Mercenary System: I can increase innate potential !

"With you by my side, how can they threaten me?"

She saw Maxime's strength very clearly, and above all she noticed the ease with which he pierced Perceval.

She knew Perceval herself, after all, even if Count Ardan was a rather unsociable person, he sometimes went up to the capital to make connections during gatherings of the nobility.

And of course, he brought his precious daughter with him.

When she had first seen Perceval, it had been as an elegant man surrounded by numerous noble girls, most of them viscount's daughters.

After all, as well as being handsome and strong, he came from the family of Duke Devron.

His status was among the best in the kingdom.

But this famous knight now lay lifeless on the ground before her.

"This rising star could look so wretched," she thought silently.

Simultaneously, she glanced again at Maxime.

In the capital, she had also met many geniuses and had even spoken with several princes and princesses.

But she could say without a doubt that in terms of aura, Maxime crushed any of those famous nobles.

She'd never seen anyone so strong and so young at the same time.

Especially since, in addition to fighting, she could see him waving orders to his men.

"What a prodigious talent."

"Even Dorian looks rather mediocre against him."

Aveline surprised herself by thinking that, after all even if she hated her fiancée, she couldn't but admit his genius.

By comparison, Perceval, who had become a knight at the age of 23, seemed mediocre.

And 3 years of training separated Dorian and Percival.

3 years of training was more than enough at such a young age.

If Perceval was a middle-schooler taking the exams of a high-schooler, then Dorian Valderic was an elementary-school student taking the same exams as Perceval.

The feat was on an entirely different level.

"Now I understand why my father had so much confidence in these mercenaries to escort me."

After all, she wasn't blind.

It wasn't just Maxime who was strong, even his men were strong enough to fend off these bandits, most of whom had the strength of apprentice knights.

For his part, Maxime watched Aveline attentively as he fought the bald knight.

The bald knight, drunk with rage, concentrated all his fury on Maxime. His blows were now brutal, almost desperate, and Maxime defended with difficulty.

Even with the female knight removed from the equation, the fight was still fierce.

"So this is the power of a knight who has broken his vital seed," Maxime thought mid-fight.

From what Maxime understood from the rumors he'd heard both in the real world and in the world of Eternity, knights didn't really break their vital seed.

To understand this, we had to go back to basics.

The vital seed was created so that the energy escaping from it could not harm the body in which it resided.

But at the same time, it limited the power that could be used by the knight.

So some knights began to create openings in the seed to multiply the power that escaped.

Naturally, this hurt the knight's body to an unimaginable degree, as the energy became uncontrollable and, above all, the muscles and bones of the human body could not withstand this powerful influx of energy.

This created hidden, almost irrecoverable wounds in the body, although the seed itself could self-regenerate quite easily.

But in life-or-death situations, this power was more than important.

Especially as many knights discovered that after using it, particularly when adrenalin was at its peak during a fight, the knight's body could be rapidly strengthened.

In fact, some of the energy remained in the muscles, bones and even organs, making it possible to strengthen the user's body once and for all.

But for this to be truly effective, the seed had to be broken during very intense effort, at a time when blood and oxygen were circulating extremely rapidly.

So many knights began to roam the battlefields in search of these life-or-death moments, in order to break their vital seed and become stronger.

This method had enabled many knights with limited talent to become great knights.

However, it also had a major drawback.

It was that even if the knight managed to become a great knight, his life expectancy would be drastically reduced.

So those with good talents avoided relying on this power in order to reach higher heights and not waste their potential.

But Maxime always became very eager for this power, extremely eager to awaken his vital seed and become a knight.

"It would seem that Viviana's talent could completely make up for this flaw."

"What a blessing."

Maxime's various thoughts impacted him negatively as he took yet another blow to the stomach, seemed almost to shatter his abdomen.

Other wounds appeared one after the other on his body.

However, the superficial cuts closed within minutes, while his muscles, though strained, seemed inexhaustible. Each breath was deep, powerful, full of determination.

This deeply shocked his opponent.

"What kind of monster is that? What kind of defense and regeneration does he possess to take so many blows?"

Simultaneously, he became impatient.

He couldn't maintain this state forever.

But with each of his attacks, Maxime dodged, deflected or cashed in, and always with terrifying efficiency.

