Looking at the eleven vassals in front of him, Xue Pard always had a smile on his face, his conceptual advantage in the management territory was not comparable to most of the nobles in the Old World, plus this is a society where power is supreme, although he has found that as long as the body reaches the medium divine power, the body will automatically have epic strength, and the power of divine power will also break through the limit of the professional level, so that the upper limit of the doppelganger's power will also rise.

Fortunately, although the strength of the dual class is not enough to suppress a country, it is more than enough to be an earl or a border marquis.

After the ceremony, the men naturally dispersed, and Shepard finally had free time, taking Tommy, Jeff, Tommar and a dozen guards to the place where Rachela was bitten, leaving Sidney to train the militia and guards.

……

The town of Prell is located in a unique location where the west bank of the Prell River is a continuous stream of hard rocks from its source to its end into the underground river, and only near this bend in the river is gentle and soiled, leaving a few miles of gaps, where the Prell Castle is located, and Shepard built the town of Prell on the basis of which Shepard built the town of Prell.

Half a day's walk north is where Rachela is unconscious, and it is naturally faster to come here on horseback, and the tall trees are rooted in the hard rocks, and a small grove grows along the river.

The maid who was in charge of leading the way was a little nervous and rode with Jeffrey on the same horse, pointing to the woods over there: "My lord! It was here that Miss Rachela was bitten, and she fell unconscious only halfway through the way with me, so I had to run back to the town alone to ask for help......"

Shepard looked at the woods, didn't even look at her, and said coldly: "Although you saved Rachela, it's also your fault for not taking good care of her, and you don't have to stay in the Lord's Mansion anymore." ”

This maid wanted to cry aggrieved, but she didn't dare to cry, working in the lord's mansion is a decent thing, although she didn't sell herself to the Prell family, but usually getting a little is a big benefit for a poor family, even if her father wants to marry her, she can ask for more dowry with this status, but now it is naturally not possible, thinking that she will really go to the field or go into the water to fish in the future, this maid finally couldn't help crying.

Jeff threw the maid to his men with some disgust, only to hear Shepard say coldly: "Leave three people here to take care of the horses, and the others all dismount and go in with me." ”

Tommar hurriedly said, "My lord! This forest is not small, and there is still danger, so let me take a trip for the adults! ”

Tommy and Jeff also hurriedly tried to dissuade Shepard, but he waved his hand and said, "I won't go in, which of you knows more about the [Copper Devouring Fire Ant]?" Don't be persuaded, come with me! ”

Three knights and fifteen cavalrymen, three of whom were left to guard the horses and guards, and the remaining fifteen plus exactly sixteen of Shepard, dismounted and went into the woods.

Although this forest is close to the river, but the area is indeed not small, the group walked in for more than ten minutes, only to see a fairly flat clearing, the sound of the river flowing clearly in the ears, obviously not far from the water's edge.

This open space is a bit strange, not only is there no flowers and plants, but there are also large and small potholes, as well as some large and small purple open-pit mines, but the color is not clear whether it is copper or iron.

Shepard let out a low shout to get everyone ready for battle, and then walked leisurely to a piece of ore more than half a meter high in the eyes of everyone who didn't know why, and looked left and right, just when everyone thought that their lord was for convenience, the purple ore suddenly moved.

"Squeak——!

The moment the purple ore moved, Shepard had already pulled out his long sword and inserted it in front of the ore in the blink of an eye, and the thing that was originally thought to be the ore instantly struggled wildly, and the body very similar to the ant writhed wildly, but Shepard held the handle with both hands as steady as a mountain, and looked coldly at the purple ant that was pierced through the head.

"Purple, it looks like cuprite."

He muttered to himself, twisted the long sword in his hand, and pressed it, and the extremely sharp blade cut off the ant's head with a sound like cutting iron sheets.

Although the body of the copper devouring fire ant has excellent magic resistance due to the devouring of magic metal, it is not enough to see such brute force and sharp blades, and the headless body is still twitching slightly.

