Chapter 3: Promotion - Servant Soldier

Alexander glanced at his stats:

[Level]: 2

[Strength]: 8

[Agility]: 7

[Intelligence]: 6

[Charisma]: 5

[Available Attribute Points]: 1

[Experience]: 60/200

[System Coins]: 120

He was thrilled to have an attribute point to allocate. This meant he could improve one of his four attributes. Just as Alexander was about to allocate the point, a long sword suddenly pressed against his neck.

"Who are you?" The person's eyes bore into Alexander with suspicion.

"I-I'm just a traveler," Alexander stammered, trying to appear harmless.

"He saved me," the girl spoke up, approaching with her retinue. She gestured for the guard to lower his sword.

"But he doesn't look like a good person. For the safety of the lady, I think we should..."

The guard was about to protest but was abruptly cut off by a tall guard standing behind the girl.

"Didn't you hear the lady speak? A mere noble guard dares to question Lady Talia? Do you wish to be exiled?" The tall guard's authoritative tone silenced the other guard, who reluctantly sheathed his sword.

However, the guards were still wary of Alexander, dressed in tattered clothes and wielding two short swords. After a brief discussion, they decided to take Alexander back with them. This decision was also supported by Talia, who felt she couldn't mistreat her savior—even if he had merely shouted a few times.

Alexander was bewildered as he was brought into a castle. Soon, the castle gates opened, and a group of people entered. At their head was a bald man with a mustache, dressed in luxurious robes. He disdainfully looked Alexander up and down.

"Is this the one who saved my daughter?" Lord Harley asked, his voice dripping with skepticism.

Alexander nodded. "Yes, just passing by, really."

He wasn't lying. He had indeed just happened to pass by.

Lord Harley caught sight of the ankle chain Alexander hadn't managed to remove and snorted. "You're a lowly slave. Yet you saved my daughter, bringing shame to our Lionheart family."

"However, the Lionheart family upholds the knight's vow as our family motto, so we won't forget gratitude. Here's what we'll do: we'll enlist you as a soldier-servant. You'll provide your own equipment, and we'll pay you one denar per week."

He was quickly arranged with three or five sentences, completely disregarding whether Alexander agreed or not.

In fact, in the eyes of the nobility, the opinions of slaves were completely unimportant. These lowly people's thoughts were even less important than what breed of meat their beloved hunting dogs would eat at noon.

So Alexander was taken away. The good news was that he had a legitimate job now. The official explanation was: stable salary, housing provided by the unit, a certain social status, and subordinate to local real power organizations.

The bad news was that the salary was a bit low (only 1 denar), the housing wasn't very luxurious (better than a pigsty but still cramped with many big men squeezed together), the social status wasn't too high (just slightly higher than a slave), and subordinate to local real power organizations (which had nothing to do with him).

Overall, Alexander was quite satisfied with his first job. After all, the risk factor wasn't too high; in his opinion, ordinary people still yearned for peace, and the probability of war breaking out wasn't high.

However, just to be safe, Alexander decided to use his system coins to buy some equipment. He couldn't possibly go to battle dressed in rags. So after training ended, Alexander temporarily left the castle under the guise of purchasing equipment.

When he returned, he had completely changed his gear:

- **Iron Longsword**: 40 system coins, Slash +2

- **Oak Round Shield**: 35 system coins, Defense +2

- **Leather Boots**: 30 system coins, Movement Speed +2

- **Inferior Throwing Knives x3**: 15 system coins, Piercing +1

That's right, he spent all his system coins and got himself a complete set of equipment. Otherwise, why keep system coins for use after losing his head on the battlefield?

Furthermore, he also spent a skill point. After thinking it over, Alexander decided to invest it in Agility. Not for anything else, but just so he could sense when things weren't right and slip away in an instant.

Sure enough, after allocating the skill point, Alexander could clearly feel that his speed had increased significantly, his legs and feet were more nimble, and his reaction time had improved.

Now, his stats were:

- **Level**: 2

- **Strength**: 8

- **Agility**: 8

- **Intelligence**: 6

- **Charisma**: 5

- **Available Attribute Points**: 0

- **Experience**: 60/200

- **System Coins**: 0

As he sped along the road, he truly felt like he was flying with his new gear.

"It feels so good to have shoes on!" 

As soon as he returned to the camp (a bunch of rundown wooden huts), two guys immediately surrounded him. These two weren't looking for trouble.

"Boss, you're back?"

"Hey, the boss actually got some good stuff."

Each of them held a bandit's short sword, yes, the same two weapons Alexander had confiscated earlier. Alexander knew very well that he couldn't survive on his own outside, so among the group of auxiliary soldiers, he picked these two.

One was called Otto, big and tall, with a rather dim-witted look. He came from a slightly better background than Alexander, born into poverty, but he had an enormous appetite. His family had no choice but to let him join the auxiliary army.

The other was Viktor, thin and wiry, with a sharp face, constantly looking around. His situation was more special. His original profession was a "debtor", which might not be easily understood. When Alexander listened to Viktor's description, he immediately understood. His profession had a less refined term in modern times—a thief. He got caught once by accident and bribed the prison guard to be admitted into the auxiliary army.

The reason for picking these two was crucial: both of them were joining the army for the first time and had never been in battle before. 

The "veterans" in the camp kept to themselves, not bothering with Alexander and his group. The principle of forming cliques applied everywhere, and Alexander managed to win over two henchmen with his two short knives.

Iron weapons were valuable everywhere. The auxiliary soldiers had to provide their own weapons, but you couldn't really take a pitchfork from home onto the battlefield, could you? 

In fact, Otto did bring a pitchfork from home.

Viktor was slightly better, arriving with a small dagger he somehow acquired.

Compared to their original weapons, Alexander's two bandit short swords were luxury equipment. Just as the two envied the SSR-level weapons Alexander had acquired—a long sword and an oak shield—a horn suddenly sounded. It was the assembly call!

As an old soldier passed by them, he taunted, "Don't cry when you see the enemy, you cowards."

"I'll cry for your big-headed ghost! Crying for your mom is worth two pots of apple pies."