Part-time Boss
Chapter 65 - 65 65 The Royal Guards of the Wang Family

65: Chapter 65: The Royal Guards of the Wang Family 65: Chapter 65: The Royal Guards of the Wang Family Damn, it really is a player, I never noticed before.

Mo Fei’s face was full of surprise, and the man no longer had the respectful demeanor towards the Prince that NPCs usually have, but said helplessly, “Alright, no more acting, let’s lay our cards on the table, I am indeed a player.” After saying that, he looked at Mo Fei pitifully, “Your Highness, you won’t drive me away, will you?”

Mo Fei shook his head, as his main reason for not wanting player soldiers as subordinates was the fear of encountering troublemakers, but seeing as the other party obviously wasn’t one, there was naturally no need to send him away.

However, he was still somewhat astonished, mainly because the man had played his part too well, with every move being like that of an honest and stiff infantryman.

The Soldier template and Monster template usually do not show names, just titles, like this one above his head displaying the name “Sword Shield Infantryman,” which is the most standard image of an Alliance infantryman.

“Foot soldier” was initially used to describe them.

Mo Fei used his Lord privileges to check the man’s name, Lazidanan—a completely unremarkable name, but not so plain as to be obviously so, no wonder he was deceived before.

After gesturing to his subordinates to clean up the battlefield, Mo Fei called Lazidanan over and asked, “Why are you playing the soldier template?”

“Because it’s free.

Of course, the most important reason is that I wanted to experience what it’s like to be a soldier.

In reality, I even went to enlist in the army, but unfortunately, I didn’t pass the physical examination.

My vision was too poor, so I can only satisfy that urge in the game.”

“Then why choose infantry?

At least pick a ranged class; at least that makes it easier to grab kills.”

“Choosing infantry is because they have helmets that make it easier to hide your identity.

For us minor player soldiers, if the expression is too vivid, it’s easy to get recognized.

Now the hero players, lord players, they don’t like to include player soldiers.

I had no choice.

Actually, most players are pretty reliable, and they are not as stiff as NPCs.

If you use them well, they can be much better than NPCs.”

Mo Fei thought to himself since you’re a minor soldier of course you’d say that, “Heh, then why do you think people still don’t like to include player soldiers?

Just prejudice?”

“It’s not exactly prejudice.

There indeed are quite a few bad apples among players.

Player soldiers weren’t so unpopular before.

It’s mainly because a while ago, there were a few incidents.

Several heroes were betrayed and killed by their own player soldiers, and during the wars between lords, there were spies from either side among the soldiers, relaying information, which led to ambushes.

With more and more such crappy situations, player soldiers naturally fell out of favor.

After all, NPCs can be 100% trusted, while there’s always a chance, however small, of a player setting you up.

Actually, I can understand that.

I wouldn’t be thrilled to have player soldiers either.

Only, those players acting as spies and betraying others are so disgusting, they’ve directly ruined the reputation of us player soldiers.”

What Lazidanan hadn’t mentioned was that the real biggest problem is that it’s now a buyer’s market.

Heroes and lords have the power to choose, while minor soldiers do not; naturally, they can only suffer the consequences.

Mo Fei nodded, thinking this guy sees things pretty clearly.

What he feared most were those giant baby players who complain about everything.

If he really ran into one of these people, he’d have to kick them out no matter what.

Since this one seemed sensible, he decided to keep him around.

“Alright, as long as you follow my orders, I don’t mind helping you level up.”

Players do have their advantages, just like the cooperation earlier, which would be quite difficult to achieve with NPCs.

NPCs can only follow direct instructions.

If you tell them to stay in one place, they’ll just stand there until they starve, unless they receive new orders—even if they see you getting killed, they won’t do a thing.

Players are much more flexible, but it really depends on the person.

Once the battlefield was cleaned up, two Altland Hunters had skinned quite a few Yeti furs—those were quite valuable.

Mo Fei ordered the troop to move forward, and they continued deeper into the mountains.

In this region were Yetis everywhere.

Having killed many of them, Mo Fei had gathered some experience: Yetis were immensely strong but had weak defenses.

Their flesh and blood were extremely vulnerable to piercing attacks and, with their large size, they were effectively live targets.

As long as the Crossbowmen had enough space to output, no matter how many came, they were just experience.

Mo Fei occasionally joined in the fray, but once the thrill of hacking at foes faded, he mostly stayed out of it.

After all, having the Crossbowmen firing in unison made grinding monsters too easy, and he could just sit back and enjoy the show.

Traveling and grinding along the way, Mo Fei leveled up within an hour.

Seeing Mo Fei relaxed, Lazidanan couldn’t help but ask, “Your Highness, could you let me get in a few hits?”

“Why?”

“The thing is—We soldiers don’t get much experience from following the team around.

To level up, I need to get more kills.

I’m just a few thousand experience away from ranking up, so could you accommodate me?

I promise I won’t cause any trouble.”

It turns out that when killing a monster, the soldiers in the team only get 1% of the experience points.

However, if a soldier personally kills it, they can get 10%.

The difference of tenfold is huge.

Of course, Mo Fei, being the Prince, always takes the lion’s share—that’s the perk of being royalty.

Mo Fei nodded, “Alright, if you can grab some kills, go for it.

