Imperial Crown.

Chapter 448 Mycelium Operation
Chapter 467 Mycelium Operation

The Province of Cartier, located in the southwest of the empire, has a vast area, hot weather and little rain, and is a typical savannah.

To the north, it borders the Province of Molinir; to the west, it borders the Gem Sea; to the southwest, it is the Autonomous Territory of the Mages Guild; and to the south, it is the impenetrable ancient forest on the outskirts of the Elf Empire.

Although it is adjacent to the ocean, its coastline is extremely short, and there is a cliff next to the sea. Under the cliff are reefs everywhere, making it completely unsuitable as a port and not benefiting from it.

Although each year is divided into a dry season and a rainy season, the rainfall is not abundant and agricultural development is extremely limited. Although it occupies a large territory, the total population size is not large, so it can be said that the land is vast and the population is sparse.

As the range of human activities is limited, Warcraft has ample space to move around.

But where there are disadvantages, there are advantages.

Due to the vast land and sparse population, as well as the rampant monsters, it is difficult for local nobles to ensure the safety of their territories. In the southwest, it is adjacent to the Mage Guild, which has a huge demand for various materials.

As a result, mercenaries were extremely active in the province of Cartier.

In every human settlement in Cartier, from cities to villages, you may not find a church, but you will definitely find a branch of the Mercenary Guild and a tavern dedicated to the enjoyment of mercenaries.

Gold coins attracted mercenaries, who hunted monsters in exchange for gold coins, and the money they got flowed into the market.

In this way, the economy prospered and flowed.

Raven led the Eagle Army southward, declining all invitations to banquets on the grounds of poor health - this did not cause much discussion.

After all, word of what happened to Raven in Molinier had already spread, so it was natural for him to be on guard.

After nearly 20 days of marching, Raven led the Eagle Army and temporarily stationed outside the ancient forest.

From a distance, the giant trees of the ancient forest, which are often 2 or 30 meters high, form a straight barrier, and the boundary between them and the grass is extremely clear, as if a straight line was drawn in the sky.

"Is Raven's real goal the Elf Empire?"

Outside the military camp, in the bushes, a man in a black robe frowned and talked to himself.

He had already followed the Eagle Army when the Eagle Army passed by Molinier.

"If that's the case, it's going to be troublesome..." The man in black robe rolled his eyes:

"Follow him for another month. If he still doesn't leave, we should prepare to contact them."

The black-robed man acted cautiously enough, and there were not too many merchants following the Eagle Army, so his actions were not discovered by the scouts.

Raven summoned Ernada to his tent.

It was a dark-skinned woman.

Generally speaking, dark skin is associated with ugliness, but the word ugly is very far away from Enada.

To be precise, Ernada is more like the opposite of the word.

She wore a wide-brimmed straw hat, a must-have for marching in Cartier, which bent her pointed ears. Her dark purple hair was scattered on her shoulders. Her eyebrows and eyes were clear and deep, her nose was small, and her lips were a stunning soft pink.

At this moment, she was wearing a set of tight leather armor that was convenient for movement. Her round shoulders were exposed for the convenience of movement. Her waist was so slender that it was hard to believe that these fruits could appear on the same body.

A ring was placed in front of Ernada.

Raven retracted his finger and said:
"What you are going to carry out this time is called 'Mycelium Operation'."

"I need you to lead a team of 30 people to infiltrate the ancient forest like mycelium and find a path for the army to pass through."

"You can choose the manpower as you like. You can also take this space ring and put all the supplies you want in it."

Ernada bit her lip and said, "My Lord Earl, are you serious?"

"I am a drow. Although you call drow 'dark elves', those white people living in the forest don't think that I am of the same race as them."

"According to your human race's Church of Light, heretics are much more hateful than pagans."

Raven said, "At least you know more about the elves' methods than ordinary humans, right?"

"And as long as Operation Mycelium succeeds, I can cancel the soul contract between you and me."

Ernada was stunned: "Are you serious?"

In the Eivor War five years ago, Ernada was employed by Marquis Faraday. Faraday was defeated and Ernada was captured. In order to survive, she had to sign a soul contract and be loyal to Raven.

