Sleep Pot

"Let go!"

Xia Tong was sweating profusely as he desperately tried to pull out the straight sword that had gotten stuck, or shake off the corpse hanging from it.

Just then.

"Roar—!"

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

With a roar, he raised the enormous shield emblazoned with a golden lion, leveled his knight's lance, and charged at Xia Tong like a heavy chariot!

The ground trembled beneath his iron 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 seized while clearing out the lesser enemies earlier, and he had been reluctant 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 horse's side.

Now, it had truly saved his life.

"Having such a capable wife is great."

Xia Tong silently praised her and tightened his grip around the cold 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 to reinforce them, along with that imposing elite knight.

"Perfect!"

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

On a distant hillside, two hunched yet gaunt figures crouched low.

They were two Fanged Imps, ambushers Xia Tong had deliberately left on the outskirts to provide support.

They gripped Magic Pots tightly in their hands, staring fixedly at the battlefield, ready to assist at any moment.

Clop, clop, clop!

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

"Torrent, turn and strike!"

The spectral steed understood at once, coming to an abrupt halt before turning around.

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

The horse's speed amplified the spear's piercing force to the extreme.

Squelch!

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

Xia Tong currently had 17 points of Strength.

He suddenly exerted force with his right hand and, borrowing the horse's momentum, actually lifted the entire soldier into the air!

"Get lost!"

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

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

64 points.

The remaining isolated soldier had just started to get up when three Stray Wolves burst out from the flank and tangled him up, leaving him unable to move.

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

Another precise thrust.

Another kill.

"Eight left!"

However, before he could catch his breath.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Rapid, heavy footsteps closed in from behind like the beat of a death drum.

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

Xia Tong did not dare face him head-on. He turned his horse and galloped toward the hillside where the Fanged Imps lay in ambush.

As he rode, 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!"

Upon receiving the command, the two Fanged Imps on the hillside attacked at the same time.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

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

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

He turned back, leveled his spear, and thrust!

Boom!

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

Even with the knight's extraordinary physique, the sudden magical blast staggered him, knocking his shield aside and exposing his center.

"Good chance!"

Xia Tong seized that fleeting opening. His spear shot out like a venomous snake, stabbing viciously forward!

Squelch!

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

The knight roared in pain.

Hiss! Hiss!

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

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

Smack!

The lance slammed heavily into Torrent's rear haunch.

Neighhh!

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

"Damn it! An elite knight's adaptability really is incredible!"

Xia Tong's heart jolted.

After landing the blow, the Godrick Elite Knight immediately changed tactics, turning the horizontal sweep into a thrust.

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

If that thrust landed, Xia Tong would probably be instantly finished.

However, at that moment.

"Awooo—!"

The three Stray Wolves finally reached the battlefield.

Ignoring the vast difference in strength, they swarmed the Godrick Knight, savagely pouncing onto him and biting down on his leg armor and arms, disrupting his movements.

Taking advantage of the opening, Xia Tong fiercely squeezed his legs against the horse's sides.

"Torrent, go!"

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

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

"Throw more! Don't stop!"

Two more Magic Pots flew through the air.

Boom! Boom!

The battlefield instantly descended into chaos.

The three Stray Wolves that had desperately held back the Godrick Elite Knight finally found an opportunity to escape as phantoms after completing their task.

However, one of the Stray Wolves was severely injured. The Godrick Elite Knight had stabbed it in the waist and abdomen with a backhanded thrust, and its spirit body was now half-dissolved.

"Fall back! Fall back!"

Xia Tong did not dare continue fighting. He fled at full speed with his battered forces.

When he reached a distant hillside and looked back.

He saw the Godrick Elite Knight standing at the edge of the camp, angrily waving his lance. However, the ordinary soldiers behind him had stopped pursuing.

This had already exceeded their aggro range.

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

Their duty was merely to guard the camp before the checkpoint. They would not chase endlessly.

On the safe hillside.

Xia Tong dismounted and looked at Torrent with a pained expression.

His hind legs were trembling, and the bone-deep bloody wound on 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 buddy."

As Torrent ate the handful of Rowa Raisins, something miraculous happened.

The wound on Torrent's rump visibly stopped bleeding and began to scab over.

The torn flesh slowly began to heal, and new fur grew over it.

"The Lands Between really are a magical place."

Xia Tong could not help sighing.

In his previous life, if a horse suffered such severe injuries, it would take at least ten days to half a month to recover, and it might even need to be euthanized.

But in this world, a handful of dried fruit produced such immediate results.

The same was true for him.

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

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

"You seem afraid?"

"Very afraid of that Godrick Knight."

A blue glow flickered, and 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.

"Ahem..."

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

Indeed, he had been avoiding a direct confrontation with that Godrick Knight.

Back when he played games in his previous life, despite being a melee brute, he had been stabbed to death countless times by that knight's deadly chain thrusts.

Even though there were healing flasks in the game, the knight attacked so quickly that there was no chance to drink one.

Therefore, facing such a killing machine of flesh and blood in the real world, Xia Tong still instinctively felt 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 wandering merchant Kale, who was 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 wandering people are not only clever and skilled at business, but also brave and formidable warriors."

"Of course, of course!"

Kale immediately grinned smugly, his beard even twitching upward.

"Our ancestors even dared to defy the Three Fingers..."

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

"Anyway, our caravans have traveled to every corner of the Lands Between."

Xia Tong quickly pressed on.

"I've sold you so much equipment. That makes me one of your premium customers, right?"

"Of course, my good brother! I give you the best prices for everything I buy. Honest prices for young and old alike!"

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

Xia Tong stared at him intensely.

The smile vanished from Kale's face at once. He shook his head, picked up his wineskin, and took a drink.

"No, friend. We wandering people never take part in battle. We are neutral observers."

"I'll pay 1,000 Runes!"

"This isn't about money."

"2,000 Runes!"

"Ah..." Kale sighed. "I'm not actually interested in money. I just enjoy the process of making it, you understand?"

"..."

Xia Tong was rather speechless.

Why did that line sound so familiar?

For a moment, he didn't know whether to mock him or stay silent.

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

Those melodies were 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 said.

Kale paused. "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 turning sharp.

"How did you know?"

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

Xia Tong said mysteriously.

Of course, he knew the truth.

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

But if he 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 their despair...

Kale would definitely break down.

More importantly, with his current strength, going to the Royal Capital would only put him in terrible danger.

That was not a place Kale should go yet.

Xia Tong sighed and said seriously,

"In the future, as I explore the Lands Between, I'll keep an eye out for you. The moment I find a clue, I'll tell you."

"And in exchange, you'll help me this once."

Kale remained silent for a long time.

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

"Sorry, friend. As I said, I cannot participate directly in battle. It is one of my people's rules."

"However..."

Kale reached into his clothes and rummaged around.

"Take this."

Xia Tong reached out and accepted it.

They were three cracked jars the size of a palm, fired from poor-quality clay.

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

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

It was neither water nor oil.

It was a viscous substance that glimmered with a faint, dreamlike pale violet light.

Simply holding them, he could smell an exceptionally elegant floral fragrance. Yet after smelling it for too long, it made his head grow heavy and his eyelids droop.

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 is still flesh and blood. He needs sleep too."

Kale patted Xia Tong on the shoulder.

"Unless you're forced into a dead end, I won't intervene. But this should help you deal with that big problem."