Enemy's Trail

Before Arthur came to this world, he had received many things from Merlin—a mishmash of all kinds, with no rhyme or reason to any of it.

If Gino's escape had not given Yinsen a jolt earlier, he would not have thought to sort through the things Merlin had given him. And without that major cleanup, he would not have discovered so quickly that there was an item among them that could solve Arthur's language problem.

It was a tiny metal amulet, utterly inconspicuous and easily overlooked amid a huge pile of miscellaneous items.

The amulet's greatest function was transferring part of one person's knowledge into another person's mind. It was the item version of the magic Merlin had used to implant language into Yinsen.

From that perspective, it seemed like Arthur only needed a simple procedure to learn a new language, right?

But that was not the case!

This Magic Item Merlin had given him was not a complete spell. It could only be used as an auxiliary tool; the primary caster still had to be a mage.

In other words, Yinsen himself had to actively control the spell. The item could only ensure, at the very least, that no mistakes occurred during casting—or that if mistakes did happen, neither of them would suffer any harm.

"This is basically a safety device."

With Yinsen's current Mental Power, casting a spell like this was still rather difficult. That was why he said it was another trial Merlin had set for him.

He had to correctly find this item among countless odds and ends, then use it through his own ability. As long as he could accomplish that, their little problem would naturally be resolved, and Yinsen's strength would improve considerably.

"It's exactly like the training method laid out in my Spellbook."

The Mental Power Training in the Book of Inheritance followed a similar style: constantly placing new goals before Yinsen. Those goals were never too far away, and he could reach them with just a little effort. That kept him motivated to move forward, preventing him from growing tired after making no progress for too long and eventually becoming lax.

This time, not only could he use the item with a bit of effort, but he would also gain a spell along with it.

"This spell doesn't seem too difficult, but it's quite useful. There'll be plenty of occasions to use it in the future."

Although Arthur had become his companion, he would eventually return to inherit the throne. This journey could only be considered travel and training. Perhaps he would leave in one or two years, or at most three to five. So Yinsen had to continue looking for suitable companions.

There was no guarantee that every one of those companions would be exceptionally smart and able to learn a new language in a short time. Yinsen still had to travel to various planes, where the languages would be numerous and varied. If he mastered this spell, he would not have to worry about language barriers anymore.

"When the time comes, I'll make a Language Pack and hand one out to every new member."

From the moment he got up in the morning, Yinsen had been fiddling with the amulet. By nearly noon, he had finally figured it out completely. Next came repeated practice until he could cast the spell correctly and flawlessly.

He called Arthur out for a meal, then took a stroll through the training ground.

Empty!

That was his only impression. The so-called training ground was simply a massive field, with no divided sections and none of the equipment used for training. Want weapons or weighted gear? Bring your own! The guild only provided a shared space, nothing more.

Seeing that, Yinsen and Arthur left after completing their usual training. There really was nothing worth seeing here.

After that, Yinsen went to the Reference Room and stayed there until dinner. He then ate with Arthur and taught him some language basics along the way—Arthur could not keep trailing after Yinsen forever. He had to be able to go out on his own eventually.

Unfortunately, learning an entirely new language was not easy, especially one from a completely different language family. So after half a month, Yinsen had already gained a basic grasp of the small spell called Knowledge Sharing, while Arthur was still miserably pretending to be mute with a few slips of paper containing common phrases.

Arthur was smart, and his memory was not bad either. But unlike a mage, he did not train his Mental Power until his memory reached the point of photographic recall. Just memorizing the pronunciation and common vocabulary of a new language nearly drove him mad. He had barely managed to learn a few words, and then there was spoken pronunciation to consider... In the end, Arthur gave up and obediently waited for Yinsen to master the spell.

When Yinsen finally said they could give it a try, Arthur let out a long breath.

"Not being able to speak is really torture."

Yinsen laughed as well. To avoid anyone noticing something unusual, Arthur had simply pretended he could not speak. Whenever outsiders were around, he had to suppress even the urge to talk to Yinsen.

After all, the Sea of Tranquility had only one Common Tongue. There might be slight differences in accent, but they did not affect communication. Arthur's situation had never occurred before. If he could speak but did not understand this world's language, people would easily grow suspicious. If they investigated further, Yinsen's greatest secret might be exposed.

For safety's sake, Arthur had simply claimed that he had injured his throat and could not speak for the time being. Pretending to be mute would not have worked, since he would soon be able to communicate.