After several days' hard training with one of the Kingdom's finest knights, Alarick, and combined with his talent, Maxime had made enormous progress in his technique.

As a result, the duel had become almost savage, with blades clashing against each other at breakneck speed.

The flashes of these blades briefly lit up their faces, tense with effort, and the boots pounded the dusty ground in a violent dance.

Their combat zone had become a no-man's-land.

If an apprentice knight had the misfortune to enter it, he would surely not meet a happy end.

At the same time, the new recruits could see their leader in action.

"So our leader was so strong?"

"He's clearly in another world at this stage."

"I hope I can become that strong one day."

Even the veterans were impressed, especially Andrew who had always set Maxime as his goal.

But at this stage, Maxime had beaten everyone by a phenomenal margin.

Some of them thought that even all the mercenaries put together couldn't defeat Maxime.

"I swear I'll catch up with you one day..." Andrew murmured as he increased his efforts tenfold in his duel with an apprentice knight at the peak stage.

The latter was suddenly surprised, as he had the advantage throughout the duel.

But all of a sudden, the red-haired youngster lost all his technique and began to throw extremely wide, yet phenomenally powerful blows.

What surprised him even more was that, even with his strength, his hands were trembling from Andrew's blows.

Whereas at the start of the fight, his strength seemed far superior to Andrew's...

And Andrew was not a special case, as many other mercenaries such as Charles, Henry, Ultia, Rodrigo et cetera were beginning to push back their opponents who, until then, seemed to be in a tight duel.

And it was all thanks to the [Awakening of Life] talent.

A platinum-ranked talent was not to be underestimated.

Even less so when that talent could rely on a talent of unknown rank...

Over time, the mercenaries' opponents began to run out of steam, while they themselves retained a strength almost similar to that at the start of the fight.

The longer the fighting dragged on, the more the situation turned to the mercenaries' advantage.

On the side of Maxime and his opponent, the fight was still at its height.

"You're nothing but a mercenary!" shouted the bald knight, his voice mixed with fury and the beginnings of panic.

His breath was now ragged, his strength rapidly diminishing.

"How dare you stand against the nobility!!!"

Maxime didn't answer.

His eyes had become progressively cold, devoid of all emotion.

In this duel, he was still improving, little by little.

His concentration had reached a point where he was not far from a human being's concentration limits.

Even without god-given talent, Maxime was not someone who would have had a mediocre future.

He had always put in the effort and concentration to achieve what he wanted.

His sword split the air, deflecting a ferocious attack before striking the bald knight's flank.

The blow was precise, surgical, and although not fatal, it weakened the man considerably, making him panic even more.

For her part, Aveline fought with admirable determination against the knight with the eye patch.

The exchanges were fast and furious, but Aveline was beginning to lose ground. The knight was more experienced, more skilful, and each of Aveline's blows was countered with apparent ease.

"You're brave, but you're still too inexperienced, little one." said the knight with a cruel smile.@@novelbin@@

"It's a pity, with a few more years, you could have been an interesting opponent."

Aveline didn't reply, concentrating on every movement. Her breath was short, and fatigue weighed down her arm.

Unfortunately, she didn't benefit from the blessings of Maxime's talents, otherwise her fight could have taken a completely different direction.

Yet she refused to give up.

Her violet eyes sparkled with defiance, and she still managed to narrowly dodge blows that could have been fatal. Explore new worlds at My Virtual Library Empire

At the same moment, the bald knight let out a hoarse cry and charged Maxime with desperate energy.

He brandished his sword, his momentum carrying him forward in a suicidal attack. Maxime waited for the perfect moment, his sword gleaming with a cold glow.

When the bald knight was within range, Maxime stepped aside and struck.

The sound of metal striking flesh was muffled by the surrounding battle cries.

At that moment, time seemed to slow down.

The knight's expression gradually changed from rage to surprise to despair.

The bald knight collapsed to one knee, his sword falling to his side. Blood flowed profusely from his chest, staining the ground with a dark stain.

"This... this can't be..." he murmured, looking up at Maxime with eyes filled with despair.

"Me... a knight... beaten by a... mercenary..."

Maxime leaned toward him, his cold eyes gazing into the knight's.

"Don't worry, you won't die here. I have other uses for you."