Chapter 134: Awakening [ XVI ]

Rowan allowed the news to settle among the soldiers for a few minutes before addressing them once again. He encouraged them to overcome their fears and urged them to stand with him, embarking on a new journey toward power to protect their loved ones.

Rowan was highly skilled in oratory, and with the combination of [Super Voice], he could evoke the emotions he desired from people, as he had just demonstrated.

Just moments ago, the soldiers had been filled with fear and uncertainty after hearing Rowan's vision of destruction, but now they looked at him with determination and power-hungry eyes.

"Lord Rowan, we are ready to do anything to become stronger!"

"Yes! Give us whatever challenge you have for us, and we will go through it without complaining, as long as strength is guaranteed in the end—not just strength, but the power to save our people and prevent our village from falling!"

"I would stay up all night from now on to train if it would guarantee me more strength!"

The soldiers responded one after another.

Even the calmest among them were now fervently and actively pleading for power. Sёarᴄh the nôvel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Soldiers who had been with Rowan from day one, as well as those from Winterseed II, were all motivated to become powerful, ready to go through hell for it.

'This is very good,' Rowan thought to himself, gazing at the crowd with a smile.

He lifted his hand, and the crowd fell silent immediately.

"You all know me. Once I discover a problem, I immediately seek solutions, and luckily, this time we have one," he revealed, causing the soldiers to look at him with curiosity, eager to see what he had in store for them.

Rowan quickly concocted an interesting story about how he had obtained some special books that would grant them unique skills.

He told them that the ancestors had sent D'andre to meet him a few nights back, and D'andre had delivered the skill books to him.

Since Rowan had already established D'andre's image as an angel among the soldiers, they immediately believed his tale, and their curiosity and eagerness to discover the skill books grew.

Rowan didn't waste time and brought out the combat skill books he possessed.

The books were neither too big nor too small; they had thick red and black covers with glowing text that immediately drew the soldiers' attention.

The soldiers gazed at the books, their eyes full of amazement.

"Each of these skill books possesses special abilities for a particular form of martial arts or weapons. Therefore, I'll be dividing everyone into groups right away before distributing them," Rowan announced.

He divided the soldiers into three groups: archers, swordsmen, and pure martial artists.

The archers were all trained soldiers from Winterseed II who had already mastered long-range attacks.

Most soldiers from the original Winterseed naturally chose the swordsmen group since they had trained with swords and saw them as their innate weapons. Many soldiers from Winterseed II joined as well.

The last group was for those who volunteered to learn pure martial arts—the art of attack and defense relying solely on the body, without the need for weapons. However, the number of people in this group was much smaller compared to the others.

Out of more than one thousand four hundred soldiers, only ninety joined the martial arts group, including Captain Bryce.

The swordsmen group had over eight hundred soldiers, while the remaining soldiers were in the archers group.

The entire village square was divided into three sections after the grouping.

Rowan gazed at them and shook his head before moving on to the next stage.

Captain Bruce, Captain Josh, and Captain Roland remained the leaders of the swordsmen group. Since Captain Bryce was the only captain in the martial arts group and considering it didn't have many members, he became the sole captain.

As for the archers group, Rowan observed them and selected three who had impressive stats, making them captains: Logan, Frank, and Jason. The first two were middle-aged, while Jason was in his early twenties.

Now, Rowan had seven captains.

He called them forward and spoke to them in front of the group, solidifying their positions in his army.

These captains would be in charge of training and supervising their various groups while Rowan took care of other important tasks in the village.

Nevertheless, a few envious eyes stared at the new captains, especially from the soldiers who had been with Rowan from the beginning.

They felt left out because Rowan had given promotions to new soldiers and not to them.

Rowan could tell their thoughts from their faces and fully understood; he would naturally feel bad and jealous if a newer person got a position he had been seeking for a long time.

Rowan didn't want any internal conflict among the soldiers, so he immediately sought to clear the atmosphere by explaining why he had given them the positions.

