They are all characters I control.

[Character Profile: Eleanor Redgrave]

[Identity: Vice-Captain of the 'Holy Lance' Church Knights]

Age: 22

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Current Bond Level: 0/100

[Core Talents:]

【◇Battlefield Instinct (Passive): Extremely acute perception of danger, weaknesses, and enemy intentions during combat, enabling subconscious optimal responses. Combat reaction speed is slightly increased when in adversity or injured.】

【◇Heart of Crimson Flame (Hidden): Contains ancient fiery power within the bloodline. It may be unconsciously activated during intense emotional fluctuations or life-or-death situations, greatly enhancing strength and speed, but also rapidly depleting stamina and sanity. Currently, it cannot be controlled voluntarily.】

【◇Unyielding Spirit (Developing): Each time you survive a severe injury or a desperate situation, all your attributes will receive a slight but permanent boost, and your resistance to the same type of damage will increase slightly. Your willpower is extremely strong, making you difficult to be affected by mental effects such as fear or intimidation.】

A new character has been added. Previously, Claire chose Leah in order to obtain the "Guardian's Gaze," thus giving up these two characters.

Now, these two familiar figures are once again placed before Claire.

Claire, who had expected this, wasn't surprised.

Previously, when Lia's bond value was about to reach 80%, the system gave a prompt to unlock the new character.

Chapter 101 A Classic Near-Death Start

"The art style of these two female characters is alright, and it's normal for them to be in the anime/manga style."

Claire forgot to turn off aimbot, and his gaze first fell on the three-dimensional figures of the two female characters.

Although the world-building of this crappy game is terrible, and he transmigrated into a character in the world's historical background, he is fortunate to have this system.

These characters, like Lia, are clearly 'female characters from anime games,' so their aesthetics are definitely up to par. The developers should probably give the artist a few extra compliments every day.

"Judging from this data panel, Eleanor's stats are higher, and she's still a four-star character."

"However, she only has one identity, merely a knight of the Order of the Church, while this nun Cecilia is a candidate for sainthood?"

"One has a high stats panel, and the other has an even higher status. Neither of them seem to be from my home empire? In that case, they won't be of much help to my current situation, will they?"

Although the character cards do not specify the backgrounds or positions of these two female characters, Claire was still able to find some elements related to their locations.

For example, Cecilia, dressed as a nun, has some desert-themed elements in the background of her card, which wouldn't be so many if it were just a souvenir.

Therefore, Cecilia should be in the 'Oasis Province', which is a region with a lot of desert.

As for Eleanor, dressed as a female knight, one could see some furs and winter items, and there were also some decorations of cold regions on her armor and sword sheath.

Eleanor should be in the 'Northern Kingdom', which is a colder place.

Both the 'Oasis Province' and the 'Northern Kingdom' are relatively far from the Empire and the 'Holy City'.

This disappointed Claire somewhat, but with Leah's experience, Claire quickly grasped the most important thing.

That's the bond value reward.

【The Keeper's Gaze】is a Bond Point reward for Lia, and both of these characters also have Bond Point rewards.

Therefore, the synergy bonus for these two characters should be quite good.

Looking at the data panels of the two characters, Claire's eyes searched and quickly found their bond value rewards.

[Unlocking 100% of Cecilia's character bond will reward you with a copy of the 'Silent Codex'.]

[The 'Scripture of Silence' manuscript—a magical scripture that records various high-level support, purification, rune, guardian spells, and some forbidden knowledge of the Church.]

[Unlocking 100% of the character Eleanor's bond will reward you with the 'Light of Faith' cross sword.]

【'Light of Faith' Cross Sword – A primal weapon with growth potential. Its initial form is a broken, shattered blade, which can be triggered under special conditions.】

Looking at the bond points reward for the two characters in front of her, Claire began to ponder.

Sister Cecilia's bond points reward is clearly based on magic; the reward is a spellbook, and also forbidden magic collected by the Goddess Church.

