Chapter 117 - 117. Better Watch Those Waistline Trish.

"Stand up before me and face our two coat of arms. Put your right hand over heart and clasp it to be a fist and raise your left hand as in taking an oath." I instructed as I faced the twenty members who were dressed in their last night's clothes.

The twenty new members were standing in rows of 5 all placed their fist over their hearts and raised their left hand. The deafening silence was so great that a fart from an ant would sound like a trumpet at this moment. All the new members were staring straight ahead and looked poised. Even our children who were standing at the sides held their hands in a similar manner.

"I want you all to repeat after me..." I began and said the oath of allegiance.

"WE..."

"WE..." they chorused back.

"THE CITIZENS OF INGMERY....."

"PLEDGES OURSELVES..."

"AS ONE UNITED MEMBER..."

"OF CASTLE KEATING-MACLEOD....."

"REGARDLESS OF RACE..."

"LANGUAGE OR RELIGION....."

"TO UPHOLD JUSTICE..."

"SHOW HUMANITY AND HUMILITY..."

"BASED ON EQUALITY AND PROGRESS..."

"FOR OUR SOCIETY..."

"TO LEAD..."

"TO EXCEL..."

"TO OVERCOME..."

Every pledge was announced clearly and was repeated with a thunderous response to every single word and phrase that Patricia was literally moved to tears by it. When I finally dropped my both hands at my sides, the children and the new junior members Wiped away the tears as they had never heard such a moving pledge of allegiance before in their lives.

They stood at ease and looked at the two coat of arms and Rodney finally spoke up, "We will protect and preserve peace and justice and help others in need. This is my pledge to lay my life for Castle Keating-Macleod."

"We all will lay our lives for Castle Keating-Macleod...!!!" came the next thunderous roar as they pledge not only their services but their lives for our humble castle.

"Thank you, dear members, of Castle Keating-Macleod. I believe your seniors had mentioned to you regards the pledge and going against the pledge?"

"Yes, Sir... We do. We will never back down on our words and action and we will definitely serve Castle Keating-Macleod for the rest of our lives." replied Rodney and I saw Patricia nodding her head as she used her Insight.

"Alright then, everyone is dismissed. Please come over to collect your new battle gear and weapons. And pin this badge over your left side of the tunic."

"This is the Macleod's Lucky Badge and this alone has a multiplier for you to Level up faster. Your battle gear is made of Level 8 meshed iron reinforced material which means the current Level 4 iron weapons could not penetrate but blunt force trauma could cause pain."

"If you are all wondering how come our Macleod's Lucky Badge can penetrate your Level 8 meshed iron reinforced tunic, it is because our Badge is Level 15 iron material. Currently, this is the highest range of iron available and it's only found here in the Castle of Keating-Macleod."

The new members were awed and suddenly realises that all were issues with the same weapons as their seniors were not wielding a long sword but they were equipped with only one Assassin's compact crossbow.

"Listen up carefully, in case you might be wondering how come your set of weapons are different from the seniors. This is because you are the new breed of multirole versatile fighters and is a combination of 4 classes which is Ranger-Assassin-Warrior-Wizard."

"Being members of this Castle also entitles you to learn a few spellbooks that could be used during your battles. These are passive spells and once you learn them, it's yours to keep."

"But if you break your allegiance, the spells you learnt would be ineffective with 7 days and you will die, rot and resurrect as a zombie. You will have no recollection of who you are, where you are and what you are doing. A zombie is a walking undead if you want to know what it is."

The last paragraph is actually a barrel load of bullshit that I added just to scare them. Hah hah hah... And by their looks, they were simply terrified.

The books I handed to them were called Move Like Snail shout. A passive spell for their crossbows would be Point Blank and another passive spell for the swordsmanship was the First Strike. I added one more spellbook for their throwing knives called Aimed Throw and the Assassin's dagger as Eviscerate.

The same spellbooks were given to our children for their dagger and throwing knives. They do not prefer to have the longsword and I agreed since there was no space to hand around their belts.

