CHAPTER 31: PREPARATIONS

The following day, Arthur woke up around noon, having gone to bed very late, and the first thing he saw was a system notification.

[ Congratulations ]

[ Logical Analysis skill has leveled up ]

[ Logical Analysis (D) ]

’It seems the mental torment I went through made my thinking more logical.’

Without paying it much attention, he continued stretching in bed while thinking calmly.

Sigh!

"I’ve finished the easy part. Now I somehow have to get rid of the fifty elite soldiers."

He furrowed his brows in worry.

Excluding Chadwick, the elite team he had sent into the forest included two highly experienced mages, a D-rank Tank, and a D-rank war captain who was also a knight, not to mention fifty seasoned E-rank soldiers, enough on their own to slaughter all his recruits with ease.

"I can’t fight them head-on, nor can I ambush them when they enter the castle, that would make the commoners hate me. I need to get rid of them silently, without drawing suspicion."

He could have closed the castle gates and rained arrows and spears on the soldiers as soon as they arrived, but that would cause heavy losses on his side as well.

Not to mention, the plan was impractical and would easily reveal his true identity. If even a single soldier escaped, the real Arvan would learn about him, and disaster would rain down upon him. Thus, he had to handle things cautiously.

He scratched his forehead, and after a long moment of thought, sighed,

"I’ll let the wilderness take care of them. If my calculations are correct, they’ll pass through the eastern side on their way back. I can ambush them there. First, I need to create a beast lure, an enrager, and some poisons. I’ll also need to craft a monster repellent for myself.

Luckily, I read all those boring details in the novel, or else I wouldn’t have known how to do this."

Unlike many novels he’d read, Rise of the Sword Sovereign was filled with tedious and seemingly irrelevant details, but now, all of those details had become invaluable to Arthur.

After formulating a suitable plan, he quickly got out of bed, ate his breakfast, then ordered Octavia to fetch dozens of strange and unusual ingredients.

Though she was used to his crazy orders by now, she still felt astonished.

Unfortunately for Arthur, the stock of ingredients available wasn’t sufficient, forcing him to send several recruits into the forest to gather herbs and hunt the beasts he needed.

By nightfall, he had gathered everything he required, although some secondary ingredients were missing—after all, not everything grows in a temperate forest.

With Octavia’s help, he sorted the materials, fetched equipment, dozens of barrels, and buckets of water.

Quickly, he began preparing what he needed.

Unlike concocting advanced chemical potions, the process wasn’t too complicated and didn’t require any special tools.

In just a few hours, he filled ten large barrels with Beast Lure, and five barrels with Beast Enrager.

But he wasn’t done yet, he spent the next several hours creating other things as well.

A barrel of Beast Repellent, Several deadly and hallucinogenic poisons, and he did make a special tube, some small needles, And finally, a featureless wooden mask.

Before he realized it, morning had arrived.

He didn’t feel sleepy, whereas Octavia had fallen asleep nearby from sheer exhaustion.

Arthur glanced at her for a moment, quietly admiring her peaceful features before sighing.

’Everything is ready, but I’m not ready yet.’

The operation he intended to carry out was extremely dangerous and unreasonable, with a high chance of death if he made a mistake or lowered his guard.

Yet he couldn’t back down.

Summoning his courage, he began storing everything into the Dimensional Storage.

But he was stunned to find that the space inside wasn’t enough to hold all the materials he’d prepared.

[ Insufficient space ]

’So there is a limit to the Dimensional Storage.’

After a brief moment, he realized that the Dimensional Storage skill was only at D-rank, which explained the limitation.

Because of this, he posed a question to the system.

"How can I increase the Dimensional Storage space?"

[ You must ascend to D-rank. Then all your skills will be upgraded, and you will gain new permissions. ]

"Really? What kind of permissions?"

Arthur was surprised when he saw the system’s response.

In fact, he had made a few changes to the system settings previously:

First, he had disabled the Smart Assistant Mode because the system’s constant interference had begun to annoy him.

Second, he had adjusted the item display settings to show only magical items—this did not include items inside the Dimensional Storage.

These changes were minor and not of great value, so he no longer cared much about the system, considering it only a mildly useful tool.

[...]

The system didn’t answer him.

Although he felt a little curious, he simply ignored it and focused entirely on the plan he intended to carry out.

To fit everything into the Dimensional Storage, he was forced to discard two barrels of Beast Enrager.

Then he headed to his room to sleep, leaving Octavia sleeping amidst the chaos.

As on the previous day, he woke up around noon.

The first thing he did was drink a Brutal Enhancement Elixir and train madly to organize his thoughts and calm himself.

Immediately after, he ate breakfast and summoned Octavia and Otieno.

When they arrived at his room, he looked at them sternly and said,

"I need you both for a highly secret mission."

Octavia was surprised, while Otieno felt thrilled that Arthur trusted him.

Otieno quickly and excitedly responded,

"Rest assured, my lord, my mouth is a sealed well—nothing will escape it! I can keep any secret. I am grateful for your trust, my lord, and I will not disappoint you."

Arthur raised an eyebrow in surprise and stared at Otieno for a moment.

He noticed that this young man seemed to grow more enthusiastic by the day.

’Is he an idiot?’

"Alright, understood."

He raised his hand, silencing Otieno, then continued seriously,

"I will be leaving the castle for a short while, but no one must know about it."

Octavia opened her mouth, and after a brief moment of stunned silence, she asked worriedly,

"Will you be going alone, my lord?"

"Yes," Arthur nodded without hiding anything.

Octavia’s worry grew, whereas Otieno was strangely thrilled.

"My lord, you’re going on a secret mission? That’s amazing!"

he exclaimed.

’This guy really is an idiot. He’s an adult but still acts childishly.’

Arthur sighed internally and replied,

"You could say that. Listen carefully and do exactly as I say.

Octavia, you’ll be responsible for keeping the servants and guards occupied.

You can sleep in my room. If the maids bring food, take it and eat it here.

If anyone asks, say I’m busy with some matter.

You may enter my room at any time, and it would be even better if you caused a bit of light commotion occasionally."

Octavia didn’t want Arthur to leave alone—she was worried for his safety.

At the same time, she felt as if he were betraying them.

Yet, she had no choice but to nod and follow his orders.

"As for you, Otieno," Arthur continued, "I want you to take a brown horse, one with a common color, and wait for me five miles east, near the river branch."

"Understood, my lord!"

Otieno responded, grinning oddly, clearly delighted to participate in a secret mission with Arthur.

Otieno’s expressions were quite irritating, and after Arthur explained the exact location and time to him, he promptly kicked him out of the room.