The Knight King's words hung in the air: "To claim the truth, you must face the trial of the forgotten, the battle between courage and despair."
As the final syllable echoed, the grand stone hall dissolved. The massive army of knights vanished, leaving Leo alone in a confined, dirt-floored arena. Before him stood a single Stone Knight, its armor chipped and scarred from ancient battles. It carried a simple, heavy sword, and its eyes burned with cold, relentless purpose.
"The first lesson," the Knight King's voice rumbled, though he was nowhere to be seen, "is survival. Show me your courage."
The single knight attacked, moving with a surprising speed that forced Leo to rely entirely on the primal, hard-won instincts from his three weeks in the forest. He had no System, no status windows, just his STR 7 body and a broken dagger handle. He focused on movement, dodging the crushing blows and aiming for the gaps in the stone armor. He fought with the clear, desperate will of someone who must not be weak again.
After a brutal, messy struggle, Leo found a gap, climbed onto the Knight's back, and drove his makeshift weapon into the neck joint. The knight collapsed into a shower of dust.
Leo stood panting, his body screaming in pain. Then, the familiar, bizarre warmth of the Forbidden Zone rushed into him. His broken arm and gashes healed instantly, and his energy snapped back.
"The trial does not end," the King's voice declared.
Two stone knights materialized.
Leo's eyes narrowed. This wasn't a duel; it was a grinder. He adapted immediately. He used the first knight as a shield against the second, forcing their massive forms to crash into each other before he moved in for the killing blows. He won, but the struggle was fierce.
The battles continued, relentless and non-stop. Two knights became three, then four. The simple knights were replaced by heavy shield bearers and faster, dual-wielding swordsmen. Leo was trapped in a perpetual war, fighting for what felt like years. He couldn't sleep properly; he couldn't rest. Every victory was followed by a deeper challenge.
Inside the trial, the days bled into months. Leo stopped thinking about the outside world. He lived only for the fight. He learned to anticipate the sound of stone on stone, to read the slight shifts in weight, and to use every inch of his body as a weapon.
He faced despair every time he was cornered, bruised, and nearly crushed, thinking of the original Theron and how easily he had given up. But the thought of Varrus's sneering face fueled his courage. I will not be that weak prince again. This resolve became his only mantra.
After what felt like a decade, the knights stopped coming. Leo, scarred and hardened, stood alone in a field littered with the dust of a thousand fallen foes. His movement was fluid, his eyes sharp and utterly cold. He was no longer a college student possessing a prince; he was a warrior forged in endless combat.
A new figure materialized: The Knight King himself, now standing taller than the Golem, his armor immaculate, his immense sword drawn.
The King moved with the weight of mountains but the speed of lightning. Leo's polished evasion techniques, which worked perfectly on the Stone Army, were useless against this being. The King didn't fight; he tested. Every swing of his huge sword was a lesson in power Leo couldn't match.
Leo knew he couldn't win with brute force. He spent days, then weeks, just dodging and surviving. He attacked the King's thick stone armor again and again, just testing, landing blows that did nothing but ring like bells. Finally, in a desperate, impossible move, Leo hurled himself at the King's chest, using the King's own momentum to avoid the sword, and drove his entire body weight into a tiny, hidden seam in the King's gorget.
CRACK!
The Knight King paused, a single, hairline fracture appearing on his chest. Leo didn't wait. He continued the barrage, his fists slamming into that one weak point until the King's enormous body finally shuddered and began to crumble.
Leo stood over the fallen King, shaking, utterly spent. He collapsed, his body covered in fresh, agonizing scars, finally defeated by sheer exhaustion.
He woke up back in the main hall, lying exactly where he had fainted after defeating the Golem. The Knight King's statue was still on the throne, but its eyes were now a peaceful, steady blue.
Ping!
The System, which had been dead for months, roared back to life with a cascade of notifications.
SYSTEM CONNECTION RESTORED. PROCESSING TRIAL DATA...
TRIAL COMPLETE: THE BATTLE BETWEEN COURAGE AND DESPAIR.
TIME ELAPSED (IN TRIAL): 10 YEARS, 3 MONTHS, 14 DAYS.
TIME ELAPSED (REAL WORLD): 2 MONTHS.
REWARD GRANTED: KNIGHT KING LEGACY.
ACQUIRED NEW TITLE: FORGOTTEN WARRIOR.
ACQUIRED RUNE-BOUND ARTIFACT: RING OF THE FORGOTTEN (Allows storage and summoning of Stone Army)(Restricted Power).
ACQUIRED EQUIPMENT: ARMOR AND SWORD OF THE KNIGHT KING (Restricted Power).
LEVEL UNLOCKED: 36.
STR UNLOCKED: 10/10.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE REACHED ACADEMY ENTRANCE REQUIREMENT!
Leo stared blankly at the text. Ten years?
The statue of the Knight King suddenly lowered a huge hand. In its palm rested a simple, dull iron ring, a thick, polished stone breastplate, and a massive, unadorned greatsword. The items looked rough, not magical, but a terrifying pressure rolled off them. He knew the System was restricting their full power.
He touched the ring, and the statue, along with the hundreds of stone knights, dissolved into ethereal blue motes of light, shrinking into the ring. The hall instantly felt empty.
Suddenly, the whole cavern began to shake violently. Rocks fell, and water rushed in.
"Time to go!"
Leo sprinted back through the cavern, pushing past the broken Golem, ignoring the strange healing aura. He ran into the choking black mist, scrambling up the wet, unstable cliff face he had fallen down two months ago.
He burst out of the forest, gasping, onto the sunlit mountain slope.
He immediately called up his status.
Name: Theron Valerius (Leo) Level: 36 (Trainee Rank) STR: 10/10 CON: 7/10 AGI: 7/10 MAG: 1 (Locked) Title: Forgotten Warrior (Unlocks hidden skills and restricts the power of Knight King gear)
He had done it. He was Level 36 and had maxed out his physical strength!
ROOARR!
A shadow fell over him. The Wolf King the elephant-sized behemoth had found him. It snarled, its fur matted with grime, its red eyes full of murderous rage.
Leo didn't panic. After ten years of fighting a systematic war against disciplined stone knights, a wild beast was nothing.
Without hesitation, Leo drew the unpowered greatsword, which felt heavy but perfectly balanced, and met the charge. He didn't use strength; he used technique, honed over a decade. He sidestepped the massive jaws, slid under the giant claws, and drove the sword into the Wolf King's exposed throat with the practiced precision of a master killer.
The Wolf King died instantly, collapsing like a ruined tower.
Ping!
LEVEL UP! Current Level: 37 STR: 10/10 (MAX) CON: 7 -> 8 AGI: 7 -> 8
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Restrictions on the Knight King's Equipment have been partially lifted. Continue leveling to unlock full power.
A grin, colder and more terrifying than the Wolf King's snarl, stretched across Leo's face. He was strong, Level 37, and ready for the Academy. The hunger, however, was immense. Ten years of fighting had left him starving.
He tucked his new ring and great sword away. It was time to go home and eat. He had an exam to pass.