Chapter 111: Breaking Through the Knight Realm! Comprehensive Enhancement! |
Within the panel, the Breathing Technique progress had synchronized to the second stage.
At the same time, an additional special effect appeared—Black Aura Coating.
At this moment, Leo pulled an arrow from the quiver not far away.
He stabbed it toward the blackened skin.
Crack!
The sharp arrow could not advance even a fraction, and the shaft snapped directly.
Leo did not feel any pain at all.
Then he wrapped his fist in black aura and smashed it toward the ground.
Boom!
But the blue bricks on the ground had already shattered into pieces.
The hardness of this black coating felt comparable to metal.
Then Leo picked up the Starfall longsword with a clang.
The silver blade sparked against Leo’s palm.
This time, Leo could feel a slight tingling sensation.
Where the blade passed, it left behind a faint white mark.
Leo estimated the strength of this Black Aura Coating. “Roughly speaking, this already far exceeds the strength of ordinary iron hide. In fact, its localized defensive power even surpasses standard plate armor.”
It should be able to block slashes at the level of a Quasi-Knight.
But that was under the premise of an ordinary Quasi-Knight—someone like himself, with several maxed-out sword techniques, attribute enhancements, and wielding a high-quality weapon, did not count.
This was the true value of a Formal Knight.
With this special effect, Leo felt that he could casually defeat several Quasi-Knights barehanded.
Because as long as he was prepared, he could instantly cover the attacked area with Black Aura Coating, making it nearly impossible for the opponent to injure him.
And besides that…
Leo looked at the attribute panel.
【Strength: 3.0 → 3.5
Agility: 2.0 → 2.5
Spirit: 1.7 → 1.9】
All three attributes experienced the greatest surge in history after the breakthrough of the Breathing Technique.
Among them, Strength and Agility increased the most, both rising by a full 0.5.
No wonder he felt as if he had been completely reborn just now.
Normally, a 0.1 increase brought little noticeable change to the body.
But just now, at the moment his gray aura reached its condensation bottleneck, Leo felt a qualitative transformation.
At this moment, Leo picked up his sword and began testing his swordsmanship.
The instant he held the sword, he could already feel a very obvious difference.
The sword felt lighter.
The previous sense of weight had completely disappeared.
This iron sword, weighing nearly twenty jin, now felt like a plastic toy in his hand.
At first, it felt a bit unfamiliar, but after swinging it a couple of times, Leo quickly adapted.
Leo swung the Starfall longsword, and the silver sword light resembled a crescent moon.
Stacked Waves!
Cold sword lights layered one over another, forming a net of blades in the air.
It was evident that each successive slash Leo unleashed grew more powerful.
In the air, the sound of cutting through space rose wave after wave.
Like surging tides crashing against coastal reefs in the night, producing bursts of fierce sound.
When he reached the ninth slash, Leo suddenly stopped.
“Nine consecutive slashes!” Leo was pleasantly surprised. With the support of his powerful Strength attribute,
his Stacked Waves could now reach nine strikes.
If he exhausted all his stamina, he might even be able to unleash a tenth strike.
This was the result of enhanced stamina after the attribute increase.
【Fatigue generated from sword swings is reduced based on Strength】
The 【Tempering】 trait likely played a role as well.
Leo had not expected that the increase in his attributes would provide such a significant boost to his swordsmanship.
He recalled his final sparring match with Eve Sova that day.
Now, he felt that in a normal state, he should already be able to defeat her.
Not just defeat.
Leo could sense that, whether in attributes or techniques, he should be able to completely overwhelm her.
Moreover, Leo still had a trump card—Tsunami.
No, aside from that trump card, Leo also had a Berserk State he could use.
Eve was already among the best within low-tier knights.
Looking at it this way, Leo felt that his true combat capability had already far surpassed low-tier knights.
“I wonder, compared to mid-tier knights like Ross and Anthony, could I defeat them? As for high-tier knights…” For now, there was no point making such meaningless assumptions.
Leo then looked at another pleasant surprise in the panel.
