Pillars of Ita

Chapter 1183: Response from the Outside World

Two Silver Ranks were killed and one and a half regiments were lost. This news almost immediately shocked almost all the senior officers on the three airships of the advance team, 'Sentinel', 'Sky Blade' and 'Dawn Chaser'.

Sir Giuseppe, the captain of the Dawn Chaser and the fleet commander, confirmed the news from the first round of resurrected personnel, but none of them could explain how AshClaw and Star Weaver failed.

There doesn't seem to be a Silver Rank among the targets, but everyone mentioned in their description that the opponent is quite tricky.

But they didn't even know the size of the enemy, and there were many ambiguous statements such as 'half a regiment', 'about twenty people', and 'about a regiment if non-combat members are included'.

It seemed that what they sent out was not a half-regiment of elite troops, but a group of stunned guerrillas.

Giuseppe had no choice but to wait for more people to come back. He couldn't pass on such incoherent news. Although he was a Chosen One, he still had some sense of responsibility as a fleet commander.

Besides, the battle tonight was already very suspicious. An order came from above that a group of cultists had appeared in the forest, and the Silver Wind Watchers were put in charge, requiring their full cooperation.

The three airships deviated from the planned route to some extent and released two airdrop boats. Giuseppe believed that he had fulfilled his obligations - but he did not expect such a mistake to happen.

  Two Silver Ranks were more than enough to deal with a disaster branch, so how could they be defeated by a group of cult members? When did cults become so rampant around Silver Wind Harbor?

Giuseppe couldn't help but be a little speechless about AshClaw and Star Weaver.

The news that came later was even more shocking. The people who were resurrected later lacked even basic linguistic coherence and their descriptions were full of confusion.

...Suddenly, gray creatures attacked them, and a "gray tide" swept across the battlefield. At one point, large sprouting monsters such as the Disaster Champion even appeared on the battlefield.

But Giuseppe, the Calamity Champion, can handle it alone, not to mention AshClaw and Star Weaver. And the crux of the matter now is that Star Weaver still has three resurrection chances, and AshClaw still has two.

The records of the resurrectable icons show that neither of them was resurrected.

Even if Star Weaver was unlucky and died at the hands of the Gray Scourge, what about AshClaw? The latter is a human being.

Even if the other party has the ability to interfere with AshClaw's resurrection beacon - but who has the ability to surround and kill a Silver Rank three times in such a wide area?

Everyone has been resurrected. Giuseppe asked the sergeant to count the number of people, and found that about one-third of the manpower was lost. Those people were real losses. Most of them were elves, and were probably swallowed by the Gray Scourge.

Among the remaining people, no one could explain what happened to AshClaw and Star Weaver, and no one even saw how the two failed.

Giuseppe's face became serious. He felt that the problem was a bit serious. He called the magician on the ship and said to him, "Send a message to Silver Wind Port and describe the situation truthfully."

The wizard nodded, but immediately copied the message into two copies, one of which was sent back to Silverwind Harbor using his raven pet, and the other was used to summon a weasel.

He sealed the message, rolled it up and stuffed it into its mouth, letting it hold it, then nodded its head and pointed in a direction. The little thing jumped off the table and disappeared outside the door in the blink of an eye.

In a room on the Sentinel, someone was unfolding the news.

The other party took a look and immediately looked up and said to the person in front of him: "AshClaw is dead, send this news and that person back immediately."

"How did they die?" The man was stunned and couldn't help asking.

"The opponents were just Marian's investigation team. No one from Silverwind Harbor even sent guards. I heard that they just hired some people in the port. How could AshClaw be defeated by these people?"

He was even a little confused, "Isn't the Silver Step of the Silver Wind Watcher also with him?"

"I don't know, and no one knows." The first person shook his head. "The message came from the Dawn Chaser. The messenger was someone close to Giuseppe. He's very reliable and shouldn't be wrong. And we can't contact AshClaw either."

"Do you think there's something wrong with Marian's investigation team?"

"Either there's something wrong with the investigation team, or there's something wrong with the people they hired, but now we can't get the answers."

The first person folded the paper in his hand, set it on fire, and flicked it lightly with his hand, turning it into ashes.

He raised his head and said, "The only survivor has become estranged from us. He is full of suspicion towards us and refuses to cooperate. The Holy White Tree Heart and first-hand information are in his hands, but he refuses to reveal a single word to us."

