Aaron looked at Alice with a speechless expression. Somehow, she had already learned of his arrival, and sure enough, she came to find him.
Along the way, she smiled and said,
"Aaron, we’ve finally completed the parachute. It’s time to test it tomorrow."
She paused, then added with a hint of regret,
"If only it weren’t the last day of the month, I could leave Starfall City with some guards to test it properly." Get full chapters from ⓝovelFire.net
"Miss Alice, you can still check it tomorrow. Let’s go and see the finished product first."
As they walked, he asked,
"Miss Alice, I heard you’re a knight, right?"
"Indeed. If I hadn’t become a knight, my father wouldn’t have allowed me to conduct experiments. So I had no choice but to follow his instructions."
Aaron nodded thoughtfully.
"Miss Alice, if possible, could you tell me how you broke through to the Knight Realm? And what kind of strength does a knight possess?"
Alice’s expression turned reflective, then bitter.
"If I’m honest, I never wanted to become a knight. The training is brutal. You have to keep running, pushing past your physical limits every single day. I lost count of how many times I wanted to give up."
"But as my strength increased during my time as a Knight Apprentice, I began to look forward to what lay beyond."
"After two years of training, I finally broke through four months ago. To reach the Knight Realm, you need a suitable breathing method. After each training session, I had to apply a potion specifically prepared for my breathing technique."
"You probably know that Knight Apprentices are divided into three tiers. The low tier grants the strength of three adult men, you can lift up to 150 kilograms easily. The middle tier gives you the strength of six men, lifting up to 300 kilograms. And the late tier offers the strength of nine men, with a lifting capacity of 750 kilograms."
"The final hurdle was the hardest. It took me nine months to reach the late tier, but fifteen more months to push my strength to match ten adult men. Honestly, my progress was considered fast, many people get stuck at that level."
She paused and looked at Aaron.
"Why are you asking about the Knight Realm?"
Aaron hesitated briefly, then replied,
"It’s just... I’ve never seen anyone truly use the strength of a knight. I want to understand it better, so I can be mentally prepared.
"Then I’ll tell you. After I reached the strength of ten men, my father gave me monster meat. After eating it, I felt a warm energy spread through my body. I had a gut feeling that if I practiced my breathing method right then, I might succeed, and I did."
"Once I entered the Knight Realm, I could easily lift up to a thousand kilograms. Knights also learn to enhance their body’s performance. During training, we gather strands of energy and store them, usually near the stomach, though the exact location depends on the breathing method.
"Using that stored energy can double our strength for a few minutes. But afterward, there’s a period of weakness, we need rest to recover. Once you reach the Great Knight Realm, you’ll be proficient enough in Breathing Mastery to recover that energy just by breathing even while fighting."
Aaron, on the other hand, was utterly confused.
After listening to Alice’s description, he couldn’t help but feel that if others knew about his situation, they’d be so jealous they might even try to kill him.
He had advanced from Level 5 Knight Apprentice to Level 11 Knight simply by pouring in experience points.
And although he hadn’t tested his strength yet, he could feel it, his power was likely greater than that of a typical knight by a noticeable margin.
But that wasn’t what amazed him most.
With the experience points he had accumulated, Aaron had already increased the mastery of the Lion Breathing Method to Level 5.
At this level, it granted him abilities comparable to a Great Knight.
He could recover energy while fighting, and even when his reserves were exhausted, he wouldn’t experience the usual period of weakness.
As far as he knew, the Lion Breathing Method was an incomplete version.
If it had been complete, the original owner’s father would never have handed it over so casually for practice.
Anyway, he would solve the mystery after advancing to the Great Knight Realm.
Then, he planned to return to Riverbend, visit Grey Town, and search for the answers he needed.
In truth, he also wanted to bring the mother of the body’s previous owner to Green Fort and give her a better life.
But that would have to wait for now.
Alice, noticing Aaron’s silence, gently comforted him.
"Aaron, you don’t have to be sad. You’ll become a knight one day."
Aaron smiled softly and replied,
"Miss Alice, I’m not sad. Also... please don’t tell anyone, but I’m already a knight."
Her heart began to race, if Aaron’s words were true, then she was certain:
He might actually win at the upcoming marriage ceremony.
Alice smiled warmly and said,
"Then that’s wonderful. Aaron, I sincerely hope you win the match. That way, I’ll be eligible to marry you."
Aaron returned the smile.
"I hope so too. I’ll do my best to defeat every opponent and win your hand in marriage."
He paused, then added with a serious tone,
"Miss Alice, please don’t reveal my strength to anyone. I want to keep it a secret."
Just at that moment, they unknowingly arrived at the warehouse where the parachute was being developed.
The area was heavily guarded, and as soon as the guards saw Miss Alice, they bowed respectfully.
Two of them stepped forward and opened the gate without hesitation.
Everyone present recognized the man walking beside her, the newly appointed Baron under Lord Alaric.
Although his territory lay in Green Fort, no one dared to underestimate him.
At the very least, most of the guards and all the important figures in Starfall City knew one thing:
Aaron was a respected man.