「Afternoon.」
Laine Kingdom, Green Province, Yorkshire, Ice Wolf Domain.
In a peculiar square three hundred meters in diameter, its surroundings and sky shrouded in gray mist.
Roy, who would turn eighteen next month, had short golden hair and a striking resemblance to a young Leonardo DiCaprio. Dressed in black Hunter’s Clothing, he moved through a series of peculiar poses, practicing the Wesley Clan’s Ice Wolf Breathing Technique.
Time passed slowly.
After some time, a message only he could see appeared in his vision.
[Ice Wolf Breathing Technique Skill Level +3]
[Ice Wolf Breathing Technique has leveled up!]
[Ice Wolf Breathing Technique: Tier Five (Limit), Special Effect: Basic Speed]
’So Tier Five is the limit. Just as I thought, the ceiling for an ordinary-level Breathing Technique really isn’t that high!’
Looking at the upgrade notification, Roy sighed to himself. His gaze fell upon the special effect, something that only appeared after a Breathing Technique had been cultivated to its limit.
[Basic Speed: Your Agility Attribute is permanently increased by 20%].
After reading the description for the Basic Speed special effect, Roy opened the Skill Proficiency Panel, which was also visible only to him.
A moment later, a panel resembling a holographic screen appeared before his eyes.
[Roy Wesley]
[Ice Wolf Breathing Technique: Tier Five (Limit), Special Effect: Basic Speed]
[Giant Elephant Breathing Technique: Tier Four (3943/5000)]
[Black Crow Breathing Technique: Tier Four (1654/5000)]
[Shadow Leopard Breathing Technique: Tier Three (2587/3000)]
[Basic Swordsmanship: Tier One (Limit)]
[Basic Fighting: Tier One (Limit)]
[Archery: Tier One (Limit)]
[Riding Skill: Tier One (Limit)]
...
After glancing at the progress of his Black Crow, Giant Elephant, and Shadow Leopard Breathing Techniques, Roy closed the Skill Proficiency Panel and walked toward a pile of miscellaneous items at the edge of the square.
The four Breathing Techniques he was currently practicing were all ordinary-level.
The Ice Wolf Breathing Technique was the Wesley Clan’s ancestral technique.
He had bought the Giant Elephant Breathing Technique from a Black Market Merchant.
As for the Black Crow and Shadow Leopard Breathing Techniques, he had taken them by force from other Wandering Knights.
To be more precise, he had looted them from the bodies of Wandering Knights he was contracted to kill for a bounty.
Roy was not a native of this world. He was a Transmigrator who had arrived a year ago, taking over the body of the original owner.
Before transmigrating, he had been a corporate drone, working a 9-9-6 schedule while burdened with a mortgage and a car loan.
One Saturday night, he stayed up late to binge-read a novel.
When he woke up, he had crossed over into this world, becoming a bona fide Transmigrator.
After absorbing the original owner’s memories, he learned that Wizards existed in this world, and that their power and status far surpassed that of Knights. For this reason, he named this world the Wizarding World.
His transmigration had been rather unceremonious, but he didn’t see any problem with that.
Transmigrating after death was the old-school way.
Modern-day transmigrations were becoming increasingly arbitrary.
Waking up to find you’ve crossed over was the mainstream method these days.
He quickly accepted the fact that he had transmigrated.
Not that he had any choice in the matter!
After all, he had no idea how to get back!
As a 9-9-6 drone who read plenty of web novels in his spare time, he had fantasized more than once about being transmigrated or reincarnated.
In a way, transmigrating to this world was a dream come true.
Like his fellow transmigrators, he also had his own Golden Finger.
In fact, he had two of them.
The Skill Proficiency Panel!
And the Chaos Square, where he was right now!
The Skill Proficiency Panel was self-explanatory.
As for the Chaos Square...
Roy wasn’t entirely sure what the Chaos Square was.
The first time he entered this place, the name "Chaos Square" had simply appeared in his mind.
Through testing, he discovered that training in the Chaos Square was over five times more effective than in the outside world, yet the flow of time was identical.
Furthermore, practicing a Breathing Technique in the Chaos Square allowed him to ignore the Secret Medicine requirement for Bloodline Breathing Techniques.
As far as Roy knew, the world’s Breathing Techniques were divided into two types—Bloodline Breathing Techniques and Universal Breathing Techniques—and came in three grades: ordinary, Excellent, and perfect.
Bloodline Breathing Techniques required a specific bloodline to practice.
Universal Breathing Techniques, however, could be practiced by anyone.
Regardless of whether it was a Bloodline or Universal Breathing Technique, practice required a corresponding Secret Medicine.
Without it, not only would training efficiency be drastically reduced, but it would also be impossible to master the technique fully.
