The Last King Of Darkness
Chapter 217 - 159 Goddess Needs Me

Chapter 217: Chapter 159 Goddess Needs Me

In the following three days, Rod almost unleashed primordial power to complete the accumulated training and learning tasks.

He slept for only one and a half clock hours each day, the Dream Rocking Chair demonstrated its impressive recovery capabilities; the more exhausted he was, the faster he would recover in its slumber.

One and a half clock hours was determined to be the optimal time through calculations.

With the remaining fourteen and a half clock hours, Rod devoted himself to catching up on missed lessons, making up for missed training, and eating meals he had skipped.

Indeed, during these three days, Rod consumed double the amount of food.

Soron had specially arranged a diet to enhance physical conditioning based on his age and physique, including premium foods from Beast City and superior potions from the Byron Alchemy Pharmaceutical Workshop.

Although Rod didn’t benefit from the Spiritual Energy Potion enhancements, the physical conditioning potions were still effective.

Teresa invested a lot of her energy in him, not just in close-quarters training, but even adjusted her daily routine to match his.

She did not have the Dream Rocking Chair.

It can only be said that the woman with the title of Valkyrie really did have formidable willpower.

Although Teresa rarely spoke about her past, Rod had gathered some scattered information from others.

It was said that she had become a special student early on, her Soul Trait was Sanctification, which could transform Spiritual Energy into pure gold "Golden Spiritual Power," with extremely powerful effects. She spent only one year at the academy before heading to North City in the northwest, where she achieved numerous glorious victories and garnered respect from all combatants and non-combatants in the city.

Due to her strong melee capabilities, often clad in golden armor and moving swiftly on the battlefield, they respectfully referred to her as the "Golden Shining Valkyrie."

During the initial establishment of the Hidden Branch, she was the first on the selection list.

She was a pure physical combat school, possessing formidable combat skills.

Under her guidance, Rod finally began to fill the vast void in his combat training and set foot into the hall of combat.

At least some of the basic movements looked proper now.

During training, Teresa was surprised to find that this fledgling junior with astonishing talent seemed to have strengthened his Spiritual Energy quite a bit.

"Is it my illusion?"

Teresa asked curiously while instructing Rod in power generation and receiving techniques: "You seem much stronger than you were three days ago."

Rod, who had been pinned down by her in a rather undignified position due to moving too slowly in a dodging exercise, gasped for air and said, "Is that so strange? Isn’t the creation of the Hidden Branch meant to provide us with an environment best suited for growth? Don’t you all grow rapidly?"

"Hmm... it’s fairly decent, I suppose. Actually, most of us have already been on the frontline, and training is just to consolidate our foundation. It’s the real fights that liberate our souls. The moment inspiration strikes, our souls grow. The Hidden Branch provides us a more effective team environment."

"That’s right, the same goes for me."

Teresa looked at him, somewhat puzzled: "But your foundation is too poor, not much different from a completely untrained freshman... I’ve seen your file, but it’s hard to imagine you charging on the battlefield. Actually, I think you should give up on advancing for now and lay a solid foundation first, as that would actually speed up your growth later."

Perhaps her words made some sense, but for Rod, giving up was absolutely impossible.

He immediately retorted, "That’s a bias. I have my own way of growing, you cannot generalize. And remember, a promise once made cannot be retracted."

"But Rod, do you know? Many of us started our basic training at a very young age. Only after becoming a Fire Holder could we accumulate depth for a sudden leap forward. Some of your movement techniques and force application skills really are not even comparable to what my five-year-old sister can do."

Rod exerted his Spiritual Energy and gave her a push, intending to convince her through action.

But there was no movement at all.

"Um, didn’t you feel that my strength has increased significantly?"

"A little, but your power is too weak, my feeling is a bit fuzzy."

Rod said with a hint of embarrassment, "My Spiritual Energy should be close to three thousand clock hours now, isn’t that the Spiritual Power Strength of a standard Combatant?"

Teresa got up from him, reached out to pull him up, and said with a smile, "Little Rod, we are different, we are among the very best of the elite students, the future stars that Royal City places great expectations on, part of the strong ones who will lead the people of Trolian in resisting the darkness."

"Aside from you, the lowest Spiritual Power Strength among us is forty thousand clock hours, and if we officially graduate, most are Seventh Level or higher Combatants, who will become the Captain of a combat cluster for an army corps, or a White Spirit Knight of an elite Knight Order, or the Defense Chief for a certain district."

"And the standard for most students at Jinworth Academy upon graduation is just Ninth Level Combatants, special students and a few outstanding ones will become Seventh Level Combatants, and it’s the same for the majority of the members of the covert branches."

"So, little Rod, you still have a long way to go."

Teresa’s words gave Rod a clear understanding of his current strength level.

Without using any extra methods, he was just an ordinary Combatant.

There was still a significant gap between him and these future pillars of humanity.

This also made him more aware of the extent to which he was valued.

Without any foundation, having been enrolled for just a few months, and with very weak Spiritual Energy, he had continuously broken through thresholds and squeezed into the innermost circle of the top.

It was probably because of his identity as a complete Spiritual Visionary and his astonishing past combat achievements.

If he could go out on missions with them, there would probably be many opportunities.

