Chapter 220: Trial, Encounter

Chapter 220: Chapter 220: Trial, Encounter

With a thought, Lance summoned his Skills panel.

[Frost Wind Tail Whip Gun Skill] Level 5 (max)

[Frost Winter Guard Array Spear Skill] Level 5 (max)

[Thunder Sting Reflex] Level 5 (max)

[Ice Chisel Strike Gun Skill] Level 2

Below them, the specially marked list of Specialties was also dazzling.

Specialties: [Ice Barrier (Ordinary · Illusory)], [Wind and Snow Swing Array (Ordinary · Illusory)], [Reverse Thunder Counter (Excellence · Illusory)]

Looking at these magnificent stats on his panel, Lance couldn’t help but marvel internally.

The gains from this Heroic Spirit Baptism were simply staggering.

He had never expected that even within an instance like the Star Realm, he could still rely on his panel’s absurd power to forcibly increase his Skill Levels and even materialize things like Specialties out of thin air.

However...

The rules of the Star Realm could not be completely bypassed.

The icons for his newly materialized Specialties were all inevitably marked with a slightly jarring [Illusory] tag.

This meant these Specialties could only provide him with combat bonuses under the Star Realm’s current projection rules. They weren’t truly branded onto his body in the Material Realm.

Without the support of a true brand, Lance couldn’t use these illusory Specialties as a foundation to learn more advanced Spear Technique skills.

However, this wasn’t a major issue for him.

It didn’t stop him from grinding out basic Specialties like crazy in this Star Realm instance, which had a significant time dilation.

Once the trial ended and he successfully returned to the Material Realm, all these Specialties would be branded in an instant.

It would be a considerable boost to his strength.

The first thing Lance did upon arriving in Golden Ears City was go straight to the municipal clerk in charge of real estate transactions.

He ostentatiously pulled out a linen pouch filled with Silver Coins.

With a loud CLINK, he tossed the pouch onto the clerk’s wooden desk.

He bluntly demanded that the clerk immediately find him a quiet house in a good location. It had to be spacious and, most importantly, have a private courtyard.

After all, this money had all been willingly "donated" by the villagers and Lords he’d met on his journey—all of them filled with "gratitude" toward him.

In another ten days, he would finish the trial and leave the Star Realm, and he wouldn’t be able to take a single Copper Coin with him.

He might as well spend the rest of his time here buying a nice place to live, squandering all the money on food, drink, and entertainment.

Driven by the unparalleled power of money, the clerk demonstrated astonishing efficiency.

In less than a few hours, all the paperwork was in order.

Bowing and scraping, the clerk handed a Brass Key to Lance.

Just like that, Lance moved comfortably into a two-story house built from blocks of grayish-white stone.

The decor and comfort of this house were a significant improvement over his place back in Gray Rock Town.

He casually placed the heavy Lake Spear on the weapon rack in the corner of the living room.

As he cleaned the house, time slipped by, and soon it was evening.

Lance dusted himself off and prepared to go out for a stroll.

Time to head to the city market and find something tasty for dinner.

Walking the streets of Golden Ears City, Lance observed the bustling crowds and hawking vendors.

His recent experiences in the Star Realm were so vivid they sometimes made him wonder if this world had actually existed at one point.

Every person, every subtle expression, even the mercenary greed of the haggling merchants—it all felt incredibly vivid and real.

The concentration of Ether Energy in the air was extremely low, limiting the development of the Extraordinary in this civilization. The destructive power of the wild Demons was also nothing compared to those in the Material Realm. But aside from that, the people, the events, the very objects here—it all felt real.

He had once tried to ask Ascalon about the nature of this Trial World.

But the Gun Spirit, which had existed for several hundred years, admitted it was also clueless, only revealing that it might be related to the gods who resided high above the Star Realm.

Hearing that it involved gods, Lance decided to let it go.

After all, these Heroic Spirit Treasures were ultimately just the created wills of weapons; he couldn’t expect them to know every secret like some erudite historian.

The afterglow of the sunset dyed the street an orange-red.

Lance had already bought three or four days’ worth of groceries. As he was casually strolling through the bustling open-air market, a bright red apple suddenly rolled out from the crowd, bumping right into his dust-covered Land Boots.

Lance stopped and turned his head to look in the direction the apple had rolled from.

Not far ahead, beside a fruit cart, two men dressed as city Guards were deliberately harassing the cart’s owner.

It was a young girl who looked to be only sixteen or seventeen.

She wore a faded old cloth dress, and her brilliant long golden hair was casually tied back with an ordinary Blue cloth strip.

At this moment, the young girl was tightly gripping the wooden handle of the cart.

The beefy Guard with a brutish face held a ripe red apple. After wiping it twice on his clothes, he opened his mouth wide and began chomping down, juice dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

And the lanky Guard beside him, thin as a rail, was rudely shoving a dirty hand into the neat pile of apples on the cart, rummaging through them.

The apple that had just rolled to Lance’s feet had clearly been knocked off by his rough movements.

"Th-these are for sale."

The little girl’s brows furrowed tightly.

The lanky Guard didn’t stop; instead, he let out a contemptuous sneer.

He opened the coarse cloth sack hanging at his waist and began to shamelessly stuff it with handfuls of the biggest and best-looking apples.

"You set up a stall here and you dare not pay us a protection fee?"

The lanky Guard sneered as he filled his bag.

"We’re already being merciful letting you set up your stall here. You clueless thing, you don’t know the first thing about the rules."

But when the other small-time vendors nearby saw this, not a single one stepped up to say a word.

Instead, they all cowered behind their own stalls.

"If you’re not happy with us taking them, then push this broken cart and get the hell out of Golden Ears City’s market right now! If I see you here again, I’ll smash your cart to pieces!"

Hearing these utterly shameless, thuggish words, the young girl watched as the fruits of her hard labor were so wantonly Plundered.

Her eyes grew red-rimmed, and her heart churned with a sense of injustice.

’It’s happening again!’

’Ever since this wretched trial began, how many times have I had to go through this kind of thing!’

’Why are these people always able to so brazenly demand and snatch other people’s things?’

’I’ve been screwed over enough on this journey by the codex of my Treasure.’

’I can’t refuse a plea for help from the weak, and I can’t ask for payment in return.’

’Lately, I’m always being tricked into free labor by villagers pretending to be pitiful. The toll it takes is so great that sometimes I can’t even afford to eat. I get so hungry I see stars.’

’The Demons here aren’t like the ones outside; they’re tainted and inedible. All the edible meat is livestock raised by other people, and I can’t just take it.’

’Finally, during a rare bit of free time, I found an unclaimed grove of wild fruit on a barren mountain outside the city.’

’I spent a whole day picking fruit just so I could bring it to the market, earn a few Copper Coins for food, and maybe sidestep the codex’s rules for once.’

’I never thought I’d still get bullied even then.’

The girl took a deep breath, bit her lower lip hard, and forced her tears back.

She refused to cry in front of these thugs.

*The blade is for Demons alone; forgive the folly of mortals.*

She could only clench her fists in silence, watching helplessly as the fruits she had so carefully selected were ruined by those two pairs of rough, large hands, one ripe apple after another being swept onto the dusty ground in the scramble.

"Officers, could I have a word?"

A casual male voice suddenly spoke up from behind the Guards.