Chapter 8: Cleaning the Battlefield
What’s the concept of a mercenary single-handedly defeating a powered armor knight?
It’s like a three-year-old kindergartener single-handedly defeating a thirty-year-old muscular man.
In fact, the enhancements provided by powered armor to the knight were far greater than the difference between a thirty-year-old muscular man and a three-year-old child.
If a three-year-old child stabbed with a knife, the man’s leg would still be cut.
If the man swung a hammer, the powered armor knight could stand there and let him hit him however he wanted. Even if the hammer handle broke and shattered, there wouldn’t be a single mark on the armor.
As military technology designed powered armor, the original purpose was to replace mechanical vehicles like tanks, and its most basic function was to be bulletproof.
Unless it was a professional anti-materiel sniper rifle, ordinary firearms couldn’t penetrate it at all.
Not to mention swords. To break through powered armor with cold weapons, one would need at least level 8 physical strength.
Considering that the last magic tide surge was at the end of the Fifth Age, and the magic tide level had been maintained at the bottom level of 5 for hundreds of years.
Therefore, in this era, powered armor knights were electricity, light, myths on the battlefield, the superstars of all soldiers, mercenaries, and adventurers.
Now, a superstar had been defeated head-on by a mercenary… so much so that everyone present, whether the Night’s Watch knights or the mercenary girls, didn’t know what expression to make in the face of this fact.
Looking at the Black Knight’s corpse, completely dead, everyone’s expressions were numb, indifferent, and frozen.
“Ha, hahaha…” Knight Lorant’s eyes twitched, and he let out an awkward dry laugh. “Could this Black Knight be wearing fake powered armor?”
He stepped forward and kicked the Black Knight’s powered armor, making a crisp metallic clang.
The powered armor was real.
There was no denying it now.
Knight Commander Quasimodo came back to his senses and sighed helplessly.
This time, even if the other party didn’t give him a way out, he couldn’t continue to play deaf and dumb.
The Night’s Watch could ignore low-level mercenaries, but when they encountered a swordsmanship master who was second to none even in the world, they had to make friends and build a good relationship.
In the future, when they encountered major undead anomalies that even the headquarters had trouble with, they would have to ask these swordsmanship masters for help.
Therefore, as the Knight Commander of the Night’s Watch Morningstar Third Squad, Quasimodo had the obligation to win over the other party for the Night’s Watch, at least he couldn’t completely ignore them like before.
They could only start by improving their relationship.
Forcing a smile onto his face, Knight Commander Quasimodo turned his head with difficulty and said complimentarily:
“What amazing combat skills. I didn’t expect that your mercenary group would actually have such hidden talents…”
His voice trailed off because the mercenary girls were also dumbfounded, their faces filled with utter disbelief.
“Wait, why do you also look so shocked…” Quasimodo asked weakly.
The girls looked at each other, not knowing what to say, their minds blank.
Yes, they had originally thought that Asker was a very powerful person, but they didn’t expect his true level to be so powerful that he wasn’t even human… From today onwards, he was a god, a top god, an existence they could only look up to.
A dignified powered armor knight, with output power measured in tons, burst speed that could reach 10 meters per second, 360-degree full-body military steel armor coverage without any blind spots, and the body was an emotionless, always rational undead that wouldn’t make mistakes.
He was actually defeated head-on with just a few cold weapons… Are you even human? You must be possessed by the God of War! Even novels wouldn’t dare to write this!
“Nuo.” After a lot of effort, Asker finally pried open the Black Knight’s powered armor, revealing the exoskeleton, hydraulic connectors, and circuit boards underneath. “Come and take a look at this.”
“Huh? Oh!” Nuo remembered that she was, after all, a military nun. Besides healing, mechanical repair was also her specialty, so she hurriedly ran over.
“Um, what do you want me to do?” She stammered. “Repair this powered armor?”
“I just asked you to come and take a look, to familiarize yourself with the internal structure of the powered armor.” Asker said helplessly. “What’s with the honorific? Why did you suddenly start calling me ‘you’?”
“Because calling you directly by your name feels disrespectful…” Nuo said embarrassedly.
“It’s okay.” Asker sighed. “Just call me ‘you,’ or you can call me by my name.”
Hmm… Nuo looked conflicted, but finally nodded.
Asker stood up and beckoned Medea over.
“What are your orders, Captain?” Medea bowed slightly and said with a smile.
“For every time you say ‘you’ in that formal way, you’ll add one more lap to your morning run the next day.” Asker said with a straight face.
“Oh, I was just kidding.” Medea’s face turned pale, and she quickly tried to smooth things over with a charming smile.
The so-called morning run was running a lap around the edge of Furnace Island, which was not just a kilometer or two.
“What’s wrong with you guys?” Asker frowned. “Suddenly so respectful, are you playing maid?”
“No, no, no, we’re just having our worldviews refreshed.” Medea waved her hand. “After all, we used to think that powered armor knights were almost invincible on the battlefield. Seeing you kill the Black Knight so easily and neatly, we were a little shocked.”
“Oh.” Asker understood, so it was his preconceived notions again.
In the original game world, if a level 3 player defeated a powered armor knight head-on, everyone would only think that he was cheating. After all, not everyone had a clear understanding of the strength of professional e-sports players.
But in this world, if a level 3 Transcendental defeated a powered armor knight, no one would ever think of cheating – they would only be shocked and think: “Is he even human?” “This guy is so terrifying?” “Are all mercenaries monsters?”