He hadn’t expected that the breakthrough of the Breathing Technique would also increase his Spirit attribute by 0.2.
Although the increase was not as large as Strength and Agility, it still completely exceeded Leo’s expectations.
Leo felt that this was likely due to the transformation of his mental will brought about by his advancement in realm.
However, for ordinary people,
this increase—from 1.0 to 1.2—would only result in slightly quicker thinking and improved memory.
It would not appear particularly obvious.
But for Leo, it was entirely different.
A large number of skill effects in his panel were tied to this Spirit attribute.
The impact brought by 0.2 Spirit was far greater than imagined.
First and foremost, the most obvious change was the extension of Hunting Moment, increasing its duration by about ten seconds.
If it were before, this improvement might not have been very noticeable.
But now—
Leo instantly activated Hunting Moment, and his field of vision rapidly zoomed in.
He felt his physical strength rise again under the effect of the Divine Sacrifice Method “Curse of the Black God Saga.”
【Strength: 3.5 → 4.5
Agility: 2.5 → 3.0】
His maximum achievable Strength had reached 4.5, while his short-term maximum Agility surged to 3.0.
Terrifying.
Leo understood what his attribute values represented.
Every 0.1 increase brought a visible improvement.
So under the Berserk State, just how powerful had he become?
Since he had just tested Stacked Waves, Leo merely quietly calculated the duration of his Berserk State.
Due to the increase in Spirit, the duration of the Berserk State had extended from just over forty seconds to over fifty seconds.
In battle,
those ten seconds could mean the difference between life and death.
In addition, the increase in Leo’s Spirit attribute also affected the practical effectiveness of skills such as Beast Taming and Mount Control.
Even the Swordsmanship Comprehension trait benefited, with higher efficiency in understanding techniques.
Thinking of this, Leo felt a wave of comfort throughout his body.
“All of this comes from the Breathing Technique. As expected, the Breathing Technique is the foundation of a knight.”
Leo had long understood that after his Furnace Breathing Technique broke through to the second stage,
it would enter a process of accumulation and refinement. Black aura would accumulate and cover the entire body, and refining it into Bronze Flame would mark a mid-tier knight.
The Bronze Flame could not leave the body and could only attach to weapons, enhancing their lethality.
Further on, as the bronze aura continued to accumulate and refine, it would bloom into Silver Radiance, marking a high-tier knight.
Silver Radiance could briefly leave the body, even attaching to arrows.
Beyond that lay the Great Knight.
The entire principle was actually quite simple—like using a furnace to continuously refine ore.
Over the next two days, Leo conducted some tests.
Even with the supplementation of Tier 2 Body Tempering Potion and Level 2 Beastkin Meat,
after breaking through the second stage of the Breathing Technique, the growth speed of experience was only about one-tenth of before.
The progress of grinding experience had slowed down significantly.
Thus, higher-tier Body Tempering Potions and Beastkin Meat were needed for stimulation.
Leo knew that with each advancement in realm, the absorption of energy factors did not increase linearly,
but exponentially.
In other words, advancing from a low-tier knight to a mid-tier knight would require far more energy factors than during the Quasi-Knight stage.
This also meant a greater degree of bodily transformation.
“The demand for Beastkin Meat and Body Tempering Potions will increase significantly.”
Fortunately, Leo was now already an Alchemist.
He could produce low-tier Body Tempering Potions himself.
After further upgrading his skills, he could even produce Tier 2 potions.
Moreover, he was also a Hunter.
He could hunt Beastkin Meat himself, eliminating the middleman’s markup.
Thinking of this, Leo felt that he needed to adjust his training plan at the right time.
Previously, he had remained hidden in the dungeon and at home because his strength was insufficient, and he was concerned about safety.
Now, Leo felt that he already possessed the strength to leave the city and hunt.
Flap flap flap!
As he was thinking, outside the window, Leo’s eagle had used up its ammunition and returned for resupply.
“Then I’ll go and try a hunting mission.”
But before that, he needed to visit Laforin.
Since he had already broken through to the Knight Realm, there was no need to hide it anymore—he should find ways to secure more resources for himself.