Chapter 329 – Let The Duel Commence!

“Wayland did? Are you sure?”

“Yes! Isn’t it interesting? Who would have thought that he was an actual Knight”

“Yeah… who would have thought…”

An elven woman dressed in the guild receptionist attire along with a large bald man were peeking out through the window. There they could see a barricade of soldiers in the distance blocking the way to the Valerian estate where Lord Arthur lived. Not so long ago they all heard the news that some trouble between the nobles were brewing.

“Are you sure the information is correct? Is it really that Wayland?”

“My sources said that it was a man dressed in runic armor, it did look like the one Mister Wayland uses but perhaps it could have been someone else inside?”

Solana the sun elf receptionist answered while also trying to peek at the knights. Some of them were frantically running around with no purpose. It was as if they were caught with their pants down and didn’t know how to react. Then there were also the regular soldiers that belonged to the city lord, they were on high alert.

“Guild Master, will you get involved?”

“Why should I?”

“Oh, I don’t know~. What if it’s really Mister Wayland?”

The elven lady chuckled while leaving the guild master in his office. The large man’s lips started to angle down as he watched the scenes play outside. He had chosen to ignore the city lord’s call in favor of the older brother. In his mind the bastard son had no way of winning and putting his neck out could only cause him harm. Yet if this new Head Knight could cause a reversal, it could put him in a bad spot.

“…Is this why he hid his status screen? Did I misjudge his worth?”

He asked himself a few questions while giving out a sigh. In reality, he didn’t feel that he did anything wrong. With the information that he was given, this was the correct choice. Theodore Valerian or one of the other brothers would normally be the ones to take the dungeon over.

“A hidden Knight? Could he be his Head Knight? Then what was it with that offer…”

To him, it didn’t make any sense, was Arthur several moves ahead of him? The position of a knight was also offered to the guild master. It wasn’t that strange for powerful adventurers to be given these positions but he chose to refuse it.

“Was this all just to test my loyalty? Haha, did I fail then… interesting. Well then, let’s see what this Knight can do, That Emmerson should not be an easy target.”

After putting in some thought the large man finally smiled. He was now actually interested in who this new player was. Could it actually be Wayland or someone that was just using his equipment? There was a large possibility that it was just a platinum adventurer coerced by Arthur.

However, if it was just an adventurer he could not see him easily winning over that Knight Commander. There was a difference when it came to fighting monsters and humans. Adventurers delved into the depths of the dungeon and spent most of their lives there honing their skills. Knights on the other hand were primed for war, their skills were developed to kill other people of the races and this duel was probably something a powerful knight would be used to.

“S-stop!”

“Why should I listen to a lowly knight like you? Don’t you realize that you are in the presence of your superior?”

“I…”

The Valerian Knights that arrived at the villa some time ago were confused. Some of their people had been tossed like rag dolls to the side while attempting to stop an armored man from entering this estate. He had a certain presence that could be attributed to tier 3 class holders. It was clear that they would not be able to easily subdue him.

“If you understand then make way, your commander owes me an explanation and I will not leave without one!”

This person was not kidding, soon after arriving he was shouting and trying to duel their leader. This was not something any of them expected. The injured group of knights that returned from their mission from the forest area must have been responsible for all of this. Five returned from a group of fifteen and apparently, the Lieutenant had been slain by this person.

“Who are you? Do you expect me to believe that someone like you is part of the noble Valerian Knights?”

Finally, all of the knights gathered here looked at their savior. There he was Commander Emmerson, one of the strongest people that they knew and their leader. When he appeared all the fear that they were feeling instantly went away, it was as if there was no foe they couldn’t defeat as long as he was fighting with them. They knew that this man would not stand for any of this and that this false knight before them was a deadman.

…

‘He is not using anything to hide his status screen and look at those tin soldiers…’

Roland wanted to laugh at the lower leveled knights that were quick to hide behind their leader. When he arrived at the scene they were like headless chickens, just running around and covering in fear as he used his suppression skill. While it was not powerful enough to make them kneel, it was enough to affect their behavior. However, this skill could be countered by another tier 3 class holder with a similar one and Emmerson clearly owned it.

‘A Spirit Blade Guardian… At least it’s not an Aura one like that woman.’

The man that he was facing was thirty-nine levels his superior. Normally this would not be a level gap that could be easily bridged. The levels weren’t even the main problem as the difference in skills would be the bigger issue. The almost forty levels in difference indicated a difference in years of training and honing. The only thing that Roland had going for him was the broken stat multiplier that potentially put him over Emmerson’s stats.

Roland’s information about other tier 3 classes was very limited. The names were dropped here and there but not much information could be gathered about the skills these classes used. By the name, he could be sure that this class had something to do with the defensive guardian class. The spirit blade part indicated that he could potentially have some powerful offensive sword skills that he needed to watch out for.

The equipment that Emmerson was wearing was the second tip. The moment the man came out he was already trying to analyze the enchantments that were on that piece of armor. Just as he expected the weapon, shield, and even the armor had greater enchantments on them. They were not of runic origin but ones probably created by a Master Enchantsmith.

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‘This complicates things a bit…’

The skill that he used to identify magical enchantments wasn’t perfect. There was a problem with him being unable to see the entire structure from up close. Even though his eyes had become enhanced, analyzing intricate enchantments wasn’t easy. Then there was the other issue, these magical words that were spread over the armor were not concentrated as runes were.

Parts of the symbols were on the back of the man’s armor and the same was true for the weapon and shield. For Roland to be able to truly analyze everything he would need to see all of those items from all sides. This didn’t mean that his skill would be useless in this fight, it just meant that he couldn’t use it right now. While he could tap into the golem eyes of the turrets that were placed here, the skill used to analyze the enchantment wouldn’t work through them, and the image quality left a lot to be desired.

“Who are you? Why do you come here to make a scene just to remain quiet? You wish to duel me? Do you even have the right?”

Emmerson was not amused by Wayland’s appearance and even less about him just remaining silent for so long. For Roland, the battle had already started the moment he appeared before him. To the others, it looked like the man that was calling for the duel had gone quiet and perhaps gotten cold feet after seeing the Knight Commander in person.

“Who am I? Did your men not inform you? Did they also not inform you of their offense against me? Did they not tell you of their attack on my land or how they injured people living under my care?”

Roland finally responded while focusing on the task at hand. The man didn’t react at all and didn’t even glance at the injured men that made it out alive from his home. In the group of five, he spotted the mage along with the young knight that had made it out with a small injury to his shoulder. With the mage there he was sure that they explained but he would still need to make the announcement here himself.

“Lord Arthur, who is this man?”