Swords, magic, and martial arts

After finishing his practice of the Divine Illumination Technique, Rod found himself feeling sticky and uncomfortable. He took off his clothes and discovered that his body was covered in red and black grime. He filled a basin with water, wiped himself off, and prepared to continue practicing that evening.

Could it be that the upgraded Divine Illumination Skill can cleanse the marrow and remove impurities from the body? Or is this a hidden danger left over from soaking in that Dragon Blood Pool, which the Divine Illumination Skill has resolved?

Rod couldn't find the answer to the question and stopped worrying about it. After practicing the Divine Illumination Technique all night, he no longer felt sleepy as before. Instead, he was full of energy, just like he had been holding his breath all night. He only felt a little hungry.

He drew back the curtains and saw that the sun was already high in the sky. He went downstairs and ordered some food.

Listening to Baron and Hammer bragging to the other adventurers, and eating the reasonably tasty roast meat and bread, Rhode felt that his life had returned to normal.

There are other people I can rely on, unlike before when I was with Aya and had to shoulder everything myself.

Thinking of this, he felt a tightness in his chest. He couldn't imagine how Aya, who had lost his protection, had died tragically at the hands of that mentally unstable dragonman.

He opened the shop to see if he had enough chivalry points to try his luck at the lottery, only to find that he only had enough for one draw. It seemed that killing the dragonman for the first time did earn him some chivalry points.

However, having used up almost everything he had that time, he checked his system space and found that only some useless items remained, along with two uses of advanced anesthetic powder, two poisoned gold needles, mother-and-child throwing knives, a minor elixir, the golden shell of the peacock feather, a fisherman's straw hat, a female warrior's veil, and a nearly completely damaged Mingguang armor.

Not only did Lian Shengxie disappear, but even the brass knuckles were destroyed by the dragon man's flames, burned and twisted so that he could no longer wear them.

However, Rhodes is not short of weapons now; the two-handed sword that the female knight gave him last time is still kept by Baron.

Rod is currently wearing the night-clothes outfit. The deerskin clothes he just finished making were also burned. He plans to find a tailor in the afternoon to make him a few more clothes.

It's really inconvenient not having a space ring; it's also hard to carry around when you have a lot of clothes.

He entered the "Miscellaneous Studies" section of the mall, a place he had never visited before, to try his luck in the lottery and see what he could win. After clicking the button, the results appeared.

Woodworking Classics (Incomplete): It contains blueprints for some woodworking inventions.

Rod looked at the woodworking book in his hand and began to flip through it. He originally thought it was about how to make tables and benches.

Upon opening it, he found a large number of blueprints for watermills, water-powered mills, waterwheels, and other equipment that could be used for daily production. There were even a lot of blueprints for plows. At the very end, Rhodes even found blueprints for weapons such as repeating crossbows and ballistae.

These are the things that can truly benefit all people, Rod said, looking at the woodworking book in his hand.

No matter how many bad guys I kill or how many good people I save, my contribution to the world is far less than the contribution I would make by making good use of the blueprints inside.

Rhodes put the woodworking book back into his system space and went out to find a tailor and a blacksmith...

……

Two days later, Rhodes, dressed in his newly made clothes and dragon scale armor, carrying a two-handed sword, left Winterfell Fortress from the south with Baron and the others. For the time being, the land south of Winterfell Fortress belonged to the Kingdom of Nord, and it was faster to go to Dawn Province from the south than from the north.

Originally, the plan was to go to Dawn Province from the north of Winterfell Fortress, but Webber wanted to go south to see what the area south of Winterfell Fortress was like.

It is springtime, and the roadside is covered with lush green grass. The area used to be farmland, but due to years of war, the farmers either died in the war or left their homes and became serfs of nobles elsewhere.

Baron used Rhodes' money to buy each of them a horse for travel. Although it wasn't fast, it had good stamina. Rhodes was sitting on the horse learning how to ride.

Without divine magical aids, Rhodes was completely unable to ride a horse, so Baron helped him choose a gentle mare. Rhodes lay sprawled on the horse's back, his legs clamped tightly together, as if afraid of falling off.

"Relax a bit. The horse is just walking slowly. It's okay if you fall off," Hammer said from the side. He was a nobleman who had been riding horses since childhood and could sit steadily on a galloping warhorse even without stirrups.

Webber, who was also riding a horse for the first time, was not nervous at all and was much calmer than Rod.

"How about we have a competition?" Baron said to Hammer.

"Let's see whose horse runs faster?" Hammer said.

"Of course, it's about who has the better riding skills," Baron replied.

"Your horse is clearly better than mine. I didn't notice it before, but after walking for a while, I realized that my horse has a limp," Hammer said.

"It was you and your sledgehammer that made it unbearable," Baron laughed.

"You'll see when we change horses," Hammer said.

"If you catch up with me, I'll switch places with you." Baron rode his horse forward.

……

In the evening, they found a roadside inn and decided to rest there for the night.

Rod felt a bit uncomfortable in his thighs after riding a horse in one position for too long all day, so he stood next to a bench and stretched his legs.

"Remember to feed our horses some better grass," Baron shouted as he walked. "And remember to scrub them clean tomorrow morning, so they don't smell like horse manure!" He walked over from the nearby stable.

The guests in the hotel all looked fierce and menacing; they were probably mercenaries who were always involved in wars.

When Rhodes and Webber came in earlier, everyone inside stared greedily at his dragon scale armor and the two-handed sword on his back. After Baron and Hammer sat down at Rhodes' table, they all stopped looking greedily, but kept their heads down, seemingly plotting something.

"Don't drink too much today," Weber whispered a reminder.

"It's alright, don't forget I drank quite a bit of wine before I slew the dragon last time," Baron said loudly.

"When are you going to get me a suit of armor made of dragon scales? You can't just give it to your nephew!" Hammer replied loudly, clearly feeling guilty.

Rhodes was speechless for a moment, but found it amusing and said loudly, "Didn't you take the tusk of that mammoth we killed last time?"

He also joined the boasting group.

"When did I take your mammoth tusk? It was Webber who took it. He made a dagger from it, and it's hidden in his pants right now. Don't you remember?" Hammer shouted back.

Webber feigned anger and said, "If you hadn't stolen my saber-toothed tiger's teeth, would I have used mammoth tusks to make a dagger?"

"You didn't use the perfectly good dragon tooth, but instead used the saber-toothed tiger tooth that I was planning to sell for money, and then you took my mammoth tusk instead! And you still have the nerve to complain!" Hammer stood up and shouted at the top of his lungs.

Upon seeing the innkeeper's daughter bring over food and drinks, Hammer sat back down on the bench and began vying with Baron for the food...