After leaving Old Man Bane's Drunken Beggar, Lindereturned directly to his small house; demonstrating his swordsmanship at the tavern had left him exhausted, and upon returning home, he just wanted to lie down on the bed and rest.
However, the severe pain from his back made him realize it was not yet time to rest; he needed to adjust the position of his bandage to prevent his back injury from worsening.
Although using dual-wielding swordsmanship put an extra burden on his still-recovering body, causing his back injury to worsen slightly, it was all worth it, as things had developed as he had envisioned, and he only needed to stay home and await the follow-up.
Ever since he regained consciousness and realized he had been reborn into a medieval-like world, he had been considering his future development.
Being a commoner was the first option he ruled out; since he had been reborn, he naturally wouldn't want to remain at the bottom of society, especially with a golden finger.
Becoming a merchant was also quickly dismissed, as the status and treatment of merchants were not very good, whether in the East or the West, unless it was a specialized commercial city-state or nation; otherwise, merchants were equivalent to walking money bags.
Therefore, becoming a noble in this medieval world became his only accepted choice, and for more than a month afterward, he thought about various ways to become a noble, and for this, he devised numerous contingency plans for unexpected situations, as he was lying in bed unable to move at the time, and the only thing he could do was think.
Although this world was not the Western medieval world he had envisioned, but rather the world of Ice and Fire, the social systems of the two worlds did not differ much, and the various methods he had conceived on his sickbed were still applicable.
However, there were still some areas where he needed to make adjustments; these adjustments could help him gain the desired power and status more quickly, such as martial arts tournaments.
Originally, he had not considered martial arts tournaments in his envisioned path to advancement, because, as far as he knew, only nobles could participate in medieval martial arts tournaments, and plots like those described in novels, where commoners donned armor, participated anonymously, and gained fame and fortune after winning, were basically impossible; those were merely the imaginings of novelists, because every noble participating in a martial arts tournament had to undergo strict identity checks, making it impossible for commoners to participate.
But the martial arts tournaments of the Seven Kingdoms were different; besides the core knight's jousting tournament, there were also team battles and archery competitions, the latter two allowing commoners to participate, and winning in these two events could still bring honor and money, although this was far incomparable to the honor gained from knight's jousting, it was still a good opportunity to make a name for oneself.
As long as one gained fame, there was a chance to be noticed by a Great Lord, and after joining a Great Lord's banner and achieving certain military merits, there would be an opportunity to be granted knightly status; even if one did not join the ranks of a Great Lord, one could become a squire to certain knights by virtue of one's reputation, also having the opportunity to obtain knightly status.
Knights were at the bottom of the Seven Kingdoms' noble system; although becoming a knight was not yet considered a noble, it was a stepping stone to becoming one.
Of course, Linde also thought of other ways to become a noble, such as gaining the appreciation of certain nobles through his knowledge, becoming a noble's advisor or subordinate like a steward, gradually gaining the noble's trust, and being knighted by them.
But such a knightly status was very precarious, with almost no room for advancement, and it was impossible to become a Lord.
Just like Littlefinger, he was a representative of this type of noble; he expended all sorts of schemes, but ultimately failed to become the Lord he wanted to be; even though he held the title of Lord of the Vale, none of the nobles in the Vale regarded him as a Lord, and not a single Vale noble stood up for him even at the moment of his death, which shows how fragile this kind of court noble status is.
Now he was not worried about becoming a guard of Red Lake City, because with Old Man Bane's involvement, this matter should be very simple, even if he didn't have the dual-wielding swordsmanship granted by the golden finger, he could still become a Red Lake City guard.
After becoming a guard, how to gain enough merit, how to be appreciated and become a knight's squire, and then become a knight, is the most difficult stage; it should be known that this stage is a transformative change for ordinary commoners, and accomplishing this change cannot be done by strength alone.
The best example is the mercenary Bronn; with such good skills, he was just a mercenary for a long time, until he met Tyrion and by chance obtained knightly status; so for ordinary people to become knights, strength is not the most important thing, the most important thing is to find someone who can provide them with opportunities for promotion, and in Linde's mind, House Crane clearly does not possess such conditions.
When Linde was browsing forums related to A Song of Ice and Fire in his previous life, he saw an article analyzing the Lords of The Reach, and in this article, House Crane, a transparent family with no special content in the original work or the series, was also analyzed.
The analysis content was not very extensive, summarizing to just two words: subservience. In this state of subservience, House Crane would for a long time have to act according to the whims of House Florentine, to whom they were subservient; it was basically impossible to gain power and status through House Crane.
However, this does not mean that House Crane is useless; in fact, House Crane has another aspect that Linde can utilize, which is Fortimo Klenne, a branch of House Crane. Linde is unsure of his current situation, but what is certain is that he will definitely become the Master-at-Arms of Highgarden; if he can connect with him, then he can use this to establish a relationship with House Tyrell, which would greatly increase his chances of becoming a knight.
While thinking, Linde's hands did not stop; he casually picked up two wooden sticks by the bed, similar in thickness and length to a hand-and-a-half sword, then threw a cloth bundle made of cloth next to his pillow into the air, and then quickly swung his wrists, arms, and forearms, performing dual-wielding swordsmanship, striking the falling cloth bundle, keeping it bouncing in the air without touching the ground.
Since half a month ago, when Linde could sit up in bed and move his hands, he had been using this method to train and familiarize himself with the dual-wielding swordsmanship he had obtained from the golden finger.
Although the golden finger had instilled a large amount of combat experience and techniques into him, this did not mean he had mastered them; he still needed a lot of practice to fully master them.
