My bloodline is so eager to improve.

"The master of the breathing technique that Maeve mentioned was actually an undead creature!"

Otto's hand holding the rope paused slightly.

Undead?

Only at this moment did he realize that the person Maeve was taking him to see was not some hermit martial artist or warrior, but an undead creature who had signed a contract with Maeve.

With Una's explanation, Otto learned more details.

That undead creature was very powerful. If it were brought back to Oak Town, it would definitely cause a commotion. After all, the appearance of a powerful undead in a densely populated town would be enough to make the entire town's guards feel like they were facing a formidable enemy.

Moreover, he is cursed, and anything he touches will soon spontaneously combust; ordinary environments simply cannot contain his existence.

Therefore, Maeve placed him in a specially designed environment in the Blackthorn Forest.

It was far from the crowds, and with the barrier set up by Maeve to suppress his curse, it was the most suitable place to settle down at the moment.

Otto didn't seem to care much about this.

Now that he has obtained the breathing technique, he would be willing to learn from any undead creature, or even a skeleton soldier.

Otto always believed that knowledge has no inherent value; what matters is its usefulness.

Even if a necromancer who possessed a powerful breathing technique in life is reduced to a skeleton, the value of his knowledge will not be diminished.

With that in mind, Otto immediately inquired about the whereabouts of the undead creature from Maeve, hoping it would come in handy in the later tests.

Maeve looked slightly embarrassed by this.

She hesitated for a long time before slowly opening her mouth.

"Um, well... it's a long story."

After an unknown amount of time, Maeve finally composed herself and began to explain Otto's past.

"He was a paladin."

Maeve's voice became somewhat distant.

"He had already reached the upper level of life of a grandmaster during his lifetime."

It's just a pity... he was killed by goblins.

Upon hearing this, Otto's eyes widened in surprise.

Goblin?

Paladin?

These two words together sound completely out of place.

How could a holy knight, one of the three knights of destiny, be killed by a goblin, the lowest-level monster?

This is as absurd as saying that a giant dragon was kicked to death by a rabbit.

Wait a minute, something seems off.

Suddenly, a certain figure flashed through Otto's mind.

Tessa once told him a strange tale about the Divine Academy, about a powerful paladin who ultimately died at the hands of goblins.

At the time, Otto took it as a joke.

"Tessa's ghost story about the Divine Academy is actually true!"

Otto really wanted to tell Tessa the news.

She told it as a joke, but it turned out to be true for Maeve.

Maeve didn't seem to notice Otto's strange expression and continued to explain.

"That paladin was not being careless; rather, he had encountered a powerful individual that had undergone goblin transformation."

You may not know much about goblins. Although they are weak, they can easily mutate due to their environment.

In the most direct way, goblins can evolve into goblin warriors, and some can even become goblin shamans.

Do you remember that goblin black shaman we encountered before, the one who was wearing human skin?

There are actually many similar individuals.

This is why goblins, though small, are so difficult to eradicate; you can never know what form they will take.

The paladin encountered a powerful goblin that had undergone four transformations.

Otto nodded thoughtfully.

Thinking about it that way, it makes sense.

Having undergone four transformations, the goblin's strength is likely far beyond that of ordinary monsters, and it may even have reached the upper level of the Grandmaster level.

When a high-level paladin encounters a special goblin that has also reached the master level, the outcome is indeed unpredictable.

Just as Otto was pondering this, Una rolled her eyes at Maeve and then leisurely revealed the truth to Otto.

"They still had some signs of life."

Una's tone was filled with undisguised schadenfreude.

"As a result, this woman went up to him and asked if he wanted to continue living as her retinue after death, which infuriated the paladin to death."

At that moment, Una revealed the paladin's doom.

It turns out that Maeve accidentally discovered the paladin fighting the powerful goblin during a trip.

Both sides were at their last gasp, with only their last breath remaining.

Logically, Maeve would either lend a hand or take a detour.

But she is Maeve.

She ran straight to the paladin, knelt down, and earnestly asked him if he wanted to make a necromance with her so that she could continue living as his servant after death.

As a result, they managed to force the paladin to breathe his last.

The paladin lived an upright life, and in his final moments, he thought he would face the final blow from the enemy, the rescue of his comrades, or even divine intervention.

But to his utter surprise, a necromancer was squatting in front of him, looking incredibly dignified.

It was because of Maeve that the paladin's life force, which he had been holding on by sheer willpower, was cut off at that moment.

As for the powerful goblin he fought, it also died from its injuries not long afterward.