The Ice Wolf Breathing Technique and Giant Elephant Breathing Technique that Roy was currently practicing were both ordinary-level Bloodline Breathing Techniques.
The Skill Proficiency Panel granted him the ability to ignore bloodline requirements, allowing him to practice any Bloodline Breathing Technique he chose.
Meanwhile, the Chaos Square spared him the trouble of searching for the required Secret Medicines.
It was precisely because of these advantages that he had managed to train the Ice Wolf, Black Crow, Giant Elephant, and Shadow Leopard Breathing Techniques to their current levels in just one year.
Otherwise, even if he were the most hardcore grinder, he could never have reached this level of proficiency in only a year.
It wasn’t just for practicing Breathing Techniques; Roy had also discovered that his efficiency at reading, drawing, and studying was much higher inside the Chaos Square.
He wasn’t sure if the Chaos Square had any other effects yet.
Still, he was more than satisfied with the Chaos Square’s "training acceleration" effect.
If this were a xianxia novel, the Chaos Square would be the equivalent of a grotto-heaven, a blessed land rich with spiritual energy.
In addition to being a training area, he also used the Chaos Square as a sanctuary and a personal storage space.
He could enter the Chaos Square anytime and anywhere, or bring objects inside, simply by forming the intention in his mind.
The only limitation was that the Chaos Square could not accommodate any living thing besides himself.
Soon, Roy reached the pile of miscellaneous items at the edge of the square, opened a box, and took out an hourglass.
It was a three-hour hourglass.
After taking out the hourglass, he carried it back to the center of the square, placed it a few meters away, and began practicing the Giant Elephant Breathing Technique.
Just as he did when practicing the Ice Wolf Breathing Technique, Roy moved through one peculiar pose after another, guiding the Fighting Qi in his body to flow along the path prescribed by the Giant Elephant Breathing Technique.
Once initiated into a Breathing Technique, one could condense a corresponding Life Seed within their body.
Roy had practiced four different Breathing Techniques, so he now had a total of four Life Seeds within his body.
The largest of them was the Ice Wolf Seed, which had just reached the Tier Five Limit.
Fighting Qi was the energy produced by a Life Seed.
Different Life Seeds produced Fighting Qi of different colors.
Roy had assumed that by practicing four different Breathing Techniques, he would have four different colors of Fighting Qi.
As it turned out, he was mistaken.
Even though he practiced four different Breathing Techniques, his Fighting Qi was still the white color characteristic of the Ice Wolf Breathing Technique.
However, this was actually a good thing for him.
White was the most common color for Fighting Qi.
According to statistics, nearly a third of all Knights possessed White Fighting Qi.
Time trickled by.
When the last grain of sand in the hourglass fell to the bottom, Roy finished his practice of the Giant Elephant Breathing Technique.
[Giant Elephant Breathing Technique Skill Level +63]
[Giant Elephant Breathing Technique: Tier Four (4006/5000)]
’The efficiency has increased!’
’Nice!’
A satisfied expression appeared on Roy’s face.
He clearly remembered that previously, three hours of practicing the Giant Elephant Breathing Technique only increased his Skill Level by about 45 points.
Now, in the same three hours, his Skill Level had increased by 63, breaking the 4,000-point mark in one go.
After finishing his practice, Roy first returned the hourglass to its box, then turned to look at the gray mist nearby.
The gray mist thinned somewhat, revealing his bedroom in the castle like a view from a security camera.
After confirming the bedroom was empty, a thought was all it took for him to return from the Chaos Square to his bedroom in Ice Wolf Castle.
As the second son of the family, Roy’s bedroom in the castle was second in size only to that of the Baron Ice Wolf.
The current Baron Ice Wolf was not his predecessor’s father, Charlie, but his older brother, Tony Wesley.
Tony Wesley was six years older than Roy’s predecessor. He had inherited the title of Baron Ice Wolf three years ago and was now a Middle Tier Knight.
According to Tony, if everything went smoothly, he would be able to train his Ice Wolf Breathing Technique to Tier Four within another year and advance to become a High Tier Knight.
Then, they would no longer have to worry about Baron Red Eagle and Baron Giant Dog.
If he could advance to Peak Knight before the age of thirty and find an Excellent Level Breathing Technique, he might even have a shot at becoming a Great Knight.
Tony would never have guessed that his younger brother—the one he saw as a bookish weakling who only liked to read and draw, too feeble to even beat a common farmer—had long been inhabited by a different soul.
He was even more oblivious to the fact that the two men he considered his family’s greatest enemies, Baron Red Eagle and Baron Giant Dog, had been severely wounded half a year ago by Roy—who had already advanced to a High Tier Knight—and still had not recovered.
...