The golden finger he obtained after rebirth was his confidence to make a name for himself in this world; although his golden finger was not as powerful as some settings in novels, it was enough for him.
His golden finger mainly had two parts, or more precisely, one was the golden finger, and the other was a talent that came with his rebirth.
It's unknown if it was due to a mutation caused by the fusion of two souls during rebirth, but his physical fitness and spiritual perception became somewhat superhuman.
For example, his self-healing ability allowed him to recover in just over a month despite his spine being nearly broken, and other superficial wounds only needed one or two days to fully heal, which would undoubtedly allow him to survive more easily in future wars.
However, this self-healing was not without flaws; the biggest flaw was the need for a large amount of food and supplements to support the body's consumption during self-healing; most of the expenses he incurred during his month and a half of recovery were spent on this, which also conformed to the law of conservation of energy.
In addition to his self-healing ability, all his senses were enhanced to an incredible degree; for example, his enhanced hearing allowed him to easily hear the sounds made by small insects flying outside the house, and his vision allowed him to see the traces of dust floating in the air, and so on.
And this enhancement at the sensory level was absolutely a torment for him at first; unable to move while lying in bed, he had to spend most of his time controlling this sudden and enhanced sensory perception.
Compared to the self-healing ability and sensory enhancement, the improvement in his basic physical qualities like strength and agility seemed ordinary, remaining within the normal human range, still requiring exercise to produce effects; the only benefit was that the effects of exercise were very intuitive.
This intuitiveness is literal intuitiveness, because when he exercises, he can see an energy bar representing his physical fitness slowly increasing; although the increment is very small, it still provides him with very important reference data, allowing him to adjust his exercise methods based on different increments.
This energy bar comes from his golden finger after rebirth, a golden finger that was modified beyond recognition, based on the game For Honor.
Saying it was beyond recognition is no exaggeration; the only relationship between the entire golden finger and For Honor was the hero images and ability settings, and the heroes in For Honor were not complete, only the nine heroes from the Knight faction.
The abilities granted by the golden finger were also very simple: directly selecting the illusion of the corresponding hero in his mind would grant him the corresponding combat skills of that hero, and only one could be chosen at a time; to choose another, he would need to fill the energy bar through exercise.
Because he was in a semi-conscious state when making the choice, and the pain in his body made him dizzy, he didn't think seriously when choosing; he just treated the golden finger as a lifesaver, believing that after choosing a hero illusion, his body would instantly recover as in a game, like leveling up and regaining health.
But the result was not only that his body didn't recover, but also, due to the large amount of knowledge poured into his mind, his entire head was groggy for several days after making the choice, as if he had been drugged.
It was only when he regained consciousness and began to sort through the knowledge instilled into his mind by the golden finger that he realized he had chosen wrongly.
Under normal circumstances, Linde would definitely choose between the Warden or the Warmonger, because these two heroes are the most knight-like heroes, and their combat skills are also knightly skills.
But instead, he chose the Peacekeeper, a hero whose fighting style is more like a dual-wielding assassin; he had also tried to only accept the combat skills without implementing her dual-wielding setting, using a single sword in combat to perform the Peacekeeper's combat skills, but the result was that it made him feel intensely uncomfortable, and the combat skills became very clunky, as if he had never mastered them.
This also made Linde realize that while his golden finger was effective, it also had certain limitations.
Although he was not very satisfied with the Peacekeeper's dual-wielding swordsmanship, it was sufficient for his current situation; what he needed to do was to strengthen his basic physical training after his body fully recovered, so that he would have enough stamina and strength to use his swordsmanship, and not be out of breath after only performing for less than a minute, as he was just now.
For the next half month, Linde spent every day trying to familiarize himself with the Peacekeeper's dual-wielding swordsmanship; when he had free time, he would walk around the White Village, then find a secluded corner in Old Man Bane's tavern and sit down, listening to the conversations of the guests coming and going to collect as much information as possible.
Although White Village is not a large town, its geographical location is very special; it is situated at the junction of Old Oak City, Red Lake City, and Golden Tree City; merchant caravans and travelers from these three cities need to pass through White Village to reach other cities, so the tavern in White Village is never short of guests, and various news can be heard here.
For example, the most discussed topic recently was King Robert's plan to hold a grand martial arts tournament in King's Landing to celebrate the birth of his first child, Joffrey; because this was the first martial arts tournament held by House Baratheon, its significance was extraordinary, and its scale was certainly beyond imagination, with knights from all Seven Kingdoms gathering in King's Landing.
However, compared to events happening in distant King's Landing, people in the tavern were more concerned about local issues, such as the bandit problem.
Although the Usurper War had ended nearly a year ago, the negative effects of the war had not ceased; the Targaryen supporters had not been completely eliminated, and a large portion of them, after their defeat, hid in the mountains and forests, mingling with the Savage Tribes there, and occasionally raiding.
As the second wealthiest region in the Seven Kingdoms, The Reach not only has vast farmlands but also numerous forests, all convenient for hiding, and Red Lake Forest is one of them.
Half a month ago, a group of bandits who claimed to be remnants of the Targaryen loyalists wandered into Red Lake Forest, established a stronghold, and specialized in raiding merchant caravans that took shortcuts through the forest; four or five caravans had already encountered these bandits, resulting in hundreds of casualties, including a collateral descendant of House Rowan from Golden Tree Citywho died at the hands of the bandits.
For this reason, House Rowan is currently sending people to contact House Crane of Red Lake City and the Oakheart Family of Old Oak City to jointly clear out the bandits in Red Lake Forest.