Just be careful, don’t die.

Our team doesn’t have a healer.”

Doing this didn’t really cause him any loss, and if it resulted in an upgrade to a level three soldier, the combat power of the entire team would benefit.

In the following battles, Lazidanan charged to the very front of the team.

Whenever a Yeti was shot and left bloodied by the Crossbowmen, Lazidanan would bravely rush in to finish it off.

Landing the killing blow requires skillful timing—to be right on the mark, too early or too late and you miss the kill.

Lazidanan was quite adept at this task, first taking down a few isolated Yetis, then an Ice Field Wolf, and afterwards a few Highland Crawlers.

Another Yeti was shot to a sliver of health, “Leave it to me!” Lazidanan charged forward and thrust his sword into the Yeti’s heart.

With a flash of white light, he astonishingly ranked up.

[System Notification: A soldier in your troop has accumulated enough merit to be promoted to a higher rank.]

Not bad at all!

Mo Fei thought, feeling somewhat surprised.

Soldiers’ levels are fixed, for example, a Sword and Shield Infantry is level 26, no matter how many monsters are slain, it remains level 26.

Only when the type of soldier is upgraded does the character’s level increase along with it.

There are usually two advanced options for Sword and Shield Infantry, the level 34 Highland Warrior and the level 38 Highland Swordsman.

Once upgraded, the level, equipment, and skills are instantly fully updated, which is very convenient.

Mo Fei opened the troop list, and sure enough, a plus sign had appeared above the head of a Sword and Shield Infantry, indicating a unit that could be upgraded.

Clicking on the upgrade, three options then appeared.

[Highland Warrior (Level 34)

Upgrade Cost: 120 Gold Coins.

Unit Features: Charge, Armor-Piercing Attack, Fearless Combat.

Unit Equipment: Thick Leather Armor, Two-Handed Battle Axe

Unit Introduction: Brave warriors wielding battle axes, they have higher Attack Power and Health Points compared to regular infantry and can swiftly breach enemy lines.]

[Highland Swordsman (Level 38)

Upgrade Cost: 165 Gold Coins.

Unit Features: Sweep, Heavy Slash, Anti-Infantry.

Unit Equipment: Thick Leather Armor, Two-Handed Greatsword.

Unit Introduction: Swordsmen wielding two-handed greatswords with superb swordsmanship can exert tremendous power in melee combat, particularly adept at combating groups of infantry.]

[Royal Guard (Level 39) — (Exclusive to the Royal Family)

Upgrade Cost: 200 Gold Coins.

Unit Features: Shield Defense, Long Spear Thrust, High Armor, Charge Resistance.

Unit Equipment: Royal Guard Armor, Royal Guard Long Spear, Royal Kite Shield.

Unit Introduction: Elite infantry personally trained by King Aidan of Perinod of Altland, they are the main defensive force of Altland’s royal city, with excellent equipment granting them strong defense, capable of effectively countering enemy charges.]

Highland Swordsmen are a specialty unit of Altland, requiring level 38 to convert into, and are the top-tier among the third-level soldiers with astonishing damage in melee skirmishes.

The Highland Warriors are quite inferior, with their only distinctive feature being a rush skill, which is somewhat useful when cutting into the enemy’s backline, plus immunity to fear.

As for the Royal Guard, they are a hidden unit exclusive to those with the Prince background; leveling up from them leads to Altland’s trump card unit, the level four Northwind Knight.

Should the Northwind Knight advance further, they could either become a level five super unit or directly evolve into an elite template.

Although it seems players using the soldier template level up quickly, their casualty rate is also extremely high, particularly in major battles between Lords, which are almost invariably story-driven campaigns.

After a major battle, the typical result is one side annihilated and the other side with more than half the force lost.

If a Lord’s healing skills are high, a few more might survive, but otherwise, it would mean starting over from scratch.

Even if a soldier rises to elite status, there’s no real difference; they still fall in heaps on the battlefield.

From this perspective, aside from Adventurer players who fear not death, nearly all other templates are pretty much hardcore battle royale modes.

Mo Fei highly suspected that this was a conspiracy by the game company to drain players’ money, though he had no evidence.

Faced with the three options, Mo Fei promptly chose to upgrade to the Royal Guard as he desperately needed a tanky frontline.

With a flash of white light, ‘Razidan’, previously clad in leather armor and armed with a sword and shield, instantly transformed into a heavily armored warrior, wielding a long spear and shield.

Razidan wore a face of shock, looking down at the long spear and shield in his hands, his expression complicated.

“Speaking of which, Your Highness, you do know that the free troops allotted to Princes are automatically deducted each week, right?”

Mo Fei was speechless inside, thinking, “Damn, there’s such a setting?” He had assumed those troops would be his personal forces in the future.

Did that mean the 200 Gold Coins he spent were in vain…

With the current exchange rate of Gold Coins to RMB being roughly 1:10, that was two thousand yuan, which could have covered his living expenses for a month before.

Well, it couldn’t be said to be in vain, at least he could make the most of them this week.

Despite the sting he felt, his face remained calmly smiling, “Of course, I do.

But a mere 200 Gold Coins is not much; consider it making a friend.

Plus, I believe your performance this week will be worth the price.”

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.