At night, the entire Marichadon family gathered together for a rare family dinner.
'Breathing Skill Experience Point +6???'
Ivan remembered something from the morning, when he had beaten Henge, a mysterious prompt had appeared on the membrane of light.
Looking at the message on the membrane of light, he faintly understood something.
It should be considered an academic reputation, one could say it was scholarly prestige; having defeated the previously ranked Henge, other scholars believed him to have a deep understanding of the Breathing Method, thus giving him some prestige in the Breathing Skill.
'Selling potions before?'
'They were not sold under my own name, so I couldn't make a name for myself, I see now.'
Various thoughts flowed through his mind, and he also recalled the massive amount of experience points he gained when inventing the 'Ocean Blue Potion,' deepening his understanding of the capabilities of the membrane of light. The key to everything was still 'scholarly disciplines'; to gain experience points, it had to be related to a scholarly discipline.
Therefore, teaching and spreading knowledge of a discipline should also yield prestige.
'Centered around academic disciplines, truly worthy of the Academic Prodigy panel I named, rigorous and professional.'
Ivan reflected, based on this, academic fraud or fictitious fame would definitely be useless. He had to have substantial offerings, with sufficient strength in his discipline as a prerequisite, in order to convince and earn recognition from others.
In that moment, he thought of many plans and intentions, determined to find an opportunity to try them in the future.
"Ivan."
"Ivan."
Beaman, his older brother, called out twice, bringing Ivan back to reality.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I've figured out a problem."
Beaman didn't ask further, repeating his earlier question, "Do you want to participate in this mission? It would be a good chance to gain some field experience, to increase actual combat experience."
He knew of Ivan's strength, and was also aware that his brother lacked real-world experience; some things couldn't be learned well by verbal teaching alone, so he invited Ivan to join him on a Mercenary Group mission.
Ivan instinctively looked towards his father, Leider, and then noticed that there was nobody sitting opposite him; the others had finished eating, leaving only the two brothers in the room.
"If you agree, I'll go talk to dad."
"Okay."
Seeing him agree, Ivan felt it might indeed be worth a visit.
Nowadays, he already had the strength of a squire; he had used three Ocean Blue Potions, and it was uncertain if the fourth would still be effective. It was undoubtedly not simple to improve his strength further. He didn't have to think about making money; his Tidal Language was getting on fire, and in Linguistics, he only had Fernundo language left to learn.
The Fernundo language had a niche use and didn't require immediate learning.
Having been in this alien world for a while, he finally had the leisure and free time, which was perfect for getting to know the world outside of Flying Fish Port.
The next day, the thick fog had not yet dispersed.
Ivan arrived early at the Bat's Eye Medical Hall.
Swaying gracefully, Justine arrived shortly after.
"Yo, you're here."
"Hmph."
Ivan rarely took the initiative to greet someone.
Both had achieved their goals, truly becoming apprentices under Old Orio, and their rivalry subsided, improving their relationship.
After a few seconds, Justine spoke, "Don't get too smug, be careful I might surpass you."
This wasn't the first time she emphasized this; the girl had a strong sense of competition.
Ivan was somewhat speechless and nodded, "I'll be waiting."
A while later, a lean figure emerged from the end of the street, always seemingly a bit off-balance as he moved. He came out from the fog, the burn scar on his face making him appear somewhat fierce.
"Mr. Orio."
Old Orio didn't really care about the greeting and the salute from the two men.
As the medical hall began business, Ivan announced his leave, and Old Orio didn't care about that either, just waving his hand at him.
Then, Ivan left the medical hall to go to Interlock Street and hurried to the Giant Shield Mercenary Group's encampment.
"Depart."
He arrived just in time to start the journey as Leider announced their departure.
The group consisted of ten people, four from the Marichadon family, including the father and son, along with a vice-captain—Glowe—and the others were ordinary mercenaries.
Each had a horse, and every horse was equipped with a shield—not as tribute to the Mercenary Group's name, but because the enemies they were facing this time were special and they couldn't do without shields.
Through Beaman's introduction, he learned the vice-captain Glowe was actually a squire in strength, possessed superb archery skills, and had repeatedly achieved great feats for the Mercenary Group, esteemed by many mercenaries.
The Giant Shield Mercenary Group also had another vice-captain, called Dayne, who was a Junior Knight, currently undertaking another mission.
Ivan's appearance drew quite a bit of attention. As a member of the Giant Shield Mercenary Group, many had heard of his reputation. The third young master of the leader's family was known to be mischievous and not very skilled, yet he was going with them on a mission, which made some wonder if he was just there for fun.
Paul frequently glanced at his younger brother. Had it not been for Beaman's information, he wouldn't have known about the many things his brother had secretly done. His own strength was almost on par with his, but his accomplishments in apothecary were even more embarrassing to him.
"What's the reward for the mission?"
"A marriage alliance."
At Flying Fish Port, there was a rule that, except for the nobles' carriages, all others, including horses, must not gallop unless there were special circumstances, so the group rode at a slow pace.
Hearing Beaman's answer, Ivan rolled his eyes.
He didn't believe this, knowing that although Leider was concerned about the family's former glory, he wouldn't disregard the thoughts of other members of the Mercenary Group and act willfully; otherwise, they would have accepted the mission long ago.
Beaman added, "A shield, you will see it soon."
In fact, he didn't know much— indeed, the reward was a heavy shield from Baron Church's collection, what it actually looked like was unknown, as he never paid much attention to the Mercenary Group's tedious affairs.
Once outside the gates of Flying Fish Port, the group sped up their horses, heading towards the Black Pine Forest domain.
On their way, they rested twice, and by the afternoon, with only two or three miles left to Black Pine Forest, Leider instructed them to rest a while longer, to gather strength before heading to their destination.
On the grassland, Ivan sat beside Beaman to rest.
Beaman laughed softly, "Disappointed, right?"
"A little."
Ivan nodded.
Once they left Flying Fish Port, the other travelers on the road were few, and they didn't see any inhabited villages or encounter any bandits, unlike what he had expected.
Beaman explained, "It's because we took a wide trade road, didn't carry much goods, and with many of us looking like trouble, no one with a brain would bother us. On your own, you'll have to be much more cautious."
He also cleared up about the civilians' villages outside the city, which are mostly built around noble castles, towns, and cities, which belong to the noble's subjects. As for the non-subject refugees who couldn't create value for a lord, fearing discovery, they wouldn't build their villages near the busy trade roads.
The group pressed on and soon reached Black Pine Castle within the Black Pine Forest domain.
"Haha, welcome Knight Leider and the Giant Shield Mercenary Group to my castle."
Baron Church was a portly middle-aged man. He greeted the group that had come from afar at the castle's gate. Unlike what Beaman had previously said, he was exceedingly hospitable, with none of the haughtiness, and his hearty laughter was infectious to everyone.
Miss Church was there, too. When she saw Ivan her eyes lit up, "We meet again, Mr. Ivan, and Mr. Paul and Mr. Beaman."
"Indeed, dear Miss Lisa."
Beaman responded, then subtly raised his eyebrows at his brother, his eyes filled with an inexplicable amusement.
Ivan followed with a greeting and then noticed that Miss Church's gaze on him was a bit off, even more intimate than towards his brothers. He involuntarily studied Paul's expression, but the eldest showed little change.
He was puzzled, as he had only met Miss Church twice, hardly exchanging many words with her.
Could it be that something unknown to him had happened? What's up with all of them?