First Battle

Having condensed his Life Seed, Green did not return to the castle immediately. He wanted to test his strength. Old Green naturally did not stop him, but Green's advancement to Knight Apprentice was a major event for the entire barony. Old Green drove the carriage back to the castle first to prepare a celebratory dinner for him.

After watching Old Green leave, Green went straight to the warehouse doors. He had asked Old Green for the warehouse key.

Opening the warehouse doors, Green found several training targets inside. The best way to test strength was archery. In any era, archers represented the elite; without sufficient strength, one could not even draw a bow.

Carrying the targets he had found in the warehouse, Green set them up at distances of 100, 300, 600, and 1,000 paces. Based on an adult's stride being around seventy-five centimeters, 100 paces was seventy-five meters, 300 paces was 225 meters, 600 paces was 450 meters, and 1,000 paces was 750 meters. Once the distances seemed about right, Green secured the targets to the ground.

"By the calculations from my previous life, Lü Bu's famous shot through the gate was probably around 100 to 200 meters. I should be at least as strong as several Lü Bus now, right?" Green suddenly thought for no particular reason as he fixed the targets in place.

Returning to the warehouse entrance, Green picked up the bow and arrows he had prepared beforehand. They were standard-issue equipment brought from the castle before he advanced.

The guards' standard bows were wooden. Guards without superhuman physiques could not draw metal bows and could only use wooden ones. Even so, in this world of extraordinary power, the guards' physical abilities far surpassed the greatest soldiers from Green's previous life.

He weighed the bow in his hand. Bows made from this special wood still had some heft to them, but they felt somewhat light in Green's hands.

"This will do for now. I'm only testing their destructive power anyway," Green said thoughtfully.

The Storm Breathing Technique already provided a considerable boost to base attributes, and with the Chip's intervention, Green's physical abilities had directly reached the limit of a Knight Apprentice. These standard bows used by guards already seemed outdated for the excessively strengthened Green.

He picked up the quiver beside him. It contained fifteen arrows.

Holding his breath and focusing, Green drew the bow to its full extent and aimed at the distant target.

[Activating assistance.] Green silently thought.

A blue silhouette appeared in Green's vision. He adjusted his posture until it overlapped with the blue silhouette in his eyes.

"Whoosh!"

The instant the blue silhouettes aligned, Green released the bowstring. The arrow, fitted with white tail feathers, shot forth.

With a thud, the arrow embedded itself in the target at 100 paces. But it was not over yet. The enormous force carried by the arrow pierced straight through the entire target and sent it flying another dozen meters before it viciously buried itself in the ground, with even half of it sinking into the earth.

Seeing the immense killing power of his arrow, Green felt a surge of exhilaration. After training for so long, he had finally achieved results. In this dangerous world, he now possessed the strength to protect himself.

Striking while the iron was hot, he fired feathered arrow after feathered arrow. With the Chip's assistance, Green could be said to hit every shot. Every arrow accurately struck the bullseye. Even from 1,000 paces away, he could still ensure every arrow hit the target.

Just as Green was immersed in his archery, a faint tremor reached him, and the Chip instantly sent out a warning.

[Unknown heat source detected approaching. Prepare for battle immediately. Combat assistance activated.]

The Chip's notification interrupted Green's immersion in his archery. Already deeply distrustful of the outside world, he immediately tightened his grip on the bow in his hand.

However, Green did not immediately assume a defensive posture. According to the Chip's analysis, the unknown heat source was in the forest to the right of the warehouse, still quite far from him. It would be difficult for the other party to launch a surprise attack on him. The only thing he needed to watch out for was a long-range attack such as arrows.

[Humanoid creature detected. Or rather, a human.]

Looking at the image displayed by the Chip, Green saw that spring had just arrived. The vast amounts of snow absorbed heat, keeping the entire forest relatively cold. Under the Chip's heat-source detection, the humanoid creature in the forest stood out conspicuously.

Without drawing attention to himself, Green felt the quiver at his side. Only five arrows remained. Pretending nothing had happened, he picked up the longsword prepared nearby and walked toward the targets as if he were going to retrieve his arrows.

Although he remained calm on the surface, Green's scalp had already gone numb as an unprecedented feeling welled up within him.

[Adrenaline increase detected. Internal energy activity rising.]

Green could feel power surging through his body. His body was already prepared to deal with a crisis. Yet Green still hoped no conflict would occur. His combat experience was insufficient, and he knew too little about the enemy. Rashly entering battle was also a risk to him.

At times like this, it was better to lie low.

[Long-range projectile detected. Roll forward and evade immediately.]

An unprecedented sense of danger flooded Green's heart. His temples screamed warnings, as though they were about to be pierced by a sharp sword. With no time to think, Green followed the Chip's prompt and instinctively lunged forward.

A thud reached Green's ears, like the sound of a blunt weapon smashing into the ground. He felt the dirt beside him explode outward, some of it even landing on his face.

"Hm?" The person attacking Green from afar let out a puzzled sound, seemingly surprised that Green had managed to evade.

