Chapter 89

After being transported to this world, Rod did not lose everything. Apart from the holy sword card he used as an amulet, all the sword skills his character had learned remained. However, because Rod had not met the requirements, he could not use these sword skills for the time being. Nevertheless, this was already very satisfying for Rod, as these sword skills were ones he had spent several years in the game, running around to learn. Some were obtained through reputation grinding, some through exploring ancient ruins, and some extremely rare sword skills required specific conditions to be met before they could be learned. Although the basic learning requirements for these sword skills were not low, the most difficult part was the process of obtaining them. Now that this process had been skipped, Rod was naturally overjoyed. All he had to do was wait patiently, work hard to level up, and once he met the conditions for the skills, they would unlock and become learnable.

As the former owner of these skills, Rod naturally knew exactly what requirements they needed to meet to be learned. Unfortunately, things were not going as smoothly as he had hoped.

The reason was simple: he could not see his own attributes.

Until now, Rod had not been able to awaken his dormant bloodline, so his various attributes were still hidden with large question marks. Before level 10, he could barely estimate his attributes. However, after level 10, the talent tree opened, and character attributes began to increase with each level, making it impossible for him to keep track.

Since the number of attribute points each race gained upon leveling up was different, Rod could only leave it to fate and see which skills he could unlock.

What Rod most hoped to unlock first was "Shadow Dance," because this sword skill was highly concealed, dealt high damage, and had excellent critical hit bonuses. For a summoner swordsman, who was not good at direct confrontation, it was an excellent skill. The only problem was that it required a very high level of dexterity. As a skill created by fallen elves, it naturally inherited the characteristics of elves, and without their speed and agility, mastering this sword skill was nothing but a pipe dream.

However, reality often did not go as one wished.

This time, the skill that unlocked was not "Shadow Dance," but "Starfall."

To be honest, when Rod saw this sword skill, he felt a bit depressed—after all, he had named his mercenary group "Starlight" not to attract things with the word "star." But now, despite his frustration, "Starfall," as one of the rare sword skills in his collection, was far superior to the initial "Moonshadow" in both power and value.

Moreover, there was one thing that puzzled Rod: he had once again "exceeded" and received two extra skill points. Previously, in the ruins, Rod had not thought much about it due to the battle, and now he still could not find an answer. After much thought, Rod could only attribute it to his mysterious bloodline. He had heard of people randomly obtaining certain bloodlines when creating characters, which allowed them to gain additional attributes or skills upon leveling up. Perhaps his bloodline was of this type.

Faced with the system prompt, Rod did not hesitate and immediately spent one skill point. Soon, a familiar system message appeared before his eyes.

"Consumed 1 skill point, unlocked 'Starfall Sword Skill,' proficiency: E."

"Held skills: 'Judgment's Wrath.'"

Upon receiving this message, Rod felt a warm current suddenly rise from his chest, slowly spreading out, accompanied by a comfortable sensation that quickly passed. Then, a familiar skill immediately appeared in Rod's mind.

"Judgment's Wrath: Using the sword as a staff, channel the power of the soul to make enemies tremble before your wrath, a force that utterly crushes..."

Rod clenched his hand, a hint of pride and confidence flashing in his eyes.

Everything was going smoothly.

As for the other skill point, Rod did not use it but chose to save it.

At this moment, a thought suddenly came to his mind: if everything went well, he might be able to make a new attempt. This would be a rather interesting challenge for Rod.

However, Rod did not have the time for that now, as he faced a bigger problem.

After an unknown amount of time, everyone finally recovered. The mercenaries, who had been covered in blood and wounds, now looked refreshed, and the spirit masters, who had been exhausted from the journey, had also regained their vitality. Although the thought of the undead outside made them shudder and even want to stay in the small cave forever,

Reason, however, clearly told them that this was just a fantasy.

In the end, they had to leave.

Although they were extremely reluctant, Kudra kept his word. He gathered his subordinates and told them to follow Rod's orders completely. Although the mercenaries did not trust Rod, it was clear that Kudra had a lot of authority among them, so they did not say much and quickly nodded in agreement.

Unfortunately, not everyone was like that.

"I disagree!"

