Davey had killed dozens of golems at the most advanced level of Expert with his [Aura Blade]; this alone showed that his power was superior to most Swordmasters. Not only that, but according to Sio, he was also fine after having used magic at the 6th circle and holy magic during his fall. Everyone knew that Davey had the stigmata, but…

“Honestly, I had a hard time believing it when I first heard it.”

“Yeah. I’ve heard of knights using magic before, but… I’ve never seen them have holy power too.”

Even the famous Holy Knights used holy magic, and strengthened their bodies using holy power, but Davey was able to strengthen himself, use elemental magic, and use holy magic.

“Hey, you remember… That guy is an alchemist, right?”

“Oh…”

Everyone went dead silent after that realization.

“Then, what… Holy magic and elemental. On top of that, he’s an adept alchemist with the skills of a Swordmaster?”

“What is that… Unbelievable.”

“How can someone achieve all that before the age of twenty?! It would take at least forty to fifty years for one subject to even try reaching his level.”

Thinking about the monster who did not follow common knowledge, the trainees were confused and puzzled.

“Do you not know anything, Illyna? You and Davey were friends before coming here.”

Everyone turned their gaze over to Illyna, who simply replied, “You think that I would know?”

“Mhm, yeah.”

“Sigh…” Letting out a sigh, Illyna slowly closed her eyes. She felt a damn headache coming along.

There was a transcendent skill Sio and Lucia didn’t notice Davey use when fighting Milpieu, the vampire, because they were not swordsmen: [Telekinetic Blade], the transcendental level of blade control. This was not any ordinary thing to be taken lightly; it was absurd that Davey was at a level higher than Swordmaster when Swordmaster itself was already extremely difficult to reach. Unfortunately, as Illyna hadn’t seen that sort of level with her own eyes, she didn’t fully understand Davey either.

“I don’t know. You don’t know what kind of things he does on the outside, right?”

Everyone looked curious.

Illyna asked, “Outside?”

“Oh, Your Highness. Isn’t it the Roaming Knight’s code to not speak in detail about each other’s personal activities?”

“Do you have the right to say that when you mentioned Shandra, the transcendental being, so quickly?”

“My… You are so mean.”

“Everyone says it’s the code, but no one actually keeps it,” Illyna commented, then flopped over and banged her head onto the table. Her actions weren’t fit for a divine princess, but no one thought it was weird. She added, “He got the eastern continent in the palm of his hands in just a few months.”

From dwarf-made equipment to a rare herb that various organizations would do anything to obtain…

“Let’s not try to understand it. There are just monsters like that.”

“Is he going to turn out to be a monster wearing a human mask or something? Giggle!”

“How about the disciple of God instead of a monster? He received a stigmata, right?”

“That makes sense,” Illyna mumbled quietly and went quiet.

No one asked any further questions. As the trainees were chattering, Davey, who came into the knight’s order with Rinne, was going somewhere after receiving the summoning of the trainees’ teachers.

* * *

The High Palace’s highest floor had an inaccessible room that trainees and regular members were restricted from entering. Because of that, the place was filled with rumors among the trainees. Davey was in the room on the highest floor right now.

“Rinne. Needs biological energy.”

‘This golem is saying she’s hungry.’

“Wait. I’ll hunt you an animal or something when we get out.”

“Rinne. Thinks very lowly of Sir Davey’s food.”

“Want to starve?” Davey asked.

Rinne quickly shook her head.

‘All that matters is that it’s edible, right? Being picky about how it tastes… Should it be like a stargazy pie or something?’

“Ahem!” Boris, the teacher who was standing near Davey and Rinne, cleared his throat awkwardly. Perhaps he felt uncomfortable with their bickering.

“Then, I will take my leave, Captain.”

“Sure.”

A man who was inside the room with Davey answered Boris, then left. Now, there were only four people waiting for Davey in the room that looked like a huge conference room.

“Hm…”

“Are you Davey, the new trainee?”

“Yes, Davey O’Rowane.”

“I heard that you’re not ordinary.”

The old man’s calm voice could be heard clearly, but Davey couldn’t see his face. It was as if he had altered recognition with a strange wall of mana.

“I have heard stories about you. You are extremely talented.”

“Thank you.”

One of the people who covered themselves up laughed at Davey’s calm answer. There were about two or three of them, and it was difficult to see their faces unless Davey actually tried hard to trace them; it was quite a sturdy recognition-altering field.

“I apologize that we cannot speak face-to-face. We cannot stay in the knight order because of our situation.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Hm… Well, alright. Is that little girl beside you the golem you found in the ancient ruins?”

It was obvious that Rinne was not human. She had distinct silver hair, blue eyes, a shining ring on top of her head, and wings on her back.

The people began asking questions, since Davey had hurriedly returned to his territory after the incident and had given no explanation. It was only natural that they were eager to ask.