Although working for Raven for a few years or even more than ten years is nothing considering the long life of the drow, it is always better to gain freedom one day earlier than being enslaved.

Looking at Raven's expression, Ernada knew that her question was completely unnecessary.

Raven might be cunning, despicable and shameless enough, but at least he has never broken his promise.

But Ernada was still not completely confident about this action: "After all, it is an ancient forest, complex and dangerous. What if I can't find the way out?"

"Two years. I'll give you two years." Raven knocked on the table. "When the time is up, whether you can really find the passage or not, I will release you from the contract as agreed."

"Okay!" Ernada nodded heavily and picked up the ring on the table: "Then, I will go and prepare it."

Lei Wen said: "By the way, call Hu Xia in."

As Ernada left, a flash of blood appeared in the shadows behind Raven, and the vampire William showed up:
"Master, are you really going to release her from the contract?"

There was no lack of jealousy in his tone.

As a vampire who was once sealed, he met Raven when he just woke up. He was subdued by Raven and signed a contract with him. In terms of time, he met Raven much earlier than Ernada.

But now, although Ernada is on the verge of freedom, his escape from this predicament is still a long way off.

"I will terminate your contract sooner or later." Raven said calmly.

William did not doubt the truth of this sentence, but he was even more confused in his heart: "Why!?"

First he terminated Lancha's soul contract, and now he is ready to let Ernada go. This is really inconsistent with the image of Raven in William's mind.

Raven answered the question irrelevantly: "When people are young, the biggest problem is that they tend to be self-righteous and think that everyone else is an idiot and that they are the smartest."

The soul contract is so useful. Once signed, you can do whatever you want to a person, turning him or her into a puppet that cannot disobey your orders.

But Raven has always overlooked one question - if this thing is so useful, why doesn't the monarch of any country use it to control the country?
The great nobles are controlled by contracts, and the great nobles control the small nobles layer by layer. After the father dies, the son inherits the throne. How can anyone make waves? Shouldn't this continent have been unified long ago?

Either all those in power are idiots who cannot see the benefits; or this seemingly tempting thing hides some unspeakable and unbearable cost.

As Raven's strength increased, the price became more or less understandable.

That is, once such a contract is signed, although it can enslave others, it will also cause irreversible damage to one's own soul.

In mild cases, the patient suffers from dementia; in severe cases, the patient dies suddenly.

Fortunately, the blood curse acts as a barrier, temporarily preventing this damage, but it will eventually hurt the root.

That's why Raven slowly canceled these contracts.

"My Lord, do you have something to talk to me about?" Hu Xia lifted the curtain and walked into the tent, and William's figure disappeared.

"How's the thing I asked you to do going?" Raven asked.

……

Chapter 468: Fanatical Pursuit
Hu Xia took out a scroll and placed it respectfully in front of Raven:

"After I got the registration lists of various local mercenary guilds, I sorted them out again from the beginning and filtered out those duplicate registrations or those that had expired. The final results are all here."

Raven picked up the scroll and unfolded it, clicking his tongue, "It really deserves to be a place for mercenaries."

Along the way, they passed through two cities, dozens of towns, and hundreds of villages, an area of ​​which was only about half of the entire province, but a list of more than 2 mercenaries was compiled from the mercenary guilds in these places.

"Help me draft a notice." Raven put the scroll back on the table: "Openly recruit mercenaries and form an Eagle Army corps."

"After that, anyone who enters the Orc Empire and is able to obtain 10 orc heads or one level 1 extraordinary orc head will be awarded the title of trainee knight."

"50 orc heads, or 1 level 2 extraordinary orc head, grant the title of fiefdom knight"

"200 orc heads, or 3 level 2 extraordinary orc heads, will grant you the title of castle knight."

"500 orc heads, or 1 level 3 extraordinary orc head, will grant you the title of Starlight Baron."

"2000 orc heads, or 3 level 3 extraordinary orc heads, will be awarded the title of Baron Yueyao."

"Destroy an orc army independently, or capture a 1th-level extraordinary orc head, and you will be awarded the title of Sun-Crown Baron!"

