Chapter 99: One Minute Duel
After leaving the Mystic Cauldron shop, Raven visited a blacksmith in the artisan quarter and purchased a pendant of pure mithril for 3,400 gold coins.
Without lingering, he returned to the mansion at Crown's Tavern and sealed himself in the underground basement.
For several days, the world outside might as well not have existed. Inside the dimly lit chamber, bubbling test tubes filled the air with sharp scents.
Raven's hands moved precisely as he brewed healing potions, strength draughts, agility tonics, and even three Potions of Clairvoyance.
What stunned him was his own improvement. By the second day, his success rate at concocting intermediate potions had reached one hundred percent—a feat even Expert Alchemists struggled to achieve.
After that, Raven took the pendant from the inventory and started engraving an array of circles on its back. For the next two days, he created rune circles to stabilize the arrays and made rune vessels. He then made a spatial rune to create a mini space within the array circle and stored a Rank-3 'Life Elemental Crystal' into it.
'Next is spell models.' Raven then took two spell books from the Memory Library and memorized them.
'Rank-1 spell: Life Heal- Cures minor wounds… Rank-2 spell: Rejuvenation Shell- Heals deep wounds and has an area effect.'
Raven didn't waste any time and focused on constructing the two spell models within the rune array circle.
On the 14th night, he managed to create a pendant artifact completely.
'Though it is only an Uncommon item, it is more useful during battle than other artifacts.' Raven stored it along with the other set items.
That night, he made an appointment with Judith and told her to give his sister all the potions and artifacts.
Soon, it was October 16th.
The Royal Crown Challenging Ceremony started as early as 7 A.M.
It was more like a banquet to gather important nobles and influential figures.
As Judith had warned, the Emperor spoke at the ceremony about the war. His announcement rippled across the Empire like a thunderclap:
If the Viser Kingdom continued its aggression, war was inevitable. More shocking still, the princes and princesses were permitted to participate openly. The one who achieved the greatest merit would be named the next Crown Prince.
The declaration sent nobles and commoners alike into a frenzy. Whispers of war filled every city and town.
But while the Empire boiled, Raven sat quietly within the master bedroom, holding his silver spear [Frozen Ender] across his lap.
'It's been years since I hit this bottleneck…' His grip tightened.
He inhaled slowly, then closed his eyes. A subtle suction, invisible but irresistible, pulled his consciousness inward.
…
Raven stood in a narrow street beneath a moonless dark sky. Frost hung in the air, and his breath came out as mist. Rows of dark brick houses loomed on either side, broken only by slivers of dim light through shuttered windows.
Distant screams echoed from deeper in the town.
Nothing changed in the illusory World.
Raven hesitated only a moment before moving forward, spear at the ready.
A sharp whistle split the night. His head snapped up. From above, an arrow blazed downward like a falling star, its shaft wrapped in a yellowish aura.
As Raven's gaze sharpened, he noticed the arrow's movement slowed.
Time slowed as the 'Mind Web' spell activated on its own.
Every eddy of air, every ripple of the arrow's aura appeared in his vision. Instead of panic, a calm clarity flooded him.
At the same time, he felt his mind itself split into four.
The arrow lunged for his heart, but his hands moved before conscious thought.
One of his split thought threads acted instantly.
Frozen Ender swept up in a diagonal arc, yellowish aura blazing along its edge.
With a clear clang, the arrow exploded.
Another whistle shrieked from the rooftops—two more arrows, faster than the first.
'From the trajectory of the left arrow, it will land on my left shoulder.' One thought thread analyzed.
'The right arrow seems to be moving towards my head.' Another thought thread reported.
'Best way to counter this is to block the arrow at the right precisely at an 88-degree angle in 0.32 seconds.' The third thought thread informed a way to counter.
'I have to twist my body to avoid getting injured by the left arrow beforehand.' The fourth thought thread urged him to move forward first.
All four thought threads simultaneously sent information to his mind and showed him a perfect way to counter the incoming arrow.
Raven's body twisted, his spear tracing a crescent of cold light. He deflected both shafts, the impacts ringing like struck glass.
His boots slid a step back on the cobblestone.
'I can see their trajectory before they reach…'
A piercing neigh tore through the silence ahead.
Raven's grip on Frozen Ender tightened as a horse thundered toward him, hooves striking the ground like war drums. Its speed was unreal, and so was the figure riding it—a familiar blue-skinned humanoid with a silver spear gleaming in his hand.
Raven's eyes narrowed. The same scenario again…
The rider's form shimmered, blurred, and vanished like smoke, leaving only the maddened horse charging straight at him.
He didn't even turn.
'He'd appear behind me.'
Raven spun Frozen Ender in a smooth arc behind his back while pivoting on his heel, stepping back just enough.