Perhaps there is some magic that Claire can learn and use in this magic book.

After all, if the Church of Goddess has collected all of these, then they definitely can't be some trash magic. Even if Claire can't use those forbidden spells, there are still rune magics she can learn.

If Claire still wants to use magic as her main skill, then choosing the character of Sister Cecilia would be more suitable.

The bond value reward for the church knight Eleanor is a weapon that can be upgraded and can be triggered under special conditions, which makes its effect quite ambiguous.

Judging from this, the strength of this so-called 'Light of Faith' cross sword cannot be guaranteed, but Claire saw a familiar word on it.

"This weapon has the characteristic of 'origin'? Origin weapon? Hiss..." Claire tried hard to recall some distant memories in her mind.

"Speaking of which, I remember that very special knight's weapon also had the word 'origin' in it?"

"That knight is also very strong, like a cockroach."

Claire stared intently at the word 'Origin'. His achievement 'Demon King' also had a related description. Although his elemental perception was so poor that it was in the negative, he had been able to glimpse the origin.

Clearly, the origin is beyond the perception of elements.

So since it has the word 'origin' in its name, it shouldn't be anything trashy.

At this moment, choosing between Sister Cecilia and Knight Eleanor seems unimportant; what matters is whether their bond points will be useful.

Although this bond value reward is likely exclusive and tied to the female characters' own growth, Claire can also use it.

At this point, Claire needs to choose the reward that best suits her and is most useful.

In terms of magic, to be honest, Claire's elemental perception of -100 is a huge limitation, but she is not limited in melee combat, and it is also her original weapon.

After a little thought, the answer naturally becomes clear.

“I choose Eleanor,” Claire said, making her decision.

As his choice was made, the card representing the nun quickly dimmed and returned to its gray state.

The female knight's card then burst forth with an even more intense golden-red light, and the image of the girl on the card seemed to come alive for a moment, her hand on the hilt of the sword, her knuckles seemingly tightening slightly.

[Select Confirm.]

[Beginning the establishment of an initial fateful connection with the character 'The Female Knight of the Crimson Blade (???)'...]

[Link being established...]

[Coordinates: Northern Frontier, edge of the permafrost, unnamed valley.]

Enjoy the game...

The echoes of the system faded from her consciousness, and then Claire experienced a sensory immersion that was completely different from what she had experienced with Leah.

The smell of rust and blood assaulted my nostrils!

The howling wind sounded like the wailing of ghosts and wolves, mixed with the stinging pain of ice particles hitting my face!

Claire suddenly opened her eyes.

What came into view was not the darkness of the dungeon, nor the magnificent chandelier of a nobleman's bedroom, but a low, lead-gray sky that seemed to press down, and fine snowflakes that kept falling from the sky.

He was lying on his back on a patch of frozen earth that had been trampled into a muddy mess, mixed with dirty snow and dark red blood.

A bone-chilling cold was seeping in from below, almost freezing the blood.

Claire lowered her gaze slightly and saw the badly damaged light knight armor she was wearing. There was a grotesque dent and tear on the breastplate, with frozen blood still clinging to the edges.

The nail plates on the arms and legs were also covered with scratches and dents.

"Cough cough..." He coughed up a mouthful of bloody spittle uncontrollably.

What kind of hellish start is this? We're already half-dead right from the beginning?

Just then, a series of noisy footsteps approached from not far away. Claire turned her head and saw a group of women.

They were holding daggers in their hands…

Chapter 102 Playing Dead is a Skill

Claire was experiencing the feeling of impending death for the first time in a long time.

Although Claire had been locked in the dungeon, Isabelle did not treat her badly.

The same applies when controlling Lia. Although she was put in spiked shoes, it was nothing serious; she was not seriously injured or near death at all.

But at this moment, he truly felt that his body was gradually approaching death.

