In Cannes Mountains, a few frightened wild geese flew out of the woods. Other birds that didn't really know what was going on followed them out of the woods as well, causing the sky to turn dark suddenly. Cannes Mountains, known for its weird-looking rocks and trees, hadn't had a stranger visit it for quite some time until today.

On a narrow path that was located a few hundred meters down the mountain stream, an armoured knight dragged a bloodied wild boar behind him.

“It’s finally done!” Locke put his hands on his hips and panted. He was dragging a red-skinned wild boar that was nearly three metres tall behind him. It had a pair of sparkling tusks that were half a metre long. He stepped on its nose vigorously, but it didn’t move at all. It was confirmed to be dead. He then pulled out the dagger from his boots to cut the green tusks off and bring them home as an indication that he’d completed his mission, only to chip it instead without managing to cut it off.

He felt an ache in his heart as he put his dagger away hurriedly. It’d accompanied him for several years, and it was wrapped in the linen that his sister had given him. He wondered if he should go and look for a good blacksmith to reinforce the dagger when he returned to Princeton. He then drew his longsword out and slashed the tusks, causing them to finally fall to the ground with a heavy thud.

Locke looked at his longsword with satisfaction and put it back into its sheath. This longsword was given to him by Billie. She was quite well off and gave him the sharp longsword as a gift to thank him for saving her life. He wasn’t sure what it was made of, but he could tell that it was better than the bright yellow longsword that he used to own, now in Laffey's possession.

The tusks were the most valuable part of a wild boar’s body as they could be used as a material for knight weapons and armours and caster experiments as well. He threw the pair of tusks into the spatial ring and looked at the huge corpse in front of him. After thinking for a while, he began to shear its fur off with his longsword.

The skin of this wild boar was very thick and hard, so it would make a good vest. Apart from its skin, he’d also sliced a few pork ribs. He planned to cook it when he returned home or give it to Angie as its snacks. There was still plenty of space in the spatial ring, so he could fit all of them inside.

This ring belonged to Angelina but she didn’t want to use it anymore as it had been used to store a dozen human heads during the last mission. She had a spatial pearl with a bigger space in it anyway, so she just gave it to Locke. As it was a woman’s ring, he didn’t wear it on his finger and usually kept it in his pockets.

When everything was done, he stomped on the ground before going back to the spot where he’d left his horse.

“Perhaps I should change my armour,” thought Locke while walking. His old armour had been damaged during the battle with the spirits, and the one he currently donned was the one that he got from Glace’s treasury in Audis. Although his agility was reduced when he put on this heavy armour, it provided him with stronger protection. He wouldn’t be able to defeat the wild boar if not for it.

“I’ll think about it again when I get back home.” Locke shook his head. Although this armour was great, it wasn’t compatible with his impetus. Falconim provided him with additional agility, but it was now offset by the weight of the heavy armour.

......

A month later in the small city of Siegel, Locke was chasing a black-clad man by the riverside.

“How bold of you to commit a crime near the city of Emmett!” Locke wasn’t worried that he couldn’t catch him.

Emmett was one of the ten thousand cities in Aomar and its duke was a Ritter. The distance between Siegel and Emmett was just less than two days of travel away, and yet the bandit still dared to commit a crime there. Locke was very curious about the reason. The black-clothed man ignored Locke’s taunt and continued to run for his life. But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn’t widen the distance between both of them.

After being ignored, Locke lost interest in messing around with him. He then stomped his right foot and his speed instantly increased by three-tenths. Chopping off the head of this man was the goal of his mission this time.

There wasn't much struggle to fulfil it. Two days later, Locke brought the head of the man along with him and arrived at the constabulary of Emmett. He received a letter of recognition and his mission of hunting down the ‘Wind Rogue’ was now completed.

After thanking the officers from the security department, Locke strolled around Emmett. As he had quite some time left before the mission deadline, he travelled back to Princeton at a leisurely pace.

Now, he began to enjoy the missions. It was no wonder he rarely saw his seniors in the academy as they’d all gone out on their own missions. He’d also just found out that he could earn credits from it based on their degree of difficulty. So apart from the few compulsory courses, he could fill up the rest of his credits by completing missions.

This was also the main method through which the knights of Perseverance third grade and above to hone their skills. The ordinary training sessions in the academy weren’t that useful for a mid-rank Knecht anymore and only tough missions could help them advance even further.

After strolling around casually for two days and buying souvenirs for his women, Locke embarked on his journey home; it would be a long week on horseback.

Missia Continent? Locke remembered that the black caster had mentioned that Aomar was the most powerful country in Missia in her notes. So, he was probably in Missia right now. Based on what the black caster had mentioned, Missia seemed to be one of the Three Western Isles.

He shivered at the thought that an outsider would call an entire continent a mere isle. He’d also recalled that the black caster was from Magion. What did that have to do with wizards? Liber Arcanum stated that wizards were the first of all casters.