“A Berserker Warrior?” Rein asked, slightly puzzled.
He understood.
But he remembered clearly that both Cleya and Hamilton had said the term ‘berserk’ was used to describe beasts, as opposed to humans.
So, with a tone of inquiry, Rein asked,
“Do you mean a knight?”
Lagaray nodded, saying, “Yes! Berserk and what you call ‘breaking limits’ mean the same thing. Our barbarian tribes have always referred to warriors who break their limits as Berserker Warriors, in accordance with the terminology handed down from Ancient Times.”
After coming from Frostwind Prairie to County Town to find her brother Haral, she had been living here for a while now, and knew some of the cultural differences between the two sides.
With Rein’s interruption, Lagaray answered the doubts of her life-saving benefactor.
This allowed Rein to learn quite a bit about the barbarians from Lagaray.
It turned out, the barbarians did not practice the traditional breathing methods. According to Lagaray, the barbarians had traces of giant blood in their veins.
They practiced a breathing method known as brute force, which was quite primitive. Its effect was to tap into the potential of their own bloodline to strengthen their constitution and simultaneously enhance strength and agility, enabling the barbarian tribes to combat the harsh survival conditions of Frostwind Prairie.
This made Rein pause.
The breathing method sounded similar to his own Giant Bear Breathing Technique. Both primarily focused on enhancing constitution and strength, although in terms of increasing agility, it was somewhat inferior to the brute force breathing method.
When barbarians practiced, they also had medicines similar to ‘black balsam oil’.
According to Lagaray’s account, barbarian shamans would provide the tribe’s warriors with special potions made of various herbs to promote the training progress of their brute force breathing method.
Upon hearing this, Rein felt that the entire barbarian training system was somewhat cruder compared to the orthodox Knight Breathing Method, but overall the difference didn’t seem large.
But soon, Rein changed his mind.
Because, instead of using advance magic potions, barbarians actually went through life-or-death trials to break into transcendence.
This surprised Rein.
Barbarians had only a twenty to thirty percent chance of successfully becoming berserk.
For orthodox knights, even if the breakthrough failed after taking an advance magic potion, the death rate was only about ten percent, with another forty percent risking a decline in strength, and a fifty percent chance of successfully breaking through.
This contrasted starkly with the barbarians’ situation where failure to break through meant death.
Rein thought to himself that indeed, the knight’s path, as the most secure transcendent path in the long history of humanity, had perpetuated with good reason.
“By the way, Lagaray, I’m sorry to have asked so many questions about your tribe, please continue with what happened in Nightingale Forest.” Rein, suddenly remembering that he had side-tracked Lagaray’s narrative, said with a hint of apology.
Lagaray didn’t mind and nodded, continuing,
“My brother alone turned the tide of battle, slaughtered a large number of hyena-men, and made the old ogre retreat step by step.”
“Just when we thought the situation was settled, that old ogre suddenly began to flee and eventually ran into an unknown ruin.”
As she spoke of the ruin, Rein could clearly detect a quiver in Lagaray’s voice.
“These ruins were deep within Nightingale Forest, scattered with collapsed, moss-covered columns entangled in vines. We surmised that it seemed to be a temple from long ago.”
“We pursued it closely, chasing after that old ogre, but suddenly, a mysterious knight appeared and began attacking us.”
“It seemed he was not a living person; the war horse he rode was actually a death horse. I once chopped down hard on the horse’s leg with my axe, but it only revealed pallid flesh without a drop of blood.”
Rein could sense a tinge of fear in Lagaray’s eyes, the instinctive terror one faces against an enemy much more powerful than oneself.
Although Rein was curious about what a ‘death horse’ was, he chose not to inquire further but let Lagaray continue her story.
“The knight wore full armor, and most distinctive was the crown-shaped adornment at the top of the closed helmet.”
A crown-shaped knight helmet?
Rein immediately pondered, as symbols or markers such as the crown were typically associated with races or churches that worshiped nature deities.
For example, the book he acquired from the ‘Hound King’ Core contained patterns of large trees, flowers, and more.
“He was too strong; with a single strike, he killed one of our squad members.”
“I blocked his riding spear only once. My shield shattered, my arm broke, and I suffered this strange black air damage. My brother went all out in attack but still was no match for the Crown Knight.”
“The other squad members sacrificed themselves to protect my safe exit, one after another fighting to their death….”
Lagaray seemed to be reminded of that heart-wrenching scene, her eyes reddening again, misty with tears.
Hearing this, Rein could not help but ask, “What about your brother?”
“He died too. The last thing I saw was my brother desperately trying to divert the Crown Knight’s attention from me, and then he was impaled through the chest by the knight’s riding spear….”
Clearly, mentioning this brought up the most painful memory in Lagaray’s mind.
Lagaray could no longer hold back and began to sob, covering her face with her hands.
“I’m sorry….” Rein apologized.
He realized she had just woken up, her emotions yet stabilized; perhaps it would be more appropriate to ask after some time had passed.
