Roland activated the [Focus] Trait and pressed the contents of the worn scroll deep into memory, then checked them line by line against the copy he had made.

Only when he was certain there was not a single error or omission did he roll the ancient parchment closed with due care.

A clear knock sounded at the door.

Nielsen's voice followed from outside at just the right moment. "Mr. Roland, have you finished copying it?"

Roland rose at once and opened the door.

"Thank you, Mr. Nielsen."

He returned the weathered parchment scroll to Nielsen and said, "I have finished copying it."

"You are certain nothing was missed?"

Roland nodded firmly.

Nielsen smiled. "In that case, if Mr. Roland has no other important matters..."

He gestured toward the mountain of documents piled beside the wooden desk, his expression apologetic.

"Forgive me for being unable to keep you company any longer. There is still..."

Roland understood the polite dismissal, but he did not leave at once.

"My apologies for disturbing you, Mr. Nielsen, but there is one more matter I would like to ask about."

"Then please sit."

Nielsen extended a hand in invitation.

After they were seated again, he personally lifted the teapot and filled the empty cup before Roland. Steam curled from the fresh tea.

Only then did he ask, "What question does Mr. Roland have? So long as I know the answer, I will tell you in detail."

"It's like this..."

Seeing no impatience from Nielsen, Roland briefly explained that he wanted to search for traces of pirates in the nearby waters.

Nielsen's brows drew together after he heard the request. He considered it for a moment before speaking.

"My apologies, Mr. Roland. Before I answer, allow me to ask something first."

He raised his own cup and took a light sip.

"Do you have some... entanglement with the pirates around these waters?"

"Not really."

Roland shook his head.

He only wanted to complete the job requirements for [Pirate].

Of course, he could not reveal the occupation panel to Nielsen, so he chose his words and produced a somewhat strained excuse.

"Mr. Nielsen, I only want to temper my practical combat skills."

"I see."

Nielsen did not press further.

After so many years at the Knight Academy, he had seen plenty of young people like Roland, eager to sharpen themselves through battle.

"In that case, Mr. Roland, there is truly no need to provoke those desperate men at sea. In fact..."

The white-haired old man frowned, and his tone turned grave.

"Do you know of that villain, the Wolf King, whose actions have grown increasingly rampant recently?"

Only after Roland nodded did Nielsen continue.

"No one knows what methods he used, but recently, he has already brought all the pirate forces in the nearby waters under his command."

"Under his strict orders, those pirates are now all holed up near the Misty Lands. That place is close to the Wolf King's lair, and with the strange weather of the Misty Lands themselves, it is extremely dangerous."

"Although we have already begun preparing a joint campaign to purge the Wolf King, this is not a task that can be completed quickly. Therefore..."

Looking at the exceptionally talented young man before him, Nielsen offered a sincere warning.

"If you wish to hone your combat skills, it would be better to seek out bandits roaming within the kingdom or smaller monster colonies. In my view, those targets would be much safer."

"I understand."

After hearing Nielsen's warning, Roland nodded.

The intelligence he had gathered during this period had already made one thing clear: the "Wolf King" was no ordinary figure.

Any target that forced the merchant faction, with its Transcendent powerhouses, to make careful arrangements needed no further explanation in terms of danger.

For someone like him, who had not yet crossed into the Transcendent realm, going alone into those eerie Misty Lands would be no different from placing his own neck in a noose.

"It seems changing into [Pirate] will have to be set aside for now..."

That thought settled in his heart, but Nielsen's words sparked another idea.

"However... perhaps I can apply to join the merchant faction's operation to purge the Wolf King?"

"Let them restrain the Wolf King from the front while I use the chance to slip into the pirates' camp and plunder their ships..."

The plan crossed his mind, but he did not raise it with Nielsen yet.

It was still only a rough outline.

Putting aside whether Nielsen would agree, Roland's understanding of the Misty Lands was currently limited to horror stories and scattered tavern intelligence.

The merchant faction had still not launched its purge. Clearly, they did not yet have enough confidence regarding the Wolf King's lair or the oddities of the Misty Lands, and were still gathering information.

It would be better to wait.

Once the merchant faction had finished its preparations and was ready to move, it would not be too late to make this request.

With Avril, the Shadow Veil member who often appeared uninvited, around, he would not miss the moment when the merchant faction sounded the horn of attack.

Having made up his mind, Roland exchanged a few more polite words with Nielsen, then turned and left the room.

The door closed behind him. He did not linger and headed straight back to his residence.

After returning, he greeted Galvez and Bronson and told them that, barring anything unexpected, no outsider was to disturb him. Then Roland entered his room.

Bright sunlight passed through the window and dyed the room gold.

He carefully spread the copied breathing-method scroll across the sturdy oak table, took a deep breath, cleared away the last of his excitement, and sank all his focus into the first guiding passage.

