...
The other side.
In a spore forest at the edge of the Mud-and-Dust Marsh.
Paladin Kalman looked at the subordinate who had co to report, and frowned slightly. "You can’t find any trace of suspicious people?"
"Uh... Lord Kalman, within dozens of kiloters around the battle site, we found three Adventurer Squads, but all of them are Bronze Level Adventurer Squads. Two are affiliated with the Empire, and one with the Fadir Wetland Kingdom."
"Fadir Wetland Kingdom?"
"Yeah, but I can basically confirm it’s not them. I just made a small move to test them— even the strongest one in their team is no match for ." Wanderer Charles sheathed his dagger at his waist, answering with a faint hint of pride.
"Report this intel to General Kobataen." Kalman said after a brief mont of pondering.
"Ah? My lord, is it necessary to alarm General Kobataen?" Hearing their lord’s words, the others couldn’t help but be a bit surprised.
After all, General Kobataen was notorious for his cold-bloodedness and iron-blooded thods. He was also the military person in charge of this Imperial secret operation, and very hard to deal with.
"If he learns of this situation, I’m afraid all the Adventurers in this area will suffer." A Shield Armor Warrior wearing a tal faceplate said in a dull voice.
"Yeah! Lord Kalman. I’m guessing General Kobataen will directly clear out the whole area. We’ll probably offend quite a few friends."
Kalman said in a deep voice, "A Priest is dead. They won’t just let this go. In a while, even if the mistress of Belendaan doesn’t personally co, by my judgnt they’ll send at least three, maybe even more Extraordinary Strong Persons."
"When that ti cos, just relying on us of Wings of Seraph won’t be enough to completely hold them off. And by then, it’ll be too late to report up the chain. That would completely affect the Empire’s mission as well."
"Understood, my lord."
Hearing "three, maybe even more Extraordinary Strong Persons," everyone present, including Wanderer Charles, all had a change of expression, finally realizing how serious the problem was.
In their view, the Drow family that ruled Belendaan wasn’t considered strong, and shouldn’t butt heads with them head-on.
But just like Lord Kalman had said, you could never rule out accidents.
These past few days, they had been quietly cleaning up the minions of Black Dragon Soron Neltus, especially several relatively powerful lieutenants.
The current progress had already approached halfway. In a few more days, they should reach the expected preparation progress.
If so accident were to happen at this ti, then that would be...
...
Four days later.
Several days of nonstop traveling only left Raine’s group feeling a little tired, but didn’t cause any other impact.
Normally, the Underdark teed with Demons and was riddled with danger. Even an experienced Bronze Level Adventurer Squad had to be on their guard every step of the way and could still run into ergencies.
But Raine’s group was different.
On one hand, they had redith, a native-born Drow Elf, leading the way, which let them avoid a good portion of the danger.
On the other hand, there was Raine’s almost monstrous combat power, together with Krit’s pure Fire Spell squad, whose Fire Spells were practically a hard counter to the vast majority of Demons living in the Underdark.
This turned the occasional dangers into nothing more than a bit of spice in an otherwise uneventful journey.
Lastly, though Wanderer Laisa didn’t contribute much in the scouting role, she excelled to a masterful degree in another field.
On the road, one important factor that leads to fatigue is diet. With Laisa’s gourt cooking as a buff, the effect of this factor on the team could basically be reduced to negligible.
At this mont, inside an Armor Crawler Monster’s cave, a campfire crackled, and the firewood snapped and popped.
"Huh? I still can’t go with you?" Laisa’s pretty face fell.
After several days of travel, the team was now less than half a day away from Eres, the second-largest Drow city.
During these days of discussion and refinent, Raine had also finalized the action plan.
"Laisa, Eres is the second-largest main city of the Drow Elves. There are many strong people inside. Mr. Rein won’t let you go because he’s thinking of your safety."
Beside her, Sulfur Vine took Laisa’s small hand and patted it, comforting her.
In truth, Sulfur Vine also really wanted to go, but this ti was different from the last trip to Dark Furnace City. This ti, she was here as the Healer of Krit’s squad.
Moreover, unlike the Gray Dwarves, Drow Elves were more adept at casting Magic, and their ability to detect Magic fluctuations outstripped that of the Gray Dwarves by more than a notch.
And she and Laisa were only Level 4 in their Classes. Trying to infiltrate a heavily guarded Drow city would undoubtedly be extrely difficult; at that ti they might not only be unable to help, but could even beco burdens.
"Laisa, you and Sulfur Vine stay here and assist Lord Keller and the others." Raine nodded as he spoke.
"You’re guarding the most important escape route for redith and . Protecting the Teleportation Array is protecting us as well. That ans you’re participating in the operation together."
"This... alright then!"
In fact, the initial plan was for redith and her father Lunen to accompany Raine into Eres together.
But after careful consideration, Raine politely declined Lunen’s company.
Although Lunen was a master smith with decent strength, he was only roughly equivalent to Level 7 Classes.
If an accident occurred and a sudden battle broke out, it would be hard to guarantee his safety.
Raine didn’t want redith to have just rescued her father, only for her father to suffer an accident because of the follow-up operation.
...
Half an hour later.
redith and Raine left the cave and quickly advanced toward the Drow city of Eres. At this ti, Raine cast a Transformation Spell, taking on the form of redith’s father, "Lunen."
"Um... Raine..." As soon as the words left her mouth, redith’s expression froze, and a rare hint of shy embarrassnt appeared on her cold, beautiful face.
"Um... Raine, calling you ’father’ just feels really awkward."
When redith first heard Raine’s proposal, her first instinct had been to refuse. But she quickly understood Raine’s good intentions— he was trying to keep her father Lunen out of this rather risky mission.
That was absolutely a good thing!
Seeing redith’s beautiful, bashful expression, Raine couldn’t help but be montarily dazed.
"There’s still half a day. You can use the ti to practice a bit."
"Alright... um... father." Forcing herself to endure the sha, redith nodded helplessly.
The first thing the two of them needed to do was to visit Lunen’s old friend in Eres, Zaryan. He was also a master smith, but affiliated with the Hernet Family.
Using the pretext of a visit, they could conveniently enter the heavily guarded Hernet Family residence.
After that, what Raine needed to do was chat with him for a while, then take his leave at an appropriate ti.
Afterwards, he could find a chance to Transform into Zaryan’s appearance, and thus enter the Hernet Family to get close to the captain of the guards.
As the two stepped into Eres’s sphere of influence, they soon encountered the first ring of outer patrol squads.
Since both Belendaan and Eres belonged to the sa faction among the Drow Elves, they passed the questioning very smoothly. After dealing with another two patrol teams in succession, Raine and redith finally arrived at Eres.
"It’s this big? It’s at least twice the size of Belendaan!" Raine looked at the vast, dim internal space inside the mountain ahead, his eyes widening slightly in genuine surprise.
Although he already had so sense of Drow Elf city style after seeing Belendaan, even the sa style could feel completely different once it was scaled up by nearly a factor of two.
"Mm. As the second-largest city, Eres actually isn’t that different from Bryan City, which ranks first. I was also shocked the first ti I ca here." Beside him, redith smiled as she explained.
Although she did not follow the mainstream Rose faith of the Drow Elves, she was still one of them, and felt the sa pride in the Drow’s grand creations.
The two of them strolled down the street with the flow of people.
At that mont, a Drow woman in front suddenly fixed her gaze on redith’s face and repeatedly looked her over. This imdiately drew redith and Raine’s attention.
The young woman’s face flickered with a trace of doubt and surprise. In a tentative tone, she softly said, "redith?"
...
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