After a long while, Lagaray recomposed herself, turned her head to Rein, and said,
“There’s one important thing; my brother insisted that I must pass on the message. That Crown Knight seems to be a very rare Evil Spirit Knight.”
“Evil Spirit Knight?” Rein was taken aback, touching upon yet another one of his blind spots in knowledge.
But no matter what, if “Little Giant” Haral’s formidable strength was not the match of that Evil Spirit Knight, Rein didn’t think Flashgold Town’s sheriff Hamilton could defeat that fellow.
If this so-called “Evil Spirit Knight” were to attack Flashgold Town, who knows what kind of tragedy would occur.
Rein was clearly aware of the severity of this problem.
Although a lot was still unclear, Rein felt that he had to notify Hamilton immediately, so he could be prepared in advance.
After a moment of thought, Rein said to Lagaray, “You should rest well tonight, I will go and inform Lord Hamilton, the sheriff of Flashgold, right away.”
“Mhm!” Lagaray nodded her head.
Rein turned and left.
However, as he reached the door, something suddenly occurred to him, and he turned back to Lagaray, asking, “Do you need something to eat?”
Lagaray gently shook her head.
It seemed she was still immersed in grief.
…
Although it was already around ten o’clock at night, Hamilton was surprisingly still in his office, albeit his wounds seemed to have been treated.
When Rein arrived at the office, he could distinctly smell the strong scent of healing potions.
Upon hearing about Haral encountering the Evil Spirit Knight and his squad nearly being wiped out, Hamilton was shocked. He jumped up from his chair and blurted out, “What! An Evil Spirit Knight?”
After receiving Rein’s affirmative answer, Hamilton could no longer contain himself and his face turned pale with anxiety.
The sheriff of Flashgold Town paced back and forth in his office, unable to hide the worry etched between his brows.
It was the first time Rein had seen Hamilton so agitated.
“Messenger!!”
A messenger dressed as a guard quickly ran in, saluting and saying, “Lord Hamilton, what are your orders?”
“Send a message to Viscount Hamadi in the County Town and the Church of the Sea Goddess immediately. An Evil Spirit Knight has been spotted near Flashgold Town!”
“And! Send someone to notify Lord Lloyd of the Habsburg Manor.”
“Besides, alert all the Night Watchmen to raise their guard!”
That a Transcendent human knight could be driven into such an anxious state clearly indicated that the so-called ‘Evil Spirit Knight’ was no ordinary foe.
Hamilton murmured to himself:
“Haral’s limit breaking level has already surpassed forty percent, which basically places him at the level of a Senior Knight, yet he was still no match for the foe. This suggests that this Evil Spirit Knight might possess the strength of a Peak Knight, or even stronger.”
‘Senior Knight’ ‘Peak Knight’?
Rein nodded. Adding the initial ‘Formal Knight’, it must be the classification of knight ranks, he thought.
“Sir, is the Evil Spirit Knight really that fearsome?” Seeing Hamilton’s solemnity, Rein couldn’t help but ask curiously.
Hamilton nodded, speaking with a grave tone, “The fearsomeness of the Evil Spirit Knight is one aspect, but that’s not the most important thing.”
“The appearance of an Evil Spirit Knight signals that some evil is invading… or awakening! Ancient texts have recorded that Evil Spirit Knights are the minions of the Evil God. It must have sensed its master’s call to appear here.”
“That’s the biggest problem!”
Minions of the Evil God?
With the word ‘God’ in it, even if Rein didn’t understand much about this world, he knew it must be troublesome to deal with. No wonder Hamilton was treating it as a dire threat.
However, the words ‘Evil Spirit’ reminded Rein of the Glowstone he had acquired.
After all, according to the blacksmith Boris, if it could be fused into a weapon, it would possess great power against evil.
Too bad!
He couldn’t go to the County Town at his current stage.
Otherwise, with a powerful weapon in hand, he would naturally have more assurance of safety.
When Rein stepped out of Hamilton’s office, the cold moonlight, filtering through gaps in the clouds, draped over the town like a silver veil, giving it an almost dreamlike ambiance.
The chilly wind of a deep autumn night struck Rein’s face, making him even more alert.
After some thought, Rein halted his steps towards home and turned towards the adjacent administrative building’s training ground instead.
The entire training ground was deserted, silent and empty.
“From Hamilton’s demeanor, it seems the arrival of this Evil Spirit Knight could signify a grave crisis looming over the whole of Flashgold Town.”
“The only thing I can rely on is the continuous improvement of my own strength.”
“Furthermore, my understanding of this world is still too shallow. It seems I must strive to earn Merit Points and elevate my rank while relying on the Night Watchmen.”
Rein checked the Night Watchman panel, and with the Experience gained from killing the wolves, his Giant Bear Sword Technique was just a few points shy of reaching level 5.
He planned to level up his Giant Bear Sword Technique before returning home.
As Rein drew his Fine Steel Greatsword, a figure swung the greatsword in the training ground, sweating profusely.
About an hour later, a system prompt arrived.