Maybe it wouldn’t take too long.

Rod thought.

Over these three days, aside from catching up and filling the gaps, Rod also had to complete new courses and training.

Since Chucher from Apple Town and Soul Master Priscilla had both returned to their stations, the courses were taught by two new teachers.

They were the Advanced Knight Gale and Rose Lily from the North City, the Guardian of New Cilia.

Although Rod was very keen to learn, these two teachers were somewhat eccentric.

The Advanced Knight Gale was a bald muscleman who always carried a long Giant Sword on his back, and the content of his lectures was very simple: how to cut up monsters.

But to Rod, it sounded as if he was teaching them how to chop carrots, tomatoes, potatoes.

His most commonly used phrase was, "As long as you kill the monster, it will die."

And the content of the lecture was mostly:

"Diagonally slice from the tail end, level the blade, roll forward a step then cut again, to get evenly sized chunks, and the monsters killed this way will produce higher-value Monster Ash."

"First, cut off the head, find the indentation, then make another cut along the deepest line, and the juice won’t spill out."

Somehow it sounded like they were talking about slicing vegetables.

As for Guardian Lily, words failed to describe her.

Throughout the lesson, she had been discussing how to control the heat.

All that talk about high heat, low heat, slow heat, warm heat, and the right amount of heat, it sounded as if the chefs from New West were teaching them how to cook monsters.

Perhaps it was too advanced, and I simply couldn’t understand it yet.

Rod thought silently, only able to jot these instructions down in his notes to comprehend later.

But all in all, the outcome was somewhat beneficial; at the very least, he gained a deeper understanding of the situation surrounding the human populace of Trolian by reading between the lines.

And, of course, the most beneficial aspect was the basic training.

For some unknown reason, the three days of training had brought Rod significant progress, the techniques that he could never quite get right

suddenly clicked, as though inspired by a stroke of genius.

The most notable improvement was his use of Spiritual Energy, Rod had now nearly met the standard Soron had set.

—As natural as breathing, at any moment, to instinctively enhance strength or deploy defenses as if it was a reflex of the muscles.

This greatly enhanced his survival abilities, to the point where Rod even felt that he could pin down demons from the Abyss and beat them without needing a summoning.

Beyond that, there was the study of language.

Knowing that his time was limited, Professor Bins especially made time to arrange classes for him and organize the learning materials, just so he could grasp more grammar and vocabulary faster and understand the flow of language.

It had to be said, this proved extremely effective; Rod’s research into dreams had accelerated significantly over these few days, not only had he thoroughly grasped the principle behind invasions, but he also learned much deeper Star knowledge.

For instance, he could now determine the strength of a star based on its ashes.

Stronger stars could provide him with more Spiritual Energy, while weaker ones would offer very little, and then there was a type of star whose Star Energy provided more Soul Strength.

If he could ignite these stars, his Soul Strength would leap forward.

All in all, the gains of the past three days were enormous, giving Rod a profound understanding of the importance of digestion after battle.

Moreover, due to the previous exchange of gifts, he had become slightly more familiar with these future stars.

At least to the extent of greeting each other when they met.

Rod had particularly noticed that there was a group of very pretty girls in the "Top Class."

He had seen them among the special students before, a very unusual group.

According to his previous understanding, groups of beautiful girls usually wouldn’t stick together, as a bouquet full of flowers tends to lack hierarchy—it requires the backing of green leaves for the beauty of the flowers to truly stand out.

For beauties to form a group was in itself strange.

Later Rod discovered that one of the blue-haired beauties in this group was the Jessica Sister Teresa had mentioned.

So this group was the "Jessica and her sisters waiting for him to save" that Teresa had spoken about?

But upon closer contact, he understood that this group of beauties possessed the highest average Spiritual Power Strength within the collective, all surpassing a hundred clock hours—over thirty times Rod’s own strength.

Was Teresa joking with me?

How am I supposed to save such strong girls, with an egg?

And here I was actually a bit expectant.

Rod felt very much like gnashing his teeth.

Forget it, I should just go and save my little Ado.

On the last day, Rod completed the training tasks left by Instructor Soron beyond the required quota.

As the instructor’s assistant, Teresa kept her promise and approved a three-day leave for him.

Vera, one of the chief directors of the secret base, specifically approached her for this matter.

"Why approve leave again?"

"I promised."

"Rod’s special training was personally ordered by the King, how can he be resting so frequently?"

"But I promised."

"Indeed, he completed the plan, but this further proves that he still has potential to tap into, and we can devise a more intense plan."

"But I promised."

Vera looked at her speechlessly, and after a long silence, he sighed and said, "Alright, have it your way, our Valkyrie Highness."

Though he said that, he still contacted Soron, who was currently on the front lines.

To his surprise, Soron gave the same answer.

"Listen to Teresa."

Vera couldn’t help asking, "Why?"

"He’s my deputy and my proudest student; I trust her, and if you trust me, you should trust her as well."

"Alright." Vera let out a long sigh, "Mr. War God of Kosai, I hope you return soon."

"I’ll be back soon."

In the special Spiritual Energy communication, the meaningful voice of Senior Knight Soron came through.

"But Goddess Olivia still needs me very much right now."

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