Chapter 284 - Surging Forward With Great Momentum, Going Abroad
Indeed, Huang Kun was very satisfied with his current life. Being able to learn martial arts beside his master and being able to work together with the beautiful sister Zhu Xin Yi was the heaven that he yearned for in his dreams.
"I feel that what master said is not wrong. Huang Kun should go to school."
Zhu Xin Yi came over after washing her face and just heard everything. She also approved of Wei Xiao Bei's decision.
Under his master's orders and Zhu Xin Yi's support, Huang Kun could not help but agree to go to school today.
Naturally, coming back to the dojo after going to school was his bottomline. If he was asked to go home after school, he would not do it even if he was killed.
After doing morning exercise until seven, Huang Kun ate breakfast and carried his school bag that he had not touched for a long time.
Zhu Xin Yi directly went into Wei Xiao Bei's room. Under his orders, she prepared to search for materials on the internet to enrich herself.
In this long period of time, Wei Xiao Bei had clearly understood that skills needed a long period of time to accumulate.
Although Huang Kun and Zhu Xin Yi did not have status panels, this should not be wrong, but when they gained the ability, its growth was a lot slower than his.
When Zhu Xin Yi went to his room, Wei Xiao Bei drove the Volvo to work.
Going into the Dust World was something that could actually not be done.
Everytime a person goes into the Dust World, the fatigue and stress that accumulated in their bodies would not disappear in just 24 hours.
The most important point was that a person's psyche needed to be relieved for a period of time.
It was the same as how he looked at Huang Kun. Wei Xiao Bei did not want to lose his mind in the Dust World and become a murderous monster.
This was something that Wei Xiao Bei could slightly feel.
Everytime he entered the Dust World and left, he could feel a light impulse of violence and blood.
In the Dust World, he could kill the monsters anytime, but in the real world, he could not do such a thing. This would give a person a sense of disbelonging.
Just like that, if someone continuously entered the Dust World, then even if their willpower was strong, there would definitely be problems that would occur.
It was like an old veteran soldier who had returned to peaceful society. They would have difficulty in adjusting to the peace of society and gain some psychological problems.
This was something Wei Xiao Bei had heard from his company commander.
Luckily, things like this could be removed through consultation and therapy.
The only problematic thing was that there were too many things that Wei Xiao Bei could not divulge. Even if he went for psychological consultation, the effect would not be worthwhile.
Thus, by placing his attention into things that he liked, his recovery was better than any psychological consultation.
When his [Cooking] reached perfection, the requirements had also changed.
Cooking (Perfection): Rare Quality Dishes 0/500
He needed to cook 500 rare-quality dishes to be able to rank up his [Cooking] skill again.
As he worked for one afternoon in the Long Hu Dou Restaurant, he had ascertained one thing.
It was easy to make high-quality dishes with ingredients from the real world, but as for the so-called rare-quality dishes, he had not made even a single one!
This had made Wei Xiao Bei puzzled.
Was it that the ingredient quality was not enough or were rare-quality dishes just very difficult to make?
While Wei Xiao Bei was puzzled, Huang Jun, who had guided Wei Xiao Bei in the culinary path, was happy from the bottom of his heart.
He had evaluated Wei Xiao Bei's morning performance to be quite high.
Without a doubt, after Wei Xiao Bei's [Cooking] skill reached perfection, the probability of making high-quality dishes had increased. Even the taste, smell, and appearance of the dishes had increased by several levels.
After tasting a few of his dishes, Huang Jun had a sense of defeat.
Thus, when afternoon came, Huang Jun had directly made Wei Xiao Bei into a roundsman.
In the Long Hu Dou Restaurant, the highest position was Huang Jun, the head chef.
Under him was the sous chef, the hot-cold chef, the pastry chef, and other chefs that managed Western-foods. Further below were the normal chefs, and even further beneath that were the apprentice chef and other kitchen assistants.
The position of roundsman was something not commonly seen in normal circumstances.
The scope of their work was larger. Included in this was hot-cold, pastry, and western-food. The position was not inferior of the chefs directly under the head chef. It could even be said to be higher and could be considered as the sous chef.
Previously, Wei Xiao Bei had been able to cook alone, but he was just a normal chef.
HIs sudden increase in position had made everyone aggrieved.
It must be known that being a normal chef in the Long Hu Dou Restaurant required a first class certification.
Sous chefs were all top quality chefs, and chef de partie were all technical experts. As for Huang Jun, he could be said to be the only master grade chef in the entire Cui Hu City.
In terms of credentials, master grade was the highest a chef could obtain.
Naturally, it did not mean that the better your credentials were, the more awesome you were.
In this period of time, the skills that Wei Xiao Bei displayed had made the other chefs be aware of this. Moreover, with Huang Jun's prestigious position, no one was dumb enough to come out and oppose him.
Wei Xiao Bei was a bit satisfied as the roundsman position was not bad.
After all, compared to a normal chef, the work of a roundsman was as much as you can handle.
Since normal ingredients could not create rare quality dishes, then he had no more interest in wasting time cooking high-quality dishes.
If he used the time wasted in cooking high-quality dishes, studying would have been more productive.
However, work soon came to Wei Xiao Bei.
Someone had reserved for a feast. The menu consisted of many first-rate specialty dishes such as Buddha jumps over the wall, croaker soup, braised abalone with pearl, steamed camel's hump, Crucian carp tongue in braised bear's paw, and many others.
