26: Silver Knight

"Moo~!"

The roar of a Magic Bull echoed through the sky, carrying so far that even the commoners of Ironthorn Town could hear it.

The powerful sense of oppression contained in the sound caused Lister and the others on the third floor of the castle to freeze, their breathing becoming labored.

However, this pressure came as quickly as it went, dissipating in an instant.

"This is..." Lister thought for a moment before reacting, his expression excited as he said, "No doubt about it, Red must have advanced to Silver Knight!"

Without another word, he hurried downstairs. Just as he reached the castle gates, he saw Red approaching with an expression of excitement and agitation.

The other knights followed behind him. While they were envious, they were equally excited; after all, Red was their Knight Captain. The stronger Red was, the more prestige they all had.

At first glance, Red saw that Lister was coming to congratulate him on his breakthrough, and a surge of emotion instantly filled his heart.

A warrior dies for the one who recognizes his worth—this was exactly that!

With a grateful expression, he took the lead in performing a knight's salute and said respectfully, "Lord Lister, Red has not failed your expectations. I have successfully advanced to Silver Knight."

"Haha, good, good, good!" Lister was so happy his mouth could hardly close. At this moment, any pretense of lordly decorum was thrown to the wind.

After all, the difference—or rather, the gap—between a Silver Knight and a Bronze Knight was simply too vast.

The disparity in strength between the two was much larger than the gap between Lister's Bronze Rank 1 and a Bronze Rank 9.

Not only that, let alone Barons, even some of the weaker Viscounts did not possess a Silver Knight.

Before his death, Lister's late father only had one Silver Rank 3 Knight Captain, who unfortunately also died alongside him in battle.

Furthermore, that Silver Knight Captain had been much older than Red; at Red's current age, his strength had been worlds apart.

Calming his excitement, Lister regained his lordly dignity. Scanning the excited faces before him, he encouraged them:

"Knights, Red's breakthrough was certainly helped by the dragon blood fruit I bestowed upon him, but without the solid foundation he built through his own hard work, he wouldn't have been able to break through so quickly. I hope you understand this..."

At this point, he paused before continuing, "At the same time, I believe you all desire breakthrough resources like the dragon blood fruit. If you want them, then practice hard. I will never be stingy with such rewards."

Hearing this, the excitement of the knights behind Red instantly reached its peak.

"Long live the Lord!"

"Long live the Lord!!"

...Cries of heartfelt praise resounded outside the castle, reaching the clouds.

The steady Thomas was also affected, his face showing excitement and relief.

Flora and the other maids felt that Lister's silhouette at this moment was indescribably tall and magnificent. Their eyes shimmered with endless admiration and affection, and they were so moved they felt weak in the knees.

Just then, accompanied by two 'yiya yiya' sounds, a small, domineering white head poked out from beside Lister's leg.

"Awoo!"

The milky howl immediately drew everyone's attention. Red said in surprise, "Lord Lister, the Purple-Eyed Magic Lion Egg you found has hatched?"

Although Flora and the other maids didn't understand much, the others present knew exactly what this represented.

It was very difficult to hatch the eggs of such powerful magic beasts, let alone have them be so close to humans. Otherwise, human kingdoms would have long ago captured those magic beasts en masse and locked them up to lay eggs.

As expected of a man protected by the holy light god!

For a moment, expressions of envy and reverence appeared on their faces.

"Yes, it hatched," Lister said, picking up Bai Ze with a light smile. "Its name is Bai Ze. From now on, it will be the Guardian Auspicious Beast of our Ironthorn Territory."

"However, we must keep this a secret from the outside world for now. After all, the importance of a Purple-Eyed Magic Lion is not small."

As he spoke, Lister's voice radiated the authority of a lord.

Everyone replied respectfully, "Understood."

Lister nodded slightly, then smiled and said, "Come, Red. Let me see exactly how strong you are after advancing to Silver Knight."

"Yes, Lord Lister."

Red also looked expectant. He had rushed to report the good news to Lister as soon as he broke through and hadn't had time to feel his current strength yet.

Lister led Red and the other knights, along with Lianna and the others who liked to watch the excitement—and now with Bai Ze added to the group—toward the training grounds.

At this moment, in the center of the large open space, Lister and the others stood at the edge, leaving only the five Full Knights including Red.

According to Lister, a simple demonstration wasn't exciting enough.

So he ordered Red to simultaneously face the two 'veteran' knights, Locke and Carlyle, as well as Spartacus and another recently advanced Bronze Knight, Dewey Stan.

Locke was Bronze Rank 6 and Carlyle was Bronze Rank 5, both within the Bronze Rank Intermediate range.

Spartacus was close to breaking through to Bronze Rank 2, while Dewey Stan was still Bronze Rank 1.

In this sparring session, any moves, techniques, or skills could be used except for lethal strikes.

Since it was foot combat, all five tacitly used longswords as their weapons.

As the cold wind blew, the five men standing straight and facing each other were filled with fighting spirit. Except for Red, the auras of the other four had climbed to their peak.

The next moment, the four of them exerted force with their legs and shot toward Red with longswords in hand.

Just as they were about to reach Red, the four suddenly split up and slashed at Red from four different directions.

Seeing that he was about to be hit, the longsword in Red's hand moved as if it had eyes of its own, dancing rapidly.

"Clang clang clang clang!"

Accompanied by the sound of colliding swords, Red blocked every attack from the four directions. The powerful recoil force sent the four of them stumbling backward.

However, they quickly stabilized themselves and, in their excitement, charged at Red once more.

For a time, sword light flashed, metal boomed continuously, and a large amount of dust flew up in the clearing.

Watching the battle, Lister felt a sense of satisfaction. He felt that the blockbuster movies from his previous life were simply pathetic and had no comparison to the battle before him.

As time passed, the four attackers were steaming with blood energy and dripping with sweat, yet they still could not break through Red's defense.

However, they felt no sense of frustration; instead, they looked grateful, as Red was clearly using the spar to help them train.

In the next second, Locke and Carlyle gave a loud shout. Powerful Combat Qi and elemental energy gathered on their sword blades, and two energy slashes—one black and one blue—flew rapidly toward Red.

Screech!

Red made no superfluous movements; with just a horizontal sweep of his longsword, the two energy slashes were torn apart like thin paper, dissipating into the air in an instant.

At this point, the battle quietly came to an end. Everyone stopped their attacks. The four men, gasping for breath, looked excited; they had all made significant progress in this spar.

Especially Spartacus; steam rose from his body, and his aura had already reached the peak of Bronze Rank 1.

"Moo~!"