Chapter 2

The Miracle Continent is the land where this world is situated. It is divided into dozens of kingdoms and empires, and its vast expanse is beyond anyone's imagination. Not to mention, around this continent, there are countless islands and undiscovered territories.

On the Miracle Continent, the further north one goes, the more temperate the climate becomes. The air is not dry, but the humidity is not high either, making it the most comfortable living environment. The Kingdom of Serian, located in this northern region, can naturally be considered a prosperous and wealthy kingdom. However, even in a country as rich and powerful as this, there are always some areas that lag behind in development, or even drag the kingdom's progress—though the reasons for this might be related to the local lords, the common people would not think so.

This is a small village in the Seville territory of the Kingdom of Serian.

The village is not large, with only about thirty households. However, because the village has no special products to export, merchants, let alone peddlers, would not come here. Therefore, the flow of people here is almost zero, and it is rare to see anyone pass by in a year. Although the village is not prosperous, it is not barren either. The villagers live a relatively good life by hunting and farming two seasons a year.

However, since a few months ago, when an unknown undead black knight occupied an old ruin outside the village, the villagers have been living in constant fear. Since then, people in the village have started to go missing, and later, it developed to the point where every household would close their doors at night, not daring to come out, because there were actually zombies appearing in the village.

Due to the village's poor economy, they could not afford to hire a mercenary group for help—small-scale mercenary groups would not dare to take on this task after hearing about black knights and zombies. As for reporting to the lord, the village chief did send someone, but the lord's army has not come to besiege the area, which has left the villagers feeling abandoned and desperate.

This ruin was once a noble's mansion, and the environment around the village was still quite good at that time. However, with some human development and destruction, the beauty around the village no longer exists, and the mansion was eventually abandoned. Later, due to severe weathering or other reasons, the mansion collapsed and became a ruin.

At this moment, nearly fifty villagers gathered at the village entrance, looking expectantly at the distant ruins.

The ruins are not too far from the village, and the outline can still be seen from the village entrance.

"Chief, are those two kids... really going to be okay?"

"They should... be fine," the old man called the chief, who was hunched over, said with some uncertainty, "That person warned us before this monster appeared, so... he must have a way."

However, no matter who it is, if they enter the ruins, which the villagers consider to be no different from hell, and do not return with any news after five or six hours, it would not be considered a good sign. However, they were the only ones willing to help in the past few months, so even though so much time has passed, everyone still gathered here, maintaining hope and expectation.

Just as some villagers began to show signs of disappointment, two figures finally appeared on the horizon.

Most of the villagers began to rub their eyes, and when they confirmed that it was indeed the two people who said they would help solve the problem and then ran to the ruins, all the villagers let out a cheer and surged toward the two figures like a tide.

These two figures were naturally Shawn and Cecilia.

Cecilia was wearing a black and white Gothic dress, holding a golden book about thirty centimeters thick, with a length and width of about thirty centimeters. Her delicate features were expressionless, but her gaze toward Shawn was filled with more resentment, and she muttered, "Cheater!"

Shawn smiled bitterly, rubbed Cecilia's head, and said, "I told you not to run out randomly. I was going to lure it to you and then use the fireball spell to deal with it. But you didn't listen, and ended up in such a mess. How can you blame me for this?"

"Cheater!"

Shawn was helpless.

In fact, the initial plan to enter the ruins and deal with the black knight went relatively smoothly.

There were only about ten zombies in the entire ruin, and with Shawn's sword skills and Cecilia's magic, they were easy to deal with, although the process was not pleasant. For Cecilia, zombies were indeed ugly and terrifying. However, the smooth progress turned into chaos when they encountered the black knight.

Originally, according to Shawn's plan, he would attract the black knight's attention and lead it to Cecilia, who would then use the fireball spell to finish it off. Shawn even spent several hours in the ruins. However, what he did not expect was that Cecilia was startled by a rat, which led to the black knight discovering them. After that, they had to run and dodge in a series of embarrassing situations because the black knight had entered a berserk state. Even with Shawn's experience in dealing with black knights, he did not dare to provoke it at that time and could only wait for the berserk state to end.

Of course, if that was all, Cecilia would not have called Shawn a cheater. However, Shawn had told her that the task was very easy and that she only needed to throw a few fireballs to finish it. In reality, Cecilia almost got slashed by the black knight, and the shock left her in a bad mood. Considering she was only a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl, Shawn could not really say much.

"Indeed, it's different from the game," Shawn looked at Cecilia, who was still pouting, and muttered, "There are still too many unexpected factors, and this is just a level ten dungeon..."

"What are you mumbling about again!" Cecilia glanced at Shawn, and although her face still lacked expression, she was not as angry as before, "Always mumbling, the villagers are coming over."

"Nothing," Shawn shook his head, looked at the cheering villagers running over, and a smile appeared on his usually serious face. Despite his current disheveled appearance, the confident and steady aura he exuded made people feel like they had found a backbone, "Yes, this is no longer a game, but a real world!"

As if to affirm some belief, Shawn raised the black knight's head in front of all the villagers.

Instantly, the villagers' cheers became even louder.

Like welcoming returning heroes, Shawn and Cecilia were warmly welcomed back to the village by the villagers, which left Cecilia, who was not good at socializing, feeling a bit troubled. However, Shawn did not care about her at this moment. After returning to the village, there was a grand banquet, and even fish appeared on the table. Considering that the village was not near the sea and the main food was meat and vegetables, fish was usually only served on major holidays. The fish at the banquet was very fresh, which made Shawn realize that the villagers' enthusiasm and welcome were genuine and not fake.

After the banquet, the villagers even prepared a clean house for Shawn and Cecilia to stay in, and in this warm reception, Shawn had no choice but to stay in the village for another day.

