I can evolve everything

Chapter 75 New Weapons

In the days since his duel with Ella, Renn has found his longsword increasingly cumbersome during training.

It wasn't a problem with the sword itself; it was still sharp and a good weapon. But for Renn now, it was far too light. What should have been a two-handed wielding of the longsword, Renn could now easily swing with one hand.

Rein thought of what Ella had said earlier, and it seemed that he really needed to try a bigger sword.

So he went directly to Blackrock Tower, where Karen was.

Half an hour later, Raine stood in front of Karen's room. The door was open, and he could see the old knight sitting by the window, carefully wiping his greatsword.

"You're here?"

Karen didn't turn her head, as if she had eyes in the back of her head.

His hands didn't stop; he continued talking to Raine: "Your footsteps sound heavier than they did a few days ago. Looks like you've made some progress in your breathing techniques?"

"Yes, Sir Karen."

Ryan stepped into the room, closing the wooden door behind him. He walked to the table and said directly, "Sir Karen, I need to change my weapon."

"Oh?"

Karen finally stopped what she was doing.

He turned around, leaned the greatsword against the table, and then carefully examined Renn from head to toe, finally focusing on the longsword at his waist.

"Is it too light?"

"That's right," Ryan answered truthfully. "Right now, I feel like this sword doesn't have a solid feel when I swing it; it floats when I exert force."

"It will float when I exert force..."

Karen repeated those words and suddenly smiled.

"Most people who practice swordsmanship only know how to swing their wrists and arms. If you can feel the lightness, it means that your power point has shifted to your spine and core. This is a good thing."

"So what kind of weapon do you want to get?"

Without hesitation, Ryan told her what Ella had said earlier.

After hearing this, the old knight stood up and patted Renn on the shoulder: "Let's go, let's go take a look there."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Half an hour later, in the military supplies warehouse.

Raine gripped the two-handed greatsword Ella had mentioned, feeling the cold touch in his palm.

As Ella said, the sword is about 1.5 meters long with a broad and thick blade. The guard is a simple cross shape, and further down, at the end of the hilt, there is a heavy counterweight ball to balance the weight of the sword.

It looks like a typical two-handed greatsword.

Karen lifted it out with one hand, the movement quite effortless.

"Forty-six pounds."

Karen patted the spine of the sword. "The material is steel ingots from the North, mixed with a small amount of mithril powder. This sword was originally left behind by a berserker more than ten years ago. He died in a beast tide, but the sword didn't break, it just chipped a few times."

He looked at Ryan.

"Its only advantages are its weight and the simple, sturdy materials used, so it's unlikely to break. With your current physique, you can try using it now."

Raine stepped forward and reached out to grasp the hilt of the sword.

Raine took a deep breath and slightly circulated the "Black Rock Breathing Technique," pumping heat into his arms. He tried to exert force with one hand.

He slowly lifted the heavy greatsword and held it horizontally in the air.

It is indeed quite heavy.

Even now, when Renn holds his arm out straight, he can feel his forearm muscles trembling uncontrollably.

But this weight also made him feel the same sense of security he had when he first came to this world and held the longsword.

"A fine sword."

Raine raised both hands and drew the entire sword in a semi-circle in the air, making a whistling sound.

"Thank you, Sir Karen." Renn silently stroked the sword.

"Take it," Karen waved her hand. "Practice it more, get your body used to this sword."

In the following days, Ryan stopped showing up frequently at the training ground.

Because that weapon, called a two-handed greatsword, is indeed visually striking and extremely lethal. Even without relying on the sharpness of the blade, its weight and inertia alone can shatter an ordinary training shield.

If they continue to train on the drill ground every day, they might accidentally injure other soldiers who are training nearby.

He found a secluded corner.

Every morning and evening, Renn conducts basic training here.

He swings his sword. This is the only movement he's currently training.

He gripped the greatsword with both hands, his feet apart, and using the twisting of his spine and the power of his hips, he lifted the greatsword again and again, and then slashed it down again and again.

