Chapter 50: Guidance
Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Guidance
Night fell once again.
After finishing his work, Duane sat down at his desk.
A wide sheet of paper lay neatly before him, part of a stock he had brought from Lakefront Castle, along with a quill and Ink.
He recalled the appearance of Vigorous Grass in his mind, then picked up the quill and began to draw on the paper.
Neither the original owner of this body nor the Duane from before he transmigrated had ever touched painting, so one could imagine his current skill level.
Vigorous Grass had serrated edges on its leaves and veins across their surface. The image in his mind was perfectly clear, but his hand was terribly stiff, and the lines he put on paper were twisted beyond recognition.
Straight lines became curves, and curves became wavy lines...
After several tens of minutes of diligent drawing, some unknown grass appeared on the paper, looking vastly different from the Vigorous Grass in his memory.
Duane looked at his creation, feeling a bit helpless.
"Expecting me to draw it is really asking too much. At this skill level, I’d be better off just having people find and collect plants from the mountains for me to identify."
Hm?
He was mocking himself, but the words that appeared before his eyes left him both astonished and pleasantly surprised.
[You have successfully drawn a blade of grass. Basic Painting Skill Level +3]
There were many Skills in the world—for example, was cleaning a room considered a skill?—but not every skill would be recorded by the attribute panel.
In Duane’s opinion, only abilities related to the Extraordinary were likely to be included.
For example, Basic Cooking would grant Extraordinary Recipes upon reaching Perfection Level.
Basic Swordsmanship, Shield Skill, and Archery were all related to the combat of an Extraordinary.
Basic Planting was likely related to Magic Plants.
He didn’t understand what Basic Fishing or the newly activated Basic Painting had to do with the Extraordinary.
Since he couldn’t figure it out, Duane decided not to dwell on it.
In any case, a new Skill not only improved his abilities in a certain area but also provided attribute points, which was a good thing.
’After finishing Sword practice at night, I used to just want to rest. Now I have something to do before bed.’
He laid out a new sheet of paper, preparing to draw a few more.
’Looks like grinding my Painting Skill Level is going to use up a lot of paper. I need to be more frugal.’
He had originally planned to use one sheet per drawing, but now he divided the paper into four sections, allowing him to squeeze in four drawings.
Painting was a meticulous task.
After a few tries, Duane discovered that if he tried to be lazy and draw a simple stick-figure bird, he would gain almost no Skill Level.
Only slightly more complex drawings were effective, which closed off any shortcuts for him.
With no other choice, he had to honestly try his best to draw the Vigorous Grass.
"My lord, we’ve already gone through several candles. You should rest," Owington couldn’t help but remind him, seeing that the candle had burned down to its end.
Duane rubbed his tired eyes. The flickering candlelight was rather strenuous.
"Alright, that’s enough for today."
Duane glanced at his attribute panel. His Basic Painting Skill Level was now (Initial 62/100).
He had been busy for most of the night and had only gained 54 points in his Skill Level.
However, after drawing so much, the image on the paper finally started to resemble Vigorous Grass.
"Tomorrow, give this drawing to Ronald. Have him search according to this standard. If he finds anything similar, he should collect a sample and bring it to me for identification."
Owington quickly took the drawing.
He had been wondering why the Baron had suddenly started practicing drawing tonight. It turned out he needed the castle doctor to go and collect something.
He couldn’t help but feel emotional. Although his lord hadn’t practiced with his Sword or Bow and Arrow today, he had been busy with other matters and had hardly rested at all.
Duane yawned, took off his clothes, and quickly drifted off to sleep.
When he woke the next day, only two days remained until the duel.
Duane’s daily routine continued as usual.
Fishing, making archery targets, and brewing soup.
Finally, on that day, his Basic Manufacturing reached the Skilled Level, strengthening his hands-on abilities in Manufacturing to a certain degree.
The next day, his Basic Fishing also reached the Skilled Level in the morning. This Skill Level breakthrough increased his ability to sense schools of fish, and the phenomenon of waiting half a day without a bite was noticeably reduced.
With these two Skills breaking through to Skilled Level one after another, plus Basic Painting successfully reaching Entry Level, Duane suddenly had 0.5 attribute points.
After using the attribute points, his Strength Attribute reached 9.7.
He could already clearly feel the Fighting Qi Seed in his heart was in a state of germination. That wisp of Fighting Qi belonging to a Middle Level Warrior was about to be born within his body.
If he wasn’t mistaken, reaching a Strength of 10.0 should be the standard for him to break through to Middle Level Warrior.
He just didn’t know what his Spirit Attribute needed to be raised to for this breakthrough.
After raising the Skill Level of these two Skills to Skilled, Duane had originally thought about improving his Basic Shield Skill.
After all, he might be able to use it in the upcoming duel.
However, considering that Kaelon and Raymond were also actively preparing for battle these past two days, he decided not to disturb them.
Since he had nothing better to do, he simply went to the Archery training grounds and began instructing the Archer squad on how to practice their shooting.
Duane had brought ten bows from Lakefront Manor. Aside from the one he used himself, nine remained.
He had the three Captains—Michele, Evans, and Willie—each select three people from their teams to be trained together.
These nine people formed the Archer squad. When carrying out missions, they would return to their respective original teams.
With his Basic Archery already at Skilled Level, Duane gave the Archers a real demonstration of what it meant to have 100% accuracy on both fixed and moving targets.
Putting aside combat effectiveness, his level of Archery alone drew gasps of amazement from the Archers.
They had already heard that the Baron had been practicing Archery for less than ten days, yet his skill was already so high.
As for them, they had been practicing for several days straight and might still miss a stationary target.
They had to admit, the Baron was a genius in both Swordsmanship and Archery!
"When practicing Archery, the first thing to focus on is stability: a stable body, a stable bow, and a stable arrow!"
"Next is breathing and rhythm. Unsteady breathing will affect your body’s reactions and the accuracy of your Arrows!"
As the instruction continued, Duane discovered another function of the attribute panel: cultivating his subordinates.
This cultivation wasn’t about directly adding points to his subordinates, of course, but about doing it through other means.
For example, he could use the improved Fire Source Beast Bone Soup or the Delicious Fish Soup he would make in the future to benefit more Guards and help them strengthen their constitutions;
Or, like now, he could improve their combat capabilities by instructing them in Archery.
All of this allowed his subordinates to indirectly become beneficiaries of his attribute panel.
Black Forest Island was barren, the Brian Clan truly lacked resources, and they were short on manpower.
But none of that was daunting. Duane could become a true polymath through the special ability of his attribute panel, as long as he could acquire the relevant Skills.
As for why he was teaching and cultivating his subordinates?
The answer to that question was actually quite simple.
His territory, his wealth, and his dream of not being just an Island Master and venturing out into the world—all of these required enough people to assist him.
And these people would include ordinary folk, but more importantly, Extraordinary Professionals.
Whether it was a powerful commercial empire or a stable nation, they were always protected by absolute martial strength.