...

The cold north wind at midnight was not as cold as imagined. Shawn stood at the window on the second floor of the house, looking out at the scenery outside.

After a moment, Shawn finally left the window and turned to look at Cecilia, who was sleeping on the bed. From her expression, it was clear that the little girl was sleeping soundly. Looking at the sleeping Cecilia, Shawn rarely showed a smile, "It's been a year already..."

His words were filled with deep emotion.

In fact, Shawn did not belong to this world; he came from a place called Earth.

However, even he could not explain why he appeared in this world. The last memory he had before coming to this world was leading his guild's elite team to clear a hundred-person dungeon, which was considered the most difficult in the game at the time. After that, his next memory was waking up in a suburban area, penniless and facing the threat of several stray dogs. If it weren't for the nearby hunters, he might have become the dogs' meal.

After that, Shawn organized his thoughts and focused on staying alive. As for why he could adapt so quickly to the life and habits of this world and had a surprising understanding of many things, it was all thanks to the virtual online game "Miracle" he played on Earth—because this world was identical to "Miracle"!

As Shawn realized this, he also discovered a secret about himself: although he came to this world at level one and did not bring his luxurious equipment or wealth, his skill panel was brought over with him. It contained many powerful skills that he had spent a lot of time and effort collecting.

Although these skills could not be used at first, once he discovered that this world was identical to "Miracle," Shawn quickly knew what to do. However, even knowing what to do, he found that the difficulty of implementing his plans was much higher: because this was a real world, not a virtual game where various situations could be ignored.

On the Miracle Continent, Shawn not only faced various threats of death but also had to work hard to earn a living and improve his level. Additionally, there were various real-world problems to deal with, such as injuries, long distances—what took an hour in the game could take over a month in the real world—and the lack of health and mana bars, meaning that any injury or death was permanent.

However, even so, Shawn did not give up because he knew his advantage: skill points—just like in the game, he gained one skill point for each level up.

This was what Shawn valued the most.

So far, only three skills on his skill panel had been activated.

【Sprint: Quickly run forward six meters. Auxiliary/Level 1/Normal, Level 2/3, Proficiency 1/4.】

【Slash: Perform three consecutive attacks. Swordsmanship/Level 1/Normal/Sword, Level 2/5, Proficiency 2/4.】

【Disarm: If the sum of Strength, Endurance, and Agility is greater than the target's, successfully disarm the opponent. Auxiliary/Level 1/Special/Unarmed, Level 1.】

It took Shawn nearly a year to reach level ten, and with only ten skill points, he did not dare to use them recklessly.

Because in the later stages, players would not have just a few skills, and activating a skill required one skill point. Special skills required even more, and skill points could also be used to improve personal attributes or life skills, so each skill point had to be used carefully.

Generally, activating a skill required one skill point, and a special skill like "Disarm" required two. Skills like "Slash" and "Sprint" had limitations at the beginning, and their power and effects would only improve with higher levels: for example, "Slash" could only perform two consecutive attacks at level one, but three at level two.

Although it might seem that the proficiency increase is not high, and it only takes three proficiency points to upgrade "Slash" to level three, in reality, each proficiency point required a month of consistent effort and at least twelve hours of training per day.

Now, "Slash" and "Sprint" are at level two, thanks to Shawn's efforts over the past half year—without wasting skill points, only persistent training could bring such results. Many higher-level skills required lower-level skills as prerequisites to be strengthened and improved.

However, even so, Shawn used four skill points to activate these three skills, and he also spent three skill points to improve his personal attributes to successfully take the weapon from the black knight, leaving him with only three skill points unallocated.

But Shawn did not regret it.

As the former leader of an elite team in the guild, Shawn had a strong sense of logic in his decision-making.

【Charles' Sword, Minor Enchantment (Bronze), Hardness 12, Sharpness 12, Piercing 10, Strength +3, Endurance +1】

【Item Description: This sword was given to General Charles by King Alder III of the Kingdom of Serian just before the outbreak of the Northern Cold War. This sword followed General Charles throughout his military career and was once considered a symbol of honor for the Charles family. However, due to internal conflicts over inheritance, the sword was lost. Although you have luckily obtained this sword, its magic has largely dissipated, and it no longer has the same prestige.】

This sword was the fundamental reason why Shawn decided to deal with the black knight. Otherwise, as a level ten dungeon that was almost effortless for new players in the game, Shawn would not have been interested or spent so much time and effort.

As a professional player in "Miracle" for seven years, Shawn had a good understanding of many things in the game, even if he did not remember them clearly. However, certain scenarios could trigger his memories. For example, this sword had a follow-up quest, but it only dropped when the black knight was first killed. In the game, Shawn had missed this sword, but this time, he would not.

However, from this mission, Shawn realized a problem: in the real world, these dungeons could not be repeated like in the game. Each dungeon had only one chance to clear it. Additionally, dungeons had a creation time. For example, the dungeon "Wandering Darkness" in the game appeared only four months ago, and Shawn had come to this village five months ago to obtain this sword, but the dungeon had not appeared then. This is why, after the villagers found that the lord did not send troops to besiege the area, the village chief immediately contacted Shawn.

However, after five months, when Shawn came back, he was no longer alone.

Thinking about this, Shawn walked to Cecilia's side and covered her with the blanket she had kicked off. Although Cecilia often appeared mature and sometimes spoke harshly, she was only thirteen years old and still desired affection. From the moment Shawn decided to take Cecilia on this adventure, he resolved to raise her well.

The thought of possibly nurturing a super magic genius excited Shawn.

Because no one knew Cecilia's personal attributes better than Shawn!