Hero's Water

Inside Marquis Prague's castle, the King sat opposite dozens of nobles and the nobles of the Wilderness Alliance, with Harrot and other knights standing behind their respective lords.

The nobles of the Wilderness Alliance were somewhat puzzled as to why the King was there.

Marquis Prague was a legendary powerhouse, qualified to be promoted to Grand Duke and establish a duchy, so he wouldn't give the King any face.

The only way the King could stop the Wilderness Alliance's eastward expedition was to declare war, but facing a legendary Marquis Prague, even winning would result in heavy casualties. It was better to let them go east and develop new lands.

The King looked at the tense assembly and said, "I'm not here to stop you. On the contrary, I represent the Kingdom of Lucanir in offering you aid and supporting your pioneering efforts!"

Marquis Prague, as the leader of the Wilderness Alliance, asked, "Support? How will you support us? Haven't you always been against developing new lands?"

The King gave a wry smile. "Would my opposition be useful? You have legs; once you've made up your minds, my obstruction is useless!"

"My opposition to you also had its considerations. Humans are not a strong race! The natives of the Eastern lands are by no means easy to deal with. Rushing to develop new lands carelessly could even endanger the entire kingdom!"

Prague replied, "So we should just be cowards? The number of nobles in the kingdom has been decreasing for hundreds of years. This land doesn't have the herbs needed to make Hero's Water. We can't stay here forever!"

Upon hearing this, the King offered a very generous promise: "I can appeal to the Elves in the name of the Kingdom of Lucanir, and I can also help you contact the Dwarves. You can invite them to help develop the new territories in exchange for minerals from those lands!"

"I will summon the Sun Priest from our country to go with you. Finally, I will provide basic supplies to you free of charge!"

Marquis Prague was incredibly excited after hearing this. The success rate of developing new lands would greatly increase. He excitedly said, "Why didn't you say so earlier? Tell me, what are your conditions?"

The King pulled out a scroll of parchment and read its contents, "After establishing a new country, all of you must relinquish your territories in Lucanir and sign an alliance treaty with the Kingdom of Lucanir!"

"No problem, that's what we intended anyway. What else?"

"If you discover herbs for making Hero's Water, you must sell a portion to us!"

"Alright, but if there are no such herbs, there's nothing I can do. Is that all?"

The King added, "One last point, you must share a portion of the land you acquire through pioneering with us!"

Marquis Prague immediately reacted to this condition, remaining silent for a moment before scoffing, "So that's the crucial part! You don't send people or contribute effort, just help us contact the Elves and Dwarves, and send some supplies, and you expect a share?"

"Forget about it! We go risking our lives, and you sit back and divide the land? Do you take us for lowly mercenaries?"

Marquis Prague glared at the King, his face full of anger. He absolutely could not accept the King's condition.

The King persuaded, "We can discuss the exact amount of land. You can also propose other support you might want!"

Prague waved his hand, directly refusing, "No need to discuss. If you want new land, come and develop it with us. Otherwise, it's off the table. And let me warn you, dare to trespass and harass the Eastern Province again, and expect war to break out!"

The negotiation broke down. The King held up the parchment in his hand and said, "This condition remains valid. When you hit a wall and return, we can talk again!"

The King left with a group of nobles. They had completely given up on stopping the pioneering, and instead were thinking about how to profit from it.

Humans were not a powerful race; only a very small number of nobles and knights possessed powerful extraordinary abilities. Ordinary soldiers and commoners were very weak compared to other races.

It wasn't easy to expand territory in the Eastern lands; otherwise, the kingdom would have already organized an expedition to develop them.

However, with the legendary Marquis Prague, there was still a chance to secure a foothold.

Many nobles in the kingdom intended for Marquis Prague and his group to establish a forward base, then they would carve out a piece of land, send troops to reinforce it, and seize more territory.

If Marquis Prague failed and was repelled by the natives of the Eastern lands, they wouldn't suffer any losses. Instead, they could take the opportunity to annex Marquis Prague's Eastern Province.

Marquis Prague was, of course, aware of what these nobles were planning. He certainly couldn't agree. If he gave them even a little bit of territory, a large portion of the future gains from pioneering would likely be encroached upon!

All the nobles supported Marquis Prague, shouting for the King and his ideas to go to hell. Marcus, however, had a new idea.

Marcus suggested, "Although we don't accept the King's conditions, we can contact the Elves and Dwarves ourselves! With their involvement, our pioneering journey will be much smoother!"

Marquis Prague did not accept Marcus's suggestion, refusing, "Let's first see how difficult it is to develop the Eastern lands, and what race controls them. We'll see if we can conquer them ourselves. If not, then we'll call for reinforcements!"

Marquis Prague was quite confident after breaking through to the legendary realm. There were only two legendary powerhouses in all three human kingdoms: Grand Duke Lance of the Kingdom of Qiat, and himself.

