Volume Two: Fury of Arcane, A Tragic Ballad
Chapter 1: Night’s Watch
“Mercenaries?” The knight’s gaze swept over the group, lingering on Miel’s sniper rifle for a moment, his tone seemingly dismissive.
“Is there a supernatural event up ahead?” Asker asked with a smile, leaning against the roadblock.
“That’s none of your business, civilian.” The Night’s Watch knight said coldly.
“No, all adventures concern us.” Asker chuckled. “We are mercenaries.”
“I know you are mercenaries driven by profit, but this undead anomaly has nothing to do with you.” The knight said coldly. “The reason why this roadblock is here is because of a Netherworld intrusion incident in the village of Pyramos up ahead.”
“Netherworld intrusion?” Nuo asked curiously.
The knight frowned and glanced at her, sneering sarcastically:
“Ah, so not just pure mercenaries, but also scholars with overflowing curiosity?”
“Listen, the Netherworld is a secondary plane parallel to the main plane – of course, theoretically parallel, but overlaps can occur under certain circumstances.”
“At this time, the evil undead from the Netherworld will use the overlapping entrance between the two planes to rush into the main plane and wreak havoc.”
“So understand? There’s no lost wealth, legendary treasures, or super-rich nobles in distress here… only a bunch of moving, extremely dangerous corpses, and the Night’s Watch who are here to send them back to their final rest.”
“I understand.” Asker said, “Since you’ve said so, let’s be frank: we’re here for the transcendental materials.”
The knight looked surprised, staring at him for a moment, seemingly astonished that he knew the term “transcendental materials.”
“If that’s the case, then come in.” The knight sighed helplessly and stepped aside to make way.
So Asker opened the roadblock and beckoned the girls to follow.
Peggy came to his side and whispered, “Asker…”
“It’s okay.” Asker sensed her worry. “The Night’s Watch only deals with evil undead Transcendents.”
“That’s right.” The knight turned around and said, “If any of you are undead Transcendents, as long as you don’t do evil, you have nothing to fear in front of the Night’s Watch.”
The knight led the group to a hill where countless tents were pitched, the Night’s Watch banner fluttering at the top.
Guarding the mountain path were two armored knights, holding rifles and shields. Seeing the group approaching along the mountain path, both knights looked surprised.
“Quasimodo.” One of the knights said, “Are these mercenaries from outside? You should know that because of the last incident, the commander is very annoyed with mercenaries, and this time he doesn’t want any outside forces interfering in our operation.”
“There’s no other way.” The Night’s Watch knight, Quasimodo, replied. “If they really want to come in and investigate, we can’t stop them with these few people – and we can’t just shoot them.”
“Then we can’t just let them in.” The other knight said discontentedly, his gaze sweeping over the people behind him, and he frowned, asking, “What’s the name of your mercenary group?”
“Azure Longsword.” Asker replied.
The Night’s Watch knight said coldly, “Wait here.”
He turned around and went to the top of the hill to find the commander.
After about ten minutes, the Night’s Watch knight returned.
“Come with me.” He said directly.
Walking into the cluster of tents, they saw knights in powered armor everywhere, and clerks in white coats were working around the powered armor, welding frames, debugging circuits, and painting.
“My powered armor exoskeleton always makes a clicking sound when I walk.” A knight complained.
“Maybe the buffer rubber ring is aging, I’ll try replacing it with a new one.” The clerk next to him said.
Eleanor stared at the powered armor, her eyes seemingly in a trance.
Powered armor, the classic equipment of feudal knights. It could perfectly withstand sword slashes and bullet shots, and could also provide the wearer with a great increase in explosive power and endurance.
Her father had such a powered armor, with blue and white diamond-shaped heraldry paint, majestic and imposing.
Her elder brothers, Ludwig and Henry, also received a set of powered armor at their coming-of-age ceremony.
Only she didn’t.
This was also the reason why she left her family’s territory in a fit of anger to go on an adventure.
Eleanor remained silent. Sidlipha’s eyes lit up, and she almost drooled. She pulled Asker’s arm and whispered:
“Asker, can I also get a set of powered armor? If I wear this in battle, I’ll be invulnerable, right?”
“No.” Asker refused directly. “Powered armor will amplify and solidify your strength and endurance. You are still in a period of rapid growth in strength, wearing powered armor is not good for your development.”
“Oh.” Sidlipha was a little disappointed.
Quasimodo, the Night’s Watch knight who was leading the way, turned around and glanced at Asker in surprise upon hearing this.
The Night’s Watch organization was divided into two main sequences: the Knight Sequence, responsible for frontal combat, and the Priest Sequence, responsible for scientific research and maintenance. Among them, only the Knight Sequence could wear powered armor.
However, after newcomers joined the Night’s Watch, even if they chose the Knight path, they couldn’t wear powered armor before undergoing long-term military training and meeting the standards.
The Night’s Watch high-ups’ explanation for this was: “Adapting to powered armor combat too early is not conducive to one’s own strength development.”