The ground fluctuated and shook slightly, and the fire ants that were used as sentry posts were killed, and the other fire ants in disguise also woke up one after another, shaking off the dirt and dust on their bodies, and more than thirty fire ants as small as a palm and as large as more than half a meter immediately rushed towards Shepard and his party.

"Don't be afraid, there aren't many fire ants, watch out for their venom and spikes!"

Shepard let out a low snort and retreated into the crowd, but he pushed away the guards who wanted to stand in front of him, flipped his hand and thrust the sword back into the scabbard behind his back, and removed the longbow he was carrying.

A bow and a sword were already his standard equipment before the battle, and the guards saw that their earl was very calm and drew their bows and arrows, and they immediately made up their minds.

As one of the lowest magical insects, it didn't take long for Shepard to kill the nest of copper fire ants alone, he opened his bow like a harp, only to hear a few clanging sounds, and each arrow nailed the head of a fire ant to the ground.

The ant colony was only one or twenty meters away from everyone, but it was such a short distance, and when the ant colony rushed over, all the larger fire ants were shot to death by Shepard, and then he put away his longbow and drew his sword, but he did not strike again, but commanded his own soldiers and his knights, as they used to fight in the game, to deal with those small and difficult fire ants.

"Idiot! Knock it with the shield in your hand! ”

"Tommar! You're a knight and you're wearing iron boots! Stomp that thing to death! ”

Occasionally, there are fire ants that come from a tricky position, all of them are cut in half by his understatement sword, fire ants are small and poisonous, too dense defense is not conducive to combat, fortunately, there is a Shepard pressure formation behind the loose formation, although his subordinates are all in a hurry, and occasionally a few are corroded by formic acid armor or weapons, but fortunately no one is injured in important parts.

Before he came, Shepard asked his subordinates to replace their weapons with blunt weapons and shields wrapped in iron sheets, and at this time, he saw the benefits, the most poisonous fire ants were nailed to death by him in advance, and the remaining formic acid spit out although the shield was corroded, but it took a while to even penetrate the iron sheets.

A dozen knights and warriors who had experienced the Great War cleaned up twenty or thirty magical insects here, and although the scene was a bit comical, it was actually a dangerous battle that could make a militia team composed of ordinary people instantly fight the streets, and the calm and experienced professionals still needed Shepard's pressure to maintain the formation and not let those fire ants get into the hole.

The blunt hammer and other blunt instruments in the hand are knocked on one by one, one will not die twice, two will not die three times, the copper devouring fire ants are not very terrible in terms of number and harmfulness, so they are one of the weakest types of magic insects, more than half an hour later, the battle is over, the purple ant corpses are spread on the ground, many of them are smashed and the juice is splashed, and the sound of the ground being corroded is endless.

The weapons and shields carried by the guards were also basically scrapped, and they were thrown on the ground without pity, only the long sword in Shepard's hand was a delicate divine weapon, so he was not afraid of the corrosive body fluids of fire ants.

"Ahem......" Tommar is the only one who has kept his weapon except for Shepard, and the power of the purified bloodline [Divine Demon Blood] gives him a very outstanding resistance to sulfur, curses, acid, etc., so he can protect his weapon, and occasionally when the fire ants rush in, he also dares to kick the fire ants up with one kick and pinch them to death in his hands empty-handed, although he only has the strength of ordinary intermediate professionals, but it is easier than Jeff and Tommy, who have more combat experience.

Shepard looked around, looked at everyone's performance, and compared everyone's performance and talent in his heart, so as to select the talents to focus on cultivating, after all, he still had the breathing method and combat skills he had fished from the Salibota family, plus some of the professional conditions he knew, so that these subordinates who were only very ordinary [Warrior] or [Guard] professions went further, and it was not impossible to transfer to some combat professions with more characteristics and advantages.

"Take a break, take care to avoid the bodily fluids of these ants, you idiots beware of breaking your boots, just run back to me barefoot!"

Shepard laughed and cursed, these soldiers were all taken by him from the castle of the Salibota family, followed him all the way to Esmirtaran, and then returned to the territory of Prell, all loyal and familiar with him, although they received the order loudly, they all laughed and ran to the side.

