AI Model: gemini-2.5-flash
Chapter 225: The Knights of the Round Table Pop the Champagne at Halftime
The Britannia forces, led by the Knights of the Round Table, completely expelled the Silver Legion and occupied the border stronghold, Silver Fortress.
Based on the Knights of the Round Table's dazzling military achievements in expelling foreign enemies, and the impending important festival, the 'Knight's Festival,' the Knights of the Round Table will temporarily stay in Silver Fortress to rest and prepare to host the Knight's Festival there, welcoming noble members who arrive after hearing the news, to celebrate Britannia's glorious victory.
Therefore, there are no other explorable areas in the current instance. Players can return immediately after settlement or choose to automatically leave the current instance after a 60-minute delay.
You have received a 'Knight's Festival Invitation' personally issued by Arthur. You can open the invitation at any time during your space stay next month and thereafter to attend Britannia's Knight's Festival. You can bring up to two companions (players) to participate in the grand knight celebration.
Your Knights of the Round Table instance archive has judgment priority and can override most similar archives. When there is a conflict between players' archive content, your archive content takes precedence.
...As expected, I couldn't escape popping the champagne at halftime.
Cheng Mouren, who had just been looking at his S+ settlement rating and wondering if an SS rating would require directly eliminating Golden Grand Duke Garibaldi to push the mission completion beyond a hundred percent, had a subtle expression on his face when he saw the 'Knight's Festival Invitation.'
Yes, that's right. Whether in the instance or in the game, Britannia's Knights of the Round Table, after killing the Silver Prince and capturing Silver Fortress, chose to pop the champagne directly to celebrate their great and glorious victory.
Because, from a strategic perspective, the legion sent by the Roman Empire to invade Britannia's territory was, in fact, the Silver Legion. Expelling them was equivalent to expelling all foreign invaders.
Moreover, with the Knight's Festival approaching, celebrating with song and dance was a conventional act and not as outrageous as imagined.
Both from the perspective of the Knights of the Round Table and the players, it was generally considered to be a 'cleared' rhythm.
However, according to the original process, this grand Knight's Festival, which gathered a large number of Britannia's knights and nobles on an unprecedented scale, would also become the origin of the Knights of the Round Table's Great Expedition.
Since they eliminated Golden Grand Duke Garibaldi's younger brother, they wouldn't think the Grand Duke would do nothing, would they?
While Britannia was preparing for the Knight's Festival, assassins from the Roman Empire would arrive as scheduled, causing chaos at the festival, eventually escalating into a Great Expedition to conquer the Golden Grand Duke.
After all, as long as the Golden Grand Duke coveted Britannia's territory, then the Bronze Legion and Golden Legion would later appear, continuing to invade Britannia.
And as the war shifted from homeland defense to a Great Expedition, the scenes involved would move from Britannia to Rome, with the Knights of the Round Table entering their territory to fight them.
However, this was something seen through a cheat-like clairvoyance. The local NPCs wouldn't know that the upcoming Knight's Festival would encounter such a mishap.
Just looking at the invitation, there wasn't even a difficulty prompt for the instance, as if it were a purely casual entertainment instance like "Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball." But Cheng Tian knew that once he entered, it would most likely be like intending to participate in a "FIFA Soccer" instance but mistakenly entering a "Nintendo World Cup" instance, inevitably triggering subsequent combat levels.
In reality, chosen players indeed had no record of successfully defeating the Golden Grand Duke, because almost everyone was interrupted at the point where the Knight's Festival began.
Players, as foreign mercenaries, had a purely employer-employee relationship with the Knights of the Round Table. After helping to fight the war and getting paid, they were supposed to leave. Most people weren't even qualified to receive an invitation, let alone participate in the Knight's Festival.
And some who were lucky enough to receive an invitation due to professional compatibility, distinguished military service, excellent bloodlines, etc., put it aside as a keepsake, convinced that the Knight's Festival was just a leisure and entertainment scene. They instead used their precious space stay time on other bounty instances, or more relaxing modern and future entertainment instances, rather than the smelly 5th-century Europe.
However, this invitation from Arthur of the Knights of the Round Table also reminded Cheng Mouren that it was time to advance the last wish of Makaimura's Arthur.
With his current comprehensive strength, clearing the first half of Makaimura should not be difficult.
By the way, the reason why this Arthur had a certain natural goodwill towards Cheng Tian was due to the influence of the Holy Grail Knight template + inheriting the last wish of Makaimura's Arthur. Distinguished military service was another aspect.
Cheng Tian, with such military achievements, was naturally 'caught' by Arthur and directly incorporated into the Knights of the Round Table system. He was called an honorary knight, but this was actually to silence the nobles in their country who always liked to talk about 'noble bloodlines.' In reality, he treated Cheng Tian as a formal knight; otherwise, he wouldn't have even bestowed a title.
However, the knight title of "Dragon Elephant" made Cheng Tian feel a bit... abstract.
Although he did indeed ride dragons and elephants, was such a straightforward title really okay?
What? Gawain's title was "Prince Charming Knight"?
Then Cheng Tian suddenly felt that Dragon Elephant didn't sound so bad after all... After the main quest settlement was completed, the Britannia players felt somewhat uninspired, as if they had no sense of participation throughout, completing the main quest like a sightseeing tour.
Of course, the price was that almost every one of them received a B rating, only getting the most basic rewards, without exception. There were even several avoidable casualties.
The few who died were chasing the fleeing members of the opposing faction and were met with the opponent's desperate "If I die, you're not living either!" tactic, almost turning into bloody treasure chests through mutual destruction. Only then did the other witnessing players stop the pursuit.
When there's no significant difference in strength between parties, the one with no retreat is the most terrifying. Kill one to break even, kill two and I've profited!
They could have happily left with basic rewards and some enemy kill treasure chests, but instead, they died due to greed and dissatisfaction.
Hearing the news brought back by Luo Meiling and the others, Cheng Tian's expression was noncommittal.
After the main quest settlement, Cheng Tian did not immediately return but stored the Three-Color Vibrating Orbs with Arthur.
These Three-Color Vibrating Orbs could not take effect in other instances due to their magical source, and Cheng Tian didn't want to directly cash out these hard-earned orbs, so he simply entrusted them to Arthur for safekeeping.
In the eyes of Arthur and others, Cheng Tian, who was already one of them, merely had some personal matters to attend to, not a permanent farewell. Naturally, there were no sentimental scenes, so Cheng Tian, after leaving a message "Beware of Garibaldi's revenge," decisively chose to leave the instance.
However, just as Cheng Tian was enveloped by the teleportation light pillar, completely leaving the instance and preparing for talent settlement, a prompt popped up first.
The space is currently judging the player's PK value and comprehensive strength--
Your Chosen Player rating has increased, gaining the 'Black Iron-tier' prefix.