"Your goal is Great Knight! It's the distant stars beyond!"
Leilin Farell's voice was brimming with passion, making Weilin's blood boil with excitement.
"Although your Knight training method came from my own hands and its effectiveness is top-notch even among Great Knights, you're missing the most important quality a powerhouse must have!"
"A powerhouse? The most important quality?" Weilin's face went blank.
"Exactly! That's battle-hardened confidence! Those Knights whose training methods aren't as good as yours — they all cultivate their invincible confidence through constant combat and bloody battles, and only then can they successfully activate their Life Energy and become Knights! You skipped that process..."
"Therefore, you must take on more difficult missions to ignite your potential!"
Leilin wore an expression that said 'I'm doing this for your own good': "So? Do you understand my good intentions now?"
"Although I don't really get it, it sounds pretty impressive!" Weilin clenched his fists. "I'll work hard, my lord!"
And so, this fool who had been thoroughly bamboozled by Leilin actually began preparing for tomorrow's adventure.
Watching him bustling about with great enthusiasm, Leilin smiled and shook his head.
"Ah, youth! Forgetting is such a basic trait, yet he got fooled so quickly... truly..."
However, in order to catch a ride with Jenny, that noble daughter, into the capital city, Leilin didn't mind helping them out a little.
"Your sword!" Leilin took the fine steel longsword from Weilin's hands. The hundred-folded steel still gleamed with cold light, but tiny ant-sized nicks had already appeared on the blade.
This kind of damage could only be caused by a Knight exerting full power and striking repeatedly. That alone showed the crisis Weilin had faced in the Crow-cry Wasteland was far more than just the Fire Wolf pack.
"What's wrong, my lord?" Weilin's face was full of confusion.
"This sword is too old. It's not suitable for your next expedition. I'll replace it with a new one!" Leilin's lips split into a grin.
"Thank you! Thank you, my lord!" Weilin was so excited he could barely form coherent sentences.
After this battle, he finally understood why Knights were so difficult to cultivate. The secrecy of the Breathing Technique was only one aspect; the other was the enormous training and equipment costs!
A masterwork weapon like this was worth at least a hundred gold fels, yet it had already developed nicks after just a few full-power bursts of Life Energy.
Wouldn't ordinary weapons just snap outright?
And Knights grew through battle. Who knew how much more would need to be invested in such weapons.
Originally, Weilin had planned to maintain this longsword and keep using it. After all, he still had the mentality of a poor man and was reluctant to waste anything. But he never expected Leilin to just swap it out for him!
"It's fine! I'll just send the bill to that Miss Jenny later!"
But Leilin's next words immediately shattered the gratitude in Weilin's heart: "She's a Marquis's daughter after all, swimming in gold fels. A little extra won't matter, right?"
Leilin tossed a brand-new longsword to Weilin.
"Oh come on! My lord! Could you at least let my gratitude last a little longer?"
Weilin lamented, but his hands moved without complaint, catching the longsword directly.
Clang! Weilin ran his fingers along the longsword. On the blue blade, there were intricate damascene patterns, and faint cold energy seemed to radiate from the sword body.
From just the feeling of having worked in the shop for so many years, Weilin knew this steel sword was definitely one of the finest items in the store.
But what he didn't notice was that while he had been wailing moments before, Leilin's palm had swiftly brushed across the blade, leaving behind a faint red mark.
This mark was inscribed directly onto the steel blade, then quickly faded away without Weilin detecting it.
...
Jenny's squad had only rested briefly in Bert Town before setting out again.
Although most of the adventurers and mercenaries who had followed her last time had died or been wounded, here there was no shortage of desperate people eager to make a fortune.
Jenny simply scattered another large sum of gold fels and once again assembled enough people. Of course, their actual strength was very questionable.
She had no choice but to do this. The Ram-Horned Earth Dragon was an extremely rare high-energy creature in the Dark Extreme Domain, and its tracks had only recently been spotted in the Crow-cry Wasteland.
If she let this opportunity pass, there was no telling when she would encounter one again.
Even if Jenny could afford to wait, Marquis Augustus, still suffering under the torment of the poison, absolutely could not.
"Weilin! I'm counting on you!" There was now an additional person in the party — Weilin, clad in brand-new armor. He had stayed up all night maintaining it just to keep it usable. Strapped to his back was the longsword Leilin had tampered with, which gave him quite the dashing appearance and earned him quite a few flirtatious glances from the town girls.
