Chapter 151: The Quiet Before the Storm

Nightfall. Redoak Vale was very quiet.

The moonlight shone down on the small forest next to the castle.

Two shadows were moving extremely quickly!

“Faster!”

“Faster!”

A strict voice kept yelling.

Xander kept focusing his strength in his legs, running madly, but coming up directly ahead of him was a steep wall!

They had already reached the end of the forest!

If he sped up any more, he wouldn’t be able to stop. At that time, the only outcome would be to crash into the wall and seriously harm his body!

That’s what he thought.

But Constantin in front of him was still yelling, “Faster! You waste!”

When training, this originally very kind middle-aged man suddenly turned abnormally strict.

Xander ground his teeth and rashly sped up!

Burst!

At that time, Constantin’s silhouette was already about to knock into the wall!

But his body suddenly twisted and he stepped on the wall.

He actually ran tens of meters up the steep wall while still maintaining his speed, and soon arrived at the top!

Xander’s scalp felt numb. He wasn’t this skilled.

He could only use Anti-Gravity Steps! But Anti-Gravity Steps could only last for roughly half of the way up.

And also, while moving at such a crazy speed, he wasn’t sure whether Anti-Gravity Steps could activate.

Perhaps his leg bones would just break when he took the first step.

The stone wall loomed in front of him.

Constantin bellowed, “Follow the technique I just taught you!”

Xander suddenly snapped out of it and recalled the skill Constantin taught him.

The memory of the middle-aged man teaching him the technique quickly floated into his mind.

His body began to subconsciously imitate that move.

The wall was now right in front of his eyes.

His body slightly paused as he sharply twisted his body and started to run up the wall at high speed!

“Woosh!”

He soon arrived at Constantin’s side.

But then a breeze blew across the mountain and Xander almost stumbled down!

“Your body is too weak! You need to train!”

The sturdy middle-aged man helped Xander. He was somewhat dissatisfied with Xander’s weak body.

Xander wiped the cold sweat on his forehead.

“[Voidstrider Steps] is very complex. It includes a series of technical moves, but your perception is pretty good. You should be able to freely use it when facing an obstacle.”

“If you want to progress faster, there is no other way than training diligently.”

Constantin patted Xander’s shoulder and continued, “But to be able to learn that fast already surprised me very much.”

Xander forced a smile and nodded.

On his skill list appeared another personal skill, [Voidstrider Steps (36)]

‘Finally learned it,’ he sighed in relief.

—

Since there were five Legends on his territory, Xander would definitely not waste such a great resource. He took advantage of the fact that those great experts had nothing to do for now. Xander had the intention to learn a few things from them.

Xander hadn’t seen the unpredictable Shadow Thief Raven ever since he gave Xander that Origami skill and was later thrown down from a peak alongside Xander by Hathaway.

Hathaway was excluded. He was a Ranger with a Shapeshift Sorcerer subclass. Even if she wanted to teach him a spell, he wouldn’t be able to learn it. But in the past few days she had actually become fond of Dorian and had been carefully giving him pointers. This made Xander very pleased.

Because Hathaway wasn’t giving pointers about how to make use of the Arcane Reservoir, but rather, they were about how to create a new way of casting spells by himself.

As a Seer, she really saw more than other people. Dorian actually lost some Wizard levels under her instructions, but his future development would be very frightening.

Apart from this, Legend Monk Inheim was actually a really good training partner. But unfortunately, all he did was smile and nod at Xander, saying very few words.

Xander knew he was completely focusing on the Shadow Prince.

This was a very conscientious guy, but his opponent was also very powerful. He was risking his life in the fight with the Shadow Prince.

He couldn’t disturb Inheim at that time.

Endless Ocean was a woman and Xander was completely unfamiliar with her, thus it wouldn’t be proper to act like a close acquaintance with her.

As for the old blacksmith Sean, after referring Xander and helping him become a Dusk Walker, he didn’t impart him any more skills. That guy was very eccentric and Xander was unable to understand him. He was only drinking and eating as much as he liked every day in the castle, totally disregarding his appearance. So Xander wasn’t counting on him.

The one he could rely on was the Legend Dusk Walker, Constantin.

This Legend in the prime of his life was very skilled. He was a powerhouse able to fight the Scarlet Patriarch. Xander had prepared a pretext in hopes of learning some fierce skills from that guy.

Xander didn’t expect that Constantin would agree right away.

This made the pretext Xander used completely pointless.

—

Constantin’s nickname was Voidstrider. This name had spread throughout the south, and most of the adventurers had heard of it.