That was the starting point of the "basic rhythm."

He sat upright before the desk, and the [Focus] Trait activated in the next instant.

His spine stood straight as a spear. All stray thoughts fell away.

According to the scroll, he first needed to adjust his posture, making his spine the invisible core of support while his muscles relaxed without losing their inner tension.

That posture sounded simple, but the moment he attempted it, he felt an unprecedented demand on his body's subtle balance.

Then came breathing.

"Guide the breath of life, and let it move unseen along the inner path..."

Roland closed his eyes and attempted the precise, almost exacting rhythm described on the scroll.

Inhaling was not merely expanding the lungs. His consciousness had to guide the breath, drawing it in like a warm current through his nose and sinking it along the core energy pathway between chest and abdomen shown in the diagram.

He had to control the speed and depth of the breath with precision, then create a nearly imperceptible pause at a specific, extremely subtle node.

The scroll called it "node suspension."

On his first attempt, his breathing fell apart at once.

Even with the support of the [Focus] Trait, his consciousness could not clearly locate the so-called core pathway. His breath only churned blindly between chest and abdomen, making "node suspension" impossible.

A strange blockage rose in his chest. His rhythm broke apart, forcing him to open his eyes and gasp for air. Fine beads of sweat had already gathered on his forehead.

"Practicing a Knight breathing method is even harder than I imagined..."

Roland wiped away the sweat, but there was no discouragement in his eyes. His focus only grew sharper.

He studied the scroll again, engraving the illustrated path and every turn and pause in the text into memory, like memorizing a complex spell rune.

A moment later, he closed his eyes and began his second attempt.

This time, he reduced his pace and turned all his attention inward.

He no longer chased speed. He pursued precision and stability.

His consciousness became a fine probe, cautiously searching for the sensation described by the scroll.

Inhale. Guide. Sink.

He worked to perceive the path of breath within his body, trying to find the key node somewhere beneath the lower edge of his sternum.

Exhaling was no simple release either.

His consciousness had to guide the energy that seemed to have been awakened by his body along another, finer path, one that appeared to connect to the ends of his limbs, then spread it outward in an even flow.

The scroll called this "residual-wave infusion."

But at the instant the breath was about to shift from the core pathway into the peripheral routes, his consciousness lagged by the smallest margin. The faint sense of gathered energy collapsed and vanished, like a candle snuffed by wind.

At the same time, the biceps in his left arm twitched beyond his control, sending soreness and numbness through the muscle.

This was the sign of failed energy guidance: scattered force striking the flesh.

"It has to be precise to that degree?"

Roland frowned, his heart turning serious.

The Knight breathing method's requirements for consciousness, or rather for the focus of mental power, and for perceiving subtle changes inside the body, were far beyond what he had imagined.

It was much harder than constructing cantrip runes.

Because what it demanded was deep perception of his own flesh-and-blood body, along with perfect coordination.

Failure, failure, and more failure.

Every attempt brought a different frustration.

Sometimes, before the breath reached the node, it lost control and surged upward, choking him into a cough.

Sometimes, during the shift into the residual wave, his consciousness failed to keep up, and the breath stagnated somewhere inside his body, leaving a brief stabbing pain.

Most of the time, that faint sense of energy flow could not form at all, turning the attempt into wasted effort.

Sweat had soaked his back. His mind had begun to tire from the long strain, leaving him worn down as though he had fought a fierce mental contest.

"No. Continuing like this will only waste energy..."

Roland stopped his blind attempts.

He opened his eyes and swept his bright gaze over the scroll once more, especially the diagram depicting the path of the basic rhythm.

This time, he did not fixate on forcing control. Instead, he tried to feel the strange inner cadence described by the text.

He recalled a line from the opening of the scroll.

"Breath is the key, life is the bell; only those who resonate may find the gate."

Resonance...

Roland sank into thought.

He stopped trying to drag his breath forward with sheer will. Instead, he treated it like listening for an extremely faint, complex bell tone.

He let his breathing rhythm and the fluctuations of his consciousness match the natural cadence hidden in the diagram, a cadence that seemed to exist within life itself.

He eased his breathing and, for the moment, gave up forcibly guiding the breath's path.

With the lightest touch of consciousness, he sensed the minute tremors and warm currents that breathing naturally produced inside his body.

He was a patient hunter in a silent forest, waiting for the smallest movement.

Time passed inside his focus.

After he abandoned deliberate control, an extremely faint yet genuine inner tremor surfaced from the depths of his relaxed body.

It was not a clear path. It was more like a vague pulse, one that faintly matched his heartbeat and breathing.

Now!

Roland's mind stirred, and he hesitated no longer.

He began the breathing cycle again. This time, his consciousness was no stiff commander. It had become a gentle resonator.

