Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 388: The Ninth Riverside Knight

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[Pioneer No. 11 Li Wei led his team to encounter a squad of Ability Users under the command of the Frost Duke in the wilderness, slaying a Barbarian Centurion in battle. He has obtained a Duke's Medal of Honor and 500 Campaign Points.]

——

Two lines of very ordinary information floated up at this moment. Li Wei had grown perfectly accustomed to it, and he even had to grumble a couple of lines in his heart: Duke Weir was getting more and more stingy nowadays. Where's the bounty? What about the agreed-upon bounty? He hadn't been given a bounty twice already.

So it seems that as long as he didn't personally execute the kill, they wouldn't even give him the bounty, right?

Of course, he didn't have the time to think about this right now.

"Is anyone injured? Is no one injured?!"

"Alright then, according to the rules, whose turn was it just now? Enhance your own equipment one by one, one piece per person. Listen carefully, it is enhancing Enchanted Three-Star equipment, including weapons and horse armor. Don't enhance equipment that isn't enchanted, and don't enhance anything below Three-Star."

"Ultimately, we must ensure that everyone possesses a set of Four-Star Enchanted equipment. Don't even think about anything above Four-Star."

"Specifically, that means a helmet, half-body armor, leg armor, boots, horse armor, as well as two enchanted weapons!"Li Wei loudly hollered and directed, having the forty-two heavy cavalrymen led by Zhao Xuanxuan line up for enhancement. On average, each person would have a seven-piece Four-Star Enchanted set; this counted as graduation-tier equipment.

It was also something that had to be achieved.

Of course, what specifically each person wanted to enhance was their own freedom. All Li Wei could guarantee was arranging seven enhancement opportunities for everyone one after another.

In a brief moment's time, as Four-Star Universal Gold Cards were consumed and enhancements made one by one, this gluttonous feast rapidly concluded.

Every heavy cavalryman bore immense excitement on their faces; they had never eaten such a grand feast before. The Lord was truly too generous.

In the previous battle, there were 74 Universal Gold Cards; in this battle, there were 124 Universal Gold Cards. With a total of 42 people, it meant everyone could enhance four times and still have some left over. Oh wait, it actually meant 30 people enjoyed five enhancements!

This was a visible increase in strength visible to the naked eye. Enchanted equipment came with traits. By enhancing them to Four-Star, although it was unlikely to add new traits, the original traits would absolutely be increased by at least 50%.

Furthermore, this was Enchanted Heavy Armor! Adding the full set together, the comprehensive Defense could already reach 60 to 70 points. Factoring in an individual's innate base Defense, the highest overall Defense could already reach 90 to 100 points.

Take Zhao Xuanxuan for example. As the most exceptionally blessed Blacksmith, her overall Defense right now had even reached 110.

What kind of concept was this?

It was practically equivalent to Thomas incarnating into a Stone Giant.

And the numerical calculation formula within this was: ordinary people—including men, women, the elderly, and children—had 1 to 5 points of Defense.

10 points of Defense was equivalent to ordinary cowhide, and reaching 15 points made it excellent three-layered Leather Armor.

25 points of Defense was equivalent to ordinary iron-studded armor with an outer iron-studded layer + three inner layers of leather.

30 points of Defense was equivalent to ordinary scale armor, and 35 points of Defense was equivalent to ordinary scale armor + Chainmail.

40 points of Defense had to be Three-Star plain scale armor, the kind that handgun bullets couldn't penetrate at close range.

Reaching 50 points of Defense meant it was Three-Star plain fine steel plate armor.

And anything above 60 points was Enchanted Three-Star heavy armor.

Steel plates nearly two centimeters thick, coupled with defensive bonuses from enchantments and one's own base Defense stats—they could withstand a frantic volley from an AK47 at close range, and didn't even fear heavy machine guns.

Of course, all of this was built by smashing massive amounts of wealth into it.

From the magic potions to upgrade Four-Star warhorses, to the high-quality steel needed to forge enchanted equipment—the total having closely approached thirty units of Magical Power—to the cultivation and training of personnel, leading up to today at this very moment, at least three hundred thousand gold coins had been smashed into this.

So the Neanderthal Cross-Border Player from just now died highly unjustly.

Was he not strong?

Of course he was strong!

Having at least a Centurion-level of strength, he wasn't foolishly clueless and ignorant of the impact force of heavy armored cavalry. It was just that he didn't expect the opposing side—Li Wei's group—to be this strong.

That Neanderthal's head-on spear thrust was absolutely a strike tempered through thousands of trials, absolutely a peak strike!

Of everyone present, aside from Li Wei and Mark, only Zhao Xuanxuan could withstand it.

Note, it was withstand, not block!

Her Blood Burning Talent could immunize her against the impact of his Delusion Breaking Talent, ensuring she could smash the Neanderthal's warhorse into pieces with her hammer completely unaffected!

Simultaneously, if not for the Magic Crest Li Wei gave her to immunize against this certain-death strike, that massive force could have even sent Zhao Xuanxuan's entire person flying into the air.

Without his warhorse, that Neanderthal instantly became passive. Otherwise, the spear piercing thrusts from Benjamin and Javier simply wouldn't have been able to force him into stiffness.

Bluntly speaking, if Zhao Xuanxuan hadn't slain his warhorse, everyone present in this battle—except for Li Wei and Mark—would have faced a one-sided slaughter from the Neanderthal.

Okay, this might be a bit of an exaggeration, but Benjamin, Javier, Santiago, Grant, and the others would have been forced to pay the price of at least five core combatants' lives once again before they could usher in a tragic victory.

Therefore, Zhao Xuanxuan was the soul and core.

