Any apprentice knight would find out about a change that happened at least once during their time on the Galapagos Island.
All of the people active on the island were geniuses. Whether it was swordsmanship or mana cultivation, they were praised for accomplishing goals several times faster than their peers, and as such, it was not unreasonable for them to take it for granted.
However, it was different here.
Why does it feel like I'm being treated poorly these days?
Ever since these geniuses had come to Galapagos, they had never been praised, and neither could they outperform the others. It was a matter of course. Mixing the talented and the untalented would lead to the talented few standing out, but if all of them were geniuses and prodigies, none of them would be anything special.
The reality that they were treated as ordinary despite being special in other places became the driving force behind the children's improvement. The trio—Gale, Hayden, and Ian—were no exception.
"Oh! It's Hayden! I actually planned to encourage you if I ran into you, so this turned out great. You've gotten stronger since the last time I saw you! If you keep growing at this rate, the Order of the Golden Dragon will not be a pipe dream!"
"Errr, that's, no, uhm, thank you?"
"Hahaha! You've always gone around bragging about it, but look at you flushing when you are complimented! Don't train too much and overdo it!"
"Ha-have a good day..."
With a dazed expression, Hayden saluted the knight, who was walking away. He couldn't help reacting like that. Besides suddenly recognizing him and complimenting him, the knight had even mentioned that Hayden could join the Order of the Golden Dragon, which everyone in the Cardenas family wished to join! Few people deserved such a compliment, even if it was just empty words.
"...
"..."
Sure enough, as soon as Hayden looked back, his friends, who were looking at him with blank faces, ran up to him.
"Hayden! You bastard, what the hell did you do!"
"You ate some elixir behind our backs, didn't you? If you tell us where you got it, we will let you keep your life!" Ian grabbed Hayden by the collar and shook him back and forth while Gale tied his legs together with a rope, causing him to fall sideways.
Hayden could have resisted, but he was completely out of it and thus fell to the ground after being tied up. Rather than joy, what occupied his mind was doubt and confusion.
Ian and Gale were bewildered when they saw Hayden's condition.
"Ian, he's gone completely loco."
"Do you think I'm blind? It's obvious he's gone crazy. I don't think this dumbass's acting skills have improved to the point of tricking me. Maybe even he doesn't know the reason he was complimented."
"Do you think our seniors mistook Hayden for someone else and complimented him? Is that really possible?"
"I... I don't think so, but maybe? They are humans too," Ian replied with disbelief at his own response.
The Cardenas were considered the best knight family in the world, and all the knights they appointed were the best of the best. Unlike the three of them, who were apprentice knights still in training, it was unlikely for mid-rank knights to make such a mistake.
Knights were classified into four ranks: pages (apprentice knights), squires (low-rank knights), bachelors (mid-rank knights), and bannerets (high-rank knights). Apart from that, there was the organizational hierarchy—they were split into a number of units, where they had positions ranging from simple members to Knight Commander or Vice Commander.
"If we train for a few more years and we're appointed as formal knights, we become squires. After that, if we amass achievements on the frontlines and become acknowledged by the family, we will be bachelors. Our seniors aren't the type of people to make amateur mistakes. Would they recognize the wrong people? On this island of all places?"
Ian frowned, agonizing for a moment.
It was then that, just like how a knight had spoken to Hayden, another knight grabbed hold of Ian and showered him with compliments.
"Ohhhh! You, aren't you Ian! You're really amazing, even though you're only in your fourth year! I watched over you because I was anxious when I saw you traveling alone, but I was worried for nothing. I hope you continue to grow and become a source of pride for our Cardenas family!"
"Ah, that's, erm, under... understood?"
"It would be fine even if you walked around with your nose in the air, but you are so humble! You also have a great personality! You're the type that seniors will like regardless of which knightly order you enter! Keep up the hard work!"
After the knight vanished, Ian turned to the side with a bewildered expression just like Hayden's. Gale was looking at him with a face that seemed as if he had been terribly betrayed.
Ian tried to make an excuse, even though he knew it wouldn't work.
"Well, maybe the seniors are confused?"
"Shut up! You traitorous bastards!"
With a murderous glare in his eyes, Gale tied up Ian and pushed him to the ground, making Ian resemble a big worm next to Hayden. Hayden seemed as if he could not accept reality, and his eyes looked like a dead fish's.
"Be honest with me! Are we really friends if we cheat each other and hide things from each other?! Huh?!" Hayden yelled at them in a frustrated tone.
Ian and Hayden looked up at Gale and tried to explain themselves.
"You crazy fellow, we've always moved together, so how would I have any time to act separately?"
"There are a few seniors who look similar to us, but recently, even their hairstyles and clothes have become similar to ours."
Both their explanations made sense, and Gale was well aware of this. In spite of that, he still felt that only he was alienated from his seniors' attention. So, he took his anger out on the two of them and started dragging them along.
"Argh! Loosen the rope first, you bastard! The sand is scratching my back!"
"I'm getting sand in my mouth and nose! Gale, you moron! I'm going to kill you if I get a bald spot on my head!"
In the end, the two resorted to using mana to break the rope, and they immediately grabbed hold of Gale and beat him up. Gale tried to flee, but their skill level was similar, so it was impossible for him to go against Ian and Hayden.
"You... you traitors..."
Ian and Hayden snorted as they stared down at Gale, who had turned into a mess.
"Shut up."
"Come on, get up. We have to go see Leonard."
