Chapitre 6: Chapter 6: Rewards
What they saw was a camp set up by a group of merchants.
They were passing by, taking a rest and having a meal not far from the town, but unexpectedly encountered a group of bandits who attacked them in one swift move.
As the bandits scattered and began to loot, Adam charged in and killed more than ten of them in a single breath.
At this moment, there were no organized groups left in the camp, only scattered bandits.
Cries of pain and calls for help could be heard from all around, accompanied by faint sounds of clashing swords.
People seeing the chaos outside mustered the courage to continue fighting back.
The screams of women and children, the clashing of swords, and the pervasive smell of blood formed the backdrop of the camp scene.
At the center of the camp, Adam stood alone, tightly gripping his long sword as he moved forward once more.
With his long sword in hand, he fought on.
At this point, the prowess of a knight apprentice like him was truly evident.
Perhaps if he were facing an organized group of enemies, his current strength would be insufficient and pose a threat, but against these scattered bandits, he effortlessly crushed them.
Wherever he went, swords waved in his hands and with just a few slashes, enemies fell one by one.
"You have gained five experience points...."
The familiar prompt appeared again, noticed by Adam.
However, he didn't pay attention to these, focusing solely on fighting and chasing relentlessly.
Behind him, Luman Thomas and his companion were stunned.
"Is he that fierce?"
He opened his mouth, not quite sure what to say.
At this point, he was certain that the young man before him was no ordinary character.
He was most likely one of the professionals mentioned in the official background information.
[Quest prompt: Wrath of Knight]
[Quest objective: Assist Knight Adam in battle, drive away the bandits before you...]
[Quest reward: 20 experience points, Knight Adam's favor...]
A series of prompts rang in their ears.
In this instant, Luman and his companion exchanged glances, seeing the unmistakable excitement in each other's eyes.
A quest had arrived, what were they waiting for?
The next moment, they simultaneously picked up their weapons and followed Adam, charging forward.
Compared to Adam, their combat skills and strength were not as advanced, but they had their own advantages.
Firstly, due to their long-term ventures into the wilderness for hunting, they wore homemade leather armor.
Although the materials were crude, the armor provided some protection despite not being particularly resistant to damage.
At the same time, they could understand the common language, unlike Adam.
They were able to communicate with people from all around.
Right now, they were doing just that, shouting behind Adam to rally those around them to resist together.
Their cries were effective, as more and more people around them started fighting back, even women and children picking up makeshift weapons to strike.
A moment later, Adam stopped.
Standing in place, he looked curiously at Luman and his friend's actions, somewhat surprised.
He didn't expect these two ordinary people who were previously scared stiff by a mere beast, to now have the courage to charge forward and fight.
He didn't understand the significance of quest rewards to players and simply praised their bravery, nodding approvingly.
At this point, the bandits were either dead or driven away.
Among them, the majority had been killed by Adam, with a total of more than ten people.
The area gradually calmed down.
Luman and his companion took the initiative to console and negotiate with the people around them.
As for Adam, due to the language barrier, he just sat alone in the shade, dealing with minor wounds on his body and cleaning the blood from his sword.
During the previous charge, although the bandits didn't pose a significant threat to Adam, he still received some minor injuries.
These wounds needed to be attended to.
As for his weapon, there was now a problem.
Staring at his sword, Adam felt a little dazed.
Before him, the cleaned sword had a small nick now visible.
This long sword was taken from his father's estate, and it had been used for a long time. He didn't expect it to have issues after just one battle.
It seemed that the quality was worrisome.
He had no choice.
Adam was only a son of a Knight, and not even the eldest who could inherit the family business. His financial strength was limited, and with the need to maintain the facade of an aristocratic life, there was practically no surplus.
To put it in modern terms, the old Adam would've been a "spendthrift," not exactly in debt but unable to save any money.
Under such circumstances, even if he knew his weapon had issues, he didn't have the money to replace it.
After all, a good weapon was expensive.
"If only I could find a way to make some money...."
Adam sighed to himself, suddenly feeling the urge to find ways to get money.
As he thought this, Luman and Regan approached from a distance.
