Chapter 27: The So-Called Knight

“Why?” Faced with Julian’s answer, Ophariel asked with some confusion. But Julian didn’t give a direct response to this. He just looked at the girl before him with an interesting gaze, then asked.

“How much control over magic power have you mastered so far?”

“About eighty percent…” Although she didn’t know why Julian suddenly questioned her, Ophariel quickly answered. But she didn’t notice that when hearing this answer, Julian’s eye corner twitched slightly.

Being able to master eighty percent of magic power control without any guidance?

This was beyond what could be described by the word genius.

Although he had known very early on that this princess had strong self-control ability, not only maintaining herself in the Demon Soul Wraith state but also quickly controlling her emotions when personally observing the carnage on the battlefield during this period, not falling into panic and fear. But the flow of magic power was completely different from this. Although Julian himself couldn’t learn spells and couldn’t use them, he had fought alongside mages before. Because of this, he knew very well how difficult it was for mages to manipulate the source of magic power.

“Then, try to gather magic power in your right hand.”

Hearing Julian’s command, Ophariel nodded slightly, then stretched out her right hand, closed her eyes, and soon, an illusory, dark aura appeared in the middle of her fair palm, enveloping Ophariel’s hand.

“Very good, now try to hit this rock. Hit it hard, concentrate the magic power on one point.”

Saying this, Julian pointed to a boulder about half his height beside him. At this time, Ophariel showed a hint of confusion.

“Should I… hit hard?”

“That’s right.”

“I understand.”

Ophariel nodded. She walked to the side of the boulder, took a deep breath, then looked at the rock in front of her, clenched her right fist, and swung it forward with all her might.

“Hey!!”

The mountain was still that mountain, the clouds were still those clouds, the rock was still that rock.

“Ow…”

Ophariel hugged her right hand, biting her lip, her petite body trembling constantly. She closed her eyes, trying hard to swallow back the cry of pain. This was no wonder, hitting a rock with bare hands, the result was almost predetermined.

“Do you understand now?”

Julian looked at Ophariel, who was trembling like a small animal, with a sly smile. The girl took several deep breaths of fresh air, blinking hard to wipe away the tears that were about to roll out of her eyes.

“I don’t understand, my lord…”

While rubbing her right hand, Ophariel answered in a low voice. In fact, she really didn’t understand what Julian was trying to do.

“Judy.”

Julian waved to the Wraith Warriors not far away. Soon, Judy walked out from among them and came to the side of the two.

“You do it once.”

“Yes, sir.”

There was a hint of excitement in Judy’s voice. She first glanced at Ophariel, then walked to the side of the boulder and raised her right hand.

Bright red, burning flames burst from the center of her palm, instantly enveloping her iron-armored right hand. Then Judy faced the boulder and struck hard.

“Boom!”

Accompanied by a deafening roar, the originally half-man-high boulder completely split into several pieces under Judy’s strike. Ophariel widened her eyes in surprise, looking at the shattered boulder in front of her, then at the gradually extinguishing flames on Judy’s right hand.

“This is the reason,” Julian shrugged and explained to Ophariel.

“Your attribute is not suitable for combat, or at least it doesn’t help your combat power.”

“But I just haven’t trained,” Ophariel obviously didn’t agree with Julian’s words.

“If I train…”

“It’s useless,” Julian waved his hand, interrupting Ophariel’s defense.

“If you had a living body now, you could indeed strengthen your physique, improve reaction and strength through training. But don’t forget, you’re now just a soul condensate. Training your body won’t have any effect on you. What you need to do is to condense magic power, form strength for attack, but…” At this point, Julian paused before continuing. “The shadow attribute is very special. It’s not like other magic attributes that can bring additional power enhancement to their holders. So, you can’t gain other powers through this magic attribute.”

“So, I must find a way of fighting that belongs to myself?”

Ophariel quickly grasped the meaning of Julian’s words.

“That’s right,” Julian nodded, then he asked again.

“What do you know about the power classification of warriors?”

“…I only know they are divided into low-rank swordhands, intermediate swordsmen, high-rank swordsmen, and knights… I think that’s all I know, my lord.”

Indeed, no different from ordinary people.

Hearing Ophariel’s unreserved answer, Julian shrugged. It seemed he had a lot to teach this princess. And this was also the main reason why Ophariel asked him. Since she was his adjutant, she would definitely have to follow him to the battlefield in the future. At that time, accurately judging the enemy’s combat power would be a necessary skill for her. If she maintained the current understanding that “a high-rank swordsman can beat ten”, there would be big trouble.

“Regarding low-rank swordhands, I think I don’t need to say much. You’ve seen these days, these bandits are basically at the level of low-rank swordhands. Even within the army, most soldiers are at this level. Perhaps front-line battle groups would be better, especially in those guard units, there might be quite a few upper low-rank swordhands. They are the most common combat force. When fighting, they are no different from ordinary people, just a bit stronger physically, a bit more powerful, a bit faster, nothing special other than that. In fact, anyone who is willing to train can reach this level.”

