While waiting for work, Vik used his remaining money to process some weighted Materials at the blacksmith shop, and returned home to make a weighted vest, leg weights, arm sleeves, and other items that could be adjusted for weight.
Then, in the forest, he made barbells, dumbbells, a simple squat rack, and other training equipment out of stones, all of which would be needed for subsequent training.
With the Mayor's help, the milk delivery job was quickly secured.
Vik and Rebecca's lives began to stabilize.
They would wake up early to report to the milk factory, receive their milk and delivery addresses, and then start running their deliveries.
If delivering the milk didn't achieve their training goals, they would add weights to their work afterwards.
After delivering the milk, they would go home to eat, and then the morning would be dedicated to strength and speed training, returning home for lunch around noon.
The morning hours were primarily for physical, strength, and speed training.
After eating, they wouldn't nap. Instead, they would go to the quiet forest, sit in the shade, and meditate for two hours, gaining Satori.
The afternoon was for basic Dao of the Sword practice, with Rebecca learning under Vik's guidance.
Because there were only a few basic Moves in the Dao of the Sword, Vik required Rebecca to practice them repeatedly, performing them thousands of times daily.
Vik believed that just as reading ten thousand scrolls makes one write like a god, practicing the sword was the same; thousands of sword swings would surely lead to a deep understanding of its true meaning.
......
Half a month passed like this.
Rebecca's Dao of the Sword talent was quite good; her basic Dao of the Sword Moves were already standard, and the next step was to deepen her practice.
Vik's speed was even faster; on the very first day, he perfected all the movements. This body gave him a great surprise.
When practicing sword Moves, his body would constantly correct those movements.
The same was true for training and running; every day he ran further and lifted heavier than the day before.
His strength, speed, endurance, and recovery ability grew daily.
During meditation, his Satori of the Dao of the Sword and Martial Dao also deepened.
This body seemed to have a proficiency System; effort would not be wasted. As long as he worked hard, he would make progress.
"So this is the true Golden Finger!"
Upon realizing his body possessed this talent, Vik knew that his path of cultivation had already reached the heavens; he only needed to persist in his progress, slowly ascending.
Vik seemed to see a straight path leading upwards, with several branching paths.
However, these branching paths had some closed doors, which required keys to enter.
And what Vik had to do was find these keys to gradually reach the pinnacle of each path.
"Putting aside the development of Devil Fruit, which requires creativity and physical conditioning, I haven't encountered any yet, so it's hard to say."
"However, there are still many strong individuals in this world who don't rely on Devil Fruit."
"Other Systems besides Devil Fruit are all linked to the body and can be strengthened through cultivation."
"In the future, when I have nothing to do, I can also go punch mountains and cut steel."
Thus, Vik's cultivation became even more diligent.
Because no effort was wasted, the time spent on each aspect of cultivation was shortened.
His daily schedule was also divided more meticulously, leaving him with much more time to practice the blade techniques and martial arts of his previous life.
Extensive training made it difficult for ordinary food to meet his body's demands.
This required a large amount of meat to supplement.
Therefore, the wages from delivering milk could no longer support his food expenses.
So Vik again used the time after breakfast to go to the docks to help load and unload cargo from fishing boats.
This way, he could save some time for physical training and also earn some extra money.
Vik thought he could catch some small animals in the forest to solve their food problem.
However, both of them were too young now, and their cultivation time was too short; they couldn't catch those small animals at all.
Not only were they not fast enough, but the animals would run away before they even got close.
Larger animals wouldn't run, but they were also carnivores; going after them would be like offering themselves as food.
Even the professional hunters in the town dared not provoke them; bullets couldn't even pierce their hides.
Finally, Vik thought of using his talent to accomplish this.
He found the blacksmith shop and had the old blacksmith forge a batch of throwing knives according to his drawings, then practiced throwing knives like crazy.
Two months later, they rarely went home for lunch.
Vik's throwing knife skills were already formidable; he could hit whatever he aimed at.
Now, the food they ate were all prey shot by throwing knives.
Vik would occasionally go to the sea to catch a large fish to improve their meals.
Now, they sparred several times a day, engaging in physical combat and the clash between sword and blade.
