Kane and Jae didn't talk much on their way to the courtyard, but soon the silence was broken by the swords colliding and shouts of effort. Hearing the sounds of training, Kane couldn't help but let a hint of excitement seep through his demeanor. Although knights are inferior to Magi, it doesn't take a genius to know that supernatural strength combined with supernatural powers is stronger than either ability alone.
Considering his current circumstances, he would have to be a fool to waste this opportunity to grow stronger. After all, the faster he becomes a level 3 Acolyte, the faster he can escape from Darius's influence.
Lost in thought, Kane turned the corner, but he froze as soon as he saw the giant courtyard.
"This is... not what I expected."
Jae stopped and turned around inquisitively.
"In what way?"
Kane coughed awkwardly.
"I just expected them to be sparring with opponents that were more... human."
In the courtyard, around fifty men Kane presumed to be apprentice knights fought with two-meter-tall stone golems while ten full-fledged knights shouted orders at them like drill sergeants.
Hearings Kane's words, Jae chuckled.
"I forgot that despite your esteemed status, you are new to the castle. Those are the training golems that lord Darius granted us to train new knights. The golems are incredibly powerful and are also much safer than normal sparing. In addition-"
"Sir Nigel!"
Slightly surprised, Kane looked over to see a grey-haired knight walking over in full armor.
Before Kane could respond, Jae rushed up to the man and gave a slight bow.
"Sir, Carter! It's a pleasure to see you again! I've been tasked to escort sir Kane to his knight training."
Carter shifted awkwardly, seemingly uncomfortable with the respect from Jae, but soon he recovered and responded indifferently.
"Good job, you are dismissed. I'll send some of my men later to inform you when to return."
Hearing this, Jae smiled in confirmation, bowed to Kane, and left.
Watching Jae leave, Kane frowned. Carter's reaction to Jae's respect was strange, to say the least. Although a servant knowing a knight wasn't anything new, it was a fact that knights were revered by normal people. With Carter's age, he should have long since gotten used to receiving an abundance of respect from all kinds of people. And yet...
"Sir Kane, it's great to finally meet you."
Carter grabbed Kane's hand, bringing him out of his stupor. Slightly startled, Kane put strength into his hand and returned the handshake.
"Likewise."
However, as soon as Carter felt Kane's hand exert force, he also tightened his grip. Startled, Kane did the same until he couldn't squeeze any tighter. Even still, Kane felt his hand getting crushed.
[What the f*ck!?]
Before he could resort to more drastic measures, Kane finally felt the pressure release. Hurriedly he pulled his hand away, glaring at Carter in the process.
[If this guy wasn't a knight, I would beat his a**]
Seeing Kane's glare, the old knight's smile grew even wider.
"They told me that you would have the strength of a rank two apprentice knight, but this is beyond my expectation."
As if that made it better. Seeing that Kane's glare didn't recede, Carter slapped Kane in the back, causing him to stumble.
"Calm down. I needed to know your exact strength to know how I should train you. We wouldn't want you getting injured after all."
Looking at the golems fighting apprentice knights next to him, Kane finally understood why Carter crushed his hands; however, he still couldn't help but grumble inwardly. Such a method was truly unnecessary. Seeing that Kane's resentment had finally been quelled, he reached his hand out for a real handshake.
"You can call me Sir Carter. I'll be in charge of your training. Thankfully, you already have a good physique, so you can start learning combat techniques right away."
Predictably, for his first day, Kane only learned the basics of being a knight. How to hold the sword, the importance of stance, and footwork. Very little of his time was actually spent on what Kane would consider real sword skills. Instead of stone golems, Kane was left to "fight" inanimate wooden dummies. While normally, this wouldn't have been a problem for Kane, while he struck the dummy, Carter was yelling orders obnoxiously by the side the entire time.
Right when Kane was about to lose his marbles, the knight finally shouted to stop. Exhausted, Kane propped his sword against the ground and leaned against it, but before he could get used to it, the knight lifted Kane off the ground bringing his sword with him.
"Don't just stick your sword into the ground! Are you going to pay for the cost when you damage the blade?"
Kane smiled sheepishly before dragging the sword back to the racks and putting it away.
"So what now?"
"Now you learn how the knight's cultivation technique."
Kane instantly perked up. While knight cultivation techniques aren't nearly as rare as Magus meditation techniques they are still nearly impossible for a normal person to obtain. In Kane's memories, there were only two ways to get a Knight's cultivation technique.
The first method would be to join a knight academy. Talented swordsmen can join as scholarship students, while the less talented can only attend by paying an exorbitant fee each year. Even so, if your talent is ever deemed unworthy, all of your hard work will go to waste and you won't catch so much of a glance of the cultivation technique. The second way is to join a large family and inherit the family's technique. The second method however is usually reserved for knight talents, and it's rare that someone who doesn't have a technique to be accepted into the family.