Maeve then turned it into a necromancer as well.

It could be said that the one who ultimately benefited from that battle, which was waged on the dignity of paladins, was Maeve.

She directly gained two major combat forces from both sides: a paladin who had cultivated to the upper level of life and a powerful goblin that had undergone four transformations.

Even after Una exposed her secret, Maeve still tried to make excuses.

"What does this have to do with me! It's his own mental fortitude that's too weak."

As a knight, he should have a firm will.

He died of anger from just one sentence, which shows that his faith and will were nothing special.

Una simply rolled her eyes even more.

"How dare you say that? Have you even gone to their religious group to discuss it?"

Seeing this, Otto simply drove on silently, without getting involved in the argument.

But the corner of his mouth twitched slightly; he suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for the unfamiliar knight.

The carriage traveled for about two hours in the darkness.

The outline of the Blackthorn Forest finally came into view.

It was a vast primeval forest, which, from a distance, looked like a black ocean, churning with invisible waves in the night.

At the edge of the forest stand countless towering trees, their crowns rustling in the night wind like countless hands waving.

Otto pulled on the rope, bringing the carriage to a slow stop.

He jumped out of the car, preparing to stretch his stiff body, but suddenly noticed something was wrong.

A heat wave rising from the ground is spreading outward from the depths of the forest!

Chapter 259 The Fallen Holy Knight (6.6K)

Otto frowned. As a Fire Seed Iron Guardian, his resistance to fire was far beyond that of ordinary people.

Even if ordinary flames were to directly burn Otto's skin, they would only leave a faint red mark.

Even so, Otto could still clearly feel the threat contained within this heat wave.

This isn't just ordinary calories; it contains magic!

They greedily absorb all the heat around them, and then feed back even more violent heat, forming a bizarre cycle.

Otto could even feel the hairs on his skin curling slightly, and the air he inhaled was so hot that it hurt his lungs, as if he had swallowed a mouthful of molten iron.

"This is definitely not normal."

Otto whispered a reminder to the two people beside him, his gaze sweeping over the leaves around him that were already beginning to turn yellow and curl.

“It’s winter now, January is the dead of winter, there should be no such strange thing in the Blackthorn Forest.”

He turned to look at the two people beside him, seemingly wanting an answer.

At this moment, Wu Na was wrinkling her small nose and fanning herself with her hand, her face full of discomfort.

"Was it that paladin who did this?"

Una asked, her voice clear and crisp, even with a hint of hoarseness from the heat.

When asked by Una, Maeve simply nodded helplessly.

She stopped and turned around, her gaze sweeping over the bushes that were gradually being set ablaze, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"It's a curse carried by that paladin."

Maeve explained slowly.

"Although he tried his best to control it, as you can see, the heat wave still spread."

She raised her hand and pointed ahead.

Looking in the direction she was pointing, Otto saw that the sky in the distance had been dyed dark red, as if something was burning fiercely under that sky, baking the clouds into the color of ashes.

Occasionally, a spark would drift from that direction, tracing a dark red arc in the air before extinguishing in the cold air.

Seeing this scene, Otto couldn't even imagine what kind of inferno that paladin must have been living in.

Seeing this, the three of them immediately took action.

Maeve believes that there may be some flaws in the binding array she set up, and it must be repaired in time.

As she walked, she pulled out all sorts of strange materials from the pockets inside her mage robes.

A small amount of grayish-white bone powder, a copper coin engraved with runes, and a bottle of dark green liquid that exudes a putrid smell.

She scattered these things on the ground one by one, muttering incantations. Every few steps, she would slap a palm print on a tree trunk, the magic contained in the palm print seeping into the bark and leaving a charred black mark.

Meanwhile, Una was being carried by Otto as they walked briskly forward.

Wu Na was already petite, and now she was barefoot, walking on the scorching hot mud, making her grimace with every step.

So Otto simply bent down and picked her up horizontally.

Una's body was very light, almost weightless, like holding a ball of cotton.

She had a faint scent of herbs and metal, the distinctive aroma of an alchemist.

After Otto picked her up, she wasn't shy at all. Instead, she naturally reached out and wrapped her arms around Otto's neck, resting her chin on his shoulder to save herself some energy.

However, as they moved forward, Una patiently reminded Otto.

"The product you requested is almost finished."

Una's voice rang in Otto's ears, and her warm breath brushed against his earlobe, making him tilt his head uncomfortably.

"I need to see your current condition in person before I can finalize the design of that alchemical item."

This test also served as a prototype for that alchemical artifact.