Sleep Pot

"Let go!"

Xia Tong broke out in a cold sweat, desperately trying to pull out the straight sword that was stuck, or shake off the corpse hanging from it.

Just then.

"Roar—!"

In the distance, the heavily armored Godrick Knight had noticed the disturbance.

With a roar, he raised the massive shield bearing a golden lion and leveled the knight's lance in his hand, charging at Xia Tong like a heavy war chariot!

The ground trembled beneath his iron-shod hooves.

"Let go!"

Seeing that he could not pull it free, Xia Tong made a snap decision and released the battered, chipped sword.

Then he reached down beside the saddle and grabbed something.

Whoosh!

A heavy spear appeared in his hand.

Lord's Army Spear.

It was loot he had taken while clearing out lesser enemies earlier, and he had never brought himself to sell it.

Melina had reminded him that mounted combat required a long weapon and told him to keep an extra weapon hanging at his side.

And now, it had truly saved his life.

Having such a capable woman at home is great.

Xia Tong silently praised her as he tightened his grip around the icy shaft.

Behind him, the other two isolated Godrick Soldiers were already rushing toward him.

Farther away were seven or eight Godrick Soldiers who had come running after hearing the commotion, along with that imposing elite knight.

"Good timing!"

Xia Tong shouted low. Rather than meet them head-on, he urged his horse forward and opened up the distance.

On a distant slope crouched two hunched, skinny figures.

They were two Fanged Imps, ambushers Xia Tong had deliberately stationed on the outskirts for support.

They clutched Magic Pots in their hands and stared fixedly at the battlefield, ready to assist at any moment.

Clop, clop, clop!

Feeling that the pursuers behind him had spread out somewhat, Xia Tong suddenly yanked the reins.

"Torrent, turn and strike!"

The Spirit Steed immediately understood, coming to an abrupt halt and turning around.

Using the horse's turning momentum, Xia Tong charged at the nearest Godrick Soldier with his spear in hand.

With the horse's speed behind it, the spear's piercing power was amplified to the limit.

Squish!

The spearhead met no resistance as it drove straight into the Godrick Soldier's chest, piercing through his iron armor.

Xia Tong now had 17 points of Strength.

He suddenly exerted force with his right hand and, using the horse's momentum, actually lifted the entire soldier off the ground!

"Get lost!"

With a sweep of his spear, he flung the corpse away, sending it crashing into another man who had been following behind.

Golden Runes flew from the corpse and entered Xia Tong's body.

64 points.

The remaining isolated soldier had just tried to get up when three Stray Wolves that rushed in from the flank pinned him down, leaving him unable to move.

Xia Tong lightly squeezed Torrent's sides, and Torrent swept past him.

Another precise thrust.

Another kill.

"Eight left!"

However, before he could catch his breath.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Rapid, heavy footsteps approached from behind like the beating of a death drum.

The powerful Godrick Knight charged straight at him with his enormous golden shield raised and his heavy knight's lance in hand, as ferocious as an armored rhinoceros.

Xia Tong did not dare face him directly. He turned his horse around and raced toward the slope where the Fanged Imps lay in ambush.

As he galloped, he kept looking back and calculating the distance.

Fifty meters... thirty meters... twenty meters...

After roughly a dozen breaths.

Xia Tong's eyes sharpened as he shouted:

"Now!"

Receiving the order, the two Fanged Imps on the slope acted at once.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Two dark brown Magic Pots traced graceful arcs through the sky, sailing over Xia Tong's head toward the Godrick Knight behind him!

At the same time, Xia Tong forcibly wheeled his horse around.

Turning back, he leveled his spear and thrust!

Boom!

The two Magic Pots struck the Godrick Knight's enormous shield with perfect accuracy, erupting in blue magical flames.

Even with the knight's extraordinary physique, the sudden magical blast made him stagger. His shield tilted aside, exposing his center.

"Great chance!"

Xia Tong seized that fleeting opening. His spear shot out like a venomous snake and stabbed viciously!

Pfft!

