Swords, magic, and martial arts

The next day, Rhodes woke up to find himself lying in a bed in a tavern.

Rhodes vaguely remembered that when he returned to Icestone City, he was still fast asleep because he was too tired the day before, and Baron carried him directly back to the tavern.

He touched his waist, where the longsword he had retrieved from the tomb was still tucked. Fortunately, the sword still had its scabbard; otherwise, he might have unknowingly cut himself while he was asleep last night.

Rod's stomach rumbled a few times; he felt extremely hungry and thought he could eat a whole cow.

He got out of bed, quickly washed up, and then ran downstairs to find something to eat.

As soon as he arrived in the tavern's lobby, he saw Baron gesturing wildly as he recounted the events of the previous day to someone.

"There were only four of us at the time, and there were more than a hundred powerful ghouls on the other side. My teammates were so scared that they couldn't even hold their weapons steady."

Such a small scene didn't scare me at all. I encouraged them loudly and showed them with my actions that we could defeat these ghouls.

Just when my teammates were about to give up, I charged into the horde of ghouls alone, fought my way through, and beheaded the powerful necromancer.

However, one of my teammates died a heroic death, and I believe he will be protected by the Holy Spirit.

"This is the third time you've told this story today. The last time you told me, there were still more than eighty ghouls," said a strong, blond adventurer with a ponytail sitting next to me.

Baron, a little embarrassed, scratched his head sheepishly. "You must be mistaken. Didn't you only recently learn to count? Besides, what's the difference between a hundred and eighty..."

Rod found it quite amusing to listen to them brag while eating.

While eating, Rod remembered that he hadn't yet learned the combat techniques recorded on the animal hide scroll, so he quickened his eating pace and hurriedly finished off all the food on the table.

Although they didn't receive any commission from their last adventure, the money they have now, if used sparingly, should be enough to last them until next spring.

After finishing his meal, Rod walked over to Baron's table, patted Baron on the shoulder, and whispered in Baron's ear, "Last time I found a leather scroll with combat techniques recorded in that tomb. Can you translate it for me?"

Baron and his drinking buddies agreed to meet again tomorrow to chat—no, to drink—and then he followed Rod upstairs.

"You're really something, it's already evening and you've only just woken up." Baron said, closing the door. "Now take out that scroll."

Rod took out the scroll and handed it to Baron, recounting his experiences from the previous day in detail. He also gave Baron the "Catastrophe of the Wise" and the note. Subconsciously, he felt that he didn't need to hide anything from Baron. Was this due to the influence of the original owner of the body?

"It's a very ancient language. Although the characters look similar to modern ones, they are actually quite different. I can only recognize a few of the simplest ones, but that doesn't help much in learning this combat technique," Baron said, putting down the scroll in his hand and frowning.

Baron picked up "The Wise Man's Calamity" again and examined it closely. He flicked the blade with one finger and then placed it next to his ear. "So, the necromancer's sudden madness last time was caused by this sword. It seems that not only were blacksmiths from the Kingdom of Nord involved in forging this sword, but I also saw the style of the elves."

Besides humans, there are also elves and many strange and wonderful species on the continent. Elves live deep in a huge primeval forest at the border between the southern part of the Nord Kingdom and the northern part of the Roman Empire. This forest is called the Giant Tree Forest because the trees are very tall. Some people also call it the Elf Forest.

This forest is forbidden to humans, whether for lone adventurers or large armies. The Kingdom of Nord once sent an elite force of eight thousand men to raid the Roman Empire through the forest, but the entire army was almost wiped out, with only a few dozen escaping. Therefore, the Nords are extremely hostile to the elves.

The Roman Empire always avoided the Giant Tree Forest when attacking the Kingdom of Nord, and instead attacked the Kingdom of Nord's formidable pass, Winterfell Fortress. The two countries fought countless battles at Winterfell Fortress, and even now, the walls of the fortress still bear the indelible smell of blood.

"By the way, when are we going to check what good stuff that necromancer left behind after he died?" Rhodes asked Baron, who was still studying the longsword intently.

Baron put down his longsword and said, "I'll go with Webber tomorrow, but you can come if you want."

"No need, no need." Rhodes quickly shook his head. It was too cold outside the city; the tavern was much more comfortable.

Besides the extremely low temperature, there must be other magical traps or something similar in that necromancer's lair. As a newbie, I might just cause more trouble if I go there.

"How is Hammer?" Rod asked again.

"He's as tough as a troll as I am; he won't die unless his head is chopped off," Baron said, yawning. "If there's nothing else, I'm going back to sleep; I didn't sleep well last night."

After Baron left, Rod sat on the bed, thinking about what he still had to deal with.

The room didn't smell good; it was musty, mixed with the smell of alcohol and stench left by previous guests, but Rhodes had gotten used to it after a few days in the room.

