Poor Noble Nord’s Adventure

35.1. Skill Acquisition

Nord darted forward with explosive force.

Closing the gap in a single bound, he slashed.

The enemy retreated a step, widening the distance to evade.

The jade-like blade of Nord’s sword swept upward in a diagonal slash but met no resistance, missing through empty air.

However, it was a feint. The real attack was a bash from his shield.

Nord’s shield strike targeted the opponent’s torso, destabilizing from retreating.

Yet the enemy’s shield deflected it.

“Ch!”

Even so, the forceful impact of the shields clashing allowed Nord to knock his opponent’s shield upward with skilled precision.

The enemy’s guard opened.

Nord’s first strike—directed to the opponent’s shield side—was not weighted for a killing blow.

But now, grounding himself firmly, Nord reversed the motion of his jade blade, launching it back toward the opponent.

This slash, swift and precise, honed in on the enemy’s body like a magnet.

“──!?”

Thud—a light impact struck Nord’s body.

His vision swayed as his stance faltered. The sword veered off course, missing its target again. This time it wasn’t a feint; an opening emerged.

Nord quickly realized what had happened.

The enemy, leaping backward, had pressed against Nord’s leg, kicking it to disrupt him.

Using the recoil, the enemy retreated out of the sword’s range.

Simultaneously, the enemy used the momentum to counterattack upon landing.

Nord hastily raised his shield.

The enemy’s sword struck its surface—and slid.

The deadly blade shifted from a straight thrust to a curved motion, bypassing the shield’s perimeter to target Nord’s body.

──Clang!!

The blow, aimed for a vital spot, was barely intercepted by Nord at the last moment.

──Grind-grind-grind

Caught at the sword’s base, the clash escalated into a blade lock, the sound of steel scraping steel ringing out fiercely.

Nord strained with brute force to resist being overpowered, but the enemy’s immense strength pushed him toward defeat.

The enemy’s blade crept closer to Nord’s body, inch by inch.

(──This is bad!)

Realizing he would lose if this continued, Nord deliberately released the force in his sword.

Suddenly, with the balance shattered, Nord was pushed back—but immediately turned his body sideways to evade.

Using the momentum, he lunged forward to headbutt the enemy’s face.

But before the strike could land—

“──Guh!?”

A sharp impact hit his side.

A gasp of pain escaped from Nord’s mouth.

His stance broke, and he fell to the ground.

“──Tch!?”

As soon as he fell, Nord rolled sideways.

The moment he moved, the space his neck had occupied was stomped by an armored boot, crushing the ground.

The pursuit didn’t stop.

The enemy aimed a thrust to skewer the rolling Nord.

Seeing this, Nord pushed himself off the ground with his arms, leaping into the air in desperation.

The sunlit gleam of the blade’s tip grazed Nord’s skin as it narrowly missed.

Finally upright, Nord readjusted his stance, blood trickling down his cheek.

The enemy followed up with a kick, attempting to break Nord’s balance again.

Nord blocked it with his shield, sending the blood from his cheek scattering into the air from the impact.

Before the enemy could retract their leg, Nord pulled his shield away, disrupting their stance.

Seizing the opening, Nord closed the distance.

Slash, bash. Stomp, headbutt.

The tide turned, and Nord unleashed a relentless assault.

Then—

Nord’s blade neared the enemy’s neck.

A decisive strike to the vital point.

The enemy, off-balance, couldn’t defend.

Although they tried to reposition their blade, they were too late.

Finally, Nord’s blade—

“──That’s enough!”

──halted at the enemy’s neck.

With a swift motion, Nord withdrew his blade from the opponent’s neck and lowered it, relaxing his stance.

“Hm… A solid point,” the opponent muttered.

“Ah, thank you!”

The voice belonged to Nord’s opponent—his instructor.

While Nord, the victor, panted heavily, his defeated instructor wasn’t even out of breath.

Moreover, Nord was covered in dirt and blood, while the instructor remained pristine.

Despite their reversed roles as victor and loser, the instructor’s unscathed appearance was proof he had been holding back.

Even so—

“To think you could land a decisive blow on me, even with my restraint…”

Landing a point against the instructor, a seasoned dragoon, even with leniency, was a remarkable achievement.

Before the long break, Nord had only been able to stall out the match for a draw by running within the time limit.

This was the first time he’d ever landed a decisive blow during sparring.

“From the post-break test, I could see you didn’t slack off over the vacation… but you’ve improved considerably.”

“Yes, thank you!”

“Hm…”

After his summer break, Nord had returned to the Iron Dragoon Corps, resuming his grueling training regimen.

The intensity of the training had not only matched but exceeded its pre-break levels, and Nord struggled to keep up.

After the first day’s training, a senior dragoon explained the reason for this heightened rigor.

