Mercenary System: I can increase innate potential !-Chapter 57: Alert

"He’s not a knight, so normally it should be impossible to compete with Killian, let alone defeat him!"

"I want to know how he got so strong."

Thinking this, Ultia was filled with conviction as he looked at Maxime.

Maxime, however, didn’t notice.

Instead, he had other things on his mind. He looked at the crowd of soldiers who were now slightly worried about where they were going to sleep in the evening.

"Soldier friends."

"To be honest, this duel was totally derisory, but for as many of us as possible to come back alive from the battles ahead, I had no choice."

The soldiers listened to Maxime without a sound, while the mercenaries wisely stood behind their leader.

"Our mercenary group represents 3/4 of the power in this village, and you represent the remaining quarter."

Hearing this, the soldiers found it hard to believe Maxime.

The fact that their captain, who was an apprentice knight at the stage of great success, had been defeated was already a shock to them.

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But this duel gave a great deal of credibility to Maxime’s words, although a trace of doubt remained for the moment.

"So don’t worry if you see many apprentice knights and elite soldiers on the battlefield. Our mercenary group has been paid to take them on, and we have the skills to repel them."

The purpose of this speech was to set things straight, to establish Maximus’ authority and the respect of his mercenaries, as well as to keep the morale of these soldiers up in case there really are a lot of enemies.

"As for accommodation, in any case, the inn was too small to house you all."

"So my men have already started living with villagers, and this method allows everyone to sleep much better instead of everyone being crowded together."

"In exchange, they help them with their daily chores, so I hope you can do the same."

"Obviously, this is only a temporary situation. My men have already started building a new inn to house us all."

Maxime continued to talk lightly to the soldiers about certain things for the coming days.

The mercenaries standing behind him watched in admiration.

One had to admit that seeing a young man speak calmly and give orders to a hundred soldiers who were all listening attentively and respectfully, showed excellent charisma.

A few minutes later, Maxime finished speaking, not wanting to prolong things unnecessarily.

Just then, Killian tried to stand up.

Noticing this, Maxime held out his hand with a smile.

Killian hesitated for a second, then firmly grasped the outstretched hand.

Maxime then lifted him easily, and the two were very close.

As they looked into each other’s eyes and felt each other’s closeness, they developed a good feeling for each other.

They established a first bond of trust at that moment.

Killian was still not cured, but his powerful physique helped him to recover quickly.

"Maxime is right, from now on everyone will listen to his orders. Anyone caught disobeying will get the same punishment as if they were disobeying their superior."

Killian was a man of his word, and since he’d lost the bet, he was committed to respecting it.

What’s more, he lost nothing. Everything had been arranged so that as many people as possible could live comfortably in the village, while at the same time improving everyone’s chances of survival on the battlefield.

And so ended the first meeting between the mercenaries and the soldiers.

The days passed quickly.

By the 5th day after the arrival of the saber-toothed tigers, soldiers and mercenaries were already mixing well in the village.

The villagers were also happy to have their burdens eased during this time.

A scene involving a father, a mother, their two young children and also a mercenary and a soldier around the dining table was a common scene these days.

It was pleasant for these villagers, whose lives were monotonous, to have new guests in their homes, each telling of their own experiences.

The mercenaries often enjoyed recounting the stories they had heard or experienced with their leader.

This brought animation, tension, sadness and laughter to the table.

Of course, there were also a few conflicts, not least because some of the soldiers found it hard to accept the mercenaries’ authority over them.

But when Maxime arrived, these soldiers generally lost all their courage and the situation was easily resolved.

When the situation became particularly complex, Killian intervened and applied military law.

As the first troublemakers were punished, everyone became much wiser, and the atmosphere more convivial.

The wooden inn that required everyone’s efforts was finally built on the 8th day after the arrival of the saber-toothed tigers.

Thanks to the new inn, not only the mercenaries who had stayed in the original inn, but also the mercenaries and soldiers who wanted more comfort and privacy found their happiness.

On the 10th day after the arrival of the saber-toothed tigers, in the middle of the afternoon, soldiers and mercenaries talked to each other, worked with cheerful villagers, others trained.

Andrew, Ernest, Laura and Organ were training as usual.

They were the only 3-star talents in the mercenary group, so they knew how lucky they were, but also how much responsibility this talent entailed.

Thanks to the Nox Limit talent, which made their training 500% more effective, they improved very quickly.

On the contrary, most of Maxime’s first mercenaries had more or less reached the limits of their talent, so many of them spent more time improving their swordsmanship, often losing some of their initial conviction.

Maxime also spent the day training his swordsmanship, since it was the only thing he could improve without spending gold coins.

To this end, he spent time with Killian, who taught him many of the basics and key points of swordplay.

His talent, Nox Limit, enabled Maxime to grasp everything quickly, and his innate fighting skills made it easy for him to apply this advice in real combat.

So in just a few days, Maxime gained 30 experience points in Sword Mastery, which finally enabled him to improve his Sword Mastery to level 3.

[Sword mastery level 3 (1/100)]

This was the level usually achieved by apprentice knights in the entry stage who had been training for years.

For comparison, Killian’s level 3 sword mastery was intermediate.

This made Killian sigh because the world wasn’t fair, but at the same time he reassured himself that he hadn’t been defeated by just anyone.

Remembering that 0 to 33 points was the beginner level, 34 to 66 the intermediate level, 67 to 90 the advanced level and 91 to 99 the expert level.

Mastery of the sword at level 4 was generally accessible only to knights or apprentice knights at the peak who were extremely talented.

Watching Maxime progress rapidly, and hearing regular compliments from Killian, Henry and Ultia invested much more energy than usual in their training to become stronger.

But the more they trained, the more desperate they became.

Not only was Maxime progressing extremely rapidly, but they soon discovered that 4 mercenaries who were at their level had their strength taking off like a rocket.

In comparison, they were as slow as turtles.

Sometimes they wondered whether they really deserved the title of genius, or whether it was these mercenaries who were monsters.

Fortunately, their spirits had not broken, for they had observed that there was indeed a mercenary of their level called Romuald who was stagnating, but also that many mercenaries at the level of elite soldier, were stagnating.

However, they had also seen that many of the mercenaries who had started out rather ordinary, had in the space of a few days come close to the level of elite soldiers.

This shocked them both, and confirmed their hypothesis that Maxime would have a talent that would enable the mercenary to train extremely quickly.

Simultaneously, a few ideas simmered in their minds as they noticed this, but they tried to suppress these thoughts.

During the evening of the 11th day, Maxime and Laura found themselves discreetly in the woods.

They’d been doing this for a few days already.

They liked to talk about anything and everything at night, watching the sky or strolling around the nearby lakes.

They didn’t do anything special.

But that evening, everything changed.

"Alert, alert, we’re under attack!"