Dawn of a New Era

Chapter 12: Rapid Growth

Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire
During the second morning, he discovered that his constitution and strength had both increased by 0.1 respectively. His strength attribute reached 10.6 and his constitution reached 10.5. Seeing the shocking speed of increment, Chen Shouyi felt increasingly confident in his heart.

Maybe, there was no need for too long and he really could pass the…Martial Apprentice Test.

In the morning, he practiced his sword techniques as usual.

After having lunch, once noon passed, he swiftly rode his bicycle and headed toward the youth martial training center.

He initially thought he would be the first to reach there. However, on the resting benches outside, there were already quite a few students waiting there.

“Chen Shouyi, you also registered for this class?” Even before he walked near, Guo Qianqian whom he had met yesterday, already stood up and waved at him. Beside her, her boyfriend Lin Feng could be seen. Clearly, she accompanied him here.

“What a coincidence! I found this class’s information online. I heard that the tuition teacher is at a very high standard; hence, I came here on account of her reputation.” Now that he was facing Guo Qianqian, Chen Shouyi could already treat her normally. He smiled at her as he spoke.

Lin Feng felt somewhat taken aback and glanced at Chen Shouyi. This was a high-grade sword technique lesson and the fee was pretty expensive. Therefore, those who came here to register were all people with the hope of passing the Martial Apprentice Test. Considering all the facts, he felt that his judgment was slightly off, but he didn’t really mind it. After all, Chen Shouyi’s image wouldn’t cause much of a threat to him.

As time flowed by, more and more students arrived.

Including Chen Shouyi, there were a total of eleven people. Four females and seven males, and they all seemed to be senior high school students.

…

The tuition teacher gracefully walked into the classroom. She clapped her hands. “In the future, unless I especially inform you guys, the class will always start at 1 pm on Sunday. No one should be late.

“Those who come here for tuition, I believe all of you are preparing to pass the Martial Apprentice Test.

“Whether or not it is easy to pass the sword techniques aspect or to win against the combat robot during the test, it is in truth neither easy nor difficult. The key point is whether your sword techniques could be unleashed as per your will perfectly, as well as whether you are proficient in the basic steps.

“Many people have mistaken, feeling that with regards to the mastery of basic sword techniques, the more the better. This is not the case at all. In real combat, fights would usually conclude within a few moves. Other than sparring, there basically wouldn’t be many circumstances of both parties locked in a stalemate.

“Knowing a hundred stances is inferior to being extremely good in just one stance!

“Even if what you mastered is the simplest Bow Stance Pierce, if you could train that to perfection, you can also easily pass the test.

“Usually, for martial apprentices, if you have not reached the state where you can instinctively unleash your sword as you will, it’s best for you not to learn more than three moves. If not, you would be a jack of all trades yet master of none.”

Chen Shouyi felt as though he was awakened from a dream when he heard that. He instantly woke up from the joy of learning a new sword technique yesterday. The martial teacher in his school had also said similar words before, yet this beautiful tuition teacher’s words were more incisive and cut straight to the key point.

“For any standard sword stance, if one added some slight changes to them, they could become a set of terrifying sword art. In this first lesson, I will teach the Bow Stance Pierce. You guys have already learned this technique. Now, what I will be teaching is the upper pierce strike and lower pierce strike, as well as the usage of basic steps in combat.”

…

Without realizing it, it had already been a month since the start of school. After entering the senior year, the monthly exam was about to arrive.

It was said that after this test was finished, there would still be a parent-teacher conference. Sun Xin finally felt a sense of anxiousness. He could already faintly predict how dire his ending would be.

“How’re your preparations?”

“What do you mean how?” Chen Shouyi stopped doing the practice questions as he turned his head in puzzlement.

“For the test next Monday.” Sun Xin was extremely angry by Chen Shouyi’s calmness.

“What should be prepared has been prepared long ago. Next, I will just have to see whether the test is difficult or not,” answered Chen Shouyi.

During this month, he didn’t neglect his studies. He still had no idea whether his results would be better this time around, but the grade of the school subjects in his attributes panel had all increased by one point respectively. There were even some subjects where there was an increment of two points.

“Sigh, if I had known this earlier, I would also have worked harder in my studies,” Sun Xin sighed. For this month, he had been fully concentrating on playing, and he hadn’t even read his books.

“Your laziness is already at the late-cancerous stage, how do you want to cure it?” Behind them, Big Wang had a look of rejoicing in other people’s misfortune. “Why don’t you spend some money and hire a ‘parent’.”