During the large-scale drills conducted over the break, the Eastern Knights, including soldiers from the instructor’s own family unit, had performed miserably.

After the drills, the instructor returned home to visit his family and was asked by his elder brother, who had inherited the household, to train the soldiers.

Witnessing their poor performance, the instructor resolved to ensure his student, Nord, would never follow the same path.

Nord didn’t mind if it made him stronger, but in truth, he had become collateral damage in this resolve.

Now, a month had passed since the resumption of training.

“Well, this should do, Nord.”

“Yes, sir?”

“I’ve decided to advance your training another step.”

“Thank you, sir!”

“So then…”

“Yes!”

The instructor paused, then resumed speaking after a beat.

“Is there any particular skill you want to learn?”

§

“Skills… you say? What kind of skills?”

“Currently, you’re undergoing training to become a dragon knight, but unlike common foot knights, a dragon knight requires many abilities.”

Hearing those words, Nord recalled what he had learned in lectures—that dragon knights, soaring through the skies, were assigned diverse missions—and nodded.

“However, what you’re doing now is merely combat training—the minimum techniques required of a knight. For a foot knight, that’s acceptable, but it won’t suffice for a dragon knight’s duties.”

The tasks of a dragon knight require special skills, the instructor continued.

“Your combat abilities have shown a certain level of growth. Hence, you’ll proceed to the training course for acquiring those specialized skills.”

The knightly order is a military organization centered on knights but includes various other units.

For example, there are scouts, medics, archers, mages, engineers, and many more specialized roles that support the knights at the core of their combat units.

In the order, commanders are primarily knights. The leaders of the various units are also knights, and they require sufficient knowledge and skills to direct their units. Thus, knights with only combat ability are called “foot knights,” while those with specialized skills are called “elite knights.”

The Iron Dragon Knights, by their nature, have very few soldiers. They mostly consist of dragon knights, with only stablehands who handle the feeding and cleaning of wyverns and medics in the garrison.

There are no other specialized units.

Even the stablehands and medics stay at the base and rarely accompany missions to the front.

The reason is simple: no one can match the mobility of a wyvern.

The greatest advantage of a dragon knight lies in transporting their immense combat power quickly through the skies.

However, if they brought along support units, they’d be forced to move at the pace of a wagon at best. Such an arrangement would be inefficient.

To solve this issue, most dragon knights possess the skills of elite knights. If they couldn’t bring support, they would handle the tasks themselves.

And so, the instructor’s words pointed to learning those elite knight skills.

“…These are the skills under consideration. What will you choose?”

“Let’s see. In that case, I will…”

The instructor listed several skill options after his explanation.

Listening to them, Nord chose the skill he wanted.

“I’d like to acquire the skills of a scout.”

“Ah, a scout. Not a bad choice.”

Scouts—troops trained in the skills of recon rangers—formed one of the most vital units in the knightly order.

While the order possessed formidable combat power, it was useless unless they could engage the enemy.

Without encountering the enemy, they’d merely consume supplies endlessly.

Furthermore, as the saying goes, “A battle is won before it even begins.” Preparation is key in war.

This includes not only training and equipping forces but also gathering enemy intelligence, amassing superior numbers, and fighting on favorable terrain.

Nord had been taught repeatedly through his studies about the losses suffered by those who neglected such preparations.

“Come to think of it, you were an adventurer, weren’t you?”

“Yes, instructor. That experience taught me the importance of tracking the enemy’s traces.”

Indeed, Nord’s experience as an adventurer ingrained in him the significance of preemptively gathering information.

He was well aware of the reckless adventures he had undertaken.

Forests, mountains, seas, snowy peaks—he had fought in countless terrains against various monsters. The fact that he survived those battles and remained unscathed was, in his view, thanks to his emphasis on information gathering and never neglecting preliminary research.

His recent experience—the ambush by a general-class spider in Alba Forest—was a bitter reminder.

If not for the fortuitous sound of a snapping branch, could Nord have evaded the ambush? Likely not; he had merely been lucky.

Nord believed luck was a part of skill but was also keenly aware of the folly of relying solely on it.

Had he possessed more advanced reconnaissance skills—akin to those of professional recon rangers—he could have deduced from subtle signs that two knight-class spiders were present in the forest and that one was unusually large.

That realization drove Nord to desire the scout’s training.

“Very well. Expect this training to be even harsher than the regular program! Don’t think for a moment you’re allowed to whine! Understood?”

“Yes, bring it on!!!”

Nord shouted his response with conviction.

At first, he had been intimidated and cowed by the instructor’s monstrous roar, akin to a large monster’s bellow. But the experience he had gained had greatly matured him.

The instructor grinned savagely at Nord’s reply and wasted no time putting him through grueling training.

§