This statement from the high-ups coincided with what this guy named Asker had explained, so Quasimodo couldn’t help but take a few more glances at this team leader.
This guy actually had some insight, perhaps he had a background in a formal military organization.
Could he be from the Purgatory’s Jailer or the Abyss’s Overseer, which were as famous as their Night’s Watch?
He shook his head and banished these distracting thoughts from his mind, because there was a famous razor principle in the Night’s Watch creed, which was:
Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.
People were used to understanding it as: Don’t overthink things if you can’t currently confirm the truth.
Arriving at the commander’s tent, the Night’s Watch knight Quasimodo had already put away his thoughtful expression, his face returning to its usual coldness, and said indifferently:
“The commander wants to see you, please put your weapons in the box outside first.”
Asker was the first to take off his sword and pistol and put them into the open empty box beside the tent.
Seeing that their leader had done so, the girls followed suit, taking off all their weapons.
Quasimodo exited his powered armor and led the group into the tent.
Inside the tent, on the huge command table, there was an electronic sand table with a topographic map. A middle-aged man with a cigar in his mouth, wearing a brown leather jacket, was staring at the topographic map intently.
“Knight Commander Quasimodo of the Morningstar Third Squad, reporting with the foreign mercenaries!” Quasimodo said loudly, placing his right fist on his chest.
“Bring them in.” The middle-aged man said.
“Yes.” Quasimodo stepped forward a few steps, turned around, and said sternly to the group, “This is Commander Bryce Glade of the Night’s Watch Eastern Legion, please mind your words and actions!”
“No need for that, Knight Commander Quasimodo.” Bryce Glade, Commander of the Night’s Watch Eastern Legion, looked up from the command table and examined these unfamiliar mercenaries.
All armored, equipped with swords and spears, they were a relatively well-equipped small mercenary group in the mercenary world.
Hmm, why were most of them women?
Bryce raised his eyebrows, his scrutinizing gaze sweeping over Miel, Mia, Peggy, and Thira in turn.
These were obviously still children, right? Underage mercenaries? What the hell?
Even the experienced commander of the Night’s Watch was now baffled by the strange gender ratio and age distribution of the Azure Longsword mercenary group.
Composing himself, he decided to follow the razor principle and not delve into these details. He just said seriously:
“Azure Longsword mercenary group, is it?”
“Yes, Commander.” Asker said gently. “We hope to join the Night’s Watch’s exploration team this time.”
“We generally don’t accept outside mercenaries.” Bryce said lightly, his sharp eyes like a hawk fixed on him. “Unless there’s a reason we have to.”
“Reason? Yes.” Asker said with a smile. “We’re strong enough.”
The tent instantly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Commander Bryce remained expressionless, Knight Commander Quasimodo looked skeptical, and the girls averted their gazes in embarrassment.
Yes, the Azure Longsword mercenary group was indeed very strong, but 99% of their strength came from their leader, Asker himself.
“Oh, how strong?” Bryce asked calmly.
“Measured by physical strength, Stamina, it’s about level 2 on average.” Asker replied.
This was actually true.
In terms of levels, there were both level 3 Transcendents and level 1 rookies in the team.
In terms of attributes, after the battle in Constantinople, the girls had digested a lot of supernatural power, and their basic attributes were far superior to those of normal adult men, even higher than those of ordinary level 1 Transcendents.
Of course, in terms of real skill, Asker’s strength was far beyond measure.
Bryce was a little surprised upon hearing this. He didn’t expect that this unremarkable little mercenary group leader would also know the supernatural term “physical strength.”
He showed a noncommittal expression and silently activated Spirit Appraisal, scanning the mercenaries in front of him.
The ones with the strongest spirituality were the team leader named Asker, the thief girl (Mia), and the red-haired beauty (Medea). The intensity of their spiritual pressure was roughly equivalent to that of a level 3 Transcendental.
In the Night’s Watch organization, level 3 Transcendents had basically graduated from being squires and could be promoted to official knights. In other words, their strength was equivalent to that of a Night’s Watch knight.
Next were the female warrior with a spear and shield (Eleanor), the girl in chainmail (Peggy), and the masked girl (Thira). These three were level 2, roughly equivalent to the strength of senior knight squires.
Finally, there were the battle axe warrior (Sidlipha), the gunman (Miel), and the nun (Nuo), who were only about level 1, their strength equivalent to that of rookie squires.
2 official knights, 4 senior squires, and 3 rookie squires. Even in the Night’s Watch, this was a sufficient configuration for exploration.
Even without supernatural characteristics, with their physical qualities far exceeding those of ordinary people, enhanced by supernatural power, they were qualified to participate in this exploration operation.
But their discipline was uncertain. If they were the type to disobey orders, they would be time bombs in an undead anomaly incident. The stronger their strength, the greater the damage they would cause.
However, most of this Azure Longsword mercenary group were girls? They didn’t look like the unruly type.
Commander Bryce pondered for a moment and said:
“Quasimodo, since you brought these people in, let them join your Morningstar Third Squad.”
“You will be responsible for anything that happens.” He made the final decision.
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