Sun Xin’s eyes gleamed. But after that, he spoke in a pitiful voice, “I also wish I could do it but there was no way to do so. The teacher-in-charge has visited my house before. At that time, if I did it and was exposed, I would probably die.”

His father was from the army. If his father hit him, he would not pull his punches.

“There’s no solution then. Brother Shouyi’s mentality is so good. Why are you still so hardworking in studying? You should be able to pass the Martial Apprentice Test, right?” Big Wang was like his name, his figure was big and tall and his voice was innately loud. This caused many students to turn their heads over, as though they were very interested in the topic of whether Chen Shouyi could pass the Martial Apprentice Test or not.

Chen Shouyi inclined his head. Right now, upon facing the gazes of so many people, he already felt much calmer. He thought about it for a while before he spoke, “I’m still lacking as my physical fitness isn’t there yet. As to whether I would be able to pass the recruitment test by the martial academies today, that would have to depend on luck.”

During these tens of days, as he continued practicing the optimized Thirty-six Stances of Body Training, his body’s attributes were now all at 11 points except for ‘Agility’. But even so, his ‘Agility’ had reached 10.9.

To put it in observable numbers, he could now bench press 150 kg and there was still not a small distance between that and the standard for the Martial Apprentice Test whereby guys had to bench press 200 kg.

Naturally, if he calculated based on last month’s shocking improvement speed, he would be able to meet the standard in at most one to two months.

But as his body grew closer to the limit, he could clearly feel that his improvement rate was gradually slowing.

“That’s already very awesome. You can take the Martial Apprentice Test next year. If I were you, I would have quit school long ago.” Big Wang had a face filled with envy as he spoke. His physical fitness wasn’t bad, but he kept failing to enter the elementary grade for his sword techniques. His muscles were too stiff, so it was useless no matter how he practiced.

The recruitment of martial academies wasn’t confined to graduates of senior high school. As long as one was below 24 years old, they could enter specialized martial academies once they passed the Martial Apprentice Test to advance one step further in their studies of martial arts.

“Shao Dawei in the next class only attended school for a few days before deciding to take a break for a year. He wants to focus on the Martial Apprentice Test. I remember the strength of his body is roughly 160 kg, and his sword technique is far inferior to yours.” The black-skinned dude in the front row turned and chatted with them.

Actually, Chen Shouyi also felt somewhat helpless. He also didn’t expect his improvements to be so shocking, and he could see the hope of becoming a martial apprentice even before a month fully passed.

Right now, although he went to class and seriously studied every day, it was just a habit. After all, if he slacked, that would also simply be slacking off.

…

The bell signaling the end of school finally rang. Chen Shouyi took his bag from his desk and headed out of the classroom.

“Wait for me!” Sun Xin hurried and chased after Chen Shouyi.

“The recent ‘War of Gods’, have you watched it yet?”

“Nope.” During these few days, Chen Shouyi was as busy as a dog, how could he have time to watch the television?

“I heard it is an adaptation of the Other World’s Divine System. It is very nice to watch.” Sun Xin recommended. Upon seeing Chen Shouyi remain unmoved, he could only twitch his lips helplessly.

Ever since they entered the senior year, Chen Shouyi felt increasingly like he was breaking away from their small group.

In addition, their small group of three had become two. It was unknown why, but Zhao Yifeng no longer played with them. Sometimes, when Chen Shouyi intentionally went to look for Zhao Yifeng, he didn’t even bother with him and chose to leave alone,

Chen Shouyi could faintly understand Zhao Yifeng’s feelings. Because, he was the same type of person as Zhao Yifeng in the past, sensitive yet with low self-esteem. They were like snails, carefully surviving in a dark world. They were afraid to be injured, afraid of peculiar stares. Only those of the same kind could interact with them.

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And all of a sudden, Chen Shouyi had already leaped out of the swamp. To Zhao Yifeng, Chen Shouyi was no longer someone of the same ‘kind’.

At this moment, a fighter aircraft rumbled through the low airspace, flying into the distance in the blink of an eye.

Chen Shouyi inclined his head and stared at the fighter aircraft as his heart sank. Most probably, some other locations were in trouble. For the reported news this month, there had been over six occurrences of creatures from the Other World invading the Earth.

The most serious case was the invasion of five barbarians. They had cruelly massacred a few remote villages and slain over a thousand people, disregarding whether the victims were young or old, male or female. All the poor villagers had been beheaded, and their bodies were used to form a sacrificial altar as the barbarian used them as blood sacrifices.

The extremely bloody, eerie scene of that religious-looking ceremony was covered with mosaic. But even so, it caused Chen Shouyi to feel a chill in his bones and his hair to stand on their ends.