One thousand times. Two thousand times.

With each downward strike, one must exert great effort to control the trajectory of the sword, preventing inertia from causing the body to deviate.

While this kind of training may not improve swordsmanship, it is indeed the fastest way for Renn to become familiar with this new weapon.

In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed.

The deep winter of the North has finally arrived silently.

Strangely, when Renn stepped out of the stone house the next day, he didn't feel the extreme cold he had expected. He checked the temperature and found it was even slightly higher than the previous two days.

Renn looked up and saw that the snow was still falling heavily from the sky.

But the moment they touched the ground, walls, or even the roof of the fortress, they seemed to encounter a heat film and quickly melted into water stains.

The snow on the ground had disappeared sometime ago, and the entire ground was wet and steaming.

"Isn't that amazing?"

Valen's voice came from behind.

The deputy commander of the Griffin squadron was wearing a relatively light fur coat today and carrying a patrol lantern.

"I thought it was almost winter," Renn said, looking at the melting snow at his feet. "What's going on? Some kind of magic?"

Valen chuckled, as if he had already anticipated that Renn would be puzzled by this.

He walked over to Ryan and patiently explained to him.

"This is one of the miracles of the Northern Fortress."

Valen pointed to the center of the fortress, towards the black rock tower.

"Beneath our feet, several hundred meters underground, lies the heart of the Northern Fortress."

"Heart?" Ryan raised an eyebrow.

"That was hundreds of years ago, when the Northern Fortress was first built. The first king invited all the legendary mages, and even a few dwarf masters, to jointly forge a colossal magic circle—the [Eternal Furnace]."

At this point, Valen's tone involuntarily became somewhat proud.

"It's a massive magic circle whose principles no one has fully understood to this day. Every year, as the Northern Fortress approaches winter, the captain personally activates it. It draws energy from deep within the earth's ley lines, converts it into heat, and distributes it to every corner of the fortress."

Renn crouched down and reached out to touch the ground.

Sure enough, a warm sensation came from the ground.

"It's not just about providing heating," Warren continued, his gaze drifting towards the distant city walls.

"Do you know why the walls of the Northern Frontier have stood for hundreds of years? In the extreme cold of minus fifty degrees Celsius, stone would become brittle and steel would crack. Without this magic array to maintain the temperature, let alone a monster siege, natural disasters alone could cause this fortress to collapse."

"Furthermore, it is responsible for powering all the beacon towers. You can think of this magic circle as the foundation upon which everything in the Northern Fortress functions properly."

Renn stood up, slightly shocked.

This is the essence of magical civilization.

A colossal magic array that had been maintained for hundreds of years, covering the entire massive fortress. He had never heard of such a feat of engineering.

"What if..."

Ryan was instinctively a little worried:

"What if this magic circle breaks? Or is destroyed?"

"destroy?"

Valen waved his hand as if he had heard a joke:

"Don't worry about it. That thing is buried deep underground. Apart from the guild leader and a few top-ranking mages, no one knows where the entrance is. Even I've only heard of it; I've never seen it."

"Moreover, that's a legendary magic array. It's said that its core is a heart dug out from a dragon's body, and unless the entire fortress is blown up, it simply can't possibly break down naturally."

Warren patted Ryan on the shoulder and laughed, "Instead of worrying about that, you should worry about whether lunch will be stewed potatoes again."

Renn nodded and said nothing more.

But in his heart, that vigilance was not completely eliminated.

The enigmatic words Baron spoke to Ryan when they first met still lingered in his mind.

"By the way, Renn."

Valen seemed to remember something and was about to change the subject, "I heard you got a big new weapon? How's it? That two-handed greatsword..."

"when--!!!"

A sharp chime abruptly interrupted Valen's words.

Rennes and Valen both froze.

The sound was neither the morning bell nor the changing of the guard horn.

That was a warning bell hanging high on the city wall.

"when--!!!"