The Declining Merick Family

Creamy mushroom soup, white bread, beef stewed in red wine, Bayena ham...

Dish after dish was brought to the long dining table.

A maid standing nearby handed him a glass of local Will red wine.

The game had become reality, and real, natural food had entered his belly. The long-missed feeling of fullness came with a delicious taste.

Sure enough, life in the world of Divine Revelation was what real living was all about!

He finally no longer had to endure the Earth Federation's tasteless, nauseating nutrient paste.

It was a pity that he was currently a European noble from Act Two. If he could have become an Eastern lord from Act One, Eastern cuisine would have suited his Chinese palate better.

Once he had eaten and drunk his fill, Chen Xinhe tried scanning the people around him.

Sure enough, as he had expected, none of the maids were professional class holders. Their levels ranged from LV1 to LV3.

Even Butler Anke was only LV7, with the butler subclass. Some of his attributes were even lower than those of one of the LV3 maids.

As a level 17 professional, he could already be considered somebody in the Duchy of Will's capital.

"Butler Anke."

"Yes, Lord Baron. What can I do for you?"

Anke quickly stepped forward from behind him and bent halfway down beside him.

"What has the relationship between our Merick Family and the Ambet Family been like in the past?"

"Well... my lord, your father had no dealings with the current Viscount Anbeite."

A hint of helplessness flashed across Butler Anke's deeply lined face.

He knew that his lord, the baron, was enamored of Viscount Anbeite's youngest daughter. This was not the first time the baron had asked him about the Ambet Family.

It was just that... the two families had had little contact in the past.

"Our Merick Family are hereditary barons whose lineage in the city has been passed down through the Merrick Saber Technique. We are also one of the city's seven great hereditary noble families."

"Viscount Anbeite, on the other hand, was granted his title because he is the Duchy of Will's finance officer."

So although my title as a baron is lower than his, his actual standing might not compare to mine?

Apart from being the finance officer, he might not even be able to pass down his viscount title?

"Do the other seven great hereditary noble families also pass down their lineages through techniques?"

"That's right. The seven great noble families in Will City are currently led by Count Conner's Family, and our Merick Family follows their lead as well."

"In fact, before the Kingdom of Lucian granted the Will Family the title of duke, there were eight great hereditary families passing down their lineages in these lands, counting the Will Family."

"Before the master passed away, he had always hoped you could win Miss Erica Conner's heart, but you..."

Combining the old butler's brief account with the history of Will City he had just read, Chen Xinhe quickly put together a basic picture of the city's powers.

In other words, what was now Will City had long been ruled by eight professional families, with the Will Family at their head.

Later, after Will I pledged allegiance to the Kingdom of Lucian, he became a duke.

The remaining seven professional families were granted hereditary noble titles, and the Merick Family was one of them.

That made sense. Most of the families with inherited lineages trained some number of professionals.

The Will Family had become dukes, but they could hardly wipe out the seven other long-established families who had worked with them.

After so many years of development, however, the Seven Great Families had long since come to be led by Count Conner's Family and had gradually grown distant from Duke Will's Family.

"How many professionals does the family still support?"

Butler Anke's expression turned a little strange. As he remembered it, ever since the newly appointed Baron Lister inherited the family three months ago, he had never paid any attention to family affairs.

Nor did he train much in the family's inherited technique, focusing solely on pursuing Miss Anna.

Anke was surprised that he was asking about these things today.

"When Baron Mel was alive, only three professionals remained in his service."

"After you inherited the title, those three professionals left. Now..."

"You mean that in the entire Merick Family, I'm the only professional left?"

Butler Anke pressed his lips together and lowered his head without speaking.

His silence was answer enough. The seven families that had inherited professional lineages in Will City had developed in different ways over the years.

Some had grown more and more prosperous, such as Count Conner's Family.

Others had gone steadily downhill and fallen into decline, the Merick Family being a prime example.

No wonder Merrick, the saber master, had been alone in the Act Two expansion.

Presumably, after losing the duel and being hurt in love, he had sunk into despair for over a decade, and the family had simply fallen apart.

Only afterward, at the age of forty, had he come to his senses and brought his family's Merrick Saber Technique to prominence again.

Even so, no matter how far he trained it, he could only remain confined to the Duchy of Will during Act Two.

Chen Xinhe was unwilling to spend his whole life in this little city.

He knew just how vast the world of Divine Revelation was. The first few acts were each a microcosm of a different region of that world.

Not until Act Four did the entire world enter a stage of great integration and gradually move out into the galaxy.

Being a noble in a mere little city was not his future!

"Lord Baron, are you planning to start training professionals for the family again?"

"Forgive me for speaking frankly, but the family's current finances may only be enough to support you alone."

"No need. We won't train any for now."

"Help me keep an eye out for passive techniques! If there are any in the city, buy them at all costs!"

For the time being, Chen Xinhe had no interest in building up his own forces.

On one hand, the duel with Quint was imminent. On the other, why train up a family when waiting until he was strong and having people come to follow him would be more direct?

"P-passive techniques? My lord, I've never heard of such a technique."

"Oh! I mean something like our Merick Family's breathing technique."

Anke's eyes widened as though Lister had gone mad.

"My lord! All kinds of techniques are practically impossible to buy in the city, no matter the price!"

"Inherited secret techniques like the Merick Family's are even rarer!"

"You... you're not thinking of buying the inherited techniques of the other families, are you?"

Sure enough, Chen Xinhe had known it wouldn't be simple.

When passive skills were still in the game, players could obtain them through quests. Even though their drop rates were low in the first two acts, there were plenty of players.

At least in the early game, skill books of this kind could occasionally be found at the auction house.

Now that the game had become reality, even ordinary techniques might be worth a fortune in the duchy, to say nothing of special passive techniques like these. Ordinary people might not even be able to tell what a passive technique was.

The other great hereditary families might not even have passive methods of this kind, or place much importance on them.

After all, they required a huge amount of experience to level up, and the attribute points they granted early on were not high.

They were nowhere near as direct as high-level skills, which could play a decisive role at low levels.

But Chen Xinhe was thinking beyond the present. Finding a way to obtain a breathing technique like this soon had become another major problem for him.

"In any case, keep an eye out for me. If there's a method called a breathing technique anywhere in the Duchy of Will, notify me immediately."

Most of the passive skills in Act One's Eastern setting were called visualization methods.

In the Act Two expansion where he currently was, such methods were mostly called breathing techniques.

With that, Chen Xinhe stood up.

He gathered his saber that very night and had the butler prepare rations and water.

Whatever happened, his first priority now was to level up.

He needed to quickly improve the skills he had already mastered and raise his strength.

Only then could he deal with the duel first and gain a greater say in Will City, along with more resources to grow.