It was said that he killed enough vampires to completely fill a small church. Evil Spirits roaming at night and undead creatures summoned by Defilers were especially afraid of this name.

Very few people knew Constantin was a Dusk Walker, as the class was very rare after all, but his strength was recognized by everyone.

In the south, he was a hunter chasing the demons coming out at night. Many monsters died under his hands.

His strongest point was his speed.

Voidstrider Steps was his self-created Dusk Walker skill. Combined with the unique advantage of Dusk Walkers in the night, it could display an effect that was hard to imagine.

Xander had barely managed to learn it after two days of full practice.

Despite this, he was now standing next to Constantin, both legs shaking.

Even if Voidstrider Steps cleverly helped him reduce most of the collision force, he didn’t have a good constitution, and thus there was a lot of movement he couldn’t easily do.

‘Looks like I have to find time to temper my body.’

Xander left the mountain with Constantin’s help, coming to a decision while grinding his teeth.

Countless places and secret techniques emerged in his mind.

After dealing with the Scarlet Patriarch and the Shadow Prince, his Constitution would need to be taken care of.

—

Blacksmith workshop, inside the castle town.

“Clang!” “Clang!” Sounds of hammering on a furnace kept echoing.

Endless Ocean stood outside the blacksmith shop while calmly watching the old blacksmith processing the Fearless set.

“Sir Sean, wouldn’t it be better if the young one took care of some things?” Endless Ocean asked in a low voice.

Sparks flew everywhere.

The brand on the Fearless set’s jacket gradually dissolved under the effect of a drop of [Shadowbane Essence] .

“That kid has more important things to do,” Old Sean mumbled.

He took a swig of his liquor before mumbling, “Even though I already taught him this [Smelting] secret skill, which is also probably the reason why he dared to bring the set back, I don’t think he will have any strength left to deal with this brand after being taught Constantin’s footwork.”

“In any case, I don’t have much to do. Helping him out a bit is no trouble.”

“This is a very outstanding set of equipment, suitable for hunting dragons.”

The old blacksmith’s eyes blurred a bit after saying this.

Endless Ocean lowered her head.

“I still remember when you saved me and my parents from the Black Dragon Angela.”

“That night, lava and fire destroyed our home. You went out to face that evil dragon.”

“After that battle, you lost any hope of advancing to Legend. This kindness, I still don’t understand the reason for it.”

The old blacksmith disapprovingly shook his head. “Isn’t putting your hopes on the young ones the proper choice?”

“One day, you’ll do that too.”

“There are things we are unable to handle. But we don’t despair, because we have successors.”

“We both know the reason mankind always has hope. No matter how bad a situation we are facing, there will always be another outstanding generation of youths to stand out and protect this world.”

“This is the Night Monarch’s maxim—the eternal truth.”

“Clang!”

The final swing of the hammer finally erased the brand.

—

Endless Ocean nodded. Her gaze was deep, directly looking toward the bottom of a mountain.

On one of the trees beside the White River’s riverbank, a shadow was hanging upside down.

Shadow Thief Raven.

He was looking at the moon.

There wasn’t such a round moon in the north, but he had already not returned north for many years.

This region made him feel strange. It gave him a familiar feeling, but also felt somewhat dull.

Protect the world?

Raven didn’t have any interest in that kind of thing. Maybe when he was young he toyed with the idea.

But he had already lived too long. He wanted to find something that could excite him.

Whether it was the Scarlet Patriarch or the Shadow Prince, it sounded exciting.

Thinking of it, he once again glanced at the sky.

The moon had become even more round.

—

In a completely deserted farmhouse.

He was sitting on the ground cross-legged, feeling the earth pulse.

Legend Monk Inheim.

He closed his eyes, but the world was still completely open to him.

He could hear everything, perceive everything.

In this silent village, only he could find a clue.

‘A Shadow Thief’s little tricks,’ Inheim thought somewhat contemptuously. But for the sake of the big picture, he still put his own pride down.

In fact, when he put on the Void Boots, he had already given up on his pride.

He only had one goal: to crush the enemy.

—

On the peak, Hathaway was still wearing her red dress, standing alone.

But no one could see her.

She used a Legend Invisibility skill.

Her eyes covered all of Redoak Vale, and even blades of grass moving under the wind could be easily seen.

“He is coming,” she murmured.

—

Late in the night.

A man wearing a long gown leisurely walked over from the main road.

He was smiling as his gaze focused on the castle.

He could feel those eleven golden bulls in the castle.

“To dare to steal my things, truly bold…”

He smiled as he entered the small village under the castle.