At first, Hu Xia was still taking notes with his head down, but he was so shocked that he couldn't move his pen after hearing the latter part.

The 3rd level titles of Knight and Baron are topics raised by the "Northwest Nordic Council" which was established some time ago.

In Hu Xia's opinion, the fundamental reason is that after the rise of Raven, there were too many new nobles under his command, which caused the old nobles to have a status crisis. They used this method to establish their own nobility. Although it has not been officially passed, the distinction between each level of nobility is already quite clear.

An apprentice knight has the title of knight and noble qualifications, but is not granted a fiefdom.

A manor knight owned 300-1000 acres of land, which was roughly the size of a small manor.

Castle Knights, who own 2000-5000 acres of land, can already try to build their own castles through territory output.

According to this classification, Hu Xia can currently be considered a fief knight.

But later on, Hu Xia was a little confused.

Even the lowest level Star Baron's fiefdom is more than 20 times the size of a Castle Knight!
"This... Lord Earl, isn't this too much?" Hu Xia swallowed his saliva, looked at Raven's calm face, and remembered the last time he was reprimanded, and quickly changed his words:
"I mean, if you want to recruit mercenaries, you can just spend some gold coins."

"Besides, these guys are greedy for money. Even if you give them a title, they may not come."

Seeing that Raven still didn't speak, Hu Xia knew that the Earl had made up his mind, so he bowed and said, "I understand, my lord. I will arrange it right away."

Hu Xia was very efficient at work. He left Raven's tent in the morning and posted notices one after another at noon.

One day passed, two days...

Can't get through yet.

Because on the afternoon of the day the announcement was made, mercenaries wandering around rushed to the gate of the Eagle Army Camp like crazy, vying to sign up.

As the news spread, mercenaries from almost the entire Cartier province rushed over like sharks smelling blood.

It almost made the local nobles, big and small, think that the mercenaries were going to unite and rebel!
Originally, Hu Xia planned to open a single camp and a booth to recruit soldiers, but as more and more mercenaries came to sign up, recruitment booths were opened one after another, and a total of 20 booths were opened.

Lamb, the man with a big red face, was one of the people in charge of recruiting soldiers.

Born a serf, he joined the Eagle Army, experienced the Eivor War, and later participated in the cleanup of the Mountain Territory. He has rich combat experience and can be said to be a true veteran.

Therefore, he really looked down upon these mercenaries.

He may have the personal strength, but expecting these lazy guys to understand his orders is really a luxury.

Not to mention anything else, some people don’t understand the simple meaning of “wait in line”, and from time to time someone cuts in line and rushes to the front to sell themselves.

For such people, Lamb would always choose to kick them out and disqualify them.

And this is not an isolated case - look, someone in the team started a commotion again, and there was a burst of weapons clashing sounds.

"Di-"

The whistle sounded, and Lamb led a group of soldiers to the center of the team. The fire-colored fighting spirit condensed into armor on his body. He swung his spear and knocked away two weapons that were colliding with each other, and shouted:

"Everyone stop."

"Who is their leader? Come out and speak!"

Two people came out from the crowd.

One of them was a sturdy man. Even in the scorching summer day, he was still wearing heavy armor. A faint chill emanated from his body. He carried a giant cross hammer on his shoulder, giving off an aura that said, "Keep Away from Me."

The other one was relatively slender, wearing a set of enchanted leather armor, with two swords slung around his waist. His eyes were so slender that the pupils were almost invisible, giving people a sense of danger like a venomous snake.

As these two people appeared, the surrounding mercenaries were surprised.

"Hiss—Is it 'Wolfheart' Magog, and 'Blind Viper' Solingxi?"

"They are all legends among mercenaries. They are the leaders of a 300-man A-level mercenary group. They can earn thousands of gold coins for any mission. Why would they come here?!"

"We are in trouble now. There are not many places available to begin with. The mercenary group of these two people will take up 600 places. Our hope is slim!"

However, Lamb did not recruit the two men on the spot as they had imagined, but said:
"Were they your men who were causing trouble just now?"