Basically, Rebecca would attack, and then once her Moves were sufficiently practiced, Vik would defeat her with a single Move!
There was no other way; Vik's body's talent was just that unreasonable.
Each time, Rebecca would mutter 'freak'.
Under Vik's devilish training and absolute dominance, Rebecca's improvement was also visibly significant.
Several ordinary lions and tigers had already fallen to her sword, and the meat and fur of these animals were sold in town.
Now, the meat they ate at home came from large ferocious beasts killed by Vik!
After eating meat one time, Vik discovered that animal meat contained a substance that could enhance a person's Physique, strength, recovery speed, and more!
Vik found that the higher an animal was on the food chain, the more of this special substance it could provide.
Only then did Vik understand that there was a reason why people in the Pirate World had abnormal Physiques and strong recovery abilities.
There was an existence here, similar to Spiritual Qi in a Xianxia world.
Vik called it "Primal Spirit."
Knowing this, Vik was no longer afraid of getting injured and specifically challenged higher-tier ferocious beasts.
Fighting wild beasts could improve his combat ability, and killing them for meat could also enhance his Physique; it was truly killing two birds with one stone.
After selling a good amount of beast meat, Vik and Rebecca stopped delivering milk.
Their running was mostly done on the outskirts of the forest, carrying weights and running around various obstacles.
They could also practice their emergency reactions at high speeds, which was especially helpful for actual combat.
Vik's work as a porter didn't stop, mainly to gather information brought back by fishing boats from outside.
......
Eight months passed like this.
In the forest, Vik, who had grown taller, stood to one side, watching Rebecca entangled in a fight with an animal nearly two meters tall, resembling a hippopotamus.
Although it looked like a hippopotamus, its speed was not slow at all, and it charged wildly with bloodshot eyes.
This animal was called a Giant River Beast, named by the town hunters.
This fellow was difficult to wound with swords or blades, and bullets couldn't pierce its thick hide armor. The town's hunters had never caught such prey, and it was considered a mid-tier power in the forest.
However, now it couldn't even touch Rebecca's clothes. Rebecca dodged left and right like an antelope, her blade striking the Giant River Beast's body with 'clang clang' sounds.
"Rebecca, are you a blacksmith? You're forging iron here. Since you can't deal with it, why don't you look for its weak points to attack?" Vik shouted.
Rebecca didn't reply, she just kept changing positions to attack. A quarter of an hour later, the Giant River Beast finally fell unwillingly, and Rebecca was also panting heavily.
"Rebecca, in the future, when you encounter an enemy of similar strength that you can't defeat immediately, you need to look for their flaws and weaknesses to attack."
"If you can't find a weakness, then disengage and leave the battlefield early!"
"But what if the enemy pursues me relentlessly and doesn't let me leave?"
"Then it depends on both your endurance. This is also why I told you to train your endurance well.
Sometimes, enemies won't be alone. Pirates won't talk about righteousness with you.
They'll use group attacks and attrition warfare, so an extra bit of endurance means an extra minute of life. Sometimes, life and death are decided by whose endurance lasts longer!"
Vik thought of Wang Lufei's great battle with Four Emperors Kaido; if Wang Lufei hadn't kept getting back up, Kaido would definitely not have lost.
From beginning to end, Kaido fought so many battles; he was truly tough, durable, and long-lasting!
So Vik thought that his own endurance must never be lower than Kaido's, which was something Vik constantly emphasized to Rebecca.
Rebecca's running mileage and weighted training kept increasing, and the time and weight for practicing with dumbbells, barbells, and the squat rack also kept increasing!
During actual combat, Vik fiercely honed Rebecca's will, almost driving her crazy.
"But what if my endurance isn't as strong as theirs?" Rebecca asked again.
"Then you must defeat your opponent before your endurance runs out."
"Either choose to Breakthrough your current Realm and defeat the opponent—some people have done this, quite a few, and some can even Awaken Haki."
"Or your speed must be faster than theirs, so you can shake off the enemy before your endurance is depleted.
This is also what we usually practice, so work harder, Rebecca-chan!" Vik said with a smile.
Rebecca pouted: "Everything you say makes sense!"
