Killing 1

He placed the brass ring in his palm. The shattered emerald was as large as a fingernail. It was clear that the original emerald had once been crystal-clear. Now, however, the green gemstone had completely broken into countless pieces. If not for the ring holding it in place, the fragments would probably have fallen out long ago.

Anglie examined the ring carefully and discovered that besides the cracks, the surface of the green gemstone unexpectedly bore some white patterns, as though they had originally been plated onto it.

"Looks like there's more to this." Anglie was immediately intrigued.

After all, Dis had carried this ring on him. If it was of no use to him, then it must have been something exceptionally important to him.

Staring closely at the emerald's surface, he painstakingly connected the patterns. They turned out to be two somewhat twisted letters, precisely the common script of the Rudin Kingdom in this world.

Anglie frowned slightly and sounded them out according to the letters.

"Ma... ns..."

Mans? He was somewhat puzzled, but the two letters had become blurry because of the cracks. Parts of several strokes were missing as well.

"No... it doesn't look like Mans... Perhaps there's another pronunciation." Anglie knit his brows tightly and spoke again. "Mans!"

Hiss!!!!!

The ring in his palm suddenly lit up, and the emerald blossomed with a faint green glow.

"Unknown energy detected! Unknown energy radiation source detected. It will produce unknown radiation effects on the body." The Biochip suddenly issued a warning.

Anglie was startled, staring blankly at the emerald ring in his hand. The faint green glow dyed his entire upper body green.

The whole room around him was also stained pale green by the light, making it appear somewhat eerie.

He felt a cool, flowing breeze continuously swirling in his palm. It was as if what he held was not a ring, but a tiny whirlwind.

"This..." An inexplicable shock filled his heart. The faint green light shone like flowing water. His nose caught the scent of a fresh sea breeze.

"The unknown energy source is about to be depleted. Would you like to actively absorb it?" the Biochip prompted.

"Oh? It can actually be absorbed?" Anglie froze slightly. The Biochip had always merely been a system capable of assisting him, yet now it was actually suggesting that he could actively absorb this energy radiation.

"Would there be any harm after absorption?" he hurriedly asked.

"Unable to determine. Insufficient data. After absorption, it will produce positive stimulating radiation on the body. Preliminary assessment: the Biochip can store the energy from the energy radiation source."

"Since it has a positive stimulating effect, absorb it!" Noticing that the green light seemed to be gradually weakening, Anglie decisively said.

Hiss, hiss...

After a faint series of sounds, the green glow from the ring in his hand completely vanished.

Crack!

The emerald on the ring suddenly gave a crisp sound. The gemstone, already covered in cracks, completely dimmed. Its original bright green was gone, replaced by utter dullness.

Holding the ring, Anglie's mind remained fixed on the magnificent scene from moments ago.

"This kind of power..." He vaguely formed a guess.

That biography had once mentioned that, according to legend, above Knight Level powerhouses existed a group of people of incomparable strength. They could summon wind, rain, thunder, and lightning; they could bring disaster and blessing alike; they understood everything and possessed power capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the monstrous beasts of legend.

These people called themselves Wizards, and their footprints had once covered the entire world.

"Could this be a Wizard's power...?" Anglie took a deep breath and suppressed the tremor in his heart.

"Absorption complete. Slow energy release detected. It will produce a strengthening effect on the body. Begin slow-release enhancement?" The Biochip's prompt interrupted his speculation.

"The strengthening effect—which aspect does it lean toward?" Anglie asked.

"Agility attributes."

"Not yet." Anglie's eyes flickered as he silently replied.

The enhancement from the Blue Bamboo Shoot had not yet been completed, and he could still use it for deeper enhancement. Though it had the side effect of diarrhea, he could obtain as much of that stuff as he wanted. This mysterious power, on the other hand, was limited, so it was best not to use it yet.

"Right, how long will the enhancement take?" Anglie suddenly remembered.

"Approximately 76 hours."

Anglie nodded slightly, carefully pinching the ring in his hand. Just now, he had spoken a word that caused the ring to light up.

"Mans... meaning light and graceful, like the wind. In other words, that is this ring's effect?" he guessed. When he activated the energy earlier, he had indeed felt as if his body had become somewhat lighter. But the increase was far too slight to be of much use in actual combat.

"Mans! Mans!!" He called it twice in succession, but the ring did not react at all. Though he had been mentally prepared, Anglie was still slightly disappointed.

After pondering for a while, he carefully put the ring away.

"Zero, provide the nutrients my body currently needs most for recovery. Identify them as specific foods and give them to me."

"Beginning analysis..."

Another important ability of the Biochip was that it could determine what nutrients the body needed most at any given time, as well as which foods it should avoid the most. Thus, in terms of recovery, it far surpassed ordinary people.

After lying in bed for around three days, Anglie was already able to get out of bed. Following the menu provided by the Biochip, he directly instructed the maid to prepare the food accordingly, allowing his body to recover extremely quickly. With the Biochip's prompts, he knew exactly what to do and when to do it to achieve the best recovery results.

On the morning of the fourth day, Anglie finally received Zero's notification that his physical recovery would no longer affect his movements.

During this time, he had even eaten in his bedroom and never gone to the dining hall. He had also temporarily stopped eating Blue Bamboo Shoots, fearing they would delay his recovery. After all, diarrhea also depleted one's vitality.

