Samuel

Target: "Godskin Noble" Samuel

Race: Human

Level: 215

Attributes: Vigor 45, Mind 50, Endurance 40, Strength 40, Dexterity 40, Intelligence 13, Faith 56, Arcane 10

Skills: Tibia Combat Art (Master), Black Flame Incantations (Master), Aspects of the Crucible (Master)

Legendary Ability: Destined Death (Disqualified)

Current Analysis Progress: 17.8% (Combat Remembrance Unlocked)

Next Analysis Node: 20%

Enter remembrance battle?

Lucia gazed at the screen of light in midair, and countless possibilities surged through his mind all at once.

Much like the process of summoning his own data panel just now, when he focused his mental power on another shining star, the Godskin Noble he had knocked down with a single Uplifting Aromatic earlier was displayed in data form as well. Of course, now he knew the man's name was Samuel.

The amount of information hidden in these few short lines was simply enormous. Samuel clearly possessed strength that crushed him in every respect, yet his level was only a mere 215. That was something Lucia had never expected. But then again, this further verified his speculation about the high-end combat power of this world. In the game, the gains from attributes dropped sharply after breaking through the soft caps of 60 to 80, but that phenomenon very likely no longer existed here. A gap of two or three hundred levels, reflected in reality, might even bring about a difference in combat power that was almost on the scale of two dimensions.

Aside from that, Tibia Combat Art—and a "disqualified" Destined Death?

Lucia thought of the map boss from his previous life called the Tibia Mariner. Legend had it that they were scattered across The Lands Between, shouldering the mission of guiding the lost dead. However, after the Golden Dynasty pacified the continent and returning to the tree became the only proper form of death under the golden faith system, these so-called guiding envoys who served death also vanished without a trace.

"So, the Mariners, Godskin Apostles, Deathbirds, and the like were all members of the same faction, all subordinates of that Gloam-Eyed Queen?" Lucia pondered.

"Right," he suddenly recalled Guerel's report about the other Godskin Noble. "They said they were existences who served the 'Queen of Death'..."

Many clues linked together in his mind. The Gloam-Eyed Queen had been defeated in the war against Queen Marika, and most traces of her existence had been erased by the victorious Golden Dynasty. Even the title "Gloam-Eyed Queen" had been fabricated by the few who knew a little about that history, based on her characteristics.

In truth, "Queen of Death" was that sovereign's true title, just like Marika's "Queen Eternal." The war between these two gods ran through hundreds of years of history after the Forbidden War and also laid the foundation for the current order of The Lands Between.

Then, thinking again of the age of the Tarnished after the Shattering War, Queen Marika had already been sealed within the stone stage inside the Erdtree, while the demigods were all on the verge of destruction amid endless slaughter. Yet the Godskin Apostles, Mariners, and Deathbirds became unprecedentedly active. Their traces spread throughout Liurnia, Caelid, Gelmir, and even the far northern icefields, infiltrating the heartlands of every major faction and stirring up storms... An indescribable sense of absurdity and dread spread through Lucia's heart. Thinking of it this way, the god who had just brushed past him was truly far too terrifying.

As for the so-called "disqualified" Destined Death, that was not hard to guess. Legend said that the Gloam-Eyed Queen had ultimately lost to Queen Marika's shadow beast—Maliketh, the "Black Blade"—and Destined Death had been sealed by him. The Godskin Apostles had originally wielded black flame derived from the Godslayer's Greatsword and could also borrow their queen's authority to use Destined Death. After the true Destined Death was sealed, their power was disqualified along with it, and the black flame degenerated from its intertwined black-and-red form into black and white.

Fortunately, if the two Godskin Nobles he faced today had been at their peak, his life would not have been saved by a single aromatic.

Thankfully, there had never been any ifs in this world. Right now, the only thing he needed to do was improve his own strength as quickly as possible. Thinking this, Lucia turned his gaze to the last line of the light screen: "Enter remembrance battle?"

"Yes." This time, he did not hesitate.

The sound of flames rising rang out. A black-flame emblem shaped like a pupil appeared dozens of steps away, and the massive body of Samuel the Godskin Noble calmly walked out from within. The celadon blade of the Godskin Stitcher shook in midair, and he charged straight toward Lucia!

At the same moment, Lucia also chose to charge at his opponent. His hands clenched around empty air, and two Dragonscale Blades instantly manifested from nothing. His half-dragonized body gave him power far more violent than his human form. When he was within ten steps of Samuel, he stomped down fiercely, and his entire body seemed to transform into a silver siege crossbow bolt that shot forward, his twin blades crossing in an X as they slashed down!

Blade and sword clashed, erupting in two short, fierce rings. Samuel's arm trembled, and he retreated half a step, a trace of astonishment appearing in his eyes—this little dragon before him was clearly still a juvenile, yet in that instant of collision, it had burst forth with strength almost equal to his own.

