"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 Maxi.
Maxi, 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 co back alive from the battles ahead, I had no choice."
The soldiers listened to Maxi without a sound, while the rcenaries wisely stood behind their leader.
"Our rcenary 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 Maxi.
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.
But this duel gave a great deal of credibility to Maxi's words, although a trace of doubt remained for the mont.
"So don't worry if you see many apprentice knights and elite soldiers on the battlefield. Our rcenary 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 rcenaries, 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 n have already started living with villagers, and this thod 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 sa."
"Obviously, this is only a temporary situation. My n have already started building a new inn to house us all."
Maxi continued to talk lightly to the soldiers about certain things for the coming days.
The rcenaries 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, Maxi finished speaking, not wanting to prolong things unnecessarily.
Just then, Killian tried to stand up.
Noticing this, Maxi held out his hand with a smile.
Killian hesitated for a second, then firmly grasped the outstretched hand.
Maxi 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 mont.
Killian was still not cured, but his powerful physique helped him to recover quickly.
"Maxi is right, from now on everyone will listen to his orders. Anyone caught disobeying will get the sa punishnt 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 sa ti improving everyone's chances of survival on the battlefield.
And so ended the first eting between the rcenaries and the soldiers.
The days passed quickly.
By the 5th day after the arrival of the saber-toothed tigers, soldiers and rcenaries were already mixing well in the village.
The villagers were also happy to have their burdens eased during this ti.
A scene involving a father, a mother, their two young children and also a rcenary 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 hos, each telling of their own experiences.
The rcenaries 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 so of the soldiers found it hard to accept the rcenaries' authority over them.
But when Maxi arrived, these soldiers generally lost all their courage and the situation was easily resolved.
When the situation beca particularly complex, Killian intervened and applied military law.
As the first troublemakers were punished, everyone beca 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 rcenaries who had stayed in the original inn, but also the rcenaries 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 rcenaries 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 rcenary 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 Maxi's first rcenaries had more or less reached the limits of their talent, so many of them spent more ti improving their swordsmanship, often losing so of their initial conviction.
Maxi 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 ti with Killian, who taught him many of the basics and key points of swordplay.
His talent, Nox Limit, enabled Maxi 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, Maxi 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 interdiate.
This made Killian sigh because the world wasn't fair, but at the sa ti he reassured himself that he hadn't been defeated by just anyone.
Rembering that 0 to 33 points was the beginner level, 34 to 66 the interdiate 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 extrely talented.
Watching Maxi progress rapidly, and hearing regular complints from Killian, Henry and Ultia invested much more energy than usual in their training to beco stronger.
But the more they trained, the more desperate they beca.
Not only was Maxi progressing extrely rapidly, but they soon discovered that 4 rcenaries who were at their level had their strength taking off like a rocket.
In comparison, they were as slow as turtles.
Sotis they wondered whether they really deserved the title of genius, or whether it was these rcenaries who were monsters.
Fortunately, their spirits had not broken, for they had observed that there was indeed a rcenary of their level called Romuald who was stagnating, but also that many rcenaries at the level of elite soldier, were stagnating.
However, they had also seen that many of the rcenaries who had started out rather ordinary, had in the space of a few days co close to the level of elite soldiers.
This shocked them both, and confird their hypothesis that Maxi would have a talent that would enable the rcenary to train extrely quickly.
Simultaneously, a few ideas simred in their minds as they noticed this, but they tried to suppress these thoughts.
During the evening of the 11th day, Maxi 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!"
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