But now, with just a casual remark from Jenny, Weilin felt himself floating on air.
Feeling the awe-struck gazes from the surrounding adventurers and the noble girl's earnest plea, Weilin felt as though he had chugged several bottles of strong liquor — his head was beginning to spin.
"I never thought I, Weilin, would have such a glorious moment!" Weilin nodded, looking at Jenny with admiration in his eyes: "Don't worry! I'll definitely get that Dragon Blood Bud for you!"
"Poor little guy..."
Seeing Weilin completely bewitched by his young miss, Jamos couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
So what if he's a Great Knight? With the power of the Augustus family, they could easily summon a dozen! What they truly valued was Leilin, the gentleman behind Weilin!!!
In the Dark Extreme Domain, only the mysterious
"Besides, our young miss is a Wizard Apprentice too! Even if her rank is relatively low, she's not someone ordinary people can covet..."
Jamos's sigh deepened.
Wizard aptitude was a very mysterious thing, but after years of research, Wizards had discovered that if one parent was a Wizard, the probability of their offspring having aptitude would increase significantly. And if both parents were Wizards, the probability of producing apprentice-level offspring could reach as high as one in three!
Furthermore, among these apprentices, the likelihood of having exceptional aptitude was even greater.
Because of this, with few exceptions, in any great noble family, no woman with Wizard aptitude was allowed to marry outside. Their only destiny was to be paired with close relatives in order to produce the next generation of Wizard seeds with even higher aptitude!
The Augustus family might be happy to bring in a commoner woman with Wizard aptitude, but they would absolutely never tolerate Wizard blood leaving the family — even if it was just an apprentice!
Of course, at this moment, neither Weilin nor Jenny was thinking that far ahead.
Even Weilin himself, upon entering the Crow-cry Wasteland, immediately snapped into combat mode, marching with his head down every day and conserving his stamina.
He had grown up in Bert Town, so he knew its terrors well. Many places that seemed safe could silently claim an adventurer's life!
He was Weilin — someone who would become a Great Knight in the future! How could he die here?
"Something's been found up ahead!"
Suddenly, cheers erupted from the front of the party. Weilin immediately perked up and walked forward.
"We found this! Come take a look!"
Jenny had also changed into a hunter's outfit, looking even more capable. She pointed at an enormous footprint on the ground, as though she had found a priceless treasure.
Weilin crouched down. Before him lay a footprint a full meter long.
Its owner had left deep impressions in the ground, and the four claw marks had sunk deep into the earth.
"The middle digit has five joints! The scent and traces match! This is definitely a Ram-Horned Earth Dragon's track!"
Jamos arrived as well. After using a collection of peculiar items to verify the find, he confirmed it to Jenny with certainty.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
A smile spread across Jenny's face. Although the target was right before them, she didn't rashly charge ahead.
"Today we'll find a place to camp! Send out all the scouts to track this footprint — we must find the Ram-Horned Earth Dragon's lair!"
Jenny had come out this time specifically to obtain the Dragon Blood Bud of the Ram-Horned Earth Dragon. This peculiar plant grew only in symbiosis with the Ram-Horned Earth Dragon, so they had to find the creature's nest.
"Whoever finds the Earth Dragon's lair will receive a reward of one hundred gold fels!"
In order to find the Dragon Blood Bud as quickly as possible, Jenny spared no expense on generous rewards, immediately drawing a wave of howling excitement.
Many adventurers who weren't even scouts went out as well, hoping to try their luck. If they could win that reward, combined with their savings, they could retire outright.
"They..." Weilin watched the adventurers heading out, a look of discomfort on his face.
He wasn't stupid — quite the opposite, in fact. He naturally understood what Jenny was really doing.
These adventurers had neither strength nor any special abilities. Their only use was probably as cannon fodder and bait!
They had already entered the Ram-Horned Earth Dragon's territory, and with so many adventurers running around, the creature would surely notice them soon!
And all they had to do was follow the screams or the direction of bloodshed to locate the Ram-Horned Earth Dragon directly.
"There's nothing else we can do, Weilin!" Jenny had a bitter smile on her face. "I'll make sure to compensate their families afterward..."
...
That night when they made camp, a full three people hadn't returned.
And Jenny set off with a look of delight in the direction those three had gone.
"Over here!" Weilin picked up a rock from the ground, looking at the bloodstains and torn fabric on it. His expression was very complicated.