Although Kane was no longer a normal person, it was no doubt exciting that he was able to obtain a technique at no cost.
"Pay attention because I'm only telling you this once!" Carter shouted.
Pulling out an old-looking scroll, Carter coughed before reading.
"The Kahn family technique is by far, the oldest possession of the family, dating back to the founding of the Kahn dutchy over 4000 years ago. Sargentarus Kahn, the greatest ancestor, and the first magus of the Kahn bloodline, created this technique near the end of his life as a gift to his descendants. Although you are not a descendant of Kahn, you shall benefit from this gift. By learning this gift do you, Nigel, swear to uphold the will of the Kahn family? Do you, Nigel...?"
Kane swore on the name Nigel while secretly sneering in his heart. Even if the promises had binding power, they would still have no effect. After all, no one knew that his soul came from another dimension. His true identity was unknown even to Darius.
After finishing the vows, Carter tucked the scroll into a small gap between his armor before coughing.
"Alright, now that that part is finished, we'll get to the hard part. Now pay attention because I will only repeat this for you once."
Putting both his hands in front of him like a praying buddha, Carter breathed in slowly before slowly transitioning into various stances. The movements were mesmerizing, sometimes fast and other times slow. While some stances seemed easy, others appeared to strain the capabilities of the human body. Upon reaching the 200th stance, Carter finally stopped, in the same position from which he started and exhaled. It was only then that he relaxed and looked at Kane.
"How much of that do you remember?"
Kane was about to reply when a message rang out in his mind.
[Knights Cultivation Technique Detected!]
[Does the user wish to convert the technique into Knights Cultivation manual?]
Seeing the notification from the system, Kane immediately perked up. It turns out he could use the dimensional library even if the technique wasn't initially in the form of a book! He wasted no time accepting.
[Ding! You have obtained an imperfect Upper-tier knights cultivation technique: Kahn Family Technique.]
[After 4000 years of being taught and passed down, this technique has lost its essence.]
[Sideffects: 1) 1.47-year decrease in life span for every advancement below grand-knight.
2) Advancing to grand-knight with this technique required a sacrifice of 5 years of lifespan.
3) Changing techniques will result in a 25% decrease in combat ability.
...
253) 15% chance of the host developing impotence.
...]
Seeing the seemingly never-ending list of flaws of the technique, Kane couldn't help bet shiver. There was no way he was going to cultivate a technique with so many flaws. Suddenly Kane's eye's widened imperceptibly, WHAT THE F***! [System! Why the hell would you put that at the bottom!?]
[Impotence has little to no effect on the host's cultivation.] The system replied emotionlessly.
[Damn this system!]
Although Kane knew the other side-effects were enough to discourage him from cultivating the technique, he still couldn't avoid the feeling of having dodged a bullet.
[System. Please repair the technique!]
[The host has not fulfilled the criteria to fully repair the technique.]
Seeing this, Kane's face sank.
[What are the criteria?]
[The host can either pay with mission points or sacrifice techniques of a corresponding category.]
Kane wanted to cry. He was truly cornered.
[System, if I learn the technique, is there any way to reverse the side-effects?]
The system didn't reply for a second causing Kane to sweat.
[If the host spends additional mission points or techniques, the system can improve the technique to remove any flaws.]
Hearing this, he no longer hesitated. Decisively abandoning his inhibitions Kane swiftly commanded the system to learn the technique. Immediately, Kane felt the information of practicing the technique crash into his brain.
Meanwhile, Carter was growing impatient. It had only been a few seconds but during this time Kane's expression had changed many times. Judging by the current hopelessness on Kane's face, Carter could only assume that Kane had failed to memorize the technique the first time. Although Carter had been hopeful toward Kane learning the technique on his first viewing, Kane's current denial-like behavior left quite a bad impression. Carter could only shake his head in disappointment.
It was then that Kane interrupted his thought, "I've memorized the technique."
Carter let out a surprised expression before moving to disbelief.
"Are you sure? Memorizing any of the techniques incorrectly could result in injury."
Kane nodded in conformation, "I'm sure."
This, in turn, sank Carter's opinion of Kane even lower. This student's pride was out of control! He would even risk injury just to save face. I was trying to be nice but it seems I'll have to teach this kid a lesson.
"If that's the case, please demonstrate the technique for me!"
It has to be known that even if someone completely memorized the cultivation technique, it was still incredible to perfectly execute it in one try, normally, cultivation techniques would be learned slowly, in pieces to build mastery, only after a month of constant training would students even be allowed to attempt the technique.
What the knight has done was essentially sentence Kane to an almost guaranteed injury!