First Battle

After accepting the mission, Ronan opened his eyes and carefully turned his head to look at the positions of the corpse collection soldiers. They were in groups of two, spaced tens of meters apart. One group was slowly walking towards Ronan's location.

These corpse collection soldiers were all lower-ranking Eagle soldiers, essentially formed from farmers conscripted by the lord. However, they were not to be underestimated. The Eagle Kingdom survived on hunting and herding, and everyone could basically use a hunting bow and a saber. These two weapons were standard issue for the Eagle Kingdom. Coupled with a life spent on horseback on the plains, every Eagle herder could be a warrior and a rider. This was also why they had been able to defeat the Gaoling troops in the previous battle.

The two Eagle soldiers approaching Ronan wore the standard Eagle fur hats and leather armor, carried hunting bows, had sabers at their waists, and were rummaging through the piles of corpses with wooden sticks. Occasionally, they would finish off anyone who hadn't died yet with a dagger.

As the soldier closest to Ronan looked up to stretch, he suddenly saw Ronan lying on the ground. He was immediately drawn to Ronan's armor, which was out of place with his surroundings.

"Hey, this person's armor is really special. I've never seen anything like it before. Come over and take a look."

"He's probably a mercenary. What's so special about it? Let's quickly see if he has anything valuable on him. We need to finish cleaning up the battlefield so we can catch up with the main force."

The soldiers in the distance heard their voices and looked over. Two of them even walked over to take a look.

Ronan was startled when he realized he had been discovered, but he could only remain still, his right hand quietly reaching for the hilt of his saber. As the four soldiers approached Ronan and poked him with their wooden sticks, Ronan suddenly erupted. He grabbed the ankle of the closest soldier with his left hand and pulled him to the ground.

Simultaneously, he kicked another soldier away and quickly got to his feet with a carp flip. He drew his saber and blocked a saber attack from the front. With his left hand, he grabbed the soldier's collar and flung him towards another soldier.

Taking advantage of their unstable footing after colliding, he stomped heavily on the head of the soldier he had just pulled down, who was struggling to get up, and knocked him down again.

He then dodged sideways to avoid a saber strike aimed at his neck from the soldier he had kicked away earlier. At the same time, he held his saber with both hands and, while dodging, slashed upwards. The sharp blade sliced through the soldier's abdomen. The leather armor offered little protection, and he was directly disemboweled by Ronan's strike, falling to his knees clutching his stomach.

Ronan then brought his saber down, decapitating him. Feeling a gust of wind from behind, Ronan immediately ducked, evading a sweeping attack aimed at his neck. Then, taking advantage of the soldier's unstable stance after missing, he thrust his saber upwards. A spray of blood splattered onto Ronan's helmet. The soldier was impaled from the chin, dying on the spot.

"Ding, Achievement System unlocked."

The soldiers in the distance had also noticed the commotion around Ronan. Some drew their sabers and charged, while others unslung their hunting bows and aimed at Ronan. Their leader, Amuda Canglang, ran to his horse first, seemingly preparing to flee if things went south.

By this time, the remaining two soldiers beside Ronan had already been killed by him. The soldier who was knocked down first never managed to get back up.

Having dealt with the four soldiers, Ronan didn't have time to check the system messages. He quickly looked towards the other soldiers. The moment he saw the soldiers nocking arrows, Ronan immediately rolled to dodge the incoming arrows. While rolling, he picked up a shield and then charged towards the archers, crouching and holding the shield.

The two soldiers who had drawn their sabers and charged at Ronan blocked his path to the archers. Seeing them, Ronan directly smashed his shield into the leftmost soldier. As that soldier raised his saber to block, Ronan spun around, parried the incoming saber strike, and although they blocked Ronan's charge, they also blocked the archers' line of fire. The two archers, seeing this, had no choice but to drop their hunting bows and draw their sabers to go and support them.

However, halfway there, they changed their minds and turned to run towards their horses because the two soldiers Ronan had been fighting had already been decapitated.

Seeing them flee, Ronan took a hunting bow from the soldier he had just decapitated, nocked an arrow, and drew it to its full extent, aiming at the two fleeing soldiers. With two swift shots, Ronan accurately hit the two soldiers. Afterward, Ronan walked over and finished off the two soldiers who were groaning on the ground.

As for their leader, Ronan no longer wished to pursue him, as he had already fled on horseback when he saw that things were not going well, and his whereabouts were now unknown.

"Mission complete. Rewards have been issued to your inventory."

"Congratulations on leveling up. Current level LV2 (80/300). You have gained one free attribute point and one general skill point."

Ronan casually allocated the attribute and skill points to Strength and Powerful Strike. He intended to become a well-rounded and outstanding youth, so he chose to increase his attack power first, even though the Great Serpent template provided initial attributes oriented toward agility.

Furthermore, through the system prompts, Ronan discovered that he actually had an inventory. His inventory had thirty slots, and each slot could only hold one type of item. This meant Ronan could not place all his equipment in a single slot; each piece would occupy one slot. Each slot was one cubic meter in size. Currently, besides the ten gold coins he had just obtained, his inventory was empty. Gold coins did not occupy slots.

"So I'm this strong? If I had known, why would I have been so sneaky? I should have just gotten up and fought them."

Perhaps it was due to the experience of the Great Serpent template, but for his first kill, Ronan felt neither discomfort nor excitement. It was as if he had merely completed a task.

He placed the two hunting bows and arrows into his inventory. He walked over to the horses left behind by the Eagle corpse collection team. Ronan searched the luggage on the horses and found some water, dry rations, some copper coins, and some daily necessities. He put all the useful items into his inventory. Ronan didn't delay any further, choosing a horse he liked and mounting it. After all, Ronan didn't know how long the Eagle main force had been gone. If the fleeing leader found the main force and brought troops back to find him, it would be troublesome.

He definitely couldn't go in the direction of Gaoling. Heading that way would surely lead him to run into the Eagle main force, which would be no different from delivering himself. If he went in the direction of the Eagles, Ronan didn't know if they would send a message via carrier pigeon to put out a warrant for him. To be safe, he couldn't go that way.

After much thought, it seemed the only path was to head north through Ravenwood Forest to other kingdoms. Although Ravenwood Forest was very dangerous, Ronan was very confident in his current abilities.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the fleeing Amuda Canglang had caught up with the main force. He entered the tent in the center of the camp and reported Ronan's situation to the clan leader of the Wolf Clan.

Not long after, a team of about a dozen elite cavalrymen emerged from the camp and headed straight for the Torrent Plains battlefield. Leading them was none other than Amuda Canglang.