The spearhead pierced a gap between the knight's armor plates, drawing a streak of blood.

The knight roared in pain.

Hiss! Hiss!

Before Xia Tong could pull back his spear and retreat, the knight actually ignored his wound and used the momentum of his knight's lance to sweep it forward!

The sweep covered a huge area. Xia Tong dodged it, but Torrent beneath him was not so fortunate.

Smack!

The lance struck Torrent hard across the hindquarters.

Neigh!

Torrent let out a pained whinny. The flesh on his rump split open, and blood dripped down through his fur.

"Damn it! No wonder he's an elite knight—his reactions are incredible!"

Xia Tong's heart skipped a beat.

Having landed a hit, the Godrick Elite Knight immediately changed moves, turning the sweep into a thrust.

The gleaming spearhead pointed straight at Xia Tong's heart.

If that attack connected, Xia Tong would probably be dead on the spot.

But just then.

"Awooo—!"

The three Stray Wolves finally reached the battlefield.

Ignoring the vast difference in strength, they swarmed the Godrick Knight, frantically leaping onto him and biting down on his greaves and arms, disrupting his movements.

Taking advantage of the opening, Xia Tong sharply squeezed his legs around the horse.

"Torrent, go!"

Enduring the intense pain, Torrent pushed off with all four hooves and carried Xia Tong toward the Fanged Imps.

As he retreated, Xia Tong contacted the Imps again through their mental link.

"Throw more! Don't stop!"

Another two Magic Pots flew through the air.

Boom! Boom!

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Having desperately held back the Godrick Elite Knight, the three Stray Wolves finally found their chance after completing their task and turned into phantoms, escaping the encirclement.

However, one of the Stray Wolves had been badly injured. The Godrick Elite Knight had stabbed it through the waist and abdomen with a backhand thrust, and its spirit form was now halfway to breaking apart.

"Fall back! Fall back!"

Xia Tong did not dare keep fighting. He fled at full speed with his battered remnants.

When he reached a distant slope, he looked back.

The Godrick Elite Knight stood at the edge of the camp, furiously waving his lance, but the ordinary soldiers behind him had stopped pursuing.

They had gone beyond their aggro range.

After all, they were mindless walking corpses driven entirely by instinct.

Their duty was only to guard the camp at Gatefront. They would not chase their enemies without end.

On the safe slope.

Xia Tong dismounted and looked at Torrent with aching concern.

His hind legs trembled, and the deep, bone-exposing gash across his rump was horrifying.

Xia Tong hurriedly took out a handful of red Rowa Raisins from his pack and held them to Torrent's mouth.

"Eat up, good boy."

As Torrent ate the Rowa Raisins, something miraculous happened.

The wound on Torrent's rump stopped bleeding and scabbed over at a visible rate.

The place where his flesh had been torn apart slowly began to heal, sprouting new fur.

"The Lands Between really is a miraculous place."

Xia Tong could not help sighing.

In his previous life, if a horse had suffered such a serious injury, it would not recover without at least ten days to half a month. It might even need to be put down.

But in this world, a handful of raisins could produce such immediate results.

The same was true for him.

When he had kept watch in the dense forest earlier and fought dozens of Godrick Soldiers, he had suffered countless sword and blade wounds.

Yet after drinking from the Crimson Tear Flask, not a single scar remained on his body.

"You seem very afraid."

"Very afraid of that Godrick Knight."

Blue light flickered as Melina materialized.

She looked at Xia Tong, who was feeding the horse, and spoke bluntly.

That was far too blunt.

Xia Tong's face reddened in embarrassment, and even the hand feeding the horse paused.

"Cough..."

He wanted to argue, but he had nothing to say.

It was true. He had been avoiding a direct confrontation with that Godrick Knight.

Back when he played the game in his previous life, despite being a melee brute, he had been stabbed to death by that knight's Deathly Chain Thrusts more times than he could count.

Though there had been healing flasks in the game, the knight attacked so rapidly that there was no chance to drink one.

So in the real world, facing such a killing machine in flesh and blood, Xia Tong still felt instinctive fear.

