They are all characters I control.

In the dungeon, Claire looked at Leah on the screen and muttered, "This girl can finally be put to use, although she might get a lot of unnecessary information."

After raising Liya for so long, this guy is finally on the right track.

Now that Isabelle and Leah have finally made contact, Claire's escape plan has only just begun.

"Isabeth probably won't contact Leah anytime soon. Let's find something else to kill time..."

Claire shifted her gaze from Leah's screen to the second screen in front of her.

The second character, the church knight Eleanor, was now in the final countdown to her release.

Although this female character may not seem to be of much help to Claire's escape, she may grant Claire new powers after she lost her elemental senses.

Naturally, Claire wouldn't overlook this second new role.

This time, however, he didn't want to put in as much effort as when he controlled Lia. If this female character was strong enough to fight, he would just kill her directly.

[Anti-addiction measures updated... Currently available character: Eleanor...]

Chapter 112 Lingu Village

[System Notification: The bond level of the substitute character 'Eleanor Redgrave' has exceeded 20%.]

[This player's bond value increased faster than 99.99% of other players, earning them the title of fastest player and a quadruple reward bonus.]

[Each login session will increase by 40 minutes (with a maximum bonus of 30 minutes)]

[Current remaining login time: 39:58]

Consciousness rose from the darkness, and Claire smelled the scent of water and felt a sense of control emanating from Eleanor's body.

It wasn't the stench of stagnant pools in a dungeon, but rather the smell of flowing, cold river water mixed with mud and withered leaves.

I could hear the faint sound of flowing water and people talking.

"Sister Eleanor, are you alright? Are you asleep?"

A voice that sounded rather childish rang in my ears.

Claire suddenly opened her eyes.

He was greeted by a gray-white sky, with fine snowflakes drifting down. He found himself lying on a riverbank, his body resting on cold, wet pebbles.

A girl of about twelve or thirteen years old squatted beside him, wearing a coarse cloth dress full of patches, her face red from the cold, and her gray-blue eyes full of worry.

Behind the girl stood several younger children and an elderly man with a hunched back and gray hair.

But Claire noticed that the girl's squatting posture was incorrect; it wasn't the habit a typical farm girl should have.

"It's okay, I wasn't asleep..." Claire subconsciously tried to sit up, but the pain in her left leg made her frown.

Why hasn't this guy recovered yet? In fact, it seems to have gotten worse?

The damaged light knight's armor was still on his body, the gruesome dent and tear on the breastplate still visible. Moreover, new scratches and dents appeared on his arms and legs.

These traces are all...

Claire was speechless after browsing through Eleanor's save file.

After he was kicked out of the anti-addiction system, Eleanor regained consciousness and, without resting for long, dragged her injured body away from the hunter's cabin.

It seems she's looking for someone? Some of the archives involved are not publicly available, and Claire can't see their contents.

The same applies to Leah; the secrets about her mother and the engagement ring are invisible to Claire and require her to actively trigger them.

In short, after leaving the cabin, Eleanor ran into this group of people.

They were attacked by a pack of wolves, and Eleanor, being a church knight, naturally couldn't ignore it. As a result, she drove away the wolves but was also injured herself.

The wounds on his body were roughly bandaged with strips of cloth torn from his clothes, still covered in mud and grass.

Eleanor's physical condition is slightly better than when he left last time, but not by much; she's barely able to fight.

Although her magic had recovered somewhat, Claire didn't intend to waste her power at this moment, looking at the strangers in front of her.

“Sister Eleanor, why aren’t you saying anything? Are you feeling unwell?” The girl quickly reached out and supported Claire’s shoulder, her strength not great but firm: “Let’s hurry up and get to the village so we can treat you as soon as possible.”

As Claire sorted through her memories, everyone else gathered around.

There were seven people rescued by Eleanor in total: an old man who seemed a little timid and hid not far away, a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl named Mel, and the remaining five were very lively children under the age of ten.

Dressed in tattered clothes, with a sallow and emaciated face, he looked like an ordinary villager from the North.

"Yes, little Mel, you're right."

Claire snapped out of her daze and nodded toward what was in front of her.

As Mel helped him up, he noticed two details.

The first one is Mel's hand.

Those hands, red from the cold, had thick calluses on the base of the thumb and forefinger.

The calluses weren't from farm work; farm work creates calluses on the palms of the hands, but hers were on the part where she held the knife.

The second detail is the handcart.

The cart was parked on the riverbank, covered with an old tarpaulin.

A corner of the canvas was blown up by the wind, revealing what lay beneath—not wolf pelts, but rows of sealed wooden crates. The crates had delicate iron corner protectors, and the patterns on them were not the kind of designs one would find in the northern countryside.

The smell wafting from the cart was the smell of wine, and it was quite a good wine.

A group of emaciated villagers from the North, dressed in patched clothes, were pulling a cart full of high-end liquor and exquisite snacks.

"Which village are we going to? Your village shouldn't be too far away, right?" Claire asked casually, without showing any sign of anything amiss.

“Lingu Village,” Mel answered quickly, her tone innocent. “It’s just ahead, over that ravine. We came out to gather wild vegetables, but we encountered wolves… Luckily, we met Eleanor!”

In the village of Lin Valley, Claire searched through Eleanor's memories.

The village's name was not on Eleanor's mission list.

At least, the village wasn't recorded on the map provided by the church, which is something the church should be quite perfect in.