“It’s nothing.” Asker decided to be humble, lest the girls worship him too much, which would make it difficult to carry out the subsequent teaching work. “Powered armor knights are not invincible, you don’t have to be so dramatic.”
“Of course, it was just unexpected before.” Medea said with a smile. “Now we have a sufficient understanding of your upper limit of strength. Even if you poke a demigod to death with a toothpick in the future, we will only smile slightly and not be surprised anymore.”
“If someone really pokes a demigod to death with a toothpick, I suggest you still be politely shocked.” Asker shook his head. “Medea, you go and discuss with the Night’s Watch about selling them the transcendental materials from the ghouls.”
“And this Black Knight’s powered armor, after we’re done studying it, we’ll sell it too.”
So Medea went to negotiate with the Night’s Watch. Asker thought for a moment and called Peggy over:
“The transcendental material on the Black Knight is a corrupted central brain core, located in the cerebellum inside his skull. But his head was blown up by my spear, so go and search nearby with your spirituality. It should be gray, a stone-like object.”
Peggy: …
So she parted the grass on the ground and carefully searched the surroundings with her spirituality.
The remaining girls, after recovering from their shock, also started chatting.
“This is that sword!” Mia picked up Asker’s sword from the ground, held it high like the legendary holy sword Excalibur, and sang in a chanting tone.
“The sword of the king~
Pulled from the stone~
Slayed the evil Black Knight~”
Miel clapped expressionlessly beside her, clap, clap, clap.
“Let me see that sword, Mia!” Sidlipha said eagerly, but Mia quickly hugged the sword and ran away.
“At least let me touch it…” Sidlipha dropped her arms weakly, listlessly.
“You can touch my spear.” Eleanor, seeing her dejected look, said, “Strictly speaking, it was my spear that delivered the final blow to the Black Knight.”
“It’s not the same.” Sidlipha said in surprise. “What I want to know is, why can this sword, which is also made of steel, pierce the helmet of powered armor? Logically speaking, the hardness of steel should be about the same, right? Could that sword really be the so-called ‘sword of the king’?”
“You actually believe such childish words…” Eleanor said, both amused and annoyed.
Medea quickly finished the negotiations. The Night’s Watch knights, who were originally cold and aloof, were now unexpectedly friendly and approachable. When Knight Commander Quasimodo talked to her, he practically had the word “friendly” written on his forehead.
Using her psychic abilities to read his mind a little, Medea immediately understood the reason and smiled like a fox.
“It’s settled, this is their offer.” Medea reported to Asker through the mental channel.
“Such a good deal?” Asker was a little surprised.
“Isn’t a good deal good?” Medea said with a smile. “It’s better than them directly refusing and not trading with us at all, right?”
“Hmm.” Asker pondered.
“I have an idea.” Medea continued. “You brought us to participate in this undead anomaly, perhaps for the purpose of training team members and conducting practical exercises. However, compared to this, isn’t obtaining the next stage potion more important?”
“You’re saying?”
“As one of the three major legal supernatural organizations in the world, the Night’s Watch must have accumulated transcendental materials harvested from countless anomalies over thousands of years, and they might even have quite a few potion formulas themselves.” Medea explained.
“They may not sell us Sequence II and above potion formulas and materials, but Sequence I should be no problem, right?”
“They refused to trade before, but now they suddenly changed their mind and said they could, also because you showed your extraordinary strength. So, as long as you continue to perform like this, once you catch the attention of higher-level members of the Night’s Watch…”
“They will offer a higher price to recruit us.” Asker nodded.
“Not us, just you.” The corners of Medea’s mouth curled up into a sly smile. “So next, as long as you’re more noticeable, it shouldn’t be a problem with your strength, right?”
“Show off, huh.” Asker pondered. “I’ll try my best.”
“I’ll cooperate with you.” Medea glanced at the Night’s Watch knights over there. “Also, that Morningstar Knight Commander Quasimodo doesn’t seem to be very popular among the other Night’s Watch knight squads.”
“Perhaps he can be used as a target to create conflict…” She muttered to herself, secretly scheming.
According to the agreed deal, Knight Commander Quasimodo readily paid.
Of course, according to the organization’s procedures, he should have first gone through the reporting process, obtained Commander Bryce’s approval, then went to the quartermaster for inventory settlement of the loot, and finally given the money to these outside mercenaries.
But Quasimodo chose to borrow from other Night’s Watch knights and bought these materials in advance with his own personal funds as an extra gesture of goodwill towards Asker and the others.
With the real money in their hands, the girls’ expressions finally improved, and they were no longer as repulsive and disgusted with the Night’s Watch knights as they were at the beginning.
Seeing the easing of the relationship between the two sides, Quasimodo secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
After collecting and packing all the loot, the Night’s Watch knights set off to report back to their superiors.
Overall, there were no casualties this time, which was a blessing in disguise.
Thanks to this mercenary group… uh, what was the name of this mercenary group again, Pale Sword?
“What’s the name of your mercenary group?” Knight Jalevin walked at the rear and quietly struck up a conversation with Nuo.
“Azure Longsword.” Nuo replied. “Although we’re not very famous now, we will definitely be very famous in the future.”
She said this with a confident and firm tone.
“I believe that too.” Knight Jalevin laughed heartily. “Do you want me to introduce you to a few big clients? We Night’s Watch knights often receive undead elimination quests from nobles, so we have some connections in high society.”
“Yes, yes.” Nuo’s eyes lit up and she said immediately.
“Then let’s add each other on CM first.” Knight Jalevin took out his phone.
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