For these dishes, just their ingredients alone were difficult to find.
Ingredients such as croaker, double head abalone, or bear's paw were things that could not be bought easily even with money.
Luckily, these things were left to Huang Jun to worry about.
As a master grade chef, Huang Jun had a lot of ways to do this.
At this point, the next problem arrived.
Every single one of these dishes were from many different cuisines, and there were even foreign cuisines.
There were even dishes that Huang Jun was not too familiar of.
The chefs did not dare make their moves easily. If they made a mistake in cooking these dishes, then they would have wasted the ingredients. The problems that this would cause were huge.
This could not be helped as a dish that they had never made before would have a high chance of having problems.
Wei Xiao Bei on the other hand was very happy and took over this job.
With so many valuable ingredients and famous specialty dishes, the probability of making a rare-quality dish should not be low.
As for whether the dish might be ruined, he did not even consider such a thing.
This was the benefit of skills. As long as Wei Xiao Bei did not mess up following the recipe, then destroying a dish would be a very difficult thing to do.
Naturally, it was impossible for Wei Xiao Bei to make every single dish since the time was not enough. Huang Jun and the other chef de partie all joined in. However, they only acted to support Wei Xiao Bei and also helped make some of the dishes that they were experts in. However, the more expensive dishes were all left to Wei Xiao Bei's hands.
However another problem cropped up.
Just the procurement of ingredients already gave Huang Jun a headache, not that he did not have enough manpower.
Procuring ingredients required someone with a deep understanding of ingredients.
If they spent a lot of money and bought bad quality ingredients, then they were in a doomed ship.
Moreover, the ingredients were not only procured all over the country, but they also needed to be bought abroad.
Even if Huang Jun had three heads and six arms, it was impossible for him to procure all ingredients alone.
In the entire kitchen, the only people, who had the right qualification, that he could ask help from were the chef de parties and the sous chef.
Other than the people who needed to stay in the kitchen, he still lacked one more person to help procure the ingredients.
In the end, his gaze landed on Wei Xiao Bei's body.
He thought that Wei Xiao Bei as a roundsman should not be lacking in this department.
Huang Jun had ample confidence in Wei Xiao Bei.
In front of Huang Jun, Wei Xiao Bei could not refuse. After all, everyone in the kitchen knew that Wei Xiao Bei would learn foreign languages and whatnot when he was idle. In the end, the task of procuring ingredients abroad were placed on Wei Xiao Bei's body.
This was inevitable.
In the entire Long Hu Dou Restaurant, there were only a few people who knew how to speak a foreign language. In the kitchen, only two of the chef de parties knew how to speak a bit of English. However, their eye for ingredients was not sharp enough and they also needed to defend the kitchen, thus only Wei Xiao Bei could go.
Right now, Wei Xiao Bei was already proficient in English and French. Now he was delving into Spanish and Russian.
The amount of people whose mother tongue was Spanish amounted to 332 million. This was higher than English. Their distributions were mainly in Europe and Latin America. People who had Russian as their mother tongue were 145 million people. Their distribution was around Europe and Asia.
The scope of these two languages were much more broad. Thus, he had included these two languages in his learning.
However, when Wei Xiao Bei saw the countries that he needed to go to, he frowned.
Italy, France, Iran, Alaska, and Spain.
There were five different countries.
He needed to obtain many ingredients. Some of them included Italy's Morchella, France's Black Truffle, Iran's Almas Caviar, Alaska's Tuna, Spain's Blue Crayfish, and many others.
In other words, Wei Xiao Bei needed to stay in different countries for a month.
Since he had accepted the task, he could not decline anymore. However, it seemed that he needed to now change hus language learning plans.
Italy's main language was italian, but he could also use French in some regions. As for Iran, the main language was Persian, but he should be able to use English to communicate. And then there was Spanish which he was currently learning.
As a result, Wei Xiao Bei decided to focus on Spanish.
When he returned to the dojo, he prepared dinner. Huang Kun had also returned from school.
Chapter 285 - Barcelona!
At the dinner table, Wei Xiao Bei announced the big news of him going abroad for a month.
Zhu Xin Yi was not happy to hear this news, while Huang Kun was very excited about it and tried to ask him if he could go also, but he was immediately shut down by Wei Xiao Bei.
In the end, Wei Xiao Bei promised to bring them some souvenirs to settle this matter.
In truth, Wei Xiao Bei was slightly excited about going abroad. But more than that, he was worried about Zhu Xin Yi and Huang Kun.
Within a month, the two of them would roughly enter the Dust World four times according to the frequency they did it.
In these four times, the amount of danger that existed was not small.
However, he could not stop them from going.
Just as he previously said, the chick had spread its wings and left the nest. He could only do careful preparation to help them and not impede them.
While waiting for the visa and passport for two days, Wei Xiao Bei had became a prattling grandma in front of Wei Xiao Bei and Zhu Xin Yi's eyes.
With his passport and visa at hand, Wei Xiao Bei had finally obtained [Spanish] in his status panel. Naturally, he used 200 points to increase it to proficient.
Basing his travels on distance, Wei Xiao Bei's first stop was Alaska.
Alaska had the world's best deep sea marine products. His next destinations were in the order of Spain, France, Italy, and Iran.
