Chapter 7: Chapter 7 Teaching Skills is a Bit Dirty
Hearing Tihe concede, Lu Hong also breathed a sigh of relief. His own Fighting Spirit was already meager, and although his skills didn't consume much, he wasn't capable of executing several more. He managed to win against Tihe firstly by taking advantage of Tihe's underestimation, secondly by leveraging on Tihe's restrained strength, and most importantly because Tihe was completely unprepared for the lost warrior skills.
"How about that? Still not going to apologize to my young master?" The old man said gleefully beside him, "With your inferior skills you dared to ask my young master for guidance, today really is your lucky day."
"Old man, don't say that. Teacher Tihe does have real skills. If it weren't for those moves which Teacher Tihe had never encountered before, he wouldn't have been caught so off guard," Lu Hong extended an olive branch amicably. It wasn't his intention to make enemies at the academy, helping them realize the strength of a warrior was enough. After all, he was just a level-one warrior; even being audacious could be crushed by true power.
"Just who are you a disciple of? How are you so formidable? Are those moves all lost warrior skills?" Tihe accepted Lu Hong's olive branch, and his face returned to normal. Unaffected by the old man's mocking, he stared intently at Lu Hong.
"I'm not sure, why don't you investigate?" Lu Hong replied with a faint smile, then turned towards the dazed Nono and said, "Come on, let's find a quiet place. I'll teach you a few unique skills to ensure you defeat Gunnar."
"Ah?" Nono was just coming back to his senses.
Tihe also nodded and said, "He's qualified to teach you, and I also want to see how you defeat Gunnar in three days."
With Tihe's approval, Nono was still somewhat slow to catch on and hazily followed Lu Hong to the practice room. The other knight students training around them were stunned like statues, their respected Teacher Tihe, whom they saw as powerful, had lost to a level-one warrior, and one proficient in cross-level skills at that!
Fidel, who had been silent the entire time, witnessed Lu Hong's heroic acts and his gaze towards Lu Hong softened, seemingly taking a liking to him.
"Just who is his master?" Tihe moved close to the old man and asked.
"You see? My young master is impressive, right?" The old man snorted proudly, not even deigning to look directly at Tihe.
"Your young master? You're all of the royal family; could your young master be the son of Emperor Konstantin?" After thinking it over, Tihe could only come up with this explanation, but even a hidden prince should not be calling the old man 'young master'! A feasible explanation did not make sense.
"Anyway, it's none of your business. He is my young master. Listen, as an order from the Military Department, whenever you see my young master in danger, no matter how perilous, you must preserve his life!" The old man said sternly, producing a red military badge.
Tihe straightened up slightly and replied, "Understood."
Meanwhile, Nono and Lu Hong reached an empty practice room. Nono still couldn't believe it and looked at Lu Hong, "How can you master fighting skills across levels? How can a just-promoted warrior like you be so powerful?"
"Quiet! I'm thinking about how to defeat Gunnar." Lu Hong blocked Nono's mouth and frowned in thought. The reason he was so assured about helping Nono defeat Gunnar was valid. He was familiar with knight skills and knew that the skills here were no different from those in Skyrim. That brought a question: what else was Lu Hong familiar with aside from warrior skills? Naturally, knight skills. Whenever the knight profession came up, Lu Hong always remembered a thoughtless couple. The husband was a sentencing knight, and the wife was a Holy Light Priest. They had given up the Holy Light faith for all sorts of treachery. The first time they encountered Lu Hong was when they tried to rob him, and after half a day of struggle with no clear winner, Lu Hong joined them. Since then, a notorious trio of robbers emerged in the game, virtually untouchable. Nonetheless, Lu Hong was always wary of this dodgy couple's sneak attacks to avoid being betrayed.
Used to fighting with this dodgy couple, Lu Hong naturally became extremely familiar with the knight skills. In his free time, they would even discuss how to improve skills, though skills in the game indeed could not be changed. However, it was because of these discussions that Lu Hong, who otherwise wouldn't be able to, could directly use some common knight skills infused with even a bit of Holy Light power. For this upcoming battle, he thought of the knight's level-ten skill Bastion Strike!
"The Glorious Battle Armor indeed has extraordinary defense, but it also has weaknesses," Lu Hong pondered and finally said.
"Weakness? What weakness?" Nono looked bewildered, hearing for the first time about a weakness in the Glorious Battle Armor.
"You should have learned Blessing of Strength, right?" Lu Hong asked, worried Nono might not have learned it.
