Chapter 228: Blessing: Royal Armory

When the sensation of weightlessness finally faded and Lance regained his footing, he discovered that he had already left the canyon and returned to the Stardust Corridor.

Countless silent stars floated around him.

Standing firmly upon a pathway woven from starlight, his right hand remained suspended in midair.

In the final second before the trial ended and he was teleported away, he had intended to reach out and wipe away the tears on the girl's face.

But now, there was only drifting stardust before him.

That small figure had long since vanished without a trace.

The surrounding silence was so complete that he could hear only his own breathing.

Lance slowly lowered his hand.

Looking down at his empty palm, he felt an inexplicable sense of complexity.

Since arriving in this world, this was the first time he had experienced such an unsettled feeling regarding the outcome of a battle.

Standing there, he carefully reviewed everything that had happened.

No matter how much he thought about it, he still could not understand why that girl had worn such a heartbroken expression at the end.

It definitely was not because of the battle itself.

Especially considering how, before losing consciousness, she had seemed desperate to communicate something to him.

Unfortunately, the forced teleportation had interrupted everything before he could catch even a single syllable.

“Forget it. If I can't figure it out, then I won't think about it.”

Lance shook his head and forcibly pushed those thoughts aside.

The pure Red Dragon bloodline she had displayed in their final battle, combined with the qualifications necessary to draw and wield the Sword of Kingship, made her identity obvious.

Even a fool could guess that the girl named Elvira was an extremely important member of the Pendragon Royal Family.

Perhaps even a legitimate princess with succession rights.

Looking across all the connections Lance currently possessed in the Material Realm, the only person capable of reaching that level of royal nobility was Cecilia, heir to the Rosenthal Family.

After returning to Graystone Town, he could write a letter and ask Cecilia to investigate the girl's background.

Having settled his future plans,

Lance focused once more on the matter before him.

As the trial instance officially concluded, the entire Stardust Corridor began trembling faintly.

This signaled the formation of his final Coronation Ceremony.

The Reputation he had accumulated throughout the trial world was now being converted by the Astral Realm into countless particles of light.

They began gathering in the void above his head.

At first, the scene appeared sacred.

Golden stardust radiating gentle light emerged from the void and drifted down like fireflies.

These golden lights represented the gratitude, admiration, and other positive emotions a small number of people had felt toward him within the trial world.

This was also the most standard sight accompanying the coronation of kings throughout history.

However—

Lance looked around.

Soon, he sensed that something was very wrong.

“Isn't the amount of golden starlight a little pathetic?”

he muttered inwardly.

There was so little of it that it was not even enough to weave a halfway respectable wreath.

Before he could think further, what happened next struck him like a blow to the face.

Following the sparse golden lights, an overwhelming sea of black-gold starlight emerged.

These were manifestations of negative emotions such as fear, anger, awe, and hatred!

The black-gold ocean instantly swallowed the pitiful amount of golden light and began swirling wildly above Lance's head.

“Holy shit, are these creepy black things really okay?”

Watching the horrifying scene overhead, Lance's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Had he known the system would actually materialize all of this morally questionable Reputation into a crown and place it on his head, he would have exercised at least a little restraint while carrying out his “Equivalent Protection” operations throughout the trial.

The black-gold lights intertwined and compressed in midair.

Finally, amid a brilliant dark radiance, they completely merged and condensed into a black crown.

Watching the pitch-black crown slowly descend and hover above his head,

Lance felt utterly powerless to complain.

What kind of normal person would willingly wear a crown that looked like it belonged exclusively to the final boss?

The moment the crown fully formed, a system notification appeared.

【Trial Complete. Calculating your Astral Legendary Deeds...】

【You have achieved final victory in the War of the Twin Dragons!】

【All of your actions have been witnessed by the Kings of the Astral Realm. The exclusive blessings of three Heroic Spirits are now being integrated...】

As soon as the notification ended, three voices exploded beside Lance's ears.

“May all enemies of this world tremble before greed, and may wealth become tribute.”

A majestic male voice.

“May your spear forever drink the blood of mighty foes and strip the defeated of all dignity.”

A second voice followed, bold and heroic.

“May every blade raised against you ultimately fall under your dominion.”

The third voice was powerful and commanding.

Listening to the three blessings,

Lance's brows furrowed tightly.

