2: Chapter 2: New Class! The Knight of All Things!

The population of the White Cliff Town territory had increased from less than five thousand initially to twenty thousand now.

Sylvia's contributions were immense.

She had built simple magical watchtowers.

She used basic elemental arrays to accelerate crop growth.

She even designed a watermill system utilizing the White Cliff waterfall.

During this period, harassment from bandits and wandering knights never ceased, but they were never able to breach the castle's defensive line.

Everything was fine.

Rowan thought she would not leave.

But he was wrong.

Last night, Sylvia suddenly asked:

"Rowan, how much of what you said to me back then was true?"

Rowan was using the Drain skill at the time.

This was his daily routine: draining a small amount of "Love" or "Pleasure" from a qualified partner to convert into attribute points.

He answered fluently and naturally: "Every word was true, my dear."

Sylvia stared at him for a long time, a strange look flashing in her beautiful emerald green eyes.

She did not speak again.

After the routine applause.

Three in the morning.

The light from a short-range teleportation scroll illuminated the tower.

This was magic that only a Fourth-Circle Mage could use.

He woke up and felt the invisible connection between his Charm skill and Sylvia snap.

Was a Level 3 Charm still not enough for a Mage who had promoted to the intermediate level?

Rowan sighed inwardly.

The light from the card sank completely into his body.

A system prompt sounded in his mind:

["Random Class Card" used successfully]

[Class selection in progress...]

[Congratulations! Obtained new class: Myriad Knight]

[Detected that host already possesses the inherent class "Succubus"]

[New class will be loaded as a secondary class; inherent class retained]

[Panel updated]

A new interface unfolded.

[Secondary Class]: Myriad Knight

[Class Skills]

Myriad Furnace Breathing Technique Lv1 (Perfect) (0 / 1000)

Effect: Can smelt basic traits from other Breathing Techniques; inputting them into the Myriad Furnace Breathing Technique allows for upgrades.

[Detected existing Breathing Technique in body: Frost-Snow Breathing Technique (Excellent)]

[Auto-smelting...]

[Obtained Breathing Technique trait: Frost (Blue)]

[Used "Class Skill Draw Card" × 2]

[Designated class "Myriad Knight", detected trait "Frost"]

Skill draw in progress...

Obtained:

[Winter Oath-Keeper Swordsmanship Lv1 (0 / 500)]

[Basic Forms]

First Snow Form: Frost condenses into ice shards along the blade.

Thin Ice Form: Leaves Frost marks where the sword passes.

Cold Current Form: A straight thrust, condensing extreme cold at the sword tip.

Advanced forms can be unlocked at Lv3.

[Silent Pilgrimage Archery Lv1 (0 / 500)]

[Basic Forms]

Pilgrimage Arrow: Arrowhead covered in Frost.

Ice Crystal Arrow: Arrowhead can explode into ice crystals.

Silent Word Arrow: Pierces the air without a sound.

Advanced forms can be unlocked at Lv3.

The moment the class manifested, a cold current surged from his spine, rapidly spreading to his limbs and bones.

Rowan groaned and knelt on one knee.

Cold.

Bone-chilling cold.

It felt as if his blood were about to freeze.

But immediately after, a scorching power pumped from his heart, colliding and merging with the cold current.

Tiny ice crystals formed on the surface of his skin, only to melt rapidly, turning into white steam evaporating from his pores.

His bones made faint cracking sounds, and his muscle fibers reorganized, becoming denser and more powerful.

He raised his hand and saw faint blue lines flowing beneath the skin of his arm—the traces of Frost elements coursing through his blood vessels.

"Hoo—"

Rowan exhaled, forming a cloud of white mist in the air.

The class is Myriad Knight?

Myriad Furnace Breathing Technique, a Perfect-grade Breathing Technique.

As far as he knew, in this world, knightly Breathing Techniques were roughly divided into four grades.

Crude, Excellent, Perfect, Legendary.

Among them, most were just Crude Breathing Techniques, making it difficult to condense the Life Seed of an Official Knight.

With such powerful traits, it was only a Perfect-grade Breathing Technique?