The new members went to change into their new battle gear equipped with weapons and sat around the hall, on the floor as they read their spellbooks and learned them.

Since the new members had gone to the dungeons beneath the castle and also to QM Becky, they waited for the seniors to show the grounds to them with me and Patricia tailing them as they took turns to introduce the obstacle course and then showed the archery, the random flip pop up target discs and the FIBUA.

When they first heard they have to run 5 clicks daily, I explained to them that we need to check in their limits and break their limits. Don't worry, if this old man and the seniors could do it, I'm sure you would be able to perform even better than me.

Hearing that, they felt ashamed because they didn't realise that the seniors could do it and even the youngest senior was raring to go as she was jogging on the spot and stretching herself.

"Alright seniors... LEAD THE WAY ..." and I ran with the seniors and dropped back to the end of the line to bring the rear forward. We jogged and sprinted and jogged alternately until we complete the 13 rounds before we hit the obstacles.

"Archery 50 bolts, flip target 1 round crouching position..." I instructed and the seniors guided the juniors on their first shoot after they had cleared the obstacles. Clearly, the juniors never anticipate the running part and nearly everyone was wheezing like an old houndog after chasing a wild goose and failed to capture it.

It was nearly lunchtime when the 24 of them had finally completed the whole stations and were looking forward to the meals. I checked with Patricia on the apprenticeship for the chefs and told me the final count would be tonight. She looked at me and shook her head as I was going at a pace that I couldn't even manage myself at this moment.

Actually, it's not that I can't manage my time, it's just that things happen without our planning and now I'm stuck in managing the new members and going to further enhance the livelihood of the serfs in Ingmery. I was hoping to delegate the task for minding the children from now on so I could concentrate on other matters.

Even if having apprenticeship for the moment is not of priority, but it would be a step forward for those who involve the programme. Furthermore, our current 2 cooks can take over as chief cooks and guide after they too had taken the apprenticeship.

Giving them an additional 1 month of commission to them won't even cause debt in our financial status. I smiled at the idea and took out my notepad and wrote the details.

I went to the kitchen and spoke to the two chefs that they would be learning new cuisine for the next 30 days. After that, they would be senior cooks to teach the apprenticeship next and their salary would be increased to 2k a month. Hearing that they are getting twice as much as they are getting now, they vowed to lean and impart their skills under my supervision.

"System... Have you compute how many levels I had gained from all the duplication and forging last night?

*Ding* You are my everything... Duplication earns you 160% progress and the forging earns you 140k%. +140 to your base level, +1 to your crafting level, +140 to your Blacksmithing level and +1400 to your allocation points.

*Ding* Base Level: 14,850/100,000 Total Unallocated points: 112.4k.

Master Crafter 3319/100,000.

Advanced Blacksmith 830/1000

"Haiya... What am I going to do now? I don't need any extra cash flow and I have more than enough items to duplicate. Maybe I just duplicate some wooden weapons just to Level up instead." I thought to myself as I sat at the courtyard and observed how the new members are coping as I took a wooden dagger and slipped into my storage.

I took the opportunity to enter the Realm of Mind and went to the Fusion Chamber and ran 10 times of duplication and after then I placed all the 10 wooden daggers in each slot for both Fusion Chambers and ran 5000 duplications and cranked the lever. In this case, I would have 50,000 wooden daggers to sell off.

Since it was made of wood, each duplication would take about 3 seconds. And the whole process would only be like 40 pieces for every minute and everything should be done in 6 hours or less.

I went back to the real world and replaces the wooden short dagger back and sat down with Patricia as I discussed with her is she is willing to spearhead the training regime. Once she has gotten the hang of it she could observe while I busy myself in the kitchen and spearhead the apprentice when it's time.

Patricia agrees and she really would love to witness 6 types of cuisine from all over the world as well as experiencing 30 days of variation of menus. She has to be careful or else we would have a hard time to perform the Stepping Stones on the 2nd obstacle course. Hah hah hah...