The next day, a carriage drawn by two Bloodmane horses traveled at a steady pace through a wide road towards the Imperial Academy.
Inside the spacious and luxurious carriage, Ian looked at the status panel in front of him, deep in thought.
[Name: Elara Ashford]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Knight]
[Realm: Tertiary Knight]
[Knight Scripture: Moon Knight Breathing Method]
[Codex: Ashen Creed (Harmonization)]
[Luck: 20]
[Destiny: Passerby]
Yesterday, when he was saying goodbye to his parents, he curiously used the Analysis feature, attempting to see their status; and it worked.
Looking at the row of texts, there was nothing wrong with his mother's status.
Ian was only slightly surprised that the Knight Scripture practiced by his mother wasn't the heirloom of the royal family. Then again, who would give their heirloom breathing method to someone who married into another house?
As for the codex, it didn't matter as much as the breathing method.
"My mother seemed to have abandoned the training," Ian smiled.
According to the system, any knight technique was divided into five parts in the realm of understanding:
Initiation, Ascent, Harmonization, Excellence, and Perfection.
As for whether it was the same for spells, he didn't know, as he hadn't practiced one yet.
"Fortunately, my Ironclad Discipline Codex is already at Perfection," Ian thought, then suddenly remembered something.
"Speaking of which, Etherial Disguise is still at Initiation. But could it also hide my Wizard rank?"
A Knight couldn't discern if someone was a Wizard Apprentice, but a Wizard certainly could—especially Ruther. Ian didn't want to come onto their radar yet.
When he thought of this, he immediately tried.
With the activation of the Etherial Disguise secret technique, the mana and life energy in his body began to vibrate and flow differently.
As Ian carefully observed within himself, he found that half of the energy flowed into his Life Seed while the remaining half went into his mind, perfectly shielding his realm.
Although using secret techniques to shield the fluctuation of his realm was energy-intensive and laborious, the discovery still made Ian happy.
"I can control everything with my mind," Ian realized a crucial point different than before.
He suddenly discovered that he could allow the Life Energy to rush into his mind, shielding it even more firmly. Perhaps it could even resist a mental attack—he didn't know.
"What happens if I use mental power on my Life Seed?"
If Life Energy could shield his mind, then surely mental power could help shield the Life Seed too, right?
As he thought this, he immediately practiced Etherial Disguise again, focusing his mental power on his dantian.
However, this time, something amazing happened, and Ian's heart skipped a beat.
Just as he thought, his mental power could also shield his Life Seed and block his realm.
However, the strange thing was that the more mental power he poured into his Life Seed, the more transparent it became.
By the time he poured almost all his mental power, the Life Seed was only one-third visible. Even he couldn't detect the remaining part.
"Hah... Hah..."
Suddenly, the Etherial Disguise technique broke on its own, saving him from severe mana depletion. Still, the intense headache took him a dozen minutes to recover from.
"What was that?" Ian muttered, confused.
At the moment Etherial Disguise broke, he felt a strong tug from his consciousness, as if it wanted to pull the Life Seed upwards.
"I think I need to practice this secret technique to Perfection."
Although he didn't know what would happen upon reaching Perfection, it was undoubtedly a good thing.
"Maybe the reason lies in this entry."
Ian looked again at the status panel in front of him, this time focusing on his father.
[Name: Eldric Veilstrider]
[Race: Human]
[Bloodline: Awakened, ?? (Sealed)]
[Class: Knight]
[Realm: Grand Knight (Tier 1)]
[Knight Scripture: Veilstrider Knight Breathing Method]
[Codex: Veil Sword Technique (Excellence), Iron Oath (Perfection), Argent Path (Perfection)]
[Secret Technique: Etherial Disguise (Ascent)]
[Luck: 10 ↓]
[Destiny: Black (early death)]
"What is this bloodline? And why is there a question mark next to it?"
Ian tried to ask the system, but it remained silent, leaving him in mystery.
He considered asking his father directly yesterday but refrained.
If it was something he needed to know, his father would have told him already. There was no need to pry into other secrets. Besides, he had no reasonable explanation for how he knew.
"But why don't I have the Bloodline column?"
That was Ian's primary concern. Whatever the bloodline was, it had to be something powerful.
Even in the Calvora Continent, Wizards often took bloodlines seriously—many were even known as Bloodline Wizards.
"Forget it. When the time comes, it will reveal itself."
Ian was full of questions but had no answers. He also understood that he wasn't strong enough yet to uncover everything. After all, even his father's bloodline was sealed.
"But he's already at the Grand Knight realm and still didn't mention anything to us. I don't even know how he died at Ethos's hands."
No wonder, when Ian said he would surpass his father in the realm, Eldric had looked at him like a fool.
'He must be laughing at my ignorance,' Ian thought, gnashing his teeth.
But suddenly, a sound pulled his attention back to reality.
"Young Master, we've arrived at the Imperial Academy."
"Oh? Okay."
Ian calmed his thoughts and gracefully stepped out of the carriage.
In the Arcane Passage, there wasn't much mention of the Imperial Academy besides a few key plots.
One of these was the meeting between heroine Lyra and hero Carl at the Academy welcome banquet.
It was also the time when Ian was ruthlessly trampled by the protagonist in the arena.
Since he was injured badly, he had to rest at home for a whole semester and disappeared along with his fleeing family six months later.
He was a passerby villain destined to become a springboard for Lyra and Carl's meeting.
Of course, it wasn't a toxic plot where Lyra disdainfully looked down on him while embracing Carl. Up to the part Ian had read in Arcane Passage, Lyra was merely a companion to Carl and hadn't been romantically involved yet.
Perhaps the author was building a slow, romantic subplot. Ian didn't care.
'I'm looking forward to our first confrontation,' Ian thought, looking at the crowd in front of him, smiling with anticipation.