Chapter 5: Creating an Infantry Guard

The gains from the graveyard expedition, combined with what remained from creating Clinton, gave Donald great excitement—over 500 units of soul power. However, it was still several hours until dawn when he returned home, and he didn’t want to alarm the neighboring butler, Cord, by having to explain everything. Thus, he suppressed his urge to create new subordinates immediately and lay down in bed, tossing and turning before falling asleep.

The next morning, Donald was awakened in a daze by the butler. After serving him breakfast, Cord and Clinton took the spoils from yesterday’s hunt and headed to the town market to sell them. Once they left, Donald quickly opened the Book of Truth and summoned two more human infantry soldiers. Following Clinton’s example, he named them George and Bush.

It wasn’t that Donald didn’t want to create higher-tier units; rather, although his soul power had reached the threshold for creating third-tier units, he lacked the triple-tier magic cores and elemental crystals needed as energy sources. Therefore, he could only create two infantry soldiers for now. The strength of second-tier infantry was already sufficient for him. With three infantry soldiers to protect him, he was confident in hunting down third-tier dark iron magical beasts, and he even believed he could defeat fourth-tier magical beasts that could rival bronze-tier warriors.

Although nobles without territories were not allowed to maintain private armies under the kingdom’s laws, there were always workarounds—hiring guards to skirt the rules. Right now, he had only three knight servants, yet their strength surpassed that of an entire squad of twelve militia guards in Red Maple Town. Even though his guard force was small for now, with enough soul power and energy, it would be possible to summon an entire infantry legion in the future!

With two more powerful knight servants appearing, Donald used the same excuse to send the butler away. Though Cord was puzzled, he understood the young master’s urgency and chose to remain silent. After all, the coming-of-age ceremony was approaching, and as the last heir of the Merlinna family, Donald was about to take the knight examination. If he failed, he would lose any chance of becoming a full-fledged noble. So, he could understand anything that might help his master.

In just five short days, with the help of three heavily armed infantry guards and successive summoned creatures, Donald hunted down no less than twenty low-level magical beasts. Although most of them were of level one, he also obtained five level two crystal cores, plus two level three crystal cores—those belonging to the same species that had killed the previous Donald: two lone Wind Wolves.

Ordinary Wind Wolves didn’t possess the strength of level four magical beasts like the former wolf king who had been driven out of the pack, but even level three Magic Wolves, as vanguard members of the pack, were not something ordinary hunters or adventurers could handle.

To deal with those two ferocious Magic Wolves, Donald had to waste three level two crystal cores to summon three level two monsters, Lightning Lizards that dealt paralysis damage.

To date, Donald had hunted a total of twenty-one low-level magical beasts. Just the carcasses of these prey earned him over 150 gold sols. This was because Donald didn’t understand market values and was eager to sell them quickly; otherwise, a shrewd merchant could have sold them for at least twice as much.

After using those crystal cores, he still had eleven level one, two level two, and two level three crystal cores left—two level three cores he hadn’t dared to use, so he kept them all.

Level three magical beasts were already rare outside the Green Cloak Forest, and those two Wind Wolves had accidentally strayed out to hunt. Thus, those two level three crystal cores became Donald’s greatest asset.

However, the source of Soul Power remained unresolved. As a result, the number of his subordinates stayed at three infantrymen, with no increase.

During his hunting trips, he also visited the large graveyard outside Stone City at night, but his gains there were still less than those from the Red Maple Town cemetery. He only dealt with two newly awakened low-level skeletons, earning less than 50 units of Soul Power. Even if he hadn’t intervened, those two undead creatures wouldn’t have escaped the priests’ purification.

This was because Stone City was the capital of the North County, home to an official temple of the Goddess of Agriculture, with a large number of priests and even a regional bishop in residence—far more advanced than Red Maple Town, which only had a small altar.

Moreover, most of those buried in the large graveyard were ancestors from the noble class, so it was impossible for mutations to occur among them.

Still, this was a good thing—Merlinna’s family tomb was also here. He didn’t want his ancestors to mutate into undead one day and be wiped out, leaving no remains.

With the means to summon creatures possessing the strength of level 3 monsters at any time, ordinary warriors and hunters were no match for him. Even mysterious casting classes like mages, as long as their level was below 3, Donald was confident he could defeat them.

Among the numerous creatures in the Warcraft setting, not to mention the intelligent troops of various races, there were also powerful monsters he could summon. He hadn’t planned to summon any humanoid beings from the four main troop types in front of outsiders, unless he summoned them permanently in advance. Whether it was ordinary night elves, orcs, or the taboo undead, such beings were meant to remain hidden.

