On the big map.
The marks of the witch and the Druid emerge.
Duncan, accompanied by three horses summoned by his calling, approaches. The witch seems to know his general location and actually stops ahead, waiting for him. Crow Queen - Triss appears to possess many incredible methods, so Duncan is not surprised she can figure out his location.
In the recent battle, he tried to avoid close combat as much as possible.
Anyone who has played cavalry and hack-and-slash games in permadeath mode, facing real life, knows that before your character is leveled up, if you can do mounted archery, you should avoid close combat.
"With my current strength, I am roughly equivalent to a high-tier warrior of the Barbarian Race."
"In close combat, I can at most fight against three."
"Only a demon hunter like George, a three-star unit, might be able to fight over ten in close combat."
"But even such a powerful supernatural being surrounded by a cavalry unit would likely be doomed."
Based on Duncan's understanding of this world, the pinnacle of mortal combat power should be at Beowulf's level.
But if he wants to reach that level of power, he probably still has to fight his way there, after all, Beowulf's combat power is close to the level of mythical figures.
——"Throw Mastery: You have mastered the use of throwing weapons like axes, javelins, and knives. It significantly improves the hit rate of throwing weapons."
——"Shield Mastery: You excel at using shields to block and parry, familiar with the use of all kinds of shields. Extra combat skill [Shield Strike]."
——"Military Weapons Mastery: You are proficient in using various single-handed, double-handed, and polearm weapons, increasing the lethality when using non-exotic weapons."
——"Combat Style - Sweep: A combat technique of a high-tier warrior from the Barbarian Race, proficient in using double-handed weapons to inflict fatal damage on enemies within range, capable of a single blow waist cut."
The gains from this battle are quite decent.
But there's no qualitative improvement, probably because the enemy's combat skills haven't surpassed the limit he previously reached. The next step will probably require a quantitative change to trigger a qualitative one. Duncan only acquired master-level archery when he slew the Eagle Shooter, while most of his other combat skills are stuck at expert levels.
This is relatively normal; soldiers like the Eagle Shooter are rare even in the military.
The real combat masters were probably more prevalent in the Roman arena era, just over a century ago, but after Catholicism became the state religion, gladiatorial combat was mostly banned. Perhaps those champion gladiators of ancient Rome had master-level close combat skills.
Of course, real combat requires considering many factors, the most crucial being armor and weapons. On the battlefield, personal strength, unless at the level of Xiang Yu or Lu Bu, would still face encirclement by skilled fighters.
It's necessary to mention Lu Bu, as many tales regarding him in Romance of the Three Kingdoms are fictitious, but the least realistic one, the archery shot at the gate, is true.
Duncan admits he can't do it now; even with cheats, he can only rely on luck.
"I don't know how many heads I have to claim to upgrade my next combat skill to master level."
Master-level skills clearly mark the beginning of a qualitative change.
Duncan joins up with the witch and others, sprinting all the way toward Germania. Their destination is Belgica Gaul, where the empire established the Belgica Province, but now more than half of it has turned into Frankish territory.
Later, the Frankish Foreign Legion rebelled and established the original Frankish Kingdom on this piece of land.
Currently, Britain counts as a rather remote area.
There, they mainly face Saxon invasions, avoiding being embroiled in those massive-scale wars. Whether Duncan plans to follow the path of a lord or a ranger, he can take a breather and develop on the British Isles.
The geographical location of the British Isles is excellent.
Even when the entire European continent is in turmoil in the future, Britain wouldn't be significantly affected. If one truly plans to pursue the path of kingship and dominion, upon unifying the British Isles, they could readily counter-invade the European continent.
"Let's stick with the original plan, and check out Britain first."
"The next step."
"The most important is the giant from Nordic mythology. After acquiring the [Regeneration] ability, my safety factor increases dramatically."
Too few monsters.
Even after all this time since Duncan crossed over, he hasn't heard many tales of supernatural monsters.
Perhaps the less civilized Nordic regions might have a bit more.
Humanoid enemies provide combat skills, supernatural monsters provide special abilities—both must be seized, both must be solid.
A true man should be tough and strong.
The place where Duncan and his group are heading approximately corresponds to the future locations of Calais, Dunkirk in France, from where they can proceed to the British Isles. Geographically, it's in the vicinity of Belgica Gaul. However, that region—Lesser Germania—is already precarious, ready to fall under the Barbarian's attack at any moment.
Great Germania currently doesn't have a unified leader. Various Barbarian tribes collectively known as the Germanic people engage in internal conflicts, with one tribe attacking another today, retaliation happening the next.
But the Saxons have already begun rising.
Decades ago, due to the continual Saxon attacks on the British Province, the empire had to withdraw the last Roman legion.
In fact, it was already indefensible by that time.
After that, the British Isles belonged to the Celts, and the Kingdom from the Arthurian legends should have been one of the local small countries, probably in the Wales region.
According to legends, King Arthur and the Round Table Knights managed to successfully repel the Saxon invasion after twelve battles, protecting the peace of the British Isles for a time. But eventually, the Anglo-Saxons still occupied Great Britain and later developed into England.