NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20: (3)
One question remains: What will happen if he learns advanced swordsmanship before the ranking of
Will his current swordsmanship (D) skill increases?
Will a new skill be created? If so, what will happen to the existing skill he already has?
Until yesterday, he thought he had somewhat adapted to the player system, but it was a huge misconception. The player system is full of things he doesn’t know even when he knows some things.
“…I really miss Rieka,” he thought.
The more he thought about it, the more he remembered Rieka, the beginner’s guide. As someone who only knew chess as a game, he still desperately needed her assistance.
“Um… It seems like I’ve gone deeper than expected,” he said.
“Is Captain Kaiyan going to continue going deeper?” a soldier asked.
At that moment, the voices of the soldiers interrupted his thoughts.
He regained his composure and looked around, realizing that they were right. They had ventured quite deep.
They were somewhere around the border between the starting point and the central battlefield.
“Hmm… Let me think for a moment,” he said.
Despite his earlier determination to give up entering the central battlefield, as they approached the vicinity of the center, the desire to go further inside surged once again.
Just one more step from there, and they would be in the central battlefield. That fact kept shaking his resolve.
“Cough! Cough!”
“Are you okay?” a soldier asked.
“Hah… It’s nothing. I’m just a bit tired,” he replied.
But what worried him was the condition of the soldiers.
Even in their best physical state, the central area was dangerous, and the soldiers were already exhausted from reaching that point.
“…We’ll join the main force and follow Commander Tarien’s orders,” he decided.
After much contemplation, he decided to give up on entering the central battlefield and join the main force.
The main reason was that he didn’t want to risk their lives due to his greed.
“Besides, if I want to move further from there, I have to follow Tarien’s orders,” he thought.
Another reason was that, no matter how powerful he was, there were limits to his authority in moving the soldiers on his own.
He turned his steps back towards the main force.
Fortunately, the main force was not far away hunting monster, so it was not difficult to join them.
“Kaiyan!” Uncle Jeff greeted him as he joined the main force.
“Uncle Jeff.”
“Haha! You’re still determined to hunt monsters? Your skills are improving as the days go by,” Uncle Jeff remarked.
“I wish that were true. More importantly, how did Commander Tarien handle the situation?” Kaiyan asked.
Uncle Jeff had been moving with Tarien continuously, so Kaiyan thought he might know the direction they would be heading.
“So far, there haven’t been any specific orders. Hmm… Maybe we’ll keep going deeper like yesterday?” Uncle Jeff speculated.
The expressions of the soldiers around darkened at Uncle Jeff’s words.
“It’s highly possible,” Kaiyan agreed.
Even if they fought as cautiously as possible, the soldiers didn’t want to enter the central battlefield where they kept encountering casualties.
“And besides…”
The soldiers who were with him had relatively few casualties, but there were quite a few newcomers with Uncle Jeff who had significantly decreased in number.
That meant they were either dead or injured.
“Make way,” a deputy knight said, pushing the soldiers aside.
“Kaiyan, Jeff! Both of you, come here,” the deputy knight called.
“Yes?” Kaiyan and Uncle Jeff approached him.
“Commander Tarien wants to go further inside. You know what that means, right?” the deputy knight explained.
“Yes, I understand,” Kaiyan replied.
“As expected,” the deputy knight nodded.
As expected, Tarien had no intention of stopping there.
Although it was regrettable for the soldiers, it was a welcome command from Kaiyan’s perspective.
Just experiencing the central battlefield for a brief moment yesterday had already given him several level-ups. But to retreat from such a place…
“It’s such a pity,” Kaiyan thought.
“Everyone, we’re heading towards the center. So let’s be extra careful not to have casualties,” Kaiyan addressed the soldiers.
“Ha… The center, huh,” the soldiers muttered.
“We’ll die even sooner. I had a feeling this would happen,” some soldier said.
When Uncle Jeff conveyed the orders to the soldiers, sighs were heard all around. They desperately wanted to avoid the central battlefield, especially in their exhausted state.
“Haah… I can only trust Centurion Kaiyan,” a soldier said.
“Everyone, pull yourselves together!” another soldier shouted.
“Let’s gather together!” the soldiers started to form a group.
They didn’t have a specific formation since they hadn’t practiced or learned it, but just being together could help them avoid unnecessary deaths when facing monsters.
“Get closer…” Kaiyan encouraged.
“Haha! Charge, everyone!” Uncle Jeff rallied the soldiers.
While Uncle Jeff gathered the soldiers in one place, Tarien rode on his black horse, rushing towards the center with the knights.
“Haah…” Kaiyan let out a sigh as he watched them.
It was typical of Tarien. Kaiyan had noticed it when Tarien ran off on his own on the first day, but he didn’t expect him to act this way in the current situation.
Seeing the tense expressions on the soldiers’ faces, it seemed like some action was needed.
“It must be tough for all of you… But let’s go! Even if we let that bastard, sorry, that guy die, we won’t receive the promised reward, right?” Kaiyan said.
It was supposed to be a motivational speech, but the surroundings became strangely silent.
“You…” a soldier spoke up.
“Captain Kaiyan…”
“…Did I go overboard?” Kaiyan wondered.
The soldiers’ response was a bit ambiguous, and he started to regret making such an exaggerated joke to ease their tension.
He thought he should have said something else when suddenly…
“Wahaha! That’s right! I haven’t received the most important money yet, so I can’t let him die!”
“Yeah, let’s go! Save that bastard!”
“Let’s go! Kill or be killed!”
The soldiers, who had looked weary just moments ago, cheered loudly and rushed towards the central battlefield.
“…That’s a relief,” Kaiyan thought.
After they left, he finally regained his composure.
“I can’t be late. These experience points are mine,” he said with a smile on his face as he watched the soldiers running.
He sprinted towards the central battlefield, making sure not to be left behind.