Four Split Personalities

"Eh, I didn’t..."

Ji Xiaoge subconsciously responded after hearing Darien’s call of "little brother," then realized that Darien was talking to Motan and not calling her own name. She quickly swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue.

The next moment, Darien’s unsharpened wooden greatsword in his hand suddenly turned into a phantom, drawing trails of false images in the air and overwhelming Motan in their coverage.

[Feint, feint, feint, feint... here!]

Motan tightly gripped the corona greatsword in his hand, ignored the broad swaths of sword light Darien had thrown from all directions, and in a certain moment, he swiftly turned his body sideways, holding the greatsword in reverse and quickly blocking to his left. Then, he staggered heavily as he precisely judged the opponent’s only true strike hidden behind countless illusions and barely managed to block it.

Of course, calling it a heavy strike was only relative to Motan. Darien, as the attacker, hadn’t even used a tenth of his strength.

"Although I’ve emphasized this many times already, Silent Brother,"

Darien looked solemnly at Motan, continuously delivering three strikes that were ’slow’ yet felt inescapable: "You really, truly have talent!"

But at this very moment, Motan had no spare energy to respond to him; before the three mountainous strikes could even fall, his body became so heavy as if he had been hit by a binding spell, and even breathing became difficult.

[Spine Thrust]

In the face of the inevitable, Motan immediately thrust out with the heavy sword, accurately aiming at the mid-section of the first sword shadow and forcibly neutralizing it in mid-air.

[Angry Red Lotus]

He stepped back half a step, plunged the corona greatsword into the ground, and quickly drew the lighter one-handed sword Mandala. With the equipment’s 25% enhanced attack speed, he whipped out more than a dozen petal-like red sword flashes in a limited space, pinpointing the same spot with breathtaking precision to barely dissolve the blow.

At the same time, the third attack unexpectedly accelerated, slamming fiercely onto the blade of Mandala before Motan could even adjust his stance in time.

Clang!

Motan hit the ground again.

"Very agile, but lacking in variation. Though you have a margin of three parts, the foresight is not sufficient."

Darien offhandedly made a remark and shook his head: "Silent Brother, having talent is good, but if you rely too heavily on your talent, you’ll end up like just now. Once the speed of your ’opportunistic’ actions can’t handle sudden changes, you’ll be crushed without suspense."

To tell the truth, Motan, currently under the personality of ’Orderly Good,’ could be considered the least dependent on talent and the most down-to-earth among his three personalities. However, that was only relative; any individual with exceptional gifts would depend on their talents. This was true for the vast majority of people, even for someone as special as Motan.

Facing a powerful opponent, finding their weakness, making on-the-spot judgments, and seizing opportunities to seek a breakthrough had always been Motan’s battle style in The Realm of Innocence.

Now he was being schooled by a super-power like Darien.

But the problem is... Motan had no other option!

[So what else can I do?]

He shook off the little damage he had taken and, somewhat dazed, stood back up and looked at Darien.

"Ah..."

The latter, however, let out a sigh, seemingly helpless, and asked: "The knight’s guidebook that the old grandpa gave to you, Silent Brother, you wouldn’t happen to have neglected it, would you?"

Motan: "..."

Darien shook his head: "Inside, there are many techniques that could deal with the situation just now."

Motan: "???"

He scratched his head in frustration as he attempted to recall the contents of the [Knight Training Guide • Handwritten Edition] but realized it was purely an advanced, growable skill book and class change item for players. Not only had he not read it, but he couldn’t even freaking flip through it.

However, to the NPCs, being able to learn skills like [Spine Thrust] and [Knight’s Technique • Tiger Spear] meant that he must have read and studied the guide. Therefore, the only reason he hadn’t mastered deeper techniques had to be due to a lack of diligence.

At that moment, Motan really felt like he had grievances that he just couldn’t express.

But he couldn’t avoid answering this issue. After all, he had taken the item, learned the skills, and even changed his class. Claiming he couldn’t read the guide would clearly be unconvincing, and it might even significantly lower Darian Diesel’s impression of him.

So, after a few seconds of silence, Motan gave a vague response, "Uh, I’m so sorry... That guide is indeed too profound. My realm isn’t high enough, and there’s a lot... well, that I don’t understand..."

Upon closer scrutiny, his statement couldn’t strictly be considered a lie, so it didn’t trigger the punitive mechanism of the knight’s spirit.

Darian was initially stunned, then he smacked his forehead as if he’d suddenly realized something, "Oh, I get it now, the handwriting is too hard to read, isn’t it?"

Motan had no idea how to continue from there and could only manage an embarrassed chuckle.

"Haha, you don’t have to worry so much. Our ancestor Theodoro’s handwriting is indeed not very good."

Darian laughed knowingly, then waved his hand grandly, "Let’s continue, shall we? Later on, I’ll get someone to give you a printed version."

"Thank you."

Motan braced himself, lifted his longsword, and continued with the task.

Yes, ’the task’.

[Reward Daily Quest: Undertake the Diesel Family’s Knight Training (III)]

Branch 1: Train with pain and fatigue capped at 35%, rehabilitating with the help of Darian Diesel. Rewards for each session completed: 9500 Thorn Knight experience points, small increase to the corresponding specialization level depending on training content, Diesel Family reputation +100, Darian Diesel’s favorability increased by 3%.

Branch 2: Train with pain and fatigue capped at 5%, rehabilitating with the help of Darian Diesel. Rewards for each session completed: 1000 Thorn Knight experience points, tiny increase to the corresponding specialization level depending on training content, Diesel Family reputation +10, Darian Diesel’s favorability increased by 1%.

Branch 3: Train with pain and fatigue at 100%, rehabilitating with the help of Darian Diesel. Rewards for each session completed: 20000 Thorn Knight experience points, large increase to the corresponding specialization level depending on training content, Diesel Family reputation +250, Darian Diesel’s favorability increase by 5%.

[Note 1: Proceed according to your capabilities.]

[Note 2: If the player goes offline due to being unable to bear the load, it is considered a quest failure. Upon the next login, other ’branches’ can be selected again.]

This daily quest was one of the hidden rewards from the quest called [Expose the Hawkwood Family’s Conspiracy]. Motan had been doing it for several days now, under the guise of Darian personally accompanying Motan for rehabilitation exercises.

Unlike most quests, this ’reward daily quest’ offered three levels of difficulty to choose from, with different rewards depending on the load the player endured while rehabilitating with Darian.

The descriptions of the three branches were concise: the first one had a standard load (all negative player loads in The Realm of Innocence were capped at 35%) with regular rewards; the second had an extremely low load with minimal rewards; the last was the same as the real-world load and offered very high rewards.

It wasn’t hard to see that among these three, the first option was the most balanced; the second was the least cost-effective but feasible for those who preferred to take it easy; and the third, although offering the best benefits, might pain the player enough to cause them to disconnect.

Objectively speaking, out of ten players, five would choose the first option, one (who was notably aversive to pain) the second, and four the third. After the first rehabilitation session, three out of the four who opted for the third would likely switch back to the first. As for the one remaining, that would probably be people like Motan (excluding those with Absolute Neutrality) who could withstand the pain identical to that of the real world.

And he had indeed endured through it, reaping quite a few benefits.

For instance, his single-handed and two-handed weapon specializations had both incredibly increased by six levels in just these few days.

Chapter 519: The End