Beneath a sky dotted with twinkling stars, the rugged Bennett Castle stood like a giant guarding this plain. This was the fiefdom of Knight Bennett, located at the border between the Camel Duchy in the southernmost part of the Holy Continent and the Rift Earth Mountains. Far from the chaos of war, it served as a crucial granary for the Camel Duchy.
Under the moonlight, the wheat fields were neatly arranged, swaying gently in the summer night breeze, as if showcasing the richness of this land.
"Ha!" A boy around 12 years old with black hair was swinging a massive great sword. He wore a set of iron armor—far too big for his frame. Standing at roughly 1.5 meters tall, the armor draped over him like a bell, yet his small face was solemn, as if he were engaged in a sacred task.
Every time the boy swung the great sword, he let out a loud shout—partly to expel his breath, and partly to squeeze out every last bit of strength from his muscles.
The clatter of hooves—"clip-clop, clip-clop"—jolted the boy from his focused sword practice. He turned his head, his black hair swishing, revealing a young, immature face. Sweat had soaked his hair, plastering it to his cheeks, and his purple eyes held a dreamlike glimmer.
"Abel, look what I brought you!" A young man of about 18 jumped down from his horse. He had long golden hair, thick eyebrows, a straight nose, and sky-blue eyes. Clad in leather armor and riding boots, he reached for a small package strapped to his saddle as he spoke.
"Big brother, you're back," Abel greeted the young man politely, without the eager curiosity a typical child might show for a gift.
Zach, the older brother, was used to Abel's demeanor. Ever since Abel had fallen off a horse a year ago, injured, and woken up, he had seemed to grow up overnight—becoming far more mature.
Both boys were the sons of Knight Bennett of Bennett Castle.
The older one, 18-year-old Zach, was Knight Bennett's eldest son and a Level 4 Apprentice Knight. He had just returned from Libao Town. The younger boy, who persisted in his training even under the night sky, was Knight Bennett's second son, having only begun his Apprentice Knight training two months earlier.
As the eldest son of Knight Bennett, if Zach could become a full-fledged knight, he would inherit the knight's fief and Bennett Castle. Abel, as the second son, would have to fend for himself and carve out his own path. Yet this did nothing to strain their bond. Every time Zach went to town, he would set aside some of his own meager pocket money to buy a gift for Abel, fulfilling his duty as an older brother.
Abel, for his part, was always sensible enough not to ask his father for training resources. Although the knight's fief spanned a hundred square miles, it had no special products to rely on—only grain income to sustain it. After paying taxes on the annual grain revenue, a mere 500 gold coins remained.
This money had to cover the castle's expenses and Zach's knight training costs, leaving almost no surplus.
Abel took the package from Zach. It was a long, rectangular box, carefully wrapped in a piece of colored cloth—a sign of how much thought Zach had put into this gift.
"What a beautiful dagger!" Abel exclaimed in surprise, turning the dagger over in his hands. Forged from fine iron, it was heavier than an ordinary iron dagger and far more valuable.
"I'm glad you like it," Zach said, delighted to see the childlike smile on Abel's face—a rare sight over the past year. "I got lucky today. Some guy who didn't know its worth was selling this dagger for only 70% of the price of a regular iron one, so I bought it."
"Keep practicing. I'll head home first," Zach said, not wanting to disturb Abel's training. After all, the castle had only one set of iron armor like this. Most of the day, Knight Bennett reserved it for Zach; Abel could only use it for training at night.
The first step in an Apprentice Knight's training was mastering basic entry-level swordsmanship. These techniques effectively compressed and refined every bit of strength in the muscles, eventually channeling it into a form of qi. This qi would gradually accumulate to form qi meridians—each meridian represented an increase in the apprentice's level. Once five meridians were formed in the body, they would compress further to create a qi core.
A knight with a qi core was considered a full-fledged knight. They could use battle qi in combat, and this battle qi could unleash various combat techniques, enhancing the knight's fighting prowess.
Over thousands of years, knights had discovered that training in heavy armor accelerated the formation of qi meridians by helping to compress muscular strength more efficiently. Thus, every knight's family owned a set of iron armor—not only for training but also as a sturdy shield for protection in battle.
By adding or removing armor plates, the same set of armor could be used by both novice Apprentice Knights and more advanced knights. For this reason, armor and a warhorse were essential for any knight; no one would recognize a "knight" without them.
" Ninety-seven... Ninety-eight... Ninety-nine... One hundred." When Abel swung his sword for the hundredth time, the last of his strength drained away. He collapsed onto the ground, his purple eyes gazing up at the stars. "Which one of you is my home?" he whispered softly.
The original Abel had died in that horse-riding accident a year ago. The soul now inhabiting this body was from Earth—and that was why Abel's personality had changed so drastically. A 30-year-old soul trapped in the body of a 10-something boy could not help but seem different, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. But everyone attributed this change to the shock he had suffered from the fall.
Abel's name on Earth had been Li Yabo, and he had been a senior fitness coach. He was always busy with work. He remembered that on the day of the accident, he had gotten home around 10 p.m. Feeling restless, he had opened his laptop and launched the old game Diablo II—one of the few games he kept installed, a classic he revisited from time to time.
After playing for a while, he noticed his "Tome of Town Portal" showed zero charges. He often forgot to buy Town Portal Scrolls, and since he was just killing time anyway, he opened a trainer to modify the tome. Soon, he smiled in satisfaction as he looked at the tome's new attribute: it now regenerated charges every minute.
Just as he was savoring the moment, a bolt of lightning struck the building where Li Yabo lived. The lightning rod did nothing to stop it; the electricity traveled through the power lines and hurled him away from his laptop.
When Li Yabo woke up, he found himself as the second son of Knight Bennett—and his name was now Abel.
Shaking off these thoughts, Abel mustered what little strength he had left, picked up his great sword, and walked toward the castle. He felt unusually good today; he might even advance to Level 1 Apprentice Knight by nightfall.
Upon reaching the castle, Abel did not go to dinner—there was still half an hour before the meal. Instead, he went to maintain his armor.
He carefully wiped every trace of sweat from the armor, cleaning every plate and every tiny crevice, then reapplied maintenance oil. He worked with great care: whether it was Abel, Zach, or Knight Bennett himself, everyone in the family took care of the armor after using it. This was a knight's tradition, and the only way for the armor to be passed down through generations.
Next, he tended to the great sword—a type of two-handed sword. Its massive blade and unadorned hilt reflected the blacksmith's philosophy: simplicity and practicality.
Once everything was done, Abel took a bath and went to the dining hall. His father, Knight Bennett, his mother, Nora, and his older brother Zach were already seated.