They don't want me to try anymore.

Richard quickly explained, "I'm just so glad that you haven't grown distant from me because of the two years we've been apart. That's wonderful."

"Of course!"

The girl put her hands on her hips, her cherry lips slightly upturned, and her face slightly flushed.

At that moment, Katyusha came in carrying tea and snacks.

Zoe raised a thin eyebrow, her expression wary: "What's Katyusha doing here?"

As a former resident of the royal palace, she knew the maid.

"Aunt Caroline has retired, and now she is my personal maid."

"Personal maid?"

Zoe's eyes widened suddenly.

Half a day later, she lowered her head slightly, her face ashen, and muttered to herself, "So that's how it is. Cousin Richard has also reached the age where he must bear an heir for the royal family. Hmm, it's reasonable to use maids to gain experience first..."

puff!

Richard spat out the black tea he had just taken a sip of, grinned, and said, "Who taught you to say that? Besides, Katyusha and I are completely innocent, and I have a clear conscience!"

"Really?"

The girl's eyes regained their sparkle, and she glanced at Katyusha, who remained expressionless as usual. As if she had received some kind of confirmation, she grabbed Richard's arm.

"That's great!"

Uh, I always feel like the "good" you see is not what I mean...

But Richard's thoughts were immediately interrupted by Zoe's next words:

"By the way, Richard, is there any sequel to the story you told about the Western quest for the magic book?"

What Western... Oh, it's my messed-up Journey to the West!

Richard recalled that two years ago, in order to amuse the children, he had indeed often adapted and recounted stories from his past life.

But after Zoe left, he stopped doing that—he didn't make a living from it, and he'd rather use his time to learn magic.

In other words, he stood us up early!

So at this moment, facing Zoe Kong's predatory gaze, which she had waited two long years for, he was somewhat overwhelmed.

suddenly.

A faint but significant magical fluctuation emanated from afar.

Richard, having determined that they were heading towards the training grounds, immediately changed the subject: "Your guards seem to be sparring with the teacher. Let's go take a look!"

"Uh... okay, alright."

Without saying a word, Richard dragged the girl to the training ground.

This is an open space in front of a small hill, surrounded by a fence. It is about the size of a playground, with some weapons and wooden figures placed along the edge.

In the center of the open space, the man from before was kneeling on one knee, panting heavily, while a middle-aged man with disheveled hair, dressed in a green robe, stood smiling in front of him.

"He has made great progress in technique, but his style has become a bit reckless."

Seeing Richard and Zoe arrive, the middle-aged man nodded again: "Your senses are quite sharp."

"Thank you for the compliment."

“No need to be so modest. You’ve come at the perfect time. Richard, why don’t you have a match with him?”

"Hey?"

Megan grinned mischievously. "My student has gotten a bit arrogant after not seeing him for two years. You can come and put him to the test."

"Teacher, you overestimate me." Richard was both amused and exasperated to have been given a task that would offend someone for no reason.

The guard also stood up, frowning slightly: "Your Highness Richard should be a beginner in the Bronze realm, right? I'm already an advanced level. Master, you're making things difficult for me."

The implication was that the guard didn't think Richard could be his match.

That's not exactly impolite.

From Iron to Gold, each of these four tiers is further subdivided into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The so-called Silver Peak actually refers to the advanced Silver level.

Generally speaking, if two professional fighters are only one rank apart, the outcome is still uncertain. However, if they are two ranks apart or even a whole rank apart, then there will definitely be a level advantage.

Megan shook her head: "You're arrogant and you still don't believe me? You'll know once you've been hit."

Under the teacher's authority, both sides, though unwilling, stood in the center of the training field.

"Your Highness, I'm offended."

The guard bowed, then picked up a wooden sword from the side and held it upright in front of him.

Richard instantly recognized it as the starting stance of the standard officer swordsmanship of the Roland Empire.

Looks like he's a full-time swordsman.

He returned the greeting and picked up a cheap wooden training staff, waving it around.

Accompanied by a magic circle that appeared out of nowhere, a three-meter-tall tree-man emerged from it.

"Huh? Richard used a summoning spell first?" Zoe asked from the sidelines, puzzled.

Meghan explained, "Because of his exceptional talent for long-range communication, His Highness began the process of transitioning to a Summoner last year."

"Amazing……"

In ancient times, this world only had two major professions: mages and warriors.

As times have progressed, the two types of professions have become increasingly subdivided, giving rise to many sub-categories, such as thieves, knights, or swordsmen under the warrior category, and druids, alchemists, or necromancers under the mage category.

To put it simply, a summoner is a sub-discipline of a mage.

This profession demands a high level of mental fortitude, rapport with other ethnic groups, and talent for cross-disciplinary communication.

Perhaps because of his transmigrator identity, Richard was indeed quite talented in this area, so he decisively changed jobs.

Back on the field.

The male guard remained calm in the face of the roaring, towering tree-man.

He didn't have much experience fighting summoners, but he was well aware of the class's strengths and weaknesses—they were good at turning one-on-one fights into group brawls, but because they relied heavily on summons, their physical bodies were weaker than those of ordinary mages.

And the tree-man before them was notoriously slow-moving...

Ah.

The guard sneered, thinking to himself that his teacher was talking nonsense; clearly, this prince was the more arrogant one.

How dare they use a summon that can't even protect its master when they're outnumbered?

No wonder everyone says the Connaught royal family is finished.

Not only is the palace shabby, but even the prince is only of this caliber. I'm afraid the empire could easily defeat him with just a few people.

Sure enough, once I'm stronger, I'll still have to go to the Empire to find a job. This place is just a stepping stone; there's a future there!

Who knows, someone might even ask me to buy information about this prince. Hey, I can make some extra money.

As for now...

I've secured this victory!

"Your Highness, please be careful!"

Despite his many thoughts, the guard remained polite on the surface. After shouting, he raised his sword, used his strength to break the tree spirit's branches that were blocking him, and then rushed over the tree spirit's thick body to pounce on Richard.

"Richard, get out of the way!"

Seeing this, Zoe, who was watching from the sidelines, couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

But at this moment.

A buzzing sound suddenly rang in the guard's ears.

Across from him, Richard said very politely:

"You should also be careful, this is no ordinary tree person..."

"They are Hive Tree People."

Chapter Seven: My Gun Really Has No Bullets Left

Upon hearing Richard's words, the guard glanced out of the corner of his eye and noticed the problem.

Good guy!

Three huge hornet's nests were hanging behind the tree-man!

His action of cutting the tree branch was interpreted as hostile behavior by the wasps, and hundreds of wasps instantly chased after him from the hive!

Shocked, he nearly fell, but after managing to regain his balance, he was surrounded by a swarm of bees.

He frantically slashed out with his sword, the sharp sword wind killing many wasps, but the enemy had ample reinforcements, and within half a breath, another black cloud completely swarmed over.

then……

"what!"