The necromancer just wants to plant trees.

Chapter 521: Duke of Steel

Chapter 521: Duke of Steel
……

Hearing Matthew's words.

The Son of Purgatory was slightly startled. He subconsciously looked inside, but found that the cabin was pitch black. He could only see the passenger at the door, and the deeper inside was pitch black.

This is obviously the effect of magic.

Upon seeing this, the Son of Purgatory reminded:
"The recruiting officers under the Iron Duke are very powerful, and there are even legendary masters in charge. I'm afraid your spells will hardly be effective..."

Matthew suddenly said:
"You will protect us, right?"

"According to the Ride and Transportation Agreement, Son of Purgatory will do its utmost to ensure the safety of passengers and their cargo?"

The Son of Purgatory looked embarrassed:

“Of course, we will do our best.”

Then he whispered:

"But now we are facing a special situation, don't you understand?"

"The captain is negotiating with them, but the strength of both sides is very different. If their people want to force their way in, we will be helpless."

"Damn it, these iron-clad recruiting officers are too rampant recently!"

At last.

He took a deep breath:

"I still suggest that you escape quickly. The chance of you staying on the ship and not being caught by the recruiting officer is less than 10%..."

Matthew cooperated and observed a moment of silence.

Then he sighed and said:
"I see. Thank you for your reminder."

"We plan to pray in the cabin, hoping that the 10% probability will actually happen..."

talking.

He was about to close the hatch.

The Son of Purgatory was slightly startled.

A strange color flashed in his eyes, and he suddenly asked:

"Can I know your name?"

Matthew said cheerfully:

"Of course, my name is Eli."

The Son of Purgatory nodded slightly:

"I'm Darien, the boatswain of this ship."

"Since you have made your decision, then just hide well. If someone comes over later, don't make a sound. May the Blood River protect you."

"If you survive this storm, you can come to me directly if you encounter any problems on the ship in the future."

Say it.

He smiled at Matthew, then hurried towards the other cabins.

Matthew closed the hatch silently.

He casually cast a small spell, then returned to his little bed and lay down peacefully.

Luo Lan's ears were still twitching slightly, but a strange smile appeared on his face:

"interesting."

"But you did the right thing. On this dangerous Silver River, there is no safer place than the merchant ship of the Son of Purgatory."

Matthew smiled softly:
"It seems not everyone feels that way."

next moment.

There were hurried footsteps coming from the next cabin.

Followed by.

More and more footsteps were heard coming from the corridor.

As if to match this scene.

The dark shadow outside the porthole was also shaking violently, and the ship was shaking even more violently.

At this angle.

Matthew looked out for a few seconds and found that in addition to the two spiders that intercepted the merchant ship on the river, there were also a large number of demons gathered on the river bank.

The armor on them and the flags beside them are all the emblems of the Iron Duke.

"Chain Demons, Wind Demons, Cavalry Demons... they are all fast runners."

Matthew hummed thoughtfully.

Opposite the bed.

Roland picked up the pornographic book again and looked at it carefully, and Carmela fell into a deep sleep again without knowing when.

Matthew kept an eye on what was happening outside while taking a short nap to relax.

The chaos in the cabin corridor lasted about half an hour.

Forty minutes later.

Most of the Iron Duke's slave hunting team outside the porthole had already gone.

Another ten minutes passed.

The giant spider on the river surface was nowhere to be seen.

Under the watchful eyes of a small group of wind demons.

The merchant ship started slowly again.

Soon.

The ship left the slave-hunting devil and other scenery completely behind!
Crossing one plane waterfall after another.

The ship headed steadily towards the bloody abyss.

However, the number of passengers on the ship was nearly two-thirds less than before!
After ensuring safety.

Matthew went to the deck alone and walked around twice. Not long after, he met Darien who had knocked on the door earlier.

"It seems like we are lucky. The 10% probability actually happened in reality."

Matthew put one hand on the side of the boat and said to the sailor Darien with a smile.

His current image is that of a simple-looking tiefling merchant, and with Matthew's superb performance, this sentence doesn't sound sarcastic, but rather expresses gratitude from the heart.

Dallion was stunned when he heard this.

