After confirming that dragon bones were the key condition for activating the golden finger's energy bar, Lind couldn't help but feel fortunate that he had managed to obtain so many dragon bones from the Faceless Man Bovo. Otherwise, he would have had to find a way to sneak into the Red Keep, infiltrate its cellars, and steal dragon bones himself.
At this moment, Lind didn't rush to make a choice. He carefully analyzed the pros and cons of the two options provided by the golden finger, only to realize that the information given was far too little—so little that choosing either option felt like gambling.
For example, if he chose a new hero character and mastered a new weapon, would his combat strength really increase? In his view, not necessarily. His current dual swords, combined with the extraordinary senses granted by his body, already gave him inhuman combat power. Abandoning the dual swords to use a new weapon would offer very limited improvement, and might even weaken him.
As for choosing to continue upgrading his dual swords, he truly couldn't imagine how much room there was left for improvement in his current swordsmanship. Perhaps the final dual-sword technique he gained would merely overlap with his existing combat style, causing him to waste a valuable choice for nothing.
After careful study, he was certain that the information he had obtained from the golden finger was only part of the whole. There had to be something hidden behind the two choices of the energy bar—something that represented the true power the golden finger could bestow.
After pondering for a long time, Lind felt as though he had fallen into decision paralysis. In the end, he stopped thinking and followed his instincts, decisively choosing the shadowy figure wielding dual swords.
Although gaining a new hero's combat experience and methods for using a new weapon was extremely tempting, he still felt that continuing down the dual-sword path would be the safer choice. Even if the final result turned out to be disappointing, he could always make a different choice next time. After all, he still had time to accumulate energy.
The moment he made his choice, the energy within the energy bar immediately poured into the dual-sword-wielding figure. The silhouette began to change rapidly, and Lind felt a scorching heat surging into his hands, growing faster and stronger. If the initial heat had been like a small stream, then now it was more like a raging mountain flood.
At the same time, the dragon bones inside the box in Lind's hands began to turn into bone ash one by one, as though the last remnants of power within them were being completely drained away.
When roughly two-thirds of the dragon bones in the box were gone, the chosen dual-sword figure stopped changing, and its form rapidly became clear.
It was a towering knight, easily over two meters tall, clad in exquisite full plate armor covered in mysterious runes. On his head was an ornate helmet, the most striking feature being the dragon-shaped crest at the top, wings spread wide.
The knight carried two swords, but they were neither Lind's broad-bladed hand-and-a-half swords nor standard knightly swords. Judging by the blade and hilt lengths, they looked more like two knight greatswords.
Using knight greatswords to perform dual-sword techniques was something Lind couldn't even imagine. Even with his current strength, wielding a knight greatsword one-handed was already difficult, let alone using one in each hand at the same time. And with full plate armor plus knight greatswords, agility was completely abandoned. From the perspective of the Peacekeeper's combat experience, this was nothing short of suicidal.
Feeling that he might have made the wrong choice, Lind looked somewhat annoyed as he stared at the increasingly clear knightly figure. Suddenly, he felt as though he had seen this knight somewhere before, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall where.
When the knight's image became completely clear, it transformed into a beam of light and merged into Lind's mind. A massive amount of information surged in at the same time, dragging Lind's consciousness along with it. From the outside, it looked as though Lind had fallen unconscious.
Simultaneously, nearly three-quarters of the remaining dragon bones in the box in Lind's hands instantly turned to ash. The scorching energy contained within them flowed into Lind's body, causing his entire body to grow burning hot, as if he were on fire.
Glory, who had been lying on top of Lind, clearly disliked this intense heat. However, it didn't move away from him. Instead, it shifted to Lind's head, hugging it tightly. Glory's body became extremely cold, like a block of ice, indirectly helping to reduce the side effects caused by the scorching energy.
After about half an hour, the scorching sensation in Lind's body began to subside, disappearing completely within a few minutes. His body temperature returned to normal.
Although Lind's height and overall build hadn't changed much, a closer look revealed that his muscles had become noticeably more compact and solid, making him appear slightly slimmer.
Once the scorching heat faded, Lind emerged from the torrent of new knowledge in his mind. After regaining consciousness, he didn't open his eyes immediately. He lay on the bed, a look of delight on his face, his breathing heavier due to excitement.