"But the words [Can be upgraded] in the effect description gave him some guesses."

"Interesting."

Rowan stood up and moved his shoulders.

He felt his body was lighter than ever before.

In the room, the crying had subsided; the children were tired from crying and had fallen asleep with hiccups.

He pushed open the door.

"Master!" Butler Henry was still at the door, his face anxious. "The wandering knights have arrived at the foot of White Cliff. They are shouting, demanding we hand over our grain stores, or they will attack the castle!"

Rowan nodded and walked toward the master bedroom.

"Have the guards go to the walls and the archers take their positions."

"Yes! But Master, the Madam is not here, and we..." Butler Henry hesitated, leaving his sentence unfinished.

For three years, all external threats had been resolved by Sylvia.

The castle guard only had twenty men and eight archers, which was fine for dealing with small groups of bandits.

But facing well-equipped wandering knights...

Rowan, unhurried, walked into the master bedroom.

He opened the iron chest at the very back of the wardrobe.

Inside the chest were the keepsakes left by his father:

A well-maintained set of half-plate armor, a longsword with a scabbard, a recurve hunting bow, and two quivers of arrows.

He took them out one by one and put them on.

The plate armor was a bit tight; it had been loose when he wore it three years ago.

The longsword and hunting bow felt heavy in his hands.

But the new strength in his arms made them feel just right.

"Master, are you going to..." Butler Henry widened his eyes.

"Defend the castle."

Rowan fastened his sword belt, slung the quivers over his back, and walked toward the door.

"But your combat skills..."

Rowan's father was an Official Knight, but Rowan had been frail since childhood. His father had tried to teach him swordsmanship, but after three days of practice, Rowan developed a high fever, and his father eventually gave up.

In Henry's memory, the young master had poor talent for knightly Breathing Techniques and couldn't even swing a sword steadily.

"It's been three years, Henry." Rowan stopped at the top of the stairs and looked back at him. "Three years can change many things."

He looked at the panel.

For three years, his daily routine of Drain on Sylvia had absorbed a massive amount of attribute points.

Rowan looked at the last column of the panel.

[Attribute Points: 5132]

He could absorb about 5 points on average per day.

His skills had two ways to be improved.

One was daily practice, improving through proficiency.

The other was adding points directly.

Originally, his attribute points were reserved for increasing his Charm skill.

But now, his wife had run away.

He would just have to add points and go himself.

He walked down the spiral staircase and crossed the hall.

The servants were hurriedly moving supplies and were stunned to see him fully armed.

"Master?"

"Go do your work."

Rowan pushed open the castle's heavy oak doors.

The autumn wind blew in, carrying the saltiness of the sea.

His White Cliff Town territory was not far from the North Sea.

Below the castle walls, five mounted figures were shouting. They wore mismatched armor, but their weapons were fine and their horses were sturdy.

Further away on the riverbank to the west, more figures could be vaguely seen gathering.

Guard Captain Jason ran over, his face pale. "Master, they say they want to see the Madam to negotiate, otherwise they will..."

"Tell them the Madam is in the magic tower preparing a large-scale spell to blow them away, and tell them to wait."

Rowan walked up to the castle wall and looked out from the crenellations.

Five wandering knights; the leader was carrying a battle-axe and laughing loudly:

"A Mage? Let her come out!"

"We've asked around; the light from the teleportation scroll last night could be seen from ten miles away!"

"Haha!"

"Pretty boy, stop bluffing!"

"If you're sensible, hurry up and hand over the grain and treasure."

As expected.

These hyenas had a keen sense of smell.

Sylvia hadn't been gone long, and they had already followed the scent.

He looked at the Class Skills column on the panel.

"System, add points!"

[Myriad Furnace Breathing Technique Lv1 (Apprentice Knight) (0 / 1000) -> Myriad Furnace Breathing Technique Lv2 (Official Knight) (0 / 10000)]

[Silent Pilgrimage Archery Lv1 (0 / 500) -> Silent Pilgrimage Archery Lv3 (0 / 5000)]

[Consumed attribute points: 3500]

[Remaining attribute points: 1632]