Among them, the caviar in Iran had already been ordered by Huang Jun's friend. The only thing Wei Xiao Bei needed to do there was to check the quality.
The best ingredients were something that could not be easily found like staple goods. It needed chefs to go and pick by themselves. This was especially important in Western food.
As Wei Xiao Bei rode the plane, he recalled Alaska's history.
Alaska was one of the luckiest trade item in history.
Initially, it had been colonized by Russia and specialized in producing fur clothing. However, when the fur clothing industry declined, Russia had sold this land to America for 7.2 million dollars during the 1700s.
Naturally, the Secretary of State who bought this land had received a torrent of abuse within the country.
However, when they had discovered the land to be abundant of gold and oil, the Russia's losses had outweighed the gains.
With the huge gold mine and the largest oil field in Northern America found, Russia was full of regret.
Before he entered the plane, Wei Xiao Bei had checked materials about Alaska.
The indigenous people here were the Eskimos, the Aleut, and the American Indians.
The place was very spacious with 1.7 million square kilometer of land with less than a million people.
In this kind of situation, Wei Xiao Bei had not yet decided to enter the Dust World from Alaska.
If he stayed there for a long time, then he would go check it out, but if his stay was short, then nothing could be done.
After all, the next place after Alaska was Spain. The population was denser there so the gains in the Dust World should be plentiful.
What happened next was just close to what Wei Xiao Bei had imagined.
When he reached Alaska, Wei Xiao Bei had immediately came in contact with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute.
What had surprised him was that when the full capacity fishing boat had just reached the harbor, the bluefin tuna, king crab, and salmon that he wanted were already there.
After 14 hours, Wei Xiao Bei rode another plane. The three meter long bluefin tuna, five king crabs, sea cucumber, and lobsters, and some excellent deep sea salmon had been sent back to China through air transport.
Wei Xiao Bei was very satisfied about being able to buy these ingredients from Alaska.
The three meter bluefin tuna was not something that could entirely be served in the banquet, but it was able to make the Long Hu Dou Restaurant even more famous.
Next, he could waste a bit more time in Spain.
He landed in Barcelona International Airport. Barcelona was said to be the world's first-rate soccer team.
Wei Xiao Bei was not a fan. Thus, he only enjoyed the beautiful scenery. With his fluent Spanish, he found a map guide and hailed a taxi. His destination was the famous tourist spot that was known for its marine products, Palamos.
After buying the ingredients that he needed and hurriedly sent the goods back to China, it was already night time.
There were many hotels in that place and checking in was very convenient. Wei Xiao Bei had decided to stay there for the night and leave the next day.
When he was learning Spanish, Wei Xiao Bei had understood Spain's history and current situation.
Barcelona was the capital of the autonomous community of Catalonia. The majority of the people living there were Catalans.
It was said that in the year BC 1153, the great mythical Greek hero Hercules was the one who founded the city.
Hercules was the demigod son of Zeus. When he was born, he had extraordinary strength. Hera, Zeus' wife, had tried to kill him but was never able to succeed. In the end, Hercules made many earth-shattering achievements and became a god after death.
At this point, the disorder on the system of Greek gods need to be mentioned. Hercules' mother was actually the great-granddaughter of Zeus. This was something very common in Greek Mythology.
In the year BC 300, Carthage had established a colonial rule in Catalonia, but in BC 201, Carthage had been defeated by Rome, resulting in Rome obtaining Catalonia.
In the BC 90s, Catalonia had gradually gained independence until the end of BC 15, becoming the country of Castile.
In the end, it had been conquered and merged with Aragon to became the Spanish Empire.
Even until now, Catalonia was still trying to gain independence from Spain.
It could be said that Wei Xiao Bei was very interested in the place.
Thus, after eating a meal rich in seafood, Wei Xiao Bei returned to his room, informed the customer service that he would not require any services, and locked the door.
Afterwards, he sat on the side and poured brandy into his stomach.
Compared to the Cui Hu Ten Year Brew, brandy was weaker in alcohol content. Wei Xiao Bei had to drink five bottles before his mind became hazy and fall asleep.
…...
Wehen Wei Xiao Bei woke up, he was still in the luxurious room, but it was already ruined to the point that the curtains were filled with holes.
"Kill! Eliminate all these Carthaginians !???? Glory to Rome!" In this sentence, there were words that Wei Xiao Bei could understand but not everything. He guessed that this was Latin.
Wei Xiao Bei had only researched Latin a little bit when he was learning French and Spanish. Compared to other European languages, Latin was equivalent to the language used before the Qin Dynasty.
The current European languages had the origin of Latin, and there were even a lot of Latin vocabularies still used to date.
"Glory to Rome !????" The rise and fall of grand voices passed through the windows.
Wei Xiao Bei's room was at the tenth floor, but with his hearing, he could hear the voices coming from the streets.
Could it be soldiers from ancient Rome?
Wei Xiao Bei had probably guessed the owner of the voices.
When he looked down the window, he could see a bloody battlefield happening in front of him.
There were more than 30 half naked Romans with spears and shields fighting against a force of the same numbers with pikes in their hands.
Wei Xiao Bei could immediately identify who were the enemies of the Romans.
The soldiers on the other side should be Carthage's Sacred Band, one of their elite forces. In short, it was just another name to make light infantry sound cooler.
In battle, their pikes would pierced through their enemies' chest. If they could not immediately pull it out, they would pull out the short swords on their waist to attack.
