Chapter 10: The Start of a New Journey

"Thank you." Wang Yu clasped his hands together as he stood underneath a large walnut tree in a forest of Aleisterre. He bowed deeply to a small mound by his feet—the old knight Reynard's grave. It wasn't particularly large. Wang Yu had buried the old knight's corpse within in full armor, leaving himself with only Reynard's sword and gauntlets.

Wang Yu bore deep affection for the old knight, who had taken care of him almost from the very start of his time in this world—even if he frequently ended up in a drunken heap in pubs.

Wang Yu had always admired and been grateful to Reynard.

Reynard rarely brought up his own family and hometown, and his tone never seemed wistful or homesick.

Even so, Wang Yu knew that the old man deeply missed his hometown. Something had caused him to end up roaming the world as a wanderer, never to return.

Whenever the matter was brought up in a pub or in the adventurers' guild or even in private conversation with Wang Yu, however, the old knight would only shake his head with a sad smile. He refused to say anything, as if the matter was so upsetting that he didn't want to relive it.

Because the old knight never brought up his hometown, not even when he was drunk, Wang Yu didn't know where Reynard had come from, but the people of Aleisterre didn't have a tradition of returning to their hometowns, regardless.

Wang Yu was a practical man. The dead were dead; funerals were meant to console the living. This was also why Wang Yu had taken the gauntlets, which fit him, and not the rest of the armor, which didn't.

So although he was rather upset, all Wang Yu did was dig the old knight a small grave under the shade of a walnut tree. On its bark, he carved: "Damn it, I really regret not having transformed into a specter and rising from the grave to kill that bastard who took me down!"

Such was the old knight's personality. He had been an optimistic and cheerful knight whose unruly behavior in pubs would never fail to liven up the atmosphere.

But Wang Yu, his longtime companion, could sense the gloom that sometimes lingered by the corners of his eyes.

In the past, he had once thought of investigating the old knight's background upon growing stronger, so that he could help the old knight deal with whatever had been looming in his mind all this time. It was unfortunate that he would have no such opportunity in the future.

Once again, he bowed deeply and bade farewell to the old knight. Equipped with Reynard's sword and gauntlets, he left the walnut tree where Reynard would rest forevermore.

Avia, who had been standing in the distance, had changed into a set of reasonably-fitting robes she had obtained from the bandits.

Though the bandits were poor, they had a lot of miscellaneous junk they had picked up over the years. Avia's current clothes were patterned after magician's robes and likely had belonged to some unfortunate victim.

The dun robes with some floral imprints were made for a person of small stature, and fit Avia's petite physique well.

At the moment, Avia was standing beside Torrent and packing the two large bundles that hung from its body.

Within the bundles were basic supplies for the journey, the majority of which they had obtained from the bandits' camp. A small portion was from Wang Yu and Reynard's supplies.

As always, Wang Yu went about barechested, revealing his toned physique and fair, scarred skin. He wore light, comfortable leather leggings and thick-soled shoes, along with a pair of fine gauntlets.

Upon hearing Wang Yu walk over, Avia turned in greeting, only to catch sight of his gauntlets.

Wang Yu blinked at Avia's sudden frown. He looked at his gauntlets and saw nothing amiss. "Is something wrong?"

Avia hesitated before nodding. She walked close up to Wang Yu, then examined where his wrists met the gauntlets.

Having found an embellishment of some sort, she carefully rubbed a finger over the area and motioned for Wang Yu to do the same.

"This is..." Wang Yu slipped off the bracer and found that Avia had directed him toward a small protrusion. He held it up to the sunlight—it was a small metal engraving.

"Does it look like a sword piercing through an eye?" Avia asked.

Her height prevented her from examining the bracer now that Wang Yu was holding it up.

"Let me have a look." Wang Yu squinted. The interior leather padding and exterior metal body made the gauntlets comfortable to wear while endowing them with enhanced defensive properties.

Wang Yu studied the small metal engraving more carefully.

There was an exquisitely carved sword with an intricate floral design, thrust deeply into a distorted, mutated eye.