"Yes, sir." Ma Ge and Solingxi said at the same time.

"Then take your people away now." Lamb said, "The Eagle Army does not need soldiers who do not obey orders."

"Sir, we know we were wrong." The seemingly rough Mag was the first to speak: "Please give us a chance, we will definitely line up honestly and will never make trouble again!"

"Yes, if you need it, we can help you maintain order in the back." Suo Lingxi followed up, "Just please don't drive us away!"

Lamb also heard the mercenaries' discussion and became curious:

"I am just an officer under the Earl, who happens to be in charge of recruiting soldiers. I don't have a title, so you don't have to call me Lord."

"It's just that you two are both leaders of large mercenary groups, right?"

"You should know that if you want to join the non-staff army, you have to give up your position as the leader. If your subordinates want to join, they also need to be reviewed. Even if they pass, they will be disbanded and reorganized."

"Why would you give up the opportunity to be the leader of a mercenary group and start as a private here?"

Ma Ge smiled bitterly and was about to speak, but Suo Lingxi stopped him and pleaded with Lamb in a low voice: "Mr. Lamb, can we go inside and talk in detail?"

Lamb looked at the long line and the mercenaries around him who were obviously in awe of the two men, and nodded.

Returning to the makeshift hut at the back, the three of them sat around.

It was Mag who spoke first: "Mr. Lamb, you are not a mercenary, so you really don't know what kind of life we ​​live."

"As the leader of an A-rank mercenary group, are you still complaining?" Lamb was a little puzzled. "I see that you are all wearing enchanted armor, and the weapons you are wearing are at least second-level enchanted weapons. Many barons don't have as much wealth as you."

Suo Lingxi said: "If possible, we would rather exchange this equipment for a title, even if it is just an apprentice knight."

"Mercenary is a profession with no future!"

As the two men told their stories, Lamb gradually came to understand a side that he had never seen before.

Mercenary leaders, especially A-level mercenary leaders, seem to have unlimited glory, accept high-level missions, and can communicate with various nobles on an equal footing.

Many times, the barons and viscounts who needed their help would greet them with a smile.

But mercenary work is a job that requires constant income, and people always grow old.

Mago and Solingxi have seen the fate of too many elderly mercenaries.

Either they are so poor and destitute that they lie on the side of the road like dogs, and beggars who pass by will kick them.

It is true that some mercenaries can save up some money, but being able to save up does not necessarily mean they can keep it, or it is normal that they cannot keep it.

No matter where you settle down, you are just a commoner after all. The local nobles can throw you into jail with just any excuse and will not release you until you have squeezed out every last bit of value.

Revolt?

Not to mention whether the old and frail mercenaries have that ability, even if they do, what can they do?

The final result was that he was wanted for violating the imperial laws, and a bounty was posted on the mercenary guild, waiting to become the prey of the younger generations.

This cycle continues for generations of mercenaries.

"But becoming a noble is completely different!" Margo said with uncontrollable desire in his eyes: "We don't have to hide our wives and children tightly for fear of revenge from others."

"There is no need to worry about someone quietly chopping off your head one night, and your life and property falling into the hands of others."

"So, please be lenient and don't deprive us of the right to serve Earl Raven."

Lamb was speechless for a moment when he heard this, feeling mixed emotions.

He likes reading, especially history. But now it seems that the Earl's words are true:

It is better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books.

If Lamb had not come to Cartier Province and met these mercenaries, he would never have known that they would have such a fanatical desire for the title.

Perhaps in the empire, only by becoming a noble can one be considered truly alive.

Could it be that the Earl had already seen through this and used the title instead of gold coins as bait?

Ma Ge and Suo Lingxi looked at each other and said:

"We just started arguing because we saw that the line was too long and the number of places was very limited. We wanted to get your attention. We would like to apologize to you for this."

As they spoke, they both took out half a piece of iron and placed it in front of Lamb:
"This is a strange relic we found when we were exploring an ancient tomb during a mission. We are willing to present it to the Earl, and only ask for a chance to join the army!"

In the sunlight, the dragon-scale patterns on the iron sheet are clearly visible.

……

(End of this chapter)