The Roman forces were also light infantry and appeared to be from the poorest citizens of ancient Rome. This was why they did not even have an armor and held wooden shields and 1.7 meter long javelins.
They did not only carry one javelin. This was because behind the Carthaginian force, there were already six corpses that had their chest pierced through by pikes.
Soldiers of ancient Rome were valiant. This had been described in many works and literatures to the point that it seemed they could fight with 1 against 100.
Naturally, these Roman soldiers were also very valiant, but their enemies were Carthaginian soldiers that might be more valiant than them.
Under the dauntless attack of the Carthaginian soldiers, the difference in their equipment had determined the battle. In almost every ten seconds, a Roman soldier would fall.
When the Roman soldiers were about to be annihilated, the sound of running came from the corner of the street.
Very quickly, more than ten Roman soldiers with big shields, javelins, and chest armor appeared.
Wei Xiao Bei guessed that this was the reserved forces of the Romans.
The word reserved forces might sound unremarkable, but in truth, the strongest force was the reserved force.
In regular situations, they were comprised of veterans that had 7-8 years of experience. Their equipment was better than normal soldiers, and they had a lot of battlefield experience.
Thus, in large scale battles, they would be placed in the third row, while the first and second rows were for younger soldiers and adult soldiers respectively.
Every time the reserved force went out, the battlefield would turn around and set the war!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
When the Roman reserve forces saw the Carthaginian soldiers, they did not even say a word and just threw their javelins at them.
On the other hand, the Roman light infantry at the front immediately retreated to dodge the attack range of the reserved force.
However, even if that was so, there was still one unfortunate soldier who had been hit by a javelin at the back and directly fell down.
Compared to the accidental injury, the Carthaginian soldiers were a lot more pathetic. After a wave of javelins, half of them had collapsed on the ground.
Chapter 286 - Valiant Carthage Sacred Band Cavalry
In truth, compared to the Roman reserve forces, the skill of the Roman light infantry was worse.
Luckily, with the situation reversing, the Roman light infantry did not wait for the Carthaginian soldiers to respond. They immediately pulled out their short swords and charged forward.
The Roman reserve forces did not move at all. They only stood at the back lines and pulled out another javelin from behind their backs and looked at the retreating Carthaginian soldiers with a cold gaze.
As the situation changed, the Roman light infantry immediately rejoiced as they threw their javelins at the retreating Carthaginian soldiers while still pressing hard on their backs with their short swords.
Those Carthaginians were immediately plunged into a dilemma. With the Roman reserve force watching them like tigers, it was impossible for them to concentrate on fighting against the Roman light infantry.
The battle ended faster than Wei Xiao Bei had anticipated.
None of the Carthaginian soldiers were able to escape as they were encircled and annihilated by the Romans.
Before the last Carthaginian died, Wei Xiao Bei quickly used [Status Appraisal] on him.
The Carthaginian soldiers were at the level of around 1-Star Elite Creatures. Their status was not that high. Compared to normal people, every single one of their sub-attributes were higher by two points on average.
They possessed the skills [Elementary Battle Formation] and [Dogfight]. They did not have any special skills while the items they possessed were the pike and round shield.
Elementary Battle Formation: If there are more than 10 Carthaginian allies, user can form a battle formation with everyone, increasing damage dealt by 10% and defense by 10%.
Dogfight: In close range combat, increase the user's damage by 10% and flexibility by 10%.
Both of the skills were useful in battle.
However, they still lost under the mighty attacks of the Romans.
The road was filled with disordered corpses as their blood flowed down the cracks in the cement.
The Roman light infantry were in high spirits as they collected the spoils of war the pikes, swords, and round shields. There might also be money on the Carthaginians' bodies.
In truth, this scene combined with the modern buildings could make other people think it was a movie shooting.
The Roman soldiers did not pay any attention to the buildings at all.
Wei Xiao Bei once again reminded himself that he was in the Dust World, and that he had not traveled in time!
Previously it was said that the Roman light infantry was the most destitute among the Roman forces.
In ancient Rome, soldiers needed to pay for their own equipment, so the spoils of war were very important to them.
As long as they could save up their fortune, then they could buy a set of armor to increase their survival rate.
Naturally, armor was expensive. Many Roman soldiers needed to spend 7-8 years just to buy a set.
Clatter, clatter, clatter. After the soldiers obtained their spoils, the sound of horse hooves beating the cement ground echoed.
Wei Xiao Bei's gaze immediately landed on the right side of the street.
A small group of armored cavalry appeared at the end of the street. They carried Macedonian pikes in their right hand and large oval shields in their left. Even their horses were armored.
Carthage Sacred Band Cavalry!
Just from their attire, it was easy to tell that they were a lot stronger compared to the infantry that had died.
This small cavalry contained 12 people. Seeing the Roman forces in front of them and the corpses of their allies, they immediately flew into rage as they roared. They pulled down their golden helmets and separated into four rows with three members each. Then they charged forward like a tide towards the Romans.
Facing the assault of the Carthaginian cavalry, the Romans had different actions.
The reserve forces immediately went into formation as they fixed their shields on the ground, turning into a shield wall. The light infantry, on the other hand, became chaotic. Some of them wanted to hide behind the reserved forces while some attempted to find the chance to attack with their javelins.
