Slaughter or Divine Favor

Seventeen points of Strength versus a thirteen-year-old boy's six was enough for a crushing advantage. With 220 points of Weapon Proficiency in polearms, he was even close to rivaling Sir Davis Tevalin himself.

This was absolutely beyond the comprehension of a young squire whose Weapon Proficiency was probably not even sixty. It was skill, experience, and overwhelming superiority!

This truly was not arrogance.

Using the horse's momentum and its rising and falling motion, the light lance tucked beneath his left arm needed no guidance at all. A simple outward twist of his palm knocked aside the young man's full-force downward chop, which had turned his face red with strain!

"Clang—splat!"

The spearhead, one foot and two inches long, let the young squire experience just how cold steel could be.

In an instant, the young man was pierced through the chest and flung high into the air by inertia, while the two swords swung at each other had only just made contact.

"King—"

Sword passed, men separated. In that hasty exchange, the two had actually fought to a draw, while Ergons Tevalin was now less than five meters away from Sir Davis Tevalin.

Sir Davis Tevalin absurdly saw contempt on the face of the boy who had a squire's corpse skewered on his lance. The knight angrily drew his sword, intending to personally teach this ignorant brat a lesson.

But he had no chance!

"CTRL+F4!"

Ergons seemed to point his sword from horseback, and Sir Davis Tevalin was automatically knocked unconscious.

The squire knight whose wrist had gone numb from the shock was still twisting around in his saddle, waiting to see how Sir Davis Tevalin would defeat Ergons.

Yet he had unexpectedly witnessed such an absurd scene with his own eyes.

"This..."

However, something even more absurd happened. The moment Sir Davis Tevalin collapsed, a gong rang out, and a burst of golden light inexplicably emerged from Ergons Tevalin's body.

He leveled up!

The previous night, he had used all five remaining Level 1 commands to knock out the guards stationed at key locations in Tevalinburg. Every time he knocked one out, he slit his throat.

During the process, he had also forcefully killed six Level 3 soldiers and two Level 2 soldiers. Combined with his arson and escape from Tevalinburg, the system had actually judged it as a campaign victory.

That had allowed him to accumulate nearly enough experience to level up.

So after knocking out Sir Davis Tevalin, he leveled up immediately.

He added one free Attribute point to Intelligence. Because his Intelligence had increased, he gained another free Skill point, and he put both Skill points into Weapon Mastery.

Then came two more uses of CTRL+W, increasing all Weapon Proficiency twice.

His Weapon Proficiency had indeed reached its limit again. Throughout the process, his body crackled as he grew taller, while his bones and muscles expanded, becoming even stronger...

The squire knight had seen and heard that entire process firsthand.

That was also why, during those thirty seconds, even though Ergons Tevalin had his back turned toward him, he had not dared step forward.

Level: 23

Health: 53

Attributes:

Strength: 17

Agility: 15

Intelligence: 5

Charisma: 6

Skills:

Iron Bones: 1

Power Strike: 2

Power Draw: 1

Riding: 3

Weapon Mastery: 2

Weapon Proficiency:

One-Handed: 430

Two-Handed: 410

Polearms: 420

Archery: 300

Throwing: 300

Firearms: 300

Cheat Commands:

Level 1 Function Commands: 3

Level 2 Function Commands: 4

The experience he had gained during those thirty seconds was truly precious. Although his immediate combat power did not seem to have increased at all.

But the process had definitely raised the limits of his talent and increased his combat experience. And now, he had a perfect test subject.

Three hundred points in Throwing would definitely not be considered weak even among the top-tier troops of every nation in Mount & Blade Warband.

Ergons weighed the light lance in his hand, with a man still impaled on it, then turned his horse and threw it with the twisting force of the motion.

"Whoosh!"

Before the squire knight could understand what was happening, a huge black shadow flashing with silver light had already smashed toward him.

But he was no pushover. He pressed the reins to turn his horse's head, then leaned backward with the movement.

He actually dodged the massive javelin.

But there was no time to celebrate. Ergons had already ridden up.

His sword had been sheathed, and the Heavywing Mace he drew from behind his waist smashed viciously into the squire knight's forehead before he could recover.

"Bang!"

With a sound both crisp and dull, the squire knight tumbled from his horse as well.

"Some warriors in your party can be upgraded."

Along with a gong, a prompt appeared on the party screen. When he entered it, all six farmers had a + symbol beside them for upgrades.

Ergons Tevalin had not yet figured out how to explain their ability to be upgraded when the five farmers in his line of sight had already fallen to their knees.

Some of them cried out words like "Divine Favor" and "Divine Grace" as they repeatedly kowtowed to Ergons.

Clearly, they had seen the abnormality surrounding Ergons when he leveled up. But they seemed to have already imagined an explanation they could accept.

The distant clatter of hooves carried Old Servant Adam's furious shout. "What are you useless fools standing around for? Hurry up and gather the horses! Strip all the armor off that prisoner, tie him up, and bring the corpses too."

The horse arrived with his words, and Ergons also learned from the system that upgrading soldiers cost no money, though equipment did.

Fortunately, money was what he lacked least at the moment.

All six farmers upgraded, yet only five sets of equipment were required, because Adamson's armor and horse were far more valuable than a Tervalin recruit's gear.

Golden light suddenly burst from the six busy young men, startling them into standing perfectly still like clay statues.

Knowledge and experience flooded into their minds, while the system's upgrade strengthened their bodies. The enhancement was visible to the naked eye.

The changes were especially earth-shattering for the five barely cobbled-together adult men. Though they were loyal to Tervain Village, full loyalty and morale did not mean they possessed the basic qualifications to become warriors.

When the swirling golden light faded, they discovered that their ragged clothing had vanished!

They now wore uniform brown leather robes and white padded cotton helmets. The wooden clubs tucked into their belts had gained a ring of sharp spikes at the end, turning them into spiked clubs.

Their straw sandals had become leather boots. Each of them had a simple fan-shaped shield on his back, and a hunting crossbow hung at the rear of one side of his waist...

The five farmers lost it!

They immediately dropped to their knees again and kowtowed furiously to Ergons Tevalin. In their simple understanding, they too had become recipients of Divine Favor.

At the very least, they were retainers of someone blessed by the gods—figures recorded in epics and myths!

Old Servant Adam looked at their changes, then at his son, who also seemed to have grown stronger. He was not envious of the divine weapons these men had received.

That was also why such a steady man as Old Servant Adam had been willing to agree to the young master's wildly fantastical plan.

Ergons had believed his movements were concealed, but they could not escape the eyes of a Veteran Tervalin Archer.

"Uncle Adam, seventeen bandits are waiting in ambush three miles ahead of us. With our current strength, can we wipe them all out?"

"Absolutely!"

Old Servant Adam did not ask why the young master could see enemies lying in ambush three miles away, just as he had not asked where young master Ergons's divine gift had come from.

Four generations of loyalty to House Tervalin made Old Adam feel nothing but delight at the family's growing strength.

"However, the area around us is all open ground. If we approach them openly, that will be a problem. We have the strength to destroy them, but we do not have the opportunity to fight them."

Old Servant Adam spoke very cautiously. "I wonder, Young Master, can that ability of yours that allows instant movement take other people with you?"

Only then did Ergons realize that what he had thought was a tightly concealed operation had long since been noticed by someone observant.

"Of course that ability can take people with me. It works on the party in the first place."