He knew his words wouldn't fully wash their negative thoughts away, but it would calm their raging hearts a little, which was more than enough.

After he was done clearing the air, he proceeded to distribute skill books to each of the captains.

[Divine Kangaroo Fist: Grants a 100% boost in attack power behind punches and a 50% boost in agility. During combat, the chances of landing a fatal hit increase.]

[Eagle Eyes: Grants a 100% boost in perception.]

[One Punch: When the skill is equipped, there is a 50% chance of slaying your opponent with the first punch!]

Rowan studied all the skills as he distributed them to the captains.

Some of the skills were easy to teach others, while most were personal and hard to pass on to another.

"Hmm." Rowan hadn't really thought about this issue before, as he had been busy with other tasks.

'It would be great if everyone had their own skill books. Everything would be faster and more efficient,' Rowan thought to himself.

Sadly, there was no way he could actually duplicate the skill books. There was no such skill in his possession, which made him feel a bit down.

[ One time opportunity has been granted by the CREATOR! ]

Rowan was greeted by a sudden notification from the system, causing his face to light up immediately.

The captains were currently observing the skill books in their hands while the other soldiers watched and discussed.

Rowan excused himself for a moment, went to a corner away from the soldiers, and opened the notification without wasting time.

[ The creator is amazed and proud of your journey so far. Your current predicament has caused him to react and give a reward. ]

'A reward from the creator of the system itself? Why is that?' Rowan was puzzled.

Somehow, hearing about the creator made him recall the connection between the goddess of creativity and Riela. He wondered if he had the same connection with the system creator.

But he didn't dwell on this thought too long, as he currently had a reward to claim.

He already knew the reward was related to the current issue, so he was expecting something that would multiply the skill books in his possession. He naturally expected it to be free, since it was a reward.

[ Reward: Multiply items, multiply each item as much as you want ]

DING

[ 100x reward failed to activate ]

Rowan's mouth was wide open when he saw the reward.

He wasn't even bothered about the one hundred times reward not working; the reward on its own was already too good to be true!

"I can multiply any item I want???" he asked the system, finding the reward hard to believe.

[YES]

When Rowan saw this, his eyes widened immediately.

Without wasting time, he went back to the captains and asked for the skill books.

"I need them for something important right away. I think the ancestors are about to bless us with more, but I need these to access the others," Rowan lied.

The captains did not bother to doubt him and let him have the books.

Rowan rushed back to the corner without wasting time.

"I want to multiply all my skill books by one thousand times!" Rowan requested right away.

[ Multiplying 25 F/FF-rank Skill books by 1000 - Cost: 250 million evolution points ]

'Fuck, I need money for this? I thought it was a reward!' Rowan cussed inwardly.

DING

[ The creator is dismayed by your complaint, threatens to take back his reward ]

Rowan read the next notification with a frown.

He wanted to multiply all the skill books by one thousand at first, but now, hearing how much it cost, he decided to only multiply by the amount he needed.

He multiplied the five archer skills by five hundred each, making it a total of 2,500. This cost him only 10 million evolution points.

For the swordsmen and martial arts ones, he multiplied them by one thousand, since he would also have to take care of the soldiers at Winterseed II.

He ended up spending fifty million evolution points, but it was worth it in his opinion. If he had purchased this exact amount from D'andre, it would have cost way more than it did now.

Rowan did not let this go to waste.

Since the multiplication was not limited to just skill books, he decided to multiply the other items in his inventory. He started by multiplying food supplies, raw materials, and weapons, which took another 50 million from him.

'This is enough,' he thought inwardly, staring at his inventory revealing a lot of items in large amounts.

Everything he had gotten using the opportunity given by the creator would have cost at least 500 million if he had gotten them from D'andre.

[ The CREATOR smiles and says "Nice doing business with you, see you next time" ]

The system flashed a notification before disappearing.