He caught that vague pulse and let his inhaling rhythm and the direction of his consciousness align with it.

His consciousness no longer forced the breath downward. It followed the pull of that rhythm, and the breath seemed to flow on its own into the depths of his chest and abdomen.

Something changed.

This time, the breath did not collapse before reaching the node. At that subtle position, with an extremely gentle touch, it completed that tiny pause and turn on its own.

It was like a stream meeting a natural shoal. The current eased for a moment, then continued downstream without obstruction.

Node suspension... succeeded!

Joy rose in Roland's heart, but he pressed it down in the next instant and did not dare relax.

Guiding the breath that had completed the node turn, his consciousness shifted toward residual-wave infusion.

This time, the transition was no rigid conversion. His consciousness followed the natural course of water, guiding that far more obedient energy along the outlines of his limbs, then spreading it outward in a gentle, even flow.

He could clearly sense faint yet utterly real heat, countless tiny warm currents soaking into his muscle fibers.

They even seeped into deeper tissues, bringing a comfort difficult to put into words, like parched earth finally receiving rain.

"Hah..."

When that breath, which had completed a full basic rhythm cycle, left him, Roland felt a clarity he had never experienced before.

His body felt freshly rinsed from the inside. The fatigue was swept away, replaced by a subtle but tenacious vitality budding from the depths of life.

The strain on his mind eased as well. What followed intense focus was not emptiness, but a strange satisfaction and calm.

He opened his eyes. Golden sunlight still spilled across the scroll, but the world before him seemed clearer, its colors richer.

Looking down at his sweat-damp palm, he felt the change.

It was not an increase in strength, but the formation of a deeper internal connection.

He could perceive the minute tremors of his muscles more clearly, the rush of blood beneath his skin, even the faint vibration deep within his bones that echoed with his breathing.

"So this is... the feeling of life's rhythm?"

Roland murmured in wonder, his eyes filled with shock and delight.

He had succeeded.

Although it was only one complete basic rhythm cycle, and he was still far from drawing out life energy to temper his body and reach the standard of a Knight, he had finally touched the first step.

The gate leading to the core of a Knight's power had opened a crack.

At the same time, a line of golden text appeared in Roland's vision.

[You have learned Nameless Knight Breathing Method. Current level: Lv.1]

"Even the occupation panel can't identify the name of this breathing method? Or..."

Staring at the text before him, Roland raised an eyebrow.

"Did its creator simply never name it?"

As he was thinking, more lines of text appeared one after another in his vision.

[Upon inspection, Host has learned a Knight breathing method. Higher occupation unlocked: Knight Apprentice]

[Requirements: Strength 20, Agility 18, Spirit 12, any Lv.3 Knight breathing method, 1/1 max-level Basic Riding, 5/5 max-level short weapon combat techniques, 5/5 max-level long weapon combat techniques, 1/3 max-level ranged weapon combat techniques, 0/1 max-level shield blocking/defense technique, use breathing method to kill 0/100 hostile creatures, command a squad (3 or more people) in battle to defeat hostile targets stronger than yourself 0/3 times]

[Host does not meet the job requirements]

"Good heavens..."

Looking at the dense, dizzying job requirements, Roland widened his eyes.

"The attribute requirements for [Knight Apprentice] are almost twice as high as those for [Warrior] and [Squire], which also rely on close combat. It even has a hard requirement for Spirit! But..."

He glanced at the three attributes that had been comprehensively strengthened after practicing the Knight breathing method only once, and relaxed a little.

"As long as I keep practicing the breathing method, meeting the attribute standard is only a matter of time. The breathing method's level requirement is the same."

"Ranged weapon skills and shield skills can be learned later. The requirement to kill one hundred hostile creatures isn't too difficult either. It only means spending time hunting monsters. But..."

His gaze continued downward, and his brows tightened.

"Commanding a squad to defeat a powerful enemy... this condition is much trickier..."

First, with his current strength, finding a hostile target far stronger than himself was already difficult.

Second, to defeat such an opponent, he had to find teammates of comparable strength.

Otherwise, never mind winning. He might even lose his own life.

"It seems that unlike the solo combat style of other combat occupations, changing into [Knight Apprentice] also has certain requirements for commanding troops in battle."

"Forget it... I'll plan these things carefully later."

Roland pushed those scattered thoughts aside for the moment.

For him, grasping the Knight breathing method was the key right now.

Even if he could not change into [Knight Apprentice] for the time being, persistent practice would eventually carry him into the Transcendent realm.

There was no need to rush those demanding job requirements.

During this transitional period, he could devote some energy to studying daily skills more deeply and try to trigger the resonance of base occupations to obtain Extra Buffs.

Those, too, could not be underestimated when it came to improving his strength.

With that thought, Roland calmed his mind once more and returned to practicing the Knight breathing method.