He stared at Matthew for a long time, until Matthew pretended to be puzzled and reminded him, the boatswain smiled with relief:

"You are really lucky."

"The slave hunters once broke into the aisle, and several passengers were captured as soon as they came out of the cabin."

"Then the captain got angry and fought with the recruiting officer. They probably didn't want to completely anger us, so they just arrested a few people and left..."

"Anyway, it's all over now. The next section of the journey will be much safer. Enjoy your life on the ship. This may be the most peaceful day you can have in Purgatory."

Seeing that the other party did not mention the merchants who left in small boats with their goods.

Matthew's guess was basically confirmed.

After chatting with Dallion for a few more words.

The latter left on the pretext of being busy with work.

Matthew smiled and sent him away, but his eyes gradually became sharper:
"It seems that the reputation of Son of Purgatory is also very exaggerated."

"Perhaps those who discovered the truth have become slaves of the devil lords, so naturally no one wants to expose the tricks between the Son of Purgatory and the major devil lords along the way."

The slave hunters intimidated the passengers into voluntarily leaving the ship.

Once the boat leaves the Sons of Purgatory's merchant ship, it will no longer be the Sons of Purgatory's responsibility if those people are captured by devil lords such as the Duke of Steel.

Those who actually stay on the ship will not face the miserable reality of becoming slaves.

This is the devil.

On the surface, they value contracts and respect the spirit of contracts, but secretly they are even more skilled in making rules and exploiting loopholes.

"But Iron Duke Byrne is a very interesting guy..."

Matthew didn't know much about this one of the three giants of Baator Purgatory.

The main reason is that the Alliance has done too little work on the outer planes.

When Matthew was looking through the materials, he found that a large part of them actually came from Margaret's summary, which was extremely timely.

According to the information collected by Margaret.

Iron Duke Byrne is the most enthusiastic demon lord in the Nine Hells in preparing for war.

It is said that Byrne's territory is full of underground passages and steel factories emitting large amounts of steam and electricity.

Every cave within its territory is an arsenal for producing armor, weapons or strategic weapons.

Millions of devils work for Byrne.

They worked day and night to forge one suit of armor and one sharp sword after another.

This phenomenon is said to have started since the Enlightenment.

At that time, the gods of Tianlun Palace were still sitting in the heaven.

Tianlun Palace has done a very effective job in suppressing the forces from the outer planes such as the Abyss and Purgatory. The demons and devils were beaten to the point where they could hardly breathe.

However, from that time on.

The Duke of Steel began a long period of preparation for war.

He took advantage of the special features of the field he controlled to open up arsenals on a large scale and constantly invent and update equipment for the heavens.

At that time, many people believed that there would be a war between Heaven and Baator Purgatory.

The protagonists of the warring parties were probably the then-popular Sun God Gerard and the Iron Duke Byrne.

But what was unexpected was that the two sides did not fight until the fall of the sun god.

A long time passed after that.

As the power of Tianlun Palace declined, Byrne's targets of preparation gradually shifted from heaven to other lords of purgatory.

This change in wind direction made the other demon lords very uneasy.

They also tried to invade the territory of the Iron Duke.

As a result, they encountered powerful sniping attacks from their army, and soon the coalition forces sent by other demon lords returned in defeat.

Just as all the demon lords involved in this matter were waiting fearfully for Byrne's revenge.

Byrne is still preparing for the game frantically at his own pace.

The most exaggerated time.

Intelligence personnel have learned that Byrne's combat weapons are enough to fill an entire half plane.

In this tense atmosphere.

Byrne's arsenal is still forging away day and night.

The revenge that the demon lords expected did not occur.

Subsequently.

Stuluk Industries has its hands on many territories in Purgatory.

Byrne then shifted his focus of preparation to the Necron forces.

He didn't know where he stole a lot of industrial technologies unique to Stuluk, and the equipment forged by his arsenal changed from ordinary metal armor and steel weapons to advanced weapons with psychic or enchanted properties, as well as super armor with higher metal forging levels.

But at this stage.

The people in purgatory have long been numb.

Just as they expected.

The Duke of Steel was always preparing for war, but he never went to war with anyone.