On the other side, Lucia retreated a full three steps before barely dispersing the terrifying force transmitted through his blades. He swallowed, and strands of sweet, metallic blood rose in his throat.

That exchange just now made it seem as though he had only been slightly inferior, but that was nothing more than an illusion created by his desperate gamble relying on the physical advantage of his ancient dragon half-dragon form. Samuel not only still had half a step over him in strength, but his skill was also in a completely different league. At the instant their weapons had clashed, Samuel activated Aspects of the Crucible, his wrist lengthening by an inch or so like rubber, just enough for both sword strikes to land on the weakest points of the Dragonscale Blades' force. Under the collision of two tremendous powers, Samuel emerged unscathed, while he had been struck straight in the heart and lungs by the force hidden within the Godskin Stitcher, instantly suffering a significant shock injury.

"Heh, you really are impressive!" Lucia turned his head and spat out a mouthful of bloody foam, then swung his blades and attacked forward again.

With his current strength, he had no chance of winning this fight. From the moment Samuel appeared, Lucia had been prepared for that. What he needed to do was not defeat his opponent, but temper himself in this simulated duel while attempting to push forward that still-unclear "analysis progress."

With that thought in mind, he fought Samuel with a style that completely disregarded life and death. He had no fear of the wounds rapidly increasing across his body and simply pursued pushing his strength to the limit, forcing out more of Samuel's techniques.

After nineteen moves, Samuel pierced Lucia's heart with one sword thrust. Black-and-white flames rose from the celadon blade and burned him into flying ash.

The next second, both of them exploded into countless motes of light. When Lucia's consciousness recovered, he found himself once again before that light screen, his entire body perfectly intact. On the light screen, Samuel's various data naturally had not changed, and only the "Current Analysis Progress" had barely inched forward from 17.8% to 18.1%.

"It only rose that little?" Lucia's eyes widened. "Then where did the previous 17.8% come from? I only threw one Uplifting Aromatic—could it be because I successfully knocked him down?"

He gritted his teeth and entered the remembrance battle again. This time, he used mental power to create an Uplifting Aromatic of the same dose and held it in his hand, then took advantage of Samuel's unpreparedness to knock him down with one strike and conveniently ended his life with a Dragonscale Blade.

However, after exiting the remembrance, the new analysis progress left him completely speechless—it was still 18.1%!

It seemed that trickery, using the same method to ambush someone, was useless. For the next stretch of time, he also tried using mental power to create all kinds of environments suited for battle, but either they had no effect at all and were speedrun by Samuel, resulting in an instant kill, or they successfully trapped Samuel but caused the analysis progress to stagnate completely.

Forced by helplessness, he could only choose to fight Samuel head-on. In the three duels after that, the longest time he lasted was twenty-two moves, while the shortest was only three moves before he was burned to ash by a sudden eruption of black-flame vortex from his opponent.

After three times, the analysis progress slowly advanced to 18.3%.

Facts proved that without further increasing his own strength, the growth of the analysis progress would undoubtedly suffer a devastating drop-off. Trying to grind it out through repeated attempts was simply not viable.

"Sigh..." Lucia let out a faint sigh. This feeling was like trying to cheat in a single-player game, only to discover that every method his meager intelligence could think of had already been predicted by the game and blocked in advance. In the end, he could only honestly start from the beginning.

Seeing that he could not push the analysis progress to 20% in a short time, he waved his hand and dispersed the star representing Samuel. After checking the entire memory battlefield once more and confirming that there were no further gains for the time being, he withdrew his mind and returned to the real world.

The rumbling of wheels still echoed beside his ears. Lucia pushed open the carriage window, and in the faint morning light, the sun had yet to rise. Only the northeastern sky was slightly pale, making it seem as though only a few short minutes had passed since he entered the memory battlefield.

He took a deep breath of the cold, clear air, and his mood relaxed with it. No matter what, he now had a path to level up and add points. Even if he temporarily could not discover the function of that so-called "analysis node," at the very least, he had obtained an extremely effective training ground.

As long as there was a path to continuously grow stronger, he had confidence in facing every difficulty that might appear in the future. In any case, he was already in a position with no retreat. No matter who they were, they would have to fight for a chance eventually. Of course, dragons were the same.

"Your Highness, do you have any orders?" Ekzykes, who was not far away, saw Lucia open the window and immediately urged his horse closer.

"How much longer until we reach Kallen City?"

Ekzykes looked up at the sky and replied, "At our current speed, around another four to five hours. We'll arrive before noon at the latest."

"Good." Hearing this, Lucia moved his shoulders and lumbar spine. "After last night's chaos, everyone must be fairly exhausted. Today, we'll rest in Kallen for half a day."

He raised his eyes and gazed into the distance. A large formation of brightly armored Storm Knights rode along the winding royal road toward the far horizon, and at the edge of his vision, that vast plateau towering into the clouds was already faintly in sight.