The eye was so detailed that it even included raised blood vessels across the surface of the eye that were leaking pus. Strange, serrated feelers were hovering around it.

For some reason, despite the fact that the engraving was made of metal, Wang Yu felt as if he were touching flesh and blood.

The moment he had that feeling, the exquisite sword flashed with golden light—and the sensation vanished.

Wang Yu's willpower rendered him immune to illusions, so what had occurred was likely real.

He was taken aback. How could the old knight's armor have been hiding such a secret?

Reynard, just like Wang Yu, was practical in nature. He would never engrave something like this on his armor just for the looks of it.

This engraving had to have some special property or meaning.

He turned inquiringly to Avia, who hummed thoughtfully. "I have some impression of such a design. I believe it's armor used by a covert organization from my kingdom. I once saw a similarly dressed person in my father's study. My father was in the midst of negotiations with them. A few days later, a malicious sect in our territory that had recently grown very popular vanished overnight.

"If I'm not mistaken, that organization is known as the Nightblades. It's a group of elites from all sorts of different domains whose main responsibility is to deal with false gods and the abyss."

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow upon hearing Avia's explanation. He doubted Reynard had picked up these gauntlets as spoils, and the peculiarity of the metal engraving he had witnessed suggested that this was the real thing.

In that case, just who was Reynard? Wang Yu sighed. He knew far too little about this world.

What he had to focus on now was understanding this world at large. He had no idea what the abyss or false gods were.

The names alone were descriptive enough, but it was a problem that he hadn't heard of either of them before.

He kneaded his temples with a sigh, then earnestly clapped his palms together and bowed down toward Avia. "Please enlighten me, Mistress!"

Avia blinked in surprise.

Ignoring the fact that a transmigrator like Wang Yu possessed little knowledge about this world at large, Reynard's status surely wasn't in question.

Though he was an unlanded wandering knight, he was a knight in truth, which meant that he had to be part of the nobility. In other words, the old knight's identity had to be recorded somewhere.

Reynard was known in the local adventurers' guilds, and this was his standard suit of armor.

As far as Wang Yu could recall, no one had ever mentioned the supposed Nightblades in his presence. In that case, it was unlikely that Reynard had defected or escaped from the organization.

Therefore, Wang Yu didn't have to worry about problems related to the old knight's identity, nor of his continued use of these gauntlets.

The fact that the old knight hadn't been recognized for so long meant either that the organization was covert to an astonishing extent—or that it possessed enough power to suppress any news it didn't want to publicize.

Wang Yu personally believed that the former was more likely. After all, if the Nightblades really had such an impressive information network and broad authority over the kingdom's affairs, how would Reynard have died at Beran's hands?

Wang Yu shook his head. This wasn't information he could make use of right now. His priority had to be to strengthen himself and educate himself about the gaps in his knowledge—history, geography, and politics. He would have to ask Avia about all these fields.

What Reynard had taught him was limited. Wang Yu would have to fill in the gaps on his own.

Avia, who realized that Wang Yu's armor had come from the late Reynard, didn't press the issue further. She continued to pack up.

As the sun rose from the east and climbed overhead, and the day grew as hot as it had been yesterday, the duo finally finished their preparations and set off.

They were currently in a massive forest that extended around Aleisterre's borders.

The forest was so large as to take up about half of all of Aleisterre's land, though much of it was unsettled, especially compared to the towns and cities all around.

To be more precise, Wang Yu was currently by the southern border of Aleisterre, and Avia's destination was somewhere in their vicinity.

"The Forest of Fog? Let me see..." Wang Yu ran down the forest path as he intently studied a map. Beside him was Torrent, moving at a casual pace but easily keeping up with Wang Yu.

Avia was on Torrent's back, carefully gripping onto its mane and speaking with Wang Yu somewhat nervously.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"That's right. Oka suddenly took down two of my attendants and knocked me unconscious when we were almost at our destination. Then, by the time I woke up, I was trapped in that woodshed. I suspect we're already very close," Avia said as she stabilized herself.

