"Dalko!"

The voice preceded the man.

Roland followed the sound and saw Baron Fosling, who was normally so composed, rushing over. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Dalko.

When he got a clear look at his son, who was bathed in blood, his lips trembled violently. It took him a long moment to force out a hoarse voice.

"My child... What happened to you..."

"Father, we ran into goblins in the forest..."

Supported by a servant, Dalko was about to explain when the Baron raised a hand to stop him.

"Don’t say another word. Just don’t say anything."

Baron Fosling’s voice was filled with an unprecedented panic.

"What you need most right now is rest. Someone! Help the young master back to his room! And..."

He paused, then suddenly changed his mind.

"No, I’ll go get the physician myself!"

Before the words had even faded, the nobleman, who had always remained calm in the face of adversity, stumbled away.

As the family’s sole heir, Dalko’s severe injuries had caused his father to completely lose his composure. His usual self-possession had vanished without a trace.

"Father! Father!"

Dalko called out several times, but Baron Fosling hurried away without a single glance back.

He sighed helplessly, then turned and waved to Roland. Some color had already returned to his face.

After returning to the manor, the young nobleman’s spirits had clearly improved.

"Roland, are you hurt? Do you want the physician to take a look at you with me?"

"There’s no need."

Roland waved his hand.

Although he was spattered with quite a bit of blood, most of it was from the goblins.

Those feeble Demons were not strong enough to injure him.

"Alright then, I’ll come find you tomorrow morning."

After bidding farewell to Dalko, Roland turned to Captain John, who was standing nearby, and asked in a low voice,

"What exactly is happening... over in the Black Pine Forest?"

"The Black Pine Forest..."

John seemed a bit dazed, clearly not having recovered from Dalko’s friendly attitude toward Roland.

He collected himself, his brow gradually furrowing.

"The fighting isn’t going well. Lord Beckham sent someone back to request reinforcements."

"The Demons there... are so strong that even a Knight can’t handle them?"

Roland’s brow furrowed slightly.

"I’m not sure of the specific situation, but anyway..."

John caught sight of a Guard gesturing to him in the distance and said hurriedly,

"You should go back and rest for now. Don’t worry, the reinforcements are already preparing to set out. Everything will be fine."

With that, he patted Roland’s shoulder and quickly walked away.

Watching John’s receding figure, Roland’s brow tightened unconsciously.

Rest?

’How could I possibly be in the mood to rest now?’

The strange encounter in the forest still lingered in his mind.

He turned on his heel and once again found himself before the remote little wooden cabin.

Right now, perhaps only Bronson could answer his questions about that blood-colored goblin.

As for telling anyone else...

Roland had no desire to be ridiculed as a fool.

If what Bronson had said was true, then something like Magic had been gone from this continent for hundreds of years.

Goblins? Fireballs?

No one would believe his crazy talk.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

The crisp knocking sound was exceptionally loud in the quiet manor, yet the closed wooden door remained motionless.

"Mr. Bronson?"

Roland called out a few more times, but there was still no response from within.

’Strange...’

Just as he was wondering to himself, he happened to glimpse a servant passing in the distance.

Roland hurried forward to stop him.

"Excuse me..."

He pointed to the dilapidated wooden cabin.

"Do you know where Mr. Bronson went?"

"Bronson?"

The servant frowned in thought for a moment before it suddenly dawned on him.

"Oh, you mean that tall, skinny weirdo? He went out early this morning and hasn’t been back since."

"Hm?"

The answer took Roland aback.

Although he hadn’t known Bronson for long, he was well aware of the man’s habits.

The reclusive scholar rarely went out. Other than handling the few miscellaneous chores assigned by Baron Fosling, he spent nearly all day shut inside his cabin.

Why would such a person suddenly go out?

And why hadn’t he returned after so long?

But these were obviously not questions a common servant could answer.

Roland could only give a slight bow of thanks and return to his own quarters, his mind full of questions.

Sitting on the creaking wooden bed, the events of the past few days flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern.

The solidified crystals of Magic Elements...

The urgent battle situation in the Black Pine Forest...

The well-trained Warriors of the Fiery Sun Church...

The enormous creature’s remains...

And the blood-colored goblin that had wielded a White Staff to conjure fireballs out of thin air.

"It seems Mr. Bronson’s speculation was correct..."

Roland muttered to himself, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the edge of the bed.

"Magic Elements really are slowly reawakening on this continent..."