Lying on the ground after narrowly escaping disaster, Green's adrenaline erupted wildly. The fear in his heart was instantly swallowed by anger. The fury of nearly losing his life overwhelmed his primal fear.

Without any hesitation, Green rolled over, nocked an arrow, and instantly locked onto the other party with the Chip's assistance.

The arrow shot forth directly toward its target. Empowered by adrenaline, Green unleashed all his strength this time. The arrow flew so fast that the other party had no time to react.

"Pfft!" The sound of an arrow piercing flesh rang out.

[Target injured.]

Seeing the information relayed by the Chip, Green continued nocking arrows without hesitation.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" Green fired three arrows. With the Chip's powerful calculations and near-see-through heat-source detection, the three arrows completely sealed off the other party's escape routes.

"Damn it, what kind of monster is this?" Sike cursed under his breath. After being hit by Green's retaliatory first arrow, Sike had already become afraid. He had not even exposed himself, yet the other party had discovered his location and launched a swift counterattack.

When he saw Green's triple shot, Sike was terrified out of his wits. It was as though he had heard Death's summons. His entire body went cold, as if his blood had frozen.

Without the slightest hesitation, Sike reached for a pale green bead in his clothes and crushed it viciously in his hand.

The instant the bead shattered, a semi-transparent white barrier appeared. Green's three arrows slammed fiercely against the barrier.

The barrier lasted only a short time. After briefly blocking Green's three arrows, it immediately vanished.

But that time was enough for Sike. Covering his injured left arm with his right hand, he swiftly fled the area covered by the three arrows and ran without looking back into the depths of the Annabur Mountains.

Green did not rashly pursue him. If the other party had set an ambush or had companions, his lack of combat experience could easily get him killed.

Looking at the thermal image displayed by the Chip, Green finally sat down heavily on the ground after confirming that the other party had escaped.

Green's mind remained blank for a long time before he slowly recovered. Looking at his trembling hands and feeling the exhaustion in his body, the confidence that had swelled after gaining power vanished at that moment.

Slowly pushing himself up, Green took several deep breaths and steadied his mind.

Walking over to the small crater beside him, Green looked at the concealed weapon used to ambush him. It was a massive iron throwing dart, fitted with fins to stabilize its trajectory.

Green used his longsword to cut off a corner of his clothing. Only after wrapping the dart in it did he carefully pick it up for inspection.

Green was not sure whether poison had been applied to the surface of the dart. It was better to be cautious.

Examining the throwing dart closely, Green soon discovered a line of small words on its fins.

[Saladin First Legion, First Reconnaissance Squad, Sike]

Damn, was he really this bold? He did not even bother disguising it?

Now Green was certain who had launched the attack. It was perfectly normal for Saladin to attack people from the Lodin Kingdom.

Green was clearly a Knight Apprentice. Killing him would likely count as a considerable military achievement, so it was no wonder the other party had attacked him directly.

"Damn, was I really this unlucky? I ran into something like this right after breaking through." After lamenting his luck, Green's expression turned serious. The shadow of war was drawing closer and closer. Peaceful days likely would not last much longer.

Putting the dart into his pocket, Green slowly walked toward the forest. During this encounter, he had not seen the other party's face or figure at all. He had relied entirely on the Chip's thermal imaging. He still needed to investigate how the other party had escaped in the end.

According to the image returned by the Chip, the arrows had seemed to be blocked by something as they approached the other party, buying him time to escape.

Walking to the edge of the forest, Green slashed apart the nearby bushes with his longsword and headed toward the place from which the attack had been launched.

"The attacker's final strike landed in the ground beside me. That means he attacked from above," Green analyzed as he looked up at the large tree before him.

Relying on his physical abilities, Green easily leaped onto the branches. After searching for quite some time, he confirmed that the other party had launched the attack on a whim. In an environment like tree branches, where movement was restricted, launching a surprise attack was not a good idea.

It was too easy to be counterkilled, just like Green's triple shot. It had nearly taken the other party's life.

However, Green still found no clues as to how the other party had blocked the arrows.

Arriving at the spot where the other party had attacked from, Green imitated the attack and confirmed that his three arrows had indeed sealed off the other party.

Just as Green was thinking, the Chip suddenly issued a notification.

[High-energy substance detected. Collect immediately.]

Hearing the Chip's prompt, Green immediately bent down to search and quickly found scattered green powder.

[Large quantity of Life Force Crystals detected. Life force is dissipating. Absorb immediately?]

[Absorb immediately.]

Something this good existed? Green was overjoyed.

As the green powder disappeared, a warm current slowly flowed into Green's body, making him unable to stop himself from groaning.

[Green]

[Strength: 2.6]

[Speed: 2.8]

[Constitution: 3.1]

After absorbing the energy from the green powder, all of Green's attributes had increased by 0.1. This was no simple matter. Green's constitution had already reached the upper limit of what a Knight Apprentice could attain, and with Green's curved growth calculations, these three 0.1 increases made him at least thirty percent stronger than before.

After confirming there was no more useful information, Green hurried back to the castle to tell Old Green about this.