roya changed the direction of his swings and continued training.
He repeated the process over and over.
Gradually, the entire courtyard began to resemble a field that had been thoroughly plowed.
Trenches crisscrossed everywhere, and every time his sword descended, soil flew in all directions as another mark left by a Flying Slash appeared on the ground.
Garp knew that Roya was seriously training, so he didn’t stop him from destroying the courtyard yet again.
Instead, he simply allowed Roya to continue training freely.
And just like that, more than half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
Only a few days remained before the Marine Headquarters recruits’ strongest evaluation.
…
In the courtyard.
Roya was still training.
He was now slightly different from before.
There was no obvious change in his appearance, but his aura had acquired a sharpness that had not been there previously.
“Ha!”
Roya stood quietly in place.
Then he suddenly gave a low shout and swung Engetsu.
Buzz!
The blade swept through the air as though it had transformed the surrounding air into a pool of water, creating a sudden ripple across its surface.
A silver-white, slightly dim Flying Slash abruptly shot forward.
Shing!
The earth in front of Roya exploded apart, the soil blasting toward both sides as a trench nearly five meters long appeared.
“I can merge three slashes with ease now.
There are still some flaws when merging four, but I’d say I’ve basically succeeded.”
Roya looked at the silver-white Flying Slash he had produced.
It was nearly a meter tall and had a range of approximately five meters.
He nodded slightly.
In truth, however, this result was merely the superficial result of his training.
Roya’s true goal wasn’t simply to improve his swordsmanship.
It was to strengthen his Sword Soul.
His real achievement was that his Sword Soul had already advanced to Stage Three!
That’s right.
During this period, Roya’s Sword Soul had crossed beyond Stage Two and reached Stage Three.
After Roya had enhanced his Sword Soul to Stage Two +10 and once again filled his Enhancement Energy, he hadn’t encountered any obstacle.
He could directly proceed with the enhancement.
Naturally, Roya didn’t hesitate and immediately chose to enhance it.
His current attribute panel was as follows:
Stage Three: Agile Sword Soul +0
Attributes: Attack Power +135, Strength +40, Agility +40
Special Attribute: All Things in Creation, Turn to Ashes!
— Sword attacks can freely inflict additional fire damage.
(Evolution Conditions not met.)
Special Attribute: Getsuga Tenshō!
— Sword attacks can release crescent-shaped Flying Slashes.
Enhancement Energy: 34/120
After advancing to Stage Three, compared with the Sword Soul at Stage Two, Roya’s basic attributes had increased, and he had gained another green Agility attribute.
More importantly, he had also gained a blue Special Attribute:
Getsuga Tenshō!
Advancing to Stage Three had, as expected, given him another opportunity to draw an attribute.
When Roya discovered that the attribute he had drawn was only blue, he was initially somewhat disappointed.
He hadn’t expected that the blue attribute would actually be Getsuga Tenshō, the signature ability of the protagonist of Bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki.
Roya was somewhat surprised that this ability was classified as blue rather than purple.
After thinking about it for a moment, he felt that perhaps it was because the ability itself didn’t involve any particularly complicated transformations.
There was no Shikai or Bankai involved.
It was simply a single signature technique.
After all, there was no doubt about the actual power of this ability.
Roya had secretly tested it before.
When using Getsuga Tenshō, the Sword Pressure he released would surge to three times its normal level.
In other words, the strength of the Flying Slash he produced could increase by nearly threefold!
Moreover, this increase wasn’t fixed.
It would also grow alongside Roya’s Strength, consistently maintaining roughly three times the power of his normal attacks.
The only limitation was that Getsuga Tenshō consumed a considerable amount of physical stamina and mental energy.
If he used it repeatedly, the enormous expenditure could rapidly exhaust his body and mind, leaving him extremely fatigued.
Other than that, there were no restrictions.
He could release it freely.
Furthermore, after the Sword Soul advanced to Stage Three, Roya’s ability to inflict additional fire damage had also expanded to a range of more than ten meters.
That ability had similarly received a considerable boost.
Roya’s current strength was now far beyond merely being twice what it had been when he participated in the practical combat evaluation.
This was a comprehensive improvement in every aspect.
Roya glanced at the attribute panel before dismissing it with a thought.
“I’ll continue practicing until I can use four-sword merging perfectly, then I’ll begin training to merge five slashes…”
Roya suddenly paused.
“Wait.
At my current level, I should already qualify to begin training in Haki, shouldn’t I?”
Just as he was about to continue training, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
His eyes flickered, and a contemplative expression appeared on his face.
At that moment, the sound of a door opening came from behind him.
Roya turned around.
He saw Garp push open the courtyard gate and walk inside.
“Roya, I’ve let you train freely for almost a month now.
How does it feel?”
As he spoke, Garp casually picked his nose with his little finger while inadvertently glancing at the numerous trenches Roya had carved into the ground.
An imperceptible nod of approval followed.
After giving Roya complete freedom to train, Garp naturally hadn’t continued watching him every day.
He had even left Marine Headquarters for a while and had only just returned.
“It feels like using Flying Slashes to plow fields should be extremely efficient.”
Roya stroked his chin as he answered.
Cough!
Cough!
Even though Garp had long since become accustomed to the way Roya spoke, he still nearly choked on the spot.
Using Flying Slashes to plow fields…
What kind of nonsense was that?!
“Take this seriously, Roya!”
Garp straightened up.
“I’ve let you train freely for a month, and it looks like you’ve made some decent progress.
But don’t get too arrogant.”
“For the upcoming strongest evaluation in the entire camp, you may even encounter some Devil Fruit users.
When you fight, you’d better stay focused!”
During this month, Garp hadn’t deliberately monitored Roya.
He had simply allowed him to train freely.
But by looking at the sword scars covering the ground, Garp could roughly estimate how much Roya’s swordsmanship had improved.
With swordsmanship of this level combined with his fire-type Sword Intent, Roya should already have a place among the elite recruits.
However…
The strongest recruits in the elite camp had also risen from the ordinary camp.
It was therefore difficult to determine just how powerful the strongest recruits in the ordinary camp truly were based on this alone.
The purpose of this full-camp combat evaluation wasn’t actually to establish some authoritative ranking of every recruit.
Rather, it was intended to allow Zephyr to observe the strongest recruits more clearly—those who possessed the qualifications to enter the elite camp.
That way, once they entered the elite camp, he could provide each of them with the guidance most suited to their individual needs.