Marvin froze.
He didn't expect that by blurting out this name, Daniela would hear of her future name in advance.
At that time, he finally remembered why he kept having this familiar feeling when looking at Daniela.
He had thought it was because of bloodline resonance.
Many bloodlines would have this kind of resonance in Feinan after all. Marvin felt she was different when he first saw her.
But this actually had nothing to do with bloodline. It was because he knew her!
But Marvin knew "that" Daniela wasn't the current her but the Ice Empress from after the Great Calamity!
Even if Daniela was also extremely beautiful at that time, she was a bit different from how she was now.
After thinking back, Marvin guessed that it was most likely because when he saw the Ice Empress, it was Daniela in the Ice Angel Shape!
After reaching a certain level, Shapeshift Sorcerers could choose a shape that would replace their main human shape.
Daniela would most likely change it to be an Ice Angel, making her appearance somewhat different.
Thus, Marvin was now looking at Daniela in a different way.
Such a fierce powerhouse was actually his cousin?!
In Marvin's memory, the Lavis Dukedom in the North was one of the few countries that weren't destroyed by the Calamity.
Not only that, but Lavis' Queen, which was the young lady in front of him, still took advantage of the Calamity to keep expanding her territory.
She was the ruler of the North. Ultimately, she had a conflict with the Ice God and, in their anger, both were said to have fought for no less than a month!
And during this month, all of Feinan suffered from a winter freezing all living things.
Daniela wasn't merely boasting. The future her truly had the ability to change the entire Feinan's weather to a freezing winter!
This was the frightening strength of a Shapeshift Sorcerer, the Numen's strength!
In contrast, Marvin's two shapes, whether it was Beast-shape or Shadow-shape, were a lot inferior to Daniela's Ice Angel Shape.
This also had something to do with the purity of the bloodline.
Marvin's awakening was forcibly hastened by the Fortune Fairy. Otherwise it would have been almost impossible to awaken the thin and almost non-existent Numan bloodline in his body.
'It seems that this younger cousin and fiancée isn't a fake.'
'They must have sent people to investigate me because the news of me transforming into an Asuran Bear finally reached the North.'
'But then again… Even if I showed Shapeshift Sorcerer's abilities, why is Lavis Dukedom's family giving me so much importance?'
'Marrying the future Ice Empress to me?'
'There must be a reason behind this.'
Even if they gave him such a pleasant surprise, Marvin didn't let it get to his head.
There must be a bigger reason for them to look for his grandfather and end up coming to White River Valley.
Just as expected, they discussed for a while, and soon, Daniela talked about the main reason for this trip.
Ten minutes later, Daniela silently watched Marvin.
Marvin was thinking.
Daniela was quite straightforward.
Or at least, she seemed to be.
For this trip to White River Valley, she represented Lavis Dukedom for two things.
First was to get engaged with Marvin.
Second was to retrieve something.
The first stemmed from an ancient tradition of the Cridland clan.
The huge and mysterious Cridland clan had numerous branches and relatives, among which was Lavis' royal family which was one of the most outstanding.
Every descendant of this clan might be able to awaken their Numan bloodline to become a Shapeshift Sorcerer.
Of course, there wasn't a high probability.
In order to ensure the purity of the bloodline, the Cridland clan always had a strict rule stipulating that they had to intermarry. Also, in order for the later generations to be born with even stronger Shapeshift Sorcerers, there was an additional rule, which was to marry with the closest bloodline of the opposite sex.
But Daniela's branch in this generation only had women!
If she wanted to get married, she had to look for men from other branches. This was something intolerable to the royal family who attached great importance to the purity of their bloodline.
When they were troubled about this, Marvin's existence became known.
Marvin and Daniela had a common great-grandfather, so they were from the same branch.
Thus, according to the clan's rules, they were bound to get married.
But rules are dead while people are alive, and furthermore, not every Cridland descendant was willing to be bound by those damn rules.
Marvin's grandfather was a good example. He was extremely rebellious when he was young. In order to defy the rules, he left the North to head to the South.
But for the Lavis royal family, the most important thing was that he took away one of the most valuable treasures of the Cridland clan.
From Marvin's point of view, the main purpose of Daniela's trip to White River Valley was to retrieve the treasure for the Lavis Dukedom.
As for the engagement… Who knew whether she would directly run away from it after getting that treasure?
With Daniela's temper and extremely high strength, Marvin came to the conclusion that he couldn't handle her for the time being. Moreover, he didn't have much of an interest in this kind of random engagement.
