Swords, magic, and martial arts

Rod put on his night suit, took his old clothes, and left the hot spring.

There are many hot spring pools in this area. To prevent anyone from sneaking in without paying, the lord fenced off the area with wood, leaving only one entrance. He also used tall wooden walls to separate men and women, which displeased some adventurers...

Wearing the night clothes, Rhodes felt as if he had become one with the night. A gust of cold wind blew by, making him shiver. The clothes weren't very warm, and it was a bit early to wear them now.

Aya came out wearing new clothes and looked around.

Rod silently chanted in his heart, "You can't see me, you can't see me."

Aya looked around but didn't see Rod, so she assumed he hadn't come out and stood at the door waiting bored.

After taking a bath, Aya no longer looked like a little boy; in her new clothes, she looked exactly like a girl.

Is this night-clothes outfit really that effective? I haven't even put on the mask and hat yet.

He quietly walked up behind Aya and patted her on the shoulder.

Aya was so frightened that she almost screamed. Turning around, she saw it was Rod, punched him lightly, and said angrily, "You scared me to death."

"When did you buy your new clothes?" she asked again.

"Let's go back and rest, I'm a little sleepy now." Rod didn't answer her question, turned and walked towards the hotel, Aya jogged to catch up with him.

Aya kept asking him questions like where he bought his clothes and why they were so strange. Rod tried his best to change the subject, and after changing the subject, Aya would forget the questions she had asked.

Back at the inn, there were many more people in the lobby than before, as many taverns and inns had been left in a mess and were no longer habitable due to the beast tide.

The inn where Rhodes was staying only had its main entrance and the table in the lobby damaged, so adventurers who had previously stayed at those taverns had to come here to stay.

It is said that after the hotel owner was taught a lesson a few times, the prices of food, drinks and rooms in the hotel became much cheaper, and the food was also made available continuously instead of being entirely at his discretion.

As soon as Rod entered the lobby, he saw the innkeeper, whose business had improved, bustling around with a worried look on his face.

"The wine in your shop tastes pretty good. How come I never noticed before? Bring me another barrel," a Nord with blue battle markings on his face shouted.

The innkeeper hurriedly ran to get some wine, and then an adventurer wanted some roasted meat, so he ran to the kitchen to get it. He tripped and fell when he came out of the kitchen, and Aya laughed when she saw it.

After returning to his room, Rhodes was about to lie down when he sat up and embraced Yuan Shouyi. He fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

I was woken up by a nightmare not long after.

He dreamt of the battle at dawn, when the streets were filled with raging beasts and there were hardly any living people. He also saw wolves devouring adventurers who were still alive.

The wild beasts that broke into the town went completely mad. Their madness made even ordinary wolves much more ferocious than the ones he had encountered before. They were not afraid of getting hurt and pounced on him directly. He fought and retreated, but was eventually surrounded by the wolves. After being bitten by the wolves several times, his Iron Shirt skill was upgraded to level 4, and the wolves' attacks could no longer harm him.

After he dealt with the pack of wolves surrounding him, a cave bear appeared in front of him. Even though his Iron Shirt and Golden Bell Shield had been upgraded, he dared not let the cave bear hit him. He relied on his agility to dodge the cave bear's attacks and found an opportunity to stick a poisoned golden needle into the cave bear, thus successfully killing it.

The most dangerous battle for Rhodes was when he faced a troll that was over five meters tall. This size shouldn't exist on a forest troll; usually only frost trolls can grow to over five meters.

Rhode had originally thought he could paralyze and put the troll to sleep with the poisoned needles, and then kill it. However, even after inserting all three poisoned needles into the troll's body, he was unable to affect it. It only slowed its movements for a moment, but quickly recovered.

The damage inflicted on the troll by Taizu Long Fist was far less than its recovery speed. Rhodes' stamina was almost exhausted, and his speed gradually slowed down. After he managed to dodge the troll's attack, he saw the troll's palm appear in front of him, and it was getting bigger and bigger.

Just when he was feeling desperate, a man in black appeared out of thin air beside him. He was wearing a black metal mask with a pair of blood-red eyes protruding from it. These were not his eyes, but rather the eyes on the mask.

The man in black reached into his waistband and pulled out an invisible blade. With a flick of his arm, the troll's hand was severed at the wrist, and foul-smelling blood gushed out.

The man in black dove to the troll's head and landed, then disappeared. When Rhode reacted, he found that the troll's head had been cut into several pieces and was no longer healing. The headless corpse could no longer be found on the ground as before.

After witnessing all this, Rhodes's newly established worldview shattered once again. He never imagined that humans could be so powerful. He had previously thought that Baron, the elite among elite adventurers, should be among the strongest.

Knights are undoubtedly one of the most powerful groups on the continent. On the battlefield, knights are the most reliable backbone force. Even a great monarch of the Roman Empire once said that if he had ten thousand knights, he could conquer the entire continent.

The middle-aged knights of the Radiant Cross Knights he had encountered before were far weaker than him. The only defeat that Rhodes knew of for Baron was the time he was killed by the priest of the Cult of Death on the mountaintop.

However, Baron suffered entirely from poor equipment. The priest was only able to keep Baron from rebelling because of divine artifacts. If Baron had been wearing magical armor like the female knight's that could resist evil, he could probably have been killed easily.

After the man in black appeared, the wild beasts that were still roaming nearby seemed to have found their nemesis. Even though they were still in a frenzy, they all ran away, leaving Rhodes alone in a daze until Aya found him.

Rhodes' nightmare was that the man in black never appeared, and he was turned into mincemeat by the trolls.

After being startled awake, Rod's rapid heartbeat returned to normal, but he felt he couldn't fall back asleep.

He felt that his body had great potential. He had experienced intense battles for the past few days, but he didn't feel any muscle soreness at all.

Unlike before the crossing, when doing a pull-up would leave my arms and chest sore for days.

Unable to sleep, Rhodes decided to start practicing "Baoyuan Shouyi" (抱元守一). It seems that "Baoyuan Shouyi" has not leveled up since he learned it. Is it because "Baoyuan Shouyi" is difficult to level up, or is my posture wrong?

After carefully reading the method of "Embracing the Origin and Guarding the One" in the system, he found no errors and began to use "Embracing the Origin and Guarding the One" instead of sleeping.

The night passed quickly, and it wasn't until noon that Rhodes was brought back to reality by Aya's knocking on the door. He realized that he seemed to have missed the departure time for the mission issued by the lord. He was somewhat glad that he hadn't accepted the job, otherwise he would have been arrested and fined.

Once inside the lobby, he ate his lunch while pondering how to earn money and complete his mission at the same time…