He indeed had reason to be confident. Marcus wisely kept quiet and no longer brought up the alliance, as he was not in a position to dictate to Marquis Prague.

Furthermore, the Kingdom of Lucanir was a pure human nation, and the nobles, including Marcus himself, were reluctant to establish a mixed nation with demi-humans.

The other nobles of the kingdom did not interfere with the pioneering efforts, but they also showed no intention of providing any support. It was as if the entire Eastern Province had detached itself from Lucanir.

Harrot successfully finished reading the entire book Muscles and Strength. In addition to the basic effect of +1 Strength, he also gained two skills.

[Power]: Strength increased by 10%, Agility decreased by 10%.
[Muscle Burst]: Overload and burst strength for a short time. Strength increased by +50%. Can only be used once per day.

Harrot had not allocated skill points or attribute points after leveling up to 8. His Strength had increased to 28 from reading, and with the boost from the skill [Power], it rose to 31 points. His Agility decreased to 13 points.

The reason Harrot didn't spend his points was that his current strength was already considerable. One or two points in Strength, Agility, or one or two levels in skills like [Strong Strike] or [Running] wouldn't significantly increase his power.

Instead, he valued the Intelligence and Charisma skills that he had previously overlooked.

The Intelligence skill [Inventory Management] could increase his inventory by 6 slots. Currently, three of these 6 slots were occupied by two books and a Sun Orb of unknown use.

Only three slots were indeed not enough. One slot each for food, drink, and treasure would fill it up. He also wanted to put in spare armor and weapons.

Additionally, [Trainer] was very useful. [Trainer] could help his 8 unit members level up faster and learn combat techniques from him.

Especially the five knight attendants; once they leveled up again and became [Northern Rogue Knight]s, their Strength and Agility would surge to 20+ points, making their combat power stronger than that of ordinary extraordinary knights.

[Leadership] and [Trade], both associated with Charisma, also had their uses. Especially now that he had superiors and subordinates, both [Trainer] and [Leadership] were very important.

Leveling up was becoming increasingly difficult, so valuable skill points couldn't be used casually. Harrot was even prepared to put his attribute points into Intelligence to convert them into skill points if absolutely necessary.

So, Harrot saved his attribute and skill points, planning to allocate them as needed. If an emergency arose, he could still assign them to combat aspects in time.

He also took the opportunity to ask Marcus about the Hero's Water.

Marcus called Harrot and the other knights aside and told them about the secrets of the Hero's Water and noble bloodlines, asking them to keep it confidential.

Noble bloodlines originated from heroic ancestors, but these ancestors weren't born heroes; humans are naturally frail and possess minimal strength.

To compensate for this weakness, ancient humans formulated and invented a potion called Hero's Water.

After drinking it, humans could fully unleash their physical potential and gain immense power. However, there was a severe side effect: they would die of exhaustion 12 hours after consuming the potion.

But if the person who drank the potion could complete a heroic feat within those 12 hours and receive the Sun's Blessing, they would not only avoid death but also gain powerful supernatural abilities, undergo a bloodline transformation, and become a hero. Their descendants would then inherit the Heroic Bloodline.

Marcus also recounted the story of his ancestor, Elvin.

Elvin was originally a warrior from a human tribe. A nearby volcano constantly erupted irregularly, causing great suffering to the people.

Guided by a prophet, Elvin learned that a powerful Flame Demon resided within the volcano, and its frequent bursts of power were causing the eruptions.

Elvin drank the Hero's Water and set out to conquer the Flame Demon. After a bitter struggle, he relied on luck and courage to slay the Flame Demon, receiving the Sun's Blessing and becoming Hero Elvin, gaining the supernatural power of fire!

Harrot and the others were thrilled to hear this. No wonder nobles were so arrogant; they certainly had reason to be, with ancestors who were extraordinary human heroes!

According to Marcus, even after drinking the Hero's Water, Elvin's strength was far inferior to the Flame Demon's. Such a warrior, who could overcome a stronger opponent through tenacious struggle, was truly a hero!

The Bald Man, in particular, was excited, already imagining himself finding the ingredients for Hero's Water in the East, concocting the potion, drinking it, and then challenging Dragons to become a hero.

The ancestors of every noble family were heroes. The power of the Heroic Bloodline had certain limitations; typically, only one person in each generation of a family could awaken their bloodline.

It was very rare for two brothers from the same generation, like Marcus, to both awaken their bloodline. This represented the proliferation and prosperity of the bloodline. However, there were also many instances where an entire generation of a family had no awakened individuals, leading to the complete exhaustion of their bloodline and their descent into commoner status.

When the Kingdom of Lucanir was first founded, there were 133 noble families. Now, fewer than 100 remain, and several of those are offshoots from the same family, like Marcus's.

If this trend continued, with no new nobles emerging, the noble bloodlines would eventually vanish entirely. Therefore, Marquis Prague's pioneering efforts were not just for ambition and adventure, but also a necessity for the development of humanity.