Towards Intermediate Knight Training

On the morning of September 30th, 996 of the God Emperor Calendar, Albert was conducting a new round of inventory.

On the night of the 29th, after following Landen in attacking the Twin Tribes, Albert continued on with him to seize a small tribe ten kilometers farther west—the only tribe originally planned for that night's raid.

The attack still went exceptionally smoothly. More than that, Landen afterward displayed the sense of responsibility expected of a Lord:

After the raid, he sent some of the knights back to reinforce the previously captured Twin Tribes and had the Mana-Wielders in the camp relay orders for the three camps to merge after daybreak.

Before dawn, Raul, who had remained behind at the small camp, escorted everyone there to join the Twin Tribes camp.

According to Albert's tally, the barbarian camps conquered over the past two days had yielded a total of 27 Black-Scaled Horses, 36 pack beasts, 24 tents, 119 sheep, 109 Mana-Less, and 53 Gold Coins.

By this point, the livestock Landen had acquired in two days already exceeded the combined gains from all the Gallop Barony's years of trade, while the people he had rescued and captured amounted to more than half the barony's population.

By the minimum standards for nobility, as long as Landen could achieve a breakthrough to Intermediate Knight, he could independently develop the barony.

For the first time, Albert seriously considered whether the Gallop Barony ought truly be handed over to Landen. Landen was now a Junior Knight and could barely inherit the baronial title, yet he had displayed tremendous potential and administrative ability.

If Landen could achieve a breakthrough during this period, he could open up a new barony in the future.

Albert's thoughts drifted far afield. He was already considering where to establish the new barony's fief, where to find an Earth School Mage to help build a castle, and how to locate low-level knights seeking a house to serve.

Moreover, Landen was still growing and needed more Magic Beast Meat to replenish his strength and Battle Qi.

Yet Landen himself seemed not to realize the importance of Magic Beast Meat. He always liked to share any he obtained with the low-level knights.

Staying up all night to raid two camps in succession before returning to the first Twin Tribes camp to rest had exhausted Landen thoroughly.

Landen had only just gotten up. This was probably the latest he had risen since coming to this world, but right now he was wondering what the two Mana-Less girls kneeling beside his bed were doing.

"Do you two need something?"

"Lord Albert instructed us to serve you well!" the two girls answered.

"..." Landen fell silent for a moment. "Today, our camps are merging. By then, more than three hundred people will probably gather together, and it'll be very crowded.

Go find the people in charge of several tents and have them come see me."

"Yes!" The two girls then left the tent.

Landen knew that Mana-Wielders in this world possessed tremendous privileges. After all, becoming a Mana-Wielder brought qualitative changes in everything from physique and strength to lifespan.

In Landen's homeland, someone had conducted a survey of primates and found that the greater the difference in size between males and females at the individual level within a primate group, the more likely the species was to develop polygamy.

The Mana-Wielders of this world all had multiple spouses, regardless of gender. From one perspective, a Human Race "household" consisted of a Mana-Wielder and their partners and children.

To Mana-Wielders, they alone were truly the same species. Ordinary Mana-Less were merely creatures protected by them and serving them.

Whether on the battlefield or in everyday life, Mana-Wielders always treated one another with respect. For instance, whether it was Raul or Landen, if they wished to mobilize Mana-Less outside their own family, they had to discuss it with the Mana-Wielder head of the corresponding household.

Conflicts among the Human Race were generally brawls between Mana-Wielders, and they also observed the principle of nonlethal harm, holding back against one another.

Even within households formed by Mana-Wielders, male Mana-Wielders and female Mana-Wielders would each have their own Mana-Less partners.

In short, relations between Mana-Wielders were highly equal. Mana-Less were merely their dependents; every relationship stemmed from strength.

Over these past few days, Landen had watched the Mana-Wielders around him and their families. They were simply like troops of shaggy baboons—each group had one leading baboon, and everyone else was either his wife or his children.

Since Landen had already become a Mana-Wielder, he had no intention of giving up a Mana-Wielder's privileges. It was just that—could these barbarian Mana-Less keep themselves clean? Every one of them smelled so strong it was hard to keep his eyes open.

