Chapter 106: Homeland! Offering Fee! |
“Teacher, I concede.” Leo stepped back and gave a salute, and Eve Sova returned the salute.
“Not bad, worthy of being my student.” Eve Sova sheathed her sword. “I’ll be leaving the city shortly to carry out a search mission. Want to come along? There are quite a lot of Merit Points.”
“Search?”
“Mm, that horse I told you about last time. If you find it, you should be able to get one thousand Merit Points.”
How much! One thousand points?
Leo had never heard of a mission with so many Merit Points.
But after being stunned for a few seconds, he still bowed respectfully. “No, teacher.”
Although Leo now had the mark of that Goblin in his mind, he had too many things to handle at the moment.
Going out on a trip wasn’t worth it.
She had actually hoped Leo would go with her, but Leo wasn’t her Knight Attendant. Since he was unwilling, she wouldn’t force him.
Leo gave this teacher a respectful knight’s salute.
In Blackstone City, the relationship between teacher and student wasn’t the kind where one day as a teacher meant a lifetime as a father.
But Leo still held great respect for his enlightenment teacher.
Even if the other party was likely no longer a match for him now.
Just now, Leo had compared with his own mark and pointed Eve Sova’s horse in a direction.
He quickly returned to his room and glanced at the cooldown time on the panel—137 hours.
In other words, after 137 hours, Leo could switch to a new target for the soul link.
He looked at the eagle’s current position, then at the map on the table.
“The direction seems a bit off.”
Leo entered the Shared State and adjusted the direction slightly.
The destination was Blackwater City.
He hadn’t gone home for nearly half a year, and he had always been somewhat worried about the situation there.
In recent years, the situation in the Danlun Kingdom had become somewhat turbulent.
The number of Wilderness Knight Order groups in the wild was increasing.
“Granny Gu was right last time.” During this period, Leo had gathered intelligence through various channels and had formed his own understanding of the kingdom’s situation and geopolitics.
If the Wilderness Knight Order wanted to pick a soft target, then a small border city like Blackwater City would very likely be chosen.
In the original host’s memories, Blackwater City belonged to a small territory under the wasteland domain.
The wasteland domain bordered Blackstone City, and was itself located at the frontier. After the old count’s death, his mediocre son inherited the position, and governance had declined sharply.
Now it was barely able to protect itself, let alone care about its subordinate cities.
So although Leo was in Blackstone City, he had always been somewhat worried about the safety of his homeland.
After all, that was his father—and also his own territory.
Now that he had the ability to control an “unmanned aerial unit,” he could conveniently take a look at his homeland, and along the way search for suitable prey.
He could grind his Tracking skill through the Shared State.
This skill boosted agility, which was also extremely important for Leo.
Next, Leo’s training plan became very simple.
Train the Breathing Technique in the dungeon, and practice Alchemy.
As for business, Leo had basically handed it over to Arthur to manage. He would only check on the higher-end optimization services when he returned to the courtyard each day.
“I really can’t keep up.” Leo only wished he had three heads and six arms.
Sure enough, relying on oneself alone—training, making money, and accumulating resources—
was truly a difficult task.
Those noble-faction Quasi-Knights basically had all their resources supplied by their families, allowing them to devote themselves fully to training.
Perhaps this was also the trigger that led to Zoro’s earlier psychological distortion.
Leo stopped thinking about it. Rather than complaining about fate, he directly initiated his training plan.
With the support of various potions, Leo entered a high-intensity grinding mode.
With the help of the sleep potion, he now only needed about five hours of sleep per day to maintain abundant stamina.
At the same time, the digestion potion increased his food intake by nearly double. Fortunately, Quasi-Knights had free meals, and Leo constantly supplemented himself with Beastkin meat jerky.
More than five hours of Breathing Technique training, with occasional Alchemy practice as a form of rest.
Leo’s every day was extremely fulfilling.
