The atmosphere in the Bearded Tavern was still noisy and warm.
However, the atmosphere in the corner where Saru and the others froze instantly.
"Riding... a knight?" The old mercenary opened his mouth wide and looked at Colin in surprise.
He knew that Colin's identity was not simple, but he never thought that he was actually a knight.
You know, the knights in this world are fundamentally different from the warriors in the rotten streets.
Any well-developed commoner who could afford to eat meat, as long as he could spend a few silver coins, could learn how to stimulate Dou Qi in the Warrior Union and become a warrior apprentice.
But the Cavaliers are different.
To become an apprentice knight, one must first have a certain talent, and, more importantly, one must accept the baptism ceremony hosted by the pastor of the Radiance Church.
It is completely different from the baptism on the earth, which is only symbolic and can be sprinkled with water. The baptism ceremony in this world is that the priests of the Church of Radiance cast spells to communicate with the Lord of Radiance, and engrave a holy brand on the baptized person.
This process consumes a lot of money for priests. Therefore, the number of baptisms that each priest can preside over in his lifetime is limited.
Therefore, this kind of baptism quota is extremely precious, and it has basically been completely monopolized by the nobles, and it is almost impossible for ordinary people to get in touch.
The scarcity of knights can also be imagined.
For example, Baron Angelet only had three loyal knights under his command. Adding the baron himself and his son Colin, there were only five knights in the entire baronial realm.
Among them, Colin has not even entered the rank yet, and is currently only a knight apprentice.
Professionals in this world can be divided into nine tiers according to their strength, with the first tier being the weakest and the ninth tier the strongest.
Of course, there is an apprentice level below the first level, which is set up for rookies who have not officially entered the level.
Knights and warriors of the same level actually do not have a huge difference in combat power. Knights do have the advantage, but in a head-to-head confrontation, they may not be able to win against warriors. After all, factors such as martial skills, willpower, and weapons and equipment must also be considered.
The real reason why nobles flock to the profession of knights is actually because of its potential.
The apex of the warrior profession is the sixth rank.
That's right, looking at the entire continent, there has never been a seventh-order warrior, whether it's humans, trolls, orcs, elves...never have.
According to the words of the first pope of the Radiance Church, Peter Michel—
"Mortals need the gift of the gods to enter the sanctuary."
The sanctuary is above the seventh level, so the seventh-level knight is also called a holy knight.
Therefore, according to this statement, warriors who have not been baptized will of course not be able to obtain the gift of the gods, and thus have no chance of reaching the seventh rank.
Currently in this world, there are only five occupations that can break through to the sixth level.
And without exception, all are occupations that believe in a certain god.
They are the human knights serving the Lord of Radiance, the troll warriors serving the God of War, the elf rangers serving the Goddess of Fate, the Naga Royal Guards serving the God of Storms, and the orc Skull Crushers serving the God of Destruction.
Even those spellcasters who claim not to believe in gods and only believe in arcane truths cannot break through to the sixth level.
However, they can release forbidden spells with powers of seventh rank or above.
But releasing such a forbidden spell requires the caster to pay a terrible price, and it cannot be regarded as a conventional attack method.
Of course, the sanctuary is definitely not so easy for knights to enter.
Once a paladin is born in any family, the whole family will be extremely prominent because of it.
And all families that have given birth to paladins will be honored with the word "Holy" in front of their family names.
For example, the masters of the northern border of the Glorious Empire—the Hilde family, are descendants of the founding paladins of the empire, so they are honored as the St. Hilde family.
In the entire history of the Glorious Empire, there have only been seven paladin families.
The difficulty of entering the sanctuary can be seen from this.
As for the eighth level, it is called the Legendary Domain.
The founding emperor of the Glorious Empire—Gana Lorenzo, is a paladin in the legendary realm, and the only one recorded in history.
In the more than a thousand years after him, there has never been a paladin who has entered the legendary realm.
Not to mention the ninth order.
The ninth level is also called the demigod domain, and it is said that only the giant dragons who once dominated this world can reach it. After their extinction, no race has ever been able to give birth to a strong demigod.
As for the ninth level and above, that is the realm of the gods...
In short, the noble and rare profession of knights, which can even be said to belong only to nobles, obviously should appear in castles rather than places like the Bearded Tavern.
Generally, no knight would choose to follow the mercenary group to another city. After all, they have their own retinues, servants, and even an army.
Therefore, Colin's appearance seemed particularly strange.
Just when the atmosphere in the corner was getting more and more solemn, a little furry head suddenly got out of Colin's shirt.
"Meow—" seemed dissatisfied that his good sleep was disturbed, and the kitten "roared" at the bearded man.
Colin smiled slightly, stuffed a guy who got up very angry into his clothes again, and then asked the bearded man, "How do you know I'm a knight?"
In fact, Colin felt that he was careful enough.
Without armor, the saber is just a standard one-handed sword, and the clothes are "borrowed" from a guard who is about the same size as himself.
Moreover, according to the memory of the predecessor, although fighters and knights do have different combat performances, there should be no difference when they don't make a move.
What's more, for an apprentice knight like Colin who has not yet entered the ranks, since he cannot inspire the holy light to assist in the battle, even if he really fights, he is no different from an apprentice warrior.
Is there really a way to distinguish these two professions at a glance
Ke Lin felt that this might be the knowledge blind spot of his predecessor.
But who knows, Saru smiled slyly: "Guess."
be cheated!
Colin immediately realized that he had been tricked by this seemingly reckless and honest bearded man.
Saru should just be suspicious, but Colin's subconscious reaction made the other party confirm his knight status.
The main reason is that Saru's appearance is too confusing.
That made Ke Lin less vigilant, and he was cheated out of his real job by the other party.
Firefox Mercenaries.
Hehe, no wonder it is called this name.
He looks like a violent bear, but is actually as cunning as a fox.
"I've been in the mercenary world for more than forty years, and I don't know how many people I've seen with these eyes. Hehe, you boy, although you are dressed plainly, you don't look like a commoner at first glance. Sure enough, if you cheat, you will be exposed Already!"
Ke Lin took a deep breath, and kept reminding himself in his heart that he must be more careful when dealing with experienced veterans like Saru.
However, on the surface, Colin behaved calmly and calmly, without the tension of being exposed at all.
First, in front of Saru, he took out ten copper coins and threw them to the old mercenary, indicating that he could leave first.
Then he pulled away the chair beside Saru and sat down naturally: "I admit that the previous trick was really inappropriate, and I apologize to you. But, you probably wouldn't refuse a knight to walk with you, would you?"
"Your name?" Saru put away his smile and asked, staring into Colin's eyes.
Colin looked directly into Saru's eyes, and replied with the most sincere tone:
"Kan, Kahn Sudor."
(end of this chapter)