Chapter 2: Outsiders
“Your camp will be set up here for the time being. In four hours, we will go and clear the nearby transcendental anomaly area.” Quasimodo found an unoccupied open space outside the tent cluster for the group and said.
“Thank you.” Asker replied with an impassive face. “By the way, can we trade with the Night’s Watch?”
“Generally speaking, we don’t open trade to outside mercenaries.” Quasimodo refused.
“Since it’s ‘generally speaking,’ it means there are exceptions, right?” Asker said with a smile.
Night’s Watch Knight Quasimodo sighed, suddenly pressed hard on his shoulder, and said fiercely:
“Listen, I know you mercenaries too well. You’re like flies drawn to blood, always buzzing around the edge of the battlefield, never letting anyone rest.”
“When you encounter weak supernatural creatures, you swarm them like bees; when you encounter powerful and evil undead, you run faster than anyone else, without any honor or shame that a warrior should have!”
“The reason we let you in is not because we are willing to accept you, but because we are worried that you will cause trouble behind us, because you are more likely to mess things up than to achieve anything, understand?!”
“If you are obedient enough and follow behind us Night’s Watch, I don’t mind letting you pick up some scraps of loot, but that doesn’t mean I will tolerate your reckless behavior.”
“My patience is limited. And you definitely don’t want to see what I look like when I lose my patience.”
He left these threatening words, shoved Asker forcefully, and turned to leave.
Asker took half a step back to steady himself, then stretched out his right arm and stopped Peggy, who had already drawn her sword and was about to charge forward.
“Let me go, I’ll kill him!” Peggy turned her head, revealing her sharp little canines.
“Patience, Peggy.” Asker said calmly.
“Aren’t you angry, Asker?” Mia said angrily from the side. Not only her, but the other girls also looked as if they had been greatly insulted. They all stared at Asker, waiting to see how he would respond.
“I’m not angry.” Asker said calmly. “If you get angry now because of someone else’s contempt, will you be complacent when they turn around and worship you later?”
“You are all adults, you should learn to focus on your own affairs and not be swayed by the opinions of others, understand?”
“I understand.” Mia suddenly looked enlightened. “So you adults must remain calm in the face of both praise and humiliation. Only an underage and vengeful little girl like me can retaliate for grievances and avenge grudges, right? I’ll sneak into his tent and steal all his money and clothes!”
As she said this, she was about to walk forward, but Asker pressed her head and turned her around forcefully.
“I didn’t tell you to act up just because you’re young.” Asker said, both amused and annoyed. He put on a serious face and said to everyone, “Have you finished today’s practice? Do you still have time to be angry with others?”
“Eh!!!” The girls whined in unison, their voices full of dissatisfaction.
Back on Furnace Island.
“This is truly amazing.” Thira stood alone at the edge of the mountaintop, looking at the stretching forests, rivers, and sea below, and couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.
No matter how many times she came here, she couldn’t help but be amazed by the existence of this semi-plane. Who would have thought that this island in the ocean, no different from reality, was actually located in an independent plane fragment?
How did such a precious spatial treasure fall into the hands of the Azure Longsword mercenary group?
She sighed softly and began to calculate again in her heart.
Being a mercenary had no future. From the Night’s Watch’s attitude towards them today, one could see that mercenaries had a reputation for being unscrupulous and money-grubbing throughout the continent.
Even if her true identity were exposed one day, the fact that she had been a mercenary would definitely become a stain on her background.
However, she had no other choice. Because when she was in Constantinople, she was already under house arrest. Not only did the Orthodox Church not support her, but even the forces under her command had been almost completely purged by Zoe.
If she hadn’t agreed to join Azure Longsword, she would probably have been immediately abandoned in Constantinople, discovered by the authorities, and lost her freedom again, becoming the so-called “former Empress.”
Of course, considering that Constantinople had now fallen, her title should probably add another word: of a fallen nation.
What value did the title of a former empress of a fallen nation have? The only way out was probably to use this noble body with the Solomon royal bloodline and regain power through means such as marriage.
Even so, the difficulty of accomplishing the ultimate task of restoring the country was still as difficult as ascending to heaven.
And what Asker said that day did provide her with another possibility: using the upcoming magic tide to quickly increase her own strength.
If she could reach level 20 or above and become a demigod, then the possibility of restoring the country would be greatly increased.
With the support of the magic tide, a demigod could almost rival an entire elite army.
By then, if she returned to the Siris province, regained power with her strength, and then plotted to restore the country, wouldn’t it be much easier?
“Anyway, you have nothing to lose, Theodora, you have nothing left.” She murmured, looking at the horizon where the sea met the sky.
“Let me drown in this illusory dream…”
“Thira!” The nun’s clear and pleasant voice came from the distance. “Swordsmanship training is starting! Asker told you to come quickly!”
“Okay!” Thira responded loudly and took out a mask from her sleeve, slowly putting it on her face.
It was the mask symbolizing the hero Odysseus in ancient Siris drama.