After all, although summoners were extremely rare, they did exist in this world. From rumors about summoners and records in books, there had never been any mention of summoners being able to summon humans or human-like races such as elves, dwarves, and orcs from this world. Moreover, if the humans he summoned suddenly disappeared in public, how could that be explained?

Non-humanoid troops from those races wouldn’t pose much risk if revealed. Yet, to avoid causing a sensation, Donald decided to be cautious, so as not to attract the attention of some evil high-level professionals who might capture him for interrogation and experimentation.

Donald had it clear: his miraculous summoning ability came from the Divine Book of Truth in his mind. Once he lost this artifact or ran out of materials like crystal cores, he would revert to his original form—a mere ordinary human boy who could be easily killed by any untrained strongman.

Therefore, to better integrate into this world, Donald decided to choose a true combat profession for himself. The most powerful beings in this world weren’t those powerless nobles or even kings, but the churches of the gods and the rare high-level, top-tier professionals.

Of course, some noble lords and royal members were themselves powerful combat professionals. The noble groups with systematic education and inheritance accounted for over 70% of the high-level professionals in this world, especially rare and powerful classes like mages, who required profound knowledge. This was something the vast majority of commoners could never compare to.

According to his past memories, his grandfather, who had not passed away when he was young, had taken him, who was under four years old at the time, to a mage in the city for a career potential test. The results showed good affinity for elements, but too low mental strength potential; otherwise, he would have been well-suited to become an elemental mage.

Now, Donald knew that mental strength could be improved over time. There were magical alchemical potions in this world that could increase the upper limit of mental strength, and the item exchange section of the Book of Truth also contained magical items that could enhance mental strength and even the essence of the soul.

Compared to the highly valuable but hard-to-obtain advanced alchemical potions rumored in this world, the items in the Book of Truth were undoubtedly easier to acquire. With enough energy crystals, Donald was confident that it wasn’t unrealistic to eventually exchange for divine artifacts!

Thus, Donald chose to become a mage. Unlike other combat professions that required extensive physical training and years of effort to achieve success, a spellcaster not only had a higher status but could also accelerate learning with the help of the Book of Truth.

Based on his understanding from his previous life, mages were expensive professions. Donald realized that although he had earned some money hunting magical beasts these days, it was still far from enough to reach his goals.

Moreover, the old house was already small, and after Clinton and the other two men moved in, it became even more cramped. He needed a separate space to prepare for becoming a mage, and the three infantry warriors also required space for regular training.

From the moment they arrived, they had become ordinary humans of this world who needed to eat and sleep, just like normal warriors. If they didn’t train hard, their strength might decline. Therefore, it was imperative to buy a larger place to live. As a noble, it was also necessary to maintain a proper residence.

That morning, having temporarily accumulated enough crystal cores, Donald decided not to go into the forest to hunt magical beasts anymore—he had more important things to do.

After breakfast, he gave the few gold sols he had to Old Cord to use for purchasing items to improve their living conditions. Thinking of Butler Cord’s mixture of concern and joy when he first saw him bring back two huge prey animals alone, Donald felt warmth in his heart.

With fifty gold sols and a dozen silver moons, accompanied by Clinton and his two companions, Donald headed to Giantstone City, the nearest city to Redmap Town.

Hongfeng Town was just one of the three major towns around Giant Stone City. Though prosperous, it wasn’t rich enough to attract those mysterious and noble mages.
“To acquire mage heritage, apart from becoming an apprentice to a mage at the city’s mage guild, the only option is to buy some introductory mage books from the city’s magic item shops.”
These were the insights Donald had gathered from his own knowledge and conversations with adventurers who had traveled far and wide in the town’s inns.
Self-studying to get started in the path of magic was extremely difficult for such a profession; only those with a solid education and extraordinary talent could achieve success.
Yet Donald had no choice but to take this route, as his secrets were too astonishing. Without the strength to protect himself, contacting powerful and mysterious mages risked exposing his differences. With the magical effects of the Book of Truth and those amazing summoning items, there was a good chance he could at least get started as a mage apprentice.
Riding on a cart from a town shop heading into the city to stock up, the group took over three hours to reach the gates of Giant Stone City. This was even with the cart’s help; if they had to walk, their current stamina would likely leave them exhausted by the time they reached the city.
“It seems I should get myself a cart too. For nobles, a cart or fine horses are essential for travel. Some knights and high nobles even take pride in owning a purebred elite horse. As a young noble from a knightly family, not even having a cart of my own means I have to hire one or walk everywhere—how undignified!”
With these thoughts, Donald followed the cart into Giant Stone City, a place he hadn’t been in for years.