The Bizarre Wizarding World

That is to say, Golden Paper had likely been in contact with cave creatures before his death. After the assassination, he eventually disappeared in the cave area.

This gave Colin reason to believe there must be some connection between the Nameless Breathing Skill and cave creatures.

However, these discoveries could only help him understand what had happened hundreds of years ago.

But they were not of much help to his strength.

What really made Colin rush to the Wilderness Laboratory overnight, and spend several days capturing cave creatures and extracting cave factors, was because of the accidental discovery of the Nameless Breathing Skill!

Through that extremely difficult-to-practice manual, which was once widely followed but later disappeared without a trace, Colin unexpectedly found—

The eighth edition of the Breathing Skill left by Cumberland actually lacked a most crucial part!

This made Colin think of the reason he originally came to Intuo City, because he vaguely sensed something odd about the Giant Mountain Breathing Method, believing it had a phase after the Great Knight!

Now that he thought about it, his feeling was indeed not wrong!

It was just slightly different from his feeling, in that the Giant Mountain Breathing Method did not have a phase after the Great Knight, but rather a preliminary phase before the Basic Level Knight!

And this preliminary phase, Colin termed as Knight Meditation.

Simply put, it was first about tempering one's will, and then through the spirit will, starting the physical cultivation.

This was an extremely difficult step, somewhat mystic, and was very vaguely described in the Nameless Breathing Skill, without even a separate chapter dedicated to it.

But having practiced so many Knight Breathing Skills, Colin had now clearly become a master in this area, easily noticing the anomalies and refining them out, integrating it into Knight Meditation.

If according to what the Nameless Breathing Skill described before, it would be difficult even for the Wood Family members, including Onions, to start practicing.

After all, the Nameless Breathing Skill mostly described what—conditioning oneself by exposing to sunlight in the field until no longer bearable, or fasting to feel the hunger for a day before starting the practice.

Ordinary people would think it to be nonsensical, and perhaps this is why this breathing method ultimately almost vanished.

On the other hand, it was also unknown whether Cumberland intentionally did it or it was an accident brought about by modification.

The Giant Mountain Breathing Skill was unlike the Nameless Breathing Skill in that if Knight Meditation was not performed first, it was difficult to start, but it could be overlooked and practiced normally like any other breathing skills!

It was just that by the Great Knight stage, physical expansion would occur, eventually leading to death…

Snap.

He pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time; the hands had already moved to six in the morning.

Colin thought there was nothing more to arrange, so he called Onions over, instructed him to supervise the research materials he had just selected to diligently practice, and then he returned to Golden Barley.

A week had passed since the Sai Chamber of Commerce had sent the materials. During this week, not only had he gone to the cave to capture cave creatures and extract cave factors, but he had also refined the Giant Mountain Breathing Skill and Nameless Breathing Skill, incorporating the Knight Meditation part.

The breathing method replica he had just distributed to Chester and his companions was the perfected version.

What he needed to do next was to continue improving the Knight Breathing Skill on Golden Paper and perform Limit Breaking Integration.

All the while waiting for Chester and the others to practice, to see what kind of role the cave factors actually played in the practice of the breathing skills.

And the perfected Giant Mountain Breathing Skill—would it still exhibit the same defects at the Great Knight stage?

…

Waiting for the Wood Family's research materials to practice the breathing method was a long and tedious process.

Because the cave factors could not be preserved for long, Colin would typically sneak to the cave every evening after chatting with Shelley, capturing cave creatures and preparing new Magic Potion of cave factors.

Then, around dawn, he would sneak back home, settle for a few hours of sleep, and then as usual, head to duty at the South Three Towers.

Half a year later, in spring.

Colin had been in the Roon Kingdom for nearly two years.

The evening dusk was deep, and the winter chill had not yet subsided; Colin walked calmly through the cave.

In this half a year, the once-foreign cave had gradually become as familiar as his own home.

Of course, limited to the shallow areas.

"Tap—tap—"

There were faint footsteps up ahead; Colin's steps briefly paused, but he did not stop walking, just slightly moving to the side.

Shortly after, two First Rank Wizards appeared before him, engaged in melancholic conversation:

"I don't know what's going on with the cave lately, armored beetles, Scourge Beasts, Multi-eyed Demon Spiders... these higher-rank cave creatures are becoming fewer and fewer, we haven't encountered a single one tonight from dusk till now!"

"Yeah, the gains are really worse than before; we can't even make back the money for the Magic Erasure Potions," added his companion.

"Do you think this might be a bad omen?" the left First Rank Wizard lowered his voice, frowning deeply.

"You mean... there's been some change inside the cave?" the right Wizard paused in his steps.

He stopped next to Colin, yet completely unaware.

"I don't know, but the cave has indeed been abnormal in recent years; the number of cave creatures emerging daily has been decreasing, especially in the last six months—it's drastically declined... Especially tonight, the cave is so clean, it's as if a mysterious wizard swept through before everyone else, clearing all the cave monsters first."