The person on the other side asked, “What are you going to do?”

"Send him away first. The ship is starting to get unsafe. Giuseppe is not a fool. He will definitely get suspicious."

"Although the guy's description is very suspicious, we can't afford further losses. At least if we send the Holy White Tree Heart back to Sanshak, we will have completed half of our mission."

He looked out the porthole. "As for what questions the investigation team has, I'll leave it to them to see if they can pry something out of him, but this shouldn't be the key."

The man nodded and said, "Leave it to me. The advance team happens to have a liaison boat that will leave in the early morning. I can arrange for him to be on it."

"Be more careful. Giuseppe may have noticed your murder on the ship. It is recorded on the Resurrection Statue, and our magicians cannot completely eliminate it in a short time."

"It's ok."

The man didn't take it seriously. "He can only see the resurrection records. People in the fleet will more or less do some private work. As long as he can't find these people on the ship, he won't think it's a big deal."

The first man shrugged. "I wish."

……

When Carlo Ferrari boarded the shaky boat, he was still very uneasy, his lips were tightly pursed, and his face was even a little too pale.

Someone gave him a hard push from behind and made him go under the cabin. He looked back and saw a rather indifferent face among the crowd.

Carlo knew that the man was the one who had arranged for him to be on this ship, and was one of those people.

The other party was signaling to him with his eyes, asking him to be more obedient.

"If you bring the things to Sanshak, someone will naturally pick you up," the man said, "After you complete this task, we will accept you as a core member."

He looked at Carlo's tense face and promised, "Don't worry, don't be so nervous. This is just an ordinary trip. They promised that they would not attack you again."

Carlo naturally hoped so.

But he would not easily believe what these people said again. The only thing he could rely on was a piece of paper, the contract signed between him and the other party.

Witnessed by Ms. Roman.

Then there was the thing in his hand, the Holy White Tree Heart—

He never thought that in just one night, things would turn out like this? Those people actually killed them, and he couldn't even understand the meaning of killing them.

He thought again of the group of people hired by the investigation team, those Corin people, and that mysterious "wizard". What they told him was actually true.

But they definitely had good intentions in handing over the Holy White Tree Heart to him, but he was no longer qualified to think so much at the moment.

Because only if the tree heart is in his hands, he has a chance to survive.

Even if it was a deadly poison, he had to swallow it willingly. As for whether those people had other intentions -

Carlo looked at the person in front of him coldly and nodded.

He now wishes those people would cause chaos.

It would be best to teach these people a lesson.

The man was completely unaware of this, with a hint of appreciation in his eyes, and smiled slightly: "You made a wise choice, Mr. Carlo, this is good for both of us."

……

"This is extremely ridiculous," someone in the darkness tore the note in his hand, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it out heavily.

  Some of the torn pieces of paper fell onto the dark blue brocade of the robe. The surface of the cloth shimmered and rippled with the angry breathing of its owner. The man shouted angrily:

"They didn't even ask for the enemy's intelligence before doing anything? That incompetent guy led a Silver Rank of the Alliance to die there, and now no one knows what happened!"

"No one knows who their opponents are. How could Marian Tit's investigation team allow two Silver Steps to be defeated? Could it be that the royal court was escorting them? This is ridiculous. The royal court cannot make two Silver Steps disappear silently."

Selina Elris looked at the other person quietly - the big shot in front of her. She said nothing and just let the other person vent his anger.

She knew the character of this big shot very well. She knew that she only needed to wait for this storm to pass, and he would naturally calm down without her having to say anything.

Until then, she only needed to admire the three gems adorning the corners of his collar, which was lined with soft silver-gray mink fur.

They resemble an unfurled leaf, and the Linoril take that as a symbol, and use it as the emblem of their council.

But not every member of this parliament is qualified to wear it.

"Those are two silver steps, Ms. Selina. Even if two pigs died, they shouldn't have died silently. They at least know howl twice."

Selina shook her head and said, "Perhaps it is precisely because they are at the Silver Rank that they underestimate their opponents. I heard that there are no people of the same rank among them. They may not have thought that they would be defeated by the other party."

Yeah, who would have thought?

The man in the darkness fell silent. "Go check, Ms. Selina. I need your people's help at all costs. Go check where the investigation team has gone to and inform the Lord of Loanhill and tell him that the plan has changed."

"We must get the Holy White Tree Heart. We must not make any mistakes in the arrangements around Ninimere. Everything must be under our control."

