“Lady Swordmistress, these are—” Clyde hesitated. Just as he was about to explain, Annie interrupted him.
“Lady Swordmistress, did we say anything just now? What do you mean by raising our strength and equipment to gold-tier? Did you hear us wrongly?”
“Yes, yes, yes. Lady Swordmistress, you must have misheard us.”
Clyde suddenly snapped back to his senses and followed Annie’s words as he wiped his cold sweat.
Watson had dispatched Annie to follow them as they left the room. He had explicitly instructed them not to inform anyone about the equipment and strength boost, prompting them to borrow supplies from the Saint Antilles Cathedral. They came up with the pretext that Leon had a woman he liked and urgently required a huge sum of money to get married. Only then did the cathedral’s bishop graciously offer his funds and instructed them to bring the woman in two days so he could see her.
Due to the disparity in rank, Clyde unconsciously wanted to respond to Christina’s inquiry, and he almost let the cat out of the bag.
“Don’t try to lie to me. I heard it very clearly just now. You said you wanted to raise your strength and equipment to gold-tier.”
Christina’s face exhibited a look that dared them to think of her like an idiot. She was a platinum-tier expert, and she was not deaf. It was not that she had not heard what Clyde and the others had said, but she found it unbelievable. After all, the group in front of her was composed entirely of bronze-tier adventurers. They could upgrade their equipment from bronze to gold-tier, but it was nearly impossible for them to do so quickly.
Even someone as talented as her could not have done it.
Christina had initially believed that. However, after she realized how Clyde and the others were trying to conceal it, she became uneasy. If those people could not upgrade to gold-tier, why would they hide it from her?
Clyde and the others exchanged glances, unsure how to respond to Christina’s question. They had no choice but to direct their pleading gazes toward Watson. They complained inwardly. They would not have entered the room screaming if they had known the swordmistress was there. Since they had stated such things, they could not explain them adequately, no matter how hard they tried. What if Watson was angry with them because of that? What if he refused to make gold-tier tools for them or increase their strength?
Watson sighed, aware of Clyde and the others’ sorrowful gazes. “Would you believe, Lady Swordmistress, if I told you that Clyde and the others were only joking?”
“Do you think I would believe it?”
“It seems that the answer is very obvious. Then, Lady Swordmistress, can you pretend that you did not hear what happened just now? I will give you a corresponding reward as the price for keeping the secret.” Watson knew that Christina had caught him in a lie, and he could not hide the fact that he wanted to help Clyde and the others. It would be better to admit it openly.
“It’s not impossible, but you have to agree to one of my requests.”
Christina’s eyes narrowed as if she had thought of something, and a smile appeared on her face.
“What do you want, Lady Swordmistress?”
“What I want is very simple. First, you have to spar with me every morning. At the same time, when the Holy Sword adventurer team decides to conquer the underground city, you will have to come with us. You don’t have to join my team, but you’ll have to help me. What do you think? My conditions are very lenient, right?”
Watson nodded helplessly in response to Christina’s question. “I’ll do as you say, Lady Swordmistress. Even though I have faith in your character, I am still unsure if this is merely a verbal agreement. Please draft a contract, Nightingale.”
“Yes, Young Master Watson.”
Nightingale glared at Christina with dissatisfaction, as if she was unhappy with her taking advantage of the situation. Then, she nodded respectfully at Watson before she turned around and left the room.
A few minutes later, Nightingale returned with a contract. The contract’s content was straightforward—Christina was not allowed to reveal everything she saw that day, and Watson would have to meet Christina’s requirements. Both Watson and Christina signed the contract.
Clyde, Arthur, and Leon acted like three children who had done something bad when they signed the contract. They stood far away and did not dare to speak.
“Watson, I’ve already signed the contract. I promise that I will never tell anyone what I saw today. So, can you begin? I want to see how you’ll improve their strength?”
Christina put down the pen in her hand; she looked impatient.
She was well aware that Watson surpassed her in strength. However, being powerful and imparting strength to others were two distinct notions. Even Antonio, the greatest mage in the kingdom and had many disciples, did not dare to boast about that. He would never say that he could raise a bronze-tier elite to gold-tier in a short period.
“Captain Clyde, please bring the things that you have obtained and place them in front of me.”
Watson did not respond to her; he just waved at Clyde and the other two men.
Clyde and the other two men put the large boxes onto the ground without saying a word. They unlocked the boxes and revealed the contents. There were armor fragments, jewelry, and an abundance of medicinal herbs stacked together—there were at least thousands of them.
“Young Master Watson, these are all the things we brought back. Are they enough?”
Christina inspected the items in the boxes. She got increasingly perplexed as she looked at them. Most of the objects in the box were made of iron, with only a few bronze-tier goods, including medicinal herbs. Initially, she assumed that the contents were at least silver-tier. Then, Watson might use magic or other techniques to boost the weapons’ quality.
However, what appeared in front of her was only a heap of junk. What could Watson do with those items?
While she was puzzled, she saw Watson sweep his gaze across the boxes and nodded in satisfaction. “Not bad. The items that you’ve brought back have exceeded my expectations. These items are enough for all of you to advance to the peak of gold-tier and obtain equipment of the same level.”
“Really? Thank you so much, Young Master Watson.”
Clyde and the others were in tears of gratitude. On the other hand, Christina’s face was filled with disbelief. How could those junks be turned into gold-tier equipment? If she had not just observed Watson’s incredible strength, she would have assumed Watson was bragging.
Watson was unconcerned by Christina’s suspicious glance. He would not hold back since he had chosen to confess the truth in front of Christina.
“System fusion, activate.”
He stretched his right palm outward and activated the system as he faced the enormous boxes in front of him.
Whoosh!
As soon as he finished speaking, everything in the boxes transformed into streaks of light and flew into the air. They converged mid-air and fused, transforming into six completely different things that emitted a golden glow accompanied by a powerful aura.
When Clyde and the others saw the fused items for the first time, they expressed excitement as they looked at the rays of light in front of them. Meanwhile, Christina’s jaw was wide open.
