Fate: The Forged Arthur Pendragon

On the city wall,

Merlin looked at Lucan and Dagonet, her brows furrowing slightly. She felt these two were becoming increasingly strange, more and more like true knights serving a king.

However, only she knew that Su Ya was a sham; in reality, he had no great desire to be the King of Britain. If she hadn't threatened him with a dagger back then, Su Ya wouldn't have even bothered with the lie of pretending to be king.

The poor wretch's greatest wish before his supposed demise was to hide away in a mountain valley and train until he was invincible.

He was, without a doubt, a remarkably sincere person.

But it was precisely this sincerity that led things to gradually develop in a strange direction, causing those who initially intended to exploit him to quietly change their original intentions.

Even Merlin felt a twinge of reluctance. When she saw that peculiar battle tattoo growing on his body that day, recalling all that she had experienced, Merlin, with immense determination, finally abandoned the idea of making Su Ya king and then robbing him blind.

She thought that once they reached the capital, and she had won back all she had lost, she would give him a sum of money and send him to a mountain valley where no one could find him.

In such a chaotic world, possessing such talent, it would be hard for this poor wretch not to be targeted by those with ulterior motives.

It was just—

It seemed already too late.

Lucan then turned with a beaming smile and asked, "So, Miss Merlin, what do you think?"

"So, Miss Merlin, what do you think?"

"I'm watching from below."

Merlin truly just lay on the parapet, craning her neck to look down at the young man's struggling, rolling, and leaping figure. "Why did you call me here in the middle of the night? What do you want?"

Lucan immediately bowed slightly and requested, "I want to ask you to teach the King how to connect with the Great Source, replenish his magic, and... how to use the Magic Crest."

"And then, to master [Mana Burst]."

"For Miss Merlin, with your unique crest, this shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Merlin scoffed, as if she had heard a joke. "Mana Burst also requires mana. Perhaps for him, mana doesn't require life to compensate, but simply being well-fed allows it to naturally generate."

At this, Merlin turned her head with a teasing expression, looking at Lucan as if he were an amusement. "But, you pauper, can you afford his appetite now?"

"Oh~ your thoughts are practically written all over your face,"

"Tsk, tsk, why aren't you, a swindler, acting like a swindler?"

"As a despised rat, you actually want to cultivate a true King of all Britain?"

Merlin coldly rebuked, "Are you qualified, Lucan?"

"Have you truly made up your mind, Lucan?"

"You won't abandon Su Ya, like you abandoned King Uther, will you, Lucan?"

"And what do you intend to use him for, Lucan?"

Lucan's smile froze.

But quickly, he chuckled indifferently and said, "Thank you for your reminder tonight, Miss Merlin."

"I will solve the food problem."

"[Mana Burst] is the next stage of teaching. Before that, I will show you my sincerity."

Merlin looked coldly at Lucan and named an exorbitant price: "50,000 gold pounds."

Lucan didn't even blink, nodding decisively:

"Deal."

Merlin turned her head, startled, and glanced at him, then irritably scratched her white cowlick, just about to go back on her word.

However, just then—

Dagonet's voice suddenly came from beside them:

"Wait, look... what's that!?"

Merlin turned her head in response, following the direction Dagonet was pointing, towards the north side of Pendragon Castle.

Under the night sky, ablaze with countless stars,

Approximately 25 kilometers from Pendragon Castle, a small, bluish-green flame suddenly ignited.

And from above that suddenly brightened patch of abnormal light,

Thick smoke billowed skyward!

Night inkily swallowed the plains and hills of western Cornwall.

Suddenly, the first cluster of fire pierced the darkness, erupting from the clock tower of Solsbury—that was resin-soaked oak being ignited!

Flames danced wildly within the cage, licking at the damp air, bursting with crackling sparks, reflecting the silver plate armor of the defenders in bloody hues.

Several Solsbury defenders, with grim expressions, threw sulfur blocks into the flames.

The sulfur quickly mixed with the fire, and a wisp of eerie bluish-green flame shot up from the orange-red. This was the signal for 'enemy attack.'

And soon,

Twenty-five miles away, a sentry on a stone tower was dozing, his half-closed eyes suddenly catching the faint, abnormal light in the distance.

His expression froze. He blinked in disbelief, then sharply awoke from his daze, immediately turning to roar downwards:

"Enemy attack!"

"Solsbury is under attack!"

"Quick, light the fires!"

Below the lookout, on the tower platform, two soldiers sprang up with a startled carp-jump, and without a word, immediately pulled back the waterproof canvas, inserting torches into the beacon tower.

The moment the torch touched the bottom, muffled thuds accompanied by thick smoke rushed into the sky!

As if a giant dragon dormant underground was spewing flames,

In an instant,

The third, fourth, fifth...

Scarlet lights sped towards the fallen southern territories, awakening all of Cornwall from its slumber!

A corner of Pendragon Castle,

"Whoosh!"

Su Ya threw his last kunai.

The later kunai struck the earlier ones with greater speed, hitting them one after another, continuously changing their trajectory and propelling them forward!

The foremost kunai, enhanced by four successive [Throwing] composites, suddenly increased its speed, its blade faintly glowing red. Then, like a hot knife through butter, it pierced through a tree trunk ten meters away, rustled through a row of branches, and finally, embedded itself in the stone wall!

"Splat!"

However, this time, the sound was not the clanging of a diamond-tipped blade, but a clear, smooth "pfft" sound, as if the entire wall was sliced open along tiny cracks.

The kunai, its momentum unchecked, flew another ten meters through the wall before finally stopping on another wall.

[You have mastered: Throwing (Proficient).]

[You have mastered: Quick Step (Proficient).]

[You have mastered: Rolling (Proficient).]

[You have mastered: Form of the Bow (D, Skilled)]

At this moment,

Su Ya finally exited his state of focused practice, first glancing at the accumulated entries on his panel, then stretching his somewhat tired limbs.

He subconsciously reached for the shapeshifting bird meat he had set aside. This was a trophy from defeating Perugos. The mage who had tricked Su Ya hadn't actually died. As mages dedicated to researching the Root, these reclusive individuals usually stayed indoors and valued their lives immensely, so it was unlikely they would personally venture into danger.

Merlin, who had lost all her money gambling and had to resort to banditry, was a rare exception.

Shapeshifting birds,

These were familiars enslaved by Perugos through spiritual evocation, transmuted by alchemy into living vessels capable of storing will, serving as temporary bodies for master mages to expend their mana. Their true forms were special monsters found in Ireland.

They could perfectly transform into other creatures, but would revert to their original form after death or the collapse of their alchemical patterns.

Their wings tasted quite good.

As Su Ya instinctively reached for another bite of bird meat, he realized that, at some point, the cow-sized monstrous bird had already been completely devoured.

Just then,

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Continuous, urgent footsteps echoed in his ears.

Su Ya slightly raised his head and saw that the sky had already brightened considerably. The three hundred soldiers within the castle were constantly moving supplies, either leading horses, donning armor, or wiping their weapons.

Merlin stood among them, directing the operations.

Everyone passing by Su Ya had a grim expression on their face.

This surprised Su Ya slightly. Just as he was about to go forward and ask, his peripheral vision unexpectedly caught sight of the city wall—

The sky outside the city,

Was already obscured by countless swaying columns of smoke!

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