Seeing Nono nod, he relaxed and said, "Then it's easy to handle. Gunnar will surely show off his strength right from the start by using the Glorious Battle Armor. When that happens, just channel half of your Holy Light power into this Blessing of Strength, and I guarantee he'll fall in one strike!"
"How is that possible!" Nono shook his head, "Even a strengthened Blessing of Strength can at most double my strength, which still can't break through Gunnar's Glorious Battle Armor!"
"Don't worry, I'll teach you Bastion Strike, and I guarantee you can knock down Gunnar in one move."
"Bastion Strike? A level 10 Knight Skill? How could I possibly master that?" Nono was clearly stuck in her conventional thinking, and besides, Bastion Strike was indeed hard to learn.
"What are you afraid of, I'm here!" Lu Hong patted his chest and said, "I've got you into such trouble, I definitely need to help you sort it out, otherwise how could I face you?"
"Why do you need to face me?" Nono gave Lu Hong a glance, "Actually, I've been annoyed with Gunnar for a while now, just hadn't found an excuse to bash him. Although I found one this time, unfortunately, I miscalculated and didn't expect him to have advanced to the next level."
"Mastering Bastion Strike in three days is quite urgent, let's not delay any further and start learning right away!"
"Are you fooling me? Do you really know Bastion Strike? Are you a warrior or a knight?"
"I am a warrior, you don't need to doubt that."
Afterward, Nono's continuous screams could be heard coming from the training room. Students passing by outside would conjure up inappropriate images upon hearing such screams. Ted was also drawn over. He wanted to push open the door and check multiple times but restrained himself. After all, the guy was just a level 1 warrior, no matter how strong, he couldn't do anything indecent to Nono, could he? Wait, what if Nono doesn't resist? Fuck!
Ted violently kicked open the door of the training room, only to see Nono gasping heavily and repeatedly practicing the initiate motion of the Skill, while Lu Hong was poking around Nono's body with a thick stick.
"Damn it! How dare you molest the princess!" Ted got upset, this was clearly training his empire's princess. If word of this got out, it could spell big trouble for him!
"Princess? What princess?" Lu Hong poked Nono again, and the pained Nono howled again.
"I'll kill you, bastard!" Ted immediately pulled out a giant sword ready to execute this perverted guy on the spot. Nono hurriedly explained, "Teacher, don't do it, Lu is teaching me Bastion Strike."
"I see him molesting you! Didn't you see that thick stick he's holding?" Ted didn't believe it. It was already unimaginable that Lu Hong could use a warrior skill meant for a higher level, let alone a knight skill, what kind of nonsense is this? Are we throwing away all decency nowadays?
"Teacher!" Nono got upset too, at first even she didn't believe it, but Lu Hong's teaching methods were indeed effective. Although the stick was a bit thick, each poke was right on the critical nodes of Holy Light. This painful method was used because time was tight, Nono believed if there was more time, Lu Hong would be gentler.
"You old fool, I never touched Nono inappropriately, get the hell away and don't waste our practice time." Lu Hong instantly disliked Ted's sudden intrusion.
"Asshole!" Ted's Holy Light power surged, "I'll chop you today!"
"Teacher, he really is teaching me Bastion Strike, look!" Seeing words weren't getting through, Nono hurriedly demonstrated the clumsily initiated motion of Bastion Strike.
Seeing Nono barely able to perform one-tenth of Bastion Strike's initiate motion, Ted finally put down his giant sword and then said, "You little rascal can really do it? But Nono, you still need this guy to teach you Bastion Strike? Let me teach you instead!"
"Old man, can you guarantee to teach within three days?" Lu Hong said disdainfully.
"How could that be possible? Mastering an advanced skill in three days? Do you think you're a Heavenly God?" Ted rolled his eyes and retorted.
"Then stop your nonsense, go as far away as you can, and don't occupy our precious time, okay?" Lu Hong once again shooed him.
"Fine! Fine! Fine! I want to see just how capable you are, young master. If Nono doesn't learn it in three days, I'll flay you and hang you at the gates of Kains Academy for three days and three nights!" Ted exploded with rage, very few had dared to defy him over the years, but Lu Hong had managed.
"Oh, how about this. If I manage to have Nono master Bastion Strike in three days, you strip naked and run three laps around the academy, how does that sound?" Lu Hong mockingly proposed.
"Hmph!" of course, Ted refused, "I won't bet, if Nono doesn't learn it in three days, I'll just hang you up. I am a level 9 Earth Knight."
"You're being a sore loser!" Lu Hong looked distressed, then his gaze towards Nono turned extremely unfriendly. Nono felt a chill down her spine, as a scene very similar to this morning occurred again, only the roles of the two parties had switched.