The joys and sorrows of people are not interconnected.
Just like Liens at this moment, he neither knew nor cared about Wooly's complex feelings.
He only wanted to quickly blast that guard who had killed him many times in the instance.
However, the quality gap between a wooden sword and an iron sword was not so easily overcome, and Liens challenged the guard many times without success.
He tried to take the guard's iron sword when he was not paying attention and give him the wooden sword, thereby changing the dynamics of the fight.
But such actions would only invite a siege from the surrounding guards.
Even the instructor would cast his gaze, and would intervene as soon as Liens actually harmed any other guards.
Helpless.
Liens could only continue to challenge that guard with a wooden sword. After many rounds of challenges, even the little rest time after each training session was used by him to challenge in the instance.
Hard work pays off. Liens eventually became familiar with the guard's sword-wielding habits after numerous challenges.
Although people are not like NPCs in games, with fixed routines, many habitual actions are difficult to avoid.
After becoming familiar, Liens responded much more easily, and the moment he would completely defeat that guard was not far off.
However, this method, similar to memorizing patterns, is ultimately not conducive to the advancement of swordsmanship.
He might defeat the guard now by memorizing his patterns, but there are other guards, and the instructor, and strong enemies he might encounter in the future.
Could he always rely on that method to find the enemy's weaknesses?
Therefore, Liens still hoped to find the guard's weaknesses and defeat him through his observation skills and understanding of swordsmanship.
Doing so would effectively train his combat experience and swordsmanship.
After all, at the end of the day, the only reason he was defeated so many times by that guard was because he was not strong enough.
If his sword speed could rival the instructor's, then even with a wooden sword, he could quickly kill that guard.
Absolute strength can solve all problems, and even if it can't, it can solve the person who raised the problem.
…
At night, several of Liens's roommates quietly got up and carefully left the dormitory, including Wooly and Wendell who slept next to him.
However, Liens's consciousness had already entered the instance, and his body outside was sleeping very soundly, so he didn't notice their departure at all.
Of course, just because Liens didn't notice didn't mean that no one else in the dormitory noticed.
Wooly and Wendell's repeated nighttime outings had long been noticed by some, but like Liens, they remained silent, quietly awaiting the development of events.
What benefits are there to reporting? What preferential treatment? What guarantees?
Anyone who had stayed in Kara City for a period of time would more or less learn about the actions of some nobles.
They had long since blocked the path of reporting.
There was once someone who wanted to curry favor with a noble, painstakingly making his way to the noble's presence, enduring multiple beatings from guards along the way.
The reason was that a low-class person like him should not approach the noble lord's mansion.
It was only when he repeatedly stated that he had important information to tell the noble lord that he was granted an audience.
And his so-called important matter was merely reporting that the manager of a shop owned by the noble had falsely reported the shop's finances to profit from it.
He himself was the employee responsible for recording the shop manager's financial work.
What happened next, no one cared about the intermediate process.
They only knew that the final result was that the shop manager who falsely reported the finances was dealt with, but the reporter was also thrown out of the noble's mansion.
He did not gain any benefits from this, and even lost his job because of his actions.
Originally, he was considered an upper-class person in the Outer City, with an excellent job and a happy family.
Therefore, the basic needs of ordinary people were no longer a problem for him; what he wanted more was an improvement in his status.
He wanted to enter the Inner City and become a truly upper-class person.
Unfortunately, he failed and eventually became one of the homeless, quietly dying on a night during the Frost Season.
Few people knew the truth of the story, but the content of the story was known to most people in the Outer City through word of mouth.
People believed it to be true and were willing to believe it was the truth.
Because it perfectly matched their impression of nobles.
The noble's belief was that it was proper and sacred for common people to offer everything to them without reservation.
You offer to the sacred, and yet you demand a return? How disrespectful!
…
The next day, during lunch, Wooly specifically sat next to Liens.
Ever since sword training began, Liens had always sat alone in a corner to eat.
Because he didn't want to waste time chatting with others, he just wanted to finish eating quickly and then enter the instance to practice his sword.
"Is something the matter, Wooly?"
Liens swallowed a mouthful of bread and then asked Wooly next to him.
Liens was unsure why Wooly would seek him out at this moment.
Was he trying to invite him to join the escape team now?
With doubts in his heart, Liens asked directly. There was no need for subtle hints at this point.
Firstly, on the surface, he was not supposed to know about such things. Secondly, there was nothing he absolutely needed to obtain from Wooly.
He could completely get relevant information from Wooly in the instance, so there was no need to take risks in reality.
"Nothing, I just suddenly feel like telling you a story."
Wooly responded calmly, and then, without waiting for Liens to reply, he continued.
"There was a person born into an ordinary family in a rural farmstead."
"This family was very poor. His birth brought the joy of a newborn to this family, but it also increased the family's burden."
"One more person meant one more mouth to feed, but as a mere child, he was powerless to share his parents' hardships."
"This family lived by farming, but not an inch of the land they tilled belonged to them."
"They tirelessly farmed for the owner of the farmstead, asking for nothing more than meager food barely enough to survive."
"But even that little food, the owner of the farmstead wanted to reclaim some of it."
"The food obtained from farming grew less and less, and the family quickly fell into a state of often not having enough to eat."
"Until one day, his mother died in the fields from hunger and overwork, and his father soon followed his mother."
"Only he, an ungrown youth, was left alone in the quiet, dilapidated house."
Wooly paused here for a moment, perhaps recalling the feelings of that time, and then continued.
"That day, he thought a lot. He thought of the farmstead owner, he thought of his parents who were still alive, and he thought of his father's last words."
"'Son, you must live well.'"
"So he ran, fled that farmstead, and came to the big city."
"After arriving in the big city, he met many people; some were good, some were bad, and some were like the owner of that farmstead."
"In the city, he managed to feed himself through hard work. Although it was just barely enough, he was already very satisfied."
"Because he felt he had fulfilled his father's words: to live well."
"Unfortunately, fate is always unfair."
"The owner of the city extended his hand to the people at the bottom of the city, just like the owner of the farmstead before."
"Only this time, he couldn't escape."
"He was caught and then put into a prison."
"Every day in prison, there were cruel trainings and corporal punishments, tormenting his body and mind."
"Making him constantly lick his wounds like a dog."
"He was starting to give up."
"He was lost, he was desperate, he cried out in his heart."
"Is it really so hard just to live?!"
Wooly calmly finished telling the story, as if the story was truly just a story, and the protagonist of the story was merely a small pebble that couldn't stir any waves.
Liens listened to Wooly's story in silence.
It reminded Liens of 'his' own experience, which was also so somber.
At the same time, he understood why Wooly had sought him out at this moment.
"I will remember."
Liens responded earnestly to Wooly, then stood up and left the place, returning to the dormitory.
He needed an audience, and he also hoped to have a recorder.