…
In the real world, a remote video conference was being held in the Night’s Watch command tent.
“The anomaly is centered around the village of Pyramos, with a range of about 40 square kilometers.”
“From the images taken by the Eye of Mercury, a darkness with zero visibility has appeared in the center of the village, which can be confirmed as the undead curtain caused by the descent of the Netherworld.”
“We have found a large number of active ghouls on the periphery of the anomaly, with traces of soil on them. They should have recently emerged from the graveyard outside the village.”
“No higher-level undead creatures have been found so far, but it’s hard to say if we go deeper. Further reconnaissance intelligence is pending the return of the scouts on the front line.”
On the other side of the screen was the Night’s Watch headquarters in Florence. After listening to Commander Bryce’s report, the headquarters quickly replied:
“Understood, Commander Bryce.”
“Please continue to maintain cautious peripheral reconnaissance, do not rashly go deeper.”
“We have applied to access the Church’s historical database in Milan and have found another possible clue.”
“The village of Pyramos in the Siris province was once an ancient high elf port city in the First Age, called ‘Thalasso-Casados,’ which means ‘place of resurrection from the other side’ in Elvish.”
“There was an Elven transcendental organization called the ‘Other Side Cult’ here. They devoted themselves to studying undead supernatural powers, hoping to open a passage between the Netherworld and the main plane.”
“Due to the Elven extinction event at the end of the First Age, we cannot find more truth from the dusty history. Currently, we only know that in the Second Age, this area was under the jurisdiction of the human Macedonian kingdom.”
“When Alexander the Great suppressed the Siris rebellion, the army he led also encountered an undead anomaly incident here, which was eventually suppressed by Alexander himself.”
“Alexander the Great at that time was already at the peak of the Law Rank, a level 20 Destruction Warlock. According to records, he encountered attacks from banshees, wraiths, and black knights during the process of suppressing the anomaly.”
“Therefore, please be fully prepared, especially for dealing with high-level undead.”
Bryce was silent for a moment and nodded. “I’ll have the Night’s Watch be careful.”
“Stay in touch at all times, Commander. May you return safely.” The other side of the screen said finally and cut off the communication.
Standing in front of the command table, Commander Bryce folded his arms and fell into silent thought.
The current magic tide level would suppress all undead below level 5. With the current strength of the Night’s Watch Eastern Legion, they should have been able to handle it based on their original estimation.
However, according to the bad news from headquarters, there might be high-level undead inside, such as banshees, wraiths, and black knights.
Even at level 5, the banshee’s mental scream and the wraith’s possession still posed a great threat to powered armor knights.
Not to mention the black knights. As undead proficient in martial arts, even if their physical strength was not much different, a single black knight could kill more than a hundred ghouls of the same level.
This was definitely going to be a tough battle.
Then the original strategic plan would inevitably have to be adjusted accordingly.
“Raise the emergency level to S3.” Bryce finally ordered, giving instructions through the communicator.
The news of the emergency level being raised quickly spread throughout the tent cluster like wildfire. Many knights and priests showed surprised expressions.
Emergency Level S3 meant that only official Night’s Watch knights could participate in suppressing the anomaly, and all knight squires were excluded.
It also meant that the danger level of this undead anomaly was beyond imagination, to the extent that it could cause heavy casualties to knight squires.
It should be noted that the senior knight squires of the Night’s Watch almost all had more than three years of military training background, and a single armed assault squad could take down a whole band of bandits.
Even knight squires were not allowed to participate in the suppression, how dangerous would this undead anomaly be?
When the news reached the Morningstar Third Squad, Knight Commander Quasimodo immediately called an emergency meeting with his subordinates.
The Night’s Watch knights were divided into three branches: Sun, Moon, and Morningstar, their strength decreasing in that order, and the proportion of official knights was also smaller.
Take the Morningstar Third Squad for example, there were 20 people in total, but excluding the knight squires, there were only 7 official Night’s Watch knights left.
“Without the support of the squires, our knights’ firepower projection is too weak!” Knight Lorant protested. “What about my rotary machine gun? Do I have to carry the ammo box myself? Without sufficient ammunition support, the machine gun is just a pile of scrap metal!”
“And the shield blockade? Who will install and debug it? We are wearing powered armor, our fingers can’t operate the equipment flexibly! Do we have to exit the armor on the battlefield to set up the shield?” Another knight, Langres, also complained.
“This is the commander’s order.” Knight Commander Quasimodo said helplessly. “If the casualties are too heavy, even if this undead anomaly is suppressed, our Night’s Watch Eastern Legion will be severely weakened.”
“The problem now is that if we don’t bring the squires in, it will be us knights who will suffer casualties!” Lorant said angrily. “How can a seven-person squad protect themselves in an anomaly of this level? Are the commander and the staff all idiots!”
“It’s not just 7 people.” Quasimodo was silent for a moment and suddenly said, “There is a team of outside mercenaries, 9 people, they will be acting with us this time.”
“Outside mercenaries?!” All the Night’s Watch knights were shocked.
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