Of course, more importantly, the girl by his bed claiming she was there to serve him had been standing beside the tribal leader whom Landen had cut down on the bed. Landen still remembered the barbarian leader's blood spraying all over her. Even if she had no psychological trauma, Landen certainly did.

Before long, several leaders among the Mana-Less arrived at Landen's tent. They were people with relatively high standing among the sixty-one Mana-Less captured the previous night.

Landen decided to find some work for them. First, he had them count everyone in the camp with a trade or skill—cooks, tanners, armor repairers, weavers, spinners, carpenters, stonemasons, grooms, and the like.

Then they were to count all literate Mana-Less, gather together all twenty-some children, and have literate women with children of their own care for them collectively.

Finally, everyone in the camp was to wash their clothes, bathe, and dig sanitation trenches. The main camp had not yet been moved over, so some of the more specific assignments would be made after the camps merged.

Just as Landen finished arranging the work, Raul and Albert came looking for him.

"Landen, do you have time now?" Albert asked very kindly. Before other Territory Residents and knights, Albert would address Landen as Lord Landen or Baron, but when meeting him alone, he always called him by name.

"Uncle Albert, what is it?" Whenever this happened, Landen knew Albert was about to teach him something, so he treated him with particular courtesy.

"Raul and I discussed it. We believe that aside from managing the territory's affairs, you should also intensify your knight training.

Although Imperial law allows a Junior Knight to inherit a baronial title, a mere Junior Knight cannot survive on the frontier as a pioneering baron."

"Actually, I wanted to discuss this with you today as well. When I had just achieved my breakthrough, I tried gathering Battle Qi, but it always felt extremely difficult to condense, and I couldn't release it.

Father taught us many basic techniques, such as Charge and chopping strikes. But it's difficult for me to imbue them with Battle Qi. Even when I occasionally succeed, I become very weak."

During his free moments these past few days, Landen had also hoped to practice using Battle Qi to unleash some techniques.

For example, the most traditional Charge used Battle Qi to accelerate the body. This move had many variations, such as charging at high speed while imbuing a shield with Battle Qi for a shield strike.

However, the Magic Turbulence on the Gallop Plains made it difficult for Landen to gather Battle Qi, leaving him unable to properly practice or use such techniques.

In an environment where magical elements were mixed and chaotic, the human body needed longer to absorb them and condense them into Battle Qi. As a low-level knight who had only just achieved a breakthrough, Landen had little Battle Qi stored within his body to begin with, and he absorbed it slowly as well. Thus, once he released Battle Qi, his body immediately felt weak.

At present, Landen's fastest way to replenish Battle Qi was to eat Magic Beast Meat. Under Albert's care over the past few days, all the knights had given Landen the Magic Beast Meat newly captured several days earlier.

Everyone knew that if they wanted to keep winning future battles, they had to help Landen increase his strength. Preserving him meant preserving the entire territory.

"Actually, there is another way to gather Battle Qi," Albert said gravely.

"Oh, through meditation?" Landen's interest was piqued.

"The principle behind meditation is similar to cultivation—they both gather magical elements from the environment into the body."

"What method is that?"

"Since magical elements in the environment are difficult to gather, gather magical elements that have already condensed."

"Condensed? Blue... Magic Potion?" Landen nearly said blue bottle.

"That is one kind, but ordinary Magic Potions are specifically for mages to replenish their mana. Knights can drink them too, but the absorption is very poor. Knights have Battle Qi Potions specially made for them."

"But we don't have any right now!"

"Right. There are no ready-made potions, but there are natural ones."

"Nat... You don't mean those Magic Crystals, do you?"

"Yes. Magic Crystals can replenish battle qi, albeit inefficiently."

"That cost is really steep."

"Yes, but we have no other choice right now."

Raul and Albert then taught Landen a very simple method for replenishing battle qi: hold a Magic Crystal and direct battle qi into the palm, use the battle qi to merge with the magic power within the Magic Crystal, and absorb it into the body. This could speed up the replenishment of battle qi.

Of course, this method had many problems. For example, its efficiency was far too low. Magic Beasts with Magic Cores could generally use magic or techniques several times, yet battle qi replenished with a Magic Crystal could only support one or two techniques.

But Landen had no other options now. The one consolation was that his stockpile of Magic Crystals was still fairly large—twenty-seven of them. Every camp had more or less a few Magic Crystals.