The javelins were sent flying, but none were able to hit the cavalry.
In the chaos, the javelins that the light infantry threw did not even hit a single one.
On the contrary, the reserved forces were calmer. They waited until the cavalry reached 30 meters before throwing out their javelins.
In this distance, the Carthaginian cavalry would not be able to easily dodge the javelins, but they used the shields in their hands to block the attack.
The Macedonian pikes had a unique shape. At the back of the spearhead, there was a crescent blade.
These crescent blades could also be used to push aside javelins.
Only the two cavalry in the middle were not able to dodge or block as the javelins directly penetrated their bodies.
However, the Carthaginian cavalry had a strong will. Even if their bodies were penetrated they still rode their horses without moving their pikes.
At least 2-Star Creatures!
Wei Xiao Bei immediately judged the strength of the cavalry.
For Wei Xiao Bei, judging the strength of the enemy was not a difficult thing.
The cavalry leaned forward and extended their pikes. They tightly clamped on the horses with their legs as they charged towards the wall of shield without slowing down.
Boom!
The pikes had penetrated the shields causing the sound of wood breaking, while the horses also knocked against the shields.
The force of impact from the warhorses was very strong. Even if the Roman reserved forces tried to resist, they were not able to do so. After blowing away a few shields, the Carthaginian cavalry had penetrated the shield formation.
In the next moment, a fierce close quarter combat occured.
The reserved forces that were blown away immediately lost their strength as they laid down on the street without being able to stand back up.
However, the Roman reserve forces that were able to dodge all these immediately pulled out their sword and jumped at the slowing cavalry.
On the other hand, the Macedonian pikes in the hands of the Carthaginian cavalry had already lost most of their use. They could not help but pull out their swords and kill the Romans in close combat.
Although the Roman light infantry also entered the fray, the advantage had already been set.
When the cavalry attack the shield formation, more than 30 reserved forces had been sent flying. The remaining reserve force had been five and whittled down to three .
The greatest loss of the Carthaginians were some of their war horses, but their men were only injured at most. With their strength that had exceeded the reserved forces, they immediately ended the battle in just a few minutes.
This time it was the Carthaginians who were victorious.
Only two Carthaginian cavalry had died.
As the victor, they had the power to determine the life and death of the defeated.
The Carthaginians moved towards the injured and did not show any mercy as they pulled up the enemies' hair and cut their throats. Blood sprayed out after the enemies main arteries had been cut. The Roman soldiers would not have any chance of returning back alive at all.
Wei Xiao Bei who was watching by the window directly used a [Status Appraisal] at them.
The Carthaginian Sacred Band cavalry were 2-Star Elite Creatures. Their statuses leaned towards agility, strength, and vitality.
They possessed the skills [Fury] and [Assault], and they did not have any special skills.
The Carthaginian soldier that had been hit by [Status Appraisal] looked up towards Wei Xiao Bei.
Wei Xiao Bei was also not worried about 2-Star Elite Creatures looking at him as he stood on the tenth floor.
However, the soldier's movement had astonished Wei Xiao Bei.
He whispered something to the ears of another Carthaginian soldier, and they all quickly left after collecting the spoils of war.
They went away?
Wei Xiao Bei frowned. Without a doubt, these Carthaginians were not without intelligence like most monsters. Perhaps they understood that they could not gain an advantage if they entered the hotel so they left the battlefield.
However, Wei Xiao Bei was not willing to let them go just like that. He picked up a rusty metal tray with his right hand and pressed on the window frame with his left. With a push of his left hand, he launched himself out and stuck close to the wall. Then, he charged forwards like an eagle.
When Wei Xiao Bei landed, he stuck his feet on the walls to stop his fall, and at the same time, he threw the metal tray towards the retreating cavalry.
The tray flew like a frisbee arriving behind one of the cavalry.
Before the cavalry was able to react, a puchi sound came out as his back was penetrated by the tray. After that, the tray did not stop at all and continued forward, hitting the back of the cavalry in front.
In just one instance, the tray had penetrated the backs of three cavalries. Only then, did the tray lose its momentum and fall down.
On the other hand, the war horses were jolted as the three cavalrymen collapsed on the ground. After losing their riders, the three trained warhorses immediately raised their hoofs and let out fierce yells. Although the formation had not been disturbed, the cavalry could not get into the proper formation anymore after losing three men.
300 evolution points!
Every single Carthaginian cavalry gave him 100 evolution points.
After receiving such an attack, the cavalry would not let go of such an enemy as they turned their horses around.
However, turning around in this four-lane street with their momentum was something impossible to do.
Chapter 287 - War Horn
While the Carthaginians were in a state of chaos and had almost made a U-turn, Wei Xiao Bie had already jumped down from the wall and instantly closed the 30 meter gap between them.
Whoosh!
With a strong step, he charged into the cavalry. He extended his hands and grabbed onto two of the cavalrymen's legs. With a slight pull, he easily pulled them off their horses.
Afterwards, Wei Xiao Bei jumped while rotating his body. The two people that he was grabbing also were dragged by him. In other words, Wei Xiao Bei had turned the two men into weapons and sent the cavalry that was turning around flying away.
Before he landed on the ground, the two men were already injured. In the next instant, Wei Xiao Bei smashed their heads on the ground, instantly killing them.
"Kill!"