"You're right. We should be able to make it by tomorrow night, but before that, we should head to the church of light nearby and replenish our supply of holy water. I've heard of the Forest of Fog before. There are a large number of hagbirds and swamp specters in the area, and it'd be easy to end up poisoned." Wang Yu frowned at his map.

A small magician riding on horseback, a horse happily cantering down a forest path, and a barechested man running at high speed with a map unfolded before him—Wang Yu's party made for a strange sight as it forged through the forest. Wang Yu himself had chosen to run as part of his physical conditioning.

They had already been on the road for more than a day. It was evening on the second day of their travels, and the forest was gradually growing dark as the sun set over the horizon.

The map Wang Yu had obtained from the bandits marked the location of the Forest of Fog, though he also knew of it independently.

There were all sorts of dark-aligned creatures living within, including swamp slimes, putrid gnomes, and the like. None were particularly lethal, but aspects of their environment made them particularly difficult to deal with. Wounds would get infected easily, and poison was commonplace.

Without holy water from the church of light, most people would never step foot in the Forest of Fog, which was an unremarkable hunting ground.

As a result, it was unexpected to him that Avia's aunt would establish a magic academy in the middle of such inhospitable territory. It reminded Wang Yu of witchy stereotypes from his past life.

Along the way, Wang Yu found that he was able to exercise his Ripple control to allow him to run while simultaneously doing something else. He happily chose to perform such training.

Wang Yu firmly believed in the power of hard work. Ever since realizing that his body was in a "growth spurt" as it acclimatized to the foreign environment of Aleisterre, Wang Yu had dedicated himself to physical conditioning and training.

He would swing his sword over a thousand times each day until his arm was sore to a certain extent, then focus on the other parts of his body.

Because of his incredible regenerative ability, he didn't have to worry about exhaustion or overexertion. To an outsider, his training regimen would seem ridiculous, but Wang Yu had the requisite willpower to see it through.

Running was an excellent means of training, and Wang Yu's regenerative ability allowed him to have nearly inexhaustible stamina.

He would be able to keep running indefinitely, so racing on foot alongside a horse was an excellent routine for training his endurance and stamina.

Though it looked rather funny, it got the job done.

Wang Yu's sweat dripped down onto the map, which he blew dry before rolling it up and storing it away.

The forest before him grew darker and darker. His acute senses allowed him to catch the motion of predators who skulked about in the dark. He shook his head. Trying to proceed further in the night wouldn't be a wise decision.

"It's time to make camp," he told Torrent and Avia, then gradually slowed his pace.

Torrent likewise slowed to a trot as they made their way toward a large pine tree.

Wang Yu took out some firewood and flint, then brought a roaring fire to life. The firelight burned bright in the encroaching darkness, lighting up the camp and warding off the predators of the night.

Wang Yu prepared a pot of soup with water and dry rations. After it came to a boil, he and Avia had a simple, filling dinner.

Then, Wang Yu closed his eyes and activated his Ripple ability, conveying force.

Sweat, grime, and dirt flaked off Wang Yu's body, stripping his skin of sticky residue and leaving him feeling clean all over. It was a simple but very practical use of his latent ability.

Avia sat by the firelight as she closed her eyes in meditation, straining to increase her reserves of mental energy as she condensed mana into revolving spirals within her body as reservoirs she could draw on.

A little while later, Wang Yu fed more firewood to the flames. Avia opened her eyes as Wang Yu retrieved his notebook.

It was time for their nightly lecture. Wang Yu had gotten into the habit of asking Avia about the world late every night.

As an unfavored noble heir, one of the few interests Avia took to was reading.

Her household's vast library endowed her with knowledge far beyond most people her age, and she was more than qualified to serve as Wang Yu's teacher.

She looked at Wang Yu, who was glancing attentively at her while preparing to take notes.

Avia had to admit that Wang Yu was a diligent and hardworking student, and being his teacher felt rewarding—as long as she could overlook the underlying strangeness of it all.

"The hallmark of an official knight is the ability to manifest fighting spirit in the form of a specialized array, which awakens one's potential. This ability is unrelated to one's bloodline, but instead..."

Avia's voice resounded in the quiet forest, in the circle of warm firelight shared by squire, wizard, and horse...