Gale picked himself up. "Are we going again today? Aren't we visiting him too often?"
"The seniors haven't said anything about it. I guess taking care of him is acceptable."
"They probably don't know that we're benefiting from it."
As they spoke about Leonard, Hayden was unable to hide his excitement. "That guy is a sword genius! I can see why Commander Fabian wrote him a letter of recommendation."
Ian and Gale nodded in agreement. The reason they interacted with Leonard was that he had requested it. Leonard had broken through to the Fifth Degree Body Refining Tier within four months, and their relationship had begun more than two months ago.
The trio had no doubt that the food they secretly gave him helped lower his guard. They hadn't expected, however, that they would learn something from a child who had just reached the Fifth Degree Body Refining Tier and that they would be so inspired.
"If I seal the strength I gained from reaching the External Force Tier and restrict my mana to a level similar to Leonard's, I will never be able to defeat him."
"His martial arts are on a different level. He will either see through or avoid all my attacks, and I can't even figure out where his attacks are coming from. Is he really fourteen years old? If he was our age, he could just chop off our heads."
The sparring sessions had started at Leonard's request, but the trio had more to gain. That was why the three of them, who had initially thought that the level of mana cultivation equated to strength, began to earnestly train their swordsmanship. In the end, the number of cores and the level of mana cultivation were nothing more than numbers. If they fell behind in terms of martial arts, they would be no different from a beast that was hunted helplessly by human technology.
Somehow, it feels as if he is paying more attention to the two of them than me...
Gale wondered if he was just overthinking things. He walked faster while scratching the back of his head, looking forward to his time with Leonard.
Thanks to the outstanding physical abilities they had at the Second Degree External Force Tier, the trio didn't take long to reach Leonard's residence.
"You've come." Leonard was wiping his sword, having just returned from the Forest of Wastes in time for them.
Holding back a broad smile, Hayden said, "You must have worked hard today, too! How many did you catch?"
"I caught a little over fifty hobgoblins. I think I earned around sixty low-grade mana stones."
"That's decent. If you keep working earnestly like that, you won't have a problem until you get to the External Force Tier. If you need living necessities, we three can purchase them for less, so don't buy them with your mana stones."
Leonard nodded in agreement, chuckling to himself.
I just taught you the basics, and you're already so into it. Well, it's great that you want to improve yourselves so much.
He interacted with them to use their appearance to his advantage, but he gained something out of it too. Bradley had said that he could only learn swordsmanship properly after reaching the Tenth Degree Body Refining Tier, but his spars with the trio were more than enough for him to understand it and roughly figure out the martial arts of this world.
In the murim, one started by learning a fixed form; then, as they kept practicing the techniques, they slowly departed from that fixed form; finally, they were able to reach a formless state.
Here, on the other hand, they learn techniques in a formless way from the beginning. It's similar to the Seventy-Two Wave Sword Art of the Qingcheng Sect.
The Seventy-Two Wave Sword Art was a sword art that freely combined the seventy-two basic sword techniques that could be used in various situations. It was a martial art of the highest level, one that even the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk was greatly impressed with. Its seventy-two techniques could be rearranged into a practically limitless number of combinations, bringing the user infinitely close to a formless state.
The problem is that it's too difficult to learn.
Indeed, the Seventy-Two Wave Sword Art was famous for its difficult martial principles, and even those with genius-level comprehension abilities found it hard to break past the wall of seven-star proficiency where one could teach the martial art, let alone reach ten-star proficiency where one could be said to have mastered the art.
The reason the Qingcheng First Sword of the time was only at the Apex Realm was that the sword art was too difficult for him to use properly in an actual battle. Yeon Mu-Hyuk faced it once and admired it, but he thought that he would never learn or use it.
"Ahemmm! Ahem!"
"Ah, I'm sorry," Leonard said.
While he was momentarily lost in thought, the trio was looking at him with their eyes wide open. They were too proud to bring it up, but they hoped that Leonard would hurry up.
Seeing their expressions, Leonard chuckled to himself, then unsheathed his sword.
I'm starting to understand the feelings of those oldies who had disciples who clung to them.
When his own martial arts were stagnant, it was fun to watch others' skills grow. The fourth-year trio stepped forward, each wanting to be first, and bickered about the order.
The winner was Hayden.
"Woohoo! I'm first!"
"Congratulations." Leonard congratulated him in a calm voice and pointed his sword at him.
Hayden went stiff as the excited atmosphere subsided.
Any swordsman could see the skill gap between them. Hayden could almost envision his opponent's sword cutting his throat. Even so, this mental image did not cause his spirit to die down.
"Ha... haha, yes, this is what I'm talking about!"
He raised his sword while suppressing his mana with all his might. The difference between the External Force Tier and the Body Refining Tier was huge. He had to ensure that they were competing only with their swordsmanship.
"I'm coming."
"Whenever you're ready."
Unlike Hayden, whose concentration was as sharp as a blade, Leonard seemed as if he wasn't even paying attention, whether it was from his gaze or his posture. Even so, to Hayden, it felt as if he would be cut or sliced in half no matter how he attacked.
No matter how many times he looked, Leonard's posture seemed to be full of openings, but a cold sweat trickled down Hayden's spine.
If he kept delaying and did not charge at Leonard, it would be game over the moment his concentration weakened. Thus, Hayden decided quickly. If he did not know which opening was real, he would disregard the openings and fight head-on.
Raising his sword, Hayden charged forward fiercely.