Lord: I have built a witch's sanctuary.

Chapter 37 Knight's Monastery

On a frigid winter morning, the air in White Wolf Territory was as cold as a freshly sharpened ice blade, and even breathing it into your lungs carried a bloody smell.

As dawn broke, a unified shout rang out from the open space in the southeast corner of the camp.

"Ha! Stabilize your stance! Don't let your legs shake!"

"Draw your sword straight! Don't be so weak and limp like a woman! That's a sword, not a needle!"

Victor was holding a rough wooden stick and circling around two carpenters whose faces were red from the cold.

His voice was loud, and the white breath he exhaled made it particularly clear on the silent snowfield.

The two carpenters, one named Old John and the other Sam, were originally only responsible for some carpentry work at the camp.

But at this moment, the two men were awkwardly assuming their stances, holding sharpened wooden swords in their hands, repeating the monotonous chopping motions over and over again.

Their movements were clumsy, even somewhat comical, but under Victor's stern gaze, no one dared to slack off.

Wrapped in the white wolfskin cloak Anna had made for him, Lorraine stood silently in the shadows of the watchtower not far away, watching this scene unfold.

His fingers gently caressed a warm magic crystal on his sleeve, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

Since the last monster siege ended, the atmosphere in the camp has become much more relaxed, but everyone is actually on edge.

Having witnessed those frenzied swarms of insects and the bizarre snow woman, everyone knows that in this damned world, simply surviving is the greatest fortune.

But Victor's actions these past few days have been quite interesting.

"That's... the Rock-Solid Sword Technique?"

Lorraine narrowed her eyes, recognizing Professor Victor's move.

Although the movements are very simple, consisting only of straightforward chopping, thrusting, stabbing, and parrying, this sword technique places great emphasis on power generation skills and a stable lower body, making it a typical battlefield killing technique.

As far as Lorraine knew, this was a family secret passed down through generations.

In a world where knowledge is tightly monopolized by nobles and guilds, a complete set of sword techniques is something that commoners can even keep as a family heirloom.

This old fellow actually taught two illiterate carpenters like this?

Lorraine raised an eyebrow and walked over.

The snow crunched under the boots.

Victor, who was correcting Sam's movements, twitched his ears and turned around abruptly. He instinctively held the wooden stick horizontally in front of his chest. Only when he saw that the person was Lorraine did his tense muscles relax.

"My lord!"

Victor quickly threw away the stick, placed one hand on his chest, and gave a standard knightly salute.

The two exhausted carpenters were also startled. They hurriedly tried to kneel down to pay their respects, but their legs were sore that they almost fell on their backsides in the snow.

"Alright, stop with the fluff."

Lorraine waved her hand, indicating that they didn't need to be so polite.

He walked up to the young carpenter named Sam and reached out to pat him on the shoulder.

His muscles were hard and stiff, and although there was no particular technique involved, he was quite strong.

"You've practiced well."

Lorraine casually offered a compliment, then turned to Victor, asking with a half-smile, "..."

"I remember this Rocky Sword Technique was the only keepsake your father left you, wasn't it? And you just taught it to them like this?"

Victor paused for a moment, a hint of unease flashing across his weathered face.

He scratched his messy hair and said with a wry smile, "Sir, please don't make fun of me. What do you mean by 'remains'? If I'm already dead, what's the point of keeping these techniques in my coffin to let them mold?"

As he spoke, he glanced at the two trembling carpenters, his expression becoming somewhat complicated.

"We White Wolf Territory have too few people. Last time we defended the city, if we had a few more people who could wield a sword, Miss Lyra... perhaps we wouldn't have had to fight to that extent."

Victor sighed, his voice lowering, "I was thinking, anyway, I don't have anything to repay you with."

"Teach them this skill, and if monsters ever break in, at least they can protect some supplies, or... die with a little more dignity."

Lorraine was slightly taken aback.

He looked at the unshaven middle-aged man in front of him.

Victor's eyes were sincere, yet they held a hint of clumsy stubbornness.

He truly considers this place his home.

In this cold-blooded apocalypse, such almost foolish loyalty is rarer than any magic crystal.

"You want to help me share the burden?" Lorraine asked softly.

"It is a knight's duty."

Victor straightened his back; although his armor was still tattered, he now possessed a true air of chivalry.

"Moreover, you gave me dignity. In Frostwolf City, I was a good-for-nothing who only knew how to drink, but in White Wolf Territory, I still feel like a knight."

Lorraine was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Victor, your current strength is at the peak of the second tier, right?"

Victor nodded, a hint of sadness flashing in his eyes: "Yes, sir. We've been stuck at this bottleneck for five years."

"Why haven't you broken through?" Lorraine asked knowingly.