“I’ll be straightforward. What exactly happened there?”

The people found it important to figure out exactly what had happened.

“It was an ancient ruin that this girl was asleep in.” Davey pressed on Rinne’s head while speaking calmly, and Rinne poked his waist in dissatisfaction.

“I heard that child is a golem.”

“Yes. It is technology that’s unexplainable with common knowledge.”

“Anything else to report?”

“There was a vampire. I think it came to take he who was asleep on the ruins’ lowest floor.”

“Did you get rid of the vampire?”

“I slashed the vampire, but it didn’t die.”

“Hm.”

Davey exchanged ridiculous tales with them, since they weren’t the type to beat around the bush either.

“Give the child to us. Without knowing how dangerous that child is…”

“I refuse. I will not accept any objections.”

“…You.”

“Think about whose loss it will be.”

‘How dare you try and just take it?’

The people behind the recognition-altering mana field murmured amongst themselves, then nodded at Davey’s firm answer.

“Alright. You may go.”

“May I ask one thing?” Davey was a little mad at the fact that they were letting him go this easily.

“What is it?”

“What did the knight order know about that ancient ruins?”

To be honest, their answers didn’t matter.

“We knew nothing. Since the third floor was out of limits even within the members of the knight order, checking anything beneath that was far-fetched.”

Davey was both dissatisfied and uninterested in their answer, which seemed only somewhat truthful.

‘Liars.’

52. A Transcendental Being Delivery!

To take the test, the trainees had to go into the Pandora Region’s forest where the transcendental being was. However, the trainees looked very nervous because of what had happened at the ancient ruins. They had also heard of the transcendental beings’ suspicious activities.

Perhaps, because of that, Alyssa Patrick, who was keeping a relaxed smile in a good mood, provided everyone with new information.

[Because of what happened last time and stuff, two or three times more seniors are going to be protecting us for this test. They said it shouldn’t be a problem since it’s not the season for snow blizzards.]

Davey didn’t know where Alyssa had gotten the information from, but none of the trainees questioned her. They were used to Alyssa fetching all kinds of weird information and telling them.

The only thing to trust after stepping foot into the forest was one’s own experience and partner. Teachers Boris, Sylia, and Frodis guided the trainees to the entrance of the forest and patted them on the back. Then, they said in quiet warning, “Be careful and please don’t get injured. The forest for testing has been cleared to some extent, but it is still a Zone of Evil! You are the future of the knight’s order, and each one of your lives is important.”

There was an option to cooperate with other pairs, but there were penalties to their scores if one chose to do so. The main point of the test was to see how well a pair could cooperate with each other and use their unique abilities to complete a task.

As soon as the trainees entered the forest, Illyna proposed some ideas while unfolding the map that was provided beforehand. “The goal of the first test is getting to the target location quickly and retrieving the supplies. They wouldn’t have hidden the supplies like treasure boxes, since they would have considered that our enemies wouldn’t be human, but we should still think critically.”

“But there would be a lot of people complicating things.”

“We will have to take care of it ourselves. Don’t worry, I won’t leave the tedious things to you. I’ll lead the way since it’s my test,” Illyna declared before materializing Caldeiras. Then, she took a step forward; she looked quite confident.

-What about collecting the data that you always talk about?

‘I don’t need it for the time being. Besides…’ Davey’s eyes shone a light green color as he stared into the forest.

-Davey?

‘It’s nothing. Let’s not think about it.’

There was only one reason why a spirit, who was basically immune to cold temperatures, felt chilly. Permafrost had truly earned its name.

‘I’m sure that Alyssa Patrick said that it wasn’t even the season for snow blizzards…’

“What bad timing. How bothersome…” Davey mumbled.

“Davey. What are you doing?” Illyna, who was walking and leading the way, turned around and stared at Davey in puzzlement.

To that, Davey threw two fist-sized cubes from his expansion pouch. Click!! At the same time, the small cubes expanded into two different golems.

‘A battle alchemist will always be one with their golem.’

Ching!! Whirr!! It was Megatron, which wasn’t hiding its ferocious electric saw, and Juggernaut, a Megatron-sized golem with a minigun, which was a concentrated mid-range weapon.

“Rinne, let’s move as fast as we can. Find something, even a cave, where we can escape from this cold.”

“Command accepted. Juggernaut, drill the way.”

[Command of Elder Brain accepted. Starting.]

As one of Rinne’s eyes shone bright red, Juggernaut began marching forward with confidence as it started to rotate its six-engine cylinder.

“What are you doing?” Illyna asked.

“I think we should move fast. I’ll listen to your complaints after.”

“What?!”

It wasn’t that Davey couldn’t trust Illyna, but if the spirits were in that condition, a snow blizzard would come over them in at least two hours.

What about the rest?

‘They should be able to deal with a little blizzard, right?’