Chapter 136

Chapter 136

Designing new weapons turned out to be a lot harder than he had expected at first, with the curved sword being something of an outlier when it came to ideas. The main reason for this is the very nature of stat points, unlike back on Earth people have a lot more strength and this leads to the accessibility of different weapons.

As he unloaded all of the ore from the carts he found himself comparing the designs he thought up more with the games he played than any history lesson he learned. The simple truth being that adding a lot of steel to a weapon here wouldn’t make it unbalanced or too heavy to lift like it was back in his old world.

One of the first things to jump to his mind was the famous Japanese katana. The sword was iconic not only because of the amount of importance it held in japanese history but also because of their prevalence in animation and fiction led to it being the sword type for elite skilled swordsmen.

Here however the katana would only be good as a training weapon. A short single sided blade could be easily taken advantage of. Better choices would end up being bigger and unrealistic looking weapons that already were created here by trial and error. The only reason his curved swords were so successful was their added utility to be able to grab and bypass armor too strong to cut.

Three hours he spent on moving the ore and in that time he didn’t manage to think of anything else that could be a useful innovation. With the job done he left his father to do the forging and headed towards the guard compound to meet with his brother who should be finishing his morning patrol shift in a few minutes.

As he reached the main building he entered for the first time in a while. He had subconsciously avoided the place after having been brought here following his meeting with the vampire all those years ago.

The place looked both different and very much the same. The layout of all the furniture on the reception floor had changed from how it was when he first started coming here to train, the desks and chairs however were all still the same ones he remembered, maybe with a few more scratches and dents.

“How can I help you, sir?” The younger of the two receptionists greeted him as he was about to head towards the practice courtyard. “Civilians aren’t allowed past this point.”

“Ah” Ajax tried to think of the best way to explain so that he would get access without a whole lot of paperwork.

“Ajax, you here to see your brother?” the other receptionist looked up. He was one of the members of the command staff during the skirmish and quickly recognised Ajax.

“Yeah, I’m leaving for the capital this week” Ajax admitted cheerfully “I got my training started in this courtyard after I turned ten years old, thought I’d practice with my brother one more time before who knows when I’ll get the chance.”

“Head on through” the man gave him an approving nod.

As he entered the courtyard Ajax came across a nostalgic scene. It was the end of the combat tournament the new recruits were put through. Finding his brother among the people waiting for the training to be over on the side was easy. Despite wearing the same armor or having a unique physique Fluffy sood out like a sore thumb.

The one who nodded had known Ajax already but the other two were unfamiliar with him, now that they were back in the city Commander Grievous’s men started mixing with others for training and patrol. The other two didn’t seem to be against it but they looked skeptically at Ajax.

“Think you can take all five of us?” Tom asked, though he knew fully well Ajax could handle all of them without much difficulty now just from how high his stats must be.

“Think it’ll be best if we have a two on four and I don’t use any magic.” Ajax offered.

Even only counting his physical stats Ajax had gotten to the point of reaching a level thirty-five pure warrior. With his magical stats added on he was closer to a level sixty adventurer.

As Tom would remain with Fluffy, only the guard who knew him was comfortable pairing up with Ajax for the two on four. Grabbing a blunted sword and a shield Ajax took his stance and locked his eyes on Fluffy.

From what he saw earlier he knew Fluffy was actually the one his teammate would have the biggest problems with. Without his magic Tom and the other two could most likely stall him if not beat him and Fluffy would only join once the side battle finished to put the final nail in his coffin.

Since this was only practice and one he decided to go for more as a goodbye to his brother Ajax didn’t switch to [Berserker Style] as he would in a real fight with these odds. The quick dash towards the shadow cat was interrupted by Tom who clearly saw his plan.

The exchanges between Ajax and the three guards who surrounded him looked very different from the previous fight Tom had been a part of. Every swing of the blade or bash of the shield sent a person off their feet. The difference in stats forced them to deflect blows if they didn’t want to get crushed.

Despite their appropriate reaction to his power Ajax could see both of the other guards had their eyebrows joining their hairline at his display of power. The fight didn’t take all that long, Ajax had learned how to use his [Deception] skill to increase how believable his fakes looked. It was also something that Tom, being the most inexperienced of them, had no practice against. By the time Fluffy won the side fight Ajax had taken two of them out of the fight at the cost of his shield arm and was in the process of overwhelming the third.

“You’ve grown quite a lot from the runt who used to get his ass kicked in this very courtyard not too long ago.” a voice came from behind Ajax after spar ended.

Ajax was a little surprised, being in a training courtyard he wasn’t quite as careful about people approaching yet someone had gotten within striking distance of him and he hadn’t noticed.

All three of the guards, Tom and even Fluffy in her own way threw a salute towards the person now standing behind Ajax.

“Why don’t you and I have a round?” Commander Grievous suggested with a friendly yet slightly mischievous smile.