Victor chuckled self-deprecatingly, took out the flat wine flask from his pocket, wanted to take a sip, but then remembered that he was in front of the lord, and awkwardly put it back.

"My lord, you are of noble birth, you should know this better than I do."

Victor pointed to his chest:

"The first two stages of a knight's training can be achieved through physical conditioning and combat experience. But at the third stage, to awaken the 'Seed of Life' and condense a battle aura armor, one must have a corresponding advanced breathing technique."

As he said this, a hint of suppressed anger and helplessness crept into his voice.

"Those breathing techniques are all in the hands of the great nobles and the great knightly orders. Even if a commoner knight like me with no background works his butt off to get first place in the academy, after graduation I can only be a guard dog for the nobles."

"There was absolutely no chance of joining the Grand Knights."

"Want to learn breathing techniques? Sure, sign a contract of servitude, fawn over those nobles, or... arrange a marriage with some fat pig-like lady."

Victor shook his head. "I don't want to be a dog, and I don't have the face to go through an arranged marriage. So, this is how my life will be."

this is the truth.

The stark class barriers were even thicker than the city walls outside White Wolf Territory.

Knowledge monopoly, resource monopoly, and the complete blockage of upward mobility.

The two carpenters seemed to understand, but they could sense the despair in Victor's words, and they both lowered their heads, not daring to utter a sound.

Lorraine looked into Victor's unwilling eyes.

If this were in Frostwolf City, Victor's life would indeed have ended like this.

Ultimately, it will most likely freeze to death on the street after getting drunk, or turn into monster excrement during a low-level quest.

But this is White Wolf Territory.

"if……"

Lorraine suddenly spoke, her voice not loud, but it made Victor's body tremble violently.

"What if I had a way to help you break through this bottleneck?"

A cold wind howled past, stirring up the snow on the ground.

Victor suddenly raised his head, staring intently at Lorraine, his breathing instantly becoming rapid.

His Adam's apple bobbed up and down, and a glint of ambition burst forth in his previously somewhat cloudy eyes.

"Sir...you...you mean..."

He was so excited he was almost incoherent. "You're going to bestow upon me the secret arts of knighthood? You...you possess a high-level breathing technique passed down through your family?"

In this world, to be given the method of breathing is equivalent to being reborn.

That was a privilege reserved only for true retainers.

Victor instinctively reached out to kneel down on one knee.

However, Lorraine reached out a hand and supported his arm.

"No, I don't have a breathing technique."

Lorraine shook her head, a strange smile playing on her lips.

Victor froze. In that instant, the light in his eyes seemed to be extinguished by a bucket of cold water, and his whole being visibly withered away.

Also.

Although the lord is mysterious, he was, after all, exiled by his family.

How could the family possibly let him bring out that kind of core heritage?

"That was wishful thinking on my part..." Victor lowered his head bitterly. "I'm sorry, sir, I lost my composure."

"What's the rush?"

Lorraine patted him on the shoulder, her tone casual, "I really don't have any breathing techniques to give you directly. I'm too lazy to deal with that kind of dead stuff written on parchment."

He turned around, his gaze falling on the newly cleared area on the west side of the camp, his voice carrying a hint of enigmatic mystery.

"But I can build you a house."

"ha?"

Victor was stunned.

He suspected he had misheard, or that his ears had been frostbitten.

Building a house?

I was talking about the important matter of advancing to the third rank, and you said you'd build me a house?

Could it be that they think my wooden house is too dilapidated?

"Sir, I'm not picky about where I live..." Victor said, both amused and exasperated. "Sleeping in a thatched hut is fine with me, it has nothing to do with promotion."

"Who said it was for you to stay in?"

Lorraine smiled mysteriously, a smile that Victor couldn't decipher.

"That's a house... that can teach you secret techniques, help you train, and even kick you straight into the third-tier gate."

Victor's mind completely went blank.

He could understand every single word.

But put together, it's like listening to gibberish.

Where in the world can you find such a building?

Even the most luxurious knight academy in Frostwolf City only has a few high-ranking knights as instructors to teach students one-on-one.

Can houses teach people?

Does that wall grow a mouth? Or does that floor hit you?

"Sir, please don't tease me."

Victor scratched his head. "The witch's architecture is indeed amazing. I'm impressed by things like that plant factory that can create plant soldiers and that altar that can spew fire."

"But this is knightly training!"

"It's about comprehension, aptitude, and the transmission of knowledge through oral instruction and personal experience..."

"How could a dead object be..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lorraine interrupted him.

"Victor."

Lorraine's smile faded, and her eyes sharpened, like a sword drawn from its sheath.

"In this territory."

"Common sense is meant to be broken."

Done.