Were these really blessings from legitimate Heroic Spirits?

When combined together, they sounded more like blessings intended for a tyrant who plundered everything in sight.

While Lance silently complained, the three blessings transformed into streams of dazzling light and entered the black crown above his head.

Immediately afterward, the entire crown dissolved into countless particles of starlight that rained down onto his body and merged into his very being.

【The blessings of the three Heroic Spirits have intertwined. Combined with your consistent conduct of "Equivalent Protection" and "Forced Confiscation" throughout the trial instance, your exclusive Heroic Spirit Blessing has successfully formed!】

【Congratulations! You have obtained the Golden Legendary Blessing: Royal Armory】

【Blessing Effect Description: All lands beneath heaven belong to the king; all possessions held by enemies are tribute.】

【When facing an item possessing a bound owner or special usage requirements, you may activate this Blessing through physical contact.】

【The Blessing will forcibly initiate a Kingship Judgment. Upon successful judgment, all original bindings and restrictions on the item will be erased, and ownership will instantly be transferred to you.】

“Holy shit!”

The moment he finished reading the description, all of Lance's previous complaints vanished instantly.

The value of this Blessing was so absurdly powerful that it bordered on the unbelievable.

Within the professional systems of the Material Realm, equipment capable of significantly increasing combat effectiveness was almost always tightly bound to its owner.

Unless the owner voluntarily relinquished ownership, even if the owner was killed and someone stripped the equipment from their corpse, they still could not activate it or gain any benefits.

The only way to forcibly remove such bindings was to pay enormous sums to locate Gold Washers through black-market channels.

These were specialized professionals who made a living cleansing equipment ownership records.

Moreover, the higher an item's quality, the more difficult and expensive the process became.

In many cases, the cost of removing a binding approached the price of purchasing a completely new item of equivalent quality.

But now, with Royal Armory,

Lance could ignore those outrageous cleansing fees entirely.

And that was merely the economic value of the Blessing.

Its combat applications were even more terrifying.

Many high-ranking professionals—

especially wealthy heirs backed by powerful families—

derived a significant portion of their strength from powerful core equipment.

Imagine a life-or-death battle.

Lance casually reached out and touched his opponent's equipment.

Then instantly transferred ownership to himself.

How could the enemy's mentality not collapse?

Furthermore, many legendary artifacts and divine relics throughout history possessed extremely strict usage requirements.

But thanks to this overbearing Blessing symbolizing royal authority,

Lance could potentially ignore those requirements entirely and forcibly wield such equipment.

The equipment would not even have an opportunity to resist.

As expected of a Golden Legendary Blessing—the highest grade obtainable through Heroic Spirit Baptism—and one enhanced by three separate blessings.

Its effect was simple.

Brutal.

And overwhelmingly powerful.

Without the three blessings, perhaps it would only have allowed confiscation of a specific category of items.

Now it had clearly become an overpowered all-category effect.

However,

Lance was not blinded by excitement.

A forced confiscation like this obviously could not succeed one hundred percent of the time.

It still required a judgment process.

The system thoughtfully provided a detailed explanation.

Every piece of equipment naturally possessed a Resistance Threshold determined by its quality, material, and power level.

Since the source of a Heroic Spirit's power came from the spread and influence of their legends within the Material Realm, and because Royal Armory itself was a Blessing born from Heroic Spirit power, its strength depended directly upon Lance's own fame and legendary status within the current world.

Therefore, the Blessing possessed a unique judgment attribute known as Kingship Value.

This value depended entirely on three factors:

Legend Points, Great Deeds, and Reputation.

Specifically, every point of Legend Points and every completed Great Deed automatically converted into one point of base Kingship Value.

Lance glanced at his current status.

His permanent Kingship Value currently stood at 3.

These three points came from the one Astral Legend Point awarded for completing the trial, along with the two Great Deeds Defying Divinity and Rejecting Death.

Incidentally, Astral Legend Points were incredibly valuable.

In future Astral Realm trial instances, they guaranteed that Lance would begin with at least a small amount of fame.

NPCs within those worlds would feel a vague sense of familiarity, as though they had heard stories about the War of the Twin Dragons.

That alone would save him considerable effort when establishing his identity.

Of course,

Legend Points almost certainly possessed deeper functions as well.

Those would have to wait until he entered the Astral Realm again and gradually discovered them for himself.