Time passed in a flash, and five days went by. On this day, Leo was as usual training the Breathing Technique in his room.
The concentration of his Gray Aura had already become extremely dense.
With high-intensity training and the assistance of potions, Leo’s Breathing Technique progress had surged by eleven points in five days.
【Furnace Breathing Technique Stage One 95/100】
“Only the last 5 points left!”
At this moment, Leo let out a long breath and glanced at the water clock.
He instantly entered the Shared State.
From the eagle’s perspective, what lay before him was an endless wasteland.
It was full of desolation—sand and sparse vegetation. In the distance, at the edge of his vision, he could see a familiar castle.
“Blackwater City!” Leo couldn’t help but clench his fists. “Finally here.”
This first long-distance flight had not been easy.
Navigating complex terrain without modern instruments like a compass—
Leo had corrected his direction multiple times using the sun and the map.
Originally expected to take three days, the journey to Blackwater City had still taken five days.
Leo couldn’t wait to fly over and take a look.
The eagle in the sky spread its wings.
As speed increased, Leo heard the rushing sound of air currents beside his ears.
The distant solitary city rapidly enlarged.
With eagle vision far beyond human limits, Leo could see familiar scenes.
That familiar watchtower was where he had often played war games as a child.
The small church—he remembered the elderly priest often telling him mythological stories.
And that beautiful windmill mill, his favorite place. The freshly baked bread from the bakery was always Leo’s favorite.
Finally, Leo’s gaze landed on the distant domed building.
That was the home he had lived in for over a decade.
From this angle, through the top-floor window, he could see a familiar figure.
His father sat at the desk in his study, busy handling territorial affairs.
Everything was so familiar, yet so distant.
Just as he wanted to get closer, Leo was forcibly exited from the Shared State due to reaching his mental limit.
Leo issued a command for the eagle to circle nearby in Autonomous Mode.
It seemed that nothing had happened in Blackwater City.
“As long as everything’s fine.”
Leo withdrew his thoughts and prepared to refine another batch of potions.
“Recently, Lady Manta hasn’t been making potions either.”
Leo felt that his own Alchemy progress was far less efficient than making potions for Lady Manta.
One reason was that high-tier potions provided more experience.
Another very important factor—
Catalysts.
This item seemed to only be available at the Alchemist Association.
Without catalysts, the time required to make potions would be several times, even dozens of times longer.
Right now, it took Leo several hours just to produce a single Tier 1 potion.
Better to grind the skill to Level 2 first, then think of a solution.
【Alchemy Level 1 98/100】
During this period, even without catalysts, Leo had still painstakingly ground his Alchemy experience up to 98.
Then he would make a few more digestion potions and push the skill to Level 2 in one go.
Having made up his mind, Leo began working.
Clinking and clanging sounds soon echoed within the small room.
……
Meanwhile, far away in Blackwater City.
Inside the domed building, Rang Laide picked up the letter in front of him.
“Father: Everything is well for me in Blackstone City.
Lord Laforin values me greatly, and my teacher Eve Sova treats me very well. I can also save quite a bit of money each month here, so there’s no need to send me living expenses anymore.
Also, I have good news—I have successfully been conferred as a Quasi-Knight.
Your son—Leo Laide.”
Rang Laide held the letter, his hands trembling slightly.
His eyes reddened faintly. This was the first letter Leo had written to him in this lifetime.
He had once been a Quasi-Knight himself, so he naturally knew how much hardship and sweat lay behind those few simple lines.
He set down the letter, glanced at the ring on his ring finger, then looked out at the sky.
As if his deceased wife’s spirit was watching over them, an eagle appeared in the usually desolate frontier sky.
“Our child has made something of himself.”
He carefully folded the letter and placed it into the inner pocket of his clothes.
Rang Laide then looked at another letter before him.
On it, a single crude line was written:
“Three days later, prepare the offering fee. Two silver coins per person.”