The Law of Conservation of Smiles

Arthur was one of the most unconventional knight-type characters when it came to combat techniques.

Most knights excelled in close combat. Whether it was heavy weapons focused on offense, sword-and-shield combinations balancing attack and defense, or lances and poleaxes suited for charging into battle, these were all common weapons for knight-type characters.

Even that Knight King Princess Arthur, who had already been gender-swapped, normally used typical knightly weapons such as lances and swords to fire beam attacks.

But Arthur from Demon Village was an oddball magical knight who specialized in mid-to-long-range throwing and could cast spells with special armor.

Whether it was a knight's lance, a short dagger, magical fire, or even off-hand defensive gear like shields, Arthur could turn them all into throwable weapons.

And now that Cheng Tian had put on the same strawberry-patterned briefs as Arthur, he naturally possessed the corresponding ability as well.

Knight Throwing: Template skill, active skill. The fragile Knight Armor that shattered after a single hit turned Arthur into a rare magical knight specializing in mid-range throwing, granting him the ability to wield most cold weapons as projectiles.

By consuming MP, you could create throwable items based on the cold weapons or shields currently equipped in your main-hand and off-hand slots. These projectiles perfectly inherited the corresponding weapon's damage while gaining its relevant traits. The weight and size of the projectile's base item affected its throwing speed, range, and rate of fire.

Each throw consumed 5 MP. After making a certain number of consecutive throws, it entered a cooldown period of at least five seconds.

Of the weapons Cheng Tian currently possessed, only the whip Vampire Slayer did not meet the criteria for Knight Throwing. The Gentleman's Cane he had acquired not long ago had the lowest weapon damage of all his weapons, but the special effect it gained after becoming a projectile had already been demonstrated.

A Gentleman's Cane projectile had a small chance of casting Polymorph on the target it hit. It could only affect one target at a time and required no additional consumption.

Whether it was an issue with Polymorph itself or something else, units transformed into ducks still retained some of their original traits.

The foolish, clear-eyed college student had become an ordinary white duck with nothing remarkable about it. The zombie had turned into a Zombie Duck like a dried sausage, while the Man-Eating Plant hit by Cheng Tian's throw had become a plant duck that could only move within a fixed area.

Cheng Tian had first thrown the Gentleman's Cane with his left hand. Seeing the Man-Eating Plant turn into a plant duck, he could not help but freeze for a moment. Then he exerted force with his right hand and flung the projectile formed from the Goblin Cleaver forward.

Besides granting Cheng Tian the Protagonist Template, Arthur's Proof had also loaded Arthur's throwing techniques into him. Like the Vampire Hunter template, this kind of foundational skill loading was hidden and did not appear directly on the panel.

The Goblin Cleaver dealt roughly the same damage as a one-handed axe, except its upper and lower damage limits fluctuated more wildly. This slash directly severed the plant duck's head.

If one examined the wound at that moment, one would find scorch-like marks on it.

Clearly, Cheng Tian had overlaid Vampire Slayer onto the Goblin Cleaver. However, because the two weapon types differed so greatly, it only granted the cleaver a pitiful three or so points of holy damage. Yet those three extra points of holy damage had been perfectly replicated on the projectile.

Cheng Tian was truly strong now. Judging only by his skills and not his panel, he had already begun to surpass the beginner level and reached the point where he could directly face a D-rank dungeon.

If another zombie horde of the previous scale appeared, he could clear it alone.

There were still unopened graves along the road leading to the cemetery exit, and fresh zombies continued crawling out of them. But the key was that zombies no longer spawned behind Cheng Tian. Unable to form an encirclement, they posed no threat to him at all.

Still, after trying two or three ranged throws, Cheng Tian stopped throwing. He took out his whip again and killed the enemies blocking his path at the lowest possible cost.

Because he knew exactly what he was about to face.

Off to the side of the cemetery exit sat a completely crimson being with wings on its back, something resembling a Gargoyle, quietly perched atop a stone pedestal.

This was the culprit that prevented 99 percent of Demon Village players from even reaching the midpoint of the first stage: Red Arremer, an exceptionally rare existence in Demon Village's gaming history that had risen from a common enemy to the protagonist of a spin-off.

Strictly speaking, the Red Arremer Clan was the true ever-present common-enemy race of the entire demon world.

Although the relationship between the Red Arremer Clan and the Demon King was theoretically more like employment, their role as ever-present fodder enemies destined most of them to remain at the bottom.

As for monsters such as zombies, Red-Eyed Ravens, and Man-Eating Plants, they were merely objects from the human world corrupted by demonic power. They did not even qualify to be classified as part of the formal demon-world forces.

Yet even as ever-present fodder enemies, they were still demons. In terms of total player kills throughout gaming history alone, the Red Arremer Clan far surpassed all of its peers, even its superiors.

Perhaps due to that popularity and horrifying player kill count, Red Arremer had transcended its original setting and been judged by the Chosen Evolution Space as a demon unit with an elite template.

But there was one most fundamental thing about Red Arremer that had never changed: its race was actually classified as Gargoyle.

As the name implied, Gargoyles entered a statue-like state while resting outside combat, with nearly all bodily functions completely halted. As long as no one entered Red Arremer's guard range, it would remain in its statue state.

The fact that the Chosen Evolution Space had set "Kill the Elite Red Arremer" as a side quest led to one conclusion: at least in the current dungeon, it was not an enemy players had to confront. They could simply avoid it by taking a detour.

According to the space's rules, any main quest could be cleared as long as one found the right method. Side quests, on the other hand, were partly equivalent to challenge quests, and their death rates were actually higher than those of main quests.

At the very least, killing an elite Red Arremer was not something beginner players could handle.

At that moment, Cheng Tian pressed himself against a tombstone, crouching low as he stared fixedly at the sleeping Red Arremer in the distance. He could not help inhaling through his nose, and his body began trembling in small, uncontrollable motions.

How should he put it? Reason told Cheng Tian that avoiding Red Arremer was the safest choice. No matter what, he should conserve his stamina first. After all, there was still a Cyclops that had to be defeated for the main quest. Nothing mattered unless he cleared the dungeon safely and walked out alive... but Cheng Tian's physical instincts gave their answer first.

Fight! (An unnecessary close-up)

Red Arremer, assigned guard duty by its superiors, slept soundly. Even the earlier chain reaction that had driven the zombie horde berserk had failed to draw even the slightest bit of its attention.

But suddenly, a human presence appeared within its senses.

Though somewhat lazy, Red Arremer still actively released itself from its statue-state seal. It flapped its wings twice, intending to see which reckless human was about to die by its hands...

Before it saw the person, it heard the sound. A typical clattering of metal armor pieces colliding reached Red Arremer's ears first.

Arthur?

In Red Arremer's memory, the knights of the human kingdom had basically all died. Only Arthur, humanity's strongest warrior, remained. He had stolen the map at the cost of severe injuries and escaped into the cemetery.

...Could today finally be the day Captain Red Arremer made his rise!?

The moment that thought arose, a smile uncontrollably appeared on Red Arremer's face, and its beak-like mouth stretched wide open.

Then it saw Cheng charging straight at it—a fully armed stranger with his visor raised, revealing a savage grin.

For some reason, the smile vanished from Red Arremer's face.