420 experience points.
Golden light gathered in midair, forming a thin stream that flowed into Brando's body. Looking at the wrecked battlefield, he could not help feeling weak all over as he leaned against a rock and sat down. That had been a Level 22 monster. Even counting his commoner status, he was only Level 6 himself. Killing a monster fourteen levels higher than him was something he would never have dared attempt even in the game.
But the pressure of survival had forced him to do it. His original plan had been to lure the adult Withered Beast beneath the rocks, wait for Freya to attack, and then seize the chance to escape. The opportunity had been too difficult to grasp. Even in the game, few people would have dared do such a thing. After all, that had been an entire level's worth of experience.
He had not felt much when making the decision, but now that he thought back on it, waves of fear washed over him, leaving his back cold. His last bit of confidence had supported the calm answers he gave Freya and Roman, so they would not worry too much. Only Brando himself knew what state he was really in.
He felt as if he had been running on borrowed courage. Yet without realizing it, he had grown amid such extreme circumstances.
It was not just him. Freya was the same. Just a few days ago, she had been nothing more than a simple militiawoman, but now she clearly had decisions of her own.
He slowly calmed himself down. The battle in the canyon had been a rare windfall for him. The 420 experience points were incredibly important to him now, no different from timely help in a snowstorm. His most urgent task was naturally to increase his strength. Raising his Mercenary level to 4 required 70 experience points, Level 5 required 130, and Level 6 required 220. According to the game's settings, reaching Level 5 would unlock a second class skill.
Mercenary Level 4 (0.3 Strength, 0.2 Constitution, 0.2 Agility, 0.1 Perception) Mercenary Level 5 (0.3 Strength, 0.3 Constitution, 0.2 Agility, 0.1 Willpower) Mercenary Level 6 (0.4 Strength, 0.3 Constitution, 0.2 Agility, 0.2 Perception)
When he leveled up, rows of data indicating his Attribute changes streamed across the light screen projected onto his retina. At Mercenary Level 3, his physical Attributes had been 2.5 Energy Levels of Strength, 2.3 Energy Levels of Agility, and 2.4 Energy Levels of Constitution. Upon reaching Level 6, his physical Attributes had grown to 3.5 Energy Levels of Strength, 2.9 Energy Levels of Agility, and 3.2 Energy Levels of Constitution.
In other words, his physical capabilities had comprehensively surpassed those of an ordinary person by three times, while his Absolute Strength exceeded twenty-five times that of an ordinary person. Relying on strength alone and ignoring his experience, Brando could now easily defeat the entire Buchi Militia squad from the past. Taking his experience bonuses into account, even a Guard Detachment of the same size would gain no advantage against him.
This was first-level strength.
Even Bresen, the deputy captain of Buchi's Guard Detachment, had needed to be on horseback to barely reach first-level strength. Yet even so, the veteran Maden still considered him a genius. After all, Bresen was only twenty years old this year. With his youth and talent, perhaps one day he could reach the rank of a Lily Knight. In a sense, he was already a pillar of the kingdom.
And Brando was a year younger than him.
If the original Brando had been here, he would never have believed that he could reach this point in just three days. Of ten ordinary people, half would be unable to break through to first-level strength in their entire lives.
Those who accomplished it before the age of twenty were fewer still—only one or two in ten.
But Brando knew this was not enough. Among the newborns baptized each year at the Temple of Flames, he knew there were many who broke through to first-level strength from birth. These were the so-called natural nobles—the Awakened.
Not to mention the rare people who broke through to second-level strength from birth, the so-called Chosen.
As for those with knightly talent—players counted as this type as well—they were even more numerous. This was a world that revered strength. Brando understood that if he wanted to stand out, he had to make good use of his advantage. And what was his advantage? It was the power granted to him by another world.
The skill unlocked after Mercenary Level 5 was Power Burst. It consumed three times as much stamina for the next action in exchange for a one-Energy-Level Strength bonus.
This was the Mercenary class's primary offensive skill in the early stages, so Brando naturally would not be stingy with it. He now had 150 skill experience points. Even raising this skill to Level 6 would use only a third of them—55 points. After reaching Level 6, the skill would become an instant four-Energy-Level Strength bonus, allowing him to barely reach the mid-stage of first-level strength during its burst.
He naturally used the remaining skill points to improve Military Swordsmanship and Grappling Techniques. He also put the remaining 6 class experience points into Militia, allowing that class to advance smoothly to Level 3. This raised both his Strength and Constitution by another 0.2 Energy Levels.
This was why so many people in the game had been willing to endure experience penalties to train in multiple classes. In the early stages, the experience returns from multiclassing were far greater than those from specializing. Brando naturally agreed with this as well. However, everything had its limits. Those who had crazily taken multiple classes back then had not escaped the consequences.
After all, once one entered the third level of strength and underwent Element Awakening, the benefits provided by class adjustments became far less obvious.
