Swords, magic, and martial arts

After the fierce battle ended, three days of torrential rain fell, heralding the approaching summer and washing away all the bloodstains left from the battle.

After a few days of rest, Rhodes' injuries had almost completely healed.

Over the past few days, he has roughly learned the details of the battle that night.

The newly appointed leader of the Blood Ravens went to White Hart Castle at night to discuss the employment of servants with Earl White.

While Count White was concentrating on how to lower the price, the new leader of the Blood Ravens suddenly drew a short sword hidden in the contract and killed Count White.

The other lords of the Kingdom of Nord were all dealing with affairs in their territories before the formal war with the Roman Empire began, and none of them led their troops to the border. Meanwhile, the Blood Raven Legion had already colluded with the Roman Empire and launched a surprise attack on White Deer Castle from the inside during this time.

The Roman Empire recently hired the Knights of Dawn, who dispatched two hundred cavalrymen and ten knights, along with some ordinary imperial soldiers, to launch a surprise attack on White Deer Castle under the cover of night. At this time, Count White of White Deer Castle had already been killed by the new leader of the Blood Ravens, and most of the mid- to high-ranking officers in the castle had also been killed in their sleep by an unknown assassin.

The White Deer Fortress, now without command, was caught off guard by the sudden attack. Its forces, several times larger than the Empire's, failed to achieve their intended effect. Meanwhile, in the town's tavern, other hired mercenaries were attacked in their sleep by a group of Blood Ravens and a fierce battle ensued. Rhodes happened to be downstairs when he witnessed this, and by then, all the Blood Ravens in the tavern had been killed.

The main force of the Blood Raven Gang headed for the south gate of the town. The soldiers guarding the south gate assumed reinforcements had arrived and were completely unprepared for the Blood Raven Gang mercenaries to turn their swords on them. Subsequently, the unaffiliated mercenaries from the tavern came to the aid of the south gate soldiers. After a brief battle, the unaffiliated mercenaries realized the situation was dire and scattered in all directions.

The victorious Blood Raven mercenaries and a small group of cavalry ran to the castle to provide support, but were blocked on the city wall by the tough-skinned Rhodes using the terrain, and were eventually defeated.

The fleeing Blood Raven mercenaries rode the warhorses left behind by the Knights of Dawn onto the city walls and scattered in all directions. It's possible that a large portion of them will become the bandits that Rhodes and his men will be wiping out next.

Rhodes gained a lot from this battle. His White Rainbow Sword Technique was upgraded to level 3, and he grasped the essence of basic sword techniques. His Golden Bell Iron Shirt technique was also improved.

After the White Rainbow Sword Technique is upgraded to level 3, he can also choose an additional effect.

Effect 1: Increases sword dance speed when using the White Rainbow Sword Technique.

Effect 2: Enhances parrying ability when using the White Rainbow Sword Technique.

Effect 3: When using the White Rainbow Sword Technique, the sword is covered with a layer of sword energy that increases the weapon's sharpness.

Rhodes ultimately chose effect one, believing it would simultaneously enhance both attack and defense. Effect three seemed good, but it likely only increased attack power. Furthermore, he had discovered during previous battles that channeling internal energy into the sword could create sword energy.

He then opened the Mastery tab, and it had changed.

The Golden Bell and Iron Shirt Technique [Gradually Improving]

Active effect: Increases defense by 150% for 30 seconds after use.

Passive effect: Greatly enhances physical and magical defense, and increases the ability to deflect physical attacks.

The duration of the active effect of the Golden Bell Iron Shirt has been increased, and the defense boost has also increased. However, the real strength of the Golden Bell Iron Shirt lies in its passive effect. The exact extent of the increase in the passive effect will have to be experienced in future battles.

Basic Swordsmanship [Introduction]

Active effect: After use, it allows you to fire a sword aura with the power of a full-force sword strike.

Passive effect: Increases the learning speed of various sword techniques and improves various abilities when using a sword.

After grasping the essence of basic swordsmanship, Rhodes transformed from a mage-warrior into a magic warrior-mage. The spells he learned could not be used in conjunction with combat, and the dark green flames on his body could not be used at will like Baron's. Every time he used them, he didn't know how he did it.