Today, his suffering would finally come to an end.

"Don't celebrate too soon. I might not have mastered the spell well enough yet. There's still a chance of failure."

Arthur gave him a bright, sunny smile. "I believe you'll definitely succeed!"

But in Yinsen's eyes, that sunshine felt a little blinding, as though it were about to burn him alive.

"Fine, I'll definitely succeed!"

Mm, somehow it did not feel so hot anymore.

No longer looking at Arthur's expectant gaze, Yinsen focused and mobilized his Mental Power, then cast the small spell. It was another spell that required no magic power and could be completed with Mental Power alone. Because it operated directly through Mental Power, it could very easily cause irreparable mental damage to both the caster and the recipient. It demanded extremely precise control, like performing a delicate surgery where not the slightest mistake could be tolerated.

The item Merlin had provided was a safeguard. If an error occurred, it would decisively halt the spell and return the caster's Mental Power in a relatively gentle manner.

The recipient was even safer. As long as the caster successfully cast the spell, the amulet would record it and then transmit it to the recipient exactly as it was.

So long as Yinsen succeeded on his end, Arthur had nothing at all to worry about.

Watching Yinsen carefully manipulate his Mental Power, with sweat even appearing on his forehead, Arthur knew the casting had reached its most critical moment.

He even breathed cautiously, afraid that he might accidentally disturb Yinsen while he was fully focused...

But if Arthur had realized Yinsen's true state at that moment, he would probably have drawn his sword at once, demanded a duel, and taught Yinsen a harsh lesson.

"Huh? This seems a little easier than I expected."

"Everything's going smoothly. Has my control over Mental Power improved again?"

Yinsen stared blankly at the amulet in his hand.

"Maybe Arthur and I found the amulet a little late? After all, we didn't inventory everything the moment we arrived at the Sea of Tranquility. We drifted at sea for quite a while first."

Unable to think of an answer, Yinsen raised his head. Noticing the cautious Arthur beside him, he immediately gave him a broad smile. "It worked. The rest is simple."

Arthur finally let out a long breath. His days of pretending to be mute were finally over.

Just as Yinsen had said, what followed was simple and smooth. Yinsen had wanted to take the opportunity to transfer English, Chinese, and the other languages he already knew into Arthur's mind as well, but when he saw Arthur looking dazed after receiving the new language, he decisively abandoned the idea.

Arthur's Mental Power was of high quality and extremely resilient, but he was not a mage after all. Their Mental Powers differed greatly in nature.

After suddenly receiving a large amount of new knowledge, Arthur could not remain unaffected as Yinsen had before. He had to spend time digesting it before he could use the spell again to take in more knowledge—and there was a limit to how much it could carry. Too much would also damage his mind.

"Fine. Looks like I'll have to wait a while before transferring any new languages to you."

Arthur understood why Yinsen had done it. He had not expected the side effects to be so serious. Even now, he still felt somewhat dizzy.

"Looks like I'll have to turn in early today."

After saying goodbye to Yinsen, Arthur went straight to rest. Yinsen, however, did not intend to sleep just yet. Arthur's problem had been resolved, and now he was ready to deal with his own matters.

He set his sights on the guild's archives. Over the past few days, he had only roughly gone through the "catalog" and identified the information he wanted to consult, read, and even record. Much of that material was not allowed to be taken out and could only be viewed inside, so Yinsen planned to spend the night in the Reference Room.

"I'll bring the Book of Inheritance and copy down the important materials for easier reference later."

His memory was already very good, but when it came to retrieving memories, he was still not as effortless as the top mages. Sometimes, he would suddenly fail to recall something.

Simply put, he was only an ordinary person with a relatively strong memory. He had not yet surpassed that level. So the safest option was to record important information in the Book of Inheritance.

He had just walked out of the residential area when he heard two middle-aged men standing not far from the entrance discussing something that interested him.

"Sean of the Hand of Flame seems to be dead. His title and that equipment were inherited by Gino, the former First Mate."

"Oh? Are you sure?"

"I heard it from the harbor. An adventurer ran into the Lord of Flame and lost half his supplies just to keep his life."

"Sigh, looks like even with a different person, the Hand of Flame is still the same Hand of Flame."

"Yeah. We should keep well away from the Lord of Flame in the future... Oh, right, don't go to sea lately. I heard that guy is in the nearby waters, robbing adventurers returning from sea."

"Seriously..."