The silver spear met his own with a ringing clang, the shockwave vibrating up his arms and rippling through the air.
Yellowish sparks of aura sprayed outward like molten droplets!
The blue-skinned humanoid stood there, eyes flashing with surprise at the perfectly timed parry.
Raven didn't wait. He advanced a step, driving his spear in a rapid thrust toward the humanoid's ribs. The creature sidestepped with inhuman grace, twisting his weapon into a parry and pushing back with a jab.
Raven's mind raced ten times faster than his opponent's—angles, force, timing—all layered in parallel streams of thought. He feinted low, slashed upward, then spun Frozen Ender into a sweeping strike aimed at the neck.
The humanoid ducked, spear flicking in a lightning jab toward Raven's shoulder. Raven's instant regeneration sealed the shallow cut before blood could drip.
He pivoted, blocking with the shaft and countering with an overhead thrust. The weapon whistled down like an executioner's blade.
Another parry, a ringing clash. Both combatants circled, feet sliding over the ground in precise steps—advance, sidestep, pivot.
Sparks and waves of aura lit the space like flickering lanterns. Raven's movements were fluid, his spear dancing like water.
'I'm faster. Stronger. I can see three moves ahead…'
He pressed harder, jabbing in a triple rhythm—thrust, feint, spin-strike. The humanoid gave ground, deflecting, testing, eyes narrowing.
And then something shifted.
His stance changed, his weight sliding lower, and his spear hand loose but deadly.
The following exchange felt heavier. The humanoid baited a high strike and slipped inside Raven's guard, the tip of his spear grazing Raven's cheek. He blocked, but the riposte came from an impossible angle. He parried once, twice—but the third blow cracked through his defense. He staggered back, aura flaring to patch his wounds.
'He's reading me now!'
Raven's parallel thinking flooded with counter-strategies, but the humanoid's centuries of battle experience began to outpace them, adjusting faster than Raven could shift. Each block rattled his arms harder; each spin-strike left him a heartbeat more open.
A feint from the left and a real thrust from the right!
Raven twisted, blocking—but the shaft caught his ankle, breaking his balance. He tried to pivot out, but the humanoid was already there, spear rising in a smooth overhead motion.
The whole surroundings moved at an impossibly slow speed.
Raven saw the arc and calculated the counter, but his body was a fraction too late.
The weapon hissed through the air.
The blue-skinned humanoid's spear sliced cleanly across his neck.
A flash of cold pain, and the world tilted.
He saw the humanoid's smirk upside down as the ground rushed up.
Darkness swallowed everything.
"Hotep Di Neter!" A cold mutter came from the humanoid being.
…
Raven's eyes snapped open in the master bedroom. His hand went to his throat before he even thought about it.
"A single misstep was all he needed…" he murmured, fingers pressing the unmarked skin. "As expected of a veteran knight."
The memory of the blue-skinned warrior in the illusion world still burned behind his eyes. Compared to that knight, he was still an amateur.
He exhaled once, and a ripple of darkness swallowed him as he cast the [Shadow Teleportation] spell, disappearing.
A heartbeat later, he stood in the underground training basement. The stone walls were cool and silent, broken only by the faint water drip somewhere in the dark.
Raven closed his eyes again and let the duel replay in his mind. His body began to move on its own—feet sliding, spear cutting invisible arcs through the air. Each motion echoed the blue-skinned knight's attacks: the deceptive feints, the pivot turns, the sudden lunges.
He corrected every mistake, adjusting his grip, altering the timing of his thrusts, shifting his stance an inch at a time.
Sweat slicked his palms as the hours bled away.
When he stopped, his chest rose and fell like a bellows. Yet there was a glint of satisfaction in his eyes.
'My progression in intermediate spearmanship has risen from 3% to 4.5%.'
A small leap—but a real one.
Mental exhaustion seeped in like a tide. He stored the spear, wiped his hands on a towel, and shadow-stepped back to his room.
Warm water splashed over his face; the scent of soap grounded him. Moments later, he collapsed onto the bed.
[What's your plan next, lad?] Zera's voice brushed across his mind, dry and curious.
'Hmm… I want to stay here and focus on spearmanship,' Raven answered silently.
[Don't forget you have to return to your territory sooner.]
He shook his head against the pillow.
'Rebecca needs to manage the territory even when I'm absent for too long.' He drew a slow breath. 'Once the war starts, I'll be on the front lines for years. During that time, someone has to hold the reins in my stead. Unlike other houses, the Holmes line has no one left. I have no choice but to rely on my trusted subordinates.'
[True.] Zera's agreement rumbled faintly in the back of his skull.
Exhaustion crept over him in earnest, sinking into his muscles and mind. Raven's eyelids fluttered shut.
…