Shepard didn't bother with them, but beckoned Tommar to take two strong soldiers with shovels they had brought, and look around where the fire ants had come out.

Large and small pits can be seen at this time, it turns out that they are all holes where fire ants enter and exit, and I don't know how many companion ant colonies I killed in order to mine in my previous life, Shepard is extremely familiar with these things, just a few glances, I know the location of the ant hill.

He raised his foot and stomped a few times and jumped lightly to the side, and after a vibration from where he was standing, it suddenly collapsed to a depth of more than a meter, startling everyone watching around.

"Alright, dig down in this place, don't stop." Shepard casually pointed to where he had been standing, and the two soldiers looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and dug together.

This collapsed area is also four or five meters long and wide, and two people dig for a while and then replace others with others, so as to maintain physical strength and not slow down the progress, the only problem is that there are fewer tools to bring.

After digging down to a depth of just over a meter, I heard the sound of metal clashing, and I picked up the soil, and sure enough, I saw the lilac copper vein below, and it couldn't be so simple after digging through the soil layer, and it would be a lot more troublesome to mine the ore, so Shepard stopped the two and asked them to dig along the vein.

After digging back and forth for more than an hour, someone finally poked a hole with a shovel, Shepard was overjoyed, jumped down and took a shovel, dug the hole around with his own hands, and let the sky shine in, only to see a queen ant more than one meter long was struggling to dig some space for herself under the collapsed soil layer.

The queen's guards had already died in the previous battle, Shepard stabbed the queen to death with a sword, cut open the soft shell on his body, and took out useful things such as stomach pouches, venom glands, and some unproduced fire ant eggs, and then separated the dark purple carapace of the queen ant from the soft tissue, and then ordered his men to jump down and move the carapace that looked like a bronze cast.

At this time, the fire ants that had been killed before, the body fluids were almost dry, the guards picked and found the complete armor pieces, two people went out of the woods to get the prepared cloth bags from the horses, and threw these valuable things into it, and the group walked out of the woods and turned over on their horses, and rushed to the town of Prell impatiently.

As soon as he returned to Prell, Shepard sent an order: "Let Knight Henry Dragg come to see me in the study." Then as soon as he returned to the manor, in addition to the guards on duty, he saw two tall and mighty knights.

Seeing these two people, Shepard couldn't help but smile and said, "Berghardt Ike, Gibbs York, you don't have to come to perform your duties so early. ”

Berghardt Ike is a wandering knight recruited by Shepard, and he looks the most ordinary and serious among the three wandering knights, but Shepard knows that this [noble knight] who is currently still an intermediate level will awaken the power of the bloodline [Moonlight] in a year, not only will his strength be greatly improved, but he will also step into the advanced level and become a [Moonlight Knight], so it is just right to recruit him during this time period.

And Gibbs York is the eldest son of Miye York, the first heir of the York family, Gibbs, who has just turned nineteen, still has a childish and fluffy face, but his profession is also [noble knight], although this aristocratic common combat profession is popular, but at the same time has high requirements for the knowledge, combat skills and quality level of the transferee, it is a knight profession that is very suitable for ordinary nobles.

The two knights, the old and the young, had serious expressions, Berghardt was in his early thirties, his family members were killed in the cultist rebellion, he fled to Esmirtaran alone and became a wandering knight, and at this moment he said seriously: "My lord, as a knight of your family, since I can't guard your side, then it is my duty to protect your family." ”

Gibbs, on the other hand, had the enthusiasm and courage of a young man, and exclaimed, "My lord! I am the son of your vassal, and according to the old tradition, I have an obligation and duty to serve you for a year! My father was also very supportive of my decision! ”

Berghardt is just that, this knight's personality is a little old-fashioned, but he is a rare good subordinate, Shepard smiled and put it aside, but he looked at Gibbs, but he knew what his father Miille York had in mind, but he didn't take it to heart, it is a good thing that his subordinates have flattering and flattering ideas, there is no need to discourage this enthusiasm too much, and the specialty of the York family is knights, and the proportion of men becoming professionals is much higher than that of some ordinary families.