"I'm very sorry, Miss Daniela," Marvin answered after pondering, "But I don't know anything about the treasure."
"My father was killed by the Twin Snakes Cult's people, and he didn't tell me anything about a treasure. As for my grandfather, I have even less memories of him."
"I'm afraid I cannot help you with this matter."
He had his own way of thinking.
This treasure was something his grandfather took out of the clan, so it was bound to be extremely valuable.
The Lavis royal family attached so much importance to it, and it was linked to the Great Devil. It involved too many things.
Marvin wouldn't give away the things his grandfather had set aside for his descendants.
"You can't?"
Daniela squinted, "Since that's the case, I have a request."
"Go ahead." Marvin was very courteous.
"Could I search your castle? Maybe that treasure is hidden somewhere."
"If you are willing to return this treasure, you'll obtain more wealth and resources from the Cridland clan that you could imagine."
Daniela was surprisingly very calm while negotiating, totally different from that rude girl earlier.
Marvin was silent for a moment.
"Impossible," said Marvin categorically.
"This is my castle, I won't let anyone randomly search for things."
"And as you can see, I am in the middle of war preparations. At least during that time, I won't allow it to happen."
Daniela frowned.
Marvin's unyielding attitude went beyond her expectations.
"Don't tell me you think your White River Valley can contend with the powerful Lavis Dukedom?" she lightly pressured.
A snowflake was already forming in Daniela's palm.
Marvin didn't say anything.
Because at that time, a handsome middle-aged man suddenly jumped in from a window.
He shook his brand new windbreaker and casually said, "Marvin, why do all your fiancées think of attacking you?"
The snowflake suddenly dissipated as Daniela showed an expression of disbelief!
Constantine casually took a seat in the meeting room, looked toward Daniela and commented, "However, they are all outstanding beauties."
Marvin faintly smiled, nodding to Constantine to express his thanks.
With this person keeping watch, Daniela who had yet to to become a Legend didn't dare to be impudent!
He was a lot more confident while negotiating.
"Allow me to introduce this person. This is Sir Constantine."
Marvin shrugged, continuing, "White River Valley has no intention to go against the Lavis Dukedom. I am really busy at the moment, I have a war to prepare."
"Thus, allow me to take my leave for now. I'll make proper arrangements for your people, but please don't overstep your boundaries. Otherwise, you and I know that the outcome would be very awkward."
"Also, if you feel like you lack real combat practice due to your long distance travel, Sir Constantine might be willing to keep you company."
"You mean?"
He looked toward Constantine.
The latter casually took a wine cup in front of Marvin and took a sip before smiling at Daniela. "Of course, this would be my honor."
In the bedroom late in the night, Marvin had yet to fall asleep.
The negotiations during the day were simply the start of troubles. Even if Constantine could temporarily obstruct Daniela, Marvin knew that his younger cousin wouldn't be that easy to handle.
This meant Constantine had to remain in the castle.
This war was becoming more challenging since he lost a Legend.
But Marvin wasn't worried.
He still had another friend after all.
"Hu…"
'Thankfully there is still Ivan.'
The fighting strength the Elven War Saint could display on the battlefield would definitely not be weaker than Constantine's!
'Tomorrow I'll go to the temporary camp, and officially prepare for the war.'
'Anna and Wayne will still take care of White River Valley's daily needs. Leaving one Dark Knight with the two Phantom Assassins in case of emergency should be enough.'
'Constantine would take care of Daniela and Oren.'
'I have to go meet Ivan earlier.'
Things kept popping in Marvin's mind, and thus, he kept thinking over and over and didn't manage to get any sleep before it became dawn.
'Damn… I actually pulled an all-nighter.'
'Hold on, there is still something I didn't take care of.'
Marvin brought up his character window and looked at the pile of undistributed skill points and attributes points and patted his own head.
He was really too busy recently. After advancing he actually hadn't spent his skill points and attribute points!
His Ranger class had 24 points. Marvin thought for a moment and spent them on Listen. This skill was very extremely useful. Moreover, 50 points of Listen enabled [Eavesdrop], making these 24 SP very worth it.
As for Night Walker's 36 SP, Marvin hesitated but ended up spending another 20 in [Night Jump] and setting aside the remaining 16.
As for the Battle Gunner class he recently got, unfortunately Marvin couldn't spend the 30 points because his skills were temporarily unusable, as they were related to firearms after all. After returning Brilliant Purple to Constantine, he still didn't have his own pistol.
As for the most important two free attribute points...
Marvin was puzzled.
Keep stacking Dexterity? Or balance everything?