After calming himself slightly, he murmured inwardly, "I never expected the newly obtained character to be him—the number one expert of Castle Sol."
Previously, Lind had always thought that the golden finger's character pool was limited to For Honor. Only now did he realize that For Honor was merely the foundational layer. Beyond that were characters from other games stored on his hard drive. The character he had just obtained was from Elden Ring—the red-eyed dual-sword Banished Knight, known as the strongest warrior of Castle Sol.
Even though his memories of his past life had grown increasingly blurry, Lind still remembered being utterly crushed by Banished Knights when he played Elden Ring, especially in Castle Sol.
Although the red-eyed dual-sword Banished Knight was technically just an ordinary knight, he possessed boss-level strength. Among all mortal dual-sword users in Elden Ring, he absolutely deserved to sit at the very top.
More importantly, his dual swords were not only powerful in technique but also enchanted. Combined with his blink-like teleportation ability, he became the strongest of the Banished Knights.
What Lind gained this time wasn't just combat experience. He also received all of the character's training experience and esoteric knowledge, as well as complete forging blueprints for the Banished Knight's full armor set and Banished Knight greatswords. In other words, aside from life memories, every other aspect of a Banished Knight's memories had been poured into him.
Without a doubt, if the Peacekeeper's swordsmanship still belonged to the realm of mortals, then the Banished Knight's swordsmanship had truly stepped into the extraordinary. Even more importantly, Lind realized that by following the Banished Knight's training methods, he could acquire the Banished Knight's extraordinary power without needing any special physique.
Through these memories, Lind learned that the Banished Knight's extraordinary power came mainly from two sources. One belonged to the category of external power—namely, the dragon runes engraved on the Banished Knight's armor and weapons.
Dragon runes were a unique runic power of the Banished Knight order. By engraving different dragon runes onto their armor and weapons, Banished Knights allowed the runes to constantly absorb ambient energy, enchanting their equipment.
When corresponding sword techniques were unleashed, the runes would release the stored energy attached to the armor and weapons, producing effects similar to hurricanes or extreme freezing.
The final strength of these effects depended entirely on the enchantment time of the dragon runes. In other words, the older and more complete the Banished Knight's armor and weapons were, the stronger their enchantments became.
According to the Banished Knights' memories, there had once been a Banished Knight who wore an extremely ancient set of armor and weapons. When he unleashed a freezing sword technique, it directly froze an entire plain—so much so that even dragons were frozen solid.
However, dragon runes were not without flaws. Their weakness lay in the fact that the energy—or magic—they absorbed and stored was not infinite. Once depleted, they needed time to slowly recover, much like a rechargeable battery.
Compared to dragon runes as an external force, the true power of the Banished Knights lay in the Dragon Communion ritual.
In fact, the Banished Knights' true name should have been Dragon-Worshipping Knights. They were among the earliest knightly orders founded on the worship of dragons. Dragon imagery could be seen everywhere on their armor and weapons, and even their banners bore dragon-like patterns.
Because they worshipped dragons, they longed to obtain dragon power, which led to the creation of dragon runes.
Later, they became dissatisfied with the extraordinary power granted by external means and wished to possess dragon-like might themselves. Thus, the Dragon Communion ritual was born.
Through Dragon Communion, they could extract power from dragon remains to strengthen themselves, and some could even awaken dragon-like extraordinary abilities. This was why the Banished Knight order could stand on equal footing with the Crucible Knights.
However, after the Banished Knights were defeated and exiled across the lands, some believed that their defeat stemmed from insufficient power. They modified the Dragon Communion ritual, changing it from extracting power from dragon remains to directly killing dragons and consuming their hearts to gain strength.
The memories Lind obtained included details of directly consuming dragon hearts to perform Dragon Communion. Although this method could rapidly increase a Banished Knight's power, it also carried enormous hidden dangers—the greatest of which were madness and mutation.
In truth, the Dragon Communion ritual itself already had such side effects. When absorbing power from dragon remains, these effects were relatively mild. This was likely because the power within the remains had been tempered by time, with all violent energies worn away. Combined with the Banished Knights' strong willpower and special dragon rune necklaces designed to counter chaotic thoughts, the process was generally safe.