She was unaffected by Delusion Breaking.

Meanwhile, the eight Riverside Knights, including Benjamin and Javier, were auxiliary cores.

The remaining 32 heavy armored knights were the main force revolving around this one massive core.

Just in this brief encounter battle moments ago, it looked very simple, not even taking a full minute in its entirety, and one hundred and twenty-four Centaur Cavalrymen were completely annihilated.

But the elements displayed within this absolutely couldn't be explained by simple ferocity.

This was truly using a point to break a surface.

Using their own strongest point to shatter the opponent's strongest point, and only then could they form an overwhelming crushing momentum like splitting bamboo.

But in reality, in this battle, the total kill count of Zhao Xuanxuan and the other forty-two heavy armored cavalrymen was only 56.

Their goal wasn't to secure more kills, but to act as a unified, exquisitely precise, and constantly fluctuating massive steamroller, directly crushing over them to accomplish their expected goal of breaking the enemy formation.

The remaining 68 Centaur Cavalrymen were strangled and reaped by the remaining light cavalrymen.

In any case, this battle truly broadened Li Wei's horizons and yielded immense gains. It also made him aware of some of his own shortcomings, as well as how he should continue building this cavalry unit moving forward.

For instance, right at this moment, without any hesitation, he chose to consume that Five-Star Gold Card to upgrade the Riverside Knights once again.

With this, the total number of knights in the Riverside Knights would reach nine, and the attributes attached to the Riverside Knight title would also be further enhanced.

Specifically, it became Life +100, Stamina +100, Strength +10, Agility +10, Defense +10!

"Duan Bowen!"

At this moment, Li Wei suddenly called out the name of a heavy armored cavalryman.

"Present!"

Following a sonorous response, a tall and sturdy young cavalryman walked over at a brisk pace. His face still carried a soaring joy, his eyes bright and piercing, naturally possessing an energetic vigor unique to young people.

In reality, he was only nineteen years old this year.

"Respected Lord!"

Arriving before Li Wei, he snapped his fists in salute, yielding neither to haughtiness nor humility, even carrying a hint of the flippancy and cynicism unique to youth.

But this was actually normal, because a person isn't a youth if they aren't frivolous.

Moreover, he wasn't a native of this world. He was among the first batch of Academy Graduate Mercenaries hired by Li Wei.

He was simultaneously part of the first batch of academy mercenaries to naturalize. Then, because he performed well at work with an active and positive attitude, he was also among the first batch of academy mercenaries to be selected into the cavalry unit.

After the training over the past few months, and because of his outstanding performance—slaying three Ability Users in combat and being the first to grind out a Cavalry Card—he was ultimately selected into the forty-two heavy armored cavalrymen along with four other academy mercenaries who had also ground out Cavalry Cards.

Li Wei didn't ask about backgrounds, only about battle results. In the two brief battles just now, Duan Bowen's performance ranked near the top, only second to Zhao Xuanxuan, Mark, and those eight Riverside Knights.

Of course, the others weren't actually much worse either, but Li Wei felt that in the future development of the territory, the academy mercenary faction should also be an unignorable component.

Because Li Wei had previously accepted the naturalization of hundreds of academy mercenaries all in one breath.

Nowadays, they filled every industry and profession within the territory. Some had been selected to become soldiers, some volunteered for the engineering team, some went to the kitchens, some became physician apprentices, or farmers, or miners. An exhaustive list of variety; the territory didn't feed idle people.

Looking at it currently, although at least eighty percent of the academy mercenaries were very ordinary after naturalization—belonging to the type with no long-term plans for the future and highly satisfied with the status quo—there was still at least a fraction of academy mercenaries who were very proactive.

Therefore, as the Lord, Li Wei also had to give them a sliver of visible hope.

"Duan Bowen, due to your outstanding performance in recent training and combat, I intend to confer upon you the status of Riverside Knight. Simultaneously, according to the laws of the territory, you will receive a house and ten acres of farmland. However, under the witness of the Gods, you must swear allegiance to me. This oath shall accompany your descendants!"

Hearing these words, Duan Bowen actually blanked out, evidently not expecting this at all. He looked at Li Wei in astonishment, then looked in surprise at the pairs of envious eyes surrounding him. Finally reacting, he hurriedly knelt on one knee before Li Wei. Wasn't this exactly the class ascension all academy mercenaries constantly yearned for in their hearts?

In Weir City, he would either have to walk the path of a novice Lord mission, becoming a Three-Star Lord by completing exceedingly harsh missions; or he would have to seek refuge under a Lord with a profound background. And the third path was precisely like the situation before his eyes.

"Noble Lord, with the Gods above, I am willing to swear my allegiance to you. My descendants shall forever follow you and your descendants."

"Mark!"

Li Wei called out. As a Paladin, Mark immediately walked over to bear witness to this ceremony.

A ceremony was absolutely necessary. Even for Benjamin, Grant, and the others back then—who first obtained their knightly conferments—when Li Wei had time later, the ceremonies all had to be made up for.

This was a part of the territory's development and its structural layout.

Finally, Li Wei drew his enchanted greatsword, completing this conferment of knightly status. From this moment onward, Duan Bowen could also be addressed as Lord Knight.

In the future, if he was granted a fiefdom of a village, he could be addressed as Lord Sir.

In truth, Li Wei had already prepared to confer the title of Sir to a portion of freemen within the territory who had great merits and high prestige.

Such as Nelson, Linus, Javier, and Grant. Additionally, this was also to arrange candidates for garrisoning fortresses.

After all, who wouldn't want to stay in a prosperous and safe city? Thus, to garrison outer fortresses, benefits had to be given.

(End of this chapter)