Lorraine offered no further explanation and turned to walk towards the open space.

The silhouette was stretched long in the morning light, exuding an undeniable confidence and arrogance.

"Come with me."

"Get ready to welcome your...new life."

Victor stared blankly at Lorraine's retreating figure.

My heart suddenly started pounding uncontrollably.

Although reason told him that this was impossible, that it violated all the rules of survival in this world.

But his intuition—the beastly intuition that had saved his life countless times on the brink of death—was screaming madly:

Trust him!

Trust him!

Victor gritted his teeth, picked up the sword stuck in the snow, and strode after him.

Whether it's true or not.

Even if it's fake, even if it's just a consolation.

He accepted it!

---

On an open space.

The snow has been cleared away, revealing the hard frozen soil underneath.

Lorraine stood in the center and opened the "Witch's Codex," a book that only he could see.

The pages turned, settling on a drawing that gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen.

[Level One Knight Monastery]

[Type: Training/Functional Building]

【Consumable: 300 Magic Crystals】

【Function 1: Heroic Spirit Training (Can simulate perfect templates of the same rank for actual combat practice)】

【Function 2: Secret Technique Inheritance (Built-in Tier 1-3 Knight Breathing Techniques and Martial Arts, which can be automatically adjusted according to the user's physique)】

【Function 3: Magical Baptism (While inside a building, training efficiency +100%, probability of breaking through bottleneck +30%)】

[Description: This is an assembly line used by an ancient cult to mass-produce war machines. Anyone who survives inside is an elite.]

This is Lorraine's source of confidence.

Did the aristocracy monopolize knowledge?

For him, who possessed the Witch's Codex, that kind of thing was as simple as clicking the "Build" button.

"The Witch's Codex, build."

Lorraine silently recited this in her heart.

Rumble—!

The earth began to tremble.

The tremors were more intense than when any building had been constructed before, as if a giant beast were about to burst forth from the earth.

The carpenters who were practicing in the distance dropped what they were doing and looked over in alarm.

Even Olivia, who was catching up on sleep in the cabin, was disturbed.

She rushed out in her bathrobe, her hair disheveled, her face filled with shock.

"That commotion... Is the earth turning over?"

"No."

Victor stood behind Lorraine, his eyes wide like saucers, staring intently ahead. "It's... a miracle."

Click click click—!

It was accompanied by a tooth-grinding metallic scraping sound.

Countless black rocks and steel appeared out of thin air, and then, under some irresistible force, they frantically bit and piled up.

It's not the kind of elaborate magic tower style.

It's not the kind of rough, barbaric style either.

Rather, it is a violent aesthetic filled with a chilling, cold, and absolute order.

In just over ten seconds.

A solemn and cold black stone building, full of Gothic style, just stood there, seemingly "grown" on the snow.

It is not tall, only one story, but it occupies a very large area.

The thick stone walls are carved with reliefs of faceless knights holding long swords, their spires piercing the sky. The gate is made of heavy black iron, engraved with intricate runes, exuding a chilling aura of iron and blood.

The cold wind howled, as if countless heroic spirits were whispering.

[Level One Knight Monastery, construction complete.]

The entire room fell silent.

The wind whistled through the iron fence, making a low, mournful sound, as if yearning for blood and sweat.

"What...what the hell is this thing?"

Olivia walked over, carrying a pair of slippers, completely forgetting about her image.

Although she couldn't understand the principles behind the building, the "oppressive feeling" emanating from its very core still sent chills down her spine.

"The rune circuits on this... are not part of any existing system at all!"

She leaned closer to the wall and looked at it with a look of utter disbelief. "It's neither elemental magic nor an alchemical array... more like some kind of... manifestation of a rule?"

Lorraine ignored Olivia's rambling.

He turned around and looked at Victor, who had been completely petrified.

"This is my plan for your promotion."

Lorraine pointed to the dark, gaping door.

"Go in."

"It has everything you could want—secret techniques, sparring partners, and opportunities for advancement."

"But let me make this clear from the start."

Lorraine's voice turned colder. "This place is called a 'monastery,' not a 'sanatorium.'"

"To gain power, you have to shed a layer of skin."

"If you're afraid of hardship and fatigue, it's not too late to regret it now."

Are you afraid of hardship and fatigue?

Victor stared at the door, his fear long since replaced by fervor.

As a martial artist who has been stuck at a bottleneck for five years and dreams of breaking through, he wouldn't even blink if it meant suffering a little hardship or being skinned alive, or even selling his soul to the devil.

"Thank you for your kindness, sir!"

Victor didn't even ask "how to use it" again, and directly kowtowed heavily.

Then, carrying the molten longsword, he charged into the black iron gate without hesitation.

boom!

The door slammed shut behind him.