Chapter 8: Coercion (Part 2)

When the amount of two hundred Gold Pulton was announced, Hidley’s eyes went straight, and he had no reaction at all; he simply followed behind Jack instinctively and walked towards the bonfire; as for ‘Sado’ behind him? In fact, Hidley was in no mood to pay attention to this ‘Sado’ at all; he even wished the other party would just die.

After all, that way he could get an extra share!

Still hiding behind the tree, Basum felt his heart skip a beat—two hundred Gold Pulton?! That was truly a huge sum of money!

You should know that last year, even with the care of his boss Meeter, he had only saved less than twenty Gold Pulton!

The sudden appearance of the huge sum gave birth to an inexplicable thought in Basum’s mind, but he quickly sobered up—he thought of his boss’s methods, those chilling methods; if he really embezzled such a huge sum, it would probably be enough to make him wish he were dead.

Although encountering that fat sheep was completely an accident, who could guarantee that the news here would not reach his boss’s ears?

You see, since knowing the purpose of this transaction, Basum had become increasingly admiring of and… fearful of his boss’s abilities.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing the fantasy in his heart, this right-hand man of ‘Wild Fox’ Meeter walked out completely from behind the tree, looking at his returning subordinate—

“How did it go?”

Basum asked with a seemingly concerned tone.

“Everything went smoothly!”

As Jack spoke, he opened the box.

Snap!

The box opened, and the gold reflected by the fire dazzled Basum’s eyes with a golden glow, making him subconsciously close his eyes for a moment.

And just at that moment, the ‘severely injured’ Sado leaped up, the Longsword in his hand bringing a cold gleam that slashed across Basum’s neck—Basum tried his best to dodge after sensing the sound of the sharp blade cutting through the air; however, facing Dean’s fully prepared strike, such a dodging movement ended before it was even one-third complete.

Pfft!

Blood sprayed out under the pressure of the trachea, and Basum fell to the ground covering his throat in disbelief; at the same time, Hidley also let out a short scream, following in Basum’s footsteps—it was Jack who struck, piercing Hidley’s heart from behind with a sword, completely according to Dean’s previous plan.

A plan to numb the opponent with Gold Pulton and Jack’s familiar face, and then catch them off guard to kill them; after all, whether it was the Crossbow in that Hidley’s hand or Basum’s own Strength, both made Dean wary—the former was enough to bind his hands and feet, making him unable to use his skilled methods at all, and the latter? That was even more dangerous; according to Jack’s description, Dean could be certain that although Basum’s Strength was quite far from a real Knight, compared to him, it was much stronger.

In a head-on battle, under normal circumstances, the chance of winning was less than twenty percent!

Although relying on his experience, Dean was confident that he could be the ultimate victor, the price he would pay was something he could not afford now; dragging a severely injured body on the road was definitely not a good choice; even if he was different from ordinary people, he could not do it.

Therefore, Dean had to choose an easier way—and fortunately, he did not lack such methods, and all the ‘props’ were very complete!

Looking at Basum who fell dead, Dean flicked the Longsword in his hand, and drops of blood fell straight into the bonfire, making a ‘hissing’ sound; amidst this sound, a white light ball the size of a little fingertip condensed from Basum’s body and flew straight into Dean’s body.

【XP+5】

A little more experience than imagined appeared on the screen that only Dean could see—

Name: Dean Ken

Age: 18 (Human Male)

Title: Apprentice Knight

Character Level: 1

XP: 5

Health: 16 (Constitution x 10)

【Attributes: Strength: 1.5, Agility: 1.6, Constitution: 1.6, Perception: 1.5, Will: 2】

(Normal adults have all attributes as: 1)

The change in XP caused another set of data to emerge:

—Talent—

None

—Class—

【Warrior Lv1: 0/88】 (Each level adds +0.2 Strength, +0.1 Constitution and Agility; every two levels adds +0.1 Perception, Will)

Basic Skills: Military Organization Lv1; Basic Swordsmanship Lv1; Riding Lv1; Swimming Lv1; Cold Weapon (Sword/Hammer/Spear): Lv1; Ranged Weapon (Bow/Crossbow): Lv1; Armor (Heavy Armor, Medium Armor, Light Armor) Suitability Lv1

Applied Skills: Military Swordsmanship Lv1 (Emerald)

(City, Goth, White Night—Incomplete)

Just like the information in his memory, except that it went straight from the original Lv20 to the current Lv1.

But, what did this count as?

Being able to start over was enough to make Dean ecstatic; let alone bringing the System from his previous life, he would be willing even if he started over naked!

After all, he clearly remembered how to get this System!

That’s right, his extraordinary System was obtained, not innate—he discovered it by accident when he killed that Vice Regiment Commander and chopped him into pieces!

Such a discovery was enough to change a life, so he spent a lot of effort investigating, tracking the origin of that special item, but found nothing.

However, the current Dean had some other thoughts—now that he had a System, was that System, hidden as a ‘constant temperature’ Magic Item in the Vice Regiment Commander’s bedroom, still there?

Once this thought appeared, it was like a blazing Flame starting to burn in Dean’s heart.

The heat in his heart caused Dean’s breathing to become rapid.

However, soon, Dean forced himself to calm down—he had not forgotten his current purpose; even if his guess was correct and the System hidden within existed, it was not something he could obtain now!

Not to mention the imminent Blood Moon War!

The power of the Bola Family alone was enough to make him powerless now; even if he returned to the Capital of Emerald regardless of everything, he could not break through the Bola Family’s defense forces; although the current Bola Family was not yet the Bola Family of history, as the Manor of the Emerald Kingdom’s Finance Vice Minister, its guard force would definitely not lack real Knights.

To face a real Knight now, he needed to plan well to have a chance of winning; let alone multiple Knights.

Once he encountered two or more Knights, no matter how much planning he did, Dean could be certain he was dead!

“Whether it’s the upcoming plan or getting rid of those guys, I need Strength! I must have enough powerful Strength!”

Dean shouted silently in his heart, and his gaze fell on the changed XP bar.

【XP: 5】

The white light ball that had just flown out of Basum’s Corpse was the XP Dean needed—a special existence that could only be obtained from people whose Strength (Level) was slightly weaker, comparable, or stronger compared to himself; and precisely because of this limitation, the Dean of the past suffered a lot.

Because Skills had the limitation of not exceeding ‘Class Level + 1’, and the increase in Class Level could gain more Attributes, achieving immediate results; so, very naturally, Dean chose the latter; and in the early stage, such an approach indeed made his Strength advance by leaps and bounds, exceeding everyone’s expectations, but with the increase in levels, he needed more and more XP, yet he could no longer obtain it!

Those opponents with comparable Strength (Level) to him, every one of them not only had physical qualities similar to his, but also had skills he could not hope to match, and even opponents slightly weaker than him had skills far surpassing his—although later, Dean discovered this problem, everything had become difficult to remedy; he could only improve in Skill through daily practice and accumulation; however, it was just a drop in the bucket; when he perished together with his enemy, his Skills had not reached the corresponding level.

Therefore, quickly increasing the Class Level was not the priority!

To truly grow, one must pay equal attention to Level and Skill—so, almost without thinking, Dean added a long-term plan: to increase the level of Skills as much as possible within the limits allowed by Character Level.

And the priority level of this long-term plan was almost equal to the plan for preparing for the Blood Moon War.

Because Dean knew very well what role a warrior who could fight a thousand enemies could play in a real war.

And the powerlessness in his memory.

Made Dean long possess the awareness of a strong person—

“Blood waters the Soul, life washes the sword in hand, I shall cleave through thorns and edges!”