That fear was reverence for death.

The next day.

Church of Elleh.

Xia Tong sat on the other side of the campfire. Across from him was the Nomadic Tribe merchant Kale, eating roasted venison and drinking ale.

Kale seemed to be in a good mood, humming an unfamiliar tune.

Xia Tong asked tentatively:

"Kale, I heard that your Nomadic Tribe is not only clever and skilled in trade, but that every one of you is also a brave and formidable warrior."

"That's right, that's right!"

Kale immediately smiled smugly at the words, even his beard twitching upward.

"Our ancestors once dared to stand against the Three Fingers..."

Halfway through, he suddenly shut his mouth and changed the subject.

"In any case, our caravans have traveled to every corner of the Lands Between."

Xia Tong quickly pressed on.

"I've sold so much equipment to you. That makes me one of your premium customers, doesn't it?"

"Of course, my good brother! I've always offered you the best prices. Fair to young and old alike!"

"Then... would you be willing to fight alongside me?"

Xia Tong's gaze burned.

The smile vanished from Kale's face. He shook his head and took a drink from his wineskin.

"No, friend. We of the Nomadic Tribe never take part in battle. We are neutral observers."

"I'll pay 1,000 Runes!"

"This isn't about money."

"2,000 Runes!"

"Sigh..." Kale let out a sigh. "I'm not actually interested in money. I just enjoy the process of making it, you understand?"

"..."

Xia Tong was at a loss for words.

Why did that line sound so familiar?

For a moment, he did not know whether to make a snide remark or remain silent.

Looking at Kale's weathered face, Xia Tong suddenly remembered how wandering merchants in the game would often play mournful tunes beneath lonely night skies.

Those melodies had been filled with endless sorrow and memories of home.

"I think... you've been searching for something all this time, haven't you?" Xia Tong suddenly asked.

Kale froze. "What could I possibly be searching for?"

"An answer."

Xia Tong stared into his eyes.

"The answer to where your people went!"

Thud.

The wineskin in Kale's hand fell to the ground.

His entire body jolted. He looked at Xia Tong in disbelief, his gaze sharpening.

"How did you know?"

"I can roughly guess. You carry the mission of finding the Grand Caravan."

Xia Tong said this with deliberate mystery.

Of course, he knew the truth.

The wandering merchant Kale bore the mission of finding his missing people.

But if Xia Tong told him now that his people had been buried alive in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds beneath Royal Capital Leyndell, where they had summoned the Frenzied Flame in despair...

Kale would surely break down.

And with his current strength, going to the Royal Capital would only put him in tremendous danger.

That was not a place Kale should go to now.

Xia Tong sighed and said seriously,

"In the future, as I explore the Lands Between, I'll keep an eye out for you. Once I find any clues, I'll tell you."

"And in exchange, you have to help me this once."

Kale remained silent for a long time.

He picked up the wineskin and gave Xia Tong a long look before finally shaking his head.

"Sorry, friend. As I said, I can't directly take part in combat. It's a rule of my people."

"However..."

Kale reached into his clothes and rummaged around.

"Take this."

Xia Tong reached out and accepted it.

They were three palm-sized cracked pots, fired from poor-quality clay.

The pots were grayish-brown, their surfaces covered in natural cracks, and they looked utterly ordinary.

Yet through the cracks in the clay pots, he could see liquid sloshing inside.

It was neither water nor oil.

Instead, it was a viscous substance that glimmered with a faint, dreamlike lavender radiance.

Simply holding them, he could smell an extraordinarily delicate floral fragrance. But after smelling it for too long, his head grew heavy and drowsiness crept over him.

Xia Tong's eyes lit up.

"This is..."

"It's made from special mushrooms and Trina's Lily."

Kale lowered his voice, as though he were peddling contraband.

"Sleep Pots."

"That knight may be strong, but he's still flesh and blood. He needs sleep too."

Kale patted Xia Tong on the shoulder.

"Unless you're pushed to the brink of death, I won't act. But this should help you deal with that big problem."