Three

Among every single acolyte candidate, George was considered the strongest. Trained from a young age to take over the mantle of his father as the Count, it was merely a stroke of fate that gave him the talent of magic. Such an unexpected situation caused their group to have a soon to be acolyte who was on the borderlands to become a knight.

Leylin's strength reaching his level or even higher was almost impossible without the system. That being said, it's not like there was no one else strong either. Many of the children here had been trained into preparatory knights as well, among which were the group of five led by Ourin who wasn't a lot worse compared to George.

Leylin from the books had an AI to make decisions for him, while he didn't. That's why he went even further into his preparations, all for the sake of defeating those five.

After sleeping for a few hours during the night and waiting a few more till lunch since he couldn't sleep more than 4 hours after acquiring Recovery, he was ready to put his plans into action.

Furthermore, he wanted to make it big and strike fear into everyone's heart while doing so.

Leaving the carriage, he got his food and waited on a far off corner of the camp. Ever since he woke up he had been training his knight breathing technique non-stop.

Even the scarred man noticed it.

As for why he could do it while moving and even eating? Simple, it became second nature after torturing himself for countless hours. Not that it got better or something, a revolution still took 30 minutes, and if not for his ability to withstand using this technique for hours, he would be far behind the novel's Leylin.

Suddenly, a sound rang next to his ears.

[Congratulations! Your training awarded you 1 TP!]

Hearing the notification he had been waiting for, Leylin took a deep breath. Although he wasn't sure. He felt the Talents weren't as simple as making you better at something. It's more like modifying something within one's own body. It's not without reason that he managed to surpass the original Leylin by using the talent system. Recovery gave him a lot more time to train, while the knight talent he acquired after that increased the amount of stats the technique gave him, and somehow it also increased the amount of talent points he was getting from one every five days to one every three days.

He could only attribute this to the increase in training efficiency. Perhaps, the better he is at training and the more difficult it is, the more points he gains... While it was too soon to confirm this theory, it was all he got for now.

Smiling he opened the Talent Store.

"Purchase knight talent!"

[Knight talent acquired!]

[Talent evolved into Superior Knight Lv1]

The moment the notification appeared, Leylin felt as if the world suddenly looked different. He felt more perceptive about the movements around him, and the wind seemed like lines drawn in the air, painting a strange scene that gave him a completely different vision of the world that he wasn't used to.

Closing his eyes, he practiced his family breathing technique once more. This time, it felt like he could 'see' a river of stars moving about inside him. It circled around his body, flowing through every vein and even passed through each and every organ before disappearing soundlessly as if it was never there.

Each time he completed a revolution of the breathing technique this feeling would appear once again.

Although he couldn't control it yet, it was such an improvement that in about a moment, his body instantly reached the limits of a preparatory knight in every aspect.

"Huff..." Exhaling, he looked at his hands and smiled, what an exhilarating feeling. I think it won't be long before I join the ranks of a knight.

Looking forward to the future, he looked at Ourin and his group once more and decided to take on a different approach compared to the original Leylin.

Seeing him coming, Ourin and his group of lackeys stood up with disdainful looks on their faces.

"Leylin, are you itching for another beating? Who gave you the right to approach us?"

Ourin's anger filled voice resounded attracting the gazes of the youths around them.

Everyone watched with interest, Leylin had been beaten once, but no one knew the circumstances of his first fight. Was it fair? Was it honorable? All they knew for certain was that he lost miserably.

Leylin didn't react to those words. Rather, he swept the group with his eyes and said in a calm and collected manner. "You have tarnished my reputation and even injured me when I couldn't defend myself. Now, I hereby challenge the five of you to a battle."

Hearing those words, Ourin laughed loudly. "You? Challenge me? What a great joke!"

The others seemed to agree but it became even more outrageous when Leylin shook his head.

"No, I'm challenging you and each one of your loyal dogs."

Hearing those insanely arrogant words, Ourin's dogs barked as if it was the greatest insult they ever received.

"You! How dare you insult me!? Do you think our families will let you go!"

"That's right! Leylin, you are completely screwed this time, there's no way we will let this pass!"

Smiling viciously, Ourin didn't even speak and unsheathed his sword while directing an attack towards Leylin at the same time.

The kids watching the scene were stunned speechless and could only watch.

Meanwhile, the black robbed knights also had frowns and disgust on their faces. Although they preferred the dirty methods in a fight, since he was challenged, he should have at least followed the knights code of conduct and properly accepted the duel before striking. Well, it didn't matter for them. The belongings of the kids that died would belong to the magi in the end anyway and that's why they didn't care about who lived and who died, at least for now. Since they all had magic stones with them or other valuables, it would always be profitable even if a few died.

