Chapter 220: Trial, Encounter

With a thought, Lance summoned his skill panel.

【Gale-Tail Sweeping Spear Technique】LV5 (MAX)

【Winter Guard Phalanx Spear Technique】LV5 (MAX)

【Thunder Dormancy Reflex】LV5 (MAX)

【Ice-Breaking Strike Spear Technique】LV2

The specially highlighted row of specialties below was equally dazzling.

Specialties: 【Frostland Cheval de Frise (Common · Virtual)】, 【Snowstorm Formation Sweep (Common · Virtual)】, 【Reverse Thunder Counter (Excellent · Virtual)】

Looking at the impressive panel data—

Even Lance could not help but sigh inwardly at the astonishing rewards from this Heroic Spirit Baptism.

He truly had not expected that even within an Astral Realm instance—

He could still rely on the absurd capabilities of the system panel to forcibly increase skill proficiency.

It could even condense things like specialties out of thin air.

However—

The laws of the Astral Realm could not be completely bypassed.

Every newly condensed specialty icon carried a somewhat glaring 【Virtual】 marker behind it.

This signified that these specialties could only provide combat enhancements for Lance under the projection rules of the current Astral Realm.

They had not truly been engraved upon his physical body in the Material Realm.

Because those genuine engravings were absent, Lance currently could not use these virtual specialties as a foundation for learning even more advanced spearmanship techniques.

Fortunately, this was not a major problem for him.

It did not prevent him from frantically farming foundational specialties within this Astral Realm instance, which possessed an enormous time-dilation advantage.

Once the trial ended and he returned to the Material Realm—

These specialties would instantly complete their engraving process.

The boost to his strength would be considerable.

The moment he arrived at Golden Harvest City—

Lance headed directly to the municipal office responsible for handling property transactions.

With great extravagance, he pulled out a linen money pouch stuffed full of silver coins.

With a loud clatter, he tossed the pouch onto the clerk's wooden desk.

Without wasting words, he demanded that the man immediately find him a quiet residence in a good location, with plenty of space and a private courtyard.

After all, the money had come from villagers and local lords who had been overflowing with “gratitude” toward him throughout his journey.

Ten days later, when he left the Astral Realm, he would not be able to take even a single copper coin with him.

He might as well spend the remaining time living comfortably, eating, drinking, and squandering every last coin.

Under the overwhelming power of money—

The clerk demonstrated astonishing efficiency.

Within a few hours, all the paperwork had been completed.

Bowing and scraping, the clerk handed a brass keyring over to Lance.

And so Lance comfortably moved into a two-story villa built from gray-white stone blocks.

The house was significantly more comfortable and well-furnished than his residence back in Graystone Town.

After casually placing the heavy Spear of the Lake onto a weapon rack in the corner of the living room—

He spent some time tidying the house.

Before he realized it, evening had arrived.

Dusting off his clothes, Lance prepared to head outside for a stroll.

It was time to find a decent dinner at the city market.

Walking through the streets of Golden Harvest City—

Lance observed the bustling crowds and the merchants shouting their wares.

His experiences in the Astral Realm during this period sometimes created a powerful illusion.

They made him wonder whether this world had once truly existed.

Because every person here, every subtle facial expression, and even the greedy opportunism displayed by merchants during bargaining—

All felt astonishingly vivid and real.

Aside from the extremely low concentration of Aether Energy in the air, which prevented the civilization from developing significant supernatural power—

And aside from the fact that the monsters in the wilderness were far weaker than those in the Material Realm—

Everything here felt real.

He had once attempted to ask Ascalon about the true nature of this trial world.

But the centuries-old spear spirit had admitted that it was equally clueless.

The only thing it could reveal was that the answer might have something to do with the gods who resided high above within the Astral Realm.

Once gods became involved—

Lance found the situation much easier to accept.

After all, Heroic Spirit Noble Phantasms were ultimately just weapon spirits.

One could hardly expect them to know every hidden secret like professional historians.

The evening sun dyed the streets in shades of orange-red.

By now, Lance had already purchased enough ingredients to last three or four days.

Just as he casually walked through the noisy open-air marketplace—

A bright red apple suddenly rolled out from the crowd and bumped directly into his dust-covered travel boots.

Lance stopped.

Following the direction from which the apple had rolled, he turned his head.

Not far ahead, beside a fruit cart—

Two men dressed as city guards were deliberately making trouble for the cart's owner.

The owner appeared to be a young girl no older than sixteen or seventeen.

She wore a faded cloth dress that had clearly been washed countless times.

Her brilliant golden hair was tied behind her head with nothing more than an ordinary blue cloth ribbon.

At that moment, she tightly gripped the wooden handles of the cart.

One of the guards, a fat man with a face full of flesh, held a ripe red apple.

After casually wiping it against his clothing, he opened his mouth and bit into it repeatedly, juice running down his chin.

Meanwhile, the other guard—a tall, skinny man resembling a bamboo pole—

Was rudely rummaging through the neatly stacked apples with a filthy hand.

The apple that had rolled to Lance's feet had clearly been knocked loose by his rough handling.

“Th-Those are for sale.”

The girl's brows were tightly furrowed.

The skinny guard not only ignored her but let out a mocking snort.

He opened the rough cloth sack hanging from his waist and began shamelessly stuffing it with the largest and best-looking apples he could find.

“You've got the nerve to do business here without paying protection fees to us brothers?”

He sneered while filling his bag.

“We're already being generous by letting you set up shop here. You've got no understanding of the rules at all.”

The surrounding merchants, who had witnessed the scene—

Not one of them stepped forward to speak up.

Instead, they all lowered their heads and hid behind their own stalls.

“If you're unhappy about us taking these, then get your lousy cart out of Golden Harvest City's market right now.”

The skinny guard's voice dripped with contempt.

“And if I see you here again, I'll smash the cart too.”

Hearing such utterly shameless bandit logic—

The girl watched helplessly as the fruits she had worked so hard to gather were looted before her eyes.

A red ring formed around her eyes.

Her heart overflowed with grievance.

Again!

Ever since this cursed trial began, how many times had she experienced situations like this?

Why were these people always able to demand and seize things from others with such confidence?

She had already suffered enough because of those Noble Phantasm rules.

She could not refuse requests from the weak.

Nor could she actively demand payment.

As a result, she had spent much of this journey being exploited by villagers pretending to be pitiful.

The exhaustion had often become so severe that she could barely afford food and frequently went hungry.

The monsters here were different from those in the outside world.

They were contaminated and inedible.

The only edible meat came from livestock raised by others, and she could not demand any of it.

After finally finding some free time—

She had discovered an ownerless grove of wild fruit trees in the barren hills outside the city.

After spending an entire day gathering fruit, she had planned to sell them in the market, earn some copper coins for food, and temporarily bypass the restrictions of the rules.

Yet even now—

She was still being bullied.

Taking a deep breath, the girl bit down hard on her lower lip and forcibly held back her tears.

She refused to cry in front of these awful people.

【Let the blade point only toward monsters. Forgive the ignorance of mortals】

All she could do was silently clench her fists and watch helplessly as the carefully selected fruits she had gathered were manhandled by those rough hands.

One red apple after another fell onto the dusty ground during the struggle.

“Gentlemen, could I trouble you to step aside for a moment?”

A somewhat casual male voice suddenly sounded from behind the guards.