Wei Xiao Bei followed up by picking up a Macedonian pike on the ground and whipped it at the soldier. Although the Macedonian pike was inferior in quality to his White Mist Great Spear, it was still quite hard as a normal object.
The remaining Carthaginian cavalry had been instantly killed by Wei Xiao Bei.
He had gained 700 evolution points.
If this Carthaginian Sacred band cavalry had been placed in the real world, they would be very powerful!
In a fight of cold weapons, they were simply glitch-like existences.
The Roman reserve forces were already strong, but in front of the Carthaginian cavalry, they were only vegetables on the chopping board.
However, those Carthaginian soldiers were unlucky. When they left, they encountered a powerful person like Wei Xiao Bei and got annihilated.
While Wei Xiao Bei was picking up the spoils of war and placing them into his Small Holding Bag, the war horses that had lost their owners turned around and ran back the way they came.
Horses were animals that were fond of by humans.
Wei Xiao Bei was not an exception. With a long stride, he strongly pulled on one of the horses that was about to pick up speed.
The war horse was initially disobedient and competed in strength with Wei Xiao Bei, but when Wei Xiao Bei landed a few light hits on the horse, it immediately became a lot more obedient.
For a specially trained horse like a war horse, their premonition of danger was much more accurate than wild horses.
Facing Wei Xiao Bei, it could only go into a huff. Wei Xiao Bei nly needed to show enough power to make the horse obedient.
The war horse did not have a saddle or a stirrup.
This was because they were not invented during their era.
Thus the cavalrymen had to wear thick trousers to prevent their crotches from being rubbed numb while riding a horse.
However, it was easy to imagine how high the soldiers' skill needed to be to ride a horse without a stirrup or saddle into battle.
This was the problem that Wei Xiao Bei felt when he first attempted to ride the horse.
The back of the horse was smooth. While ti was running, it would give the rider the feeling of being about to fall as they could not stabilize themselves.
Luckily, this was a small matter for Wei Xiao Bei with his high agility.
"Jia!"
Wei Xiao Bei had never learned how to ride a horse before. He could only attempt to imitate what he had seen on television.
Luckily, the horse was well trained. After Wei Xiao Bei said the word 'jia' twice, the horse began to move its legs and ran while following the road ahead.
The feeling of riding a horse was pleasurable to Wei Xiao Bei. Riding on the jolting horse gave him a surge of thrill.
After Wei Xiao Bei adapted to it, he lightly clamped on the horse's abdomen. This was also knowledge he had seen in tv shows. For a war horse, clamping on their abdomens meant increasing speed. The tighter the clamp, the faster the horse would run.
Under Wei Xiao Bei's unskilled urging, the horse passed through the street and continuously ran forward.
Naturally, the maximum speed of this war horse could never beat Wei Xiao Bei's current maximum speed.
This did not even need to be a question.
The war horse was only a 1-Star Elite Creature, meaning to say that its speed was only 19 at maximum.
Naturally, it had the [Haste] skill, allowing it to increase its speed by 50% for a certain amount of time, but it was still a bit inferior to Wei Xiao Bei's speed.
Whoosh!
When Wei Xiao Bei was riding the horse towards a plaza, he could hear the sound of horses neighing and people cursing with his sharp ears. It was a group of people that were trying to catch the war horses that had escaped.
They were probably from the Roman side.
After all, if it was the Carthaginians, they would have easily subdued the war horses.
Without a doubt, the sound of horse hooves had attracted the Romans' attention. When the horse he was riding had reached the plaza, the sound of javelins being thrown resounded in the air.
As far as the eye could see, there were more than 10 glittering javelins moving in an arc towards Wei Xiao Bei.
On the other hand, there were more than a hundred Roman soldiers going into a phalanx formation. Some of the Roman soldiers that had already settled in their position grabbed onto a javelin and once again prepared to throw them.
Wei Xiao Bei frowned. He pulled out the Hard Metal Jian and swung it, smashing down in the javelins that could have hit him.
However in the next moment, the javelins that were thrown had exceeded 50.
He would not have any problems defending himself even if he was riding a horse, but it was impossible to help the war horse below him block all the attacks.
After all, the Hard Metal Jian was not suited to knock away long-ranged weapons.
At this moment, Wei Xiao Bei made his decision. He pressed on the horse with his left hand and jumped off of it. Then he curled his body to decrease his surface area as he swung his jian, knocking down the incoming javelins.
On the other hand, the horse that had lost a rider became even faster. It activated its [Haste] once again and left behind the javelins that were heading towards it. With a turn, it had entered a street in the plaza, running off without caring about Wei Xiao Bei's safety.
Wei Xiao Bei did not have feel dejected at all. War horses were not people, and he had just established a relation with it. It would probably be impossible for a fairytale like story of a horse saving its owner to happen.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
After knocking down the second wave of javelins, the third wave had already been sent flying.
Just from this, it could be seen that these soldiers were elites. At the very least, they were stronger than the reserve forces.
However, Wei Xiao Bei could see that no matter how powerful they were, they were all 1-Star Elite Creatures other than the flag bearer in the center.
The flag bearer was at least a 2-Star Creature.
The third wave was once again easily shut down by Wei Xiao Bei. On the other hand, Wei Xiao Bei's surroundings had already been surrounded by dense javelins, becoming a javelin forest.
