For the next year, Ryan Carter diligently practiced basic swordsmanship with the girl during the day, continued to write novels to earn money at night to improve their living standards, while the girl was responsible for the martial hall's chores.
Looking at the girl's increasingly round face, Ryan began to feel that she resembled someone.
A year later, in the late autumn of October, Ryan's energy progress bar finally reached 100%, accumulating his first skill point.
He decisively added the skill point to Basic Swordsmanship.
"Basic Swordsmanship" on the panel leveled up to 2, reaching a state of mastery.
Instantly, a memory poured into his mind, and Ryan subconsciously performed a cleaving strike, his body instinctively making the most standard cleaving motion, as if he had practiced for five or six years.
He felt like he was cheating for the first time.
Ren Martial Hall quickly noticed his astonishing progress; after the Hall Master met Ryan, he decisively promoted him to elite disciple, and in this world, he finally had a backer.
Thus, Ryan began his fourth plan.
He first secretly investigated the coal industry of Flower Street and, upon discovering that the coal used for public heating was coal blocks, he had an idea; he bought some coal blocks and yellow mud and returned to his small house.
He tried mixing the two with water in different proportions to create cylindrical shapes with holes, then dried them and tried to ignite them. After more than twenty failures, he finally found the right method and made honeycomb briquettes.
Honeycomb briquettes are easier to burn than traditional coal blocks, and just based on this, they would not lack sales.
If Ryan could monopolize Yoshiwara's heating market with honeycomb briquettes this winter, he would be able to buy the best medicinal cuisine every day, no longer worry about skill points, and then just need to learn the Breathing Technique and simply add points; by then, demons would no longer be a threat.
The future was remarkably bright.
However, Ryan was not carried away by this good, because he knew very well that honeycomb briquettes could not monopolize the coal market; their technical barrier was not high, imitation was not difficult, and this was not even the worst part.
If the inventor's identity were exposed before imitations appeared, Ryan would likely be in mortal danger.
After all, with such a large new piece of cake appearing, those coal magnates would not just stand by.
So why create honeycomb briquettes then? Because he thought of a way to make money without personally getting involved.
Ryan found an opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of honeycomb briquettes in front of the Ren Martial Hall's members, which piqued the interest of the Hall Master, Henry Yanguang, who summoned him to his study.
Henry Yanguang was about forty years old, with a generous and magnanimous personality. After a detailed discussion, Ryan directly revealed himself as the inventor and expressed his willingness to offer the formula and the method for assembly-line production.
The Hall Master immediately saw through his intentions and also recognized the business opportunity within it.
If a large honeycomb briquette workshop could be built, with the martial hall's connections, there would be no need to worry about others causing trouble, and sales could quickly open up, securing a stable source of income, which would allow the martial hall to grow even stronger.
After pondering, the Hall Master decided to accept this great gift, though not for free, of course.
Ryan was promoted to personal disciple, gaining the qualification to learn secret sword techniques, and at the same time, the Hall Master promised to share 20% of the honeycomb briquette profits with him each month; the reward was indeed generous.
This was also why Ryan had investigated Ren Martial Hall beforehand; he had chosen a good master.
From then on, he no longer needed to write novels to earn money, and the girl also benefited, being exempted from chores, both of them fully dedicating themselves to swordsmanship.
At the same time, relying on the large monthly dividends, he had the martial hall's servants procure various medicinal herbs for him and hired specialists to prepare medicinal cuisine for him. Fortunately, Yoshiwara was a prosperous place, and all of these could be solved with money.
Thus, Ryan was able to eat medicinal cuisine every two days.
Even if it was just the lowest grade, each meal of medicinal cuisine could increase his skill point energy by about one percent, and the progress bar shot up rapidly.
By the third year, Ryan had already used three skill points, and the energy bar percentage once again reached ninety percent, with gratifying results.
The only thing that was both amusing and frustrating was that he had gained the nickname "Big Eater" in the martial hall.
Thinking of this, Ryan once again opened the system panel.
**Host**: Ryan Carter
**Current World**: Demon Slayer Corps
**Age**: 15 years old
**Skill Point Progress**: 90%
**Abilities**: Basic Swordsmanship (Level 2) Flame Blade Swordsmanship (Level 1)
Flame Blade Swordsmanship was the secret sword technique of Ren Martial Hall. It took Ryan two months to get "Flame Blade Swordsmanship (Uninitiated)" to display on his panel, and then he used a skill point to raise it to Level 1, reaching a proficient level, more than enough to deal with a small group of bandits.
Additionally, due to his craving for skill points and improved living conditions, he completely unleashed his appetite.
If this world had Seven Deadly Sins, then he would definitely be the embodiment of "Gluttony."
To be able to eat more food, he not only practiced swordsmanship every day but also performed various high-intensity scientific physical training according to his past life's experience, desperately consuming energy within his body.
To keep up with this consumption, he developed the habit of eating multiple, smaller meals, eating four times a day.
This is how he came to be known as the Big Eater.
Of course, this rigorous training not only greatly increased his food intake and accelerated his daily energy progress but also led to an improvement in his physical fitness.
The most direct manifestation was his weight.
Compared to his peers in the martial hall, with similar height and streamlined figures, Ryan weighed half again as much, because his muscle and bone density exceeded that of ordinary people, possibly due to this body's extraordinary talent, or perhaps influenced by the system.
In short, after a series of tests, he found that his strength, endurance, explosiveness, and resistance to blows far surpassed those of his peers.
Even without the skill points' enhancement now, just with this physical body, Ryan was a genuine martial arts genius, and this foodie system finally wasn't wasted on him.
So what reason did he have to refuse to become a foodie?
Of course, over these years, it wasn't just Ryan who had grown; the girl had also undergone a tremendous transformation.
"Brother Ryan, I've brought your breakfast."
A girl about twelve years old walked over, carrying three bento boxes, two of which were Ryan's.
After three years of growth, she and Ryan could communicate fluently, and although she still had a somewhat blank expression, her eyes were no longer dull, filled with rich emotions.
Her figure was no longer skinny, her skin had become fair, her face had a healthy blush, and her messy hair was cut into a neat fringe and tied into a single ponytail, making it obvious at a glance that she was a beauty in the making.
However, this was not the most important thing.
Ryan replied indifferently, "Put it in the usual spot, Kanao, I'll be done practicing soon."
"Mm."
Kanao tacitly placed the breakfast on a stone table.
Ryan named this girl Kanao, which is the name of the girl in Demon Slayer Corps who joined the Demon Slayer Corps at the same time as the protagonist.
The reason for choosing this name was simple: after three years of being together, he was very sure that this girl was Kanao.