His total level was 10. Brando could not help closing his eyes and letting out a long breath. Withered Beasts were now nothing more than experience deliveries to him. If he had not been in a hurry to take the letter to Ridenburg, he really would have liked to farm some experience around the outskirts of Xavier Mountain Pass. In at most half a month, he could reach Level 15. Unfortunately, there was clearly no time for that now.
He narrowed his eyes again. In the distance, some shadows of Withered Beasts began to appear in the canyon. Those shrub monsters watched this side from across the valley—of course, they actually had no vision. The earlier commotion must have alarmed them.
Brando quietly picked up the sword lying beside him. He was certainly not afraid of these things. But being entangled with them would be troublesome. Roman's aunt was still in the city, and they and Madara's army were both racing against time to reach Ridenburg. At that moment, he suddenly remembered the Seal Ring Maden had given him. He could not help taking the ring bearing the black pine-leaf emblem from his pocket and examining it—but then the young man thought of something and could not help giving a cold laugh.
That veteran of the November War had not understood this point either. Buchi was, after all, arguably the most important buffer zone in this direction along the Vanmir–Ridenburg defense line. Ever since the Year of Thunder, the kingdom's central government had been preparing to establish a complete defensive line here.
But carrying out government orders was sometimes not as simple as it seemed. Because of a lack of funding and embezzlement along the way, repairing Vanmir Fortress and establishing Ridenburg had already been the limit of the project. As for an early-warning system in the buffer zone, those nobles had never considered one at all.
As long as Ridenburg and Vanmir Fortress remained in their hands, they could live well enough. As for the countryside outside, Madara did not invade every year, did it?
Although the kingdom still had subjects like Freya, Bresen, and Maden who fought for the country, the fact that Eluin had already grown old and feeble remained. The rotten upper class was destroying the kingdom from its very foundations. Buchi was actually an exception. Brando knew that everywhere else, one could see signs that this kingdom was heading toward its end.
He could not help sighing as he looked east. The eastern sky seemed to be covered by layers of dark clouds, and even the morning sunlight had dimmed. A nation in the darkness was rising there.
"Brando, your ring."
Brando turned around and saw Freya looking at him with bright eyes. He could not help joking, "Does it look good?"
"You—" The Ponytail Girl's face flushed scarlet. She turned her head and saw Roman sitting on the slope above them, grinning at them.
"Roman, you idiot!"
"What did I do?" the merchant heiress asked blankly.
Brando smiled. He naturally knew that Freya was merely taking out her frustration on Roman. He put on the Wind Queen Ring, then touched the Fate Card in his clothes. Although he had never seen this thing before, he knew it was currently his greatest trump card.
Even ten minutes in a second-level strength state would be enough to accomplish many things—such as killing the Golden Demon Tree.
With the Fate Card, he revised his plans. The Golden Demon Tree's drops were simply too tempting. Fortune favored the bold; every bit of extra strength he gained here would give him another bit of assurance in Ridenburg. Besides, killing the Golden Demon Tree was not like farming monsters. It would not take that much time, and it was on the way.
He estimated that he had about eight hours left, which was more than enough. However, if he could obtain another Soul Crystal before then, his success would be even more certain. After all, making the holy sword attack required paying with Earth Element.
He had even considered whether he should unlock his Elemental Pool. But taking on Elemental Envoy or Magic Swordsman as a secondary class just for a magical item with a 40 Oz Strength level did not seem worthwhile. Classes were best connected to one another so they could provide mutual bonuses. Elemental Envoy, Magic Swordsman, and Sun Knight each formed their own systems, making it difficult for them to benefit a warrior class. In Brando's mind, he had always treated Mercenary as a warrior class. After all, the two classes seemed fairly similar in the early stages, and even their innate skills were exactly the same.
The only thing left was the quest for Elemental Soul, which opened the Elemental Pool for ordinary people. But he did not know whether this world had a similar quest.
Of course, those were distant matters. He had no time to think about them now. There was still some distance between here and the Forbidden Orchard, but heading there in a straight line would still save him more than two hours. He intended to spend those two hours clearing out monsters and seeing whether he could find another Elite Withered Beast. That was Brando's goal.
With that thought, he stood up, patted Freya on the shoulder as she glared at him, and said to the two ladies, "All right, we've rested enough. Let's get moving."
Unfortunately, the gesture he had intended to reassure her, combined with Freya's instinctive step backward, caused his hand to pat a place it should not have touched—the sensation was quite pleasant, and even through a layer of metal scale armor, he could feel the soft elasticity.
The atmosphere froze in an instant.
Brando watched as the face of their future Valkyrie first flushed burning red, then turned pale, and finally darkened. He was just about to explain himself when a sword hilt came swinging viciously toward him—
"Shameless bastard!"
"Wait, I didn't mean to—ow!"
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