Count Elderwood's First Defeat

A month passed since Count Elderwood had declared war on Baron Lark.

The assassination attempt had been too much.

After summoning his vassals, Count Elderwood left 200 soldiers to defend his territory, and moved forward with his 800-men-strong army. The travel took one entire month, because the infantry soldiers in his army were not well-trained. As a result, many broke their backs carrying their equipment, even though their travelling speed was slow.

Count Elderwood was not planning on showing mercy towards the Lark Barony.

He burnt three villages in the way. Fortunately for its inhabitants, they had escaped before the army arrived. Otherwise, they would have been turned into prisonners. And the fate of prisonners was worse than death.

However, one night, Count Elderwood felt danger.

"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!", he shouted in the middle of the night, causing an alert to be issued.

Getting out of his tent, he realized that the patrols had been swiftly assassinated. Arrows had pierced their heads. As for the knights, they were trying to shout, with little success. His bodyguards were fighting already.

Count Elderwood recognized the black-robed assassins. Their trademark weapons, curved daggers, were unique to the [Scorpion Assassin Guild]. Fifty assassins had infiltrated the camp, and killed many soldiers already, burnt the rations and freed the horses.

It was a massive blow. As soon as the knights finished preparing themselves for battle, the assassins retreated.

It was his first defeat.

---

Meanwhile, the Landragon Army was still moving forward. Arthur had conscripted 100 horsemen, from John's personal army and from the main Landragon Army. Besides him, there were 8 knights following him. All of them were loyal to the Landragon Household, although some of them didn't like him personally. Some were acquaintances of John, while others were disciples of Viscount Frederick Landragon.

In any case, Arthur had managed to form a quick cavalry with a strong frontline. As long as he used the right strategy, his cavalry unit had the potential of dealing a lethal charge to an enemy army.

The travelling speed of his army was also very fast, much more than what people would expect. This was a result of his army using Dark Northern Stallions, the best war horses that could be found on the market. Although they were not easy to tame, as long as you purchased them at the right price, you could train them so that they could be ridden by average horsemen.

Of course, Arthur also gave advice on how to ride these stallions, and also helped them tame the most tenacious ones, using the technique of the stick and the carrot.

"Sir!", a scout returned with a wound to his hip, "I have spotted an elven army coming for us! They are at least 200, and they are armed to the teeth!"

Arthur smiled.

Ever since he left the Ivory Tower, his growth rate had significantly slowed down. After all, back in the Ivory Tower, he was either completing missions, or attacking [Arcane Faction] acolytes. In both cases, he was killing strong living beings, which granted him enormous amount of EXP.

However, if his past four years in this world taught him anything, it's that relying solely on EXP, and by extension, his levels, was not the way to go. After all, he had easily taken care of Rick Crimson, who possessed several levels above him and artefacts. His battle experience, skill proficiency and spell mastery were all lacking in comparison to Arthur's.

Of course, it was always good to possess more [Magic Power], since it would increase his spells' damage and effects. However, it was just not his priority.

In the past months, he might not have levelled up, but his swordsmanship did get much better, as he entered the [Advanced Sword Realm], a realm of weapon mastery that was rarely reached by individuals below the [Grand Knight] realm. This told a lot about Arthur's talent and dedication to the martial path.

Most body refinement acolytes would not actually go through the trouble of learning how to use a weapon. Actually, many body refinement acolytes would just go through strange operations to strengthen their skin and joints, so that their body would handle their artificially increased strength. From this point on, they would just use their overwhelmingly strong body to physically overwhelm their opponents, knights and magical beasts alike, with a barrage of fists.

Although this method seemed barbaric, it was very pragmatic and efficient, making the body refinement acolytes the most suited acolyte assassins. After all, they often specialized in increasing their vitality and resistance to spell, while learning defensive spells, allowing them to defend against acolytes' attacks.

Defense spells also happened to be more mana-efficient than offensive spells, so a war of attrition would almost always result in the body refinement acolyte's crushing victory.

Alas, this was only for the acolyte realm.

After breaking through the magus realm, those who walked the elemental path would be able to engrave a [Core Spell] in their spirit, allowing them to display firepower several fold what their magic power would normally be able to demonstrate. Even Body Refinement Acolytes would not be able to block a Magus [Core Spell], whether they were magi themselves or not.