"As you wish, my lord." Selina Elris walked over, bent down and half-knelt in front of the other person, gently kissed the other person's fingers, and answered softly.

……

A burst of chaotic footsteps broke the tranquility of the Silverwind Harbor Council, and a group of guards wearing elven mail armor broke open the door and filed out.

A group of guards were walking hurriedly through the hall without looking around, passing everyone and heading out of the parliament. After they walked down the white stone steps outside, they went in various directions.

Kalandir Elvin, who was coming to apply for investigation materials, couldn't help but stop with his assistant when he saw this scene.

He turned his head and asked, "Ms. Lilithel, it seems something has happened that I'm not aware of? Is there a problem on the Ninimer front?"

"Please be careful with your words, Mr. Minister," the elf assistant sighed and replied, "I heard that the advance team was clearing out the cultists in the Morningwind Glade and something went wrong."

Then she recounted the specific details.

The parliament naturally suppressed the news of the death of two Silver-Rank warriors, but it was of no avail as the news had already spread widely outside.

"Morrowwind Glade, it seems that this is the advance team near Danteville. Aren't they going to deal with the Gray Region? Why are they also responsible for clearing out the cultists?" asked Kalandil.

Lilithel shook her head. She didn't know either, but in her opinion, dealing with cultists didn't require such clear divisions.

But the Minister's train of thought is always strange, at least that's what she thinks.

For example, now the other party suddenly asked: "Speaking of which, has the investigation team arrived nearby?"

Lilithel still shook her head: "They set out a day early. Kailan should be with Ms. Marian and the others. The people you sent out later, Mr. Minister, did not catch up with them, and did not send back any news."

Kalandir Elwin was silent for a moment, and a glimmer flashed in his eyes. "Has the missing Miss Merrill been found?"

Lilithel couldn't keep up with his jumping thoughts and was slightly stunned.

Then she shook her head and said, "No... But there is one thing. Lord Derek Elwood went to investigate the matter. Later he sent back a message that he should have left the city with the people sent by the Minister."

"Oh," Carandil suddenly realized, "Since Derek has gone to investigate this matter, there is no need for us to intervene. Just leave it to our old friend."

The assistant glanced at him unhappily and said, "Mr. Minister, this is a case from the Disaster Investigation Department."

"Of course I understand, but I believe in my old human friend," Kalandir emphasized the word "old". "Don't you know exactly what he is capable of?"

Lilithel sighed, "But I always feel that you are just shirking your responsibility, Mr. Minister."

"Not really," Kalandir smiled and shook his head, "I've been quite busy lately. Mr. Elion has several dinners to attend, and then he will go to the Ninimer front. You should have heard that Mr. Speaker asked me to be responsible for his security."

"Originally, this job can be considered easy. Silverwind Harbor has always been safe—at least much safer than outside."

The Elf Scholar shrugged. "But I heard that someone was impersonating this wizard in the port. There were several witnesses, but there was no crucial testimony. It would be fine if it happened under normal circumstances, but this is a distinguished guest."

Lilithel looked up at her minister, not understanding why he suddenly mentioned the arrogant wizard.

She didn't like that person, and the minister definitely didn't have that good of a relationship with that person. In fact, the two of them didn't say a few words to each other at the dinner yesterday.

  Is the other party interested in something?

What happened on the Ninimer front? Or is it related to Mr. Elion? But haven't they been paying attention to the Danteville case recently?

……

"Ed."

When Elisa found Fang He, she discovered that the latter was fiddling with Gu Jun's guards.

Fang He obtained two King's Topaz from the Star Weaver's spell material bag. Although it took a lot of time to design the Ancient King's Guards, it was not much effort to build new Ancient King's Guards after mastering the design drawings.

After all, it was just a variant of the Sword-Bearer, and the Sword-Bearer was already a relatively basic flexible construct for Fang He.

However, they showed excellent performance when dealing with AshClaw. After the transformation, they were only constructs of level 20, but they were able to go back and forth against the Silver Order.

Although their attack power is almost zero, their defense ability is amazing, and they can actually cause some trouble to the opponent. What is even more outstanding is their self-repair ability. After being beaten to pieces by AshClaw, they can still repair themselves.

The one that was split into two took a little more than half a day, while the other one was restored to its original state in less than an hour.

This discovery made Fang He a little pleasantly surprised. If this was the case, it wouldn't matter if the thing was of a lower grade. The key was that it was practical and he didn't have to worry about it.

