Along with it, an aura that Roland found exceptionally, even comfortingly, familiar lingered within the tent.
But the aura was too faint. Before he could investigate its source, a voice rang out.
"Roland..."
He looked up to see a burly, fully armored, middle-aged man sitting on the main seat.
It was Graham, whom he had not seen in a long ti.
The heavy Armor made the brawny man’s fra seem even larger, like an oversized tin can.
"I’ll be damned, it really is you, kid!"
Graham let out two laughs in his trademark booming voice and beckoned to Roland.
"What are you doing all the way out here?"
"Didn’t you tell you were going to clear out so Pirates? So..."
A teasing smile appeared on Graham’s face.
"Did those Pirates from Wailing Gorge beat you so bad you ran away with your tail between your legs?"
"Dean Graham..."
Hearing the Extraordinary Professional’s teasing, Roland forced a wry smile and proceeded to recount his entire ordeal.
When he finished speaking, the tent fell into a brief silence.
"A Heartstealer?"
Graham extended a broad hand and unconsciously tapped on the wooden table before him.
"Are you talking about... that monster with an octopus-like head but a human-like body?"
"That’s right."
Roland nodded gently.
Seeing Graham’s relaxed expression, he couldn’t help but ask.
"Dean Graham, have you heard of this type of Demon before?"
"Nope."
The Dean of the Knight Academy shook his head firmly.
"It’s just that while I was investigating the cause of the Demon outbreak, I ran into a monster exactly like the one you described. As for what happened to it..."
As he spoke, he pointed to an iron box on the floor beside the table.
Roland raised an eyebrow. After confirming that Graham wanted him to open it, he stepped forward, bent down, and lifted the lid of the box.
The next mont, Roland’s pupils contracted sharply.
Inside the iron box, plain as day, lay a head shaped like an octopus.
It was the head of a Heartstealer.
But this head was already shriveled and withered.
The tentacles he rembered swaying in the air now hung limply like dead branches.
The two pupil-like orifices, which had once faintly glowed, had lost their luster, leaving only two pitch-black holes.
"When I first saw it, I thought it was so kind of fearso Demon, but as it turned out..."
Graham scoffed.
"Just a piece of junk that’s all show and no substance."
Hearing that dismissive tone, Roland took a deep breath, and his turbulent emotions gradually subsided.
’Co to think of it, the strength the Heartstealer prided itself on was almost entirely dependent on its mysterious Spiritual Energy. As for its other aspects...’
Roland shook his head slightly.
’They were nothing special.’
’It wasn’t surprising that an Extraordinary Professional like Graham could kill one.’
With that thought, Roland was about to close the lid when his gaze suddenly caught sothing else in the box.
It was a fragnt that shimred faintly in the air, looking like a piece of a Shield.
With a single glance, Roland recognized the material.
It was Mithril.
But if it were just Mithril, it wouldn’t have caught his particular attention.
’It’s just...’
Roland’s brow slowly furrowed, and his hand instinctively went to the hilt of the sword at his waist.
’He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he felt as though there was so kind of...’
’...strange resonance between this fragnt and his Secret Silver Longsword.’
"Dean Graham, what is this...?"
Graham followed Roland’s pointing finger to the shimring fragnt. He subconsciously brought a hand to his right shoulder, an unnatural look flashing in his eyes.
"Oh, that..."
he said, feigning casualness.
"So pretty strong fellow ca to spy on the camp earlier, so we traded a few blows..."
"Was the fight to the east?"
Seeing Graham nod, Roland recalled the patch of scorched earth and pressed on.
"And the enemy’s strength...?"
"Nothing to write ho about!"
Graham waved his hand dismissively, his face a mask of nonchalance.
"If it weren’t for his body being a little uncanny... it seed like he could... infinitely regenerate?"
The Dean of the Knight Academy’s brow furrowed for a mont, as if recalling the scene, but the expression vanished in a flash.
"Otherwise, I would’ve sliced him in two."
"But even so, he was in a bad way!"
Graham snorted.
"He took a few of my slashes head-on. By the ti he fled, his regeneration clearly couldn’t keep up with his injuries. If he hadn’t been so quick to slip away... Hmph!"
’A body that can regenerate infinitely?’
Roland ntally filed this information away.
Graham, anwhile, turned to ask Avril about other things.
During a lull in their conversation, Roland took the opportunity to inform Graham in detail about Crystal Devouring and how the disease was silently spreading through the camp.
Upon hearing this news, a rare, grave expression appeared on Graham’s face.
"So it’s a disease..."
The battle-hardened Dean did not dismiss Roland’s words as re fearmongering. Instead, he lowered his gaze and fell into deep thought.
After a mont, he looked up and said in a somber voice.
"Thank you for the information, Roland. I’ll... be sure to keep an eye on this."
"So, what’s your plan now...?"
"To withdraw from the Land of Mist."
Graham knew Roland’s character well, and besides, he held the young man in high regard as one of his students. For those reasons, he didn’t hide anything.
He let out a long sigh, rose from his chair, and paced over to the table, his gaze falling on the map spread across it.
"Although we’ve more or less pinpointed the Wolf King’s location..."
Graham’s thick finger jabbed down on the area of the map marked "Broken Stone Rift," and then he looked at Avril.
"Our retreat is cut off, our supplies are nearly exhausted, and with that ’Crystal Devouring’ disease you ntioned... if we push deeper, we risk total annihilation. I don’t care what happens to ..."
Graham’s gaze drifted through the gap in the tent flap to the figures of the patrolling soldiers outside, a flicker of sorrow in his eyes.
"But before we left, I promised I would bring them all back alive..."
Hearing this, Roland breathed a silent sigh of relief.
’His biggest fear had been that Graham would stubbornly insist on hunting the Wolf King in the Land of Mist.’
’It seed this gruff, brawny man was not an inflexible person after all.’
"However, Jia Xiu, Fisher, and I have arranged to rendezvous here."
Graham continued.
"Once they arrive, I’ll inform them of the decision, and we’ll all pull out together. So..."
For so reason, Roland felt that Graham’s normally ruddy complexion had grown a few shades paler, and his resonant voice carried a hint of imperceptible weakness.
But this hint of strangeness was quickly concealed by Graham’s next action.
He reached out a broad hand and clapped Roland heavily on the shoulder.
"You’ll stay here in the camp for now, and you can return to the Royal Capital with . Even though you made it here safely, this land is a hundred tis more dangerous than you can imagine."
"Just stay put. In a few months, it’ll be ti for the exchange with the Golden Valley Kingdom’s Knight Academy..."
A smile tugged at the corner of Graham’s mouth.
"We had an agreent, rember? You’re supposed to lead the team and knock those noble brats down a peg or two!"
"I understand, Dean Graham."
After a few more brief words, Roland and Avril said their goodbyes to Graham and left the tent together.
After watching them leave, Graham imdiately ordered the Guards at the entrance to forbid anyone from entering.
Only then did he slump back into his chair, letting out a long breath as he struggled to remove his heavy Armor.
As the plates of Armor ca off, his brawny torso was exposed to the air.
The Dean of the Knight Academy lowered his head, his gaze falling upon his right shoulder.
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