It's nighttime, but Rod has just woken up and isn't sleepy at all. He thinks he should go out and exercise tonight.

Upon reaching the entrance of the tavern on the first floor, Rod opened the door, and a gust of biting cold wind blew through, making the hairs on his body stand on end.

Most cities in the Kingdom of Nord do not have a curfew at night. Icestone City, being far from the war, has no patrols at night, and the guards usually drink and chat like ordinary adventurers in some tavern.

As for maintaining order, it all depends on one's own self-discipline. In Nord, thieves are looked down upon by everyone. People who have been caught as thieves are not even allowed to enter the doors of shops and taverns. If they do enter, they will be thrown out by the people inside.

Rhodes arrived at the open space where the city guards used to train. He had just been thinking in his room about the mutual effects of force, and wondered if he could upgrade his Iron Shirt skill if he hit or rammed into something with force. He decided to give it a try.

He slammed his body against the wooden stakes in the open space. These stakes were used by the guards to practice chopping, so they were of very high quality and extremely hard.

Rod slammed his shoulder into it with all his might, and his shoulder went numb, as if it no longer belonged to him.

Fortunately, he received a notification that his Iron Shirt skill level had increased.

It seems this method works. When one shoulder goes numb, switch to the other. When both shoulders go numb, kick with your legs, punch, or lean against it with your back.

It's one thing to ram your head into something, but what if you accidentally make yourself stupid?

Rod kept ramming the wooden stake in front of him. He felt that the thick clothes he was wearing were somewhat of an obstacle to him, so he took off his shirt and went shirtless.

The wind was strong and cold at night. He was covered in sweat before taking off his clothes. As soon as he took off his clothes, a gust of wind blew over, and he felt as if the sweat on his body was about to freeze into ice.

However, Rod felt that the exercise was more effective after taking off his clothes, and as long as he kept going, he could barely bear the cold.

He felt the energy generated by the Divine Illumination Technique circulating faster and faster within his body due to the stimulation of the cold and the impact. The pain from the impact was reduced, and he was no longer as cold as before.

Rod spent the entire night punching, kicking, and slamming his body against the wooden stake, and the next morning arrived quickly.

"Kid, what's gotten into you? You haven't been hitting this wooden stake all night, have you?" Baron walked up to Rhodes at some point and said to Rhodes, who was punching the wooden stake.

"I'm fine. I've discovered that hitting wooden stakes increases my pain tolerance and also strengthens my body," Rod explained to Baron.

"Baron, try hitting me with your full strength again," Rod suddenly said.

"You're not affected by your sword, are you? But I can grant you that request. I'll use a special technique to deliver a full-force punch, letting you feel the difference in our power without hurting you. Get ready now," Baron said.

Rod stopped hitting the stake, adopted a defensive stance towards Baron, and said, "You can attack me now."

A mysterious purple light shone from Baron's fist, which instantly slammed into Rhodes before Rhodes could even react.

Rhodes didn't fly out like before, but he felt immense pain, as if every bone in his body was being shattered one by one. He couldn't bear the pain and collapsed to his knees.

"Every time I knock you away, it actually reduces the impact of my power on you. But this time I used a special technique to make you take the full force of my punch. However, the force of this punch was distributed throughout your body, so it didn't hurt you much," Baron said, panting.

"I just learned this technique recently, and it's quite taxing on me," Baron continued, seemingly explaining to Rhodes why he was panting.

Rhodes felt some difficulty breathing on the ground. The internal energy generated by the Divine Illumination Technique began to circulate faster within his body. Before long, he got up and fell into a state of deep thought.

He received a notification that his Iron Shirt skill had been upgraded after he was hit. Iron Shirt had reached level 3, and he still needed to choose a branch ability of Iron Shirt in the system.

"To reach level 3 of Iron Shirt, please choose one of the following three abilities."

Ability 1: Can temporarily give parts of the body the hardness of metal.

Ability 2: Reflect a portion of the force of the next attack back to the attacker.

Ability 3: Significantly enhances the body's defensive capabilities and improves its ability to deflect force.

Rhodes wasn't sure which option was best for him; all three abilities felt good. He recalled his battles, and in his fight with the Frostbite Spider, if its leg attacks hadn't been unable to break through his defenses, he might have been dead by then.

Therefore, Rhodes ultimately chose ability three, deciding to pursue the path of the tortoise shell to the very end.

The description of the hardness of metals in the first ability doesn't specify which metal it refers to, which might be misleading, since mercury is a metal.

"You've been practicing all night, now go back and eat something and get some sleep. Webber and I have agreed to go back to the cave we visited the day before yesterday," Baron said.

After saying goodbye to Baron, Rhodes headed towards the "Frostwolf Fang" tavern...