Perusal

Morning sunlight shone across the surrounding land.

On the familiar training ground, Arthur stood alone, holding a training longsword in his hand.

Recently, because incidents had been breaking out everywhere, the Rookie Knights who usually trained here had all been dispatched. Those who remained either had other tasks or were severely injured. So on the vast training ground, aside from Arthur, not a single person could be seen.

There had originally been some servants attending nearby, but Arthur didn't need them, so he had sent them away long ago.

Standing on the training ground, Arthur had just finished his practice. Sweat soaked his clothes, covering his body.

He stood there quietly, wiping sweat with a piece of linen cloth in his hand, frowning as he sensed the changes in his body.

"As expected, after activating the Life Seed, the Knight Breathing Technique's effect is nearly useless."

After using the Chip to test the results of his training, Arthur sighed helplessly.

The training of the Knight Breathing Technique mainly targeted stimulating the Life Seed. By constantly agitating the body and the Life Seed, it aimed to provoke Life Energy and achieve the effect of activating the Life Seed.

But once the Life Seed was successfully activated, this stimulating effect weakened greatly, essentially becoming almost ineffective.

Of course, with long-term training accumulated day by day, there would still be some effect. But that pace was measured in years, already slow to a point Arthur found unacceptable.

According to the Chip's examination of his body, even with the Arthur Breathing Technique, which he had improved multiple times, it would now take at least over a year to increase any attribute through training.

Thinking of this, he shook his head. While somewhat helpless, a trace of doubt also rose in his heart.

"Since the Knight Breathing Technique is useless after advancing to a knight, how did those legendary, extremely powerful knights reach that level?"

Arthur looked at his attributes.

"Name: Arthur. Falkus. Strength: 3.8. Agility: 3.7. Constitution: 3.8."

Compared to before, after activating the Life Seed, his current attributes were undoubtedly much more impressive.

After activating the Life Seed, the Life Energy stimulated within the body would slowly improve the knight's physique, causing a rapid boost in physical qualities over a short period.

From Arthur's observation, this process was essentially an adjustment of the body's structure. As the Life Seed activated, life itself underwent a change—the body structure became more complete, undergoing meticulous optimization.

Once the detailed optimization of the body structure was complete, this explosive growth in physical qualities would cease. Moreover, because the body structure had become stronger, the effects of subsequent training would also diminish.

Arthur had now more or less passed through this rapid growth phase. From now on, his rate of enhancement would become as slow as that of other knights.

"There should be other ways."

This thought crossed his mind. Arthur stood there thinking for a moment, then placed his training sword back on the weapon rack, stepped off the training ground, and walked in a certain direction.

In the castle, Arthur remembered there was a room specifically for storing books.

He planned to go in and try his luck, to see if he could find any useful materials.

Walking a long stretch of the way, servants along the path bowed respectfully to Arthur, their faces filled with deep reverence.

This was one of the fruits of his changed status.

Ever since he returned here this time, the news of Arthur's advancement to knight had spread, reaching nearly everyone in the castle within a short time.

Knights held a high status in this era—not only as a symbol of rank, but also as a symbol of the powerful strength needed to protect a region's stability. Becoming a knight was almost the ultimate dream of every commoner in this world.

On another level, advancing to a knight meant Arthur's status was now fundamentally different.

As a knight, he would be valued in any country, naturally enjoying equal standing with nobles. In this world, he wouldn't even be held legally accountable for killing, which naturally earned him the awe of others.

Paying no attention to these gazes, Arthur's expression remained calm as he walked to a certain place.

It was a very large room, with two guards standing at the entrance. When they saw Arthur approaching, they immediately straightened up.

"I want to go in. This is my credential."

Arthur took a badge from his waist, engraved with the family crest—his credential as a noble.

"Sir, you jest," one guard said with a respectful expression at Arthur's gesture. "With your status, you may of course enter directly. As long as you don't take anything out, you're welcome anytime."