Standing by the window, Anglie rolled his shoulders, producing faint cracking sounds from his joints.

"It's been a long time since I moved around..." He shook his head slightly and picked up the silver cross sword resting on the table before the window. It was Dis's sword; his own cross sword had long been covered in nicks and had been thrown into the blacksmith's forge to be remelted.

Dressed in white swordsman's attire and carrying the longsword at his waist, he left his bedroom.

Cecilia had taken the clothes he had changed out of earlier to the washroom. The maids constantly passing up and down the staircase all respectfully greeted Anglie along the way.

Within the residential tower, the rooms on the lower floors were completely quiet, without a sound to be heard. Anglie knew that with the year drawing to a close, the Apprentice Knights who had been sent to train at the castle had all returned home for the new year. At most, only a few students without families remained.

Although these students had the right to train and study at the castle, they also had to fulfill corresponding obligations. According to the Baron's rules, they had to patrol the territory, defend the castle, and, after swearing themselves in as knights, serve the Baron for at least five years. This was customary. Of course, not many of these Apprentice Knights would become Knight Level powerhouses and awaken the power of the Seed, but most of them would absolutely become warriors surpassing ordinary soldiers. That was certain.

In other words, the relationship between these students and the castle was much like that of an academy. They exchanged part of their current obligations, their future potential, and a period of future loyalty for the opportunity to study and become strong.

From his memories, Anglie also understood that this was a common custom in this world. Rather than saying that the castle granted students an opportunity, it was more accurate to call it an exchange. There had once been lords who used their authority to exploit Apprentice Knights excessively, only to have their rule overthrown by the students after they became Formal Knights. Such incidents had established this relatively fair custom between lords and Apprentice Knights.

Walking down from the tower, he found the training grounds empty as well, without a single person in sight.

The morning sky was somewhat overcast. Thick white clouds pressed together overhead, bringing a faint sense of oppression.

Anglie lifted his head and swept his gaze across the sky.

"Looks like it might rain," he murmured.

Whether there were many or few people in the castle made little difference to him. He and the Apprentice Knights were entirely parallel lines, with almost no intersection. The Baron looked young and vigorous, and might well live another fifty or sixty years, so these Apprentice Knights meant nothing at all to Anglie. He did not care what they thought of him.

For the people in the castle, servants sat in taverns drinking and boasting, young girls gathered to play a game called Kuiloqi, while direct noble relatives of the Baron such as Cilier could play instruments like the harp. In this era, people had pitifully few forms of entertainment. After all, everyone had to spend most of their time working and studying.

"In weather this gloomy, Maggie and the others are probably playing chess in their rooms?" Anglie guessed. In Anglie's memories, many nobles and military officers under Viscount Candia in Candiya City kept a foreign breed of dog called Haqiu. This breed was snow-white all over and roughly the size of the wolfdogs from Earth in his previous life, making it greatly beloved by people.

However, because the Baron disliked keeping pets, no one was allowed to raise them in the castle. He had heard that nobles in the distant imperial capital of the Rudin Kingdom liked to keep hawks, though Anglie had never seen one.

Following the edge of the training grounds, he headed toward the castle gate. Two guards stood watch on either side of it. Upon seeing Anglie, both respectfully saluted him.

"You're heading out again, Young Master?" one guard asked.

Anglie nodded. "Yes, I'm going out to stretch a little. Has Lord Ward not returned yet?"

"Not yet. Lord Ward should be on his way back. It seems he brought back quite a lot of newcomers this time, so it has taken a little longer." One guard lowered his voice. "Lord Ward asked us to pass along a message. If you want to go out, it would be best to stay around the outskirts of the nearby forest and not venture deeper again."

Anglie smiled instead. Ward was someone who understood the original Anglie's temperament quite well. The original Anglie listened to no one except the Baron. Thus, Ward had expected that the gate guards would not be able to stop him, so he simply offered a reminder.

Ultimately, Ward had only taken such good care of Anglie because of the Baron's instructions and request. He did not hold much hope for Anglie himself. Moreover, Anglie had displayed decent archery some time ago, so Ward was not overly worried.

Leaving the castle alone, Anglie tightened his grip on the longsword. He first went through a perfunctory round of Basic Swordsmanship in the open field, then slowly walked into the woods.

The moment he entered the forest, Anglie immediately quickened his pace. Following his earlier memories, he ran directly toward the place where he had once fought Dis.

Very soon, in less than half an hour, a somewhat wrecked slope appeared before him. Dried bloodstains still marked the tree trunks, and two throwing knives were half-hidden in a clump of bushes. Anglie made his way down the slope. At its bottom lay a ravine, where traces of the battle from days ago remained clearly visible.

He looked toward where Dis had fallen. Apart from a pool of blood, there was nothing else there. At the edge of the bloodstain, droplets of blood stretched all the way into the depths of the forest.

Anglie walked to the bloodstain, crouched down, and dipped his index finger into it.

"He should have been dragged into the forest," he muttered quietly.

He rose to his feet and circled the area once more, retrieving his quiver and longbow from a ravine nearby. Anglie then glanced again toward the direction in which the blood trail extended.

To be honest, ever since the incident with the green ring, he had increasingly come to regard this world with a sense of mystery and awe.