Chapter 37: Level Up

[XP: 93]

Obviously, this was the most experience Dean had accumulated since leaving the Capital of Emerald.

Given the multiple crises he now faced, turning all those experience points into Strength was undoubtedly the best choice. Although saving them up was also a very good option, and Dean wouldn’t reject it, accumulation had to be done at the right time. If he only knew how to accumulate without converting it into his own Strength when facing a desperate crisis, and ended up losing his life, that would be nothing short of a joke.

Dean did not want to be the protagonist of such a joke.

So, once his experience reached a certain level, he immediately began to plan.

A Warrior needed 88 experience points to go from Level 1 to Level 2. With his remaining Skills—[Basic Swordsmanship], [Cold Weapon (Sword/Hammer/Spear)], and [Military Swordsmanship Lv2 (Emerald)]—all having reached Level 2, it was clearly necessary to increase his Class Level. After all, both basic Skills and application Skills had a “Class Level + 1” limit. Although Common Skills did not have this limit, Dean had not activated any Common Skills so far. Those Common Skills, which required long-term practice to activate, were also beyond the scope of Dean’s attention given his severe lack of time.

What about the remaining Skills? [Military Organization], [Mount], [Swimming], [Ranged Weapon (Bow/Crossbow)], [Armor Adaptation], etc.?

Apart from [Ranged Weapon (Bow/Crossbow)] and [Armor Adaptation], Dean had no intention of raising the levels of the other basic Skills for the time being. He didn’t even plan to use his experience points on [Ranged Weapon (Bow/Crossbow)] or [Armor Adaptation].

After all, for the former, Dean was confident he could quickly raise its level through combat—and he currently had no shortage of such battles.

What about the latter?

Although Armor was quite important for a Warrior, the premise was: you must have an Armor first.

This was undoubtedly quite difficult for Dean.

After seeing the warehouse of the Ferrchelen Knight Order, Dean had already given up hope.

What about finding a blacksmith to forge one?

That was definitely a task that wasted time, effort, and money. Probably by the time the Blood Moon War started, the Armor wouldn’t have been truly completed. The saying in Goedz, “Every Armor is worth inheriting!” was not an empty phrase.

In fact, an Armor with an ordinary cost of about two hundred Gold Pultons was enough to be an heirloom in anyone’s home.

If this Armor had even more stories, or was even endowed with special power by a Wizard or a Priest, its value would be incalculable.

In the Treasuries of Nobles, most of them collected such Armors.

Dean did not expect to obtain a Magic Armor; he just needed an ordinary one.

However, judging from the current situation, such a wish was difficult to realize.

He might even have difficulty getting a set of leather Armor.

Therefore, Dean would not waste Skill points on the basic Skill [Armor Adaptation] for the time being.

After discarding those Skills, there was only one thing left to increase: Class Level!

Dean scanned the experience required to increase his Class Level and made his choice immediately.

[Warrior Level 1 → Level 2]

[Strength: 1.5 → 1.7]

[Agility: 1.6 → 1.7]

[Constitution: 1.6 → 1.7]

Just after Dean made his choice, there was an immediate change in the character panel. At the same time, Dean’s body also underwent corresponding changes, with the muscle fibers under his skin becoming thicker and tougher. However, such changes were absolutely not an easy process.

Hmph!

Even though Dean had tried it dozens of times, he couldn’t help but let out a suppressed groan.

It was not just pain, but also itching. When these sensations reached a peak, his whole body would fall into numbness. Then, after the numbness subsided, the pain and itching became even clearer.

It was completely comparable to the torture of a professional Torturer.

Perhaps the only lucky thing was that the duration was not too long.

It was only for about ten seconds.

But during these ten seconds, Dean’s inner clothes were completely soaked. Feeling the pain, itching, and numbness fade away, Dean let out a long breath. He took off his inner clothes and hung them in front of the fireplace, while he, naked from the waist up, picked up the blanket left by Potts, draped it over himself, and picked up the four letters again.