But killing a dragon and eating its heart meant absorbing power filled with the dragon's rage and hatred. A Banished Knight might resist the influence of this violent will once or twice through sheer determination, but over time, failure was inevitable. A single failure would result in complete assimilation, and that was how the first red-eyed Banished Knights came into being.
Setting aside whether the dragon-heart-consuming Dragon Communion had side effects, and regardless of whether there were still living dragons in the current world of ice and fire—even if dragons did exist and Lind could find their lair—charging over there would definitely not be dragon slaying. With his current strength, it would be more like delivering himself as a meal.
By contrast, the standard Dragon Communion ritual suited him much better. After all, the Red Keep's cellars held a large number of dragon bones, and there were still plenty of dragon bones left in his own box.
Although the power gained from the standard Dragon Communion ritual was far inferior to that obtained from devouring dragon hearts, it was more than enough for him to roam freely in the world of ice and fire.
After all, the Peacekeeper's dual-sword techniques had already made him nearly unbeatable in single combat. The Banished Knight's dual-sword techniques could multiply his combat power several times over. Moreover, the Banished Knight's knight greatswords were better suited for mounted combat, undoubtedly giving him an enormous advantage on horseback.
And Dragon Communion could grant him even greater inhuman strength, further solidifying his position in this world.
"First, I'll forge the armor and weapons," Lind decided after organizing his thoughts.
If this had been before the team tournament, it might have been difficult. On the continent of Westeros, even a high-quality steel plate armor was extremely expensive. Otherwise, Fotimo wouldn't have merely lent him that suit of armor. Forging a full set of heavy armor even thicker than standard plate armor, like that of a Banished Knight, could easily cost ten or even fifteen times as much.
But now, as the champion of the team tournament, his prize money alone amounted to twenty thousand gold dragons. Using that to forge armor and weapons should be more than sufficient.
As for materials, he didn't dare hope for Valyrian steel. This wasn't a matter of price—there simply wasn't much Valyrian steel left in circulation. Most of it had been made into swords, leaving none idle for Lind to use.
Using the materials from Garlan's two swords would already be enough. While that steel couldn't compare to Valyrian steel, it was far superior to ordinary steel. Once he engraved dragon runes onto it, the material's strength could undergo unknown transformations under the influence of runic energy, becoming even harder.
In the Banished Knight's memories, there were instances of knight greatswords severing dragon bones. And the materials used to forge Banished Knight armor and greatswords were nothing more than ordinary iron ore.
After fully absorbing and organizing the Banished Knight's memories, Lind opened his eyes and prepared to get up. Immediately, he felt something cold and heavy pressing on the top of his head, like an ice pack.
He reached up and grabbed it, instantly catching Glory, who was lying on his head. He pulled Glory down and held it in front of him, laughing. "You little thing, why are you lying on my head?"
Whether it understood him or not, Glory let out a few aow aow sounds. Soon after, Lind felt the icy fur in his hands gradually return to normal temperature.
Though he couldn't understand what Glory was saying, the fact that Glory's body had become extremely cold and that it had voluntarily climbed onto his head suggested that something unusual must have happened when he activated the golden finger earlier.
At this moment, his gaze swept past the box of dragon bones by his feet. The sight inside made him freeze. He put Glory down, stood up from the bed, and cautiously checked the interior of the tent.
His alertness stemmed entirely from the fact that there were far fewer dragon bones in the box. He clearly remembered that there had been plenty left when he activated the golden finger. But now, only a few fist-sized dragon bones remained; the rest had turned to ash.
This made him suspect that someone might have sneaked into the tent and stolen some of the dragon bones while he was absorbing and organizing the Banished Knight's memories.
However, he quickly dismissed the idea. If someone had truly entered the tent, Glory would have attacked them. Moreover, there were guards stationed outside.
"If no one came in, then why are there so many dragon bones missing?" Lind felt puzzled. At the same time, a wave of thirst washed over him. He reached for the water jug on the table and poured himself a cup. But when he picked up the cup and applied just a little force, the oak cup shattered instantly, as if it were made of paper.
...
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Here are a few fan-fic titles that I've recently uploaded on my Patreon:
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(End Chapter)