Under Adam's puzzled gaze, they showed respect on their faces before taking out a bag and opening it, revealing its contents.
When the rough bag was opened, it was filled with glittering gold coins.
"Is this... for me?"
It took a while for Adam to understand their intention, but he was still hesitant.
It wasn't until Luman and Regan pointed to the traders nearby and then to the nearby corpses of the robbers that Adam finally understood.
It seemed that this money must have been collected by those traders to express their gratitude to Adam for driving away the robbers and allowing them to survive.
Once he understood this, Adam didn't refuse and accepted it directly.
It was a knight's duty to protect, but protection didn't mean selfless dedication.
Receiving a proper reward from the people being protected was also allowed and even encouraged by tradition.
Adam was just thinking about how to get money, and now the money came to him.
Although these gold coins were of different styles and not quite the same as the Hodge coins, they were still made of gold and had their corresponding value.
There was a specialized exchange spot within Hodge Royal Academy, and Adam only needed to find the corresponding place to exchange these coins for Hodge coins once he was back, which could be used directly.
Then, he would be able to pay back Regan quickly.
Adam thought to himself.
As he pondered, Luman and Regan on the side were feeling a bit guilty.
The truth was that this money wasn't willingly given by the traders; they had actively demanded it.
By using Adam's intimidating presence earlier, they had extorted this sum of money from the traders through threats and coercion.
Adam had seen this process, but because he couldn't understand the language, he thought it was just normal negotiation.
From the money they had demanded from the traders, Luman and Regan gave most of it to Adam but also took some for themselves secretly.
The amount was not much, only two or three gold coins, about one-tenth of the total sum.
Although the total wasn't much, for these two grass-roots players, three gold coins were already a considerable fortune.
Their earnings from hunting in this area for such a long time were about the same amount of money.
The harvest was quite good.
The only problem was that they couldn't communicate with Adam and didn't know what he thought.
If, in front of the surviving traders, Adam had publicly rejected the money, they would have been exposed.
Fortunately, Adam didn't refuse but chose to accept.
They couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
After resting for a while, Adam silently stood up and gripped his long sword tightly.
Hoofbeats came from a distance, stirring up dust even from afar.
Adam's senses were sharp, and he noticed this almost immediately.
He stood up, looked into the distance, and saw a group of warriors riding horses approaching.
Compared to the previous band of robbers, this group seemed well-trained.
They were dressed in light leather armor, holding complete weapons, and had horses.
Although there were only about twenty people, their strength was not weak, and they could easily defeat the previous band of robbers.
Out of instinct, Adam became alert.
"Who is in charge here!"
A deep voice came from the front.
From the group of riders, a burly middle-aged man wearing armor emerged, focusing on what was ahead of him.
His gaze swept over the camp around him, looked at the still visible traces of wreckage, and finally focused on Adam.
Compared to those around them, Adam's demeanor and appearance seemed more like the core figure here.
However, Adam gave no response to his words.
He couldn't understand what the other person was saying and couldn't possibly respond.
Fortunately, Luman and Regan behind him reacted quickly, exchanging glances and stepping forward.
"Foreigners, it's you again."
The middle-aged man on the horse looked at Luman and Regan and frowned: "Haven't you left yet?"
Not long ago, a lot of foreigners had arrived nearby.
Their language was chaotic, their behavior peculiar, and many of them lacked basic common sense with quite a few of them acting like lunatics.
These people caused some security problems locally, and he had paid some attention to them.
During that time, a significant portion of foreigners had been caught by him once and given a severe lesson in the dungeons.
That's how he recognized Luman and Regan.
"Captain Derley, please don't misunderstand, the chaos here was not caused by us."
Luman and Regan stepped forward with apologetic smiles, explaining to the middle-aged man in front of them.
They looked somewhat humble at first glance, and it didn't match their identity as players.
But there was no other way.
Some players had doubted it, but in the end, all of them were imprisoned by this man in the dungeons.
Although he wouldn't resort to murder, his other means were harsh enough, so that now, whenever Luman and Regan saw him, they had considerable shadows in their hearts.
Cadeaux
-- Cadeau
reçu État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone