"It's here. Marcus in the north wind took off his hood and let out a long breath as he looked at the gates of the Stone Fortress.

After killing most of the attacking mercenaries, he had trekked through the vast wilderness for seven days, using his kingdom identity to spend six watchtowers before finally arriving at the fortress built on the northern defense line of the Red Ridge Mountains.

The solitary experience along the way also reminded Marcus more than once that he was no longer the strongest killer lord in the universe who consumed 75 battle points every month. At that time, there was nothing that the Great Lord couldn't handle, and even the enemies encountered in the game couldn't. But there is no monster that can't handle him now, even the kobolds he encounters along the way, as long as there are enough of them.

Marcus, who insists on controlling the level and accumulates experience in the experience pool without using it, must admit that he is still far from being "powerful" in the true sense of the word, and in the face of all kinds of monsters in this wilderness, he is alone and unable to do it.

Fortunately, this situation is coming to an end.

In front of the Stone Fortress, the black-haired Nephilimian Paladin, dressed in light white leather armor, turned his back to the rising sun, waiting for the gate to open.

In front of his eyes, the fortress composed of black stone walls towered over the ridge, and its huge size completely obscured the view, and it was indeed worthy of being an important defensive fortress of the kingdom's northern defense line.

"Soon, at six o'clock, the gates of the fortress should be opened. Marcus cautiously observed the city walls, and to his disappointment, neither the patrols nor the sentinels found it, which made him frown: "Is the defense really lax?"

Looking down, the gates made of fine steel were still closed, and the entire fortress was dead silent.

It wasn't until the bell on the inner tower of the fortress rang for the second time, and the crisp sound echoed seven times, that the gate was slowly lifted to reveal a semicircular passageway, accompanied by the sound of the mechanism operating. Up to this point, Marcus had not seen the patrolmen and sentries on the watchtower that should have appeared on the stone walls of the fortress.

"Hell, I may have come to a large fortress of a fake kingdom. ”

The moment the door opened, several soldiers dressed as Kingdom soldiers also spotted Marcus, and they were taken aback, and even stunned for a while before someone stepped forward to interrogate Marcus' identity and origin.

After more than an hour of waiting, the Nephilim Paladin grew impatient, and he complained about the length of his wait, then opened his mouth to identify himself and his intentions, and at the same time pulled out of his bosom a dozen supporting documents—from identification papers to a letter of appointment from the second lieutenant issued by the Count of Lothar—and handed them to the soldier at the front.

The relatively "dutiful" soldier, despite being at the forefront, was an out-and-out illiterate man – which is normal, since not everyone had the capital to learn words in this day and age – all he could recognize was the blue lion mark on the document.

So, he took the paper, saluted Marcus, and turned to hand it to a very serious-looking soldier who seemed to be their commander.

"I'm sorry, sir. A cursory glance at the papers, the soldier saluted Marcus like the first, but Marcus could sense a scorn in it. By the time he returned the stack, the contempt became even more apparent.

Marcus narrowed his eyes. He could sense a certain familiarity in the man, just like some of the game's intelligent NPCs that use advanced AI, veterans of several great wars. He used to deal with this kind of NPC a lot: retired veterans often have stories and usually have a small quest chain, and the ones in the military tend to be the backbone of the army as an important part of some mission.

After all, his letter of appointment was very vague, and he had no previous service records, like a nobleman's son who had been gilded in the army. And the heraldic design of the Eland family on that identification certificate is even more proof of this......

But Marcus wasn't afraid of him, just a veteran. Nephilim should not and could not be afraid of battle. It doesn't matter if there is a gap between the Otherworld and the game, but the player's combat experience will not change much.

A soldier or an adventurer who has experienced a hundred battles in his life is already the limit. After all, both war and adventure require careful preparation. This kind of existence is no better than a player who has to fight for experience, equipment, tasks, prestige, and so on as soon as he enters the game. From skills to equipment, players are also born for battle, and every experience and equipment of the player is soaked in the blood of the enemy.

Every player who has grown from a cannon fodder infantry like a foot man to a big lord has not experienced a lot of battles and seen a lot?

Let alone...... Even the kingdom's armies will not be full of professionals. A handful of ace troops can have enough elites. As a soldier at the grassroots level, most of the time he is still an ordinary person. In the ordinary garrison, professionals can basically become junior officers. The man in front of him who was a non-commissioned officer was a semi-professional at most.

Semi-pros are unique to NPCs in the game, after all, the player comes up as the protagonist template. And there are always some people who can go beyond the limits of ordinary people (in the game it is level, depending on the race, there is an ordinary "person" no matter how much training can not exceed the upper limit of the level) but because of qualifications or other reasons, they can't master the extraordinary resources unique to professionals - such as rage, mana, runes - or partially mastered but not fully existent.

Even if they can't grasp this extraordinary resource at all, after hard training, they can still rely on their physical bodies to perform some professional skills before they exceed the limits of ordinary people. This kind of existence beyond the ordinary limit can continue to grow to its own limit like a professional, but this growth is limited to attributes and levels, in game terms. In terms of skills, it is not possible to try to learn new abilities by meeting the basic conditions like professionals, but can only master the vocational skills that can be displayed before the breakthrough for the rest of their lives.

In the eyes of players, these are the kind of monsters that no matter how high the level, no matter how strong the attributes, no matter how much damage, there are only a few skills back and forth. Even if the Origin is purified for various reasons—the power is purer than normal, and therefore the combat power is stronger—at best, it will be promoted to a rare or elite template, and never want to become a lord-level existence.

Although Marcus has not become a professional, he already has a hero class that is not understood by the world, and with a large amount of experience smashed, the final damage coefficient of the class skill is much higher than that of the profession in this world - his legendary warrior who reached the pinnacle in his previous life, the signature skill Death Strike hits the defenseless enemy who is adversely affected by the Giant's Strike under the three-stack Fury Focus and Shatter Defense Damage Increase, which requires foreshadowing The strongest hit damage coefficient is barely over 1500% , and can't normalize this kind of damage constantly.

"I've kept you waiting, Second Lieutenant. But I think you'll have to keep waiting, our commander-in-chief, Count Arthur, the colonel of the kingdom, is not in the fortress, and so is his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Maktoum. I think the only officer you'll find in the castle of the fortress is Major Caron. And he was either drinking or already drunk all day long. ”