This pain was not without reason. After experiencing such pain, Dean did not need a long time to adapt; he could regain control of his body immediately, avoiding situations where he could not control his body due to the rapid growth of Strength and Agility. In fact, if he had a choice, Dean would rather choose a milder method.

Of course, Dean was only thinking about it.

In order to save more time, even if the pain was doubled, Dean would accept it willingly.

The four letters had specific times and signatures. In the salutations, Potts and Mold, the two former Knight Order Regiment Commanders and Tax Officers, were quite polite. They were mostly about official business and trivial pleasantries. However, if it were just that, putting these four letters in the hidden door was clearly making a mountain out of a molehill.

Therefore, Dean carefully examined them for a moment.

He soon found a hint of something wrong—a cipher mixed with code, where the date and time determined which word in each line was truly valid, while the rest were nonsense.

This was a method often used by Thieves.

Obviously, it was learned by Mold, the Tax Officer, from his other partners.

After filtering with the cipher, the four letters in front of Dean immediately looked very different—each one was evidence of Potts and Mold’s actions and the division of loot.

After a brief glance, Dean focused more on Potts’ handwriting.

Compared to Mold’s elegance and delicacy, the former Knight Order Regiment Commander’s handwriting was not only rough but also sloppy. However, this rough and sloppy handwriting saved Dean, as a forger, a lot of trouble. At least, there were no special characters unique to him in it.

In fact, in some Noble circles, such a trend was quite popular.

Apart from security considerations, it was mostly to make oneself stand out.

Fortunately, Potts, who had learned simple writing and mathematics only after becoming a Knight, did not learn this bad habit.

Or rather… even if he wanted to learn, he was powerless to do so.

Seeing that rough and sloppy handwriting, Dean could guess something. After all, if it were not for the fact that true Knights should be literate and know mathematics, Dean was certain that Potts would never spend a large amount of Gold Pultons to learn these things he considered dispensable.

As for how much that large amount of Gold Pultons was?

Knowledge is priceless—Goedz scholars often said this. Although there were specific regulations in practice, it was at least five Fund Pultons per month for ordinary scholars. If it were some famous scholars, the price would increase several times over.

Under the guidance of the Grand Duchess, Dean naturally did not need to go through this, and in fact, he did better than ordinary scholars.

When Dean added firewood to the fireplace for the third time, he sat up straight in front of the desk, rubbed his slightly swollen wrist, and smiled at himself for having already gotten used to holding a weapon rather than a pen. Dean’s gaze fell on the desk in front of him. Looking at the two identical letters, he couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction—one was originally written by Potts, and the other was written by Dean.

After carefully checking to confirm that the handwriting was correct and could not be distinguished by ordinary people, Dean directly threw the letter he had written into the fireplace. Then, he took a piece of rag from the cloak hanging by the door—this was a piece of clothing torn from Potts’ inner wear. Such torn clothing fragments as letters in emergencies were obviously more convincing.

Of course, he could not use a quill either.

Dean squatted down, found one or two pieces of charcoal in the fireplace that could be used for writing, and wrote on this piece of clothing.

It roughly said: Potts encountered an emergency situation and led the elite of the Knight Order to go. Let Apprentice Knight Dean temporarily manage the Knight Order.

The wording was simple, but there was no overstepping. Although Baron Tier had the right to command the Knight Order, the internal affairs of the Knight Order were still the responsibility of the Knight Order Regiment Commander. When Potts, who was a Knight, left, it was not an overreach for Dean, who had the true Title of “Apprentice Knight,” to temporarily take charge of the Knight Order.

Of course, Baron Tier had the right to appoint his own Knight Order Regiment Commander, especially after the unfortunate death of the former Regiment Commander.

This was a Noble’s privilege, which even the King could not interfere with.

However, Dean, who had already made his plan, naturally had a way to deal with it.

After all, Dean knew Baron Tier, a Noble with a mixed reputation but who was still loyal to his duties, too well. He was confident that he could change the Lord Baron’s decision—just by being clever enough!