“Alright, let’s hurry up and go, Sir Eleanor.” The girl grabbed Claire’s hand with a strength that didn’t seem like that of a twelve or thirteen-year-old child. “Didn’t you want to find the church knight who saved you? He’s in our village.”

The other children did the same, all smiling and pulling Claire along with their hands and feet.

Claire's armor was not light, but the children, working together, managed to push him a few steps.

"You just said that the church knight who saved me is in your village, right?" Claire asked in a low voice to confirm.

"Yes! So let's hurry up and then you'll see him!"

Mel tilted her head innocently, looking happy for Claire (Eleanor).

"Alright then." Claire was now completely certain.

Eleanor had no idea that Claire had taken control of her body to save her, and that there was no church knight waiting for her in Rinkol Village.

These guys in front of me just want me to go to Lin Valley Village.

In that case, Claire knew what to do.

"I'm so sorry, but you see, I can't walk anymore. Could you please help me walk?"

After saying that, Claire looked at the cart next to her.

The horses that were pulling the carriage had been killed by the wolves, and Eleanor had been pulling the carriage the whole way.

When Claire (Eleanor) suggested that they exchange ideas, Mel and the others looked at each other and then smiled.

“Okay, no problem! The knight was injured while saving us, let’s take him with us.”

"Then I'll have to trouble you."

After a group of people carried Claire onto the cart.

Mel and the others pulled the cart in front, but they couldn't move it no matter how hard they pushed.

"Sir Knight, could you please take off your armor? That would lighten your load a bit," the old man in the tattered cotton-padded coat said earnestly as he turned around.

“That won’t do! The armor and sword of the church knights are my life!” Claire refused sternly.

"Don't you want to go to our village sooner to see the knight who saved your life?" a child asked anxiously.

"If I have to give up my armor and knight's sword, which are my honor, then I'd rather die here! What's the point of seeing my savior?" Claire's words at this moment perfectly matched the image of a rigid church knight.

The girl and the old man exchanged a glance, but said nothing more.

The cart continued forward.

Claire glanced at the countdown timer on the system; there were still over fifty minutes left. For him, time was the least of his concerns.

Since we've stumbled upon this dungeon, we naturally have to go in and give it a try.

Chapter 113 The Feast

As darkness fell, the cart finally came to a stop.

"Sister Eleanor, we're almost there! We'll be at our village soon!"

Mel's voice came from beside her. Claire opened her eyes, returned to reality from her meditation, and loosened her grip on the knight's sword.

His magic power has now recovered to 40%, and his wounds have stopped bleeding under the slow effect of healing magic.

If everyone in the village were at the same level as Mel and her friends, soloing wouldn't be a problem.

"We're here? Thank you so much for leading the way." Claire propped herself up and placed her hand on Mel's head beside her.

His gaze passed over the children in front of him and landed on "Lingu Village".

The village is nestled in a valley, surrounded by steep cliffs, and accessible only by this muddy path.

From the outside, the village is completely invisible; it can only be discovered once you enter the valley. This terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it also makes one an easy target.

"Go and inform the village chief that they'd better prepare to welcome Sister Eleanor!"

Mel addressed the children beside him.

The children obeyed Mel's words without question, nodding and running obediently towards the village of Lingu.

"Welcoming me like that is too much of an exaggeration. Just treat me like a regular guest." Claire said to Mel, but her gaze was fixed on the children who had run away in the distance.

"No, no, no, Eleanor, you saved our lives, you deserve to be welcomed."

Mel spoke earnestly, and the old man standing next to him nodded in agreement.

"Is that so? Then I won't stand on ceremony." Claire nodded calmly, looking at Mel, whose status was clearly different from hers.

Not long after, a group of people ran out of the village.

There were about a dozen people, mostly elderly people and children, with only a few middle-aged people.

Some of them carried steaming wooden bowls, some held torches, and some held dried-up flowers; without exception, they all had bright smiles on their faces.

An elderly man in a gray robe with gray hair stepped forward and bowed slightly to Claire.

"Sir Knight, welcome to Forest Valley Village. I am the village chief, you may call me Old Grey."

His posture was respectful, but his eyes unconsciously glanced at Mel beside Claire and at Claire's (Eleanor's) hand that was stroking Mel's head.

"Thank you so much, Sir Knight, for saving the children of our village. We are truly grateful."

"These children are the hope of our village. If anything were to happen to them, our village would be finished! Fortunately, we have Sir Eleanor's help!"

"We have prepared a dinner party, and we hope you will do us the honor of attending."

Having said that, old Grey subtly took Claire's hand that was on Mel's head and led him quickly toward the village.

"A banquet? There's no need for a banquet, it's not necessary to make such a big fuss. I was just doing a small favor." Claire walked into the village and looked around.

A long table was set up under the old tree in the center of the village, covered with a faded tablecloth.

Colorful strips of cloth and dried flowers hung from the branches, and torches were stuck in the roadside, illuminating the entire village. The air was filled with the aroma of food—broth, flatbread, and some kind of sweet spice.

This is indeed the preparation for a grand feast, not something that could have been done in such a short time.

Moreover, the villagers weren't just the dozen or so who had come out to greet them earlier; there were also some villagers peeking out from behind the windows of the dilapidated houses in the village.

Compared to the well-dressed old Gray and the people around him, these villagers who did not show themselves seemed more real.

Seven or eight of the villagers hiding in the houses or standing a little further away were elderly, with hunched backs and wrinkles on their faces that seemed to have the words 'misery' carved into them.