Summoning the Holy Sword

Sonia trembled instinctively. But shortly after, she realized that her behavior would show weakness to the enemy, so she restored her initially stern expression, lifted her head, and glared at Rhode.

"Shameless man, do you think you can make me yield so easily? You can lay hands on me, but I will never give in!"

"Haha."

Rhode let out a laughter, stooped over, and scrutinized the young lady in arrogance and ridicule. He curled his lips and showed a look of disdain.

"Miss Sonia, you're overconfident. I have no lack of women around me, so why would I lay hands on a pet? Besides…" Rhode squinted as his eyes roamed her body. "… You don't appear beautiful. I have so many beautiful young ladies around me who are much better than you. Even Nell is so much prettier than you. But you'll perform outstandingly as a pet, so I can consider giving you a reward."

As though to prove his words, Rhode winked at Nell.

"You…!"

Sonia knitted her brows tightly. The biggest blow to a woman was comparing her to other women. If one were an ugly or average-looking woman, one would suffer humiliation and cry in the corner. However, Sonia wasn't ugly and was even the dream girl of many nobles in Casabianca. At this moment, she was fuming in rage as Rhode remarked upon her appearance and even compared her to other women. Moreover, even though Nell looked rather pretty, she was still lacking in comparison to noblewomen like Marlene, Lize, and Sonia. If Rhode were to use Marlene or Celestina as a comparison, Sonia would merely be speechless. But it sparked rage in her after Rhode mentioned Nell.

"What rubbish are you uttering. A woman like her…"

"Everyone has their own interest, Miss. Sonia."

Rhode waved his finger.

"Some prefer large breasts while others favor smaller breasts. Some like older women while some love younger ladies. This is about interest, at least to me. Or perhaps, you want to show me your charm to prove that you're better than Nell? How do you intend to do that? Strip naked like a bitch in estrus?"

"You… How is it possible that I'll do such a thing!"

"Sigh…"

Rhode shrugged.

"This is why I said some women are troublesome. I'm interested in you, but you think that I'm up to no good. And when I'm not fascinated by you, you accuse me of not appreciating your beauty. What do you want exactly? Give me a clear answer, Miss Sonia. If you don't crave to seduce me, why do you care if I think that you're beautiful or not?"

"You… You… You…"

Sonia was so furious that she turned pale. She glared at Rhode and if it weren't for Nell who held her down, perhaps she would have pounced on him and choked him to death. Besides, even though Rhode didn't speak any obscenities, he was rather apparently humiliating her. After Sonia let out a snarl, she finally decided not to retort so he couldn't use her words against her. However, she also wasn't easy to deal with.

"… You're right, Mr. Rhode. I'm not as beautiful as you. Yes… As a man, your looks make the hearts of many men waver. If you lived in Casabianca, perhaps you would receive a pile of love letters from the wealthy nobles…"

Before she finished her sentence, the temperature in the cell dropped drastically. The bone-piercing chills struck, infiltrated, and disrupted her body wildly. This was the first time Sonia felt this horrified. She lifted her head in fear and saw Rhode's vibrant smile.

"Thanks for your compliment, Miss Sonia. But it seems like a wild animal isn't easy to raise and needs to be educated."

Rhode lifted his head and gestured to Nell.

"I'll hand her to you. She can do anything apart from fleeing and committing suicide."

Rhode shifted his gaze to Sonia and showed his gentle, elegant smile.

"Alright then, have a good rest today, Miss Sonia. We will be busy from tomorrow onward."

Rhode nodded politely, bent over with a perfect bow of the nobles, and left the room. It was only until the heavy door slammed shut and the ice-cold, pressurizing aura finally dispersed did Sonia let out a sigh of relief.

After leaving the cell, Rhode didn't return to the stronghold immediately. Instead, he turned into the other narrow, pitch-black corridor where it suddenly lit up in cyan—those were the spiritual flames.

As the spiritual flames burned, the pitch-black corridor was smeared in a layer of white and blue radiance. There was a heavy, steel door at the end of the corridor. Rhode stood before it and it gradually opened. Then, Sara emerged from the darkness and bowed respectfully upon lowering her head.

Rhode entered the circular cell that had turned into another look. Various alchemical equipment and tools were laid by the walls. The boiling alchemy pot above the cyan spiritual flames exuded a strange smell. In addition to the alchemy ingredients placed on the shelves, it looked just like a home where an evil witch captured and cooked children. In fact, this was Sara's alchemy workshop. After the Battle Angel Army pulled back, Rhode was no longer as careful. He restructured the underground prison and divided a space for Sara's personal alchemy workshop to produce things that weren't suitable for Lapis. The reason was simple as to why the underground prison was chosen—there were sufficient ingredients and experimental products. Besides, this was much better than sentencing the offenders to death since they could 'benefit society' with this punishment.

