Advanced Training

Melina took Lucian back to the Site of Grace behind the castle.

He glanced at the achievement panel and, sure enough, another achievement had lit up: Arrive at Roundtable Hold.

Wind Spirit Moon Shadow had also recovered one use, bringing the total back to three.

After confirming the recovered use, Lucian hurried straight for his room.

Lucian was utterly exhausted—mentally exhausted.

Emerging from Grace had left him invigorated, but the prolonged battles of late had kept his nerves stretched taut.

He needed to get back to bed and sleep properly, or he was going to snap.

On the way back, Lucian also recalled what Nepheli Loux had told him at Roundtable Hold about how the multiplayer items from the game worked.

They were similar to their functions in the game, but there were quite a few differences.

The Tarnished's Wizened Finger could leave riddles visible only to Tarnished in different places, allowing them to pass on information.

The Tarnished's Furled Finger had to be used together with a Furlcalling Finger Remedy.

He could leave marks in certain dangerous places, and anyone who used a Furlcalling Finger Remedy would be able to see them.

Once someone touched a mark, the person who had left it would sense it.

However, unlike in the game, the person who left the mark needed to find a Site of Grace, travel through it to a Site of Grace near the mark, and then run over there.

In other words, it was very difficult to wait for someone else to rescue him in an emergency. They might not make it in time.

And they could simply refuse to come. All they had to do was use a Finger Severer to cut their connection to the mark.

All in all, it was pretty unreliable.

Lucian abandoned the idea of summoning a crowd to fight bosses.

Unless he could train a group of Tarnished subordinates who followed his orders completely, the efficiency of gathering everyone would be terrifyingly low.

But if he really had a group of Tarnished who obeyed him, why not just bring them directly to fight the boss? Using a Furled Finger to call them over would be completely redundant.

After thinking it over, this function probably had only one use for Lucian: leave marks himself, then let NPCs he wanted to save summon him for help.

Or he could arrange to explore with someone else, scout the area first, and wait for them to notify him by touching the mark once they arrived.

Sigh, what a hassle. Better to just use the Tarnished's Wizened Finger and leave some information behind, scattering my traces across the Lands Between.

Lucian quickly returned to his room, took off his armor, collapsed onto the bed, and immediately fell asleep.

Lucian woke up on the soft, oversized bed.

His sleep had felt strangely unreal—serene and peaceful.

He opened his eyes and stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, but did not get up.

Instead, he lingered in bed for a while, rolling around beneath the covers. The soft mattress gave him a faint sense of his previous life.

But Lucian did not dwell on it for long. He had already crossed into another world, so immersing himself in the past was meaningless.

Now, he needed to grow stronger. He wanted to become very strong.

Strong enough to become the strongest fighter in Roundtable Hold.

Strong enough to become the Elden Lord.

But once he stepped out of his room, Lucian was lost.

Because he did not know where Edgar was.

After wandering around the courtyard outside for a bit, he found that more than half the corpses there had already been cleared away.

Lucian quickly caught Julius, who was carrying bodies through the courtyard, and had him lead the way to Edgar's room.

Lucian knocked on the door, and Edgar's voice immediately rang out.

"Come in."

Lucian pushed open the door. Edgar was not wearing armor; instead, he wore an aristocratic robe beneath a blue outer cloak.

It was the attire of lords, proof of status.

Seeing Edgar writing and drawing over documents on the table, Lucian suddenly felt that this was not a good time to interrupt him.

"Sorry. It seems I've interrupted your work."

When Edgar saw that it was Lucian, he was somewhat surprised and hurriedly stood up.

"No, it's fine. The immediate work has already been arranged, and the later tasks cannot be scheduled in a short while anyway. Please, go ahead."

The reconstruction work for Castle Morne had left him overwhelmed.

With too few hands available, he often had to take part in manual labor himself. He wished he could split himself in two.

Even so, returning things to their former state was still a distant prospect.

Since that was the case, he might as well hear Lucian out first. Edgar did not think Lucian had come merely to chat. He must have had something to discuss.

Lucian explained that he wanted to learn martial skills from Edgar.

Edgar's first reaction was: Is he joking?

In Edgar's eyes, Lucian's combat skills did not need his guidance at all.

Edgar could not single-handedly fight more than a hundred Misbegotten, then battle the Leonine Misbegotten for three hundred rounds.

"Hmm. Your strength exceeds mine. I fear my skills are not enough to guide you."

Lucian hurriedly explained.

"My fighting has no real form or method to it. My foundation is terrible. Only my combat instincts seem to be inexplicably decent."

"And I really want to learn the storm series of skills. I want to train until I can wield storm as freely as you do."

Edgar found this very strange. He had personally seen Lucian use storm to block the Confessor's hidden arrow.

With that level of control, it was impossible that Lucian had not mastered storm.

At that moment, the Ancient King instructed Lucian in his mind to take out its Spirit Ashes.

Lucian took the Ancient King's Spirit Ashes from the small bag he carried with him.

A thread of magic was drawn forth, and a pure wind blew toward Edgar.

After interpreting the message carried in the wind, Edgar suddenly understood. He immediately dropped to one knee and saluted the Ancient King's Spirit Ashes.

"I never imagined I would be able to witness the legendary Ancient King."

Edgar rose to his feet and looked at Lucian, his gaze completely transformed.

"The Ancient King has just explained the entire situation to me. Since the Ancient King does not possess a human body, it can only draw upon your magic to unleash storm, but cannot teach you how to release storm yourself."

"Therefore, I will guide you from here on. I will certainly do my utmost."

Lucian was dumbfounded. What exactly had the Ancient King told him? Why had Edgar's attitude changed so completely? He had even started using honorifics.

"May I ask what the Ancient King told you?"

"My apologies. The Ancient King ordered me to keep it confidential."

Speechless. Ancient King, are you a child? At your age, you're still playing mysterious games?

Lucian did not bother with it anymore. As long as he could learn something, that was enough. He was looking forward to wielding two Greatswords and unleashing Lightning Whirlwind Slash once his training was complete.

"Then when do we begin?"

Edgar stroked his beard and thought for a moment.

"Please give me ten minutes. I need to assign today's work, and change into my armor while I'm at it."

"Then we will begin training outside the castle."

Lucian headed outside first. The broad expanse of grassland was extremely spacious, and a Site of Grace stood nearby. If he ran out of magic, he could replenish it right away. It truly was a good place to train.

Before long, Edgar hurried over wearing Banished Knight Armor. There was still a dent in its abdomen from Singh's kick back then.

Seeing that Lucian had already prepared himself, Edgar assumed a stance.

"Then let us begin."

I changed quite a bit of Melina's earlier storyline. Since she had only begun to open up a little in the previous chapter, I toned down Melina's reaction so it would not suddenly turn into blushing and embarrassment, and adjusted a few other details as well. For example, the location of Roundtable Hold was discovered from a map fragment. If you're interested, you can go back and see how it reads now. All I can say is that I did my best. Also, as usual, feel free to join the group, and please send some votes my way. ('')