"If that blood-colored goblin wasn’t an isolated case, then even with this manor’s tight defenses, it would probably be difficult to fend off their attacks..."

The thought made his throat tighten.

Roland took a deep breath, trying to calm the surging unease in his chest.

The cool air filled his lungs, allowing his thoughts to gradually clear.

’I must increase my strength as quickly as possible...’

With that in mind, he silently called upon and opened his Professional Panel. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

’Even with the bonus from the [Preparation for War] Trait, improving my Combat Skills still takes time. It would be better to...’

Thinking of this, Roland shifted his gaze to the package of medicinal herbs on the wooden table.

There were enough herbs left in there for one more session of the Secret Silver Body Tempering Technique.

Sorting the herbs, grinding them into powder, adding the Silver Dust, and smearing it on his body.

With the experience from the previous two times, the entire process was incomparably smooth and practiced.

As excruciating pain washed over him, lines of golden text flashed before his eyes.

[You have successfully cultivated the Secret Silver Body Tempering Technique once and gained one experience point.]

[You have successfully cultivated the Secret Silver Body Tempering Technique...]

[You have successfully cultivated...]

After an unknown amount of time, the golden text in his vision suddenly changed.

[Secret Silver Body Tempering Technique has reached Full Level]

[Detection complete. Reaching Full Level in any Body Tempering Technique/Body Refining Technique allows you to qualify for the Warrior Upper-tier Profession.]

[Requirements: 9 Power, 6 Agility, Five Full Level Combat Skills (1/5), Kill 0/100 hostile creatures]

[Host does not meet the requirements for this Profession]

"Warrior? Another Upper-tier Profession!"

After seeing the profession change prompt, Roland wiped off the Secret Medicine residue that hadn’t completely fallen off and examined the text carefully.

"Nine points in the Power Attribute... six points in the Agility Attribute, tsk..."

Looking at the 7.5 and 4.6 next to Power and Agility on his Professional Panel, Roland couldn’t help but smack his lips.

"The Secret Silver Body Tempering Technique has already reached Full Level... This means it’ll be hard to raise my Attributes in a short time. It seems that to meet the requirements for the Warrior Profession, I’ll have to rely on the most basic daily training to slowly build them up..."

"Compared to that..."

Glancing at the Basic Swordsmanship on his panel, which reached Full Level at Level Two, Roland slowly raised a hand and rubbed his chin.

"If all basic Combat Skills reach Full Level at Level Two, then the requirement for Five Full Level Combat Skills won’t be that difficult."

"With my current relationship with Dalko, it shouldn’t be a problem to have him find a veteran soldier to teach me the skills for using other weapons. As for..."

His gaze slowly shifted down the list.

"One hundred hostile creatures... Taking it literally, passively defensive animals like the rabbits and roe deer I killed while hunting before probably don’t count as hostile creatures."

"It has to be Demons that actively attack humans, like goblins or Kobolds... But where am I supposed to find them...?"

Although he had fought both Kobolds and goblins before,

in truth, John had complained to him more than once about how cunning these Demons were.

Not only could they always evade the Scouts’ detection and hide in dense forests or mountains,

but they would also suddenly and strangely appear anywhere.

Without enough manpower for reconnaissance, it was impossible to track these Demons’ movements.

"I can’t just run around blindly in the mountains or dense forests like a headless chicken. It would be one thing if I ran into ordinary goblins and Kobolds, but if I were to encounter Mutant Dogmen and blood-colored goblins..."

At this thought, Roland shook his head, then couldn’t help but feel it was a shame.

If only this profession advancement had been triggered back when he was in the forest.

Even if he hadn’t gone out of his way to kill them, his kill count would probably have been mostly filled just from escaping the forest.

"That’s right!"

In the middle of his thoughts, Roland suddenly remembered the Adventurer’s Guild that Dalko had mentioned before.

Although the village where he used to live had no such organization, based on the experience from his past life, he felt that there would be various bounty quests for Demons there.

And the bounty notices would most likely indicate the general location of where the Demons appeared.

"I’ll have to ask Dalko for details tomorrow. And I need to remind him not to forget about the Combat Skills he promised to teach me."

"And there’s the matter of Mr. Bronson..."

The day of intense fighting had long since exhausted Roland’s stamina.

He collapsed heavily onto his bed, letting his thoughts churn in his mind.

Before long, he sank into a deep sleep.