His territory remained at the stage when he first inherited it, swallowing up a few secondary planes or half-planes at most, but compared to other devil lords who were constantly expanding, Byrne's territory was actually ranked at the very end.

But even so.

No one dares to underestimate this devil lord with unique hobbies.

The area of his territory is less than one-tenth of that of the Lady Queen or the Viper Lord, but his influence is enough to be on par with theirs.

Margaret's evaluation of the Duke of Steel is:

“The devil who is best at preparing for war, but has never initiated a war.

In Purgatory, not starting a war is often considered an act of mercy.

In the eyes of the devil, kindness means weakness and vulnerability.

There has never been a rebellion among the Iron Duke's subordinates since he inherited the territory, and very few people are willing to attack Byrne's territory. This shows that in the eyes of the devils who are relatively familiar with him, Byrne is neither weak nor merciful.

The reason for his strange behavior may just be that he looks further ahead.

Or maybe it's just personality."

After Matthew read the information.

There is only one strong thought in my mind:

"How great would it be if we could find Byrne's arsenal?"

But three seconds later he shook his head.

Everyone knows that Byrne has countless weapons at his disposal, but so far there has been no news about who got those weapons, which shows that this is not an easy task.

even.

If you think more about conspiracy theories, Matthew would suspect that Byrne's frantic preparations for the game might also be a deliberate creation of his personality.

The purpose is to seduce the greedy man to find his arsenal?

Or other reasons.

all in all.

As Matthew was reading through the materials and daydreaming.

The large ship flying the flag of the Sons of Purgatory slowly and steadily moved downstream of the Silver River.

A few days later the ship left Byrne's territory.

The journey that followed was as smooth as sailor Darien had said.

Nine days later.

The ship arrived at Baisha Pier safely.

After taking away some goods that were only available in the material world from the cargo hold in a proper manner, Matthew and his party hurriedly got off the ship.

Flags of the Sons of Purgatory were floating on the shore.

There are many Sons of Purgatory maintaining order near the dock.

At least on the surface.

This is a relatively safe place.

There is a gathering place next to the Baisha Wharf. If you walk along the main road south of the gathering place for more than ten kilometers, you will reach the "Blood Sand City", the purgatory city in the Blood Abyss.

That is the second line of the bloody battle.

From time to time, some terrible demon troops would break through the defense line and invade the plains near Blood Sand City. Over time, there were almost no small gathering places to the south of Blood Sand City.

The devils also move in groups here to avoid encountering any fish that slip through the net from the abyss.

Matthew and the other two pretended to walk around the Baisha camp twice and asked about the purchasing channels and related prices of goods in the material world.

And just when they were about to leave.

Matthew accidentally ran into sailor Darien.

He pulled Matthew aside and whispered:

"Tieflings like you who have no background are easily spotted and hunted when you first arrive."

"This is near a chaotic battlefield. No one will speak up for a few people who died unjustly."

"If you want to do business in Blood Sand City, it's best to sneak out of the camp when no one is paying attention. You have to be careful. Early morning might be a good time, but smart people will do the same. Stalkers will be more vigilant in the early morning."

"Plus, there are many tireless high-level devils here, so it's best to make sure you get rid of all the eyes before leaving."

Matthew was slightly surprised.

He first expressed his gratitude to Dallion, and then asked:

"Is your caravan also going to Blood Sand City?"

He knew that the Sons of Purgatory also had an official caravan.

Dallion thought for a moment:

"Yes, but it will be a little later, and I can't say when I will leave."

"I suggest you keep an eye on our caravan leader. He may suddenly leave. At that time, you just need to follow behind the caravan. No one should dare to take action."

"But you still have to be careful once you enter the city..."

After saying this, he nodded to Matthew.

Then he left in a hurry.

"It seems that our boatswain is also very kind-hearted..."

Luo Lan next to him laughed:
"Matthew, you really do have some charm. It's only been a few days and you've already charmed the boatswain."

Matthew didn't bother to pay attention to him.

The three then ignored Dallion's advice and left the camp.

Walk out a kilometer or two.

Matthew suddenly stopped:
"Three groups of people are targeting us."

"One on each side?"

Roland yawned and placed his right hand on the green flute at his waist.

Carmela's eyes rolled back.