Chapter 106: Chapter 106

However, for now, Ron could only dream. If he truly wanted to search for Wastelander corpses, he would at least have to wait until he advanced to Knight. Otherwise, let alone whether he could find a reasonable excuse to go out, his own abilities were entirely insufficient to withstand the risks of venturing outside.

…

The next day.

Ron left early and headed to Liya’s house, handing the small pouch containing thirteen Ignition Potions to Jason for safekeeping. By this time, Jason was completely sober.

Though he was speaking to a junior, he still apologized for his lapse in manners the previous night, and simultaneously promised: “These potions are safe with me, rest assured. Come find me whenever you need to use them.”

“Mm. I’ll head to the training ground first, then.”

Waving to Liya, Ron went straight to the training ground. After eating and drinking his fill, he began another day of patrol work.

In truth, Ron felt that his current temporary assignment didn’t carry much significance. If he were the enemy, he would certainly choose the time most likely to cause chaos to invade, just like that previous night.

And since he only patrolled during the day, the chances of actually discovering the enemy were far too slim.

But the territory had issued these orders, and Ron could only comply.

…

Since he had already familiarized himself with the procedures yesterday, Ron appeared much more at ease today, affording him more time to observe the Pollution Secret Patterns within the territory.

Currently, the Pollution Secret Patterns within the territory were primarily concentrated in the still-recovering east of town. Other areas had them too, but their spatial concentration didn’t even reach a tenth of what the east of town had.

Furthermore, he discovered that the more deeply the natural environment was modified, and the more extensively raw materials were processed, the easier it was to attract Pollution Secret Patterns. But at the same time:

There was also a repelling effect, and similarly, the deeper the modification and processing, the stronger the repelling force.

This caused those Pollution Secret Patterns, in Ron’s eyes, to appear as if they added a layer of luminous filter to the entire world. The more artificial the creation, the brighter it glowed; the more natural the creation, the dimmer it appeared.

Among all of this, humans were the most unique existence.

Through extensive observation during his patrol, Ron discovered that regardless of who the person was, whether Knight, commoner, adult, or child, they all attracted Pollution Secret Patterns.

But compared to inanimate objects, a person’s attraction to Pollution Secret Patterns wasn’t entirely correlated with their strength. While there was a general trend where greater strength meant stronger attraction, there were also many counterexamples.

Taking Ron himself, for instance, his attraction to Pollution Secret Patterns far exceeded the vast majority of Formal Knights he had ever seen, with only a rare few being stronger.

Among commoners, there were also quite a few whose attraction to Pollution Secret Patterns surpassed that of apprentices, though they still fell short of Formal Knights by a considerable margin.

As for repelling force, that was entirely correlated with strength. The stronger the individual, the stronger the repelling force, and correspondingly, the fewer Pollution Secret Patterns that could merge into them per unit of time.

What Ron was most concerned with among all of this was the attraction that commoners had toward Pollution Secret Patterns. He was very eager to figure out exactly what factors were involved.

However, among the anomalous cases he had observed so far, he didn’t personally know a single one. But he had already resolved to investigate them thoroughly, bit by bit, in the future.

…

Around noon, Ron received an emergency assembly order. The assembly point wasn’t at the East Town Training Ground, but rather at Bell Tower Square.

Since the order didn’t mention the reason for the assembly, and worried that some unforeseen change might have occurred, Ron didn’t delay for a moment. He immediately rode his horse from the southwest of town, where he was currently patrolling, straight to Bell Tower Square.

Along the way, he encountered many apprentices from his same batch. They had also received the same order and were hurrying toward Bell Tower Square. Beyond them, even the Territory Guard members who were patrolling and stationed along the outer perimeter of the territory’s core area were all rushing back.

Before long, Ron arrived at Bell Tower Square. Like the others in his patrol team, he tethered his horse to one of the stone pillars at the edge of the square, then headed toward the Bell Tower.

Along the way, he listened carefully to the conversations of those around him, especially the Formal Knights. He felt that if there were any inside information, the Formal Knights would definitely be the first to know.

Naturally, he didn’t forget about the men beside him either. Their leader, Captain Monte, was an Intermediate Knight, so he surely knew even more:

“Captain Monte, what are your thoughts on this emergency assembly?”

“Just like you, I’m wondering the same thing. Once we reach the north side in a bit, I’ll go ask around. I reckon it probably isn’t anything bad, though. Otherwise, why would they be pulling back even the people stationed on the outer defenses?”

Even pulling back the men on station, while not recalling absolutely everyone, would inevitably create gaps in the defensive lines. Yet the territory still did so, clearly confident enough that the enemy wouldn’t launch a sneak attack at this moment.

“Let’s hope so!” Ron still felt somewhat uneasy.

…

Shortly after Captain Monte left, Ron, who had ears in all directions, soon noticed that the frequency of a particular word was growing increasingly prevalent among the crowd:

Martial Tournament!

“The territory is holding a Martial Tournament?” Ron casually grabbed someone nearby who had just uttered the words and asked.

“I don’t know, I also just heard it from someone else.”

That person immediately broke free from Ron’s grasp and walked off in another direction. Ron didn’t pursue the matter and instead found another person to ask:

“Do you know about the territory holding a Martial Tournament?”

“I don’t.”

That person looked completely bewildered. Perhaps having heard Ron mention “Martial Tournament,” he too began asking his companions beside him and others around him.

After questioning several people in a row to no avail, Ron gave up on further inquiries. He didn’t know where this news had originally surfaced, but in just this short while, it had already spread like wildfire among the nearly thousand people in Bell Tower Square.

It was hard to say this wasn’t someone deliberately leaking the information ahead of time.

Soon, Captain Monte, who had just left to inquire about the situation, returned, rejoining the patrol squad’s formation with a face full of excitement.

But the news he brought back wasn’t about the tournament, or rather, not only about the Martial Tournament. There was another piece of news that left Ron profoundly shocked as well:

The Lord, who had suffered severe injuries during the Aberrant Beast invasion five years ago and had not made a public appearance for several consecutive years, was about to emerge from the castle across the water to the north of the Bell Tower to personally announce a piece of news to the crowd at Bell Tower Square.

And the news that the Lord was about to announce in person was precisely the Martial Tournament that was already spreading like wildfire through the square.

“Is this true? Wasn’t it said that the Lord was so severely wounded that he could no longer move? How did he suddenly recover and is even making a public appearance?”

Regarding Ron’s bewilderment, Monte could completely empathize. He had been just as shocked moments ago, and had asked the very same question. Now, he could explain it to Ron:

“The Lord is a Senior Knight. No matter how severe the injury, unless death is instantaneous, full recovery is possible given enough time. Even the loss of limbs can be restored.

“The reason the Lord struggled to recover all this time was because his injuries were simply too devastating, so extreme that even a Senior Knight couldn’t easily self-heal.

“But difficult to self-heal doesn’t mean impossible to self-heal. Once the healing reaches a certain threshold, the recovery rate accelerates dramatically. The Lord being able to appear this time should mean he has successfully passed the critical point!”