After all, a big problem with low-level structures is that they are easily damaged. After a battle, it is a big hassle to clean up the battlefield and maintain them.

With this understanding, he immediately used the two king topaz to create a new batch of ancient king guards during his travels, a total of four.

The battle with AshClaw and Star Weaver made him, and in fact everyone in the Seven Seas Riders, feel a sense of crisis.

Although the strength of the Seven Seas Brigade has increased, because of Mia and Miss Elf, the level of the enemies they face has also become much higher.

The spreading death in Giant Tree Hill does not seem to be just an outward disaster. It is now visible to the naked eye that it is becoming a battlefield for open and covert struggles among various forces.

Behind them are the Elven Court, the Linoril-Sanshak Council, the Silver Wind Watchers and the Second Division Super Athletic Alliance behind them. This time is different from in Corin-Ishurian and in the Empire.

This time they have no one else to rely on and must rely on their own strength to participate in this competition - unless they can abandon Miss Elf and Mr. Big Cat and turn around and leave this place immediately.

But that is obviously not on the agenda of the Seven Seas Brigade—

Since it cannot be avoided, they can only face it, although after they reunite with the Seven Seas Traveler, Mia and Catherine will still be among the combat forces.

But Fang He knew with his knees that Miya was unlikely to attack with all her strength, or even try her best.

After all, there are a limited number of Silver Rank players. Among the top one thousand guilds in the second division, there should be players with Silver Rank strength, adding up to about three to four thousand people, including half of the indigenous people.

However, not all of these thousands of silver ranks are in Attaria. Even though some of them returned a year ago, at least two-thirds are still in the Second World.

Among the remaining people, most of them are presidents of various guilds, leaders of well-known battle groups, or elite players who have been famous for a long time.

These may seem like a lot, but you have to consider that this is the size of a continent in Giant Tree Hill. Most of these people are famous, and it is unlikely that an unknown Silver Level will suddenly appear.

As for Catherine, Fang He knew very well that the latter was not a member of the Seven Seas Brigade after all.

At critical moments, your own people are more reliable.

When there is no external force to rely on, the simplest way is to improve one's own strength. Seeing that there may be another battle next, what everyone needs to do is to quickly digest the gains from the previous battle.

The elven rapier left by AshClaw was named 'Shado's Rest', a shadow ember blade. Fang He gave it to Alyssa to use.

Its main function is to have a power-amplifying plug-in, and the spell circuit has been modified to be almost perfect. It itself is also a masterpiece.

When in full force, it can roughly double Miss Nightingale's strength. No wonder AshClaw's attacks are so hard to resist.

I think this elven rapier played a big role -

Then it also has the ability of Ash Flame, which has dual damage of shadow and fire; there is also a spell plug-in on it that can transform it into a hellhound leader with a strength of about level 38~40.

It can be said that judging from the level alone, this sword alone can crush the Seven Seas Brigade. Of course, the actual combat effectiveness of the summoned creatures is slightly weaker, but it is also quite powerful.

However, that plug-in requires special abilities to adapt. AshClaw has the law of hellfire which can drive it, but Alisa is unable to activate this ability for the time being.

But Fang He thought of a compromise for her, that is, when she wants to use this ability, she can drive it together with Nini. She herself has a series of skill trees of shadow, and Nini is an expert in playing with fire.

Nini is a dragon soul, and can barely assist others with his approval. Although the effect is slightly worse, it is better than not being able to use it.

As for the staff, it seemed to have a greater origin than 'Shado's Rest', and even Jita couldn't recognize it. In addition, no one in the group could use it for the time being, so it had to be put aside for the time being.

He planned to wait until Luo Yu returned to the team and then see if the other party could use him.

Ms. Roman said that Luo Yu and Alessa were at the Hill of Giant Trees, and they actually inquired about the news after arriving at Silver Wind Harbor.

But nothing has been achieved yet——

When Fang He saw Elisa find him, he thought it was another problem with the sword, but he didn't expect that the other party was not looking for him because of him.

She said, "May and the others are back. We seem to have reached the edge of the Gray Region."

Fang Plover was slightly startled.

For the past two days and one night, they have been moving westward, gradually leaving the core area of ​​the Gray Zone. Not long ago, he asked May to protect Ms. Marian and explore the periphery.

  I didn't expect to receive the news so soon?

……

(End of this chapter)