Time flies like an arrow.

Practicing breathing techniques, sword skills, forging iron, petting bears, reading some leisure books... repeating this cycle over and over again. The days of gaining experience always pass quickly. Spring goes and autumn comes, winter is approaching, and it is the North Wind Month of the 1005th year of the Holy Hui Calendar.

On the training ground, Levi and Knight Fred were dodging and competing in sword skills. Knight Fred used only one hand, and his violent sword attacks made it difficult for Levi to resist.

Finally, Levi was defeated. Knight Fred laughed and said, "Not bad. At this time last year, you could only last one minute under my hands. This year, you can last five minutes."

Levi laughed and said, "It's great."

He knew that Knight Fred had not even used one third of his strength.

With Knight Fred's genius in swordsmanship, even if Knight Fred suppressed his strength to the quasi-knight level, Levi was far from being his opponent.

After training Levi, Knight Fred went to train the militia.

Levi sat there and opened the proficiency panel.

Levi——

Black Snake Breathing Method: Level 3 (3666/10000)

Golden Cross Slash: Level 3 (4399/10000), Special Effect: Advanced Vibration

Taming: Level 3 (Ultimate), Special Effect: Heart of the Wild

Forging: Level 3 (1314/10000), Special Effect: Definitely Excellent

…

Over the past year, he has made great progress in the four major skills he has been working on.

The slowest and most difficult to practice is undoubtedly the Black Snake Breathing Method. In a year, one can only gain more than 3,000 proficiency points. Without secret medicine, it will take at least two years to reach the fourth level.

This speed is quite fast, but Levi is still not satisfied.

This world is full of dangers. If you don't have strength, you can only be humble. For example, the Wild Boar Gang bullies the weak and even dares to rob your people.

And he really couldn't do anything to the other party, because he had the Wilderness Brotherhood behind him.

The speed of practicing the Golden Cross Slash is quite fast. At this rate, in about another year, he will be able to master the power of ripples.

By then, with the power of ripples, I should be able to fight against official knights even if I am a quasi-knight.

Beast taming has reached its limit. Levi has read almost all the books related to beast taming available on the market. He also has three northern giant bear cubs as taming objects, so it is not difficult to improve this skill. Levi is now confident that in the field of beast taming, he deserves the title of "master tamer".

What surprised Levi was that after reaching the limit of the beast taming skill, a special effect was created, which he had never expected.

“Wild Heart: Can sense the thoughts of most wild beasts by observing their movements and listening to their voices. Can use body language and special pronunciation skills to communicate perfectly with the tamed beasts.”

This is the effect of the Wild Heart. The most intuitive change is that now when the three little bears meet Levi again, they are no longer afraid of or aggressive towards Levi, but are very close to him. Levi can also magically sense the thoughts of the three little bears. It is a wonderful feeling.

Therefore, with such magical skills, the three little bears were all well taken care of by Levi, and their size also changed dramatically within a year. Their length had reached nearly two meters and their weight exceeded 500 kilograms. Of course, compared with their mother weighing several tons, they were still tiny.

An adult man cannot subdue the bear cubs without weapons, and when the three bears attack together, even Levi, a quasi-knight, has to be careful.

If you get slapped hard by them, even the third-level Black Snake Breathing Technique would be difficult to withstand.

Levi knew this in his previous life when he saw the Siberian tiger Wandashan No. 1 smash a car window with one palm. Don't underestimate these cute little guys.

The most terrifying thing is that they are just babies less than two years old.

Taming animals to the limit was just one of Levi's gains in the past year.

Another thing he values ​​the most is his third-level forging skill. The third level of this skill is not the limit, but it also has a special effect.

[Definitely a fine product: Whatever you forge, it must be a fine product!] (Author's note: This "fine product" is only used for comparison with others. The fine iron sword created with this special effect is still not as good as the inferior mithril iron sword made by an ordinary blacksmith.)

It’s a simple special effects introduction, but it’s the key to Levi’s next plan to get rich.

With this third-level forging, it is difficult to become rich enough to rival a country. After all, I am alone and do not have so much time to specialize in forging, but it is still no problem to support myself and practice.

Over the past year, Levi has forged over a hundred knight swords in his spare time, fifty of which are high-quality swords used to arm his own militia.

Before the third level of forging, he could only produce a fine longsword occasionally, but after the third level, any longsword he forged personally would definitely be of fine quality.

Even if the official blacksmith Old Toby came, he would definitely be far inferior to Levi in ​​terms of quality rate and casting efficiency. After all, Levi is a quasi-knight, and his upper limit in terms of physical strength and control of hammering intensity is far beyond that of an ordinary person like Old Toby.

However, if one wants to become a formal blacksmith in the true sense of the word in this world, it is not enough to be able to only forge longswords, as the difficulty of forging longswords is the easiest.

The knight's armor, which is complex in workmanship and represents the high-end achievements of the world's forging skills, is the lifelong pursuit of every foundry master.

For Levi, who is already at level three, the increase in proficiency brought by forging a knight's longsword is already negligible. Now, every time he forges a sword, he can only increase the minimum proficiency by a little bit, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the proficiency of tens of thousands.

So Levi planned to start forging knight armor, but Levi's forging efficiency was too high, resulting in insufficient iron in the territory. Previously, the iron ore used for smelting in the territory mainly came from imports from other territories, but because of the chaos in recent years, the lords who own iron ore in the territory rarely export iron ore as an important strategic resource.

As for charcoal, there is no need to worry. With the Endless Black Mountain Range behind it, timber resources are inexhaustible for a small territory like Blackwater Valley.

Levi planned to sell a batch of extra knight swords first. He had no plans to expand his military forces for the time being. He just wanted to build a team of 50 elite soldiers. If there were more people, the territory could not afford to support them.

Next, he planned to look for iron ore in the Black Mountain behind his territory. He vaguely remembered reading some articles on how to find iron ore in his previous life, and he would give it a try when the time comes.

Of course, now that the mountains are blocked by heavy snow, whether it is selling knight swords or looking for iron ore, these things can only wait until the beginning of next spring.

Levi temporarily stopped forging and began to devote himself to breathing techniques and sword skills.

The year 1005 of the Holy Era, the month of winter.

Levi, who was practicing breathing techniques, was suddenly awakened by the faint howling of wolves on the mountain behind the castle.

His face was solemn. Judging from the sounds, the wolf howls were not far from his castle.

He was about to ask about the situation when Knight Fred rushed in and said, "Master Levi, the territory was attacked by a pack of wolves. There are estimated to be hundreds of them. Many farmers' cattle and sheep were eaten, and several farmers were also dragged away. You stay in the castle and don't come out. I will lead the team to kill the wolves outside."

"What? I'm going too!" Levi's face changed. Since Blackwater Valley is located at the foot of the Black Mountain, it is normal to be attacked by wolves occasionally. However, this is the first time he has heard of such a large-scale wolf attack.

Seeing Master Levi's firm attitude, Knight Fred did not stop him and said seriously: "Then please don't leave my side, Master."

Wearing armor, riding horses, and closing the castle gate, Levi and Fred hurried towards the scene of the incident.

Levi has now advanced to the quasi-knight and has mastered the power of advanced vibration. The militiamen under his command also have knight swords, and there is also Knight Fred in charge.

He still doesn't believe that he can't subdue these beasts!