However, Claire still dared not move. Gazing at the figures of the group of women not far away, he quietly cast a holy healing spell.

There was no response; it seems there were no magicians among these people who could sense magical power.

This allowed Claire to safely unleash healing magic, gradually restoring her health, while keeping her eyes fixed on the group of women.

There were about seven or eight women in total, dressed in rough, thick fur or linen clothes, with dirty aprons over them, which was the most common attire for peasant women in the village.

They held daggers or short knives in their hands, which were not particularly sharp but were sharp enough to cut through flesh.

Clearly, these peasant women didn't come here to pick wild vegetables or anything like that.

A little further away on the snow, seven or eight figures dressed in what looked like armor lay scattered about. Some were still twitching slightly, while others were already silent.

These peasant women were holding down the still-moving knights and using their iron weapons to precisely and coldly slit their necks.

Claire, who was on this side, could hear the sound of a sharp weapon cutting through flesh. The peasant women, unconcerned about the blood splattered on their faces, took out their water bags from their waists and collected the blood.

It looks like these peasant women are collecting blood?

Are they cult members? Or are they being controlled by mental magic?

Several thoughts flashed through Claire's mind in an instant.

The North is harsh and its beliefs are diverse; not everyone follows the Church of the Goddess. But such a large-scale, organized massacre of church knights and the collection of their blood is extremely rare.

Fortunately, the female knight Eleanor, whom Claire was currently controlling, possessed divine magic talent, and controlling Eleanor's body was not affected by Claire's own elemental perception of -100.

Just as he was doing his best to "treat" her, a peasant woman finished dealing with the knight beside her and walked towards the direction where Claire was lying, carrying a blood-dripping dagger.

Five steps, four steps, three steps...

The peasant woman knelt down beside Claire, her empty eyes sweeping over "her" tattered armor and pale, blood-stained face, without any emotional fluctuation.

She stretched out her blood-stained, frozen red hands, about to unfasten her breastplate to make it easier to slit her throat.

Just then, Claire's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened!

The peasant woman froze abruptly, clearly not expecting the 'dead' to open its eyes.

Her mouth opened instinctively, as if she wanted to scream a warning, but it was too late.

puff!

The peasant woman opened her mouth but no sound came out.

A cold, sharp sword tip had already pierced diagonally upwards from the junction of her jaw and neck at a cunning and vicious angle.

Although Claire was kept in the dungeon, she still wielded weapons a few times while controlling Leah.

Therefore, at this critical moment of life and death, her actions were swift and decisive, killing with a single blow.

The peasant woman's body convulsed violently, the last glimmer of light in her eyes quickly faded, and a strange "gurgling" sound came from her throat, but she could not shout because her trachea and vocal cords had been damaged at the same time.

Large amounts of blood mixed with broken tissue gushed from her mouth and nose, and the instinct for survival made the peasant woman try to turn around and run away.

But now that things had come to this, Claire couldn't let her escape. She immediately covered the other woman's mouth and nose, grabbed her collar, and held her firmly in place, unable to move.

The peasant woman's convulsions stopped quickly, and her body went limp.

Claire carefully laid the peasant woman's body down, making it appear as if she were lying on top of her while she was actually using her body to cover most of her own figure and bloodstained hands.

He tilted his head slightly to observe the outside through the gap in the corpse's shoulder.

The other farm women were still focused on their "sacred" harvesting work, and no one noticed their companion's "abnormality" for the time being.

Claire closed her eyes again and continued to cast healing magic on herself.

The corpse lying on top of her was still warm, and Claire put her hands inside her clothes.

Before being discovered, Claire was racing against time to restore her fighting strength, but unfortunately, she had very little time to recover.

"Masha? Haven't you finished that over there yet? Hurry up, we need to get the 'Holy Drink' back before the 'Snow Festival'!" a peasant woman called out urgingly from a short distance away.

Judging from the surrounding commotion, it seemed they were calling for Claire's body.