Chapter 219: The Heroic Spirits Were Shocked by Your Shamelessness

Over the days that followed—

As a spear spirit who had once served two legendary conquerors—

Ascalon felt that his worldview was being shattered daily.

The tenacity this young man named Lance displayed in martial training was downright terrifying.

Not only could he swing a heavy spear day and night like a tireless Titan—

But within only a few short days, he had forcefully elevated an entirely unfamiliar polearm technique from the clumsy beginner stage all the way to the level of a true master.

Most frightening of all—

He could actually condense combat specialties with tangible effects within the Astral Realm itself.

Such outrageous talent would have left even the heroes of that golden age of shining stars utterly dumbfounded.

What that represented needed no explanation.

However—

Beyond his amazement at such monstrous talent—

What truly shattered Ascalon's understanding of reality was the way this boy completed the trial.

The Astral Realm granted Noble Phantasm wills the ability to sense trial progress.

That was precisely why Ascalon found it so unbelievable.

As the trial continued, Lance steadily advanced toward his destination, the Canyon of Kings.

But along the way—

The methods he used to accumulate reputation were unlike anything Ascalon had ever seen or heard of in centuries.

For example—

When they passed through a remote village that habitually extorted passing merchant caravans by setting up checkpoints along mountain roads—

Lance did not attempt to persuade or educate the villagers like a traditional trial participant would.

Instead, he marched directly into a nearby monster nest with spear in hand and beat the monsters into complete submission through sheer force.

Then he led those monsters to blockade the village entrance.

Declaring that he was protecting the villagers from monster attacks, he used an even more ruthless form of “black eats black” to forcibly collect exorbitant protection fees from the very village that had originally made its living through extortion.

This should have been an atrocious act that violated the righteous spirit of the trial.

Yet somehow—

The laws of the Astral Realm recognized it as completely valid!

And absurd incidents like these occurred at an alarmingly frequent rate throughout the trial.

Such as using the excuse of “protecting a dishonest merchant from being beaten to death by angry villagers” to extort a massive payment from the merchant, then returning the villagers' swindled silver coins while pocketing the remainder.

Or encountering a group of street thugs bullying people.

Lance would beat the thugs into submission, then use the excuse of “protecting you from having your legs broken” to force them into repairing houses and building pigpens for poor families throughout the town free of charge.

Along the entire journey—

Lance's life had been absurdly comfortable.

The most exhausting moments he experienced were probably the late nights spent drenched in sweat while practicing spearmanship alone.

After all this time together—

Ascalon had never once seen even the slightest trace of the mental struggle normally expected from a trial participant.

As for the reputation requirement—

It had been completely fulfilled during the very first week of the trial by this young man who wandered everywhere collecting tribute under the banner of “Equivalent Protection.”

In fact...

At this very moment—

Lance, whose bizarre exploits had already made him famous throughout the continent and earned him the title of “The Despicable Outsider,” was lying comfortably inside a spacious carriage voluntarily provided by a certain black-hearted merchant he had encountered along the way.

The carriage interior was lined with expensive velvet carpets.

Lance sat with one leg crossed over the other, leisurely tossing sweet preserved fruits into his mouth while watching the constantly updating information displayed on a translucent blue panel visible only to him.

【Detected: The Lord of Redwood Town has developed "Fear," "Hatred," "Anger," and "Deep Respect for Your Martial Power" toward you.】

【These negative emotions have been successfully converted into Generalized Concept Reputation!】

【Congratulations! Generalized Concept Reputation +150】

【Current Trial Progress: 4700 / 1000】

【Note: You are currently being closely observed by Heroic Spirit Clovis... Closely observed by Heroic Spirit Lothair... Closely observed by Heroic Spirit Leonidas...】

When Lance first discovered that reputation could continue accumulating even after surpassing the target, he had intentionally gone out of his way to farm a large amount of it.

Soon afterward, he noticed something interesting.

Initially, only the White Dragon Lothair had been observing him.

But as his unconventional behavior spread and his reputation value continued climbing higher and higher, more and more Heroic Spirits began directing their attention toward him.

At certain moments after particularly successful acts of extortion, the panel would even display additional highlighted messages.

【Heroic Spirit Clovis has been shocked by your shameless conduct...】

【Heroic Spirit Leonidas finds your black-eats-black bandit methods highly amusing...】

【Heroic Spirit Lothair sends a gaze filled with question marks...】

Chewing on preserved fruit, Lance casually read through the notifications.

At this point, he honestly had no idea what strange result might occur once the trial ended and the rewards were distributed after being watched by so many famous Heroic Spirits simultaneously.

But he really did not care.

Lance was actually quite satisfied with this experience.

He felt that he had completely figured out how this trial world worked.

From ordinary villagers to local lords—

Almost nobody on this continent was truly innocent.

The more polite and accommodating you were toward them, the more they viewed you as an easy mark.

At first, he had genuinely considered completing the trial through gentle and reasonable methods.

The problem was that these people were simply too revolting.

When danger appeared, they cried and begged for help.

The moment the danger disappeared, they turned hostile faster than flipping a page.

They constantly weaponized the highest standards of morality against others.

As soon as they sensed that you were a good person with moral principles, they would immediately push further and further with increasingly unreasonable demands.

And the instant you refused, they would spread malicious rumors and insults behind your back.

That was the part Lance found most baffling.

How did a group of people with no morality themselves become so skilled at moral blackmail?

“Kid, your reputation down south has completely gone to hell lately.”

Ascalon's rough voice sounded in his mind.

“People in taverns everywhere are comparing you to some rising star called the ‘Pure White Knight.’ They're talking about you like you're worse than sewer rats.”

“If it's ruined, it's ruined.”

Lance stretched lazily and swallowed another sugar-coated preserved fruit.

“They can insult me however they want. My trial objective was exceeded ages ago anyway.”

Not only was he not angry—

He was actually somewhat amused.

Because most of his energy along the journey had been devoted to mastering advanced spearmanship, he had traveled rather slowly.

Whenever he rested at taverns along the road, he occasionally overheard stories about this so-called “Pure White Knight.”

Based on what he had learned about the people of this continent, Lance could practically imagine the poor fool's miserable circumstances.

In this bizarre trial world filled with troublesome villagers—

The more praise someone received and the better their reputation became—

The more it indicated one thing.

It meant that person had been exploited even more severely by those greedy villagers and had endured greater unpaid labor and humiliation.

Every single villager in this trial world was a master of freeloading.

“Still...”

Lance sat upright and lifted the carriage curtain to glance at the sky outside.

“There are still ten days left.”

He planned to spend the remaining time resting and recovering properly in the final city on his route, Golden Harvest City.

Once he restored himself to peak condition, he would head directly to the nearby Canyon of Kings and submit the trial.

He had planned this long ago.

He intended to leave at the very last possible moment.

After all, he had absolutely no desire to waste an environment like the Astral Realm, where growth could be accelerated without side effects.

He planned to use these final peaceful days in Golden Harvest City to continue grinding the proficiency of his last remaining spearmanship technique.