While listening to Julian’s explanation, Ophariel nodded, taking in this information. Indeed, what she needed most now was knowledge in this area.

“Intermediate swordsmen are slightly different, and the way to distinguish them is very simple. As long as they are intermediate swordsmen, they will inevitably burst out protective aura in battle. You are now a soul entity, so seeing soul radiance isn’t difficult for you. Intermediate swordsmen are several times stronger than low-rank swordhands in all aspects, and with the protection of protective aura, ordinary low-rank swordsmen have no way to cause them any harm. And after reaching the upper intermediate level, they can excavate and master their soul attribute.”

“Soul attribute?”

Hearing this term, Ophariel couldn’t help but look at Judy standing beside her. She remembered clearly that in the previous battle with Darlos, that bandit leader seemed to have said something about attribute power to Judy.

“That’s right,” Julian nodded.

“Everyone’s soul is composed of mana elements, and because of this, their soul attributes are also different. Some people can sense their soul attribute from birth, but most people can only sense their soul attribute through battle, and then utilize it, like Judy’s fire attribute. In fact, only those who can sense their soul attribute and master its power can become upper intermediate swordsmen.”

Ophariel frowned slightly, seeming to have thought of something.

“And high-rank swordsmen, apart from basic differences in strength and speed from intermediate swordsmen, have a most obvious feature, which is releasing soul power.”

Saying this, Julian lightly drew his longsword, and soon, a dazzling radiance appeared on it.

“Intermediate swordsmen can only attach their soul power to weapons for attacks, just like Judy’s flames can be attached to the sword body, but can’t be released. But high-rank swordsmen – even if they’re just novices who have just entered the high-rank realm, can release their soul power, forming area attacks. They can knock down a dozen enemies at the same time. If the opponents are only low-rank swordhands, even more will be eliminated.”

Ophariel didn’t speak this time. She still remembered the soul blade that Darlos released towards Julian at that time. If this attack had been aimed at those bandits, probably at least a dozen people would have fallen dead instantly.

“Then what about knights?”

“Knights…” Faced with Ophariel’s question, Julian smiled.

“Becoming a knight isn’t an easy thing. Unless you learn a set of knight swordsmanship, or you create a set of knight swordsmanship yourself, otherwise, you can only ever be a high-rank swordsman, nothing more.”

“Knight swordsmanship?”

But hearing this, Ophariel felt even more confused.

“But can’t anyone learn swordsmanship? Can’t those swordsmen just directly learn knight swordsmanship and become knights?”

“Ordinary school swordsmanship, indeed, anyone can learn,” Julian shrugged.

“But knight swordsmanship isn’t like that. It’s not just simply a set of swordsmanship. In fact, a set of knight swordsmanship represents the belief of its user.”

“Belief…”

Ophariel softly repeated this word, seeming not to understand its meaning very well. And faced with her confused expression, Julian smiled and patted her shoulder.

“That’s right, belief. Living in the world, what pursuit do people have? What do we want? Money? Power? Status? Position? Fight for women? Fight for justice? Or just for destruction and death? Or is what we hope for just conquest? To protect someone? Belief is the basis of knight swordsmanship, and only those who have mastered the power of high-rank swordsmen and can freely use their soul attribute power have the possibility to comprehend this swordsmanship. If ordinary people try to learn it without measuring their own abilities, the outcome will only be death.”

“But, hearing you say this, I still don’t understand how powerful knights are, my lord.”

It’s no wonder Ophariel would have such a question. After all, up to now, in Julian’s explanation, knights only had a set of swordsmanship that could embody their beliefs in addition to high-rank swordsmen. This doesn’t show how powerful they are, does it?

“You don’t need to know,” But faced with Ophariel’s inquiry, Julian shook his head.

“Knights are beyond the range you can deal with. Remember, if on the battlefield, you see a knight’s banner, and I’m not by your side, then your only choice is to retreat. You don’t need to fight, you don’t need to probe, just retreat directly. In fact, the power of knights is very special, and due to the differences in their beliefs, their manifestations are not as representative as swordsmen. I can only tell you that every knight-level existence can single-handedly deal with a dozen intermediate swordsmen like Judy, and even ten high-rank swordsmen like Darlos together might not be a match for a knight.”

Hearing this, Ophariel didn’t say anything more. Although in her heart she still had some doubts about this, she didn’t say anything more. And now, she only had one last question.

“Then, my lord, as your adjutant, I think I should have a grasp of your strength… Since you could kill that high-rank swordsman called Darlos, you must be a knight, right?”

Hearing Ophariel’s inquiry, Julian was silent for a moment, then he looked at the Darknight Mithril longsword beside his hand – this sword had become longer and more slender, also smoother and sharper.

“I’m not the kind of knight you imagine,” Julian smiled lightly, answering in his usual way of speaking.