The Duke heard the minstrel mention Earl Hardy and couldn't help but admire the man's courage for daring to discuss the Earl within Hardy's own territory.
However, this was related to the fact that they were in the Adventurer's Tavern, which was a relatively freer place.
He learned from the crowd's discussions that Earl Hardy was also known as the Red Glove Earl.
The reason was that Earl Hardy wore a red glove on his left hand year-round. This glove possessed an extremely mysterious and eerie power that could cause people near Earl Hardy to suddenly die violently.
This was one reason why many held Earl Hardy in awe and reverence. Faced with such inexplicable power, they could only harbor fear.
"Red Glove..." the Duke took a sip of his wine, contemplating the truth of the matter.
This was the first time he had heard of it. Previously, no one among the people he interacted with dared to recklessly discuss Earl Hardy, unlike this group of adventurers who were so fearless.
The Duke tended to believe that the ability of the Red Glove was indeed real, given that this was an extraordinary world.
Though the ability to cause nearby people to die violently sounded somewhat bizarre, it only showed that he had encountered too little and had a shallow understanding of the world.
This world was far from as simple as it appeared on the surface.
The Duke stayed a while longer but, finding nothing of value, he left the tavern and returned to the manor to continue training his skills.
After experiencing the events of the past two days, he increasingly felt his own weakness.
He had previously thought that, having practiced the Breathing Technique and becoming a Knight's attendant, he would gain greater power and thus more ability to protect himself.
Now it seemed that without reaching Knight Level, he was merely cannon fodder.
Even becoming an Official Knight, it was still hard to handle magic power.
The Duke took a deep breath and stopped overthinking. All he could do was take each step carefully and practice diligently.
...
A month later.
The Duke was in his room, shirtless, with sweat dripping down the curves of his muscles.
He was chewing a piece of Magical Beast Meat, and after swallowing it, continued his Pile Skill practice.
The Duke could now easily perform these actions. Everything seemed to have become instinctive, without any difficulty.
However, correspondingly, the training effect was significantly reduced.
For ordinary people, this was usually the limit, as the physical body could hardly be improved further through Pile Skills, and the path of the Knight was essentially at an end.
Even with the help of Magical Beast Meat, the improvement that could be gained was extremely limited.
The Duke was different. He had the Skill Tree and just needed to repeatedly practice the Pile Skills to improve the proficiency of the Giant Whale Breathing Technique, with a breakthrough inevitable someday.
In his mind, on the branch representing the Giant Whale Breathing Technique, a green bud was trembling, then blossomed like a flower, extending a blue-green leaf.
[Giant Whale Breathing Technique: LV3 (1/1500)]
[Giant Whale Breathing Technique Level Up, Constitution +0.5, Power +0.3, agility +0.5]
[Constitution: 8.2]
[Power: 8.4]
[agility: 8.2]
[Spirit: 8.1]
[Free Attribute Points: 3]
This improvement gave the Duke a very obvious sensation; his whole body felt as if it had swelled, becoming taller and stronger.
Visibly, there wasn't much difference, but he could feel it in that instant.
The Duke's All Attributes had now reached over eight points, with a comprehensive improvement in all aspects, marking a qualitative leap in his strength.
During this time, he also observed other members of the Nightingale.
The Duke found that the average attribute of a mid-tier Knight Attendant was around six points, and a high-tier Knight Attendant was around seven points.
If it weren't for the existence of Fighting Spirit, he could have crushed high-tier Knight Attendants a month ago.
Others achieved such body attributes through years of training, slowly improving them over time.
The Duke had never fully displayed his strength in front of these people, usually remaining very low-key, appearing to be just an unremarkable low-tier Knight Attendant on the surface.
Now, having elevated the Giant Whale Breathing Technique to the third layer, he successfully stepped into the threshold of a mid-tier Knight Attendant, and the amount of Fighting Spirit his body could contain increased significantly.
He felt as if his body meridians had more connectivity, and the movement of Fighting Spirit inside his body was much smoother, as if the path had become wider.
These were all changes within his body, unobservable externally.
The Duke experienced the internal changes and discovered that after advancing to a mid-tier Knight Attendant, the increased width of his meridians allowed him to use more Fighting Spirit at once.
He could now gather twice the amount of Fighting Spirit in his fists, making them as hard as iron and much more powerful than before.
The amount of Fighting Spirit his body parts could accommodate was previously very limited, unable to concentrate large amounts in one place, as his meridians simply couldn't bear it.
But now his meridians were thicker, allowing for a greater amount of Fighting Spirit to be stored, indirectly enhancing his strength.
The Duke's meridians changed at the moment the Breathing Technique level was raised, a step that would take others at least several years to complete.
If one's aptitude was lacking, they might never cross this threshold in a lifetime.
[Basic Swordsmanship: LV5 (Traits: Bleeding)]
During this period, the Duke also managed to advance his basic Swordsmanship to Full Level, aside from gaining a few free attribute points, he activated a trait.
[Bleeding: When using sword-type weapons, there is a chance to affect the enemy's blood clotting function]
The Duke looked at this information, not knowing exactly how effective it would be.
The function of blood clotting could be significant or trivial, depending on the duration and impact.
If it could affect the enemy's blood clotting for a long time, he could strike once and retreat, waiting for them to bleed out.
But the Duke felt it wouldn't be that simple. For ordinary people, such an effect might be possible, but not for strong and stalwart knights.
After practicing the Breathing Technique, their bodies generally become increasingly robust, so the bleeding trait's impact would likely be small.
The Duke planned to observe in actual combat later; it was better than nothing.
Yet, he thought of more things, such as whether other skills could unlock traits like the basic Swordsmanship did after reaching Full Level.
Currently, only the basic Swordsmanship showed a trait, indicating it was probabilistic.
The Duke glanced at his Giant Whale Breathing Technique, which was only at the third tier. It was a long way from Full Level, and he couldn't predict what changes might occur once it reached Full Level.
Feeling his enhanced body, he picked up a piece of Magical Beast Meat, cut a small piece, consumed it, and continued practicing Pile Skills.
A few minutes later.
[You completed a session of the Giant Whale Breathing Technique, proficiency +2]
"Has the proficiency decreased?" The Duke frowned.
All this time, he had been using Magical Beast Meat to aid his training, and previously the minimum increase was three proficiency points. It was the first time he encountered a situation with only two points.