Last night, Landen had decided to move all the camps to the location of the Twin Camps, effectively choosing a compromise point among the three camps. This location was twenty kilometers from the nearest medium-sized Barbarian camp.

Considering that the Barbarians would reduce the range of their routine patrols while their main force was away, their current location was very safe.

Before the old camp arrived to rendezvous with them, Landen spent five Magic Crystals testing the method Albert and Raul had described for replenishing battle qi with Magic Crystals.

During his first attempt, Landen discovered that if he simply held a Crystal in his hand and wrapped it with battle qi, a great deal of magic power would leak out. Once the magic power inside the Magic Crystal dispersed into the air, it would be swept away by the turbulent currents.

Landen even felt that the flow of this magic power conformed closely to certain laws of fluid mechanics.

After gaining some experience, Landen immediately decided to adjust his method. When absorbing the second Magic Crystal, he tried forming his battle qi into some kind of vortex around the Crystal, making the battle qi circulate continuously through his palm. This adjustment had some effect; at the very least, far less magic power leaked away than during the first attempt.

Landen thought this approach was viable, so on his third attempt, he tried continuously increasing the speed of the circulation.

The magic power stored within a Magic Crystal was not particularly abundant, while rapidly circulating battle qi also consumed battle qi itself. Somewhere between consumption and improved efficiency lay a vague point of balance.

After another attempt, Landen felt that he had found a balance he could accept.

After absorbing the battle qi from three or four Magic Crystals, Landen practiced several techniques his father Hark had taught him: Charge, slash, leaping slash, and finally, he tried coating his saber with battle qi to improve the armor-piercing power of a downward strike.

Thanks to the replenishment from five Magic Crystals, Landen successfully unleashed seven techniques in succession.

After using them all, Landen used the optimal battle qi circulation speed he had worked out to absorb one final Magic Crystal, then ended this training session.

Using Magic Crystals to replenish his battle qi like this was extremely expensive. But this was a battle against the Barbarians, where every fight was a struggle to the death. Using Magic Crystals to secure victory was far better than being cut down for lack of battle qi.

According to Raul's experience, although Barbarians could reach the physical standards of Intermediate Knights, a Junior Knight who made good use of battle qi techniques would have no problem fighting ordinary Barbarians.

On the road ahead across the Gallop Plains, Landen would inevitably face moments of direct battle against Barbarians. He had to practice this skill of replenishing battle qi with Magic Crystals now.

"Albert? I wanted to ask—do we knights have a god of our own?" Landen casually asked Albert after finishing his training.

In his memories, knights would pray to a God of Knights before charging into battle. Yet he did not recall there being any Temples or Altars dedicated to the God of Knights. Could it be that the old god only needed online worship, with no need for offerings at all?

"Of course we do. The god of knights and mages is the god of all knightly lords!"

"Then don't we need to worship him?"

"Protecting the people is the best worship!"

"Don't we need to offer tributes?"

"..." At that moment, Landen felt Albert's gaze upon him, like a teacher looking at a hopelessly poor student.

"Your father never told you this?"

"Told me what?"

"The God Emperor is the god of knights and mages!"

"What? The God Emperor? He... He...!"

"I told you before, the God Emperor ascended to the Divine Rank in the fiftieth year of his reign. By then, he had already explored the Legend rank system and become the god of knights and mages."

"Then why is it still the God Emperor Era now?"

"Because the God Emperor remained on the throne afterward. He served as Emperor of the Empire until the year 725. That year, he decided to pass his throne to his great-great-grandson, the Legend Archmage Zhang Chen—the current Emperor."

Wow. Becoming a god really did let you have all the fun. He had been Emperor for more than seven hundred years, then stepped behind the scenes for another two hundred and fifty. Watching iron hooves thunder as they trampled across thousands of miles of rivers and mountains—he had truly lived for a thousand years.

Landen was so astonished he could not speak. No wonder there was no need to offer tributes to the God of Knights. Wasn't directly collecting taxes better? Wasn't a state monopoly on salt and iron better? Wasn't cultivating Legends better?

A long column was moving in from the south. This was Landen's main camp. After waiting for nearly an entire morning, the several camps had finally converged.