He took the opportunity to test the attack range of his sword energy, only to find that it wasn't as powerful as he had imagined. He could only launch a single sword energy attack that could travel a maximum of ten meters, and the size of the attack depended on how much internal energy he consumed.

However, he was still quite satisfied, since the basic sword techniques no longer occupied the martial arts skill slot, and using sword energy looked pretty cool. If he were to reach the highest level of the Divine Illumination Skill and the basic sword techniques in the future, he might be able to break through enemy lines with a single sword strike.

Rhodes opened the shop and found that his chivalry points had increased to 359, enough for him to draw prizes three times. He discovered that in addition to the regular prize draw which cost 100 chivalry points, there was now a premium prize draw that cost 1000 chivalry points.

He decided to save them for the high-level lottery, but then he remembered that he should have completed his task, so he opened the task list again.

Task: Punish one hundred people you consider bad. (Completed)

Rhodes accepted the mission reward, a chance to win a high-level lottery. He chose to use it without hesitation, and a golden light flashed, revealing a martial art.

One-Finger Divine Skill: This is a unique skill of the Duan family of Dali, which can be used to defend against enemies as well as to heal and save lives.

Rhodes was overjoyed when he saw the result. One-Finger Divine Skill is a very profound martial art in martial arts novels, and it is also the foundation of Six Meridian Divine Sword. There was an empty slot in the martial arts skill bar, so One-Finger Divine Skill was automatically added.

The system's One Finger Divine Skill is just a finger technique and doesn't come with any internal energy, which surprised Rhodes.

Rhodes tried it out, but it seemed that his internal energy was not deep enough, and the power of the One-Finger Divine Skill was not great. It seemed that it could only cause external injuries and could not cause internal injuries.

It seems that the most important thing now is to cultivate the Divine Illumination Technique to deepen one's internal strength.

After that, he took on the exact same task as before: to punish one hundred people you consider bad.

……

According to Nord law, the current heir to Whiteharbour Castle is Jim White, the youngest son of Earl White. However, he is only six years old, so his mother will temporarily manage the castle and lands until he comes of age.

Hammer and Baron both advised them to abandon White Hart Castle and retreat to the northern castle, but they were reluctant to part with the castle and territory that Earl White had worked so hard to acquire, so they ultimately stayed there, even though they had fewer than a hundred soldiers capable of fighting.

Rhodes felt that the countess looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before. He figured he might be mistaken and didn't think about it anymore.

He began to reflect on why he always felt that beautiful women looked familiar to him lately.

After witnessing the execution of the new leader of the Blood Ravens, Rhodes and his companions resumed their journey, planning to first head northeast to the east coast and then west to Dawn Province, a route that would expose them to more bandits.

They refused the reward offered by the Countess and instead chose four warhorses and some dry rations; the horses they had left behind at the city walls had been stolen by the fleeing members of the Blood Ravens.

Hammer had assumed the Countess would ask them to stay and help them through the crisis, but she didn't, which suited him perfectly.

Rhodes sat on his horse, constantly gathering his inner strength in his fingers and using the One-Finger Divine Skill in the air. Baron and the others always thought he had been stimulated by something and was poking at the air.

Luo De practiced his One Finger Divine Skill for a whole week without receiving any upgrade notifications. It seems that the higher the level of a martial art, the harder it is to upgrade.

In the course of a week, they dealt with a group of ordinary bandits and also took down some fleeing mercenaries from the Blood Raven Gang.

The Blood Ravens were the biggest losers in the previous war. The centuries-old mercenary group was forced to disband, and all its members fled like stray dogs.

However, if they succeed, it is said that the commission promised to them by the Roman Empire is enough to restore his former glory.

Rhodes still had doubts in his mind: why was the former leader of the Blood Raven Gang assassinated, and judging from their previous behavior, it didn't seem like it was done by their own people.

Rhodes decided that if he couldn't figure it out, he shouldn't think about it anymore; it was all in the past anyway...