Chapter 31: Longing

Chapter 31: Longing

It's been nearly a week since William obtained the [Mastery of Arms] warrior specialization.

During this time, William has felt incredibly fulfilled!

Joining Nichole's adventuring party was unexpected, but William seized the opportunity to learn and train diligently.

After all, it's not every day you get to glean skills for free from your teammates.

He acquired quite a few practical skills from Nichole and Jason, such as Charge, Soul Breaker, Tendon Sever, and Thunder Strike.

From Lumbro, he learned useful survival skills like Hold Ground, Shield Wall, Iron Armor, and Stamina Enhancement.

He even managed to acquire the racial skill Stone Form from the black iron dwarf.

[Stone Form: Upon activation, immune to bleeding, poison, and disease effects, armor value increased by 10%. Lasts for 8 seconds, cooldown time of 3 minutes.]

As for Elena, after getting to know William better and realizing he's not one of those despicable nobles who keep elves as pets, their relationship has improved significantly.

At William's request, Elena also demonstrated some hunter profession skills, such as tracking, trapping, and Wind Walk.

William managed to sneakily learn them all.

However, he hasn't been able to master the core hunter skill of taming wild beasts yet. William speculated that he might need to obtain the hunter profession specialization first to unlock this part of the skill set.

Compared to the bunch of pure warriors among the family guards, William couldn't help but feel inferior, both in terms of quantity and quality. (Family Guard: Should I leave?)

Although the others are curious about William's request to demonstrate various professional skills, he explained that he rarely encountered other extraordinary professions before and wanted to familiarize himself to avoid being clueless when facing them in the future.

William didn't want to hide anything from his teammates, especially considering how much his talent [Jack Of All Trades] affects things. He had to be cautious until he had enough strength to protect himself.

Being able to master corresponding skills across professions is already quite rare. If you can master all professional skills, isn't it obvious that there's something wrong with you?

William plans that in the future, when he reveals his identity, he will only use warrior skills at most. If necessary, he can claim to be a battle mage!

Other profession skills, he'll avoid using for now.

At the same time, after William learned many skills and obtained the [Mastery of Arms] warrior basic specialization, the additional experience bonus brought by the talent [Jack Of All Trades] has also increased to 30%.

The strength of the [Jack Of All Trades] talent is gradually showing itself.

Today, William sparred with Nichole again until late. William, covered in sweat and dust, continued practicing with his longsword despite the late hour.

Nichole, indeed, lived up to her potential as a future protagonist. Despite her young age, her combat skills and battle experience far surpass those of the forty-something uncle Jason! (Jason: Should I leave?)

"Alright, let's go in now. Dinner is ready!" Jason called out from the window when he saw the two had stopped.

Seeing this, William and Nichole stopped fooling around, packed up their weapons, and headed back inside.

Nichole rushed into the house excitedly, shouting, "I'm so hungry! What are we having for dinner tonight?"

"We ordered from Parsel Restaurant. It may not be as good as what William cooks, but let's just make do with it," Jason said with a smile, waving at William as he greeted him.

"No need to be so polite. I'm nowhere near as good as a restaurant chef," William humbly replied. He had cooked many times over the past few days and had almost completely won over the several members of Nichole's adventuring party.

Jason waved his hand, not saying anything. In his eyes, William was indeed quite peculiar. Despite being a noble, he was very skilled in cooking, and as a mage, he was practicing melee combat with Nichole.

However, after these few days of interaction, he felt that William was a decent person, unlike some stiff aristocrats who always carried themselves with a noble air. William had a broad knowledge and could easily explain many things Jason didn't understand. It was quite pleasant to be around him.

Today, it's a rare occasion for all members of Nichole's adventuring party to gather together. As everyone enjoyed their meal, Jason knocked on the table and, when everyone's attention turned to him, cleared his throat and said:

"It's been a long time since we completed the last commission, and we've rested for quite a while now. With the addition of our new member, William, I think it's time we go to the Mercenary Guild and pick up a new mission."

As one of the rare gold-tier adventuring parties, Nichole's mercenary group is naturally an important force for completing advanced commissions for the Mercenary Guild. The guild has already sent someone to inquire if Jason wants to accept an advanced commission, especially since it was a task given to them from above.

Miss Nichole has already reached a certain level of strength, and what's left is to gain experience in various aspects.

This is also the reason why Miss Nichole became a mercenary and roams around everywhere.

"Agreed!" Nichole was the first to raise her hand, holding a chicken leg. She had been looking forward to this and found it quite boring to stay in the city every day.

"I have no objections!" Jason glanced at the mug of ale in his hand. Almost all the rewards from the last commission had been spent on drinking, so it was indeed necessary to earn some more beer money.

Nichole pushed a few strands of golden hair behind her ear with her right hand and nodded gently in agreement.

Elena wouldn't have any objections either!

Accepting a commission = Completing advanced missions = Massive experience!

This was too tempting for William at the moment!

"Alright, then it's settled." Jason nodded. He was basically in charge of the daily affairs of Nichole's adventuring party.

"Shall we go to the guild tomorrow morning to check it out?"

As he said this, Jason turned to look at William and hesitated before saying, "I think since it's William's first time joining our adventuring party, we should choose a simpler task like a hunting mission for this mission. Let's get familiar with each other first."

William nodded. It made sense after all. He was only at the bronze level, while his teammates were all at the silver level. Nichole was even a gold-level warrior. If the cooperation wasn't good, his presence could even be detrimental to the team.

And compared to exploration-type missions, hunting missions had a higher margin for error. After all, danger could come from all directions during exploration of mysterious realms, requiring a higher level of teamwork among team members. So Jason's consideration was quite thoughtful.

But William wasn't worried about dragging the team down. He might not be able to accomplish much else, but his real combat experience and skills were solid. These were honed through countless deaths in his past life.

William didn't believe that anyone else had experienced death as many times as he had. Ordinary battles couldn't disrupt his calm and composed combat mindset.

William's current situation was somewhat like a skilled cook without rice, possessing mature combat experience and skills from his past life but lacking corresponding strength.

His progress in strength was not fast enough; he still had a long way to go!

These few days of real combat training made him realize the huge gap between himself and Nichole, the protagonist of the story.

Even if he unleashed all his strength, he couldn't even scratch Elena.

Too weak!

William clenched his right hand, feeling the blood surging through his body, his soul roaring incessantly. The desire to improve his strength had never been so intense!

It was even stronger than when he first realized the threat of impending death upon being reborn as a viscount.

Yes!

Since he had arrived in this vast and magnificent world, in this era of rising heroes, how could he be willing to lag behind, to be carried along by the tides of fate, to settle for whatever comes his way?

Even if she's the protagonist!

I am William!

In this world, I must climb to the pinnacle and let my name be remembered by all the races of this world!

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