Seeing this, Arthur paused briefly, said nothing, and simply nodded. "Thank you."

The door before him soon opened. Arthur looked inside, quietly taking in the arrangement.

There were many books here, most appearing quite ancient, yet well-preserved without a speck of dust, suggesting someone regularly maintained them.

This was normal. In this world, books were precious items, collected only by nobles. If not for Count Polia's castle, there couldn't possibly be so many books here.

Looking at the room, which resembled a small library, Arthur walked forward and examined the books.

These books were clearly from different eras, mostly handwritten rare copies. The materials used varied—some were animal hide, some parchment, and some rough paper.

He picked one at random, opened it, and slowly read through.

It was a poem celebrating a grand war, seemingly something that had happened long ago in this region.

Ninety-nine percent of the content was, in Arthur's view, meaningless rambling and praise. The actual substance was very little, occupying only a tiny portion of the entire book, leaving Arthur speechless.

"Chip, record the information in this book, remove redundant content, and transmit it directly."

Quickly flipping through the entire book, Arthur's expression remained calm as he gave the order to the Chip.

Before long, a vast amount of information surfaced in Arthur's mind, as if deeply engraved into his memory after countless recitations.

This was another function of the Chip—helping Arthur rapidly memorize large amounts of information and organize it.

With the Chip's assistance, Arthur's reading speed became very fast.

He flipped through books like turning pages, having the Chip record the information and transmit it directly into his mind.

Compared to normal reading and memorization, this method was far more efficient, allowing Arthur to quickly scan through one book after another.

After an unknown amount of time, when he picked up a biography and saw its contents, Arthur's eyes lit up.

This was the autobiography of a powerful knight from the past, recording the knight's life along with some noteworthy secrets, all written down by the knight himself in this biography.

Looking at the biography, Arthur couldn't wait to read its contents.

··········

"...A knight is a title for a powerful being who has activated the Life Seed... To become a knight, one must possess the talent to activate the Life Seed... This talent is rare among commoners..."

"The talent of a knight can be passed down to descendants... Therefore, noble families are more likely to produce talented individuals..."

··········

With the Chip's assistance, the contents of a book were quickly read and deeply stored in Arthur's mind.

In this biography, Arthur indeed found some answers.

"A knight, after activating the Life Seed, can only continue to advance through constant battle?"

Feeling the information in his mind, Arthur muttered in confusion.

This former knight seemed very powerful and well-traveled. In his biography, he described all the characteristics of knights, including the path after activating the Life Seed and the power beyond knighthood.

According to this knight, after activating the Life Seed and advancing to a knight, the Knight Breathing Technique became almost useless. To go further, one had to rely on continuous battle.

Through high-intensity, life-or-death combat, a knight's potential would be stimulated, gradually strengthening the Life Energy within the body, thereby driving further improvements in physical ability.

According to the book, the knight who wrote this autobiography had fought countless times and, by around the age of forty, had neared the limit of a knight, on the verge of reaching the level of a Great Knight.

Unfortunately, the autobiography ended there, and the records on Great Knights were not detailed.

Thump!

He quietly closed the book, put it back, and continued to pull out the next book, hoping to find more useful information.

Unfortunately, it seemed Arthur's luck had run out. The books he could find next were either poetry or miscellaneous notes, containing little of value—nothing but pages of nonsense.

After an unknown amount of time, when it was nearly noon, only half of the books remained unread.

This speed was achieved with the Chip's assistance; if anyone knew, they would surely be stunned.

Rubbing his slightly swollen and aching head with his right hand, Arthur walked forward again, picked up another book, and prepared to continue reading.

Arthur stayed there the entire day, not leaving until he had finished flipping through every single book, then returned to rest.

Despite the Chip's assistance in transmission, the influx of a large amount of information in a short time still made Arthur feel somewhat uncomfortable, his head throbbing with pain.

He went back and rested properly for a while before this condition gradually improved.