You have unlocked the milestone system: First Victory (You successfully achieved victory in an armed conflict with a minimum of thirty people involved.)
Champion Knight (You have won three knight tournaments organized by Count-level or higher-ranking nobles.)
Knight of Chivalry (You have thwarted bandit forces from pillaging civilians three times or have dismantled three bandit groups with no fewer than twenty members.)
Exemplary Fiefdom (Your fiefdom has at least two thousand acres of land and over two hundred people above the subsistence line)
Milestones in this game are equivalent to an achievement system. The rewards are quite generous, but Losa merely glanced through them, realizing that none could be accomplished in the short term, and instead focused his attention on his first attendant.
A card flickering with radiant golden light slowly emerged in the system.
The card had an ornate golden frame, and at the top perched a black giant dragon poised to fly.
In the center of the card was a girl holding a black triangular giant shield, adorned with a ghost face relief, its eyes red and snarling with fangs, as if ready to come alive and devour anyone.
The girl had long black hair, a slender figure, and wore a black leather biker suit that exposed her white arms, standing with her arms crossed and a cool expression like an ice goddess.
Below is the introduction:
This is Prajna, Hell's gatekeeper.
The shield in her hand is the door to Hell.
No one can break through this shield and attack the person she guards.
Congratulations on obtaining your first attendant. Please speed up the development of your territory, make it prosperous and powerful, and participate in world domination!
Losa's mouth twitched.
If only I could...
"Prajna" is the top-tier attendant given to every novice when entering the game.
Although she seems to be dressed lightly, she belongs to the heavy armor warrior category with extremely strong defense.
The reason novices are given heavy armor warriors is because this role is a necessity in the early stages of the game; without them, they cannot withstand the damage, providing a safety net for novices, while not significantly improving the novice's "monster-fighting" efficiency. To quickly defeat monsters, one must choose to pay to unlock high-level, offensive attendants.
Otherwise, they can only rely on the lottery turns from completing milestone rewards, using low-star offensive attendants with poor output to contribute value to the game company as "daily active users."
This approach is vulgarly known as: forcing players to spend.
"Originally planned to take advantage of others but ended up being disadvantaged myself."
Losa regretted it a bit; had he known this earlier, he would ensure the novice rewards were richer, maybe giving all six-star attendants for free at the start...
But this regret was soon swept away.
It was replaced by a surge of excitement. After all, Prajna is the top-tier attendant; even without enhancement or upgrade, her strength would absolutely surpass mortal bounds, akin to a witch in this world.
Placed in the Three Kingdoms Period, she would surely make Cao exclaim, "I thought Lu Bu was already invincible under heaven, but there is someone even more valiant than him. Whose general is this?"
After lunch, Count Werner was the first to leave the table.
Beside him, Otto, who had remained silent, finally spoke: "Losa, congratulations on achieving your long-cherished dream of becoming a knight."
"Thank you."
Losa expressed his gratitude.
His relationship with his elder brother Otto wasn't particularly bad but wasn't close either.
As long as Losa existed, he always bore the suspicion of wishing for Otto's death, and having been Ot-to's standby for years, the original owner did indeed harbor considerable resentment.
However, this was better than many noble families where the eldest and younger sons battled fiercely for the inheritance of the title, scheming poisonously, fighting to the death.
Soon after, both finished lunch.
Losa did not leave the castle in the afternoon but returned to the bedroom to rest. It was midsummer, and the afternoon sun was blazing, not suitable for outdoor training.
The castle, regardless of spring, summer, autumn, or winter, was almost cold and damp year-round; though not necessarily comfortable, staying in the bedroom at this time was better than braving the scorching sun outside.
The bedroom windows were very small, letting in very limited light.
Losa leaned on the desk, dipped a feather quill in ink, intending to plan his travel routes and the necessary supplies and equipment to bring along.
There are two traditional Crusader routes: one by sea, departing from ports in Venice or Naples, Sicily, crossing the Mediterranean via Rhodes Island, and Cyprus, to reach the Holy Land.
This route is shorter in duration, but the risks are significant, with numerous pirates lurking in the Mediterranean. If the ship is sunk, even with Lu Bu's courage, he would end up as fish food.
The alternative, traveling by land, involves traversing the Austrian Border Region, crossing vast Eastern Empire territories, and traversing the straits from Constantinople to enter Asia Minor, also doesn't guarantee much safety.
The fact is, most of Asia Minor is now occupied by Fire Worship nations, who revere the King of Persia from Sassanid Persia as King of Kings and are anointed by the King of Persia, though they do engage in mutual attacks. Clearly, a Crusader Knight like Losa would face more hostility.
Knock, knock, knock—
The door was suddenly knocked.
Losa furrowed his brow and said, "Come in."
Wearing a linen dress, the maid pushed open the door and entered.
She held a somewhat worn cloak, clearly patched multiple times, with many black and red crosses engraved on it, placing it on his bed.
"This is the cloak the Master wore during his crusade in the Holy Land. The Master instructed me to give it to you... I've already washed it, it's very clean."
Losa nodded: "Just leave it on the bed."
"Yes."
The maid's face showed faint shyness, her eyes nearly overflowing with admiration, but clearly, neither the original owner nor the current Losa had any interest in her.
Western women of this era, or rather most Western women, held little attraction for Losa.
This applied to the maid as well as the noble ladies he saw at Count Werner's banquet; they were all unattractive.
Some noblewomen with passable appearances were notorious for keeping lovers, being promiscuous, and he had no intention of courting them.
Certainly not as enticing as the characters in the system.
As the developer of the game, Losa knew too well the divine appearance of the summonable characters within.
Especially the six-star cards, all were scantily-dressed young ladies.
A significant portion of the team's budget was spent on these ladies' exquisite illustrations.
Even characters belonging to heavy armor warrior categories followed the philosophy that the less they wore, the stronger the defense.
Battle skirts exposing large areas of white legs were standard procedure.
The afternoon went by swiftly.
In the evening, Losa ascended the tower of Eagle Castle once again, gazing at the mountains.
The night at Eagle Castle was the stark opposite of noon.
With the chill blowing from the Alps, Losa wrapped the cloak representing the Crusader Knight tighter around himself.
He did not intend to summon Prajna for now, as explaining her origin would be difficult, even though the Public Church in this world was not like in the past, where people were immediately hanged on a stake and burnt.
But he did not intend to stir up such troubles.