Accompanied by a sharp, clear voice, a girl stepped out of the crowd. From her attire, it was clear that she was the thief who had failed to ambush Rod outside the cave and almost got killed. Her face was still covered by a black cloth, but her eyes were filled with undisguised suspicion as she looked at Rod.

"Leader, you did a great job, and everyone survived because of your leadership. Now, you want to entrust our lives to someone we don't know at all? I won't agree! Leader, you have the ability, I believe in you!"

"That's your problem."

Facing the girl's gaze, Rod did not even lift his head.

"It's not my problem. Whether you agree or not won't change my mind. Want to get out safely? Fine, follow my orders. Or, you have no choice, because I didn't come here to take a bunch of corpses back. I don't like wasting my efforts, so your protests are meaningless to me."

"You... Lord Serek, don't you...?"

Hearing Rod's response, the girl gritted her teeth and turned to Serek for help, but he only gave her an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, I think this is the best way. As Rod said, we didn't come here to fail. Since we've found you, we need to get you out. But clearly, Kudra can't do that, or you wouldn't need the Mercenary Association's help, right?"

"..."

The girl was speechless. After all, the fact was that if Kudra could get them out, they wouldn't have needed the Mercenary Association's help.

"But we don't know this man at all..."

"You don't trust the leader at all!" At this moment, another voice suddenly interrupted the girl's argument. When everyone looked in surprise, they saw Annie standing quietly to the side, her face cold, though she seemed otherwise normal, she exuded a chilling aura.

"Annie trusts her leader. The leader said he can get you out, and he will. Since you can't do it, why say so much nonsense? Isn't that right?"

"What did you say?!"

The girl jumped up, and two daggers immediately appeared in her hands.

"Are you underestimating us?"

"Annie is just stating the facts. You can't do it anyway!"

Annie snorted coldly, lifted her chin, and her shield immediately broke apart and formed a battle stance.

"If you don't believe me, try it!"

Just as the tension was about to escalate, Rod's cold voice rang out.

"Both of you, shut up and stop."

Rod's voice was not loud, but both girls trembled. Annie frowned and retracted her shield. The girl, though unwilling, had to put away her daggers and turn to glare at the wall.

"I'll say it again."

Rod pressed his forehead.

"This is decided. You have no room to resist. You must follow my orders. I won't use Mr. Serek to pressure you, and I've already discussed this with Mr. Kudra and have his agreement. If anyone opposes my decision and thinks I'm not qualified, you can go to Kudra and see what he decides. We don't have time to waste, and I don't want to see pointless conflicts. If you dare to do something like this again, I'll knock you out and leave you here to be neighbors with the undead for the rest of your lives."

"..."

The atmosphere became somewhat tense, but in the end, no one objected to Rod's command. The next thing Rod was most concerned about was their next move.

As Rod had expected, both Serek and Kudra agreed that they should return the way they came and leave this place. Unfortunately, Rod had a completely opposite opinion.

"I can only say this is a foolish decision."

Rod gave a concise and clear answer.

"Why?"

Serek clearly did not understand Rod's thinking.

"We are very familiar with this path. Returning this way should be faster, and we have already faced most of the monsters here, so we can handle the dangers more calmly, right?"

"That's in terms of combat, but the danger is not just from that."

Rod shook his head.

"We can't pass through the highland battlefield."

"But when we came here..."

"That was different."

Rod finally realized that although this sword master was excellent in his field, he had no talent in this area. He waved his hand and patiently explained to Serek.

"Back then, the number of people was carefully arranged. Five spirit masters were just enough to cover all areas. But now, it's different. There are six survivors here, and once they join our group, the group will expand, and the area we need to defend will also expand. In this range, five spirit masters are not enough to cover all the dangerous areas. This is very dangerous for us."

"I see."

Hearing Rod's explanation, Serek's eyes lit up, and Kudra, who had been silent, nodded, seemingly deep in thought. Then, he asked with doubt.

"So, what should we do next?"

Faced with Kudra's question, Rod answered without hesitation, "Continue forward."

"What?"

Both Serek and Kudra were surprised, their mouths agape. They stared at Rod, wondering if their ears were deceiving them.

By the Holy Soul, just getting here was dangerous enough, and this young man not only did not plan to retreat but even wanted to move forward? Why?!