Just as everyone thought that Leylin's head would be sent flying, a loud sound of collision spread out. Sparks flew everywhere while the shadow of a blade was cast on the ground for a moment before it fell down, piercing the ground and leaving a shocked Ourin shaking on the cold hard floor.

Looking at the blade centimeters away from his lower parts, he started sweating bullets as he tried to comprehend what happened.

He wasn't the only one.

"W-what!?" The fatty of the group shouted so loudly that every single acolyte candidate heard the commotion and approached.

George who had seen everything was even laughing. Damn bastard! Was he hiding his real skills?

The black robbed knights even looked at him in another light. To be able to perform a move like that and with such precision, it could only be said that he was a rare talent.

"Bastard!" Cursing, Ourin stood up and pointed his blade at Leylin. "You'll pay for this! Everyone, together!"

At that moment a brutal fight began.

Watching with wide open eyes, the kids all felt breathless as they watched the moves pulled off by Leylin. As if he had been on various battle, he used the number disadvantage to disrupt the tempo and stance of his enemies.

Moving back and forward, left and right, he was always putting his enemies in a situation where a careless move would mean friendly fire. As such what was originally a fight of one against five turned into one against two or three at a time.

Waving his sword, Leylin slashed from the side after avoiding another hit from his enemy and struck the side of his blade directly under the chin of a skinny boy.

The impact was such that he fell back instantly, collapsing on the ground and losing consciousness at the moment of the impact.

Distracted by the scene, the four stopped for a moment giving Leylin a crucial space to counter attack.

His movements were swift and sharp, leaving a sharp silvery trail behind. His hands moved with elegance and with one strike to the head he knocked out another. This move was followed by a swing of his body, allowing him to hit another person with his elbow on the head.

Seeing two more companions fall defeated, Ourin and the Fatty became desperate.

Their attacks weren't well timed and were already conflicting against each other as they couldn't seem to work together to defeat Leylin.

Laughing, Leylin jumped away when Ourin slashed using all his might, this move of his caught him off guard. The blunder was such that he even slashed the fatty who fell on the ground and started crying with pain as blood poured down from his shoulder.

Before he could say anything, a punch seemingly appeared out of nowhere and struck directly at his face.

A pair of teeth fell on the ground while his body spun on the air before falling three meters away from where he had just stood.

Seeing the results of this fight, Leylin smirked. He went to each of them and took away just enough magic crystals as to only leave them with ten. Although he wasn't sure how much they needed for whatever they were going, he still remembered that Ourin needed ten stones to enroll himself. As for why he didn't take it all? Simple! He didn't want to attract the anger of the encampment.

"You bunch of trash, not only did you attack in such a disgraceful way, you even lost in the end. Those magic stones I took away from you will be my compensation. If you mess with me again, I will beat the crap out of you."

Leaving those words behind, Leylin left the scene with his head raised high and savoring the looks of admiration from the crowd.

"Holy cow! Is that really Leylin?!"

"Shit! Those moves of his were awesome, I don't think even my tutor back home could defeat him!"

"So handsome!" Some girls were even whispering words of praise.

Bessita, however, couldn't help but frown. She stared at Eli from afar with a worried look on her face. Remembering the alliance made by the people of the northern territory, she decided that it was a good time to join them least she ended up left alone without anyone to protect her. After all, Leylin may be strong, but he was still just one person. If he tried to take revenge... she would be safe under the watch of ten friends from the same land.

Amongst those who were sad or surprised, only one was happy.

"Haha! Were you hiding some moves from me?"

Hearing that familiar voice, Leylin couldn't help but chuckle. "What? The great Satin Mane Lion now has eyes for this humble subject of the king?"

George laughed at those words as he patted Leylin's shoulder. "You kidding me? The whole camp saw you in action. Some more violent girls even had stars in their eyes. Now that you recovered your honor, you're fit to be my follower!"

"Scram!"

Joking around with George, the two continued to speak for the next few hours.

With that matter taken out of the way, all that remained was the travel itself.

They had entered the wilds a few days ago and there wasn't a single city or place to restock on supplies. As the travel neared the end, it became clear that the dangers of the wilderness would only increase and all the comfort would cease.

That night, while preparing to sleep in the carriage. Leylin couldn't help but wonder. From here on out, the only thing he still remembered from the books was that Leylin rode the carriages to stay under the protection of the knights and that they would eventually be attacked by a pack of several hundreds of direwolves.

"Sigh... after that, it will be a completely unknown journey... If anything, I should stick with whatever fits better with my talent. If I'm not mistaken, there was an academy that was suitable for this body's original talent. I wonder if it will remain the same or if it changed with my transmigration... Eh, no matter, I'm not the type of person that would sacrifice everything just for a little bit of progress like him. Let's hope the path I choose isn't too bad compared to his."

Yawning, he closed his eyes and slept deeply, there was a long way ahead of him.