Kent lowered his weapon and looked around once Ruthard was done with his work. The poor monk was trying his best not to vomit — must've been his first time killing anything. He'd get used to it. Or rather, he had to get used to it.
Five massive corpses lay scattered across the grass. Most of the wolves had been killed cleanly, so not much blood or intestine had spilled out to soil their valuable fur.
Kent exhaled slowly — his first real battle, and not a single death on his side.
Perfect execution.
The thought almost made him laugh.
So this is what real combat feels like.
Anyway, time for the loot. Kent didn't know the first thing about skinning these beasts, but that wasn't a problem. He had three experienced ex-raiders for that. He wiped the blood from his face, sheathed his cleaver, and glanced at the others.
"Good work, everyone. Gather the furs and check for wounds. We're camping here tonight."
The raiders nodded silently, already moving to skin the beasts and start the campfires. Ruthard, with nothing else to do, approached Kent.
"Is there anything I could do?"
Had to admit — the guy bounced back fast. Kent thought for a bit.
"Can you cook?"
"Of course I can!" Ruthard brightened. "I can make us some soup—"
"What are you talking about?" Kent cut him off. "Why soup when we have fresh meat right here? It's grilled meat tonight."
He pointed at the remains of the Direwolves.
"There's salt in our supplies. Don't be stingy with it — we'll need the energy for the mountain climb tomorrow."
As he glanced over, Kent noticed something on Joltul's arm.
"Hey, Joltul. What's that? Are you wounded?"
"Tis but a flesh wound, Captain," Joltul brushed it off.
Kent frowned. "Fark that, a wound's a wound. Treat it immediately… Never mind, you wouldn't know how to do it right anyway."
He stood up, pulled out a clean piece of cloth, and got to work. Instead of waiting for boiled water, he poured wine over the wound to clean it, then wrapped it tight. Even a small wound could turn deadly if it got infected — who knew what kind of bacteria was hiding in those wolf fangs and claws.
The others watched quietly. They didn't really understand what Kent was doing, but that didn't stop them from feeling something — maybe respect, or confusion. Either way, this kind of care was new to them. Tribal life didn't really have "first aid." Joltul looked at his bandaged arm, a faint glint of gratitude softening his normally hard eyes.
"Bah, what a waste of good wine," Skarn muttered, breaking the silence. He was never good with this sort of moment.
"We can drink to our hearts' content once we reach the south," Kent replied casually.
He looked around at his company. All of them were wearing crude leather and bone armor — typical barbarian gear. They wouldn't do much against serious enemies, especially for big targets like Joltul and Skarn, but it was all they had. Beggars couldn't be choosers.
For now, the armor problem could wait. There were far more pressing matters — like the mountain crossing ahead. If possible, Kent wouldn't want to challenge such a feat right at the start of his adventure. But like he said, can't risk following the main road and attacked by knights company of noble houses.
To make things clearer, there were three great noble houses that ruled this continent — House Grimmund, House Silverhart, and House Hedin. Together, they controlled nearly all the land, except for the southern deserts.
And out of those three, two were openly hostile toward them — Grimmund and Silverhart.
House Silverhart, being closest to the northern frontier, had always been the usual victims of the northern raiders. Can't really blame anyone for that — you live near raiders, you get raided. Simple logic.
As for House Grimmund, they were a little less hostile, but "less hostile" still meant they'd hang any raider they found without a second thought. And, of course, the village Kent's tribe just raided happened to belong to House Grimmund. Wonderful.
The only noble house that didn't have a bone to pick with raiders was House Hedin, down south. They lived far from the northern tribes and had never suffered a raid. That's why Kent was heading for their lands — the only place where people might actually hire them instead of hanging them. No prejudice against raiders there… well, former raiders, hopefully.
The problem was how to reach House Hedin's territory safely — avoiding knight patrols from the other two houses — while having enough food and supplies to survive the trip. Kent seriously doubted they could resupply anywhere along the way. The moment they got near a village, the militia would come running out to greet them with spears and arrows.
If anything, those Direwolves they just fought were a small blessing in disguise. Their meat would last for days, maybe more if dried properly. Still, they couldn't carry too much — heavy loads would slow them down, and speed meant survival.
Kent's head began to hurt.
Leading a mercenary company was hard work. Especially when half the continent saw you not as sellswords — but as prey.
Well, he'd think about all that tomorrow. For now, it was time to rest, eat something warm, and maybe poke around the system menu a bit more.
-----
There was one thing Kent had planned to do before being interrupted by that sudden fight — and it also happened to be the single best moment in every game.
Leveling up.
Aside from the monk, who started at level 1 with trash-tier stats, all the raiders were already level 3. That meant two level-ups waiting for each of them.
Leveling up in this game worked like this: you get to increase three stats of your choice, but the amount each stat increased was random. For example, a normal character without any talent stars in Melee would gain +1 to +3 each level. With one star, it became +2 to +3. With two stars, always +3. And with three stars, it's +3 to +4.
Aside from stats, each level-up also grants a perk. Perks are "special abilities" that make a character stronger in specific ways, and they are the most important thing when building a fighter. Most perks are passive boosts, but some unlock entirely new combat actions.
To Kent's surprise, all of his men already had one or two perks, even before leveling up. And as for Kent himself… he had three.
Again — cheater!!!
Did he hate it? Absolutely not. More, please.
When he thought about it, Kent could see why. Without the game system, there were no "level-ups" for the people of this world. The only way to get stronger was through training, fighting, and surviving. The perks, too, were things people could learn naturally — through skill, experience, or pure stubbornness. For example, a warrior who'd spent ten years swinging an axe would naturally develop an Axe Mastery perk. Perfectly logical.
The level-up system was simply a shortcut the game provided for players — a way to condense years of blood, sweat, and training into days or months. Kent had thought about this often while playing. A simple peasant could join his company and, after 300 in-game days, become a max-level veteran with stats rivaling a Swordmaster's starting numbers. That's ten, maybe twenty years of growth compressed into ten "levels."
Naturally, if someone already powerful — like a Hedge Knight or a Swordmaster — joined and leveled up to the cap, they'd become a god among men.
And that was very good news for Kent, because right now, he needed powerful people — fast.
Even better, Kent and his company could still train to grow stronger outside the system. It would be slower, of course, and stats improved through leveling would be much harder to raise further. But that only meant they could focus on other, neglected stats and become more well-rounded.
Take Kent, for example. When leveling up, he'd obviously focus on Melee, M.Defense, and Speed — his best talents. But through training, he could still improve Health and R.Defense on his own, without relying on the system.
It worked the same for perks. Aside from the ten system-granted ones, they could learn more by experience — becoming even stronger than any character Kent had ever built in the game before.
I'll build the most powerful mercenary company this world has ever known.
That was Kent's last thought as he finally drifted to sleep, right after finishing everyone's level-ups.