Anomaly

The events before him quickly passed.

Before Arthur's eyes, looking at the sword mark over three meters long beside him, Laman's expression instantly collapsed.

The arrogant expression on his face vanished, replaced by a respectful smile, as if he had seen the most honored guest.

Seeing the other's demeanor, Arthur shook his head almost imperceptibly, his face still holding the same expression, making it impossible to discern his thoughts.

He refused the horse the other offered him and instead walked alongside them, moving forward slowly.

As the group slowly advanced, the appearance of the village ahead gradually came into view. Buildings stood everywhere, most looking very old, as if constructed a long time ago.

"Erui, take this lord to that house over there and have someone clean it up. Make sure this lord is satisfied!"

Walking at the front, upon reaching the center of the village, Raman shouted at Erui, who was standing nearby, ordering him to take Arthur and arrange for his proper accommodation.

Arthur subconsciously looked in the direction he pointed, seeing the tall building there.

Compared to the other old dwellings around, this building looked much newer, likely not built many years ago. The materials used were also clearly much better. It was a decent place to stay in this small village.

Seemingly to please Arthur, the other not only settled him there but also specifically sent several people to help clean the room and handle various chores for him.

Over the next few days, Raman visited him specifically every day, never stopping even though he knew Arthur couldn't understand the language.

Three days later.

On a flat clearing, Arthur stopped training with his sword for a while and stood to the side, resting.

"The Life Seed is becoming more active. It seems we're approaching that stage."

Feeling the activity of the Life Energy within him, Arthur placed his left hand over his chest and thought.

During this time, thanks to that unknown power, his physical fitness had improved greatly, reaching the peak level of a Knight, hitting a certain limit.

And the transformation of his body had also driven the continuous improvement of the Life Seed, which had also reached a certain limit. It only needed one more step to complete its transformation.

"Great Knight?" Arthur murmured to himself, standing in place, then ordered the Chip, "Chip, based on the current data, simulate and deduce the advancement conditions for a Great Knight!"

"Deduction task complete!" A mechanical voice sounded in his mind in an instant.

"To advance to Great Knight, the basic condition is for all physical fitness attributes to reach 5 or above, then stimulate the body through special methods, causing the Life Seed to complete its transformation and drive the improvement of physical fitness!"

"Stimulate the body?" Arthur muttered in confusion, "What methods can achieve that?"

"Through high-intensity combat, or by configuring special potions," the Chip's mechanical voice sounded again.

Hearing this, Arthur's mind settled slightly, and he looked at his own physical fitness.

"Name: Arthur Falkus. Strength: 5. Agility: 4.9. Constitution: 5."

These were the results of the past few days. He was very close to meeting the basic conditions for advancement.

"Agility hasn't met the standard yet, and the other attributes are just barely at the standard. It looks like I still need to work hard for a while."

Looking at his attributes, Arthur shook his head, picked up his sword, and walked forward.

Compared to the Knights of his previous world, Arthur had a significant advantage in this world.

He didn't need to risk his life fighting on the battlefield to stimulate his body; he only needed to continuously hunt mutated monsters to improve. Although the progress was slow, it was much safer.

His walking speed was far faster than that of ordinary people. In a short while, he reached the outskirts of the village.

There, several warriors were on guard. Upon seeing Arthur approach, they looked at him with reverence and watched him leave.

"Quick, go notify a few people to come over. We'll have corpses to scavenge again soon."

After Arthur was gone, looking around, one of the guards said excitedly.

Someone beside him immediately walked towards the village and soon brought back several people, who followed Arthur from a distance on horseback.

"Ding! Continuously hunting seventeen Knight-level Insect Beasts will increase all attributes by 0.1!" In his mind, the Chip's mechanical voice sounded again.

Under a large, entirely black tree, Arthur stood quietly. He directly kicked a large Insect Beast, over three meters tall, flying. It smashed hard into a giant rock, its massive body pierced by the sharp parts of the rock. It was clearly not going to survive.

"Still need to kill seventeen more."

Listening to the voice from the Chip in his mind, Arthur sighed slightly, feeling a sense of helplessness.

Although there were plenty of monsters in the wilderness, most of them were weak life forms. Unless he killed thousands, they wouldn't bring much benefit.

There were powerful mutated monsters, but many of them still made him feel a sense of danger. In such a situation, finding suitable prey to hunt was not an easy task.

For the entire morning, Arthur only found these few Insect Beasts and then found nothing else.

This progress made him feel helpless, and he somewhat missed the black Crystal Core he had obtained before.

Compared to painstakingly hunting mutated beasts, that Crystal Core was the main source of improvement.

Most of the attribute growth Arthur had experienced recently was thanks to that Crystal Core.

Footsteps gradually came from behind. Several figures on horseback were approaching.

They were specifically here to collect the corpses. The corpses of these mutated beasts were very precious ingredients, which only a few people could occasionally eat in normal times.

These people would drag Arthur's prey back. In the end, they would give a small portion of the resulting food back to Arthur, with the rest being their reward.

Arthur paid no attention to their actions, looking in one direction, preparing to search for his next prey.

After a brief rest at noon, Arthur hunted three or four more prey throughout the afternoon. Only when the sky gradually darkened did he choose to return to the village.

The nights in this world were far more dangerous than the days, with all sorts of anomalies seeming to occur, things even Arthur preferred not to get involved with.

Upon reaching the village entrance, Arthur paused slightly.

Several people were lying on the ground, surrounded by a large crowd, their expressions grim.

Seeing this, he quickened his pace, moving forward to examine the figures on the ground.

They were several corpses. Judging by their attire, they should all be hunters from this village. It was unknown what they had encountered to end up like this.

"What happened?"

From a distance, Raman approached from the center of the village, frowning as he looked at the corpses on the ground and asked.

"We don't know yet," a guard quickly replied. "These people hadn't returned for the past two days. This morning, they were found in the wooden house by the river, already dead when discovered."

Hearing this explanation, the expressions of those around immediately changed.

In this world, the death of one or two people was not uncommon; many died almost all the time.

However, if it were a normal death, the corpses would absolutely not remain intact in the wilderness, being torn apart by various monsters within a single night.

Thinking of this, Raman's expression also turned grim. His outstretched right hand trembled slightly.

He suppressed the fear in his heart, leading people forward to examine the corpses. Then, in a trembling voice, he said, "There are no wounds on the bodies."

As soon as this was said, the surrounding people's expressions changed. As if seeing a plague, they immediately distanced themselves from the corpses, their eyes filled with unspeakable terror.

"Immediately cremate these bodies, and from now on, no one is allowed to go to that wooden house by the river!"

Raman's face was ashen. Suppressing the fear in his heart, he ordered those around him.