It could be said that the Romans were very tenacious. Even if they saw that Wei Xiao Bei had easily knocked down their javelins, they were not discouraged at all. They let out a loud roar as the first three rows of the formation wielded shields and swords as they charged at Wei Xiao Bei while the rest of the soldiers lowly advanced, maintaining a posture that could provide assistance to the front line at any time.
Wei Xiao Bei had also become excited as he faced the hot-bloodedness of the army in front of him. He grasped the jian in his hand and charged ahead.
"Kill!"
In an instant, the two sides collided.
From afar, it could be seen that Wei Xiao Bei was instantly surrounded by the Roman forces.
In truth, the Romans could not block his advance at all.
When Wei Xiao Bei's shoulders knocked against the big shields of the Roman soldiers, the Roman soldiers were instantly sent flying on the ground.
Whoosh!
Taking advantage of Wei Xiao Bei's advance, the Roman soldiers who passed him turned around and tried to smash their shields on his back.
For the Roman soldiers, the shield was not only a defensive weapon, but it was also a powerful assaulting weapon.
When they charged forward, they could deal heavy damage by smashing their shields at their opponents.
If their enemies were weaker than them, then they could easily cut through the enemies' defensive line, making the entire force collapse.
It was easy to imagine that only a few armies during their timeline could endure that kind of interlinking shield attack.
Wei Xiao Bei was focusing on his surroundings while fighting at this moment. He did not even need to look as he swung his jian behind him.
Heavy strike! Vibration strike!
Bang! A heavy sound echoed at the big shield was instantly destroyed by the jian. Even the soldier's arms had fractured and sprayed out blood.
In just a short period of time, Wei Xiao Bei had knocked half the Roman forces surrounding him on the ground.
At this moment, the Roman forces behind increased their speeds as if they were a steel wall that was charging forward.
When the Romans were about to reach their destination, the forces surrounding Wei Xiao Bei spread open.
However, this tactic was completely useless against Wei Xiao Bei.
He stamped on the ground and jumped high and easily passed by the Roman soldiers charging at him. Afterwards he swung down his jian as he landed, starting a rain of blood from behind the Roman force.
When the Romans had lost 30% of their forces, the sound of a horn came from afar. The Romans hesitated as they turned around and retreated. Even if Wei Xiao Bei continued to smash at them, they seemed to have lost all care.
What happened?
Seeing the Romans' actions, Wei Xiao Bei was slightly puzzled. He continued killing the soldiers and noticed that the Roman soldiers were heading towards the sound of the horn from different streets.
Among them, there was a force of heavy soldiers wearing full body armor and wielding Greek pikes and Greek round shields.
There was even a team of bronze-armored Roman cavalry.
Chapter 288 - Eve of War
Seeing that the Roman army was increasing in numbers, even Wei Xiao Bei did not dare continue his chase.
In this kind of street, it would be hard for the Roman forces to surround Wei Xiao Bei even if they wanted to. However, it was hard to say that stronger Roman forces would not come after he killed enough of them.
No matter what was said, Wei Xiao Bei had already gained 4100 evolution points from this battle. It could already be considered to be very abundant.
Wei Xiao Bei was satisfied. The danger level of the Dust World here was quite low.
With just a bit of caution, it was easy to gain a lot of evolution points.
Naturally, it meant that one must not be too greedy.
Wei Xiao Bei was much more curious as to why the Roman soldiers were moving and congregating towards the sound of the horn. He climbed up a building at the side and looked at the Romans from afar.
Wei Xiao Bei saw that the Roman forces were gradually moving outside the city.
As the Roman forces advanced, the buildings were gradually becoming Carthaginian styled. There were tall stone pillars that could be found supporting structures with large stone doors everywhere. Wei Xiao Bei had immediately became interested as he inspected the majestic buildings.
While following the Roman army, Wei Xiao Bei did not have an easy time. There were many buildings that had large distances in between them. As a result, Wei Xiao Bei had to go back down to the ground.
However, there was a situation when the Roman soldiers appeared behind him, forcing him to eliminate them. After eliminating two groups, Wei Xiao Bei could not help but pretend to be a Roman soldier.
After all, the farther he walked out of the city, the more Roman soldiers there were, and he did not want to expose himself yet.
After donning on armor and a helmet, Wei Xiao Bei looked at the troops and took the chance to enter the fray between a group of Romans and Carthaginians.
The Carthaginians soldiers could be considered to have met their misfortune. They had been surrounded at the heart of the street by the Roman soldiers.
Compared to the Carthaginians that were crowded together in a defensive position, the Romans' attacking formation was a bit more spacious. Between two soldiers, there was at least a 1.5 meter distance. Whenever one row of soldiers brandished their weapons to attack, the second row would also advance and once again attack the enemy as the first row retreated.
In this cyclic attack, every soldier would be able to save up more stamina. Moreover, they were slowly wearing down against the Carthaginian soldiers, killing them one by one.
In the end, the Roman soldiers were able to easily kill all the Carthaginian soldiers for a small price.
From start to finish, Wei Xiao Bei did not display any skill that exceeded a normal soldier.
After the battle ended, it was inevitable that the Roman soldiers would take the spoils of war, and then, they congregated again into rows as they advanced.
Wei Xiao Bei stood at the furthest position from the front. On his left were adult soldiers while on his right were young soldiers.
In truth, this kind of arrangement had a very powerful effect.
In the era of ancient Rome, citizens were divided based on their wealth. This had also become the army's standard.