Simply speaking, Sara's and Lapis's workshop was similar. The latter was responsible for creating magic tools, healing and strengthening potions, and antidotes. On the other hand, the former was in charge of creating lethal poison and menacing cursed items. Even though Sara's alchemy technique wasn't as great as Lapis's, the former couldn't be considered weak. It was only because Lapis inherited the godlike alchemy techniques from the Behermes Family that Sara couldn't be compared to her. If Sara were in the Alchemist Association, her alchemy mastery would definitely place in the top few.

Besides, the alchemy mastery that she cultivated from Cullen was also powerful. After all, Cullen was responsible for contributing to the magic equipment and techniques of the Undead Army and Sara naturally learned a lot from him. Moreover, Rhode had spoken to Sara a few times and realized that she held outstanding comprehension abilities, which explained why Cullen was impressed by her. However, in terms of creations, Sara was lacking. She couldn't be blamed because as a Corpse Slave, her duties were to focus on fulfilling Cullen's every task and not to think about creating new techniques. Corpse Slaves had low self-awareness and unless Cullen ordered Sara to produce new potions or equipment, she definitely wouldn't consider it. This had nothing to do with the spiritual contract and was totally the instinct of a human who survived in the Country of Darkness and behavior from after long-term slavery.

Magical equipment…

Rhode let out an inward sigh. Although the previous war ended well from an overlord's perspective, he felt that it was a complete failure from a player's perspective. There were 150,000 Undead Creatures, but the EXP he gained was only one-tenth due to the system level restriction. He couldn't gain too much EXP from overly low-level creatures. Currently, he was level 60, which meant that he could only gain up to 10 points of EXP for each creature killed. Previously, Cullen sacrificed 30,000 troops in 10 days but he only received 50,000 EXP. Although he relied on slaughtering elite creatures like Vampires and Skeletal Trolls and gained a huge amount of EXP, it amassed to only about 550,000 EXP. In total, he received 600,000 EXP.

But the problem was that… after transcending into the Legendary Stage, players needed an astronomical amount of EXP for each upgrade in level. Rhode used 350,000 EXP to go from level 59 to 60. However, he needed 500,000 just to upgrade from level 60 to 61!

In other words, after he fought hard and annihilated Cullen's 150,000 Undead Creatures, he only leveled up… once.

In fact, this wasn't too strange. In the game, players didn't rely on defeating armies to gain EXP after they reached level 60. Instead, they accomplished war missions and cleared dungeons which didn't take too much effort nor time. The players participated in wars with the identity of mercenaries. In other words, after the war began, players would receive a mission from the commander and be responsible for defense or offense. If they won after the war, they could redeem their reward and huge amount of EXP from the commander. As there were endless wars between players in the games, it wasn't too difficult for them to accept war missions.

However, there weren't such conditions here.

This system interface with random behaviors didn't hand out a mission to Rhode when he defended the fortress. Therefore, he didn't receive additional rewards or EXP after the war ended. Not only that, but he also couldn't keep clearing the same dungeon repeatedly. If not, he would have led Canary and Mini Bubble Gum into the Saint Monastery and cleared it a 100 times back then and transcended into the Legendary Stage a long time ago…

Although it was possible that due to this reason, the system was modified to increase the BOSS EXP multiple times to compensate for the non-existent war mission, the problem was that… Rhode didn't kill any creatures that were of the BOSS tier. Cullen had escaped, so he didn't receive any EXP. On the other hand, he didn't take down Erin either. Although he received some worthy EXP after Celestina defeated Duran, she didn't know the concept of looting corpses. She tossed Duran's corpse to the side instantly and when Rhode received the news, the corpse was long gone.

This left him speechless. He put in so much hard work and finally defeated a 150,000 troops army. As a result, he only leveled up once without killing a single BOSS tier creature or receiving any great equipment. If he defeated Erin, he would undoubtedly receive an EXP amount so huge that he could reach level 70 instantly. However, the problem was that… he failed to kill her.

The only benefits that he received were the 'spoils of war'—Sara and Nell.

"How does it feel?"

"Good, dear Master. I've arranged everything according to your instructions. If you need anything, I will do my best to fulfill your requests."

"Good."

Rhode's eyes glinted with traces of smiles. Then, he turned to Sara.

"Alright then. I have something that needs your help."