The people start performing military service at the age of 17. From there, they would serve for four years. After the four years, they would be called young soldiers, then adult soldiers. On the other hand, those that had accumulated wealth and experience for eight years were veterans called the reserve forces.
From their names, it was easy to tell how strong they were.
At the beginning, the citizens did not have much money, so they did not need to serve the army. However, as the Roman Empire expanded, the need for soldiers increased. In the end, the citizens were recruited to serve the army, but because they only had inferior equipment, they could only be light infantry.
Naturally, they would not stay as light infantry their whole lives. As long as they could gain enough spoils of war, then their wealth would accumulate. After that, they could slowly become reserve forces the more they survived.
As the entire army advanced, nobody spoke a single word. Even their pace was very orderly. From this, it could be seen that the army was trained properly.
This was surprising because troops in the BCE did not have much organizational training. Many of them needed to train by themselves. Thus, being organized like this could be considered to be well trained.
This march was very dull. After advancing for five kilometers, they reached the huge city gates. Wei Xiao Bei could not help but let out a light sigh.
Outside the city was a large and vast plain. A few kilometer away from the gate were orderly rows of Roman soldiers.
Behind Wei Xiao Bei, Roman soldiers were coming out from the 10-20 meters tall wide gates, congregating towards the plains.
Wei Xiao Bei was simply unremarkable among these Romans. He was like a drop of water in the sea.
Before the soldiers approached, a Roman cavalryman holding onto a flag rushed over and shouted, "You people come with me."
"Sir, yes sir!"
The leader did not hesitate at all as he brought the group behind the cavalryman, moving towards an almost complete square formation.
Wei Xiao Bei was mixed into this troop, so he could not act recklessly. However, he was evaluating things through the small opening of his helmet.
Activate precise calculation!
In an instant, Wei Xiao Bei had obtained information.
In this place, every single troop contained more than 400 people.
And there were 32 troops and increasing.
In other words, the amount of soldiers at that place had exceeded 12,000 people.
From Wei XIao Bei's recollection, the ancient Roman army comprised of hundred men troops. Every two troops was a mid-sized troop while three mid-sized troop was a big troop.
Moreover, a legion contained 1200 light soldiers, 1200 pike soldiers (young soldiers), 1200 main force soldiers (adult soldiers), 600 reserved forces, and 300 cavalrymen, giving total of 4500 people.
Apart from this, every troop needed to have an assisting force.
Wei Xiao Bei's gaze landed on a formation afar.
This troop had a different soldier composition compared to others. This troop was comprised of chariots, and each one was pulled by four horses. On the sides of the chariots were half meter long pikes, and there stood three soldier for every chariot. One soldier was in charge of steering while the other two were holding onto pikes or javelins.
Additionally, there were also eight cavalry formations. Every formation had at least 200 cavalrymen, but it was still increasing.
Just like that, two standing armies were congregated in the plains.
However, there were still soldiers coming out of the gate behind him. He could imagine that the number of troops would fill up more than two armies.
In the very front of every formation, there was a white chariot that stood a three meter tall man. He was wearing white Greek-style gowns under a bronze armor. He held onto a golden big shield in his left hand and a big mace in his right hand.
Behind him stood a soldier holding onto a big golden war horn.
Without a doubt, this three meter tall men should be the commanders of the troops.
Is that Scipio Africanus? Or is that Quintus Fabius?
This information immediately floated up from Wei Xiao Bei's memory. Seeing this scene, it should be the second of the three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. In the second battle, these two people were the well-known commanders leading the war.
Quintus fabius was a consul of ancient Rome. At the same time, he was the general known for his delaying tactics against his fight against Hannibal. Due to this, he had saved Rome and was given the nickname 'cunctator'.
Scipio Africanus, on the other hand, was the one who conquered Africa. In the Zama military campaign, he had thoroughly defeated Hannibal. This battle was also Hannibal's final battle
Thinking about this, Wei Xiao Bei's gaze moved towards the other side.
Five kilometers in front of the Roman square formations, there were troops beginning to gather there.
Because the distance was quite far, it had exceeded Wei Xiao Bei's strong line of sight. He could only see the fuzzy human figures.
The only thing that he could see clearly were a troop of more than 30 elephants.
Wei Xiao Bei was surprised as it was the first time he saw elephants that were more than 10 meters tall!
They were wearing thick armor and the armor tail reached their knees. They wore half open helmets on their head, and their backs had a small garret. Inside were five Carthaginian soldiers sitting inside. One was the driver while the rest were wielding javelins. Even the nose of the elephant had a sharp spearhead.
It was easy to imagine how terrifying the scene of elephants charging towards you at the start of the battle was.
Luckily, there were not that many of them. From left to right, there were four of them.
Other than these war elephants, the rest of the Carthaginian forces were not less than the Roman forces.
Compared to the Romans, the Carthaginian cavalry formation seemed to be lesser. Additionally, it seemed that some of the formations were stone throwers.
Wei Xiao Bei had a bit of understanding to this.
Because Carthage flourished through business, they also hired mercenaries in war. On the other hand, these stone throwers should have come from Palma.
Stone throwers were not as worthless as depicted in novels. It was said that within 30 meters, these stone throwers were 100% accurate with their throws. When the stones picked up speed and hit the enemies' bodies, it was able to fracture bones even with armor on.